wearydreamer

There are no levels. There is no enlightenment. As is any word stated in this reply. Refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_(mathematics)

Follower often tend to cling to devotional thoughts which become obstacle. The saying intends to clear that. Also there are stories of monk burning wooden statues of Buddha in cold winters. Intention is to help people see things as things are.

Hi wakeupneo, This psycho somatice apparatus, especially with all the psyche/consciousness developed all over the lifetime, has in its nature to fall into maya and identification. But as your attention has been to perception of the Reality once, it should be possible to redirect it there again on regular basis. Instantly there would be just the Awareness watching the character, John doing the daily chores of life. Though even that thought will have identification coming into play and even this, recursively. Quoting TTC, "More word count less. Hold fast to the center" Also living with dis-identification should change nature of psyche in longer run.

Hi Everything, The cognitive dissonance you are talking abt I prefer to call it cognition/affectivity duality. One might cognize that he should not smoke but affectivity might make him to like smoking. Like all duality, cognition also needs a complementary, affectivity. If it was all cognition, (i.e, your intellectual apparatus could understand the craving for smoke in exactly same way as the need to quit it), then that cognition would have faded to background and your intellectual apparatus would not have been able perceive anything like cognition all. Key to peace is dis-identification. It is the nature of peace to lead the psyche to pure affectivity/pure cognition. Effort at any point is again sticking to identification and strengthening the delusion.

I also had quite strong trips on shrooms earlier. What you described is a peek into reality. My definition of reality here is something that cant be doubted. But now back in normal state, it is again imperceptible. What you are left with are fragment of memory of altered state. Dream re-continued with a confusing memory. Also as there are no individuals, there is no one to like or dislike. But Awareness of liking/disliking is there as pure affectivity. In dream, it will drive the dream to make dreamer like or dislike.

If there is someone to believe in free will, he/she definitely will. But better question would be - is there someone?

People keep getting excited and bums keep doing nothing as always. There is no buddha anyways but this guy is doing great. Hail Himalayas.

Words mean what you want them to mean. So not sure about your idea of psychological maturity. Popular choice of words for apparent psychological effects of 'Enlightenment' are bliss and serenity. And i concur.

Great posts Xabir2005 and Lucky7Strikes. Only thing to remember (if there is someone to remember) is anything expressed in words is just a finger pointing to moon. May lead attention to moon but is not the moon.

Quite a big article to explain fundamental limitation. Logic needs an assumed starting point (axiom) to deduce the theory from. Fundamental limitation of any logical theory is that it needs an axiom to start with, which is always assumed (to be self evident in science). No Axiom(s)=> no logical deduction => no logical theory It is interesting to see that even for above statement to be logical, there has to an assumed axiom for the statement to hold. And there is. It is the most subtle one.

If someone is there to cease the meddling, it is not wu wei. Awareness of experience, awareness of actions that occurred is wu wei. Identification with subject of that action even to cease any conceptual meddling is not.

I have been through similar situation recently. Indecisions, changes in desire and no basis of action. Initially I was more like thinking about career, then relationship and then few more things. Then I started looking only inwards. It was more like that I acknowledged unreality of my ego and introspection had destroyed all the basis of action but still I was trying to act. Taking ego to be unreal, trying to act is like trying to re-identify oneself with something (the Self in my case). And that was the source of all confusion. And the liberating realization was to go one step further and realize that Actions just occur in the Force field and You are just Aware of them. So, it was dis-identification rather than re-identification.

It becomes interesting if you start first visualizing dimension a bit technically. One dimensional observer observes 2-dimensional space. Two dimensional observer (imagine two separate point observers of light for simplicity) observes 3 dimensional space. Extra dimension is perceived by difference in geometric angles of perceived objects of at two separate point of observations. Three dimensional observer (imagine three separate point observers of light for simplicity) should observe 4 dimensional space. Extra dimension will be perceived because light will reach one of the point observer before other two point observers. However moment will be longer, i.e., process comprehending the information from 3 point observers will get completed only after light from the object instant is received by all 3 point observers. With infinite dimensional observer, moment should be eternal. Or you can say there will no dimensions. Also we don't need to take light so verbally as Physics takes, but yes it simplifies the thinking. Time is just the sequence of perceived moments, recorded ones or the coming flow. Overall I find time and space quite analogous to five senses. They are just context for information. Like sweet is context of information in sense of taste, it is not something defined in space and time. While long is a context of information in time and space. So time and space, along with senses define the scope of The Functioning. What is functioning is The Mind.

Surprisingly no one is Sphongled here. Divine Moments of Truth: Around the world in tea daze:

For at least an year I haven't been thinking much about "Enlightenment" with this ego busy pampering itself with quite worldly life. But stumbling upon this thread invoked a sudden desire in me resume pondering about it again and start some form of practicing. So I had been pretty much of rational kinds; trying to beat everything by logic. I kept questioning everything and destructing the underlying assumption. So I was just minimizing assumption I needed for defining my consciousness. But logical theory always needs an axiom to start with, which is just assumed (e.g., postulates of special relativity). So if you destroy all the assumptions you are not left with any theory. So in the end axiom destruction went like : Should I assume what I see to be real? => ok then what is real? may be something that is in time and space => Ok then what is time and space? may be just the Mind or pretty much like five senses. I defined senses as a "context" for information, say like something is sweet in context of "Taste". Also it can be observed that taste, color etc are not defined in time and space. They are pretty much like time and space, a context => So real is nothing more than what Mind can define in terms of five senses and time and space => ok then what is Mind? WTF? Now Mind needs to define the Mind (without limiting it in terms of real). Now that is infinite recursion. Unsolvable. Or you can also think like defining the definition? Unsolvable recursion. Interestingly all the metaphysical analogies for this Universe (say like the popular big organism model of which all is one big organism and we being just like a finger with an ego) start appearing to me as futile attempts to solve the unsolvable. That used to give quite a blank kind of feeling. As if all of sudden the thought makes everything meaningless and there is nothing. But staying there is not an option. I need come back to my normal everyday life where I still have to apply everyday ethics of what is right and what is wrong. It cant be done without resuming my discarded assumptions. And I remain stuck in the world of all assumed meanings. Further, we are pre-programmed with natural tendencies like carnelian pleasures. And when those everyday decision keep rewarding me with a nice tasty meal with beautiful girl at the end of the day, I stop making any effort to come out of that world. Till it stops rewarding me. Rewards reduced a bit recently. So I guess good time to spend more time in meaninglessness. May I will learn some trick live everyday life along with meaninglessness. I dont know what opinion should I ask or what practice? All questions need assumed meaning.