vovin said:
When this post was made it was a time when the forum was in a fit of chaos. There were quite a few arguments many downright rude. I made the post on a whim and did not imagine it would be stickied. The title of the post was meant to make people think about what they wrote, does their reply embody that which they claim to seek to be.
The reason behind the title is simple. Wanna be enlightened? fake it.
Seriously.
If you go through life acting and mimicking the actions of a enlightened individual. It in essence forces you to walk the walk. In time you will eventually begin to think as a wise one would. The old saying fake it until you make it really does work
But first before you start a flamin' let me be clear just acting as if you are enlightened is not going to work for anyone. It is but one piece of the puzzle. I choose to utilize this tactic to ensure that during everyday life I do not fall back into old habits. This is easy when you are relaxed among friends. But if they see you as one who is more spiritual or "enlightened' your gonna have to act like that all the time arent you :lol: and eventually you become that which you embody.
I learned this tactic in the army I overheard some doctors at lunch stating that if you lie enough you eventually will begin to believe it.
During basic training I informed everyone I was from a town in Virginia. I spoke of this in such detail and so often that during large road marches when my mind would wander I found myself drifting back to my home but in memory I would recall it as Virginia. I think it is important to note I haven't even been to Virginia. My mind simply merged my 'new reality' with memories of youth. I found it quite disturbing at the time to see how easily my own mind was manipulated.
Basically if you embody the persona as a 'enlightened' person then it will infiltrate every aspect of your life and you will have to become it to sustain it. In time you will begin to think in this mode of thought and in time perceive in it as well.
Keep in mind my perception of enlightenment is that it is a path not a destination. All who follow the path are enlightened from the very beginner to the wisest of us all. It is the dedication and determination to self betterment that denotes enlightenment not a rank or status awarded after completion.
Great post! I love it.
I have to admit words like enlightenment, ego, spirituality etc. were for me, for a long time, very difficult. They seemed to embody esoteric principles, undefined, and sometimes used to fuel feelings of superiority...
I've come to a different view of these topics now, especially the terms enlightenment and spirituality. I think the are in a certain context valid terms and worth approaching / worth thinking about, but one must first free oneself of the all the esoteric and charlatanry associations that come with them. Because at the core of these terms lie IMO principles that touch upon the nature of our beings, and how we interact with what we are. So in that sense I find these things are worth striving for, very much like Vovin suggested, by aligning oneself with these principles as though they were already manifest in us, thereby manifesting them in us continuously and appropriately for every situation...
As for the hostility that we encounter in the discussions that include claims or accusations of claims... I guess it's ok for criticism to arise now and then - it keeps everyone on their toes. No matter what it is we strive for or how far we've gotten in our development I think we remain fallible, the room to err or react out of an impulse that is less than optimal to transform the situation into it's most positive potential is always there. We can acknowledge this and not take aggressions personally.
We can try to always respond to every instant to the best of our knowledge and from the highest perspectives we can reach, but certainly there will be moments when entities meet and are not in resonance with each other, from which misunderstandings and even feelings of injury can arise. As part of an interaction-field that uses communication and is called community or society or whatnot we can see it as our responsibility to dissolve these turbulences, not by avoiding them entirely, because I doubt this is possible, and possibly not entirely desirable either, but by transforming these energies (aggression, hostility, belligerence, injuries, pride, ...) to again allow full communication and resonance.
I think this is what we are doing here continuously and very effectively. Sure we lose some on the way towards progressing our abilities to deal with these situations, and it's always sad. But I think here too we have to move towards improvement in an optimistic fashion rather than nourish excessive criticism and pessimism/bitterness towards the subject.
:lol: yup like you said were all just human 
