Consilience

Recognizing that effort is an illusion and so that, in fact, maximum effort is really effortless. This insight’s been huge for me and my ability to get shit done

Honest to god I have no idea why. After watching and reading as much as I have about spirituality, and intellectually understanding the metaphysics, ontology, and epistemology of why this consciousness work is not bs, Ive recognized how there really isnt a self at all, even when it feels like there is one. So why? Literally no idea. It just feels like Im letting some primordial force actualize as I continue to contemplate and meditate on this, all with the full recognition that non of it matters. And somehow it’s been an incredibly beautiful journey thus far, even in spite of the lows this work causes. The best answer I have is that Im just trying to BE myself in the most honest way possible, as well as follow this intrinsic curiosity towards finding what’s really true

And beliefs are more thoughts right? So boom! Strange loop >:o

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Emotional stability More compassion Deeper insights Greater understanding of my own self structure More focus More discipline More in touch with intuition Probably more but increasing awareness has been an extremely powerful by-product of consistent 1 hour/day meditation. 10/10 would recommend

From a materialist paradigm this is the case. However it isn’t that black and white once you begin to expand your awareness. Introversion can also be conceptualized as a belief - investigate why other people drain you, or why you’re shy? What in your direct experience of others makes you shy? Where is it stemming from really? You’ll eventually uncover that answer and can either let it go, or continue to hold it. In Ralston’s Pursuing Concsiousness bookc he goes into the dynamics of self traits (such as shyness) in more detail. The short answer is that all character traits like shyness boil down to serving the ego in some way shape or form BUT you can work towards letting go of these traits if you can trace their roots.

Haha nah dude you get full credit. Thanks for posting!

So this post inspired me to go back and reread the Book of Not Knowing's section on contemplation and then really try to practice his technique. I chose to focus my intent on discovering the truth about NOW. Interestingly enough, I did indeed have a mini enlightenment about the nature of NOW. At some point in, I think around the 40 min mark, it literally felt like my body was expanding outward and my mind had reached some sort of access concentration of no mind; it felt very mystical. And then I realized I was literally the NOW I was contemplating. Like the present moment is literally what I am... The subject of my question was actually just another way of asking "Who am I?" After that insight reached intellectual understanding (which happened really quickly) it kind of kicked back on my monkey mind and the mini mystical state ended. I remained super aware and just continued to contemplate for the remainder of the meditation.

This would count yes.

Id be interested in hearing Leo’s thoughts on this as well.

Has anyone considered the possibility yhat all causality is an illusion. For example, NOW is the only moment that exists, so how could something cause something else? Like seriously. Causality necessarily implies a past, but there is literally no such thing as the past, there is only right NOW. Moreover, this also means that randomness does not make much sense either. For example, randomness implies “could have been different.” But “could have been” implies past which we’re already established doesn’t make sense. In this light, causality, which is a necessary component of determinism, doesnt make much sense. But nor does randomness or probabilities. Using probabilities as a conceptual framework for QM works on paper, but does reality in and of itself operate off of probabilites? How could it if there is no past, no future and therefore no possible “could have beens.” Anyways Im not entirely convinced of all this but just more food for thought. It’s not as simple as “no free will” or “free will” though, that’s for damn sure.

Most definitely.

Knights of the Old Republic 2 That game was pivotal towards opening up my mind philosophically and realizing at a young age how grey the world is in terms of right, wrong, good, evil, etc. Low key would probably not have stumbled upon Leo’s work had I not caught the philosophy bug with that game haha.

You are funding the slaughter of animals when you buy meat, yes. In a relative sense, this is no different than murder or genocide of humans. The difference is that it is socially acceptable form.

@Joseph Maynor Im still confused with why you’re creating a seperation with awareness and experience. That seperation seems more like a mental object, an arbitray line drawn than a seperation. Doesnt non-dual mean there is no seperation from awareness and the contents of consciousness? Unless Im mistaken and you’re not drawing a seperation.

@Pouya WHO wants that though?? YOU literally do not exist

@winterknight Thank you

Right. Those ARE just more “contents” within conscious awareness. Who is chasing exactly? What exactly are your ideas about materialism, or who you think you are? Do you know? Here’s the thing: All your ideas about materialism, all of your meaning about the world, all of your intellectualizations and learning, all of your social status and interactions with other people are meaningless contents within conscious. Let that sink in. Like REALLY sink in. Before any meaning can be given to an experience, the experience must first be experienced. But have you reflected on what meaing actually is? “Meaning” is itself just more contents within consciousness, and just as meaningless as the experiences themselves because meaning is literally another experience within your unified direct experience. Does that make sense? Furthermore, all of your ideas about self or the sense of a seperate self are still more meaningless contents within consciousness. All of your direct experience exists before “you” superimposed the ideas of a seperate self who is chasing and wanting deeper awareness. Seriously explore your direct experience dawg: what do you see? If you look closesly, and in all 6 senses (taste, touch, sight, smell, hearing, mind), you’ll notice an unified field of phenomena popping in and out of consciousness. You’ll also notice that within each point of this field, there are an infinte number of ways to divide, distinguish, objectify, or create information about. In fact, all objects within consciousness, are really just an arbitrary grouping of distinctions within the infinite field of distinctions already present, but again, none of it is seperate from the whole of conscious experience. Aka objects dont actually exist. All of your ideas, meaning, sense of self, materialism, or anything having to do with your mind, is fundamentally based on a false premise that objects exist as seperate entities in and of themselves, but as we just explored, no objects truly exist. So now we ask: who is chasing, who is wanting? What IS chasing, what IS wanting? ... Empty contents within consciousness that have arbitrarily been seperated from the whole of direct experience, objectified mental ideas, which themselves are based fundamentally on a false notion, an illusion we might say. And here’s the thing, what Im talking about is an oversimplified fraction of all there is to say on this topic of non-dual spirituality. My advice? Keep contemplating, keep meditating and dont stop until you’ve unraveled all of this for yourself. Id also recommend exploring Peter Ralston’s work. His books are extremely helpful for spirituality.

What is intuition from the perspective of enlightenment?

I posted this in another thread but I think it would be helpful here too. Read this article and something may click for ya~ https://deconstructingyourself.com/escaping-observer-trap.html

I wouldnt underestimate a spiritual significance of environment, such as a shrine. Think of it this way: what’s more conducive for meditation/contemplation, a warzone or a garden? My point with that example showing that while in the absolute sense no location, or shrine, would be necessary, environment most certainly can play a role if we are not yet awakened. On the otherhand, you dont want to form a subconscious attachment to anyone location or routine, which consistently meditating at 1 location such as a shrine may lead to.

https://deconstructingyourself.com/escaping-observer-trap.html This is a really good article.

Ive dealt with this yeah. Im an introvert but am working as a personal trainer so Im literally in contact with people all day long every day haha. What’s interesting is at first it was exhausting, but it eventually got to be no big deal. Two things really helped me: 1) I had it in my mind that I was going to learn how to be more effective at my job and adapt. So you need to really cement the possibility for your ability to adapt and change how the job affects you. Genuinely opening up this possibility for growth gives way for eventual transformation. 2) I stopped labeling myself as an introvert and worked towards transforming that identity. Introversion, at the end of the day, is a concept about ourselves and the more you study the self, the more you see how relative and arbitrary characteristics are. So introversion is just a concept or a story the self tells itself. So practically speaking, try to deeply contemplate why you’re clinging to your introversion, find those limiting beliefs and assumptions, find out why these specific social interactions drain you, and then if you have the courage, let them go. This sounds simple on paper but I promise both 1) and 2) take real work to figure out, but, at least in my experience, it can be done.

How does meditation admit existence of objects?

Beautiful pt. 2 - Thank you for sharing