I asked ChatGPT to create 10 questions to ask me about the state I’ve stumbled into. The answers I did on a video you can see below.
10 Questions on Enlightenment
1. When the ego arises in your daily life—thoughts of “me,” “mine,” or “I want”—how do you relate to it? Do you believe it or see through it?
2. What’s your direct experience of the sense of “self”? Is it something solid and continuous, or something you see as empty, constructed, or illusory?
3. Can you describe a moment when you fully and unmistakably experienced non-duality—not as a concept, but as your immediate, undeniable reality?
4. Is there any clinging to the idea of being enlightened or “done”? Or does that thought feel like another passing fart in the wind?
5. What happens inside you when pain arises—physical or emotional? Does it have a story, or is it just another flavor in the stew?
6. When you’re around annoying people or chaos, how does your body and mind respond? Not what you think—what’s actually happening in the moment?
7. Do you have any need for spiritual experiences anymore—visions, powers, jhanas, synchronicities—or are those just side effects, like burps after a good meal?
8. What’s your relationship with thought? Do you use it like a tool, or does it still sneakily run the show when you’re not looking?
9. Is there any fear of death left in you? Or any hope for what comes after?
10. If this whole show—your body, thoughts, world, memory—vanished in the next instant, would it matter to “you”? Would anything be missing?
Oops, question 10. I forgot to mention “Would anything be missing?”
No, in the non-dual state where there is no body, thoughts, world, or memory, there is no knowledge of anything missing. It’s just being in the present moment without any concerns, wants, emotions, suffering, etc. It’s just a wantless state. An egoless state.
Is that an enlightened state? I have no idea what people think that state is. I don’t say I’m enlightened. I’ve had something happen to the mind, but I can’t put a finger on it to name it anything other than what I’ve already said about it.