Inliytened1

Then continue on but maybe switch up the other stuff you are doing at home because you are getting bored with the same old stuff. Maybe it's youre intuition telling you there is something else you should be doing that will provide deeper fulfillment.

Only you know - but it sounded like that from what you described. Perhaps you are just in a rut. If so, maybe take a step back from spirituality and just enjoy life for now. Find some things that give you joy again.

Sounds like your depression is coming back maybe talk to a therapist.

God is It's paradoxical so don't try to make sense of it.

??

You can understand it as a concept but its not the same as direct actuality.

You become directly conscious of it for yourself. This is prior to knowing. You BE it. So don't rely on any teacher or take this on as a belief as that would be a mistake. You are your own authority in the end.

We aren't really disagreeing its just subtle distinctions. I know it is One - and it's only me. But it's me as God not my little finite self. That is not the same as solipism - look it up. Moreover from the egoic perspective you can actually play in the dream as if there are other people. And in that way it actually becomes so from that perspective - as reality (you are reality) is completely relative and subjective. In other words reality is just shifts in perspectives. You are doing it right now because you are in duality in fact that is how duality is created. As God i cut my finite self off from other parts of myself in order to create duality or limitation.

Its not solipism. Solipsism states that only the ego mind exists. Its Solipism as God or universal consciousness. Yes you are alone but as God not the ego. There is a distinct difference. That won't comfort @Shaun of course - but it is what it is. What he is also missing is that as God he is imagining everyone else including his little self. He isn't imagining them as Shaun. And as God he has also divided himself and is being all and everything simultaneously - so that from his little Shaun perspective there ARE other people. It is relative to perspecive. Are you guys seeing how this works....

@dyslexicFcuk so it does seem from your post that you do indeed intuit that there is something more to reality than it just being a clockwork universe. If that were not the case then you probably wouldn't be innately curious and on the forum. For example - when you ask the question - when a tree falls in the forest and no one is around - does it make a sound? This question should innately bother you. (And it seems to) It should bother you because you think to yourself - how could something exist if no one is conscious of it? It makes no sense as to how or why the tree could or would need to be there. It breaks the mind so to speak. However - if reality is pure consciousness then you are left with a satisfying answer and solution to the problem. And you can become directly conscious that this is indeed the case. When we say you can become directly conscious we really mean that the "you" collapses into pure consciousness - much like a wave function of pure potentiality collapses into a particular subatomic particle or "possiblity" within quantum mechanics except in reverse. In other words right now you are a possiblity that will collapse in the reverse direction into pure potential. You realize that you are consciousnes itself. So back to your concern on enlightenment being the end of suffering - while it is liberating beyond words - you do ultimately return to a finite possiblity again after the direct experience of Being. Here the real work commences. There are still more awakenings and realizations to come, and you can realize that duality and non-duality are One and identical. The form and formless are identical. Science and rationalism are not frowned apon but embraced. The unification of science and mysticism ultimately will mean the evolution of science to new heights. And the work commences with the realization that God exists - but not in the way the religious pre-rational minds think - but from the trans-rational perspective. With this, One then is not so concerned with physical or emotional suffering as they have seen beyond it. They grasp all of reality and now strive to embody God in finite form. Physical suffering may continue but one begins to transcend emotional and mental suffering as a result of being so much more conscious. Even physical suffering can be transcended through deeper consciousness. Problems that arise in your life can easily be overcome because you have such a deep understanding now of how reality works. This in itself is a relief from suffering. Conflicts still arise but can be conquered through an understanding that you never had prior to being awake. Thus the path to completely relinquishing all suffering only begins with enlightenment - it doesn't end with it. Thus enlightenment isn't an on off switch (although in a sense it also is as becoming pure Being cannot be captured with language) as there are facets and degrees and multiple mystical experiences followed by an embodiment phase which could span decades. If it is something you choose to pursue i wish you the best. Also i want to add that i have never taken pyschedelics but i think i may be naturally inclined to spirituality because the tree question you mentioned bothered me back when i was 10 yrs old though at the time i dismissed it - and i noticed that to some the question makes no sense. I was a materialist and an atheist before stumbling into spirituality.

@ShaunDuring some awakenings - for me - there was a window after awakening or a non-dual state in which i lingered between perspectives. Between your Egos perspective and the universal or God's perspective. I drifted between a non-dual state and duality for a few days because consciousness was elevated through the roof. It did feel like i was going insane for a while. I had to really work to focus on something of form because i would still be between states and defaulting to a formless or non-dual state. (Which was complete bliss) So for me there was a window or period of time like this. Also following days of total bliss there was some depression. The ego has died and was reborn so to speak so there is some backlash. Mysticism is serious business. But i will say that it completely passes. At least for me. Consciousness returns to a human level after a time. That time may be different for everyone. I wouldn't trade being awake for anything. Some people may not experience these things at all i can only speak from direct experience.

Indeed its all being imagined by consciousness.

The bottom line is: Forget the bottom line if you want Truth. You won't get there with logic or rationalism. Being itself is Truth. To reason whether its worth seeking enlightenment is to have gone too far. Hopefully that answers the question as to whether its worth pursuing. It's so worth pursuing that it negates the question. Reality is inherently paradoxical so throw reason out the window when trying to pursue it and forget that you are pursuing it. Heck forget that you are.

Pure infinite Love and intelligence. It wants to explore itself fully. It is alone so the only way it can know itself is through being itself thru itself and creating separation. I know you have heard all of this before but it is what it is...yes it has a choice but God gets bored too And it doesn't see hate and dumbness like you as a finite ego does. It Loves all of itself unconditionally.

It can make itself unconscious which it must create duality for yes. But what does that have to do with anything. Are you asking why does it do that?

@arlin you are conflating nothingness with meaningless. Reality is Infinite therefore it must be formless. But it is Infinitely loving and Infinitely intelligent. And infinitely Good. That is your truest nature. Your truest nature is also Oneness. So your ego and God are in fact One. You can have direct experience of this - i am not just regurgitating what another teacher has said - i have had direct experience / consciousness of it.

Its because consciousness is Infinite. Something infinite cannot have any form since it must contain any and all forms within it. So its substance is nothing but this is hard to grasp with the finite mind because how do you imagine something formless. But yet it exists

That's Infinity right now. It just is itself. It is everything. Everything. EVERYTHING. How can there be infinity? That's infinity right there. Why is there Infinity? That's Infinity. It loops back into itself. It has nowhere to go because it IS nowhere and nothing.

Its Infinite. You can't grasp it from the finite.

@Shaun good that is what you should be doing!! Come back to spirituality and mysticism in twenty or thirty years if you want to. It'll still be there it's not going anywhere.

@Shin great to see you back!

Who is saying that? It is about getting the devilry out of the ego so that you can embody your true nature in its finite form. IMO unless you work on these things it will be much harder to awaken to yourself - even if you took 5-MEO. Then after awakening one can fall back into devilry so the work is just commencing.

@Aeris that's right. That's why the ego dissolves with a mystical experience of the Absolute in which you are pure Being. Back in the ego one has to strive to purify and embody. No one said it was easy.

@Strangeloop no its collapsing the relative into the Absolute.

@Strangeloop your true nature is completely selfless and formless. You have to dissolve your own selfishness to realize your true nature.