VeganAwake

Remember dropping is just a metaphor describing what seems to happen. Don't try to drop anything. Inquire into who am I. ❤

? And things can get really wild when that same introspection is used on the "ME" assumption. Here is a funny video clip not exactly related but kind of ?

Searching for your glasses when there on your head. ?

It's freedom in the sense that there's nothing that needs to done and simultaneously the sense that something needs to be done is that exact same freedom disguised as something other than freedom.

It depends on your definition of existence. Does something that makes a temporary appearance such as a rainbow exist? Does a mirage of water in the desert actually exist? Is believing for three months that your roommate stole $500 out of your bedroom drawer only to remember that you moved the money to your closet.... Did that experience actually exist? Does an apparent experience = existence?

@Gabith I like your openness and willingness to examine it. ? It seems like a big important question doesn't it? Who is asking the question? Who wants to know? What does that one consist of?

I get what you're saying and agree and simultaneously its recognized here that Enlightenment is also the searching, is also the arguing, is also the mental masturbation, is also the addiction, is also the silence, is also the emptiness, is also the illusory experience of separation, all being experienced as something other than Enlightenment. Enlightenment isn't something found within everything, it IS EVERYTHING or THIS. ❤

Well it's the end of the individual that believes there are positive and negative outcomes. I guess you can call that a benefit for No One...?

There is a saying often used in the military that describes the mentality of this forum quite well. Too many chiefs and not enough indians. Or in other words Too many knowers and not enough students. It definitely seems like a generational thing in part. ❤

Enlightenment has nothing to do with thinking. It's freedom from identifying as the individual that believes it needs to meditate and work on cleaning out it's inner distortions. And once this is recognized it starts cleaning itself out sort of speak under the weight of Truth. And it's not an intellectual understanding. It's clearly seeing the sense of self is an illusion and never existed in the first place. ❤

Exactly because Enlightenment is the recognition that "you" does not exist.

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Ego is identification. It feels like a sticky center where things collect and build up an identity. ❤

? Hey man!

The illusory experience of "I am" places an the overlay of meaning purpose and value over top of reality and operates from that dream story perspective. Even if thinking isn't occurring every moment there is still an underlying assumption that "I am real" and everything means something. The clearer it's seen through the better in regards to Awakening, ultimately it doesn't matter at all. ❤

I've found being honest, upfront and working on communication skills can help greatly when dealing with people. I mean if you're honest and upfront with someone and they are still angry at least you were honest and did your part... we can't make everyone happy. Also most of the time our minds make it seem way worse than it actually is. People pleasing can be very challenging to work through. Working on it in baby steps is a good option.

I've heard it referred to as dancing emptiness, boundless energy, nothing and everything, absolute infinity. But it can't really be named or understood. It is beyond understandability. ❤

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Seeking comes from the illusory experience that there is something missing that needs to be found or understood. There is nothing right or wrong with seeking. Kind of like seeing a mirage of water in the desert. It absolutely appears to be real until it's walked through and recognized to not be water. Diligent inquiry reveals that there is nothing to find AND simultaneously that recognition is what was longed for. The seeking energy typically tends to seek outside of itself for answers, however sometimes it can 180 degree flip in on itself and inquire into who or what is seeking so desperately. One big game of hide-and-seek with itself. The play of life. ❤

It's interesting how closely related excitement is with anxiety. if you said I was always excited it wouldn't sound negative. This whole situation sounds pretty normal to me... it's why drinking has been around for a long time.

That's wild, feels like you're getting swallowed up. ?

There's no need to have a goal with meditation, that just adds unneeded anxiety. Wherever there is a moment to be completely alone without a lot of noise just sit and focus on the breath. ❤

It needs to be seen directly that beliefs are conditioned concepts of society. If you were born in Iran you would have a completely different set of beliefs and ideas. Look and see for yourself. There isn't a you there is only conditioning. ❤

There are no real should or should not's. Sometimes the worst decisions end up being the best. "The first step is usually to collect information. You have to look at the facts of the situation: What's for and what's against. But even then, you still may not be able to come to a conclusion. For example, if you're choosing between two three-bedroom houses, and they're just about the same price, and they're in just the same kind of neighborhood, you're not going to get very far. Pros and cons are one level of decision-making but not the most vital one. When we can't make up our minds, it's because of our minds, or what I call "the voice in your head." Many people don't even know they have this voice. But it's talking away, creating a never-ending inner monologue. Sometimes the voice is even engaged in a dialogue, because it splits into two and you start talk to yourself. The chatter is so incessant it's like having a continuous humming sound from a refrigerator or an air conditioner in the room with you and after a while, you don't hear it anymore. During tough choices, this voice isn't very helpful. Often it criticizes, keeping a running commentary about you and all the things you did wrong or you just didn't do. It criticizes others as well. It's like living with somebody who can't stand you, much less anybody else. You wouldn't want to live with a person like that. You would walk out of the relationship. But since you can't get free of your mind, you're stuck. The result? You get discouraged. You can't see the positive side to what might come from your decisions. The voice in your head also creates a huge amount of problems that aren't really problems. They're just things that haven't happened yet, things that could happen tomorrow or next week. Listening to unreal problems has another name: worrying. That's what the voice in your head does. It what-ifs. It frets. It agonizes, and you can no longer sense the joy of life. Next: When the voice in your head begins to complain If it runs out of other ideas, that voice in your head then turns to complaining. Now, I'm not talking about complaining when you go to somebody and say, "This is wrong, and it must be put right." For example, when you're in a hotel and you see there's no hot water. Of course, you should phone the front desk and say, "I'm trying to take a shower. Can you please help me?" In these cases, something can be done. But when you're in situation where you're still making up your mind and you don't know where to go next, the voice in your head begins to complain about everything else, even things unrelated to the situation: the weather, how bad the economy is, how your life wasn't supposed to turn out this way and why everybody but you seems to figure things out. Complaining adds nothing except heaviness. It gives you a big sack of rocks to carry around on your back while you're trying to figure out what to do, and it prevents you, in many cases, from taking any action at all. Now imagine that that voice inside your head suddenly stops. You realize, Wow, it's so beautifully quiet. This is exactly what you need to make an effective choice. You need to be present. You need to be free of anything other than what is happening now. Of course, you can't just snap your fingers and suddenly it happens. Some people first experience it during extreme sports. Climbing a mountain, for example, finding footholds and handholds, they realize they're not thinking at all. They're totally present, because if they slipped into having thoughts, they would fall off the mountain. Others go into nature. They look at the beauty all around them, they listen to the birds and the rustling of the leaves and suddenly they realize that this is what being present is. But you don't have to wait to become engaged in some dangerous activity or go into the wilderness. You can choose to be present anywhere, in any situation, by moving the focus of your attention away from thinking and into the aliveness of your entire body. When you're present, your sensory perceptions—your hearing, your seeing—instantly increase. You'll feel a stillness, one that you don't have to manufacture. It's been there all along, under all that thinking about "what to do." You'll be able to see the difference between: here's the situation and here is what my mind is saying about the situation, or, in other words between: "I might lose my job" and "I might lose my job, which will mean I'll lose my house and have to take my daughter out of her school and move in with my parents, so I have to get another job by the end of the week, even if there are no jobs and I'm not skilled enough to get one." This doesn't mean that you completely disregard or ignore the future, and it doesn't mean that you can no longer think about what you're going to do tomorrow. It just means that the focus of your attention is in the present moment. You need to plan for certain things but always come back to the immediacy and liveliness of what's really happening. Next: How to start living in the present moment How do we do this? One way is to start recognizing that voice in your head. Once you hear what you're thinking, you may be able to stop thinking. Another way is to ask yourself What problem do I have right now? Often, this wakes you up. You'll have to admit: All right, right now I don't have a problem. For example, at this very second, you haven't lost your job. You may lose it later, but at this very second you have a job. Yes, you still may have a challenging situation that will later require action. But that's not a problem, is it? It's an event. Further, should a problem arise, right this second, then you'll do something about it. Once you understand what your situation actually is—which is not what that voice in your head says it is—then, of course, you can stop struggling. The situation exists. You don't have to worry about it or drink over it or cry or debate or ask others for advice. You can stop resisting it because what was making you sick was your own thinking about it—not it. In fact, you're able to go on with your normal activity—and that's where intuition comes in. Because when you connect with stillness, you also connect with a creative intelligence that is higher than analytical thinking. Very often, the right decision then arises spontaneously. It may not happen immediately. It may take your going back to your normal life, but this time period gives your intuition the room and silence it needs to surface. Ultimately, I believe, whether you choose one way or the other doesn't matter. If you're present when you make your decision, then you'll be present in the next situation—and be ready to make choices as the need comes up. Of course, you always could have done things differently. But the ultimate importance is not what you do, it's how you do it—the state of consciousness brought to the process, which hopefully will let you feel the aliveness of all your experiences". - ET

@Consilience "You" said: Calling reality an illusory concept based within the story of a separate individual moving and progressing in time is an illusory concept based within the story of no separate individual going nowhere. Right but "concept" is just a pointer word: "ME" is the illusory experience of ("I am here and everything else is out there"). There is no separate individual moving and progressing in time; that is reality. Right but "REALITY" was just another pointer word: The experience of being a separate individual in REALITY seems real, but is actually the ONLY completely unreal happening. You're playing word games based on what fits your biased self-fixated view of reality. Or you're perception is that I'm playing word games. Yeah there has to be a level of trust which seems to lack greatly on this forum.(and that's not good or bad) The word reality, the concept reality, is an illusion. Agreed What it points to is not. It's pointing to THIS exactly the way it is. Your stories lack relativistic understanding. Maybe because the understanding being pointed to, is not relativistic?