User:Nobody60/Nils/What is Enlightenment

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Wikipedia: Enlightenment means in spiritual terms the word alludes to a spiritual revelation or deep insight into the meaning and purpose of all things, communication with or understanding of the mind of God, profound spiritual understanding or a fundamentally changed consciousness whereby everything is perceived as a unity.

The Path to Inner Happiness
Inner tension and inner conflict occur when people prevent themselves from being at peace and from experiencing true happiness at a deeper level. This inner tension and conflict takes energy, destroys any chance for contentment, and lower one’s overall spiritual positivity. A highly tense and conflicted person tends to have negative thoughts. Love for oneself and others is blocked mentally and spiritually.

Inner conflict can mainly be traced to one’s childhood. In a conflicted society, where pressure to perform and competition is a daily reality engrained upon its members, a tendency toward conflict and tension is passed on from parents to their children during their upbringing. Parents live out their worries, doubts, fears, aggressions, addictions, and thus influence the spiritual development of their children. Other childhood sources of learned conflict stem from television. Tension in turn then comes from professional stress, strained relationships, divorce, and more, as these children grow up to face similar challenges as their parents face or once faced.

The good news is, whenever this inner conflict builds up inside, it can also be eliminated. The bad news is this can take quite a while. Whenever tension builds over the course of several years, it will also take years to relieve. It is always worth the effort, however, to take on the challenge of curing oneself of such inner negativity. For example, illness later on in life can be avoided as a life full of peace, energy, and positivity is a healthier one.

The amount of inner peace a person possesses correlates opposingly to the amount of tension in one’s body and spirit. The lower the tension, the more positive the life force present. Every person has the potential to find absolute peace and contentment. Everyone can achieve enlightenment. The only thing standing in the way of this goal is our own tension and negativity. Once these darker feelings subside, our inner positive energy grows.

A good way to go about curing oneself of this life force robbing negativity is to practice several spiritual exercises every day. We have to live in a way that facilitates a gravitation towards the light, instead of the dark. Most people in today’s day and age are on a march in the opposite direction. They live day to day feeling egotistical and stressed out. They live their lives focused on creating more tension and end up burnt out, sick, negative, and depressed.

Tension can reside in the body and the soul. The body and the soul are connected, and in order to relieve ourselves of inner tension, we should practice spiritual exercises for both elements. Inner happiness can manifest on a deeper level only when we cleanse ourselves of this inner tension. As people are very individual, no two have the same sorts of tension and negativity. Everyone should therefore experiment with said exercises to find what is best for him or her to direct one’s path in the appropriate way for him or herself to find inner happiness. True contentment can be found as one of the enlightened. The deeper purpose of life is to reach enlightenment.

In the Philosophy Room
Nils: I have experienced great pain and great happiness. The biggest happiness I experienced in enlightenment. The cosmos has given humans the ability to move to wisdom. I can therefore say I would like to avoid suffering to the greatest extent possible, and to realize a state of happiness as far as possible. Those who have experienced intense suffering and intense happiness in life, know their lives’ challenges. They know that there is a correct way to the correct life. This could be called the holy path.

Bartleby: To be enlightened and happy are supposedly abilities one can learn?

Nils: Being happy is doable. Happiness can be learnt. A person can raise his or her happiness by 40% with simple daily exercises. American researchers who studied the topic of happiness found that to be the case.

Enlightenment occurs when a person dissolves his or her inner tension through spiritual techniques such as meditation and thought work. An individual can relax through exercise. Inner happiness then unfolds on its own. A person can work for the conditions best suited to enlightenment, but this grace comes from God. If a person practices spiritually long enough, he or she develops inner happiness. How quickly this occurs depends on the intensity and nature of the inner conflict.

Bartleby: To be “free from joy and pain“ is nothing I consider worth striving for.

Nils: An enlightened individual has feelings just like a non-enlightened person: feelings of grief and joy. He or she simply lives at a higher level of happiness, in general. He or she has more peace, power, happiness, and love.

There are two ways to approach feelings in spirituality. Buddha based himself in a great feeling of inner relaxation, free from intense emotions. He rose above feelings like rage, sadness, fear, and joy. The Dalai Lama in comparison, represents a form of Buddhism which emphasizes feelings. He cultivates feelings such as all-encompassing love and empathy.

I teach the allowance of feelings of rage and sadness in my yoga lessons. I practice regular anger, grief, love, and joy exercises. Many yoga teachers overpower such feelings. There are also various ways to go in yoga.

Trist: To know about God, you first have to be enlightened. That it is an infinite circle and can never be proven.

Nils: That is not a circular argument. Enlightenment, like love, cannot be measured with devices, but it exists anyway. One can measure the results of such feelings as happiness, love, and enlightenment. One can measure brain waves and conclude regarding particular feelings. The main proof for enlightenment comes from witnesses. We could also ask if someone has ever been in love, in a similar way.

LuxFerre: I can think for myself, and decide for myself. I don’t need help from enlightened people.

Nils: I consider it a mistake to not accept help from enlightened teachers, but everyone has his or her own way. Help is voluntary.

Accepting the help of an enlightened master has the advantage that the teacher knows the goal and can help people from straying from it. Without an enlightened teacher, it is more difficult to come to self-realization. Only a few people can find the correct way and reach the goal without a teacher.

It is ok for a beginner to read spiritual books and to look for the wisdom within, but if you wish to make real progress, it helps to have a teacher.

A bad teacher is harmful, but a good one can help bring people forward spiritually. We should first check out our teachers before we truly put our spiritual lives in their hands. I recommend that you center yourself in your own wisdom, and view the master’s wisdom as additional help.

Fliege: What ist enlightenment energy?

Nils: Enlightenment energy feels like light, water, or a magnet field around the person. It has the characteristics of peace, power, happiness, and love. When the person is pure enough on the inside, this happiness energy fills the body and the space around the person. He is then surrounded by an aura of holy energy.

Enlightenment energy can be sensed. In science, it is often debated as to what it deals with. I experience it as consciousness energy. I can create this energy through my spiritual exercises and spiritually control this energy and transfer it to other people. I also got enlightenment energy from my teachers. The center of initiation in yoga is the transfer of enlightenment energy.

Levels of Enlightenment
Partygänger: Hey nils !! How does one know whether one is enlightened?

Nils: According to my opinion, there are many levels or degrees of enlightenment. Normal people can also have feelings of happiness, love, and peace. It can feel like you are one wit the world. In the second level of enlightenment, these feelings are especially strong at particular moments.

A third degree would be when a person dwells on this level for a long time. In the fourth level, the ego begins to dissolve. This individual sees his or her fellow beings more than his or her self. He or she gives more than he or she takes and is therefore happier than his or her more selfish fellow humans.

A fifth level could be described as a feeling of holiness. The person has such a high state of energy that he or she experiences the self as being holy. He or she senses a large aura around his or her head and around the body. In this level there is still an ego and sense of the self. In the sixth level, you reach cosmic consciousness. You lose your “me” feeling. You are at one with everything, you are simply consciousness.

On the seventh level, you see God in all things and everywhere in the world. In the eighth level, you forget the material world and see yourself as being independent of material. You are free of joy and peace. At the ninth level, particularly special spiritual abilities appear.

The tenth level is reached then after death, when one lives permanently in the highest dimension of happiness (Paradise, God, Satyaloka).

What I just typed comes from my own knowledge and experience. In Tibetan Buddhism there are ten Bodhisattva levels. In yoga we also speak of a thousand stages of enlightenment. There are basically small, medium and large enlightened.

Partygänger: Hello nils !! Total enlightenment must be an experience that does away with all the other possible human possibilities to experience.

Nils: That’s how it is. It was clear to me afterwards that I knew the deeper sense of life.

Partygänger: I imagine an out of body experience where I float as a ray of energy down a street of milk full of unlimited, undescribable, absolute, ultimate psychedelic happiness. It would definitely be worth it to find this condition… in this lifetime!!!

Nils: Enlightenment is very good. According to my experience, it is so good that one would do anything for it. However, it is difficult to describe. It is more of an act of inaction (simply being blissful), but sometimes a very forceful action. It depends on what one needs along the way to inner happiness.

The Most Powerful and Effective Exercise
Carsten: What is the most powerful and effective exercise, in your opinion?

Nils: The quickest way to progress along the spiritual way is to let an enlightened master open the energy door for you and then live in calm and peace alone. Then everything will develop the right way. According to Amma, you grow five times as quickly in isolation as you do as a spiritual person in a worldly environment. A worldly environment robs a lot of energy, which is then not present for the inner transformation. Relationships take the most energy away. Everyone needs to find his or her own way, as I have stated in the past.

It is difficult to live as a yogi in isolation. Most people would get overwhelmed. Good that I didn’t know how difficult it would be before I tried it. But now I am through with the largest crisis and have learned to deal with my situation. Now I feel much more relaxed with it all. I have had a computer for five years and surf the net happily.

I have lived for over twentyfour years in isolation. The first fifteen years were mainly without outer contact. The extreme phase was necessary. Swami Shivananda went his way in such an extreme way at first, and then relaxed it a bit afterwards. The important thing is to find the right combination for yourself. The most effective exercise is to rest, to practice (Yoga, meditation, reading) and to love all beings (to do good for others).

For me, the most powerful exercise is to maintain a spiritual daily routine. You must center your life in inner happiness and find out how you can stay within and grow spiritually.

Tension comes through stress situations. When they dissolve, the stress situations appear again, briefly. Feelings such as anger, sadness, and fear appear again and then dissolve. With the meditation, there is potential for two mistakes. One could be that we meditate to strongly. Then the problems don’t rise to the surface and we can’t dissolve any inner tension. The second pitfall is conscious thinking. We can think to much or fall into day dreams. The correct way is to be a passive observer of one’s own emotions. We don’t control these things consciously. We observe with interest as things rise from our inner worlds. We let the condition of calm prevail and the tension will dissolve.

Enlightenment and Love
Atheist: “Those who set themselves down for twelve years and doesn’t think of anything, will get enlightenment.” That is the essence of what you have been saying? Nils: Correct. The essence of enlightenment is in simply existing (calm, rest, not thinking). You think when you need to think. Simply ceasing thoughts sounds simple, but it is a rather dynamic process. Before the thoughts come to a point of calm, all of the suppressed emotions and stress situations in the subconscious come to the surface and dissolve. To force thoughts to stop would be wrong. You sit down somewhere, wait a bit, and then the dance of thoughts and feelings begin. After a time, it all comes to rest, and inner peace, harmony, and happiness emerge. That is how you rise from one level to the next. The “I” and “me” mentality ceases. You cannot force enlightenment. It comes of its own speed. Atheist: Does an enlightened look at the dark side of the psyche? Nils: The contention with one’s own shadow side is the main way to enlightenment.''' An enlightened is aware of the negative side of his or her self. They take the negative side as it is. They live positively with their weaknesses and integrate them into the psyche.''' They are harmonious with the self.

Atheist: What is the omnipotent God? Nils: God is a cosmic consciousness field that is over and in all beings. God is described as ubiquitous, all-powerful, all-knowing, omnipotent, and blissful. In transcendence, God is described as all-encompassing mother and father, full of love and happiness. Ubiquitous is a good description for the cosmic information field. All-knowing is a good component of this field. Love and happiness are experienced when you become one with this cosmic field. But what’s the deal with all-powerful? That I am not so sure of. The way I deal with this concept, is to see God as the cosmic law working everywhere and absolutely. An enlightened feels God as an all-powerful being. At the same time, he has the ability to deal only within his possibilities. He must remain within the rules of the cosmos. The power of the cosmic consciousness field is limited, in my opinion. It has to emerge with whatever material is at hand. It can create a material cosmos. It can manifest itself as an enlightened. It can influence the development of the material cosmos. But it remains within the rules of the universe. For that reason, I define the all-powerful nature of the cosmos as an inner feeling. I define the power of God as transcendent and contradictory.

Atheist: Isn’t love the essence of Christianity? Nils: Very good. We should all love more. Atheist: To carry around love within oneself all day and everyday should be enough for enlightenment? Nils: Try it. It is enough. You will see God in the world and in other people. You will have love, peace, and happiness within. All-encompassing love is the quickest way to a life in God. Atheist: What I don’t understand is how people know the universe scientifically, they know how big it is, how old it is, they know that it is there. Despite that, they don’t know it really, because the feeling for it is missing. Nils: Very well stated. Enlightenment is a cosmic consciousness. One feels like he or she is a part of the universe. '''Enlightenment can be created in that the cosmos are visualized around oneself and the universe as a whole. The visualization of the universe activates the Kundalini energy (the enlightenment energy).''' It is not enough to know something of the universe, one must also feel it. Atheist: It is as though we know there is a God, but we don’t feel or sense the existence of this God. If we look in the right direction, we then become aware and can thus become enlightened? Nils: '''Visualizing God awakens the enlightenment energy. Praying with real feeling awakens the Kundalini energy. For this reason, many Christians say they can feel God. They think about God and have feelings of peace and happiness.''' Atheist: Do you know the end of the way? Nils: '''The way of enlightenment is endless. God cannot be measured.''' You can grow eternally. When you have saved yourself, then you can save everyone else. Amma meditates for herself first. When she has enough enlightenment energy in herself, she then meditates for other people and sends them happiness, wisdom, love, power, and peace. Most people could use a lot of these things. Atheist: Isn’t the world unimportant for the enlightened? Nils: '''An enlightened has peace within him or her, but the suffering of others is not unimportant to him or her. Those who have God within, have enough for themselves. But God is also love. Enlightenment changes people from egotistical persons to loving, giving individuals. The ego is dissolved and through the destruction of the ego, the enlightened recognizes them in all of their fellow humans. The enlightened see the suffering of others and wish them happiness. Love flows from them to their fellow humans and their enlightenment becomes more all-encompassing. An enlightened is not a nihilist, rather a Buddha who is concerned with the happiness of his or her fellow humans.'''

The Way of All-Encompassing Love
The way of all-encompassing love gives life a deeper meaning. It gives the power to overcome barriers and burdens. The vision of a happy world provides motivation in a life as a Yogi. When Nils doesn’t feel like practicing Yoga, he fills his practice with the motivation of a happier world. He connects himself with suffering beings in the world and gets energy that way.He sends light to particular people everyday. He does this until his heart is open. Then he sends love to all beings, and finds happiness.

When we facilitate the desire for a better world, then we grow further towards enlightenment. The secret to this wish is the connection from the inner to the outer world. We are not spiritually separated from other beings. Their happiness or lack thereof affects us. When we visualize other beings as happy, then we also feel happy.

Those who foster and encourage this goal to a happy world creates positivity within. When we send light to all beings, then one day light will come through to our souls. When we do something good for the world, the world will reward us with a positive psyche.

But there is a danger along the path of unconditional, all-encompassing love. We can overwhelm ourselves and work too hard and have no energy left for happiness. A karma yogi must practice equally rooted in love and rest and balance rest with activity. A karma yogi must take care of him or herself, as it is impossible to take care of others unless the self is cared for. Furthermore, a path of exhaustion only leads to burn-out, not enlightenment.

The Dalai Lama explains, “live balanced by helping and by meditating.“ Jesus said, “love God and love your neighbor.” (Meaning, practice spiritually for the development of the self and help others.) Swami Shivananda said, “love, serve, give, meditate, purify, and realize your true self.”

Today, Indian yoga, Buddhism, and Christianity can be brought together to the way of all-encompassing love. It is very important to live for and work for a better, happier world. Bringing these three spiritual teachings together can be helpful in facilitating that. There are two great goals a human can have. He or she can seek enlightenment or work towards a happier world. At best, we combine the two.

In 1991, the Dalai Lama initiated Nils into Tibetan divinity Yoga and in 1998 into the way of all-encompassing love (Bodhisattva initiation, Avalokiteshva/Chenrezig). Nils could feel the energy of the Dalai Lama flow into his crown chakra. Later on, the Dalai Lama appeared to him often in dreams and presented helpful teachings to him. The most important aspect of the teachings of the Dalai Lama is that humans are like one big family and that we need to be responsible for the earth and each other in order for peace and love to exist in this world.

Amma Embraces the World
Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma) was born in 1953 in India. She was said to have been born with a big smile on her face, in contrast to most babies who are born crying. Her full spiritual name is “Mata Amritanandamayi”, which means “mother of bliss-energy”. She began her spiritual journey at the age of five, praying to Krishna everyday.

Amma had a difficult childhood. She was beaten and forced to work extremely hard. Despite this suffering, she never swayed from her spiritual path. It only served to strengthen her conviction.

While working, she repeated Mantras silently and found enlightenment at the age of 17. At first her enlightenment was unstable, but with the age of 22, the light flowed into her being. She became a Buddha as she developed this full state of enlightenment.

Her inner voice told her to help everyone on earth to follow the spiritual path to self-realization, to become a sort of mother of all beings. She taught the way of all-encompassing love, meditation, and yoga. She explained that a master is needed for most people to have success along the spiritual path.

Amma built up an extensive humanitarian organization in India. She financed schools, universities, and hospitals. She also set up an organization for single mothers which gave enough money for them to live, which is quite extraordinary in India.

Amma also engaged herself in the efforts towards equality for men and women. She renewed the Brahma cult. Brahma is the Indian god of wisdom. Equal to his side is Brahmani, the priestess of the comprehensive love. She is also called Sarasvati, the goddess of science, arts and creativity. Amma was a living proof of the ability women possess to achieve enlightenment, equal to that of men.

In the year of 2002 Amma was awarded the Gandhi-King prize from the UNO. In her speech she said, “real leadership doesn’t consist of domination, rather than the service of people with love and empathy.” At the World Parliament of Religions in 2004 in Barcelona she added, “love is our true self. Love and empathy are the essence of all religions. For this reason, it is unnecessary to compete or fight”.

She said that in today’s world people suffer from two kinds of inadequacy. The first is a lack of nourishment, and the second is a lack of love. We need to overcome both types of poverty. In order to fight wars, people spend billions. If only a small portion of that could be invested in peace and harmony, all the hunger and poverty in the world could be overcome. More than a billion people on earth suffer from hunger and poverty. That is actually the biggest enemy of mankind. When we develop love in ourselves, then we can really defeat the enemy that is suffering and misery.

Amma travels every year around the world, and has been doing this since 1987. She gives everyone her Darshan, her blessing. Her particular spiritual method consists of hugging people. She shows everyone that they are loved. She makes love tangible. “Let’s concentrate on what we can give, and not what we can get from others, then we can experience happiness and fulfillment in life”.

Mother Meera
Mother Meera is an enlightened master who lives in Germany. She was born on 26/12/1960 in India. 1982 she married a German. She now lives in Thalheim near Frankfurt. On weekends, she gives satsang (meeting) in the castle Balduinstein. Everyone can visit her and receive her free blessings (darshan). She gives darshan also in the USA and Canada. A darshan is an important purification step on the spiritual path. Often enlightenment energy is transfered, which one day develops in a great grace.

Mother Meera receives thousands of visitors for darshan which she conducts in total silence. Her darshan consists of a ritual, where she will touch a person's head, and then look into his eyes. During this process, she reportedly 'unties knots' in the person's subtle system and permeates them with light. She teaches the unity of all religions. Everyone can go his own way. It is only important to be connected with the light (the personal spiritual role model) by praying, reading or meditating.

Mother Meera has lived some time in the ashram of Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo was one of the great Indian saint of modern times. He taught the Integral Yoga, the combination of meditation and Karma Yoga (doing good). Mother Meera has said that she works together on a spiritual level with the Dalai Lama for the good of the world.

Statements of Mother Meera: "Each religion has its basic books. It is helpful to read these major works of religions. You may enjoy material life, but centering yourself in spirituality. (Live the joy as part of the spiritual path.) (...) Whoever comes to me for darshan, receives always what he needs. I look at everything within you to see where I can help, heal and give strength. I take anyone who comes sincere to me. The grace works automatically when the quest is sincere. Prayer always helps."