SOUL

@Barna Well, symbolism is us attaching 'meaning' to something, right? Things are what they are. Fire is fire and it has properties that can have uses, it can warm us on a cold night but it can also burn us. The symbology comes in when we apply attributes to fire that aren't naturally inherent of it, what it 'means' to us. So we are symbolizing fire as something other than the element's natural properties and effects. Duality is often expressed in symbolic terms but isn't limited to it. Symbolism can be expressed in dualism but isn't limited to it. Oh and how to manage it is to live life physically on the inherent properties of things even if we are pursuing a deeper perception of enlightenment. Even if we think it's an illusion, the bus will hurt if it hits us, jump!

What works for me is drumming...hand drumming. I found that bare hand slapping skin is a wonderful way to vent anger. It also has some awesome side effects for being a meditate tool as well as emanating beautiful sounds that some interpret positively.

All religions are the same? So the one that says people are going to hell to be tormented for eternity unless they believe a certain way is the same as your own ideas?

@Dodoster would you say the same thing about the ultimate truth of Christians? What about Muslims? Any of the religions? How about mine? Does my personal revelation subject you to it?

When someone says a personal revelation is a universal truth for everyone it is a limiting belief, they are limiting, in their own mind, what they think others can have revealed to them personally in their enlightenment. They are also limiting themselves to the belief, by clinging to a paradigm they believe in and not allowing their mind to continue enlightening..

With enlightenment there is much to personal experience and that is subjectively attained understanding. Too often people think that because they had a personal enlightenment experience of understanding that matches what their teacher, if they have one, or others have had it makes it more credible. Even if a million "enlightened" seekers agree with what I have found in my own enlightenment revelation it doesn't make it any more "universally true" than if not one other agrees. When someone says "it is all one", that's personal revelation, when someone says "it is all nothingness" it's personal revelation, when it's said "there is no self" this is more personal revelation. When they say, "this is the way it is for everyone" so assenting a universal truth for all from their own personal revelation it is exercising a paradigm of limiting belief.

What you are illustrating is the trap of the dualism mindset. To be able to create identity the ego constructs poles in the mind to orient itself. Which is why I laugh with an infinite laughter when people refer to nothingness, that's a mindset still trapped in dualism. I find that the same dualism mindset is revealed from the belief in the concept of true and false. Enlightenment is the process of illuminating, it begins in when we consciously make the effort to do so and can continue infinitely.

Awareness is aware of being aware.and in being aware of it's awareness the manifest exists so that the observer can observe itself. Which is why the enlightenment path is one where we are focusing our temporal observer on the infinite observer because through that we are realizing awareness is aware of being aware through the manifest to enlighten it.

Awareness is aware of being aware.

Life and existence manifests and we are now here consciously being in it.

Hope for the best but expect nothing. Although, we've had a alot of time to enlighten as a species so a realistic viewpoint is useful in navigating in life.

People tend to think of it as an absolute, either there is free will or there isn't. I recognize how there is both in my consciousness.

I never really used that word for it but I am on that path spiritually. Although there definitely is some thick ironic paradox all over self taught enlightenment. We can use different methods for different areas of our life, one area may be more "auto" than another, some may be very formal in the learning process while another not at all. There is something to be said for having someone or something give insights and specialized understanding that may take much longer to find on our own if we find them at all. There is also something to be said for the process of discovering something intuitively and through our own natural process that makes the insight or revelation much more valuable to us.

Fine, don't change then. I bet you can't not change. I dare you to not change. Go ahead, triple dog dare.

Enlightenment is like a light...hence why it's referred to as enlightenment. It;s a light for our consciousness. What is this consciousness light useful to illuminate? Anything and everything. You have already been accessing the consciousness light pretty effectively if you have done all those types of meditate work. It doesn't have to mystified or be made esoteric, it's an innate part of our consciousness if we are simply aware of it.

Have you had your contemplator calibrated by a certified technician lately? It might be out of alignment and your insights will be skewed. Just kidding, some subjects are just more of a challenge to acquire insights on than others. Keep contemplating, sounds like you are doing something that works for you, the illumination process can be quite abstract sometimes.

Our intuition is just a means the self has to deliver us information, the ego is another one those means. It's up to us to contemplate the information we receive by all means to assess if it's of value to the moment. If we contemplate the input we can see the hallmarks from the method it came to us and ego naturally will frame it in our identity.

Fixed it for you, you're welcome.

@Barna Simply put, the desiring for something can be a source of discontent even if it's for "enlightenment". In some ways it's like game theory. Video games have many levels and there are rewards associated with each level. If the game has 100 levels and I'm on level 2 I cannot attain the level 100 rewards, I need to get to so be on that level to get those rewards. Just getting a glimpse of the level doesn't allow me to attain the rewards of that level. So, spiritually speaking, spending so much time trying to get glimpses of a level I'm not on only slows my progress in getting to that level. Every day I work on raising my level then when I get to it I am on that level and can attain the rewards of it. So, I look to the now and raise the awareness of the moment and what level or what states will take care of itself in due time. The glimpses are exciting and can inspire but can also distract from immediate inner work to be done in the moment right now that will lead us to those higher levels of illumination. Or use the "cheat code" to be there right now.... Do you know the code? It's that we are already on every level but the ego just doesn't want to know it so distracts us. Ironic, isn't it? You may wonder if I know the cheat code why aren't i always at the higher levels? Complicated life can make the "infinitely enlightened being" lose their keys... or crash the car....or not get the bills paid. It would be amazing to have such a simple life that sustaining the body wasn't a distraction from enlightenment and both could be done simultaneously. I'm working on making it that simple.

...um... ok.

@Barna As cliche as it sounds, as soon as I attained my initial goal it was then I realized the journey really has no beginning or end, it just is. So the "end goal" is something I had all along the way, I just didn't notice I had it because of all the other stuff cluttering my consciousness. There is no way to retroactively go back and tell my miserable self that I already have it but don't know it and I'm not sure my miserable self would have believed it anyway, it may be just part of the process.

I agree with nearly everything you said except....... enlightenment isn't rare. It's a very common thing but it is often overlooked and we fail to notice it because we are looking for the esoteric, deep "thing" we are told, so think is enlightenment. Every day everyone has an enlightenment moment but then the phone rings, the dog barks, the kid cries, the boss yells, we distract ourselves with anything and everything or our own ego goes 'Hey look at me! Me me mememe loooook at mmeeeeeeeeee!!!!!' We miss the simple enlightenment in the moment so instead of amplify it throughout our being and let it echo through our life it gets lost in our junk drawer.

@Barna It started because I "woke up" to myself as a miserable preteen just wanted to be happy and I was about 13ish when I started to meditate. It took more than a decade to achieve the goal even though along the way the words evolved from "happy" to "at peace and in joy".

@Shin I tend to gravitate towards the simple as well and it works so I don't complicate it. The K.I.S.S. method... keep it simple seeker!

Well, I don't know what "the basic" is, I know what my basic is. Mostly focusing on the breath, I will also incorporate visualizations if I'm intending to create or change a mindset but still breath is part of that. Let's say I'm out doing tasks and I'm losing my peaceful center I will take a moment to quiet the mind by focusing on breath. I will also simultaneously visualize me breathing in tranquility and breathing out anxiousness. I even have kind of a funny one for when my ego has whipped the monkey mind into a frenzy and it doesn't want to settle down. I will visualize the observer, petting the ego as if it's a dog to comfort it. It works surprisingly well, the ego gets the attention it craves so it settles down and my mind gets quieted. Then as it sleeps at my "feet" I can do my inner work. Haven't used that in awhile though, the ego is better trained now...haha I would recommend to just find what works for you in both practice and with whatever symbols, images or concepts you connect with., then employ them with your inner work. What works for me may not work for you and you won't learn which does for you until you examine your own self conscious and stretch the meditative muscle in every way you can.