WaterfallMachine

Have you seen some of Leo's videos on enlightenment? And some of his recommended books on the topic? Enlightenment is not absolute happiness, but it changes your relationship towards negative emotions to be more accepting of them. I was asking about the more truth centered aspects of enlightenment, not the emotional.

Then what exactly is meant by a "deepening of enlightenment experiences?" If it was just a deepening of conceptual understanding, then we'd just call it learning a philosophy. But it's not.

But for some people, volunteering will not allow them the growth they need. For some people, it's not the ego and arrogance they kill during it. It's the love and self respect they need for themselves. Healing for that lies elsewhere. Self love is as important as love to others, and to forget yourself entirely is to forget that message.

I have a similar understanding to what enlightenment might mean. Though, in everyday life, wouldn't there be always new thought stories to shift through as new events and ideas come forth in life? Hence the idea of enlightenment being something you can deepen? So what is the point of calling someone enlightened when according to this defintion, there's always more to find out? What's the line where someone is aware enough to be called an enlightened person?

In my experience with volunteering with talking to those with trauma though, I had a different experience. My childhood baggage made me think I was unimportant, and deserved no rest and care for myself. So at the start of volunteering, I just grew more and more depressed, more in need of being selfish. When I allowed myself to gain help for depression, only then could I feel open to giving to others and feel happy doing it. You misunderstand in that in everyone's experience, they are too selfish. Some are too selfless or full of guilt that they forget taking care of themselves at all. The whole idea of forgetting yourself and putting everyone above you is what leads people to be codependent in abusive relationships. This is the importance of equality.

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@Azza I have a comment on your one soul theory though. Why would the question of whether brains are still being created would lead to one soul? What is a soul anyway? That seems rather vague. Why would it be hard to create new souls when whatever’s allowing them here created the entire universe? But I see your point in this. There needs to be a source for all these souls. And I wonder what could that be.

Ah, but if you haven’t met Leo or other spiritual teachers, would you even know this path exists? Do you think you’d benefit and be able to innovate on all this knowledge yourself from its hundreds of years of advancement? There’s a difference between wise independence and foolish independence. One has gained the knowledge and experience to be at their own, and the other is resisting any help they often desperately need. We all need guidance — even if the final goal is to be independent from this guidance, and I sincerely doubt the reading and writing skills you learned in school that you’re using now are entirely useless. You can use these words to form independent opinions now because you were dependent on teachers before to learn it. Same thing.

@Quanty Hmm, I’m already aware of these practices and are working on them. Though, thanks for suggesting still. I’ll always be slow on some level on these physical skills, but it can improve to some extent with physical therapy — which I’m working on. I know about acceptance, but I guess I have trouble feeling accepted when I don’t admit my problems with motor control. People could see me as lazy in class when I just have trouble writing and need to speak my answers instead. I’ll come off as a little weird when I sit down on a chair instead of standing up in a public speech in class — since my balance gets even worse when anxious. I’m sure people will be alright with it if I inform them about this condition — though I’m just afraid they won’t believe me. This isn’t one of the more well known and noticeable disabilities. It takes some observation and some experience with me to notice more — such as noticing I always subtly move from left to right since I have trouble keeping myself steady. And I’m afraid some will not take it seriously. Such as many forms of authority who got angry at me for “not trying” before I was diagnosed. I guess I’m still affected by memories of those misunderstandings. It’s childhood trauma to an extent.

If this is so, they are still good people. They are just ignorant of what they’re doing wrong. On the other hand, if they’re not willing to grow or learn from mistakes, then they are no longer doing the right thing.

Actual Autistic here. Can comfirm. All your base are belong to us.

To deal with karma is to act with love. If giving credit shows self love to yourself and others, then that’s what should be done. It if’s otherwise, then act the opposite way. Simple as that. Morality is not a rigid one fits all rule with karma. It depends on the situation and the specific good intentions. Though, don’t believe me at face value. Find it out yourself with more self inquiry.

Well, if all is one, then doesn’t that make you part of what you’re serving? People are supposed to be equal, and that might mean not putting yourself at a higher priority to some, but it could also mean not putting yourself at a lower priority to many. Take care.

Hi, no advice. Leo always puts it well. Just want to welcome you on your first post, and say it’s natural to be confused at first. Take your time, and good luck. PS : You need to take what he says a lot more literally. If nothing comes to mind for an answer or an image to this all, then that is the answer. The answer is literally nothing. This might sound weird at first, but please keep going. So much of the pain and ignorance in this world comes from trying to admit that we have more knowledge and answers than we think we do. To admit the answer is nothing — is to admit there many things we don’t know and can still learn from. Edit : Just want to add that admitting nothing is a lot more wise than you think. In society, we pride on geniuses. We pride on knowing things. But how did these geniuses find what they need to know and innovate world changing things on society? By admitting they don’t know, and so finding what they need to know.

Who is the map then? Who is the knower or thinker? There’s no Dora singing “Where’s the map? Where’s the map?” in this adventure. .

Just to add to this idea : The map is the theory. It’s a guide to a real adventure in an actual place somewhere, but the only reason you know and can go to this “ancient jungle” is because you know the map. The map might be wrong, but there might be other treasures in this jungle you could find that the map would have allowed you to realize. In the sense, the map doesn’t tell you where the treasures are. It simply informs you “where these are not”. These are not theories of beliefs like you say in your hand example. These are theories to remove other false theories.

There is a lot of insight in automatic writing — just practicing writing without any conscious thought or purpose. Just writing down the first thing in your head. It may be jumbled at first, but later many of these can become coherent insights of wisdom. Much of intuition is blocked by logical and emotional thinking. Just writing without any conscious direction is what would allow some of the unsconscious ideas to come out. Another technique I remember is visualizing without the same sense of purpose too. Ask your mind to give you visual metaphors into things, and just allow it to come to you — don’t force it. Intuition is only something you can gain by patience, not by conscious digging into your mind. I remember Leonardo da Vinci had a similar technique. He would doodle random pictures — even very ugly pictures — and trust whatever his mind would direct him. Later he’d write down sentences of what these pictures seem to mean to him, and this would allow him the insights to his many inventions and artforms. Michael Michalko writes on many techniques like these in his book “Thinkertoys”, specifically in the “Intuitive Techniques” section. Pretty amazing stuff as I’ve seen.

1. Direct experience does not have to be worldless or empty of thoughts. If not, then we wouldn’t be able to give estimations of what direct experience is through words. Removing thought allows us to see direct experience better, but it’s possible to see it without it. Direct experience with thoughts is like putting dotted lines between two places — where we’re conscious that separating ideas into duality is just a helpful tool to communicate, and not reality. This in contrast to places being separated by bold lines — where we’re not conscious on how these places are not truly separate. 2. Who is influencing the thoughts? Who has freewill? There is free will and the thoughts are emergencing from somewhere, but where is it emerging from? 3. In a sense, yes, but I can’t prove that to you. You’d have to find yourself deeper into self inquiry to be able to have insights like these shown to you. Leo explains this in his recent video about intelligence — where it’s possible to be able to gather knowledge from an “infinite intelligence”, but I sense you’re not ready for this yet. Just keep going and you’ll see for yourself.

For some reason, I have an attachment to the self's idea of being normal. Of not doing anything to rock the boat. Of not attracting attention. Of staying humble, and out of the spotlight. I guess the reason is that if I admit to being special or talented in any form, I'm afraid people will come and envy or hate how I am. That if I speak out my own different opinions, I'd attract too much criticism and be thrown out of a group again for having "weird beliefs". In self inquiry, I let go of the idea of being some succesful world changer -- priding myself on everything I have and admitting no mistakes. But somehow I just got attached to the opposite idea. When I was a much less self aware moron, I attracted people who bashed on how big my ego was, and so now I don't want to admit raising myself to a higher standard of anything. It's a bad thing because it's a bad influence on my willingness to grow spiritually and in personal development. If I'll become better, then I'll attract more attention. I don't lust for fame. I actively fear it. But much of my own values and life purpose have to do with speaking out my own ideas and personal truth -- and sometimes it requires more attention for words to be spread well. I have a certain love for the sciences and technology, and I was offered a scholarship to Silicon Valley for college recently. Reaction? Not joy. Not pride. Not relief. Just freaking out the idea that I could call myself having potential that high on anything, and awkward with the idea of the man who offered it thought of me as an outright genius from our personal conversations. Hey, I'm not a genius. I'm just. . . just smart.

Ah, well now I finally get it. Thank you.

@Waves I see. I think you've made a good choice, and I wish you luck on your journey. Feel free to keep coming here if you need help, or send me a PM if you'd like. See you.

But I'm afraid of seeing this "me" as an illusion. What can I do?

I know this intellectually, but I don't seem to be able to let this false image of a self emotionally. There's been progress, but fully removing the self is terrifying.

Ah, thank you for the advice. I've been absorbing all kinds of negative feelings lately now that I'm more sensitive to noticing these energies and could use the help. Wish you luck on your own journey too. . I can sense your own positive feelings as well, so thanks for sending me some of that. I get anxious easily and tend to be rather shy, so this is something new to admit I guess. See you.

Interesting. It reminds me of a time of my life before. I was a bad place in my life, and wanted to end my own existence. But something about the idea of really doing it caused a deep calmness in me. That something about trying to choke myself to death made me see how l wasn’t afraid of death anymore. In life, I was so afraid of everything, but to admit that I’m fine with my own self dying, it was a sign of growing courage. I stopped trying to harm myself, and went on with my own life.