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Video for penduling after being awakened (the true awakening, not the woowoo) Once you have awakened to the truth of who you are, there will be a bit of a penduling between person and REAL you. Use this video to get you to the center.

A self is just a label, a concept. No external factor can change that you don't exist. As for proving this is the case, I say just keep doing the enlightenment work. I'm not enlightened, but on good faith, I'll go ahead and say it will make sense when you are truly awakened. After all, nothing exists besides nothingness.

It's clear now. What happened a year ago was an experience that the "I" grasped and started to identify with. The awakened "me". I am the truth it thought. It just had a taste and it never got to see the truth. It was never awake 'cause it cannot.

Enlightenment is like an answer of a problem given to you, and you are told to figure it out only to realize that it can't be figured out, and that realization is enlightenment. When you first listened about enlightenment, your mind automatically made a concept out of it. Imagine every label, belief and concept to be like data that requires processing to exist in the first place, Furthermore, processing requires attention. Processing of the data, according to me is the identification. Thats what causes suffering. What we are required of, to be awakened is to somehow pull the attention from the processing. Pulling away the attention is the real tricky part. So how do you do that? You can't, because if you need to do something about it, you are going to end up processing the data, which is the thing that we are trying to run away from. So an action is to take place other than the processing of the data, and guess what, such an action isn't there, but still whatever happens ,in its essence is an action, a nil action so to speak, and what comes next I think is the awakening. (These are just insights from my own short awakening experiences) Notice that these are also words and labels being processed in your mind while you are reading them.

Like I've stated previously in a different topic on the same category; once awakened or enlightened, it does not mean you stop working at your job or stop paying bills. The only difference is you are aware of a truth that others who are not awakened or enlightened are not aware of. It doesn't give you superpowers, just a different conscious perspective. You still think and experience emotion, you just don't identify yourself with them.

Hello there, my awakened (hopefully) friends, I'm new here and this is my first post, funny how I've just stumbled upon this particular topic which has been my daily routine for a few weeks now. So let me share my 50 cents on this I started taking cold showers on 5th January 2016. It's actually been my tool/mechanism for staying on-track with NoFap challenge, which I actually accomplished pretty comfortably in the end. I know deeply that cold showers have helped me tremendously with this quest, but I could not have ever imagined how significantly it would change my (perception of my) own life. To be brutally honest (as Leo often says), I didn't think I would hold on to this habit for too long. I just wanted to accomplish NoFap and cold showers seemed to me like a beneficial tool. I started off during winter season with as-cold-as-technically-possible water, the first time I've actually tried I literally couldn't catch my breath, I felt tremendous pain everywhere, my brain was frozen and my shower time was less than a minute long. But I've never taken a warm/hot shower since then yet. Today it's exactly 52 days of strictly cold showers for me. The benefits for me are (in no specific order): Super strong immunity, no illness whatsoever. Willpower level 9000. Confidence level 5000 and still going higher every single day. Great skin, great hair. Refreshing thing in the morning and sleep-inducing in the evening. Sort of meditation technique for me. After a rough day it seems to put me in a balanced state of mind. Before a rough day it makes me feel like a superman. I can do anything & everything. It turns my body into a lean and fit shape, no workout required. For real. And these are just the ones I can think of right now. I also noticed that I turn myself into an action-taker, I am (almost strangely) calmly confident, happy, positive and level-headed. More loving & caring as well. It goes hand in hand with bunch of other stuff that I also do (namely being a vegan for a few months now), but still, cold showers are for me The Catalyst which hugely helps me GROW myself every single day. And it's free! I write this post for you right after a cold shower, I can now take freezing cold water for up to 15 minutes straight with a smile on my face. I can really enjoy my time in a cold shower now, it's just amazing what it does to you when you surrender and let go of being slightly uncomfortable. My balls are ice cold even now (30 minutes later) and I start to become really tired now, but that's allright, I've done a lot today. I'll just do some self-improving reading and then go straight to bed (around 10PM). I should also note that cold showers helped to get me on my feet at 5AM every single day, something I wasn't capable of doing in the past. Lastly, I can give you a few tips on how to start. First, go with ice-cold water right off the bat. Do not be a pussy. Better go with 30-60 seconds of ice-cold shower and enjoy your time doing something better instead. Second, start with feet, then add your genitalia and then go straight for the head and the rest of your body. Breath out as hard and long as you can, it seems to help with the pain. Third, keep in mind that it's just a water. Water can not hurt you in any way (unless you try to drown yourself, of course). After all, you are mostly made of water, so what's the big deal? The ego holds you back, your body holds you back and your habit of being stuck in your comfort-zone holds you back too. So just go and beat it, it's definitelly worth it. I am proof that it can literally change your life for the better. You'll never go back to warm showers again. Good luck, stay healthy, enjoy your days. Don't forget to smile! - TK

I would respond in a way in which the other would regret his decision to spit on me. By the way, who ever said that an Awakened or Enlightened person wouldn't assert them self?

Well you said: What you know is that people who are truly awakened don't necessarily talk to you. I agree totally with what you're saying. Don't believe any of that, explore it for yourself, see if it's true or not.

This is no different than what religious fanatics feel and experience when they pray to god. A strong belief in something and the feeling of greatness/ultimate love can cause such physical sensations very often. And so does music. 1. This does not mean you are enlightened or awakened at all. 2. People who are truly awakened don't necessarily talk about it at all.

Oh, I have / had a big problem with that myself. I'm not at the point where I completely accept everything and just be the flow itself but I made some good improvements. I started out with being totally frantic and neurotic (as I see it right now) and at this point in my life I'm pretty chill most of the time and a little neurotic and frantic when "important" stuff happens. So, here is basically what I do to get better at this: Every time I feel as if I cannot accept either the present moment / myself or whatever is happening to me I concentrate very deeply into that feeling. I locate it in my body (for example fear often sits in my stomach) and I just observe it. If I can I lay down on my bed and feel really into it, doing some self-hypnosis to getting to the root of it, I do that. I don't try to get rid of it, but I just feel it and so kind of accept that the "non-acceptance" is just there. This typically helps me to get out of my head and relax myself a little and overtime this is my key for holding my shit together. I agree to everyone saying that you don't need any technique and just let it be. That's all right. And I agree that we are all awakened but don't see it and so on. But in reality @Emerald Wilkins I know for myself that there are situations in which you need a technique to get on with your life. So, that's what I do. In the long-term I cannot agree more to @Jan Odvarko. Strong determination sittings are responsible for my fastest and deepest gains in that field.

@abrakamowse This seems to only be possible within an awakened master's presence (just a hypotheses)

Getting back to ego death.. What the guy describes in the video I would say is actually awakening. You are aware that you are not your ego, but the ego still has it's effect on you. I would say what ego death really is, is when you have been living in an awakened state for a while and have noticed your ego so much to the point where you no longer properly identify with it. At this point you may have an identity crisis and go through some hard times... Is this correct? Has anyone experienced this and if so how did you deal with it? I had this realisation that there isn't really a 'me' (awakening) the other day. It was very profound at the time and then I became scared, worried of the implications it would have on my family/love life etc. Then I started to see more of the positives to it. Since then I have been very calm and still for the last few days. At the same time, I feel like I've uncovered something that is non reversible. It sounds awful but its a bit like opening pandoras box LOL. I feel like I don't have a choice in being on this path now and that more is going to unfold without my will. The only thing I can compare this feeling to is from when I was younger. I spent a few years experimenting with drugs and had a few experiences where I was high and actually believed that I had uncovered another reality, the way it really was.. This reality I thought I had uncovered is very similar to what I feel now. The more I think about it the more I trip out. LOL I just hope I don't end up in a mental ward..!

@DizIzMikey not sure what you mean@DizIzMikey Well ive been through that stuff and at first it was bizarre...going through synchronicity experiences and peeking behind the curtain. Now that I realize that there is more to life than what appears on the surface (awakened), I can never go back to the way I used to live, (with ego, trying to obtain meaning through form, judging, comparing myself to others, ad nauseum).

I believe buddha is almost a generic term or title for awakened one. In buddhist traditions there are many buddhas. The fat bellied happy buddhs is one representation of one buddha. When people refer to the buddha, I think they generally mean siddartha.

Like... if you are awakened.. than you know of me than since you are one with everything? Correct or not?

Well ive been through that stuff and at first it was bizarre...going through synchronicity experiences and peeking behind the curtain. Now that I realize that there is more to life than what appears on the surface (awakened), I can never go back to the way I used to live, (with ego, trying to obtain meaning through form, judging, comparing myself to others, ad nauseum).

This got me thinking and I started to explore the concepts of the 'present moment' and time itself. Some realisations hit me. There is a profound truth in the statement "A present moment is only there when there is someone to live in it", or more to the point, when there is something to perceive it. I appologise if this gets deep.. The fact is, by the time our brain (or any brain or system) has received the sensory information and 'made sense' of it, the moment has already passed. There is a delay. So the present moment we perceive is always lagging by a fraction. Also, it is the speed at which we can process and make sense of the stream of sensory information that creates the perception of time. Smaller animals with smaller brains tend to have much faster perception and reactions. Why? It is beleived that in smaller neural systems signals travel faster (less distance to cover) so they can perceive time more slowly and hense create faster reactions to the sensory input. This is why it is so hard to swat a fly even though it appears to us that we are swinging our arm really fast. Yet to the fly, it still has time to casually finish pollishing it's eyes and smoothing it's wings before taking off at the last moment and evading the impending hand. To the fly the perception of time is very different (our actions seem extremely slow) and so the present moment to the fly is different to the present moment we are experiencing. I imagine the 'present moment' as a continuous 'burst' of sensory moments that our brains create some perception out of and also create the sense of time. Interestingly, when we are unconscious, maybe in deep sleep, under general anasthetic, coma, passed out or even dead, there is no perceiving, no present moment and no perception of time. Infact there is no time. If there is no conscious awareness then there is no present moment or passage of time at all. You could be put unconscious today, and awakened in 1000 years and you would have no sense of the passing of time. It would feel like seconds or minutes. Which brings in to question the whole concept of time - it has no speed, or measurement. In fact, it may well be infinite, instantaneous. What is time anyway? Just the perception of passing, more importantly changing, events - if everything was static there would, in theory, be no passage of time. Billions of years passed from the beginning of the universe to when you became a conscious life-form. That time passed in an instant. Then, while you are experiencing conscious awarness and perception, time (events) seems to take on a 'speed', except during periods of unconsciousness when it return to being instantaneous. Then, once you die and stop perceiving permanently, the rest of eternity will play out in an instant. It occurs to me that the perception of passage of time is in itself just a manifestion of our conscious awareness and as such the concept of the 'present moment' is aswel. In reality there is no present moment because in order to have a 'moment' a moment has to have duration. How long is the present moment? It isn't any length. It is only a perception in itself. Weirder and weirder... ultimately, reality isn't anything like what we think we know about it. It is weirder than we can possible imagine. It's unlikely we even have the mental capacity to understand it. In fact, as we are a part of reality that is like saying that reality can't comprehend itself. The system can't comprehend the system because it is the system. A paradox. In any case, what is comprehension? A concept? Concepts within concepts within concepts.... If there were no brains to conceptualise then there would be absolute reality just as it is without any understanding or knowledge or questions or present moments or even passage of time.. Sorry, got carried away...will leave it there!

I used to have a fear of abandonment until I got awakened. That is when I saw through the illusion of 'self', there was no one to be abandoned. That fear is conditioned and everything that is created by your mind is an illusion - thoughts, concepts, memories, etc. When you get awakened, you recognize reality as it is, no labels, no filters, no thoughts, just a play of forms/ energy. Your body is a form, so are your thoughts. Also, recognize the other people as such. They are, as Leo calls it, 'nothingness' as well as you are and 'nothingness' cannot abandon 'nothingness', because it's one and the same.

You see I think there's a connecting principle involved (unless the guy at the supermarket likes 1979 also and is also going to the concert). I attribute my experience to The Universe saying "wake up". Indeed, I did wake up. I have spiritually awakened although it was far from a dramatic khundalini awakening. I've been getting glimpses behind the curtain since age five, but it only took me until now, at age 49 to put it all together. Imagine someone taking a nap who keeps waking up intermittently only to fall back asleep again. This happens for awhile until he wakes up FOR GOOD. That's my story basically. I feel basic joy just in Being. I like exploring spirituality but I don't know and don't care if im ever enlightened. The only thing that matters to me is that I KNOW without a shadow of a doubt that there is more to what exists than what is apparent in day to day living.

Interesting conversation. To me, it doesn't sound like you were becoming a sociopath, but instead heading towards an awakened state.

Another awakened artist is Sinead O' Connor. She even has a guided meditation on youtube. Note: It's not the singer Sinead O' Connor Lol. Sorry, my bad. I have to check better before posting. :-P

All the words and explanations in the world will not result in so-called "enlightenment". Are you pursuing an idea, or a concept of "enlightenment"? It is just a word. What you are looking for is a realization - not the word - but the actual event. Is there a method? Well, we can develop/design methods based on actual realizations, but then we run into words and interpretations and so on. In every case, one has to attend to watching, and practising mindful behaviour as often as possible throughout every day. One must approach this with seriousness. How badly do you want it? One Zen example often mentioned is the allegory of shoving a person's head under water until they panic for air, and then letting their head up for air and then saying something like "When you want it as badly as you wanted air just now". Just practising techniques and carrying out certain routines is not sufficient by itself. You must want it badly enough so that your intention and behaviour in every aspect of your life demonstrates your dedication to meeting with truth. It is here before us. Will we attend to it? Those who have eyes to see ... and ears to hear ... you know ... that sort of thing. Of course there have been seemingly spontaneous cases of "awakening". But there is much behind those happenings. Tolle spoke of his childhood and the problems his parents had and what state it left him in; then his desire to find out the truth - so he went to university where most people and he also believed, the truth could be found; then his disappointment, that after all his higher education, he had still not found the truth he was seeking; then during his doctorate year he had such a great depression he wanted to commit suicide (a thought he had entertained even during childhood); then as all this built up to a peek, a sudden insight dawned on him. "I cannot live any longer with myself". "There must be two of me. I and myself". What was this all about, he wondered. He seems to have entered a deep mode of self-enquiry - it activated his subconscious mind. He fell asleep exhausted and awoke the next morning to a different view of the world. Then he stopped attending university and spent time on park benches and went to various places to find out what had happened to him. He researched and learned more and more. As most awakened people will tell you, it is an ongoing process. The first instance of awakening is a huge change of world view in terms of what is reality as compared to apparent reality. But the awakening process continues and matures. I hope this adds light to some of the matters under discussion here and elsewhere. joy

I'm going to quote my "meditations" book from Swami Satyananda here, "It is the famous eye of intuition, through which one who is physically awakened can view all events on both the physical and psychic planes." When I've concentrated on it, I feel I'm part of a higher consciousness, as if I were guided. Though I know that's my predisposition to feel it that way, since I've studied it. I think chakras might be just a belief, we are just believing on its power, and maybe by believing feeling it?

Nobody is in a position to judge who's awakened and who's not, we can never know and it's not anyone's business , there is no true artist in the world will tell you hey.. I am awakened! but I like to mention few modern artists I personally think they are inspiring, with a slight spiritual sense in their works whether they have it, or have it partially, or not at all: Film Makers: Ron Fricke (Baraka, Samsara) Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke , Howl's Moving Castle_ Christopher Nolan (Inception, Interstellar, The prestige) David Lynch (Mullholad Drive - Twin Peaks - Blue Velvet) James Cameron (Avatar - Titanic - Terminator - Alien) J.J Abrams (LOST, Fringe, Star Wars Force awakens, New StarTrek) Andrei Tarkovsky (Stalker, Nostalgia, Solaris) Gaspar Noé (Enter The Void) Ki-duk Kim (Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring, 3 Iron..) Games: Tod Howard (Skyrim, Fallout, Oblivion) Casey Hudson (Mass Effect) Composers: John Williams Ennio Morricone Karl Jenkens Jeremy Soule Hans Zimmer James Horner Thomas Bergersen Nobou Umetsu Vangelis Ari Pulkkinen Fantasy Writers (I'm not a good reader): J.R.R Talking (Lord of The Rings) George R.R Martin (Game of Thrones)

I agree with this because I have been acquainted with several enlightened/awakened people & they couldn't be more down-to-earth. Many of the people with whom I've exchanged ideas about spirituality & enlightenment are members of the Pragmatic Dharma community, and they insist on open, honest communication around practice & path attainments. They have contempt for the "mushroom" (keep 'em in the dark & feed'em sh!t) dharma culture that uses fluffy, indirect language regarding enlightenment. They feel that, since the Buddha of the Pali scriptures & his followers spoke openly about practice & enlightenment, we should too. I agree that it's much more helpful to be open about all of this, as it demystifies enlightenment & brings it into the reach of us laypeople.