How Do I Prepare For An Enlightenment Experience?

[zunnyman]

Ive been getting deeper and deeper into meditation practice, SDS, self inquiry, and mindfulness meditation, and can really see the progress that I've been making, and now its hitting me that I could have an enlightenment experience any moment which got me thinking:

How exactly do I prepare for it?

I heard leo saying multiple times not to get into this unless you have a really good conceptual understanding of enlightenment. I have read half a book, watched all of Leos enlightenment videos and read all his posts on the forum. Is that enough material to prepare for this? 

Also I have a good amount of health problems (pressure in head, chronic fatigue, migraines, dehydration) Should I fix all these issues and develop more emotional control before I have an enlightenment experience? I wouldn't want to damage my body in the process of getting enlightened. 

I mainly just don't want to fuck up my health any more than it is to be honest. You could say I fucked up my health by misusing drugs 3 years ago, so I realize the value in researching the tools before practicing them (yoga, kundalini, 5-meo, etc) Is the purpose of getting informed about enlightenment so I don't fuck up my physical and mental health in the process? 

"In Zen they discipline you rigorously before you have your enlightenment, so that you don't freak out. You have in most of your life time lived in a way in which you had a ton of emotions and thoughts going on every second of the day. If that is greatly reduced to silence, you won't have any reference to live in that world." - Also this was quoted on this forum by Azrael who seems to be very well learned in enlightenment concept. Can someone explain how I would discipline myself to prepare for an enlightenment experience so I don't freak out during and after the experience? 

Edited August 15, 2017 by zunnyman

[Leo Gura]

@zunnyman Your physical and mental health is already fucked up. Enlightenment will make things better, not worse. Assuming of course your mind is open to and desiring of the truth. What fucks up your physical and mental health is unenlightenment.

No, your current conceptual understanding is not good enough. That won't physically harm you, but it will lead to you wasting a lot of time chasing your tail, and you will fall into all sorts of conceptual traps.

By all means pursue enlightenment. But read at least 5-10 more books about it, so you know what you're pursuing and all the intricacies involved.

You don't need to do anything to prepare for it. It's already true. It's already you. Just have a genuine desire to know the truth nature of reality.

 

[zunnyman]

Thats a huge relief that it won't physically harm me through like shock or whatever! 

And of course I agree reading the rest of the books is very wise, I was just in fear that I had to drop all my practices to first develop a better conceptual understanding. 

Also how do I hone this desire for the truth in an authentic way? 

[Leo Gura]

@zunnyman Keep doing your practices. Chances are, you're still far from enlightenment.

Do you want to know what reality is? How badly do you want to know? << Hone that.

[WaterfallMachine]

It's true that enlightenment would better solve your issues in the long term and that's why you're better of seeking it. 

But there are many short term stresses to enlightenment also. People can get very depressed or scared with these experiences since it questions much of everything they believe.

Ayla gave a pretty good post on what to do during events like this if you want to see it.