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I've thought about quite a bit myself. I often hear awakened beings say things like nonduality cannot be explained, only pointed to. I acknowledge that has been true for thousands of years - yet I question whether that is an assumption. What if in 200 years all beings are in nondual states? It was not a mindset people had to work years and years to reach. People are born and raised into it. If that was "normal" would not a method of communication arise? Perhaps hyper-intuition would serve as a "language".

I can only speak from my experience. But if your looking for something to happen (Self-Realization) that can't stand the test of objectified scrutinization, you'll miss it. I've been really trying to answer the very specific nature of your question for a little while now, because I think it holds the key to more people waking up. The best analogy I can put it in, is, you just remember something you forgot, like oh ya I put my keys over there. Prior you had no knowledge of where the keys were, and then boom, oh ya they are right here.... but like many other awakened teachers have commented on in the past, breaking down your ego through spiritual practice increases the chances to have the remembrance.

Keeping in mind that this is just a metaphor, one way it's been put is that ignorance is actually a very special kind of thought: a veiling thought, a thought which covers up. It's the thought of forgetfulness. When consciousness reflects that thought, you get the idea of an "ignorant" mind. When that veiling thought disappears, you get the thought of an "awakened" mind. But both are simply images in the projector of consciousness.

I have been doing lots of healing lately of my fears and doubts. And through this I’ve observed many amazing things about my mind, and behaviors. Changing my diet was most effective not when I restricted myself, and used effort. When I anchored myself in the heart I started to became super conscious of how junk food effect my whole energy system, especially the mind, and naturally didn’t want it anymore. It reminds me of the saying that it’s effortless to be ourselves. In my journey the whole time I was looking for ways to optimize my life, going from one practice to another. Now one of those practices is Iyengar Yoga. Yet I can’t help thinking about yoga all day when I force myself to do it. This is one of the insights I came across. That all thoughts need to be let go of ultimately. When we allow the one thought to have our attention or be more important than others such as “I need to do yoga” the ego will keep giving us this thought and draw us in. And because of this, it is much easier to let go of all thoughts. Otherwise we will still be in ego most of the day, which is my experience precisely. It’s effortless to be ourselves. I don’t need a thought to tell me what to do, I leave that entirely to the heart as best that I can, because I know that in there is where real happiness isn’t found, and worry is nowhere to be seen. A fun contemplation I had once was, “How can I be doubtful and fearful about the future or what action to take next and feel happy and peaceful at the same time?”. Interesting right! The ego projects so much doubt onto something that is always happy, our true selves, for no reason other than fearing change. The actual experience removes all fears and doubts because we can’t be afraid and happy at the same time Also in my life i am doing a candida cleanse and giving my face a herbal treatment by dr Christopher to remove acne scars. And that’s all. The rest I place upon Gods shoulders, as it was meant to be. The ego is not meant to guide us. As Ramana Maharshi said once, when we get on a train we don’t carry our luggage on our heads the whole trip, we put our luggage down and let the train carry it for us. The luggage is all of our fears about the future (thoughts), but the train already knows where it’s going, we just need to sit back, and watch the beautiful scenery out the window. We don’t know, but the train knows the future. Another quote from the Maharshi is that we need only give up thoughts, we can keep everything else. In practice, Jesus is this challenging! But the challenge after a while becomes rewarding, and stopping the stories feels like putting down another 20 kilo bag of luggage on the train that we were carrying. At every turn life challenges me through people mostly to stay centered, and helps me release fears. It will bring up a fear in me through my Mum for example such as, “What are you doing with your life? University is coming soon. You need to do something to not be homeless”. Ahh that’s one of my favorites. It feels so good to hear something like that and just let that 1000 kilo fear pass through my awareness and be placed accordingly on the train. And I love this about life, how it makes me afraid, and how it’s tests me. It’s hard to stay in the heart already with my mind, but also with people it makes it next level, but also, it means lots of subconscious healing. This is where I am. It is a process. The final step of it is happening right now which is letting go of all thoughts. There is no more for “me” to do, the rest is in the hands of the the Universe. There are so many questions inside of me wanting to be answered like, “Can I be awakened and be a mathematician if I can’t have thoughts?” and so on. This is another trap. The mind is like a tree, the questions are the leaves on it. When you answer a question it will grow another leave and so another question arises. The only sure way to answer all questions is to get the tree at the roots. When questions remain unanswered doubt and anxiety arise. This is a test and a healing taking place. When I stay centered, happiness will come, and then the fear goes, leaving peace. And the cycle continues when I lose focus on the heart, then fear comes, bringing with it other fears in the form of thoughts. Then I let go of these thoughts and surrender, feeling peace again. Sometimes the thoughts just come in breaking the peace at the times when I’m least prepared, and then i return to peace again. As this process of healing takes place the times of peace increase, and the strength of the mind to let go of even the most important thought ever imaginable is increased. Where will this take me? Even that question brings up fears, and then I return to peace. The only reality is peace. May I be able to reside in it. And even if I can’t reside in it, I will return to peace. Even in the most doubtful state I have learnt that we can return to peace with the power of intention. I will return now to peace again. So long dormant stars of this world.

By transmission of Silence do you mean the idea that other minds can be awakened through the silent presence of one who is awakened? Ramana Maharshi was notorious for having that power. As far as my silent presence, I think I've seen a little of that effect, nowhere near the power of RM. I don't really know what that is. Part of me thinks it's akin to a kind of mystical power that some sages and not others have, but that it's not deeply related to awakening itself. Which makes sense in terms of the fact that awakening itself is not the final truth, but is a provisional concept.

Thanks for sharing, that was great. Intentions on these substances can have powerful impacts. You ever done mushrooms with the same intention, you may get a visit from god or a awakened being, seriously no joke.

Because you are still convinced you are right in some way. You are afraid to let go of your beliefs as it is the only thing you have left. You have to let go of everything with which you identify. You could be awakened in 2 hours from now if you would read the entire website http://www.foundationsofhumanlife.com But you aren't going to are you? Because you believe that what it says on the website isn't true or that it does not apply to you because... (Fill it in). What you are going to fill in, is what is holding you back. P.s. my words are meant to hurt, if you are agitated by them the more they apply to you. You will not get awakened by having people patting you on the back.

@winterknight I'm become obsessed with intellectualising about non duality and enlightenment throughout the day, getting bogged down trying to figure out the meaning of labels like awareness, consciousness, etc. I'm always trying to work it out. Is this simply pointless? Unless maybe I'm doing it consistently using self enquiry, which I haven't been...or maybe contemplation, which some gurus swear by. But it's like I always feel I should be thinking about it and feel guilty when my mind gets distracted with anything other than existential questions. I've become so obsessed with spirituality that I feel I'm not living life to the fullest. I'm always searching...searching, doing this technique or that technique. I'm a hermit, very introverted and see relationships as a distraction. Will this go against me in the long run? If I want to become awakened? I'm worried I might be using spirituality as a smokescreen to avoid sorting out more obvious stuff...

That said thanks for the thread, you seem to be awakened. Since awakened people tend to have a bad memory, can you figure out a way in which you get back to the forum so you can answer BETTER questions, especially those relating to people's practice. Other people in the Advaita tradition keep away from answering philosophical questions and instead focusing on practice and progress. As evident by the neuroscience of Awakening, no one will be by listening to a Guru speak, only by practice. If that is what they want right now, you bring a good case about figuring out one's desires, with psychotherapy and expressive, creative things, which are good insights.

Typically if someone says they're enlightened they really are, in the case they're not lying or -- are deluded -- which one can tell if they're for instance incoherent, babbling on about some crazy shit. It almost never happens on the forum that someone says "I am enlightened," because almost no one is enlightened. Some people write as if they are but you've never seen them say they are for good reason. If you say you're enlightened you're subject to scrutiny and since deep in people's hearts they know they aren't, they won't say it. At the same time Richard Feynman has said: "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool." So people... don't go around thinking you're enlightened until... it's impossible to deny. Then when you are feel free to do as this guy does. Also playing semantic games about saying "You can't say you're enlightened because there's no I to be enlightened"... An enlightened person doesn't give a fuck in saying "I" since it's just language, communication. True as Feynman has said it's good to not fool yourself... So see everyone as "awakening" including yourself, and the "awakened" state being a threshold on this continuum. That awakening continuum is in my view, with its thresholds, is just a form of practice to continue awaken.

Also when Jesus was nailed to the cross you think he was suffering? No. He remained in total love and compassion to all the beings. When they were nailing him he was not a bit angry, frustrated, or any negative emotion.. He said I forgive.you all. And I love you all. That's why we hold him an awakened being. A devine being And it's not a yogic discipline it's what every authentic sage can do.

Your Pre-Awakened state was a state of your brain. It can be reversed and poof, there's delusion again, but consciousness never changed. Bernardo Kastrup talks about how the "receiver" of consciousness is like an individual whirlpool in a sea of consciousness. I guess it's called Atman? Most people who are enlightened actually say they are in some form or another, that so few do it on the forum isn't out of modesty, but because they aren't. I think.

What happens at night when you go to sleep, does consciousness turn off to turn on during dreaming or when you awake? How come that in consciousness there's vision at a contour of a body, feelings, thoughts, all that are linked to this same body? Might it not be that actually, this body, is a receiver of consciousness, by as yet, an undetermined mechanism in the brain? Because your brain changed once you awakened.

Actually, the Buddha started just that way: he called himself Tathagata, the awakened one. It's right in that set of Buddhist scriptures known as the Pali canon.

You're awakened, to some threshold, but what do you think of "enlightenment being capable of endless enlargement"?

@Leo Gura There's a book in the booklist where it's mentioned that Kundalini must be awakened to get enlightened? What do you think of this?

"I am at the peak of my youth right now and I'm having lot's of opportunities to develop right now. I'm super excited about my future, cause I have now idea yet how it will turn out, but it sure is going to be fucking epic! I still get to live at home, which is nice because my relationship to my parents is not to healthy right now, and this way I have the chance to get closer to them. I don't have a lot of friends that distract me from doing my inner work, which is great! I'm working on developing a few, very close friendships though, because I want to build a really strong support system. This is why I'm implementing habits and systems right now to be more social. I'm so excited about getting this handled! Yesterday my car insurance told me that I will lose quite a lot of money. At first I thought it sucked, but then I had the chance to watch all my insecurities and unhandled negative mindsets. I looked at them, disidentified, it's not "my" money, not "my" thoughts after all. Life at the moment just is full of interesting challenges like that. It's sometimes difficult, but I'm getting stronger and stronger because of it. This also makes me sure that I'm not just gonna be an average person that accomplishes nothing. GROWTH BABY! \m/ I feel a lot of fear around my life purpose. That shows how important of a topic it is for me. The next step is working on those fears, doing Leo's fear excercises in the course and also contemplating, researching and finding my own solutions. It's just part of the Life Purpose process and I trust that the universe, perfect as it is, gives me exactly what I need to walk my path. I realized that I still carry around a lot of victim mentality, so I'm constantly working on raising my consciousness through meditation and contemplation, shining awareness on all these victim beliefs. What is also super nice is that I get to live in San Fran, a huge city with a tooon of opportunities and fascinating people. Really helps with my project on socializing and building a solid circle of friends. But I also know that I can always move if I feel the need. FREEDOM BABY! \m/ I'm such an awesome little ego on the path to self actualization and eventually getting rid of myself. Life is a maze and it is fucking aMAZEing how tricky it actually is. These are exciting times. I'm still in the beginning of my journey and a lot of outside as well as inside things are there that I will keep working on. But I have awakened. I can never fall back asleep completely. I love this whole mess <3" This is what I see when I look at your post. You're awesome, keep going!

I'm just saying this notion of looking for truth from a shakipat or psychadelics, or talking about it in ways like "$1 million is worth paying for it" is the wrong question or way of thinking about it. Truth is always here, its right here, this present moment, it's all experience, "it is what it is" you saying you dont see truth is like saying "I can't see!!!!", when you're eyes are wide open, so the awakened people are trying to tell you are already seeing, but you don't believe it because truth is so obvious that it's overlooked. So the awakened they tell to try on different glasses (try different techniques), and when those glasses change your vision a little bit making it more blurry or focused you're like "ooooh shittttee something is happening!" it's hilarious as f**k, omg don't you guys find this as funny as I do? it's absolutely hilarious, I can't stop chuckling.... ok I'm good.

@gilded_honour Sorry I don't know the answer to your question but this reminded me of one time when I tried to talk about nonduality with my dad and he just blanked out. I mean he fell asleep in like 15sec and started snoring :D:D:D funny how for some people's mind is resisting so much that even if you utter anything close to truth it will shut off The answer to your question is probably going to be some metaphysical, spiritual, celestial dimensionless type of answer I heard that just by getting exposed to surtain things like a guru or sacred places can deside that you'll get awakened in next life. So there are a lot of things, like a million things that influence this thing. What is the most mind boggling thing to me is how some sages can reincarnate into the next life being fully confident that they'll get enlighten. Like they fix something inside to make that happen. As I said... This is some meta spiritual stuff

@Jcent Def sounds like kundalini energy being awakened. The navel chakra stores the largest reserve of kundalini energy. Which is why the navel chakra is often stimulated only after lots of prep work -- because when it opens it could unleash a torrent. Sounds like you would get a lot of out of Kriya yoga. It should be very effective for you. Much more so than conventional meditation. Give it a try for 6 months. You could awaken just like that. It could change your whole life. Don't depend on other people to awaken you. Take the job into your own hands. Which is not to say never do Reiki, I just mean, seize this lucky break to awaken yourself. I have some books about kundalini on my book list. Make sure you educate yourself about some of the dangers of kundalini and how to awaken it gradually and properly. Otherwise you might run into problems.

Hmmm. I question whether the appearance of such a thought would strip someone of their awakened credentials. . .

An awakened human being will never have a doubt of his/her gender. This gender issue is an issue of the mind only.

I know it will not do anything. You don't need to scammed before you know its a scam, it's quite pathetic for a bridge seller to say "hey man you won't know its a scam until you actually buy the bridge from me first!" You would never ever, ever pay someone money to turn you into a musician, artist, scientist, chef or any other profession by waving their hands and doing some "mystical" shit to you. You just know this as a common fact that's just not how this reality/dream works, you don't suddenly become an awakened to these abilities, insights and knowledge without your own journey. And yet the desperate person for enlightenment would open up to the false hope of it, by sheer desperation, someone desperate might just pay someone to wave their hands and chant at them so they can suddenly become whatever their hearts desire. There's so many flaws here, it's a miracle pill, quick solution, no work needed just lots of money $$$ (lol), why's he so hellbent on money he should be making the world enlightened for free. You're still looking at other humans as having more higher powers than you, that they can someone enlighten you with their sheer source/force, lol. But hey folks its your money, if you want to wipe your ass with paper money and flush it down the toilet that's your choice. Your not going to get awakened from this, you might become more delusional that you've awakened. I'm quite suprised how many fake accounts there are on here that is affiliated with this scam. It's a shame the forum is being manipulated by scammers.

Another acting video. But is true, enlightened human beings are misunderstood. Being the reason truly awakened people are not in the press.

When you are awakening or awakened, the society puts this label of mental illness on you, fill your system with drugs,and treat you like a piece of shit. This lady seems to have no ego and I myself find her appealing. Imho the interviewer is a psychopath.? At times after a heavy self inquiry session I find myself acting a little bit like her, thinking slowly, losing touch withy surrounding, time going by fast, not knowing the time, day of the week. If I am just concerned as to how would a person survive during this process like at job, with friends and family members? Can some also give me an example of a person who got enlightened in like the last 10 years and does something other than spiritual teaching. Thanks