Mason Riggle

who's approach? When the ego dissolves.. who's approach is transformed?

@justfortoday I get what you're saying.. I'm saying there's no difference between 'atoms being real' and 'atoms only seeming to be real'. If you got what I was saying, you would experience an awakening as well.

@OBEler if my limited Version was on fire and didn't know it, what would it do differently than if it wasn't on fire? there is no 'me as God', there is just God, in all it's perfection.

There seems to be atoms. There seems to be colors, shapes, sounds and sensations. There seems to be a physical universe. I seem to be talking to you.. This may all be illusion.. but if I can't tell, then it doesn't matter to me that it is, because it doesn't seem that way. If I was on fire, but it didn't seem to me like I was in any way, it absolutely would not matter to me that I was. If I was not on fire, but it really seemed to me like I was, it absolutely would not matter to me that I wasn't.

Or is it, "Reality seems however it loves to seem?" Saying 'Reality is what You make of it', clearly implies duality between 'Reality' and 'You'... but I suppose reality has to seem this way so it can seem like anything at all.

@Inliytened1 so is God dreaming that 'it's awoken to the fact that everything is imaginary.'? Awakening is just more dreaming. Silly me.

When God discovers that it's alone.. it just has to share this news with someone! "Hey everyone! I just figured it out.. it's only me! . . . oh wait... fuck."

@bmcnicho as long as it seems like Something is happening, you're lying to yourself, because it's (You're) all nothing/everything. You are One (infinity, nothing, everything, etc.), pretending (lying to yourself, dreaming, imagining, etc.) to be Many (finite, limited, something, etc.). "You find out that the universe is a system that creeps up on itself and says 'Boo' and then laughs at itself for jumping." - Alan Watts

"If I am, then death is not. If death is, then I am not. Why should I worry about that which can never be while I am?" -Epicuris (paraphrased)

Nope.

@Someone here I totally get what you're asking, but from my perspective, it's you who is making things unnecessarily complicated. I'm trying to get you to see reality in such a way that instead of looking for answers to your question, you simply stop asking it because it no longer makes any sense to ask. You want to know, "Is it the case that infinite versions of reality exist now and 'awareness' is only 'aware of' one version at a time, but given an infinite amount of time 'awareness' will experience ALL versions?" Perhaps it's like that. If that's the case, in 'this version of reality' 'this version of me' can't tell if that's how it is.

@Someone here I'm still not sure how you differentiate between 'big' and 'small' which are relative terms. If I lived this whole life, and then I was born anew with very similar 'circumstances', but not exactly the same, then it would be a 'similar' me, and not the 'same' me who was born, because the 'me' who I am, is defined by 'everything that isn't me'... Am I the same as 'my hair' or is 'my hair' something different than me that 'belongs to me'? If I cut my hair, am I the same 'me' I was when I had long hair or am I now different? Do you see how changing the things that 'aren't me' changes 'me' because they aren't really two different things?

@Someone here idk.. the problem is, if any tiny thing in 'my experience' changes, then 'I' have changed. I'm not really sure how you make a distinction between 'incidental details' and 'the big events'. I guess you are imagining some reality where you have access to 'one version' of reality (here and now) among infinite 'versions' which 'could or do exist' in some 'other place and time'.. and you want to know if you might eventually experience every single one of these infinite alternatives to now, which may be very similar, or not so similar, but definitely not exactly the same as now. These are the types of questions that arise when there is duality between 'you' and 'that which is not you'. There's this idea of a consistent and unchanging 'you' who exists 'separate from the moment' and who carries over from one moment to the next. But this isn't the case. You are literally every part of this moment. If 'the moment' is different, then 'you' are different. I can't even experience '5 minutes from now', because the "I" who I am now, doesn't exist 5 minutes from now.. that's some 'different me'.. with slightly longer hair, and memories of this conversation which the me who is writing this comment doesn't have.

@Someone here I said it seems silly to me. "you will be born at the same time and place as the last time" What does 'the same time as last time' mean? Is 'last time' different from 'this time' or are they the 'same time'?

@Someone here oh.. I was responding to your comment that 'you feel forced to exist'. As far as 'is my life going to repeat itself?'.. this just seems silly to me. If it did repeat, how would you know? If this moment now, which seems like one moment, came around a second, or third, or fourth time.. each time it came around it would seem exactly like this moment.. in fact.. it would just be 'the same as' this moment (otherwise it wouldn't be a repeat of this moment) rather than being a 'different' now occurring 'again'.

You don't feel lucky or fortunate to exist? Somehow, right here, right now, suspended between infinities, you get to 'be' rather than 'not be', and you don't find this to be absolutely miraculous?

@Brivido Disciplining children. Parents call it 'tough love' for a reason.

@snowyowl if it was understood what @VeganAwake was saying, this question wouldn't make sense. Consider that for most organisms, there is the sense of a physical body, and then ALSO an internal 'soul' or 'self' who 'is aware of the body' or who 'controls the body' etc.. What can happen is, some organisms recognize that there actually is no 'separate self' in addition to 'the body' any more than 'the fingers' are 'separate from the hand'. What this means for the organism, is that there is no 'Self' who suffers 'in addition to' what the body is feeling. There is 'no one' to suffer over the suffering. So, when it's asked, 'are you happier now', recognize that the 'you' who is being asked doesn't exist. The organism continues to experience happiness and sadness and whatever else it experiences, without the illusion of some 'separate self' who also suffers over the sadness, or who is 'happy' about the happiness.

@PepperBlossoms I like to consider the notion that there's nothing for me to do that I'm not already always effortlessly doing. The only thing I'm ever doing is 'being myself' and I never have to try to do it. I can't stop doing it. It's so easy. Where's the trap?

@IamYou if reality is eternal (infinite), then it doesn't need a creator. Reality is an infinite impermanence, that didn't begin, and won't end.. only change. You can't really pin it down, because the moment you do, you've changed it.

Typically when people say, 'I don't exist' or 'the Self doesn't exist', what is really being said, is that there is no 'distinct' or 'separate' self which exists apart from 'that which is not I or Self'. So.. the Self or 'I' exists, it's just not what it typically thinks it is.. some 'separate' self. The 'self' or 'I' is the totality of whatever there is. The Universe is the User of Language. It's doing it right now. Consider what's going on when a knife cuts through a watermelon.. is the knife 'the cutter of watermelon' or is the person holding the knife 'the cutter of watermelon'? It's all of it, you see.. 'the cutter' isn't some separate distinct 'thing' you can point to, apart from Everything.

@vizual when you say 'the dream is always being manufactured'.. what is 'the dream'? What are dreams 'made of'? It's Reality that's being manufactured by the dream.. not the other way around.

And the dream manufactures brains while we are 'awake'.

@RMQualtrough it works just like a dream. Reality is imaginary. Row your boat gently, merrily.

@r0ckyreed you're nitpicking the wording of this famous philosophical question. Think of it this way.. if there's a ball, and anyone looking at the ball is completely color blind, what color is the ball?