Shadowraix

Having these discussions when people are viewing from different perspectives is hard lol.

Ah a miscommunication then. When I said everything. Wasn't intended literally. My bad.

What separates illusion and Truth? Absolutely nothing.

Don't overthink it. You desire it so go out and do it. Its not wrong to satisfy egoic desires. You have your entire life to self-actualize and that process will never stop. Experience life.

I meant follow the pointers. Thats the whole point of concepts. Yeah all labels are illusion but so is everything so it doesn't really mean much for those living in the illusion.

Yeah that's why you gotta try and locate what I'm saying in your direct experience

Not anything must also unify with everything ?

Good shit. Freedom vs no freedom free will vs no free will choice vs no choice These dualities need to be unified. The dualities are great for the relative perspective but they fall apart elsewhere.

What is it that is choosing? Consciousness. What are you? Consciousness. Is the ego consciousness? Not to the ego, but it is. What is capable of free will and no free will? Consciousness. I'm suggesting free will and no free will are the same thing. You may use the no free will label to try and point to consciousness dictating to those who perceive separation only, which does work. But when you see something as factually false you can blind yourself to it also being factually true. Depends how you look.

Was the discussion ever really about experiencing reality with no concepts?

My understanding is that free will = not knowing and no free will = knowing. From the relative perspective, free will is absolutely there, from the absolute it does not. Consider that free will and no free will simultaneously are true rather than either-or

My understanding is it transcends all possible labels. Well it gets paradoxical. To be unbounded also means to be bounded but unbounded etc see you get into circles with trying to use even labels like that. That is why what we are pointing to is considered undefinable. (Well to be undefinable is a limit too but surely you see what I am trying to say) Are we here to find a label? Or are we here just to be here? Meaning is embedded in existence itself, no? Absolute infinity can't exclude this.

Thanks for the replies so far! I definitely have materialistic desires. I never had much growing up then when I graduated I was able to splurge and fill my life with a lot of it. I still desire the latest greatest computer, a fancy house etc. But at the same time I realize I know it is not going to make me happy. So instead of focusing what I don't have and what I do have that is where I find my contentment. Yes, I am not entirely devoted to spirituality I will say that right off the bat. I have been making good changes in life though. I've ditched soda for water (huge step for me) I have worked through a lot of my trauma and mental issues. The past 2 years has been using spirituality as a means of self-help. I had a very dysfunctional childhood so I want to take it upon myself to recognize its impact on me and work to change it. You are right! I am living in a household where there is a lot of pressure for me to apply my intelligence regardless if I know what to do with it or not. I am getting out of this environment but I do need to not take influence from this I think. Be more aware of it. There's a lot of the basic stuff in life I don't like suffering etc but through accepting it and not demonizing it its almost built a sort of complacency in me. I wanted to make video games for a long time because its something I enjoy and I want to make the game I like to play. I still love programming but I find I get burnt out of it super super easy. Game dev industry is hard and when I am not financially independent I have to consider monetization and I hate it. I have discovered I have a huge desire to teach. I love helping people figure stuff out. Ever since I was a child I spent so much of my time just learning how things work out of curiosity. I think this is my first glimpse towards a life purpose. My desire to figure things out then teach it to others I didn't realize until I started self-actualizing. It was the most obvious thing I don't know how I didn't realize it. The last major thing I applied this to was researching the effects of drugs so I could educate people and help them do it safely. It became a huge passion of mine but its since died down. You are very much correct! I can tell the external influence is getting to me. Any tips to progress this? I see what you are saying, this helps calm down my worries to remember the absolute, but from the relative perspective this also promotes complacency. Which is good to a degree. I haven't quite sorted out if I am ok with being ambitionless. In the sense that I can find content right now but I still cling to this need of having a direction. Where do you divide ambition with resistance?

For reference I am 20. I know a lot of people don't have their shit together even at this age which is kinda reassuring. I had a full ride to college, dropped out after crashing my car, and ever since I am been mostly self-actualizing. I have always lived in lower class environments and people. Making just enough to get by. Never lived on my own. Around when I graduated high school I gained a lot of motivation to push myself. This is about where I really started growing. I had a lot of ambitions. I know I am smart enough to learn anything I am dedicated to. I'm great with technology, been programming for years but its only really been a hobby. It feels more like a creative outlet that I am good enough at to enjoy, but lately have been unsure if i'd like to pursue that as a career, let alone rush myself into a career that my entire family is pressuring me into. Yes, thats it. I feel pressured to go back to college, and follow your typical norms of life. Although I almost feel that motivation to be gone because I don't REALLY want success. Not bad enough to chase it over everything. I've actually found a state of contentment with being considered poor. I don't know the latest and greatest things. My gaming hobby has been pretty satisfied and no longer feel the desire to buy the latest greatest game. I already have so many to enjoy. So I obviously don't need that extra cash to fulfill any luxury desires. I find a lot of my past time activities just comes from being around people. But on the flip side that extra money can be a good tool for other things. So now I almost view going out and being super successful as a side activity in life. Not a top priority. Not a necessity. But this feeling along with how society operates leaves a sense of confusion in me. Am I just ambitionless? Does my path just not involve huge success right now? Its confusing. A lot of people get this satisfaction out of pursuing success and I don't, I am already satisfied, yet I almost feel like I shouldn't be. I'm mostly venting at where I am at, and my once certain path is full of uncertainty. A lot of my recent life has been more about just going with how I feel right now than it is future planning. Maybe you guys might have advice on how I can figure out my next step? Leo's life purpose course is a good step, and I hope to start it in the coming few months.

Ever looked into reiki?

Because you desire to. Simple as that. There's no need to pursue it. But if it improves your life, why not? What else are we gonna do in this illusion? People get so wrapped up in trying to rationally justify their desires. You can climb deeper in the illusion, crawl out to some degree, stay where you are, what do you want to do? you need ego to realize no ego. Comes full circle.

See how far you can go! It's reprogramming the mind.

NN Dmt is absurd. I haven't broke through but the intensity at which it hits you when you smoke it, there's a reason it is called a blast off. You can tell when a psychedelic is going to send you to another realm. I could tell the dmt was a straight path for ego death.

Salvia is one hell of a substance. Nothing enjoyable about it, but its oddly fascinating of an experience and can lead to huge spiritual experiences. I've only tried it once because I don't have the balls to do it again, but it just showed me how illusory perceptions can be.

@Tausif Ahmed This is complex stuff. Language barriers makes it harder. Let me ask you this: Is experience the only thing there is? You experience a rock, but is that rock there or a hallucination? What's the difference? Does real and hallucination not mean the same thing at this point? Imagine a person in your head, living their life having memories of the past having a good time. What makes that imagination different from you? If you can imagine someone living life, is it possible you are just imagined? That person in your head is basically hallucinating life, exactly as you are! That person in your head is you yet not all you are.

@Zetxil I did address it. It's literally a bit in what you quoted. Void/nothing/consciousness. I mean yeah the absolute transcends any label but for minimum mind fuckery consider everything in quantum superposition. Representing all possible answers. Typically either ors present two half truths that only become full truth when merged. For example, religion vs atheism.

What is sensible? Is this not just an arbitrary standard? I would say both actually make me hyper aware and conscious. On psychedelics I am so aware of things I used to not be it can be overwhelming. Jaclyn Glenn! I was very much a follower of her in my atheist phase. The psychedelics really just enlighten you about yourself. What "you" are oh man that rabbit hole goes deep. Do you know the brain is creating it? And what if the brain is just a hallucination causing a hallucination? Spiritual experiences ARE hallucinations. But thinking they are more hallucinatory than sobriety isn't very logical, no? You can sum drugs up as chemical reactions in the brain causing them, so why can't you apply this to sobriety? What does an objective reality look like with no subjective interpretation? Psychedelics become so useful because they sort of unwire a lot of notions you had about reality. Such as a concept of you. You realize this concept is nothing but a concept. Separation is a perception. This can easily lead into ego death. Thats how psychedelics can provide an easy route to enlightenment. A lot of the work is unwiring things you once thought to be true and going back and questioning it.

@Zetxil The balance line I didn't clarify much but you could apply it there. I meant in terms in how you handle how you make other people feel and how much you take regard for it. Balance between caring for others but not being a push over. But the same thing you speak of would be consciousness/void/nothing whatever you want to call it. You don't have free will as an ego and consciousness dictating it but at the same time you are the dictating consciousness so you do. It becomes as paradoxical as being separate but unified. Depends from which angle you look. I find a lot with every either or situation it comes down to both being true. Both being false.

@Mikael89 But do you actually get what I am saying though?

Free will or no free will fundamentally point to the same thing. Which one you side with is based from which perspective you look at it from. So its not really a big help. There's a careful balance to be played here. Where the balance line is depends a lot of on you.