Grasshopper

Fulfillment is just a definition. When something is "fulfilling", it's providing a need (healthy food, socializing, feeling safe and secure). The mind seeks out things that are fulfilling. What's important to discover is that your mind, the voice in your head seeking out fulfilling things, isn't coming from you -- instead, it's an automatic process. Your true self is not wanting for anything. Your true self only watches the thoughts that come up as "I want this" or "I don't like that" or "why is X better than Y?". It's only the mind that compares apples and decides which one would be more "fulfilling". So in that since, there is not anything that is more or less exciting to your true self than what is going on now. It's only the mind that says "yes, I like this" or "this feels better than doing nothing", etc.

There is no nothingness that happens when you sleep. If you are aware of a "nothingness", then it's not nothing -- it's "something" because you are aware, even if it's minute. You are never not-aware. Also, that question comes from the perspective of the mind. You are asking the mind what happens when you sleep (e.g. "what happens between 10pm and 7am?"). Instead, look from the perspective of awareness (the above Rupert Spira video elaborates this quite well). For example, "what does my stream of consciousness experience before, during, and after sleep?" The body goes to sleep, but awareness doesn't. It's always awake to the next conscious moment.

@Echoes The way I see it, there are three possibilities: Everyone has their own separate consiousness. Yours is the only consiousness that exists. Everyone else has no awareness of their being (they're basically puppets). Only your consiousness exists, but it is within everyone (you experience all perspectives at different times, so to speak). Take #1. This would mean separation. Your experience is one self, but someone else's is another self. It's ultimately an infinite number of selves interacting with each other. Take #2. This would inhibit compassion and encourage selfishness ("no one else is experiencing suffering, so why care?") Take #3. If you probe your awareness enough, you realize everyone has the same identical awareness. Identical to 100%. We are all identical siblings living different experiences through unique bodies. Now consider this: are we all separate identical awarwnesses? (If so, then you're back at #1.) Or does the identical nature of awareness point to every consiousness as originating from the same being?

@dice You've already had this experience when you go to sleep and wake up in the morning. From the perspective of awareness, what happens? The body that goes to sleep. But in your direct experience, you never experience deep sleep, only the next conscious moment after deep sleep. Awareness is always awake. It's a constant stream of conscious moments. So if you follow that logic, when the body dies, you wouldn't feel nothing, instead you'd instantly experience the next conscious moment of something, perhaps a new body or something else.

@John Try "watching the thinker" in combination with being aware of your breath. I find that combination to be powerful and grounding.

@goodguy I'll answer with a thought experiment. No need to answer me, just imagine yourself in this situation. For this example, let's say your name is "Joe" (but replace with your name). Now, imagine that you thought you were "Joe" your whole life, and then one day "Joe" goes about his day without you, but you're still there, experiencing everything that "Joe" does. What would that mean to you?

@Sartanion It's the body that is limited. Awareness is using the body, and all the senses that come with it, like a lens to experience the world from that perspective. It's like tuning into different stations on the television. The television screen can take on the form of whatever station you tune into. In the same way, awareness can take on the form of whatever body it's looking through. That's how it's limitless.

Rather than "simple", I think a better expression would be "subtle, but profound". Not something where you think "oh that's cool" and then go back to your normal life. It's something you notice or see in a different way, and that experience changes your relationship to the way you thought about it before. For example, many people don't understand if I say "a thought is just a thought." People don't get this until they do the work to watch their thought process objectively, until they see for themselves that they're separate from the thoughts that are passing through their mind. Then there's the realization of "oh...they're just...thoughts." You need that experience of seeing it for yourself, although there's nothing really new to see, but there's a different perspective to view it from, which can have a profound impact. Things like that.

@Lorenzo Engel I don't think you need some extraordinary experience. I haven't, and honestly I'm glad, because otherwise I might think I'm crazy. But everything I realized can be explained in plain English, although some people might not be able to relate if they haven't tried looking themselves. The biggest thing is probably just noticing that what you've been thinking about reality is something that was told to you by people who don't know any more than you do. You have a model in your head of how the world works, how you work, and what your relationship to the world is. All those are just guesses at reality. Even what you've told yourself up to this point is probably just a guess. So if you've been stubbornly clinging to those guesses, it can cause a lot of suffering. Taking a moment to notice how all that suffering is based on fluff, it can bring a lot of relief.

Can you explain how are you no different from the bugs? What were you thinking in that moment about it?

I have not, but here's a good guide to them:

Here's a thought then. If the thinker if not real, then the one who desires and fears is not real either. For example, fear of death is a process of thinking, but if there is no thinker then who is fearing death? Also, any plans and goals you have in life are all also thoughts. So if there is no thinker, then those thoughts belong to no one, and that would mean you have no goals in life. All those plans, goals, desires, dreams, obsessions, etc., they aren't yours. You ultimately fear nothing and want nothing.

It's not enough to think it's true. Do the work to see it.

A want/desire is kind of like an allergic reaction. Some thought or event will trigger the desire, and then you'll have thoughts and feelings buzzing around you, until you give in and scratch that itch, or until you hold off long enough for it to go away. The "I really want this" and "I want this out of life" thoughts arise from this type of allergic obsession and you're not the one thinking them, if you pay attention. "Wanting" still happens, but you can realize that it's just a general phenomenon of thoughts and feelings, not personal to you.

There are different levels of explanations you can give, to explain it in a more simple and relatable manner. You don't always need to explain emptiness or no-self. Perhaps instead, explain freedom from attachments and addictions, freedom from desire, the fact that acquiring new things doesn't give one happiness, etc. Everyone can relate to the same truth on some level. Of course it also depends if you can trust the person to be vulnerable enough with the deeper explanations. What was is Jesus said, don't cast your pearls before swine? (not that people are swine, but that you can get unpredictable reactions)

@Huz88 No, because that willingness to accept arose from previous conditions (thinking about it, contemplating it, whatever media you put into your brain, learning, etc.) that gave birth to the realization in the first place. Then maybe there was a struggle with the ego until it died down enough to allow that acceptance. It's all cause and effect.

@Paan It depends on the source of where the fear comes from. All fears and insecurities that have the root of mis-identification (like fear of death) would dissipate. But the natural emotion of fear is a healthy mechanism to keep us in check. You should feel a jolt of fear if you are too close to a tall ledge or something dangerous. However, you are already fearless. The mind fears on its own. But you are not the mind. So becoming enlightened does *not* make you fearless, but it helps you realize that you already are fearless.

@Jay S There are no mistakes. Realizing this might change your perspective on the matter.

@Kallan If enlightened, you'd realize you were never writing music in the first place. So you'd remove the imaginary middle-man that is actually getting in the way of creativity and just allow the process to happen.

If one realizes his or her true nature, they then find themselves inside a mind/body that's been conditioned with the ego. It's insecure, reactionary, prideful, and so on. Its personality doesn't reflect the true self. It takes time, experience, and action to recondition that mind/body to represent its true self and not the old ego. It's like waking up one day and finding that you own a used car: it's broken in many places, needs some tune-ups, care, etc. So you work on it until it's operating efficiently and reflects your true personality, and then you keep tuning it up as you go. That's how I understand integration to be.

Society's coming along. It's much different than 2000 years ago, but still not there yet. Evolution takes time, a lot of time.

Live and learn.

I was probably over thinking your question. It just reminded my of my own personal experience with enlightenment work. I would recommend trying to identify the reasons why you are not currently happy with yourself, and then trace them back. Every reason happened because of something, whether it was told to you, or whether it was an experience from your past, or core beliefs you've held throughout your life, etc. And don't get worked up if you can't figured it all out at first. A lot of suffering happens from making judgments about yourself based on your current understanding of life, which changes all the time. One day you're upset about "whatever," then the next you totally forgive yourself and move on because you found some new information, or got some reassurance, etc. So notice how much your perspective changes and how pointless it is to judge yourself based on your current perspective. Edit: I'm going off little information here. I'm not sure whether you're happy with yourself and just asking in general or not. I jumped the gun and assumed. Sorry if I'm wrong. Either way, the more things you can identify about yourself that change, the easier they are to let go. The more you let go, the more barriers you knock down that come between you and being your own best friend.

@JevinR Notice. the. spaces. between. thoughts. The ego does not live there.

@Sibila Gubanc Coffee keeps my heartbeat from dropping below a certain rate, so I can't get into deeper states of meditation. I'd recommend improving your diet (if possible) and getting adequate rest instead of seeking stimulants.