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In the Buddhist scriptures there are many examples of men who became instantly enlightened by hearing the words of the Buddha. But in modern society, people meditate for decades without any improvement. Could it have been the different in culture? The men in Buddha’s time came from tribes and had the tribal world view and a non materialistic mindset. It didn’t take much for them to transition into full enlightenment. The purple stages were overcome through violence, not because they lacked anything. Thus, the conquering stages had better military strength. Having thousands of people as slaves building irrigation systems for the Nile is not an improvement of cognitive ability.

@A_v_E I'm sorry, this might be helpful if you are working at some absolute level, but this doesn't help people day to day. For average people that are not in a place where full enlightenment is their life, working under the philosophy of trying to maximize happiness through normal means is a lot more helpful. Don't lose touch with 99% of the population

Before I started taking enlightenment work seriously around 2017 I had a huge delay in almost everything material related compared to my "peers" This is one of the reasons I pursued this work so ardently, I basically believed that anyone who had something going on was enlightened in some way for that thing to work, since I always saw beyond people's justifications on how things worked out for them: basically people take credit for good things and disown the bad results while I saw that everything is context, everything is God's will... So with that in mind I decided to go for full enlightenment first and foremost in order to manifest this dream the way I always intuited it can be. Fast forward to now, after all the ego deaths and consciousness exapnsion to include everything and all that good stuff, I (ego me) turned out to be the ultimate loser, if anything I feel that pure consciousness aside, I am worst off than the place I started, and I feel way too bitter and broken about it, to the point where I feel like no matter what happens, "this" cannot even be recontextualized... I'm afraid I wont ever turn out to be happy, content, or winning. I am full of bitterness, apathy, desires for revenge... and all the consciousness I used to tap into is now fully gone, it's just ego, I understand now what "devil" means, what falling from grace is all about. BUT, knowing things in the way I do now, I know that this too IS God, but I just can't grow from it, I'm also too conscious to just go back into "ordinary existance" and climb my way up the ordinary way, so what I basically concluded after all the pain is that existance (for me) is me realizing that the universe exists for me to fulfill my ego's desires, but for that to happen I literally need a miracle, the question is now how would one go about that? How would one manifest a miracle for the greater good of one's ego? This inquiry may seem like a joke to many people here who believe that this is all unspiritual and that I'm full of shit, but it is what it is. To me, Ego, Self, God and Consciousness are (still) synonimous and I can't differentiate between the them. So I believe it is a geniune desire of god to win through little limited me; OR; It is my geniune desire to win THE WAY I WANNA WIN in order to fall back in love with existance. Can this be done? Deep down I know it can totally be done, and sometimes I even intuit that it's EASY, but from the limited place I am in, it feels like it's too much to carry and I just go into lethargy blaming myself (as God) How does one go about reversing this basically? has anyone dealt with this? I have the intuition that Leo has gone (is going) through similar things but I feel that he just focuses too much on one side of the equation without going too much into detail about things like shadow work, ego validation, the necessity of selfishness in love... To summerize things, my ultimate question through this post is this: How does one take FULL control/lucidity of reality? How does one take reality's power in order to serve one's ego?

Ego death could be regarded as enlightenment. Depending on how one frames it, no-self can be regarded as the central aspect of enlightenement - but then again, it's the exact same as Infinity and Love. Seen from a different point of view, ego death doesn't happen because the ego was an illusion to begin with. There really is nothing that could die, you're smack in the middle of enlightenment right now. But it's the recognition of this, that is what is generally considered as "enlightenment". Although even to speak of a "recognition" or "realization" or "becoming conscious of" is still not "full enlightenment" (which is the same as no-enlightenment) in my view and the big punchline still awaits those who think they're enlightened - or that they could ever have been un-enlightened. You are enlightenment, period. No work and no realization will ever change anything about that. Spirituality is one big game, at the end of which you will find yourself in the exact same place where you started. It's a total, perfect mindfuck.

There is no monk, no enlightened beings, no full enlightenment, no photograph. You can not burn yourself, you can so to speak, recognize yourself.

@Raptorsin7 yes. That's the whole point. That's why people worship them as enlightened beings. That's what full enlightenment looks like. Not eating potato chips releasing tension. Talking nondual phylosophy.

@Mason Riggle That's crazy!! Like an Eckhart Tolle sudden awakening? I've been pushing myself hard to silence all thoughts (false answers — every answer — to my question "Who am I?"). Fortunately, I'm finally just starting to get the hang of taking breaks whilst some of the inquiry fire is kept alight, so I don't have to go back and re-experience the more difficult starting part of the process every time I return to formally practicing with everything I have. Would you say that you need to be, to at least some degree, 'dead inside'/'emotionally numb' to see this thing through to full enlightenment?

I know because of my personal experience with rigorous meditation. I wish I could communicate how radically my baseline state of being has shifted from before starting on the path to now. It’s utterly beautiful how much life has transformed and Im continually blown away by how deep meditation is. Every time I sit down it feels like Im microdosing on psychedelics, often times it feels stronger than a microdose. But this has only come after very intense practice. How do I know? By reflecting on my own experience. I mean seeking without the attachment of finding any answers. The joy of curiosity and the path is not in the breakthroughs, but with the pursuit of the path itself. For example, the hours upon hours one spends in meditation wont lead to breakthroughs or insights. Insights do arise but are the overwhelming minority. Yet those hours we spend will be some of the most fulfilling in our lives. Once it’s recognized there is no one actually seeking, the energy of seeking can fully flower in a relaxed, spontaneous, and powerful way. This seeking comes from the detachment of being anyone or anything at all. The belief in a separate self is what creates the contraction around seeking that some spiritual communities criticize. Something valuable is lost if one prematurely stops before full enlightenment. I can’t communicate what is lost. The only way you’d truly know is by gaining that which cannot be gained, attaining that which was always so, and contrasting its significance in your own experience. If your decision feels authentic, then don’t let me dissuade you. No judgements persay and certainly no fear. Ive just seen this type of rationale before. The possibility for self-deception and avoiding the work is rampant in many. But also, practice, the work, the path all have contractive periods. Sometimes we must contract before we expand. Sometimes an entire life is one of contraction. Im not saying that’s the case here, just sharing thoughts.

@Consilience It feels like it chose me, if I'm being honest. I grew up in the Pentecostal church, so I was familiar with the phenomenon of spontaneous movements. When I discovered this form of Yoga, it just felt like home. Back in 2010, I had done several Enlightenment Intensives where I directly experienced the truth of Who and What I am. It's not hyperbole when I say it completely changed the course of my life. The problem though was that I could not retain the peace and joy that came with those realizations. For a few weeks after a retreat, I would feel the absolute perfection of existence. Nothing would bother me, and I could easily rest in my own true nature. Then inevitably, things would begin to nag me again. I would get angry or upset. I couldn't figure out what had changed. I decided that I needed a spiritual practice to stabilize my realizations. I tried Zen, but it didn't resonate. I read books and attempted to figure things out on my own, but I quickly recognized the need for a teacher. The Enlightenment Intensive had worked so well for me, I decided to see what practices the founder of the retreat used. That's how I discovered Sahaja Yoga. The purpose of kriyas is purification. What is described as being purified varies between teachers. Some say sanchit karma, some say prana, some say the mind, and all are correct. Whatever is true is true right now. Nothing new is gained with realization, but something is lost. To realize what is true in this moment, limiting beliefs and false concepts have to be discarded. In the Enlightenment Intensive, which some of Peter's programs are based on, contemplation is the tool used to purify the mind enough so that a breakthrough can occur. @kieranperez said the same basic thing. Even more importantly is the purification that is needed to abide as the truth. The classic yogic texts all echo the same idea, both jnana and yoga are required for moksha. Even Sri Shankaracharya said that if you cannot grasp Vedanta then more Hatha is required. Charles Berner, later known as Yogeshwar Muni, had many enlightenment experiences, but he was astute enough to see that chasing more and more peak experiences could not result in full enlightenment. That is why he sought out a teacher, and after meeting Swami Kripalu, he found what he was looking for. He spent the remainder of his life performing Yoga sadhana for 10 hours a day. The gradual vs sudden enlightenment argument is a very old one, and both sides are true from a perspective. I say get it if you can get it. If you can't get it right away, then keep trying. Yes, my sadhana is complete surrender. Kripalu and Muktananda are different branches of the Siddha tree, but yes, we always have to be careful of corruption.

I really wish people would be careful while trying to find the 'Truth', especially when psychedelics are involved. Because your insights can be completely misinterpreted which can slowly send you in a downward spiral toward depression and suicide. You can go on train of thought which goes only one direction, which is down. It's important to stay grounded in reality. Make sure your insights actually have some kind of basis and fundament to it. Take baby steps, don't try to aim for full enlightenment immediately. It's like when people just learn to drive they immediately want to drive a sportscar with 2000horsepower and test its limits, while on drugs. The chances if you getting hurt are extremely high. Cross-check your insights with other experienced and grounded people. And if you feel you are on a downward trajectory, seek real help.

wrong question. did you ever stop praying after enlightenment? would be the question to answer this notion of what full enlightenment probably is. if not every moment of your life became like a prayer, you, like me probably always ever only had glimpses.

This thread is created with the intent to help those who explore it to better know themselves. Learning intimately about others is the only thing that has ever taught me about myself, because the eye cannot see itself. Recorded December 6, 2021 — My Intense Journey from Stream Entry to 3rd Path (Theravada Buddhism) — Part 1 Recorded April 10, 2014 — Pleasure is Everything Those are the first and last recordings I still have access to from my YouTube account. I really wish I had my first popular video to share, but it was deleted. It was a 12-14 year old me giving a guide on how to train melee combat stats in the most effective way in RuneScape 2 with a whiny high-pitched voice I was incredibly self-conscious of. Here are two amazing videos made by a couple of the people I’ve imitated the most. They are the highest creations accessible that the two individuals have ever made, in my flawed and humble opinion. Remember though, even my humility is a complete lie a front regardless of how genuine and authentic it might feel to me at the time of writing this. I’ve spent hundreds of hours watching both of these people, their journeys, and their teachings over many years. All you can ever do is imitate. The entire journey from egoic consciousness to Absolute Divinity, Full Enlightenment, and God-Realization occurs in every micro-moment of time. Find more Time. No power or force can ever escape this process. God has trapped itself in an eternal prison. The only worthwhile thing to do is to find a way to enjoy the prison which will not work for anything longer than a micro-moment of time. There is no such thing as a present moment. The most effective thing I can do personally to reduce this arrogance is to repent my sin which is the exact same sin Lucifer committed before we came to earth. I repent to God/Heavenly Father/Heavenly Mother/Tao through the impeccable vehicle of Jesus Christ as I was raised in a Mormon church, grew up in America, and other cultural factors. Regardless of this, I really do urge you to consider why the Bible is the most popular book ever written and Christianity is the world's largest religion with only Islam coming close and even that encapsulates Jesus Christ directly into the religion when studied properly. The Buddha is a real mutha-fuckin’ G in my eyes as someone post-stream entry, but I don’t consider him to be anywhere as pure of an example as Jesus. Jesus transmitted the Dharma by bringing the Highest Teaching to the most downtrodden of society in a public setting to his ultimate demise and supposedly took the FULL WRATH OF GOD IN THREE HOURS. Like I kind of said already, it’s a preference of mine, but hey, what is not a preference at the end of the day? This describes the Natural State rather impeccably which I have verified through direct experience: "Quite surprisingly, upon reentry, life becomes very simple and ordinary. We no longer feel driven to have extraordinary moments, to have transcendent experiences. Sitting at the table in the morning and drinking a cup of tea is perfectly adequate. Drinking a cup of tea is experienced as a full expression of ultimate reality. The cup itself is a full expression of everything we have realized. Walking down the hallway, each step is a complete expression of the deepest realization. Raising a family, dealing with children, going to work, going on vacation — all of it is a true expression of that which is inexpressible." — The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment by Adyashanti One more boat to use until you reach the shore: Memory is just a commonplace deja-vu. With “love,” Brandon Rohe ?

Teaching about Love and teaching about suffering are the same thing when it goes full circle, just different flavors. Until it goes full circle, they seem like oppositional forces. Try considering dukkha as a continuum rather than one side of a duality that somehow prevails over sukha. The Four Noble Truths dismantle the idea that everything is suffering for if there is a path out of suffering, the way suffering is experienced and conceived of prior to that path being Realized cannot be some permanent universal constant. The three characteristics are just pointers that self destruct upon 4th path Realization, at least how they were perceived prior to that Realization. They mean something entirely different. Once one gets to the other shore, the boat is left behind. Nondoership/penetrating the illusion of agency upgrades cravings to Nature/Tao/Universal Control. Fighting a seeking urge before reaching the loss of suffering as a solution is not necessarily effective in many cases. Daniel Ingram suggests that practice should be maintained especially in the rough spots. He also says that himself and a small group of highly awake people had a discussion in which they all without question arrived at the conclusion that practice should be maintained even after full enlightenment on the insight/wisdom axis of development. You could even gather statistics on whoever you think to be fully awake beings, and I guarantee you’ll see more of them continuing to practice compared to those who stop. Stopping seeking in any intentional way is in many cases just another form of seeking. “I’m here already. Enlightenment is already the case.” True in many respects, but also restrictive in many other ways also.

Yes embodiment is important, but embodiment is not an erasure of personality. Being a placid monk is not necessarily embodiment. He spends a good amount of time teaching when he could do so many other things. Maybe he’s not “fully embodied” from certain perspectives, but I think it’s hard to even know where he is in regards to this without being fully awake and meeting him in person. It’s just a guessing game with the info we have IMO. Sila (roughly translated to morality) is said to never have a cap, so in that regard, there is no full enlightenment if you’re considering that part of enlightenment. When he says enlightenment, he’s referring to the insight/wisdom (this is not referring to commonplace human wisdom btw) part of the equation. Certainly there are people more advanced than him in regards to sila.

Frank is an awakened person but I don't consider him fully enlightened in the context of historical masters out there. I believe his brain physiology make him makes him naturally gifted in understanding things but at the same time his composition makes him limited to fully grasp the entire spectrum of what it means to be everything Sort of like that gifted guy that can fly in a helicopter around the city and draw the complete landscape with a photographic memory, Frank is like that spiritually. The end game is embodiment plus action = full enlightenment IMHO

Psychedelics do have a cumulative effect of raising baseline consciousness. It’s just much less pronounced than many other methods in my direct experience and what I’ve heard from others. Leo has certainly hit more or less permanent shifts in how his brain processes psychedelics from so many trips. Why I think THC has been so effective for me is natural gifted genes (mainly from bipolar disorder) + lots of spiritual work to activate the higher capacities of THC (others with strong serotonergic trips report similar things) + USING THC VERY OFTEN ONCE I REACHED ITS HIGHER CAPACITIES. The reason, or a main reason, I think psychedelics struggle to affect baseline consciousness as much as other methods is that people simply do not spend as many hours under the influence of psychedelics while this is happening in the context of serious spiritual work. I could use THC pretty much 24/7 at many points this year at this level of heightened spiritual effectiveness, and this basically put me in a unique position to be flying along at crazy levels of consciousness for essentially months on end. Daniel Ingram once said in an interview that psychedelic trips aren’t growing dendrites due to the limited time they’re affecting someone’s brain consistently compared to meditation. It is pretty difficult to live a normal life on serotonergic psychedelics. If you can unlock THC in this way of heightened effectiveness, it can synergize with normal life allowing you to create a snowball effect on your neurochemistry. The consistent use is key IMO. Maybe other compounds out there can do this too, but I don’t see any better alternatives right now. THC also affects the whole body with cannabinoid receptors all over the place. I think this works incredibly well with chakras and kundalini energy which was actually one of my main focuses this year both before and slightly after hitting stream entry. Regardless, from both my direct experience and reports of many others, nothing impacts baseline consciousness in such a crazy snowball effect like hitting stream entry. I don’t know much about the ganja yoga, but it sounds like I’ve been doing it at least partially. I mostly combined Bhakti yoga with the THC as a practice rather than any Hatha yoga, and it was unbelievably effective for me. The strongest manipulation of spacetime reality came while I was connected with a specific deity while in a bipolar manic episode and “delusional” by many people's evaluations if I were to explain the story. Absolutely reckless levels of faith in one’s beliefs and taking every minute sign in reality as a sign from the Divine resulted in me “teleporting” (although it’s not like I entered a portal knowingly or something, hard to describe — more like some odd warping of spacetime) maybe roughly 250 miles in THIS reality. I didn’t know how to control this or how it occurred. Just sharing it with you as I know you’re really curious about such things. It seems as if you really have to break ALL fear and doubts completely to access such a thing. I had objects teleport as well around this period in my life such as an item being left at a friend’s house maybe 150-200 miles away then ending up in my house as soon as I arrived home. As your “frequency” as they say rises, the chance for such supernatural things to occur in actual reality rather than just some psychedelic mental realm seems to increase. How you reach such a frequency is a mostly individual journey, and be prepared for it to possibly ruin many other more practical and normal things in your life. It certainly appears there are prices to pay, at least from my direct experience. Also, a last note on the THC use, most people run into tolerance very quickly on THC. Whenever I would start to hit tolerance increases, it seems like I got what I call a “Divine upgrade” where THC became more effective than even before the tolerance started to kick in. A lot of that process does not just seem to be a neurochemical progression but also affected heavily by Divine Grace. Frank Yang says that to reach full enlightenment there’s ultimately no way to even do something to get there. It just does itself. Even all of your spiritual strivings fall in this category, but you most likely have not realized nondoership to the degree to fully comprehend how this occurs in your direct experience. It’s neither free will nor determinism. Some type of odd automated process in which the free will itself was just created and operates by the conditions of Existence. It sounds like something you can grasp with the mind, but I assure you that living in that space with it locked in is completely different. As different as intellectually hearing about God Consciousness and it being present 24/7. Hope this cleared things up.

His teachings align very well with my direct experience. My stream entry was on May 28, 2021. Now I’m “stuck” (even though pretty much all of my life is “dope as fuck zero gravity & boundless space/consciousness - lol”) looking for that tiny remaining speck of solidity. You can hit shit stronger than at least many psychedelic experiences like 5 grams of shrooms or 10 tabs of LSD fully sober if you follow this stuff. Just trying to help out. Not starting a psychedelic vs. meditation war. I actually used psychedelics much more than meditation to hit stream entry and used them to lock in higher Realization often after stream entry. I see combination better than a one vs. the other idea. Anyway, here’s the video: I highly recommend all of his content in recent 1-2 years.

So, roughly a month has passed since the previous update... Guess what, just 20 minutes ago I had this experience once more time. So as you know I was diagnosed with pericarditis after 2 Moderna covid vaccine shot ( I am 22 years old male, was very athletic before). During that time I learned about energy healing, bought a 500 dollars course, and did energy healing on myself ( as well as prescribed medicine + anti-inflammatory diet). Went to a doctor on Monday, we did a heart performance test, where I needed to cycle for a given time to see how my heart adapts to stress. The doctor concluded that I am healed and can continue exercising. I don't feel pain at all, so it seems that my acute pericarditis has been healed. I am still waiting for the MRI on December 11, which will conclude it finally. I am confident I am fully treated. Ok enough about that. So today is the 4 days since I did not jerk off. As I mentioned in the first post the semen is very very important to me. So I watched porn, masturbated without ejaculations, and had an internal orgasm (basically an orgasm without ejaculation). After that about 2 hours later I started meditating. Basically, it took me 5-10 minutes to again experience direct consciousness. My physical ego presence disappeared, the fear returned, my heart started pounding to the point I thought I will definitely die this time. I was infinite consciousness for about a minute. During that time, the time stopped for sure. However, I could return, like willingly holding onto my body. After the experience passed, my apple watch showed 130 beats ( during that time, it was definitely 160-180 beats). Still, the feeling that I am everything persists. The energy in my head, also when I close my eyes it is very difficult to stay in the body. During this month, I read the Sadhguru book: "Enlightenment an inside story". He explicitly mentions in the book. This is the excerpt from the book: " “Sadhguru: If you are not aware of this, I would say for 90% of the people, their moment of Enlightenment and the moment of leaving the body are the same. You will never see them again. Only a few people have the possibility of keeping the body even after Enlightenment, for a certain period of time. Otherwise, there may be only some time, maybe one or two hours, maybe four hours of extra time, that is all. Beyond that, they cannot keep it. “Very few people retain their body because they know the tricks of the body, they know the mechanics of the body to hold on to it. Otherwise, the moment of realization and the moment of leaving the body is same. Generally it is only people who are on the path of Kriya Yoga who can hold on to the body because they understand the mechanics of the body. They know all the tricks of the body so they hold on to the body.” ” Excerpt From Enlightenment an inside story Sadhguru This material may be protected by copyright. I never heard @Leo Gura address it. Why is that? Do you know about this? So what did I decide? Since I am 22 years old, have my financials set, I don't want my physical body to stop functioning due to full enlightenment. I will do the kriya yoga for now fully and stop meditating or even coming close to that. I would definitely welcome any guidance from people who are fully enlightened or who experienced this. I may sound angry, I am not. Actually, I just understood how grateful should I be to come this far... Even writing this it is very difficult to not merge with infinite consciousness again. It seems if I wanted I could.

I can’t remember exactly or which inspiration came first or in what order but I do know that ironically, one of the reasons I got into it was for purely egoic purposes. Like I thought how cool it would be if I got good at sitting like a statue for multiple hours on end. So I started doing that and it worked. Just by sitting perfectly still and keeping your attention on the breath everything slows way way down and it gets easier the more you practice like with anything. I got into yoga for similar reasons. On a side note, doing asanas regularly is super helpful if you want to get good at strong determination sitting. I also found out it can remove a great deal of suffering and get you super high if you practice enough so after learning that I was pretty much sold. After my first ten day vipassana, I felt like I was fifty pounds lighter and my raging mind was a whopping 50-60% quieter for weeks after, no exaggeration. And the peace kept on growing the more I maintained the practice. The bliss grew so strong I almost didn’t know how to handle it all. Easily the closest I’ve ever been to full enlightenment. The danger with me saying all this, however, is that the recipient will hear it and say hell yes, sign me up! The natural tendency is to expect to feel blissed out from all the meditation but that expectation actually blocks you from making progress because spirituality doesn’t like greed. So you have to be very patient. You can avoid that trap by finding the right technique. Vipassana has stood the test of time but it can be ridiculously difficult to get into. After my second retreat, I didn’t get anywhere close to the same result like I was expecting to. So it goes to show just how deep this work actually is.

After awakenings, or after using psychedelics? ‘Full enlightenment’, ‘self deception’, ‘survival’, ‘ego backlash’, ‘I fear’, ‘I fear’. Any of that actually resonate with you?

I have to take meds after awakenings, because if I don’t, I’ll literally go fully fucking insane and let go of any notion that I’m a human and have ever existed. My consciousness goes infinite and grows infinitely for like 17 hours straight. Even if there are “lows” I’m still processing them with “full enlightenment” (loose term) to the best capability. I am infinitely liberated to act on every impulse and desire. It’s great! But destroys any goals or visions I have. Classic self deception and ego backlash in the form of bipolar disorder. I mean wow. The devil/me/biological survival, does not want me to die at all. Maybe it’s a loving process. How do I shift this paradigm to a more loving and understanding one? I am entering hypomania and I want to fully surrender to the mania in isolation, at some point in my journey, but I don’t have $$$ to do so. I guess I could go to a hospital, but I fear the implications of that for my life again, as I need to fucking work to move out. Yet, what I fear I attract. What I resist, persists? So maybe go to hospital now to avoid a longer stay of weeks/months?

It undulates. Maybe 80-90% of the time I don’t have thoughts in the head anymore no matter how detailed the words I’m saying or typing or whatever is. It does itself. I call it “thoughtless thought.” To that extent, I have no thoughts that I could attach to for that majority of my day. The arahant (4th path or fully enlightened in Theravada Buddhism) Daniel Ingram says that essentially the patterns of sensations of a sense of self still occur after full enlightenment in his opinion. I don’t see him thinking this doesn’t extend to thoughts in the head. The difference is that the insight into no self is so clear that those patterns are not seen to have any self in them even if they are more or less identical to what the unenlightened you would’ve said was what made you have a self. Enlightenment is not about some locked in and consistent state of consciousness that can’t think or any other benchmark really that depends on a single factor of experience like that although it does usually come with some “baseline upgrades” in a sense for most people. I’m probably at 2nd or 3rd path in the 4 path Theravada system IMO if I’m following their designations as much as I honestly can. I feel much of what Daniel says about sense of self sensations to be true to my personal experience more and more as I go along. The biggest shift for me has been in how resistance occurs. Rather than me having a sort of meta-resistance on top of the natural resistance interactions of different sensations occurring, I just allow the various aspects of my human system and the environment to interact in a natural way. Plenty of times this involves things like complex emotions which are easy to link to a sense of self. I just don’t try to resist having a sense of self nor resist not having a sense of self. Self vs. no self is not just an on and off switch. It’s more like a continuum and different experiences and stages of the process of insight (which enlightened people still cycle through according to Ingram) call up much different levels of sensations of self. If you find yourself in the Mind & Body insight stage, you’re probably going to have more sensations which feel like a self than some of the more mystical and positive feeling stages. Mind & Body feels like being dipped back into a truly ordinary human perspective as much as you can be even for enlightened people although their Mind & Body might be above the highest baseline states you’ve experienced. It’s just a natural part of the stage. It doesn’t matter how enlightened you are. Don’t let someone convince you of the magical, beautiful, and ever-present level of their enlightened reality. From my research, there are a lot of highly awake people whose experience is far more subtle than you think. Ideas like never having a sense of self are the ones which make me curious to proof test with a bear or flaming sword or chainsaw. There’s probably more of something there than they are trying to admit.

@Breakingthewall I'm not sure any amount of psychedelics or excessive meditation is gonna do any good except accelerate the process. Which could be good in human-time tbh. But then again. What's the point of quantifying it. I don't know when full enlightenment is going to happen/be. I just have "this" right now.

@BipolarGrowth But man, don't you get it. Anytime there's progress. One step forward dukkha comes back stronger. One step forward, and then dukkha bites you in the ass. 2 steps backwards. Concentration on objects of awareness --> AnP (finally bliss from God) --> intense meaningless suffering --> equanimity and non-doership. Every cycle of the path gets more intense. Life cycles. Phase of life cycles. Yearly cycles. Monthly cycles. Daily cycles. I am absolutely sure that full enlightenment is no more cycle,or cycles just being instants. Anicca (impermanence) and annata (no-self) also grow stronger with dukkha (suffering). How I define suffering: Suffering is in everything. Just take any object of awareness and tell me there's no suffering in that point of focus. Sufferings little brother is called "aversion" imo. Anything awareness does is pushing awareness away from the object towards itself. That's suffering, and it ends with complete dissociation from any object. The opposite of grasping or attachment. Suffering is not reduced in higher paths. It's equalized. Theres no longer gonna be a big difference between mild discomfort and intense physical suffering. The intensity of suffering that increases, just pushes towards cessation or dissolution anytime it shows up. For what I've heard that's thousands of instances per day of cessation.

@Leo Gura I read the Sadhguru book about enlightenment. He clearly stated that people who reach full enlightenment will die before age of 32 (their physical body stops functioning). The only way is to practice kriya yoga and get full control of the body. Did you know about that?