Preetom

I think most of our brains (those being in self actualization bubble for few years, independent thinkers) have rotted already with rationality, materialistic paradigms beyond a point of no return. Its almost impossible to study and rigorously practice a traditional religion because we wouldn't be able to place an innocent faith on any religion. At best, these information and mild contemplation on various religion can intuit that all religions have the same core Truth. It can lead to a softened view towards others. While we keep going with the direct path of self inquiry/yoga

I've had dreams where spontaneous self inquiry started. Quite mind blowing stuff!

A couple of days ago I realized how closed minded and contracted my motives and desires are. I've decided to pray for everyone everyday twice. Let all beings experience and live in Infinite intelligent, abundance, well being, ease, flow state-synchronicity, existence, consciousness, bliss that is ALWAYS, ALREADY lying in plain sight. After all, from whom am I hiding all the goodies? With whom am I competing? Will this petty mindedness be something enjoyable at death bed? I was in this delusion that by being the gatekeeper of this infinite abundance, I'm saving all the goodies for myself. But in reality, my own mind is only getting petty and selfish day after day; getting unable to experience real, authentic, expanded happiness. So for now, my definition of Noble is that which expands your mind like an ocean and beyond...to a point it knows no limitation and lack. The way it is being expressed in my life right now is by praying wholeheartedly and slowly developing a conviction to selfless service. ''The belief in lack is the cause of suffering'' - Bentinho Massaro

Why aren't dozens of people already bashing and trolling his 'enlightenment'? Is it because they pussied out after reading such hardcore details? Jokes aside, Congratulations for making it all the way. Would love to hear more about the transformations happening after the major insights. This is particularly interesting because this insight was really hard earned. Not a one time psych breakthrough (btw I'm not rebelling against psyches) @vanish

@Samra Woahh!! That looks so majestic Thanks again for the good work. Please express your own vision when you're done with our requests here haha. All the best~

I can testify this from my own experience. Everytime I hit some sort of absorption/resting in awareness through self inquiry, I feel sharp sensations rushing up the spine. This actually shakes my whole body and distracts me, leaving me unfocused/imbalanced/back at square one. I'm pretty sure If I could be in that absorbed surrendered state for some time without any break, a nirvikalpa samadhi would naturally occur. Its as if the body won't let the Truth to be revealed..

Leo = Universe!!! Learn to improve your non duality language game, brother

@Ether One way of looking at it could be as simple as we will never know Another way of looking is that there are countless relative and one absolute reality simultaneously 'being'/existing. One never touches or interrupts the other. What happens in dream stays in dream and Absolute realizes Absolute. The higher one's understanding grows, the more one accepts all the possible facets of reality. Thats the true essence of surrender. Just like ant can distinguish sugar from sand, a swan can distinguish milk from water, an enlightened being can distinguish Truth out of what seems like Chaos. The seeker reaches enlightenment through negation of the world but doesn't destroy the world after enlightenment. He let everything appear and disappear without any resistance. If you wanna talk non duality and say there is no such 'thing' as ego/universe, you are maybe right. But these sure 'appear' to be real. After all, neither is Consciousness/awareness a 'thing'. There is no 'thing' in the first place but yet everything 'appears' to be lol

There have been cases when a sage reaches a point when he/she deliberately leaves the body through meditation/tantra/fasting/trance like states or whatever. A primal 'desire'/identification made this body to appear in this phenomenal plane in the first place. Just like a fully enlightened/self-realized being completely drops or becomes totally uninterested in a conceptual story of 'me', after certain realizations the supreme self MAY become totally uninterested in 'living' and be limited inside a body/mind anymore. Such 'suicide'/self sacrifice happens spontaneously just like Enlightenment occurs in a flash. @vanish If you're doing this from a true realization then kudos to you, God. If not, then you've been deluded by your own mind my friend. If you think that committing suicide will somehow make you the supreme self, then just stop please. I highly doubt you are doing this from an authentic realization though. Cause the true sages who've done it, never interrupted the fellas in the relative plane like you're doing by posting these stuff on forum or even sharing it with someone else. Anyway in the end, I guess I'll never know. Just don't degrade this holy path with cult like attitudes and give it a bad rep than it already has

@Sirius Try a 10-30 days long solo meditation retreat near your home(or AT home) to see if you really resonate with an ascetic, yogic life. If so, then all the best in pursuing a monastery and becoming a full time monk. Or that retreat could align you with a different purpose even more clearly. Then you might wanna 'return' to a regular life and start things from a clean slate again

''Me-ism is a religion!'' Thank God someone finally said it out loud!

For modern, western minds in this era

@Samra Thanks for your good work! It looks really beautiful!! Reminds me of the theme groundless ground/formless form. I wish you all the best in your artistic endeavors. I pray your inspiration intoxicates everyone it touches

Read 'who am I?' article by Ramana Maharshi. One of the primary elements of self inquiry is to see the dreamlike, insubstantial nature of what we call world. RM clearly states that as long as the world is taken as something solid and 'real', self-realization won't be triggered. He uses the classic rope and snake example. As long as the false knowledge of the illusory snake(aka world) doesn't disappear, the true knowledge of the rope(the self) won't appear. @MarkusSweden RM didn't invent any TOTALLY new concept/method. Teachers like RM, Nisargadatta etc revolutionized the ancient vedantic teachings and techniques in a very direct manner which caters/attracts secular,rational minds. Like you said, there have been enlightened people thousand years back in time. What RM did was cutting through the magnanimous religious literature and boiled everything down to its core

@Ether I think it will be very hard to find a person in this world who hasn't contemplated suicide even once in his/her lifetime. In a talk, Osho says that the thought of suicide comes to almost EVERYONE at one point on their lives even if as a non serious thought experiment. If not, then that person is either too young or too 'stupid' to actually see the constant suffering coming from the default state of life and surroundings.

A question: Where does that 'blue pearl' arise?/ To whom does that 'blue pearl' arise?

Something worth printing out and reading 3 times everyday...

@Sahil Pandit Can you elaborate on the concept of 'survival paradigm'? Does the existence of the sense of self critically depend on the hard work of these workers? Is this why they tap into a primal, unshakable motivation for their work?

Something 'appears' to be all powerful, rigid and unshakable but turns out to be totally insubstantial in reality. And something seems so insignificant and the first thing to miss, but turns out to be the only true ground of reality. These 2 themes corelated in one picture

@Shanmugam Thanks for replying. I guess every moment spent trying to fantasize about post-enlightenment conditions is a total waste..

@Shanmugam You're saying that after 'enlightenment', the inevitable growth is spontaneously happening at full speed without a sense of doer-ship. And yet at the same time, you feel totally complete, free and at peace right this moment. So the 'growth' you are having right now, It can't be any other way. (I hope I understood your words) Now my first question is, what do you mean by 'growth' from post-enlightenment context? is it things like emotional mastery, making spontaneous automatic healthy decisions, dissolving addictive behaviors, having the most appropriate response to every situation etc...Do these growths continue for lifetime? I've read in Nisargadatta's book that every single movement of his mind and body is totally automatic and without second guessing...with a firm conviction that as a gnani, this is the best possible response to the present situation. Its like after you've swallowed the food, you don't bother to think about it. The food gets assimilated automatically. It requires zero conscious 'effort' from your part. But that doesn't mean Nisargadatta became some zombie So does post-enlightenment growth moves towards this effortless automation more and more? My second question is, do you have a sense that you've 'figured out' everything? Or do you feel that anything can happen in any moment and you can never know whats right up the corner but yet you've found peace in this insecurity..

Everything is laid out there...right in front of my face. Yet I rarely fail to distract myself

Glad to know you found it useful Systematic studying and contemplating the ever growing big picture is absolutely necessary in this work. Its the greatest guard against useless mental masturbation over bits and pieces of information floating everywhere. One of the greatest dangers while pursuing enlightenment is the attempt to 'formulate' a truth through collecting scraps of information here and there. I wasted a pretty good amount of time in this manner. What i found is that, when I conceptually/intuitively grasp the real theories that are necessary the mind automatically tends to rest in awareness. There is no other choice but to intuitively move towards the actual practice (or non practice )

Okay here it goes. Pure consciousness is the ultimate subject/pure witness/Brahman/atman/absolute reality. It can never be perceived as an object. That's why mind can't 'find' the absolute truth as all it can perceive are objects(sense perceptions). Now the brain/mind is like a mirror. That pure unattached consciousness is reflected on that mirror. Thus a reflected consciousness appears on mind and everything in subjective experience (mind, body, world) lights up!! This is why when you ask the question, 'am I aware?', you get an experience of the mind, body, senses etc. being aware and alive. In reality, the brain, body, world has no consciousness of itself. NOTHING has consciousness except for pure consciousness itself. The reflected consciousness produced in the brain is making this entire living experience possible while the pure consciousness(the source, That which I truly am) remains totally unaffected and unattached. No object can touch it. Now it's funny when we say that we are raising or lowering consciousness. Consciousness is ever present, ever unchanged. It's the brain/mind(the mirror) that produces the reflection of pure consciousness depending on it's state during various times and situations. This is why when brain is damaged, the person becomes psycho/sick as if consciousness has been damaged. But in reality, it's the mirror that has been distorted and thus a 'distorted' reflected consciousness is there while the source(pure consciousness) remains unaffected. This is why we have 3 apparent states of consciousness in waking, dreaming and sleeping phases. It's because of the different functions and modes of brain/mind in these different states. But as usual the source(pure consciousness) has nothing to do with it and remains totally independent, untouched. This is why every state is a dream which has no inherent reality in of itself. The waking and dreaming states are dreams with contents while deep sleep is like a dream with absolutely no content lol. It is the source alone that lights up these states and yet remains untouched by them. Our 'precious' theories about brain, body, world are just more contents in such a dream state #When does enlightenment happen? When I know without a shadow of a doubt that I am the pure consciousness; totally free, unattached, unaffected, an infinite existence-consciousness-bliss which has NOTHING to do with the mirror(brain/mind), the state of reflection(reflected consciousness) and everything else that's lit up(body, world) . It's the 1st step of enlightenment aka a complete dis-identification. #Then what is this Universe/Creation? That pure consciousness itself is projected to create a world of myriad forms. The world has literally no substance other than the pure consciousness, the same infinite existence-consciousness-bliss that I am . When I directly experience this truth, the witness and the witnessed is merged and that's true non duality, the 2nd step of enlightenment aka a complete union. Thank you for reading. PS: I haven't had any of the two realizations myself aka i'm not enlightened yet