Scale of Enlightenment | 1 to 6+

[Sashaj]

I don’t like the self inquiry mediation either as it feels draining but it works well for some folks and can pop the bubble pretty quick

[Saumaya]

@Sashaj Typical self inquiry meditation includes just asking who am I, but that's just how it starts.You must combine it with spiritual autolysis. You must ask yourself, where do I feel mostly strongly? What am I attached to the most? Why do I think this is real? What are the things, that, without them I can't exist? What are the experiences in "my past" that are something I consider valuable or noxious? Who am I before I was born? How do I make myself or my life story real? How do I know what I know about the world is real, or any metaphysical question?. Anyway those are some of the questions I asked myself 

I suggest you read a bit of good spiritual books ( my fav - jed McKenna, Peter Ralston and ug Krishnamurti) and some philosophy and psychology along with the practices

[SoonHei]

7 hours ago, Saumaya said:

Spiritual seeking happens because we want to realise our true nature. What stands in the way is our personal identity and beliefs which makes us perceive seperateness where there is oneness. True Spiritual seeking is more of an effort of burning down falsehood, as falsehood never existed in the first place. Enlightenment is more like untruth unrealisation than truth realisation. You don't really get a glimpse of truth, but a glimpse of un - untruth. That's why embodying your glimpses is not exactly how it works in the long run. Seeking ends because there is nothing more to seek. Truth was always there, and untruth has been realised as a story you bought into. 

WOW. Thank you. Adding this to the notes to recourse myself as needed.

Don't think I fully grasp this as yet... but then again if I did, I would be enlightened  

[Sashaj]

@Saumaya thanks I will check out your references, cheers

 

[who chit]

,Awakening for me, there was a transcending of the body-mind altogether. A "thrust" Into the timeless absolute. There was no longer a "me". No center of location. Neither here nor there,everything and nothing, or "oneness", for close to 5 hrs. The integrating is still going on 3+ years now.
There is, only one ultimate truth,and it is that. It's given a capital "T"  for a reason.
The awakening came on unexpectedly. From most other accounts I had read about afterward,and a few others I had talked to,this is pretty common to how it occurs. Out of the blue. I was not into "spirituality", or "seeking" for anything. I had been practicing TM meditation and Kriya a couple of times a day for health/stress,but not  for "enlightenment".  My assumption, is that the practice's are what lead to it,in spite of the "you need no practice" banter commonly heard these days. I still stand by the idea that one needs some sort of practice. That is, until you don't. You will know when that is.

Practice's had continued for a few years afterward,with self inquiry added,up until around 4 months ago . Then it finally dawned on me that they were no longer needed. Being could be accessed by simply giving attention to it,even in a fully awake state. I still give credit to the practice's I had done for those years. But eventually, practice's have go. They are a boat to get you across. Then they need to be discarded. Otherwise,you will fall into the trap of 'spiritual practices' for years,or possibly,your entire life. I've seen people still doing practices for decades. That's not what they are for, at least imo.

This is "the journey"  from my perspective. Others will be different,so no one is to take this account as being it. One thing I've learned is,"the journey from here to here", is as individual as the one who takes it.

Edited August 25, 2018 by who chit

[Big Guru Balls]

On 8/22/2018 at 5:35 PM, who chit said:

Integration is just consistently accessing that beingness,and staying there as often as possible,until it is no longer needed. The 5-10% will start dropping more and more over time the longer you stay there.

@who chit:  

Upadesa Saram Verse 9:
Bhavana balat : based upon the strenghth of thought [ie, i am he]
sad bhava sustitih: (the meditator gains) firm abidance in the Self.
Bhava sunya : independent of thoughts
Bhaktir uttamam: This is supreme devotion.

“By the power of meditation, devoid of thoughts one is established in true being, and this is supreme devotion.”

Translation: The only way to experience the Self is by being it. Literally we cannot experience Self, there is only experiencing. Being as we are is the only means by which we can experience the absolute reality “as it is”.

[who chit]

@Big Guru Balls

It needs to be said in response to the above quote, that "meditation" here ,doesn't mean meditation in the conventional sense. Meaning ,setting aside a certain time every day to sit and meditate.
Meditation here (how I'm interpreting it), means,"remaining fixed/established in true being ,devoid of thoughts..continuously ".

[DrewNows]

@who chit I am curious what you think about this video, (quick summary) which basically says only ego transmutation is possible, not actual ego death. Most people seeking enlightenment only grow a spiritual ego (a sort of spiritual materialism).

I found this interesting and was curious if you are always just "being" and flowing no persona after awakening. 

 

[Haumea2018]

Quote

I am curious what you think about this video, (quick summary) which basically says only ego transmutation is possible, not actual ego death. Most people seeking enlightenment only grow a spiritual ego (a sort of spiritual materialism).

Meh. There are two different meanings of "ego", one spiritual, one from analytic psychology.

There is no law that says the only correct meaning of "ego" is the psychoanalytic one.

Plenty of words have more than one meaning, each for a different context.

"Ego" in the context of "ego death" (i.e. in the spiritual context) refers to the limited, separate self doer/thinker narrative.

"Ego" in analytic psychology also refers to the conscious, self-identifying portion of the personality.

When one identifies with the (analytic psych.) ego as "the self", and then there's an awakening, it is this association that dies.  Naturally the archetypes that express themselves through that portion of the personality don't die.

Thus there's no (spiritual context) "ego" in full enlightenment, there is however a personality expressed in a "natural state" (psychoanalytic ego complex of archetypes integrated with shadow.)  There is now a Self.

 

 

 

Edited August 31, 2018 by Haumea2018

[DrewNows]

@Haumea2018Thank you for your understanding!

Sorry i may be a little bit out of it today. 

This is still a little complicated for me to grasp what you mean. Could you simplify using a bit more describing archetypes and possibly using "identity" as a term. The "Self" you are referring to is the soul/consciousness? 

[who chit]

I agree that there is no "ego death" as such, but a transcending of the false identity one believed, and held himself/herself to be as an undeniable fact up to that point. Awakening ,ime, was the direct,experiential realization,and/or transcending of the long held, and falsely  believed, identification with the body-mind as being who/what I really am. It's realizing that, what I truly am, is not what I believed or had been told up to that point. That realization of one's true nature or Self,transcended all physical and mental boundaries,including the conceptual framework of time and space. Based on that direct experience,there is no longer any doubt or question about "death". Especially given the realization,and undeniable fact,of ones undying,ever present,eternal nature.

Most, if  not all of  the once deeply held ideas,beliefs,concepts, information, and knowledge, gathered from society,authorities,peers,and ones familial/cultural upbringing,were also ultimately seen to be false and untrue upon the realization of the one absolute reality.  The physical world and all of it's content that I once held to be the only real and true reality, is now taken to be only relatively true,and definitely not absolutely true.

In being, what comes through as persona,is that freedom to just truly be as you are,moment to moment. No putting on an inauthentic ideal or "social mask" in order to affect some sort of personal agenda.

This is what is true for me thus far.
 


 

Edited August 31, 2018 by who chit

[Haumea2018]

Quote

Could you simplify using a bit more describing archetypes and possibly using "identity" as a term. The "Self" you are referring to is the soul/consciousness? 

I wrote a whole explanation and deleted it, because I'd rather draw this.

Archetypes are the little circles.  These are various roles (or rather abstractions of roles.)