Lister

Awareness was not understood by the mind. It's the minds fault for getting busy with the waking dream and the dream state dream. Awareness had always been there, free from phenomenal existence. Free from time. Awareness is ever present, that is reality, the phenomenal world is a story. I'm not sure why it's there or what it's doing there, but awareness has nothing to do with it. That's where I'm at currently. I cannot see how non dual awareness has anything to do with time/ mind / world / dream / phenomena.

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@abrakamowse @Shaun @Conrad @Nahm @Serotoninluv @Anton_Pierre @zeroISinfinity Much love and appreciation to all you guys

Yes. This is how I feel / what I realized. That awareness is only aware, that Lister is part of another dimension, the dimension is phenomena (creation), and there is no control over that dimension. Awareness just sits, ever present, watching the whole thing take place. This realization is having a profoundly relaxing effect on lister in the respect that he keeps being reminded that he is a pawn on a chessboard called creation and that he need no longer strive or try to control the phenomenal dimension anymore. I don't see the creation as perfect, I see it as irrelevant compared to awareness. Awareness of awareness seems to be the only thing worth knowing.

Thanks. I will. Hopefully more insight will emerge. But I'm happy with this where I have seen so far in the process.

I dont think so. But thanks anyway. I will ignore your advice.

So you're saying that this realization is bullshit? Not sure what you are getting at. I don't think you yourself are conscious of the fact that others cannot interpret your words exactly as you hear them in your head. So without clarification I am unable to use your advice.

I would study up more on what solipsism is. I don't think awareness becoming self aware is solipsism. There is a world but its got nothing to do with awareness. I as awareness did not create the world. What I mean when I say lister is the dream, I mean that he can't be taken apart from the phenomenal realm, he's just like a puppet that is being moved around by the phenomenal world. Awareness doesn't enter or has ever entered into phenomena. Lister thought he could escape the dream, transcend it or change it, but he cannot because he is just a movie like the dream itself. A character in a movie cannot escape the movie.

Thanks for a great response. I have nothing to add right now, but I'm sure I will start to relate at some point.

Ok, Thanks for this. I am not aware that awareness did anything. For me awareness is just sitting, silently. Awareness does not have any qualities, so I can't imagine that it's creative. It feels like something else has created the dream. Something that is not beyond awareness, but inside it. There is a definite distinction between awareness and the dream for me at the moment. I will continue to practice more and maybe more insights will come into view.

Yes. Knowing is part of the dream. As is distance. I'm going to sit with this for a while. Thank you

Now I see my depression is caused by believing that I have control over life. Believing I have control causes me anxiety and anger when my efforts don't go as planned. I've been trying so hard to manipulate it all too believing that Lister can become happier or more at peace. But I see that the only peace is becoming aware of the fact that awareness is seperate from phenomena. That was a relief.

Thank you for sharing your story. I have no motivation to work or even eat. I took the day off because depression hit me really hard and I just wanted to lie here in bed. And have done so most of the day, just observing. It got extremely painful towards the moment of realizing, then I was suddenly in peace. However the depression has returned.

Ok. To be brutally honest I cannot be sure that they exist and awareness is looking out through their subjective experience. But I can't be sure that my subjective experience is the only one that's appearing either. So a hunch tells me that there is a great possibility that Shaun can awaken to awareness also.

I've only just become aware of awareness, the distinction between choicless awareness and phenomena was not apparent until now. Then I just observed thought as a whole entity in and of itself. That's when the dream became obvious (non conceptually).

Thanks. I already do. This came from my own understanding.

What I'm saying is that Lister and the other characters are all seperate minds, they are all seperate characters with their own subjective experiences, but they don't know that they are a dream that is just happening by itself. Lister and the other subjects are phenomena, they really have no control over manifestation. Awareness is the same awareness in them too.

@luqqzr No oil, that includes coconut oil and olive oil. No fats, except a small handful of nuts and a couple of tbsp of ground chia or flax seeds. No salt, no sugar, that includes coconut sugar and date sugar. No animal products. Not too much fruit (2-3 pieces per day). No coffee (teas are ok in moderation). I'll explain why. The oil, fat, salt, sugar, all animal products and the caffeine in coffee have a negative effect on the cardiovascular system by way of inhibiting your body's ability to make a gas called nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is basically what opens your blood vessels up and allows oxygen to be carried around the bloodstream and nutrients to enter your cells. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-to-increase-nitric-oxide Cholesterol from animal products thicken your blood and make it sticky. The saturated fats from both animal and plant fats and trans fats raise the number of small LDL (a subtype of cholesterol) particles, which are the dangerous type because this is what gets into the artery walls. The LDL gets stuck in these walls and oxidizes (goes off) and then is attacked by your own immune system, which creates inflammation and causes arterial plaques to form. These plaques are what cause artery blockages and eventually cardiac events. Saturated fats also impair the bodies ability to take up glucose into its cells. Advanced stages of this is called insulin resistance and later on type 2 diabetes. So all of these things contribute to energy loss and not being able to build good quality muscle. You might also consider getting a full spectrum blood test done to test your nutrients stores in your body. Deficiency or insufficiency can cause energy loss and other problems. These tests are expensive, so shop around for a good one. Lastly, you don't really have to worry about getting a lot of protein. We actually need very little, but the important part about protein is getting all of your amino acids in one day (not necessarily in one meal). So make sure that when you eat your nuts that you eat a variety of nuts, and that you eat enough calories and a wide variety of foods. Beans, chickpeas, lentils, are all good sources of low fat protein. Eat a lot of green leafy vegetables with some balsamic vinegar. Rotate your grains and keep up on eating the salads (salad contains a lot of protein and omega 3). Another thing that I do on a daily basis is I drink a cup of carrot juice. This is super helpful for energy as carrots contain huge amounts of vitamin e (which is hard to get) and vitamin a as beta carotene. So I never have to worry about vitamin a because whatever my body doesn't use after conversion from beta carotene to vitamin a it uses the leftover carotene as an antioxidant, which reduces inflammation further. A nice way to drink carrot juice is with a little bit of apple and ginger thrown in. If you can, eat your 2-3 meals within an 8 or 9 hour window. This is called time restricted eating and does wonders for endurance.

I express my feelings as they come up in whatever persona they appear (Angry child throwing a tantrum, for instance). I watch for any blaming and refrain from blaming (blaming is playing the victim of circumstances). The blaming seems to prevent processing of the feelings too. I use I statements (I am so angry with you right now) and just stay centred in that position. I don't say "you are shit", or "you did this to me" or make any defining statement about others or the external circumstance. I stay in the 1st person expression without creating a story. I feel the sensation and how it changes in my body.

@sausagehead Ultimately defending insecurities is a mental habit that people use because we're conditioned to look outward rather than just take total responsibility for and be with our feelings. The goal is to stop employing these defence mechanisms (blaming, justifying, debating, ruminating, projecting) and just put attention on the feeling that is being avoided.

@kieranperez I think you're confusing the enlightenment era of the West (the birth of the orange, rational, science, human rights) with eastern philosophy "enlightenment". These are not the same. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment

@lmfao Salt is pretty toxic to the endothelium cells that line our blood vessel walls. For that reason alone I don't put salt on my food. It took me a while to adjust but boy did I notice a difference in my energy levels because I'm not inhibiting vaso dilation by putting the wrong foods in my body. There are some people on the internet who like to argue that additional salt on food is healthy and use examples of people getting ill when their salt was depleted during heatwave. If I need to replace sodium because I had an excessive sweat on I will juice a head of celery and get electrolytes that way. But table salt, himalayan salt, Celtic sea salt are all bad for us to consume, this is common knowledge despite what some naturopaths and certain health gurus like to tell us.

@luqqzr I think it's safe to eat a frozen pizza once in a while. Once or twice per week maybe? Yes a side of vegetables with it will make it a whole lot healthier and provide some antioxidants to counter any possible damage from the cheese.

Ok, my bad. I made an assumption. I hope your get something useful from the interactions here at the very least. Appeal to nature appeal to tradition. I agree. Evolution is not apart from non duality. Veganism is just the current wave of adaptation that needs to happen.

I agree, I think you can see your ideas being played out by the Canadian government with this year's dietary guidelines. Canada is one of the greenest nations and are well in the process of transcending unhealthy orange corporatism as it is previously had a hold on western dietary guidelines.