Markus

@Matt8800 I know plenty of people, myself included, that have used psychedelics in the past and don't hold them as a valid tool to reach states of abiding non-dual awareness, let alone true nirvana. I don't deny that people can "grow" spiritually and release traumas with these tools, but they don't get enlightened from them.

I doubt teachers are opposed to it because of "earning" consciousness. More likely they're opposed to it because it doesn't produce enlightenment.

Non-duality is quite a spectrum with people being in states with deepening clarity, and either a flavor more towards emptiness or God. Not saying he is heartless, just nihilistic. And nihilism is still a perversion of Truth caused by vasanas. The character clearly does have vasanas.

@littleBIG The type of conflict you described seems very pointless and wasteful. If people don't respect you, don't deal with them. Leave the chatroom. Some conflicts in life may be unavoidable or necessary but this one sounds far from it. It's your responsibility to do what you can do - you can think of ways of action that could have avoided this. As to why you got upset, it's because of your ego structure. You can try to vividly recall the situation, see what thoughts & emotions come up, and contemplate this until you get some clarity. And by contemplating I mean feeling into it, and seeing what's behind this reaction of yours, rather than thinking about it. Hope this helps.

@Malelekakis First of all, he doesn't describe it as miserable, just meaningless. He's also being very dramatic, and misleading, I'd say. And he's also not fully enlightened - he's in a state predominated by emptiness, so it's bound to make him give a nihilistic perspective. I've been in a state akin to Jed's descriptions, it's nice but detached and lacking heart, you could say.

@egoless sounds nice

@pluto Of course.

@nightrider1435 long periods of nofap can definitely trigger a kundalini arousal, if not even an activation. So can psychedelics. Kundalini arousal is temporary, kundalini activation is lasting.

@Spinoza A state of mind is never absolute, nor a state of non-dual awareness. Beyond all distinctions however, you can touch the absolute.

@TruthSeeker47 Become a buddha and find out Meanwhile don't try to act like a buddha, just be mindful of your selfishness and keep practicing.

@Emre Quite simply you do your sadhana and other necessary practices while not being a tryhard, and live your life. Pieces of selfishness will fall away as you purify yourself.

Well in the wide definition karma means action, and actions have consequences which are called karmic seeds. Certain kinds of karma are inevitable, just laws of nature. The specific karma I'm talking is basically the ego - all the energetic blockages in your system. One of the core ones in existential fear of the unknown, which then manifests many many others - fears, attachments, dislikes, etc. And yes, self-honesty and grounding is very important. If anything can make you suffer, if you get triggered by stuff, if you behave in a selfish manner - there's still blockages left. People at non-dual states of consciousness may distinguish between ego and ego structure and say questionable things they do are fine because they aren't identifying, but that's nonsense. All that stuff has to fall away for true liberation.

I wouldn't say every moment, but experiences do repeat themselves, though as a general trend on a deeper level, possibly with less flashiness and more clarity. There's plenty of people who (hopefully) temporarily or long-term end up thinking they're now enlightened, after having an awakening. I've done that nonsense myself multiple times. Some of them teach. Just because someone has an experience of emptiness or god & bliss doesn't mean they're actually enlightened to the point where there's nowhere to go though. Neo-advaitans fall commonly into this trap, for example people like Tony Parsons, who have an awakening and then master the non-dual philosophy of "there's nobody there and there's nothing to do". They're quite mistaken though since they still have a massive amount of blockages and karma - certain fears, attachments, and aversions. Only after the eradication of that can one have complete clarity and be outside the dream, most are just "woke" inside it. A bit of a tangent here but I think this is a helpful thing to keep in mind

@Viking Psychedelics can forcefully release (a lot of) energy in your system. And it can indeed happen "prematurely" and also be unpleasant, as your body struggles to deal with it. It's one of the reasons I don't consider psychedelic use such a good idea.

@Lexonn What supposedly reincarnates is the causal body or bliss body. And experience of that is possible, but very rare. I know only one person who's had it. Seems like you'd need to remove the blockages in your gross and subtle body first, before you experience the remnants of ego on the causal body.

@Lora Thoughts on channeling - it is a distraction from enlightenment. And there can be some bad stuff you don't understand or know about, which can sometimes be quite serious. The people I've encountered who channel don't really understand the negative effects of what they're doing. They think they're helping people but they end up hurting themselves and others energetically. I think astral energies have no place in the human body. Some people I know have had experiences with negative astral energies and those are horrific. One still has chronic issues. I wouldn't mess with the astral, it's a risky hobby with potential to screw you up, and has no worthwhile reward.

@Jed Vassallo We take people's word for it. And some of us have a less advanced experience of non-duality already, so we know there's something to this, so we figure it's possible to have something even more incredible.

@ConsolePeasant Happiness isn't really an emotion. Happiness is contentment, the absence of suffering. Joy or bliss can be of the emotional variety. But the joy or bliss accompanying true enlightenment is not an emotion, it is seen as an aspect of the Self, which is Sat-Chit-Ananda (being-consciousness-bliss). Can't describe what that's like and why it's not an emotion, since I'm not there. But perhaps Ramana can, so look it up.

@Empty Seems to me like you might be getting obsessed with seeking, which is natural if you're not at any abiding state of non-dual awareness. So, I guess, learn to enjoy loneliness and seek until you find something that makes you chill a bit. I used to be an obsessive seeker but it's not as bad once I got a basic experience of abiding non-dual awareness, which deepened from there on. Good luck.

@iyfe Yes, there are other ways to heal. You can find different methods that may suit you better if you search for them. Yoga practices (bhakti, kriya, even jnana) can definitely help you. Sadhguru has kriya techniques available, which I'm quite positive are less turbulent than holotropic breathing and psychedelics. I'd imagine self-inquiry the way Ramana teaches it also works. It's not just for getting some basic experience of void but slowly uprooting the I-thought and thus also problems, which all are related to it. Good luck.

@phoenix666 I think the so-called opening of chakras is a bit of a misconception. It's not like they're literally closed and then you open them. According to the yogic system the body has 7 main chakras and 72,000 nadis. Chakras are quite simply energy nexuses, where nadis come together. You can notice them becoming active when you're purging energetic blockages. Blockages can exist anywhere in the vast system of channels. When they get triggered or worked on you can feel pain and contraction in chakras centres, and when they're released you can experience something akin to an opening in a chakra, accompanied by feeling of release, bliss, etc. But those experiences can happen again and again. As long as there are any blockages left you can't really say a chakra is "open" because there's still more karma to be worked out.

No. I have a few times, and those, especially the first, were I think a necessary encouragement to show me that the principles spiritual teachers talk about are real and experiencing something along the lines of what they experience is possible and not just hearsay. At the same time, suppressed issues were brought up, which I consider a plausible component of spiralling me into a depression that lasted quite a while and could've been fatal. Now I'm just working on enlightenment. I'm already in an abiding "non-dual" state (which was not reached due to psychedelics) so all that is to happen is removing blockages so the truth can shine forth. In retrospect, and with increasing sensitivity, I see the energy of psychedelics as coarse and turbulent, so I don't plan on having anything to do with them any more.

@moon777light Definitely get checked out medically, bloodwork for possible vitamin/mineral deficiencies etc. As for something easy that can improve circulation, just feeling parts of the body more and putting your attention on them can help that. Check out Peter Ralston's Zen Body-Being. But again, first concern should be seeing a doctor.

Inner divide. Most people have it. As far as them being able to read what you're thinking, I think you may be too paranoid about that, and project judgment onto them.

Enlightenment is liberation, literally being beyond life and death, beyond any distinction, beyond any experience and perception. And for simplicity's sake one can say the mechanism of arriving there is clearing out your blockages or karma until only sat-chit-ananda, which is the face of God, remains.