I don't mean you becoming an astral deity when talking about enlightenment - I'm talking about the feeling of complete peace and happiness that people who meditate for years describe
Just keep meditating with that intention and you'll get there.
Don't lean too heavily on the teachings of others, Buddhist dogma has resulted in a very narrow, very boring view of what enlightenment entails because the whole point of their teachings is to escape the cycle of reincarnation. Worry about that kind of shit when you're 70, for now just attain bliss imo
Yeah, I briefly practiced traditional meditation and hit ego death and then quit because my only real goal was to cure anxiety/existential dread. Nowadays I only alternative Joe Dispenza "elevated emotions" type stuff
Look at John Yates who everyone is recommending, homie cheated on his wife for years, and with prostitutes to boot. Look at the Dalai Llama, getting his tongue sucked by shotas. Maybe just maybe pursuing only absolute "awareness" is a moronic move, and you should be trying to become a more normal type of saint instead
basically you stare at an idol or sacred painting. he gives a three stage model, I forget exactly the stages but basically you get absorbed in the object and then this causes you to have a realization that you are constituted of the same essence as what you were absorbed in.
Meditation and its practice by Swami Rama is one best books in meditation imo. His father was a Bengali Yogi who lived with Himalayan masters and he was also one of the earliest proponents if meditation in the west.
Here's the book I used: >The Complete Yoga Book >by James Hewett
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1035401.Complete_Yoga_Book
I find doing some yoga or exercise ahead of time to be helpful but basically for me meditation boils down to a process like this:
1. Lay in savasana/corpse pose. Stay motionless. You might want a pillow or neck support.
2. Listen to your breathing. Keep it regular and relaxed. Occasionally you might inhale deeply and exhale slowly to release tension, then go back to regular breathing.
3. Thoughts will pop into head seemingly at random.
4. Observe, detach, release. If necessary, remind yourself that whatever problems you face in life, there's nothing that can't wait 30 minutes, so just let it go.
5. Random thoughts will become increasingly less urgent and stressful. Instead of revisiting the argument you had with your girlfriend, you'll get an idea for a novel. But still, let it go for now.
6. You'll notice that keeping your body still and moving only rarely and with slow deliberate purpose, is important. If you reflexively itch your nose or adjust your arms, involuntary thoughts are likely to follow. Brain and physical posture/activity are intrinsically linked.
7. When involuntary thoughts have mostly stopped, begin using your relaxed mind to further relax your muscles. Try to locate subconscious tension that often shows up in places like your face muscles. Let tension drain out, imagine you're a rag doll falling through the air or whatever metaphor works for you. It might help to deliberately increase some tension before releasing it, to get the feel for controlling it.
8. Without hyperventilating, you might also try breathing more deeply or more quickly to further relax your muscles.
Eventually you should feel totally passive, relaxed and still with no thoughts in your head whatsoever other than the sensory experience of your environment. You should be able to feel as if you can hold this state of relaxation forever. Depending on how much tension, anxiety and other mental stress you are carrying, this process can take a really long time. When I first did it in my 20s, it took me like 45 minutes (alone, with no podcast or other bullshit) to finally let go of all the bullshit in my head and feel utterly relaxed. Most people don't seem to take that long, but you don't want to give up in frustration just because you didn't give it enough time.
And that's the basis. There's various more advanced things you can do once you have master these (eg forming images, etc) but at least for me none of that was as profound as taming the subconscious.
The ultimate enlightenment is knowing what happens after death and what the meaning of life actually is. And as one NDE researcher said that he does not know anyone who has read the literature on NDEs who has not been convinced by it, and the book in pic related is known to convince even hardened skeptics that there is an afterlife. And NDErs talk about how the meaning of life is to learn to love and be kind and thrive here despite how hard it is in this world. So how is it going anon? <3
And NDEs are more real than this world, in every way. For example, they are more consistent experiences, illustrated well by this quote:
>"For me, life is sort of like the haunted house. When you come in, you know it's just an experience. It's small, it's just one night, right? So it's just this one life. You're eternal, you have billions of lives, so knowing that you're going to come in just for one to have an experience, though it may be judged as tough, or difficult, or scary, you actually chose it because you knew it was just going to be an experience, you know it's no big deal. You understand on the other side that this part, life, is actually the dream, and you just wake up after. It's no different than one dream you had last night, out of a lifetime of dreams. This life that you're having right now is just one, it's just a blip."
So just like life is more consistent than our dreams (dreams last a few moments, life has been the same for decades), so too is the NDE reality more consistent than life (life has been the same for decades, the NDE reality has been the same for forever, for way more than trillions of years). Here this point is elaborated more on:
And it is instantly evident to NDErs that heaven is real too, even atheists:
>"It's real to us when we're in it, but once I was there in heaven I realized that's more real, that felt more real, and it made much more sense to me than anything here. This is kind of nonsensical at times. In heaven, it's so clear, so real, so rational, so logical, but yet emotional and loving at the same time. Immediately I knew that was real and this was not. Immediately."
From https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mysteries-consciousness/202204/does-afterlife-obviously-exist
enlightenment = happiness = power
>people still get convinced that enlightenment is real after 2500 years of nobody achieving it
I don't mean you becoming an astral deity when talking about enlightenment - I'm talking about the feeling of complete peace and happiness that people who meditate for years describe
https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/sosan-no-hanashi.pdf
Thanks Anon, keep 'em coming!
Just keep meditating with that intention and you'll get there.
Don't lean too heavily on the teachings of others, Buddhist dogma has resulted in a very narrow, very boring view of what enlightenment entails because the whole point of their teachings is to escape the cycle of reincarnation. Worry about that kind of shit when you're 70, for now just attain bliss imo
Has it worked for you Anon?
Yeah, I briefly practiced traditional meditation and hit ego death and then quit because my only real goal was to cure anxiety/existential dread. Nowadays I only alternative Joe Dispenza "elevated emotions" type stuff
Look at John Yates who everyone is recommending, homie cheated on his wife for years, and with prostitutes to boot. Look at the Dalai Llama, getting his tongue sucked by shotas. Maybe just maybe pursuing only absolute "awareness" is a moronic move, and you should be trying to become a more normal type of saint instead
i experience it on 2 tabs of good lsd all the time. it just doesn't come back with me
Same here, I need to learn how to reach it without psychedelics
Perfect.
The Upanishads
The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali
The Pali Canon
Not these. Only thing worthwhile here is the fixed point method from the yoga sutra. But OP probably has no sacred objects to look at.
Can you elaborate on the fixed point method?
basically you stare at an idol or sacred painting. he gives a three stage model, I forget exactly the stages but basically you get absorbed in the object and then this causes you to have a realization that you are constituted of the same essence as what you were absorbed in.
Meditation and its practice by Swami Rama is one best books in meditation imo. His father was a Bengali Yogi who lived with Himalayan masters and he was also one of the earliest proponents if meditation in the west.
Siddhartha - Herman Hesse
the mind illuminated - good instructions and systematic
mastering the core teachings of the buddha - good addition, lots of info, very practical
The Mind Illuminated and Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
Taming the Monkey Mind is good for Pure Land related practices. There's also With each and every Breath for Theravadins.
Here's the book I used:
>The Complete Yoga Book
>by James Hewett
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1035401.Complete_Yoga_Book
I find doing some yoga or exercise ahead of time to be helpful but basically for me meditation boils down to a process like this:
1. Lay in savasana/corpse pose. Stay motionless. You might want a pillow or neck support.
2. Listen to your breathing. Keep it regular and relaxed. Occasionally you might inhale deeply and exhale slowly to release tension, then go back to regular breathing.
3. Thoughts will pop into head seemingly at random.
4. Observe, detach, release. If necessary, remind yourself that whatever problems you face in life, there's nothing that can't wait 30 minutes, so just let it go.
5. Random thoughts will become increasingly less urgent and stressful. Instead of revisiting the argument you had with your girlfriend, you'll get an idea for a novel. But still, let it go for now.
6. You'll notice that keeping your body still and moving only rarely and with slow deliberate purpose, is important. If you reflexively itch your nose or adjust your arms, involuntary thoughts are likely to follow. Brain and physical posture/activity are intrinsically linked.
7. When involuntary thoughts have mostly stopped, begin using your relaxed mind to further relax your muscles. Try to locate subconscious tension that often shows up in places like your face muscles. Let tension drain out, imagine you're a rag doll falling through the air or whatever metaphor works for you. It might help to deliberately increase some tension before releasing it, to get the feel for controlling it.
8. Without hyperventilating, you might also try breathing more deeply or more quickly to further relax your muscles.
Eventually you should feel totally passive, relaxed and still with no thoughts in your head whatsoever other than the sensory experience of your environment. You should be able to feel as if you can hold this state of relaxation forever. Depending on how much tension, anxiety and other mental stress you are carrying, this process can take a really long time. When I first did it in my 20s, it took me like 45 minutes (alone, with no podcast or other bullshit) to finally let go of all the bullshit in my head and feel utterly relaxed. Most people don't seem to take that long, but you don't want to give up in frustration just because you didn't give it enough time.
And that's the basis. There's various more advanced things you can do once you have master these (eg forming images, etc) but at least for me none of that was as profound as taming the subconscious.
The ultimate enlightenment is knowing what happens after death and what the meaning of life actually is. And as one NDE researcher said that he does not know anyone who has read the literature on NDEs who has not been convinced by it, and the book in pic related is known to convince even hardened skeptics that there is an afterlife. And NDErs talk about how the meaning of life is to learn to love and be kind and thrive here despite how hard it is in this world. So how is it going anon? <3
And NDEs are more real than this world, in every way. For example, they are more consistent experiences, illustrated well by this quote:
>"For me, life is sort of like the haunted house. When you come in, you know it's just an experience. It's small, it's just one night, right? So it's just this one life. You're eternal, you have billions of lives, so knowing that you're going to come in just for one to have an experience, though it may be judged as tough, or difficult, or scary, you actually chose it because you knew it was just going to be an experience, you know it's no big deal. You understand on the other side that this part, life, is actually the dream, and you just wake up after. It's no different than one dream you had last night, out of a lifetime of dreams. This life that you're having right now is just one, it's just a blip."
So just like life is more consistent than our dreams (dreams last a few moments, life has been the same for decades), so too is the NDE reality more consistent than life (life has been the same for decades, the NDE reality has been the same for forever, for way more than trillions of years). Here this point is elaborated more on:
And it is instantly evident to NDErs that heaven is real too, even atheists:
>"It's real to us when we're in it, but once I was there in heaven I realized that's more real, that felt more real, and it made much more sense to me than anything here. This is kind of nonsensical at times. In heaven, it's so clear, so real, so rational, so logical, but yet emotional and loving at the same time. Immediately I knew that was real and this was not. Immediately."
From https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mysteries-consciousness/202204/does-afterlife-obviously-exist
So heaven is undeniably real.
kys
Filter the image md5 and you'll never deal with them again