Shanmugam

The first of 'Four Laws of Creation' by Bashar is 'you exist'! And he has come from a planet that is 500 light years away to say that I exist... Bashar must be a joke by God... He makes fun of us.

@PaulK This analogy might help. It was frequently used by Ramana Maharshi:

I found a book online just now and I found the introduction interesting.: In the words of Western Buddhists in this book: ‘There are so many things I like about Buddhism. The magnanimity for one thing. I also like the fact that you are encouraged to question, to work it out for yourself. You can challenge anyone, including the Dalai Lama .. . the more doubts you have the better.’ ‘It’s not some peace, love, dove, groovy, freak, crashpad, incense-burning thing. Buddhism is real, otherwise I wouldn’t do it.’ ‘The essential message of Buddhism is one of hope because the Buddha starts with the statement that we are all potentially perfect.’ ‘In Buddhism . .. each spiritual seeker can find the most appropriate method for his or her own personality and circumstances.’ ‘There is a kind of rigour in a tradition which asks us to be the chemist or the goldsmith of our own experience.’ ‘The most advanced spiritual psychology imaginable.’ ‘I now see beauty where I did not see it before.’ ‘The more you look into it, the more it reveals... a never-ending source.’ It sounded interesting. I am going to read that book. You can join with me if you want. Here is the link to download: http://dl4a.org/uploads/pdf/Why Buddhism Westerners in Search of Wisdom.pdf I will be posting interesting excerpts if there is any..

Yes... And just remember what Rupert ended with, in that video.. He talks about retracing your steps... That is what I mentioned as 'untying the knots' in this post: The spiritual practice is like keep doing 'control + z' until there is nothing to undo... It feels like peeling the layers of an onion...

I am sure you had some insights... The underlying message that you want to say is 'don't chase enlightenment, don't want to 'become' enlightened.'. But I see that you are struggling with the right words here.. Also, a word may mean different thing to different people, that is a huge problem with terminology.. each word not only has a meaning for every individual human being but also has a connotation. And, your post is very ambiguous because of the usage of words like 'God' and 'infinity'... But let me remind you,,, There will be a lot of temporary glimpses like this... But don't ever settle for a belief that 'I don't need any help hereafter, I found peace and got all the answers'... Because, after every glimpse of absolute truth, the ego immediately opens its mouth and wants to take credit for what happened... There is a tendency in mind which stops people from letting go of the feeling of separation, and this tendency finds various cunning ways to stop you, to distract you or to trap you.. Sometimes, it will even say 'I am already enlightened, there is nothing I should do, everything is fine'... Even though this is true, the tendency of the mind to retain the separation can just parrot this to you just to reinforce the separation. I am not sure if what I said is clear, but I hope you understand what I say here.. Rupert Sipera says something very important in this video. As he says, there is a longing for letting go of separation but also a resistance or hesitation to do that... That is why people are afraid of intimate relationships. Because in intimate relationships, there is always a temporary oneness.. People long for this oneness and seek relationships.. But at the same time, there is also a resistance or hesitation to do that, which actually comes from the ego or the tendency of the mind to retain the separation... This tendency takes various shapes, uses various backdoors and brings various thoughts in your mind to justify the separation. Unless you bring in the awareness, you may not notice and rise above all that.. And when the lady in the video interrupts him and says something like 'ego is evil', Rupert says it is not so.. Because, ironically, it is the ego which calls 'ego' as evil.. It is the ego which divides, categories things like 'good and bad', 'past vs future', 'How I am and how I want to be', 'me vs world'... This separation that the ego creates is the 'original sin', if we take the story in Genisis metaphorically.. But the word 'sin' has the same negative connotation as the word 'evil'.. ... In reality, nothing is a mistake or evil or a problem... Ego is a part of the growth... Every person has to first develop it, which already happens anyway... Osho used to talk about a metaphor of ripe fruit...When the fruit is ripe, it automatically falls away. If haven't already done so, I would suggest you again to read about the 'witnessing' meditation by Osho. It will be tremendously helpful to bring all the unconscious tendencies of your mind to awareness.

@AleksM probably, but when it comes to information, it is the same... When we learn physics or chemistry, we learn information and facts... Whatever that alien entity says is probably a bunch of information.. Whether it is true or not is a different thing. But regardless of the truth of that information, it is still some information... That is why I am saying that it is all bit off-topic for people whose main priority is spiritual enlightenment... They have other forums to discuss these things.. :) Anyway, the image is just a joke.. Making sure that the discussion doesn't get serious...

I don't have any disagreement with what you said here... I am just pointing out to the fact that way too much importance is given to these things in this forum... Once the limit is crossed, it is similar to talking about chemistry in a forum that is actually intended for politics.. It has a potential to distract people who are focused on politics...

Ok.. then wait! I am hoping that by 2040 or before, we can get an alien being right here on the earth to teach you how to get enlightened.. If it doesn't happen until 2040, there is still hope, so don't worry.. It will be a great way to postpone enlightenment because people can wait for eternity for an alien being to show up and teach them something profound, in such a way that no human being has taught them before...And the probability of that one random alien being to be enlightened being is so unimaginably high!

Yes.. I think we probably need a 'Paranormal' subforum and a 'Mental masturbation' subforum...Even though these two topics have got nothing to do with enlightenment, a lot of people are more attached to these things... But it will be good if 'spiritual enlightenment' subforum is locked for people who post in 'Paranormal' subforum and the 'Mental masturbation' subforum; these two subforums should be locked for people who like to use the 'spiritual enlightenment' subforum. Also, alien life doesn't have to be categorized as 'paranormal' but still, as @blazed said, it is not the purpose of this forum... Here is the bottom-line: Neither the curiosity about paranormal stuff nor any kind of mental masturbation has got anything to do with the spiritual path or spiritual enlightenment. Usually, they are distractions..

A brain damage cannot make a person unenlightened... I don't think so I will tell you why.. First of all, matter vs consciousness problem doesn't matter here... During our spiritual progress, we are kind of deprogramming ourselves.. The work is like unwinding the knots, undoing certain associations and going back to the source by digging in. When we do spiritual practice, the effects of the practice can be observed in brain.. But that doesn't mean that a brain damage will take away all this.. The reason is: A brain damage is not capable of redoing those knots.... Our mind before enlightenment: A brain damage cannot do this all over again. Spiritual enlightenment is already a losing matter. It is not gaining something but losing something.. Losing the illusion and going back to the innocence of non-duality which is your true nature.. It is like peeling the layers of onion.

@egoless I went through all the 3 videos, 2 of Rupert and the 1 from Osho. Did you notice that both of them are talking about essentially the same thing? Rupert addresses a very basic discrimination required, the first step in the spiritual path. In the first video, he teaches how to clearly discriminate between the ever-changing bundle of thoughts, emotions, memories, and sensations that you call as 'me' and the unchanging pure awareness which is actually you. This discrimination between the observer and the observed is something that one first have to learn. Rupert talks about the direct method in the second video and teaches you how to remain as awareness instead of getting identified with thoughts.. Osho also talks about the same thing.. Rupert is doing a good job in both videos and really explains it very well. I agree with everything he said. Osho's method of witnessing actually helps you to stay as awareness.. For me, it was another way to approach self-inquiry. Witnessing cannot be called as practice but is actually a non-doing and remaining as the witness. But if you read and understand those links I gave you, I think it will be more helpful for you.

I want to introduce you all to a guy that I came across online. He has written a book about Kriya ego in which he tries to bust a lot of myths. After looking at the title and description, I went to his website. There is not much information about him but he has a free pdf. I haven't read the actual book he has published about kriya yoga yet, but what he says in that free book is completely true. It is not about kriya yoga but something that is in general about enlightenment. I can certainly say that what he says in that pdf file is the essence of the whole thing and will give you a clear understanding of what the spiritual path is all about. Since he has done a good job on that, I am letting you know about him. For more info, go here: http://realyoga.info/ If you understand what is said in that free book, that is all there is know about spiritual enlightenment. He has worded everything quite well.

@egolesssure... I don't have a headset attached right now.. Had listened to Isha Kriya video already.. But I will listen to this video of Rupert Spira shortly and leave my comment about it.. Haven't read anything by him or listened to him so far.

@egoless I will recommend reading the links given in this post rather than watching videos: Osho's talks had a different style... He has talks that have been published in over 600 books. A lot of times he just gossipped and many of his talks were also critical in nature, which was very useful for people during Osho's time. But since people here in the forum don't need a general introduction to many things he talked about, you can get into the essence right away. The essence of Osho's talks was 'witnessing' meditation. And the links in that post gives you everything you need to understand about witnessing. J.Krishnamurti's teachings were also centered around 'witnessing' . But he called it as choiceless awareness.

@egoless These are the direct words of Ramana Maharshi: "‘The self is reached by the search for the origin of the go and by diving into the Heart. This is the direct method of Self-realisation. One who adopts it need not worry about nadis, the brain centre (sahasrara), the sushmna, the paranadi, the kundalini, pranayama or the six centres (chakras)" And here is what J.Krishnamurti said:

@egoless I have told you three times.. .. Go with witnessing meditation by Osho and also try practices suggested by Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj and J. Krishnamurti. At least one of them will resonate with you deeply and offer tremendous help towards liberation.

@egoless I don't see much use in just mentally repeating I am not the mind and I am not the body, as explained in Isha kriya. It has to be very deep. But this practice is not totally useless.. It certainly has some initial value. But you can't just practice this for life to be enlightened.

@egoless I am familiar with Isha kriyas.. Don't bring up the topic of Sadhguru again. I have already told you about him clearly and have given many links to you.. It is not just only Osho that I agree with in many aspects .. I already have mentioned about other gurus like Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, J. Krishnamurti who I would strongly recommend.

@egoless I am not a fan of Kriya yoga as it is practiced in the modern days... The whole school of Yoga essentially originated from Samkhya philosophy. Both are the same apart from some minor differences. The early yoga was more direct and had an effective way towards enlightenment. But the school has been corrupted a lot. If you listen to authentic Gurus like Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, J. Krishnamurti etc, you will see that yoga, as it is practiced today, was not endorsed by them much. They called it as an indirect method, only helps to make you ready. It looks like the author of the book I mentioned has bashed the modern kriya yoga as it is taught today by modern gurus. If you read the reviews on Amazon, you will get the idea. After I read his free pdf, I feel that his published book may have some truth to it. But I cannot confirm it before reading. If you ask me about an effective method, I would say that any method of self-inquiry is more direct than yoga. And the type of self-inquiry that I suggest is witnessing, a technique taught by Osho. I can't say anything else about kriya yoga except that I feel it has potential to distract the seekers instead of helping them...

@blazed Just by going with the content of that free pdf, I think the published book is really useful. But I can't be sure without actually reading that book. I have sent a message to the author requesting a softcopy to review and told him that I am interested in featuring that book on my blog if I find it useful. Right now, I am not in a position to buy that book to review it. Because in Indian money, it costs about 10% of my monthly income...

@blazed Ok.. but you can be pretty sure that anything apart from what is written in that pdf is really unnecessary.. That is all there is to understand regarding a spiritual path. Because, when I read it, I can sense an authenticity in it.. There is nothing unwanted added and there was nothing in it which sounded odd.. Unless I find something odd in the published book (after I read it, Haven't bought it yet), I can say that the author might be a realized one, just going by the purity in his explanation.

@egoless 'enlightenment' defined as knowing the truth of existence may be interpreted in many different ways and hence, can be sometimes misleading.. Read this post and see if you can resonate with this: https://nellaishanmugam.wordpress.com/2017/12/20/is-spiritual-enlightenment-known-or-experienced/ You might have had a glimpse. It certainly changes many things but doesn't complete the seeking.. Osho used to say this: "You will come across many beautiful moments, you may be convinced that you have 'got it' many times, but don't stop! Dont make anything as your home.. Don't settle for anything'.. This was something that I remembered again and again.