














I wonder sometimes about the whole matter of enlightenment is a kind of knowing and not knowing at the same time. Since I have heard of enlightenment is not something that cant be understood with the mind. I find for myself the natural tendency to see enlightenment as A) Infinite Intellectualization, where one can understand all of reality in the head, but their mind is too infinitely big to be able to communicate with the common folk, and ordinary language is too imprecise for such omnicience. B) Something resembling nihilism, where higher conscious is etheral, and a kind of nothingness. It seems like these are just egoic labels, but I cannot help seeing enlightenment in either of these ways, which both seem pretty awful.Mystic wrote:The ego is a judgement machine that lives by making comparisons ...but of itself it has no life. Everyone is ultimately divine creations of Source. Forgiveness is to see past or overlook this dense ego covering or shrouding of the pure light that exists in everything and in others. Thus to see it in yourself too. We need to make comparisons and decisions to navigate the perceptual world though. The ego is a servant but it thinks that it is strong and thinks it is in charge. Many scriptures recommend to bind the strong man(ego) with mindful awareness.
Ka-ching! In Advaita, enlightenment is essentially knowing that you (atman) are the unknowable (brahman).jtightlips21 wrote:I wonder sometimes about the whole matter of enlightenment is a kind of knowing and not knowing at the same time.
I never really studied Tolle indepth. However, I studied Krishnamurti indepth and I suspect that Tolle got his ideas about time from Krishnamurti. Both of them are talking about psychological time and not physical time, i.e. time that exists within your own mind, time as a means to achieve something, time as a means to get rid of something, the whole idea of future as projected by the mindjtightlips21 wrote:However, I think Eckhart Tolle stated that time and ego are closely related.
I think I get too many paradoxes stuck in my head. Yet it seems like its nothing more than mental content, and the mind attempting to understand the big picture.EnterZenFromThere wrote:You don't have to imagine it JTL. You can't imagine it. But you are living it. You literally are it. It's the ground of everything you've experienced through the filter of space/time/matter. Your very nature is beyond time. Gently pay attention to your present moment experience in the body and this perspective will clarify. You don't need to try and imagine it or to force yourself not to have thoughts or experience within space / time. Just being present to your momentary experience is enough. Being aware that the awareness of thought is not the thought. That is enough.
The mind won't rest until you do understand the big picture...or at least mine didnt. You need to understand what the person you appear to be is, the creator of this universe and original awareness itself and how they interact with each other. They are different orders of reality. There is the manifest and the unmanifest, so there will always be paradoxes, you have to except that at some point.I think I get too many paradoxes stuck in my head. Yet it seems like its nothing more than mental content, and the mind attempting to understand the big picture.