Shanmugam

In this video you will find some practical instructions on the spiritual path and spiritual awakening. This is fully animated to make you engaged and offer you good clarity on the subject.

Interesting.. Thanks for sharing..

“I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself.” ― G.I. Gurdjieff, Views from the Real World: Early Talks Moscow Essentuki Tiflis Berlin London Paris NY Chicago as Recollecte. George Gurdjieff was a Russian Mystic and spiritual teacher. Gurdjieff called his method the Fourth Way. Osho spoke about him a lot in his speeches. In this video I have given his brief biography, and have talked about his quotes, methods, teachings, controversies and negative criticism.

Interesting.. Can you give me a source where I can read about his admissions on what he messed up?

hey, thanks for sharing... It is indeed a removal process, a destructive process.. Here is a story of another man called Greg Calise:

Bhoothanatha Geetha of Sabarimala Ayyappan is a text similar to Bhagavad Gita which has 132 slokas and 8 chapters. It is a conversation between Manikantan, the prince and Rajasekaran, the king of Pandalam in which Manikantan explains the secrets of Advaita Vedanta and the ways to attain Jeevan Mukti to Rajasekeran. This text is not well known as much as the other Gitas, like Bhagavad Gita, Ashtavakra Gita, Avadhuta Gita etc. But the text beautifully summarizes the essence of spiritual wisdom in simple Sanskrit. In the following video, I have given a short introduction, explained the meaning of an important sloka in the text and also explained some other interesting details about the text: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFWdynSAXfM

Hello everyone, I went through an initial awakening in 2002 which kick started a process of seeking; it ended in 2014. During 2014, I went through another transformation that removed all the psychological boundaries between me and the existence. I am currently living a life free of suffering and worries.Since then I have authored two books and I have a blog and an Youtube channel where I help other seekers by sharing my experiences. I have made a post here when I released my first book and a few members in this forum may already know me.Recently I have been doing live streams with videos titled "Spiritual Enlightenment - Your Questions Answered".. I am done with 9 parts so far and it is added to a playlist. Here is the link to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAo1YHIhpJs&list=PLyvcEPSjKqOl1danh9xVK0hwqiDJrIYov Here is the link to my channel's main page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwOJcU0o7xIy1L663hoxzZw/ If you like the content, subscribe to be notified when I upload new videos.These days, I come on Live everyday. So you may expect a live stream tomorrow.

I feel very light in the body. The difference is tremendous. I feel more energetic, just like how I felt when I was a child. So, it indeed made a difference in the way I feel my body.

I didn't have a specific thing in mind; it is just a feeling of lack that we try to fulfill by achieving something in the future. My goals and dreams kept changing but I wasn't fulfilled. But I don't think these words really convey the actual answer I have in mind. No matter what I say about what happened in 2014, it may only cover a tiny teeny bit of what actually happened. It will create more and more questions and require more and more explanation.

On July 12, 2014, I was lying on my bed late in the evening. I had a clear realization then that my spiritual seeking was over and that I had found what I was looking for in my life, in the dimension of time. But experientially the search had ended little before that on the same day. It was like a process that seemed to have happened gradually throughout the day. But I only realized it as a clear insight when I was in my bed about to sleep. It was an aha moment of seeing the obvious fact that the way I experience my life has changed. It was like being immersed in light and bliss the whole day.

Before 2014, I experienced myself as a solid entity; there was a boundary between me and the rest of the existence, created psychologically. We all create that boundary at some point of growing up and it is created unconsciously during the early childhood. My life was also a journey in time and I could feel that I was a person travelling from the past towards a future. But all that changed in 2014. It is hard to put that in words. I no longer feel in my experience that I am a person. In fact, I don't feel the psychological acute self-consciousness that a person feels when he is around other people. It is as if, all the separation has melted away. I can't think about the future the way I used to either. Above all, I have found the fulfillment and harmony that I was searching for in my life. In other words, what happened ended my seeking anything spiritually just like eating food fulfills the hunger. I never had an inclination to talk or write about it for the next two years. My first blog post regarding my journey is something that I wrote in the beginning of 2017. I had to adapt to whatever happened to me over the past 6 years. I don't carry any image about myself in my head; certainly not an image of an 'enlightened person'. But I have seen how much telling what happened to me and how I overcame challenges in the process is helpful to other seekers. It in turn helps my own survival too.

Thats fine dude.. One way or the other, my content gets introduced; anyone who finds the content helpful ends up supporting me in various ways, as it has been happening so far. So it is just a win-win situation. My goal is not to make you believe in my claim. When such a claim is made, there will always be skeptics; that is natural and totally fine.

Wow.. Great to see a lot of replies. Unfortunately, there is no test to determine if someone is enlightened. I just want to introduce my Youtube channel to folks who want to use whatever help they can get from my own experiences.

I just published my new book yesterday, September 11, 2019. The name of the book is ‘Discovering God: Bridging Christianity, Hinduism and Islam’. It is available in both kindle and paperback. Kindle version is live but the paperback version is still under review. I will add the link to it once it is ready. This book is a step towards bridging all religions. Out of 100 readers, I am sure that it will make a difference to at least 10 people. This book explains the central nerve, the essence of all religions. I have written this book hoping that it will contribute something towards religious tolerance, unity of mankind and the ability to really see that all religions lead to the same truth. I am a running a free promotion for the book from Thursday, September 12, 2019, 12:00 AM PDT to Friday, September 13, 2019, 11:59 PM PDT. During this time, you can download the book for free. You don’t have to have a kindle. You can download kindle app for android, create a free amazon account if you don’t have one, login and download the book for free during the period of promotion. Please leave your reviews after you read the book, to let the world know about this book. This book was possible only by Grace. Here is the book description as it is given in Amazon: ” God is the most misused and misunderstood word in the world. There are thousands and thousands of religions in this world but the major religions that stand out in the list include Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. Do they have anything in common or they are completely different from each other? In this book, I will show you how all the major religions of the world have the same central core and point to the same truth. I have quoted numerous verses from the Bible, Bhagavad Gita and Quran and have given a detailed commentary on them in the process of explaining the truth about these religions. I have unraveled the secrets of Greek mystery schools, Upanishads, Kabbalah, Hasidism, Sufism and other mystic traditions in the book. But this book needs a complete open-mindedness and patience from your part. By buying this book and sharing it with your friends, you are contributing something to the world peace. I strongly believe that this book will bring a change. “ US readers, click here to get the book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XRJ3GWS Indian readers, click here: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07XRJ3GWS

That depends on how you define God and religion. The essence of this book is same as the essence of Tao, just written in a different language. Yes, reading books may be a hindrance, but how about a dialogue or a conversation. If you listen to me speak, is that also counterproductive? It all depends on the content and the way it is conveyed. My book is just an attempt to make religiously inclined people to do the inner work, to make them understand that solitude is good; it does encourage people to practice, no matter where they are at. So, comments based on the title when the whole book is available for free is premature. If you can find sometime to go through my dialogue which is written as a book, we can talk more.

A talk about spiritual enlightenment: https://youtu.be/ghsFEVeLbCk This talk discusses the following:1)Why seek Spiritual Enlightenment?2) Hedonic treadmill - A psychological theory which is related to the motivations behind seeking spiritual enlightenment.3) Some misconceptions about spiritual enlightenment.4) How duality or sense of separation is created.and more...

Sadhana Chatushtaya - Fourfold qualifications for a spiritual seekerhttps://youtu.be/rq8B2_ugwTk

A Shamatha Meditation Based on Symbolism, Visualization, Mnemonics and Classical Conditioning. This 3-level meditation method is based on pure psychology and a completely rational method to develop focus, objectivity, discipline, inner purification, a desire for liberation, inner stillness, understanding ‘destructive normality’, and a preparedness to walk on the path of spirituality. You can read the disclaimers given at the top to understand the objective of the meditation: https://nellaishanmugam.wordpress.com/a-shamatha-meditation-based-on-symbolism-visualization-mnemonics-and-classical-conditioning/

I have just added two stages before the actual shamatha... Shamatha is not altered in any form. The two stages before that are to develop concentration to be prepared for Shamatha.

I am sharing an answer that I wrote in Quora. Hope people find this useful, especially the newbies in this forum: The word ‘Enlightenment’ can be defined in many different ways. We have so many words in different traditions which are synonymous with the term ‘spiritual enlightenment’. The list of words are endless and the definitions are endless too. Some people exaggerate it, some people understate it, some people say that there is no such thing called enlightenment while the majority of the world’s population haven’t even heard of it. First, let me describe spiritual enlightenment in terms of what disappears. Deep down in people’s minds, there is an underlying dissatisfaction with the way things are. People want many things to be different from the way they actually are. There is a craving for becoming something that one is not and there is a resistance to the way things are. Everyone is moving towards a goal, a destination that is in the future. The hopes of arriving at that destination seem to give some solace and if those hopes and dreams are threatened, we tend to suffer. This burning uneasiness and dissatisfaction can be likened to a fire that is burning. The extinction of this fire is enlightenment. The word ‘Nirvana’ means extinction. The Truth About Spiritual Enlightenment — book trailer There are also two other words ‘moksha’ and ‘mukthi’, which literally mean ‘liberation’. These words refer to how enlightenment feels like. A typical human being is bound by various things. He is bound by his own past intentions. He is bound by his beliefs. He is bound by the opinions of other people. But deep inside the heart of every human being, there is a longing to become boundless and expansive. We try to accomplish this by accumulation; we accumulate knowledge, possession and experiences hoping that these accumulations will make us boundless. But these very accumulations cause further bondage. Now you have to protect them because losing them will essentially mean losing yourself; because you derive a sense of identity from these accumulations. A typical human being is actually in a self-made prison. But the saddest part is that the majority of the population don’t realize that they are in such a prison. Spiritual Enlightenment liberates you from the self-made prison I have heard a quote by some anonymous person which goes like this: “One of the greatest mental freedoms is truly not caring what anyone else thinks of you”.. Imagine the kind of freedom you will get when you no longer worry about what other people think about you. And, also imagine the kind of freedom you will get when you are no longer afraid of losing anything. Imagine the kind of freedom you will get when you no longer worry about future and past! What is usually called as enlightenment is the greatest freedom ever. It is not only a combination of all kinds of freedoms that I just talked about but it is also a freedom from the sense of a separate self. It is a permanent freedom from the story you have about you. Once a person is enlightened, he feels like a huge load has been taken off of his shoulders. There is a sense of an immense freedom which is priceless. It literally feels like escaping from a prison. Once J. Krishnamurti asked his audience if they wanted to know what his secret was. Then he revealed his secret in just one sentence. He said, “I don’t care what happens”… Simply put, this is enlightenment. Nothing ultimately matters and the whole life becomes a play or a game. When we play a game with our friends, we play it without any seriousness. Even though we make sure that the rules of the games are followed and that we do what we are supposed to do in the game, we don’t lose our sleep over it (unless we are playing in a tournament). Playing your role in life as if you are just playing a game is the greatest sense of freedom. Enlightenment naturally makes you to not to care about the end result of whatever you are doing. At the end of the day, nothing ever matters. That doesn’t mean you will be irresponsible. You will just enjoy what you are doing rather than being focused on results. Your actions will be driven by intrinsic motivation. Whatever I have said so far, sounds quite logical. But I haven’t touched the core yet. The core and the essence of enlightenment is realizing that you as a separate person or entity is an illusion. You create a solid sense of self inside your mind and you define the boundaries of that self physically by your body and mentally by your story. But science and spirituality tell us that there is no such solid, consistent self. This doesn’t mean that your body and your mind doesn’t exist. But a sense of self that you derive from your body and mind is just a deep-rooted belief. Since you have this belief for such a long time, you don’t even recognize that it is a belief. This may even sound absurd or unacceptable to you simply because you have lived with this belief so long. We have built layer upon layer on this belief which makes us very difficult to see through this belief. Someone asked a question in Quora before. The question was “Can an atheist believe in spiritual enlightenment? “. The word ‘believe’ here is a bit odd.But this question comes from an assumption that spiritual enlightenment is somehow related or tied to religious beliefs. But in reality, an enlightened person is an upgraded atheist. Let me elaborate. The only thing that an atheist doesn’t believe in is the existence of a personal deity, a creator God who answers your prayers. But an atheist may still believe that his next door neighbour is a jerk and his boss is an a**h**e. An enlightened person, on the other hand, doesn’t believe in anything. He doesn’t even believe that he is separate from the existence. Once the sense of a separate self dissolves, you realize that you are existence itself. All the boundaries between you and the world simply disappear. You cease to exist as a person but you continue to exist as the existence.Realizing that you are not an entity separate from existence is enlightenment. It is not just realizing this as a fact but realizing it in your actual moment to moment experience. This is not to say that enlightenment is a special experience or an altered state of consciousness. When you are living a life as a liberated person, you simply experience the reality without any duality. The reality is felt in its purity without any distortions. Your life then becomes free-flowing, conflict-less, guilt-free, fearless, peaceful and fulfilled. Nothing is lacking anymore at the absolute level. There is a sense of innocence and genuineness in your moment to moment experience. It is quite ordinary then how enlightenment is described or thought of. So, what causes this illusion of separate self or duality? Left-brain interpreter is the culprit. The left brain interpreter refers to the construction of explanations by the left brain in order to make sense of the world by reconciling new information with what was known before. The left brain interpreter attempts to rationalize, reason and generalize new information it receives in order to relate the past to the present. The concept was first introduced by Michael Gazzaniga while he performed research on split-brain patients during the early 1970s with Roger Sperry at the California Institute of Technology.] Sperry eventually received the 1981 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his contributions to split-brain research. Left and right brain functions of human brain If you just look at the above picture, one thing is clear. You left brain engages in things which require categorization. Your right brain specializes in helping you to see everything as a whole. Dr. Chris Niebauer, a neuroscientist writes in his book ‘The Neurotic’s Guide to Avoiding Enlightenment: How the Left-brain Plays Unending Games of Self-improvement’ about the left brain interpreter. Let me quote a few lines from his book: Quote “The left-brain interpreter is categorical, it creates division outwardly and inwardly, so let it do its job, let it do its thing. “ “Again, there is the interpreter created category of “me as I am” vs. “me as I want to be” which are both just thoughts bouncing around in the skull. So, ironically, if you are trying to improve yourself, you can’t. The notion that your self needs improving is an interpretation and we are going around interpretations. There is an irony in most bookstores called the “self help” section. I might suggest renaming this as “Books that reinforce the illusion that the left-brain interpreter can be what it isn’t free of itself.” “The interpreter also creates and sustains our collection of categorical thoughts called our beliefs.” It is this left brain interpreter which also creates the duality. It categories your body and your story as a ‘me’ that is separate from the existence. Spiritual enlightenment is going beyond all the dualities. It leads one to resolve all the internal conflicts and to feel one with everything. It removes the idea that there is a separate entity inside which has to enhance itself for fulfilment. The left brain may still continue to categorize things, but they are not solidified in our consciousness and we are not urged to protect those solidified entities. To know more about spiritual enlightenment, get my book: ‘The Truth About Spiritual Enlightenment: Bridging Science, Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta’. (Indian readers, click here: Bridging Science, Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta eBook: Shanmugam P: Amazon.in: Kindle Store)

Everything.. I hope the post is informational and useful at least for some.. Yes, it also has a link to my book, so you can also call it a 'promotion' .. I just wanted to introduce the book to more people. And I am open to discussing in this thread.

Dear all, I successfully published my first book 'The Truth About Spiritual Enlightenment: Bridging Science, Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta' in Amazon. It is available in both kindle and paperback versions. I am able to provide the kindle book for free for five days using KDP select. The kindle book will be available for free from 24th Nov, 2017 to 28th Nov, 2017. I invite the members of this forum to take advantage of this free promotion. Kindle version: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078494FQB Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1973364549 Here is the description of the book: "Spiritual enlightenment is becoming a buzzword. Enlightenment is a popular niche for people who write or read about self-help, meditation, healing, psychology and more. But do you really understand what enlightenment is? Is it some kind of altered state of consciousness, a solution to get high without drugs, a way to live life in 24/7 bliss, a myth or a complete scam? Is there any scientific basis to enlightenment or spiritual awakenings? This book has the answer to these questions. This book attempts to bridge spiritual teachings of Vedanta and Buddhism with science. It gives you a practical and reasonable path to end your suffering and live a peaceful, satisfied and happy life. Above all, it will help you to find your own way and follow your own light. The book will also introduce you to some important concepts in psychology, which are related to spiritual awakening. The concepts and solution presented in this book are based on the author’s own experience. It also has a chapter that narrates author’s own spiritual journey which led to a complete spiritual transformation. The book also has a separate chapter which talks about scientific research done on spiritual enlightenment."