BipolarGrowth

Glad to hear you’re going to do more to set a good example. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with how you conduct yourself on here, but I think for many people it’s an easy target for criticism and leads some to not take you seriously.

Deep suffering can definitely be an effective catalyst, but it’s not a necessity. Although people usually will go to extraordinary lengths when they have no other choice.

I’ve had surprisingly good results with them. The results had little to do with tarot cards and more to do with interacting with others with genuine psychic capabilities.

I could be off here, but it might be the case that saving money to move would be far simpler, easier, and faster than doing consciousness work to the point that you’re a wizard.

This is horrible thinking. Not because you’re wrong per se, but the way that thought has been used here is guaranteed to create more suffering by holding this perspective. A key part of the only meditation that the Buddha ever taught which is recorded, Ānāpānasati — mindfulness of breathing, includes introducing positive thoughts. When this is done skillfully after some practice, you can arrive at dukkha nirodha or otherwise known as the cessation of suffering/dissatisfaction. This is a skill that you can build, and depending on your prior consciousness work, it may only take a month or two to become functionally proficient at it. There’s a reason why Buddhist teachings say there is an end to suffering rather than pain. Suffering is mentally created, and it is an amplification of the conditions of existence you deem to be dissatisfactory. In the same way that thought can amplify pain, it can also reduce it. Turning one’s attention and thoughts to authentically positive aspects of your life is how you reduce or eliminate suffering. There are some Buddhists that believe Nibbana is a sudden and permanent change that persists. There are others who believe it comes simply by developing the skill to become satisfied. Ultimately, both of these things are part of the equation. There are permanent changes in perception which can occur that make suffering less and less likely, but the skill to remove suffering yourself is always a good skill to have. Here is a teacher who instructs people in this skill:

You can go deeper.

If you haven’t gotten my point by now, I doubt I’ll be able to do much else by writing more. There’s nothing wrong with what you are saying from a certain perspective, but it is completely beside the point regarding what I was trying to communicate. No worries.

I said nothing about nothingness. I don’t think you are getting what I mean. Consciousness is all there is right here, right now. There is no more or less than what you experience. Infinity is identical to what you experience. “Highly conscious” states seem to trick people into thinking there is infinity accessed in one moment but not in a different configuration of appearances. This is a common misunderstanding. An illusion that convinces someone of a particular experience being infinite is only tricking one into realizing what is already the case and will always be the case regardless of how experience is configured and what appearances are present.

The Infinity I point to here has nothing to do with experiencing every imaginable variation. It has to do with the fact that experience itself is the only thing which can present anything ever. What is “experienced” now is all there is. Infinity in the sense I describe = all there is.

I could say the same about the Godhead description you gave. The “unfortunate” aspect to all of this is that we use words that we can hope are understood in the same way we use them, but no one can possibly tell the fullness the author intends to convey through such a quick exchange of buzzwords, however succulent they may appear. (No sensations of body, objects in the room, no sounds, etc.) = (formless) as I use it here, at least in the deeper variations of the formless states. In other spiritual contexts, I’ve seen people describe experiences at least quite similar to 6th jhana as cosmic consciousness or Brahman. The 6th jhana is built on the foundation of the 5th jhana which is formless in the sense given above and feeling space as boundless/infinite. Feeling space to fill the entire universe isn’t quite the same as the 5th jhana potentially as people may still feel there to be some edge to the universe or, in other words, some limit. This is feeling space such that there is no edge imaginable in this state. There is no edge which can be felt whatsoever. The 6th jhana is all of the aspects of the 5th jhana with the addition that there is a strong recognition/sense that the entire field of awareness/consciousness/sensations is you. Being in a formless jhana is similar to psychedelic experience in the sense that intensity and feelings of profundity are increased. There are certainly other things in common though. The problem with this added detail I give is that it still wrestles with the fundamental problem of communication I highlighted at the beginning of this post. An interesting thing about the 6th jhana is that there is still variability in the degree to which it is felt, and definitions of it do not necessarily separate the 6th jhana from including other aspects than the few used to distinguish the state from others. What you describe could be close to the 6th jhana, the 6th jhana, or the 6th jhana with other things incorporated into the experience as well. It’s hard to tell. Feel free to share more details of what you describe the Godhead state to be if you want. It would certainly interest me, but it’s not utterly important by any means.

Experiencing Infinity is inevitable because you’re already doing it.

Even being God-aware right now is imaginary. It’s just feelings and sensations and at times thoughts aligning to an appearance of profundity and Truth different from other possibilities, but it’s all the same game. The appearance of an unawakened present moment and the appearance of present moment with authentic awakening are just slight configurations in the appearance of the same game. @Someone here you share positive results and interpretations of something you personally find value in, and that is amazing and should be celebrated. Congratulations. Nothing really matters, but a positive way of experiencing “this” is all that’s worth aiming for. It’s really all we ultimately want, so enjoy it while it lasts whether that is only a minute, day, week, month, or an eternity.

Let’s consider this with different wording. Is what is the closest thing to what isn’t? Well, if what is is what is, what else would be closer to what isn’t other than what is? The only thing that I see as being closer to what isn’t is what isn’t, and well, what isn’t isn’t.

Because you want to. No one likes an unopened box with apparently tantalizing contents.

This thread has been locked due to low quality ?

Beginner Pick a meditation object such as the breath and prepare yourself with the intention to notice that the sensations of the meditation object are not you (anattā/no self/non substantiality of a self residing in the sensations witnessed), they cause dissatisfaction/suffering (dukkha), and they constantly are in flux/changing (anicca/impermanence). Reminding yourself with linguistic thoughts such as “these sensations of the breath are not me”, “these sensations of the breath are dissatisfactory”, and “these sensations of the breath are impermanent” is fine, but try to do this sparingly if possible. Using a linguistic reminder to stay with the intention of the practice is better than losing the intention of the practice and having no linguistic thoughts. Intermediate Take the skills gained from the beginner level practice to now start noticing the three characteristics in the entire sensate field of experience (anattā, dukkha, and annica). Feel free to add linguistic self inquiry to this during the first few minutes of meditation before stopping the linguistic form of inquiry to view sensations alone. Self inquiry is an optional part of this. It is not necessary for vipassana practice, but it may improve results for some. Keep in mind that thoughts and anything else created by the mind are also sensations. We are investigating all of experience on an equal footing. There is no need to stop thinking if you are able to simultaneously investigate the sensations of thought. When first doing the intermediate level practice, it may help to still the thinking mind in order to be able to give proper attention to the sensations coming through the other five senses. Expert Move from looking at vipassana through the linguistic lens of the three characteristics by dropping notions of anattā, dukkha, and annica and instead hold the intention before meditation to penetrate and see clearly into the nature of all sensations which arise. This step should only be done once intermediate practice has allowed one to clearly feel anattā, dukkha, and annica with ease in essentially any circumstance, including outside of formal meditation sitting practice. You should be feeling the nature of sensations at this point at an incredibly intimate degree. There should be no gap or separation felt between the practitioner and the sensations present. There should be little to no need for any linguistic reminders such as “this sensation is not me”, “these sensations are dissatisfactory”, and “these sensations are impermanent”. All of this should be running on auto pilot so to speak although those thoughts might not be happening. There should be no need for these linguistic thoughts to be in between the meditator and the sensations present. Similarly to the intermediate level, thoughts can be witnessed as sensations, but if one is truly practicing at this level, thoughts should be no hindrance to intimately feeling the nature (which includes the three characteristics) of all sensations present. You can also begin focusing attention toward subtle aspect of the sensory field such as space, consciousness/pervading I-am-ness within the entire field of sensory experience, non-linguistic forms of thought, gravity, etc. The purpose of focusing on more subtle aspects of the sensory field of experience is to feel the three characteristics at work within these patterns of sensations. Doing this practice can dissolve the solid-feeling nature of such subtle sensations in order to transcend them.

You just need to suck it up and do the same work others do for good results in normal life. An issue is that consciousness work can, for many people, reduce motivation for material pursuits and typical life success as they often deem it to be beneath them in some way. It sounds to me like you still have a ways to go with consciousness work judging from your post. Someone who is advanced in this work will quite likely not spend their time judging themselves as being a loser. What would not being a loser look like in your eyes? Money, fame, a family? What are the metrics you’re using to judge success for yourself? I’d recommend making a list of what you judge success as and then work at each of these things if you want to change your position and how you view yourself in this regard. Or You could double down on consciousness work above everything else, and with enough work in that direction, you could likely see this self judgment dissipate on its own simply due to making solid progress in that domain.

How would you say that this Godhead state compares to or differs from the 6th jhana? It sounds quite similar the way you describe being the Godhead here. The 6th jhana is a state of boundless/infinite consciousness with the capital S Self sense of everything being you while all of this occurs in a formless fashion. I imagine you already are familiar with descriptions of the 6th jhana judging by your book list, but I went ahead and added that description in case my assumption is wrong.

One of my greatest experiences of “infinity” was in the split second before my first two cessations. Experiences people associate with Infinity are far different than cessation though. I’m sure some people have reached cessation through neti neti, but I wouldn’t consider it the most likely option. As far as psychedelics go, 90% of the times I’ve reached cessation, it has been on THC which is kind of ironic seeing how people often see the substance as not having value in serious spiritual pursuits. Specifically, it was a delta-10/delta-8 THC mixture. Daniel Ingram says that it’s incredibly rare to reach cessation through psychedelics however. I think he said maybe a rate of 1 in 1000 people he’s talked to who claimed cessation in a way that was convincing got there from psychedelics as opposed to meditation. It’s probably rather unlikely that these forms of THC would help you reach cessation unless the use of other psychedelics has significantly increased the potency of THC and you’re able to use it consistently without seeing the typical negative effects people see with frequent THC use. It also would probably require a certain synergy with your unique neurochemistry which makes things even less probable. I have heard one other person claim that they have reached cessation on THC, but I’m not sure if he actually did or not due to some ambiguity in his description of the event. I wouldn’t count on a substance to get you to cessation even though it was beneficial for me. Vipassana meditation is probably the best thing from what I’ve seen to increase your chances. Daniel Ingram’s forum https://www.dharmaoverground.org/ has a lot of people who have reached cessation and plenty of people aiming for it there. It might be a good thing to check out if you are quite interested in it. Leo’s comment that cessation is imaginary is correct. Regardless, a 9.5/10 woman riding your dick is also imaginary, but there are certainly valid reasons to enjoy that and things to be gained in a relative sense from such an experience. Cessation is no different other than it has the potential to be exponentially better than the example given of sex with a 9.5/10 woman, and it also has the potential to change your perception permanently to make life far better than it would’ve likely been without reaching cessation. A personal theory of mine is that reaching cessation has a lot to do with how much time you spend in radical states of consciousness while also doing active investigation of such states. I think the main issue with serotonergic psychedelics aiding toward reaching cessation is that people typically cannot spend nearly the amount of hours in psychedelic trips in a sustainable way as much as they could do with meditation. In the couple months leading up to my first cessations, I had almost lost my big toe in a lawn mowing accident. I was off from work due to the injury and was using THC for pain relief as well as some consciousness work since I had nothing better I could do being rather incapacitated on the couch unable to move without assistance. I was also running into reverse tolerance with THC at this time where every week or two I would hit a new threshold on roughly the same relatively low dose of THC which made the trips more and more intense. It was rather common for me to reach states while on THC similar in strength, intensity, and profundity to what I experienced on very high doses of serotonergic psychedelics. Once this became a weekly or even daily thing to be in such states, I think this increased the chance of reaching cessation quite a bit. Whatever practice or substance you use, if you want cessation, I think it all comes down to how regularly you can reach high states of consciousness, and most of the rest is just up to luck. Many have practiced spirituality diligently for an entire lifetime and not reached cessation. I was not trying to reach cessation when it happened. I think I would’ve likely never gotten there without Leo’s teachings. I had hardly any in-depth understanding of Buddhism or Buddhist forms of meditation prior to cessation, so I certainly can’t credit it for getting me there although it does appear to be the system which is most focused on cessation and produces that “state” in more practitioners than other forms of spirituality.

People who haven’t “experienced” the appearance of cessation within existence cannot understand what nonexistence as a word even points to. Reach cessation then you can theorize from there. How to reach cessation: https://www.mctb.org/

This isn’t wrong in a sense, but this interpretation has a heavy human bias to it.

I guess you could say that. Relative perspectives are what have goals.

Yep. You lose about 90% of the energy/calories when eating meat rather than plants. It’s simply inefficient. The same amount of land dedicated to plants will produce far more calories than the same amount of land dedicated to farming animals.

Nondual guy drinks a beer = nondual beer Not much of a surprise.

There is no goal unless you create one. Naturally, someone who has their goal as consciousness will tell you that consciousness is the goal.