Are YOU on the PATH? I hope not.

[Reeducation]

Well hello. I'm not sure what this is. But it's something about bullshit, lies, delusions and the illusion of enlightenment. As in Buddhism and that stuff. I'm not saying that enlightenment is bullshit, but I'm saying that it is not real.
But here it goes:



"First I had no idea of enlightenment and I was happy, then I thought there was enlightenment and I felt like shit because I had not achieved enlightenment and then finally I understood that there was no enlightenment and I was happy again!
What a stupid fucking road to take."
- Me

It's all in your head.

I just got this "enlightenment" thing. That is that there is no enlightenment.
Once you get that, you are "enlightened".
After that, you will be hitting your head against the wall for a few hours, but it's worth it.

Did someone show you the true path, did you read about "it" somewhere or were you just bored and thinking about suicide, when suddenly you "knew" that there had to be at least SOMETHING out there to give you meaning and comfort in your daily struggle?
Who made it all up? Who believed it? Who found the evidence to support their claims?
Who suffered the most?

YOU DID.YOU DID. YOU DID.

There is no "path" to "enlightenment". There is just your imagination.
There is no difference between "out there" and "in here".

"Do not try to bend the spoon, it's impossible."

That quote above is the truth if you just read it like it is. Do not seek any hidden meaning from it.
You really CAN'T BEND the spoon with your mind.
No really, not even with all your knowledge from the Tibetan mystics and warlocks "from the mountains".
If you want to bend it like, for real, just USE YOUR FUCKING HANDS.

You were enlightened before you started to search the enlightenment.
Then you lost it, because now there has only been the search.
It's right there, you fool!
You are just going and seeking and cursing, but there is nothing to be found!

Enlightenment is not about "bliss forever", halo's jumping from your head, third eye or The Ultimate Truth of the dragon-lords, but about realizing that the idea about the enlightenment itself is only YOUR idea.
All that time you were thinking about your own bullshit and searching for enlightenment, life kept on going and it did not care about your delusions.

But you are older now and much smarter, I hope. You are ready to kick the habit of bullshitting yourself.
Of course you are not, but let me keep on going with this rant anyway. Thank you.

Remember those first thoughts about The Meaning of Life?
Now that was THE MOMENT when your life started to suck, like holy shit that existence trip was hard man.
Before that, you just did not give a fuck.
You were ok. Then everything went downhill. It has been now what, five years of searching? Ten?
Twenty?

Zen is difficult because there is no Zen.

The old wise men/women don't speak much, because there actually is not so much to talk about.
They don't know much but they know at least that and that's the reason for them to live their lives in the "Zen way".
They just see life as it is.That's why they hit you with a stick when you keep asking stupid questions.
There are no answers.

KILL YOUR PATH TO ENLIGHTENMENT BEFORE THE PATH KILLS YOU!

Everything is already as it should be. You are searching for a thing that does not exist.
That's the best advice I can give.
One thing not to do is to force your way into the enlightenment. You can't force your way in it.
You can't even try. If you are trying to "get it", you will not get it.
And that is, once again, because there is nothing to get.

If you think you are "enlightened", you are not.

But I think anybody can "get it". You don't even have to be super-intelligence-god like me.
No I think that it is actually for the best if you don't know anything at all, when you are trying to not-trying to get it.
You get it?

And now finally when you do realize this all, you also realize that not all delusions are going away just like that.
Some of them are very tricky. You designed them that way.

You will still be you. Now some of you are going "Oh No! Say it ain't so! I can't stand myself! I'll do anything to get rid of me! Oh the torment, the pain." and that's quite normal reaction, but once you get that there is actually NOTHING WRONG with you and nothing TO FIX, you'll get over it. Or not.
You are you and as you, you shall stay. UNTIL YOU DIE.

You are not going to change into a angel-like creature of holy wisdom and endless happiness by understanding your "Buddha-mind" (a.k.a. bullshit-generator-creator).
Oh no, you will still be just yourself.
A simple human-being from planet Earth.
And you will learn nothing that could be considered as something special.
You will still have your addictions, flaws and your endless hate against stupid people and so on.
And that's a great thing.

You are your own worst tormentor and it is you who makes yourself feel like shit every now and then.
You create your own thoughts. You create what you feel.
This should be obvious and you know it.
It's all you and your delusional little mind so use it well.

Just forget the bullshit.

"Before I had studied Chan (Zen) for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains, and rivers as rivers.
When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and rivers are not rivers. But now that I have got its very substance I am at rest.
For it's just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and rivers once again as rivers."

[Luna]

Pft.

There is no path TO enlightenment.

Enlightenment IS a path.

There's no magic on/off switch that you can press to suddenly "get it."

Nobody gets it ALL.  Well, there was that ONE guy... but, last I heard, they were still feeding him through a tube and keeping his arms strapped down so he doesn't claw out his other eye.

"Enlightenment" is just a word for "understanding new shit" when somebody's trying to put their hand in your wallet.

[East Coast Hustle]

The OP is preaching to the choir here, but not a bad rant. Needs to be edited a bit for less redundancy and better narrative flow, but overall I rate it a 7/10.

[Reeducation]

There's no magic on/off switch that you can press to suddenly "get it."

I actually think there might be a "magic-switch", but it's not a switch you can press yourself.

[Luna]

There's no magic on/off switch that you can press to suddenly "get it."

I actually think there might be a "magic-switch", but it's not a switch you can press yourself.

It's more an infinite series of switches.  Just because you "get" one thing doesn't mean you're gonna get it all, is more where I was going with that.

Sometimes the light goes on, sometimes it doesn't.

[Reeducation]

There's no magic on/off switch that you can press to suddenly "get it."

I actually think there might be a "magic-switch", but it's not a switch you can press yourself.

It's more an infinite series of switches.  Just because you "get" one thing doesn't mean you're gonna get it all, is more where I was going with that.

Sometimes the light goes on, sometimes it doesn't.

I agree with that.

[Captain Utopia]

The OP is preaching to the choir here, but not a bad rant. Needs to be edited a bit for less redundancy and better narrative flow, but overall I rate it a 7/10.

I'm not disagreeing with this, because I note my perception is probably skewed, but I had the impression that a fair chunk of people here believed in "enlightenment".  It's more often talked around than explicitly laid out for mockery, mind.

[Reeducation]

It's not laid out for mockery. I'm just saying that there is nothing to gain from enlightenment.
Because there is no enlightenment as in everlasting ego-death and bliss for thousand years.

[Luna]

Oh, I don't know.

Realizing shit about how the world works can open you up to a shitload of "ohfuq, THIS is what we live with," but it's better than walking around with blinders on.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I have a standing policy of kicking the crap out of anyone that tries to enlighten me.

[Captain Utopia]

Oh, I don't know.

Realizing shit about how the world works can open you up to a shitload of "ohfuq, THIS is what we live with," but it's better than walking around with blinders on.

Sure - but I wouldn't call it "enlightenment", because that seems to be putting another set of blinders on.

[Luna]

Oh, I don't know.

Realizing shit about how the world works can open you up to a shitload of "ohfuq, THIS is what we live with," but it's better than walking around with blinders on.

Sure - but I wouldn't call it "enlightenment", because that seems to be putting another set of blinders on.

The blinders never come all the way off... but you can widen the focus, sometimes.

[LMNO]

I'll disagree with the OP, but very specifically.  I see enlightenment as a normal, if brief and rare, mental state that can be entered by almost any human brain.  I see it as a product of removing certain aspects of conditioning and rationality (via drugs, stress, or intense concentration (among other things)).  The result of this is terror, perspective, and new understanding. 

Because this mental state physically exists, then it should not be rejected.  And if you enjoy the terror and understanding, then it should be persued.  But because this mental state physically exists, it should not be treated as something extraordinary or mystic. 

So: Enlightenment exists, but it's not special.

[Jenne]

I don't think I know what this "enlightenment" is anymore.  What it means and how it's used are completely different to me at this point in time.  But I understand the OP to mean the bullshit sector of so-called "enlightenment" needs to be highlighted as the BIP it ends up being for most folks.

...at least that's what I gathered from it, anyway.

[Reeducation]

I don't think I know what this "enlightenment" is anymore.  What it means and how it's used are completely different to me at this point in time.  But I understand the OP to mean the bullshit sector of so-called "enlightenment" needs to be highlighted as the BIP it ends up being for most folks.

...at least that's what I gathered from it, anyway.

YES! YES! 

I can't find the right words for this thing, frustrating (well I can't even write the thing I have in my brain in my own language so), so I just have to repeat and say this again:
Enlightenment is that moment when you realize that there is no enlightenment. IMO. That you are hunting your own creation. The idea of enlightenment. The enlightenment itself is an illusion.

There is nothing to get. What is real is real. You can't get into Buddha-mindset because there is no Buddha-mindset. And that's it.
That's the Buddha-mindset.

Once I got this, I just went outside and played football with my kid for the rest of the day.