Ananta

No, I've been around all this stuff since 2009! My original discussion forum has dried up. So, I came here, because it's as active as my other forum use to be years ago.

@SgtPepper Thank you

Advaita Vedanta ...I use to read/watch Adya, Tolle, Mooji, Nisargadatta, Ramana. Btw, sorry if I offended you or anyone else. This is an active spirituality forum. That's why I post here. I don't know much about Leo.

Huh?

? Can you sum up what you mean? I don't watch the videos.

+1

@Mikael89 Oye vey, what a mess, right?!? So, let me "try" to make sense out of this (maybe? Lol)- Quote: "memory comes into consciousness; consciousness exists in awareness and awareness is the reflection of the light on the waters of existence." Nisargadatta *memory comes into consciousness- I do believe he's using consciousness here, as "personal" consciousness, a function of mind. *consciousness exists in awareness- "Personal" consciousness exists in "reflected" awareness. (See he did not say "pure" awareness or absolute). *Awareness is the reflection of the light on the waters of existence- He's telling you in this sentence, he's using the word "awareness" to mean the "reflection", of "the light" ( the light, meaning absolute or pure awareness), on the waters of existence (here he means world). My 2 cents!

@Rilles Your welcome!

@DoubleYou @Rilles I've attached the teaching of Ramana Maharshi's "Who am I" pdf. (Bottom of page) It tells you how the inquiry should be done. Such as: 10. How will the mind become quiescent? By the inquiry ‘Who am I?’. The thought ‘who am I?’ will destroy all other thoughts, and like the stick used for stirring the burning pyre, it will itself in the end get destroyed. Then, there will arise Self-realization. 11. What is the means for constantly holding on to the thought ‘Who am I?’ When other thoughts arise, one should not pursue them, but should inquire: ‘To whom do they arise?’ It does not matter how many thoughts arise. As each thought arises, one should inquire with diligence, “To whom has this thought arisen?”. The answer that would emerge would be “To me”. Thereupon if one inquires “Who am I?”, the mind will go back to its source; and the thought that arose will become quiescent. With repeated practice in this manner, the mind will develop the skill to stay in its source. Link: who_am_I.pdf

?? I know, I believe he spoke Marathi. So, he had a translator.

@Cesar Alba Ever read Eckhart Tolle's "Power of Now"? It's good for beginners, imo. Also, Tolle or Adyashanti youtube videos. They help prepare and quiet the mind for Self-inquiry.

“When effort is needed, effort will appear. When effortlessness becomes essential, it will assert itself. You need not push life about. Just flow with it and give yourself completely to the task of the present moment...” — Nisargadatta Maharaj

@Faceless I'm not taking the bait. Let's not derail this thread.

"It is always the false that makes you suffer, the false desires and fears, the false values and ideas, the false relationships between people. Abandon the false and you are free of pain; truth makes happy, truth liberates." Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sometimes we need to hear from ourselves when things get tough! ((HUGS)) https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/21853-horrifying-

Nisargadatta used the word consciousness for phenomenal objects and/or one's "personal" consciousness. Which is none other then "reflected" consciousness. So, he didn't use it in the typical way, hence the confusion.

@InfinitePotential +1

That's my fav quote of his! Here's another- "Have your being outside this body of birth and death and all your problems will be solved. They exist because you believe yourself born to die. Undeceive yourself and be free. You are not a person." ~Nisargadatta **Of course, hes speaking from the absolute perspective in this quote, which can be helpful, in discriminating between what's real/unreal.

My first glimpse was in 2010 and it happened while watching a Self-inquiry video. It lasted a few minutes. I felt shock/surprise, then wtf? (after thought reappeared) .. More questions, then answers came with that first awakening, because I almost immediately "objectified" awareness/consciousness as something I no longer "had" when the experience ended. Therefore, the only knowledge I had gained was that somehow "I" was THAT (see objectified), but "it" disappeared. I don't see it that way any longer.

Oh my gosh, I laughed so hard at this, ty! I'm pale too.

"Wisdom is knowing I am no-thing, Love is knowing I am every-thing, and between the two my life moves." ~Nisargadatta

First off, interesting post! I don't think enlightenment is natural in the apparent world. It's counterintuitive actually. We have thoughts that we are independent volitional entities, seperate from one another. Agreed. I know this is a fact in my own life. Who wants to awaken out of a happy dream? It's the nightmare that'll motivate one to wake up. Just my take.

USA!

In case anyone is interested- "Enlightenment sickness boils down to this: if the apparent individual person — i.e. the ego — is claiming to be enlightened, then the ego has co-opted the knowledge and is using it to glorify itself. In such a case, “enlightenment” is just another badge of honor that the apparent individual person is pinning on himself and using to set himself apart from and usually higher than the rest of the ignorant masses in order to compensate for a deep-rooted and ever-obtaining sense of incompleteness and inadequacy. Thus, the vision of non-duality has obviously not been assimilated and the apparent individual person is still taken to be one’s identity. The Self (capital "S") doesn’t get “enlightened” because the Self is the light. When you realize who you are, you realize you are not the human being you appear to be. Nor is anyone else. Nor, for that matter, is there anyone else. There is only you, awareness, with innumerable “designs” appearing within your being. This is why we say moksha, or liberation, which is what constitutes “enlightenment” according to the scriptures, is from the apparent individual person, not for the apparent individual person." ~T. Schmidt

Awe, now I warned you. Told you to stop. You weren't worried, remember? You break the name calling rule every other day.