FoxFoxFox

Sorry, but no. Absolute love knows itself without an object through lovebliss. Evidence for that is its presence when the mind is under anesthesia. I'm not saying that your experience of love, whether affect or not, is not God. I'm saying, it has nothing to do with self-realization. Also, I never said self-realization will give you heaven and salvation. That's your projection. I know you cannot fathom what i mean when i say you are literally talking to God which is yourself, but hey.

@Leo Gura Well 5-MeO is great from what i heard for experiences but i don't know if the realizations can stick. From the descriptions it does seem to release the same shakti from shaktipat but for some reason it doesn't seem to activate the kundalini. Maybe try visualizing your kundalini becoming active when you do 5-MeO next time, it might do the trick. Literally imagine a silver ball of light in your perineum growing in size and entering the center of your spine. If you want to get shaktipat, i recommend Jan Esmann again. He gave me shaktipat for free through an email... Shaktipat is everywhere. You must be open to receiving it.

@Leo Gura I recommend getting Shaktipat then. Shaktipat can happen on its own but its extremely rare. It's also an incredible reality check because it forces you to abandon all your reason and literally replace it with faith. It's the best way to realize just how inadequate the mind is in its understandings. Even if you already sense your Kundalini you should know that it doesn't mean its active. Active means its already working throughout the whole body. Just some tingling sensations in the spine won't do.

@Leo Gura Well he is right you know! If God believes it is a [insert anything] they cannot be the absolute. At the same time, God does not limit itself by believing itself to be something else other than god. Such is God's mystery, and the reason behind the adage that there can never be any ignorance. But Kundalinishakti has nothing to do with beliefs. It persists, like the voidgod that Ralston believes he is. It exists even when the mind is asleep, like when you sleep or are unconscious under anesthesia. It is not something that needs the senses to be perceived either. It's a... unspoken understanding. God's recognition of its own Godhood, just like how void is God's recognition of its own complete emptiness.

@Leo Gura Ah it's great to hear that then. Always glad to know people are not being mislead by pseudo-gurus. I personally don't study neo-advaitans much because there's just so much potential for disaster. I also believe it's possible to self-realize without Kundalini, but i don't think it would be possible to realize the bliss aspect of God without it. It's a shame that Ralston (like Adyashanti!) won't dive deeper into the shakti. Honestly i don't see how one could move from God-consciousness to unity consciousness without it. The important thing is to stress losing the identification mechanism. That is more than enough reason to bow down in recognition.

@Leo Gura Intelligence, will, and goodness are all really synonymous with God. God is the infinite source of all these things, and beings receive it to the limit of their ability. I believe the Hindus use the imagery of God cutting itself into infinite limbs to create the race of men. Well that something can be said about all things. Of course this is the language of mythology. The actual mechanics of God are wholly mysterious. This is because God does not operate in the same way as humans do when creating something. Absolute intelligence necessarily means absolute ability, and absolute ability literally means that God can create things through pure intention. Not only that, but absolute intelligence means that God can even create things without intending to do so, but at the same time it means God is incapable of unintentionally creating imperfection. God is so wholly above the concept of perfection, that it can create imperfect beings that are perfect in their imperfection. God is a paradox that is so intelligence that it wholly transcends the need to understand itself. God is the source of time, itself being wholly unaffected by it. God is so infinite that it CANNOT be the source point of creation, because creation cannot have a one source point, yet God is its own creations. God is the only thing that there is, but it is so wholly above the concept of existence that it does not need to exist. Whatever we can think of with our limited human understanding, it is sourced from God, and is in essence only God. Above all else, God is eternally, and constantly spontaneous, because it operates without care for limits. God is paradoxical by nature, as long as you are identified with the human vessel. All the absolute properties of God are immediately recognized and all the paradoxes are reconciled as soon as you step out of the "I-identification". There are identifying mechanisms you've picked up through force of habit. You can either be rid of them through self-inquiry or through overwhelming your nervous system with drugs, or shakti, or what have you. You asked me what are 'my' experiences of those things. "I" was the exact thing that bound it to the paradoxes of understanding them. "I" chose to shed the illusory bindings and allowed God to take over. Surrender, and free yourself from yourself. As Rumi said, "Be melting snow. Wash yourself of yourself."

Again, these are just relative. We are not concerned with relatives. Self-realization is realizing the absolute. Which is to stop believing in the stories of the mind. Being an "I" is only one of the stories the mind tells. But let me tell you since you are so interested in love. Divine love is the same thing as God. You just have to be careful to not mistake love as affect with the real thing.

Again, and i really don't mean to say that your experience is not beautiful or grand or brimming with love. It certainly is and I have no right to demean it. This is a great path to actualization. But we are talking about self-realization which is totally something else. You can be a murderer and be self-realized. You can be full of hate and be self-realized. It simply has nothing to do with relative experience. If you identify with experience as the doer, that is not self-realization. In self-realization even the notion that one is a watcher, or a witness, or a doer, or anything else doesn't arise. Nothing can be said about the experience in the truest sense of the phrase.

@mandyjw No. After self-realization, there is absolutely no way back. Don't confuse self-realization with awakening, which are relative.

@Leo Gura I gotta say. Neither of those two ever talk about losing identification, God, Kundalini, etc. unless I am unaware. All their teaching stops at "I-I". Which really is just a step before self-realization.

@PT89 Jan Esmann, Mooji, Sadhguru, Anandi Ma. That last one is in my understanding the furthers of them all.

@Highest Yes.

@AleksM Is there any identification within you? Do you literally believe that the essence of your being is disembodied awareness? Never mind that. I saw in your post that you said you don't. Happy to see this post.

@Serotoninluv Sorry, no. You are trying to find something that isn't there. You can't infer someone's degree of understanding from writing. To me all these are in the relative. Mind games, at best intended to hint people towards the right direction. I am sympathetic to the fact that different people have different realities, but I simply don't operate from the relativity of dimensions anymore.

@Highest We can think of it this way: The Self has two facets, pure being or void, and unlimited creative potential. I tend to call the creative potential God, but these are just names.

@Hima Izumi Yes.

@Aakash That is a popular conception. It's called Bhakti, i believe - living entirely for other people. Many people attest to its effectivity. However this has not been the path I followed. I don't actually believe real Bhakti is possible before self-realization. So I say, become self-less by stop identifying with the self. Whether you do that through total devotion to other people is ultimately your judgment call. Yes. At that point, there will no longer be someone who is bathing in total silence. There is just void (and even calling it Void is saying too much.)

@Serotoninluv The illusory elephant chases the illusory man up the illusory tree.

@Highest Yes. The experience is phenomenal. Become God and witness your creation. Witness the appearance of how these fingers move of their own accord to type sentences. The experience really cannot be conveyed without causing confusion.

@Aakash Going from "I-I" to pure "I" happens by bringing the notion of being into the light of awareness. That is to say become witness to it. At the same time, don't look for another object to project into it. Be aware, without owning it. This is already your nature. You just have to give up the belief that there is a someone who is aware. A silent mind equates with pure awareness. However the mind cannot silence the mind. You have to deal with your mind's problems first. Do whatever is required, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, artistic expressions etc. The reason the mind is agitated is because there are underlying issues it wants to resolve. A good way to silence the mind then, is facing those issues. Well what do you mean by selfless?

@Aakash Witness the mind, the emotions, and the body. Really become conscious of the fact that they are phenomena that you become aware of, rather than owning them. That is to say, step out of "I-am". Normally you say, I am a body, or I am angry, or I have a thought. Stop that paradigm. Instead of being the owner, become the witness. The next step is to become aware of "I-I", and you do this by turning awareness on the fact that you are owning awareness. You believe that you are a someone that is the owner of awareness, no matter how subtle this someone might be. You believe that you are a body-less being that is becoming aware of stuff. Well this notion must also go, and you that by silencing the mind and gradually merging into awareness - that is becoming one with it rather than objectifying and owning it. The "I-I" will then become even more subtle. It will just become "I". That is, the subtlest feeling of being that is totally pulled back from objects. For this to break apart, awareness and mindfulness is not enough. You need intensity. You need to build up internal energy and become 'charged' so to speak. You will need longing, and desire, and devotion. Your whole world should become giving up this "I-ness". You should lament your inability and experience anguish. At the same time, you must stop the mind from theorizing its way into your core. No matter what the mind comes up with, know that the answers are not verbal. I personally recommend you practice Kriya and Kundalini yoga at this point. Eventually, something will take hold of you. Energy will begin raising within you and you have to surrender to it. You have to let it take a hold of you and possess you. You will have to let go. The more intense you feel this energy, the easier surrender becomes because the force will be too overwhelming for you to resist. At this point you will probably shake and be in tears and might even lose consciousness and slip into nirvikalpa samadhi. Once the perceptions return and the mind begins recreating the world, there will be no longer any identification. Only void, and then bliss.

@mandyjw You are playing mind games. An argument based on presuppositions that are relative will not be a doorway to the absolute. Identification must go. You are missing the void.

@Leo Gura Amen.

@Omni You see in me what you are. This is the progression so work yourself backwards: Void > I > I-I > I-am Do you have enough self control to set aside your hatred of yourself and investigate?

@Omni These are just mind stuff. These are relative. The "I-ness" must go. "I-am-ness" must go.