Does Prayer to God Work?

[Aquarius]

It works if you do so genuinely.

[SoonHei]

@Preetom @Harikrishnan yup

@Shadowraix.@Preetom

[Preetom]

2 minutes ago, SoonHei said:

@Preetom @Harikrishnan yup

@Shadowraix.@Preetom

Dafuq is this? 

One thing is sure tho...your prayers won't work if they are haphazard like this  

Edited December 16, 2018 by Preetom

[SoonHei]

@Preetom @Big Guru Balls @who chit

 

Is having the experience of THE VOID is what's known as a glimpse of the Ox / ego death?

[Preetom]

Just now, SoonHei said:

@Preetom @Big Guru Balls @who chit

Is having the experience of THE VOID is what's known as a glimpse of the Ox / ego death?

Reading various posts about ox herding, I've thought about an alternative explanation of this whole metaphor which syncs perfectly with advaita vedanta. But people here might burn me at stake if I start expressing  it 

[SoonHei]

Hey @Preetom

No worries. I'll be your follower

Do express it!!

 

Also please answer

The VOID = realization of true self? Glimpse?

[Preetom]

1 hour ago, SoonHei said:

Also please answer

The VOID = realization of true self? Glimpse?

Having glimpses is only glimpses (3rd stage of glimpsing the bull). It's like little puzzles that unfold and lead to the big ending. But it can't be said to be Enlightenment.

If it isn't permanent abidance, it isn't Enlightenment or realization of true Self. After Enlightenment, absolutely no doubt remains regarding what one is and what is the basis of Reality. Yeah, there can be loads of things and mysteries going on in many levels, but things do get resolved at a very fundamental level once and for all.

1 hour ago, SoonHei said:

Hey @Preetom

No worries. I'll be your follower

Do express it!!

What I'll share shows that how highly Buddhists regard Enlightenment. From preparatory stages to the climax.

Stage 1-5: All about concentration building and preparing the mind. Stabilizing the turbulence of mental waves and really nothing to do with Enlightenment. These stages are all about effort after effort. Not letting the mind wander but sticking it to one point, building access concentration. All other desires and distractions melt away by negligence as you persistently strengthen the mind through the object of concentration. The progressive stages represent deeper states of access concentration and mystical fireworks(You get tons of body-mind reaction when you do mental-energetic work). Completing the 5th stage (taming the bull) represents the pinnacle of a disciplined and concentrated mind (where the bull follows you like an obedient dog. This same bull used to run off to mountains from the slightest scent of distracting thoughts and desires)

Ramana Maharshi's comments regarding these stages about concentration building: When one thought is persistently held in mind, a war begins. All other thoughts try to overpower that single thought. But persisting on that specific thought at all cost results in a strong mind. (this is stage 1-5 in a nutshell)

Stage 6(Riding the bull home): This is the starting point of non-duality. This is basically being aware of being aware, sinking the mind into the heart, taking attention to it's source, riding the bull to home. This is a serene state where there is no effort, whip, emotional fireworks and discipline involved. You have already passed through these things. The mind just keeps falling back into it's source.

Stage 7(Bull Transcended): The mind(bull) has totally merged into it's source. It has evaporated as if it never existed. There was no bull in the first place...

Stage 8 (Both Bull and Self Transcended): This is where the last vestiges of personhood get annihilated once and for all. All the self-abidance 'non-practice' finally 'clicks' something. THIS IS ENLIGHTENMENT in it's truest sense. There remains no sense of 'I am'. You're done. Done means done. No levels of Enlightenment involved!

Stage 9 (reaching the source): This stage represents the adjustment the body-mind goes through after Enlightenment. There is no body-mind independently doing things to be more pure. It's more like Truth indiscriminately flooding everything. The entire mode of perception recontextualizes itself according to this Understanding.

''Too many steps have been taken returning to the root and the source.
Better to have been blind and deaf from the beginning!'' - this shows that life as you knew it is gone forever. The old life feels like a distant, weak murmuring memory..

''Dwelling in one's true abode, unconcerned with and without -
The river flows tranquilly on and the flowers are red'' - This points to the automatic recontextualization that takes place.

Stage 10(return to society): Back to the market. Mountains are mountains again. Rivers are rivers again. Chop wood and carry water...your simple gestures, smile and silence becomes the most transformative agent for others; not your lectures on non-duality  

(that's the nutshell. I could elaborate each stage, breaking down each sentence pointer. But I hope you get the basic idea. It's a model after all, so no need to be too fussed over it)

NOTE: You can see that how traditional systems were hardcore and prepared the body-mind solidly BEFORE Enlightenment(a super disciplined monastic life supported this strategy). So after Enlightenment, there wouldn't be much work involved. But modern advaita direct path, as it is taught, is the reverse of this process. Here, you can be Enlightened first and relatively quickly, but there would be years of slow deconditioning after that.

 

Edited December 16, 2018 by Preetom

[who chit]

On 12/16/2018 at 11:37 AM, SoonHei said:

Also please answer

The VOID = realization of true self? Glimpse?

The Void is the groundless ground ie.,,the ground of absolute Reality. The un-manifest,absolute emptiness, out of which, all of what can be termed as manifest existence, arises. It transcends space,time,body,mind and identity. Identity being the I-thought,attached to the conditioned belief of being a physically embodied,limited,personal self. Upon awakening to the Void,a transcendence of identification/attachment and long held beliefs of an external world/universe,self/personal identity,memory,and ones body-mind,as the "reality", are shown to be false. One realizes their true essence as being the one,empty,infinite,purely aware, unmanifest Reality ie.,God,Brahman,Absolute,Tao,etc.,etc., This,I would call the great awakening to ones true nature.

Herein lies the distinction,although there really isn't one, of transcendent awakening vs. abiding liberation.
Upon transcendent awakening to this one absolute Truth,all traces of egoic identification/attachment (karma), have not yet been completely dissolved. A significant amount of "karmic" baggage is burned upon this awakening, but then one "returns" to deal with what remains. "What remains" is dependent to each individual,and no single individual deals with the same 'remains" as another. One who is "ripe"( i.e., one who has put forth the necessary work to purify the latent tendencies/attachments), upon realizing their true essence, will remain/abide as That. The false identity and latent egoic tendencies are dissolved with that one "a-ha". For the "not-yet-ripe"(most people),upon the resurgence of the "I/egoic body-mind,personal identity, there is the often said and/or heard "I had it,but then lost it". In truth,there is nothing one attained that wasn't,and already is,always the case. But years and years,and if one is into "karma",lifetimes of conditioning has veiled this always present obviousness of ones true nature. The Truth of That is, and has always infinitely been, ones true nature, and can never be lost. "It" ,(Infinite-I,Truth,Self),can never lose or be separate from itself. Which is to say,You,(not the person/identity) , You, the Absolute,can never lose or be separate from, You. Impossible. The one who claims to have "had it,then lost it" is the false.

Edited December 20, 2018 by who chit

[who chit]

On 12/16/2018 at 9:09 AM, Preetom said:

@who chit

Can you describe or link the particular form of self-inquiry that you found to be most helpful for you?

Whatever brings one back into the expansive,silent,aware,empty space of Being.
The Inquiry can arise in different forms,but should lead back to the source from where, the one who is experiencing, arises.
One's nature is prior to experiencing. Get to that which is prior to experiencing and stay there. 
Just Be.

In the emptiness is fullness.In the fullness is emptiness. 
 

Edited December 20, 2018 by who chit

[Anton Rogachevski]

On 12/14/2018 at 4:23 PM, SoonHei said:

Does Prayer work?

 

If it didn't nothing would exist. All existence is "prayed" into being, that is in fact the process of creation. Any thought in the mind is simultaneously manifesting "reality".

[Anton Rogachevski]

@Yousef

It wasn't sincere enough. To truly pray takes great practice. But in the process of learning you will realise you don't really want it, you already have what you asked for, there's no need to pray.

And in any case you did get it, but you can't see that yet.

"The thoughts are the content of the mind and they shape the universe." R.M.

Edited December 22, 2018 by Anton Rogachevski