Henri

@Extreme Z7 Just discovering some of your limits, be it consciously or subconsciously. Awareness mate!

@Socrates Hahaha As far as the Chinese takeaway; Lao Tze is said to be more read in the west as in China nowadays!

Yes, by becoming more and more aware these experiences can easily happen. It`s nothing to get worried about, as you said it`s increasing awareness. As long as you continue your meditation it will eventually dissolve. All these kind of experiences are more easily going away when you would do some pranayamas. Keeps you very vital and alert.

Success means crossing a limit. To cross a limit you need to assume that you have a limit. Assuming a limit is underestimating yourself. If you have no boundaries then where is your success?

Off course when one `s awakened there`s an enormous power realm behind all actions, call it God, Being or Consciousness. Actions out of enlightenment you can not compare with actions out of individual consciousness. They are of a different order. To give you an amazing example; In 1980 a young guy from India landed in Paris. A woman spotted him and asked him what his plans where. The young boy told her he came to Europe because people around the world needed him and he wanted just to help. She invited him to her home and he started to teach her. A few weeks later he has given teachings to dozens of people and was invited to the Netherlands. Two weeks later Germany followed. One year later he started an organisation devoted to teach people meditation. Today his organisation, known as The Art of Living, has given meditation-lessons for more than 350 million people in more than 150 countries. The boy himself, known as Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, still lives in a small kutir in his Ashram and is a living example what it means to just give in life. Leo`s idea, to discover your existential nature first, is a big truth. It`s just that only a few are able to go all the way. And even when not enlightened, one can contribute to the world when one`s sincere and is having the right intentions.

In Nag Hammadi they have found a lot of gospels including the gospel of Thomas. Reading this looks a lot like the Vedanta teachings. By the way I have visited the the tomb of Thomas, it`s in Chennai, Tamil Nadu up on a hill. The road to the top is symbolizing the road Jesus took to Golgotha. At the top is a small church with paintings of all the disciples. Up to now there is living the oldest known Jewish community outside Israel.

@SkyPanther Machiavelli never could have dreamed to be mentioned on a `enlightenment-topic`!

Buy a ticket to India, you can live there like an Indian meaning you spent 200 dollars a month. All your conditioned stuff will naturally blown away by this total different society, that helps already a lot. You can live in the jungle, the dessert, the city, the Himalaya`s, the beach, it`s all there. You can study Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikkhism and a thousand different sects. You`ll be reborn on another planet.

@SkyPanther I agree fully with you. Whatever problem or question will arise on your developmental journey, your chosen tradition will provide answers and solutions. You don`t have to dig other holes, so to speak. In essence one can say there are only two religions. There`s Judaism which is based upon fear for God and there`s Hinduism which is based upon love for God. All other religions rise from those two. It`s a bit like raising a kid; you can do it with love and with fear. In the Middle East they needed fear to be able to start something like a society in the middle of a nomad-culture. In India they needed the love factor to develop an agricultural society.

@Socrates And are they missing the point? Isn`t `green` a minority in the UK and the US?

@abrakamowse I`m telling you; when you use your acquired knowledge in a wrong way, it`s easy to make money...

The Maharishi and his TM did a lot to get meditation accepted in the west. In a way he created the way for many more to follow. His followers were mainly high educated people with too much money and no purpose in life. He brought a switch. Osho was famous for attacking the establishment. He scared the hell out of people. His followers were mainly hippies, the kids of the establishment who were also attacking the establishment and their parents, but without having any alternative for society besides getting stoned as hell. Osho gave them an alternative. These Guru`s you can only understand in their time, with their audience and their cultural climate. It always striked me that nowadays Guru`s talk in a very respectful way about them.

@Anicko You talk about actualizing, I`m talking about transcendence.

http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/meditation-for-you/meditation-for-concentration

Ignorance is being a sceptic and not knowing you are a sceptic. If you think you are a sceptic, you are no longer a sceptic because you have a clue of something beyond. So, in reality, you can never know whether you are a sceptic or not! A skeptic is stuck in a paradigm and closes all other possibilities. But this creation is of all possibilities. As one understands the paradigm shift, skepticism is removed. A real scientist can never afford to be a skeptic because skepticism closes down possibilities and does not continue to probe into unknown areas of existence. In short, skepticism is an "I know it all" attitude, and this attitude is unscientific. Skepticism is dispelled by Knowledge. Perception and inference are two means of knowing. In every human being deep inside, there is faith and love. What you think is skepticism is only a thin layer. If you hold in your mind that they are skeptics you empower their skepticism. Do not recognize someone's skepticism and try to argue with them. Argument strengthens their skepticism. Fear of interference in one's freedom brings more resistance and causes skepticism. Your silence and the smile from your heart will dispel their skepticism. There is nothing better than silence to break skepticism. Silence means the quality of consciousness, not just keeping lips tight. Skepticism doesn't come up in children. It comes only with people who walk with boundaries. Children have no skepticism. They live in their fantasy world, a world of many possibilities. Their world is one of innocence, joy, beauty, and so much love.

@jjer94 When somebody is starving on your doorstep, you give a helping hand, right? That`s called service. I don`t mean you have to fly to Africa and feed them all. But whatever is in your opportunity and belongs to your responsibility you act. That`s called normal human behavior. The way you see things belonging to your responsibility got to do with your own developmental lines like the empathic one, the social one and the ethical one. When one is developing in a spiritual way it is most natural one is developing also on those lines. And sure, there`s no good and bad. There`s knowing and ignorance. When you know there`s a natural tendency to act.

@SkyPanther When I mean doing service I don`t mean the common stuff most Christians do. Though Christianity is well known for doing good to others, to my opinion it`s mostly high minded rather than truly from the heart. That`s definitely the wrong way. It`s a pity that all the youngsters around here don`t have a clue about the heart stuff and the powers that lay hidden inside it. They don`t have a clue what kind of experience it is to have your consciousness, even just one time in your life, settling down in your heart rather than the mind. It`s life changing and so much easier to achieve. Despite all my meditations, my samadhi experience was triggered by a lost love, so in a way both mind and heart were necessary to reach that blessed state of samadhi. I wasn`t even consciously looking for it at that time. I think @Ayla will know were I`m talking about... There is nothing for you to take away from this world. You have come to give. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

@jjer94 Many years ago I had the fortuned bliss to experience samadhi. That indescribable experience gave me profound knowledge about so many issues. One of them being; `yes indeed, the scriptures and sages are right, we are really all one`. Being said you now know it`s not about belief, though I see your own point above is all about belief (!). You can sit a fucking twenty years in your room waiting to get enlightened meanwhile the world around you is fallen apart without you even noticing it? Yeah mate, that`s the way. You are missing the point. I`m telling you that most people will be further on the path to enlightenment by doing karma-yoga or Seva than meditating in twenty years time. By doing karma-yoga your developing your heart chakra, your life will be full with love and joy. By fucking meditating in your room you`ll be lots of time miserable, selfish and pitying yourself. And even when you`ll become enlightened, you`ll be an enlightened jerk. The wise thing off course, is to do both. That`s a true integral approach which will give you and the world the most benefit. And, by the way, gives you the most merit and destroys the past karma. Leo`s way is just half the way, that`s why I asked him to shoot some video on Seva. -

The problems in the world were made so that you don’t get stuck and attached to this world. You get stuck with this world even though there are so many problems. Imagine if there are no problems, then you will never want to leave this material world! Problems are here in this world so that we can realize our purpose in this world. Want, or desire, arises when you are not happy. Have you seen this? When you are very happy then there is contentment. Contentment means no want.

You have nothing to lose. All that you can lose is your tension and your worry, your little-mindedness, fear, and anxiety. And fear and anxiety, tension and worry in the small, little mind will keep the mind from being free, will keep the mind from experiencing its infinite potential, will keep the mind from becoming more powerful on this planet.

@Kedar Just an experience out of millions of possible experiences. Don`t cling to it, move on.

He`s not, not even near... In the presence of the enlightened, knowledge flourishes, sorrow diminishes, without any reason joy wells up, lack diminishes, abundance dawns and all talents manifest. This is the tool to select authentic teachers from the fake ones.

In Hinduism one`s true Self is called Atman. Atman is identical with the transcendent Self which is called Brahman. The realization of this is liberation or enlightenment. This is Vedanta, the essence of the Veda`s, the non-dualistic school of thinking. So this means I am in you as you, you are in me as me... No separation, this is all due to Maya, the big illusion of the separated self. Hence you understand the importance of service to humanity and your fellow man, in essence we are all one. By helping out, you are also helping your Self. That`s why I don`t agree with people who tell you to liberate yourself first before helping others. By the way only one out of millions gets liberated during lifetime. So don`t fall in that ego-trap. Get out your comfort zone to comfort others. After all we are one world family.

Referring to the `masters`.

Most people mentioned on this site as enlightened are simply not. I guess to the average american youngster being a bit relaxed looks like enlightenment to them, they have not a clue. The chance that one of the participants here will become enlightened is negligible.