Have you guys ever had an epiphany?

[Castout]

Two days ago I just had my first epiphany. I wasn't making it up it suddenly came to me clearly that chasing after money or financial success is not my life calling..

It's the first time that I realized this and actually accept it. Before two days ago I was concerned about being financially successful.

Actually that was not the only thing that dawned on me but I felt that God accepted me wholly even though I'm a sinner and it affected me such that I was willing to accept anybody else since God accepted me even though I'm a sinner. I felt acceptance and a majestic feeling that I belong to God and I looked forward to be with God, the feeling of uh I cannot even describe it I felt being lifted up that I'm part of something higher, majestic and glorious....chosen. I just cannot describe it.
The anger in me just disappeared too I was no longer in enmity with anyone....you know my sig..I just wasn't interested in feeding my anger and whatever pain that I carried felt that they have disappeared and I felt I was complete... never knew I was incomplete before

I've been Christian all these 30 years and never felt anything like two days ago

Okay now you guys can laugh at me
or maybe it's time for me to say goodbye to this world..I'll post an address so that you guys could send me flowers.lol

[Sledgehammer427]

I don't think that deserves being laughed at.
I applaud your epiphany.

After a recent breakup, I was devastated, but I went to back to how I thought as a child, always analyzing, always thinking. I stopped being spontaneous and random, and I started being introspective, and it got me more happiness than any girlfriend I ever had. Of course, I still desire a significant other, but I'm in no rush to get one.

I just never got into religion, I think too scientifically to accept a god. I tried, but it just wasn't for me. But don't fret, my best friend and fellow subsimmer is christian. I get along with so many people from so many backgrounds I found peace in accepting all of them. It's a nice feeling.

[Castout]

Well I don't think an epiphany is something worth given applaud it is just it is. Since it just came to you without effort or anything it just dawned on you from no where. At least that was how it is for me.


Yea I find no problem accepting people from any background either well as long as they are are not a psychopath

[Skybird]

Just take it as what it is: a sudden insight into some aspects of life, resulting in a changed state of mind. Don't interpret things into it, don'tr try to give it names. Don't try to repeat it, don't hold expectations of what comes next, don't rationalise it later when you remember it from a greater distance - just accept a readiness of yourself to let your mind open wider, if that eventually should happen. Every label and every conceptional context you use - just minimises the experience.

You can't trigger it by practicing things, or obeying rituals or teachings. You just can let it happen if it happens. And eventually you can help surrounding conditions to increase the likelihood for that happening.

There are people who are chasing "enlightenment" all their life, and never see a single sparkle of light. Others just do never care for such things, see a bird landing on a tree - and all universe around them suddenly has changed. My advise is: just don't care for "enlightenment". Every thought on and expectation for it is wasted. Just do what you do - and don't do two things at the same time.

[Castout]

I'm not chasing anything or trying to be anything than myself but that's some wisdom Skybird Now that is worth an applaud!

[Chad]

I'm pleased you were able to achieve this. I myself recently had one, and since then have had a different view on the world. The trip to Europe for the SubSim Meet 2009 was a real eye opener, there is more to this world than what it seems at first.

Around last year this time, I was contemplating joining the Navy, and in fact posted on here asking for peoples advice on the subject. Through counseling (more like group counseling, but not leaving out UndrSeaLcpl) I decided against it and continue with college, and am within several credits short of my bacheallors degree with a whole future infront of me.

As you mentioned, I was able to think of how it was when I was younger, thinking about how things are to be when you're older. I began to appreciate things, such as my parents and home life more, and am the happiest I've been in years!

As Sledgehammer mentioned too, I had a girlfriend, fiance, leave me, and it crushed my world. That was the original intent to join the navy, to get away. But through help from friends (online and not) and my family, I got through it though not completely happy till I moved to my current university, met some new people and girls and know there's definately more out there than I could ever imagine.

Best of luck in the future, and God bless Castout

[Jimbuna]

As we say in the UK Chad...."there are always plenty more fish in the sea"

[Platapus]

Can't say I have ever had an epiphany, but I have had a Satori.

Congratulations. The next question you need to answer for yourself is: what are you going to do about it?

How will you make your sphere of influence better?

[Castout]

Satori? Umm what's the difference of that to epiphany?

It's not about losing a girl for me. It never was at least in the long term. IT'S MORE ABOUT A BATTLE OF IDEOLOGY FOR ME. Besides it' better to not marry than marrying the wrong person imo and haven't seen a worthy girl in a very long time. It's just that people with beautiful heart are usually ugly on the outside while beautiful people are ugly in the inside. The most beautiful heart that ever felt was that of a Catholic nun while she was praying..but on the outside well she was not much on the outside. Her shell really protected her. I would not have guessed such a beautiful heart could exist inside her shell. Like I said better to stay single than marrying an ugly(in the inside) woman. And most people that I encounter if not all, are ugly and to certain extend stupid(without wisdom) and it doesn't take a spiritual contact to notice that, the bests are still untried too, pretty much untested. It takes a flood to test the foundation of a house until then you can't really tell.

I know now money is not my main goal in life. I've realized money is just not my cheese. I've accepted all that I've gone through. As for what I'm going to do next I'm going to LIVE eager to experience the next big thing to await what life has in store for me. To not be afraid of life. To see more possibilities in impossibilities. 2009 has been a barren year for me but then again it's not about the experience but the journey itself. I hope when my time is due I would die with the same feeling I felt three days ago when I had that epiphany. But I'm struggling whether to tell what came to me or to keep them myself, the ethics and consequences are not to be taken lightly though they are far in between. I've been pretty much silent in the past and afraid somebody would take advantage of my silence or even take credits for them(these people are low). I'm not crazy over recognition but I feel a little humiliation to those that put me down and persecute me would be somewhat an eye opener. Right now they are playing a broken song of victory over me. A fake smugness sort to say, ignorance and insult are their main weapons. To break free is my goal I guess.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Castout

Satori? Umm what's the difference of that to epiphany?

Satori (big time enlightenment of top grade in gold with oak leaves, plus fanfares and fireworks in the background ), Kensho (a brief moment of insight and understanding into one's own nature) or just Makyo (hallucination and fantasizing during meditation) - don't let yourself be concerned by these, its just technical terms and labels, and if you pay attention to it, it leads you back to where you were before the "event".

It's all too much thinking, that flatters the ego and keeps the intellect humming around in circles - and that makes focussing on such things and even craving for them a problem in itself, and it makes you running around and telling everybody what a clever Dick you are. I do not judge the specific claims in this thread (how could I, and why should I?), but by experience with dealing with a lot of people investing time and energy into what they considered to be a gaining of spiritual fitness I say that many people claim to have had this or that experience, and they followed specific practices and thought that to raise them any spiritual merits, and the more such merits, the closer to Nirvana they thought to be - and in reality they just had fallen for their own ego's mental creations. Don't step into that trap.

You can gain nothing that is not already inside you, and always has been, there is nothing additional from the outside that you must search for or can find and add to "yourself". So if you find out - why the fuss you make about it? Whether you call it Kensho or epiphany, means nothing, and only distracts you from the things you are actually doing. Meditation and having spiritual experiences, is no martial arts. There are no coloured belts to be gained, nor any badges you can wear on your jacket. Be focussed on what you do, don't rush ahead or lag behind with your mind, be aware of how your thoughts are working and form the image of your world. That is better than having a thousand clever thoughts about Satori. Instead of asking questions about Nirvana or Satori or epiphanies of feelings of God filling yourself, you should ask yourself just one question: "Who am I?".

I wasn't making it up it suddenly came to me clearly that chasing after money or financial success is not my life calling.

So you have accepted that you will be a financial failure. Congratulations! You will be living with your parents until they die, no interweb @ $8.25/ hr. No new clothes, Rhaman noodles three times a day...etc...etc...

Let me guess, European, or Obama Democrat. Kudos for your experience.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by CastleBravo

So you have accepted that you will be a financial failure. Congratulations!

Let me guess, European, or Obama Democrat. Kudos for your experience.

Damn materialist!

If enough is not enough, then it never will be enough. That's what usually is called "chasing the money".

But what he actually says is that he has understood that if you have enough, then it is enough - and that there must be more in a life than just gaining possessions that sooner or later wane again.

And seeing it like this, is wise.

Originally Posted by Skybird

Damn materialist!

If enough is not enough, then it never will be enough. That's what usually is called "chasing the money".

But what he actually says it that he has understood that if you have enough, then it is enough - and that there must be more in a life than just gaining possessions that sooner or later wane again.

And seeing it like this, is wise.

I guess for folks without ambition and wish to complain about other's success this is a wise course. But making something of ones self is hardly without reward. in a fair world we call that making money and capitalism. The alternative is mediocracy at best. Who wants to be known as mediocre, or worse?

[Skybird]

Are you aware that you need to put it to extreme interpretations in order to make your point on mediocrity? If somebody lives his life in a way where he can support himself and those next to him, does not depend on the money of others, and says that instead of raising himself a monument or building a big company he prefers to invest the rest of his free time for something he sees as more valuable to him, may it be for example family, or arts, or charity, or whatever - I fail to see what makes that "mediocre" a way to spend one's life. You define "ambitions" purely materialistically, and that is the essence of materialism/capitalism: that there is nothing of value in life that goes beyond material gains, possessions and money.

But that is simply not true, but indeed a very poor way to see life. If you were right, people should be the happier the more money and business succees they have. But that is not true, and especially very successful people in banking, medicine, big business, often pay a physical price for their excessice work overload, in becoming ill, physically or/and mentally.

Man does not live by bread alone. There must be more.

And just for the record, Castout has not complained about people being successful.

And finally, what is "success". Is it to be defined by just the level of admiration for you by others, as you express above? I would not necessarily call that "successful" beyond a purely statistical statement. To me it has more to do with being "fremdbestimmt" (nonautonomous). And to me somebody is the more unsuccessful in his life the more he is depending on others, both materialistically or intellectually and psychologically. Autonomy - is an alternative to a purely financial description of success. You may have let'S say some idealistic intentions, for which to realise you need to raise money. Okay, fine with me. But here the material aspect does not become the decisive criterion to judge success, but is just a tool. Success is to what degree that idealistic vision gets realised - whether it be by raising the needed money, or realising it in another legal manner.

Money as a tool is one thing. Declaring it the meaning of life - is something different. And the admiration of others - sorry, I am beyond that, really. I only really care for the opinion of people about me whom I really know and to whom I have a relation that I consider to be valuable to me. To know that there is a million of people knowing that I exist and just did this or that - means nothing to me.

Originally Posted by Skybird

Are you aware that you need to put it to extreme interpretations in order to make your point on mediocrity? If somebody lives his life in a way where he can support himself and those next to him, does not depend on the money of others, and says that instead of raising himself a monument or building a big company he prefers to invest the rest of his free time for something he sees as more valuable to him, may it be for example family, or arts, or charity, or whatever - I fail to see what makes that "mediocre" a way to spend one's life. You define "ambitions" purely materialistically, and that is the essence of materialism/capitalism: that there is nothing of value in life that goes beyond material gains, possessions and money.

But that is simply not true, but indeed a very poor way to see life. If you were right, people should be the happier the more money and business succees they have. But that is not true, and especially very successful people in banking, medicine, big business, often pay a physical price for their excessice work overload, in becoming ill, physically or/and mentally.

Man does not live by bread alone. There must be more.

And just for the record, Castout has not complained about people being successful.

I see and know your point Skybird, and don't dismiss it out of hand. The point I am trying to make is that an epiphany about not having to make money should go hand-in hand with one about what one will do with ones life.

As an example. Bill Gates certainly had an epiphany in his garage. It wasn't about making money, it was about changing how computers work. MS DOS changed everything and Gates was rewarded for it.

I didn't get any feeling Castout knows what he wants to do other than not make money.