Besides Eckhart Tolle, who else had a spontaneous awakening?

[Leo Gura]

16 minutes ago, Mafortu said:

I firmly believe they are the only way to achieve truth. I simply find sober stories more fascinating to read about.

Good luck with your closedmindedness.

All your firm beliefs are bullshit.

[Forestluv]

39 minutes ago, Mafortu said:

my original intention was to accumulate self-realizations done without the influence of drug,

I dont undermine the efforts of meditation or inquiry and I firmly believe they are the only way to achieve truth.

Seems like you've had a major re-orientation. You might resonate with Ram Dass. 

[Mafortu]

@Leo Gura I am close-minded for preaching your own words? I am not dissing psychedelics as I have done my fair share of them, including 5-Meo.

Sorry, but you have misinterpreted my whole thread here. Dont know why you are being so assuming and combative. 

Edited January 30, 2020 by Mafortu

[Chumbimba]

What about Byron Katie ? Didn’t she have a sudden awakening 

[Ananta]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Suicidal depression was his work

Then, I did this type of work on/off for years. Wasn't until I actually tried it (suicide) and failed that it completely stopped.

Real spiritual began after that...

[Leo Gura]

14 minutes ago, Mafortu said:

@Leo Gura I am close-minded for preaching your own words? I am not dissing psychedelics as I have done my fair share of them, including 5-Meo.

Sorry, but you have misinterpreted my whole thread here. Dont know why you are being so assuming and combative. 

You displayed a closedminded attitude about how spiritual paths work. And I pointed that out to you.

There are far more valid paths to Truth than your beliefs belief. That's all.

11 minutes ago, Chumbimba said:

What about Byron Katie ? Didn’t she have a sudden awakening 

No, she too went through a deep and long suicidal depression.

[kieranperez]

5 minutes ago, Anna1 said:

Then, I did this this type of work on/off for years. Wasn't until I actually tried it (suicide) and failed that it completely stopped.

Real spiritual began after that...

“Suffering is the way.”

[Leo Gura]

2 minutes ago, kieranperez said:

“Suffering is the way.”

Doesn't have to be, but often is.

A fool understands nothing but suffering.

The wise awaken by seeking out Truth directly, for its own sake.

[Chumbimba]

@Leo Gura didn’t Ralston awaken at 21 years old ? He’s been enlightened for 50 years 

[Ananta]

14 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

A fool understands nothing but suffering.

I didn't know about non-duality or anything at the time. It was 2009, so Eckhart Tolle was my first exposure to spirituality after my suicide attempt.  No looking back since then and no suicidal tendencies. It was a cross roads for me. 

Until it was realized there is no "me"

 

 

[pluto]

Don't forget everything is here and now, you are everyone, everywhen and everywhere. Its never spontaneous, your consciousness was aligned to that moment for a reason, a child could have this phenomenon as he tapped into an other version of his 80 year old monk self meditating on a mountain top thus are one and the same. The shift occurs for a greater purpose, trust me, you cannot truly embody light without mastering darkness first. You are not limited to only this body/lifeline.

 

 

 

Edited January 30, 2020 by pluto

[kieranperez]

49 minutes ago, Chumbimba said:

@Leo Gura didn’t Ralston awaken at 21 years old ? He’s been enlightened for 50 years 

Ralston had been contemplating since he was a kid in other areas. Ralston is, as he put it, obsessive and has a relentless work ethic. Things didn’t grow on trees for him. He put in the work. He wanted to know. He also, as I’ve heard, suffered a lot. 
 

A lot of great enlightened masters I’ve sought out met and I am very fortunate to say have become teachers of mine have had hellish childhoods, ADHD, OCD, drug addiction, suicide attempts, etc. It’s very simple... do you want to know the truth? Are you committed to honesty? Are you committed to follow your heart’s yearning to know, regardless of what that might entail? Are you committed to admit you don’t know shit and that all this regurgitation of insights of giants who’ve come before you is just arrogant bullshit lies and that really you don’t know? Are you committed to taking on the source responsibility of knowing the truth beyond just the ideal of doing so? If yes then you can. Trying to discuss this stuff in technical detail on these matters will never end. It can serve good utility to have a conceptual framework but eventually it really just becomes a distraction and a waste of time and all of it really is wrong at the end of the day. We can make elaborate explanations using things like karma, trauma, “giftedness”, yogic models, Buddhist maps, spiritual texts, stages of ego development, etc. but that discussion hasn’t ended for thousands of years (which is under the assumption of a past and history) and it’s certainly not going to end now. 
 

If you want to wake up, go do it. Do whatever you have to do to do that. Stop trying to play compare and contrast of people that in the end don’t exist anyways. 

[Mattie]

Eckhart tolle was suicidal at the age of 12 years old and he did have his awakening out of the blue in the middle of his depression he said this on the super souls podcast, its only after that he worked in this field

Edited January 30, 2020 by Mattie

[Leo Gura]

2 hours ago, Chumbimba said:

@Leo Gura didn’t Ralston awaken at 21 years old ? He’s been enlightened for 50 years 

That was merely his first awakening. He had many more and spent another 10,000+ hrs in contemplation after the first.

Your first awakening is only gonna be the tip of the iceberg.

[Mafortu]

1 hour ago, kieranperez said:

Ralston had been contemplating since he was a kid in other areas. Ralston is, as he put it, obsessive and has a relentless work ethic. Things didn’t grow on trees for him. He put in the work. He wanted to know. He also, as I’ve heard, suffered a lot. 
 

A lot of great enlightened masters I’ve sought out met and I am very fortunate to say have become teachers of mine have had hellish childhoods, ADHD, OCD, drug addiction, suicide attempts, etc. It’s very simple... do you want to know the truth? Are you committed to honesty? Are you committed to follow your heart’s yearning to know, regardless of what that might entail? Are you committed to admit you don’t know shit and that all this regurgitation of insights of giants who’ve come before you is just arrogant bullshit lies and that really you don’t know? Are you committed to taking on the source responsibility of knowing the truth beyond just the ideal of doing so? If yes then you can. Trying to discuss this stuff in technical detail on these matters will never end. It can serve good utility to have a conceptual framework but eventually it really just becomes a distraction and a waste of time and all of it really is wrong at the end of the day. We can make elaborate explanations using things like karma, trauma, “giftedness”, yogic models, Buddhist maps, spiritual texts, stages of ego development, etc. but that discussion hasn’t ended for thousands of years (which is under the assumption of a past and history) and it’s certainly not going to end now. 
 

If you want to wake up, go do it. Do whatever you have to do to do that. Stop trying to play compare and contrast of people that in the end don’t exist anyways. 

Good words, and I admit I am lost in this path, I think way too much and I have a hard time silencing the mind.

I have had profound mystical experiences with psychedelics, some sober, I can definitely feel my consciousness is on another level now, but I am still identified with my ego. I still live inside my mind.

I truly want to "get it", the curiosity is huge but I also dont feel rushed about it. Reading all this material and watching the videos is something I currently enjoy so theres that.

[mandyjw]

8 hours ago, Anna1 said:

I was on a Tolle forum for many years. Tolle was completely depressed and didn't do spiritual practice prior to his awakening. He sat on the park bench 3 years, etc AFTER his awakening. Unless my memory completely fails me...which could be true.???

In some of his talks he mentions some pretty profound earlier insights prior to the awakening. 

Also this is his background as according to Wikipedia.

"Born Ulrich Leonard Tölle in Lünen, a small town located north of Dortmund in the Ruhr Valley, Germany in 1948,[3][11][12] Tolle describes his childhood as unhappy—particularly his early childhood in Germany. His parents fought and eventually separated, and he felt alienated from a hostile school environment.[13] He also experienced considerable fear and anxiety growing up in post-war Germany, where he would play in bombed-out buildings. He later stated that pain "was in the energy field of the country".[14] At the age of 13, he moved to Spain to live with his father.[13] His father did not insist that he attend high school, so Tolle elected to study literature, astronomy and various languages at home.[11][13]

At the age of 15, he read several books written by the German mystic Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken, also known as Bô Yin Râ. Tolle has said he responded "very deeply" to those books.[13]

At the age of 19, he moved to England and for three years taught German and Spanish at a London school for language studies.[15] Troubled by "depression, anxiety and fear", he began "searching for answers" in his life.[13]

In his early twenties, he decided to pursue his search by studying philosophy, psychology, and literature, and enrolled in the University of London.[13] After graduating,[13] he was offered a scholarship to do postgraduate research at Cambridge University, which he entered in 1977 but dropped out soon after.[5][11]"

So that's a pretty unique childhood, with lots of religious and philosophical contemplation. I'd say he was definitely a seeker.