Lucky7Strikes

I'm actually uncertain about what is precisely meant by luminosity and I'll probably come up with an apt definition of it and think I understand it when I don't experientially "get it." So I'll just share my experiences. I do energetic practices also, so I don't know how much of this is from insight. If the word luminosity is pointing to light, yes from a certain point I've lost the ability to "see" darkness. I see shimmering light, a matrix of colors in everything. It is there when I close my eyes, in fact it is brighter, quickly vibrating, flicking on and off and on and off. This becomes quite intense during practices that involve the third eye and after one session I couldn't even see the room but just this colorful light brilliant enough to consume everything in it, vibrating radiantly. It's in everything I experience even in no thought states and with practice it becomes more vibrant and dynamic. I remember a few days ago when these quick explosions of this light quickly...well it's really hard to describe. If the word luminosity is pointing to clarity and purity of experience, I've only had glimpses of the degree of this experience. It's as if the body is so sensitive to everything it feels painful to just hear sounds. I remember I was meditating and this knocking noise from floor above felt very painful to even hear my head began aching or certain feeling rise of so powerfully I begin crying or laughing but so alive! But these bits were nothing compared to this period of 3-4 days I went through after a seminar. I completely lost track of time in the sense that I was perfectly at accords with it, I wasn't "in" time but "was" the flow of time itself I would sit in zazen and ten minutes would feel like three, but no feeling at all really. Every sensation, every thought during that period was perfectly light not (as in not heavy) was like crystal, but not necessarily their content but the way they were, a complete lightness of being. Ah I like Thusness's quote. I try not to get caught up in any of this, but now my mind reminds itself all is transient, impermanent and ungraspable, and when my being really implements this, really registers it to other experiences than thought, the clarity I mentioned above is felt. But you forgot to answer my question about Maha. Is it the awareness of "all in one and one in all" as in Indra's jewel?

That the non dual realization and its ungrspability is the nature of reality, that once the wrong views of solidity is dissolved, reality reveals itself as is, as it has always been, even dualistic views have been experienced non-dually but habitually circling like a mad man. . So sound arises in experience, but doesn't really arise at all because it doesn't arise "in" anything or "to" anyone so one cannot say it arises, it is then it isn't, experiencing it this way is sound liberating sound (?). It isn't like there was no sound before realizing no-self of things, it's just that one no longer returns to an imagined center, the dual mind that immediately labels sound as sound, thinks "I hear sound" wherein sound is solidified around a magnet of "self." Sound is sound, thought is thought, etc, an endless formless transmutation. But I don't understand how one intuitively experiences "interconnectivity." I see that one thing arises after another without boundary, a seamless stream of presense that changes due to its nature of emptiness...And I understand interconnectivity conceptually, but how to realize it intuitively in all experience? What is Maha experience?

Continuous refinement?

Ok, makes sense a bit.

Interesting things Buddha said about attainments, read at the end: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.02.0.than.html

Ah, so the manifestations and signs will eventually appear, but level of realization is the same. But not necessarily that the manifestations mean there is realization? I actually ordered Mahamudra: The Moonlight two days ago, not the same book but a bit of a coincidence .

Yet isn't there a depth to the understanding of emptiness? And doesn't the insight lead naturally to manifestations of unentanglement in experience and form. That it is not just a conceptual understanding, but that perception of reality for the enlightened alters. That Thusness does infact experiences reality differently, that he is wired differently? If dependent origination frees psychological grasping of the "I" because of its truth regarding the empty nature of self and after awhile one no longer is illusioned with an "I," in that it disappears like the child of a barren women, shouldn't it also display its truth by displaying the empty and ungraspability of phenomena as well? That one can readily be free from material functions? I don't know, I'm really just asking questions here. To me it seems like the enlightened being should have the ability of all siddhis.

Hmm...I thought all things were impermanent? So isn't this immortal body a bit of...a hole? Vaj, what exactly is the understanding of Jalus from what you have learned? Is it controlling the elements as Xabir's post pointed out? Is it a state? A siddhi? The embodiment of Dharmakaya? Can one return from it? I'm very curious because the practices that I do are, or were at least advertised as, for that attainment specifically, although I combine it with insight practices and don't necessarily practice for "attainment."

I don't know, your post wasn't exactly a "lighten up" kind of post. But I could have misunderstood it for sure.

I don't get all the negative replies. The post was not really about marijuana.

I think your insights are great. You should keep asking yourself what "you" are. What a thing is. What all these words mean beyond their symbols. Like what is a revelation? What do you mean you have reached enlightenment? Didn't you say above that everyone is everyone and no one is no one (what does that mean?)? What is perception? What is the nature of experience? Of consciousness? And from my experience the TTC is not a good source to check your insights due to its incredible flexibility. But why do you think it is sad that people are obsessing over clothing brands? Or how they look? Didn't you say there was no good or bad and that you didn't feel saddened anymore? By they way, people progress on this enlightenment business all at completely different speeds. Yes, you can become enlightened tomorrow, or 1000 years, or a million years. The 6th patriarch of Zen was enlightened simply by listening to the Diamond Sutra and working in the kitchen, and couldn't read or write, surpassing all those other monks sitting and meditating a long time in the meditation hall! So I don't think you should ever think "oh my god! Its only been x amount of time? How can I be enlightened?"

Where does the Body of LIght fit in here? Do they both have the attainment?

The funny thing is, you have to die to become an immortal!

fiveelementtao has shared his personal experiences with immortals and spirit guides before on the forum. I'd check his posts.

In my opinion many people who say things in the line of "oh powers are a waste of time, you should focus on real spiritual development" don't know anything about powers but feel the need assert superiority some way.

Well, conditions begin manifesting towards practice. So there is just practice, no one really practicing. The Dharma is in a way a gift. But you can apply this to just about anything. A basketball player, an accountant, a poet, etc. becomes who he is due to causes and conditions that have shaped his "will" to arise and so forth. But the difference is their world revolves around a never ending cycle of grasping. Yet just like them, Buddhist, Taoist or whatever practices his arts because he is inclined to due so.

I had a lot of trouble with free will in the past too. Here's my 2 cents... Free will assumes an independent entity in an experience who chooses and interacts with his surroundings so it is not compatible with the dependence model of Buddhism. Will is also a skhanda, and the 5 skandas are clearly set to be empty and without a self. Yet to those who still cling to the false idea of "I" or a doer, there will automatically be the idea of a "will" because his experience is dual and feels like he is in the world to do things. So one should view free will just like we view the "I," a conventional concept that is nonetheless illusory and not ultimately real. When one begins to drop the sense of "I" it is like the "I" realizing its own non-existence or awareness becoming free from a centered source, it is the last step the "free will" makes to end itself. And this is not an easy process because our habit of identifying an "I" is very strong, cunning, and relentless. Non-dual insight into awareness as a non-separate aspect of phenomena gradually dissolves the "I" into simply changing manifestations. But it is really is the final choice, only to realize that there has never been such a thing in the first place. Contrary to what people might believe about this, when both the "I" and "free will" are slowly let go of, one actually is inclined to deeper practices, like setting in motion the process towards enlightenment. It is seeing into our Buddha-nature, that enlightenment is the final destination. Practice becomes very natural as if it is the only thing one wants to do, since with the dropping of the "I" one becomes much more free "of" (which is better than thinking in terms of free "to"). The trouble arises when one does not see the empty nature of "I" and "free will" at the same time and instead holds on to the concept of "me" and uses a conceptual misunderstanding of "no free will" to justify their actions. Or rather from the perspective of "I" begins to judge the value of free will. So instead of focusing on free will, I think the emphasis is rightly on dropping the "I," and naturally the meaning of free will reveals itself. Another problem I ran into this is the whole thing about morality and karma. To anyone holding onto an "I" or a dualistic perspective there will be a chain of events that come about from grasping, the cycle of samsara. Yes you will have your "free will" and your "I" not realizing their true nature and suffer very accordingly with whatever "you" do with your choices. Give and take, suffering and pain, and a whole world of dualities will consume you because the very basis of your experience is the "I," which is clinging. Cling, cling cling. From one extreme to another. But we are practicing to escape from this cycle so by cutting off the root of "I", we escape both the need for choice and hence karma altogether.

Ok well, I'll believe it when I see it!

So since awareness has its context by its objects... Or how do we know awareness? By itself? But then that also wouldn't make sense... Then can we say awareness is a thing apart from the objects? Is it a thing? A non-thing? Perhaps a characteristic.

If you mean internally--as in the insight comes effortlessly and not analytically, then I agree. But I don't think one would sit there and see the entire interconnected matrix of the universe, that would mean one is somehow viewing the universe separately...only knowledge one has is of his own path and history, own way of liberation, and the teaching is, I believe, simply another practice. I don't think teaching others and self-mastery is that different. That Siddhi sounds like spontaneous perfection. When one's energies and actions continuously transform to harmonize with whatever he faces. I've heard of masters who have openly demonstrated this on an energetic level. .

I agree. Although we may have the concept of "infinite regress" or "cause and conditions" it is impossible to know the entire matrix of the interwoven events that bring about the present. Since we are a part of it, we can never step out of it objectively and see what it is.

My experience is much more direct--I don't return to the the thought of I, so there no fluctation in perception, much less reflection. I don't know about transparent but yes, every perception is THERE. But it is not as effortless or continuous, as in it does not follow into dream states, and at times my thoughts, or more of a feeling (I noticed that even dual thoughts can be perceived directly, and it dissipates upon the moment of simple noticing), arise forming a memory of "me" and "you." I did noting for a while, and it was really helpful for dissolving a sense of "I" behind thoughts, and still devote time to it, but often found it could lead to fragmenting experiences too much, and takes away the directness. So I'm still at the mantra of "sound but no hearer" ...I was actually thinking when my perceptions began to shift, and to be honest, I don't know, because I know I really didin't want to do this. I really wanted my theory of simultaneous arising of consciousness and a creator and phenomena as its object to be right. And a few years back, while reading though Neo-Advaita stuff, I had a tremendous opening with the words "things are just happening without a doer!" Something in my heart just exploded that night and I remember sitting in full lotus for over an hour when before I couldn't do that for more than 2-3 minutes due to knee problems (so I guess there is something to that posture). But that experience fell away because I was still at the time very much into Maharshi and tried to fit everything together by his teachings. And I really clung to...free will and the story of individual spiritual struggle and enlightenment. I reanalyzed and discarded all this "no doer" crap because the face of the no doer crap was the arrogant Neo-Advaita people who seemed to take great pleasure in mocking other's spiritual practice (of course, this perception wasn't entirely accurate, and Neo-Advaita is still very entrenched in Consciousness teachings). As I stated above, it is only recently in the past few months, when I was almost forced to begin to see things "as they are" because of Kunlun (http://www.kunlunbliss.com/). (I think you know AugustLeo, he is an advanced practitioner in the art). But I don't think Kunlun has much to do with what we've discussed here, although it does challenge the body and mind's stability. It pushes at the ego to let go, and let go , and let go....but it became apparent that only a groundless mindset was the perfect surrender, and when I started doing this, my practice became incredibly fluid and natural! It brings amazing bliss and clarity to perception than before, but a fleeting clarity with the knowing that it is not graspable, so the "transparency" you mentioned is perhaps this, that upon noticing it, it is gone! The practice most of the time brings everything into view with a complete opening, like seeing a continuum of objects in completely vacuum space, completely vulnerable to whatever arises, and of course, there is nothing but whatever that arises. But it is not effortless, this state, at least not yet, even if I am naturally beginning to see that this is how reality truly is . Even though I talked all that about Kunlun, I have mixed feelings about it. I try to let the practice, and more importantly the urge to practice it come more naturally rather than from a self-driven point of view. So usually I have a time for general meditation and see what practice I want to engage in at that moment.

Sorry! I was a bit over my head with that reply!

You're right. It was a bit irrelevant and a whole another topic. Haha, that was short enough!

We have discussed the difference between states and insights. But you have obviously missed it. .