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Originally posted by PsychoX42
reply to post by orrite??
Well my friend, the one thing that I can tell you is this. An enlightened person would never go around claiming that they were enlightened, let alone make an entire thread of it.
[edit on 8-7-2010 by PsychoX42]
Originally posted by orrite??
reply to post by Oscillator
"I think, therefore, i am" - Descartes
Put simply. This is absolute rubbish.
Any athletes out there may have experienced this fallacy for yourself. when athletes play sport sometimes spontaneously they get "in the zone" a state where they are not thinking about anything. They are playing sport instinctively, mindlessly; and what often happens is that those athletes who get in the zone play the best game of their careers. (This phenomena is well known Google it if you've never heard of it)
My point is that those athletes while they're in the zone or if your watching a really good film or you are meditating and you experience a mindless state you still exist don't you? you still feel.
I think that this quote to be accurate should be changed to "I am, therefore, i feel"
Originally posted by orrite??
Orrite??
About maybe a month ago, i was listening to this spiritual teacher on CD and at one point he said "...its actually impossible to know anything with absolute certainty, you can only know something with either a greater or lesser amount of certainty.." (paraphrased)
This was a massive revelation for me. I suddenly realised that everything i believed to be true; everything i thought i knew was utterly worthless. All these hours i had spent reading spiritual books; going to talks; had all been for nothing, because they were only beliefs and i would never be able to know if my beliefs were true or false, which led me to realise that the only thing i knew, is that i knew nothing.
At that moment i literally felt all my beliefs fall to the ground, these beliefs about spirituality and enlightenment had burdened me all this time and i felt this HUGE relief come over my body, especially my shoulders. Then, i felt this veil lift up over my eyes. (the best way to describe it is like bridal veil that you see brides wear sometimes at weddings XD).
I noticed immediately how quiet my mind was all my mental ramblings had stopped but i still retained my "practical mind" the voice in your head you hear when reading a book or working out a maths problem.
The next day, when i was walking in the city, i noticed how content and happy i felt, (not blissfully happy with tears streaming down my face which i think is quite a common misconception about enlightenment) it felt more like contentment but better lol. I also noticed that i could feel the illusory nature of the world, i felt like i was in a computer game. I then saw this businessman on his mobile phone being all stressed and stuff, and i just laughed at him because i understood that we aren't who we believe ourselves to be, its our beliefs that are keeping us from becoming enlightened; and that life is just a game we play, a game which isn't about winning or losing, and when the game ends, if we like, we can choose to play again.
We're not really Billy Smith or Sarah Millman we are just infinite consciousness (god) pretending to be. We are the best actors ever! That's why i laughed at the businessman because i thought "Ha! that guy really believes he's a businessman!, He doesn't realise he's just god pretending to be! chill out! It's just a game!"
So i was wondering has anyone else experienced anythings similar to this or knows what exactly this is? Is this enlightenment or maybe something else? If you could shed any light on this that would be great. I have been looking on the internet but have found very little.
thanks.
P.S sorry its a bit lengthy
Originally posted by Another one of You
reply to post by NorEaster
I am where I'm supposed to be.
Thanks for the advice on where, you think I should experience life.
Since all is One, you are giving advice to yourself, and could probably benefit by taking your own advice.
Careful what you create, though.
I have nothing further to say to you.
I see you, and that matters. When you can see yourself, whether it is through me or another version of you, you will understand things more clearly; and you'll understand why I've chose to treat you the way I have.
Light and Love
Originally posted by NorEaster
So, have all the enlightened ATSers checked in yet? It's like some sort of convention in this thread.
So, since we have you all here, can I ask a question without hijacking the thread?
If there had never been some guy (whoever it was) that had described this enlightenment for you (within the pages of a book or by way of a Youtube video clip), then would you know what enlightenment is? In other words - and you need to really consider this - is your experience of being enlightened, and your claim to knowing what enlightenment is, the result of a definition that was given to you by a person who claimed to be enlightened? And if so, why would this person have more credibility than any other person with the same claim of personal transcendence.
Even if this person was (for lack of a better word) an astral being. After all, the current word among world-class mediums is that when a person crosses, they don't become transcendent, they merely change vibrational frequency. Again, in other words, they are no more learned than they were a second before death, and their individual interpretation of the hereafter is still affected by what they believed while they were alive.
This is an open question to anyone that feels as if they want to take it on. Personally, I believe that human intellect is 100% perception and perspective, and that we all actively decide what we'll accept as truth. This, of course, means that I absolutely reject the notion of a realized corporeal transcendence, and even intellectual transcendence, other than the realization that such realized transcendence is one more way to score a personal win over one (or more) of the humans that share this very specific (who is more enlightened, you or me?) arena with you.
Read over this thread and see how competitive the whole thing is (me too, but I'll admit to being a carnal beast with no capacity for transcendence) from the very first post. Yes, some posts are less overt, but those that welcome this young grasshopper to the club are just as dripping with competitiveness as the ones challenging said grasshopper's ability to be enlightened. In fact, the testosterone levels are overwhelming.
I just wonder what causes someone to make the determination that they have achieved enlightenment. My grandfather was a member of the Jehovah's Witness club for 50 years, and was one of the exhalted 144,000 - which is what they call their enlightened ones. I asked him how he got elected, and he told me that it wasn't like that. What happens is that one day, such a person simply "realizes" that they are one of the 144,000, and they make it known during a worship service. I asked him if someone could either lie or be mistaken, and he simply said "no". Later, he converted to Christianity (hardcore Evangelicalism) when he was 80 yrs old, and spent the next 6 years on the chapel circuit debunking the JWs with speaker fees and a book for sale. Some 144,000 member he turned out to be.
I just wonder how much of this is wishing we could be Keono Reeves and slo-mo around bullets for a living?
[edit on 9-7-2010 by NorEaster]
Originally posted by AProphet1233
reply to post by depth om
Ah, lovely, an inquiring soul. The purpose of man you say? Of...MAN? Such an elegant and eternal question, what beauty!
Although I must ask, do you mean in the individual sense or the collective?
In the former is intrinsic inevitability. The latter is non other than jocular judiciousness.
Uh humm, my book will soon be available on amazon.
Originally posted by General.Lee
I have been reading through this thread and it is quite entertaining. Trying to put into words something that defies definition can be difficult. In regards to everything being an illusion, let me try my hand at it.
Suppose you were born with a disorder where red was green and green was red. In other words, you saw just the opposite of what everybody else sees. But, because we can't see what your brain sees, we have no way of knowing.
What you see is RED grass, but you have been taught, all your life, that it is GREEN, so when YOU SEE RED, you call it GREEN. It would be impossible for anybody to know that you don't see what everybody else sees!
Therefore, it doesn't really matter. The point is, our entire world is our own personal perception and not necessarily real. We have our own personal reality.
Not sure what the hell this has to do with anything, but it's intriguing nonetheless.