can you not be ready for enlightenment?

[LoveandPurpose]

When watching Leo's longer videos about spirituality where he talks about the nature of reality and myself I experience fear. Fear of going insane/losing complete control, I think.

What I should mention is that I had a few pretty bad experiences on weed about a year ago (panic attacks & extreme fear). It was also during a time where I was deep into spirituality.

 

Why does this fear come up? Maybe my brain connects fear now with spirituality. Or could it be that I am not yet ready for going deeper? Or is it just my ego trying to get me away from discovering the Truth so it can survive? I am 19 btw.

[Salvijus]

Being not ready for enlightenment is a common phenomena. 

It's a gradual process. Step by step. If you force it too much something will brake or fuse out. 

 

 

 

 

 

[mandyjw]

The fear is your ego resisting and holding on. Fear is nothing but energy in your body, your mind experiences it as fear. So fear is a beautiful opportunity to experience that energy but you must let go of the thoughts about it, the thoughts that come from the place of fear and the idea of fear itself. 

If you are not able to at least momentarily experience the fear as energy and accept it, don't delve too deep into the things that bring it up strongly. Self love is a huge part of this practice. Spend time in nature, do short meditations, go for walks, start running. The focus is not doing some incredible spiritual feat and getting somewhere by going through suffering. The point is to bring love and peace into every moment of your life. 

I don't think age is any limit to anyone's potential but when I was 19 I thought mindfulness practices were the stupidest thing anyone had ever thought of. It didn't click until I was 26 and had experienced a storm of frustration and disappointment with life. So you're way ahead of where I was! 

[Markus]

@LoveandPurpose Weed causes anxiety and panic attacks in some people. I don't recommend using it, especially if such is the case. Existential fear is totally normal. Of course I can't know how bad it is in your case. You've got to gauge for yourself how much you can handle and how much could make you trip/lose it. I've experienced a lot of fear and anxiety on the path for months, but there's been enough stability to handle it for the most part.

I'd say if something is starting to seriously fuck up your functionality and ability to deal with daily things, you should chill. Generally, the more responsibilities you have, the chiller you should take the path. Going through tough shit can make you grow and mature a lot, but of course don't be stupid and ruin your career etc over it.

[LoveandPurpose]

Thank you all! @Markus @mandyjw @Salvijus

Could low self-esteem play into that? I heard that it is important to transcend a strong sense of self rather than a weak one and I think I tend towards the latter. 

[mandyjw]

No, low self esteem is the same as an over-inflated sense of self. Both are comparing themselves to others to see where they stack up. One comes out lacking and one comes out on top but they suffer from the same flawed thinking. Just work on not judging yourself or others to overcome low self esteem. Otherwise you're always going to look to external factors for your self esteem and if you lose something, for example a job or a romantic partner you'll fall into it again. 

Most people who seem to have a strong confident sense of self have learned to appear that way and can be at war inside their heads. Don't look to thought or judgement for your self worth. You're alive and you're perfect. You can play around with external stuff going on in your life and overcome your shortcomings, climb the ladder of success, get a six pack or whatever you want because it's fun and playing around in the world of form is what life is about but it still doesn't really matter in the bigger sense of things, because you're always perfect. You were perfect on the day you were born and you will on the day you die and everything that's in between is just for funsies. 

[Salvijus]

5 hours ago, LoveandPurpose said:

Thank you all! @Markus @mandyjw @Salvijus

Could low self-esteem play into that? I heard that it is important to transcend a strong sense of self rather than a weak one and I think I tend towards the latter. 

No self esteem doesn't play any role here. It's your mental balance that matters.

Like sadhguru says before you remove all the pshychological structure you've created for yourself, make sure you're able to stand being insane.

More elaborate video about this question is here. The importence of balance before jumping into the madness.

"If you dismantle your psychological structure without balance, you'll go crazy" #sadhguru

 

 

Edited March 3, 2019 by Salvijus

[Markus]

7 hours ago, LoveandPurpose said:

Thank you all! @Markus @mandyjw @Salvijus

Could low self-esteem play into that? I heard that it is important to transcend a strong sense of self rather than a weak one and I think I tend towards the latter. 

As long as you have a degree of stability, I don't think it matters so much. I have low self-esteem because it's become deep-rooted through life, but replacing it with a strong sense of self just seems so transparently bs. I gradually do accept myself more and all that, but creating a strong self-esteem seems like a mechanism of compensation at this point, which will just build more blockages and ego that get in the way.

Edited March 3, 2019 by Markus

[who chit]

Quote

can you not be ready for enlightenment?

Oh yeah. It's not something you can be ready for at all because it's not you that decides when or where it will happen. It doesn't give a damn about whether you're ready for it or not .  it will always come suddenly and unexpected.

"for the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect."Mark 13:33
"keep awake. For you do not know when that time will come. "Matthew 24:43-44

To the degree one is affected by it will vary. Some will settle right in without much "chaos". and some that can be affected enough to the point of no longer wanting, or even able,to be a part of  society again. For that reason it would be beneficial to have some sort of support from others who are also into some form of spirituality and/or have gone through it. Even without regards to enlightenment, there can be intense psychological and/or metaphysical experiences that can affect one anywhere from a few hours or days,to several months and longer.

A certain level of responsibility and maturity comes with all this and is not something I would recommend fooling around with just for the hell of it.

[Breathe]

I've had the fear too. You'll have to work through that existential anxiety. It's totally normal but it gets easier. Take care of yourself and your life to establish a solid sense of self-esteem. You'll see later that self-esteem is necessary to have the deeper insights.

[nistake]

I think a healthy self-esteem is necessary for deeper enlightenment work. It can't really be bypassed.

[FoxFoxFox]

@LoveandPurpose To answer the question in the title: Seemingly yes, but truly no. 

[Hellspeed]

Yes, the majority we are not prepared. 

But the paradox is, we will never be able to prepare for this  

Edited March 4, 2019 by Hellspeed

[Shin]

Can anyone be prepared to face his/her own death ?

You can be determined though, but that's not the same thing ?

 

[Saumaya]

On 03/03/2019 at 5:47 PM, LoveandPurpose said:

When watching Leo's longer videos about spirituality where he talks about the nature of reality and myself I experience fear. Fear of going insane/losing complete control, I think.

What I should mention is that I had a few pretty bad experiences on weed about a year ago (panic attacks & extreme fear). It was also during a time where I was deep into spirituality.

 

Why does this fear come up? Maybe my brain connects fear now with spirituality. Or could it be that I am not yet ready for going deeper? Or is it just my ego trying to get me away from discovering the Truth so it can survive? I am 19 btw.

Enlightenment is quite a paradigm shift and requires alot of investment so I'd say yes.

But honestly I'd say no because enlightenment is your default nature because it's the Truth, that which exists. Truth is always there. So it's like you are playing a game and distracting yourself from your death. When you die only Truth is left. My honest question would really be, why do you want enlightenment exactly? If the answer is some kind of self-enchancement such as I want to become more conscious or something like that. Then I'd say be patient and wait when the time is right

[Shin]

26 minutes ago, Saumaya said:

Enlightenment is quite a paradigm shift and requires alot of investment so I'd say yes.

But honestly I'd say no because enlightenment is your default nature because it's the Truth, that which exists. Truth is always there. So it's like you are playing a game and distracting yourself from your death. When you die only Truth is left. My honest question would really be, why do you want enlightenment exactly? If the answer is some kind of self-enchancement such as I want to become more conscious or something like that. Then I'd say be patient and wait when the time is right

What are you doing here ?

You said you were leaving ?

[AstralProjection]

On 3/3/2019 at 6:17 AM, LoveandPurpose said:

When watching Leo's longer videos about spirituality where he talks about the nature of reality and myself I experience fear. Fear of going insane/losing complete control, I think.

What I should mention is that I had a few pretty bad experiences on weed about a year ago (panic attacks & extreme fear). It was also during a time where I was deep into spirituality.

 

Why does this fear come up? Maybe my brain connects fear now with spirituality. Or could it be that I am not yet ready for going deeper? Or is it just my ego trying to get me away from discovering the Truth so it can survive? I am 19 btw.

Anybody that takes too much weed can get a bad trip. A weed high isn't enlightenment.

[Nahm]

Have you ever actually experienced “going insane” or “losing complete control”?   Can you honestly say you know what sane is, and you are that? Can you honestly say you know what control is, and you have it? 

No. 

So while thought is telling you that you’re afraid of those things -  you’d have to admit, that those are not what you’re afraid of, because you don’t know them, at all. They’re just thoughts. You know them, as thoughts. Nothing more. 

You have a memory of not liking how you felt a year ago when you smoked too much weed. Notice you are superimposing what you don’t know - “enlightenment”, onto a memory. That is not enlightenment, it is a memory, a thought, you are aware of, now. You don’t know that experience, now - you know a thought, now. 

You’ve been aware of all kinds of different thoughts. But the awareness has never changed, has it? Thoughts, feelings, sensations change, perspectives change, states change - but - the only possible way that you even know all of that changing stuff,  - is because you - awareness - are perfectly consistently constant and unchanging. 

Only something which never changes, could be in a position to know changing things. 

 

You’re asking about fear, ego, spirituality, going deeper, me, and Truth. 

Notice, those can all be placed into a category entitled - “Things I don’t Actually Know Anything About”. 

This is because they are thoughts, which you are hanging onto, by believing they are more than, thoughts.

 

But, of course, it can’t be as simple as being forthright and honest, now,  that the truth is you simply don’t know the first thing about those things - other than that you know them, as thoughts, now. So instead, you believe another thought in an attempt to reconcile those other thoughts. You introduce the thinking that you should know - so there could be, or might be, something wrong with you...  then you hold a perspective against yourself...an experience often described as low self esteem. 

 

But notice - nothing actually happened. 

It was only thought. 

You were the awareness of this, the entire time. Nothing more. 

Nothing more is needed. 

[Saumaya]

@Shin Dont really get to ramble about these things in day to day life lol

[pluto]

"Not being ready" is an illusory concept, a belief system.

Reality does not work that way.