Mu_

I went through this stuff and still do to an extent for the last 20 years and I attribute it to all of the above. It seems the changing/evolving of perception/energy/wisdom is a never ending thing for me, which has taken a long time for me to accept since its been a real cause of pain and bliss, but somehow the mind holds onto pain more for me, atleast subconsciously it seems.

Theres a good chance they will probably teach the next generation on the monistary, but you never know with this stuff. The world will continue to spin, life will continue to evolve and the inifinite universes will continue to Be. Said monk may serve a greater purpose at that point or they may just relax into life and live and die like anyone else.

What do you mean you are enlightened? Can you elaborate? It could be a spiritual shift of some sort that is making it hard for you to adjust. A lot more info would help.

Century of the Self is a 3 part 6 hour documentary that is mind opening (If you live in America), you can find it online for free.

You sound like your on a genuine path to awakening so far. And by the sounds of it, your doing fine so far. I'd keep trusting your intuition and discovering the life lessons that are taking you along your intention. In terms of your wondering if your maybe fooling yourself and your just still in more mind believing its now free mind? Well unfortunately no one can tell you this for certain, this is between you and You. There isn't a exam that gives you certificate of authenticity for this one. But your words have honesty, humbleness and feel authentic from what I can gather. Honestly though, why do you need to know either way? Will it make you feel better knowing you accomplished what you set out for? Or are the results you've found still not good enough? Or if it were true what you've found would you want to then tell others? Do you want to know if your ready to help others with what you learned? Honestly feel and look into these questions, they may open up some things.....

@Blissout @Preetom Your both right! Your both quoting different awakened masters accepted by human beings as Enlightened. Each one of you believe different things and both are right in the whole of everything. Unless you believe there is a set in stone definition of Enlightenment defined by the original source, layed out in some bible buried under the sea, its probably just speculation and accepted definitions within yourself. One would even say understanding this, is Enlightenment, but this is a word better discarded outside of trying to use labels to roughly communicate.

I've been meditating for 20 years at this point. If your just starting and what you've described is your experience, then please do yourself a favor and ease into it. Sounds like its bringing up a lot real fast. Put some music on that relaxes you, meditate for only a couple times a week, and dont do more than 20 mins for a while. Then when you feel more at ease, like your getting some benefit, then try 30-40 mins and see how that goes. To much to fast is perhaps worse than never meditating at all. You can also try the meditation I learned and still do, I made a video on it not to long ago. Again, put on some music that relaxes you, it will help with getting used to meditation. I know in my video I don't speak about music, but for you after you've done it with the video, try it with music next time. And then just come back to the video or leave any questions when you want to remember how its done.

Sounds like your on a honest inquiry into yourself. What was your initial desire to do all this, even though now you seem to be touching into some wisdom of "hard to define destinations", "Mysterious, non-state/place/something", "No stopping points", which makes the path harder to talk about (this is a good thing most likely). Also in terms of looking "deeper", what compels this, what is hoping to be found or understood? These will help me better understand you and what may help you with where your at.... My sense is your onto something and are maybe about to have your mind blown, but I don't want to jump to conclusion.

What are YOU looking for in this investigation? What are YOUR initial intentions in this quandary? After reading some of your other posts, you sound like you have a pretty decent life other than maybe OCD? Are you looking for peace of mind, happiness, enlightenment? From what I've gathered, you have some depth of understanding and insight in your spiritual search that recognizes that YOU are looking for a state, but you've also learned that what your looking for can't come from that position. Your searching for something like you would a person with a map looking for treasure, which is natural. You have some concepts and ideas youve learned about that are pointing you to a treasure you want to find. This searching in your head/body is a traveling of sorts looking for the markers and idea's youve learned about and you are looking for those, maybe hoping that one of them will be enlightenment or a transcendence of the mind. Unfortunately, but not always, this can lead you in a circle of your own mind, but by the peace you've said you found it seems to have yielded some fruit in your garden. Have you heard the spiritual saying, you are what your looking for (by your post, it sounds like you may of come across it at one point). Well quiet LITERALLY you are what your looking for and often the act of searching for IT, is taking you into your mind/emotions/body looking for whats already present and self known and unfortunately forgotten. You ever try and try and put your awareness on the sense of I, or the source of what is looking. This can have a profound shift of awareness, in fact there is a well written post on this process and comes from a enlightened sage from India, Ramana Maharshi. So again. Whats your goal. Whats missing? Maybe I can help more.

To answer your question most concisely, no, you dont need to get rid of emotions, you'll tie yourself in knots trying, you just can't get rid of emtions. Forget about the ego, you probably have no idea how to spot it anyways at this point in your spiritual search and will just create more mental activity in yourself than its worth. Follow your desires and emotions of what you truely want. I can help more if you tell me why your looking for enlightenment to begin with?

You have a chance to check out the video?

Hey all, I made my first Meditation/Guided Meditation/Intro to mediation and thought I'd share it with you all. Feel free to leave any comments, experiences, criticisms, critiques. Hope it serves you well.

Sounds like a good life affirming time, thanks for sharing.

The more you try to impress people, the less impressed they’ll be. The more afraid you are of death, the less you’ll be able to enjoy life. One gained through wisdom and experience. The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know. Another gained through wisdom, experience and investment into something. Fighting violence with violence often just leads to more violence and doesn't solve the issue. You can spend your whole life trying to amass wealth, only to leave it all behind when you die. There are objects. There are no objects. Both are 100% true, but you have to have the wisdom and experience to grasp this. Nothing on its own ground, but can be individually appreciated.

Thank you for the kind words, they seem to be in line with what I've received feedback wise in my daily life. Although my wife may say some other things. Np, let me know what you think.

You definatley have awoken to some profound things and perhaps more than I, not sure anyone can say, however I think we, Hinduism and others will have to disagree that what your sharing is the WHOLE shibang. It seems, you/Buddhism seem to limit Absolute to be dependent on a mind and said humans independent verification of it which is not verifiable outside the mind, thus its not absolute (reminds me of the classic materialist debate). Where as I and many others have seen and understood the Truth of whats behind/in/as/that which makes mind possible/this conversation possible/body possible, IS Source/God/Ininfinity, which is never not the case, is You and I and will always be and never not was. And like your nicely put explanation that the body-mind distinction dissolves, such occurrences can and do happen in waking up to what I and others are talking about when Absolute is understood. Honestly I don't think it makes That much of a difference, but was fun discussing. Perhaps I and we better understand why perhaps there has been this Hinduism/Buddhist debate, maybe its hinging on this distinction (I honestly don't know enough about the history of the debate to comment). Also one last thing we can debate over which I use to take as truth, but question is, you said "This opens up the possibility to look at the flower without interference from the mind. This makes you able to see the flower as it is. You experience no-thing and see reality for what it is." Isn't the idea that what ever you call yourself, is seeing said flower as it really is, unclouded from the mind, just an idea? I mean doesn't Buddhism basically say there is no objective reality out there to be seen? Theres just one's seeing? Can one ever really say they see "clearly"? Isn't This a distinction that assumes that nothing is going on behind the process of seeing that would interfere in the seeing of said object clearly. Can one know what they don't know/are aware of, is going on behind the process of seeing? Even if one could, isn't the seeing clearly just one interpretative lens such as human seeing, and not all versions of seeing/feeling/sensing that are possible within this infinite possible universe?

Ok, thanks for the responses so far, but still and I find this interesting of conversation in general, its so hard to nail down what someone is pointing sometimes. Can you describe more by what you mean as no-thing. Is this a state/experience that is within your every experience. Is it wisdom gained through what you;ve pointed to in Buddhist understanding as everything being relative in relation to something else, conscious/reality, flower/soil/sun/earth, feelings/body/mind. This wisdom is a no-thing? Or is this no-thing an actual understanding of it/oneself/the universe and It being the source of all? See from where I stand, there is never not god/infinity/oneness/nonduality. I see what you've been describing within this bubble since nothing is not that. Absolute is a interesting term I was reflecting on my bike-ride to work after I used the term. It can have isolating/hierarchical interpretations. When understood of what I'm talking about, Absolute is not on this scale, nothing is not Absolute, so all is thus absolute. A baby craving food, is Absolute in that form, having Absolute experience. You or I awakening to this understanding again is Absolute in action as such and this experience is no higher or lower then the babies, its all Absolute/God/Inifinty. Waking up to this understanding as a human is a metaphorical pointing to a actual truth that is not merely just a belief a person/body/mind is having, its pointing like Buddhist believe the sun to rise in the east and set in the west, to a actual occurrence that humans fit within wether we are here or not. This isn't some ignorance arising in the clean eye of no-thingness or a illusion held onto a self for security, which I sometimes get the sense is where your coming from. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes I do get what your saying and glad you shared it, since I was trying to expand my understanding of Buddhist thought and realization. That said, I dont necessarily think its the ultimate or final understanding. Hell dont even want to say that since it may be impossible to make such a claim. But I think what Seratoninlove is pointing to and perhaps others as well (I agree with them) is there is a recognition that is not relative, that is understood and realized (and yes within the human form), that is termed nothingness/infinity/god/nondual in Hinduism I believe and other practices which isn't clear you actually understand or have seen, perhaps since your awaking is just enough and you no longer need/want to seek more (your questions have been answered, your awake and happy, and that is fine), but none the less doesn't mean you've seen and understood everything. Then again you later made a comment that alluded to the nothingness that you leave unlabeled is the same as what Seratonin/others/me are talking about, and "maybe" it is, but if you don't understand or see that this nothingness/infinity/nondualness is the source and ground of it all, is in everything and is You and I and is not relative, is and always was the source, then no its not the same. It really may not be that important honestly since the understanding doesn't create happiness and freedom necessarily, its just more knowledge and Truth. So if your happy and understand reality to the degree your happy with and can help others, do so, just keep an open mind there is always more, and in this case, there is this piece of Truth you haven't understood, which again, doesn't mean you need/have to.

Just thought I'd share my first transmission video here since I believe its in line with this forums values. Full disclosure, this is something I'm still waking up to the capacity of and evolving into myself, so results are not guaranteed (sorry no returns). Hope it serves you well, and feel free to ask any questions that may arise.... Read the description for best results. Some people report calmness. Calmness can sometimes be a precursor to unconditional love, and deep peace. If you just start to feel calmness, watch it 1-2x in a row and see if the calmness opens up to more, I may have made the video to short, so in the future I'll do maybe 10-15 mins for better effect.

Missed your comment, thanks appreciate it.

I'll have to keep looking into the different views of Buddhism schools, but the one your sharing and the one I read about (yogacara) seem to stop at the notion that enlightenment is waking up to the realization that there is just ones human consciousness/congition, and nothing independent of that one can realize or see outside of that, along with the world exists outside of this and is not dependent on human mind/consciousness to be there. One could say they've mastered the path of understanding cognition, maybe? Correct me if I"m wrong at any point. Buddhism stops at a place of nothinness that is termed, non-questioning/grasping and from here its understood that when a question is asked (such as what created all this or created the possibility for all this), it is seen as arising within human consciousness and as you say inherently dependent on the natural nothingness that it arose from. This then leads to, the idea or experience of knowing a Brahnma type realization is said to be a silly idea since it would be a arising question that is answered within this space of nothingness and would thus be boiled down to Buddhist enlightened mind as a idea of something that arose and not the actual recognition of Absolute, but a interpretation of a question and an experience that manifested from it?

So does your Buddhist training not go into the question of what created the possibility for the arising of anything?

What do you mean dependent arising? I think this whole topic was needed and very interesting. I to use to blend Buddhism, Hinduism and even a lot of other different practice under the unquestioned assumption that they are were saying the same thing. However when I posted something one day in a intergral next forum, some guys said I should read about a particular form of buddhism (Cant recall the name atm), but basically I learned buddhist dont seem to believe in a absolute even though I assumed thats what buddha hood/mind/emptiness was. As you said those idea's were barriers or paths towards a seeking that missed the freedom that was already present or as you put it emptiness in which there is freedom in understanding that there is no absolute and truths/things depend on context of origin/other things defined (correct if I'm misquoting or wrong on any of these interpretations of buddhism). This is where I was 3 months ago and had my first big awakening embodying and understanding these things. Yet still something niggled at the edge of consciousness and it was waking up to the truth of what we are. Not just humans, but infinity/god/oneness/Brahman as humans. And yes all that buddhism/the above still has its place and truth in the context of human living, at least this is how I see and understand at this point. So it seems Buddhism (or some sects) stops at a certain point of understanding and doesn't go into the Brahman understanding. However I will say Buddhism may be a better overall path towards "happiness" since it tackles that problem with the cultivation of good habits and treament of others/self which just realizing god doesn't necessarily transform. Just my at this point accumulation and idea's.

Well put.

Well in the spirit of debate, this brings up a interesting question, one in which can put the mind in a realization of checkmate......perhaps forcing one to drop the question.... For starters when you or anyone brings up the subject "Absolute Truth" what is being said first? Then based upon what is meant in the language/symbol of "Absolute Truth", the question is then, is that Absolute Truth? Which then brings into question again, what Is The Absolute Truth to compare the established question/idea of absolute truth against to then be able to answer the question?