Jonty

Happy New Year ???

@TheAvatarState ??? Congratulations

@xxxx Real imagination? Leo did a brilliant video in which he discussed how to "flatten" ideas and concepts. It's called "Grasping The Illusory Nature Of Thoughts" It could really benefit your inquiry. ?

I'm reading a book at present by Alan Watts entitled "You Are It!". In there he states that the word karma has been mistranslated in English. @Tim R has hit the nail on the head with his explanation above. It correlates with what Alan Watts describes. The book is well worth a look too. Also available on Audible

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@xxxx Point to brain. Can you find it in your direct experience? Remember the the old adage of "You are not the body and you are not the mind" I hope I've answered your question appropriately? I wasn't 100% sure what you were asking. ?

, @Red-White-Light Good luck my friend. Merry Christmas ???❤️

@Daphnedenninghoff23Leo has a really great book list that's definitely worth the investment. I paid for it a few years ago and the books on enlightenment he recommends (and there are a lot) are all exceptional.

Hi Just wanted to say seasons greetings to you all from the UK. The country is totally locked down at present and we're unable to see family properly unfortunately, like many other places. Let's hope 2021 is better for us all. Love from across the pond Cheers ?? ?❤️?

Awesome ???

That's a real thought salad my friend ? ? Some great advice above. What you're looking for isn't a belief and not something you can agree or disagree with. Once it becomes clear you'll understand there has never been a truer phrase than "I don't exist"

Completely remove thought from your experience right now. If you do that is the body still there? There's something there right, but without the thought you couldnt identify it as a body? You couldn't even say there was something "there". To that end, without referring to thought you couldn't say where you are, what you are or that you are human. Try it now, you'll soon discover that without thought all there is is your current experience. (The paradox here being that thought is also part of that experience!) Your entire "world" exists as a mental construct. To even argue against this is itself just another thought! You equally cannot argue for it because that's a thought too! All knowledge is illusory. It just is.... Its Being ?

This is a beautiful short documentary about the latter stages of his life. Its on Netflix here in the UK. I'm sure it's the case in the US too.

@Adamq8 Where were your quotes from that you posted? Are they from a book? They look great!

From the album "Riceboy Sleeps" by Jonsi & Alex. The whole album is beautiful

@Preety_India If you do find out where these actual quotes are from I'd be very grateful if you could let me know. I don't mean who posted them, I mean whether they come from a book or something. I asked the author on the post and didn't get a response. I'd be really grateful. Thanks in advance ?

Where are those exercises from?

I was doing something similar until a teacher asked me what happened when I'd finished all my yoga and meditation for the day. Does Truth go away then until I start my practice the following day? You are God/ Truth right this second and will be whether you're doing yoga 23 hours a day or sitting eating a hamburger. When he pointed that out, the whole process of getting "enlightened" seemed ridiculous. It just made me realize that I was missing what was staring me in the face the whole time. I know we have to go on the "hero's" journey, but this really resonated with me and really grounded my practice in the here and now. Hope this helps you too my friend. My personal preference for a practice is just sitting quietly and observing. "Be still and know that I am God." I think someone famous said that ?

Only if you imagine it is ? You could replace every word in that list with the names of vegetables, so rather than God, I, self, consciousness, Nothing, everything you might have cabbage, radish, lettuce, squash, potato and pumpkin. They're only words that you have ascribed a meaning to. In the second list, a cabbage is no more important than a pumpkin because you recognise them as just labels of vegetables. There's no heiracrchy. Same difference. If you want to make the word God more important than the word Awareness you can, but its still just words. Words are only as important or arbitrary as you imagine them to be. All meaning is illusory in the absolute sense. (Although having said that, I do like savoy cabbage so it might feature higher on my list ??)

@John Doe You're getting lost in concepts by the sound of it. Forget what you think you know about enlightenment or the "Who Am I?" question, those are concepts and imagination. Same as what you think is going on with the person sitting in the chair typing the message. Look at your direct experience. Don't think, look! Enlightenment isn't a thought or knowledge. Hope this helps man ?

@r0ckyreed Something that really helped me with getting lost in concepts and imagination was this:- First of all please understand that in order to communicate this, I must use concepts and language and ask you to imagine not imagining anything! Whilst sitting doing your contemplation, imagine you live in a world where concept and imagination do not exist. Now, look out at your direct experience. Notice that whilst in this world and being unable to refer to imagination and concept you have no idea where you are, what you are looking at or indeed even know what existence is. Also notice that without thought and imagination, "you" also cease to exist. In fact, you wouldn't even know that you were born. Could you point then to being a "thing?" No way! All you could do is "be". Sit with that for a while. It helped me a lot. Hope it helps you too ?

Everyone's different and so what works for one will not work for a other. Try it. If it works then great. If not, try something else. You're not going to get the massive realisations that psychedelics can provide, but if it aids your spiritual growth then go for it ?

Apologies if this is posted in the wrong forum, but I thought it the most apt place for it. One of the most beautiful documentaries ever made, "Baraka" Here's the link to it on YouTube. Please enjoy ? Ps - If you enjoy this, the follow up movie is called "Samsara"

@AlphaAbundance For me it was a case of doing self inquiry for an hour a day, every day for three years. I complimented this with meditation, contemplation, watching videos, reading books. For me certainly, I really tried to put the hours in and they paid off. It is real and all Leo talks about is right. You have to have faith in the process though. It's really hard work at times. Although I "understand" the Truth, it's a life long commitment in trying to adapt and utilise this knowledge and understanding into daily life. I hope that makes sense!