For those of you who are not enlightened

[Carl-Richard]

For those of you who are not enlightened but has had awakening experiences and are aspiring to abide in non-dual awareness, have you ever tried letting go of everything? I mean literally everything — your entire life as a human: your future aspirations, your job, your friends, your family, your kids, your sanity, your desire to belong, to be safe, to survive. Maybe that is what is keeping you back. I know it is for me. If you've already tasted what it's about, what else could be holding you back?

[Giulio Bevilacqua]

Fear, obviously 

[Byun Sean]

its a lot deeper than that. 

You are trying to conquer and transcend the subconscious instincts of self preservation designed to keep you alive.

99.9 percent of these are sub/ unconscious. 

 

This is why it takes people years and years to awaken. Enlightenment is no ordinary condition in the current state of

humanity.

[Sempiternity]

Letting go of all those things, or not, the dream remains the same. The dream (reality) has to cease for one to be Awakened. 

Edited January 24, 2023 by Sempiternity

[Dumuzzi]

That's a slight misunderstanding of how this works. I can only speak to Kundalini Awakening, but in the end it also leads to non-dual awareness. It's not you that lets go of everything, it's everything else that lets go of you. You become unmoored from your ties that bind, the ropes (Gunas) that moor you to the material world, including sattvic ones, like familial or romantic love, which is then replaced by a different, more universal type of love that is non-dual in nature. The difference is in the lack of attachment and the loss of any desire to control, possess, own others.

[gettoefl]

don't let go but don't hold tightly

all is for my good but not for me to own

i can enjoy all this just not expect the enjoyment to remain

[Sincerity]

I agree 

The greater the surrender, the better. But it's hard to take.

[Vibes]

@Carl-Richard Do you mean Ramana Maharshi's self-inquiry?

That to me is surrender. No objects, letting go of everything, being, conscious of nothing, conscious of "I am".

11 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

have you ever tried letting go of everything? I mean literally everything

I guess this has to be a practice, and maybe one day you can surrender totally.

[Carl-Richard]

5 minutes ago, Vibes said:

@Carl-Richard Do you mean Ramana Maharshi's self-inquiry?

That to me is surrender. No objects, letting go of everything, being, conscious of nothing, conscious of "I am".

I guess this has to be a practice, and maybe one day you can surrender totally.

It can be a practice, but it's really just about stopping resisting. That action is more in your control that you might think.

[LastThursday]

I think like waves lapping a beach, surrender and attachment come and go as you "awaken". You have to surrender when beginning the journey, but then appreciate attachment for what it is. You do both on one level, but identify with neither on another. You even give up on the "process of awakening" eventually, because that's not it. But you have to have a process to even begin.

Edited January 24, 2023 by LastThursday

[Breakingthewall]

think it is enough to remove any illusion of meaning. It is what I try every day meditating, with more or less success. it is the meaning that leads you to the unfolding of the ego. as soon as you see that the meaning is illusory, you get nailed in the present, and the real understanding is possible 

 

[Salvijus]

We can surrender things that are in our awareness. But 99% of our resistence is not in our awareness. It lies deep inside the psyche. With practice our awareness deepens and that enables us to penetrate our psyche and let go of more and more layers of resistence. It's a gradual process.

Byun Sean told u this already. You're missing good answers.  @Carl-Richard

 

Edited January 24, 2023 by Salvijus

[Illusory Self]

14 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

For those of you who are not enlightened but has had awakening experiences and are aspiring to abide in non-dual awareness, have you ever tried letting go of everything? I mean literally everything — your entire life as a human: your future aspirations, your job, your friends, your family, your kids, your sanity, your desire to belong, to be safe, to survive. Maybe that is what is keeping you back. I know it is for me. If you've already tasted what it's about, what else could be holding you back?

There is actually no one to get enlightened. You already are enlightened. There are beliefs upon having a seperate self. 

A belief upon getting enlightened is probably what holds most people back. 

[SOUL]

Once one's awareness abides in liberation, a cessation of self suffering, the notion of 'enlightenment' as it's portrayed is recognized as an infinite gaslight of spiritual 'teachers'.

[Nilsi]

14 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

For those of you who are not enlightened but has had awakening experiences and are aspiring to abide in non-dual awareness, have you ever tried letting go of everything? I mean literally everything — your entire life as a human: your future aspirations, your job, your friends, your family, your kids, your sanity, your desire to belong, to be safe, to survive. Maybe that is what is keeping you back. I know it is for me. If you've already tasted what it's about, what else could be holding you back?

Do you believe there is such a thing as enlightenment?

There was this day last summer. I was out the night before and I had had a few too many beers, which made for some memories I'd rather not have remembered the next morning. I woke up with a terrible hangover - but my mind was unusually quiet and I felt deeply at peace, almost blissful.

I eventually made myself breakfast and after that decided to finish this eery spirituality book I had began reading a few days ago - "Samadhi: The Forgotten Eden." (This book is very much written in a style akin to Leo's, with a lot of emphasis on becoming directly aware of the Infinite). As I read my way through the remaining chapters, my mind became more and more relaxed and by the time I closed the cover, my awareness had become so subtle and all encompassing that I literally thought I was still in bed dreaming and had become lucid - it felt exactly like being on psychedelics.

Now unlike previous times that I had such experiences, I was completely at peace. I didn't think about what was going on; I didn't care what was to become of me - and I felt viscerally free.

Without any thought to it, I went over to the kitchen to cook myself a coffee, but for some reason the water cooker didn't work and neither did any of the electronics. I called for my roommate and she confirmed that the power went out a few minutes ago. A shiver went down my spine and I couldn't shake the uncanny feeling of somehow having left consensus reality.

I was now committed to the idea of drinking a coffee though, so I thought what the heck, it's a beautiful sunny day, why not go to a café and sit down for a cup of coffee. No final destination in mind, I walked down the street and stopped at some old Italian place. I walked over there and asked for a coffee. The old man looked at me with a kind haze and a subtle smile and told me there was a power outage in the whole city. - At this point I was convinced I had finally tipped myself over the edge and managed to break material reality.

I kept walking through the streets. People were standing outside their shops, confused, discussing what had happened. The afternoon sun was burning and it seemed like the whole city was outside. I felt like a little child, no thoughts, no regrets, no worries - everything was perfect.

This was one of the most meaningful and precious experiences of my life - but of course as the day went on, the power returned, the magic slowly faded away and I found myself back in my room thinking how silly I was for believing something had actually changed. 

Enlightenment is always there, but the moment you reach for it, it slips through your fingers. You can be it, sure, but nothing lasts forever.

[Nilsi]

Enlightenment as final destination is no different then the Christian heaven or the Marxist utopia or the AI singularity - a point in the future against which we define the present. By creating this perfect tomorrow we simultaneously create this imperfect now. 

I know you know all this, but talking about enlightenment makes one say funny things.

[Carl-Richard]

27 minutes ago, Nilsi said:

Do you believe there is such a thing as enlightenment?

Enlightenment is always there, but the moment you reach for it, it slips through your fingers. You can be it, sure, but nothing lasts forever.

I know there is difference between resisting and letting go.

[Nilsi]

2 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

I know there is difference between resisting and letting go.

What happens when you fully let go? You will find yourself back where you were and then you repeat at infinitum.

It's like the heros journey: The hero is living a sheltered life in the village; he gets the call to action and starts his journey; through acquiring knowledge and overcoming his flaws he is able to overcome all obstacles, kill the dragon and get the girl; and then he returns home - and so on for eternity. 

Enlightenment is the equivalent of getting the girl, but once you're back in the village, life's mundane and boring again and you look for a new adventure.

[Nilsi]

You know homeostasis. However far you stretch your mind beyond it's equilibrium; however much you let go... You'll find yourself exactly where you always found yourself - here, now, as per usual.

[Jowblob]

No such thing as enlightenment, everything is an illusion build on top of an illusion. Enlightenment is just an ego thing, you can only have certain awakenings in the reality you live in that's all. Your whole body is a limit, the thoughts you are getting are consciousness limited and so on. 

Enlightenment is an obvious ego thing, even the ascended masters that would spawn wouldn't be fully enlightened