Search the Community

The enlightened people are usually not in the media, take in mind that those on the public space are initiated by other unknown gurus. Sadhguru by far is one of the most awakened in the media hype.

Those who have brought themselves to know are awakened, those in the know are also enlightened and those who are awakened, enlightened and free of conscious or repressed beliefs are enlightened masters. As everyone on here apparently still has belief work to do, it doesn't look like we have an enlightened master among us at the moment.

@Outer That was a nice way of saying, that i'm lying or hallucinating. But don't worry. I'm not easily offended.^^ I don't doubt that. What i'm saying is, that there is more than one consciousness. Those entities literally said to me, that there are billions billions billions... of others. Well.. Atman and Brahman are fundamentally the same. I know. I get that. I wouldn't even start to doubt that. The hatchling inside an egg, is convinced of him being alone too. What i'm saying is something different. Since many of you are spiritually awakened, i would like to ask you, to experience it for yourself wether your convictions might be false. Take a really high dose of Marihuana and ask for god. Maybe he will answer. I really hope that, because it seems like, there are only a few who are experiencing what i do. I know, this sound like deluded-maya-i-know-better-than-everyone-else stuff, what i'm talking about, but you should take seriously what i'm saying. You don't know me. So it is fair and reasonable, that you can't take seriously what i'm talking about. You haven't experienced it. I won't judge. I'm just saying, that there is something else you can discover, if you are willing to do that. Leo said, that i'm not fully awakened yet, so everything i say must be false by default. This is the kind of argument, a scientific person would say to a religious person, no?! Before the scientific revolution everyone KNEW that illnesses are cured only when god want it to be cured. Scientist und physicians came up with solutions to cure them and everyone knew, that god doesn't exist. Many of them KNEW there is no god. How else could it be?Now spiritual people hold the same structure of argumentation against scientific people. And it seems like nondualism is becoming the biggest, because most convincing belief-system, which is holding us back. I'm not saying that non-dualism is false. I honestly don't know. What i'm saying is, that experiencing non-dualism isn't all there is. When i take everything into account, what i have experienced, then there is no doubt for me, that there is something beyond what you call the absolut. Something of more value. Stay open-minded and don't judge my state of awareness just by comparing to your own. This could be next-level-maya.

@Hellspeed thank you so much - I will absolutely be careful of this. I don't want to bring crap energy into our lives so I'll make sure we're engaging with awakened women only. Cheers

There are many happy people on this planet who aren't "awakened."

He is awakened, that being the reason, diet has little to do with it.

No worth connecting at a deep level with someone, unless one is awakened. Because of the suffering after, and the Stockholm Syndrome (they call this love in today's society) that is built after a deep connection.

I'm not enlightened, yet I think I've have had some temporary experiences that could be considered enlightened experiences (based on how awakened teachers talk about it). When you say "Enlightenment is realizing the absolute truth, so it's kind of how you see reality." I don't have a full understanding, yet based on my glimpses - it seems like this is a piece of a higher truth. Like one facet of a diamond.

There are very experienced meditators and teachers with decades of practice like Kenneth Folk, Shinzen Young, Culadasa, Michael Taft that are not 100% convinced about the ultimate truth I recommend watching the entire interview with him on Buddha at the Gas Pump https://deconstructingyourself.com/podcast/dy-004-feather-light-paper-thin-guest-shinzen-young Shinzen Young says that this is not something he can say with great confidence LSD study shows decreases in alpha, beta, theta and delta brain waves but what about gamma? A neuroscientist in a video where Martin Ball smokes 5-MeO-DMT said "consistent with a lot of the other research that's been done, gamma tends to increase" so if the fastest brainwave increases, isn't that in line with what materialist paradigm would suggest? General anesthesia There is an argument that if you become sufficiently conscious (master Samatha meditation), you can have some consciousness even in deep dreamless sleep. This is true, however, general anesthesia seems to knock out even those people completely to non-consciousness https://youtu.be/AyFdmhwCpOM?t=23m49s Nirodha samapatti AKA anupādisesa nibbāna. There is some controversy on whether or not the version of nibbāna where there is an experience can be called nibbāna, but what about this sort of classic version of nibbāna where there is no experience at all, no consciousness, no non-dual/being infinite? I mean exactly like a materialist would imagine a death to be like. It requires very good meditation skills, furthermore, it's traditionally said to be only possible for non-returners (anāgāmi) and Buddhas (arahants) so only highly awakened with great meditation skills, we may say very conscious people. All this training to discover a materialist paradigm fitting extinction of all mental activity. Many believe that this is precisely what Buddha meant by Nirvana.

This is the strangest day of my life. Today I've realized that low consciousness is the cause of all suffering. Lack of awareness is the cause of all perceived shortcomings in life. High consciousness is the key to mastering life. Realizing what I actually am was the biggest mindfuck of all time. What am I? What is reality? What is the fundamental nature of existence? The answer to these questions is so grandiose and unbelievable that my mind is going crazy trying to comprehend the implications this discovery. The universe has suddenly reached a breakthrough in it's evolution today. Now we must continue to go further. I may be in a hysterical state of mind as I'm writing this, but I just need to talk about this. This forum is an excellent place to talk about the Truth. This is the most important endeavor we could possibly pursue. You can't live life to your fullest potential unless you are in touch with your true nature. There are two powerful forces fighting for control in this universe. The force of illusion is dulling our minds, it's distracting us from Truth, it causes us to antagonize each other, and works to entangle us with a false narrative. The force of consciousness is working to reveal the true nature of reality, as well as encouraging acceptance and love for each other and ourselves. Most of all, the force of consciousness is behind the evolution of reality towards greater complexity. Eventually you will all realize what you are, because you can't avoid it. Ignorance cannot be sustained. I'm still in so much disbelief over what just happened. Earlier today, on the date this thread is posted, I experienced an awakening. I can't look at life the same way anymore. When I awakened, my initial reaction was pure astonishment. The Truth is unbelievable, but also undeniable once you see it. First, I couldn't believe I was so stupid to not see something that is so incredibly obvious. The Truth has always been accessible, all I had to do was look at it. That is the funny thing about Awakening, once you realize what you actually are it becomes so obvious, so blatant, that only the most profound ignorance could prevent you from seeing it. I am actually shocked at how unconscious people are, considering the availability of quality literature on the topic, as well as countless clues hinting at non-duality. I'm actually surprised so few people actually figure this out, there's so many resources to help you awaken if you simply apply hard effort. There are actually numerous signs all over the place hinting at the Truth (including this entire website), but we never decipher them. It's a shame, because Awakening is the most important thing you should worry about. It's impossible to have any control over your life if you're not even aware of what's actually going on. If you haven't awakened yet, I urge you to do so as soon as possible. Earlier today I was struck with an "enlightenment" experience and I wish to write about it while I am still awake. After discovering for myself exactly what "Enlightenment" refers to, I found there are many ways to describe the process of becoming conscious. I like to call it "Going Lucid", because it's very much like becoming lucid within a dream, except you are doing so in this reality. "Awakening" is a good term to use as well. Unfortunately any term will be slightly misleading and won't help you understand what it actually means to awaken. Below I'll do my best to convey what Enlightenment was like and try to accurately describe what it actually means. But first I want to point out that Enlightenment is not that hard to attain. For those of you who are still seeking "Enlightenment", it's just a matter of discovering what you already are. All you really need to do is just carefully observe reality, and you'll realize your true nature. All it takes is honest effort. I'm going to describe what happened as best I can. The awakening was not aroused by psychedelics or even meditation. It was desperation that aroused it. For the past couple months, I've been spending the majority of my waking hours contemplating my own existence, desperate to figure out what I am and what this reality actually is. Leo's recent videos were some of the deepest talks I've ever heard from Actualized.org. "Life is a Dream", as well as "Life is a Maze" were the two videos that hit me the hardest. Leo's words stirred something in me. It made me angry. I couldn't take it anymore. I was sick and tired of being in the dark, so I decided that I'm going to keep investigating this reality non-stop until I finally solve the mystery. I let go of everything I cared about except finding the truth. In the following weeks, I examined all the concepts Leo was discussing, and cross-referencing his ideas with other Enlightened masters, most of which I found in the Turquoise thread. I couldn't understand many of the concepts, such as an organic, intelligent, universe, or what non-duality actually meant. Whenever Leo talked about "becoming infinite" it just sounded like gibberish to me. I couldn't even understand the significance of a Samadhi experience. Suddenly all that changed in a single moment, after a certain line of thought. I was thinking to myself, "I am just a concept, and concepts are just thoughts, and thoughts are just sensations, and all of reality is sensation. That means that reality is nothing but this, the present moment. It's just this. Nothing exists but the present. But what am I? If the person I think I am is just an idea on par with any other unverified belief, then what is this? Wait a minute, could it be that I am everything? This entire reality could actually be just a creation of the mind, just as thoughts are? What if this is actually a dream, and everything and everyone is just an aspect of my mind? Wait a minute, if I actually observe reality as objectively possible, I will discover that it's the only explanation!" While considering these thoughts, it finally hit me, but it something beyond thoughts, something far more intimate. All of the sudden everything came crashing down. I looked around the room and everything felt like it was part of me. Everything, including inanimate objects, felt alive, as one living entity. ALL IS ONE! All of us, WE'RE ALL THE SAME MIND, THE SAME PERSON! Leo's words are exactly right, the universe is one super-intelligent organism. I just couldn't believe it. It's just so damn obvious. I created Leo, I created this website, I created the entire universe. And I don't mean this person typing this created the universe, I mean that the universe is all ONE PERSON. It's ONE INTELLIGENCE, which has created this complex reality for it's own amusement. THIS IS GOD! DON'T YOU SEE? Metaphysically, this all is a dream. Don't you know what that means?! It's all created by a super intelligent mind, which is what I am, it's what you are, it's what all this is. When I realized this, I burst out into laughter. It was the most hilarious punchline of all time. My entire life was a joke up to this point, and this was the fucking punchline. I thought about how much effort and seriousness I put into finding trying to be "enlightened" when after all, the Truth is so fucking obvious that you have to willfully distract yourself from it. It's just silly. I couldn't stop laughing at myself, at how stupid I was for not even noticing this. I just can't fucking believe how easy it was the whole time. This reality is fucking amazing, I LOVE this shit. I fucking love all of it. This reality is fucking genius! I'm really only writing to myself. This whole website is just the universe trying to make itself more conscious. That's the trajectory of our evolution. This is only the beginning. There is still so much to do. There is still infinite knowledge and infinite wisdom to be had. I've been spending years trying to figure out what Spiritual Enlightenment actually means, and today, it came to me at a random moment. I am trying as hard as I can to hold onto this state of consciousness, for there is still a risk of falling back asleep. Even after I gazed at the truth, despite how incredible is, I still must learn to embody it. I still have all my old habits and the same mind, the only difference is that I'm more aware of what is actually happening. Spiritual Enlightenment doesn't mean you automatically transform into a Holy Guru who has perfect control over himself. Enlightenment is the overcoming of delusion. Enlightenment is the prerequisite for genuine personal development, not the end goal. How can you properly improve yourself if you don't even know what you are?

Is this a genuine deja vu thing, or do you mean it philosophically, like life is the same thing again and again and again? ETA: If it's deja vu, maybe you're like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, and the only way to break out of the repetition of similar days (and lives) is to "wake up." He broke out of his predicament by applying love and compassion to everything. Then he was awakened. Groundhog Day is really about enlightenment to me.

Sleeping yes, is like being awakened. Is a stage in life. So awake and no need for sleep anymore

An interesting discussion at Reddit: Why are Mooji's disciples so emotional? https://www.reddit.com/r/awakened/comments/8azov1/why_are_moojis_disciples_so_emotional/ For instance: blackholespiral said: "Some of these people have gone through much hardship in life with no true spiritual guidance, so to hear a truth from someone who lives the truth and became the truth can be a profound experience (Whether you agree that he became the truth or not is irrelevant, to his followers he did). Especially when the teacher's teachings result in a long awaited inner reconciliation or emotional release of a long held blockage. The spiritual path is full of tears, the best tears ever shed" Vasukki said: "I have seen him say those things too, that the answer is in them. Even at the beginning of the satsangs he says to let go of their mind etc etc. As you said I think that most people are looking for a therapeutic guru more than anything else" .

I thought I write this because its helpful to those of you here who have active Kundalini but not much knowledge about it: Short Description: Siddha Yoga is the Kundalini Path of enlightenment. Kundalini is divine energy which has manifested and upholds your current state of ignorance. In Siddha Yoga, truth or reality is described as having two aspects (which really are the same) known as Shiva, which is unmanifest potential (often described as pure void), and Shiva, dynamic creative energy which manifests the world within/from/as Shiva). Now after manifesting an individual, the Shakti resides as Kundalini within the body and lies dormant. In special cases, whether through divine grace, or the grace of a guru, the Kundalini can become active. It then works within your system and rewires it so your body can uphold higher and higher states of enlightenment. It will eventually leave its resting place at the base of the spine, reaches the top of the head, and merges with Shiva. The state of enlightenment is described as Sat (being-ness), Cit (Consciousness), Ananda (Bliss). Stages of enlightenment There are several stages of enlightenment (Consciousness) within this model: Ignorant - Self-explanatory Awakened - A person who has "awoken" to the spiritual path, and has begun to question the nature of reality (his own nature). Turyia - A transitory stage before self-realization. The person has begun to seriously doubt and dis-identify with the ego, but is helpless in doing so thanks to subtle identification mechanisms that have not been crushed yet. Dark night (or years) of the mind often happens right before/at this stage as the mind frantically search to find its true nature but cannot come up with an answer. Self-realized - He who has lost all identification with the body/mind/emotions/ego and moreover has lost the identification mechanisms bring about ignorance. God-Consciousness - The person begins to see the divine in everything around him but himself. He has achieved non-duality within, but there is still a duality between him and the outside world. The dark night (or years) of the soul begin here as the person sees (projects) god in everything but himself, and this makes him miserable). Unity Consciousness - The person unity between the inner and the outer. Duality stops here. Shiva Consciousness - Happens within Blue Consciousness where the individual soul merges with the blue being (Krishna, Mary, Jesus etc.) Practices A seeker in the Siddha Yoga path uses many methods to assist him. He can receive Shaktipat to arouse Kundalini. He can use self-inquiry to silence the mind. He can contemplate the nature of god as Sat, Cit, Ananda (which is called Dhyana, the true form of meditation). He can use kriyas and pranayamas to arouse more and more shakti within him.

@DrewNows Self realization: Abidance in the self without identification with an ego. This is where the identification mechanisms that cause you to identify as an "I" (I-ness) has been crushed. Turiya: A transitory state where you have seen the illusion of the ego, but can't help identifying with it because there are subtle identification mechanisms within you that need to go away. Awakened: You have begun to question reality. Ignorat: welp stage.

For a long time I've been trying to understand my atypical sexual expression and polarity, which seems quite unusual. Despite having always been super attracted to the feminine, I was often assumed to be homosexual based on my interests and lack thereof. And while I don't feel like a woman trapped in a man's body, the way I relate to men and women is often described as more like a female than a straight male would. Now I have no attachment to being masculine, willing to accept by true nature whatever it is. So here I'll list some of my experiences, in the hopes of getting a clearer picture of what is going on: I've never had any interest in watching sports or other competition. Instead I get deep emotional enjoyment from love dramas, I'd be bored out of my mind watching a football game, but found shows like The O.C. and Dawson's Creek deeply entertaining and satisfying. Likewise in real life, I am extremely averse to competition, and never felt the drive to achieve or accomplish anything in typical masculine fashion. My bliss is to be in the flow of life, experience the feminine, and enjoy sensual experiences. I don't ever seem capable of caring about anything beyond myself so much that I feel deeply driven and passionate about it. I see men at large as being the disposable gender, human doings only valued for their work, selflessly committing to being a utility. I never felt this way about myself, always considered myself equally valuable and worthy of comfort and protection as much as any female. I seek out sensually satisfying experiences through the 5 senses, and this is that gives me the most physical pleasure in life. Like eating food, smelling aromas, feeling textures, looking at women, listening to music. To me life isn't meaningful, it's sensual. I love to get swept up pop music with soft, sweet sensual feminine vocals. Often find myself listening to stuff like Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Vanessa Carlton and Mandy Moore songs from the early 2000s, which make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I never seem to fit in with other guys, never felt comfortable in groups of men, can't hardly relate to them. Talking to women is easy and relaxing for me, talking to men often feels brash and makes me uneasy. Also making eye contact with unfamiliar men is very uncomfortable, or even scary. I often find myself crossing the street to avoid walking directly towards another man on the sidewalk, especially if it's a large or aggressive looking man, it's like my body goes into fight/flight mode so I remove myself & just stay relaxed. But I have no problems making eye contact with women. In fact I very much enjoy looking deep into the pupils of an attractive female, which comes easily and natural to me when doing no-fap. The few male friends I have become close with seem to be more 'tame' than typical men, not the roughhousing, one-upping, prank-pulling, sports watching bro guys, they don't smell, are open to talking about their feelings, aren't egocentric, and don't judge me. I am very drawn to the sent of women, but repulsed by male scent. This alone makes me not want to be around other men much. My ideal experience of intimacy would be to just cuddle endlessly with a beautiful woman, embrace, touch and caress her all over, but not actually having any sexual acts with her that involve my own genitalia, just being in intimate contact without leading to orgasm and ejaculation. Sexual release feels like inferior low-consciousness pleasure, which leaves me feeling numb and depleted afterwards, and this activity is something I don't want to do anymore, whether alone or with women. I have never had sex before but was very addicted to masturbating for most of my teens and 20s. I mean an extreme addiction, fapping 5-10 times a day, often for many hours. This year I have finally broken that addiction, and it seems permanent. I can experience much more pleasurable vibrations from breathwork, meditation and other practices, and these leave me more awakened and energized afterward, the complete opposite of ejaculating. But despite overcoming and transmuting sexual urges, I still gravitate towards sensuality, and very drawn towards female bodies as objects of desire. There seems to be nothing more captivating to me in life than the wish to touch, or look at beautiful women, and it seems unavoidable that my focus is on pursuing that drive, or finding ways to cope without it. Just trying to figure out what is going on here with this unusual energy polarity and atypical gender expression, and how to deal with it. Nothing left to hide and no ego to protect.

@Misagh From the perspective of social evolution, lower SD levels get phased out and new higher levels appear. For example, there are very few purple-centered people in the world. Eventually, purple will become extinct. And then red will become extinct. And then blue becomes extinct etc. As more people reach the higher levels, new distinctions will appear. When 20% of the population is centered in Yellow, new modes of thinking will emerge. Yellow could get divided into four distinct levels. Similarly, entirely new levels will emerge. Yet, there needs to be a critical mass of people at high conscious levels for even higher conscious levels to emerge. Consider the rise of civilizations such as the Roman Empire. Before civilizations, purple and red dominated. Orange, Green and Yellow didn't exist. With the rise of civilizations, Blue dominated and a little Orange appeared. Green and Yellow didn't exist. When enough people reached Orange, green emerged. Currently less than 1% of the world's population are Yellow-centered. Some people touch Turquoise and have transient Turquoise experiences. Yet, people centered in Turquoise are extremely rare. Perhaps 1 in 10 million people? There are too few people centered in Turquoise for a higher level to emerge. The few Turquoise-centered people in the world seem more concerned about helping people to evolve than developing a level higher than Turquoise. And the rare Turquoise-awakened beings don't communicate at a Turquoise level. 99.99% of the population are well below Turquoise and wouldn't know what the hell the teacher was talking about. Turquoise level teachers often attract higher conscious people to their satsangs and retreats. Yet, the vast majority are Green-centered with a few glimpses of Turquoise experiences. Turquoise-level teachers describe Turquoise in terms Green can understand. Once a person starts having Turquoise experiences they will notice how Turquoise teachers are holding back and have more Turquoise to explore. For example, I now understand better about how the Turquoise teacher Adyashanti communicates with a Green audience. At times, I get a sense that there is more Turquoise for him to explore. Turquoise-centered people are not developing and teaching about Coral. IMO, Coral is just speculation from people that haven't advanced far enough to even comprehend the basics of Turquoise. It's human nature to make shit up about stuff we don't understand. People have been making shit up for thousands of years about gods. And now people are making shit up about Coral . There just aren't enough Turquoise people for a true Coral to emerge. I predict new higher levels will emerge when about 10% of the population is Yellow and 1% Turquoise - we are a loooong way off from that. I've only met one Turquoise-centered person who was being in Turquoise - he didn't drop down to yellow or green to communicate with me. He was a fellow I met in a relatively isolated tribe in the mountains of Peru. He was unlike anyone I have ever met. He was unlike Turquoise teachers on youtube. He didn't communicate through reason/logic or relative modes of thinking. There was an amazing presence about him and there was an energy just being around him. No words or language necessary. I spent as much time as I could around him. We only exchanged a few words. Yet, the communication was beyond words. It was really bizarre to me. An analogy might be meeting a highly-evolved AI from the year 2400. It was a unique energy and experience. . . Society is nowhere near this guy's level. And society is nowhere near whatever Coral turns out to be.

Breath. No need drugs. Drugs are for the awakened, to speed up the drama and healing.

we all know the pointings of all the religious texts is towards this non-duality which is confused but investigating that further to find the true-er meaning... as bible/quran say that do good and then you will get heaven and live there eternally heaven = enlightenment / end of the Ego/personal self so once 'someone' gets enlightenment - will 'he/she' now eternally exist in that blissful state after the death of 'their' body? like when mooji or e.tolle's body physically dies in this world, their now 'awakened soul' will not re-attach to another human baby form or something and have to live out life? will that 'awakened soul' just exist (we cannot say what, but will it not be reborn again? live eternally in heaven that is) ? yes, i know before/after enlightenment - chop wood carry water. but wanted to explore this point. another thing is this, it seems "pointless" in a way that if in my current living life, i get enlightenment and then live out the rest of it in a non-dual state only then to be reborn as another human avatar and live a life of suffering again it does seem imperative that enlightenment should be the end of the illusory world finally, i also firmly believe that the mystical/magical/fairtale version of heaven is there to be had as well - if an abiding muslim prays 5 times a day, does good, harms no one, lives selflessly (while still in a egoic mind) i.e. does good deeds, isn't bad to anyone etc. then she/he will attain heaven after their 'death' just like a person experiences their respective beliefs during a psychedelic trip or during a near-death experience - same way upon the death of their physical body, they will experience something in line with their belief - a heaven with flowing rivers of milk, fruits, women, whatever gets you excited i believe that the ending of the personal self ego is the highest level but living out this life of illusion as a pious, kind person such that your soul/consciousness is not guilty and is at peace would equal to getting the next level of existence within the illusion and that would be heaven ... or hell if one holds that belief and they have done "wrong" according to them for which their soul is not at peace (eternal bad trip after death awaits those)

@abundance For sure - it's a bona-fide awakening. You awakened that "the story" each human creates is a fabrication. After I had this awakening, I used the same analogy as you - it was like realizing we are playing actors on a stage. And that we are much more than playing the script we are given. Your *knowing* of this now runs deeper than intellectual knowledge - you also have direct experience knowledge. After various forms of awakenings, it is super common to backslide into the previous perspective. For example, the ego may get caught up playing the actor again. The ego may try to dismiss the experience as being irrational. Yet, once you really see an insight, you cannot unsee it. It might get buried and dormant for a while - yet it is always there. The next time you have a similar direct experience - you will remember and know. If you want to strengthen the insight, contemplate it for a while. Don't over-analyze it. Sit with it and see what arises. See if you can revisit that space. Be mindful of your resistance to revisiting that space.

Eckhart Tolle got awakened with 0hours of practice.

@Good-boy if you think fousey tube is awakened your just as bipolar as he is.

Buddhism is the path of negation. It is suitable for some and not for others. The end goal of liberation can be reached by various means. Different strokes for different folks. You can reach it despite having a shitload of concepts all along the way. For example, surrender to guru's grace. There are many atheists, e.g. who take up Buddhism because their ego requires they reject all deities and avatars. Many will fail to reach enlightenment because they are rejecting something which is in actuality a part of them. You do not get to persistently reject something which is really a part of yourself and become awakened. It is not about the vehicle, grand or lesser. It is about the passenger.

@vinett Ahhh, you have encountered the limits of language. You can explore various ideas of what each of those terms mean. Yet keep in mind, there is no universal definition. For example, some awakened spiritual teachers use the first four terms you list as synonymous. Other teachers use the terms slightly differently and other teachers may use them completely differently. It sucks. I know. It's important to get a sense how someone is using a term - what is the context? For example, when I first listened to Rupert Spira, I noticed he was using the term "God" a lot. I thought "Oh geez, another holy roller religious nut" and I moved on. Yet, then I noticed many awakened people considered Spira as I wise awakened teacher. I thought "What gives?". I re-visited his videos. In one video he said that he used the terms awareness, presence, consciousness and God as synonyms. That completely changed the meaning of his talks for me and I had to recontextualize everything he was saying about God. Using the term "God" the same as "Consciousness" is VERY different than using the term "God" as an authoritarian guy in the sky that judges what is right and wrong. Humans assume their definition is "normal" and that everyone else uses the term the same way. This can be fine for terms like coffee cup and pencil. Yet, people can give very different meanings to words like "relationship", "respect" and "honesty". From my POV, many interpersonal conflicts are due to people assuming they have the "normal" definition of a term and that everyone else uses the same definition.

How much does it shit in the woods? I think its a really good question, one as a 20 year spiritual practitioner have found myself blindly thinking suffering goes on more then it maybe does. I can see how this has formed a perhaps false idea of reality, and served as a reason to feel as though I have a solution to all this suffering (not to say the spiritual life and lessons can uplift or benefit humanity). Its also weighed on my heart in a belief that reality is a lot worse then maybe it actually. I mean if we are to take into account any use of happiness surveys that ask how much a person feels content for what ever reasons that feel they are content, or summarize how they feel during a question of if they are happy, who is to say thats not happy? From what I've read it seems like people stat being relatively happy/content 50-70%. Interesting though that this is across 100 or so countries (a really interesting side fact is all countries when asked what do they think is the average level of happiness of the general population, they answer 30-50% lower then reported). Its really easy to think everyone deep down is really just a mess and suffering, and perhaps it is this way, but the percentage of people that have psychological issues (anxiety, depression of all levels, bi-polar, suicide statistics, etc) It's maybe 20% of the population. Sure maybe people are "self" medicating via drugs, alcohol, and food, and what ever craving we can think of, but perhaps some of this is a projection onto a generalized whole from a spiritual slant. I mean I believe a lot of the people who get into spirituality and the ones that awakened to something greater, had a lot going on, perhaps more then the average joe, their experience of humanity may not be a actual reflection of the human condition. Im no expert, but if I had to guess the general okayness/not suffering/kinda content of the general population is 40-50%, 20-30% pretty happy (even if its not for reasons of self knowing, bliss, god recognition) and then a gradual gradation going down into the into unhappy/suffering levels. Still lots to improve, its just not what I think the people who are really suffering and seeking spirituality generally think. Again I'm talking about general feelings of ones life, not if there isn't impactful emotional moments or tragedies, I think these are more common and most people face stuff that is regarded as hardship, but I'm not sure if that makes "most" people not like their life