What is Enlightenment?

[running]

Originally Posted by MysticVoyage

Running - your thoughts are very deep and very much appreciated. On the topic of oneness experiences and integration - I had such an experience 5 years ago.

I had a realization that there is really only one "beingness" if your will, looking out through all our eyes. And everyone I met, I saw myself looking back at me. There were no "others" - we are all one behind this veil of individuality.

And the energy was intense, and I laughed my head off at the realization. And you couldn't wipe the smile from my face - for like a year, maybe a bit more.

But my family insisted I be the individual they knew, and my colleagues treated my like the individual they knew. Over time, the smile wasn't as intense and I started taking "reality" more seriously again.

The experience still comes back - I've never gone back to the self-centered individual. My cravings for gadgets, travel, etc are all still gone. Desires seem to have permanently vanished. But the sense of bliss seems constrained by the bonds of caring for those around me still suffering from seeing themselves as separate individuals.

And maybe that is part of the key. Because I see everyone as united in oneness, I feel it even more then before when people suffer. It is no longer "others" that are hurting.

So, integration has been a challenge for me. I feel I've taken one very big step, but like a cyclist that tops a hill, suddenly a bigger hill comes into view.

Anyone have thoughts on not just enlightenment, but integration?

I know that experience as well. That there has never been anything but you. No room for anything but joy. Over time that joy can integrate into everything. For me i spent time every day getting into that energy. I would go into like a trance and often times release emotions to get back to it. Meditating and whatever i could to find myself there again. Over time i got stuck into it. Like you become it. It feels like thats what your made of. And your drinking yourself up as you breath and so on. Its very possible to happen.

I dont worry about suffering like i used to. It may be going through enough suffering a surrendering happens that brings someone to the bliss.

[dryad]

I see oneness as different to enlightenment. Enlightenment applies to the individual. Oneness is going beyond the individual. Enlightenment (in my definition) is oneness within the self. Where the conscious self becomes one with the larger soul self as well as other aspects within the soul self like past lives and dark aspects etc.

[Gemcrusader]

Being at ease in hell.

Originally Posted by Krosser

I just want to see your definitions of it.

Realization of self-responsibility, and how to do it.

[Shivani Devi]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

I never use that term...but off the top...when you/I can feel
the Divine Presence in a wall...touch it and go into an ecstatic state
sensing this Being
that is all around and in a state of perpetual Love.
Door latches, the air you breathe...take your pick.

So much of this! <3

[happy soul]

What is enlightenment?

As I understand it, there are two levels of enlightenment.

There's what the Zen Buddhists 'little enlightenment' (liberation), and there's 'big enlightenment' (realization).

Little enlightenment is when you've found and accepted truth.

Big enlightenment comes after you've fully LIVED and EXPERIENCED the truth.

With little enlightenment, you KNOW the truth. With big enlightenment, you've BECOME the truth; you ARE the truth.

[Gemcrusader]

Originally Posted by Gemcrusader

Being at ease in hell.

Or better said, being unaffected of negative emotions.

[Gemcrusader]

Originally Posted by happy soul

What is enlightenment?

As I understand it, there are two levels of enlightenment.

There's what the Zen Buddhists 'little enlightenment' (liberation), and there's 'big enlightenment' (realization).

Little enlightenment is when you've found and accepted truth.

Big enlightenment comes after you've fully LIVED and EXPERIENCED the truth.

With little enlightenment, you KNOW the truth. With big enlightenment, you've BECOME the truth; you ARE the truth.

this as well pretty much. People that say enlightenment doesnt exist are ignorant. But that is because they cant bare to embrace the idea since it shatters ur state of being.

[ajay00]

Enlightenment in the Hindu context, is the destruction of all vasanas or karmas or unconscious psychological tendencies created through identification with the false self or ego.

Awareness or total love destroys all karma.

Nisargadatta Maharaj attained enlightenment after adhering to his spiritual teacher's teaching of being in the 'I am' state of awareness or pure consciousness, devoid of the habitual thinking and emoting process.

By practicing this state of awareness for three years, Nisargadatta attained enlightenment.


Here is his explanation of this teaching...

My Guru told me: "...Go back to that state of pure being, where the ‘I am’ is still in its purity before it got contaminated with ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that.’ Your burden is of false self-identifications—abandon them all." My guru told me, "Trust me, I tell you: you are Divine. Take it as the absolute truth. Your joy is divine, your suffering is divine too. All comes from God. Remember it always. You are God, your will alone is done."

I did believe him and soon realized how wonderfully true and accurate were his words. I did not condition my mind by thinking, "I am God, I am wonderful, I am beyond." I simply followed his instruction, which was to focus the mind on pure being, "I am," and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the "I am" in my mind and soon the peace and joy and deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared—myself, my guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained, and unfathomable silence. (I Am That, Dialogue 51)


Similarly, there is also a recent enlightened master called Devamrita, who attained enlightenment in six months after steadfastly being in a state of awareness, while adhering to his job as a pharmacist.

Similarly in Devamrita, the constant practice of awareness destroyed all karmas and unconscious psychological tendencies, eventually resulting in his enlightenment.

I was privileged to meet him and learn about his enlightenment process in his own words.

[bluebird21]

My personal definition:

Letting go of resistance to what you feel and to reality.
In other words - giving up the seeking to fix, alter, change, heal.

This leads to a realization that there is no you with a boundary and brings you into the present moment.

To be fully enlightened is to be an entirely genuine human being who has given up resistance. ❤️