Matthew Lamot

@Orange Well, if you were serious about finding an answer, you might have taken a good look at Rupers channel, because all the answers you need are there. Yet you came here and posted yet another red herring, which tells me that you want quick fix answers and are not ready to consider serious insight into your apparent problems.

@Orange There is only one way to become free from these things. I suspect that in time the penny will drop (for you) and you will see that all your problems revolve around one illusion: YOU

@Frogfucius http://veda.wikidot.com/vasana

@Frogfucius As you have probably guessed by now (or not) I am an advocate of a practice called Self-Enquiry. To get a overview of what this is I recommend you reading the large bulk of the posts I have posted here over the last 48 hours. To be able to effectively let go of addictions and apparent needs, you need to see that there is no self that these thoughts, feelings and motivations arise TO. Only when you can directly see that the motivation is only a thought that was fuelled by a non existent entity called a self, is when these motivations drop immediately in front of your eyes and you get a glimpse of what it will be like to be completely liberated from these vasanas. Meditation will NOT help you here. Meditation at best might cure the problem given tons upon tons of hours in sitting (8 hours a day for 20 plus years even to get started!) and at worst will distract your attention for the time that it is being forced to hold onto the breath. This is nothing but suppression and denial. So start learning Self-Enquiry and discover for yourself what it can do for you in terms of unwanted desires and thoughts. At times you will want to go towards the object of your desire. There is nothing wrong with this, and it is perfectly natural and part of your life path. But eventually you will come to realize that it is not the glittering shiny apparent prize that holds the attraction, but rather your own deepest Self.

@step1 This is my ultimate guide on the real practice of Self-Enquiry. According to Ramana Maharshi. It is extremely simple, and the masters say that if you are not luck enough to attain Self-Realization in this lifetime from doing this practice, it does not matter because it brings increased peace and many benefits along the way. It has been described as a win-win practice. Watch these videos, do the practice and go back to these videos as tutorials. Nothing could be more simpler than this. First download this free ebook published by the Ramana Maharshi Ashram: http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/who_am_I.pdf

This will explain maybe why you can't and never will find an object called happiness while you are operating under the current materialist paradigm. Because there is no you to find happiness

That is the watered down version. The ego cannot be dropped, and where you "are" right now is not what you will see and discover. The I thought must be destroyed permanently and that means you and your wish to be happy. You must literally be willing to give up this time space existence. This is not about ego's, it's about the final exit of the experiencer itself. This is radical beyond anything you can grasp right now. There is no world, no existence, and never was. If you are willing to give that up (and this obviously includes the dualistic notion of happiness) you will discover what true happiness really is.

Yes I have found the right path. It is true Advaita Vedanta. The path of the Realization of the Self. Not the dumbed down teaching used to lure people into the practice, but the true Advaita, the path where YOU get nothing whatsoever from this path. If you have evolved to the position of wanting true happiness you must be willing to give up the search and give up being an individual who is looking for happiness. Like I said, you can live through lifetimes to try to think your way into happiness, believing that it is attainable in this life as a human being, as "you" but alas it is not possible. This is why Advaita apparently exists in this world. For the likes who have come to the end of their long search. Are you willing to take a look?

@Orange The thing is, you are never going to be happy. That much I will say to you right now. It's never going to happen. The reason I say this is because you will go through an entire life, possibly lifetimes to get to the point where you might be considering the fact that being a person in this existence might not be the right conditions for happiness. Many people have searched since the dawn of history to find ways to become happy. But have you noticed, none of these things ever really work? I ' m suggesting that you think about this seriously and not come back (any of you) with some snappy answer, some reactive answer that you learned from an outside source. Unless you have yourself discovered the right means for being happy always then I don't want to hear from you! I don't want to be rude, I am being realistic. No human being on this earth has ever found happiness, you can verify this for yourself by looking into your experience, your mind, your history books. Think about it seriously. What do you think the path is to true everlasting happiness is? Have you found the method?

@quantum They are effective, but they are a very long and indirect path which is more related to personal development rather than Self-Realization. Self-Enquiry is direct and you can begin seeing the illusion of the ego in a matter of minutes. Shinzen Young admits to becoming Self-Realized using self inquiry. His meditation practiced produced equanimity, but this is not the same as permanent Self-Realization

@Rashad Mixing techniques is counter productive. The only technique you should be concerned with to attain Self-Realization is a method called Self-Enquiry You can find the method here for free at Ramana Maharishi's Ashram website: http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/who_am_I.pdf This book will explain to you why mixing methods will only lead to confusion. Meditation is about fixating the attention (I thought) onto an external object. This quiets the mind, but as soon as meditation stops then the mind becomes busy again. Meditation is also takes the I way from the only thing that has the power to permanently destroy it: The Self. The Self is pure, ever-present awareness, and is the only part of your experience that has never changed. Resting the wandering I thought into this awareness and holding it there will eventually destroy the I thought for ever and Self-Realization will be your permanent reality. Meditation is good for self development and state training, but it will never lead to permanent Self-Realization.

If you are genuinely interested in becoming enlightened I will inform you now that there are no need to understand these models and there is no need to avoid dogma, theories and open mindedness are just another way that the I thought likes to get stuck into worldly objects to distract itself from discovering it's real nature, The Self. Here is the only theory you need to know: The materialist view is that we are 7 billion minds with 7 billion consciousnesses which can be located inside each individual physical body. These individual bodies are all located in one world. This is not actually true. Nobody has actually ever found this one shared reality that we believe that we share. The reality is there is only one consciousness and 7 billion minds. Infinite consciousness can only experience itself through a finite mind which creates the illusions of space and time. Mind gives rise to thoughts, which gives rise to apparent material objects. Science cannot understand this because it is still stuck in the paradigm that "we are the body". The only way to know that what you see is what you think is to assist the destruction of your infinite I thought which gives rise to the illusion and the only way to do this is to either find an authentic Self-Realized Guru and devote yourself to him or her. Or, practice a method called Self-Enquiry which is the process of bringing the wandering attention, or I thought, and allowing it to rest in it's source, or awareness, until it no longer feels any need to extrovert. If you are persistent the Self will draw the I thought into itself and permanently destroy it and what will be left is the Universal Self that makes no distinction between subject and object. This is the only way you can confirm for yourself what reality is actually made of. And it is not made of mind or matter, it is made of consciousness.

It's my pleasure

@JohnnyBoy This guy is very good! Excellent advice that really works from an Advaita master!

Advaita says that enlightenment is the permanent destruction of the I thought through the realization of the Universal Self because of the effort of doing a practice called self-inquiry. There is no need to see through beliefs, the only part you need to play is gently bringing your wandering I thought back to rest in it's source awareness and the Self will do the rest. If you take one step toward God, then God takes ten steps towards you! Meditation will not bring you Self Realization because it encourages the I thought (attention) to fixate on a worldly object therefore avoiding 180 degrees the only thing thing that has the power to permanently destroy it - The Self. I recommend studying the teachings of Ramana Maharishi and reading his teaching Who Am I? Which can be downloaded at the Ashram website here: http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/who_am_I.pdf This is also a very beautiful video of the teaching that you can watch and allow to slowly sink into your consciousness (and the music is fantastic!) Good luck !

Enlightenment is the final extinguishing of the experiencer. Anger and frustration can be enquired into, but the layers of rationalization have to be removed by gently asking why there is anger there. The frustration might be an unmet desire, so inquire into who is the one who desires. You will soon see that the desire is a thought and that no self can be found, only the thought. In that moment the identification falls away and the frustration is seen as nothing. This will allow you to rest attention back into the source much easier, but many more feelings will come up that will have to be inquired into to see the emptiness of them before the I thought is truly content with resting as pure awareness. Try these videos: Good luck

If you want to become enlightened there is only two ways to do it, and that is by either finding an authentic Self-Realized Guru and devoting yourself to him or her, or using a method called self enquiry. You have to continually notice your wandering I thought and allow it to sink into it's source every time it tries to extrovert itself until it no longer has any motivation to stray from it's source. If you can hold the I thought in it's source to the exclusion of other thoughts the Self will recognize the I thought and draw it into itself and permanently destroy it! To do this means not following trains of thought, memories and theories too! No amount of knowledge can bring you to a realization of the Self, or even focusing attention on any external things. This means meditation will not bring about Self-Realization either, because in meditation the I thought is still being encouraged to extrovert and fixate instead of being allowed to sink into it's source and be permanently destroyed by the Self. You will know when your I thought is permanently destroyed by the realization that nothing exists outside of you. This means that you no longer confuse your here and now with labels of mind, or matter - all is seen as consciousness and only consciousness! This is the method prescribed by Ramana Maharshi.