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dr_mandelbrot said:

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hummermania00 said:
As far as enlightenment is concerned, IMO if you are consciously seeking it, you will not find it, because the mind will be pre-occupied with finding it. It has been my experience that periods of enlightenment happen when not focused on a heightened state per se, but simply on expanding the conscious outward.

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Could you please take the time to answer my two simple questions:

When you speak of enlightenment, do you mean a permanent state of mind different from the one you're now experiencing (that is, if you don't already claim or consider yourself to have "arrived")?

How do you practically expand "the conscious" outward in a sober state?

Oh well, I'll add a couple more.

I have expanded outward (very far outward, or short depending on perspective cause the universe could almost seem to be reached by the hand that wasn't there) on doses of acid and also on a shroom trip. Both of them were very different. On the acid it was like every inbreath was the creation of cosmos and although time/space was not there as it is, somehow the outer edges of the universe wasn't in a way more than an egg around my lack of body. On every outbreath there was nothing. So inhale exhale was creating destroying, birthing dying, over and over.

Oh this got long and messy now, but the question in mind was, this can't be a state an enlightened person lives in. No-one could move around in such a bodyless state, let alone speak, pee or read a book. But that is what expanding the conscious outward really means, is it not?

So how far should you expand that to be "enlightened". Should your head just be a balloon? I'm not serious of course, I'm just starting to question that the term enlightenment has anything to do with samadhi at all.

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I will reply the best i can to your questions:

1.) I am not really sure that the term "enlightenment" is what i am actually experiencing. Hell, I don't even know what samadhi is. However, what I refer to enlightenment (for lack of another word) is the getting to understanding that there are other "planes" of awareness for our minds. But to actually sit down and say, "I will meditate, or trance myself,  or aware myself into one of these states has not been my experience. An altered state for me seems to only happen in times of profound quiet (physical) and peace (mental). At these times I seem to experience a complete lack of awareness of all my surroundings, and a total awareness of, or understanding of, an outer realm.

2.) Since I have not done any drugs for about 25 years, i don't really know how to answer your question, except to re-iterate that it just happens as described above. At one time, (in my youth) I consumed psychedelics voraciously; LSD perhaps 1000 times, copious supplies of mushrooms and buttons; and I never experienced anything that is comparable to what I occasionally experience now.

I don't know how else to describe this. It is probably weak, perhaps this is by design. I am not sure that I would have wanted a complete and accurate description of these experiences.

As far as living in a permanent altered state, I really don't know if that is possible. I doubt it is for what I experience, but it sure would be fun to find out. Also, I am aware that one writer/professor of "enlightenment" claims to live/has lived in an altered state for several years, including sleep. I can't remember his name, or his book.

Hopefully this gives you what you were asking?

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dr_mandelbrot said:
You are absolutely right of course. Great answers all around. My mind was clouded and the comments were neither fair nor accurate.

I don't even know why I wrote what I wrote. Had been staying up too late I guess.

Life in general is very good for me now. The last year has probably been the best year of my life.

Trying not to post too much, as I feel I have little to contribute, but sometimes I get sucked into it again.

Heheh.

Happy travellings on your path.

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Well I'm happy if it helped. 

Also, i would say to you that (it seems to me) writing these posts is not about perfection, and more about just dialogue. I fully expect that at one time or another I will be full of shit, or just off on a tangent that either no one else understands, or I simply don't seem to be able to articulate my thoughts about a subject.

I won't let that stop me however, because it is all valuable experience. Post away, friend.

You never know when inspiration will strike!