So, that’s it. Have you experienced self-realization? If so, how?
Share your story and what you felt. Did you become pure consciousness and infinite love? Did you enter the eternal void? Did you merge with God?
Also, tell us the method you used to achieve it. Was it through Yoga, meditation, breathwork, psychedelics, astral travel? Tell us your story.
One of the most subtle and frustrating paradoxes I've encountered on this path is the realization that the ego can co-opt the journey toward enlightenment itself.
You start making progress, dropping attachments, and feeling a sense of deep presence, only for a quiet voice in your head whisper, "Look how much more awake you are than everyone else around you". It turns humility into a badge of pride and mindfulness into a competition. It feels like trying to wash blood off your hands with blood.
How do you realize when your ego has simply put on a "spiritual mask", and what practices help you dissolve it without falling into a loop of self judgement?
for months i was doing everything right. meditating every morning, journaling, avoiding negative people, monitoring my thoughts constantly. and i was
exhausted and honestly more anxious than before.
then i just stopped. not because i gave up on spirituality, but because i realized i was treating it like another thing to optimize and achieve instead of
just... living.
the irony is that when i stopped trying so hard to feel good, i actually started feeling good. like the pressure of maintaining a high vibe was its own low
vibe lol
i think a lot of us come to spirituality because we're anxious and then we just find a new thing to be anxious about
anyone else go through this phase?
I’m miserable, I dislike myself and I dislike life. I’m constantly worried, I’m stressed, I’m scared I’ll never be happy. Fundamentally, I hate many things about myself, and I’m worried I’ll never be a good person.
Does awakening help with such issues? I am aware I have a LOT to learn. I have been practicing meditation and mindfulness in general, and when I am successful, it brings me some semblance of relief for some times.
I do genuinely believe that in order to live a happy and meaningful life, I need to change something, I need to find a new way of thinking and relating to thoughts.
How do I do this? Where do I start? Maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree, maybe I shouldn’t be trying to find awakening as a means of running away from sadness, but I need something to change.
Advice welcome
Millions of people today practice meditation and yoga, and many report greater calm, relaxation, and mental clarity.
Yet deep spiritual awakening, enlightenment, or the profound wisdom described by ancient civilizations and spiritual traditions seems to remain extremely rare compared to the number of practitioners.
What makes this even more intriguing is that we now have access to more books, more information, more techniques, and more learning resources than ever before—resources that were unavailable to previous generations.
So what are we missing?
Have modern practices lost something that was once understood?
Is the issue with the methods themselves, the way they are practiced, or is there a missing key that is rarely discussed?
What do you think?
My son was talking about a scary dream he had where there was a killer called *Benny and Benny had killed me and taped me to the wall, also I was covered in red pen.
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This sent chills down my spine as I was seriously assaulted (obvs not murdered) by someone called Ben. I was covered in red pen and weirdly, the pen was taped to the wall.
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My son was telling me the dream alongside my partner and our other son so I didn't react at the time, other than saying that's really scary.
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I can't stop thinking about this. My children don't know what happened to me when I was younger. Even when I have discussed the event with (very few) people, I do not share the details about the pen and the tape.
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I did not want to talk to my partner about this as he is such a cynic he would shut it down as coincidence, but I feel there is more to this.
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I often think about how close I could have come to dying after the assault, and feel both fear and relief.
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* I have changed the name, but it's a similarly common kind of name.
u/Mikey-506 of r/GhostMesh48 said I could repost this. Vibrate Higher!
Just let it be. It is what it is. Who cares.
Be happy, be mad, I don’t care, I’ll let it be. But why do you choose this specific subreddit?
Happy Saturday, seeker!
This is a compressed summary of two chapters from one of my books, The Specific Gravity of the Soul, rewritten specifically for r/enlightenment. It’s a bit long, but hopefully worth the read.
The version in the book lays this out more slowly (and probably conveys it better). I’m trying to be as direct as I can here, so forgive the brain dump.
I hope this helps you on your journey.
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First, in this discussion about enlightenment, I’ll use the term “soul”. That may cause some to immediately retract. It’s an overloaded, religious-laden term, but “consciousness” is likewise overloaded with scientific (mis)understanding.
Let’s consider the “soul” in this case to be the seat of our subjective experience. It’s not an “ego” that needs to be killed. It is the very core of who we are. Think of it as your computational thread of attention.
As a soul, we are entangled with our minds. Our minds are likewise entangled with our bodies. Both body and mind are noisy things. They constantly distract our attention on the path.
In psychology, Abraham Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs provides a map of these distractions. Some, like physiological needs, must be met; some needs (esteem needs in particular) can be transcended.
Maslow tops his hierarchy with what he calls self-actualization: the realization of one's full potential. This involves achievements in the arts, at work, the experience of “flow,” and so on.
As nice as it would be to stay at this pinnacle of self-actualization, each need can be sated only to emerge again, pulling the rug out beneath us and forcing us to pay attention to it. The soul is constantly playing a game of “whack-a-mole”, deciding which need to fulfill and in what order.
The hierarchy of needs represents the ascension of the soul, from the primitive needs of the body to the expression of the individual. But is self-expression really the highest peak that the soul can attain?
Self-actualization—becoming all one can be—seems somewhat vague and shallow. What about the desire to help others, to give back to the world? What about spiritual needs?
Even Maslow recognized this was missing, so later in his career he modified the hierarchy of needs to include another tier above self-actualization called transcendence.
But how does one learn to transcend the self? What does that even mean?
Let us be so bold as to continue Maslow’s hierarchy with additional levels, representing the additional heights a soul may climb.
Our first step beyond self-actualization is self-awareness. Self-awareness is a cognitive mirror. It begins with self-reflection: we examine ourselves, our character, our motives, and desires. We picture ourselves from a third-person’s perspective, compare this to our ideology and ethics, and take note of where we may be lacking.
In order to do something about those discovered deficiencies, we must ascend to the next tier in our augmented hierarchy: self-control. Here, we begin monitoring and revising our own thoughts and behavior. We second-guess our motivations; we pause before responding to a given situation to ensure we are aligning our behavior with our principles. We practice restraint and enrich our character.
In the west, most people stop here; but there are still other levels the soul may ascend to.
Beyond self-control is selflessness. In the west, we think of selflessness as another word for charity. While charity is a behavior that naturally arises from a selfless being, people who maintain a self-image can also be charitable.
When we attain selflessness, we come to the realization that the self—our very ego—is just another construct of the mind, and thus, in our power to not only edit—as we did through self-control—but eliminate it entirely. Since many of the higher-order needs—social needs, esteem needs, self-actualization—exist solely to support this self-image, overthrowing the self is a means to permanently overcome these needs.
Once we manage to win this internal struggle, we move on to self-transcendence. In this stage, we move beyond the battle of self and non-self; we abandon the entire illusion of our individuality. Our personal boundaries fade away, and we identify with all life.
Finally, there is enlightenment. Here we feel a profound connection with the universe or “the source”. We perceive the importance of all life, including our own. We feel that every moment is significant, and we have the distinct impression that everything is going according to plan.
Enlightenment is the highest state of consciousness the soul can experience without crossing the veil of death and reuniting with the source of all life.
There are multiple paths to climb up this ladder, but these are what I believe to be the actual stages one moves through.
Feel free to ask questions, I'll do my best to answer.
In the past, people were just people to me, another species among the earth. But now every time I see people, I can see the magic of all of us. I see us as beings who are all innocently dreaming without realizing. I see us as magicians, walking stories, living stars. I see the preciousness and beauty in us. I see the divinity that I’ve always read about in the past. It’s become undeniable. I see us as consciousness playing its wildly lovely insane and synchronistic play of plays.