tsuki

Oh, but we do catch and hunt for food and suffer for it. Our food is not as easily recognizable though - we chase edibles too, of course, but we also need food for thought, boredom, loneliness, etc. We all need to fulfill our all needs. Some are basic, as food, but once you have those - other become basic instead. Our hunting is also very contrived to the point of not recognizing it as such. Our hunting is called work, so we chase money instead of grass. We are every bit as unaware of our behavior as animals. They are not aware what is to hunt, and we are not aware what is hunting for the human animal. Oh, and animals chase us off their gardens too. But instead of individual animals fighting us, we fight ourselves by polluting the planet. We may very well be on the brink of extinction thanks to our excessive hunting. We hunt by blinding ourselves to hunting. This is where excess comes from. By trying to control the planet, we unwillingly took control of controlling ourselves.

Now that would be very unfair towards @Faceless. He may understand his own concept of time as a movement of measure and would be back to square one with his ability to communicate enlightenment.

Ego can also screw up your interpretations so that you link meditation with blood dripping from your ears. Cause and effect are powerful tools.

So, @MarkusSweden since I got all personal and non-zeny let me as you a question: Why do you post like you do? You start a thread and watch it unfold. Don't you have any comments to add?

@Faceless Thank you, that soothed me a bit. I'm not keeping it though

Everything I read today mocks me. Even my own stupid posts that I thought were pure gold yesterday. Knowing that suffering is a force to toy you around doesn't help. Today's suffering is directionless. It's like the game is simply to fuck with me. So be it. I'm gonna sit and suffer like a proper martyr. @MarkusSweden When you try to race with Ego - it will turn your sharpness against you just to cut deeper. I truly envy you for your wisdom to lay low, friend.

Well, for me - today's game was to suffer until you give up and go along with it by showing aggression. That was pure happiness. I would have never guessed it given my recent advice to @MarkusSweden. Funny how you can screw yourself over by trying to help haha . As for the OP - one more advice just to screw myself again: You never know what other people think. It is you thinking up their thoughts as you read their behavior. There is no guarding your happiness. Once you start to guard it - you've lost it as you are defending it against yourself.

There are always 3 stages of this game: I don't know what I'm doing. I know what I'm doing. I try to use my knowledge to conquer the game. The first stage is when you feel lost. The second stage is when you feel progress. The third stage is when you suffer because you don't know that you play a different game. When you know the rules of the game (like you laid them out in the OP), there is only the stage of conquering and suffering. It signifies the moment that you should know that you don't know. To return back to square one and feel lost. This is done by surrendering to your suffering. To give up. If you give up so thoroughly that you give up yourself, you become the spectator. You can enjoy the irresistibility of your suffering. The game just goes on without the player.

@Shakazulu It always really seems that way until you really have to go, doesn't it?

@Maycol So, in short: you do not understand what enlightenment is, but you understand what it isn't? That anything you pick that claims to point towards it is not sufficient? Could it be in fact related to the ability to always discard something? Why don't you discard your discarding and try a different approach? Assume from the start that all is one and see how many problems you can fix. Wouldn't it be that all problems are fixed that way? In one swoop? Or would it be that it would break logic that you so dearly hold on to? Would you be willing to become insane to reach enlightenment?

From Leo's blog.

Very good. It does not matter where you look, as long as you do. You can travel the world just to see that everywhere is the same and realize that everything is you. There is no path, but only a fool doesn't walk it. How would you see the world as not you, if you were to see that it is you? You are a perspective. To see yourself as a perspective is a perspective in itself. If you do that, then there is no you. There is only reality that watches itself. To arrive at that point is to see infinite beauty. Isn't life either beauty or utility? You can see that everything is beauty if there is nobody to benefit from utility.

Hahaha . You got it .

When you watch a good show, you feel the characters' suffering, and yet - this is precisely why you enjoy the show. Enlightenment in this context is to see that you are both the character and the spectator. That you enjoy your life precisely because you suffer. That suffering is irresistible to watch. Irresistibility is the hallmark of a great performance. The greatest performance is reality. It is so real, that you cannot help, but watch when the right time comes. When it comes to your question about animals: What is the difference between your suffering when you watch them, and them suffering? Before you read this sentence, did suffering of aliens concern you? Everything is as enlightened as you are, because you are everything. Are you perhaps questioning your own enlightenment here?

@Faceless Yes. Measurement implies gain/loss which relates the world to 'I'. There will always be 'enemy' to fight when one chooses to split himself from the world. To deny oneness is to blind yourself to yourself. To introduce the unknown/other to fight. This is why there is always an illusion of progress. You cannot defeat yourself. The insight of today for me is this: Paradox is the symmetry of reality.

Thank you nonetheless. Seeing your concern for whomever cheered me up. After all, I and @MarkusSweden are one. He's the capital letter and I am the full stop. @sarapr Just look at his post count! He posts in all threads, so no wonder that threads the posts in become hot! (Also kidding!)

@Faceless Haha, using measure as a measure of embodying immeasurable . Ego is so very very very sneaky. I'm alright friend Thanks for your concern

Sorry Markus. I just don't understand why you're using your intellect like this. I guess that we're reflecting each other too much to share one space. Crafting flawless posts, wondering if we're helping, or breaking. It is sometimes difficult to just dance.

Acknowledging your faults is easy. What about acknowledging faults of others? Isn't that a little faulty of you?

Also: lots of shoulds and shouldn'ts for the advocacy of spontaneity.

The impulse to make plans arises spontaneously. The impulse to go, or not to go through with your plans arises spontaneously as well. That constant spontaneity is spontaneous as well. This is what life looks through the lens of 'now'.

We all experience infinite love for the drama of our own life. It takes infinite compassion for yourself to wake up from that.

@zunnyman Fear of death is a powerful driving force of change. If it is an important part of your life, expect it to surface regardless of whether you pursue enlightenment or not. You may decide to stay clear of psychedelics because you may die 'because of' them and pursue meditation instead. After doing it for 5 years you may decide that it is not going anywhere and take 30 day meditation challenge just to realize that it may physically kill you. If fear of death is what stops you - it will always stop you from you stopping it. It is, after all, what stops ordinary people from asking what am I even doing this for? I will die, after all! Try asking yourself: who is going to be there to witness my death? Me? Physical death is the ultimate stop. If your life is so miserable now that you want to become enlightened, why do you fear it? It is what stops everything, including suffering. Try to find solace in it. Why don't you use it to propel yourself towards enlightenment? What if you die before you get enlightened? Did that question occur to you?

We are all enlightened, friend ❤️