Path to enlightenment?

[Astral Projection]

This happened maybe a month ago:
When I finished showering one day, I just stood in front of the mirror and I just looked into my face. I was looking at it and thinking that it doesn't exist. I mentally said my name few times (just to think that person in mirror is *MY NAME*, but not me). After a while I had a feeling that person in mirror is some person that I saw for the first time in my life. I really somehow knew that it wasn't me. I wasn't out of body... This feeling lasted a moment and then I got excited (I hate this excitement ), so I got back to normal.

What do you think, can this be a way to enlighten yourself? Did anyone had experience like this?

[WalkerInTheWoods]

I think that being able to step back and be an observer that is not caught up everything, including yourself, gives you a much clearer view. Have you read The Power of Now?

[Astral Projection]

Have you read The Power of Now?

nope

Indeed I was observer, but i felt like i saw my own face for the very first time.. Like some other person stood in front of me...

[Lucid_Learner]

I have.. Great book, Tolle does a great job of explaining the unexplainable. Must have been pretty easy for him to write it from such a heightened state.

What do you think, can this be a way to enlighten yourself?

You cannot enlighten yourself... enlightenment is the realisation that there is no self in the first place, only the illusion of self. The illusion that you are an individual is what keeps you unconscious of your true nature. That there is no YOU only Divine.

but how can you be conscious that there is no you  It's paradox!!

I suggest you buy the power of now, i'm no good at explaining this

Thats how I see it but everyone has there own opinions... feel free to express what you think

[Alaskans]

I never looked in the mirror like that, but my hands often don't seem like mine. Like they're some alien thing. Perhaps we're looking at the workers (cells) that make up our body like a supervisor looking down on his factory, for the first time realizing that we aren't the workers, we only tell them what to do?

Omfg... thats a groundbreaking revelation actually. (Who's sending me this info?? What a nice being! )

[loppoppy]

Whenever i say a word a few times, in the end the word loses all meaning to me. If i look at something or someone else in the end i see them in a totally different way which makes them seem unfamiliar to me and I wonder how I never see things this way all the time. Try what you did in the mirror and see how it feels. Very odd in my experience.

Whenever i look at my hands it makes me think how my body is just a biological machine which needs fuel like every other man made machine and how our brain is just the computer that runs the machine. Knowing that makes me kind of feel limited when I think about it though, knowing i'm sitting in a machine.

[Astral Projection]

Whenever i say a word a few times, in the end the word loses all meaning to me. If i look at something or someone else in the end i see them in a totally different way which makes them seem unfamiliar to me and I wonder how I never see things this way all the time.

YES! This.. This happens to me all the time... especially with words and faces... maybe this ain't path to "enlightenment" just we are more conscious in situations like these...

[Alaskans]

I had an extremely powerfull experience with a mirror too, but not the same as yours. Mine involved seeing the real me, not 'my' body. I don't think its a way to become enlightened, but I think it could be a good way to gain awareness.


anyways.. I know you guys think I'm full of myself and am always trying to encroach on your beliefs, but its my need to share, not oppress (theres nobody in my life I can talk to about advanced spiritualism). I'm very sorry I come off the way I do. I don't take credit for 'my' ideas, because they aren't 'mine'. All ideas not created by wild imagination branch from the source, so we are all right, were all talking about the same thing but on different levels. I sincerely think you're all brilliant.


I was thinking about my previous statement yesterday and that night I had an OBE, no techniques involved. It happened just from me thinking about the implications of us not being matter at all. I'm not a frequent traveler, my total lack of faith which is replaced by spiritual logic has been holding me down. I haven't read Monroe's books yet (logistics problems ) but I'm sure this is the 'switch' he talks about. I think our bodies are only used to shape us. I'm quite sure your previous self isn't destroyed when you enter a body (per  popular belief), but is placed on the back burner while you're dropped into ever increasing and distracting noise (why children are more in tune.) This brings us to the mission of reuniting our newer (and probably lesser) earthly created selves with our older (and probably greater) selves. I think the first hurdle is realizing you aren't matter at all; whatever has a soul actually isn't there, it's consciousness is located in another plane. When you focus on the matter that is 'your' hand and see an alien thing, I'm quite sure its because you are no longer looking at the real you, but only matter in the universe. This is how we grow in the physical universe, yet stay eternal, by creating dual consciousnesses with overstimulation who's memories, energy, and consciousness are united in death or possibly life to create a greater being (that brings you to the perpose of the universe, then the source, like always). I could continue but I'll save you the eyeball/brain strain.... I'm beginning to realize the small picture is more valuable than the large one because the large one is beyond us.

[WalkerInTheWoods]

I don't think its a way to become enlightened, but I think it could be a good way to gain awareness.

What is enlightenment if not gained awareness?

[Selski]

Whenever i say a word a few times, in the end the word loses all meaning to me.

This has been happening to me since I can remember learning words.  If I say a word over and over it just becomes... nothing.  A series of letters joined together with no meaning whatsoever.

I thought this was a common occurrence that everyone knew about. 

Try it tonight.  Keep saying a word over and over again.

Use a word that may seem relevant and on about the 10th go, you'll realise you are just making sounds from your mouth.  After the 20th time, it will be hilarious and I bet you can't stop from laughing at the stupidity of the sound.

Go on... give it a go.

Sarah

[Astral Projection]

Use a word that may seem relevant and on about the 10th go, you'll realise you are just making sounds from your mouth.  After the 20th time, it will be hilarious and I bet you can't stop from laughing at the stupidity of the sound.

This happens to me all the time... can that be path to "enlightenment"?

[SS_Patrick]

You cannot enlighten yourself... enlightenment is the realisation that there is no self in the first place, only the illusion of self. The illusion that you are an individual is what keeps you unconscious of your true nature. That there is no YOU only Divine.

If that's enlightenment, then I don't want to become enlightened.

In my opinion that "there is no self" - stuff is an evil lie. Communist propaganda and nothing else. Everything is interconnected, but everything is not the same and everyone is not equal. 

[Selski]

can that be path to "enlightenment"?

I doubt it - it's just one of those things. 

I've been doing it since I was a child. 

Sarah

[WalkerInTheWoods]

I doubt it - it's just one of those things. 

I've been doing it since I was a child. 

Sarah

Maybe you are enlightened and you didn't even know it! lol

[Astral Projection]

I've been doing it since I was a child.

hehe me 2...

If that's enlightenment, then I don't want to become enlightened.

Mystical Experience that we call Enlightenment must be experienced. No one can describe it to you... But as far as I know one of the things you learn when you are enlightened is that there is no individual spirits\souls....

[SS_Patrick]

Mystical Experience that we call Enlightenment must be experienced. No one can describe it to you... But as far as I know one of the things you learn when you are enlightened is that there is no individual spirits\souls....

No, there are definitely individual souls. Research on reincarnation and OBEs proves that.

On some level we may be parts of the universe and interconnected, but we are still individual souls. Individuality is a fact and also greatest gift we have. I'd rather die fighting against unity, than "merge with light" etc.

 

[Alaskans]

What is enlightenment if not gained awareness?

I think of enlightenment as acknowledging and acting on what is being shown to you. You can see signs and visions all day, but if you don't acknowledge them then they don't mean anything. It's confusing for me to explain, basically theres a fine line between what I think of as enlightenment and awareness.

No, there are definitely individual souls. Research on reincarnation and OBEs proves that.

On some level we may be parts of the universe and interconnected, but we are still individual souls. Individuality is a fact and also greatest gift we have. I'd rather die fighting against unity, than "merge with light" etc.

I know you guys must be sick of hearing my thoughts on everything, but true merging isn't giving up your soul. It's not some horrible death of existence, if you were to merge with god then you wouldn't cease to exist, infact you would be god. Also, as energy entities we ALL wish to return to the source, everything we do is influenced by it, even the darks, on some level, want to return.

[Astral Projection]

No, there are definitely individual souls. Research on reincarnation and OBEs proves that.

Let's take Buddhists\Hinduists for example. They believe in reincarnation as well as they believe in OBE (they are not calling it OBE, but they  are capable of leaving body). But besides all that they believe that true enlightenment is when you realise by direct experience that life is an illusion..

[SS_Patrick]

Let's take Buddhists\Hinduists for example. They believe in reincarnation as well as they believe in OBE (they are not calling it OBE, but they  are capable of leaving body). But besides all that they believe that true enlightenment is when you realise by direct experience that life is an illusion..

Yes, they believe it, but it's just religion.

Since english is not my mother tongue, I may have expressed myself indistinctly. I meant that there are individual souls, but souls can also be parts of the bigger whole(universe) and interconnected. The idea that we are all "drops in the ocean" is sick and wrong. If drop of water merges into ocean, it will cease to exist as a drop. Metaphors like that are exactly what I'm against. That kind of stuff distorts the truth. In reality individual identity is immortal, even if the soul temporarily "merges" with a larger whole.

[Astral Projection]

That kind of stuff distorts the truth.

You know the truth? When you achieve enlightenment you don't think like that anymore. Because you know that you are part of something bigger and you accept it. Maybe we are just like cells in human body, not drops in ocean. Just when we are enlightened we know that we are part of something bigger eg. god.

[Stookie]

The idea that we are all "drops in the ocean" is sick and wrong.

I think it's more like this: One theory is that everything that exists is created of consciousness. On the physical level, this isn't perceived. You see consciousness split up into different objects, people, ideas, concepts, elements, atoms - everything that exists. (The analogy is that "ocean" represents consciousness, all the separations are the "drops")

By changing your perception beyond the physical level, it's possible to perceive that everything IS this consciousness. In this view of reality, there is no separation between your skin and the air surrounding it. All that's left is perception of consciousness as one. Not space, time, identity, ego, self, etc.

But you have to separate from your ego to experience it, and an ego doesn't take to kindly to that. 

[SS_Patrick]

By changing your perception beyond the physical level, it's possible to perceive that everything IS this consciousness. In this view of reality, there is no separation between your skin and the air surrounding it. All that's left is perception of consciousness as one. Not space, time, identity, ego, self, etc.

But you have to separate from your ego to experience it, and an ego doesn't take to kindly to that. 

I agree that everything is consciousness, and at the higher level there is no space or time. But that doesn't mean that we don't have also individual identities. Research on OBEs, reincarnation and NDE proves that our individual identities remain.

In my opinion these articles are very good and they explain the same things what I tried to write here, only better.

http://www.iacworld.org/English/Resources/Articles/Default.asp

This quote is from one of their articles and I have experienced it myself.

"Actually, outside the physical body, we will be exactly the same, with the same evolutionary level"

And other quote from the same source:

"The strength of the personality (ego?) comes about through centuries, in acts of determination and ethics which polish off the character."

I agree completely with that.

There's also a great article which explains my opinion of this matter better than I could ever do in the following url

http://www.runestone.org/flash/articles/fireandfog.htm

That's one of the best articles I have ever read. I apologize, if this stuff is too off-topic, but in my opinion these matters are essential to understand at the path to enlightenment.

[Sadd-e Eskandar]

Maybe enlightment is the understanding that everything including immortality is nothing but an illusion.And with that, you are granted the ability to either unite with the source, remain as an individual or kill your soul .


Just an opinion

[WalkerInTheWoods]

What is an individual soul? Who are you really? Are you the person sitting at the desk typing or is there more to you?

A drop of water in the ocean still exists. It is still water, yet it is changed but it is still the same.

[zappazorn]

We are in a dream. Your life and identity is nothing but a dream. We have been stuck in this dream since, as the Buddha would say, beginningless time. Why are we in this false reality? Because we are ignorant. Ignorant of our true nature. Out of ignorance we take this dream to be true and real, so we interact with it as if it is real. We take the suffereing as real, we take the pleasure as real. With our will we seek what we think is pleasurable. With our will we run from what we think is not pleasurable. To seek what one thinks is pleasurable is to run from what one thinks is not pleasurable. To run from what one thinks is not pleasurable is to seek what one thinks is pleasurable.
Seeking and running arise simultaneously. You cant seek with out running away from something, you cant run away from somthing without seeking something. This right here is the trap. We want total peace and total pleasure, but as long as we seek that, we cant have it, because with our seeking of pleasure arises the pain. This is ignorance. This ignorance is what creates this world, this dream. Our thoughts are ignorant, all of our thoughts revolve around this seeking of pleasure and running from pain. This world is the manifestation of our ignorance. This world is our ignorance.
When you still the mind completely your mind will stop chasing pleasure and running from pain. The duality will cease, your ignorant thoughts will cease and this dream will cease, because this dream is our ignorant thoughts. When that stillness comes you will see your SELF and your SELF is pure pleasure, pure bliss eternal. The pleasure and peace that we seek is within. When we stop seeking, we will stop running and our idea of pleasure will cease and so will our idea of pain and then there will be true bliss.

Zein Ananda