abrakamowse

Leo, if you come to New York or New Jersey I'll be there!!!

Nice!

You are joy and delight. You are pure bliss. What does not feel the bliss is the ego that is always worried, and bored, etc... That's why when you do meditation and you can see reality the way it is, without the filter of the ego, you feel bliss. Because that's what you are, you are pure bliss. :-)

That's true @Nahm, basically what "we" realize is that "we" are that. In reality is not that we are looking for GOD, we are looking for our true nature. :-)

In my opinion there's not such a thing as an atheist. And atheist believes anyway in an idea of creation, it doesn't matter if it is the big bang, or some theory. Like a religious person the atheist sees a part of the truth and he denies the idea of GOD of the religious man. But not GOD/REALITY/THAT/WHAT IS .... because the idea of GOD that the religious person has is just that, an idea. It's not the real thing. If we could describe REALITY with words we wouldn't be here sharing different opinions about what REALITY is... or that Higher Power as @Highest has said. I like that name... higher power. :-)

GOD is just a word ... It's like the story of the blind people who were touching an elephant and they asked them to describe what it was.

Learn programming language! :-P

Maybe you should meet sometimes on a cafe or bar and let everyone know that, so probably others will want to go and see what are you doing. There's always people who want to write or draw or take pictures and they don't have where publish them. Make some posters about the meetings and place it on the school board or hand them out to other students.

A bit late, but I agree... good idea!

Non duality means that all is one. There's no separation between you and me, or you and the objects from the point of view of a higher self. All the separation is created by our senses, and the interpretation we give to things. But in fact is all one. So you and reality are the same. In fact there's not a little you separated of the world, fearful of it. It's just an illusion. Non duality tries to break that illusion and show you the truth as it is. I advice you to watch some Alan Watts' videos, he explains all this very clearly.

You are GOD. As Jesus said, "You and God are one"

I don't know anything...

That happened to me some time ago... did you tried mindfulness meditation? That helped me a lot to get "separated" from the thoughts. You can't control the thoughts, being aware of them is the best way to "control them". Being aware knowing those thoughts are not "your" thoughts. There's not a "thinker of thoughts".

I agree with @AleksM and @SOUL posts. I see time like changes in consciousness. Things are constantly changing and we "measure" those changes in something that we call "time". Same thing with other measures, like inches, or kilometers. There's not distance between objects in awareness, but we have the illusion through our senses that there are, so we can "measure" distances like we "measure" time. But what happens is constant changes in the now. The mind tries to understand what's happening and "creates" the explanation through ideas. But he is not creating anything, mind is trying to interpret reality. And from the point of view of awareness it fails. That's what creates the whole universe. We need to see reality that way to have experiences. Awareness is always there, not moving and not doing anything. Just being aware.

Thanks guys for the comments! I was just curious. Maybe I am wrong but I feel that what IS is more than awareness or experience or anything. We have to be open and reject any ideas to see it, and if we attach to certain idea then we won't be able to see it. Thanks again!!!!

I just want to know opinions. There's some people that think that pure awareness cannot exist, because awareness will always need experience to know itself. So, they conclude that experience and awareness are different words for the same thing. So they say experience is self aware. And you are experience! Can awareness know itself without experience? Is experience and awareness the same thing? What do you think? I would like to know different opinions. Not because I don't have one, but to go deeper into this point. Thanks for participating!!! :-)

It can no be measured and it can not be converted into an object. It can't be known. Whatever you know is not you. The only thing you don't know is your essence, because everything that is an object is not you... neti neti... (not this not this) To find the Brahman or your essence you have to do like an sculptor, that removes the rock that is not the piece of art until the sculpture appears. By removing what is not, you find what is... but if you have the experience of knowing your self, after the experience you won't find words to describe it accurately, because there aren't. It's not possible. :-)

@Vitamine Water Thanks for that, I will definitely try that exercise!

This is my take, Awareness is just a word for WHAT IS. The problem is that awareness implies that there must be something to be aware. And that's not the case, because we know awareness doesn't need anything. I know that Awareness is prior to everything, because I had an experience of nothingness. I lost reference of everything, it was completely black but there was no sensations, no perceptions, it was just me without any memory. When I began to wake up, the ego got crazy, and the character (what I think I am) was in shock. Couldn't think well, etc... but I was aware of everything. And that's awareness. I was aware too that there was no experiences at that moment.

That's what I told them, I am aware of deep sleep. But they say that when you go to sleep awareness continues. You fall asleep and then you wake up. There's a continuity in awareness. So they conclude that awareness without experience is not possible. And I know it is. :-)

Nisargadatta says this: " Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginningless, endless, uncaused, unsupported, without parts, without change. Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a state of duality. There can be no consciousness without awareness, but there can be awareness without consciousness, as in deep sleep. Awareness is absolute, consciousness is relative to its content; consciousness is always of something. Consciousness is partial and changeful, awareness is total, changeless, calm and silent. And it is the common matrix of every experience."

@AleksM Ok, thanks! I will read it!!! I am doing your exercises about focusing on the breathing. Very interesting indeed. I will post something on your thread so we don't go off topic on this one. :-) Thanks again!

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-we-control-our-thoughts/