aurum

It depends on the person. Some random hater, I don't even give it a second thought or pay attention. If it's a girl I'm dating then respect is a must and I'd cut her out if I really felt like she didn't. A good friend I'd probably sit down and have a discussion with. In the end there will always be people who don't respect you. You shouldn't aim for respect, respect is a by-product of living the life you want and self-actualizing. Focus on growth and thriving instead of coping.

The easiest way for me to get someone out of my head is to have passion for your own life. I'm so passionate about my business and self-actualization work that thoughts about other people don't even occur to me. It's not that they can't. They just won't because I know what's important.

The first step to solving any problem is admitting you have a problem. As long as you deny its existance, no progress can be made. You don't have to like it. You don't have to live with it. But let's not kid ourselves, a fact is a fact.

Yes this is on point. I didn't appreciate the whole "purity of intent" thing in till fairly recently. If you don't declare your sole mission as figuring out TRUTHFULLY just what the fuck is going on with all "this", it doesn't seem to happen. The ego is a shapeshifter and can manifest as just about anything. It can even manifest as someone who acts selfless and without ego. But as an illusion, the one thing ego can't be is True. So when you declare you're heading for truth and damn the consequences, that is the one thing the ego can't seem to survive. Declare sincere intent for finding out what is true. The "universe" will do the rest.

I wouldn't be surprised if Eckhart Tolle is enlightened. But I think his teachings are mostly just about becoming conscious of your unconsciousness, i.e beginning of the breaking of identification with thoughts and emotions. Not full enlightenment. Only the early stages.

For whatever it's worth, I agree with Pinocchio. I don't think Shinzen is enlightened. Why? I don't really know. Call it baseless intuition if you want but something just seems off about him. Maybe I'll have a better answer when I'm further on the path.

Why not?

Yes reading Damnedest has a tendency to do that to people. Honestly as much as I love McKenna, he isn't the final authority on enlightenment. Personally I enjoy meditation and so I do meditative hua tou along with spiritual autolysis because it feels "right" for now. That's really all you can do. Don't get caught in thinking it has to be any one way.

The next step is always the same: is that true?

You're saying, "what if this thing I think I am when I become enlightened is just another mirage?" But the whole point of enlightenment is that you don't think you're anything. Anything you can think of is just a concept and so the moment you try to define it, you've lost it. You're no longer operating on the level of "belief". If this seems absurd, it's because it is. Therefore the only real answer can be "find out for yourself". Keep questioning everything.

@Ayla Well this was rather pointless then wasn't it?

@Ayla Who am I talking to?

Enlightenment is draining and exhilarating. I'm so focused on my own experience honestly I can't imagine caring about other people

It depends on your school of thought but I can't see it happening without a fairly long process. Think of how strong the ego's hold is on humanity. Cutting those chains it going to take some serious effort. I highly question anyone who says it took them less than a couple years.

It's an oversimplification IMO about enlightenment. But it does point to a certain truth that essentially enlightenment is your natural state, if only you could stop seeking.

Great analogy. In fact he almost dies to save something that, from a different perspective, is completely trivial. Just goes to show how warped one's perception might be at any given time.

Yes this really cannot be understated because it's easy for the ego to dismiss this as trivial philosophizing. So let's hammer it home. NO belief is TRUE. All the ancient world religions. All the greatest scientific theories. All ethical and moral codes about right and wrong. All beliefs about who you are and everything you EVER thought... False. All bullshit. Including what you're reading right now. Some questions everyone should ask themselves then (including me): 1) Why do you believe your beliefs to be true 2) Does truth exist and if so what is it? 3) What would happen if we stopped believing EVERY belief that we have? What if we could unlearn everything?

No problem

Sounds like you may be coming into what Jed calls Human Adulthood.

This definitely seems like a good start. But the way I see it there's more to SA. Okay, so you're inauthentic. You're a lying, selfish, delusional person like everyone else and that hurts. It hurts to see that everything is ultimately pointless and that life has no meaning. But that isn't enlightenment. That's more ego, more self-image, more opinions. Only the form has really changed. So what if you're selfish and inauthentic. Is that "bad"? "Bad" and "good" is just more duality, more illusion. Why do you even care about that if everything is meaningless and only awareness exists? Why do you care if other people are inauthentic? It isn't even bad to think that something is bad. Hence not even ego is bad, just false. SA will help you dig deeper. There are more assumptions at play here and as far as I see SA is the process which you find them and hopefully see through them.

I'm familiar with Adyashanti but not this technique. Could you give a brief description?

My understanding is that meditation builds mindfulness to see through the bullshit, while autolysis gets the bullshit out of the way. Either way you see what lies beyond. I just presume mindfulness is a skill that needs to be cultivated rather than something that naturally comes with enlightenment. Shinzen Young at least has said that most ordinary people who have spontaneous enlightenment experiences lose them as they don't have enough awareness to understand. As Jed said in his books, once you use the sword of intellect to cut through everything that needs cutting, you don't feel the need to do SA anymore; you're just Done. Done, as in, all of your assumptions about what reality is are destroyed, and what's left is something you can discover in something like sitting contemplation. Yes, the process of seeing through your own worldview can be emotionally disturbing at times, but it's not like that worldview ever had any existence to begin with. And of course it's okay to still have that worldview when operating in everyday life. It's just that you see it as illusory. What I've found is that, yes, you can be absolutely Done with figuring out Truth, but you're hardly ever Done with seeing through the character you play. I've found that SA in the form of uncovering my own psychological hang-ups has been very useful alongside contemplation. That form of SA operates more like journal entries. Just examine any emotions that cause you suffering during the day, and try to get to the bottom-line assumption(s) that fuels it. You can do that before and after becoming conscious of your True nature. I've actually found it to be more useful after the fact. Interesting perspective. But if you haven't seen through your character, have you really arrived at Truth? The character is false and would still be cutting you off from what IS, i.e reality.

Yes this is a good point. Everyone has to do the math for themselves.

As far as time spent, Jed claims the process takes around 2 years of serious work. I can only speculate but I wouldn't be surprised if that's correct. Destroying beliefs is a tough process but it can be done given someone puts in the time. I also would imagine that Enlightenment through SA would leave you just as mindful. What is being mindful but seeing reality as it is? Julie, the girl from the 2nd book, points out that she "never vows to think again" as she sees it as a disgusting habit. That being said I see no reason why it has to be "either or". Why not combine mindfulness with SA? This is what I'm currently doing.

Yes that was my basic interpretation as well. The hard part seems to be, as you said, to not look for an answer. Our minds are always trying to do that. Even saying "x is wrong/false" would be just another belief. The point is that there is no answer. You can't truly know anything as long as you're conceptualizing. Have you continued using SA? If it really works then there seems no reason to stop in till there's nothing left. Did you find it emotionally disturbing as described in the books?