What does enlightenment feel like?

[Michiryoku]

I've read answers to this question talking about what it feels like. But can someone give me a comparisson in the form of a picture or a feeling that comes close. I know enlightenment supasses everything but atleast give me a comparison that i can comprehend. For example watching a very cool show compared to enlightenment is like sitting in a boring room compared to watching this show? Looking for people who realy are enlightened.

[Jakuchu]

Not really enlightened but had an enlightenment experience 

It feels like this

and everything starts "feeling" like this 

Edited October 15, 2021 by Jakuchu

[Vibroverse]

Enlightenment feels like love. 

[The0Self]

In-love-ness with whatever appears to be, for no one. No-thing apparently happening, without other or meaning or purpose or limit or observer.

So it feels like this. You're sitting in it, but it appears that since you're on a journey, it may appear otherwise, as there seems to be something else -- and if that indeed appears to be happening, that's what's longed for. That's liberation. That/this is all there is.

[Shin]

9 minutes ago, BenG said:

I'm definitely not enlightened, but I think it feels like being dead inside. 

No that's life as a dense ego  

[Shambhu]

1 hour ago, Jakuchu said:

Not really enlightened but had an enlightenment experience 

It feels like this

 

I would agree with this picture.

I find the word "enlightenment" to be too ambiguous for my taste.  I prefer "realization" or "awakening," since both of those words do convey a sense of what an "enlightenment experience" are like.

While a direct experience of the truth is often accompanied by positive emotions, such as love, I don't believe this to be the hallmark.  The experience is one of "knowing" that is sudden and immediate (not requiring an intermediary or process, regardless what proceeded it), yet also is recognized as having always been the case.  In this way it is like suddenly remembering that which was forgotten. 

The other distinctive quality is one of certainty.  It seems completely obvious and beyond the possibility of doubt.  I would compare it to seeing the color red.  It could be dream or a hallucination, but regardless, you could not deny that the color red was present in your visual experience.  The knowledge "realized" is that certain.

In many ways it feels more real than what is usually accepted as real, in the same way when you awaken from a dream.  While you were dreaming, that felt real, but when you wake up, that feels even more real.

Also, "realization" should cause a shift in your thought patterns and possibly behavior.  If your realization has no impact on our life, that seems like pretty weak tea.

All of the above are only descriptions of an "enlightenment experience."  There are degrees to realization and embodiment, so this not a complete picture by no means.  A complete enlightenment that happens in one go seems to be quite rare.  For most of us mortals, it usually happens in increments.

I would actually love to hear from others who have had "enlightenment experiences" during an Enlightenment Intensive or meditation, and also by using 5-MeO-DMT.  How do the two experiences compare?

[kamwalker]

I don’t describe myself as such. But my awakenings however have resulted in a deeper awareness of what is. My interpretation of reality is much different. Things just feel new all the time. There’s no ulterior motives or agendas to get people to do things for me or to think of me a certain way. It’s peace with my being. Things I used to think mattered don’t anymore. I still have things to work through in my every day life, but they don’t carry the same meaning anymore. 

[Moksha]

It feels like the end of suffering, effortless creativity, and the realization of unconditional love. I see enlightenment as a journey, where these states of Conscious clarity last longer, until you are in a perpetual state of presence.

You realize your ultimate nature as Consciousness, that individuality is an illusion, and that attachments within the dream are distractions from the infinite abundance that you already are.

[Nahm]

Love. 

If it were a state, it’d be like a state of exuberance & disbelief of winning the mega millions, but unending, perpetual, completely impossible and yet all encompassing, and of course love rather than money or things. 

If it were an attribute, it’d be unimaginably pure absolute innocence. 

If it were a facet, it’d be facetlessness. 

If it were a catalyst, it’d mystify all things, thoughts, perspectives, ideas, creations, dreams, beings and relationships. 

If it were deconstructive, it’d demystify all things, thoughts, perspectives, ideas, creations, dreams, beings and relationships. 

If it were convincing, it’d be that you are awesome no matter what arises, even if what arises is that you aren’t awesome, it is obvious that arises in that you are awesome. 

If it were situational, it’d be that it is impossible to share, while it is impossible not to share. 

If it were perplexed it’d make sense, if it made sense it’d be perplexed.

But no one actually knows what enlightenment or awakening feels like. 

[Raze]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqsA_fVbW6I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOvdVjOtMXg

 

[yetineti]

“Ah Ha! Lovely, I hadn’t known. This is terrifying; I feel great.”

Edited October 16, 2021 by mw711

[GreenWoods]

It feels like waking up from a dream. 

It's however not a human that wakes up, but God. Being human was part of the dream.

[Leo Gura]

I have a video: What Awakening Feels Like

You cannot capture it in any picture so it's best not to try. This will only give you a false image.

Words are better than pictures here.

This is why in Islam it is forbidden to make images of Allah. But Islam is okay with using words to describe Allah.

[BipolarGrowth]

The most important and lasting enlightenment experience I had was all about understanding rather than an emotion. Of course it still felt good emotionally, but seeing through the illusion of enlightenment so fully that your ability to have ever gained or lost it is satisfying in its own right. It’s right under your nose. 
 

I think people giving only positive responses are probably in the honeymoon stage of enlightenment if we’re to compare it to relationships. It can get incredibly nihilistic and horrendous when contemplated and experienced deeper. Questions such as “when does it end?” or “is there ever truly a break?” become concerning once you’ve gone into the territory where love becomes too intense and now is a negative feature of experience. 

Edited October 16, 2021 by BipolarGrowth

[The0Self]

It’s like losing everything without trying. That’s a story though.

Self isn’t constant, but it seems so because when it’s not there it can’t know... so of course it seemingly remains constant. Well, if (apparent) self evaporates completely (and never was) there’s not exactly any one left to notice that.

It can never and will never be known that enlightenment happened. It can just suddenly be obvious (to no one, of course) that there never was anyone separate from this in the first place to become this. ? 

What’s really longed for, can never ever be known, yet it’s all there is already.

No real time or distance (or difference or any separation at all) anymore. Living naked in the complete unknown, in the storm with no life jacket, and no need for one. Also what could be described as “no relevance,” essentially. But also a timeless falling in love with what appears — but not a love that’s owned, or even really seen yet it’s quite obviously all there is and has no need for anything including being seen, yet it’s all that’s ever seen, it’s just that it’s not a thing.

Edited October 16, 2021 by The0Self

[RMQualtrough]

I've had a number of mystical experiences. I don't think I really intend to have more of them.

In the strongest, the feeling which remained I think was just sheer intensity like being on Kingda Ka or something. It kept getting more intense, like imagine being blasted into the air, then when you're way up in the air you're blasted again even higher. Just very intense.

The ego dissipated with each blast. Really, after the first blast I don't even really know what was falling away anymore but the clarity increased somehow.

At the peak there wasn't really any feelings at all if I remember correctly. My memory now is very vague. The thing I remember most is when coming down I immediately thought how pointless it is to be a lifelong monk etc, because you can only get "there" when nothing of you remains. So the monk spends his entire life practicing spirituality. But then when "there" EVERYTHING monk about the monk is gone and what is left is exactly 1:1 identical to some lifelong criminal killer who reaches the same place. If you take away everything Hitler from Hitler, and everything monk away from the monk, they are identical. And everything is identical there.

The intensity was stronger than Salvia extract. Salvia is much more physically intense and chaotic, but this was more mentally intense.

I actually don't believe awakening "experience" is possible. I mean, these things happen but they are still happening in duality. I think it's just so much closer to divinity than humans have ever known that we term it things like this. But ultimately I think these are all glimpses under the curtain, I don't think we ever fully pass through and if we do then we don't exist anymore and there is no experience had by our self at all.

[Nos7algiK]

There is a radial sense of contentment in the now. It is, what it is. What is it? Is'ness.

Though starting the process is much like a fantasy. As if your reality is now heaven. It can be almost overwhelming at times. Eventually, most people will have a dark night of the soul. Which is pretty much the polarity to the heaven fantasy. Rubber banding will happen between these two ideas with each movement being significantly less than the last. 

In the end though one realizes the delusions of the rubber banding. They don't just let the more hell'ish aspects go, but also the heavenly. Realizing all is equal, all is perfect: Always.

Thus, permanent contentment is established. Life is pretty normal for the most part. But, you are no longer breathing life. Life is breathing into you. But, this is reduced to there is no you to be breathed in. There is no breath to even be breathed. It just is.

Edited October 16, 2021 by Nos7algiK

[Jakuchu]

7 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

You cannot capture it in any picture so it's best not to try. This will only give you a false image.

Words are better than pictures here. 

disagree 

In germany we say "Ein Bild sagt mehr als tausend Worte", which translates as "A picture says more than thousand words"

And I think that is true 

With a picture you can at least be more precise with the image. Film, video, painting etc. I would also count as picture. With words that part is up to the person who is creating the image. There lies more falsity

 

 

Edited October 16, 2021 by Jakuchu

[Jakuchu]

9 hours ago, BipolarGrowth said:

I think people giving only positive responses are probably in the honeymoon stage of enlightenment if we’re to compare it to relationships. It can get incredibly nihilistic and horrendous when contemplated and experienced deeper

No, when you are still nihilistic, that is the "honeymoon" phase. Enlightenment is twisted in that regard. It is horrendous in the beginning and then once you deeper it becomes heavenly. Nothing has a meaning means nihilism has no meaning, which means you are free. If you are still nihilistic, then you are not free. Enlightenment is freedom 

Edited October 16, 2021 by Jakuchu

[Michiryoku]

19 hours ago, Jakuchu said:

Not really enlightened but had an enlightenment experience 

It feels like this

and everything starts "feeling" like this 

I have a few pictures that come to mind. Does it feel like this. Sorry couldnt find any similar pictures