noselfnofun

@Serotoninluv I agree but don't want to stray from the topic and get into what enlightenment actually is. I assume we have all done the research and work ect. Can there be any found happiness in the story or dream/Maya? what about people with extreme mental strength. Also can you follow this path and find some level of happiness without becoming enlightened

@cetus56 Yeah that is quite alot, sure it would be worth it

the intellectual theory of what enlightenment and happiness really are and are not? I'm not sure about that, but I do agree with you about the above. I find it hard ti except at times just how lost everyone is, (none seekers) and question is this really the real deal as its sold to be but it has been prove time and time again in my experience to be the case so I will just roll with it. What about seekers who spends years on the path but never become self realized? Is there life better off for doing that or not? Would you say all none seekers are not truly happy ?

Yes, I think its a 2 day event. Are you planning on going ? He will be in London I think the 21th as well

He has a dark side, look at him here ordering his students to get medieval with a young Hillary.

Yeah thats pretty much it, I think you can develop a strength of mind where you can face thoughts things without enlightenment tho, but again that is quite rare as it normally breaks people down.

Thanks man awesome will watch these videos, sadguru is in my city atm but his workshop is to much for me to afford atm. Would of loved to go

It is interesting as the more I have gone down this beautiful rabbit whole the more I realise how much not only do I suffer but how much people suffer in general. this week I went to a mindfulness meet up and the people there didn't seem to know much about what meditation is actually about or enlightenment. seems like they just wanted to do there 20 to 30 mins of meditation a day to aid them living a balanced and fulfilled life but none of them knew about enlightenment act. I just wondered could that even work, I think you would just have to be lucky in your circumstances, you don't go through any really bad experiences and you live to a ripe old age without to much sickness. I think its a dangerous game to play as anything can happen to you at anytime. So enlightenment seems the way to go.

@mandyjw Maybe happiness was not the right word. A life that they can look back on and say that was worth living without my retreat or feeling that it was full of sorrow.

interesting man I can relate to this, I have done lots of retreats and always feel onto of the world for about 2 to 6 weeks after but then it fades and so dose the intercity of the practice. Do you think that maybe when on retreat, because you get to spend so long focusing on taking the mind to places it normally couldn't go to because of the free time you get to spend there you get attached to that feeling subconsciously, and when back in the normal world your expectations of what meditation could do for you goes up? thats what I feel has happened to me slightly. Its similar to what we were saying earlier regarding I do agree the meditation you learn at vipassana dose not seem to integrate as well into daily life as other practices do. Certain types of yoga, more loving meditation eat as you say works better. I met a awesome monk in a retreat once and he said when he use to live as a lay person he would find 3 hours a day is just to maintain a constrained state and if he wanted to progress he would need to do even more. I guess if we are not in a monastery or ashram we have to do what integrates best to day to day life

@GabrielWallace Yeah man this dose not sound good, sounds like a classic case of spiritual bypassing. Isn't the whole point of vipassana meditation to see things how they are? regardless if its good or bad. Might be worth to stop her practice for awhile and do some therapy and work through the emotional wounds so she can face the normal challenges of daily life. Day to day life can be unpleasant but should not been seen as torture, when you start to experience blissful states in meditation it can seem as though in contrast daily life is not as joyful so why go back to it? But the whole point of this work is to train yourself to reach a place that no matter what situation you are in, your at peace within.

yeah agreed, ultimately know one has a life's purpose, the universe has a purpose in the way the universe manifests itself moment by moment. You can either flow with that or try and resits it. I have had many so called lifes purpose's to only realise that each one was not actually my life purpose, this lead me to find life itself. I remember sadguru saying something similar regarding this. find what is lifes purpose not your own individual purpose.

great thanks, defo don't want you to die tomorrow so hopefully that wont happen anytime soon ahah. I feel like most seekers, the fear of death is what is driving there search. Alot of teachers say when they wake up they realise this is just the beginning, do you feel there is more work to be done and what dose that work entail? you say emotions still arise but do you think there is a place one can reach where your not only fully awake but have complete emotional mastery ? In certain Buddhist text they have different descriptions on the degree of enlightenment. stream entry to once returner to arhat. Is an arhat just someone who has completely purified themselves and gained emotional mastery ?

amazing thanks for creating this thread, seems very genuine. you mentioned death earlier, how has your relationship with death changed now that you have woke up? If you were to die tomorrow how would you feel? I know you could say that death is ultimately an illusion but the body will go so its in relation to the death of the body not the true self. dose it create fear the idea of the body dying? And was the whole journey worth it ? haha

This is what I have been doing, recently I came of a retreat and I was doing 5 plus hours of SDS everyday, life became like a mild acid trip like u say. What i noticed was when I really started to up the pratice I expirenced a massive ego backlash, have you found this? I've recently just come out of it and plan to continue with the intense meditation but it's almost like u have to be prepared mentally and also have your life in check. Also do you have a teacher you can go to who is stream entry ? That's always helpful

it probably can, I'm not sure if this is a siddhi but recently after a very intense long retreat I would think of something and a few seconds later boom it would happen. I was not trying to consciously do this, it go really freaky but eventually stopped when I toned down my practice and got back to my normal life. Has anyone ever had anything like that happen?

I use to be really into bodybuilding, I didn't find there was much of a link between it and the awakening process, if anything it actually made it harder as bodybuilding was focused on glamorising your body and sense of self. I got injured and had to stop lifting and i was like what did I care so much ahah. However I do think you can defo incorporate the process of training with mindfulness and meditation, i remember I had some amazing lifting sessions after coming of vipassana retreats, you could really be with the movement and feel your whole body in the exercise. If you do it from the right place it can be great. Check out dorian yates, an old ex world champ who is now heavily spiritual. Cool guy and I think ken wilber use to workout alot if im not mistaken. martial arts are better I think.

How have you found integrating 5meo? Thats my worry about trying it is that it will be just another experience that wears off and eventually the mind just comes back down to baseline and you forget the insights you got from the 5meo. That has been my experience with every other psychedelic I have tried, is 5meo different?

Great points definitely agree I have noticed this also, a lot of people I know who take alot of psychedelics have suffered from that and some of them have even ended up giving up there contemplative practices and just use psychedelics. Also psychs are nothing new and have been around for ages and not many spiritual masters say you should use them for awakening. Maybe it would be wiser to start integrating them once you start becoming more advanced in your practice. Having said that dose not mean they can't help because they really can and have helped me massively but you just have to be so careful with how you use them and how often. I did dmt once 4 years ago, I became god/ the universe and all that jazz but it wore off and I came back to living a normal life pretty soon after and I felt there would be no need to do it again anytime soon. Just feels like they just show u whats out there and possible but you have to walk the path to get there.

This ^ to add to that you could look into the Tibetan book of the dead. Look into the idea of the bardos ect. I think you can answer the question just using your direct experience, in your direct experience there is no death also there is no birth. Do you remember your point of entry into this reality? you have always been here, and from that perceptive you always will we don't know any diffrent. Its funny how we worry what will happen after death but we don't even know what will happen tomorrow. This question sent me deeply on this journey, its one of the best questions to investigate. Love it. Whats your opinon on peoples NDE's?

Love the energy coming for you, Leo's advice was sounds ^ you will have to figure it out. Just fully surrender to God and you'll get there

Pretty much answers your question

And yes I have definitely found that, integration is key and challenging. What tips do you have on being able to integrate your insights into everyday life? trying to remain very mindful?

Ok thats good to know, I've always been put off slightly by psychedelics because I have a few friends who do them a lot but they don't seem to integrate there experiences very well when the trip wears off. However none of them have a regular traditional spiritual practice to ground them maybe thats why. That certainly talk the talk tho lol. Will definitely look at trying to incorporate psychedelics more.