Why isn't everybody pursuing enlightenment?

[actualizing25]

Why is it that just a few people are interested in pursuing awakening/enlightenment? I mean it's the answer to all their suffering. It will bring them the happiness, love, peace they are desperately searching for. Why are they distracting themselves with materialistic pursuits such as money, success, fame etc. Isn't it obvious that enlightenment is the only answer to reach lasting happiness? Is it that they don't know about enlightenment? or are they not devevolped enough to grasp the importance of waking up?

 

[kinesin]

I think to most normal people, the prospect of becoming enlightened isn't much different from the prospect of becoming an exorcist.  They see it as a strange thing in the world which monks do, where you sit around smiling and maybe floating up into the air.  The idea that they themselves could do it seems absurd.

That said, this doesn't necessarily mean they're completely out of touch with the actual meaning underlying the term.  Most people are aware for example that when a person directly faces the prospect of their own death, that it often results in a radical shift of perception toward 'living in the moment', being more compassionate and not getting so caught up in worldly affairs.

[Shin]

20 minutes ago, actualizing25 said:

Why is it that just a few people are interested in pursuing awakening/enlightenment? I mean it's the answer to all their suffering. It will bring them the happiness, love, peace they are desperately searching for. Why are they distracting themselves with materialistic pursuits such as money, success, fame etc. Isn't it obvious that enlightenment is the only answer to reach lasting happiness? Is it that they don't know about enlightenment? or are they not devevolped enough to grasp the importance of waking up?

 

Why a chimpanzee isn't using toilet paper instead of leafs ?

Isn't it obvious that all his ass burns could be solved by toilet paper ?

[Megan Alecia]

Everybody's looking for happiness.

That's always been how things are for the human story.

Never to be changed. We live for self-preservation.

Even meditation is about... good benefits. Art is pleasurable, knowledge brings clarity.

The infinite pursuit of happiness.

[Gabith]

What would everybody would pursuing enlightenment ?

There A LOT of people who don't have a clue about spiritual teaching or meditation and they live happy 90% of time.

And there's people who were pursuing enlightenment and became insane, depressed or suicidal. So  it seems obvious why

[The0Self]

3 hours ago, actualizing25 said:

Why is it that just a few people are interested in pursuing awakening/enlightenment? I mean it's the answer to all their suffering. It will bring them the happiness, love, peace they are desperately searching for. Why are they distracting themselves with materialistic pursuits such as money, success, fame etc. Isn't it obvious that enlightenment is the only answer to reach lasting happiness? Is it that they don't know about enlightenment? or are they not devevolped enough to grasp the importance of waking up?

 

This is an idea of enlightenment. How likely do you think it is that your idea of it is what it’s actually like?

[RMQualtrough]

Because I like things exactly as they are. This is an intellectual pursuit for me. For a period of time I was going into this stuff a lot, I used DMT very often as well as acid.

There was one period where I felt immense derealization. Another where I had something like an existential crisis (on the nonduality subreddit, there is a flair specifically for this type of crisis because it is common to face during such pursuits).

Another time (several occasions actually) I recall thinking that if this is what reality truly is I don't WANT to know... It was like I would be walking along the streets and feel at one with walls and all sorts. I did not feel right. My loved ones became meaningless, my memories, it was not pleasant.

The point is when the ego is dead these things won't matter, but you could say the same about being literally dead yet nobody is just hanging themselves or w.e. even though once dead they also "won't care".

There is no question a subjective experience of "being human" exists presently. And I like mine exactly and precisely as it is. I have zero desire to change it.

[JJfromSwitzerland]

Maybe cause not all people have access to information about enlightment for example their are trapped in their religion and seek the answer there.

There are many barriers, they focus their energy on making a career or something else so there is no time for seeking this kind of stuff.

[Flowerfaeiry]

To go really deep with enlightenment one needs to give up a lot of worldly things and for most people it's just not worth it.

 

[Jodistrict]

I recently tried to explain enlightenment to someone who has a PHD in clinical psychology.  His mind was so full of useless knowledge that it was a futile effort.  There are very few people who understand the concept even in Buddhist countries.  I took a course from a Buddhist monk years ago who told us that at any one time there were only 2 or 3 enlightened people in the world and everyone else had to just keep reincarnating and working on it.   That discouraged me from even trying.   

[Agoy]

@actualizing25 society, especially in western culture, is set up such a way that by the time you're an adult, you've already got an extremely complicated web of beliefs of how to achieve what you want in life, all stemming from the ego

talk of enlightenment, or even spirituality in general, threatens a lot of these beliefs, and doesn't seem like a realistic solution to the ego's sense of reality, which oftentimes is deeply indoctrinated in its set worldview, and so something as big enlightenment just sounds ridiculous, especially when the worldview of those who explain it is so far from the worldview of most people in society

this is where spiral dynamics is so helpful, and is why a lot of people who go down this path do so after something big like a trip or heartbreak. it's easy to forget how we'd of reacted to this stuff 5 years before we became interested in it

 

this video is a really enlightening example of the disparity between an arguably enlightened worldview and a materialistic one

I actually think a lot of enlightened and spiritual teachers do a fairly poor job of bridging the gap, which is both a ginormous and ginormously complicated challenge

Edited May 18, 2021 by Regan

[mandyjw]

They are, sometimes consciously pursuing something can be a huge boon or a handicap for the time being. You're only looking at people in one snapshot in time. You were well on your way before you knew there was a way too. 

[Blackhawk]

6 hours ago, actualizing25 said:

Why is it that just a few people are interested in pursuing awakening/enlightenment? I mean it's the answer to all their suffering. It will bring them the happiness, love, peace they are desperately searching for. Why are they distracting themselves with materialistic pursuits such as money, success, fame etc. Isn't it obvious that enlightenment is the only answer to reach lasting happiness? Is it that they don't know about enlightenment? or are they not devevolped enough to grasp the importance of waking up?

Dude, maybe because enlightenment isn't true.

[Zigzag Idiot]

5 hours ago, actualizing25 said:

 

Why is it that just a few people are interested in pursuing awakening/enlightenment?

 

From the get-go, they have no being or very little and very little understanding as well and the knowledge that they do have is conventional worldly knowledge and of little use. As in - 

• B. S. degree = Bullshit
• M.S. degree = More shit
• PhD = Piled higher and deeper

In becoming overloaded and packed full of conventional knowledge they get lopsided in a more fixed way which is devoid of being, a necessary ingredient for true understanding. In having very little being, they remain earthbound with very little data in their Causal body which seeks to resolve disparities.  Conventional knowledge only seeks to reinforce the vested interests of its overly mental conceptual knowledge. These people are like unguided projectiles and as such they radiate a harshness that that repels the very substances that would start to heal them and make them whole. 

People who have being have understanding in their Causal body which seeks to resolve disparities and as such they emanate instead of radiate.  
This is a very incomplete explanation that I would love to expand on. The people who radiate and read this may become highly agitated and try to peck me to death. The people who emanate might experience their curiosity becoming aroused and may have a smile start to form. They possess more being and are more in touch with their heart. People who radiate are low on the scale of being. Lashing out in negativity they set themselves apart. People who emanate can have compassion for people who act like jerks because they have seen it in themselves at some point and have moved beyond. At least just a little. The path to actualization is arduous and it naturally destroys self Importance.
 

[Nahm]

No one is interested in awakening and suffering and nothing will bring anyone happiness, love and peace. No one is questioning it as there isn’t anyone who doesn’t know. 

 

[ivankiss]

Everyone is pursuing enlightenment. It's just that from your pov they might seem way behind. Or like they're not pursuing it at all.

Everyone is waking up, now. Most of them have no clue what's going on. Some of them kinda do. And then there's this crowd. The ones that know and are fully on board with it. Maybe even trying to rush things sometimes.

Edited May 18, 2021 by ivankiss