Key Elements

Another enlightenment food...A drink...anyone tried it? If so, did it work toward enlightenment?

It's actually not a negative experience. Now you know who not to work with and how to deal with them since they revealed themselves. There are far worse manipulative people who appear nice-the wolves in sheep's clothing.

Enlightenment basically means peace, seeing the world via transient morality. This means seeing everything as one. "Seeing the world as a ball of love." Leo said this in one of his clips. Every experience one gets is a worthwhile, meaningful lesson, even the negative ones. How aligned is Leo's life with the meaning of enlightenment? Only he could answer this question. Only the person can answer this personal question. Sometimes enlightenment comes as a result, and the person realizes one day, and continues to live life better for himself / herself and others. Enlightenment is not only experiences; it is also action. Walking the walk. How much can one communicate peace by walking the walk? Let's look at Buddha, for example, since we have an idea of who he is. He was sheltered by his father, the king, and lived in his palace his whole life. When he decided to go outside his comfort zone and walk outside his palace, he saw the homeless and suffering. So, he decided to gather the homeless and go door to door for food. This was basically the start of monkhood, a humanitarian effort, to be detached and get out of homelessness-very few would do something like this, and at the same time do meditation/contemplation/self-inquiry to see what life is about. Of course, in this day and age, people take action differently to help others and do meditation/contemplation/self-inquiry at the same time.

Have you tried sharing your life purpose with her? Sometimes that motivates others. Personally, I have my paintings on my living room wall. They are educational paintings that I do and donate them to the school I work for. I sign my paintings with my educational website. I know my children are watching me as I do this. Actions speak louder than words. My son loves art too. He chose to be in a drawing contest recently.

I wanted to share all that cause I don't get to do that very often. Hope it helped. I know that you already knew who you are. That's why I shared it with you. Knowledge is meant to be shared, but I do realize how knowledge is shared and communicated is important.

@Ayla I know you have a degree in psychology and had enlightenment experiences. So, I'm just going to say this. I know you felt that peace aka 'divine love' going back into your body. If you see something other than everythingness / nothingness, that's a coral stage experience according to parapsychology. I know that perhaps someone like Leo is looking for a Riding the Ox Backwards type of experience (Shinzen Young talked about it.) where you are going back into your body facing backwards from the nothingness / everythingness. You get to see the coral stages of that experience too. You also feel that peaceful 'divine love' when you awake. All this is lovely and awesome! We get to learn a lot from this. We see clearly what is the fictional ego. However, we have to take it as a lesson and be detached from it. I know we can't keep on obsessing over this. This phase will pass and will always be remembered. What's the real lesson here? To align our life purpose with peace. Mission: to make a ripple effect toward world peace with our gifts/talents. Can you think of a better mission we can all have in common? We are all from the same consciousness after all. Beyond the coral stage is the nothingness / everythingness, no paradoxes, just 'divine love,' just no-self. We can't put a box around it like coral stage. We are all one. Btw..Shinzen Young just told the story in a metaphoric way. Maybe perhaps the story may sound too 'wooo' to most if he didn't? https://youtu.be/x8aN9O73lgg https://youtu.be/0PQonSiGkVE https://youtu.be/Ozca_5ifwQ0

@Ayla I want to thank you a lot for sharing your story. You are very bold in doing so. I really hope that more people will understand your story fully because it's very profound, esp parapsychology stories in the coral stages! I love profound stories because it makes me learn the easy way and to watch my steps in life with peace. Remember Ayla, I'm sure you know very well already, we ARE only the peace and nothing more.

That's the beauty of it. It's up to "you" on how "you" want to tell your story. "You" have a choice. "You" could leave it empty. I'm a painter. I could decide to leave my canvas board empty, or I could paint a beautiful picture with a beautiful message. I rather pick the latter.

Lol, interesting example of an indigo child. If he really is an indigo child, he needs to level up his behaviour and work toward being enlightened. Otherwise, he's a good actor.

A myth? Although I do understand your point, there is something called indigo children. Ralph Smart from Infinite Waters covered that. Maybe the indigo child wasn't aware of his/her wisdom (enlightenment experience) until much later in life. They have to discover that and not pass it off as a dream. There's a difference between being enlightened and having enlightenment experiences. Being enlightened have different levels. Basically, it means that a person is aware of what is an ego, and is aware that he/she is already whole and is the peace (aka peace of mind) no matter what. It goes beyond this at different levels when one starts training himself / herself to 'be enlightened.' Indigo children are more likely to be aware of their enlightenment experiences than train themselves to be enlightened. Enlightenment (Riding the Ox Backwards type of experience, according to Shinzen Young) does help in understanding the ego.

Let's be creative. The 'asshole' doesn't have to be human. (Eg. asshole = addiction = ego; asshole = being emotional = ego)

@Ayla Yes, I couldn't agree more that there is no "you." However, every morning when we wake up into this "earth" awareness, we have a chance to express ourselves and send a message to the world in our own ways. I'm glad I'm a painter. (I'm also a teacher.) I'm not going to leave my canvas board empty before I leave and go to the next realm. I encourage everyone to paint a beautiful picture before they go and send a beautiful message of peace before they go.

Hey..speaking of Michael Jackson. He did sing a song on world peace. ☺ If one aligns his/her life purpose with world peace, the chances of enlightenment experiences increases. I can't think of a deeper alignment for things in one's life to fall into place.

Hey...yummy!! But wait, if we show Leo, will he be able to control himself? He's been talking about ice cream trucks a lot lately...

@jes Jes, I'll answer your question accordingly. A husband could be a great team member, very supportive, protects and secures his family, and makes sacrifices for his family. To find an actualized man like this who is also open-minded takes an actualized woman to realize who is this type of man. This combination is rare at the start of a marriage. Usually the couple has to work things out and be non-quitters in the long run. To have a close family member and/or close friend introduce someone like this to you, that person has to be actualized and very trusted in order to do this. You know what I'm talking about.

Develop yourself to the fullest. Then, you could recognize the actualized man/woman. And, he/she will recognize you. How can you tell? Use the Graves model/Maslow as guide, but remember that the map is not the territory. And, don't just think of money. Of course, by the end of the day, you got to keep working at it and yourself for a happy relationship. This goes for everything else.

@abrakamowse Woody A...didn't he end up marrying his...you know, she actually graduated with a masters. Who am I to judge, right? Well, for me, I guess if a person like that was my only option, and I'm aware of it (past a certain age), I wouldn't want any intimate relationships at all. I'll just go for my life purpose and work on my other relationships, like family members, etc.

@jes Yes...and don't forget...enjoyment, gifts, and talents...the things that make you want to say, "Whoa! Eight more hours of this! All right!" Well, I'm not saying to go overboard.

@jes Also jes...another thing that has helped me is the age old saying... "Slow and steady wins the race." -From the children's story, The Tortoise and the Hare. 2 examples I could think of... I love doing art paintings on canvas board, but feel that I don't have the time. I just paint a little corner each day till I'm done-taking baby steps. Same goes for housework I don't like-a pile of clothes that need to be folded and put away. I just do a little each day. This could be applied anywhere.

Hey jes..I like what you said here. I found a quote that will probably help me and hopefully it may help you too. Just wanted to share it with you...

Question: If something fell into a blackhole, what happens to it? No one knows the answer to this. (Typical answer.) If you think about it, life "doesn't make sense" if you try to map everything out. Blackholes don't make sense too. Are we living in a blackhole (Riding the Ox Backwards)?