What is an adept?

[AnthroHeart]

There was a monk who worked hard to become enlightened.
Then he said "I'll never become enlightened."
And he was enlightened.

It works only once. Once you know, you can't use the same things.

[Aion]

That's actually the story of Ananda, Gautama's assistant and one of his closest friends.

The full story is that he spent so much of his time helping other people on their paths to enlightenment that he never had time for his own practice. This continued even until Gautama passed away. After his passing, there was a gathering of Arhats (enlightened individuals) to determine what the future of the practices would hold. All Arhats were included, but since Ananda had not actually achieved this himself, despite being Gautama's closest disciple, he was not considered to be allowed to join.

With that in mind he set about meditating and spending hours and hours trying to reach enlightenment. After days of meditating under a tree, he was exhausted and his body was tired, yet he still had not achieved enlightenment. Then, he gives a sigh and relaxes and lays down to get some sleep, telling himself, "I guess I'm not an Arhat", and as he lays his head down he is suddenly filled with enlightenment. For he stopped trying to be anything and simply relaxed in to the truth of himself. For being an Arhat is not a 'thing', just as 'enlightenment' is not a thing, it is a truth we must pull the veil away from.

He was then able to join the meeting. Not by trying to be something, but by recognizing the truth of his own state.

[Aion]

lol Aion

there makes me think of  this buddhist's story too :
Under a tree was a master sitting and a monk comes to him and says " Master, how many incarnations do I have till enlightenment ?"  and the master answers,  " 3. "  and the monk walks away, and he is like " oh my, three more, three more ! "  Then appears this young monk who comes to the tree, and he says " Master, how many more incarnations do I have ?"  and the master says " 125."  and the young monk starts to ascend the path and he is like " Yes, yes !!  125 more ! wonderful !! "  and when he gets on top of the path, he gets enlightened.

lol

State of mind and state of consciousness are highly intertwined, I think that is one of the 'secrets' Siddhartha discovered.

[EvolvingPhoenix]

To be adept is simply to be highly skilled, and so 'an adept' is a person who is the same.
The saying is that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master something, so maybe adept is like halfway, 5000 hours.

The 10 thousand hours thing has been debunked. Just saying.

[EvolvingPhoenix]

an adept is one who has mastered the art of discipline.

nothing is random or haphazard any more; all thoughts have intent and consequence.  Nothing passes un-noticed.  All triggers are seen for what they are.

Jeremy mentioned elsewhere the Art of Beingness.

this is getting close to it, but not quite.

there is also one more stage beyond the adept.  You are approaching formlessness at that stage; a place of infinite ongoing creativity.

by the stage of the adept you are living just as much in time/space on a daily basis as you are present in space/time.  Such a person is an ongoing bridge between the two worlds.  

the adept is also one of immense power ... but it is power that was not sought.  The power comes from being called to a Higher Duty, and the psychism, spiritual sight, and font of inspiration is a uniform that comes with the job description.  The adept seeks not power (it was not asked for) but instead seeks to serve, and through that very desire for service, the tools of service are granted to one automatically, so the service may be enabled and performed for the other.

only a blocked individual at orange ray seeks magical power.  Magical Power comes naturally to an adept without any ritual or invocation.  

seek to serve at the highest level, and all the tools (and some tools undreamt of) will become activated as you accept the higher levels of responsibility.

Brilliant. You just REALLY helped me out in my magical seeking by illuminating this! Thank you!

[Aion]

To be adept is simply to be highly skilled, and so 'an adept' is a person who is the same.
The saying is that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master something, so maybe adept is like halfway, 5000 hours.

The 10 thousand hours thing has been debunked. Just saying.

It is an adage and a saying, I don't think it was ever based on science. It is simply a statement on the effectiveness of practice in my mind. It never struck me as particularly precise.
I think the guy usually associated with it was writing about the Beatles, lol. Maybe it was scientific in his mind.

Obviously, text doesn't deliver the nuance of expression so you cannot often see the tongue in my cheek.

My point was simply that 'adepthood' is not a destination but rather a natural transformation as part of the journey. That is, if you are making the effort to take the journey.

Mayhaps everyone is pushed along that way eventually anyways.

[flofrog]

I wonder if the 10,000 hours are not simply an idea of what is dedication with love

[AnthroHeart]

Some monks have 40,000 hours of meditation or more.

[Diana]

It is an adage and a saying, I don't think it was ever based on science. It is simply a statement on the effectiveness of practice in my mind. It never struck me as particularly precise.
I think the guy usually associated with it was writing about the Beatles, lol. Maybe it was scientific in his mind.

Obviously, text doesn't deliver the nuance of expression so you cannot often see the tongue in my cheek.

Hilarious.

My point was simply that 'adepthood' is not a destination but rather a natural transformation as part of the journey. That is, if you are making the effort to take the journey.

I very much agree.

I will add that meditation does not have to be narrowly defined. Focused states of mind, in the traditional sense, are part of the practice of tapping into intelligent infinity and harnessing intelligent energy. But in everyday life, meditative focused states are also achieved when engaged in creative endeavors, such as music or painting, some kinds of martial arts, which with practice allow the individual to build up a pointed focus which is held for longer and longer periods of time. These things can be part of a daily life, and contribute to the sum of the "natural transformation" toward adepthood.

[Aion]

A very good example is Buddhist prostration practices. It's a very simple practice but which can have deep effects if practiced sincerely.

https://tulay.ph/2017/08/01/the-buddhist...strations/

Wonder how long it takes to do 100,000 prostrations?

[flofrog]

A very good example is Buddhist prostration practices. It's a very simple practice but which can have deep effects if practiced sincerely.

https://tulay.ph/2017/08/01/the-buddhist...strations/

Wonder how long it takes to do 100,000 prostrations?

lol I wonder if you dont lose the count anyway if you are practicing in sincerity

I was lucky, eighteen years ago to be in Tibet. I have been an at times fail/weak/but-sincere buddhist for decades but the fervor in a any monastery there is very moving, and at the time, since it was a difficult time of high invasion by the Chinese, you could feel Chinese youngest behave differently. In fact like two months after I left, there was an insurrection of allied young maoists and Tibetans, it was squashed but...

[Aion]

The desire to be free is one of the brightest burning flames in the heart of humanity.

[Diana]

The desire to be free is one of the brightest burning flames in the heart of humanity.

Beautifully put.

[Aion]

I think that's a good replacement for my signature, I haven't changed it in awhile. Thanks for being part of the arising of that inspiration.

[Dtris]

To be adept is simply to be highly skilled, and so 'an adept' is a person who is the same.
The saying is that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master something, so maybe adept is like halfway, 5000 hours.

The 10 thousand hours thing has been debunked. Just saying.

Not so much as debunked, but the mistaken idea of it has been debunked and people assume the concept itself has been debunked. The part people miss about the research which the book that popularized the notion is based on, was that it looked at averages. The author used 10k hours because it made good literature. The science was simply that on average, a person who spends 10k hours of focused practice doing something, will become a "master".

The popular notion is that 10k hours doing anything will make you a master of it. The parts missing are the focused practice and the average. Most people over 35-40 have probably spent 10k hours handwriting but they are not calligraphers and sometimes not even legible. That is because they did not have focused practice. Some of the people studied also had way higher or way lower than 10k hours but the focused practice was the key component.

In other words the take away that became popular was, "Do X for 10k hours and you will be a master!"
When it should have been, "Spend several thousands of hours working really intently at something, usually over a minimum of 5 years, and you can become really really good at it."

[EvolvingPhoenix]

Not just that, but they also missed a nother key factor: QUALITY. Quality of practice makes all the difference. MY mother has been cooking steak for at least 30 years, and her steak is STILL awful because she's been doing a bad job of it for 30 years and hates cooking too much to bother to correct it.

[AnthroHeart]

83.18 Questioner: Specifically, by what process in the first case, when two polarized entities would attempt to penetrate the veil, whether they be positively or negatively polarized— specifically by what technique would they penetrate the veil?

Ra: I am Ra. The penetration of the veil may be seen to begin to have its roots in the gestation of green-ray activity, that all-compassionate love which demands no return. If this path is followed the higher energy centers shall be activated and crystallized until the adept is born. Within the adept is the potential for dismantling the veil to a greater or lesser extent that all may be seen again as one. The other-self is primary catalyst in this particular path to the piercing of the veil, if you would call it that.

[Infinite]

83.18 Questioner: Specifically, by what process in the first case, when two polarized entities would attempt to penetrate the veil, whether they be positively or negatively polarized— specifically by what technique would they penetrate the veil?

Ra: I am Ra. The penetration of the veil may be seen to begin to have its roots in the gestation of green-ray activity, that all-compassionate love which demands no return. If this path is followed the higher energy centers shall be activated and crystallized until the adept is born. Within the adept is the potential for dismantling the veil to a greater or lesser extent that all may be seen again as one. The other-self is primary catalyst in this particular path to the piercing of the veil, if you would call it that.

I would say the adept is someone who balanced your chakras until the third eye and so, is working in this indigo-ray. The adepthood is an indigo-ray working.