i experienced awakening/Enlightenment

[hellbike]

Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Also, i wonder how many people have experienced this - because i know only 1. maybe this is common and this topic is unnecessary.

[Jikan]

Please describe the practice that led you to this breakthrough.

[hellbike]

Please describe the practice that led you to this breakthrough.

I didn't knew anything about neither meditation nor enlightenment before i experienced it.

I broke up with my girlfriend and for first time in my life i decided to accept my situation rather than denying it and with this acceptation of other things in my life has came. After one week i experienced something that i was caling "awakening". I heve came to realization that i was asleep this whole time, just like everyone around me. For next week i have more powerful awakening states every day, and after about one week - i have had achieved maximum, which i was reffering to as "enlightenment". After that i spent 2 years being obsessed about going back to this state, unable to think about anything else.

The only way to achieve this is to be at present. However, this sounds enigmatic and unclear; one could say you have to follow your heart all the time, starting now. It may be hard at beginning, because this inner voice may be drowned because of years of denial - but once on right path it takes very, very little time to "look through the clouds".

My state was not pernament and i'm not sure how should i call what i have experienced - however it was 100% like enlighted people describe their enlightenment.

It's interesting coincidence that i was calling this "enlightement"/"awakening" before i knew that others call it the same way.

[hellbike]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gGN7gGwJKo

from 3:42 to 5:15


this is the best short exaplanation of "how to achieve enlightenment" i have seen, but i don't know if it can be fully understood by someone who hasn't achieved it yet. It's very easy to fall into loops that will make enlightenment impossible to achieve.

[Josef]

It sounds like what you have done is recognize the first couple noble truths.
This is the beginning, not the end, at least as far as Buddhism is concerned.
I would be willing to wager that every single poster on this forum has had the same experience, they just are familiar enough with the teachings to know what it is, and that it is not enlightenment.

[hellbike]

I'm sorry but i cannot relate to buddhism (however i know very little about it). When listening to enlightened people or reading osho books I'm sure that i have experienced exactly what they did - but i don't feel the same way when reading about buddhism. Honestly i feel that the buddhism interpretation is wrong. I would have never call it "cessation of suffering", even though this is true. "cessation of suffering" is not the purpose, it's more like side effect, and calling enllightenent this way creates confusion. Buddism seems to treat this like the main goal (cessation of suffering).

As I said i know very little about buddhism itself and i may be wrong with my feelings about it.

[Josef]

I'm sorry but i cannot relate to buddhism (however i know very little about it). When listening to enlightened people or reading osho books I'm sure that i have experienced exactly what they did - but i don't feel the same way when reading about buddhism. Honestly i feel that the buddhism interpretation is wrong. I would have never call it "cessation of suffering", even though this is true. "cessation of suffering" is not the purpose, it's more like side effect, and calling enllightenent this way creates confusion. Buddism seems to treat this like the main goal (cessation of suffering).

As I said i know very little about buddhism itself and i may be wrong with my feelings about it.

Osho was definitely not enlightened either.
That man was a gross cult leader.

If you know nothing about Buddhism why are you posting your "enlightenment" in a Buddhist forum and how can you come to the conclusion that Buddhisms interpretation is wrong?

Sorry to burst your bubble friend but your experience is not unique, interesting, or all that profound.

Unlike Osho and Tolle, Buddhism requires commitment and discipline.
People love the hollow quick fix mish mash that Tolle offers because it allows them to remain deluded about their nature.

[Sonam Wangchug]

I don't know what you experienced. According to Buddhism, when someone becomes enlightened, they do not become unenlightened again. Also they have Omniscience.

[Josef]

I don't know what you experienced. According to Buddhism, when someone becomes enlightened, they do not become unenlightened again. Also they have Omniscience.

Among many other qualities of Buddhahood.

[hellbike]

I'm sorry but i cannot relate to buddhism (however i know very little about it). When listening to enlightened people or reading osho books I'm sure that i have experienced exactly what they did - but i don't feel the same way when reading about buddhism. Honestly i feel that the buddhism interpretation is wrong. I would have never call it "cessation of suffering", even though this is true. "cessation of suffering" is not the purpose, it's more like side effect, and calling enllightenent this way creates confusion. Buddism seems to treat this like the main goal (cessation of suffering).

As I said i know very little about buddhism itself and i may be wrong with my feelings about it.

Osho was definitely not enlightened either.
That man was a gross cult leader.

If you know nothing about Buddhism why are you posting your "enlightenment" in a Buddhist forum and how can you come to the conclusion that Buddhisms interpretation is wrong?

Sorry to burst your bubble friend but your experience is not unique, interesting, or all that profound.

You don't have to be a buddhist to become enlightened. The enlightenment is "the main purpose". It's the final state, it's the maximum awareness of reality. I don't think that what i have achieved may be different alternative to buddhist enlightenment and I'm sure that "my enlightenment" and "buddhist enlightenment" are the same thing - that's why I'm writing on this forum.


Buddhism for me seems like people who were not enlightened trying to understand and describe someone who was enlightened, and what have he experienced.
Following path determinated by people who were not enlightened - that's why i feel that i can opposite to what buddhism says and still post on this forum, stating that i have experienced the same thing everyone there are thinking about.

It's always scaries me when I'm reading how people try to achieve enlightenment, because i know they are going in opposite direction.


However, i've been wathing youtube videos of enlightened buddhists and i have never felt that they are wrong. Not enlightened buddhishts are the ones i disagree with.

[Josef]

You don't have to be a buddhist to become enlightened.

I never said that one had to be a Buddhist to become enlightened, just that the version of enlightenment proposed by the likes of Tolle and Osho is what we would consider to be the beginning of the path, not the end.

[deepbluehum]

If you are enlightened, you don't need to test it by having someone's students question you. If you are enlightened, go with that. But, be ready to withdraw your claim if it turns out to be wrong. Buddhism, especially Vajrayana and Dzogchen are very challenging subjects. It might behoove you to delve into them and compare their claims with your own. But if you are enlightened, you won't have any questions and you won't need to check with others.

[Nighthawk]

Good one "hellbike" good one

[Huifeng]

DFTT

[hellbike]

to clarify things - what i have experienced seems to be called kensho. Name of this topic states that i have experienced enlightenment which is true, but I'm not enlightened any more.

[Anders]

to clarify things - what i have experienced seems to be called kensho. Name of this topic states that i have experienced enlightenment which is true, but I'm not enlightened any more.

Go find a realised teacher to work with. What you describe is neither particularly rare nor special in Buddhist circles (and certainly not special enough to be posturing over on an internet bulletin board. You need to be taking cues from awakened teachers, not unawakened students on the internet). If you had had proper guidance back then, your guru would have shown you how to deepen that instead of regressing.

Osho is a good example of what happens when you don't have someone to guide you. He probably had some kind of spontaneous awakening experience, but no framework for how to deepen that or integrate it. So he concluded that once you had one experience, that was all there was to it and you were free to do whatever you wanted for the rest of your life. Consequently, he ended up a gross materialist cult leader of a deeply immoral community who led tons of students to spiritual ruin. If you had posted what you did on an Osho message board, they would probably have handed you a certificate to teach based on what in Buddhism is considered just a minor kensho and really just the beginning of the path proper.

[hellbike]

to clarify things - what i have experienced seems to be called kensho. Name of this topic states that i have experienced enlightenment which is true, but I'm not enlightened any more.

Go find a realised teacher to work with. What you describe is neither particularly rare nor special in Buddhist circles (and certainly not special enough to be posturing over on an internet bulletin board. You need to be taking cues from awakened teachers, not unawakened students on the internet). If you had had proper guidance back then, your guru would have shown you how to deepen that instead of regressing.

Osho is a good example of what happens when you don't have someone to guide you. He probably had some kind of spontaneous awakening experience, but no framework for how to deepen that or integrate it. So he concluded that once you had one experience, that was all there was to it and you were never free to do whatever you wanted for the rest of your life. Consequently, he ended up a gross materialist cult leader of a deeply immoral community who led tons of students to spiritual ruin. If you had posted what you did on an Osho message board, they would probably have handed you a certificate to teach based on what in Buddhism is considered just a minor kensho and really just the beginning of the path proper.

One of reasons i have created this topic was hope that i'll meet someone who was further than me.

[Anders]

One of reasons i have created this topic was hope that i'll meet someone who was further than me.

The internet is not the best place for that. Even if there are people here further along than you, it isn't likely they will tell you so. The culture on boards like this is generally that talking about one's deeper experiences is frowned upon and not without reason. You got a lot of phoneys and people who basically just want to tell people how enlightened they are in such environments. And in the written medium, it can be hard to tell fakers from the real deal. The fact that all this is in the public sphere probably makes a difference too. Real adepts are more comfortable just being seen as regular practitioners and won't care for the 'enlightened' tag.

One thing we may be able to help you with though, is how to find an awakened teacher IRL.

[hellbike]

One of reasons i have created this topic was hope that i'll meet someone who was further than me.

The internet is not the best place for that. Even if there are people here further along than you, it isn't likely they will tell you so. The culture on boards like this is generally that talking about one's deeper experiences is frowned upon and not without reason. You got a lot of phoneys and people who basically just want to tell people how enlightened they are in such environments. And in the written medium, it can be hard to tell fakers from the real deal. The fact that all this is in the public sphere probably makes a difference too. Real adepts are more comfortable just being seen as regular practitioners and won't care for the 'enlightened' tag.

One thing we may be able to help you with though, is how to find an awakened teacher IRL.

I'm from poland and it's not easy to find someone awakened.

[Jikan]

Here's one opportunity in Poland:

http://www.kwanumeurope.org/page.php?p=35

There may be others that are more suitable. I wish you all the best in your practice.