Awareness Vs Enlightenment

[How to be wise]

after watching 'Understanding awareness' I was convinced that awareness is quite important, but what makes it more appealing than enlightenment is that awareness can help you become successful in life, but enlightenment is just some hidden truth which would be good to read about on your holidays. so do you think you should quit self inquiry and dedicate your one hour to mindfulness meditation so that you could sky rocket your awareness, and then maybe after you retire you should seek the truth if your interested. Btw I also was watching the benefits of enlightenment but turns out awareness is not one of them, shame.

[Frogfucius]

If a genie were to offer you a choice between $1 billion right now, with the one caveat that you will never become enlightened, vs. an offer of instant spiritual truth and enlightenment, you would take the money in a heartbeat, wouldn't you? Why is that? Because you're still connected to worldly desires, and you still believe they will bring you more happiness and fulfillment than enlightenment ever could.

As long as your ego holds on to the notion that outwardly success is more fulfilling than enlightenment, you will always have inner suffering. At least, that's my understanding of enlightenment vs. no enlightenment. You could get hit by a bus tomorrow, and all that money didn't matter. But if you had enlightenment, you were prepared for that bus, and you achieved a state of bliss you would have never otherwise obtained.

Edited August 18, 2016 by Frogfucius

[Nexeternity]

@How to be wise Enlightment is ultimate awareness!  You become so aware that you understand the nature of who you are, of reality, well its one and the same thing heh, but you know what Im saying.

[-nbolt-]

hah many of us would take the enlightenment out of that deal definitely  

[Eelco1981]

@-nbolt- As I understand, Enlightenment is realizing that you ARE awareness... (AKA being, consciousness, nothingness, presence, God)

[How to be wise]

2 hours ago, Frogfucius said:

If a genie were to offer you a choice between $1 billion right now, with the one caveat that you will never become enlightened, vs. an offer of instant spiritual truth and enlightenment, you would take the money in a heartbeat, wouldn't you? Why is that? Because you're still connected to worldly desires, and you still believe they will bring you more happiness and fulfillment than enlightenment ever could.

As long as your ego holds on to the notion that outwardly success is more fulfilling than enlightenment, you will always have inner suffering. At least, that's my understanding of enlightenment vs. no enlightenment. You could get hit by a bus tomorrow, and all that money didn't matter. But if you had enlightenment, you were prepared for that bus, and you achieved a state of bliss you would have never otherwise obtained.

Looks like you overestimate enlightenment. Shinzen Young is an extremely enlightened person and watching his videos there's nothing supernatural about him he doesn't look that happy.

[Frogfucius]

@How to be wise I never said there is anything supernatural about enlightenment, nor did I imply enlightened people need to always act hyper or gleeful.

[How to be wise]

Just now, Frogfucius said:

@How to be wise I never said there is anything supernatural about enlightenment, nor did I imply enlightened people need to always act hyper or gleeful.

Ok but you get the point enlightenment is not the 'be all and end all' its a good quality to have but you should first persue your needs first and awareness can help you with that a lot. Also with awareness you'll be extremely happy and fulfilled when your eating the flavour of the food will be 'orders of magnitude' more tasteful than if you were just enlightened. You will be happy no matter what is happening because awareness increases your senses so much that you could even enjoy staring at a cupboard. In my opinion that beats 'truth with a capital T' or whatever... 

[Frogfucius]

@How to be wise Enlightenment is pure awareness though! It's your natural state of being, without all of the illusions of your mind and your ego.

[How to be wise]

2 minutes ago, Frogfucius said:

@How to be wise Enlightenment is pure awareness though! It's your natural state of being, without all of the illusions of your mind and your ego.

No it's not. I watched the 'understanding awareness' episode and he didn't mention anything about enlightenment, and I watched 'benefits of enlightenment' and he never mentioned anything about awareness 

[Frogfucius]

@How to be wise So you're going to use his lack of explicitly stating what it is as evidence against Enlightenment equaling awareness? Without your mind perversing the present moment and processing stimuli exactly as it is, that is pure awareness. You're not lost in thought, you're not lost in desires, you're not lost in emotions, and you're certainly not unconscious or unaware. You're observing and perceiving stimuli exactly as it is without judgments or illusion - that would be pure awareness.

Edited August 18, 2016 by Frogfucius

[Neo]

Isn't it just applying math to something you can't add anything to or take anything away, which is infinity, which makes the whole discussion pointless? Weird, actually this happens a lot in life even in normal business dealings and personal relationships, it always comes down to an equilibrium or infinity.

Edited August 18, 2016 by Neo

[Sir Raz]

@Neo  It's like adding zero to zero or substracting zero from zero countless times. It is that pointless ha ha! ???

[Matthew Lamot]

1 hour ago, How to be wise said:

Looks like you overestimate enlightenment. Shinzen Young is an extremely enlightened person and watching his videos there's nothing supernatural about him he doesn't look that happy.

Or maybe you overestimate Shinzen Young?

Happiness is what enlightenment is about.  Awareness, consciousness, nothingness and all that bullshit are just technical jargon for the dry theory side of it.  Enlightenment is about realizing that you don't want to escape this life anymore.  It's an understanding of who you are and that the world is dependent on you, not the other way around.  Dependency is for those that don't understand themselves and still believe that there is something worth chasing in life in order to complete ones self.

It's all about the end of the search.

 

[Leo Gura]

1 hour ago, Eelco1981 said:

As I understand, Enlightenment is realizing that you ARE awareness... (AKA being, consciousness, nothingness, presence, God)

This!

[Leo Gura]

@How to be wise The desire to use awareness to manipulate reality to become more successful just goes to show how unaware you are.

[How to be wise]

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

@How to be wise The desire to use awareness to manipulate reality to become more successful just goes to show how unaware you are.

Well I'm not going to lie to myself but deep down I still feel that materialism leads to happiness although I do believe when you say that there's no point of materialism for happiness. I guess I have to realise it myself and not blindly follow anyone. 

[Extreme Z7]

@How to be wise Materialism will never lead you to true happiness. However, I say keep going down your path of delusion anyway. An existential slap-in-the-face is exactly what you need right now. It usually gives people a complete 180 degree turn back to the right path or you could get so confused that you decide to destroy yourself.

[30secs]

@How to be wise

hey my friend you didn't get the point of Enlightenment, try to watch again the videos specially "The Enlightened Self"(HINT-    True Self: Pure transparent empty awareness/consciousness/presence/spirit).

 

cheer!

[MarcusJ]

Materialism does not lead to bliss... but it's a pleasant misery.

 

I think "Not thinking" about any of this is the best approach...  Use Tolle's the power of now in this case.  Drive your mind into the moment so hard that thoughts stop.  Having this break can lead to an opening...maybe.

Edited August 19, 2016 by MarcusJ
More cohesive answer.