Inliytened1

@TheAvatarState If you think about it everything in this realm is relative. That would include enlightenment too - because all form is finite and impermanent. You aren't walking around in a non-dual state 24/7 - you couldn't function like that. As a matter of fact - its very hard to function being directly conscious that everything is One - that is also a mystical state. I don't mean knowing it conceptually - i mean being it. Being directly conscious of it is Being (or being it) because direct consciousness removes the "someone to be conscious of something". Its like when you are looking directly at your hand and acknowledging it the hand is actual. When behind your back it is conceptual. Ofcourse if you stare at it long enough you and the hand become one and you are actuality. So afterwards you are conscious that you are It but you are not being it - (the hand that was actual is now behind your back) - until the next time you are pure Being. But the hand was actual to you - it is no longer based only on concept or someone telling you there is a hand. Furthermore you are now aware that this right here is Infinity. That everything here is just pure infinity and you are conscious of that in the back of your mind always. You could forget for an hour or two. But you will temember it again - until this form is done. The beauty of reality is magnified. And there is, with this, a permanent expansion of consciousness from your starting point. And this can be infinitely expanded upon. So this is a sort of non-dual awareness which is not a non-dual state but an awareness that everthing is non-dual not stemming from a belief or concept. So if you consider enlightenment a pure non-dual, mystical state then yes it is not permanent until the expiration of the "physical" body that you are imagining yourself as, and the exiting of this dream to become the dreamer. If you consider it having died and then being reborn and becoming conscious of the nature of reality and that you are God - then it is permanent..hehe..until it's not (until you forget again)

I would focus more on becoming directly conscious that you are Universal Mind rather than conceptualizing on whether a rock has an ego or a sense of self or a survival instinct. Realizing that you as God are imagining all of it and simultaneously are the whole of it will kinda render these types of questions moot.

You're right - these types of things in my opinion are a distraction from doing the work. (Resting in Being). One always can benefit from a healthy balance of teaching though. A base conceptual framework is good but must ultimately be transcended. A map can be helpful unless the map becomes so large that one confuses the map with the territory and forever stays lost in the map. That's the constant balancing act. This forum can be helpful but can also turn into a distraction. At some point it needs to be transcended.

Thats saying there is infinite time in a finite game. The game of reality is infinite. God is everything all at once - yes. But since everything is Infinite - it can never finish playing through itself.

Yes exactly.

You guys are overthinking this way too much. When you meditate in the present moment long enough...the observer and the observed merge into one and the present moment is all there is. And you are it. When consciousness becomes conscious that it is consciousness - boom. Pure Consciousness. Thats why language can't grapple with this. Your whole body will tremble and shake and you will have to surrender to become Infinity. It feels like its tearing the body in half. The Love is too much. It drowns you and comes on like a tornado. Its an orgasm x billion billion billion to infinity and its total. When this happens to you all of this talk kinda dissipates. You are never the same after that.

Your mind is still creating a duality between imagination and reality. Collapse that duality.

He isn't disagreeing. He is just saying that when in a particular dream that is what is real for you. (Imagination IS reality) Therefore there is no difference between the dreams you have at night or this waking dream. Am i a man dreaming i am the butterfly or am i the butterfly dreaming i am the man. Neither is less real than the other. Reality is groundless.

You're egoless in my book i just figured they had WiFi at the monastery. ??

Zero - I thought you were off enjoying Monkhood? :)? glad to see you, don't get me wrong...

Lol exactly. If he gets it, it will be epic.

??

An evolved great ape ancestor is still God :)? and so is the big bang. Break outa the materialist paradigm my brother!

@Johnny5 yeah for such a bright guy I kinda feel let down :)?

You would feel the pain but only because you as God are imagining you would feel the pain. This is a dream. It's just consciousness. And what is consciousness? Nothing. Zilch.

The entire planet is a rock. (Yeah a mix of rock and magma) but a rock. Is God experiencing itself as the earth - yeah in a way - its imagining it. So in that sense it is all alive and sentient as God. But is it imagining it is looking through the imaginary eyes of the earth - nah - or it would have eyes.

Precisely...thus the question if a tree falls in the forest with no one around does it make a sound should bother you if there is any chance for you in this work. (Not you personally) It makes no sense according to the materialist paradigm. Yet if it is consciousness itself - if it exists for itself because it is itself - well...now we are talking!

Classic :)?

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There is only Being. Check out Leo's video "What is Perception" But it can be discovered directly by being Being. Or rather, becoming directly conscious that you are Being. (The two statements mean the same thing) That's when the real mindfuck happens.

@LoveandPurpose i would recommend the booklist. As well as listen to Leo's videos. I also would recommend a company called the Great Courses where you can listen or watch college grade lectures on all of these topics (science being one of my favorites) from highly respected and very talented professors. I love their course selection. For spirituality and personal development you won't find anything deeper than Leo's material. Even the great courses don't have courses that go that deep into consciousness as the nature of reality. But their philosophical courses are really good nonetheless and sometimes point at consciousness being the nature of reality though most professors stay away from it as they are in the materialist paradigm. Hope that helps!

@Johnny5 It collapses into.... Somewhere where words cannot go.. Isness might be a good word. It just IS. I AM. But that's still a pointer. It isn't IT. Do i get it now?

Inifnity is a motherfucker.

What you are saying is that from the Absolute this right here is nothing. Nothing is happening here. But what is this? Its nothing. But then what is this? Its nothing. But then what is this? See the loop? God has nowhere to go. It has to go somewhere so it goes no where.

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