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Lemex, I was talking about the process of realization in regards to achieving enlightenment. I thought I explained it well enough in my post but I guess not, my friend knows more about the topic than I do because I'm more interested in understanding what reality is and how it works, than what enlightenment is and how that works. He says its the same thing - wanting to understand reality is same as trying to become enlightened. I agree with him to a certain extent but I want to know the ins and outs, all the mechanics and every small detail that goes along with whole picture. He also says that you can have an enlightenment experience but that isn't enlightenment because enlightenment is a permanent change not a fleeting experience. I realized the truth a long time ago but I call this awakening not enlightenment, awakening is about opening up oneself and discovering the truth, but enlightenment would be more about accepting that truth and becoming one with it and reaching an ultimate blissful state of being. It's not that I shy away from it or don't want it, just that I haven't reached the stage where I believe it whole heartedly and self actualize. My friend describes being enlightened as a completely effortless state of being, where you are aware of awareness, aware of being aware of being aware, ad infinum.
My friend believes there are enlightened masters alive today, and has even showed me a few that make youtube video's about enlightenment. Personally, I think these people are just more aware or further along the road and that there isn't a single enlightened person on the planet alive today, because if there was you would know it, everyone would know it. It would be the same as being alive in the days of Ra, Buddha, or Jesus. People like Eckhart Tolle, Sadhguru or Mooji might say they are enlightened and believe it themselves to be true, when really they just know a lot of things and use a mindfulness practice very often. Do you think in a thousand years they will be remembered in history the same way we know about Ra, Buddha or Jesus? I doubt it.
I'm finding many people see ego as a bad word, or bad thing that only has negative connotations attached. I don't see it that way, there is a lot of good that comes from the ego, and like Greenslade said it's your source of personality and individuality. It's probably more a case of people letting their ego grow wild and untamed, people often aren't aware of the need to school your own thoughts, or teach your own mind how it should behave. The mind is a tool and should be used as such, if the tool is broken you fix it, if you don't need the tool then you put it away for later use. You need that tool to function and survive.
Mike is also right, in that people use the knowledge to further their own ends (often for nefarious reasons) and that mainstream spirituality has the tendency to lead people astray. It does feel outdated in need of change, people get the wrong idea of ego and think ego-death is a requirement, I guess if you want to be in constant unity with everything and no thought for yourself then yeah it is. I would rather become self empowered as an individual, than part of the collective borg. For most people the whole reason for going on this journey is to learn, grow, understand and develop oneself, not to dissolve oneself.
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