Logos

Hello Neptune2020, I would say there is no single most efficient way to become "enlightened". Each has a unique gateway/door to enlightenment. To be more general - enlightenment is the gateway to the present moment. Enlightenment is right now. Not metaphorically but literally. I would also say that any quick way to enlightenment will yield poor results if all the aspects/desires of life wanting to be experienced have not been properly analyzed, balanced, and understood. It would be like a tree attempting to grow great branches that reach out to the sun with weak or undeveloped roots and thus a weak foundation, or worst, the consequence of collapsing under its own weight.

Hello Sarapr, I would say to you that "beforelife" and "afterlife" both exist. This is just my opinion though - take from it what you will.

Arkandeus, Here’s something I want to point out that may help with your life experience. The life experience often has a way of teaching us the same lesson again and again until it's learned/understood. You could think of it as cyclical in nature. And thus it can be aggravating that the same pain and suffering keeps arising. I'll give a simple example: Imagine a child at a grocery store walking down the candy isle. His mother states that he cannot have any candy and that she would not buy him any because it is no good for his health etc... When nobody is looking there is an urge that manifests to steal a candy bar because he knows it’s tasty and something that would be satisfying to eat in that moment. Now the child can either steal, or he can choose not to, either choice can have resulting consequences that he may, more or less, be aware of. Say he steals the candy. The next time he is in the grocery store that lesson will be there again as he walks down the candy isle - it will become even more difficult to not steal (especially if he got away with the act) because he is developing a tendency and habit. Now the opposite, if he chose to not steal the candy. The next time he is in the grocery store the lesson will come up again but it will be a bit easier to choose not to steal the candy. And each time he walks down the candy isle and choose to not steal it will get easier. And eventually without any thought, or reaction, there is no acting on the urge to steal the candy or with possibly no urge at all. The lesson still exists and the candy can still be stolen but it as if it is on a different frequency than the child's perception and the child pays no attention to stealing. And thus the lesson is learned. This is a very simple example of how life constantly gives us the same lessons again and again. Just as people develop bad habits and wonder why the same thing that they do not like keeps happening to them over and over again. It is because they keep making the same choices and each time they make that choice it becomes harder and more crystalline to make the opposite choice as the lesson pops up over and over again during their life experience. You could even think of the crystallization of our habitual choices as a nautilus shell. Becoming harder and harder to reverse with each time that we make the same choice(s). Cyclical in nature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautilus#/media/File:NautilusCutawayLogarithmicSpiral.jpg

The life experience is tough - not in any way necessary, but chosen by each.

Hello Haguga, I would say that the first posture one should take for thanksgiving is visualizing what, exactly, one is being thankful for. I feel it’s hard for most to see just how magical and sacramental this very moment, right now and here, is. For myself (and I would say each will have a unique way of arriving here) thanksgiving is knowing that the Universe, One Creator, (or whatever you wish to call it, if you call “it” anything) has, is, and will provide all that is needed to do what I have come here to do. This is a matter of developing a type of faith and it doesn’t have to be in a religious or dogmatic sense but instead it is a sense of trust that everything’s going to be just fine. A trust in that even in the maelstrom of uncertainty and confusion which makes up the life experience, everything is going to be okay and it is all as it should be.