I am enlightened. Sincere seekers: ask me anything

[Paul92]

@winterknight If we are not our thoughts, then where do they come from, and why do we have them?

I appreciate you can't think a thought before you have thought it. However, could it not be that our mind is our soul, and we supposed to be able to think, and this really is the only way of being possible? How other way could it be? Maybe we ARE our thoughts, we have the ability to think a thought before we have thought it.

I read your blog on desire and you say look beneath the hood of what you really think you want. That involves thinking. It seems paradoxical that we want to try to work towards a quiet mind (even though many here say we don't have free will and we don't exist etc), but yet to do that it involves a lot of thinking.

[winterknight]

7 hours ago, Buba said:

Thank you very much.

I am reading the book of Daniel Ingram. He speaks about investigation three characteristics, true nature of sensations. He speaks about making effort to do that. How to do that? When I meditate I just observe. Should I just keep observing until three characteristics reveal themselves or is there any specific technique?

I can't comment on his techniques and ideas. The technique I recommend is self-inquiry as it is explained in this link. But it's not just about one technique. Learn about the path more broadly in these links. And my book lays things out in more systematic detail. 

[winterknight]

1 hour ago, Shaun said:

@winterknight , is it true what Leo says, I created you to understand myself?

One can say that as a playful metaphor, but in fact no ideas are true about ultimate reality. 

1 hour ago, Paul92 said:

@winterknight If we are not our thoughts, then where do they come from, and why do we have them?

I appreciate you can't think a thought before you have thought it. However, could it not be that our mind is our soul, and we supposed to be able to think, and this really is the only way of being possible? How other way could it be? Maybe we ARE our thoughts, we have the ability to think a thought before we have thought it.

I read your blog on desire and you say look beneath the hood of what you really think you want. That involves thinking. It seems paradoxical that we want to try to work towards a quiet mind (even though many here say we don't have free will and we don't exist etc), but yet to do that it involves a lot of thinking.

Yes, the mind must be used to kill the mind. Thought is needed for a time, but at a certain point we use it to look beyond it.

As to "where thoughts come from and why," the answer is -- do they in fact come? Follow the path and you will find that this question dissolves.

[Buba]

1 hour ago, winterknight said:

I can't comment on his techniques and ideas. The technique I recommend is self-inquiry as it is explained in this link. But it's not just about one technique. Learn about the path more broadly in these links. And my book lays things out in more systematic detail. 

Thanks. Do you have any coping mechanisms for Dark Night of the Soul? For example for Paul?

 

[Shaun]

4 minutes ago, Buba said:

Thanks. Do you have any coping mechanisms for Dark Night of the Soul? For example for Paul?

 

@winterknight Thank you for your previous points. I'd second that as I am in the dark night and have been for the last 4 months. Paul actually attempted suicide but I didn't as I knew it would be no escape.

[winterknight]

42 minutes ago, Buba said:

Thanks. Do you have any coping mechanisms for Dark Night of the Soul? For example for Paul?

Yes. For suicidality, you need therapy. And not just any therapy.

Get good psychoanalytic psychotherapy and/or its more intense cousin, psychoanalysis. They are the best kind. They are the kinds of therapy that look deep into your unconscious. (There may also be a need for medication, depending, but a good therapist can help figure that out.)

 

Actually, I recommend psychoanalytic psychotherapy to all serious seekers. It takes serious time and commitment, but it is worth it. 90% of the spiritual search is emotional work, and psychoanalytic psychotherapy is extremely helpful.

Search for an IPA training institute in your city or an institute that's a member of the APA or if those don't work, google "psycohanalytic institute <my city>," and contact them. If there's still nothing, or it's confusing,  feel free to message me for help.

The expression of your feelings in an artistic medium in a specific way called metaphorization can also be very helpful.

Edited April 30, 2019 by winterknight

[winterknight]

36 minutes ago, Shaun said:

@winterknight Thank you for your previous points. I'd second that as I am in the dark night and have been for the last 4 months. Paul actually attempted suicide but I didn't as I knew it would be no escape.

Shaun, see my post directly above. Get psychoanalytic psychotherapy. You don't need to face this alone, and you shouldn't. It is simply not the most effective way.

[CreamCat]

Do you still have cravings for food, masturbation, and watching random youtube videos?

Do you want to procrastinate on meditation?

Edited April 30, 2019 by CreamCat

[Buba]

33 minutes ago, winterknight said:

Yes. For suicidality, you need therapy. And not just any therapy.

Get good psychoanalytic psychotherapy and/or its more intense cousin, psychoanalysis. They are the best kind. They are the kinds of therapy that look deep into your unconscious. (There may also be a need for medication, depending, but a good therapist can help figure that out.)

 

Actually, I recommend psychoanalytic psychotherapy to all serious seekers. It takes serious time and commitment, but it is worth it. 90% of the spiritual search is emotional work, and psychoanalytic psychotherapy is extremely helpful.

Search for an IPA training institute in your city or an institute that's a member of the APA or if those don't work, google "psycohanalytic institute <my city>," and contact them. If there's still nothing, or it's confusing,  feel free to message me for help.

The expression of your feelings in an artistic medium in a specific way called metaphorization can also be very helpful.

He saw that everyone he loves is an illusion. It is solely a dark night. How can psychoanalysis help it? 

[winterknight]

37 minutes ago, CreamCat said:

Do you still have cravings for food, masturbation, and watching random youtube videos?

Do you want to procrastinate on meditation?

I don't answer questions about my experience, because the answers are always misleading. But if you want to ask about your path, feel free.

[winterknight]

14 minutes ago, Buba said:

He saw that everyone he loves is an illusion. It is solely a dark night. How can psychoanalysis help it? 

Nothing is solely anything. He has misinterpreted things this way because of his underlying psychology.

If he wants a purely spiritual way to deal with it, then he has to engage in further self-inquiry relentlessly and look deep within to see to whom this 'dark night' is occurring. But even then psychoanalysis helps with that process.

[Shaun]

28 minutes ago, winterknight said:

Nothing is solely anything. He has misinterpreted things this way because of his underlying psychology.

If he wants a purely spiritual way to deal with it, then he has to engage in further self-inquiry relentlessly and look deep within to see to whom this 'dark night' is occurring. But even then psychoanalysis helps with that process.

@Paul92 Some advice for you

 

@winterknight I am in the UK, hopefully I can get the help I need on the NHS or my work private medical insurance. That's the biggest problem for me, solipsism. All my loved ones appear alive but are not and don't experience reality along with me. That's what Leo is getting at anyway. I also worry about coming back to a life of suffering when I die.

Edited April 30, 2019 by Shaun

[winterknight]

6 minutes ago, Shaun said:

 

@winterknight I am in the UK, hopefully I can get the help I need on the NHS or my work private medical insurance. That's the biggest problem for me, solipsism. All my loved ones appear alive but are not and don't experience reality along with me. That's what Leo is getting at anyway.

I would contact the London Clinic of Psychoanalysis and ask them for a consult if you're nearby or if you're not near London ask them what the best steps would be near your city given your financial means/insurance situation.

Edited April 30, 2019 by winterknight

[Paul92]

@winterknight Exactly. To whom is it occurring. And you'll tell me that it isn't me. It isn't Paul. There is no Paul. There is no Shaun. There is no Buba. I don't have parents. You don't exist. My friends don't exist as real entities. It's all just God consciousness playing with itself.

So how does therapy help at all?

Therapy is designed to help people handle and process their emotions, particularly those which are suppressed.

But they're not even my emotions, as I don't exist. It seems like such a huge paradox. On one hand, suffering goes away when you can accept that you don't exist and everything is 'as is'. But you're saying we needn't face this alone, and we need therapy to process and understand our emotions, which are probably all purely egoic and illusionary.

Ultimately, it isn't my choice to pursue therapy/enlightenment or anything. Everything that happens is preordained. It's God playing with itself. Or life is a dream. Or a memory etc. Whatever interpretation we want to put forth on any given day.

It's frustrating because everyone here is thinking that they have a choice in what they do next, which is egoic in itself. There is no you or me, just God that is experiencing itself. Paul isn't typing this, apparently. Or is he...

I've asked a thousand million times on this forum how I might have misinterpreted nonduality and I just get word salad. Everyone says how it makes you more compassionate and loving when you reach and nondual state... you can't make yourself do anything... everything that happens, postivie and negative just happens. If I think another person is another person and is a knob, then I didn't think that.. God did!

@Shaun @Buba Appreciate you looking out for me above. Wish you both the best and would always love to help in return (if Paul can, of course, as he doesn't exist...)

[Shaun]

We've got ourselves into a right shitstorm, haven't we, Paul? Our quests to understand life and suffering have only led to more suffering.

[winterknight]

10 minutes ago, Paul92 said:

@winterknight Exactly. To whom is it occurring. And you'll tell me that it isn't me. It isn't Paul. There is no Paul. There is no Shaun. There is no Buba. I don't have parents. You don't exist. My friends don't exist as real entities. It's all just God consciousness playing with itself.

It isn't about what I tell you. It isn't about what anyone tells you. It isn't about ideas like "people don't exist." Those are just stepping stones. The truth is the peace that goes beyond concepts.

If profound, unshakeable peace is not your inner experience -- and only you can know whether it is -- then you have further to go.

Quote

So how does therapy help at all?

Therapy is designed to help people handle and process their emotions, particularly those which are suppressed.

But they're not even my emotions, as I don't exist. It seems like such a huge paradox. On one hand, suffering goes away when you can accept that you don't exist and everything is 'as is'. But you're saying we needn't face this alone, and we need therapy to process and understand our emotions, which are probably all purely egoic and illusionary.

The fact that it seems like such a huge paradox suggests that the understanding is not deep.

In the same way that enlightenment doesn't mean that you should suddenly stop eating and drinking because food and water are illusory, it means that you can and should get emotional help if that is called for. 

If Paul doesn't exist, and everything is egoic and illusory, then so is getting therapy. So there's no reason not to get it. 

Quote

Ultimately, it isn't my choice to pursue therapy/enlightenment or anything. Everything that happens is preordained. It's God playing with itself. Or life is a dream. Or a memory etc. Whatever interpretation we want to put forth on any given day.

Sure, it is not your choice. So if you do think about and decide on it, it is not your choice. 

Quote

It's frustrating because everyone here is thinking that they have a choice in what they do next, which is egoic in itself. There is no you or me, just God that is experiencing itself. Paul isn't typing this, apparently. Or is he...

Again, this kind of language is a sign that there is an intellectual understanding but that it has not gone beyond that. As long as there is lacking a profound inner peace, you must continue to 'do' things -- even if that is just sitting quietly.

Edited April 30, 2019 by winterknight

[Paul92]

@Shaun Absolutely. Not hijacking this thread though, buddy. Just increasingly convinced this enlightenment isn't the answer. But, willing to try the practices..

[Paul92]

@winterknight Well, appreciate your response. However, in the human world, I don't see how much of it adds up. I'm sorry. I want to understand. Just don't think it is the answer at this point.

[winterknight]

2 minutes ago, Paul92 said:

@winterknight Well, appreciate your response. However, in the human world, I don't see how much of it adds up. I'm sorry. I want to understand. Just don't think it is the answer at this point.

Ok.  If you want to explore this further by asking questions about specific doubts, feel free.

[Shin]

41 minutes ago, Paul92 said:

@Shaun Absolutely. Not hijacking this thread though, buddy. Just increasingly convinced this enlightenment isn't the answer. But, willing to try the practices..

 

You think it isn't, which is a projection or a statement based on your current understanding,
Which is incomplete, since you aren't experiencing what you're being doubtful of.

It doesn't even matter if it does or not,
Because the only way for you to know that, would be to directly experience it,