Great thread by the way. I love hearing other people’s perspectives
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Read mahayana Buddhism, especially zen.
Read Tao, Brahman, Shiva.
Pure mind/no mind is buddha.
To kill buddha is to become buddha.
No concept of buddha or higher reality.
No concepts at all.
Even the good and sattvic ideas and thoughts
turn further the wheel of karma.
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To drink when thirsty
To eat when hungry
To sleep when sleepy.
That’s zen
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Kids or babies 
are born as the most enlightened. With a blank slate in natural form and action.
Do you agree with this statement or no
I do resonate with what you say about innocence
My biggest spiritual conflict is how much I’ve been corrupted.
Innocence is a burden.
Throw it away.
Be wicked. This is zen also.
Lol.
Kids’ minds resemble the enlightened state, yes.
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I read somewhere that the Buddha attained Enlightenment when he remembered being a boy and watching a caterpillar crawl in the garden.
Childlike would describe it well
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i think @Om_Sadasiva has explained it well.
its just being who u r.
its knowing u r the atman/soul/self and that its not different than the higher atman/soul
the higher self resides inside us not outside
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Let’s keep this away from religion and God.
You can discuss philosophy without it.
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ok good point
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Glad to see another Alan Watts fan! I found him while tripping on acid years ago, and felt enlightened lol
I’m not hardcore into anything, but I try to share Alan Watts if an opportunity presents itself. His lectures helped me tremendously, and I contribute a lot of my successes with mental illness to him.
Here’s the first lecture I ever heard of his, which still remains my favorite:
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Alan watts always hits perfectly right when I need it/him to 
He says just what I need to hear at the perfect time
He’s got many great books too. I love him and Terence McKenna the most as far as dead philosophers/deceased minds go. I alternate of who I like more.
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Osho says Enlightenment is simply the process of becoming aware of your unconscious layers of personality and dropping those layers.
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I believe in it to a certain extent. When someone gets past their hatreds and prejudices or learns to like themselves or gets comfortable in their own skin or even learns something they believed to be true is actually false they can be considered enlightened. But i dont believe someone can be totally enlightened such as they have the answer to every possible question or are intellectually infallible. If you just consider enlightened to be opposite of ignorant then i think its very possible.
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I love reading Alan Watts. I also read Krishnamurti, Tolle and now Chopra. I follow a guy on Quora called Teje Anand also, who is fairly enlightened too.
These guys all talk about roughly the same thing, which is the power of now, letting go of the past and not living in the illusion of the future.
Enlightenment is essentially being and recognising all things as one rather than living in a world of dualities. By dualities, I mean the notion than all things are in opposition to each other like happiness/sadness, life/death, good/bad etc,
Once you see the world in dualities you can then move on to the next level of a universal being where there is no longer these dualities. It just is.
Being able to move on to this level of consciousness where everything is one, where the idea that you are not separate to another and everything is connected is the dissolution of the self. In this state bliss and happiness is a natural state enlightenment has occurred.
Buddhists believe it takes effort to achieve nirvana/enlightenment, but very few monks achieve it even after dedicating a whole life to it. Krishnamurti and Watts didn’t believe all this effort was necessary, and that enlightenment can happen to some just like that.
Tolle’s enlightenment happened in an instant after crippling depression for over a decade.
This guy Anand realised it, after trying various methods including the psychedelic experience, mediation etc. He also says that to seek enlightenment may cloud your way, as it is ego driven.
To seek it and for what reason offer stumbling blocks instead of actually realising it. If there was a path to enlightenment through effort then surely there would be a lot more people achieving it, but hardly anyone does.
If it is meant to be then it will be. Live in the moment. Be good and maybe it will follow.
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You were the person I referenced in the OP of to mentioning Alan watts 
I saw the universe as a duality last may.
Now I see it more as unity or oneness or allness or something. I’m not completely sure why I got so so attached to duality. But I saw it like. Two sexes on earth. Life/death. Beginning/end. Yin and yang. A bunch of things.
Now I like to think one more because we’re United. Came from same source. Or allness. Because god is everywhere.
I haven’t got past page ten yet but
I wanna read it but keep putting it off.
This is all about the “shapes of god” I’ll call it.
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Around here the people who think they’re enlightened are usually highly delusional and function poorly, if at all in real life.
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I, too was surprised to learn Watts died of alcoholism so young. I questioned his enlightenment status.
I’ve thought about it a bit and came to the conclusion that not only in his time was alcohol more rife in society, but we don’t know what demons he carried from his past. Also, he was not afraid of death or in the duality of it.
He taught wise teachings and lived his life as he saw fit. Dying really wasn’t a problem for him. Krishnamurti mentions that no one is perfect including many spiritual teachers of the past. I count Watts as one.
Modern ‘teachers’ advise sobriety, as clarity of thought is part of the void of universal consciousness.
Perhaps I am wrong, but maybe those on antipyschotics can’t reach enlightenment as the dopamine is being interfered with and lowered. States of euphoria and bliss associated with enlightenment are all entangled with dopamine production and with it being curtailed, I just don’t think that what we can achieve is fragmentary compared to those that are free.
I could be wrong though, as the sense of oneness could be separate to our bodies and mind altogether. It is just when I become grounded after meditation for example I am back to the blinkered and stifled being of a man on AP drugs that limit my cognitive abilities and pleasure.
I can retreat to a dissociative state though where suffering is less than before.
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I grew up Catholic where I was taught to be patient for the return of Christ…however, I find that some events including Trauma can often be transformed via non-mainstream practice like Tibetan Buddhist meditation videos and MP3’s. I am so back and forth in what to believe…I don’t believe there is evil anymore just the aspects of our darker self that need to be healed and often Church or prayer is a way out//// Personally I should not be ashamed that I practice what Alan Watts Carl Jung and others Mystics and Philosophers consider—Shadow Work, or learning to transform our hidden repressed natures through art, music and self expression.
Writing is one such tool that has helped the healing process:
To me enlightenment is about being able to make sense of everything you feel. Especially the bad things. And being able to feel happy within oneself.
Well I just made that up on the spot
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The term ego can mean a lot of things. I wouldn’t bother so much with it. Most of the sources online mean trippy new age things. Other sources are trying to sell you something or in worst case, talk about while tripping on drugs. The term ego or ego death is surrounded with a lot of internet and new age ■■■■■■■■.
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