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Thats a really powerful practice your pointing to. Its bared great fruit in my life as well.

I don't know if this will help you but catching the ox has nothing to do with how much you think or don't think during the day. The ox is already here in the thinking and the non thinking, its neither of these (IT IS THE THINKING AND NONE THINKING) and it can be a trap to believe you need to stop thinking to find it. Shin posted a link about bentinho massaro free course, you may find it helpful since its very easily laid out. I'm not sure about the guy himself as having moved through all his ego, but he's got a good teaching for the most part non the less with some things beautifully laid out and easily followable.

Sorry but this guy is full of shit and an obvious troll.

Interestingly not necessarily. There are a few stories out there of people who have spontaneous awakenings but on some level are left without a vocabulary or context. Not until they reach a awakened master who basically recognizes there realization in that person and helps them understand whats taken place. I'll have to ask my dad since he knows a lot of these teachers stories of india, but it does happen. Also there are people in India called musks who have had profound awakenings but it psychologically split something that leaves them in a state of inability to function in the world, as a result they are institutionalized or left for dead and one Saint/Enlightened Master named Maher Baba tasked his followers to go out and find these guys so that he could work with the energetically to help realign what broke and get them back to a functionable state.

@Shin Everyone can benefit from looking into this I feel. After I had a major awakening I thought it would be interesting to see how teachers in general present their own method of bringing people to awaken to what they themselves discovered, since it was an interest of mine at that point. While I treated it like a research project, I found it very opening, deeping of my own experience and helpful. I got through the first 2 course and skimmed through the rest. I found tangents with his own experience of realizing at one point that there is more then he initially realized which I think he points to in his last teachings as god/infinity. Very fascinating. There seems to always be more in this development life game, I really do wonder if one can truly claim enlightenment by most traditional definitions since there always seems to be more to this infinity.

In my experience they are separate things yet at the same time feed into and support eachother. Sometimes you need to master your anger so you don't burn out your system and prevent spiritual purification or your hearts ability to come out. This can be said of fear, anxiety, loneliness and many other emotions. Also mastering your emotions generally leads to being able to not run away from your emotions which makes bearing spiritual purification easier perhaps. Just tip of the iceberg response, but hope that helps.

Thank you for posting, its not a common question. However despite that its pretty much the same for everyone. We all have our own unique suffering/challenging issues that confront us bodily, worldly, financially and anything else you can think of. That said it is harder for some then others, there is greater suffering and greater challenges, but don't let yourself get caught up in this, it won't help. Are you doing anything in particular already? Meditation? Self Inquiry? Watching video's of non-duality teachings or Buddhist teachings? If not, it may be a good place to start and implement some of these practices in your life. That said, in terms of you feeling dependent, try and flip that around and connect with your heart and gratitude that there are people who can help you. Times were not always so kind to the disabled in the past. Seeing this and letting it in may make it easier. Most important though is don't let yourself be a victim, it almost never helps, but if you truly do feel the sadness of your situation at times, just let yourself feel it, recognize it, take a few breaths, and then move your attention on what to be grateful for.

Ya SOUL has a good point, theres the flip side of the coin if your gonna accept one side. Focus on that instead and see what shifts.....or not.

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Nice video, two passionate people.

Congrats man. And if there was one episode that I could jokingly say that would wake someone up positively, it would be that episode only.

I dont know what Turquise, but these lyrics do sound to hold some aspect of Truth.

Sounds like you have a defensive mind set backed by spiritual knowledge. Its on them not me, they are responsible for them, not me. If you are also part of this picture and you notice your impact, are you okay with the impact you are having? Just food for thought. There is no right answer.

Sounds like you are being combative. Honestly like I was and still can be, but not outloud lol. Think about it this way. Yes you understand that its really hard if not impossible to nail something down as known, but if someone says for example: "Scientists have discovered that ______ (fill in the gaps with what you wish) You could instead say oh what lead them to this understanding, and how do these things work that they are talking about. THis could even inspire you to look into each issue, instead of just be combative and rub people the wrong way.

Sounds like some straight dope realization stuff and classic mind response neither of which you should hold responsibility for or get angry about or fear the future because of. You want to feel better through this? Just overstimulate yourself with things that feel good, just make those the choices you make for a while, forget about trying to do enlightening stuff. I don't mean numb out and get drunk and high out of anger or stress about your situation but because its what you like, what ever it is. Also some of the above advice from cetus is good, but it may keep trying ego backlash, I'd give "spiritual" investment of attention a break for a bit, come back later refreshed.

There are many approaches to this question and dependent from where your at. Perhaps start with looking into why do you regret these things? Whats a mess as a result? What can you do now to change this mess? Take these steps, and let go of the regret acknowledging whats done is done and regret will only hold you back from moving forward. And take note of this, and look at how this can apply to any negative focus you have inside, like anger about something in life, at yourself, at others, or fear of something.....its all roughly the same. Again this is one way. If you do the above enough and get some steady progress, then look into and add a more "Buddhist" lense. Inquire into what is an emotion, a though, a belief, who you think you are. Acknowledge regret is a just a thought and emotion about a past moment in time that is no longer happening now and let it go, embrassing the joy that period of time you may have gotten or the suffering it showed and finding peace in the now of what is......letting the regret arise, not clinging and fall like all emotions and thoughts do. And from here make new choices of how you'd like to live your life and how to make those changes..... The later approach is one in which could be a long investment of your life and you will probably need to read more about what I wrote in a book or video's or seeing a teacher.

Your asking a question that has no inherent answer. Truth is many things to many people. Or do you mean how its used in enlightenment context. Either way, same answer, enlightened masters and "religions" don't even agree. However this does not mean there is no mystery and wonder within the life you are already living and the reality of who and what you are.......

Building off what nahm said, it does sound like you have a genuine desire for pursuing what you tasted, are you using some of your time meditating or inquiring into life, your beliefs that cause you and others suffering? Dont hold yourself back from this thing you feel is more important, but also don't waste it if you don't have to. Perhaps you can augment where your at so you feel better about your usage of time. Ultimately you are already what your looking for and you can find that on any path. Your Uni studies could turn into something that helps humanity, yourself and allows you to do what you want. As nahm pointed to question into what you want and go for it. Also dont allow spiritual dogma to lead into believing you have to become a monk or live in india for a while to "wake up" AND don't let your fears of needing to finish school and live a "normal" life dictate what you choose......

The earth sounds like it could use help in the environmental department. That said, don't try to just live off water and use nothing unless you feel like its what you want to do. I made the choice to go 25% meat from humane sources and 75% vegi mostly organic. I try to recycle mostly and not buy things I really really dont need. I figure if the world did this, we would be in a much healthier place, so I feel good with this line of choice. Just dont get neurotic about it.

I didn't write #2 well. Yes anger is there but how you respond is another. Thats what i was getting at. Do you have a choice at how you respond to your feelings, in this case yelling. Or is it for you just what happens kinda thing? This is a interesting thing to understand since many "enlightened" share different things. For example the Dalilama (although I'm not sure he's claimed enlightenment) states that one should choose to treat others in a kind manner, insinuating a element of free will in the moment to perhaps say yell because your angry or not. And on the other hand some nondual teachers will say its not a matter of choice, the response just happens (some going stating that the response is in the best interest of the student/person since they are a perfect relfection/teacher for them) And some of these same people find themselves in precarious situations with their students despite saying they are enlightened or have dealt with their ego.

Either your a Buddha and its just an easy quick inquiry and blam done kinda thing, dust off your hands after one time and call it a day, or you are fooling yourself so hard you dont even know it, I'm not sure which.

Sounds good.

For the most part it does not matter, unless you are trying to do certain energetic holds to open up kundalini/meridians, otherwise as Shin says, just in a position your likely not to fall asleep. However I will say that the point of meditation is not to be aware of your mind and thoughts as a intention (sure you can focus on your breath if you like as a point of focus, but even that you may want to let go of at some point). When you meditate you want to just close your eyes and let thoughts, mind, time, feelings, the world, be..... Inherently thoughts, time, feelings, mind, the world will be experienced in this process, but not as the intention of focus. Does that makes sense. In the dropping of interaction with these human focused things, hidden depths, understanding and awareness and perhaps even recognition of who and what you really are will emerge. Does that make sense? This is of course from how I learned, is there a reason you were taught to be aware of your thoughts, mind and even breath?

Hey Sage, I would encourage you to do 15-20 mins of meditation followed by 10-15 mins of contemplation. From my experience and also from some sources I've read that the meditative state opens up oneself to greater clarity to then contemplate more directly and clearly.

I have a funny question within the realm of free will, will power, and the spontaneous arising of action. Say you were to get angry and yell at me since I stepped on your toe unintentionally (but you didn't know this since you didn't see I was blind). I then say to you hey that hurts my feelings can you stop yelling at me. 1. Would you? 2. Could you of not gotten angry at me in the first place, by just not expressing what you felt (even though anger was arising in your body). 3. What are you thoughts on the relationship to waking up and the character of the human being (ei, kindness, compassion, empathy, generosity, striving to improve the quality of life for all life) or are they separate things? And what were Rimana's thoughts on these matters? I ask this because many schools of enlightenment categorize these matters in different ways, some saying they are separate and others basically stating if the person is still an asshole they have no woken up.