heretohelp

@Nahm haha it says hi back and thanks for the help but i have one question, more of a confirmation of an insight really - i know i know more mental gymnastics. All anyone/anything can ever offer you is motivation. That's all this forum and actualized.org is. Motivation. Nothing more. By motivation i mean motivation to the do the work, to wake up. I mean everything is a sign, a pointer to help/motivate you to awaken and for you to take that step for yourself. And you have a choice (at at least the illusion of one) every moment to choose if you step forward or backwards on the path (so to speak). That has been my experience. What do you think?

By "ego backlash" here i mean me distracting myself from the 'work' by mentally masturbating. I did that because my ego had a minor recoil and is scared. Being scared (fear) is due to making recent the progress on the path which has involved letting go of parts of my identity. And that is scary for my ego, hence why i distracted myself from that by playing mental gymnastics in my above post. I see people doing it on the forum constantly and i got sucked into it too haha oopsies

Your right. I do know what your saying. The intial post was me just experiencing a minor ego backlash via mentally masturbating. Sorry. I'm sure you can appreciate that we all do this when doubt arises on the path from time to time. Thankyou for your response

I appreciate your responses @Aaron p @traveler @Pacific Sage "Connect our higher consciousness to collective consciousnesses". I understand what you mean but doesn't collective consciousness = my/your consciousness so "Observing the major events like Covid-19 makes me feel like the collective consciousness is vibing low, of course this just could be an effect of causes" - but that's just a reflection of my/your consciousness? No? "Also I feel, if one decides to live in the world of distractions and not in a perment life like in Vipassana retreats (yogis in isolation), then universe will throw a whole lot of curve balls in life, it's kind of pretty guaranteed deal." Interesting you feel that way. I struggle to grapple with this one. I've spent months living at Vipassana retreats as well as camping/meditating in isolation for weeks, completely removed from the world of distractions, and found in some sense it's "too easy". It's too easy to be conscious in these environments. If you want to see if your really aware, try to be aware when you boss is shouting at you or when your 39km in during a marathon. Ahh then it's gets hard. I left these environments because i realised i'm not providing any service to the society and was willing to 'give up' some of my peace to make a difference in society through my work. Perhaps that was a mistake and my ego wanting to be distracted and i hadn't understood that the best service to the universe and 'others' is to become more conscious. Or maybe those people who isolate themselves completely and provide no physical service to society (and just focus on becoming more aware) are really the self-centered ones? What do you think? I do intuitively agree. I'm just being stupid and trying to logically understand it and distract myself. @Nahm You've given great advice for a newbie! Thankyou! I've been rude and played dumb a little here as i've been 'on the path' for a bit and was just looking for an excuse to mentally masturbate. Just an ego backlash. For context in the past 5yrs, I've eaten plant based, meditated 2hrs daily, run ~10hrs per week, taken psychedelics, 5 x Vipassana retreats, 2 x 7 day self-retreats. I'm 22. Sorry if that sounds like i'm flexing my 'look how spiritual i am' muscle. I don't have social media and i've never posted on a public forum before so my ego wanted to show off...

Hi this is my first post here so play nice Could I receive some clarity on my understanding of the implications of non-duality? I am speaking from a relative perspective here so please respond accordingly. I have always felt that during times of my life when I have been more conscious, the world and people around me i.e. the universe/everything is also more conscious. As such, when I am less conscious, the universe, is also less conscious (or at least this dynamic appears to be so) If non-duality means I ("my" awareness) = everything then would that not mean that as I become more conscious the universe i.e. the 'people' and everything around me would become more conscious because i literally am the universe. If this is true then I am 100% responsible for the level of consciousness in the universe right now as the universe is a direct reflection on 'my' level of consciousness because I = universe. Therefore, I would also be responsible for all the suffering in the world right now as 'my' suffering = the suffering of the universe. The overall level of suffering in the world is thus a direct reflection of the overall level of suffering I experience as non-duality means i = universe. Suffering = not being conscious. Being more conscious = less suffering. So the most responsible and selfless action I could take in this life (and anyone else) is to become more conscious which in turn means the universe will become more conscious as I = universe. And that is my purpose here. To wake up and wake the whole universe up too. Have I understood this implication of non-duality correctly? Or is this solipsism and very self-centered? Does non-duality imply that my level of consciousness = the universes' level of consciousness? If I have misunderstood, please help me understand this. Thanks in advance