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When you ask this question, you actually are identifying with your brain. Because who is asking the question, is your brain, it is just thoughts. So the you who you referring to in this post, is your brain, or your thoughts. But it is not really who you are. If you were not your brain, you would be fully awakened already. @Socrates said pointed it out simply but powerfully. Your thoughts, are just one of many things in the your true self's experience.

@harisankartj Ego death is the humbling of the self. If anything you would become more of a servant to the world in one form or another. And for the proper cause. For some that maybe for the first time in their life because they now see things from an awakened perspective. Before ego death they may have only viewed the world through the eyes of their ego and that was their only real motivation. You know what I mean?- that "what's in it for me" perspective of the world.

Whenever you love someone you feel totally helpless. That is the agony of love: one cannot feel what one can do. You want to do everything, you want to give the whole universe to the lover or the beloved, but what can you do? If you think that you can do this or that you are still not in a love relationship. Love is very helpless, absolutely helpless, and that helplessness is the beauty because in that helplessness you are surrendered. Love someone and you will feel helpless; hate someone and you can do something. Love someone and you are absolutely helpless because what can you do? Whatsoever you can do seems insignificant and meaningless; it is never enough. Nothing can be done, and when one feels that nothing can be done, one feels that one is helpless. When one wants to do everything and feels nothing can be done, the mind stops. In this helplessness surrender happens. You are empty. That is why love becomes a deep meditation. The Book of Secrets, Talk #13 The moment of the death of someone you have loved deeply brings your own death into your mind. The moment of death is a great revelation. It makes you feel impotent and helpless. It makes you feel that you are not. The illusion of being disappears. Anybody will be shaken because suddenly you see that the ground underneath your feet has disappeared. You cannot do anything. Somebody is dying that you love: you would even like to give your life but you cannot. Nothing can be done; one simply waits in deep impotence. That moment can make you depressed. That moment can make you sad or that moment can send you on a great journey for truth...a eat journey into the search. What is this life? If death comes and takes it, what is this life? What meaning does it carry if one is so impotent against death? And remember, everybody is on his or her deathbed. After birth everybody is on his deathbed. There is no other way. All beds are deathbeds, because after birth only one thing is certain and that is death. Somebody dies today, somebody tomorrow and somebody the day after tomorrow: what is the difference basically? Time cannot make much difference. Time can only create an illusion of life but the life that ends in death is not and cannot be the real life. It must be a dream. Life is authentic only when it is eternal. Otherwise, what is the difference between a dream and what you call your life? In the night, in deep asleep, a dream is as true as anything is, as real – even more real than what you see with open eyes. By the morning it is gone, not even a trace is left. In the morning when you are awake you see it was a dream and not a reality. This dream of life continues for a few years; then suddenly one is awakened and the whole of life proves to be a dream. Death is a great revelation. If there were no death there would be no religion. It is because of death that religion exists. It is because of death that a Buddha was born. All buddhas are born because of the realization of death. When you go and sit by the side of a dying person feel sorry for yourself. You are in the same boat, in the same plight. Death will knock on your door any day. Be ready. Before death knocks, come back home. You should not be caught in the middle; otherwise this whole life disappears like a dream and you are left in tremendous poverty, an inner poverty. Life, real life, never dies. Then who dies? You die. The “I” dies, the ego dies. The ego is part of death; life is not. So if you can be egoless, then there is no death for you. If you can drop the ego consciously, you have conquered death. If you are really aware you can drop it in a single step. If you are not so aware you will have to drop it gradually. That depends on you. But one thing is certain: the ego has to be dropped. With the disappearance of the ego, death disappears. With the dropping of the ego, death is also dropped. Don’t feel sorry for the dying person, feel sorry for yourself. Let death surround you. Have the taste of it. Feel helpless, impotent. Who is feeling helpless and who is feeling impotent? The ego – because you see you cannot do anything. You would like to help her and you cannot. You would like her to survive but nothing can be done. Feel this impotence as deeply as possible and out of this helplessness, a certain awareness, a prayerfulness and a meditation will arise. Use the person’s death; t is an opportunity. Use everything as an opportunity. Be by their side. Sit silently and meditate. Let their death become a pointer to you so that you don’t go on wasting your life. The same is going to happen to you. Osho, The Search, Talk #10

@Leo Gura Great timing for me to be hearing these words. I've re-awakened today after a bit of a slumber. Thanks to Az also. I see all of it perfectly clear now. It opened up like the sun has come out. Everything is here now. It forever rests in it's completeness.

@123456789 Here is the explanation of 7th bhumika given in yoga vashista: Rishis say that the seventh janaana bhoomikaa is the last frontier of the realm of Jnaana. It is pure peace and cannot be explained by the power of speech. Words cannot describe that state of sublime quiescence. That is the ultimate stage – there is nothing more beyond that. After experiencing that state, some call it Siva, some people say it is Para Brahma, some people say it is Vishnu; and yet some say it is Soonya – Nothingness. Some people say it is Pure Energy, some say it is unconditioned Time; and some say it is Prakruti and Purusha. The Ultimate Reality cannot be explained by words, but still people call It by different names. After having this realisation, some start thinking about it in different manners, according to their capacities. Although it cannot be explained by anybody at any time, still they would be trying to explain it somehow. ......................................................... Here is the explanation of the stages 4, 5,6,7 given by Sri Abhinava Vidyatirtha MahaswaminaH, the 35th Jagadguru of Sringeri Peetham, (mutt established by Shankara): A jñànin involved in worldly activities is referred to as a brahmavid. If a jñànin has the practice of going into nirvikalpa-samàdhi and coming out of it on his own, he is a brahmavidvara. If he can be awakened from nirvikalpasamàdhi only by the efforts of others, he is a brahmavidvaräyàn. A brahmavidvariShTha is one who never emerges from nirvikalpa-samàdhi. His body perishes while he is in samàdhi. As a brahmavidvariShTha has the best pràrabdha, he is deemed the greatest jñànin.

@Not a shaolin monk Sex is beautiful, sexuality ugly. And the difference has to be understood. Sex is a natural phenomenon; sexuality is unnatural, abnormal and pathological. When sex becomes cerebral, when sex enters into your head, it becomes sexuality. Now, the head is not the center for sex. That is getting into a confusion, it is getting upside-down, it is getting deranged. Sex is not the function of the head. But when sex enters in through the head it becomes sexuality. Then you THINK about sex, then you fantasize about sex. And the more you think, the more you fantasize about it, the more you will get into trouble. Then nothing real will ever satisfy you, because there is no limitation on fantasy, and reality IS limited. For example, if you start thinking too much about sex you can create beautiful women, women which exist only in your fantasy; you will never find them anywhere in the world. Or men: you will never come across them. No real woman or man will ever satisfy you, because of the fantasy. No real man or woman can fulfill your expectations of fantasy. Fantasy is fantasy; it is a dream. You can fantasize a woman who does not perspire, whose body has no body smell. You can fantasize a woman who is always sweet and never bitter. You can fantasize a woman who is always loving and warm and welcoming and never nags you and is never angry, never throws pillows at you. You can fantasize a woman who never ages, who remains always stuck at eighteen years of age — who is always fresh, always young, always beautiful, never falls ill, never makes any demands on you, never betrays you, never looks at any other man with longing, with desire. You can fantasize to no limit, but you will not find this woman anywhere. Now you have created a problem: you are no more naturally attuned to your sex. Nature is perfectly capable of being fulfilled, but fantasy cannot be fulfilled. You may find your woman in girly magazines, in pornographic books, but you will not find her in reality. And whosoever you do find in reality will fall short. That is the problem the West is facing; it has fantasized too much about sex. The West has become sexual through fantasy, the East has become sexual through repression. Both have become sexual and both have lost the natural capacities of enjoying sex. Both have become pathological, through different routes. The West has become pathological by fantasizing sex to be the ultimate goal of life, and the East has become pathological by thinking that sex is the ultimate barrier between God and man. Sex is neither. Neither is it the ultimate goal nor the ultimate barrier. Sex is a simple phenomenon like hunger or thirst; there is nothing more to it. It is not what the Eastern mind has been thinking about it. The Eastern mind is too afraid of sex. Out of fear, sex has moved into the head; through the door of fear it has entered into the head. So the Eastern so-called saints are simply fantasizing about sex, because they have repressed it. And that which you repress goes on coming up again and again. It cannot be destroyed; nothing can ever be destroyed by repression. Repression makes sex pathological sexuality. This is one extreme. The West has moved to another extreme. The other extreme is, fantasize about it. Sex is all, everything else is secondary, so have as much sex as you can. You cannot really have too much sex, there are limitations to the body. But you can fantasize as much as you want, there is no limitation to it. So pornography exists, blue films exist, girly magazines exist. And people are being fed on these illusory mirages. Then no real woman, no real man, will ever satisfy you. These are both pathological states. Sexuality is pathological, whether you come to it through fear or greed does not matter. The East has become ill through fear, the West has become ill through greed. Greed and fear are two aspects of the same coin. So on the surface it looks very different, as if the Eat and the West are poles apart. They are not. Those who know, those who can see, they can see that it is the same foolishness, the same stupidity. They have arrived at the same stupidity from different doors, that is true, but they have entered into the same place. And both have to be awakened, and both have to be made more enlightened about sex. Don’t make much fuss about sex EITHER way. That is the first fundamental. If you want sex to become love, the first fundamental is: accept sex as an absolutely natural phenomenon. Don’t bring your metaphysics to it, don’t bring your religion to it. It has nothing to do with religion or metaphysics, it is a simple fact of life. It is a way that life reproduces itself. It is as simple as the trees bringing flowers and fruits: you don’t condemn the flowers. Flowers are sex energy; it is through the flowers that the tree is sending its seeds, its potentiality, to reproduce other trees. When a peacock dances you don’t condemn it. But the dance is sex; it is to attract the female. When the cuckoo calls you don’t condemn it; it is sex. The cuckoo is simply declaring, “I am ready.” The cuckoo is simply calling forth the woman. The sound, the beautiful sound, is just a seduction; it is courtship. If you watch life you will be surprised. The whole of life is through sex. Life reproduces itself through sex, it is a natural phenomenon. Don’t drag unnecessary rationalizations into it. This is the first thing to be understood if you ever want any transformation of sex energy. The first thing is: don’t deny it, don’t reject it, don’t repress it. Don’t be too greedy about it, don’t think that this is all — this is not. There is much more to life. And sex is beautiful, yet there is still much more to life. Sex is only the foundation, it is not the whole temple. Repressed, it becomes sexuality. Fantasized, it becomes sexuality. One is an Eastern way of transforming sex into pathology, the other is a Western way. But nobody, either in the East or in the West, accepts that sex is a simple natural phenomenon. Neither the saints nor the sinners, nobody accepts sex to be a simple natural phenomenon. Both are obsessed with it, hence I say both are not different. Sex accepted, respected, lived, becomes love. Just as I was saying to you the other day, when sadness is there, accept it: it is you. Don’t say, “I am sad.” Say, “I am sadness.” Don’t say, “I have sadness” — it is as if you are separate and sadness is something that you have. Simply say, “I am sadness.” In that moment there is no division between you and what you call sadness. In that moment you ARE sadness. The next moment you may be peace, and still the next moment you may be joy. Life is change. Life knows only one thing as permanent, and that is change. Only change is unchanging; everything else changes except change. That means only change has eternity. It is a continuum; you are not a fixed thing. And it is good that you are not fixed, otherwise you would have been a thing, a commodity in the marketplace. You are a no-thing. You are not a fixed phenomenon; you are a constant opening, you are change. One moment there is sadness, and the river takes a turn. Another moment there is joy, and the river takes still another turn and there is peace. And it goes on and on. The moment has to be accepted in its totality: it is you. When there is sex, there is sex: it is you. Don’t say, “I have a sexual desire.” That is a way of dividing yourself, that is a way of creating a split. If you have a sexual desire then there are two possibilities. If you are against it repress it: that is the Eastern way of becoming mad, insane and pathological. The other way is, “I have the sex desire: how to enhance it? How to make it more intense? How to enjoy it to the optimum?” That is the way of greed, the Western way. But the end is the same, the end-product is the same: both become obsessed with it. Just let it be, whatsoever it is. It is you. You don’t have a sex desire; if you have a sex desire then something can be done to the sex desire. If you are it, nothing can be done about it, because there is nobody else to do anything: you ARE it. This has to become the meditation of all my sannyasins: you are it, there is no division. Just see the beauty of it. When there is no division there is no conflict. When there is no division there is no fear, no greed. It is division that brings fear and greed. Greed and fear are your interpretations of the division, but the division is first and then come your interpretations. The sex desire is there, you take it as something separate that is happening to you. It is like a thing in your hands: now you have to decide whether you want more or less of it, as if it is something of which you can have more or less. It is as it is; there is no more, no less. Simply live it, be it, love it. This is your moment, this is the truth of the moment. And never compare, because one moment ago it was not there. So don’t start comparing, because comparison again brings a split. Next moment it may be gone again. Don’t compare. Life is change. That’s what Buddha said: Life is change. That’s what Heraclitus said: You cannot step in the same river twice. Life, the river, is constantly moving. Deep down you want life to be static. Why? Because with a static and dormant life you will be more safe, more secure. But life is not dormant, only death is dormant. Life is dynamic, flowing — the more flowing it is, the more alive you are. Life is not a stagnant pool, it is a river. It is the Ganges, coming from the Himalayas, going to the ocean, coming from the heights, going to the depths. And again from the ocean the Ganges will evaporate from the depths to the heights, and again the clouds will gather on the Himalayas and again the river will be born. It is a beautiful perfect circle. That’s how you move. Each moment has to be accepted as it is, with no condemnation, with no evaluation. And when you can accept sex as natural, it stops being cerebral. It drops from the head, it goes to the sex center where it belongs. If sex remains in the sex center it is beautiful. If it goes to the head it is ugly. Eating is beautiful. You are hungry and you eat and it is needed; it is nourishment. But then there are two types of people. A few people eat too much: eating too much means the head has entered into it. When you are eating, the body is always sane. The body always says to you, “Stop now.” It immediately gives you an indication, a signal: “It is enough, now stop! No more is needed, my needs are fulfilled.” But the head says, “It is so tasty, it is so delicious — have one plate more.” It is the head, it is not the body. The body is recoiling, the body is saying, “No!” The body is always sane. And this is one of the fundamentals I would like to tell you about. Down the ages, your so-called saints have been telling you that the body is your enemy. It is not; the body is always your friend. If there is some enemy it is the head, never the body. The body is always sane. Watch it. I am not talking philosophy, I am simply stating a fact. See for yourself: if you are ill the body says, “Don’t eat.” But the head says, “If you don’t eat you will become weak. So many vitamins are absolutely needed; you will become pale, you will not be strong.” This is the head. The body is saying, “You are ill, and to eat will be unnecessarily burdening the system. The system needs rest; it is better not to eat.” And that’s what animals do. No animal will eat when he is ill; he simply stops eating. That’s what children do, no children will eat. But grown-ups will force them: they will say, “Eat, otherwise you will become ill, you will become more weak. You need it.” They force them. You can see small children crying and their mothers forcing them: “Eat a little more.” It is the head that creates the trouble. And then there are people who will fast when there is no need for fasting. The body is hungry, but if you ar a Jaina and the PARUSHANA, your religious days, have come, you have to fast. The body is hungry and the body wants food, but you cannot eat because unfortunately you are a Jaina and the religious days are there and if you eat you will be thrown into hellfire. It is the head interfering. The body says, “Eat,” but unfortunately you are a Mohammedan and it is the month of RAMADAN and you have to fast. Now this is the head interfering. The head interferes in two ways: either it makes you indulgent or it makes you repressive. Again, one is the Eastern way, another is the Western way. Eat more than is needed: this is indulgence. Don’t eat when the body needs food: this is fasting, this is repression. It is always the head that interferes. It interferes in your food, it interferes in your sex, it interferes in your sleep, it goes on interfering in everything! Remember the Zen master, the great Zen master, Bokuju. Somebody asked him, “What is your discipline?” He said, “No discipline at all. When I feel hungry I eat, and when I feel sleepy I sleep. And no other discipline.” The man said, “But this is what we all do.” And Bokuju said, “No. It is very rare to find a person who does it, because one who does it becomes a buddha. Only a buddha can do it truly.” You don’t eat according to the needs of the body, you don’t sleep according to the needs of the body. You go on imposing your head needs on the body. That interference makes everything pathological. That’s how sex is disturbed and becomes sexuality. If sex is accepted, respected, lived, it becomes love. The way is: first sexuality has to come back to sex. Directly, there is no way, no route; from sexuality to love there is no route. There is simply no route, nothing can be done about it. From sexuality to love there is no route, because sexuality is in the head, and love is a heart phenomenon. From sexuality come back to the sex center. From sex to love there is a direct route; they are bridged. In fact nothing needs to be done. Just live your sex moments with utter joy, silence, peacefulness, with celebration. Live your sex moments meditatively, and meditation transforms sex into love. Not only does sex become love: one day it becomes prayer, worship. It goes higher and higher. The highest form is prayer, the lowest form is sex. Between the two is love, love is the bridge. And sexuality is abnormal, it is pathological, it is ill. So whether you have chosen a path of being pathological like the Eastern people or like the Western people, it doesn’t matter. Accept your life a sit is, and let the acceptance be as total as possible. When you don’t fight with yourself your energy starts falling into a subtle harmony. And that harmony brings you t love. And when the harmony becomes more and more refined, it brings you to prayer. And unless sex has become prayer, remember, the goal has not been achieved. Source – Osho Book “Unio Mystica, Vol 1″

My current girlfriend is a construction worker with a community college education, dyslexia, and very little experience with self-help books. That said, she's very smart, sweet, and easily one of the most awakened people I know. Every day she mentions some deep spiritual or psychological theory that took me years to grasp, despite my "elite" education. Only her life experiences and her tendency to contemplate while taking care of chores lead her to many insights. Examples of things she's come up with without ever having read books or attend seminars on the subject: "When I date guys, the biggest question in my mind is how they talk to their mom and whether they love themselves enough to love me. I feel like when people grow up [and start dating], they're really just trying to replace their parents in a healthy manner before their parents die." - Attachment theory summarized in two sentences "I mean, it only makes sense that I would be God. If he's everything and I'm something, then he must be me because I'm part of everything. *laughs* actually, I'm going to use her from now on... She must be me... and i'm her, then I must be everything too! Whenever I get super upset I think, 'wait a minute I'm God, what's there to be upset about?'" - Enlightenment "What I love most about going to the zoo is that I see parts of my self in every animal. I think thats the secret of zoos - the animal in the cage isn't in there, its in here *she points to her heart*" And I've asked her and no, she's never taken any psychedelics although she says hippy-shit all the time - Its the cutest thing ever.

@Girzo CARL GUSTAV JUNG thinks that the Eastern approach to reality is introvert -- he is utterly wrong. The Eastern approach is neither extrovert nor introvert; it is a transcendence of both. But to understand the transcendence one has to be a Buddha, one has to be really awakened. Your personality, your expression of that ecstasy, is bound to be different. A Meera will dance; a Buddha can never dance. It is impossible to conceive of Buddha dancing, it looks absurd. But Meera sitting under a bodhi tree like a Buddha also looks absurd. She will lose everything, she will not be a Meera at all; she will be imitation. The real Meera can only be conceived of as dancing in ecstasy in her own love madness. That is her expression. The innermost core is the same. With Buddha sitting under the bodhi tree and Meera dancing in mad ecstasy, the innermost core is the same. In the dancing Meera and in the silently sitting Buddha who is just like a statue, the innermost core is the same but the periphery is different. The dancing and the silent sitting are just on the periphery. If you move within Meera, as you go deeper the dance will cease, the Meera will cease. If you go deep into Buddha, the sitting will cease, the Buddha will cease as an individual. You are not going to be a Meera or a Buddha or a Jesus. You are going to be yourself, and you have never been before. You are unique. So nothing can be said; you are not predictable. No one can say what will happen, how you will manifest it. Whether you will sing, dance, paint or remain silent no one can say. And it is good that nothing can be said, nothing can be predicted. That is the beauty. If it is predictable that you will be like this or that, then you will become a mechanical thing. Predictions are possible only about mechanical devices. Human consciousness is unpredictable; that is its freedom. ~Osho

Yes, It took 8 years...searching in the wrong places didn't help. Also, the times of falling unconscious again for awhile, until the trusty suffering aspect awakened me again. I remember many years ago, on another forum asking, "how do you stay awakened?" A long term member was giving me advice and I said, "No, you misunderstand" ...I don't remember this stuff "at all" for weeks at a time..lol. Suffering always brought me back, eventually.

Swami Satchidanandendra saraswathi explains what is nididhyasana and also quotes verses from Shankara, Gaudapa Karika and Gita which give instructions on how to practice nididhyasana.. And this differs from what is being taught by other teachers. By Nididhyasana, he means actual meditation (similar to yogic and jhana meditations). But this is usually mentioned as a purification method by other Vedanta teachers (as a means of achieving the four fold qualifications). Here is Swami's explanation: "The aim of the one practicing sustained meditation (nididhyasana) is different. He tries to attain direct vision of reality (here in this very world) by turning his mind away from all else. And there is the difference — as against upasana — that after the rise of knowledge nothing further remains to be done. It is this sustained meditation that is referred to at Katha Upanishad I.ii.13 by the name 'Adhyatma Yoga'. In the Gita it is sometimes called 'Dhyana Yoga' (e.g. XVIII. 52). In the Mandukya Karikas it is called 'restraint of the mind' (G.K.III.41, etc.). Its nature is described there in that latter work. Everywhere its result is described in the same way as right metaphysical knowledge, and from this comes immediate liberation. And here are the citations provided 1. The wise man comes to know God through mastering Adhyatma Yoga, and gives up joy and sorrow. (Katha I.ii.12) Sankara's Commentary: Mastering Adhyatma Yoga: Adhyatma Yoga means withdrawing the mind from objects and concentrating it on the Self. Having meditated on the deity, the Self, through attainment of Adhyatma Yoga, the wise man gives up joy and sorrow because there are no gradations of value in the Self. 2. 'He is seen by those of subtle vision through their subtle minds' says the Veda (Katha I.iii.12), pointing out that the highest state of Vi§nu is difficult to attain. Then the same text goes on to teach yoga as the means to attain it, in the words 'The wise man should dissolve the senses into the mind and should dissolve the mind into the intellect. He should dissolve the soul into the great self and he should dissolve that into the Self that is pure peace' (Katha I.iii. 13). That is, he should first give up the use of speech and the other organs of action and perception and should remain iden tified with the lower aspect of the mind alone. He should then note that the lower aspect of the mind, too, has defects such as an inclination towards the sense objects and unsteadiness in its decisions, and he should dissolve it into that higher aspect of mind (buddhi) which has fixed determination for its nature and is sometimes known by the technical term 'intellect' (vijnana). He should refine the intellect and resolve it into 'the great self, the experiencer or apex of the intellect. The 'great self, however, must be dissolved in the 'Self that is pure peace', the supreme Spirit that is the subject of the section, the summit of human experience. - Shankara (Brahma Sutra Bhasya I.iv.l (the whole second point above is Shankara's commentary on Brahma sutras) 3. Resorting to dispassion, always intent on the Yoga of Meditation (Dhyana Yoga). (Bh.G. XVIII. 52) Sankara's Commentary: Meditation means dwelling on the true nature of the Self. Yoga means one-pointed concentration on the Self. He who is intent on 'Dhyana' and 'Yoga' thus defined is the one 'intent on the Yoga of Meditation'. The use of the word 'always' is to show that he has no other duties, such as daily repetition of the Vedic verses. 4. That yoga should certainly be practiced with resolute mind. Giving up without exception all desires that come from individual will, restraining the sense-organs on every side through the mind, one should gradually withdraw from all activity, with will and intellect firmly controlled; keeping the mind fixed on the Self, one should not think of anything. Wherever the fickle mind wanders , one should bring it back and fix it on the Self alone, under firm control. Supreme joy comes to such a yogi, whose mind is at perfect peace, whose lusts have subsided, who is sinless and who has become the Ab solute. Such a yogi, free from all sin, always controlling his mind in this way, easily attains the supreme joy of con tact with the Absolute. With his mind controlled through yoga, he sees himself in all beings and all beings in his own Self, seeing the same everywhere. (Bh.G. VI. 23-9) Sankara' s Commentary: ' Seeing the same everywhere' is said of one who has the same undifferentiated vision or knowledge of unity and identity with the Absolute and the Self in regard to all things of different grades, from Brahma to the beings of the vegetable and mineral realms. (Bh.G.Bh.VI.29) 5. The mind must be restrained tirelessly, as if one were emptying the sea with the tip of a blade of grass. One must resort to special means to restrain the mind when it is dispersed amid desires and enjoyments. The mind must also be awakened and held in restraint even when it is perfectly calm in the dissolution of dreamless sleep. Mere dissolution in dreamless sleep is no better than desire (since it is also the seed of future worldly experience). One restrains the mind from desires and enjoyments by remembering 'All is pain'. When one remembers 'All is the Unborn (the Absolute)', one does not even see what is born. When the mind is drowsy in its practice of yoga one should arouse it, and when it is distracted one should again calm it down. One should know that the mind is soiled with latent impressions, and should not allow it to move when it has attained the state of equilibrium, free from the tendency either to dissolution or distraction. Even there, one should not savour the joy. One should acquire non-attachment through the discriminative wisdom that sees all joy as born of Ignorance. When the mind, although at first motionless, moves out once more, one should again carefully bring it back to unity. When the mind no longer either undergoes dissolution in dreamless sleep or distraction amidst desires and enjoyments, and it is motionless and without manifestation, then it has reached its state of perfection. It (has reached the state of 'no-mind', G.K.III. 32, and) is the Absolute. (G.K.III. 1-6) (G.K means Gaudapada karika.. It was written by Gaudapada, who was Shankara's guru's guru)

Part I: The first thing you must do to invoke your superior intelligence is to learn to doubt all known limits except your certainty. Think of the origin of the universe, have you asked how it happened? The ordinary reasoning requires the feed in the idea of a creator or a force that created it, who created the creator or the force? If you continue to reason you will repeat the process again and again without a solution that fits into the known logic. What do I understand by logic can be transcended? Yes, and it seems that something so simple is always forgotten for everyday life and the mind closes to beliefs of superior origin. If you are looking for illumination of your knowing perception, the first thing to ask yourself is: can I see the face to the truth manifested and not to flee, have I the desire to fight the worst demons if necessary, to fight against my worst horrors? When the time comes the road will manifest before you, you will not have to look for it, since the forces that impel your being from the immutable are like a river that flows to its destination without discussing where it goes, even though magically the form and direction of the river may always change, it is not necessary not to act, just don't be obssesed with that, because if the moment must arrive, it will arrive when you are ready, to hasten in the spiritual path without being ready is called curiosity and leads you to fill your head of spiritual and esoteric literature of all kinds that will chain you and it require much effort to eliminate it from your mind; When the moment is perfect search intelligently, and your way will have the blessing of a sincere and not fanatical or imaginative interest, but remember, don't stop, if you feel that you must advance, then advance. Transcendental knowledge can manifest as absolute truth and transcend the realms of common sense, but we must be able to accept it and seek from the inside, it have been given to you intelligence and your worst mistake may be not to use it with all possible rigor, the true wisdom in which you can absolutely trust is not an external vision but one that is connected to your natural intelligence, and your intelligence is more than what the common being is accustomed to perceive, its highest degree there is no probability or discursive thoughts but certainty, a certainty that goes beyond the forms of words and explanations that man tends to seek. When you are ready you can stop reading books and begin to read in your own being, in the silence of your interior, you will understand this truth: words are the vehicle, not the essence, and the essence of a word can approach to what is called good or bad and is connected to the true intention. Be receptive to what is in you, do not put your head down to the power that is granted, be patient to accept the degree in which it arrives and be a inner worker to continue growing if you really wish it. How do you begin to connect with your own superior intelligence or how to amplify the connection and break the domain of dark beings that take advantage of your unconscious side? The first thing to remember about the intelligence that is at your service and about your own being is that they are more than what commonly it’s perceived, commonly the human mind causes you to identify with your limited states and your wisdom does not progress, people live blindly like sheep following other people's opinions by imposition of the ego and the fear. How do you break these chains and regain control of your conscious being? You must first accept your own intellectual ability, you must accept that you can see things your way and try to feel like absurd to put your decisions in the hands of other people's opinions if your own conscience gives you a more reliable solution. It is very common in the spiritual realm to give your life to the guidance of a guru or a guide and to forget your intelligence as if you can't go on your own way or as if they had shown you the absolute truth, but it was really your intelligence that asked you to do it or the fear of being judged, to miss a special opportunity? Be careful! You must accept first even if it goes against the common sense that although something is very probable that probability is nothing before the eyes of the truth until you do not prove it, therefore, if you are deluded spiritually or your spiritual work stagnates you must check if you have allowed to yourself renounce to intelligence that was granted to you in existence, intelligence that can even transcend the commonly understood as logic when it has awakened in your conscious aspect. Phenomena as the origin of existence seem to transcend logic and do not seem to have an explanation because someone had to create the first thing that existed, according to the common logical reasoning. Forget your failures on the intellectual plane and concentrate on the present, you must open your intelligence, observe all your ability to be intelligent, if necessary even as a light or ethereal substance that goes beyond your physical body, expand it in your consciousness as far as is possible cleaning negative interferences and giving you more sensibility to that intelligence, think for yourself, do not self-limit to yourself, you have to reaffirm again and again the following and try to accept it: "I think first by myself with all possible intelligence and will and I help to myself with external knowledge only as necessary" until that becomes a reality or a silent will that you can feel working on it and gives you satisfaction. You should also try to do the same exercise of perception and expansion that I described for intelligence, but now for your willpower. The next step is simply to be, and be natural, when you find yourself in the right moment and place: become indifferent to the use of words mentally and to all discursive judgment, simply retains the sincere desire to fully fill your attention observing: life, your body, your thoughts, your intelligence, your being, everything that you really want to observe even if more than one thing at the same time, and don’t say anything, just observe, also keep the sincere desire to know what your deepest intelligence wants to show you, but not with words, but in the form of ideas; the higher aspect of your being will gradually manifest in your consciousness, ask your mind to receive in satisfaction form a sign that it (your mind) must yield its will to that superior intelligence that impels you unconsciously but in your favor, even if you don’t understand its will, just feel that it is okay, you can feel a peace, a joy or something when you move automatically and although you don’t know what happens, something tells you that things are okay like this, even if it is not clearly perceived or even if it is not perceived, yes, it may seem crazy, but it is not, if you feel more of a sensation in different directions follow the one with which you identify, but beware, because your intelligence can lead you to light or darkness depending on your true purposes. On the other hand this exercise does not mean that you don’t use the discursive side of your mind ever, when necessary do it, either for mental health or for a specific activity, it is very important that you keep in mind that all this must occur without forcing, I mean not because I say it or blindly, inject the desire and expect it to work in you, do not force the mind to be blank blindly, the undesired thoughts will be gone when the time is right or yourself will separate them naturally and healthy. Through this exercise you will begin to have intuitions about things, such as instant reflections on an idea and you will begin to discover that you are something different than what your mind has made you believe, as if thoughts that you had at times does not come from you now. You will begin to connect with the inner aspect of your being and you will realize how some external forces will try to maintain the attraction towards thoughts and ideas that in the bottom don’t interest you and can be seen very rare, you will begin to differentiate your intelligence from the external control, which may come from another evil and manipulative forces that work from the hidden places to the common eye, or you will see attraction to ideas that your own intuition indicate with certainty they can lead you to a superior well-being if you inject will to yourself. This can be the beginning to a journey of self-knowledge, you will understand to differentiate what really makes you good from what damages you, or what constitutes an immediate sacrifice for a future good. Keep away the idea of that you can't reach it, be persistent and you can even to reach an omniscience conection. I once read in a Hindu script: "The Self is the Guru." Unfortunately nowadays many people follow to incarnated persons who don’t teach you to use your own intelligence and make you surrender to them, even worse, many people follow a mixture of doctrines and esoteric teachings that buy your intelligence for a transitory joy and the consequences can be disastrous, don’t be a sheep, be the keeper of your own path and everything you receive from the external will be processed first by the filter of your own intelligence. Part II: You can free yourself from the suffering in your life and be aware of the spiritual truths and applied techniques to your own particular case. All this in this incarnation if you have the time for it. All that is asked in this case is: will, courage and persistence. All the process that connects you with your higher intelligence must occur naturally after taking appropriate consent measures, if this has not happened, be patient, it is very important to adapt the consciousness to a state of indifference with respect to what is observed in discursive matter, try to feel more and not to reason the things, feel the abstract ideas that your observation object produces in you, invoke those ideas, including the emotional feelings that are involve if this is from positive pleasing; take a daily time to practice a simple introspective meditation, close your eyes in a comfortable posture, preferably in a chair and not lying because it will attract a sleepy state more easily, then, in that posture tries to relax but do not obsess about it, you can observe your breathing for a while maintaining a rhythm of inhalation and exhalation as natural as possible, breathe the necessary, wait for the necessary time before exhaling, exhale what is necessary and wait again what is necessary to re-inhale, observe all your thoughts with the intention to observe them but be indifferent to their content, be indifferent to make them persist and indifferent to others coming, with the expectation of capturing ideas that come from your superior intelligence to guide you in the process, to communicate something useful that you know it will help or that you want to know, it is not any idea that comes to you, but those that come with enough certainty to say I must trust in that idea, and then you can surrender to that guide even if all known external intelligence is against you, but your superior intelligence will not force you to anything you don't accept, so you are still responsible for your decisions. You can feel slight desires of movement in trying to stay in that position, don't resist, at least in the beginning, but don't lose the intention of the process, as you go deeper you must feel as if the unwanted thoughts become more abstract or more like concrete ideas, if you feel that you are falling into a void, a numbness, an excessive relaxation or a feeling that something wants to take your consciousness out of the body, resist, don't let yourself be carried away by weakness, stay alert to the process, you can expand the consciousness out of the body with the consent of your intelligence with the certainty that it produces something desired by you and does not have to involve the abandonment of the body; the idea of feeling without thoughts could frighten you, maybe as a feeling that you are going to be out of control, ask your superior intelligence to give you a signal in the form of satisfaction or joy about everything is fine, it is not necessary to reason if it is fine, you will know it, whenever I refer to asking a signal like this to the higher intelligence it must be a recognizable signal, a signal that prompts you to continue with sufficient certainty, some parts of the mind may oppose but something tells you with certainty that you must do it, then there is a process in which you know and you are taken knowing, when you got practice will be fluid and pleasant, because it relaxes the mind and improves your health by releasing the habit of resorting to discursive or very concentrated thoughts to make decisions, which can be done occasionally but not as a slavery, you can even try something strange in this meditation, something in Zen Buddhism is called thinking without thinking, you imagine your being as something transcendental and invisible that is making instantaneous decisions in your conscience and although you don't see what decisions you feel you should act or think according to those decisions, but this must be done by asking for a signal to that higher intelligence, to that transcendental something, then you will not reason that you do the right thing, you receive the signal from your upper unconscious zone, that unconscious zone sends it to what I would call the root of each chakra or center of consciousness, which connect with the brain and heart, these root zones in coordination with the physical organs process the idea, compare it with your true interests for the moment and you feel like the next movement is backed up, but to feel that is like a lightning bolt and there is no time to think about it, you must keep in your interests the intention to act when the movement is backed up. Never be disappointed if the intelligence seems to fail to you and make you do something silly, sometimes the channels are not free from interference and external entities, sometimes they can make you think or do nonsense. Copying this synchronization process and taking it to your daily tasks will give you more mental freedom and will speed up many everyday processes, and yet it is something that you already did in some activities maybe without thinking about the fact, I mean walking, eating, doing body coordinated movements for balance, etc... It is something you do and it is enough, perhaps it is not guided by the highest level of intelligence beacuse it has not been necessary, but it is done with an incredible intelligence compared to ordinary reflexive reasoning, do you would reason at every moment the exact point in space to where you are going to move an arm and at the same time a foot and repeat the process with reasoning until you are 100% convinced that the next position is correct, millimeter to millimeter for giving an unit of measure? It really seems absurd, but so many things are done in everyday life ignoring the tremendous potential of the superior intelligence that can assist us. The purpose of this meditation will be to sharpen your connection with superior intelligence and even to have flashes or revelations of knowledge in the form of intuitive ideas, in other free moments you can continue practicing the previous methods of observing anything desired, then apply the same interiorization by disconnecting yourself of unwanted ideas. The time that you must dedicate to each exercise you must feel it with your personal plan, don't do things that you feel that can make to you a not suitable damage, sacrifice can always be, unless you make of these processes something that satisfies you. In order to brighten your life and attract more positive mental states, positive energies, and to improve the perception of truth I propose the following: imagine that your being in its depth contains a source of joy, ask your superior intelligence to send you joy all day, be receptive to that joy, try to feel it for real and enjoy it whenever you want; it is important to mention something that I mentioned in the first methods, for all work with the higher intelligence you must allow it to take energy and will from you, but you must give it sincerely, always feeling a sign that it is right for your best interests. Remember that other beings can deceive you to steal your energy from hidden areas to the common eye, can make you believe that they are your intelligence and are not, so you must act with certainty that it is the right thing, perhaps the idea of acting continuously and with speed if at the same time you must be sure is something weird, the superior intelligence is powerful and in your centers of mental consciousness there is also the ability to follow a synchronized rhythm with that higher intelligence on a fluid time, it is something that you simply have to do when you feel yo have to do it, it is a point where the reasoning already hinders, in which the forms of thought perhaps give you the initial impulse but then you continue fighting against the mind or external influences if they oppose to keep you in this state, it is very pleasant when you reach the highest levels of release, if it is the case it begins to release large tensions that you had for a long time and that were not positive for your health. Much encouragement, persistence and courage to move forward. Remember to do it all by own decision and if you feel ready for these practices.

Well, if my having healed my cancer by activating my body's own healing abilities (and without much help from conventional cancer industry) is not enough evidence to you, then so it be. I do recognize benefits of modern conventional medicine where the benefit is due. However, if I'd taken chemo, radiation, Temoxefin, etc, I'd be either walking like a drugged-up zombie or dead by now (like many 'rational' cancer patients are). This is not 'magical' thinking, this is stage Yellow thinking - rising above the body-mind and treating it as a whole, where you don't 'fight' your 'ailment', you work with it lovingly. Cancer is actually a beautiful thing if you look at it from a Yellow stage perspective. Any awakened/enlightened being will tell you that. Peace.

I understand your concern about money making businesses. I only take from that industry what's quality and benefits my wellness. I was low on B-12, found quality B-12 supplement, took it for awhile, the following test reveals my B-12 levels are back to normal. Same with free-radical testing - went from 5 (bad) to 2 (good) by having taken quality antioxidants for a few months. All my vitamin and mineral levels are within normal range too. And if/when they drop, I will fill that deficiency by eating proper foods and temporary supplementation. I'm still learning about how my body works and what it needs to stay in top-notch shape. It's fun! Are you saying awakened beings can't take superfoods and supplements?

My favourite game ever is actually super duper spiritual! I am talking about StarCraft! This is a game that I've played for years now. I started playing as Zerg (The creepy swarm), but after a year, I transitioned into Protoss (The shiny guys ^^) . I've played all expansions: Wings Of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm and now Legacy of the Void I cannot believe that I only now become aware of how the Protoss are saying all these highly spiritual things during gameplay! They are far from peaceful warriors, but in dire times war can be the only option! Here are quotes that I've selected which the units say when you are controlling them. Zealot "My meditation is over." "We stand as one!" "By your will!" "Honor guide me!" "I am Templar! I am the sword of truth!" "How peaceful it must be for you to have a mind unburdened by thought!" Mothership Core "As all are one." "By the heart of Aiur." "We are the voice of Aiur." "Our systems pulse with the truth." "Our light shall burn the pathway to the stars." "The glow of the infinite is within us." Disruptor "Consciousness awakened." Dark Templar "By the Void." "The void claims its own." "I am the darkness!" High Templar "We are the light of the Khala!" "We seek enlightenment." "Our minds are as one." "We shall stand against the darkness." "We are focused." "Focus! There is no time for idle thoughts!" "Your thoughts betray you." "Two become one!" "As ever I serve." Immortal "I feel your presence." "We shall serve forever!" "There can be only one!" Stalker "I am the voice of the eclipse." "I am the heart of darkness." "We are one with the shadows." "We are all but shadows in the Void." "I hear the call of the stars..." "I AM ONE with the darkness!" Void Ray "Channel the light of Aiur!" "All paths are seen through the prism of fate." "Infinity burns around us." "I am also null..." Mohandar "The Void will answer." "I am now... beyond you." (when killed) "I return... to the Void." (when killed) FOR AIUR!

Your present experience is exactly this - a present. That's how I feel about it. At times, however, it changes the letters around and the present slips away, becomes a slippery serpent. That's when you're in the shithole of life, enduring hardships, thinking "Why me, ffs?? I don't want to be here, I don't want to be doing this. How am I so unlucky? etc" - Those are the wrong questions, because they fuel the suffering (self enquiry is the right question, but that's not the point of this post, although it should be helpful ) The best analogy is with the dream state. You become someone else in the dream state, yet you still are you in there. You are not that dream entity, yet inside the dream you behave as if you are it without questioning. How can that be? Translate that in waking life and see how it is possible that you are not the body nor mind, but are something deeper, that you haven't yet even seen (as the waking-dream entity, just as the dream entity doesn't know it is you (the sleeping man in bed), until it becomes enlightened (lucid dreaming) ). So I project Enlightenment as lucid waking. Same thing, different levels and dimensions. Open your mind to the possibility that you truly don't know who you are and that you have not seen your true self (This is paraphrasing one of Leo's suggestions somewhere on the forum that has stuck with me deeply to this day and fuel my self enquiry). Now the journey to the center of the Earth of your being can begin. Thinking about these things is just chit chat that doesn't help, it's the logical mind dissecting and making sense of things. The logical mind wants to create "A Theory of Everything" or formula for Enlightenment. I don't know if those goals are possible, but for sure in a probabilistic dream such as this, actively participating in Enlightenment work and following the spiritual teachings is a sure way to increase your probability of becoming an enlightened (awakened, lucid) character in the dream of consciousness. Ofcourse I do not know that for certain, but I project my understanding into what I think (believe) is true based on my observations. I am not attached to that position, and could be very wrong. Best is not to think about things that are unprovable in the first place. Best is not to attach to any position - I am Ego, I am Enlightened - both are positions. To be truly Enlightened, I project that one should not have any fixed positions. But that is impossible as long as there is an I, because of the following paradox I already posted about on the forum: To have no fixed positions is a fixed position in itself. It can only be achieved in the 0 point, where the I becomes 0, there truly can be no fixed positions, because there is no-one to have them.

I find the night time much more suitable. It is calming, silent and at ease. Besides, when you wake up, you'll feel aware, awakened(epiphany awakened), grateful and at ease. I only slept for 3 hours without a note of drowziness. I think an interesting way to solve this issue is if you meditate with your eyes closed or open.

I wonder what is with all the software engineers here I'm a rather good Java developer, with more than 10 years experience. When i program i am always in a state of flow. Rather than being more aware, it is actually a total dissolution of self, of humanity even. Since it is object oriented, huge geometrical building blocks fill my brain, and i am rearranging structures in my head as i type the code. There is no thought or effort, it all just flows out of my fingers. It is the best thing in the world. But i do not know if it has a lot to do with enlightenment. It's why i said, you have become awakened to the self. You experience and see the distinction between consciousness and mind/ego. It allows you to see the mechanics of the emotions, the automatic behaviorism, that your body/brain is involved in. That you can do it 24/7 is very good. Now you can start really seeing how the mind/body/brain work, and start to let it all go. Somehow, your mind has convinced yourself this starting state is enlightenment. However it is far further than most people will ever get in life. So... , so far, so good. Until you begin with a whole list of things we should do. It's always a red alert, if we have to do stuff. Stuff about soundwaves. Crystals. Light Language activation. Altering your DNA trough sound and vibration. These are all beliefs. Constructs of the mind, thoughts. All of this is are thought projections, dreams. It is stuff to hide behind, to give the ego/mind something to attach to, rather than letting it all go. To be, you just need to be. I am that i am. Not all those extra things you drag into it. You are making the simplest thing in the world (enlightenment), seem like some sort of thing you can gain by doing stuff with your mind/body. When all you need to do is be. Enlightenment is so simple, people cannot do it, because the ego doesn't accept such empty simplicity. To be enlightened, you don't need to do more stuff with your mind, you need to do a lot less. You don't even need to constantly be aware of the breath, this is just a tool to allow your mind to empty and become what you truly are, being itself, existence. It doesn't really matter much to me. But for yourself, don't stop yet and dig deeper, because there is a lot more to find out still. You have just seen the ox's tail, as zen monks would say

@Timotheus Several things he told himself. In addition to that I heard Adyashanti talk about it on a retreat when the subject of "did not search and got awakened" came up and he told a few details and told that Eckhart did search. I don't 100% remember what he said, but recordings of this retreat could be purchased on his website.

Dating and Socializing will be the least of your interests in the more-enlightened stages. You can always lower in vibration and find your preferred balance to exist as a human being whilst remaining somewhat enlightened but this is one of the most challenging things among the awakened ones. Go with the flow, everything will play out naturally as needed as long as you trust and enjoy every moment of it with passion, love and gratitude.

Thanks for sharing, although a bit long You have awakened to the distinction between the actual self and thoughts. You have seen there is an ego, perhaps not yet exactly what it is. This is an amazing tool on the journey. It is not "enlightenment", but appreciating the value of this insight is important. It is a big step that should not be brushed away, and i myself once thought it WAS enlightenment. Until i saw more, and realized i am standing at the bottom of the grand-canyon and just opened my eyes, I still have to start my metaphorical climb. But at least we are no longer blind. At first sight, there is too much belief, ideas, projections in your experience. Projecting concepts creates feelings of whatever you want, it is another layer of ego which is hidden still to you. Using imagination to visualize during mindfulness creates these illusions. You should be like water, and flow without effort into it. Let the mind not create anything in this space, because all it creates is from this world and a kind of veil over the true self. Become life without effort of any kind, without any mind-projections, without any expectations or concepts. Remember, beliefs are just thoughts, they are mind stories. Its easy to imagine yourself into a blissful mental state, and think you've found the truth. But you are still just telling a story. Feelings are created easily trough visualization, and all visualizations are hidden thought stories. Or perhaps you are enlightened, who can say for sure...

Well, this is one hell of a way to become awakened ?

Avoidance of relationships in an attempt to avoid pain is not the answer either. The pain is there anyway. Three failed relationships in as many years are more likely to force you into awakening than three years on a desert island or shut away in your room. But if you could bring intense presence into your aloneness, that would work for you too. ~ Eckhart Tolle Eckhart Tolle is admitting that relationship brings pain. By this logic all masochists can be awakened easily. He is not advocating aloneness , because renouncing the world is not his path. Awakening through failed relationships is much difficult than living in cave, meditating. Failed relationships alone can't force you into awakening unless to try to live in present moment/ meditate.

“What are Dreams?” – OSHO We have seven bodies: the physical, the etheric, the astral, the mental, the spiritual, the cosmic, and the nirvanic. Each body has its own type of dream. The physical body is known in Western psychology as the conscious, the etheric body as the unconscious, and the astral body as the collective unconscious. The physical body creates its own dreams. If your stomach is upset, a particular type of dream is created. If you are unhealthy, feverish, the physical body creates its own type of dream. One thing is certain: the dream is created out of some dis-ease. Physical discomfort, physical dis-ease, creates its own realm of dreams, so a physical dream can even be stimulated from the outside. You are sleeping. If a wet cloth is put around your legs, you will begin to dream. You may dream you are crossing a river. If a pillow is put on your chest, you will begin to dream. You may dream that someone is sitting on you, or a stone has fallen on you. These are dreams that come through the physical body. The etheric body — the second body — dreams in its own way. These etheric dreams have created much confusion in Western psychology. Freud misunderstood etheric dreams for dreams caused by suppressed desires. There are dreams that are caused by suppressed desires, but these dreams belong to the first body, the physical. If you have suppressed physical desires — if you have fasted for instance — then there is every possibility that you will dream of breakfast. Or, if you have suppressed sex, then there is every possibility that you will have sexual fantasies. But these dreams belong to the first body. The etheric body is left out of psychological investigation, so its dreams are interpreted as belonging to the first body, the physical. Then, much confusion is created. The etheric body can travel in dreams. There is every possibility of it leaving your body. When you remember it, it is remembered as a dream, but it is not a dream in the same sense as the dreams of the physical body. The etheric body can go out of you when you are asleep. Your physical body will be there, but your etheric body can go out and travel in space. There is no space limiting it; there is no question of distance for it. Those who do not understand this, who do not recognize the existence of the etheric body, may interpret this as the realm of the unconscious. They divide man’s mind into conscious and unconscious. Then physiological dreaming is called “conscious” and etheric dreaming is called “unconscious.” It is not unconscious. It is as conscious as physiological dreaming, but conscious on another level. If you become conscious of your etheric body, the dreaming concerned with that realm becomes conscious. Just as physiological dreams can be created from the outside, so too can etheric dreams be created, stimulated. A mantra is one of the methods to create etheric visions, etheric dreams. A particular mantra or a particular nada — a particular word, sounding repeatedly in the etheric center — can create etheric dreams. There are so many methods. Sound is one of them. Sufis have used perfume to create etheric visions. Mohammed himself was very fond of perfume. A particular perfume can create a particular dream. Colors can also be of help. Leadbeater once had an etheric dream of blueness — just blueness, but of a particular shade. He began to search for that particular blue all over the markets of the world. After several years of search, it was finally found in an Italian shop — a velvet of that particular shade. The velvet was then used to create etheric dreams in others as well. So when someone goes deep in meditation and sees colors, and experiences perfumes and sounds and music absolutely unknown, these too are dreams, dreams of the etheric body. So-called spiritual visions belong to the etheric body; they are etheric dreams. Gurus revealing themselves before their disciples is nothing but etheric travel, etheric dreaming. But because we have only searched the mind at one level of existence, the physiological, these dreams have either been interpreted in the language of the physiological or discarded, neglected. Or, put into the unconscious. To say that anything is part of the unconscious is really just to admit that we do not know anything about it. It is a technicality, a trick. Nothing is unconscious, but everything that is conscious on a deeper level is unconscious on the previous level. So for the physical, the etheric is unconscious; for the etheric, the astral is unconscious; for the astral, the mental is unconscious. Conscious means that which is known. Unconscious means that which is still not known, the unknown. There are also astral dreams. In astral dreaming you go into your previous births. That is your third dimension of dreaming. Sometimes in an ordinary dream, part of the etheric or part of the astral may be there. Then the dream becomes a muddle, a mess; you cannot understand it. Because your seven bodies are in existence simultaneously, something from one realm can pass into another, can penetrate it. So sometimes, even in ordinary dreams, there are fragments of the etheric or astral. In the first body, the physical, you can travel in neither time nor space. You are confined to your physical state and to the particular time it is — say, ten o’clock at night. Your physical body can dream in this particular time and space, but not beyond it. In the etheric body you can travel in space but not in time. You can go anywhere, but the time is still ten o’clock at night. In the astral realm, in the third body, you can travel not only in space but also in time. The astral body can trespass the barrier of time — but only toward the past, not toward the future. The astral mind can go into the whole infinite series of the past, from amoeba to man. In Jungian psychology, the astral mind has been called the collective unconscious. It is your individual history of births. Sometimes it penetrates into ordinary dreams, but more often in pathological states than in healthy ones. In a man who is mentally diseased, the first three bodies lose their usual distinction from one another. A person who is mentally ill may dream about his previous births, but no one will believe him. He himself will not believe it. He will say it is just a dream. This is not dreaming on the physical plane. It is astral dreaming. And astral dreaming has much meaning, much significance. But the third body can dream only about the past, not about what is to be. The fourth body is the mental. It can travel into the past and into the future. In an acute emergency, sometimes even an ordinary person can have a glimpse of the future. If someone near and dear to you is dying, the message may be delivered to you in an ordinary dream. Because you do not know any other dimension of dreaming, because you do not know the other possibilities, the message will penetrate your ordinary dreaming. But the dream will not be clear because of barriers that have to be crossed before the message can become a part of your ordinary dreaming state. Each barrier eliminates something, transforms something. Each body has its own symbology so every time a dream passes from one body to another it is translated into the symbology of that body. Then, everything becomes confused. If you dream in the fourth body in a clear-cut way — not through another body but through the fourth body itself — then you can penetrate into the future, but only into your own future. It is still individual; you cannot penetrate into another person’s future. For the fourth body, the past is as much the present as the future is the present. Past, future and present become one. Everything becomes a now: now penetrating backward, now penetrating forward. There is no past and no future, but there is still time. Time, even as “the present,” is still a flowing of time. You will still have to focus your mind. You can see toward the past, but you will have to focus your mind in that direction. Then the future and the present will be held in abeyance. When you focus toward the future, the other two — past and present — will be absent. You will be able to see past, present and future, but not as one. And you will be able to see only your own individual dreams, dreams that belong to you as an individual. The fifth body, the spiritual body, crosses the realm of the individual and the realm of time. Now you are in eternity. The dreaming is not concerned with you as such, but with the consciousness of the whole. Now you know the entire past of the whole existence, but not the future. Through this fifth body, all myths of creation have been developed. They are all the same. The symbols differ, the stories differ a little bit, but whether they are Christian or Hindu or Jewish or Egyptian, the myths of creation — how the world was created, how it came into existence — are all parallel; they all have an undercurrent of similarity. For example, similar stories of the great flood exist all over the world. There is no historical record of them but, still, there is a record. That record belongs to the fifth mind, the spiritual body. The fifth mind can dream about them. The more you penetrate inward, the more the dream comes nearer and nearer to reality. Physiological dreaming is not so real. It has its own reality, but it is not so real. The etheric is much more real, the astral is even more real, the mental approximates the real and finally, in the fifth body, you become authentically realistic in your dreaming. This is the way to know reality. To call it dreaming is not adequate. But in a way it is dreaming, because the real is not objectively present. It has its own objectivity, but it comes as a subjective experience. Two persons who have realized the fifth body can dream simultaneously, which is not possible before this. Ordinarily there is no way of dreaming a common dream, but from the fifth body onward, a dream can be dreamt by many persons simultaneously. That is why the dreams are objective in a way. We can compare notes. That is how so many persons, dreaming in the fifth body, came to know the same myths. These myths were not created by single individuals. They were created by particular schools, particular traditions working together. So the fifth type of dreaming becomes much more real. The four preceding types are unreal in a sense because they are individual. There is no possibility of another person sharing the experience; there is no way to judge the validity of it — whether it is a fantasy or not. A fantasy is something you have projected; a dream is something that is not in existence as such, but which you have come to know. As you go inward, the dreaming becomes less fantastic, less imaginary — more objective, more real, more authentic. All theological concepts are created by the fifth body. They differ in their language, their terminology, their conceptualization, but they are basically the same. They are dreams of the fifth body. In the sixth body, the cosmic body, you cross the threshold of conscious/unconscious, matter/mind. You lose all distinctions. The sixth body dreams about the cosmos. You cross the threshold of consciousness and the unconscious world also becomes conscious. Now everything is alive and conscious. Even what we call matter is now part of consciousness. In the sixth body, dreams of cosmic myths have been realized. You have transcended the individual, you have transcended the conscious, you have transcended time and space, but language is still possible. It points toward something; it indicates something. Theories of Brahma, maya, theories of oneness, of the infinite, have all been realized in the sixth type of dreaming. Those who have dreamt in the cosmic dimension have been the creators of the great systems, the great religions. Through the sixth type of mind, dreams are in terms of being, not in terms of nonbeing; in terms of positive existence, not in terms of non-existence. There is still a clinging to existence and a fear of non-existence. Matter and mind have become one, but not existence and non-existence, not being and nonbeing. They are still separate. This is the last barrier. The seventh body, the nirvanic, crosses the boundary of the positive and jumps into nothingness. It has its own dreams: dreams of non-existence, dreams of nothingness, dreams of the void. The yes has been left behind, and even the no is not a no now; the nothingness is not nothing. Rather, the nothing is even more infinite. The positive must have boundaries; it cannot be infinite. Only the negative has no boundaries. So the seventh body has its own dreams. Now there are no symbols, no forms. Only the formless is. Now there is no sound but the soundless; there is absolute silence. These dreams of silence are total, unending. These are the seven bodies. Each of them has its own dreams. But these seven dimensions of dreams can become a hindrance in knowing the seven types of realities. Your physiological body has a way to know the real and a way to dream about it. When you take your food, this is a reality, but when you dream that you are taking food, it is not a reality. The dream is a substitute for the real food. So the physiological body has its own reality and its own way of dreaming. These are two different ways in which the physiological functions, and they are very far apart from one another. The more you go toward the center — the higher the body you are in — the nearer dream and reality are to one another. Just like lines drawn from the periphery toward the center of a circle come nearer as they approach the center, and are further apart as they go toward the circumference, so too dream and reality come nearer and nearer as you go toward your center and they become further and further apart as you go toward the periphery. So as far as the physiological body is concerned, dreaming and reality are far apart. The distance between them is great. Dreams are just fantasy. This separation will not be so great in the etheric body. The real and the dream will come nearer, so to know what is real and what is a dream will be more difficult than in the physiological body. But still, the difference can be known. If your etheric travel has been real travel, it will happen while you are awake. If it has been a dream it will happen when you are asleep. To know the difference, you will have to be awakened in the etheric body. There are methods to be aware in your etheric body. All methods of inner working such as japa — the repetition of a mantra — disconnect you from the outside world. If you fall asleep, the constant repetition can create a hypnotic sleep. Then, you will dream. But if you can remain aware of your japa and it does not create a hypnotic effect in you, then you will know the real as far as the etheric is concerned. In the third body, the astral, it is even more difficult to know the difference because the two have come even closer. If you have known the real astral body and not just astral dreaming, then you will go beyond the fear of death. From here, one knows one’s immortality. But if the astral is a dream and not real, then you will be crippled by the fear of death. This is the point of distinction, the touchstone: the fear of death. A person who believes that the soul is immortal and goes on repeating and repeating it, convincing himself, will not be able to know the distinction between what is real in the astral body and what is an astral dream. One should not believe in immortality, one should know it. But before knowing, one must have doubts about it, uncertainty about it. Only then will you know whether you really know it or whether you have just projected it. If it is your belief that the soul is immortal, the belief may penetrate your astral mind. Then you will begin to dream, but it will just be a dream. But if you have no belief, just a thirst to know, to seek — without knowing what is to be sought, without knowing what will be found, without any preconceptions or prejudices — if you are just seeking in a vacuum, then you will know the difference. So people who believe in the immortality of the soul, in past lives, those who accept them on faith, may just be dreaming on the astral plane and not knowing the real. In the fourth body, the mental, dream and reality become neighbors. Their faces are so alike that there is every possibility that one will be judged to be the other. The mental body can have dreams that are as realistic as the real. And there are methods to create such dreams — yogic, tantric and other methods. A person who is practicing fasting, loneliness, darkness, will create the fourth type of dreams, mental dreams. They will be so real, more real than the reality that is surrounding us. In the fourth body, the mind is totally creative — unhindered by anything objective, unhindered by material boundaries. Now it is totally free to create. Poets, painters, all live in the fourth type of dreaming; all art is produced by the fourth type of dreaming. A person who can dream in the fourth realm can become a great artist. But not one who knows. In the fourth body, one must be aware of any type of mental creation. One should not project anything; otherwise it will be projected. One should not wish anything; otherwise there is every possibility that the wish will be the fulfillment. Not only inwardly, even outwardly the wish can be fulfilled. In the fourth body, the mind is so powerful, so crystal clear, because the fourth body is the last home for the mind. Beyond this, no-mind begins. The fourth body is the original source of the mind, so you can create anything. One must constantly be aware that there is no wish, no imagination, no image; no god, no guru. Otherwise they will all be created out of you. You will be the creator! It is so blissful to see them that one longs to create them. This is the last barrier for the sadhaka, the seeker. If one crosses this, he will not face a greater barrier. If you are aware, if you are just a witness in the fourth body, then you know the real. Otherwise you go on dreaming. And no reality is comparable to these dreams. They will be ecstatic; no ecstasy is comparable. So one must be aware of ecstasy, of happiness, of blissfulness, and one must constantly be aware of any type of image. The moment there is an image, the fourth mind begins to flow into a dream. One image leads to the next, and you go on dreaming. The fourth type of dreaming can only be prevented if you are a witness. Witnessing makes the difference, because if dreaming is there you will be identified with it. Identification is dreaming as far as the fourth body is concerned. In the fourth body, awareness and the witnessing mind are the path toward the real. In the fifth body the dream and the real become one. Every type of duality is cast off. There is no question of any awareness now. Even if you are unaware, you will be aware of your unawareness. Now dreaming becomes just a reflection of the real. There is a difference, but no distinction. If I see myself in the mirror, there is no distinction between me and the reflection, but there is a difference. I am the real and the reflected one is not real. The fifth mind, if it has cultivated different concepts, may have the illusion of knowing itself because it has seen itself reflected in the mirror. It will be knowing itself, but not as it is — only as it is reflected. This is the only difference. But in a way, it is dangerous. The danger is that you may become satisfied with the reflection, and the mirrorlike image will be taken as the real. As far as the fifth body itself is concerned, there is no real danger if this happens, but it is a danger as far as the sixth body is concerned. If you have seen yourself only in the mirror, then you cannot cross the boundary of the fifth and go to the sixth. You cannot pass any boundary through a mirror. So there have been persons who have remained in the fifth. Those who say that there are infinite souls and each soul has its own individuality — these persons have remained in the fifth. They have known themselves, but not immediately, not directly — only through the medium of a mirror. Where does this mirror come from? It comes through the cultivation of concepts: “I am the soul. Eternal, immortal. Beyond death, beyond birth.” To conceive of oneself as the soul without knowing it is to create a mirror. Then you will not know yourself as you are, but as you are mirrored through your concepts. The only difference will be this: if the knowledge is coming through a mirror it is a dream and if it is direct, immediate, without any mirror, then it is real. This is the only difference, but it is a great one — not in relation to the bodies that you have crossed, but in relation to the bodies that are still to be penetrated. How can one be aware whether he is dreaming in the fifth or living the real? There is only one way: to drop every type of scripture, to take leave of every type of philosophy. Now there should be no more guru; otherwise the guru will become a mirror. From here on, you are totally alone. No one can be taken as a guide or the guide will become a mirror. From now on, the aloneness is total and complete. Not loneliness but aloneness. Loneliness is always concerned with others; aloneness is concerned with oneself. I feel lonely when there is no link between me and anyone else, but I feel alone when I am. Now one should be alone in every dimension: words, concepts, theories, philosophies, doctrines; gurus, scriptures; Christianity, Hinduism; Buddha, Christ, Krishna, Mahavira…. One should be alone now; otherwise anything that is present will become a mirror. Buddha will become a mirror now. Very dear, but very dangerous. If you are absolutely alone, there will be nothing in which you can be reflected. So meditation is the word for the fifth body. It means to be totally alone, free from every type of mentation. It means to be with no mind. If there is any type of mind it will become a mirror and you will be reflected in it. One should now be a no-mind, with no thinking, no contemplation. In the sixth body there is no mirror. Now only the cosmic is. You have been lost. You are no more; the dreamer is not. But the dream can still exist without the dreamer. And when there is a dream without the dreamer, it looks like authentic reality. There is no mind, no one to think, so whatever is known is known. It becomes your knowledge. Myths of creation come; they float by. You are not; things are just floating by. No one is there to judge; no one is there to dream. But a mind that is not, still is. A mind that is annihilated still exists — not as an individual, but as the cosmic whole. You are not, but the Brahma is. That is why they say that the whole world is a dream of the Brahma. This whole world is a dream, maya. Not a dream of any individual, but a dream of the total, the whole. You are not, but the total is dreaming. Now the only distinction is whether the dream is positive. If it is positive it is illusory, it is a dream, because in an ultimate sense only the negative is. When everything has become part of the formless, when everything has come back to the original source, then everything is and at the same time is not. The positive is the only factor remaining. It must be jumped over. So if, in the sixth body, the positive is lost, you penetrate into the seventh. The real of the sixth is the door of the seventh. If there is nothing positive — no myth, no image — then the dream has ceased. Then there is only what is: suchness. Now nothing exists but existence. Things are not, but the source is. The tree is not, but the seed is. Those who have known have called this type of mind samadhi with seed — samadhi sabeej. Everything has been lost; everything has returned to the original source, the cosmic seed. The tree is not, but the seed is. But from the seed, dreaming is still possible, so even the seed must be destroyed. In the seventh, there is neither dream nor reality. You can only see something real up to the point where dreaming is possible. If there is no possibility of dreams, then neither the real nor the illusory exists. So the seventh is the center. Now, dream and reality have become one. There is no difference. Either you dream of nothingness or you know nothingness, but the nothingness remains the same. If I dream about you it is illusory. If I see you it is real. But if I dream about your absence or I see your absence, there is no difference. If you dream about the absence of anything, the dream will be the same as the absence itself. Only in terms of something positive is there a real difference. So up to the sixth body there is a difference. In the seventh body only nothingness remains. There is an absence even of the seed. This is nirbeej samadhi, seedless samadhi. Now there is no possibility of dreaming. So there are seven types of dreams and seven types of realities. They penetrate one another. Because of this, there is much confusion. But if you make a distinction between the seven, if you become clear about it, it will help much. Psychology is still far away from knowing about dreams. What it knows is only about the physiological, and sometimes the etheric. But the etheric too is interpreted as the physiological. Jung has penetrated a little deeper than Freud, but his analysis of the human mind is treated as mythological, religious. Still, he has the seed. If Western psychology is to develop, it is through Jung not Freud. Freud was the pioneer, but every pioneer becomes a barrier for further progress if attachment to his advances becomes an obsession. Even though Freud is out of date now, Western psychology is still obsessed with its Freudian beginning. Freud must become part of history now. Psychology must proceed further. In America, they are trying to learn about dreaming through laboratory methods. There are many dream laboratories, but the methods used are concerned only with the physiological. Yoga, tantra and other esoteric training must be introduced if the whole world of dreams is to be known. Every type of dream has a parallel type of reality and if the whole maya cannot be known, if the whole world of illusions cannot be known, then it is impossible to know the real. It is only through the illusory that the real can be known. But do not take what I have said as a theory, a system. Just make it a starting point, and begin to dream with a conscious mind. Only when you become conscious in your dreams can the real be known. We are not conscious even of our physical body. We remain unaware of it. Only when some part is diseased do we become aware. One must become aware of the body in health. To be aware of the body in disease is just an emergency measure. It is a natural, built-in process. Your mind must be aware when some part of the body is diseased so that it can be taken care of, but the moment it becomes alright again you become sleepy about it. You must become aware of your own body: its workings, its subtle feelings, its music, its silences. Sometimes the body is silent; sometimes it is noisy; sometimes relaxed. The feeling is so different in each state that it is unfortunate we are not aware of it. When you are going to sleep, there are subtle changes in your body. When you are coming out of sleep in the morning, there are changes again. One must become aware of them. When you are going to open your eyes in the morning, do not open them right away. When you have become aware that sleep is over, become aware of your body. Do not open your eyes yet. What is going on? A great change is taking place inside. The sleep is leaving you and the awakening is coming. You have seen the morning sun rising, but never your body rising. It has its own beauty. There is a morning in your body and an evening. It is called sandhya: the moment of transformation, the moment of change. When you are going to sleep, silently watch what is happening. The sleep will come, it will be coming. Be aware! Only then can you become really aware of your physical body. And the moment you become aware of it, you will know what physiological dreaming is. Then in the morning you will be able to remember what was a physiological dream and what was not. If you know the inner feelings, the inner needs, the inner rhythms of your body, then when they are reflected in your dreams you will be able to understand the language. We have not understood the language of our own bodies. The body has its own wisdom; it has thousands and thousands of years of experience. My body has the experience of my father and mother and their father and mother and so on, centuries and centuries during which the seed of my body has developed into what it is. It has its own language. One must understand it first. When you understand it, you will know what a physiological dream is. And then, in the morning, you can separate the physiological dreams from the non-physiological dreams. Only then does a new possibility open up: to be aware of your etheric body. Only then, not before. You become more subtle. You can experience more subtle levels of sounds, perfumes, lights. Then when you walk, you know that the physiological body is walking; the etheric body is not walking. The difference is crystal clear. You are eating. The physical body is eating, not the etheric body. There are etheric thirsts, etheric hungers, etheric longings, but these things can only be seen when the physical body is known completely. Then by and by, the other bodies will become known. Dreaming is one of the greatest subjects. It is still undiscovered, unknown, hidden. It is part of the secret knowledge. But now the moment has come when everything that is secret must be made open. Everything that was hidden up till now must not be hidden any longer or it may prove dangerous. In the past it was necessary for some things to remain secret, because knowledge in the hands of the ignorant can be dangerous. This is what is happening with scientific knowledge in the West. Now scientists are aware of the crisis and they want to create secret sciences. Nuclear weapons should not have been made known to politicians. Further discoveries must remain unknown. We must wait for the time when man becomes so capable that the knowledge can be made open and it will not be dangerous. Similarly, in the realm of the spiritual, much was known in the East. But if it fell into the hands of ignorant people it would prove dangerous, so the key was hidden. The knowledge was made secret, esoteric. It was passed on from person to person very guardedly. But now, because of scientific progress, the moment has come for it to be made open. Science will prove dangerous if spiritual, esoteric truths still remain unknown. They must be made open so that spiritual knowledge will be able to keep pace with scientific knowledge. Dream is one of the greatest esoteric realms. I have said something about it so that you can begin to be aware, but I have not told you the whole science. It is neither necessary nor helpful. I have left gaps. If you go in, these gaps will be filled automatically. What I have said is simply the outer layer. It is not enough for you to be able to make a theory about it, but enough for you to begin. – OSHO [The Psychology of the Esoteric]

@Anna1 It is not going to be a mindless mishmash.. What I am talking about is creating a teaching methodology based on a careful empirical approach. It is completely opposite of neo-advaita. To understand what I am saying requires some deep knowledge of all major traditions and some psychological understanding of human mind. Unless it is there, there is no way someone can see what I am saying. I already made a clear point: Traditional vedanta ignores most of the concentration practices and traditional yoga ignores most of the insight practices but Buddhism embraces both. The heart of Buddhism is about Vipassana (insight) and Shamatha (concentration)... There is not much Shamatha in Vedanta and there is not much Vippassana in yoga. But these two were the central ideas of ancient teachings. This is not to show Buddhism in a better light or Vedanta or yoga in an inferior light. I have no interest in arguing which tradition is better. I am saying there is no need for separate traditions anymore, in this century. You can give credit to a person. It doesn't really make sense to give credit to something called Vedanta or yoga, as if Vedanta or yoga is going to sit in a corner and cry for not getting any credit. What is called as traditional Vedanta goes back to Shankara and his interpretation of Upanishads and Brahmasutras. Why create an imaginary concept called 'Vedanta' instead of seeing it as shankara's wisdom? Why create a school based on a single person's perspective and place him as one sole authority? This applies to any tradition or school. They have become another kind of vehicles for identification and clinging. If you look at science, you will see there is no Albert Einstein school or there is no Charles Darwin school. There is one universal system called science. I don't see any reason why the whole spirituality can be in a scientific domain. I don't see any reason why the coming decades will not see enlightened scientists who will work on spirituality by taking an empirical approach.My whole post is a vision for the future. Being enlightened or awakened is one thing; creating a teaching system according to what works for people is another thing. When we think about the past, none of the great masters in the past had access to the world as we have today. Now we can discuss things over the internet while being thousands of miles away from each other. We really have access to different kind of people with different background, enough access to experiment what works for people and what doesn't. We also have one established way of testing things called 'scientific method', an approach that tests if any hypothesis is true by following a very systematic way. Also, I don't see any reason why there should be a separate school called zen and another school called vedanta, when both are essentially teaching the same thing. It is just that one tradition has some methods and techniques which other tradition doesn't have. Combine the essential teaching and different methods of each tradition, apply both experiential knowledge of one's awakening and psychological knowledge that is already available in a systematic way, and we will have a universal way of teaching people. We can see Bhagwad Gita as Bhagwad Gita, not a text of Vedanta. We can see Shankara's teachings as Shankara's teachings, not as an authority of something called Traditional vedanta. We can see patanjali yoga sutras as a book, not as an authority of so called yoga... Break the boundaries of Yoga, Vedanta etc and see them for what they are... Then there will be no need for any defending, there will be no need for identifying oneself with a particular tradition and miss out all the extraordinary wisdom that other traditions have to offer. See what I am trying to say as a whole, instead of paying attention to the individual statements. Try top down processing instead of just using bottom up processing.

@Anna1 Yes, I am saying my thoughts.. No denying. But I thought you said i was in some kind of confusion. I didn't know what the word crusade exactly meant. I wouldn't say that it is really a mission, it is just a direction I want to go. Once you go through spiritual awakening and go beyond the level of seeing yourself as a separate entity, you would want to help others someway to get awakened. Some people become teachers but i don't want to become one. Instead I just blog and spread some word about how they can go forward with the path by pointing to different people, books and sharing my own thoughts about it which I clearly think through in the perspective of truth. I also try to see how science and spirituality can be bridged and make the whole teaching more effective. I suggest to learn principles of Advaita (only the core principles), and mindfulness because this whole suggestion is based on what I went through, based on my own experience. My effort is to not achieve a goal or accomplish a goal, but I enjoy doing it, it is an end in itself. This also involves not taking any one human being as the only authority. Not following anyone blindly and following your own light is very important. Taking one human being as authority is as stupid as taking one holy book as the sole authority. Because even awakened owns corrupt the teaching with their own views and opinions. The effect is not really much, but still this ends up in a lot of people blindly repeating what a master says. That is why I have written an article regarding how even awakened ones are biased and their actions can be influenced by ego. This is not to say one shouldn't find a teacher. If he can't do it on his own, he should get a help of a teacher. But even if your teacher declares you enlightened, don't believe it and don't be in any hurry to declare it. You will know the truth for yourself and then you won't need any external confirmation. Your teacher can be wrong. Any teacher can be wrong, because they are still human beings. Here is a sutta from Pali canon that everyone should keep in mind: "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in traditions simply because they have been handed down for many generations. ... Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. But when, after observation and analysis, you find anything that agrees with reason, and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it." – Buddha, Kalama Sutta