A collection of thoughts from yours truly + some notable quotes + me trying to give some context regarding a couple of things I've written. I dated my writings simply because I like to keep track of how my ideas evolve over time. Enjoy at your own discretion:
Becoming enlightened is not only about focusing on the bright side. It’s about illuminating the dark.
/ May 14, 2024
As a man, getting your heart broken by someone you deeply love can be one of the best things to ever happen to you. The light will enter through the wound and illuminate the parts of you that you need to work on. The most important thing is to not conceal the wound i.e. to keep your heart open. Otherwise, the wound will start rotting and before you know it, your whole soul is rotten and all you’ll be left with is hate and resentment.
/ May 18, 2024
For context (or Kontext, if you will): here, I use the word "man" and I mean male, because that's the perspective from which I have experience on the subject. I think women, like children, don't deserve to have their heart broken at all. Please don't take this as if I'm trying to "demote" women to children's level. It's the opposite. It's because women and children are SO INCREDIBLY SACRED. Also, my intuitive guess would be that for women & children, mending a broken heart is a much more difficult and time-consuming task than it is for a man. Well, to be completely honest, it's not just a guess - at least from a child's perspective I do have a similar experience - and I'm not even sure whether I've fully healed yet. Probably not.
Now why do I think it is easier for men to heal? Well, quite simply, it's because men mostly live in the physical realm, whereas women and children in the metaphysical - which also means that they are inherently more fragile (again - don’t mistake “fragile” for “weak”) in a sense. Men can quite easily regain themselves by physical work/exercise and connection to Mother Nature. Regaining that sense of self (worth) is not as easy in the metaphysical realm. So women would probably need to do things that are, in broad terms, artistic, such as: singing, dancing, writing, painting... Also they would need a very healthy and very supportive communal connection - preferably one which includes masculine men they can trust. If a group of broken-hearted men get together, probably one of two things would happen:
1) They would barely talk about women at all (the defeatist mindset)
2) They would start coming up with ways to "get back in the game" (i.e. they would try to get better, or at least, what they think that women think is better)
If a group of broken-hearted women get together, they would probably cultivate each other's hate and resentment towards men even further, re-assuring each other that it is justified and that "all men are pigs" or something of the sorts.
If anyone can make a case as to why and how my line of thinking here is off the rails - please do. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I could care less about being "right." I care about the truth.
A spiritual man recognizes the Divine in himself.
An enlightened man recognizes the Divine in everybody else.
/ November 12, 2023
For context: here, I use the word "man" as a synonym for "human"
Remember this:
The light can very easily penetrate the darkness; but darkness can never penetrate the light.
/ November 23, 2023
I would never go as far as to call myself “awake” or “enlightened.” I think that’s a slippery slope. There’s always more to be learned about the Universe, about yourself.
/ June 26, 2023
Enlightenment, samadhi, is not fully attainable on the physical level. You can experience most of it. But like someone said, when you reach enlightenment, you literally turn into light. Perhaps that’s what auras are. That inner energy, that enlightenment that emanates from within.
/ March 14, 2023
For context: that’s more of a thought experiment based on what I heard someone say (apparently it was Ramalinga Swamigal who had popularized the idea, but I don’t remember exactly how or where I heard this from). I haven’t turned into light (obviously), nor do I know where the line between “just” a deep meditation/trance and an "actual" samadhi state is.
3 steps to enlightenment:
1. Realize you used to suck
2. Realize you suck now
3. Realize you will suck in the future
/ January 8, 2023
True wealth emanates from within.
/ November 18, 2022
Curiosity creates luminosity.
/ November 17, 2022
Some insightful quotes that I feel resonate the most with my personal experience and understanding of the subject:
“Spiritual experiences are just clear perception; perception that is not totally distorted. In which, the interconnectedness of everything with everything else; and the uniqueness of everything, are both apparent.”
― Daniel Schmachtenberger
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
― Rumi
“There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
― Carl G. Jung
“Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the facade of pretence. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.”
― Adyashanti
“If you gaze into the abyss long enough, you see the light, not the darkness.”
― Jordan B. Peterson
“The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“We live in the age of entitlement, as opposed to enlightenment.”
― Bill Bailey
“Enlightenment is ego’s ultimate disappointment.”
― Chögyam Trungpa
“Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.
After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.”
— Zen proverb
“Enlightenment is not a fixed place. There is no fixed place. All that one has to do is understand the chaos and disorder in which we live. In the understanding of that, we have order, and clarity and certainty come.”
― Jiddu Krishnamurti