I am enlightened. Sincere seekers: ask me anything

[winterknight]

36 minutes ago, Aakash said:

I do not know where the force of the void is taking me, How do i trust my thoughts once you've glimpsed enlightenment. 

my answer

You break through all delusions, your thoughts become synchronised and pure 

what woud you answer? 

If that is your question and you are happy with your answer, then why would I interfere?

[Aakash]

I wanted to know your experience of it? 

[Privet]

@winterknight

Previously we discussed how the lack of desires can point towards being, I'm wondering how do we distinguish this kind of lack of desires from depression or burnout, or might it be the same thing?

It seems to me this is where the inner guru has to decide whether you should bear down with your life or ease up, but I'd like to hear your opinion on that.

 

 

[Aakash]

I just went full circle, I want to know. if "who am i" self inquiry - is just trials and tributes, is the question "How do i stay there" basically an intellectual question? as opposed to letting go? 

[winterknight]

1 hour ago, Aakash said:

I wanted to know your experience of it? 

The enlightened experience cannot really be expressed in words, unfortunately... it couldn’t even really be said to be “mine.”

1 hour ago, Privet said:

@winterknight

Previously we discussed how the lack of desires can point towards being, I'm wondering how do we distinguish this kind of lack of desires from depression or burnout, or might it be the same thing?

It seems to me this is where the inner guru has to decide whether you should bear down with your life or ease up, but I'd like to hear your opinion on that.

It’s not really lack of desires, but a quiet mind — that is, a mind which is honest about what it wants and attempts to pursue it. And of course that then leads to the desires changing.

if there is a total lack of desire, that may indeed be a sign of depression which may well in turn be a sign of dishonesty about desires/feelings or other unconscious psychological issues. 

The spiritual seeker’s position is distinguished from depression in that in the spiritual, there is still at least one desire active: that for liberation. 

43 minutes ago, Aakash said:

I just went full circle, I want to know. if "who am i" self inquiry - is just trials and tributes, is the question "How do i stay there" basically an intellectual question? as opposed to letting go? 

If one pursues the “who am I” inquiry to the end, the idea of “staying there” will itself not make any sense. 

Edited December 28, 2018 by winterknight

[Aakash]

7 minutes ago, winterknight said:

If one pursues the “who am I” inquiry to the end, the idea of “staying there” will itself not make any sense.

I see; once nothing and something duality breaks down, all thats left is ; is or now. The complete present moment. Its neither yours nor mine. 

you end up exactly at the same place

"i think therefore i am" or "the present moment" or "are you aware right now" or "basically, everything is an illusion" ,

There is no way to experience or have perception of something that is not real in the first place. That is reality. 

But the only thing that you can be sure of; is there is ONE. 

that is enlightenment realising you are infintaley one , as well as infinitately nothing 

~ absolute infinity~

 

[winterknight]

On 12/27/2018 at 11:04 PM, Aakash said:

I see; once nothing and something duality breaks down, all thats left is ; is or now. The complete present moment. Its neither yours nor mine. 

you end up exactly at the same place

"i think therefore i am" or "the present moment" or "are you aware right now" or "basically, everything is an illusion" ,

There is no way to experience or have perception of something that is not real in the first place. That is reality. 

But the only thing that you can be sure of; is there is ONE. 

that is enlightenment realising you are infintaley one , as well as infinitately nothing 

~ absolute infinity~

 

Yes, but these are all concepts/thoughts. They are useful only for a while. The real thing is simple. Just relax your mind. You're there.

[Preetom]

@winterknight

Reading Sri Shankara's Vivekchudamani or many Advaita Vedanta texts, one primary instruction that comes over and over again which is ''constantly abide as the Self".

This instruction seems to be simultaneously the path and destination.

Vedantic texts generally don't give any exotic siddhic meditation, breath patterns or a set of morality or any objective life purpose for the seeker. The only instruction is to remain as the Self and not be bothered by anything else.

How do you interpret this instruction? How should this instruction be followed by a seeker?

 

Edited December 29, 2018 by Preetom

[Cocolove]

@winterknightHow do I deal with fear of insanity from consciousness work, specifically self inquiry

[SriBhagwanYogi]

@Cocolove I am not winterknight but inquire who is afraid its false “I”

[winterknight]

4 hours ago, Preetom said:

@winterknight

Reading Sri Shankara's Vivekchudamani or many Advaita Vedanta texts, one primary instruction that comes over and over again which is ''constantly abide as the Self".

This instruction seems to be simultaneously the path and destination.

Vedantic texts generally don't give any exotic siddhic meditation, breath patterns or a set of morality or any objective life purpose for the seeker. The only instruction is to remain as the Self and not be bothered by anything else.

How do you interpret this instruction? How should this instruction be followed by a seeker?

 

There's a few different levels at which this instruction can be understood. Traditional vedanta is jnana yoga -- that is, it's ultimately not about a practice -- it's about a destruction of ignorance through understanding. When the ignorance -- that is, incorrect beliefs -- are destroyed, what remains is the Self.

So at one level, abide in the Self simply is a way of saying -- remember this understanding; understand again and again why the old understanding is wrong. When the old understanding is remembered once again to be wrong and abolished, what remains is the Self.

At one level, again in traditional Vedanta, this can come to literally ruminating on and rehearsing ideas like "I am the Self" and "I am not the transient world." 

Or analogously, this also means -- avoid those thoughts premised on the incorrect belief of being a perishable, limited, body-mind. Again, when these thoughts/feelings are refrained from... what remains is the Self.

All this could be said to be a sort of practice.

But at a deeper level, we simply are the Self. So at a deeper level, this abidance instruction is simply an extension of a "pointer" -- a direct set of words that dispels ignorance simply by its being read or thought about. There is no further practice associated with it. Simply reading the text and understanding it is itself said to be sufficient; what then remains is the Self.

4 hours ago, Cocolove said:

@winterknightHow do I deal with fear of insanity from consciousness work, specifically self inquiry

Time to start digging into that fear. Why do you have that fear? Feel all the feelings associated with it; express them in words or in other artistic medium. See what desires and other history you have associated with it. Listen to the fear, in other words. It has a message for you.

And strongly consider getting a psychoanalytic therapist.

[Manjushri]

How would you explain the void-emptiness?

[AlwaysBeNice]

I've heard before and you also said, enlightenment is the end of the glimpses, but you must also still experience them? I would imagine, as dream/sleep cycles continue and are still different states of consciousness? Because to me, these glimpses at night seem like their own domain of reality, just different from my waking life.

If so, is there a difference between as to how you first experience them? Do yo

- Also how do you relate to happiness now? Is your care for it less, as is the deep peace it's own sort of happiness?

And were you able to expect the reality of that peace(/happiness) before hand, was it an experience of a new discovery? 

[winterknight]

50 minutes ago, Manjushri said:

How would you explain the void-emptiness?

When the mind keeps looking for the Self expecting to 'see' it with the mind's eyes, you get the void-emptiness.

36 minutes ago, AlwaysBeNice said:

I've heard before and you also said, enlightenment is the end of the glimpses, but you must also still experience them? I would imagine, as dream/sleep cycles continue and are still different states of consciousness? Because to me, these glimpses at night seem like their own domain of reality, just different from my waking life.

If so, is there a difference between as to how you first experience them? Do yo

- Also how do you relate to happiness now? Is your care for it less, as is the deep peace it's own sort of happiness?

And were you able to expect the reality of that peace(/happiness) before hand, was it an experience of a new discovery? 

No, one can no longer experience glimpses of sunlight when one is looking at sunlight 24/7. The "you" that wants happiness is not the real you, so none of the other questions can be answered accurately.

There is no way, indeed, to accurately answer questions about the 'enlightened state.' Better to simply find out for yourself.

[Sockrattes]

1 minute ago, winterknight said:

I am an expert on the nondual path of spirituality in the Hindu advaita tradition, heavily influenced by Ramana Maharshi (but with my own twists)

I don't know if this question was asked already, but: What is the twist you are making?

 

Do you feel bliss all the time?

What are your dreams like, if you have any? What happens when you "sleep"?

Do you experience dead people? Are you immortal now?

What is the real deal? Moksha, Nirvana, Kaivalya?

And the most important question: What is true liberation?

[AlwaysBeNice]

29 minutes ago, winterknight said:

When the mind keeps looking for the Self expecting to 'see' it with the mind's eyes, you get the void-emptiness.

No, one can no longer experience glimpses of sunlight when one is looking at sunlight 24/7. The "you" that wants happiness is not the real you, so none of the other questions can be answered accurately.

There is no way, indeed, to accurately answer questions about the 'enlightened state.' Better to simply find out for yourself.

thanks you

[winterknight]

16 hours ago, Sockrattes said:

I don't know if this question was asked already, but: What is the twist you are making?

 

Do you feel bliss all the time?

What are your dreams like, if you have any? What happens when you "sleep"?

Do you experience dead people? Are you immortal now?

What is the real deal? Moksha, Nirvana, Kaivalya?

And the most important question: What is true liberation?

The twist is my emphasis on aligning actions with desires and using metaphorization. It is not that "I feel bliss" all the time. The I doesn't exist. Bliss is the Self, but that is not an experience of bliss like normal bliss.

Technically I neither wake or sleep. But if we're going to use inexact approximations, then yes I dream and sleep like "everyone else." No, no dead people. We're all immortal if any of us are. I'm not more immortal than anyone else.

Moksha, nirvana, kaivalya are all words for the same thing. 

True liberation is destroying the misconception -- not just saying it, but actually recognizing it -- that there is such a thing as true liberation and that there is anything more to do or be than that unchangingness which you already are.

[Tistepiste]

@winterknight do your desires depend on other people / things? 

You said you are honest to yourself and desires and want to pursue it. What if your desire is out of your own control? 

Are the desires not based on a need coming from an egocentric point of view? How can desires not be egocentric? Aren't desires there to fuel the ego when achieving them? Can they be selfless?

[winterknight]

7 minutes ago, Tistepiste said:

@winterknight do your desires depend on other people / things? 

You said you are honest to yourself and desires and want to pursue it. What if your desire is out of your own control? 

Are the desires not based on a need coming from an egocentric point of view? How can desires not be egocentric? Aren't desires there to fuel the ego when achieving them? Can they be selfless?

The fulfillment of your desire depends on other people. But the pursuit of them does not. And if it seems that you want something you can't have either a) you desire that state of pursuing something you seemingly can't get or b) perhaps you've misread your desire... go deeper into it.

Yes desires are egocentric, but egocentric self-alignment is necessary in order to quiet the mind sufficiently to pursue self-inquiry.

[Forestluv]

19 hours ago, winterknight said:

But at a deeper level, we simply are the Self. So at a deeper level, this abidance instruction is simply an extension of a "pointer" -- a direct set of words that dispels ignorance simply by its being read or thought about. There is no further practice associated with it. Simply reading the text and understanding it is itself said to be sufficient; what then remains is the Self.

You mention the pointer dispels ignorance and what remains is Self. Yet is not the ignorance “within” Self? Is not ignorance Self? What would be the distinction between ignorance and Self?