Are you sleeping comfortably?

lobster

On the path to Buddhahood it should come as no surprise to have moments or longer of satori or awakening. As many will be aware this is not unusual and like all things temporary.
So I can say without doubt enlightenment 'exists'. For some it is either a myth, arising or unimportant.

Being awake as a permanent abiding is the goal of the Middle Way. Or is it?

Can you confirm, deny or ignore?
At the moment I am in a condition of sleep. I know and experience it as an unskilfull mind state. Are you free of enlightenment, from enlightenment, still dreaming of enlightenment . . .?

robot

I will go ahead and confirm. I have had those moments that you mentioned. And I believe that is the goal.
Still, I doubt that I will achieve a permanent abiding in that state. That's ok. I won't be abiding in misery either.
I don't consider myself asleep most days. Although I am deeply attached most of the time, I feel as though I have a pretty good grasp on things. If I can stop what I am caught up in, more awareness is available.
Some days I feel dissatisfied or a touch of depression or anxiety that gives the world a dim or darkened aspect, like looking through a fog with a clear patch straight ahead. Those days awareness is in short supply. The bare minimum.
Is that close to what you are asking for?

ZendoLord84

I stopped caring about enlightenment.

lobster

When they scan the enlightened, will something different be discernible?
http://buff.ly/15sEAOJ

Thanks for confirming Robot. It is the goal . . . and in a strange way it is the beginning of real knowing and potential . . .

Before enlightenment, I used to be depressed; after enlightenment, I continue to be depressed.
--Anthony deMello
http://www.joantollifson.com/writing8.html

I can hardly wait . . .

Now here is a question for the non snoozing . . .
Is unenlightenment possible after awakening and why would anyone want to z z z . . .

Tosh

I once had a moment, not too long after I stopped drinking, when I got out of bed, rather mechanically to let the dog out for his morning toilet. I opened the door and just experienced. Everything looked just perfect, the World seemed just perfect, my mind was quiet, I felt joyful (not euphoric though). It was quite a profound moment and I had not experienced anything like it without the aid of alcohol.

Only lasted a few moments though, then my mind kicked back in.

If being enlightened is anything like that, I'll have some please.

zenff

Goso said, “To give an example, it is like a buffalo passing through a window. Its head, horns and four legs have all passed through. Why is it that its tail cannot?”

Mumonkan Case 38: A Buffalo Passes Through a Window

We can certainly feel bliss and peace of mind and love and all the other good stuff. But I think these states of mind are – at best - the buffalo passing through the window. The tail is something else.

We cannot put our finger on our true nature and it is not identified by bliss, openness, love, surrender, or any other label we want to put on it. Our true nature precedes all the fabrications of thoughts and feelings. The buffalo does not swing the tail; the tail swings the buffalo.
Mumonkan says; work with the tail. Return to the tail.

In my interpretation that is: don’t get stuck in your spiritual materialism. Your attainments mean nothing. Return to what you cannot show off with, to what you don’t understand, and to what is beyond your grasp.

lobster

non identity, emptiness . . .

my sort of tale . . .

There is a wonderful term in alchemy:
Coagulate and dissolve.

It equates to the idea of form (or focus)
and empty or dissolve

Emptiness is form, form is emptiness.
Can you dig it?