Depersonalization/derealization V Enlightenment

[Elzhi]

I've recently realized that the reason that I've felt as though I already have some understanding of what enlightenment is like because I underwent depersonalization/derealization back in high school when I tried weed and began smoking regularly. According to Shinzen Young, DP/DR is like the evil twin of enlightenment. Based on the other perspectives I've seen on DP/DR, the experience is incredibly dark. It's some weird sort of "half-realized" state where the ego doesn't entirely surrender itself and the person begins to see the flimsiness of reality and the movie-like qualities of life. My own experience of it nearly destroyed my life, although I didn't know what was happening to me at the time. 

This makes me wonder whether guys like Jed Mckenna or Steven Norquist whose interpretation on enlightenment is much darker than guys like Echart Tolle are "wrong" in their interpretation of nonduality or if their's different forms of truth-realization or if all these people just have a mental illness. It's all quite confusing.

[abrakamowse]

I was in the hospital, I had a nervous breakdown and it took me a lot of time to recover. But I learned there seeing other people with problems like me, that the cause of the problems were their identification with their thought process.

From what I learnt from that experience is that a lot of mental illnesses are caused because of our denial of reality, our non acceptation of reality.
I learnt from talking with patients and with other people with problems like mine, there were people who was suicidal, others with delirium of persecution, I was depressed... and I understood that if I continue thinking in that way I was going down. So I began to study self actualization and there I learnt about meditation, etc. And that freed me from that thoughts.

Everyone must understand that thoughts are not ours, we think that thoughts come from us and they are us... so if we think something crazy we think we are "sad" or "a failure" or we are useless... we are not that. The thoughts are useless...

 

But of course, having all the society telling you otherwise is hard to overcome sometimes.

[abrakamowse]

@Wormon Blatburm  Check the video that Rali has uploaded. He talks with a guy from India (I think) and he talks about that.

They say that there's a range of awakened people, some want seclusion from the world, others want to get involved in the world and share their knowledge. There's a great range of enlightened people, with different approach to enlightenment, maybe their message is directed to some kind of people that can resonate with it. Who knows?

 

This is the video

 

 

Edited January 6, 2017 by abrakamowse

[Elzhi]

@abrakamowse @Wormon Blatburm

Actually I've had time to think on this whole thing and I've realized that Norquist or McKenna's tone on enlightenment like Leo has said in the past is a stylistic choice/interpretation rather than a mental disorder. For example, when they talk about Universe, Consciousness etc. and they use that particular terminology, what they're doing, I suspect, is avoiding the use of the word 'God' even though that's exactly what they're talking about. Like Leo said, a lot of these guys hold back certain details that are counterproductive to the teaching of non-duality. They're probably talking about the same things as other teachers but have simply chosen their own method based on what they feel  is most effective.

[abrakamowse]

Any word we use is wrong. I was reading a book from Marcus Aurelius of meditations and he says something very true:

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."

 

We cannot say what truth is, so everyone chooses the best way, like you said @Elzhi . I also noticed that some people make more emphasis on the liberation side, but what Mc Kenna and Norquist say it's very true. 

The best thing is to find balance, and get prepared mentally and phisically to get a shock of reality hehehe... but I think we can do that.

I am reading the Buddha Gospels, where you can see a lot of reasoning from Buddha about enlightenment, is very liberating. And he is obviously the most important voice in this particular theme hehehe... 

Jesus too, the only problem is the bad interpretation given to his teachings by the mainstream christian religion. But there's so many similar teachings on both "avatars" that is scary.

 

 

Edited January 7, 2017 by abrakamowse