Shanmugam

Cool down buddy.. Let us all be friends.. Please accept my friend request:

Why should laughter be taken in moderation? Enjoy this joke, a really funny one:

No one can say! Who knows the entire past? But there are always people who get liberated/enlightened.. Not all those people who are enlightened become well known!

No worshipping and no putting in pedestal! Not at all! you are right! I share Osho's quotes and Buddha's quotes not because I want to convey that these people have to be worshipped.. I am just sharing things which are insightful and valuable, thats it! Don't worship or follow anyone! This is the reason why I criticize Sadhguru because people have started to almost worshipping him.. No one questions him! Osho says the same thing too:

Sure.. I understand brother..

@Ether Love, respect, and worship are different.. Buddha himself asked to follow your own light!

The bottom line is this: Are you happy, completely free and fulfilled? ... The 'Yes' to this question doesn't mean that there is no further growth. It happens much faster even though there is no craving for growth. The life then happens out of intrinsic motivation...

@Ether Here are some more from Osho My message is: try to understand Gautam Buddha. He is one of the most beautiful men who has walked on this earth. H.G. Wells, in his world history, has written one sentence which should be written in gold. Writing about Gautam Buddha he writes, “Gautam Buddha is perhaps the only godless man, and yet, so godly.” In that illumination, in that moment of enlightenment, nirvana, he did not find any God. The whole existence is divine; there is no separate creator. The whole existence is full of light and full of consciousness; hence there is no God but there is godliness. It is a revolution in the world of religions. Buddha created a religion without God. For the first time God is no longer at the center of a religion. Man becomes the center of religion, and man’s innermost being becomes godliness, for which you have not to go anywhere – you have simply stopped going outside. Remain for a few moments within, slowly, slowly settling at your center. The day you are settled at the center, the explosion happens. So my message is: understand Gautam Buddha, but don’t be a Buddhist. Do not follow. Let the understanding be absorbed by your intelligence, but let it become yours. The moment it becomes yours, it starts transforming you. Until then it has remained Gautam Buddha’s, and there is twenty-five centuries distance. You can go on repeating Buddha’s words – they are beautiful, but they will not help you to attain what you are after. Osho, The Sword and the Lotus, Talk #11 .............................................................................. Gautam Buddha’s emphasis on compassion was a very new phenomenon as far as the mystics of old were concerned. Gautam Buddha makes a historical dividing line from the past; before him meditation was enough, nobody had emphasized compassion together with meditation. And the reason was that meditation brings enlightenment, your blossoming, your ultimate expression of being. What more do you need? As far as the individual is concerned, meditation is enough. Gautam Buddha’s greatness consists in introducing compassion even before you start meditating. You should be more loving, more kind, more compassionate. There is a hidden science behind it. Before a man becomes enlightened, if he has a heart full of compassion there is a possibility that after meditation he will help others to achieve the same beatitude, to the same height, to the same celebration as he has achieved. Gautam Buddha makes it possible for enlightenment to be infectious. But if the person feels that he has come back home, why bother about anybody else? Buddha makes enlightenment for the first time unselfish; he makes it a social responsibility. It is a great change. But compassion should be learned before enlightenment happens. If it is not learned before, then after enlightenment there is nothing to learn. When one becomes so ecstatic in himself then even compassion seems to be preventing his own joy – a kind of disturbance in his ecstasy…That’s why there have been hundreds of enlightened people, but very few masters. To be enlightened does not mean necessarily that you will become a master. Becoming a master means you have tremendous compassion, and you feel ashamed to go alone into those beautiful spaces that enlightenment makes available. You want to help the people who are blind, in darkness, groping their way. It becomes a joy to help them, it is not a disturbance. In fact, it becomes a richer ecstasy when you see so many people flowering around you; you are not a solitary tree who has blossomed in a forest where no other tree is blossoming. When the whole forest blossoms with you, the joy becomes a thousandfold; you have used your enlightenment to bring a revolution in the world. Gautam Buddha is not only enlightened, but an enlightened revolutionary. His concern with the world, with people, is immense. He was teaching his disciples that when you meditate and you feel silence, serenity, a deep joy bubbling inside your being, don’t hold onto it; give it to the whole world. And don’t be worried, because the more you give it, the more you will become capable of getting it. The gesture of giving is of tremendous importance once you know that giving does not take anything from you; on the contrary, it multiplies your experiences. But the man who has never been compassionate does not know the secret of giving, does not know the secret of sharing. Osho, The New Dawn, Talk #22

Read what Osho has to say about him: All great religious teachers, compared to Gautam Buddha, fall very short. They want you to become followers, they want you to practice a certain discipline, they want you to manage your affairs, your morality, your lifestyle. They make a mold of you and they give you a beautiful prison cell. Buddha stands alone, totally for freedom. Without freedom man cannot know his ultimate mystery; chained he cannot move his wings into the sky and cannot go into the beyond. Every religion is chaining people, keeping some hold on them, not allowing them to be their original beings, but giving them personalities and masks – and this they call religious education. Buddha does not give you any religious education. He wants you simply to be yourself, whatever it is. That is your religion – to be yourself. No man has loved freedom so much. No man has loved mankind so much. He would not accept followers for the simple reason that to accept a follower is to destroy his dignity. He accepted only fellow travelers. His last statement before dying was, “If I ever come back, I will come as your friend.” Maitreya means the friend. Osho, Ma Tzu: The Empty Mirror, Talk #5 India could not understand Gautam Buddha for this simple reason: it thinks that to sit silently, just being, is worthless. You have to do something, you have to pray, you have to recite mantras, you have to go to some temple and worship a manmade god. “What are you doing sitting silently?” And that is the greatest contribution of Gautam Buddha: that you can find your eternity and your cosmic being only if you can sit silently, aimlessly, without any desire and without any longing, just enjoying being – the silent space in which thousands of lotuses blossom. Gautam Buddha is a category in himself. Very few people have understood him. Even in the countries where Buddhism is a national religion – Thailand, Japan, Taiwan – it has become an intellectual philosophy. Zazen, the original contribution of the man, has disappeared. Perhaps you are the only people who are the closest contemporaries of Gautam Buddha. In this silence, in this emptiness, in this quantum leap from mind to no-mind, you have entered a different space which is neither outer nor inner but transcendental to both. Osho, Zen: The Quantum Leap From Mind to No-Mind , Talk #9

@Faceless You may like this book then: https://www.oshorajneesh.com/download/osho-books/responses_to_questions/The_Empty_Boat.pdf Just read and see how it is.. You may recognize many things.. This book played a major role in helping me understand many things... It is Osho's commentaries on Chuang Tzu’s teachings (Taoism)

Yes.. he was a great scientist of the inner world.. A very skeptical guy! he completely rejected Vedas when most of the ancient Indians considered Vedas as infallible and eternal and blindly followed everything that was said.. Did you read the story of Buddha? It is very easy to become a skeptical person in 21th century, but it takes an extreme courage to be skeptical during 600 BC.

Who are you contesting with?

Good.. yes, you mentioned you did your self-inquiry practices almost 24/7... That is very important.. Once a person is able to abide as a witness or the awareness 24/7, then it is a downhill process!

Unless someone asks about my past or I have to write about my past, I don't even think about it... The journey happened in the dream and now I am awake

Just another word for enlightenment...

@Saumaya My journey was too long.. When I was about 10 years old (the year 1993) I was reading and trying various things... It was mostly about yoga and meditation that is taught in Patanjali's ashtanga yoga.. But I couldn't get to focus my mind. I spent a lot of time in contemplation about the existence during 1999 and 2000. I was already experimenting with many things and I came across Osho's books in 2002. That changed everything and it indeed led me to have my first glimpse.. Next 6 months were so peaceful and my time was spent in meditation. It was almost felt like enlightenment was very near and I was absolutely convinced that its going to be over.. But I was extremely wrong.. After about 12 years of seeking, reading, meditating etc, the seeking completely ended in July 2014. (Also did Shambhavi Mahamudra course and Bhava spandana in Isha yoga in 2008 .. Went to Ramana Maharshi's Ashram a few times during those days, to meditate there ..)

@Shin Great! @Saumaya Thank you.. Hope you enjoy the book

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Yes! As far as I know, the only person who talked about 'learning from scratch' more clearly was U.G.Krishnamurthy! I think you mentioned somewhere that you have read him.. He refers enlightenment as 'calamity'.. He didn't choose to use the strong words like 'enlightenment' ,'teaching' 'guru' etc and he didn't associate himself with those words! I was never able to under U.G. Krishnamurthi before July, 2014. I thought he was completely pissed off with something... Only after some integration, whatever he said made sense to me. Thats why I often refer to it as 'rebirth'.. Osho also used this word.. It is in this sense, people say that enlightenment is a new beginning..

Exactly!!! @Nahm you still need help.. You are a nice guy! But don't ask a person to run, when he is already running and can't stop running... Let me quote what I said again so that you understand it clearly: The growth is happening every moment and there is not even a choice to stop the growth... before enlightenment, there was a choice to postpone the growth; before enlightenment, there was a choice to grow faster.. But after enlightenment, growth happens with the maximum potential.. ............................................................................................................................ Imagine that an enlightened person is running at his maximum speed; he is able to run at his maximum speed because he has transcended some barriers which were stopping him from realizing his highest potential... The only thing is, even though he is running at the maximum speed, he doesn't feel like he is doing anything at all.. the sense 'I am the doer' has completely disappeared. What you are saying here sounds like saying to that person 'Why are you not doing anything? Why are you sitting still? You have to run!"

The words 'more' and 'less' can be applied only to the limited...this 'more' and'less' is only in the realms of duality... You can't say to infinity that there is 'more infinity'... How can there be a more infinity? I agree that there is lifelong deepening to enlightenment; But this deepening is not something that can be controlled, manipulated or made to go faster or slower! There is absolutely no choice when it comes to this! Is this very difficult to understand? .. @Nahm you are still talking about doing something.. Let me be very honest with you. Whenever you bring up this topic, it really sounds like you are still living in duality... I told you already that the merger of the experiencer, experiencing and experience is the Absolute! This is my experience and you also agreed to it.. It is the way I experience the reality every moment.. But now you are talking about something, which gives me a strong indication that you are still not experiencing the Absolute! Let us first ask 'Why enlightenment' before asking 'What is enlightenment' and 'How to get enlightened'... The point of enlightenment is to seek to end the psychological sense of lack.. It is this sense of lack which craves for 'more'... Also, this doesn't mean that there is no growth; this doesn't mean no improvements are made.. The growth is happening every moment and there is not even a choice to stop the growth... before enlightenment, there was a choice to postpone the growth; before enlightenment, there was a choice to grow faster.. But after enlightenment, growth happens with the maximum potential.. Imagine that an enlightened person is running at his maximum speed; he is able to run at his maximum speed because he has transcended some barriers which were stopping him from realizing his highest potential... The only thing is, even though he is running at the maximum speed, he doesn't feel like he is doing anything at all.. the sense 'I am the doer' has completely disappeared. What you are saying here sounds like saying to that person 'Why are you not doing anything? Why are you sitting still? You have to run!" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is usually a first 'glimpse' of enlightenment or a satori, and then there is enlightenment... Sometimes I suspect if you are using the phrase 'experience of no-self' for the Satori and the 'experience of Absolute' for enlightenment!

I am just posting this since it is very important for many people here to realize, in case they don't know. Enlightenment doesn't have levels in itself. The progress in spiritual path that we are talking about is only about how much a person has purified his mind/unwired his mind/deprogrammed his mind from conditionings, concepts and identifications etc. But the duality exists until the last step of the spiritual path. You may be less identified, less attached to things. But that doesn't mean that you have reached a certain level of enlightenment. Enlightenment is binary. Enlightenment is the disappearance of duality. There may be temporary non-dual glimpses or experiences. But that is not enlightenment. Enlightenment is breaking the duality forever. So, either duality is there or not there. There cannot be a partial duality. There cannot be a more or less enlightenment. But after enlightenment, it certainly deepens. As you learn more about people, world and many other things, you may be able to see certain things with more clarity. But this is no longer a matter of concern. Because enlightenment completely removes the psychological lack, the feeling that there is more.. Because, enlightenment itself lets you to experience that you are one with reality. Reality itself cannot expand or contract, cannot grow or shrink. Because reality is infinity. There can be no further growth to infinity. Here is an excerpt from the talks of Osho: Question: OUR BELOVED MASTER, DOGEN SEEMS TO BE SAYING THAT THE MORE PROFOUNDLY ENLIGHTENMENT TOUCHES ONE'S BEING, THE MORE POTENT IS THE ENLIGHTENMENT. IS IT TRUE THAT THERE ARE NO GRADES OF ENLIGHTENMENT - THAT ONE IS EITHER ENLIGHTENED OR NOT - BUT THAT ENLIGHTENMENT, LIKE WINE, BECOMES MORE AND MORE MATURE? Answer by Osho: Maneesha, your understanding is right. There are no grades of enlightenment - either you are enlightened or not enlightened. But certainly, as enlightenment deepens, matures, reaches to your very roots ... It is just the right symbol: like wine, the older it is the better. There are wine collectors ... You can find fifty-year-old wine, one-hundred-year-old wine - they are all wines. Fresh wine just produced from the garden is also wine. But a hundred-year-old wine has attained a certain quality of intensity, a density, which is lacking in the new arrivals. There are experts in the world who can tell exactly, just by taking a sip, how old is the wine. It happened in a pub that a man said to the bartender, "Here is one hundred dollars. If you are ready to gamble with me, I will taste any wine you want me to taste and I will tell you its exact year." It was unbelievable, because wine testing is a very fine art. The offer was accepted. Each time he tells the right year when the wine was made, the bartender will pay him one hundred dollars. He went on tasting and telling the exact year. It was so amazing, all the drinkers and drunkards who were there sitting on different benches gathered around; even those who were completely drunk became awake, "What is happening?" And the man was amazing. Then suddenly a man from the back said, "I also want to join in the contest because I have got a wine. If you can tell me ..." So he brought a full cup. The man tasted it, spat it out, and he said, "You idiot. This is human urine!" But the man said, "Whose? I know it is human urine - but whose? Unless you can tell me whose, you are not a great taster." Enlightenment certainly has no grades, but as time passes it deepens, sharpens, matures, becomes more and more rich. From - Dogen the Zen Master A Search and a Fulfillment - by Osho

It also depends on the way you had lived your life before you heard about enlightenment.. The seeking might have started way more than when you might have heard the word 'enlightenment' for the first time.. When I say something to a person, sometimes it is meant very specific to him. He needs to hear that. So, the answers may be different depending on the person who asks a question or who needs help. Here is one example: https://www.quora.com/Is-the-purpose-of-life-to-reach-enlightenment/answer/Shanmugam-P-12 When I read your posts, I do see that you are on the right track.. ...

What exactly are you trying to convey?

Thats true.. but usually it takes years and years of practice... The ignorance of separation is deep rooted. There are some rare exceptions though.