Characteristics of enlightenment

[rltruthseeker]

The characteristics of enlightenment:

The silence of peace: a profound sense of peace envelops the person due to the absence of the rational verbal mindset. The mind goes quiet because of this lack, and this space is recognized as being always there. Words flow through the mind but do not disturb this peace.

Presence: An incredible amount of ‘present moment awareness’ due to an inclination to remain in the present, although it seems that the mind is able to utilize memory and can think of in terms of the future, it sees no need to do so.

Authentic  Spontaneousness: due to the amount of presence,  it seems like a ‘filter’ is gone in the mind. Contrary to what people believe, emotions are felt more fully, and they are embodied more throughout the whole being…but they also are easily dropped, because any reaction is a reaction to “what is,” and reality does not need to be fought against, being the self-contraction. Actions are taken as necessary.

Dissolution of boundaries: the subject/ object duality between viewer and viewed is transcended, and there is revealed that there is no difference at all between “viewer and viewed.” The known and knower are one.

Absence of “Me” or “I”-  this is the big one, often described as the loss of the ego. We may find the things that we used to describe ourselves were illusionary, and that no concepts can stand for who we are. Paradoxically, an identity with all of life results also, because the boundaries of “ourselves” (our awareness limited to this body) is seen through.

Ex. Almost every realized spiritual teacher.

In enlightenment, there is “no person” that wakes up. It is seen as enlightenment waking itself up.

Or as I like to say sometimes—it’s enlightenment that is enlightened. It is not the “me” that is enlightened. It is not the[concept of a] person that is enlightened. It is enlightenment that is enlightened. That may be hard to understand until one experiences it for oneself, but of course, all of spirituality is like that. Everything must be verified for and in oneself.”  -Adyashanti

Combined seeing/hearing/moving/ tasting etc. – because there is no filter on awareness, we see and hear and feel at the same time.

It may not be full awakening:  Satori, momentary glimpses of a non-dual state, are temporary. They aren’t  “permanent” awakening. Although our awareness is always present, the realization and abiding in nonduality, isn’t always there. There may be more and more experiences that dissolve the boundaries of ourselves. Satori is often mistake for abiding enlightenment, even by people who undergo it.

"It’s rare when someone’s initial awakening ends up in abiding awak... –Adyashanti, The End of Your World.

Remembrance of Past lives: Once a person awakens, a remembrance of their past lives can be revealed to them. This isn’t always the case, but sometimes a person remembers their past lives. Reincarnation is well known in eastern countries, and was believed by early Christianity. Small children sometimes remember their past lives before the ego develops fully later in life, and people have remembered them in hypnosis. [See also the books Soul Survivor by Bruce Leininger and books by Brian Weiss. See also the film Unmistaken Child]

Ex. Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev, Isira Sananda, Dr. Hawkins, Adyashanti

“The skeptic that I was did not want to believe anything about previous lives,” he said. I was not the kind to believe in anything of that kind. I was not somebody who would even enter a temple. I was not somebody who believed anything I could not see or understand. I followed up on all the memories that came to me. I went to the places I recalled from previous lifetimes. I met people and did much skeptical analysis of all the revelations that were coming to me. What I did remember was clearer than daylight, but my logical mind would not accept it. I had to go through the whole process of verifying it.” – Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev

Awakened intuition:  An intuition can develop, that reveals to us a valuable source of information. More of a space where ideas are “felt” and known, rather than simply verbally analyzed. Can also be described as the “soul’s knowingness,  connection to Source” etc. Can also be developed without awakening.

Things can be “seen through” or felt as if they are transparent and luminous: This is what Judith Blackstone says. Can also be the basis of Buddhist “emptiness”  of phenomenon.

For example, if we look at a table, we will see the table with all of its weight, color, and texture, and at the same time, we will be aware that the table is “transparent.” It appears to be pervaded by –or made of-luminous space” –Judith Blackstone

Called the “luminous void” by Ted Biringer

Psychic powers- does not have to accompany awakening, also called siddhas, these levels of energy or concentration can be developed without awakening. An impersonal effect of a person’s energy.

A person’s degree of consciousness can be increased after awakening, and thus can be said to “ripen” but there is no “person” who guides the process, rather it is due to karmic propensities and is an impersonal process.

It is not about trying to “be” another person…it is about knowing the inherent potentiality of our own awareness, and embodying and manifesting that in our own life. The true Guru is the Self in the individual, but others and spiritual teachings can help provide a mirror for our awareness. Our own understanding can also be put into our own words.

[rltruthseeker]

Here are some more articles on quantum biology.

http://discovermagazine.com/2009/feb/13-is-quantum-mechanics-contro...

http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/bio/spooky-world-quantum-biology

[rltruthseeker]

lol. Thanks for your input Marty. I like your metaphors. :) Yes, I think that the "left brain" analytical verbal mindset is sort of the "static" that keeps us from experientially noticing this holistic and profound sense of bliss and peace that emerges quite naturally.


I was trying to relate that to neurotheology. In the book Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the biology of belief, Andrew Newberg M.D. and Eugene D'Aquili M.D. Ph.D talk about this. They mention two different types of meditation, active and passive. In passive meditation, the goal is to clear the mind of all conscious thought. The active approach is trying to focus the mind completely on some symbol or object of attention, such as a mantra, etc.

"This conscious intention is instated by the brain's right attention association area-the primary source of willed action-as the need to shield the mind from the intrusion of sensory, as well as cognitive, imput. To this end the attention area, via the thalamus, causes the limbic structure known as the hippocampus, an important center of exchange between various parts of the brain, to dampen the flow of neural imput."

This dampening of information, in which structures are deprived of information is known as deafferentiantion.

"In the initial moments of meditation, deafferentiation is only slight, but we believe that as the meditative state deepens, and the attention area tries more intensely to keep the mind clear of thoughts, this area, in conjunction with the hippocampus, chock off more and more neural flow. As this blockage continues, burst of neural impulses begin to travel, with increasing energy, from the deafferented orientation area, down the limbic system, to the ancient neural structure known as the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus links highter brain activity with the basic functions of he autonomic nervous system and controls the autonomic system's ability to create both calming and arousal sensations..."

"The total shutdown of neural input whould have a dramatic effect on both the right and left orientation areas. The right orientation area, which is responsible for creating the neurological matix we experience as physcal space, would lack the information it needs to create the spacial context in which the self can be oriented. It's only option, when totally deprived of sensory input, would be to generate a subjective space of absolute spaciousness, which might be interpreted by the mind as a sense of infinite space and eternity; or conversely, as a timeless and spaceless void."

"Meanwhile, the left orientation area, which we have described as crucial in the generation of the subjective sense of a self, would not be able to find the boundaries of the body. The mind's perceptions of the self now becomes limitless; in fact, there is no longer any sense of self at all."

"In this state of total deafferentiation of the orientation area, the mind would perceive a neurological reality consistent with many mystical descriptions of the ultimate spiritual union: there would be no discrete objects or beings, no sense of space or the passage of time, no line between the self and the rest of the universe. In fact, there would be no subjective self at all; there would only be an absolute sense of unity--without thought, without words, and without sensation. The mind would exist without ego in a state of pure, undifferentiated awareness. The name Gene and I have used for this state of pure mind, of an awareness beyond object and subject, is Absolute Unitary Being, the ultimate unitary state."

James H. Austin M.D. in the book Measuring the Immeasureable: the Scientific Case for Spirituality, also talks about two different modes of consciousnes, but puts puts it into terms of egocentric processing stream and allocentric processing streams, linking it with the dorsal attention system and ventral attention system. He says though that the "executive overlap" of the right prefrontal cortex can integrate the two systems.

"When did Huang-po conclude that the meditator's sudden, major comprehension would arrive? Only after the mind was purged of all the clutter of conceptual and discriminatory thought activity."

It is also interesting to note that Weirnicke's area, which is related to language, is located primarily in the left hemisphere.

Of course...this doesn't mean that "God is all in your head." The idea of God is all in your head, but if God is ALL That Exists, then God would obviously be everything. :) Nor does this mean that there might not be ontological realities that can be disclosed by means of higher consciousness... (which I can talk about later).

Obviously though, if enlightenment, or nirvana, is a neurobiological condition, it is not "metaphysical."