Khin

@Wesley- Other than this forum, I'm alone.... NO BODY understand me. Not even my family. But it's not a matter. The matter is the path I'm walking.

@Keyblade Viking "Shinning Light on Things" which Leo said was about awareness. Only one thought can happen at a time in awareness field. Awareness follow behind the senses. It disappears as soon as it appears too.

@Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj Yes, I hated that I couldn't eat dinner, had to wake up early, meditating everyday, learning everyday, learning how to live a life everyday, learning how to be kind, learning how to eat, sleep, walk, learning how to have awareness, learning how to focus, etc... I also hated I was under very strict monk. HAHA! But everything paid off.

@dominic1 You definitely know you are enlightened when you are enlightened. Enlightenment is not about feeling pleasure or having a good feeling. It's more than that. You know when you are enlightened because once you are going to become enlightened, you passed through levels of mind. Your mind can be upgraded though. Never knew? So it's like that, your mind will be upgraded level by level. Every time it goes up by one level, you know better than previous level. During you are going up levels, you might experience heavenly peaceful or very peaceful light or really lite weight with all the peace washed over you. That's because when your mind levels goes up, your awareness become sharper and sharper. So it was almost like you KNOW everything. Like EVERYTHING. That awareness make your mind calmer and calmer. Your mind, your thoughts are still there but they don't identify with entity anymore so it's like your are watching a runner running. You know he's moving fast but you don't get tire. Just like that. But.......... WARNING! Don't fall into that peaceful moment. You'll come back with nothing. Keep noticing what you were noticing. The enlighten state occur when you are tired of being identify with your body and mind and want to let them go. At that stage, your mind will prepare itself to LET GO! Then it let go itself. That's when everything disappear. Mind, awareness, everything gone. That's the state of NOTHING. That's the most incredible thing.

@AlexB If you want the best for all and not being selfish. So I do this... when I wake up, I look around myself and think there are many living things around me and in my body even though I can't see them. I wish them all to be happy just like I want to be happy. Then I think around my house, then my city, then country, then the whole world, then the whole universe. I wish all living things to be happy, safe and sound just like I want to be. I wish all of them gets what I want. Also I decided if there's action that would harm other, I will stay away from it. If there's an action that would bring me and others good benefits then I'd do it. If there's an action that would bring good luck to others but not to myself, then I'd do it. I will be the cause of other's luck. Everyone around me must feel lucky because of me. That's what I do and think everyday to feel just like you listed. No one needs to know or pay me back because the peace of mind I get from that is more valuable than anything in this world.

@Leo Gura How much? I'd buy it and show it to my family and friends like "Yo! here's my bible, who can read it?"

@Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj Oh yeah.... I was in temple for more than a year. But it was Theravada Buddhist temple so it is very different from Zen. I think life as a Zen monk would be much easier. In Buddhism, there is no such thing as you must believe or do though. All Buddha taught was ways to Nirvana, actions and consequences. Monks are people who wants to become enlightened so they agreed to follow Buddha's words. Buddha referred monks as his son. They called Buddha's words rules which would help them in their ways. Some rules in Buddhism seem to be stupid but every little things count to go up a step. The basic five rules would be 1. Not lying, 2. Not stealing, 3. Not breaking other couples, 4. Not doing any drug including smoking, 5. Not killing. Those are the basic rules for both humans and Monks. In Theravada, monks can't break those rules and if he did, he is not consider Buddha's son anymore because obviously he strayed away from the path Buddha showed. That 5 is not the only rules though. There are more than 200 rules which monks have to follow not only if he wants to achieve enlightenment but also for the living and nonliving things. For example, I didn't eat dinner after noon when I was a monk because something has to die just for my meal and I wouldn't die just because of a meal. I am proving I did not die by writing this anyways . Not eating one meal is more than that. A monks goal is to cut greed and desire and work only towards enlightenment. So, monks don't work. Therefore finding a meal would be hard for them. Not eating a meal will reduce body weight and laziness (that's so true). That way they can sit in lotus posture for long during meditation (I could sit 1 hour without moving after 5 days) though it's not the only option. That's why Theravada monks don't eat anything after noon. That is only an example. However, as a person who wants to become enlightened, it doesn't sound hard if you really want it. I left there because of my parents. I grew up safely because of them so I shouldn't leave because I'm fully grown up. I should pay them back. That's my responsibility now so I'll finish that before I go for myself. But my ultimate goal for my life is being a monk, stay under Buddha's words, work towards enlightenment, having peace of mind and live the finest life as much as possible.

To raise your awareness, you shouldn't listen to music. By listening to music, you can have fake calmness of the mind because mind is going deep into music with desire to listen more but not the true awareness that could lead you to enlightenment.

@Galyna Right, Same here!

@Galyna Yeah! Sometime I don't have intention to debate but I really did sound like debating or sounded like an aggressive talk. But....... I have a feeling that everyone here are trying to convince others to understand the what they understand after all. For me, I really love sharing whatever I know and love listening to people who have more knowledge than me.

There are levels of mind. Enlightenment (Nirvana) is the highest level of mind. In Highest level, mind stop existing. Not even awareness. That's why enlightenment is referred to as nothingness. In babies, mind exist. They feel, know, and want. That's why they are obviously not enlightened. In Buddhist scriptures, ego started to develop when the egg is started to fertilize. I'm just sharing what I know though. Ego is not only selfishness but also not knowing and lack of awareness. Babies has all of those characteristics. They don't know anything. They are also selfish in their own ways such as they only know what they want and can't think for others.

Born enlightened? After I started reading this forum, I kinda don't know what people mean by ENLIGHTENMENT anymore. People are having different opinions on enlightenment so to answer this "Born enlightened?" question, I might have to ask what do you mean when you say enlightenment? What is enlightenment to you? What do you think enlightenment would be like? To me, enlightenment is being in state of nothingness. Mind does not exist in enlightened state. Not even awareness. Babies feels, want, and know. I'm not just saying this out of book or hearsay. Babies are not enlightened because the ego (sense of self) is formed at the moment the egg in the womb is fertilized. Not only big animals have this ego (sense of self), little animals in our bodies such as cells also have ego.

Don't boil everything down yet. The best way is do your thing, walk your own path. Also look beside you and pickup important things for your journey. Don't say you don't need anything or everything you see are wrong.

@Galyna Sorry, if my explanation wasn't clear and of course you really don't need to believe me or trust me here. I just want you to think about it in curiosity like what the hell does that mean. (That doesn't even mean you have to) In most of us mind Past exists. But if we look at it, it doesn't. Past is equal to as Death or none existence. Like it pops up and disappears. That's the past I meant. Your thoughts, they are never the same. Every time you think about the past, that's a new thought. Your thinking is different from actual experience and those thoughts are different from each other. Can you find the past? NO! By looking into past, all you will have is thought. Not the actual one. I used to mention about noticing thoughts and actions. Because........ I want you to see your thoughts disappearing. Your feelings, senses, they all disappear. You will see NOTHING left. Cause and effect I meant here is not related to consciousness or survival instinct or maybe but you don't need to think about them. It is very simple. Ex: to have a sense of hearing, sound frequency must hit your ear drums. The sound frequency must hit strong enough to hear and your eardrums must be working properly. The cause of sound is because two objects hit each other. The sound pops up as an effect. The cause of hearing sense is because eardrums and sound frequency waves hit each other. The hearing sense comes up as an effect. That was all I meant. So when you hear a sound, that sense disappears right away. All you will left with is thought of that sense. We call that "PAST." It already past means, it is gone. You will fully understand it in actual experience. So to understand, you must notice as feelings and senses comes up naturally and notice when it disappear with 'Do nothing' technique. Leo called it do nothing because he didn't want you to put the word "I" creating those thoughts or feelings. This understanding reincarnation thing is totally relating to Enlightenment. Before you are enlightened, everything you are seeing is reality. See it as they come up naturally and disappear naturally. Please don't over think about higher-self or lower-self or consciousness or unconsciousness or ego or etc.... You taking my words or believing it or trusting me, nothing matter. You will think just the way you will.

@Galyna Please read, reread and think carefully. If you want to understand reincarnation, you must know the law of nature which is CAUSE & EFFECT. For example, The smell of a roasted chicken or whatever you like comes into you nose. Suddenly, the smelling sense pops up. You didn't aware of when it comes up. Because of that, it naturally produce (React) generation thought, such as "what is that smell?" and "yummy" and "I want it" or etc... Say all of those thoughts came up. Are they the same? Do you think the first sense of "smelling" and the thought "What is that smell?" are the same? And are they the same with the thought "I want it"? With awareness, you will be able to see that they are not. As soon as first thought is gone, the second thought comes up. And as soon as the second gone, the third comes up. No two thoughts come up at the same time within your awareness. That's how they are happening. That's reincarnation. You are reincarnating every minute and second. Not only when you body's buried under ground. The first thought is always supporting the second thought. Ex: a cell produced daughter cell. First cell is not second cell and second is not first. But they are similar. However, the very first cell and the one-hundredth cell may not be as similar as the first and second. It might be changed depending on external surroundings. It goes the same with your thoughts. The first thought is very similar to the second thought but they are not the same. Actually, whatever that is happening in the nature is happening to you. Both physically and mentally. It just that people don't aware of it. Another thing is most people think they are something special. So they think they have a little different functions. Many think their body and mind is just so unique and there must be someone unique and special who created it. Well, it is just funny after all. Remember? we are part of nature. What is time anyway? If you don't exist, will you die? Or have a past life? If there is no present, will there be the past or future? Present exists because things keep existing. Past exists because everything that happened are disappearing away. Time never stop, means things never stop changing. (Changing = Reincarnation) = (Death & birth). Karma = Action = Reaction.

@AngeArthur You do not go anywhere. You will let everything go... As long as you are holding on, you will move on. When you let go, you have nothing to hold on and you will finally stop move on. Reincarnation is not what everyone thinks. It's very simple so everyone overlooked it. It is happening every minute and every second.

@Galyna i meant disgusting! Do you thnk you will find something beautiful inside of us? It is reacting to all kinds of things. Heat, cold, etc... Its disgesting, not permanent, doesnt have the way we want it to, it gets sick, it's changing, it's dying, and its funny that most of us are trying to protect it and caring it, taking the stress from it as if it will stay forever. As if we own it. As if it gonna make us happy. The happiness we get is only when that body is comfortable. I used to be very scared of dying. But when I realized this body is not me, and I don't exist, that was HUGE relief. I don't care anything anymore. It's not suicidal mood! Instead i have more compassion for others, i understand others, less anger and something like that!

@daramantus @daramantus@daramantusdaramantus Great! You obviously have no shield! Like an egg without cover! All the words can attack your core. Instead of defending what you think, why don't you be a little curious of what is going on!? Let me ask you, can you also proof yourself that you really own your body and mind? Well, I already know your answers. You are just the way you are, not the way you choose to be. If any of my words made you angry, know that you are steps behind!

@daramantus As long as you think you are creating something (thoughts, actions), you will never be enlightened. But People have NO Choice! That's what they are. They can't chose to think. But thoughts happened itself. You can't even chose to understand what I'm saying right now. There's no YOU to create anything but they appears from the cause of external experiences. If people can choose to think, why are they suffering? I know I can't make you to understand and you can't make yourself to understand this until the time come.

@Galyna Nothing is wrong. You just need something. Try to put "I" away. And Notice when thoughts come up naturally. That's first step. In Leo's video of Enlightenment experience, he explained he saw nothing behind trees which is because he noticed what was happening right then and there. When you see something, the sense "SEE" comes up and if you don't notice that, generation thoughts come up naturally and become stream of thoughts (Other senses go the same). Another very important thing you can do is, try to think of yourself as very unimportant, useless and dirty body. You are suffering because of this body and now you are trying to escape from it. At least that's how I did!

Someone can explain it but you won't understand it. Did you watch his enlightenment experience video? if yes, Did you understand it? But enlightened person can show you the way. The experience and the way are not the same so by explaining the experience, you won't understand the way and by explaining the way, you won't understanding the experience. One more thing is if a person explained his enlightenment experience, it will make people to imagine unnecessary things.

@fdrakely Actually, you heard of enlightened people saying there's no such thing as entity exists. So in your mind you are thinking, "So, who's going to be enlightened?" Well, No one is. But, did you get it when an enlightened person say that? No! So, the best way to work for enlightenment is being in present moment and noticing reality. For right now, you still exist in your thoughts. You are your thoughts. You can't get to the state of nothing yet. That's reality. So don't think too much of Enlightenment. Otherwise you will start imagining things.

I personally define Enlightenment as Nirvana. But I'm not sure what other people think of between those two. What do you guys think of Enlightenment and Nirvana?

@Leo Gura Leo that's good. But if you have another experience like that this time, ignore it. Instead, try to look who is knowing that so peaceful moment. (You might already know) If that didn't happen, you must have been enlightened.

Yes, I can see that. I also feel that enlightenment is not only understanding the reality for Leo. He meant to say it as Nirvana when he says enlightenment. But for most people I know, enlightenment only means the understanding of reality. If that's the case, then Leo's an enlightened one. LOL