SoonHei

greatest obstacle to enlightenment is the search for it. while the search is on-going, it's always a step away. when the search ends because it is exhausted, it stands revealed... but not so fast, you cannot just "choose" to end the search... it will cease on it's own... but for that to happen, you must run out of the fuel... fuel is your desire for it... as long as you've got the desire for it, search on... or if you can find a way to burst the fuel tank and end the search quicker, then do so... find out what each of this is for you and you will find the Truth.

@Paul92 nothing wrong with being happy but unconscious. take top performing and stable athletes, movie stars, businessmen... they are happy and loving life. they are thankful too. but then, life happens... they are happy now... but old age, disease... accidents, unexpected stuff... "each soul shall taste death"

yes... when i awaken from the dream. it seems to have all gone thru very effortlessly and free of the egoic self... with the exception of the example i gave wherein by being involved emotionally and attaching to the happening in the dream... i awoke up in my bed and was still angry about the situation in the dream the moment i woke up and i was making my argument statement as i woke up out loud... by this i meant, that resting in the watchful state in dream / waking state is what gives us peace most of us are resting as awareness during our dreams until we maybe drawn into it depending on what's happening in the dream and if it pulls us in emotionally. imagine your current waking state life being lived as effortlessly as your dreams flow of course there is no "your waking/dream" states

there are quite a few "success stories" online about people manifesting lotto in their life i am a big believer in the truth about the outside matching the inside and the level of belief in the thought / desire matters sad part is, you cannot "fake it" what does that mean? this: try to imagine and feel right now as if you have actually WON 50 million dollars for example.. not pretend.. but truly believe... when your faith in your thought/desire is THIS strong... then you can "manifest" it in your material outside world... (outside and inside are one, remember this) it's like those motivational videos.. talking about achieving a goal.. workout, sports, study, business, any vision.. those who end up having it.. have their vision so immensely strong that their lives flow in such a way that they end up getting it.. of course. you must plant a seed and not just blankly sit there trying to manifest what is planting of the seed for the lotto? buying the damn ticket first of course!!! again, until the level of belief and faith is so damn strong... such that it is equal to the desire to someone who is being held underwater.. and he wants to breath so badly that his life depends on it - BECAUSE IT DOES! is that how badly you want it? and that's why you cannot fake it those succuess stories i talked about.. those people literally lived and breathed the dream to win the lotto.. mantra and beliefs day in and out and not losing hope after losing each week's draw... one way to show what that emotion would be like... is if you told your family memeber for example that you won lotto.. (even if you didn't) they wont believe you at first... but when you insist and insist heavily.. when they finally believe you, they will be jumping up n down, screaming in joy etc.. because that to them is now TRUE... once your faith is that strong, that you need only think it and truly FEEL that you have now got it... only then can you get it. side note: if you do play lotto. dont think .. oh, i wont ever win.. odds are impossible.. etc etc.. just be slightly hopeful at least that you will win notice how nothing but your thoughts and emtions change upon realization you have won. it's like if you were homeless for a year now cuz lost job/house and then discovered somehow that a long lost relative left you a fortune of million dollars... your state of mind and happiness will instantly be born out of the present moment.. just by you knowing that is the case.. it's a tricky bidness, but outside = inside = no separation... get it done.

@OneWithAll yes indeed! had a dream couple of weeks ago... in which yes, most of it, i was at peace... until i wasn't i was having an argument with my sister and as it got heated, my self which was at peace became more heavily drawn into the dream and i was talking loudly in the dream and because i got more involved in the dream, i ended up waking up and i was talking aloud while laying on the bed this was to me a very nice illustration of how our self at peace vs involved in the dream works while at peace, you are sleeping peacefully and observing the dream simply when not at peace, your body may fidget or you may talk in your dream because you are heavily involved in it

i was reading some posts on facebook and there many posts about it and being terrified and frightened by it beyond anything posts like the void scares the piss out of me.....the peace that passes all understanding, nothing more need be said about that......one would like a guide book How to face the void!.....of course the map is not the territory, bit having some navigation tools facing the void might be good and I'd be a wealthy man if I could give you a map with which to navigate the void! You're right to be piss scared, and yet there is nothing to be afraid of at all. Literally nothing at all. It's simply that emptiness leaves no where for you to stand .. or hide .. or escape to .. and for me that's terrifying. You can't navigate nothing ... and you know it .. that's why it's so frightening. so when does one encounter it? potentially...? while meditating? or is this post awakening... once the true nature is known and when the body+mind goes to sleep and YOU now remain "consciousness" is it the deep-sleep state of blackness except now you are right in the center of it / as IT and what is the VOID... what are people referring to when they mention it? is that the VOID? devoid of all experience ? ... the nothing side of nothing is everything ?

Ramana Maharshi once told a story about a man who wanted to bury his own shadow in a deep pit. He dug the pit and stood in such a position that his shadow was on the bottom of it. The man then tried to bury it by covering it with earth. Each time he threw some soil in the hole the shadow appeared on top of it. Of course, he never succeeded in burying the shadow. Many people behave like this when they meditate. They take the mind to be real, try to fight it and kill it, and always fail. These fights against the mind are all mental activities which strengthen the mind instead of weakening it. If you want to get rid of the mind, all you have to do is understand that it is "not me". Cultivate the awareness "I am the immanent consciousness". When that understanding becomes firm, the non-existent mind will not trouble you. ~ Annamalai Swami

@Serotoninluv wow. love it hmmm... so once that duality is transcended. all's well bless

A book, a novel, what is it really? When stripped to the core, it’s just a bunch of squiggles written across otherwise empty pages. Those squiggles are interpreted by the reader to represent things, and in his mind he creates the appropriate image or idea. That is the power of the word, to conjure up unseen things upon a whim, as if by magic. As long as the words are understood, the images can be created. All sorts of things can be created in imagination by use of words. Characters are developed, each with their unique appearance and personality. They have relationships, joys and sorrows, adventures and conquests. But in a book, when a character speaks, is it they who are really speaking? Did they have an option in the matter to speak or not? Or a choice in what they would say or how they would react? Is there even a person there? Even though you might get lost in the book, and envisioning yourself as the main character, what happens when the book is put down? Do you fear putting it down out of fear you’ll disappear? Of course not, though the character and his world will vanish because they were only imagined. But who is reading the book and imagining all of this in the first place? Words in thought are no different than these squiggles on a blank page. Within thought, these sounds are given meaning and all sorts of unique characters and worlds are developed, including the main character named ‘I’. But it’s all just a story that’s being read. There is no character there speaking, just as there is no character actually speaking his dialogue within a book. Who or what is reading the words of thought, interpreting them and giving them reality? Without such a story, what would be?

also includes possibilities is okay but that is an infinite list... lol... it also includes ( insert anything here) just saying all possibilities are included is okay... keep in mind, there is no "inclusion process" it just is - this way.

@cetus56 the fear of the void then would be only for the egoic mind which upon reappearing identifies with having known/seen the void... when in fact it was not even present when there was just the void the experience of the void = the experience of there not being an ego mind . yaa?

@Jack River mind can be said to be an appearance within the void ... ? ya?

hmmm so not that one can "choose" to surrender... but it sounds like when the surrender happens, then it's all flowers and butterflies

@AlphaAbundance your problem lies within the question. there is no problem before your question. the problem is the why the statement after the why is not "true" there is no absolute infinity "allowing" a particular dream all of it, just IS - without a why absolute infinity is not some entity planning and creating and allowing it. it is ALL OF IT, ALL AT ONCE, all possibilities that can be... including the allowance of an illusion/dream in which it is able to escape it and including the possibility where @AlphaAbundance creates this thread to ask this question to which @SoonHei replies, including this sentence and this smiley face >>>

This life is called the mortal dream. You have to catch yourself when you take life too serious, and compare it with a dream. When you take your dream serious, and you become violently upset over something, and I try to explain to you, you're dreaming, you will never believe me, because the dream world is very powerful at that time. The doctor has diagnosed cancer, you've got two months to live. But I tell you, "You're dreaming." Do not put your energy on that. Rather turn within. See your reality. Understand that this is a dream. Well you chase me away. You do not want to accept that, because no one else believes it. Yet you wake up in the morning, and it was just a dream. Think about the problems, the wonderful experiences, everything you've been through since you were born. It appears so real, doesn't it? And even now you are a product of all your samskaras, all of your preconceived ideas, your concepts, and how you were brought up and trained. This is your life. You do not know any other life but this. Yet every person seems to come from a different upbringing. Every person has their own beliefs, their own ideas, what's right, what's wrong, what is good, what is bad. That's how wars start. That's how man's inhumanity to man begins. When you believe I'm right and you're wrong. When you begin to see things that are not right and you want to correct them. No one has ever told us, instead of doing that, dive within yourself and see perfection. See the atman. See unlimited bliss. Begin to dwell on the reality, and soon your world will become reality. When you go to a movie, there's a beginning, a middle, and an end. What is left? The screen. The movie was shown on the screen and all sorts of things transpired in the movie. People were killed, people got married, people had children, the world was bombed, yet the screen never changes. The screen remains the same. There's a story on the screen about a person who was born, he's sexually abused by his parents, he goes through all kinds of horrifying experiences, he becomes a man, becomes a serial killer. All this is going on, on the screen. Then again you see a prince. A baby is born a prince. He grows up into beautiful circumstances, has everything in life, doesn't seem to have a problem. This is too going on, on the screen. But there's an end, and all the images are gone. The screen remains, untarnished, unblemished, the same as it was yesterday, and the week before, and the year before. My friends, your true nature is like the screen. You are not the image that appears to go through different trials and tribulations, or appears to be enjoying life to the utmost. They're both impostors. You are like the screen. There never really was an image. The image appeared for a time. It appeared. It appeared due to the fact that if you try to grab the image on the screen, what would you grab? The screen. That's why it is an appearance. It is hard to believe that your life, what appears right now, is unreal, simply because you have identified with it strongly. This is what is called maya, the grand illusion. You have strongly identified with your appearance of life, and you are reacting accordingly. Every time you react you are accruing karma. Accruing karma simply means the image is continuing again and again, the ego becoming stronger and stronger. And even when you leave this body, it continues into another body. There's no end. You go through many cycles, some good, some bad. You have all kinds of experiences. But until you realize that you are not the experiencer and there's no experience, you will go through the cycles of karma again, again, again, ad infinitum, no end. It is only when you get tired of playing the game called maya, playing a part called leela, that you decide to find the answer to your existence. You have to go through the game over and over again, and finally begin to search. You become a seeker. You begin to read spiritual philosophy. You may find a teacher and you're on the path. Depending on what you do, this determines where you go from there. When you come to a meeting like this, when you attend a satsang like this, you can rest assured that you have done spiritual work in a previous life. You deserve to be here to understand the reality, to understand how to transcend the mind, the ego, the pesonal self. As you begin to practice self-inquiry, witnessing, the I am meditation, things begin to happen. You're searching for self-realization, whereas all this time, self-realization has been exactly where you are. You have always been that, yet you believe you've got to search, you've got to read books, deep philosophies, when all you had to do was to wake up. All you had to do was awaken, just as when you awaken in the morning from your dream, you awaken. It's the same thing now. You simply have to awaken. Yet what is keeping you from awakening? Your attitudes. You are attached to your emotions and you are seeing things in your life that either appear wrong or appear either appear right. As long as you have a concept of right or wrong, you can never transcend your body and become free. Some people ask, "But things are right and wrong in this world. I have to take a stand." My question to those people are always the same. "To whom is there right and wrong? Who feels right and who feels wrong?" Only the ego. In reality there's no right and there's no wrong. There are just experiences of a dream unfolding. Yet the dream doesn't exist. It never did. The world, as it appears right now, does not exist. It never did. The way you believe you are, does not exist. It never did. There is only one and you are that. There never were others. There's only the one. Yet most of you cannot feel this. You're so identified with maya that the world of appearances cause you to feel emotional. You therefore have to work on yourself. You have to do something to yourself, to help you become free. If you leave yourself alone, and you do nothing, you'll go through life, after life, after life, on various planets. You'll have various bodies, female, male, maybe other bodies. It will never end for you. Therefore you begin to question your existence. That is the first step. You question your existence. You question your existence by inquiring, "Who am I? Where did I come from? What is my real nature?" You start this early in the morning, as soon as you open your eyes. Instead of being cognizant of the world, you leave the world alone for a few minutes. You question yourself, you ask yourself, "Who is awake?" and the answer comes, "I am. I am awake." Then you realize, "I also slept, I slept well, I had a good dream," and you start to wonder about this. This same I that is now awake, is the same I that had a good dream, and the same I that slept well. "Who is this I? What is it's source?" There is a spiritual center on the right side of your chest. You may call this the God center or consciousness. It is on the right side of your chest. You begin to trace the I-thought back to that center from whence it came. Once the I goes back into the center, you become liberated. Therefore the whole idea of spiritual practice, in Advaita Vedanta, is to follow the I-thought back to the source and become free. When the I appears to leave the spiritual center it goes into the brain, and you become cognizant of I am, I am the body, I think. Then you create a world and a universe out of your mind, and the world appears to you as reality. This all happens in a split second. That's why you're not aware of it. In other words, while you were sleeping the I rested in the spiritual center. As soon as you awaken, in a split second, the I goes into the brain, you become cognizant of a body, and then a world, and then a universe, and the mortal dream begins. So, you have to vehemently make up your mind that you really want to awaken. That's the first prerequisite. How do you know if you really want to awaken? You are sick and tired of the world. You're a person who is no longer trying to change bad for good, for you realize they're both impostors. You understand that the good lasts for so long, then there is bad. The bad lasts for so long, then there is good. You get old, you leave your body, and the game continues. You have to be disgusted with this first, I kid you not. As long as you believe you're enjoying the world and enjoying your life as a human being, you cannot awaken. It's like being in a dream and you're having a wonderful dream. You just don't want to wake up. But all things in the dream must come to an end and change. If you realize that the only thing permanent in life is change, then you will treat the good things in your life the same way as the bad things in your life. You will not become emotional over them, and you will not be attached to them. That's the only time you can go further. As long as you still want to play the game of maya, and act out your part, there's no sense in practicing self-inquiry, for your attachment will keep you back from reality. But for the person who has gone through many lives and is ready to give it all up, that person can practice self-inquiry. A question arises. "When I become self-realized, do I have to go live in a cave, or in the forest, or become a hermit?" On the contrary, there are Jnanis in every field of endeavor. Yet who asked that question? The ajnani. This is one of the things you should not concern yourself over. Everything will always work itself out. Many of you call me on the telephone and tell me you're afraid of awakening. You think you'll be different, your family will leave you or you'll leave your family, you'll lose your job. This is all ignorance. None of that will happen. The only thing that will happen is you'll be awake, and you'll see the world as a superimposition on the Self. That's all. You will have exceedingly happy moments in your life when you're in delusion, but the happy moments go. When you're awake, you stay in unlimited bliss. You become unlimited bliss. There are no longer any mood swings. You're always the same. Joy, bliss, happiness, they're all rolled into one, and they are you. So the sincere student does not worry about the results, or what might happen. They're ready to go for it. When something in their heart opens and they're ready to go for it 100%, they are led to the right teacher, who can show them the way, and they follow the instructions of the teacher. That comes first in their life. Those are the beings who awaken into bliss […] Your real nature is like a universal screen. On that universal screen planets are being born, universes come and go. The earth is only a small dot on the screen. You are that screen. You are nothing else. You are Parabrahman, all-pervading. You are self-contained consciousness, absolute reality, emptiness, nirvana, sat-chit-ananda, I am that I am. That is your real nature. Therefore make up your mind. Whom shall I follow? Shall I follow my ego, my emotions and what appears to be real, or shall I begin to ignore those things and dive into my Self, becoming free? The choice is yours. -- Robert Adams, T93: Silence, The Spiritual Center

@EvilAngel lol. moving the words around doesn't matter much here it's like saying the same thing using a different accent lol but you get an A for effort but do you also see. that words alone are just labels... calling it your soul or yourself or the real you... all are words in other words, what you are after is the taste... You must taste rather than read about how it tastes reading about it in one way or more, won't give you the actual taste

@EvilAngel no. this is not unheard of sure, love your ego unconditionally... important to highlight who is it that will be loving their ego? key to avoid having the ego loving itself... also. when you write: until this point I've been watching my ego like a hawk; judging, condemning and beating myself up for existing. is it not the EGO who has been judging, condemning, beating itself up? note: YOU are not the one who will is doing any of these watching, judging of the ego.

@isabel what does "beyond the mind" mean? or how do you transcend the mind, and know that whatever it is isn't just another movement of the mind...? perfect metaphor i can use to illustrate this (keep in mind, it still isn't the full picture) Take any movie as an example Let's use a horror movie to better illustrate When the character you see on the screen reacts to and is afraid or screams in terror upon seeing the ghost/demon whatever. It is the character who is afraid (in line with the plot / happening of the movie) but the actor playing that character, is he afraid? Not one bit. He knows he is playing a character, the characters mind... He is both the character's mind and the KNOWING which transcends that character's mind. That's pretty much how the mind is transended. You still remain intimately one with the body+mind but have a DEEP EXPERIENTIAL knowing that YOU are not the one who is suffering. (similar to the actor and character example) Note that this follows that you literally are not identified with what you currently know to be yourself as the body and mind with your life story uptill now. Just as an actor knows his/her character which they are portraying on screen.

had a deep seeing yesterday during a sit where I saw how I am the appearance of my room, with everything in it i was the awareness of it all including the distinction i call my body it was very freeing but also a bit of fear - i could have gone deeper but held on due to the attachment with the fear "what if i lose control of my body and it starts to scream and do weird stuff" and a few others along this line also. the thought came, while i was mainly grounded in awareness, and staying in the unknowing - that all arises spontaneously... so though i am having this fear about whether to go deeper or not... the "choice" to go deeper or stop here will not be mine... i can only buckle up and try to relax and enjoy the ride guess that's what adyashanti means... that when the reality takes a hold of you, you are almost being dragged thru it... and i can see how that can be an issue.. only for the ego.. only the ego will find fear or resist whatever happens if lose a job happens, so it happens... ego wont like it. the unknowing awareness just accepts another thing, no matter what arises... no matter what work you do.. even all the ego traps.. or spiritual ego traps... they are unavoidable... we often hear, that the ego takes hold of the teachings and works with that to perpetuate itself... but since there is no you doing it... the fact that the ego took hold and was doing its thing is also beyond you. it is simply what's happening NOW I, as the unknowing awareness, simply knows the Plot of the movie of Life unraveling before me. being grounded in that I was very freeing... in that grounding, the fear thoughts of ego were seen. this thread's creation was inevitable me setting goals and trying to achieve them and failing, is also inevitable me finally seeing thru WHY i am unable to overcome my addictions and then as a result of this seeing, finally being able to overcome them, is also inevitable and out of my control so in true deep freedom - you as the awareness, simply allow it to unfold and be okay with it. <<< whether you do this as the ego or as the awareness - that is out of your control and inevitable as well. to be, or not to be, that is the question!

@Jack River @ajasatya <3 bless

@ajasatya we are all robots, without any programming - aren't we?

@ajasatya oh yes, i know lol. i was just making a sarcastic statement - highlighting what you had said in your post which i quoted "teachings contradict each other many times." and of course, with that said, "there are no teachings" is also a teaching #Contradiction #Paradox <3 <3

there are no teachings!

@isabel this is why it's often said words cannot pin it down fully you are first and foremost simply the awareness - which is aware of everything. you are currently identified as your body, mind, feelings etc... ergo first to get out of that paradigm, the not this and not that when one realizes that one is the awareness which is aware of all, then the next thing to realize is that being aware of something = being that thing awareness is the only thing there is, so all is made out of awareness itself. i like this analogy, when you wake up from a dream and realize it was all in your head/mind... then if you are to ask yourself, what was the body, the world, the other people, everything else in your dream made out of? it was made out of your mind. all of it. you as the dreamer of the the dreamworld created it entirely, it was centered likely on the first person POV, but it was all a creation of your mind / IT WAS ALL YOU. zoom that out in the real world awakening, you realize that you are the awareness (of Nobody) and as that awareness, you create/are everybody / EVERYTHING! and it's all one, without separation. there isn't you, the awareness and then objects which are created separate from awareness... awareness/objects are one. zero and infinite No-Thing is everything - as ONE.

@EvilAngel you can say there is just suffering Shinzen Young forumula: Suffering = Pain x Resistance if there is no pain, but 0 resistance to it, you get 0 suffering. take depression for example, removing the story revolving around that state and just investigating the physical / body emotions being felt... they mean nothing.. maybe just a contracted feeling... but if they aren't resisted, there is no suffering... and resistance is usually your story about that situation... as in your other topic you created... "resisting what is" do not resist that pain and you get no suffering but certainty jump out of the way of an oncoming car while crossing the road!