I am enlightened. Sincere seekers: ask me anything

[zambize]

13 minutes ago, winterknight said:

There are many. Off the top of my head, one of the biggest is simply being caught up in images and expectations of "what it is like." All that must be dropped. Another is that the process is going to take X number of years or whatever and getting attached to various practices as a path to that faraway goal. The desire of the ardent seeker should be to know the Self now. The stronger that desire, the better.

Alright, I feel 100% confident that I can do this to it's end, if I don't have any more questions for you, I just wanted to say that I really appreciate the thread and even though not every question on here might be the most informed, they've had a lot of value to me which I intend on passing that value along

[Outer]

Well what is the Self? Stupid question, I know, but why is it called the Self of all things? What if we just called it "qeriowmlk", like if a cat walked on your keyboard. Why is calling it "Self", a better pointer than a word written by your cat, for example?

[Outer]

What are you pointing to by asking someone to look for the Self or desire the Self, now, for someone with no requisite knowledge?

[winterknight]

5 hours ago, Outer said:

Well what is the Self? Stupid question, I know, but why is it called the Self of all things? What if we just called it "qeriowmlk", like if a cat walked on your keyboard. Why is calling it "Self", a better pointer than a word written by your cat, for example?

Because it is what is understood when you follow the sense "I am." It is the connection with the I. 

5 hours ago, Outer said:

What are you pointing to by asking someone to look for the Self or desire the Self, now, for someone with no requisite knowledge?

That answer wasn't to someone with no requisite knowledge.

[SriBhagwanYogi]

When i go outside , talk with people i find doing self inquiry very hard or I shouldn’t do it that much 

[winterknight]

7 minutes ago, SriBhagwanYogi said:

When i go outside , talk with people i find doing self inquiry very hard or I shouldn’t do it that much 

Why wouldn't you do it that hard? What is your doubt?

Edited January 6, 2019 by winterknight

[SriBhagwanYogi]

@winterknight Well there is a fear when i go in to that awarness of person , thinking ... real “I” , I will not be able to socialise that well , more I dis identify with personality ordinariy topics or gossip have no meaning.

That’s good but still there is that Fear .

Hope that makes sense , Thank you 

[winterknight]

Just now, SriBhagwanYogi said:

@winterknight Well there is a fear when i go in to that awarness of person , thinking ... real “I” , I will not be able to socialise that well , more I dis identify with personality ordinariy topics or gossip have no meaning.

That’s good but still there is that Fear .

Hope that makes sense , Thank you 

If you are identifying with the "real I," who is it that has the fear?

[SoonHei]

@winterknight would an enlightenment experience be equal to the falling away of ALL meaning? For example, one moment i am sitting in my room and the next moment, ALL meaning about everything in my room (objects, concepts, about myself as a human) falls away.

 

Enlightenment is supposed to be the falling away of all concepts. The end of all meaning and concepts...

 

So this did happen to me

But that's the only problem... It happened to "me"

All fell apart except for me...

Maybe, as i did not know about spirituality and non-duality etc at that time. I didn't know any better than to observe or have any thoughts inquiring into WTF just happened...

 

As Leo says, IT CAN SHOCK/TERRIFY YOU. The glimpse of the absolute.

As you said in your post above, questioning or assuming what "enlightenment will feel /look like" can be a trap.

I had no such expectations for when it happened to "me" . Add to this the phrase, that Nothing changes visually but it's fully recontextualized. And for me, it was the falling away of all meaning.

 

So as i had many "I thoughts" during that state... Can that still be a glimpse which i had?

I thoughts were: oh my god, what just happened? What is this? What am i? I am this animal who lives in this "house" and wears "clothes" and has a "job"

All meaning was melted away from all these thoughts and concepts... Even like "wtf... I drink "water" when i am "thirsty" ... Wtf is "sex"  etc..

And then before i felt like i would be trapped forever and cannot unsee any of this.. i started praying to God and reciting my religious verses to find and ask for peace, and praying before forcing myself to.sleep that when i wake up, all is normal.. and when i woke up the next day, all was again "normal" with a zing from the previous night of course

 

As it's all ultimately meaningless, the meaning i assigned to that state was hellish instead of heaven? This very egoic SoonHei right now often hopes that if that was an enlightenment experience which i had, then when it happens again, I want to find the heaven side of the absolute no meaning. Would I. Knowing all this now, be able to catch it this way?

 

And thinking back, it happened in an instant. I didn't bring it about. Heck i didn't know about spirituality as i do now (which i feel makes the seeking tougher actually - more concepts to let go of) 

[winterknight]

13 minutes ago, SoonHei said:

@winterknight would an enlightenment experience be equal to the falling away of ALL meaning? For example, one moment i am sitting in my room and the next moment, ALL meaning about everything in my room (objects, concepts, about myself as a human) falls away.

Hard to say what it was. Glimpses are associated with peace. It doesn't sound to me like this was associated with peace. 

Quote

As it's all ultimately meaningless, the meaning i assigned to that state was hellish instead of heaven? This very egoic SoonHei right now often hopes that if that was an enlightenment experience which i had, then when it happens again, I want to find the heaven side of the absolute no meaning. Would I. Knowing all this now, be able to catch it this way?

This is what I mean by creating all kinds of burdensome expectations. Drop all these ideas of heaven and hell and "sides" of complicated "absolute no meaning" experiences and inquire instead into who has them. Who is reading these words right now? Focus on the sense "I am" -- which is extremely simple -- and search for what it is, for how it is that you know that you are. 

Your mind is generating 1001 distracting thoughts and fantasies to keep you away from this very simple focus.

Edited January 6, 2019 by winterknight

[SoonHei]

@winterknight hmmmm

 

Yeah. I guess i am only creating that expectation because i thought i had the glimpse but it didn't quite fit what i have hears about the glimpses .. in that, i was still there as an ego questioning that huge recontextualization of meaninglessness...

 

Thanks for clear up

[graded24]

@winterknight  From Nondual perspective, there are no separate people really. The people are a collection of forms (thoughts, body etc) which are experienced by the Self. 

What does compassion mean then? When I am talking to someone, am I just talking to a thought? Why should I care about a thought then? 

[winterknight]

11 hours ago, graded24 said:

@winterknight  From Nondual perspective, there are no separate people really. The people are a collection of forms (thoughts, body etc) which are experienced by the Self. 

What does compassion mean then? When I am talking to someone, am I just talking to a thought? Why should I care about a thought then? 

If you think you are the person who chooses between caring and not caring, you still consider the one who decides, and therefore consider yourself a person... if you still consider yourself a person, then compassion matters. Why? Because, among other things, it helps quiet the mind -- and that furthers spiritual inquiry.

If you've really recognized that you are not a person, then this question will not arise at all.

2 hours ago, Etherial Cat said:

@winterknight

Are you able to accept the mortality of your loved ones (friends, family, children), in the world of form ? 

Like all the questions about "what enlightenment is like," it's unfortunately impossible to answer accurately.

When the mind resides in stillness, it is beyond either acceptance or non-acceptance.

[Mezanti]

@winterknight is there such a thing as black magic- some type of energy created by humans to destroy other humans? 

[winterknight]

1 hour ago, Etherial Cat said:

I realize this is the root source of most of my egoic attachment. How do I let go of the crippling pain of those thoughts, and the anxiety it generates?

By entering stillness and contemplating that fear, everytime it comes up, until acceptance?

Well, there’s a few different ways. One is by really feeling that fear and expressing it — articulating it — in writing or drawing or other art, as specifically and originally as possible,  till you have feel like have really captured what it’s like. 

In the process, you might discover other things related to this fear, perhaps things from the past, traumas you haven’t dealt with, desires you haven’t admitted, negative emotions you haven’t let yourself experience. 

Psychoanakytic therapy is very helpful for this.

It is fully hearing the nuanced message your emotions have for you that allows them to relax 

The other alternative is not to enter stillness and contemplate the fear — fear cannot really exist where there is true stillness — but simply to enter and stay in stillness, period, and more specifically to do that by inquiring into who it is feels that fear. Who’s the “I” that feels the fear?

It’s always about investigating the I. 

1 hour ago, Mezanti said:

@winterknight is there such a thing as black magic- some type of energy created by humans to destroy other humans? 

I don’t know, sorry. 

[purerogue]

I am sorry , but I had to ask this  are there dragons? 

[graded24]

@winterknight When I try to self-inquire WHILE doing intellectual work.. more often than not, I get involved in the work and forget the inquiry altogether.. until I remember it back again after a while.  I am not sure in this period of forgetting whether or not there is an I because my attention is simply not there.. I am thinking the work-thoughts. 

Should i put efforts to keep inquiring on the side and not enter this forgetting-inquiry state?  Or only inquire when the question arise? 

[graded24]

@winterknight And when I do try to do it on the side.. it becomes like trying to attend to two things at the same time.. like working with a distraction As a result, the mind grows restless and a feeling of irritation arises.. not of peace. 

[winterknight]

4 hours ago, purerogue said:

I am sorry , but I had to ask this  are there dragons? 

Metaphorically, yes. 

3 hours ago, graded24 said:

@winterknight When I try to self-inquire WHILE doing intellectual work.. more often than not, I get involved in the work and forget the inquiry altogether.. until I remember it back again after a while.  I am not sure in this period of forgetting whether or not there is an I because my attention is simply not there.. I am thinking the work-thoughts. 

Should i put efforts to keep inquiring on the side and not enter this forgetting-inquiry state?  Or only inquire when the question arise? 

Yes, you should maintain some portion of your attention on inquiry at all times if you can. If you forget, don’t beat yourself up, though. Just return to it. 

3 hours ago, graded24 said:

@winterknight And when I do try to do it on the side.. it becomes like trying to attend to two things at the same time.. like working with a distraction As a result, the mind grows restless and a feeling of irritation arises.. not of peace. 

Then you must inquire to whom that irritation arises.

Edited January 7, 2019 by winterknight

[graded24]

1 hour ago, winterknight said:

Then you must inquire to whom that irritation arises.

Your answers often suggest that any negative emotion always arises TO some false sense of I. Can it be that there is irritation but no one who is irritated? After all I do experience it with perception. There is seeing but no one who is seeing.