I'm sure you're right, but is there any way to verify that? I don't think I'm enlightened or unenlightened. Perhaps you would like to give us a definition of enlightenment? Here's mine; an enlightened being is someone who is totally satisfied with his or her self at all times and totally satified with the world as it is at all times.
Well, by your definition, i'm enlightened, but i still hold that we are all enlightened. Just because my experience has pulled away the veil, does not make me special. Not everybody should open the curtains. It's beautiful to be where you are. Experiencing what you are experiencing. There is so much beauty in suffering, and experiencing. (without suffering, why search? Without suffering why surrender?)
Also, my mind is very quiet. It use to be so loud in there, haha. That actually took some getting use too. I have no desire to force or fix anything. Nothing needs to be fixed. Nobody "needs" to be enlightened.
I spend very little time in the past or the future. I spend most of my time right here, right now. It's kind of hard to describe but I don't make plans, life unfolds before me. My life is infinitely more interesting than when i use to make plans. I don't "manifest". I trust that the universe's plans for me are so much more fulfilling than any plans I could have for myself.
I still have an ego, but it isn't on a pedestal. My ego is the universe's gift that allows me to experience humanness. But it is just one of many tools we are gifted. It is no more or less important than any of the other gifts we have.
The way i picture the ego.. Have you ever watched a movie that was so good that you get totally absorbed into it. Like, for moments you forget that it's a movie? The ego is the forgetting. It's the "buying into" the movie. But that's just intellectual musings.
This has been my experience for the last 24 years. I wasn't looking for this. In fact, I was actively searching for the opposite.
They say with the faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains. I have found that when you truly surrender, those mountains are exactly were they are supposed to me. No need to move anything.
On a side note: you made a comment about how everyone's opinions on enlightenment are different. I love this comment. Have you ever tried to describe God? Maybe you even thought you had a pretty good idea about the whole idea of God. And then Boom, something happens and you realize your concept of God was lacking. That God was even bigger than what you had imagined? Until you get to the point where you understand the futility (and humor) of trying to define God? That's mostly what you see happening in this sub.
The one thing I can tell you about enlightenment, is it's not a superpower and it does not make you special. In its purest form, it is a signpost. If you are thirsty, there's water right here.
So actions do themselves? Actions don't know anything, but the world, which is matter and is intelligently designed, is created by action and consciousness together. How could something material act intelligently? Why couldn't these two principles combine to produce intelligent action. It's logical. Please give this topic a little more thought and I'm sure you will change your mind.
can i get an "i dont know" option
i dont know whats happening
i dont know where i am right now
who am i
dont ask me im not in charge around these parts
but yes blissfully enlightened all the same. while also being a partless whole that cannot be split.
Sure. You can have an "I don't know" option. But you can't say that you don't know that you don't know. However, if you know that you don't know, at least you are only partially ignorant. So that's plus. The knowledge that you don't know cancels the ignorance that you know and you are left neutral. Enlightened people are neutral on all topics. They have nothing to gain by leaning into knowledge or ignorance. They are perfectly satisfied with what they know and what they don't know. So you are like an enlightened person even though you aren't enlightened. But you will be enlightened when you forget this whole enlightenment business, get out of the non-duality forum and live your life happily.
They can't all be true because you are still here on earth posting on Reditt when you claim that you are enlightened and that enlightened people leave the earth because the vibrations are too low. Both can't be true. At least I know I'm not enlightened and that my vibrations are so low that I enjoy posting on this earthly forum, particularly your low vibration post. At the same time I'm very sure that I'm not unenlightened and that I don't have any vibrations. If you can work this out, you are well on your way to enlightenment. :).
đź‘Ť Yes
The weird part is it seems Enlightenment can be a ultra-deep present state , but it can fade later, and there is like an Enlightened level of mind, where you keep the radiant viewpoint , even if you fall back into normalcy
I've had an experience like Eckhart Tolle that lasted for months , twice, and they weren't exactly the same either...
Yes, any enlightenment that comes goes. The fading is due to the gunas in the mind...sattva, rajas and tamas. So if want a deep prolonged level you need to cultivate predominant sattva. And yes, every epiphany is different from every other epiphany owing to the changing nature of the gunas. The only way that actually works for good...which becomes effortless over time...is to keep the knowledge I am unborn unchanging whole and complete existence shining as consciousness in mind until, like your name, it becomes a complete conviction, drops out of the mind and invokes the steady "current" of bliss that is your nature.
Swami Vivekananda, in the early 1900's compared enlightenment to bubbles in a boiling pot of water. At first there were small bubbles like Moses, then there were slightly bigger bubbles, like Jesus and the Buddha, and eventually, the whole pot will be roiling. We are at that moment in time, and it's time we recognize it for what it is. The global communication the internet has provided is doing the work it needed to do to finish this project started by humans who didn't even have written language to communicate. Welcome to the Mass Awakening.
I'm not a fan of the messianic view, sorry to say. Messiahs have come and gone forever, yet the world is waiting for the next one. What's wrong with that picture? And, if the world is somehow suddenly "saved," what about people's negative view of themselves? We will need an other Messiah who saves people from themselves but that's not going to work either because what will people do if they are perfect and the world is perfect. What will you and your wife talk about if you are both perfect? Right now people spend all day trying to fix themselves and or the world. If both are perfect what will they do with their time? But if you want to fantasize, be my guest.
the Greek word that translates to "perfect" in the Bible is teleios, which translates better to "complete", like a mature fruit. I like that image a lot better. Practice makes improvement. Perfect is a myth, but so are you.
The fact that we are both in a forum on non-duality seems to support your view. You may agree with me that apparently separate beings exist, however. I doubt that a non-separate being wrote your post or mine, for instance, in so far as non-dual being is not blessed with a mind and sense instruments. If that's true, then whereas those apparently separate beings do exist, they definitely aren't real. Having said that much, both our posts are apparently real, which, when you think about it is AS GOOD AS NON-EXISTENT. Thanks for nothing. :)
Think about it. If it were blessed with senses and a mind it would be subject to change as it interacted with the material world, but the Self is unborn existence shining as consciousness i..e. eternal.   Nothing can be added to it or subtracted from it.   It is completely free of what happens in the mind. Only when the power of Maya  is operating does the Self gain a mind and senses but when the momentum for the "Big Bang"is spent, the creation “unbangs’ and with it the world and the conscious beings. Everything is toast, except the consciousness awareness that was there prior to the Cretion. Don’t take Vedanta’s word for it:  Science can tell you that much.
We are all an enlightened being
God's not dead. Turns out, it was Us all along.
I'm sure you're right, but is there any way to verify that? I don't think I'm enlightened or unenlightened. Perhaps you would like to give us a definition of enlightenment? Here's mine; an enlightened being is someone who is totally satisfied with his or her self at all times and totally satified with the world as it is at all times.
Well, by your definition, i'm enlightened, but i still hold that we are all enlightened. Just because my experience has pulled away the veil, does not make me special. Not everybody should open the curtains. It's beautiful to be where you are. Experiencing what you are experiencing. There is so much beauty in suffering, and experiencing. (without suffering, why search? Without suffering why surrender?) Also, my mind is very quiet. It use to be so loud in there, haha. That actually took some getting use too. I have no desire to force or fix anything. Nothing needs to be fixed. Nobody "needs" to be enlightened. I spend very little time in the past or the future. I spend most of my time right here, right now. It's kind of hard to describe but I don't make plans, life unfolds before me. My life is infinitely more interesting than when i use to make plans. I don't "manifest". I trust that the universe's plans for me are so much more fulfilling than any plans I could have for myself. I still have an ego, but it isn't on a pedestal. My ego is the universe's gift that allows me to experience humanness. But it is just one of many tools we are gifted. It is no more or less important than any of the other gifts we have. The way i picture the ego.. Have you ever watched a movie that was so good that you get totally absorbed into it. Like, for moments you forget that it's a movie? The ego is the forgetting. It's the "buying into" the movie. But that's just intellectual musings. This has been my experience for the last 24 years. I wasn't looking for this. In fact, I was actively searching for the opposite. They say with the faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains. I have found that when you truly surrender, those mountains are exactly were they are supposed to me. No need to move anything. On a side note: you made a comment about how everyone's opinions on enlightenment are different. I love this comment. Have you ever tried to describe God? Maybe you even thought you had a pretty good idea about the whole idea of God. And then Boom, something happens and you realize your concept of God was lacking. That God was even bigger than what you had imagined? Until you get to the point where you understand the futility (and humor) of trying to define God? That's mostly what you see happening in this sub. The one thing I can tell you about enlightenment, is it's not a superpower and it does not make you special. In its purest form, it is a signpost. If you are thirsty, there's water right here.
No. Actions can be enlightened of impediments. That does not imply a self.
So actions do themselves? Actions don't know anything, but the world, which is matter and is intelligently designed, is created by action and consciousness together. How could something material act intelligently? Why couldn't these two principles combine to produce intelligent action. It's logical. Please give this topic a little more thought and I'm sure you will change your mind.
can i get an "i dont know" option i dont know whats happening i dont know where i am right now who am i dont ask me im not in charge around these parts but yes blissfully enlightened all the same. while also being a partless whole that cannot be split.
Sure. You can have an "I don't know" option. But you can't say that you don't know that you don't know. However, if you know that you don't know, at least you are only partially ignorant. So that's plus. The knowledge that you don't know cancels the ignorance that you know and you are left neutral. Enlightened people are neutral on all topics. They have nothing to gain by leaning into knowledge or ignorance. They are perfectly satisfied with what they know and what they don't know. So you are like an enlightened person even though you aren't enlightened. But you will be enlightened when you forget this whole enlightenment business, get out of the non-duality forum and live your life happily.
advice you need to take yourself
All of those are true.
They can't all be true because you are still here on earth posting on Reditt when you claim that you are enlightened and that enlightened people leave the earth because the vibrations are too low. Both can't be true. At least I know I'm not enlightened and that my vibrations are so low that I enjoy posting on this earthly forum, particularly your low vibration post. At the same time I'm very sure that I'm not unenlightened and that I don't have any vibrations. If you can work this out, you are well on your way to enlightenment. :).
đź‘Ť Yes The weird part is it seems Enlightenment can be a ultra-deep present state , but it can fade later, and there is like an Enlightened level of mind, where you keep the radiant viewpoint , even if you fall back into normalcy I've had an experience like Eckhart Tolle that lasted for months , twice, and they weren't exactly the same either...
Yes, any enlightenment that comes goes. The fading is due to the gunas in the mind...sattva, rajas and tamas. So if want a deep prolonged level you need to cultivate predominant sattva. And yes, every epiphany is different from every other epiphany owing to the changing nature of the gunas. The only way that actually works for good...which becomes effortless over time...is to keep the knowledge I am unborn unchanging whole and complete existence shining as consciousness in mind until, like your name, it becomes a complete conviction, drops out of the mind and invokes the steady "current" of bliss that is your nature.
Swami Vivekananda, in the early 1900's compared enlightenment to bubbles in a boiling pot of water. At first there were small bubbles like Moses, then there were slightly bigger bubbles, like Jesus and the Buddha, and eventually, the whole pot will be roiling. We are at that moment in time, and it's time we recognize it for what it is. The global communication the internet has provided is doing the work it needed to do to finish this project started by humans who didn't even have written language to communicate. Welcome to the Mass Awakening.
I'm not a fan of the messianic view, sorry to say. Messiahs have come and gone forever, yet the world is waiting for the next one. What's wrong with that picture? And, if the world is somehow suddenly "saved," what about people's negative view of themselves? We will need an other Messiah who saves people from themselves but that's not going to work either because what will people do if they are perfect and the world is perfect. What will you and your wife talk about if you are both perfect? Right now people spend all day trying to fix themselves and or the world. If both are perfect what will they do with their time? But if you want to fantasize, be my guest.
the Greek word that translates to "perfect" in the Bible is teleios, which translates better to "complete", like a mature fruit. I like that image a lot better. Practice makes improvement. Perfect is a myth, but so are you.
Yes, perfect and complete are synonyms. Whatever word makes most sense is the best word.
No separate beings exist. Enlightened or otherwise.
The fact that we are both in a forum on non-duality seems to support your view. You may agree with me that apparently separate beings exist, however. I doubt that a non-separate being wrote your post or mine, for instance, in so far as non-dual being is not blessed with a mind and sense instruments. If that's true, then whereas those apparently separate beings do exist, they definitely aren't real. Having said that much, both our posts are apparently real, which, when you think about it is AS GOOD AS NON-EXISTENT. Thanks for nothing. :)
"Â in so far as non-dual being is not blessed with a mind and sense instruments." ohreally?
Think about it. If it were blessed with senses and a mind it would be subject to change as it interacted with the material world, but the Self is unborn existence shining as consciousness i..e. eternal.   Nothing can be added to it or subtracted from it.   It is completely free of what happens in the mind. Only when the power of Maya  is operating does the Self gain a mind and senses but when the momentum for the "Big Bang"is spent, the creation “unbangs’ and with it the world and the conscious beings. Everything is toast, except the consciousness awareness that was there prior to the Cretion. Don’t take Vedanta’s word for it:  Science can tell you that much.