2500 Years Old Enlightenment Path

[Khin]

@Key Elements LOL! Yeah, Thingen is a new year festival. In Thai and Burma, the whole country celebrate for 7-10 days. The purpose is (at least used to be) to wash all our sins, whatever we did wrong to our elders by washing their feet, hair, give our respects, and ask their forgiveness. Then elders will give you money, food and stuff like that. It's kind of like Chinese new year but celebrate differently.

From what I know Karma does play role in enlightenment. For enlightened people there is no Karma anymore. But because you are not enlightened yet, karma is still there for you. Karma means actions. Where do actions come from? From your mind. For example, a person had done many awful things and decided to do enlightenment work. So he starts to meditate, research and knows what he did wrong. When he does enlightenment work, he must admit right when it's right and wrong when it's wrong because you are searching for truth. Now he knows he was wrong. The regret will hold that person from enlightenment. If it was small mistake he can forget it by thinking, 'well, only present moment exists.' But if it was huge mistake, you will have to apologize or let it out to someone and admit he was wrong. Then accept the consequence right then and there. @werlight was right too. Only actions you remember will effect you though!

When someone says "the emotions just stays there," most people might think emotions are put in some container or pile up in somewhere in the brain. Actually our mind or thought doesn't work that way. In Buddhists, all emotions, thoughts, senses, feeling and everything that has to do with mind are called "Nan" (I'll just say thoughts). Thoughts are dying (disappear) every minute and second. But every after one thought is dead another thought appears right away depending on the previous. Those two thoughts are identical but first is not second and second is not first thought. For example, I am not my mother, my father or my great grandparents but I contain their DNA and stuff so I'm very similar to them but not exactly like them. Thoughts works but they appear only one at a time in awareness. They don't appear at the same time. The second thought is very similar to first one and therefore the illusion of permanence (ego) exists. So all the knowledge and thoughts you had when you were young are not there anymore. Only new thought which is generated from old thoughts exists now. Some thoughts or feelings (Nans) are stronger depending on how strong a thought (in experience) was. So the old unforgettable memories are strong generation thoughts which produced from old strong thoughts. Thoughts change depending on experiences. It's not like real actual experience stays in brain. If you know how these thoughts or senses works, you will know what reincarnation is. Reincarnation is not a soul get out of the body and possess another one.

When it comes to enlightenment, Buddha said there are two types of people. One is who able to understand enlightenment and another is not doesn't matter how hard someone explain, he will never understand enlightenment.

I tried as much as I could please ask me if you didn't understand what I wrote.

 

Edited February 23, 2016 by Khin
adding

[Key Elements]

15 hours ago, Khin said:

@Key ElementsBut because you are not enlightened yet, karma is still there for you.

@Khin One of the main reason why I'm here is cause something happened during my childhood-can't forget that. Because of what happened, it all made sense. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here in this forum observing. I knew, more or less, all the other pratical stuff. I watched Leo's clips on enlightenment and did further research into Zen cause of what happended. Leo talked about Zen a lot. I just wanted to know your thoughts on Karma since you mentioned Theravada Buddhism. I did not come in here to be judged by you or others, and I'm not here to judge too.

Edited February 24, 2016 by Key Elements

[Emerald]

23 hours ago, tropicana said:

@Quizzer by being nice to others you start the process of destroying your ego. If you truly wish everybody to be happy as you would wish it for yourself, you make your ego do something else rather than just pleasing itself 24/7

I think being nice and compassionate to others is great. I choose to live my life this way. I wouldn't want to live any other way.

That said, being nice is one of the egos FAVORITE ways to hide and sustain itself. The ego is very self-congratulatory, and spins tons of stories about how '"I'M" such a good person." "If only everyone in the world were as nice as "ME." "'I' give way too much to others." etc...

You CANNOT reach enlightenment simply by deciding to do good deeds. It gets the cart before the horse. Become enlightened and your niceness will be without the agenda of ego. Until then, everything is infected by the egoic agenda. And I do mean Everything.

Until then, continue doing good things. It's better for you and everyone else. But it won't get you to enlightenment.

[Guest]

@Emerald Wilkins you're confusing BEING nice and FEELING love/kindness/whatever. If you only do good things just because it's gonna count towards your karma, you're gonna be stuck forever. But if you develop feelings of love and treat others just as you treat yourself because you love or respect them, that's a different story. 

And I didn't say it's gonna get me to enlightenment, I said it might be a necessary step to make in order to become enlightened 

[Emerald]

1 minute ago, tropicana said:

@Emerald Wilkins you're confusing BEING nice and FEELING love/kindness/whatever. If you only do good things just because it's gonna count towards your karma, you're gonna be stuck forever. But if you develop feelings of love and treat others just as you treat yourself because you love or respect them, that's a different story. 

And I didn't say it's gonna get me to enlightenment, I said it might be a necessary step to make in order to become enlightened 

I see. That makes sense. I was just giving a sort of cautionary tale against thinking having a kind personality would yield enlightenment. Many people fall into the trap of thinking that they're free of ego because they are a kind and altruistic. But the ego can be sneaky and unconsciously hi-jack motivations.

[werlight]

5 hours ago, Khin said:

@Key Elements LOL! Yeah, Thingen is a new year festival. In Thai and Burma, the whole country celebrate for 7-10 days. The purpose is (at least used to be) to wash all our sins, whatever we did wrong to our elders by washing their feet, hair, give our respects, and ask their forgiveness. Then elders will give you money, food and stuff like that. It's kind of like Chinese new year but celebrate differently.

From what I know Karma does play role in enlightenment. For enlightened people there is no Karma anymore. But because you are not enlightened yet, karma is still there for you. Karma means actions. Where do actions come from? From your mind. For example, a person had done many awful things and decided to do enlightenment work. So he starts to meditate, research and knows what he did wrong. When he does enlightenment work, he must admit right when it's right and wrong when it's wrong because you are searching for truth. Now he knows he was wrong. The regret will hold that person from enlightenment. If it was small mistake he can forget it by thinking, 'well, only present moment exists.' But if it was huge mistake, you will have to apologize or let it out to someone and admit he was wrong. Then accept the consequence right then and there. @werlight was right too. Only actions you remember will effect you though!

When someone says "the emotions just stays there," most people might think emotions are put in some container or pile up in somewhere in the brain. Actually our mind or thought doesn't work that way. In Buddhists, all emotions, thoughts, senses, feeling and everything that has to do with mind are called "Nan" (I'll just say thoughts). Thoughts are dying (disappear) every minute and second. But every after one thought is dead another thought appears right away depending on the previous. Those two thoughts are identical but first is not second and second is not first thought. For example, I am not my mother, my father or my great grandparents but I contain their DNA and stuff so I'm very similar to them but not exactly like them. Thoughts works but they appear only one at a time in awareness. They don't appear at the same time. The second thought is very similar to first one and therefore the illusion of permanence (ego) exists. So all the knowledge and thoughts you had when you were young are not there anymore. Only new thought which is generated from old thoughts exists now. Some thoughts or feelings (Nans) are stronger depending on how strong a thought (in experience) was. So the old unforgettable memories are strong generation thoughts which produced from old strong thoughts. Thoughts change depending on experiences. It's not like real actual experience stays in brain. If you know how these thoughts or senses works, you will know what reincarnation is. Reincarnation is not a soul get out of the body and possess another one.

When it comes to enlightenment, Buddha said there are two types of people. One is who able to understand enlightenment and another is not doesn't matter how hard someone explain, he will never understand enlightenment.

I tried as much as I could please ask me if you didn't understand what I wrote.

 

Thanks for your comments Khin. I have not studied Buddhism, so I have to declare my ignorance about their believes. I cannot speak for Buddhism. What I do know is that emotions are somehow stored inside our mind/body. The evidence of this is clear. Emotional traumas stay in our mind/body. Just look at soldiers coming back from war. Their war traumas can last many years or even all their life ! unless they resolve them (release their emotions).

It's important to clarify that the release of emotions is a consequence of enlightenment. 

Let me explain .. 

The Enlightenment experience, which is a whole subject on its own and I can gladly go into that later, triggers a deep emotional healing process.

The reason this happens is because the amount of joy, love and compassion you experience during the experience and after the experience is off the charts. A light actually turns on inside you. 

This is what I wrote down about the healing process I went through ( this is only part )

“I will use the following metaphor to explain.

Imagine you have lived your whole life in a house. You know the kitchen, the bedroom and every other room in the house. One day a light turns on and you suddenly become aware that there is another room in the house. This is the room where all the emotions that are not expressed are stored. 

I suddenly became aware of these emotions. It was very painful.

My biggest pain came from realizing how much love I had held back in my life. How many hugs and kisses I had not given, how many times I had failed to expressed love to my family, how many times I should have been more kind to people and how many times I had harmed people through my actions, through my judgements and through my ignorance.

I felt a deep sorrow to the point that I felt physical pain in my heart, tightness in my muscles and I got terribly sick.

I realized that I had not been fully aware of what I was doing. I was deeply sorry. I also realized that the people that had harmed me had also not been fully aware of what they were doing. My pain and my sadness was so strong that I cried for days. At the end I forgave myself and I forgave everyone around me.

How could I not?

A few days later, I felt a deep sense of liberation, and peace. My emotional state felt lighter, as if I had literally released a weight I had been carrying for years. I felt younger. It reminded me of how I felt when I was a child.”

I hope this sheads some light on the whole subject..

[Khin]

@werlight I understand! Just work toward enlightenment. That's enough.