What would you do?

[Vinnie]

Can I posit a scenario? Say, December of this year you will come into tens of thousands of dollars. You're fed up with searching for purpose, the ideal career, relationship, lifestyle, whatever. When it comes down to it, you just want consciousness and you're willing to selfishly throw everything out the door to doggedly pursue only enlightenment. It could result in terrible repercussions but you can't stand going on as you are, with the knowledge you have. You just want it to end.

What would you do do? How would you go about about it? I don't wanna hear some bullsh!t pull yourself up by your bootstraps and think of your kin replies.  

[jjer94]

How Jed McKenna-n of you...

Sounds like you have a low opinion of yourself. If I were you, I'd work out the self-esteem issues first. But since you're looking for validation, I say: Airbnb a cabin in the woods for a week to test drive your scenario. See how well you fare. 

Also, I can't help myself...the post topic reminded me of this:

Whatever you do, be gentle with yourself. <3

[Truth]

What do I want to end exactly?

[Vinnie]

@jjer94 You're killing me. I don't need a test drive.

[Kisame]

2 hours ago, Vinnie said:

 you just want consciousness and you're willing to selfishly throw everything out the door to doggedly pursue only enlightenment. It could result in terrible repercussions but you can't stand going on as you are, with the knowledge you have. You just want it to end.

What would you do do? How would you go about about it? 

If your only goal is enlightenment, then it would behoove you to pursue it intelligently and systematically. I don't know how much experience you have with consciousness work, or how experimental you've been with drugs and such, but if possible you should focus on the approach that feels most personally promising to you. Maybe you resonate more with Japanese Zen than Tibetan Buddhism, or maybe there are certain secular approaches that simply seem to work well for you, but whatever it is, settle on a direction.

Next, the best way for a novice to learn how to attain a skill is to receive personal coaching from an expert who already possesses that skill. Whatever approach you've chosen above, take stock of who the foremost experts are in the world, and do some research on where they're located and whether you can go learn from them. Figure out how much money you have and how long it'll last you with the different potential teachers. For some you may have to join a monastery, for others you might have to rent housing in their city and go to them for regular paid consultations. 

Since you have no idea how long this will take, it would be wise to have a backup plan in terms of providing income for yourself, should it come to that. Probably with some teachers this is less of a concern, e.g. if you're able to join a monastery where they provide for your basic needs in exchange for you doing some sort of work. I'm actually not too sure how monasteries function, there are probably lots of variations depending on the country and other factors. 

Edited March 17, 2018 by Kisame

[aurum]

@Vinnie

Psychedelics. That's easily the fastest way I've seen to have an awakening experience.

[Vinnie]

@aurum Yeah, I've never tried psychedelics. I've had mystical experiences, so it makes me wonder what they could show me. 

[Vinnie]

@Kisame Thank you. I think my path might be energy work, Qigong.

[Truth]

10 hours ago, jjer94 said:

 

Whatever you do, be gentle with yourself. <3

love you for posting this, made my day lol, love that movie, haven't seen it in a while

[Leo Gura]

@Vinnie Move to a very cheap part of the country to live, somewhere in the middle of the woods, live spartan, and do your consciousness work from morning till night until you become deeply enlightened. If you go at it hardcore like that, it should happen pretty fast; within a year.

Read Om Swami's book on my book list to see how he did it. He was real hardcore about it.

This isn't rocket science. You just need to have the will to do it. Buddha-style.

[Sven]

8 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

@Vinnie Move to a very cheap part of the country to live, somewhere in the middle of the woods, live spartan, and do your consciousness work from morning till night until you become deeply enlightened. If you go at it hardcore like that, it should happen pretty fast; within a year.

Read Om Swami's book on my book list to see how he did it. He was real hardcore about it.

This isn't rocket science. You just need to have the will to do it. Buddha-style.

Haha, perfect analogy by Leo. But living spartan-like? I don't know about that

[robdl]

On 3/16/2018 at 7:17 PM, Vinnie said:

Can I posit a scenario? Say, December of this year you will come into tens of thousands of dollars. You're fed up with searching for purpose, the ideal career, relationship, lifestyle, whatever. When it comes down to it, you just want consciousness and you're willing to selfishly throw everything out the door to doggedly pursue only enlightenment. It could result in terrible repercussions but you can't stand going on as you are, with the knowledge you have. You just want it to end.

What would you do do? How would you go about about it? I don't wanna hear some bullsh!t pull yourself up by your bootstraps and think of your kin replies.  

I hear you --- I've had the same thoughts.  But in the interim, you can doggedly pursue enlightenment now, with the idle time you have when you're not at work, in social situations, etc. --- if you're not doing so already.