LastThursday

Listen to your intuition. It sounds like the ten year old is still there and reaching out to your older self. What was lost along the way? Was it really lost?

Ego is not an intrinsic part of being human. Ego is much more like culture and language. Like culture it is transmitted to 'you' through other people. Like culture it's self perpetuating; 'you' will in turn transmit 'your' ego to others. I can imagine it starts as a baby. People point at you and hold you and give you a name - and in this way you are given a boundary, which is the beginnings of an Ego. There's a 'you' and then there's everything else - 'not you'. So your question is like asking: 'Why do so many people speak English?'. Are English speakers deluded? Probably. There are so many other languages, or you could speak no language at all and live in bliss!

First be aware that emptiness is a thought. Second the notion of emptiness is part of a duality with Form being an opposing aspect. As such emptiness and form are really one and indistinguishable. One needs the other, one is the other, one is not prior to the other. You can't grasp this with thought, but you are actually living it right now. But you can get a flavour of the emptiness by trying to 'capture' the present moment. However hard you try it keeps changing and slipping away; there's nothing to grab hold of. There's nothing there, it's empty.

All relationships and friendships are about two things. Survival, and more importantly Love. Everything in existence deserves your love equally (including yourself). Friendships are just a manifestation of that love you have to give. Every friendship is the removal of an artificial separation that you've created and that's why it makes you feel good. Deep down you really want to be whole and not separate. Look for wholeness and love and you can't go far wrong. Friendships are very spiritual.

@pluto I took the liberty of re-wording your reply: You realize 99% of society is staged right? It would be an inefficient way to get your say because of how much control and manipulation is behind the scenes, you would probably get locked up for trying to speak some sense. No one who participates in society really wants the truth, they just want constant reassurance of what they believe is the truth. They will ignore, reject/dismiss everything else. Better to see through the illusion and raise our awareness instead no?

Maybe it's easier to approach it from another direction? What is the opposite of surrender? It could be "not letting go" or "clinging" or "identifying with something" . Go through all the things you think are opposite. For each opposite ask yourself: "how do I cling?", "how do I identify" etc. Really examine each one in detail. And then work on each one individually.

@Serotoninluv exactly it. If you write a diary and put it in a drawer, does it disappear from reality? For the guy in the story it does. For the rest of us, persistence is so natural, but it's clearly an illusion.

IMHO the trick to spirituality is to reach that state of nothingness/no-self, but ALSO lead a full and rich life. It's a bit of a merry dance. Deny yourself to be a more fulfilled self. It's something to do with tenth Ox Herding picture and going full circle, but I'm more vague about that.

@ardacigin I find this fascinating. What is memory? Most folks would say it is just thoughts. But I disagree, I think it's more like a sensation. When the guy doesn't remember writing his diary, I think he's just lacking that sensation of familiarity - not that he's devoid of thought. I think duality is instrinsically linked with memory. Without memory there would be no duality. The world of the present moment is completely discontinuous and made new every second - memory glues it all together.

That's a good observation. But denying suffering causes yet more suffering. It's like being in quicksand, the more you struggle against suffering, the harder it is to get out. Consider that suffering is necessary, but it always passes.

@Genghis Khan you are more sane than most of us. The whole world is magic. You don't need to will anything into existence. There's no effort or special incantations needed. Here it is!

I've always had love for people, but have personally struggled socially. However, I have improved tremendously in the last ten years (I'm 46 fgs!), but it's still a work in progress. I find the social niceties and norms hard to stick to or pointless - and my brain just isn't quick enough to keep up in a group conversation - so I find it difficult to join in. One to one situations are a lot easier for me. But I still feel like I have to 'perform' in front of other people. And given a long day of being with other people I definitely need to find a cave somewhere and hide! BUT. The number one thing that has allowed me to improve socially, is to cut off the monkey mind and BE PRESENT. Learning to stop the monkey mind has literally taken me a decade of constant practice, but the effort has been worth it - I feel like a different person. Social situations can be rewarding and exciting - and unless you live in a hole in the ground in the middle of nowhere - you will need to interact with people to live life.

In a word: Equality. That's means that when you talk to people and think about people, you see them as your equals. You are not better than them and they are not better than you. But this is more difficult than it seems at first. It's ok to think of people as being different from you. They may have qualities that you admire or hate, but that's ok too. You might even treat people differently because of their differences, they maybe disabled or have a different culture for example. So you might have to repectfully adjust to them (don't expect them to adjust to you, that's unfair). It's possible that someone is less intellegent than you, or less mature or richer or older or more sexy or something else. You should accept those differences and not fight against it (unless you think it's wrong!). Equality is about not judging people before you get to know them. Equality is about knowing people have skills and experiences and beauty that you haven't got, and giving them a chance to share those with you. Equality is about knowing you have skills and experiences and beauty that you want to share with other people that they haven't got. If you embody Equality, then you will be truly humble. I hope that didn't sound too preachy?

There is no question that 'stuff happens' (God's will). But does it still happen whether you 'will it' or not? (Ego's will). It's a matter of the ever present now. As soon as something happens, it's gone. We can mentally stretch the event so that the happening seems to 'last a while'. By doing this we can then assign agency to the event, and say we had 'free will'. But was the event inside time at all? I'd say not (as time doesn't exist). So it was all just in the mind and as such we don't have 'free will'. In a sense, because there is no time, there is nothing happening at all. Yes, it hurts my head...

There is no other side. Reality is perfect like a giant jigsaw puzzle with no missing pieces. There is no outside of consciousness. Nowhere to go.

@Anton_Pierre should you kill the ego? Why not stroke it and keep it happy?

Often, when I am waking up it takes me a good long while to do so. I appear to go in and out of two different worlds, when all of a sudden, pop! I seem to snap into the waking world, with all it's seriousness and weightiness and intensity. My question is, how do I know if I'm awake? And if I awaken from the seriousness and weightiness and intensity of this dream, how will I know if I am no longer dreaming? Or will it be dreams all the way up?

It gets worse. There's no NOW either. But that's a lot harder to grok. What you are experiencing now, doesn't exist.

I've been playing piano and keyboards for 36 years (and counting). I've never had tuition and I've never explored it as a way to make money and I don't really play for other people. I'm glad I haven't. For me it's a hobby in its purest sense. I just get a kick out of learning something that seems impossible at first and seeing my skill improve - there's something magical about that. I also use it as a way to meditate and wind down. My other great passion is writing software. I've done it for roughly the same amount of time. I went to University and studied it, I do it for other people and I make a reasonable living from it. Again I find it magical that I can get a dumb lump of matter to come alive and do seemingly intelligent things. I even do it as a hobby sometimes. But the shine has definitely worn off after all these years. It would be amazing to be a concert pianist. But I think the reality would be a disappointment. Each activity has its purpose.

Isn't that your life purpose? What do you think?

We all carry our parents inside of us wherever we go. Peace can only come from inside and asking yourself: "How am I like my parents?". What should you lose, and what should you keep? From there comes release, forgiveness and compassion. You'll know what to do from there on.

Also, don't forget me. I am also humbled and bow before you most enlightened master @David Hammond.

@David Hammond @Preetom it's funny how we judge and compare each other based on our attributes. It's as if we were sweets in a sweetshop; there are nice sweets, and chewy sweets, and sugary sweets, and sour sweets, and enlightened sweets and un-enlightened sweets. And some leave a bad taste in the mouth and some don't.

@AlphaAbundance yeah it's nice. And you're most welcome. The truth is, you make an impact on everyone all the time, it's like ripples in a pond, and you're the pebble in the centre. You SHOULD feel gratitude for that, even if you don't always. And the gratitude should flow in all directions.

"Doing stuff" is just an invention of the mind. There's a kind of panic which sets in when you're not always doing something, or aiming for something. If you're not doing something, some people call it time wasting, or wasting your life or whatever. But you're absolutely right, there's no reason to do anything other than the pure survival things of breathing, eating, sleeping and so on - everything else is extra. If you're Enlightened my guess is (my opinion, I don't really know), is that you don't actually 'do' anything - you just have the appearance of doing to other people. You quack like a duck and walk like a duck, but you're not a duck, instead you're just in the flow of being God (or whatever). It would be like asking a river: "what are you doing?" - it's a blatantly ridiculous question, obviously it's not doing, instead it's being a river. Unconditional happiness, is just 'being a river'.