Future Enlightenment

[Blessed2]

(This doesn't need to be my personal thread, share your assumptions and beliefs about enlightenment too if you spot any 🙂)

 

...

 

There's a belief or an assumption that there will be a my enlightenment in the future at some point.

 

"Maybe hopefully like in a few years there will be the moment when I become enlightened and then I'll be this enlightened person who will know what's true for certain and thus will not doubt anymore."

 

There's an assumption that enlightenment is "no uncertainty, no doubt, no fear, being sure".

 

That thought makes me feel some stress and kind of concern of the future, and feeling of doubt what path to choose etc. Cause maybe I'll later, at some point in the future, change my mind about what's the right path, what's true, what's right etc.

 

There's this idea or assumption than enlightenment is like a change of mind, change of what I know and then I'll be different and choose different.

 

For example earlier today there was a thought "what if I become enlightened suddenly some day and I just can't keep on living like I used to, like waking up in the morning to do my work cause I'll be experiencing so intense changes or mystical experiences etc."

 

"Maybe I'll become enlightened and can't do my job and keep up with responsibilities. Maybe I'll be too enlightened and too intensely mystical shit to take care of possible children and family stuff and I'll be a bad, unreliable parent."

 

😂

 

There's like this idea that there is like a timeline of my life, and a point in that timeline that separates "not enlightened and enlightened"

 

Especially the thing with doubt and certainty feels off.

 

The idea that enlightenment = being certain and not doubting.

 

Being certain feels better than doubting. Cause there's no worry, no fear, no possible bad stuff I don't know yet or something.

 

Also feeling of worry that enlightenment might be scary, or there will be like a really scary existential panic terror and then enlightenment, peace and certainty. Or that something horrible like death has to happen to be certain and enlightened (which might be the source of some suicidal thoughts at times and a past psychedelic experience)

 

🤔

[Blessed2]

20 minutes ago, Blessed2 said:

Or that something horrible like death has to happen to be certain and enlightened (which might be the source of some suicidal thoughts at times and a past psychedelic experience)

 

Also there's a belief that death exists, and that it is some sort of a ultimate resolution, "judgement", where everything will be atoned, uncovered, made right, totalled. As if death is like an ultimate something.

[Space4This]

On 12/2/2022 at 12:56 AM, Blessed2 said:

Also there's a belief that death exists, and that it is some sort of a ultimate resolution, "judgement", where everything will be atoned, uncovered, made right, totalled. As if death is like an ultimate something.

If for some reason you were to die today, what would you think about that?

[Blessed2]

10 hours ago, Space4This said:

If for some reason you were to die today, what would you think about that?

 

Good question. Thanks.

 

I would probably feel fear and grief, but also I'd feel relief. Which is something I've noticed doesn't quite fit right. Something about what I think and believe about life must me off right?

 

I think in ACIM it's said "Fear of death is actually allure of death." That sounds very true for me.

 

If the though of death feels relieving... Something is off about how I think, believe and therefore feel about life... And it's not what I want.

[Phil]

Happiness experiences unhappiness by believing there are separate selves, and that happiness is a separate self, which could become enlightened, or become, ‘the enlightened self’. 

 

 

[Space4This]

@Blessed2 Do you feel like life is going your way?

[Blessed2]

12 minutes ago, Space4This said:

@Blessed2 Do you feel like life is going your way?

 

No.

[Space4This]

9 hours ago, Blessed2 said:

No.

If that is because you have exhausted every option possible (relationships, experiences, status, etc.), then you could try to go for enlightenment. However, if it's instead that you haven't succeeded in these things, it might not be what you need. Enlightenment doesn't "fix" your desire for safety, belonging, esteem, etc. It's the stepping outside of all of that, and if that is not what you need, it might be just as unpleasant, if not more, than the alternative.

Edited December 5, 2022 by Space4This