Bizarre

@NTOgen I picked my nose as a child ... Therapy uses superimposition to create a "problem" and then you fix it by "grieving" something that is irrelevant, was irrelevant and never really happened...all to create the impression of a more "mature" ego. Don't fall for it. It's not childhood trauma, because every child in their life did not get what they wanted. It does not mean they were traumatised, it just means their imagination got the better of them at the time. Kids can't take perspectives, they only see the world through their own eyes. Now the brainwashed therapy patient leaves therapy with a "toolkit" of hyper sensitive victim mentality so it doesn't pass on the "disease" of bad parenting. It's a load of baloney.

@Christian Shadow? You knew Jung was afraid to visit Ramana Marharshi when he was alive because he was so identified and tied up with his psychological theories, right? You ever heard that saying in the psychological world? "Believing in Jungian analysis is like having herpes for life" No joke

Disagree with that. Letting it run means dis-identification with it and depersonalising it. I been there done that with the letting off steam thing and got stuck in it for years. So I know it don't work. What does work tho is being vigilant of when the I claims authorship of any of it. Sorry, to have to snuff your out there lol, but mom and pop have nothing to do with it. It's the Gunas and the vasanas and the identification with them that's the problem. And if you understand that then you can let it go because it's all impersonal. But if you continue to buy into this therapy story then that's what you see and that's who you are. So you can either use it as an enlightenment tool or you can use it in a western therapy way to grow the ego. Your choice really.

@NTOgen I can't argue with any of what you said. Seems solid and good points. It's all pre determined for sure!?

@Christian If you want my advice Christian, it might serve you to welcome the feelings for sure (this is obvious) but a good trick is to also give thanks for your parents and try to cultivate a different approach in your mind to them while continuing to process the old experiences. There's a good reason for this, because you don't really want to form a victim identity with regards to what happened. The problem with blaming or feeling victimised is it locks in the old experiences and you just end up creating another identity out of it. And obviously you want to recondition your mental story so that you process the old experiences but don't anchor them in a distorted story about your parents. If you end up doing this you will just create a pattern. Don't make an identity out of experience and it will just pass naturally.

Good arguments. However... If and when you become truth realized, and then self actualized (permanent freedom) you will discover that it will change your life because you no longer need anything to complete you. So this kind of does have an effect on the person and the persons lifestyle. You're right that consciousness does not enter into manifestation, because manifestation is a dream. But enlightenment doesn't mean the person will just think "oh, everything is me so I can do whatever I like".. because what is there left to do...? Really? It's the very reason that the free person knows "everything is me" means they more than likely calm down and live a more righteous life because they really have nothing to gain from living a deficient lifestyle. I know a guy who teaches and he hardly moves because his mind is so quiet and hes so content that he doesn't even work (he teaches full time free of charge), life just seems to look after him, his students give him great donations and put him up in their homes - honestly he really loves what he does and life seems to support him But I agree with you that living a prescribed cheesy monastic lifestyle is nothing to do with knowing who you are.

@David1 Honestly, these days I don't believe anything is the way it appears. I see "scam" written over everything in this psychological age. Thanks for the reminders I'll watch it a little later when I have gotten rid of this PPI telesales caller

@Live Life Liam I checked out your channel on youtube, but there is nothing on it

I don't think culture itself is inherently a bad thing, its just a case of what culture are we involved in? If its predominant structure is desire and fear based it's not going to feel good or have much going for it on the ego level, or relative level - it's not conducive to happiness, well being, and happiness and well being is conducive to liberation for those that seek liberation out. But this culture here, what we have now is not great,it needs a lot of evolving mainly for the fact that it is desire and fear based. Very difficult to understand anything with those two energies clouding the mind. And I see your point there @vizual about fear and hate and all that being part of the manifestation, that is true, but this sounds like a cop out to be honest. Very difficult to get an understanding of the manifest world if the mind is disturbed with all this distraction. When you say every experience from the eyes of consciousness is "holy" is not quite correct, holy implies a duality. Consciousness does not see it as anything, consciousness just illumines the creation (quantum physics can verify this for you). It's true that love and hate are the same stuff, but consciousness is not existent in a vacum, there is still manifestation on the other side of the street. Consciousness would not be limetless if it did not have the power to create and this is where ignorance or maya comes in. But maya or God isn't just a random projection, it is a logical, well thought out creation with physical, moral and psychological laws operating, its not just a chaos here. So the manifestation requires a certain amount of stability. If you look closely at how reality is structured, all those not observing the creations laws are paying for it karmically in one way or another. Consciousness is responsible for fear and desire, but when fear and desire gets out of hand, maya has this built in mechanism to keep it all in perfect balance. Like I said, karma.

More words of wisdom. Yeah, all paths are suitable because we are so different on that level, different stages, levels of understanding. And I agree, that a person with their own unique teaching will be genuinely teaching that part of reality that was revealed to them.

Yes it was! Sometimes I'm just amazed at my own brilliance... Errm, I mean, I'm amazed at God's brilliance not mine, 'Im not the doer of course...

@Live Life Liam Yes, I'd say they are very closely related. I am going to word it differently though, because of my personal background and the path I'm on, what I've been taught and my own experiences too, I think they are not strictly the same. Here's why: Enlightenment is also known as freedom, liberation from bondange, liberation from the sense of doership and personal responsibility for the person, which also frees you from assigning responsibility to others, as they are not strictly doing anything, nor can be held accountable. The shakti (energy that appears as form) is the doer. So even though enlightenment doesn't feel like anything, there is a strong unconditional love aspect to it as this shows up in "you" as the form you are. There is a saying "a yogi in samadhi sees no difference between a lump of goal and crows poop" which essentially means that the yogi is aware that despite the appearance that these two things are separate forms, they are made of the same substance, consciousness existence. So all "love" is really love for the self, self love, as for an enlightened person her understanding is that there is only one self. So yes, unconditional love appears in the experience of the free person. But it's not something one "does" it just happens because of this understanding of who he is. On the flip side this does not mean that enlightened people don't get upset at others, and gross violations of the rules here. As enlightenment is freedom from the person and freedom for the person this also means the person is free to feel whatever they like, but it always comes from a place of freedom rather than the dishonesty created by desires that come from feelings of separation and limitation.

Wise words indeed How long have you been teaching?

i take that back. you need to become a guru before you get enlightened. thats how its done these days, just set up a youtube account and off you go...

become a guru

This is a blessing, because this is what you want. You want to realize that you are not the doer, that the doer is just mechanics and that its purpose is to do, while you the observer observe. This is what is meant by the ego can do nothing to get enlightened, because who's left over with the condition of "enlightenment"? YOU are, the awareness. I would also not be too hasty about trying to do something about your childhood, your childhood is gone, the only thing you need from that is the insight into how irrational those events have now left you. So don't bother caring for the inner child, he will be fine, he's always fine and he is the one who's going to be social and make everyone laugh and enjoy themselves. Just investigate the ideas you have still left over from when you couldnt process those childhood events and you should be fine. And the thing mystic suggests, with the vegan diet, absolutely! This lifestyle choice makes your mind sattvic (and ripe for enlightenment). The rajasic energies are centred around excessive desire and fear, and the tamas is clouding the mind and this makes everything look more scary than it actually is. If you want to study it more, look into Ayurvedic diet plans, and check out the 3 gunas teaching from the Upanishads because it will explain how you are currently identified with these two undesirable shaktis that make you interpret experience in ways that keep you locked to this anxiety.

As long as you keep saying "I" have social anxiety you will always have it. It's obviously a belief that has a regressive nature to it, you get deeper in the pit because you keep affirming the belief to yourself. That's all it is, too much identification with what you believe is "you". A good technique is the Byron Katie self inquiry, every time you catch yourself having these thoughts, inquire into them. It works because once you start weakening the belief, and you start getting a little more social it has a snowball effect as your mind slowly learns to accept your new circumstances. And as you get more social success this feeds back into your self image and you slowly get better. Another thing you can do is learn to let go of expectations, that you are owed anything for speaking up. This is quite clever because this is what confident people know, they know that they are not the doer, that the doer just does and gets into a flow state. All these good experiences will build up and you will have a much better time if you just relax and let yourself fool around without needing anything from others.

Hard work

Just because somebody knows information about the spiritual world, does not qualify them for enlightenment, or even close. Enlightenment depends on how much we know about ourselves, there are thousands of people walking about in the world who know who they are who have never gone near the spiritual world. Those are the people have just been observing life closely and have learned the lessons inherent in life. For the purposes of your question about the drugs thing, I doubt very seriously that somebody involved with drugs would be even close to having the kind of mind capable of real understanding. Most drug users are escapists, and a mind clouded by years of drug abuse is incapable of being clear enough to understand who they really are.

@Varun M K Thing about enlightenment is if you have a strong urge to find the truth then you should be feeling passionate about that in particular (most truth seekers drop everything and focus on getting free). If you're focusing on what you have lost (passion for this career option) then just kill it completely and you will probably feel the relief of being able to let it go if you have in fact seen the futility of it and it's not really something you want to do. It's ok to flick things off when you see that it was a foolish pursuit for you, you might just need somebody to give you the permission to bring the axe down fully on the block and cut it off completely. Believe me, if your passion for truth is stronger and you let go of the career you wont feel stranded anymore. This agitation might be stopping you realizing the full force of your desire to find the truth. Either way, one of them has got to go.

My thoughts are, that if youre going to entertain and seriously investigate the notion of enlightenment then you need to keep an open mind with regards to reincarnation too. It also depends a lot on the mind / minds interpreting the original source texts for you. You cant just say "Buddhism says" because there are different schools of Buddhism and also crazy and not so crazy interpretations of it. These two things are worth taking into account when discussing anything in this field. But the main thing is once you understand reincarnation according to how your chosen school sees it, then you make it no self and essentially transcend it. Karma and reincarnation are closely linked, and if you can source a decent interpretation on the teaching of karma you can see how it is played out in real life. It becomes obvious. The same is with reincarnation.

I don't know, but from where I'm standing social media looks like another distraction from facing anything real (for the most part), mainly because most people don't know that there is any other way to live life. It's a very sad situation.

Its not a theory, it's Truth, you mistake it for a theory because you believe your current perspective is the truth, and this is backed up by billions of other people and your every day experience. The fact is, it's them who's living in a theory because they have not examined their beliefs properly, but still complain that life is 'hard' and they need this that or the other to complete themselves. So before you fob it off as a theory think about whether your current conditioned belief system actually works. How do you know that this is just another opinion and belief? How do you know you die? There is a whole subculture of people telling you that you don't die, and that if you again investigate your experience properly you will discover that you don't in fact die. How can a brain cause consciousness? Nothing in the material universe is conscious, its all mechanics. Investigate your experience, your body, brain, thoughts and feelings are all known to you, they are not conscious. If they were conscious then they would know you, would they not? But this is not what your experience tells you. Every single persons experience is that of a conscious observer who cannot itself be observed, but is obviously able to observe matter. When you don't believe you are a person with a fear of death and all the other associated neuroses, how do you think life will be for a person like that? Use your imagination. I agree, people telling you that you don't exist is silly in and of itself, but if you can use it as a prompt to investigate your experience and interpret it correctly you will see that what you currently think you are does in fact not really exist. I imagine this will be a huge relief to the consciousness who currently is experiencing this identity crisis.

@Actualising You probably not insane, or have psychosis either, but maybe dont quite know how to handle yourself properly. I would make a start by not believing the interpretations you have about your anxieties, and practice just accepting your states of mind as they are without identifying with them. Spend some time in the day generating feelings of gratitude for what you have (even your painful states of mind), and relaxing and exercising your body, eating healthy foods and generally managing your stress. Stay away from stressful situations and nurse yourself back to health. I was diagnosed once by a mental health professional who wanted to put me into a 'care' situation. I decided not to believe the authorities and did all the things I mentioned above and now I'm fine, no problems Just get hod of the right information and don't fall for what people tell you. I don't know if you know this, but psychology even frowns upon enlightenment and enlightenment states, labels that psychosis even though it is the cure to all mental health problems. You know why? Because when you're enlightened, you don't fit into their categories anymore and don't contribute to society in the ways they think you should. So who is the insane one? Be careful what you put in your subconscious mind my friend, because most of society is not happy, and psychologists are not interested in our well being, they are only interested in making you adjusted to society whether you like it or not.