Bobby

@winterknight prior to awakening I found more scientific descriptions of the Absolute, such as Consciousness or Awareness to be the most compelling. Nondescript pointers such as “Buddha Nature” or “Tao” drove me absolutely bonkers. now post awakening, I find the nondescript pointers much more adequate, and find this word “consciousnes” pretty unsatisfying for describing my experience. in fact, right now I’m giggling thinking if the koan: “does the dog have Buddha-nature?” just wondering if that happened to you, it’s not a big deal or anything just trivia

Mu

never stop meditating. All day, every day constantly bring your attention back to the present moment.

Hmm. maybe prior to enlightenment it appears to be a paradox. but after, self actualization just happens by itself, like it always has.

Nitty-Gritty, Real Talk provided you've been doing them well, have you had more success with self enquiry, or vipassana? and could you explain why? I've hardly touced SE myself, so I'm curious edit: by vipassana i'm mean insight meditation. which is basically noticing the lack of self , impermanence, and dissatisfaction in all phenomena. there's a book on leo's list regarding this.

@Pouya vipassana is about seeing directly into impermanence. about noticing the rising and falling of phenomena from and into nothingness

@Recursoinominado craig holliday is an excellent K teacher. I recommend.

@Tony 845 there were about 2 months where i was like 'damn life is great' after i had my first awakening. then all hell broke lose for 10 (with plenty of nice peaks though). stay mindful and don't stop practicing. and if u have kundalini i highly, highly reccomend the teacher craig holliday as well as the K books on Leo's list! I don't have direct exp of such, but i am fairly confident from that Craig and those books can efficiently help you go from kundalini to nonduality

enlightenment in the relative world just acts as a nudge in the right direction. life may or may not continue as it did before, but when the resistance of ego goes away due to the shift in perspective, "people" suddenly begin moving as "one with the Tao" and behave in ways more conducive to growth, love ,etc. it should be stated that enlightenment is NOT personal development, but that becoming enlightened makes SIGNIFICANT personal development possible

where is here? and when is now?

there's actually a way bigger "safety" to infinity than to psychic powers. so it's a non-issue the Absolute is far, far more secure (from your current perspective at least) than any psychic power

well first off there are different kinds of meditation. not all meditation practices are designed for attaining enlightenment! after enlightenment yo may stop doing the meditations geared for attaining enlightenment (generally these are your self inquiry and vipassana), but you may take up the ones which develop emotional mastery and release traumas, for instance or you may find those vipassana meditations have other uses something about the spiritual path to realize is that it never ends.

there's a book on leo's book list which tells you exactly how to meditate.

@Tony 845 once you reach the End, yes! but after the first enlightenment, those issues often get worse before they get better. after my first big shift (which I'm still dealing with), life became the hardest it's ever been. But the end result is absolutely worth it-- further!

Here's a question for people who have used either of the "magic pill" solutions: RASA and 5-MeO DMT. I've had RASA myself- not sure how I'd rate myself in terms of the pictures Can either of these get you to the 9th Oxherding picture? it seems they can definitely get you to the 7th, but idk aboout 8 plus

@Rinne what i mean, specifically, is that i reached loc 1000, but am only just now stating to see it, over a year later. but also that there was a noticeable shift right at the start, so it wasn't too concerning

@Rinne Past reaching LOC 600 didn't experience much different. only just recently began gaining some deeper clairity, I'd say. it takes some time to integrate for many

@MsNobody reminds me of the racist zen master that ken wilber mentioned in one of his videos.

a slightly different metaphysics than idealism, Spinoza proposed that there was a singular substance which exhibited both the qualities of consciousness and the qualities of matter. It's called neutral monism, and seems to me to be another way of philosophically interpreting the experience of nonduality, besides idealism.

i hear peter ralston fights people intentionally

rasa works on the premise that you have already been burning for enlightenment for some time and have given yourself permission to attain it. people who find success with rasa are typically the type who have already done a lot of work i say get it and see what happens. it ain't that much money. worst case scenario is u just aren't ready to awaken so u don't and like i said earlier, i disagree with ramaji and others who claim 1k is full enlightenment. myself i take this passage from the Dhammapada literally: "He who knows his former births, who sees heaven and hell, who has reached the end of births and attained to the perfection of insight, the sage who has reached the summit of spiritual excellence — him do I call a holy man." in other words, unless you're truly omniscient, u ain't a Buddha

reproduction is just something the body is programmed to do, it doesn't mean anything

@Moody after i hit 1000 i actually kept up practice and now i'm convinced that 1000 is not full enlightenment. RASA does work for getting u out of the normal band of consciousness tho