FoxFoxFox

@SQAAD It's not perfect. It's not imperfect either. Nothing can be said about reality that is as true as reality itself. Reality cannot even be said to exist. These words are all hollow. Unnecessary for realization. Your present confusion is due to the "I am the body" idea. The Gita says: There never was a time when I was not, or you, or these rulers of men. What is this substratum that persists at all times? Realize that.

I suggest seeking guidance from a qualified Kundalini master. They deal with this sort of stuff all the time. Sadly, it's quite hard to give instructions about dealing with these pressures over the internet.

@Lister Follow the mind back to its source and it will disappear. Silence and peace are your guides.

@Lister None of that. All this occurs in the waking hours. When you are asleep, the world, the body, or mind does not exist. There is no subject nor an object for awareness to exist either. Yet you remain, wide awake, immersed in bliss. Why is it that you don't have access to that bliss now, during the waking hours? What has occurred?

@andyjohnsonman "Depth" is a quality pertaining to maya and not of the Self. You may wish to explore maya to any length you wish, but do not confuse it with making progress towards the Self.

@zeroISinfinity Nothing awakens. Nothing is asleep. It's as you say, just slaps on the face so the mind doesn't cling.

@Schahin Do you know your real Self now that you are so interested in the past or future?

Why not use a direct method like Self-inquiry instead of wasting time with irreconcilable mental paradoxes?

@Pouya The "I-thought" raising and being identified with as the focal point of experience and it's subsequent falling away is the cycle of birth and rebirth that ends. The body, which you currently believe to be cause or center of experience is the one that is borne and dies. The Self remains ever unchanging, as evident in dreamless sleep, for example.

@Conrad What caused you to quit to begin with?

@Derek White The lack of agency-less-ness is the reason why what you experienced was not Samadhi but only Manolaya. To answer your question, no, there is no point in staying in that state for the purpose of enlightenment, and as you know, your academic performance will suffer. I would advise picking up self-inquiry. You don't need to not study or not engage with your intelligence. Self-inquiry as much as you can and allow things to unfold by themselves.

This book: https://www.amazon.com/Enlightenment-101-Ignorance-Jan-Esmann/dp/098477677X/ref=sr_1_3_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1392569518&sr=1-3&keywords=jan+esmann addresses over 100 common fallacies about enlightenment. Do you believe that there really is such a thing as enlightenment that is attained anew, and that you know how it looks like? Then you need this book.

@zeroISinfinity Good luck on your path, whatever it may be.

@zeroISinfinity "I am nothing" is still not it, sadly. Don't give up, there must come a point when you realize just how utterly incapable you are at rationalizing the Self. The Buddha sat under the tree for so long, doing hist best to figure out what enlightenment is. He never got it until he gave up. Self-inquiry is a good method my friend. Take it from some who knows nothing about neo-advaita.

@zeroISinfinity Nothing can be said about reality that is true. The truth evades any attempt at being captured by our concepts. So the answers are tailored to suit different people's temperaments. The point is to dislodge people from whatever paradigm they cling to. If person A believes he is the doer, his sense of "I-ness" must be annihilated, so we tell him to surrender it to a higher being. When person B believes that a higher being, other than his real Self, is responsible for the affairs of the world, the answer for him is a resounding no.

No. None of that.

@Shaun It is not wasted at all. There is no waste in this universe, even the scientists say energy is not create anew. Regardless, be still and know that you are God in this lifetime

@Jkris It will survive by the grace of God. Even right now it is God who is directing the world everywhere. The mind is only thoughts and is not in charge of anything. Wrong identification with the body, which is called the "I-thought" is the cause of this misunderstanding. Search for the mind and it will be annihilated. Annihilation does not mean that something is removed - only a wrong identification no longer occurs.

@Derek White I'm not exactly sure what you experienced - might be Manolaya - because it does share SOME qualities with what people call Samadhi. To me it sounds like what you experienced was some sort of pleasant stupor - or mind's absorption in the mind - rather than mind's annihilation. With annihilation, there is no longer a mind, or math, or questions. It's evident from your post that you were only interested in a silent mind rather than enlightenment, and mind control is what you got. With enlightenment, the mind is not controlled, it's destroyed - but funnily enough nothing can be said to be lost. This is paradoxical and only makes sense when you get there. With mind control on the other hand, the ability to rationalize is lost, but the wrong identification with that controlled mind remains.

double post

@Dodo Good question. It all depends on the seeker and how mature his understanding has been in a past life. Some souls have already done the work and for them mere mention of the stuff is enough to induce an awakening. Some others need more work. The first idea, that you cannot do anything but to give up is truthful. All good spiritual practices ultimately lead to surrender, and only that will bring about liberation. So in some sense of the word, self-realization is an act of God's grace, and not of the person's effort. But there is truth to the second approach as well. If you do a good spiritual exercise (for example Self-inquiry or Fox Yoga) properly that will overwhelm the mind and the body so the mind can't help BUT to become silent, and that makes it more likely for God's grace to fall upon you. So energetic intensity to the degree that it overwhelms you and allows grace to flow through you is the key. Kinda like how a conductive, charged object is more likely to be hit with lightning

@sausagehead Karma is just more nonsense. It cannot touch you. You only think that events affect you good or bad ways. Karma is within the realm of thought and not a real thin of its own accord.

This is a good place to be in. The same bliss that is prevalent in dreamless sleep is present in the waking hours, only one doesn't notice it. So the question is not how to replicate this bliss, but WHY you already don't notice it? What occurs in waking that doesn't in sleep? The answer is the "I-thought" or thoughts in general. You only have to realize that you are not the "I" who you think you are. That will grant you enough clarity to recognize the bliss.

@Aakash No. Saying things like form is formlessness amounts to nothing. Saying "my" awareness is missing the point. Is there two "I s" within you then? One that is aware and one that is aware of awareness? You are stubbornly clinging to finding a verbal explanation for things and that is what's holding you back. The mind needs to be dead silence, not constantly theorizing about what the Self is like or what the heart is or where awareness is. These are distractions and have nothing to do with enlightenment. As it stands you are only spewing spiritual sounding nonsense. What heaven? What plane? What awareness? Who is saying all these things? Search for it until it disappeares and have the mind be quiet. Then you'll see.

@Shakazulu None of that. That's still more thinking. You don't need anything to do to be what you already are. Just be. The litmus test is peacefulness.