EnlightenmentBlog

If you feel like it. If you think it works for you. I might have done what you're describing and it took me longer to fall asleep. So I dropped it.

Suffering is the resistance to pain. You create suffering, you can stop it. But you'll not stop experiencing pain. I would worry about freeing myself. That is the only thing I have the power to do.

Try Letting-go meditation. Basically, anytime a thought arises, acknowledge it's a thought and try to let it go. Don't conclude whether it's true or false.

Listen to binaural beats for double effect

I ain't keen on posting in the forum but I'm a regular here and tought to give smth back. Maybe it will help some of you who might find themselves in a similar situation, maybe it will help me get my thoughts in order. Maybe neither. FOR THOSE OF YOU INTERESTED IN MY STORY (Skip to get to the lesson): I'm 23, male, logically and practically oriented. As a result or a cause, who knows, I identify myself with the Mind or the Voice. I had my first enlightenment realizaton when I was 19, thinking about the Universe and the meaning of life alongside girls and parties. It just struck me, as I was walking home from school, that if I had been taken to another part of the globe after I was born(I live in an Eastern European country, so lets say Japan), apart from the physical characteristics I would have been a completely different person. I froze with fear, I was dumbstruck. The logical conclusion was that the peson I thought I was was totally fictional. AKA Enlightenment 101. It was around that time that I found about Eckhart Tolle, Jed McKenna and last but not least, Leo Gura. I dived right in the theory since this is what I do best - think and reason. It was Hell at first but what has been seen cannot be unseen. There was an inner voice that kept pushing and wanted answers. Gradually I started to comprehend the magnitude of the matter I've fallen into by accident. It was both a cursing and a blessing. Needless to say I suffered from a minor depression or at least that's what it felt like, I'm no psychologist. School performance dropped and I had to apply for university. My survival mechanisms kicked in and I pulled myself together. For some time I dropped my spiritual pursuit. When I got accepted into uni and things settled down at the end of the first year I picked up where I left off. I started to implement practices. Different kinds of meditations, journaling, Leo's list of enl. exercises, that shamanic breathing with binaural beats towards the end(my fav one). I was really hardcore the first year, then became sloppy the second one and now I'm just doing it for maintanence. I found out that "Letting Go" meditation works best for me. THE LESSON (My Solution Bellow): I identify myself with the Mind or the Voice. This is my Ego. I am it. This thing that is writing these lines. And I realized that I'd do anything to survive. I'd deploy tactics so hidden and sneaky it'd take years to unravel and comprehend. To some of you this might seem pretty obvious. "Well, that's the first thing you learn, you cannot trust yourself!" "We know about this, that is basic stuff, let's get to the more advanced lessons!", etc. Great for you, maybe read to establish your sense of superiority or indulge your curiosity or neither. Basically, I became a low-level zen Devil. That's the best way to describe it. There are so many points during this path that I thought I had smth. But didn't. Or there were glimpses of it. The problem with an active Mind is that it confuses the map for the territory. During all the practices and realizations I always had a feeling as if I was there, in the back of the head. There was smth, maybe a belief deeply burried that took credit for any enl. glimpses. It was so subtle that only now I was able to see that even when I was meditating and had a clear head with no thoughts, I was still there, in the back, like an observer. MY SOLUTION: The problem with being identified with the Mind/Voice is that it always grasps onto things. If you eliminate one belief, another one is there to take its place. There are so many unconscious ones it's like weed in an infinite field. The other problem is being fixated on the finger pointed to the moon. Teachings speak of Emptiness, Love, God, Everything, Consciousness, etc. All of this ends up creating an image, an unconscious belief in your mind. Now you're not only identified with the Mind, you're identified with the Mind's image of Enlightenment. I stumbled upon a quote by Adyashanti, in which he compared the Mind/Voice to a tool. Nothing special about that. But smth clicked in me. It was the right time at the right moment and I made the connection. The me that is talking right now is the Mind/Voice. So deductively I'm just a tool. A survival tool. I know this is oversimplifies and an understatement, etc. But still in that moment due to this single statement 4 years of consciousness worked converged into one. I was truly empty. I was hollow. I felt I had not any control over the Mind/Voice or the body. I held up my hands and it didn't feel like anybody was doing it. Thoughts arose, but they did so on their own. I had truly broken through. This single belief overwrote everything else. And now whenever I return to it I instantly glimpse Enlightenment. You see, quite counter-intuitively, I stripped myself of my own power. I surrendered and took away my own control by the only means I could understant - a logical statement. Talking about the uniqueness of everybody's path. DISCLAIMER: Of course there is nobody that is experiencing Enlightenment. Of course there is nobody that is writing these lines. All personal pronouns are used for convenience, etc, etc. Of course I'm not finished with the work. This survival tool that I am needs to be sharpened and greater insights had. I have not experienced being God/Love/Everything. I'm still on the journey. I haven't taken psychedelics. Of course I will. I look forward to it. CONGRATULATIONS FOR MAKING IT TO THE END. YOU CAN HAVE YOUR POTATO(inside joke). PS: Like the devil I was I wanted to start my own blog teaching people about Enlightenment and created this nick for the same purpose. Oh, the irony.

@WHO IS Of course. Do what you want. See where that leads.

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You had a rough childhood. Good to hear you're doing better now. Have you talked to your brother about this? Does he know how he makes you feel? The first step to solve a problem is to acknowledge it. Be open about it.

@Sharp Be ashamed to die, until you've scored some victory for humanity. Have you?

Cool. I think that these aren't different states but two perspectives of the same thing. You either focus on the external world => all me or you focus inward where you find nothing => no me. Have I gotten it right?

@mandyjw Fair enough Good for you.

@mandyjw That is correct. Do you understand what we're trying to tell you, though? I watched one of your videos on youtube (Can you hack your way into enlightenment or smth like that) and I couldn't figure out whether you know that 'you' (the entity that thinks is reading this sentence) is the ego. Not some separate part of 'you', but the whole 'you'. I don't know if that makes any sense to you. As an ego, you have all these unquestioned beliefs, especially beliefs about reality - meta beliefs. You perceive reality through your own prism of unconscious meta beliefs. For example, maybe you think that you're smth behind your eyes looking at objects outside yourself, maybe you think reality is made out of atoms or some other kind of particles, maybe you believe your family exists even if they're not present with you now, etc. That way even though you're present and you're not suffering, you still perceive reality distorted, through the prism of your ego = 'you'.

How? Can you describe that in more detail?

Suffering = pain x resistance Yes, suffering is self-created. There is an emphasis on it precisely cos it's an indicator of awareness. The tricky part is being mindful during suffering and accepting the pain. This is how real growth happens. Otherwise you might fall into the trap of avoiding pain cos it brings you suffering. You've discovered that with running. While this is theoretically true, in practice people don't get enlightened in a day. You have to do all the practices really rigorously, or at least the ones that work for you. And believe me, you'll definitely suffer. Meditation makes you feel good but only ones you've mastered it. Otherwise everybody would be meditating all the time. Agree on the suffering part. You have to try and understand @David Hammond. He's trying to tell you that there is something more to enlightenment than the present moment. Have you ever thought that there might be degrees to enlightenment? Although you're present, you still distinguish between 'you' and everything else. On a subconscious, metaphysical level, you still believe you were born, you exist, you perceive the world, etc. It's never that easy. Becoming present is just the beginning.

Logic can lead to contradictions. You have to prove this statements in your own experience. Ask questions like "What is the external/internal?", "How does it come into being?", "What is the mind?", etc. The same applies for the answers. "What is existence?", "What am 'I'?", "Can 'I' exist?", etc. These are tricky cos they question your metaphysical beliefs. Until you start doing that you can be forever lost in logical reasoning.

@bejapuskas You can't use enlightenment as the "one-key-fits-all-locks" solution. You can't discourage a person to pursue LP before he's even started. He needs motivation and determination. @Nahm Whatever you perceive it to be.

I've also planned on doing this. This weekend was my 3rd 1-hour session. I worked myself up gradually, starting from 30 mins, now I'm at an hour and will keep it for at least a couple of months. Leo explains the technique very well in his video, breathe deeply, but do not overstrain yourself. Breathe in for 1-2s, then breathe out for 1-2s. You'll develop your own rhythm with practice, that's what I observed in myself. My arms get really uncomfortable, some kind of strong tickling sensations. I just suffer through them. Moving helps a little bit. In addition to my drumming music background I listen to binaural beats at 4.5 Hz Theta waves. Research shows these are the same tribes used to induce trance-like states. Definitely help for a deeper experience. BTW, nice drawing. You definitely got some inspiration from the practice. Just don't stop. As in meditation the only way to fail is not to do it.

@Nahm He just wants a practical tip, not a non-duality lesson.

It definitely works. There are many books out there teaching you how to read faster. It actually depends on what you're reading and your purpose for reading it. If you're familiar with the subject and it isn't a step-by-step to-do book, you could reach 1000+ words per minute, considerably more than the average reader. Why most people never learn to meditate? They haven't heard about it or aren't consistent with learning the theory and doing the practice.

I'll try this out. Sounds interesting. What I do is stand in front of the window and look down on the boulevard beneath. I focus on whatever catches my attention - people, cars, birds, etc. Sometimes I get completely absorbed in whatever I'm looking and it feels like I'm not there.

I'm confused. What exactly is your question? Are you trying to avoid facing meaninglessness through pursuing meaning? Or are you using meaning to motivate yourself to accept meaninglessness?