Hello. I'm an enlightened person.

Originally Posted by Falling Star

Very interesting introduction CiaranRT. Welcome to SF, i am sure you will find many enlightened beings here.

I hope so. If not... well, I'll see if I can help with that.

Originally Posted by psychoslice

Hi CiaranRT, welcome, yea my Enlightenment is just simple, just to be who I truly am, nothing more or nothing less.

I think that the process that buddhists refer to as enlightenment (and Hindus as Mokhsa, and Taoists as becoming one with the Tao and Sufis as Fanaa) is actually something else.

It's something quite specific. It has lots of flowery names, but when you really drill down (and that took me quite a few years) there is a specific psychological process that they are talking about.

It isn't magic, it isn't rocket science, it's not vague at all - in any way - and it has no alternate interpretation. There is a core.

They call it, in Buddhism, the delusion of self.

This is quite a grand way of putting it. I think too grand.

It's less of a delusion. It's more like an assumption.

We assume that the experience of life we are having is being 'lived' by someone. Us.

It's not. The experience of life we are having is the totality of all that is nad has no source in any conventional sense.

It is the present moment - it is uncaused in the same way as one piece of water in the flow of a river has no cause. It's not magic, but to say that there is a 'thing' pushing it on is to ignore that it's just part of the flow.

This present moment of existence, this flow of life - there is no self standing outside it experiencing it.

There is no self in any sense.

One of the main ways a person can get lost is to confuse 'no you' with 'I am the flow'.

This is quite a distraction. The truth is, there is no you in any sense. There's just the flow. Just the flow of life.

That's it. There's no you.

Enlightenment is simply the recognition that this is not just an idea. It is the actual case.

For that, you need to sit down and seriously look at it - but the path to enlightenment only takes as long as it takes to see this, and no longer.

Once attained - yes, it can (and should and will) be deepened.

It is not the end of a journey. It is the first step - BUT - the first step cannot be anything else than this: the simple recognition that there is no you.

You can't believe it - that doesn't do anything.

You can't 'work it out in your head' - that doesn't work either.

These things are fine though - don't feel you need to burn either out. You just need to step beyond them, and start asking real questions about real life and really looking for real answers.

That's the step beyond 'understanding' and 'belief'. Start engaging very deeply (well, as deeply as you can) with reality.

So yeah, I was going to respond to everyone on this thread, but I think I've covered most of the things you've brought up.

You should have enough to chew on for now.

I've put a link in my signature to a big piece (it is really long, so be warned) that goes into a lot of detail about who I am (so to speak) and what the path I've taken to get here is. Don't feel you have to soldier through it if you don't want to.

Much love.