Shanmugam

What???

He seems to be an interesting guy.. I watched some of his videos. He criticizes Sadhguru a lot. But he also claims that the witnessing meditation by Osho (which I practiced) cannot lead one to enlightenment. But this is not correct. It worked for me. Anyway, in general, he seems to be very clear and speak a lot of authentic stuff. But I have been always skeptical of anyone who claims to remember the past lives. I know it is very easy to imagine something and fool oneself. It happens to a lot of people; they genuinely believe that it is their past life while those memories are just distorted memories of the current life, buried deep inside the unconsciousness mind. This is not to say that no one can remember past lives. It might be a possibility. I just don't have any reason to believe it. Instead, I remain totally indifferent. But it is possible that he is enlightened and still be fooled by some distorted memories. It is also possible for an enlightened person to be wrong about a particular method or path. Whatever the case is, I have just found one more reason to bridge science and spirituality.

@Monkey-man You must have died in a plane crash too...

@The White Belt Yes... Mindfulness of bodily sensations or breath is a beginner's practice.. You need to go to the next level. In the original Buddhist version, it has been suggested to extend the mindfulness to cover the whole first-person subjective experience, including the thoughts and emotions.. Witnessing just the bodily sensation will only help you to disidentify yourself from the body, but for most of the people, their identification is with their mind. Mindfulness of thoughts is very much essential to dis-identify from the mind.. And this is just one kind of self-inquiry and it is very effective.

and it is very important to not suppress the thoughts.. no thought should be suppressed and the thought flow should not be manipulated in any way

@The White Belt When it comes to mindfulness, you don't choose.. Initially, it is ok to be mindful of breath and bodily sensations. But this has to be gradually extended to everything that happens in your conscious first-person experience without repressing or judging the thoughts including the thoughts which are judgemental about 'being judgemental of your thoughts'... And this has to be extended to every moment gradually, by being a complete, passive, non-judgemental witness of everything that happens when you are walking, eating, bathing etc. Let us say this is your mind as you notice and the following thoughts are the thoughts which are arising: Ok, I am going to be mindful of my thoughts - you notice this thought without analyzing, judging, identifying with it and let it arise and pass away oh, am I doing this right? - you notice this thought without analyzing, judging, identifying with it and let it arise and pass away I have to pee - you notice this thought without analyzing, judging, identifying with it and let it arise and pass away and I really want to have sex with my new crush - you notice this thought without analyzing, judging, identifying with it and let it arise and pass away (you feel guilty now and you notice this feeling as well) (there is a slight pause in the thought flow now and you wait for the next thought to arise in a curious manner) Probably after enlightenment I won't get such thoughts - you notice this thought without analyzing, judging, identifying with it and let it arise and pass away (You get lost in the thoughts for 2 minutes, and you suddenly remember that you have to be mindful) oh shit, I forgot to be mindful for a while - you notice this thought without analyzing, judging, identifying with it and let it arise and pass away It is hard to be mindful, will I ever succeed? - you notice this thought without analyzing, judging, identifying with it and let it arise and pass away It is too bad that I forgot to be mindful... I am not doing it correctly -you notice this thought without analyzing, judging, identifying with it and let it arise and pass away I am judging my ability to be mindful now.. this is a game of ego - you notice this thought without analyzing, judging, identifying with it and let it arise and pass away my legs are aching.. let me sit down a bit - you notice this thought without analyzing, judging, identifying with it and let it arise and pass away ............................................................... This is the practice I did for about 12 years and it is extremely powerful. You can download this infographic to understand some basics of it:

Based on what he is saying in the video and his face, It is pretty clear that he is experiencing the reality in the most authentic way without any illusion or veil. But whether it is temporary or permanent (as long as this is not drug induced) is something that I can't say and it is something that he will see in the upcoming days. I just watched the video for the first ten minutes and I noticed certain things that he said, which certainly gives a clue that it could be a permanent shift: There is zero self-agenda anymore no difference between what is real and what is not real There is no more inside and outside complete lack of self-consciousness The above four pointers are actually very good indications, they describe the complete absence of the sense of a separate self. If it is permanent, there will still be an integration period in which many old tendencies slowly lose their grip, fade away and die... ... I didn't watch the full video though. Here is what @Leo Gura said in the Youtube comments, which is very important to quote here... It is a very genuine comment and something for you all to keep in mind.

Great video.. I love it

The full version of the 'Fucking analogy'

Yes I have seen them.. But the profile pic looks little different, so I thought it was not you. I think that's probably because only a part of the face is visible.

I have published just one book. You can find a link to it in my signature..

lol I actually turned this into a Quora answer: God: Who/What is God?

@Phillip 1. God as it is used by a random guy in the world of over 7 billion people, means the creator, ruler and the moral authority of the universe. A random guy usually understands God as an invisible person who has a mind, emotions, intentions and a personality that is strict, altruistic, intelligent, loving, judgemental and sometimes even cruel. He is someone who is worshiped with or without form and who is also feared. As for as utility is concerned, such a random man uses this God to be hopeful of his wishes and even curses and sometimes even to justify his cruel actions.. 2. But the word 'God' is also used in the context of spiritual enlightenment. In this context, the word is just a synonym of Absolute reality from which people feel separated. The apparent union that destroys the apparent separation of absolute reality is what is called by different names: Some people call it as mystical union and some people call it as Yoga, which literally means union. Here, the God is often personified and loved but never believed or seen as a person. In other words, union with God is the same shit as spiritual enlightenment! In this forum, it is used and is supposed to be used with the second meaning..

@Joseph Maynor I noticed that you don't respond to some answers which are given to your questions. Is that because of any disagreement with the content of the answer or are you just busy?

@Joseph Maynor The tendency to judge others usually occurs to a person because of the unconscious intention to feel himself in a positive light, in terms of what is good and bad. By making judgement about others either mentally or verbally and by trying to see how bad they are, he unconsciously convinces himself on how good he is. This tendency can be observed more in people who are brought up in religious families. Don't think about spirituality here. I am talking about an orthodox Hindu, Muslim or Christian who believes that there is a personal super human God who is the moral authority of the world and who punishes the evil doers. He is conditioned more to think in terms of what is good and bad, what is evil and sin etc. When he believes that his neighbor is selfish, arrogant, rude and probably even bad, he convinces on how bad he is and he also gets relieved in thinking that God will teach him a lesson one day. People also get the ideas of good and bad from society. They make the good virtues as a part of their ideal selves, and they pursue to improve their goodness. But this has got nothing to do with actually being good to others. This is just an unconscious attempt of ego to show one's personal or separate self in a positive light. By the way, I want to thank you. I started writing this answer one hour before and in the flow of writing, I ended up finishing the first chapter of my next book. . The above answer is now an excerpt of the first chapter.