winterknight

I am enlightened. Sincere seekers: ask me anything

4,433 posts in this topic

  On 12/3/2018 at 9:08 AM, Sashaj said:

@winterknight If you could ask 3 questions to help you ascertain how much a particular seeker "gets it", what would they be?

 

  On 12/3/2018 at 1:53 PM, winterknight said:

There's no way to do that. Anyone can parrot answers. You have to look at them in context and use intuition.

Phrased another way, is there anything a seeker may become aware of that is indicative of "getting close"?

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  On 12/3/2018 at 4:04 PM, Serotoninluv said:

Phrased another way, is there anything a seeker may become aware of that is indicative of "getting close"?

Yes -- greater mental peace -- a dropping off of various desires and more contentment.

At the same time, an increased intensity of striving for liberation.

Edited by winterknight

Website/book/one-on-one spiritual guidance: Sifting to the Truth: A New Map to the Self

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Have you read Jed McKenna, if so, what do you think of the books?

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What role did your intelligence play in your own Awakening? I assume you are in the 99th percentile or higher.

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  On 12/3/2018 at 6:48 PM, Outer said:

Have you read Jed McKenna, if so, what do you think of the books?

Read a little of his first book... it seemed fine. He's a little bit too "cantankerous cynical old sage" for my taste, but... 

  On 12/3/2018 at 6:51 PM, Outer said:

What role did your intelligence play in your own Awakening? I assume you are in the 99th percentile or higher.

Heh. If that's true, it probably brought as many problems as solutions. The flight-to-over-thinking can be an incredibly powerful defense mechanism.


Website/book/one-on-one spiritual guidance: Sifting to the Truth: A New Map to the Self

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  On 12/3/2018 at 4:16 PM, winterknight said:

Yes -- greater mental peace -- a dropping off of various desires and more contentment.

At the same time, an increased intensity of striving for liberation.

To "beginners" that sense of striving for liberation is often self-seeking striving for relief of uncomfortable thoughts / feelings. 

After working through one's psychology and a practice of meditation / inquiry, would you say this striving becomes more mature? In a sense, there is a energetic shift from self-seeking relief to self-transcendent liberation?

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  On 12/3/2018 at 7:27 PM, Serotoninluv said:

To "beginners" that sense of striving for liberation is often self-seeking striving for relief of uncomfortable thoughts / feelings. 

After working through one's psychology and a practice of meditation / inquiry, would you say this striving becomes more mature? In a sense, there is a energetic shift from self-seeking relief to self-transcendent liberation?

What is liberation if not also self-seeking relief? The very idea of liberation is based in the concept of bondage, which is an egoic concept. That means both liberation and bondage are egoic concepts.

Hopefully as seeking matures, the other, "lesser" desires for money, power, status, sex, etc. gradually weaken, and a single overpowering desire becomes stronger and stronger -- that wish for liberation.

That's why I always encourage people to be honest about their desire. The faster they are honest about their desire, the faster they can pursue them, and then see how empty they are, and their desire can evolve -- to a taste for something that lasts.

Now obviously, as one becomes a more mature seeker, one experiences longer periods of peace. That desire won't be there during those times of peace. That's what peace means.

But if it falls away, the intensity of the desire to get back to that peace -- again, the desire for liberation -- will be fierce. The deeper and longer that peace lasts, the fiercer desire to get back there if it seems to disappear.

Then eventually that state of Peace simply is recognized to be one's unchanging nature, and the desire for Liberation is realized to have been impossible & incoherent.

Edited by winterknight

Website/book/one-on-one spiritual guidance: Sifting to the Truth: A New Map to the Self

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  On 12/3/2018 at 7:46 PM, winterknight said:

What is liberation if not also self-seeking relief?

I think "self-seeking relief" would need to be a broad umbrella. It seems most beginners seek relief from unpleasant things like frustration, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic memories etc. Yet later on, self surrender also includes surrendering love, joy, happiness etc. Complete surrender of every thing, whether "good" or "bad". 

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  On 12/3/2018 at 7:55 PM, Serotoninluv said:

I think "self-seeking relief" would need to be a broad umbrella. It seems most beginners seek relief from unpleasant things like frustration, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic memories etc. Yet later on, self surrender also includes surrendering love, joy, happiness etc. Complete surrender of every thing, whether "good" or "bad". 

Why does one want to surrender all these "good" things? Only for the sake of peace. Which implies that there is un-peace. Which means that these good things aren't so good as they seem. So long as there is a desire for liberation, there is the sense of un-peace, one way or another... attachments to love, joy, and happiness are problematic because these things are partial, prone to loss... which means they have poison in them.


Website/book/one-on-one spiritual guidance: Sifting to the Truth: A New Map to the Self

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  On 12/3/2018 at 8:14 PM, winterknight said:

Why does one want to surrender all these "good" things? Only for the sake of peace. Which implies that there is un-peace. Which means that these good things aren't so good as they seem. So long as there is a desire for liberation, there is the sense of un-peace, one way or another... attachments to love, joy, and happiness are problematic because these things are partial, prone to loss... which means they have poison in them.

There was a door by which peace must be surrendered to continue on. 

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@winterknight  Not sure if this was asked before but...

Do you think that you could face stuff that most people would get nervous or fearful without feeling any nerveousness?  Like if you had to make a speech in front of lots of people or a more extreme example would be if you were about to be killed... do you think you could stay in that peaceful place?

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  On 12/3/2018 at 8:57 PM, Charlotte said:

@winterknight I have a personal question (relating to myself) I'd like to ask. Do you mind if I pm you? (I understand if not) :)

Yes, feel free

  On 12/3/2018 at 9:10 PM, Nexeternity said:

@winterknight  Not sure if this was asked before but...

Do you think that you could face stuff that most people would get nervous or fearful without feeling any nerveousness?  Like if you had to make a speech in front of lots of people or a more extreme example would be if you were about to be killed... do you think you could stay in that peaceful place?

This question is due to the identification of me with the mind. 

It is not I who must make that speech. That’s the mind, and it is the mind who is in peaceful places or in unpeaceful ones while making it.

I AM the peaceful space in which nervousness or fear may or may not appear. The appearance of the nervousness does not affect the peacefulness of the space anymore than the reflection of lightning hurts a lake.

Actually in that space, neither fear nor the absence of fear appear. 

Edited by winterknight

Website/book/one-on-one spiritual guidance: Sifting to the Truth: A New Map to the Self

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Why are you communicating who you are? Or what you are? Isn't all just Maya?

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@winterknight I understand your answer and I agree.  But from a more regular standpoint, just talking like regular folk... how do you think you would react to what would normaly be a frightening situation? 

Just out of curiosity I ask, I know its fundamentally an unanswerable question and no one can really know how they will react to things in the future... I am just asking for fun and want to hear your response just for giggles :) 

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You might claim that it isn't a riddle. But it is a question that does not have an answer, and the search is exhausting. The truth is that there is no source of "I". "I" is either nothing or everything. I just is. 

When I say "I", I truly don't know what "I" am referring to. God maybe....

 

Edited by Bauer1977

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  On 12/3/2018 at 11:13 PM, Outer said:

Why are you communicating who you are? Or what you are? Isn't all just Maya?

If it's all just maya, isn't my communication also just maya?

  On 12/3/2018 at 11:30 PM, Nexeternity said:

@winterknight I understand your answer and I agree.  But from a more regular standpoint, just talking like regular folk... how do you think you would react to what would normaly be a frightening situation? 

Just out of curiosity I ask, I know its fundamentally an unanswerable question and no one can really know how they will react to things in the future... I am just asking for fun and want to hear your response just for giggles :) 

Less fear than the average person, but probably still some residual animal fear

 

  On 12/4/2018 at 0:29 AM, Bauer1977 said:

You might claim that it isn't a riddle. But it is a question that does not have an answer, and the search is exhausting. The truth is that there is no source of "I". "I" is either nothing or everything. I just is. 

When I say "I", I truly don't know what "I" am referring to. God maybe....

You don't know what I you are referring to because you are trying to think your way to it. When you say "I" -- it is pointing to something that cannot be thought. If you try to think about it, the very effort to think your way to it will prevent your seeing it. 

When you wake up in the morning and there's a moment just before you remember who you are -- that split second of blank awareness -- that's the I.

Just stop thinking. That silence that seems like nothing at all, that feels totally insignificant and unexciting? That's I.

  On 12/4/2018 at 2:02 AM, Karas said:

@winterknightcan a dog get enlightened

actually in mythology and scripture there are records of animals getting enlightened, so maybe


Website/book/one-on-one spiritual guidance: Sifting to the Truth: A New Map to the Self

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