Is It Possible To Be Enlightened ...

[Shin]

And still have an ego ?

If yes, what's the difference with a normal guy who's already pretty detached from its ego ?

Can you be enlightened without knowing it ?

I read from differents teachers that it doesn't have to be an orgasmic/hardcore/mind blowing experience, that it can come slowly, gradually, without "you" feeling any real difference day by day.

EDIT: When the mind wants to mental masturbate

Edited March 31, 2017 by Shin

[Joel3102]

I feel you can have an "ego" that you still operate through. But an enlightened person person directly recognised that ego is not what they are existentiallly. I'm not sure though, I feel an enlightened individual may live in constant non duality whilst their body-mind retains some elements of ego. Happy to be corrected by any fully enlightened people here.

Edited March 31, 2017 by Joel3102

[Garuda]

(The jnani [one who has realised the Self/enlightened] knows he is the Self and that nothing, neither his body nor anything else,
exists but the Self.

 ajnani - someone who isn't enlightened)

Q: In the jnani the ego subsists in the pure form and therefore it appears as something real. Am I right?

A: The appearance of the ego in any form, either in the jnani or ajnani, is itself an experience. But to the ajnani who is deluded into thinking that the waking state and the world are real, the ego also appears to be real. Since he sees the jnani act like other individuals, he feels constrained to posit some notion of individuality with reference to the jnani also.

 

Question to a jnani: I see you doing things. How can you say that you never perform actions?
A: The radio sings and speaks, but if you open it you will find no one inside. Similarly, my existence is like the space;
though this body speaks like the radio, there is no one inside as a doer.

Q: I find this hard to understand. Could you please elaborate on this?
A: Various illustrations are given in books to enable us to understand how the jnani can live and act without the mind,
although living and acting require the use of the mind. The potter’s wheel goes on turning round even after the potter
has ceased to turn it because the pot is finished. In the same way, the electric fan goes on revolving for some minutes
after we switch off the current. The prarabdha [predestined karma] which created the body will make it go through
whatever activities it was meant for. But the jnani goes through all these activities without the notion that he is the
doer of them. It is hard to understand how this is possible. The illustration generally given is that the jnani performs
actions in some such way as a child that is roused from sleep to eat eats but does not remember next morning that it
ate. It has to be remembered that all these explanations are not for the jnani. He knows and has no doubts. He knows
that he is not the body and he knows that he is not doing anything even though his body may be engaged in some
activity. These explanations are for the onlookers who think of the jnani as one with a body and cannot help
identifying him with his body.

Edited March 31, 2017 by Garuda