The Enlightened Ego - Solving the Problems of Awakening pt.1

Originally posted by filosophia

Originally posted by LifeIsEnergy
reply to post by ChaosMagician

 

I feel what you are saying, you speak a lot of truth and offer a lot of honesty in this post. But I worry you are focusing on everything but your Self, be it; concepts, ideas, other people's projection, trying to enlighten others who aren't willing or ready... all of this seems to be distracting you and creating anger and frustration for you. Passion can be a good thing in moderation, but too much can quickly throw you off balance and delude your original intentions. You seem to have a good heart, maybe you should just let go of the whole idea of awakening, of what is intrinsically right and wrong, of these deeper concepts for awhile and find some inner peace, then you might clear your mind of these problems. Try not to think to hard about anything for awhile. If that is too difficult, and it is for many of us, try focusing in on your breathing, or go outside and just listen to the birds and the wind without judging it, just listen. There is no rush to save yourself or others my friend, rushing will only make things harder.

Peace my friend.

You are instructing someone to abandon awakening and to "try not to think to hard about anything for a while." To Chaos Magician, don't listen to this nonsense. Don't ever let someone try and tell you to give up on awakening or thinking for yourself.

Friend, if you read the entirety of the very thing you've quoted, without anger or resentment for me speaking out against your attempt at pitting Buddhism against all other religions, you will see nothing of the sort that you are insinuating. It was merely an attempt at helping a fellow member who was obviously dealing with some frustration. Sometimes letting go of what we are searching for, for a brief period of time, is the easiest way to see these things more clearly. It turned out that this was not her problem and we came to a common understanding of that later. So all is good, but thanks for your worry I'm sure Chaos will appreciate that also.

Peace friend.

reply to post by LifeIsEnergy


Like so many internet Buddhists you don't have the slightest clue of metaphysics and yet you insult people who do and try and warn people to "stay away from this man, he's not a Buddhist" ever hear of the expression "standing at the door of enlightenment, telling people there is nothing to see here?"

You told someone to "not think for a while" you expect me to stand by idly and let that happen?

reply to post by filosophia




Continue misrepresenting my words and position if you must. Never did I insult anyone in this thread, nor have I 'stood in front of any door and tell people there is nothing to see here', I'm not even sure what you are talking about. Again, I suggest you re-read the post you are referring to and better understand the context it was spoken in. If you have come to this thread to attack me because you felt spited by my dislike of your thread that attempts to nefariously place Buddhism on a petal stool above other religions, while at the same time spreading falsities about these other religions, than continue as you must. But I will not continue to play this game with you. If you have something that you would like to discuss pertaining to the OP than I would be more than glad to discuss this with you, otherwise, have a nice day.

Peace friend.

Originally posted by filosophia

Originally posted by LifeIsEnergy
reply to post by ChaosMagician

 

I feel what you are saying, you speak a lot of truth and offer a lot of honesty in this post. But I worry you are focusing on everything but your Self, be it; concepts, ideas, other people's projection, trying to enlighten others who aren't willing or ready... all of this seems to be distracting you and creating anger and frustration for you. Passion can be a good thing in moderation, but too much can quickly throw you off balance and delude your original intentions. You seem to have a good heart, maybe you should just let go of the whole idea of awakening, of what is intrinsically right and wrong, of these deeper concepts for awhile and find some inner peace, then you might clear your mind of these problems. Try not to think to hard about anything for awhile. If that is too difficult, and it is for many of us, try focusing in on your breathing, or go outside and just listen to the birds and the wind without judging it, just listen. There is no rush to save yourself or others my friend, rushing will only make things harder.

Peace my friend.

You are instructing someone to abandon awakening and to "try not to think to hard about anything for a while." To Chaos Magician, don't listen to this nonsense. Don't ever let someone try and tell you to give up on awakening or thinking for yourself.

Many understandings, are birthed, in silence.

Life has done no such thing as trying to tell someone to give us on thinking for their self.

Spiritual things and inner understanding, can not be forced. If they are, they are likely going to be misunderstandings that were emanated through the individuals own desires and fears.

Not thinking too much on things that you find frustrating or confusing, is perfect advise. Telling something to go out into nature and 'just be' is sound advise. Telling them that there is no rush, there is no deadline, that all is meant to be as it is, if OK.

We are not to force ourselves to a understanding. Through force, through rushing, we misunderstand what awaits for us on a unique level of being. Learning to 'just be' is sometimes a hard thing for a seeker to do...for their ego longs for having knowing. The self needs to think it 'knows'. Letting go of that now and then and 'just being' is sound advise.

The great gems await us in places and ways we least expect. As we try to just enjoy a winds breath on our skin, we just may, here a ancient whisper.

Sometimes to have understanding, you first have to learn to 'just be' amongst other life , like in nature.

Im not sure how anyone that has ever walked any path of seeking, can be against the worth of 'silence' of the mind and within the self.

Originally posted by filosophia
reply to post by LifeIsEnergy

 

Like so many internet Buddhists you don't have the slightest clue of metaphysics and yet you insult people who do and try and warn people to "stay away from this man, he's not a Buddhist" ever hear of the expression "standing at the door of enlightenment, telling people there is nothing to see here?"

You told someone to "not think for a while" you expect me to stand by idly and let that happen?

Who is the "me" that is going to stand by idly and let that happen? Who is the thinker and where is the space in which thoughts happen? If you were standing at the door of enlightenment you would know there is nothing to see here ("me"). The "me" is empty, nothing, devoid of all, formless, etc.

If you really want to find your true self, try this exercise. I wrote this somewhere else on here, but it seems fitting:

Negate everything you are not. For example, if you are in a house, you see that you are not the house but instead experiencing it around you. You are also experiencing your body. You are in a body, but you are not a body. The body is around you. You are experiencing your mind, but you are not your mind. If you watch your mind like you look at your house or your body, you find that the mind and all it's thoughts are around you. In fact, everything you experience is around you, but is not truly you. You are the emptiness in the middle of it all. Hence, "there is nothing to see here."

Hello all, I got a quick question. You dont need to go into much detail unless you have the time or you want to genuinely help without much in return other than a thank you.

As a child my "3rd eye" which I know for a fact is a real thing was very active. I never understood it, or why it was happening. I didnt think it was "weird" or "different" and I assumed everyone felt this. At times I would go up to people who were sleeping and put my finger to their 3rd eye to try to activate it for them and make them uncomfortable lol. I didnt see any real benefit at the time and only saw it as an inconvenience and very very uncomfortable.

My 3rd eye was so radiant and powerful that it literally made me uncomfortable and it forced my attention to it, so other things that were going on were not important and my only focus was this uncomfortable "powerful" feeling in my 3rd eye.

It came to a point where I prayed to god that It would just go away and wouldnt bother me anymore..and it did.
As I grew, I heard the term "3rd eye" and realize that that is what I was dealing with as a child. I am more interested in trying to open it again to the point of my younger years because I believe it couldnt be open much more at the time.

Should I pursue this? I feel energy going to my 3rd eye but it eventually goes away and is literally about 1/100 of the feeling in it that I felt as a child.

Long story short, I believe that it is time to get my 3rd eye going again. Maybe at the time I wasnt ready and I believe now that I am. I understand more now that I am a multi dimensional being. I have been in my astral body but not by trying to get there, it just happened at different times in my life. The last time was more profound as I left my body and started to spin in circles above my physical body. I moved my astral body to the ceiling and fear came over me and I returned to my physical body. I wish I would have went further into the word and ultimately the universe to discover what is indiscoverable by my physical body.

I know now that I must NOT fear who I truly am. And I must not fear something "different" from what I feel in my physical body. Now, I will not fear what I experience because I have light, and light distinguishes darkness, so I will not fear what I encounter in the astral world. Do you think I am ready?

Should I let these things happen "unconsciously" or should I try to consciously try and achieve the awakening of my 3rd eye and astral travel? Please help. And thank you for your response.

reply to post by itsJUSTzo


Hey friend. I am not familiar with these things you are talking about so I will step out of the way and let someone else who is familiar with them offer you some advice. But out of curiosity I have some questions for you.

What is the third eye? How does it feel? What happens when it is "activated"? What does it do for you? How do you know it is the "third eye" and not something else?

What is the astral body? How does it feel? What happens when it "rises"? What does it do for you? How do you know this experience is the "astral body" and not something else?

Without reciting other peoples work on this subject, please explain your own experiences and beliefs in more detail. I would truly appreciate it!

Thank friend!

Peace.

Originally posted by LifeIsEnergy
reply to post by itsJUSTzo

 

Hey friend. I am not familiar with these things you are talking about so I will step out of the way and let someone else who is familiar with them offer you some advice. But out of curiosity I have some questions for you.

What is the third eye? How does it feel? What happens when it is "activated"? What does it do for you? How do you know it is the "third eye" and not something else?

What is the astral body? How does it feel? What happens when it "rises"? What does it do for you? How do you know this experience is the "astral body" and not something else?

Without reciting other peoples work on this subject, please explain your own experiences and beliefs in more detail. I would truly appreciate it!

Thank friend!

Peace.

Well its hard to describe the feeling of the intense 3rd eye. People may have their opinions as to what it feels like when its just a small sensation that you have to really focus on just to notice. For me as I was younger, I had no idea what the 3rd eye was so there was no bias towards it or any "trying" to develop it. To me, it was uncomfortable, very uncomfortable. It was powerful, as in "extremely noticeable". Having no bias as to what this was, I thought everyone felt this and would play tricks on them to make them uncomfortable by putting my finger inbetween their eyes (not touching, but close to touching). As I said, it became so uncomfortable that I literally prayed to god that it went away because it was getting in the way of my childhood and everyday living. It eventually went away. Now, as I got older I read about this 3rd eye thing and people describe how it feels, and I felt it so im 110% sure it exists.

As for my astral experiences, the same thing applies. I had no bias towards what I was feeling. I heard about astral travel but never really read anything about it because I thought it was crazy talk. There was a few instances throughout my life of astral travel, the last being the most profound. Its extremely hard to describe to you, quite frankly its hard for me to describe myself. My conclusion is that my "awareness" left the physical body. I didnt walk, I simply "glided" or floated. But before even the experience of floating towards my roof, I experienced my "awareness" leaving through my back. My astral body or "awareness attached to a different body that wasnt my physical body that i've come to know" floated about 2 feet above my body and started spinning over and over and over. It was obviously weird to me and I kept trying to wake myself up or "do something" to make it stop. Everytime I got back into my body, I went back to sleep and it happened again 3-5 times until I had the experience of literally "flying" or "floating" to my ceiling. At that point I got so terrified that I woke myself up and stayed up for a while to make sure it didnt happen again.

With the astral experience I literally had no bias to what I experienced. Afterward I read on "floating around" or flying to my understanding of what happened and I found out that it is experienced by many many people around the world. I even read that a "spinning" astral body is quite normal for an astral experience. So to me, this "astral body/experience" is 110% real.

I've literally had this happend maybe 2-3 times in my life so im not really experienced enough to understand it. From reading what "other people" wrote we are multi dimensional beings and the astral body is the "real" one and the physical body is just a short experience in our "consciousness" which never dies. This explains many religious stories about life and death and near death experiences.

A watched this video yesterday with depak chopra or however you spell his name, the spiritual guru. Now im not one to believe others, trust me, I follow my own heart and feelings/emotions and I quite literally am happy all the time. All I do is have an experience and when I cant understand what the experience is, I search the internet to see if people have experienced the same thing. I have never searched the internet to read other peoples "paranormal" experiences and try to create my own based on theirs.

Like I said, 3rd eye and astral body/travel are no doubt in my mind, literally 110% real things.

there is a link to the deepak chopra video I watched literally yesterday that explained everything I was feeling. And remember, I had these experiences before watching this video or listening to others.

the video explains the 3rd eye and astral travel. It makes alot of sense to me because i've experienced it, it may not make sense to you.

sorry

www.youtube.com...

hopefully that worked

reply to post by itsJUSTzo


Thanks for your reply. I have no doubt that what you are experiencing is real, to say other wise would to be say your lying and I do not believe that at all. Although I have noticed that many people experience something not knowing what it is and then let their imagination run wild in trying to explain it. Then others read of these ideas and associate their experiences to these imaginative peoples explanation. That is how cultural myths are spread. Again that is not to say it isn't real, but rather that the explanation for these experiences may not necessarily be correct or accurate.

For instance, you said that the "third eye" phenomena felt like an uncomfortable feeling or pressure in your forehead, but that could be caused by a number of different things including: sleep deprevation, stress, extreme contemplation... You yourself said you had no understanding of this phenomena until you read other peoples explanation, except for that it was very apparent, uncomfortable and weird. Again that does not mean it is not real, but rather, that it may not be what you have been told (read) it is, or maybe it is. But for the sake of putting what I am saying into context I will share a similar experience to this in which I thought something was, when it was not.

As a child, whenever I would fixate my eyes in one place for a prolonged period of time during the day (when the sun was out) I could see floating particles. I never knew what this was but I thought I was seeing something others could not see because no one else ever talked about it. Thus I just thought I was weird and so I never told or asked anyone about this. Then when I got older and this phenomena continued to happen I decided I would do a little research on it and read somewhere that it was particles of energy rich subtle matter, they called residue of spirit beings. I liked that idea because it made me feel special, like I was one of a few people who could actually see the spirit world. However, later on when I visited a eye doctor to get prescribed contact lenses for my bad nearsightedness, he asked me a series of questions pertaining to any odd phenomena that I had experienced with my eyes. Afraid he would think I was crazy, I sucked up my pride and tried to explain these particles of subtle matter that I had experienced. To my surprise he knew exactly what I was talking about and told me that many people experience this. He explained to me what they are and why they happen, calling them "floaters" (myodesopsia), and said it is caused within the eye by a degeneration of the retina, that it is not an optical illusion or "residue of spiritual beings". I laughed at myself for not asking a doctor, someone who studies the eye, about this sooner and instead looking for answers from spiritual seekers.

Again, that is not to say what you are or have experienced is not real, just that it may not be what others are saying it is. Deepak Chopra is a wise man and I enjoy many of the things he speaks of, much of it is very helpful for humanity and I would hope more people would speak of similar things. However, he is known to attribute some easily explained experiences to rather outlandish phenomena for the sake of exciting the imagination of his followers and thus raise his book sales insofar as fees for appearances. He has made a lot of money off of his 'spiritual' wisdom and that always should raise questions within a person. So again, he/you may be correct in your/his assertion and explanation of these phenomena's, but you/he may also not be correct and thus misidentifying what this phenomena truly is. That is why it is important to keep an open mind to what it is you are experiencing and seek an explanation for it within both science and other places, and not just adhere to whatever answer your ego likes best.

Hope that helped some! Please keep in contact with what it is you have found out about these experiences, I truly am interested in hearing what explanations you find.

Peace friend.

Originally posted by 1Starman
When you have evolved and elevated to the state of real and true enlightenment as a spirit being in the physical body what you want to know is in your very senses as though it automatically flows out from within you.As you progress into a finer state of being your very own existence means nothing to you and you are a part of everything in the Universe.

Very well put...and my deepest thanks to the OP for that piece of the puzzle I've been searching for...

Hey friends, the second part of this series, "Solving the Problems of Awakening", is now up. It is called, "The Honest Life". Check it out when you have some time.Hope all of you are staying cool, , in this heat!

Peace friends.

I am new here and without all the fanfare as it were...I totally agree with your summations.

I have to say that I am to keenly aware of ego in my world and avoid it like the plague therefore I am not "all that I should be" by certain standards.

However I like my non-ego detachment and would never go back!

We are all from different products of our environments....do not feel that you are out of place...Then I would feel out of place and we can 't have that...lol..ego!!!

Peace and Love!

reply to post by LifeIsEnergy


An inspiring post, thank you most kindly for taking the time to share.

Later on looking back on this situation I have realized something truly shocking, that it wasn’t their egos creating this problem for me but it was my own ego that was creating this problem.

This single statement of yours particularly touched me. I want to acknowledge you for taking responsibility for what you create for yourself.

I've been playing in the area of taking responsibility for creating my reality in my life. I am finding that where I take on that I am responsible for creating my thoughts and reality, countless possibilities open up and I get to choose what I perceive as real, for me. This seems like freedom to me. I find this is a fun place to play, that reality is not "out there", it's right here, with me and in me. And I am creating that, too.

Originally posted by macFiachna
reply to post by LifeIsEnergy

 

An inspiring post, thank you most kindly for taking the time to share.

Later on looking back on this situation I have realized something truly shocking, that it wasn’t their egos creating this problem for me but it was my own ego that was creating this problem.

This single statement of yours particularly touched me. I want to acknowledge you for taking responsibility for what you create for yourself.

I've been playing in the area of taking responsibility for creating my reality in my life. I am finding that where I take on that I am responsible for creating my thoughts and reality, countless possibilities open up and I get to choose what I perceive as real, for me. This seems like freedom to me. I find this is a fun place to play, that reality is not "out there", it's right here, with me and in me. And I am creating that, too.

star!

life that grew from the smallest of organisms... the simplest of energy.... and built itself IS determined.

How can any answer of what has been built not be within us already... when we have done this an astronomical amount of times already... just to get to this point?

I think one of the keys to solving problems connected to various paths is to just have the courage to concentrate more, daily. Never mind wondering why you can't concentrate or thinking that you aren't capable of it, just use your mind and concentrate, because you can if you want to enough. Your conditioned self is all too happy to tell you that you can't do it, but when you do you'll find that instead it's all too happy to try and put you off at every turn instead, which pretty much unmasks it for what it is in a way.

If you think you can't concentrate properly, just put more effort into it. Don't get wound up, (this point can never be overstated.) try letting go of the stress instead of trying to enforce calmness, and be patient. (can't be overstated either, you need patience to tell yourself many times each day to just calmly guide your attention back to concentration. It's frustration for a while, but when it pays off, reminding yourself to concentrate isn't anywhere near the problem it might have been.) Even in a short time if you're focused enough you start to see results. I'd say 'if you can do it' you'll start to see results, but I just don't believe anyone can't do it, I think that inside all of us is the ability to concentrate, and if/when you can do this and realize how much it's linked to awareness, so many other things come into focus that can be worked with.

Maybe a bit off topic from the original post, but just wanted to help if possible.

Another thing is the almost constant stream of thoughts that can annoy you for a while, but if you can concentrate for long enough you can eventually disconnect from the negative emotions that brings. You can kind of see it as a type of background noise that doesn't matter anywhere near as much, instead of something so hard to deal with. Good luck to anyone trying, and remember to have patience. Without patience you're kind of defeating yourself before you even start, so try to develop it as you go on.

Another thing I often remember is someone I knew a bit off another site that helped me a lot some years back, and one thing he said about something that was either concentration or something linked to it, is that it can be seen as a type of muscle. You train regularly enough and it becomes stronger. So work with it regularly and you might realize first hand how relevant that analogy is.

reply to post by ChaosMagician


Please go further with this thought, like what do you mean by "determined"? And how can we consciously become aware and understand this process? Or can we?

Peace.

Originally posted by LifeIsEnergy
reply to post by ChaosMagician

 

Please go further with this thought, like what do you mean by "determined"? And how can we consciously become aware and understand this process? Or can we?

Peace.

Maybe he/she means the self nature within us that keeps us going? That part of us that makes us endure and that eventually guides us towards having realisations. And if reincarnation is true, the part that's kept us going through life after life. Even if you don't believe in reincarnation, it could be seen as the part that arises in us when we think things are too hard to cope with and that keeps us going. Something that we have trouble understanding because it can give us the power to carry on in the face of whatever we're going through even when we didn't think it was possible to move on. The type of thing that makes us look back and wonder how we even managed to get through certain times in our lives.

Am a bit tired and going on a bit, but hope that makes some sense!

To understand it I'd say that maybe it just takes time and regular mindfulness. It's maybe under the surface at first and arises when needed, but eventually we can begin to understand it and be conscious that it's a part of us all the time, in varying degrees.