Thread: Enlightenment - Quick Guide

Like I said it's not my goal to define enlightenment. I'm simply trying to cut out excess words and traditions from a valuable practice so it can be laid out in a broad and simple way. A la Eckhart Tolle but I don't even think it takes a book to do so. Maybe it's coming off arrogant, but I think excess words are just polluting people's heads when we're trying to achieve the opposite ends. Perhaps telling people it's simple pulls them the wrong direction, as it's certainly not easy. But I think it can be understood easily.

Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

Like I said it's not my goal to define enlightenment. I'm simply trying to cut out excess words and traditions from a valuable practice so it can be laid out in a broad and simple way.

As I said before, that's basically what Buddha did. He took all the mystical crap out of Hinduism and made Buddhism.

But another tip I have found pretty good is one I read a couple of years ago.
Which is how to clear your head of the internal dialogue.

You basically just practice with not thinking with your internal voice for a couple of seconds.
Then you just slowly build it up, 10 seconds, a minute, a minute thirty etc.

I've mentioned this to a couple of people and they think that that will basically stop them from being able to think. But it's the exact opposite. It allows you to think much more quickly because your not talking yourself through everything. It is a massive and common misconception that it helps you.

After you realise this, and quiet your inner dialogue, it is much easier to live in the moment, in fact it almost comes naturally.

Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

Like I said it's not my goal to define enlightenment. I'm simply trying to cut out excess words and traditions from a valuable practice so it can be laid out in a broad and simple way. A la Eckhart Tolle but I don't even think it takes a book to do so. Maybe it's coming off arrogant, but I think excess words are just polluting people's heads when we're trying to achieve the opposite ends. Perhaps telling people it's simple pulls them the wrong direction, as it's certainly not easy. But I think it can be understood easily.

Like tommo said, the Buddha laid this out for us. He even constructed the path in very short and easily remembered lists.. "the noble eightfold path" .. "the three trainings" ... this is and probably was instrumental in the teachings / tradition surviving so long, as it can be easily remembered and passed on orally even when written teachings may be destroyed, lost, or decay. The path to enlightenment is extremely simple. One simply practices morality, concentration, and insight. Morality is laid out pretty clearly, you can find more on this if you google "sila". There are extremely simple and effective meditation techniques for concentration, and insight. Examples are what I've already described earlier... for concentration: counting breaths, kasina practice... for insight.. vipassana noting practice. So it's not as if the path is complex, it is almost TOO simple.. people scoff at it because of it's simplicity. And it's certainly more helpful to give more specific instruction as yogi's become more adept.

But really it's just a matter of dedicating yourself to these very simple practices, and doing them consistently / persistently. Just like any great task, we chip away at it one bit at a time, repetition. The buddha may have used the analogy "filling a bucket one drop at a time". ^__^ As long as you are following the meditation instructions properly, you don't even need an intellectual framework or philosophical understanding.. insight naturally arises from these practices. So... the path has been laid out VERY clearly, and simply, it's only a matter of being willing to commit and follow the instructions.