What does it feel like to be Enlightened?

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Dontaskme
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Re: What does it feel like to be Enlightened?

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Hermit Philosopher wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:17 pm
Dontaskme wrote: Sun Nov 29, 2020 10:16 am When I became enlightened, it felt like this :arrow: :arrow:

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And roughly how long ago was that, Dontaskme?

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How long ago was what?

Please be more specific?
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Re: What does it feel like to be Enlightened?

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Dontaskme wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:19 pm
Hermit Philosopher wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:17 pm
Dontaskme wrote: Sun Nov 29, 2020 10:16 am When I became enlightened, it felt like this :arrow: :arrow:

Image
And roughly how long ago was that, Dontaskme?

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How long ago was what?

Please be more specific?

Roughly, how long ago was your enlightenment..?
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Re: What does it feel like to be Enlightened?

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Hermit Philosopher wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:24 pm
Dontaskme wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:19 pm
Hermit Philosopher wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:17 pm

And roughly how long ago was that, Dontaskme?

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How long ago was what?

Please be more specific?

Roughly, how long ago was your enlightenment..?
When I was around the age of 4/5 years old. when I first became aware I was aware, when I became aware of myself as an individual self.
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Re: What does it feel like to be Enlightened?

Post by Hermit Philosopher »

Dontaskme wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:26 pm
Hermit Philosopher wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:24 pm
Dontaskme wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:19 pm

How long ago was what?

Please be more specific?

Roughly, how long ago was your enlightenment..?
When I was around the age of 4/5 years old. when I first became aware I was aware, when I became aware of myself as an individual self.

Thank you.

I am not familiar with this version of enlightenment. Have you a definition? I am not sarcastic; I find it interesting.


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Re: What does it feel like to be Enlightened?

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Hermit Philosopher wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:32 pm

Thank you.

I am not familiar with this version of enlightenment. Have you a definition? I am not sarcastic; I find it interesting.


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You're welcome.

I believe we each have our own definition, our own unique personal interpretation of what the word ''enlightenment'' means.

To me, it's not fixed concept, it's a personal belief structured by the mind, the word can mean anything, it can mean lots of different things to different people according to their unique beliefs.

What's your definition of the word ''enlightenment'' ?


Also, another thought crossed my mind....I was already enlightenment before the age of 4/5 years old, before I became aware I was aware of being a separate self. That is another denfintion of what it means to be enlightenment..enlightened.


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Re: What does it feel like to be Enlightened?

Post by Hermit Philosopher »

Dontaskme wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:43 pm
Hermit Philosopher wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:32 pm

Thank you.

I am not familiar with this version of enlightenment. Have you a definition? I am not sarcastic; I find it interesting.


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You're welcome.

I believe we each have our own definition, our own unique personal interpretation of what the word ''enlightenment'' means.

To me, it's not fixed concept, it's a personal belief structured by the mind, the word can mean anything, it can mean lots of different things to different people according to their unique beliefs.

What's your definition of the word ''enlightenment'' ?

Also, another thought crossed my mind....I was already enlightenment before the age of 4/5 years old, before I became aware I was aware of being a separate self.

I don’t know what my definition would be.

But I believe that I have seen patters in those who claim to be spiritually enlightened; things they appear to have in common after their “experience”, so to say. Their stories are very different but their outcomes seem similar. It is interesting, I think.

Can one define something by its effect, perhaps...?

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Re: What does it feel like to be Enlightened?

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Hermit Philosopher wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:53 pm

I don’t know what my definition would be.

But I believe that I have seen patters in those who claim to be spiritually enlightened; things they appear to have in common after their “experience”, so to say. Their stories are very different but their outcomes seem similar. It is interesting, I think.

Can one define something by its effect, perhaps...?

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There's nothing spiritual about enlightenment, to me, it's more of an organic and natural feeling, it's not something beyond the ordinary, everyday simple senses that are here right now. Defining something can only become known to us via an effect, so there must only be effects here...and that is what we relate to. We are the effects, we cause the effects by relating to the effects.
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Re: What does it feel like to be Enlightened?

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Dontaskme wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 2:06 pmDefining something can only become known to us via an effect, so there must only be effects here...and that is what we relate to. We are the effects, we cause the effects by relating to the effects.
I can see logic in what you say here, Dontaskme.
But by that same logic; if there are common effects in those who claim spiritual enlightenment, there’d be some ground to suggest that there could be something to this spiritual-enlightenment thing after all.

Dontaskme wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 2:06 pm.../to me, it's more of an organic and natural feeling, it's not something beyond the ordinary, everyday simple senses that are here right now.
True, your description does not sound spiritual. Doesn’t matter obviously, it’s just a different thing to what I’m used to hearing. :)

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Re: What does it feel like to be Enlightened?

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Dontaskme wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 12:43 pm
Lacewing wrote: Sun Nov 29, 2020 7:05 pm To see and feel beyond what one has seen and felt previously... which (it appears to me) is an ongoing, never-ending, continually-expansive/flexible/fluid experience.
What is seen and felt that is beyond previous seeing and feeling, can only be coming from a knowledge stored in memory, so what's changed about seeing and feeling that is now new and not of the old held in memory?

I don't think that's true. Just like children with no ego attachment to prior experience/memory... there's always newness... there's always more... and things can be naturally seen and known, without need for explanation.

Any old/past is not perpetuated or coveted. Any idea of self is not protected or justified. Supposed knowledge and memories are not needed, nor are they an obstacle. Every new moment need not be dependent on what has been before.
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Re: What does it feel like to be Enlightened?

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Lacewing wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 4:39 pm
Dontaskme wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 12:43 pm
Lacewing wrote: Sun Nov 29, 2020 7:05 pm To see and feel beyond what one has seen and felt previously... which (it appears to me) is an ongoing, never-ending, continually-expansive/flexible/fluid experience.
What is seen and felt that is beyond previous seeing and feeling, can only be coming from a knowledge stored in memory, so what's changed about seeing and feeling that is now new and not of the old held in memory?

I don't think that's true. Just like children with no ego attachment to prior experience/memory... there's always newness... there's always more... and things can be naturally seen and known, without need for explanation.

Any old/past is not perpetuated or coveted. Any idea of self is not protected or justified. Supposed knowledge and memories are not needed, nor are they an obstacle. Every new moment need not be dependent on what has been before.
I agree with what you are saying...in the context of the old and past...but the actual realtime events of every new moment cannot be known to have happened in the EXACT moment they are happening, if they could, you would be a time machine and be able to stop something from happening before it happens.It's only on reflection via knowledge which is memory, that something is known to have happened, and this is what gives continuity of the enity that is your being, it's how you know you know you are existing.

Every new moment need not be dependent on what has been before, is not entirely true, since every new moment is a seamless continuation of what came before, reality is a totally Acausal unitary action.

A very yound child will not know that putting it's hand on a hot stove will hurt until after the action. A child will only put it's hand on the hot stove once because it will remember not to do it again via the knowledge stored in it's memory from the first time it happened, all of these actions are already embedded within the one unitary Acausal action of life living itself.

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Last edited by Dontaskme on Mon Nov 30, 2020 6:58 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: What does it feel like to be Enlightened?

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Hermit Philosopher wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 3:29 pm
Dontaskme wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 2:06 pmDefining something can only become known to us via an effect, so there must only be effects here...and that is what we relate to. We are the effects, we cause the effects by relating to the effects.
I can see logic in what you say here, Dontaskme.
But by that same logic; if there are common effects in those who claim spiritual enlightenment, there’d be some ground to suggest that there could be something to this spiritual-enlightenment thing after all.
I think it just means there is a knowing that the I that I think exists, does not exist at all. It's quite a natural occuring phenomena that can and often spontaneously arise in one's thought stream. It can happen to anyone at any time.



Hermit Philosopher wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 3:29 pmTrue, your description does not sound spiritual. Doesn’t matter obviously, it’s just a different thing to what I’m used to hearing. :)

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Some people seem to think that enlightenment is what happens to a person and so they think that it's something to get that is outside of itself, that it has to reach out for, and so they call it a spiritual experience, when in fact, all the time the person is already enlightenment without doing anything to get it, or reach for it.

People hear it is something to attain, and that's what they believe, so the idea sticks. But it's rare to hear that there is nothing to do or attain to reach enlightenment.

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Re: What does it feel like to be Enlightened?

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Dontaskme wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 6:48 pm Some people seem to think that enlightenment is what happens to a person and so they think that it's something to get that is outside of itself, that it has to reach out for, and so they call it a spiritual experience, when in fact, all the time the person is already enlightenment without doing anything to get it, or reach for it.

People hear it is something to attain, and that's what they believe, so the idea sticks. But it's rare to hear that there is nothing to do or attain to reach enlightenment.

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There is plenty to do, more for some than others. What must be done is clear away all the crap that obscures enlightenment. Even Buddha struggled for years until he said, this is my last stand. I move forward or my bones stay here forever. The final battle cleared the last delusions to reveal reality, unadorned.

Obsession with the microsecond separation of cause and effect ignores the most crucial aspect of existence, namely, that the effect is your recognition, and thus reality can only ever exist for you the moment phenomena registers with awareness. Give it some thought and see if you agree. Why? Because as a limited, dualistic incarnation of life there is a whole lot of phenomena that you never know directly, can never know directly, although you can theorize. Anyone can only touch so much of the elephant as what current comprehension of physicality allows, however total comprehension is obscured by the above referenced crap-veil, if unenlightened.
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Re: What does it feel like to be Enlightened?

Post by Hermit Philosopher »

@Dontaskme, forgive me for quoting in this manner - I cannot seem to do it “correctly” all of a sudden. :)

You wrote:
.../it's rare to hear that there is nothing to do or attain to reach enlightenment.
This is not true in my experience. Many of whom I have spoken to, say just that; that they did nothing to reach their new perspective, but rather “stumbled across it”. Often they express a sense of unworthiness because of it too. But that’s because they see it differently to you of course.

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Re: What does it feel like to be Enlightened?

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Dontaskme wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 6:34 pm the actual realtime events of every new moment cannot be known to have happened in the EXACT moment they are happening,
They don't need to be.

Reflection and memory are other perspectives.
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Re: What does it feel like to be Enlightened?

Post by Lacewing »

Dontaskme wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:26 pm
Hermit Philosopher wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:24 pm Roughly, how long ago was your enlightenment..?
When I was around the age of 4/5 years old. when I first became aware I was aware, when I became aware of myself as an individual self.
Are you saying -- according to the opening post -- that when you were 4/5 years old, you had existential depression from confronting issues of existence: death, freedom, isolation and meaninglessness?
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