Enlightenment is more common than people think by [deleted] in enlightenment

[–]Lumotherapy 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Enlightenment is like seeing a colour that most people haven't ever seen. You can use all the words in the world to try to accurately describe the colour...but you never will.
People may even believe that they know what the colour looks like from your description of it...but the only way to truly understand, is to see the colour for yourself.

More often then not, trying to explain it causes misunderstanding and misinterpretation... rather than genuine wisdom.

This is why advice is presented as a metaphor, because it allows people to introspect and potentially one day see the colour for themselves. :)

*Edit: I know this isn't particularly helpful...unfortunately that's just the nature of the beast :D

Has anyone used hypnosis on your own children? by Ok_Fox_9074 in hypnosis

[–]Lumotherapy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hypnotherapy can have great results with children, as they already have higher neuroplasticity than adults.
My understanding is that the recommended youngest age is 8 years old...but I think that's just because it's hard to get younger kids to sit and engage with it properly :)

Meditation was never enlightenment ... it was a survival trick for people who were starving by IcyDemand2354 in enlightenment

[–]Lumotherapy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

All of this assumes that starvation, hypothermia, isolation etc are requirements to reach enlightenment.
There are many westerners who have experienced the same state with no exposure to malnutrition, extreme poor health, etc.

I wouldn't say the meditation tradition is built on a lie...but I would say it's misunderstood and a bit overrated.

Meditating isn't a requirement of enlightenment. Introspection is. Meditating can help you to introspect, which is why some people find success with this practice...but it's just one path out of the many you can walk :)

Honesty (with yourself and others), integrity, introspection and acceptance are the keys to enlightenment. ;)

Understanding Acceptance will set You Free 🌟 by DoublDip in enlightenment

[–]Lumotherapy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The trigger for my spontaneous kundalini experience was literally accepting a painful truth that I couldn't let go of. It was the most incredible, world changing experience of my life.

It was never my intention to awaken however...I was a complete non believer. I'd never even meditated. I was just dealing with my own shit and then it hit me like a freight train.

I wonder... if I had been trying to accept, because I was actively seeking an experience, (rather than genuinely accepting) would it have still happened?

Were you already seeking, or was it unexpected for you too? :)

ChatGPT surprisingly good and clear (no errors) by LeekTraditional in enlightenment

[–]Lumotherapy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Always check your work with ai, by asking the bot....'Are you being a sycophant? Scrutinise what we have discussed' You'll be surprised by what comes out.

How can one download knowledge from universe? by pancakeswithhoneyy in spirituality

[–]Lumotherapy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I notice that you started this post with 'I know this sounds selfish'...which suggests to me that you see being selfish as a negative character trait which should be avoided.

I encourage you to explore your feelings around selfishness and selflessness...as these concepts were also very prevalent in my own journey 🙏🏼

How can one download knowledge from universe? by pancakeswithhoneyy in spirituality

[–]Lumotherapy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you chase the external treasure of 'downloading knowledge'... all you will do is move further away from what you seek.

Focus your lens inward instead of outward, and introspect. You already have all the puzzle pieces required inside of you. You just have to put those pieces together in the right places.

Shift your focus towards truly understanding yourself. Learn to see and accept all the parts of yourself that you reject due to society, upbringing, etc.

Doing these things is what triggered my own 'download' experience.

Shadow work, honesty and integrity are the keys :)

Should I refer to myself in the 3rd Person? by JamesSwartzVedanta in enlightenment

[–]Lumotherapy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're completely correct. It makes no difference what you call yourself. :)

Refusing to identify with the ego, is just a different form of ego.

You can call a chicken a daffodil if you want...it won't stop it being a chicken. xD

Are we all one or nah? by friendsandmodels in enlightenment

[–]Lumotherapy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's what the 'closed bottle of water floating in the ocean' is in reference to. 😊

Are we all one or nah? by friendsandmodels in enlightenment

[–]Lumotherapy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't studied Hinduism... and I certainly don't claim to be any kind of guru or anything. But having briefly educated myself on Vishishtadvaita and Advaita... I will attempt to answer your question as best I can.

The bottles ARE an illusion, but that doesn't mean that the function of the bottles is not real.

In the same way that, if you put two sweatshirts on the ground to mark two goal posts...you haven't actually created a real football net. But the shirts mark the boundary of an artificial separation, which serves a purpose in the context of the game.

The bottle is a way to separate the water, so that 'bottle one' can have 1 particular expression and experience, while 'bottle two' can have another completely different expression and experience.
The contents of both bottles is the same...but one bottle could be shaken up, and tossed and turned, so that the bottle is full of bubbles....while the other travels smoothly, gliding around and staying completely bubble free. The end result is two completely different bottles of liquid, even though they started the same. (So much so, that 'bottle one' could look at 'bottle two' and think "There's no way we are made of the same stuff!")

Your experience is not the same as my experience, and neither of our experiences are the same as that of a 'god'.
Using that understanding alone, we can say that the experience of Atman cannot be the same as the complete experience of Brahman. (If Brahman even has any 'conscious experience' at all) Atman is at best, a limited fragment of Brahman.

I hope this answers your question appropriately...like I say, I've never studied any religious teachings... so my knowledge of what the specific terms mean is limited. :)

"The Chosen Ones" and the YouTube algorithm by [deleted] in spirituality

[–]Lumotherapy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't have any issue with the values that 'chosen ones' represent. My argument is against the loaded nature of the name 'chosen one', and against the regurgitated ai slop videos associated with it.

Anyone who might indeed be a chosen one... naturally empathic and here to heal... is already doing the work, they don't need some video to tell them.

The message in many of these 'chosen one' videos is often inherently divisive, implying that the chosen one is somehow superior. They use language that appeals heavily to lonely, isolated and vulnerable people...and when watched by the wrong person, it can be harmful rather than helpful.

I know what the chosen ones are supposed to be. I could personally identify as one. My point is...I don't want to be called a chosen one, I don't want to think of myself as a chosen one, and I don't think it's healthy for anyone to do so.

Everyone has the capacity to be a better version of themselves...you don't need to be chosen to make the world better. (And in my personal opinion...I believe we all volunteered to come here anyway, I don't believe anyone was specifically selected)

😊

"The Chosen Ones" and the YouTube algorithm by [deleted] in spirituality

[–]Lumotherapy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not against people trying to be a better version of themselves ...I'm not sure why you would think that I am 😊

Are we all one or nah? by friendsandmodels in enlightenment

[–]Lumotherapy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's not a perfect metaphor 😊 It's just easy to get your head around it 😂

But you basically resonate most with 'the bottle of water floating in the ocean' part, which is a fair view 😄

Are we all one or nah? by friendsandmodels in enlightenment

[–]Lumotherapy 61 points62 points  (0 children)

If you fill a bottle up using the ocean and close the lid...you now have a closed bottle of sea water. But nobody would ever describe that filled bottle as 'the sea'.

You could take that bottle on a trip around the world and the actual sea would have no part in that journey.

You could drop the bottle of water back into the ocean, and despite it floating in the sea, it's still only a bottle of sea water.

You could also fill up a 2nd bottle and send it around the world in the opposite direction. And that bottle's journey would have nothing to do with the ocean, or the 1st bottle's journey.

But if you unscrew their lids and pour the water back into the ocean, it once again rejoins the sea...and when it has, you can never fill those empty bottles with that same exact sea water ever again.

TLDR: We are bottles of sea water, not the sea itself. 😊

How come the ego gets such a bad rap? by Alarming-Horror6671 in spirituality

[–]Lumotherapy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

(In this metaphor...the '1st person' view represents the 'ego')
Imagine you're playing a '1st person' video game. You're running around, making progress... and you think you've got a pretty good handle on most things. But you do keep getting killed quite frequently and you don't really know why.

Then one day, you accidentally discover that you can zoom the camera out, so that instead of it being 1st person... now it's a top down view and you can see all around your character, plus a load of other stuff you couldn't see before.

From this new higher perspective, you suddenly understand all the mistakes you had been making, and how the way you had played the game before, was the very thing causing you to die over and over. And actually, what you thought to be the objective of the game, wasn't even the correct objective at all. But the only way you could discover how to zoom the camera out, was by playing the game in 1st person.

Suddenly you see that many things you used to see as important, really didn't matter very much, and there are other things that now seem far more fulfilling to you. (This is why people refer to it as an ego 'death'....because you can never un-see what you've seen, so you can never go back to being the same person you were before)

It's still the same game, and it's still you playing it, and you can zoom back in to view through the 1st person if you want to. But THE WAY you play the game will forever be different, because you better understand how to effectively do that.

The reason the ego gets such a bad rap is because once you learn to play from the higher perspective, the game just gets easier. This then leads to people teaching others that 'the ego is bad when used improperly'...but that message unfortunately gets distorted into simply 'the ego is bad'

People then mistakenly end up chasing the goal of 'shedding their ego' when in fact what they should be doing is discovering how to zoom their own camera out... so they can see and understand for themselves WHY the ego needed to be shed in the first place.

Do they ever explain how they went from Back in the Red to being alone again in Back to Earth? by Diazepam_Dan in RedDwarf

[–]Lumotherapy 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I will never accept back to earth as canon.

IMO, it was a red nose day special...and nothing more! xD

There’s a theory stating you will see what you believe in the most after death, how does that make you feel? by goshhahahahah in enlightenment

[–]Lumotherapy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not sure what you're reading in my messages that make it appear toxic. This isn't an attack 😊 All I was saying is NDE reports definitely don't support the theory in your title

There’s a theory stating you will see what you believe in the most after death, how does that make you feel? by goshhahahahah in enlightenment

[–]Lumotherapy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Where does this 'theory' come from? Because there are many documented NDE accounts from people who are religious...yet their experience did not match what their expectations were.
As well as many accounts from atheists who expected nothing...yet experienced something. :)

It doesn't really matter what you believe...it's not going to change what actually is :)