--- In [email protected], "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "jim_flanegin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > wrote: > <snip> > > > So it seems to me that I'm "judging" my state of > > > consciousness by exactly the criterion Michael suggests-- > > > not by flashy experiences or noticing witnessing or > > > behaving better, but: > > > > > > "In enlightenment our actions are spontaneously right. > > > Before enlightenment our actions are strained, but > > > still right. All that happens is that the sense of > > > strain disappears. But that's a dramatic shift." > > > > > > I still have a sense of strain. > > > > > > Or to put it another way: It's not that I have > > > expectations of what enlightenment is like; it's > > > that I expect it *not* to be like ignorance. > > > > > > (Yes, yes, I know, nirvana = samsara and all that. > > > But I don't think that's a useful maxim pre-nirvana.) > > > > > Well, thank you for this exchange. Yep, you are right, it is that > > strain which appears to be the chief indicator of where we are vis > > a vis realization. The good news is, as Michael says, that it is > > not the distance we may imagine it is, in order to get from here to > > there. > > Thanks to you too. > > I'm honestly not thinking of it as a huge distance. > I just would like to be able to say "I'm not enlightened > yet" and not have somebody contradict me. ;-) > I get it. I too always have thought it was better to be honest with my experience than faking it, to myself or anybody else. Hang in there. Michael has provided you some excellent guidance.
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