Agreed -- for me, anyhow, Awakening occurred as soon as I *dropped* all the milestones and criteria, as at a certain point they just got in the way of fully appreciating Here and Now. All of the enlightenment-criteria are just one, or another, or a mixture of the three gunas (usually sattva is the favorite), and Awakening is really Being without the gunas (emptiness), and so supporting all of them (fullness) :-)
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Ravi Yogi" <raviyogi@...> wrote: > > Hi Xeno - thanks for your comments. I definitely agree on milestones > being just general indicators and not to be taken literally. Thanks for > sharing your experiences regarding the stage where one realizes the > futility of the various techniques, I had similar experiences as well. I > like this quote as well - "Finding out that the nearer and farther > shores were an illusion is a new beginning. Still gotta live and do > stuff." > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophaneros Anartaxius" > <anartaxius@> wrote: > > > > > > With regards to William Parkinson, Ravi Yogi, and Lawson > > > > > > I do not think it has ever been determined that the sign posts or > > benchmarks that meditative traditions have are clearly experienced by > > everyone, or that there might be partial crossovers that are out of > the > > sequence. Some people clearly never seem to experience them, others > do. > > <snip>> > > This other, later witnessing was not like that at all, it never felt > > defined, it was not like a concrete experience where I could say this > or > > that about it. It was a bummer. I lost interest in spiritual > > descriptions and stopped reading about them. I switched to reading > > novels. I had very negative thoughts about 'my path' of progress for a > > long time - decades. Eventually everything seemed to get more relaxed > > and I just started to live life without thinking about spiritual > > progress. > > <snip> > > One day I went outside for some air and suddenly without warning, the > > farther shore and the nearer shore, as Lawson put it, were one and the > > same, and it had always been that way, no boat required as there was > no > > river to traverse. There is no way to describe what this it like. Then > > things became completely ordinary. > > > <snip> > > > > Finding out that the nearer and farther shores were an illusion is a > new > > beginning. Still gotta live and do stuff. > > >
