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@Nic Nothing. He just got lucky. And no, we don't all have that much psychological pain.

"Challenge sequences" http://shinzenyoung.blogspot.com.ee/2012/08/working-smart.html

Well, first of all, this chart is about psychological development, not enlightenment. Secondly, be very self-honest about presuming you're at 7. Where am I? Quite hard to say. In terms of thinking, 5/6, a bit of 7. In terms of my feeling-reactions, I see tendencies as low as 3 or 4.

So here' something really profound. In fact, someone should invent an ad blocking program that replaces every ad with this here. People agree with me when I quote Shakespeare's "There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so". Alright, you agree with me...but then, why is your life so fucked up? Where are you guys and gals falling into a similar trap?

Get enlightened, work through shadow material, and destroy the knowledge graph. Achieve freedom from the bullshit of the mind. Then do whatever the fuck I wanna do.

I (sort of) had a habit of being chronically late. The solution is pretty basic: stop doing the stupid shit you do and keep your eye on the time. Measure out how long it takes you to do activities such as eating, showering etc. Often the reason we struggle with such problems is that we make them into rocket science. Just stop.

I guess what you might call sexual misconduct is the most common "anti-spiritual" thing enlightened masters engage in. When your followers see you as a source of authority, it's probably very tempting to take advantage of that.

Well, if you're on the path to enlightenment, everything short of an enlightenment is by definition irrelevant, isn't it? You can have all sorts of cool experiences but if you ain't there yet, you ain't there yet. How could you possibly know whether you're on the right path or not? You're either enlightened or you're not (the depth of the enlightenment is a different concern). If you can't go from 20% enlightened to 30% enlightened, there is no way to measure progress. Getting more mindful, having increased concentration, clarity, and equanimity means you're getting more mindful, not necessarily closer to enlightenment. In a sense, more mindful = closer to enlightenment since with enough mindfulness you cannot keep buying into the illusion of a separate self, but most of the faster methods like self-inquiry rely on "accidental" insight. The short answer is, asking such questions is a waste of time. Keep doing the work until you're there. If you're doing the work then you're by definition on the path, aren't you? Take it as positive feedback, but don't attach much importance to any peak experience. Keep going.

So the vendor d o e s make him one with everything, and hands him that hot dog. The monk searches his robes and finds a twenty dollar bill, hands it to the vendor. He waits....and waits....and waits... . Finally, the monk asks: "What about my change?" The vendor replies: "Change can only come from within."

That is quite encouraging , to be able to make significant progress in such short time.

@Guivs Interesting. For how long have you practiced?

@Guivs Have you personally experienced lucidity in dreamless sleep?

Great question. I used to have a list a year ago but haven't read it in ages. I'll just try spontaneously and see what I come up with. consciousness understanding open-mindedness honesty/authenticity discipline courage health Well, you're gonna have to accept 7. I figured I'd also thinking about how I'm living up to them. Consciousness - well, I meditate 2-4 hours a day, try to stay aware of being aware during daily activities as well, with fluctuating success. I guess an indicator of growth is seeing just how unconscious I am. Understanding - I may intellectually understand or at least try to understand others, and different things in the world, but mostly I discard this value just so save time. Open-mindedness - I'm quite dogmatic. I think I'm less dogmatic than 99% of people. Tells you how dogmatic people are, or how much of a self-absorbed idiot I am;) I'm open to new ides if they make some sense to me, but often when people give me advice etc, I easily discard it as I see them trapped in "shoulds" and seeing what one ought to do in life as a specific thing rather than a system of functioning. Honesty - I do catch myself trying to get away with a few blatantly obvious lies to other people each week. I probably lie to myself more but don't quite realize it. I often see how I omit things, not that It'd be a moral problem but I just am reluctant to speak about things as I think people will judge me. Discipline - Oh lord. I suck at this one. I should be on a 2-hour walk asking "Am I aware?" (functions basically the same as Maharshi's "Who am I?" except Rupert Spira thinks it's less confusing an more direct) but here I am posting on this forum, flaunting my ego. Just two more points and I'll stop it, I promise. Courage - suck at this too. Rationalize why I should focus on being aware, as if it contradicted being courageous. Health - Working on it. But shitty food tastes too damn good. Have a hard time giving it up, plus my commitments with regard to food have never been strong. Here.

I have to say I'm jealous of people who've reached that point. From your perspective of course it might be pretty awful, who knows. But from an outside perspective, it's like: shit, he's making progress!

Do you mean to say that you get sucked into these thoughts and lose self-awareness and then have this "oh" moment where you realize you've been distracted? If yes, then that's indeed not helping your meditation. I'd logically think that meditating on thoughts/emotions would be the best targeted approach to try to resolve this.

If you want enlightenment, everything else is gonna be a distraction, especially some kind of pursuit of changing yourself. If you watch Leo's "real growth vs fake growth" video, you might perhaps see that the desire to become good with girls is a sort of an overcompensation for your insecurities with them. I do have the same issue. But thinking that compensating that and "fixing yourself" is going to make you happy is a delusion. The only reason someone would choose girls over enlightenment is out of ignorance.

The fear of us no longer being a certain way, or appreciating something, is hilariously absurd, if you think about it. From your current perspective, you're afraid you'll no longer care for something. But when you no longer care, there isn't a problem. It's like if I were to say: thank god I am straight, women are so much more attractive than men. You see how that works?

You should watch this: Enlightenment is an aspect of "Waking up" while the stages are an aspect of "Growing up". Interesting video. Also talks about "Showing up" and "Cleaning up" (shadow work).

If that were the case, I'd be a Buddha by now.

Spiritual work gradually teaches you how to be happy now. The point is that you should not look for happiness as some kind of future event. As the ever-present peace in the background starts to illuminate, you will have a growing experiential understanding of this. Let's put it this way: meditation trains your mind to stop looking for happiness in the future and be happy now. You cannot meditate with the goal of becoming happy because by definition you're supposed to allow experience to be as it is. Meditation as an activity is not one where you seek happiness. You may intellectually believe it is going to make you happier over time and that is quite true, but as you are meditating, in the moment, you're not having the mindset of looking to attain something that isn't there now, and if there is, you just observe it like any other phenomena.

I have two basic ideas, no idea how good they are in the big picture. The first one is from a long period of trial and error, the second one is something I've yet to test. 1. Have a disciplined schedule where things to do are put down, not only by order but also by the time at which you do them. It's hard to fool that system - you either do the things or you fail. 2. Investigate into the "struggling" to do something. Acknowledge that what you end up doing is precisely what you want to do. The struggle between you and low-consciousness forces is bullshit. The low-consciousness shit you do is what you want to do. As you acknowledge that, look into what the reasons behind doing what you do are.

Sleep ain't gonna give you the benefits of meditation. That said, if you meditate for an hour a day or less, you should absolutely be able to prioritize in a way that allows you to both meditate and get enough sleep. I personally do settle for 7 hours of sleep instead of 8 if that means I can contemplate for 4 hours instead of 3, or 3 instead of 2.

They do come from your own mind, conscious and subconscious (which I guess is the significant thing here). I've never really dealt with interpretation though. I mean, sure, some things are really clear, but usually my dreams are just trippy stuff I don't bother analyzing.

I have the same issue. I resent my family, for dozens of things. I've made two bigger attempts to honestly express that resentment. The first time I got called "manipulative" and the second time "ungrateful". I don't know what the fucking solution is, or if there even is one. To give up thinking they should be different and do this and not do that would probably be a good step. Give up trying to justify what you do, is another thing. Its useless to get caught up in arguments over petty shit.

A no-nonsense description of the nature of experience, the ego and enlightenment, the relative and the absolute, in a way that couldn't be simpler, through brilliant analogies. A must-read for anyone who is trying to get their arms around what enlightenment is and isn't, and how their current experience is keeping them from reaching it. Don't let the repetitiveness and seeming simplicity make you think you should skim over this - repetition is essential for intellectually grasping something. This book does not go into detail about techniques for pursuing enlightenment.