Leo Gura

Actually, this is false! Experience is not experience. The very notion of experience is dualistic and corrupted by ego. There is truly no such thing as experience. What you consider experience is a conceptual fabrication. What's really there is not experience but Being. This is not just a semantic difference. On this hinges everything. Right now you are confused, mistaking Absolute Truth for this thing you invented and call "experience." In this way you are maintaining the fantasy that you were born. Your very life depends on not properly understanding what experience is. Your mind will not allow you understand what I am saying here. Because if you understood what I'm saying here your entire reality would collapse and you'd have a mental breakdown. You assume you are a biological creature inside a physical space having experiences. This is false. You have imagined: biology, space, time, experience, and your self. Enlightenment is NOT a subjective experience. Enlightenment is the realization of Absolute Truth. At the moment of enlightenment you literally stop being a biological creature in a physical space. Because in that moment you realize that all of that is imaginary. You literally break out of "physical reality". For the first time you see reality as it truly is. You escape The Matrix. Imagine that your whole life has been lived inside a cartoon. And then one day you realize: "OH MY GOD! I am just a cartoon character!!!!" This means that all of science was part of the cartoon. So you cannot use science at that point to ground yourself any more. You realize that science is a hallucination. Don't underestimate how radical this is. It is as serious as getting shot in the head. You are going to perceive it as extremely threatening.

Evolution is not a done deal. It is happening every minute of every day. You have evolved a mind so you can figure out how to adapt to ever changing environments. Problems are always part of adapting to new environments. Nothing new about this. It is a problem in and of itself to deny that digital technology is a part of nature. We cannot go back to live in the woods. That would actually be a regression. We must find ways to integrate our technological developments and to make them the new "natural". This obviously needs to be done in a balanced and healthy way. But denying the digital realm is itself pathological. Powerful new technology requires consciousness to use in a healthy & harmonious way.

This is covered in more detail in the Life Purpose Course. That's basically the point of the course.

She's certainly on point with her big picture. Love that!

I don't really buy this. Thoughts don't need a timeline to happen. A timeline is a thought. Clearly thoughts happen. Otherwise what is all this thinking we're doing? "So, thoughts don’t even happen." << that's a thought! LOL

Again, this is part true and part false. There is no such thing as "the natural way of doing things". Technology is always advancing. Technology is part of nature. You cannot undo technological advance. Digital reality will only grow stronger and stronger. VR socialization will soon be a big thing. Through VR socialization you will be able to make friends across the whole global, not just your local neighborhood. Digital actually allows us to transcend the limits of physicality. Think about it. That's why digital is to valuable. It's God-like. Socrates believed philosophy should not be written but only spoken because writing would corrupt the mind. Why did he believe this? Because writing was a new invention in his day and he was set in his ways.

The title of this thread.

@RendHeaven Also, the Greeks had many gods, but one ultimate God: Zeus Just like the Hindus have a bunch of different avatars, but one ultimate God: Shiva When you understand this quote, you will be awake. Consider it your Greek koan The Greeks were no fools. They were some wise-ass motherfuckers.

@RendHeaven

@RendHeaven Sure, if one is lost in thoughts then such a teaching is necessary. But then the pendulum swings to the opposite extreme where the spiritual seeker turns anti-intellectual, rejecting the mind entirely without realizing that God can speak directly through one's mind using thoughts, images, language, and even as entire manuscripts. Most people fail to appreciate that God knows all languages in the entire universe. God is using your mind to manifest itself. Since it is formless it needs a limited formed vehicle to express itself. Mind and speech is God. The only question is: How pure is the vehicle through which God speaks? How pure is your vehicle? How much is your ego getting in the way?

That's right. This thread contains a lot of people talking past one another. We have to be careful in how we define our terms and how we use different mental schemes to explain the unexplainable. I am not really contradicting Spira or Tolle. I'm just challenging folks here to see the other side of the coin: all thoughts happen now and only now. The problem is that thoughts are so sneaky they mesmerize you into an illusory conceptual world. This is what is meant when people say that thoughts take you out of the now. They don't actually take you out of the now because now is all there is. But subjectively they entrance you. It's like getting lost in a day dream. Also want to challenge people here to not dismiss thoughts or mind as bad. The Absolute Now can certainly contain thoughts. Otherwise how could thoughts exist??? Elimination of thought is not strictly necessary to be in the now. Newbies commonly get the wrong idea about thought and mind, as if it is an evil that must be eradicated. I wanted to challenge that.

That is part true and part false. Ultimately who is to say what is real and what isn't? We make up those definitions. Of course in person sociaizing is different. But as humanity evolves digital communication will become more and more common and robust. Even digital sex is getting common now. I've had deeper orgasms through text message than through physical sex. So don't dismiss the digital world as somehow inferior. It has its pros and cons, just like all mediums. Don't forget, physical reality is just one medium out of many. Digital reality is no less real than physical reality or imagination.

Hey there. Welcome! It's pretty rare, but there might be one or two folks. They just might not be very active here.

The whole point of true happiness is not to base it on mood. Imagine being happy even when you're in a bad mood. That's real happiness. And it's not easy to develop because our ideas of happiness are so mood based and survival based. Those ideas require deep deconstruction. You have to deeply grok that attachments to physical things and even emotional states always create suffering -- sometimes gross suffering, but sometimes very subtle suffering. This was a core teaching of the Buddha. And it's a very important point which people overlook. Outwitting suffering is something only a master can do. Suffering is extremely sneaky! Because it's central to your survival. You must literally transcend the entire survival drive to access true happiness. Awakening allows for superhuman levels of happiness.

@Consilience There basically is no serious meditation without serious concentration ability.

Careful. I know extroverts who are awakened and do spiritual practice. And obviously many extroverts make a killing in creativity, business, art. There's more than one way to skin a cat. One should only be a lone wolf if that's what one is called to do. It's not necessary for success. With that said, personally I love lone wolfing life. But that's just me. People here must find whatever kind of lifestyle resonates with them. This is a highly individualized thing.

Great! But that's just like the tip of one hair on the Ox's tail

@Mikael89 Hehe... You must awaken to what Love is to understand these discussions. We are not talking about romantic love here. This requires an epic enligthenment experience which will melt your cold heart. Contemplate: What is Love? Hint #1: it is not what you think it is. Hint #2: psychedelics make this contemplation a lot easier.

Those 5 insights are of course all true and very important to realize. But there's also a lot more stuff to realize. The "mechanics" of God are not addressed well by Buddhism.

Because you are in a contracted state of consciousness. Also, since Love is all things, it doesn't necessarily have to be felt. You don't have to like all aspects of reality. Hatred too is a form of love. Think about what "Everything is Love" entails. That means pain is love. It does not mean that you will never feel pain.

I never wanted to. It just happens to be Truth. You have yet to realize the Buddha's central teaching of Annica or Impermanence. Reality is designed in such a way that no from can be permanent. The ultimate goal is to realize that there is no difference between form and formlessness. But to realize this requires surrender of attachment to form. So again, the entry fee of immortality is death. Immortality cannot be attained through physical means, it must be attained through spiritual realization. The problem of death is not a physical one the way materialists assume, it is a metaphysical one. You must realize that material reality is imaginary. That your own birth is imaginary. Then you will be free.

That is not possible. All forms are impermanent. The only thing that can be immortal is formlessness. So long as you are identified with any form whatsoever, you are mortal. Only a devil would claim that God is a selfish devil. So nice try, but no, don't confuse your devilry with that of God. If I let you, you would make a devil out God! See what a devil you are?! Hehe.... No, you just misunderstand animals. As I have repeatedly said, animals are not in God-mode. They are God in animal-mode. This is a big and significant difference. It is the survival of any limited identity. Any identity attached to any kind of form. Any identity less than the entirely of reality. So, a kangaroo is committed to surviving as a kangaroo. This makes it selfish. You are commited to surviving as a human. This makes you selfish. If you weren't bothered by living or dying, you'd be selfless and immortal. The entry fee for immortality is death.

@Ar_Senses Well, mystical experiences and samadhi states are a clear sign of results. I'm not saying that's the end, but the beginning. If you don't what a mystical experience or a samadhi state is, take a psychedelic and they will quickly show you. Then try to get similar results via other methods. If you have meditated for a few years but never had a mystical experience or samadhi, then you aren't doing it properly or you need to find a better method. Take a psychedic to see how much you're meditation is missing.

@ahmad ibdah I am all things at all times. There is no end to me. I go on forever. And so do you, since you are me