Why Do Some People Become Enlightened Instantly?

[Markus]

10 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Some people fall out of a plane.

Some people get run over by a train.

Some people burn in a car.

Some people get shot from afar.

Some people choke on a cherry.

Some people eat a poison berry.

Some people drown in a tub.

Some people die from a club.

Holy shit, you weren't kidding about the infinite creativity

[youngshinzen]

@How to be wise In the first few sentences in The Power Of Now he talks about being depressed since his early childhood. That day when he disidentified with his "self", he had even more emotional and physical pain than ever, which shows the connection between enlightenment and suffering. It's a sudden change of brain activity, going from the most powerful self-blame to complete innocence. 

That happened to me too. But I just became aware of infinite determinism, which implies a lot of good stuff regarding insights, but I'm still in ego mode.

Maybe because he was 29 when it happened and I was 22... Damn, only 7 years more left in hell  

[Arkandeus]

we might all be wearing the same ''clothing'' that is being a human being, which subjects us all to certain possibilities and limits but we're all much much further from each other then we think. 
the illusion of ''race'' disappears and the exploration of consciousness is unique to each and everyone. 
my life now is practically alien if I were to compare it to when I was a 'human surviving in a world' and yet I still harmoniously fit into the play that is human society.

so as far as I'm concerned, I don't have a single clue,not an ounce of understanding of how other people live and experiences their lives.
this post is a nice observation. 
we're really not that alike,yet we are, but we're really all unique in our exploration.
It's easier to nice on obvious outliers like people who enlighten ''instantly'' but soon you will see it everywhere. 
somehow we can relate to each other but at the same we do not have a damn clue what's happening beyond our personal life.   

that is pavement for the awe of life to come in, the awe is the intense realization that you really really don't know what's going on, you're just in awe from the miracle of it all, it's just so beyond and immense.

 

What's more, what does ''instantly'' mean? 
we know that Eckhart Tolle suffered immensely before he enlightened. 
Do we know how long he suffered? the entire night before it? that doesn't really mean anything. 
from experience I know that when it comes to enlightenment time is completely warped and bended sideways like magic. 
and for someone to enlighten overnight, that is very intense,  enlightenment is insanely intense just doing it gradually
overnight??
for all you know he might've suffered an entire month or an entire year psychologically in one single night. 
Eckhart that wasn't really familiar with enlightenment before that might've not even realized that time being warped this way was possible so he might've not been conscious that his happened.

He said he suffered a lot right before he enlightened, but what does that mean exactly?
it doesn't tell us anything really, that's my personal opinion
 words cannot convey such an experience

 

 

Edited August 14, 2017 by Arkandeus

[Haumea]

On 8/12/2017 at 4:49 PM, How to be wise said:

How did some people like Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie become enlightened instantly when they didn't even know what enlightenment was.

Putting aside the issue of whether these particular teachers were enlightened "instantly", there are some people who go from duality to full enlightenment with breathtaking speed (e.g. in a day or in a week or a month.)

I believe it all has to do with past-life spiritual karma.  Some people come into this life ready to pop, and at some point their time comes.  Maybe they were saints in previous lives, etc.  It doesn't really matter - you could be one of these people or not; it doesn't really change much.  One takes it as it comes.

[SOUL]

Because one doesn't have to do anything for it to happen....it's just a state of being.

[ParanoidAndroid]

On 12/08/2017 at 11:57 PM, Joseph Maynor said:

I don't think this is possible.  You need a lot of theory-scaffolding to shape your thoughts, actions, and attitudes in specific circumstances.  All theory is existentially false, but you need a lot of theory to form you into a way of being in the moment where you cling and don't cling in exactly the right way at exactly the right time.  That dynamic balance needs a lot of theory-scaffolding and experience to perfect.  It ain't easy to learn how to treat beliefs more realistically.  The answer is more subtle than saying all beliefs are existentially false.  Yeah ... and?  That's only half the story.  You need to be shaped to take right action, have right attitude towards beliefs, in specific moments, with highest consciousness, towards real goals. That requires a lot of molding, usually by a combination of theory-scaffolding and experience.  Existentially speaking all theory is story so use it don't let it limit you.  You are infinite.  Stay that way by not clinging too hard at the wrong time to beliefs.  Some contexts warrant clinging, but dump the raft once the river is crossed.  Don't keep beliefs hanging around past their relevancy in certain moments.  You will stunt and handicap your life by carrying that raft on your back instead of putting it down after you cross the river.  Learn how to use tools at the right place and time, and when to cling and when not to cling.  You can't learn that by reading a book.  That requires embodying theory-scaffolding and using your experience to perfect your being in a higher-consciousness way in specific, actual moments.  That doesn't just happen with one enlightenment experience.  Enlightenment is a life-long practice.  Don't lose sight of your life-purpose goals though and spiritually bypass in enlightenment.  That's an unfortunate trap. You do enlightenment, don't let enlightenment do you.  Remember, you are infinite.  Just realize this fully and act accordingly in specific moments.  Enlightenment is not an end, it's the true beginning.  

So do you think that Eckhart Tolle is not enlightened?

[Harikrishnan]

On Sunday, August 13, 2017 at 8:14 PM, Prabhaker said:

@How to be wise

To us it seems difficult to understand how one can come straightaway to wholeness. We think one must pass through a criss-crossing of roads before he arrives. Again, this is the same question that pilgrims asked of the Zen monk Lying near a cave. The monk says he does not have to do a thing, because he is already there where one should be. The pilgrims wonder how one could arrive without traveling, it seems impossible. They all had to walk long distances before they reached the place of pilgrimage, but the sage says to them, "If you cannot attain to truth right here, how can you attain to it by going to the mountain top? Truth is everywhere. It is here and now. This is not something that one needs any traveling to arrive at." But there are some types who cannot arrive without making a long journey. Even if they have to come home they will not do so without knocking at the doors of many other houses. They will enquire from others about directions to their own house.

Whether one chooses effort or effortlessness depends on what type of person he is. There is certainly a difference of type between Mahavira and Krishna. Mahavira will not choose to arrive without making a long journey. He will refuse to attain anything if it comes without effort. This needs to be understood. If someone tells Mahavira that he can achieve enlightenment without effort he will refuse it. He will say it is outright theft if you grab something without making any effort to achieve it, without striving and struggling for it, without earning it with the sweat of your brow. Before you have a thing, Mahavira will insist you must pay for it, deserve it. Mahavira will, as I understand him, reject even moksha, liberation, if it comes to him as a gift. He will search for it, struggle for it, he will earn it. He will accept moksha only when he is worthy of it.

Krishna will say just the opposite. He will say what is achieved through long search and struggle is not worth having. That which can be found can be lost too. He will say, "I will accept only that which comes uninvited, without efforts. I will be content with that which is, the true. And truth is not a thing that one can find."

This is a difference in approach to life that comes with individuals and their types. There is nothing superior or inferior about it. As individuals, Krishna and Mahavira are basically different from each other.

What is found through long search and striving has significance for Mahavira. This is the reason he and his whole tradition are known by that strange name shraman, which simply means one who toils. Mahavira believes the price of freedom is hard work, and what is had effortlessly is sheer thievery. According to him, if God is found without effort, it cannot he the real God; there must he some deception about it. And Mahavira's sense of self-respect will not allow him to accept anything that comes as a gift, he will earn it with the sweat of his brow. That is why a term like God's grace has no place in Mahavira's philosophy. On the other hand, it is replete with words like efforts, struggle, hard work, discipline, and sadhana. This is as it should he. His whole tradition is based on hard work.

There are two cultural traditions in India, running parallel to each other. One is known as shraman sanskriti or toil-oriented culture, and the other is called brahmin sanskriti or God-oriented culture.

The brahmanic tradition believes man is God, he does not have to become it, while the shraman tradition believes that man has to earn godliness, he is not it. And there are only two types of people in the world - brahmins or shramans - conforming to one of these traditions. And the ratio of brahmins is very small; even the brahmins are not that brahmin. The vast majority consists of shramans, doers who believe in efforts. To them everything must come the hard way. It needs tremendous courage, patience, and trust to believe that one can find without effort, that one can attain without attaining, that one can arrive without stepping out of one's house. Our ordinary mind says that if you want to find something, you will have to make adequate efforts for it, nothing is had without a price. Our ordinary arithmetic believes that efforts and achievements have to be in equal proportions.

Once in a great while a few brahmins have walked this earth, they can be counted on fingers. The rest of us are shramans, whether we accept it or not. That is why despite great differences between Buddha and Mahavira, their traditions became known by the common name of shraman. In this respect Buddhists are not different from the Jainas, they are the same.

Krishna is a brahmin - a rare thing. He says, "I am already the supreme being."

And remember, I am not saying that one is right and another is wrong. To me both shraman and brahmin are right, there is no difficulty about it. They represent two different types of minds, two different ways of thinking, two different kinds of journeying. That is the only difference.

  Osho ~ Krishna The Man and his Philosophy

Thankz @Prabhaker and a doubt if you are a brahmin and you not knowing going in Shraman path, does that happen.

 

[Prabhaker]

3 hours ago, Harikrishnan said:

if you are a brahmin and you not knowing going in Shraman path, does that happen

No, a Brahman is born genius.

[Truth Seekah]

17 minutes ago, Prabhaker said:

No, a Brahman is born genius.

Wrong.

[Truth Seekah]

3 hours ago, Harikrishnan said:

Thankz @Prabhaker and a doubt if you are a brahmin and you not knowing going in Shraman path, does that happen.

 

Yes of course

[Prabhaker]

4 hours ago, Truth Seekah said:

Wrong.

Only a genius can attain enlightenment without efforts.

[Joyboy]

Great men are not born great, they grow great.

– Mario Puzo, from The Godfather

[orroz]

direct path: Jump instead of play for time

Edited August 19, 2017 by orroz