Misagh

Yes. In the sense that the ego can still exist and still be enslaved, although the Self is also recognized and no longer identified with it. The ego is usually eventually dismantled, since it takes energy to uphold its illusions, and the Self no longer feeds it that energy.

@Jack River Being immersed in the Self. It means that you recognize your true self to exist, to be intelligent, and to be in bliss. This awareness is constant without there being someone (I) who is aware.

@Nahm Unbroken abidance in the Self is enlightenment. Don't care much about what nonduality means.

@MiracleMan This is a good demonstration by Mark Wilber:

@SBB4746 Can you please pray for me a bit whenever you get the chance? <3

The real guru can often lay his state of enlightenment on his pupils through what is called Shaktipat. That is the real reason for a Satsang. For those who cannot receive the shakti, it can still be useful, because enlightenment tends to rub off somehow.

@Lynnel I read this comment and it made me smite: "Anyone here aside from Leo saying they are turquoise is simply proposterous. (Maybe some mods with over 20+ years of exeperience)." Won't you come of it, Shiva?

Life is like a train which carries all kinds of loads. You can keep your luggage on your head, where it hurts, or keep it on the ground, besides you.

@LeoBacca This is all well and good. I'd like to recommend you a book called The Spiritual Teachings of Ramana Maharshi. To read while you are on this retreat.

Funnily enough, in dreams you are actually inhabiting a new body and are in another world. I'd say you focus on recognizing how awareness is not broken in either of the three states (awake, asleep, deep sleep), and is instead a contiguous presence, rather than analyzing your dreams and looking for deeper meaning.

@Leo Gura "Stop eating wheat and sugar and you will protect your enamel without needing chemicals." - Thank you, finally someone who agrees. I am also in the avoid-fluoride-like-the-plague camp. I am not one who meditated a lot or follows a lot sattvic teaching, but I remember I had this strangely powerful, innate desire to avoid fluoride, back when I was an aspirant. I still don't use toothpaste to this date.

@Sashaj I don't feel divine love yet so I don't want to theorize about it. I do have an active Kundalini and I'm told that it will purify my chakras until divine love eventually becomes crystal clear - if you believe that stuff

@SBB4746 While "trying to love" is probably an ego being funny, divine love is a real thing and will develop after self-recognition in SOME individuals.

Most people do not have direct access to true intuition. True intuition is the law of God (or you could take the explanation that hippy @Arkandeus wrote up there :P) and you will not receive it unless you are enlightened or have a particularly clear heart/ajna chakra. What you are referring to intuition is either gut feelings or thoughts. They can be correct or incorrect, and are mostly product of your past karmas. If you are a serious seeker, try to realize how both thoughts and feelings are illusions first. The rest will come in time.

Instead of all this mental gymnastics, detach from the ego.

Yes of course! I agree with this, but not with saying that most people are not ready to be enlightened if they don't at least spend 10-20 years developing their egos first. That is what I meant by: "The latter is simply not the case. Being already enlightened, ALL souls are ready to self-recognize, at every moment. It is simply the strength of the stimulus that starts the process that has to be stronger than the individual's attachments." Unless I misunderstood what you meant by the phrase "ready for enlightenment." If you mean to say some individuals should not be enlightened before having good moral/political sense, because they would wreak havoc on the world, I understand what you mean -even though I do not agree with it.

How is How is this: You can be enlightened but still at a crude, ethnocentric level of development, or at a crude level of moral, emotional, sexual, or political developement. and this: Most people will requires 10-20 years of ordinary personal dev work before they can seriously pursue enlightenment. Because they are not ripe for it. be true at the same time? The latter is simply not the case. Being already enlightened, ALL souls are ready to self-recognize, at every moment. It is simply the strength of the stimulus that starts the process that has to be stronger than the individual's attachments.

@Leo Gura Can we merge this discussion and the other one (about what is egoic action and what is not) into one topic? I think this a very good topic to satsang for the enlightened ones, If you are interested.

But is there really? Or is that the mark of an ego who can never be satisfied?

@Leo Gura True words.

Being a Zen devil is only a concern for the individual who is interested in making the world a better place. If a soul's Karma determines that one is to be the devil, no amount of shadow work will change that fate, it might even make things worse. Moreover, sometimes it is necessary for an individual to be a Zen devil, to wash away some past karma, like some huge injustice in a past life that needs to be emotionally discharged. For SOME individuals who have been immersed in the self for a while, goodness comes naturally (often when they are in the state of sleep with awareness, past nirvikalpa Samadhi), those will do good regardless of whether they have been taught to do so or not. Sometimes, Shiva take on his multi-armed form, and becomes the destroyer of worlds.

What does @Leo Gura mean by this? "TV and video games is just meditation for lazy people."

The nature of the mind is thought. Without thought there is no mind. You say "i" believe in "my" mind. The "I" is a thought itself, so what is happening right there is the "I" identifying with another thought (whatever it might be, fear, hate, etc etc). What YOU really are is an eternal, untouchable witness to all these thoughts. You CANNOT be manipulated to begin with. To demonstrate this, ask yourself "For whom has this thought arisen?" every time you notice a thought emerge within you. You will answer without fail: "For me." Then ask yourself "Who Am I?" At the moment you ask this question, you are grounded in the Self (the true YOU). Let go of the "I" as easily as you let go of the original thought, and you are enlightenment.

Societal rules are so fun to play around with.

I don't know much about KW but I do think he is self-realized. From what I understand he is also very into shadow-work stuff which I think is a waste of time.