eputkonen

StephenK, No. I sense being in formlessness...not form...when my eyes are closed. There is a center to the experience because most of the sense are on the head of the body...and we imagine ourselves somewhere behind or in the center of the senses. The senses and brain interpreting the data from the senses create an 'experiential center'. However, I don't feel myself to be in the middle of that experiential center - I am not located in the mind or brain or experiential center. I feel myself to be everywhere...but there is a recognition of the experiential center. There is no division between the object, this body, and so no location of relation. There is no other or outside. Don't know. I don't have a belief either way. No, haven't really suffered since enlightenment happening in 2005. Ever content. The nature of suffering is that due to thoughts, beliefs, concepts, etc. we make ourselves miserable. Suffering is self-inflicted. Suffering occurs through ignorance and illusions of the mind...and suffering only happens to a "me". Dispel ignorance and illusion...particularly the idea of a "me"...and suffering ceases. Said simply...no "me", no suffering. Pain continues to happen because the nerves of the body still function. Suffering is a figment of imagination. Love is not attachment or craving. Love is seeing, accepting, and caring. Trust and appreciation are also aspects of love.

@Patang , I had used the same story in a blog post - Are you saying that I shouldn't really care about how things work out? Our viewpoint is often too short and narrow to really know how things are working out. We want to label it as good or bad…success or failure…often before the time is ripe. Who knows if it is good or bad? “How things worked out” could flop back and forth from good to bad depending on the specific point in time. Who knows if it is good or bad?

@MarkusSweden, I care nothing about respect or honor or purpose. I'll stick with joy and happiness...thank you. BTW, I have a job I enjoy and with the money I get from it...I never go hungry. So it is possible for joy to bring food to the table.

@Jawor is probably long gone. The post was 2016.

Who, or How, were you originally awoken to awakeness? My first exposure to the idea of awakeness was reading my first spiritual book - Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. A spiritual friend (who was the DM in a role playing game I participated in) left out the book one day and then loaned it to me. Most Valuable Source so far: That was giving up the search and seeking. Thirteen years after reading "Autobiography of a Yogi"...I had no idea what awakening really meant. I had heard about realization, awakening, samadhi, enlightenment, satori, etc., but I was more confused than even about what it was. Also, every new book, audio, or video that I consumed seemed to be a repetition of things I already read before. I was convinced there was nothing else to be gained in a book, audio, or video. And so I stopped. No more books, audios, or videos. No more spiritual practices. I simply gave it all up. That was the most valuable thing. It was about a year or so later that I kept bumping into the name, Eckhart Tolle. I had long learned to trust and follow intuition and synchronicity...so I decided to get a video by him at the library (I didn't want to take the time to read a book). I watched the "Flower of Human Consciousness". In it he taught how to become truly present by inhabiting the body. I became truly present for the first time in my life. In that silence of mind, I woke up. This would be the second - learning to be present. I have taught people how to be present, but as they have not given up the search...they are easily distracted - "what is the next thing". That is why the first is giving up the search and the send is being present.

@Kevin Dunlop , part of it is giving up this idea of pleasant and unpleasant. As the Hsin Hsin Ming says (one of my favorite little books): Like and dislike is the disease of the mind. When the deep meaning (of the Way) is not understood the intrinsic peace of mind is disturbed. Reality is bliss...there is no side that is blissful and a side that is not. When this is realized, this is "how do we stay on the blissful side of reality."

If the belief was true...you wouldn't know, because it is just a belief. With knowledge/understanding...belief is not needed, because you know. It would be better to just stick with what you know and do not know...and not bother believing. The world is seen through the blinders and colored lenses of our beliefs. So if you don't believe something that is in fact true, you may not see the truth of it because you deny it to hold onto your belief. Everything you do see (through the filters/blinders) is substantiating your belief...belief blindness you could call it, blindness to any information contrary to the belief. The world is most clearly seen as it truly is when we hold no beliefs.

You will see that life has no inherent purpose...purpose is a creation of the mind. When the mind is silent (no thought), purpose can not be found. But you may continue doing what you have always been doing or you may do something else entirely...not out of some purpose, but simply for the joy of it.

@MarkusSweden, I have a 16 year old step-daughter who I have been raising since she was 5...does that count? If so, private message me.

The ego is an illusion and doesn't really exist now...so why eat now? Hungry/not hungry...that is the body...and then in thought there is identification with it - "I am hungry". No ego needed to eat when hungry. For an ego to be "dead", it has to exist now as some entity...but it doesn't exist as an entity. It is all just thought.

Samsara is Nirvana. Heaven or hell is where you are...and you make it so. There is no escape...from yourself. The enlightened don't really care about rebirth or lack thereof...for they have realized they were never born.

Many religions and faiths become corrupted over time. The Buddha said women can achieve nirvana/enlightenment...it is not barred because they are women. Enlightenment is seeing through the illusions of the mind and dispelling ignorance. It is ignorance to identify with the body's gender and think this helps or hinders nirvana/enlightenment. Enlightenment comes down to realizing what-is as it is...which is neither male, nor female nor both, nor neither.

I had used the same story in a blog post - Are you saying that I shouldn’t really care about how things work out? It is a good story to illustrate the point.

You'll be wasting 10,000 hours if you start with cultivating happiness. You don't cultivate happiness...happiness is your inherent nature. The time would be better spent on finding out how you make yourself unhappy and cease doing that. The time would be better spent looking into this "me"...the unhappy "me"...and questioning if that is who/what you really are. If you want lasting happiness, suffering has to cease first. It is like silence, in a way, that as long as you are making noise...there is no silence. Once you cease making noise, silence is there. Likewise, as long as your are creating your own miseries...happiness is not there...but once you cease creating suffering for yourself, happiness is there. Once suffering has ceased (i.e. making yourself unhappy has ceased), I find (in my experience) that there is always a sense of contentment and levels of happiness. But kindness (i.e. warm heartedness) and appreciation & joy do amplify or raise the feeling of happiness. I practice kindness and appreciation now...after the cessation of suffering...and I don't think it would have worked very well when I was still suffering.

"I think, therefore I am" is one of the biggest myths and misunderstandings ever propagated. For it is very possible to not think. And when there is no thought, there is still existence. So a better alternative would be, "I am, therefore I think."

Agreed. A