Gili Trawangan

Ok, I didn't know that.

That was Portugal.

@Beginner Mind It's not a possibility, just look at your experience. What "different possibilities" of reality have you ever experienced? What is just is. It's your mind that comes up with the concept of choice. Every time the thought comes "I want coffee" see how another thought comes attached to it "I chose coffee". It's only a thought! You're lost in mental constructions. Contemplate, not with thinking, but with observation of your actual experience, what reality is. And deconstruct this concept of choice, it's a red herring.

The idea of choice is a flawed human concept. See how implied in the concept of choice is the idea that things could ever be different than what they are in the present moment. Have you ever experienced an alternate universe? Only in your mind... So you can let go of the (inexistent) past and take refuge in the Now. In the Now you take the action you deem best. No need to call it choice, that's taking you into a mental maze. I know cause I go there a lot too

What's bringing me down right now is that I can't seem to feel that love you're describing Just kidding, happy for you. But only half joking really, and here's why: although even today I have felt very blissful throughout most of the day, all these talks of absolute and infinite love make me feel like I'm missing something. Then there is a sense of lack coming from ego, even if there is a deeper understanding that I am already perfect and complete. Any tips?

If you wake up fresh at 6:25, don't go back to sleep. Start a meditation practice in the morning, right after you wake up. And, coffee works for me, just remember that it's addictive. It gives you a boost in energy but there are swings, it comes back down. Exercise is important too, it gives you energy.

@mandyjw Indeed, how lucky we are to have this place. There isn't a single person in my life, either family or friends, who I can talk to about any of this. Beautiful post.

Welcome to the forum. I think everyone has moments of loneliness, I'm not all that good with people either. But hey, that too can change, nothing is written in stone, I don't have to tell you about the illusion of ego. Anyway, enjoy your time around here.

You're 18. Go chase some girls and have a good time! Always follow your passion, not what other people tell you, or what you think you should be doing.

@FoxFoxFox You say so yourself, it is conceptualized as such. Even Being is a concept. The Absolute is unfathomable, it does not fit any concept. Once again, the Absolute cannot be fully known, everything you are aware of is not it. Then again, maybe you're right, I'm speaking from my current level of understanding, and I freely admit that there may be more to realize.

I find that 'do nothing' is good when the mind is quiet. If the mind is agitated you'll just get monkey mind. So, if the mind is agitated, concentration might be best. Focusing on one object, such as the breath (the one I use, the breath coming in and out of the nostrils). Once the mind is quiet, do nothing will take you to awareness itself, which is where you want to "get to".

I think both perspectives may be correct. The Absolute as absolute nothingness, from which all concepts arise, including love. The Truth prior to all concepts. Or the other perspective, the Absolute as nothing and everything at once, creation as Love. "Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, Love is knowing I am everything, and between the two my life moves."

The problem with the word experience is that it implies an experiencer. The truth gets corrupted right then and there.

Great post, thank you.

@Preetom That makes a lot of sense. Love is a concept that has never been prevalent throughout this character's life Thanks!

I've just watched this video for the first time, beautifully explained.

Yes, the sense that it has always been ok. It's quite hard to put into words, there weren't really thoughts going on at the time. As the level of consciousness began to decrease, if one can say it that way, there was the knowing that the sense of separation would return, so maybe there was some grasping at that point. At the same time, there was the certainty that that knowledge would never be called in to question again. But at no point was I aware that love is a fundamental aspect of reality. It's not to say that I didn't experience some feelings of love, but love as the very fabric of reality the way everybody talks about here? Not really, I missed that.

@Preetom In the moments leading up to realization, there were feelings of strong love that seemed to be localized around the heart area. They then subsided. When reality awoke to itself, let's put it that way, I wasn't aware of love anymore, there was just awe and laughter at the magnitude and shock of that realization. I couldn't experience love as a fundamental aspect, it was just all consciousness. And the knowing of myself as the Absolute.

'@Preetom I'm struggling to become conscious of the love aspect of reality, is there any particular approach one might try?

A few moments after realizing for the first time, experientially, that I am all of reality, a thought crept up: “What tremendous responsibility! I can actually CREATE ANYTHING I want!” It quickly went away and was replaced with awe, but in the days and weeks following realization, between moments of utter peace and joy, that thought emerged again and again, along with other thoughts that seemed to be trying to figure out the “experience”. Questions on free will and other people, and an attempt at figuring out the next stage. “What to do now?”; “Am I really the conscious creator of all of my reality?”; “How can I embody this understanding in a way that serves the greater good?”. “But it doesn’t feel like I have free will, it doesn’t feel like I can create my reality.”; “What would God do?”; “But I AM God, there’s nothing else.” What went unnoticed most of the time was that these were egoic thoughts that were sneakily (and metaphorically) reconstructing and perpetuating the illusory separate self. “I”, the illusory separate self, was lost for hours on end in loopy circles of trying to figure stuff out and thinking of the future. Until there is pause… Wait, who is asking all of these questions? A question is a thought. Do I actually have a choice in what questions are being asked? Take a look. A thought appears effortlessly in me, a field of awareness. “What to do?” Then another thought appears: “Do this and not that.” The third thought sneakily comes, enmeshed with the second one, and this one usually goes unnoticed: “I’ve just made a choice”. There is only a thought that says that I’ve made a choice. Noticing this thought is enough to see that it just another thought. Without believing this third thought there is no choice, there is nothing to ask, there is no problem to solve. Choice is just another concept that appears in awareness. Thoughts are just thoughts, there is no self that binds them, only thoughts seem to point to an entity having them. But look at the HERE and NOW. There is no self choosing, there is no one choosing, there is no choice. It just is. Silence. Peace. This illusion must be seen through again and again, the illusory separate self is an ingrained pattern that will continue to come. Unconsciously believing to be a self is not a small thing, it keeps coming back. So self-inquire again, and again, and again.

Try to capture the now with a thought. You can't.

@Nahm Beautiful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPWvpDm076o Reckoner You can't take it with yer Dancing for your pleasure You are not to blame for Bittersweet distractors Dare not speak its name Dedicated to all human beings Because we separate Like ripples on a blank shore In rainbows…

Well, it's whatever you want it to be. I don't feel lonely, but you never really know the future, loneliness may arise. You can look at other people as you, or you can let yourself get involved and see them as beings that you're interacting with and that you can connect with. There's no ultimate answer to this, it's how you look at it.

@abrakamowse @pluto I've even heard him say that enlightenment, or what you would call awakening, is a freebie. That the hard part comes afterwards