VeganAwake

@Aakash @MuddyBoots The Samadhi video really covers this topic well but here is my take... The Ego construct is a dysfunctional survival mechanism and is real. It's what the ego believes and perceives that is the illusion. For example the ego tries to make you believe you are a limited separate self from existence, when the truth is you are existence and its entirety.

@Aakash I truly don't believe there are any prerequisites to Samadhi/awakening/enlightenment. But in a nutshell here is what was key to my experience: 1) a radical paradigm shift. 2) putting the desire to know the truth as my top priority in life, and simultaneously letting go of everything I thought I believed to be true or in other words emptying my glass and becoming like a child another name would be "no mind" 3) reading Eckhart Tolle The Power of Now. 4) practicing meditation for at least 15 minutes a day 5) stumbling onto Leo's actualized.org and watching the collective ego video along with everything else.

@Aakash About two and a half years ago I realized almost everything I thought I knew about diet and nutrition was more of a perspective or conditioned thought process than the actual Truth. I went vegan overnight and it was such a quick and radical paradigm shift that something in me Awoke. After that it started off as searching for ultimate truth, surrendering(letting go)and simultaneously knowing that I would never give up until I reached it. I had to replace fear with trust and motivation and dive deep into the murky waters of the unknown while staying grounded and balanced. I had to completely empty my glass, stay radically open minded and maintain razor sharp focus to sort out the TRUTH from the nothingness. I dropped everything I thought I knew about anything and became a child willing and ready to learn. I also knew I was wasting energy holding on to past grudges and not completely forgiving everything and everyone including myself, forgive them for they know not what they do. I had to patch those holes to keep the energy from escaping, so I could use it in forward progression and to peel off the layers. Meditation was key for learning to stay present and aware and helped me gently set my ego in a chair with its nose in the corner and tell it thank you, but I will no longer be requiring your services. In other words I mortally wounded it. Big picture thinking was also important on this journey, the biggest picture I could possibly imagine in every question I had. I prayed for awakening( even though at the time I didn't realize it was already happening) and asked to be shown everything. There are many other things I came to understand such as: taking the middle path, non-attachment, non judgement, non identification, non-duality, cultural conditioning and its influence, collective ego, spiral dynamics, understanding religions stemmed from spirituality. Sorry this was so long I thought you might be interested.

@Tistepiste I wanted to pass along something that I realized. This information was my path/technique that is very difficult for people to grasp and yet its also very easy, it really depends on each individual. The biggest road block to attaining samadhi is thinking that one already has. "The biggest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge"... simply put, if a person thinks they already have the answer, there's no need to seek it any longer. This can be the show stopper. In samadhi there is a saying... "No person can enter the gateless gate, So be nobody". This can be the hard part for some people, because it requires a "letting go" of ones sense of self, and all belief systems/structures a person is identified with and attached to, including all religious and culturally conditioned notions of the self. Simply put you drop your entire identity, and belief you have about yourself, and become like a young child new to the world and ready to learn.( come with your glass empty); ( become the not knower) This is of course where the ego feels the most threatened, because it knows that this will kill it. It will try to resist it in every way possible( mostly distractions). The trick is not to force it, but to ask it to sit down in the chair and that you no longer require its services. The letting go I'm describing also means to drop any past signs or beliefs of who or what you think you are. For example do not cling to nicknames, signs, or old beliefs about yourself that you have already used in your journey forward. The signs are there to point you 2 something, but do not cling and hang on to them to long. They are meant to be used and then transcended/outgrown and dropped( non-attachment/ non identification). Basically these were the hardest things for me to do in my own life, but once I caught on to this and trusted my own instincts, my motivation allowed me to completely drop everything, become the not knower, and dive into the abyss. This path for me has been an awakening in its self, but I can see its a definite permanent lifestyle shift as well.

@Aakash My experience has been almost identical to a movie that I found on YouTube called Samadhi part 1 & 2 .....its good and its the truth. Here is a tiny clip from that movie: People who are engaged in religious or spiritual practices such as yoga prayer meditation chanting or any kind of ritual are practicing techniques which are conditioned, which means they are just part of the ego construct, the seeking and the activity isn't the problem, thinking you have found the answer in some external form is the problem spirituality in its most common form is no different than pathological thinking that is going on everywhere, it is further agitation of the Mind more human doing as opposed to human being. The ego construct wants more money more power more love more of everything. Those on the so-called spiritual path desire to be more spiritual more awake more equanimous more peaceful more enlightened. Samadhi is not about attaining or adding something more to yourself, its to die before you die.

I guess I would consider myself enlightened and the easiest way for me to explain it is it's not something you gain.... it's a falling away of who you thought you were and the realization of true self. Which by the way feels like nothing and everything at the same time kind of hard to explain. Judgment becomes pointless because you know they are just conditioned thought patterns. I look at things as they are and of course sometimes my mind tries to jump in and call it something else but I tend to just let that fall away and see it for what it is. The saying "it is what it is" Rings true with enlightenment. To me Enlightenment is simply the Truth realized in all aspects of existence. It's not necessarily that your ego dissolves or goes anywhere ...I can just choose not to listen to it, or I can play some Divine game of Lila and listen to it... it just depends on what I choose to do. It's honestly not what most people think, sometimes I feel like my brain is completely rewired and it has been happening to me gradually over about a two-year span so far with multiple and different size Awakenings throughout. There are no prerequisites but I will say a lot of meditation helps with the shift. Thank you for allowing me to share and peace be with you all!!

@lukej I like your purity is having no reason statement. Very interesting, is this statement related to goallessness and non attachment/unconditional love? I find a peaceful awakend bliss with surrendering and not needing anything to strive for or achieve. Just being present in the divines creation and quietly watching nature play its course.