I know this will be entirely "opinion based" answers, but I would really like to know what you guys take to be the fastest method to Enlightenment?

For me, I've had various Mystical Experiences as a Christian Mystic through Grace, as well as falling briefly into a state where there was no me anymore, and everything was One, just from wrestling with a Zen Koan (which then got me interested in Vedanta)

Anyway, some of us here are old and have various physical disabilities or other serious health problems, or just in general don't have decades upon decades left here to work all this business out.

So what is the fastest method? 1 year straight retreat? Awareness observing itself? Navel gazing? Anapanasati?

Please do tell. Imagine you have a few years left to live(physically) and the time for Enlightenment is Now ...what's ur take on it?

Peace & Blessings to all here!!!!
Racecar Backwards

If I knew that I only had a few years left I would stop all practice and just take the world in. Dying enlightened doesn't seem like a big prize... it's living enlightened that seems useful to me.

As far as the fastest method... you seem to be doing well with what you have. What's you dissatisfaction with it?

I don't think any one method is objectively better than any other. It depends on history, personal preference and as someone else pointed out in another thread (very wisely I must say)... Fitter Stoke (I believe) "whichever path you are ready to surrender to is the best one."

The fastest is the direct path! This is found within yourself, straight through. Teachings that support this are the non-dual teachings, such as Dzogchen, Mahamudra, Zen. Basically bypassing all the cycles and finding what it is in direct experience that is aware right now. I like to pretend that I am on my death bed and only have a few minutes left to live. Makes it urgent. Somebody said their practice was to imagine that each breath was their last. I have yet to try this. Sounds great.

Dying enlightened would still be better than dying unenlightened. One could imagine there are various possible karmic scenarios/factors for what comes after in regards to dying enlightened or unenlightened.

No dissatisfaction ...perhaps sometimes just stuck an levels/insights/progress/ etc ....

True. Note taken!!

Last breath technique!!!! Sounds very Very interesting.

All the other stuff, thumbs up. It was the way I was leading to anyway in regards to Vedanata/Dzogchen/Zen etc. So in a sense its a cool verification

The consensus on the forum seems to be that Mahasi-style noting is the fastest.

Someone just took a recent survey of about a dozen enlightened people, it might be of value to see it. They achieved enlightenment (stream-entry) in record times and most used Mahasi-Noting.

Blue!!!!

Awesome!!! Exactly what I was looking for ...pointing to other threads and discussions that discuss these types of rapid means to enlightement.

Thanks a million!!!!

I feel that the desire to be enlightened has to be investigated carefully. What thinks it needs to be enlightened? What keeps thinking that it has to do something, be somewhere, be someone?

Just my 2 cents.

Well of course it's all "mind stuff."

Still when certain Insights happen, experiences, etc ...It may take the mind some time to catch up and make sense of what just happened, never the less, in retrospect, mind says, "Well there is definitely something there, but it is beyond me being able to get it/experience it."

I know I haven't been around a lot lately, but when did stream entry become enlightenment??
Has the bar really been dropped that low??

Brian.

Hey that's still higher than enlightenment being A&P like at most other places...

No I think that's just Blue's terminology (some people consider stream-entry to constitute the first formal stage of enlightenment in a gradual process).

My current understanding based on reading other maps/models is that the two major realizations in the MCTB paths are Anatta at MCTB 1st path and the stabilization of Shuynata (emptiness) at MCTB 4th path. My personal experience has me experiencing them both on and off during daily life and very frequently during sits, so I see my path over the next few months or years as a process of stabilizing these realizations...