r0ckyreed

Location 3 According to this test, I am awake lol. But I am not. Everyone claims to be awake these days because the standards for an awakening are misguided and are set really low. Awakening is beyond cessations and non-dual awareness. If that is all an awakening is, then I would be awake, but obviously, I am not. And many people who claim they are awake are really asleep.

Make a bucket list together and create a conversation list together of questions you have for each other. Sorry for what you are going through. Fortunately, you have time to really connect with your mom in a way many people may not have. Savor the moments. I wish you well.

Wow! Thanks so much! Gold mine here! What is your favorite book on that list? I am interested in improving my critical thinking skills.

Nice. Congrats. What traps and self-deception did you overcome? Can you give us some specific examples of the traps and self-deceptions you had to overcome so that a total noob could know where to start and how to overcome the obstacles? Cheers mate!

Read my posts as well and actually contemplate them. You then may understand why I don't work with "actual" teachers or operate from a teaching or school of thought because there is little point deluding my mind with various belief systems. None of that serves my top value for Truth and Understanding. If you really want to aspire to be a Truth-seeker, then at some point, you have to drop all teachers and teachings. The teachers I have worked with have inspired me to meditate and pursue truth, but ultimately, I had to walk my own path and discover what they were pointing to on my own to discern whether it is actually true. If you can't do something as simple as deconstructing Buddhism and all of religion, then what makes you think you can deconstruct all of reality? Maybe one day you will understand or not.

Add Buddhism to that list of ideas. That is right. It is hard for people to let go of Buddhism because it is a conceptual matrix in trying to grasp reality through concepts and beliefs. That is the whole point of the post is to deconstruct Buddhism and be a disciple of Truth not of Buddhism or any ideas.

Congrats mate! Good achievement. However, how do you know you are actually awake? How do you know you aren't self-deluded? How did you manage to overcome self-deception? What tricks and traps did you have to overcome along the way? How will you prevent yourself from snoozing back to sleep, in other words, how will you remain awake and lucid in life and avoid being dragged down back into the dream? What methods did you use and how do you know those methods can be trusted to produce a genuine awakening? If you had a genuine awakening, congrats. If you are fooling yourself, then there is no shame in admitting that and modifying your course because that will put you back in alignment with the Spirit of Truth.

How do you know? All that you described was something and not Nothing.

How do you know Leo or anyone is awake? I think I am making the least assumptions here. There is no way I can verify anything outside my experience until I have experienced it myself. Until then, I am working on that instead of following gurus or listening to people who may not be awake. Take the limits of knowledge seriously. You all could be awake or asleep. I really don’t know. That doesn’t matter. But I do know that regardless, you don’t come here to awaken but to deepen yourself into the illusion. This community isn’t immune to the negative effects of groupthink.

Think about it. Everyone who proclaims they are awake are fools. They create a game of I am awake and you are not so ask away! Its another dream. It’s another form of spiritual measuring. @Someone here made a similar post a while back about this same game, and he isn’t awake. No offense. It’s just nonsense. Everyone thinks they are awake but aren’t. You have to wonder if I truly had an awakening, why do I have such a desire to “share” It with “others?” Consider that you are using this game to pull yourself back deeper into the illusion. The ego backlashes all the time. This is just another ego defensive mechanism for the ego to still hang on and not completely lose its “sanity.” Edit: Crap. I am getting lost in my dream here. I am using this post to remain entranced in the dream. Damn this is deep. Only I can awaken. Everyone else is a dream character within my dream. Some dream characters can inspire me to wake up or remain asleep. Ultimately, no dream characters can awaken. Only I, the dreamer can. I am not awake, but I will be. This forum is very helpful and I love it. But I don’t come here to awaken, I am here to go to sleep. If I want to awaken, I have to tune off all distractions first and be in solitude.

If you really awakened, you wouldn’t be posting about it here. Nor is there any point in asking to ask questions about it or proclaiming. This is just another game the ego is playing to remain dreaming. The dream of sharing awakening or talking about it with “others.” Think about it.

Yours is zero. Glad you took the time to count. So what. I probably have said "I don't know" more than the average person here both on and off the forum. But all that even doesn’t matter. You just have to say and mean it once and then you are done.

You all are acting like you know when you don't. Y'all are stuck inside a Buddhist hallucination. You don't care about truth because you are too attached to being right. This is the definition of foolishness. In this way, you are no smarter than a Trump/Hitler supporter or a conspiracy theorist or religious fundamentalist (Dogmatic Buddhists included). It is simple. Admit that the truth that "I don't know." Then do it a hundred more times till you get it. That is how you will awaken but of course, you don't even know that either. I don't know. I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know.I don't know. This thread isn't going anywhere. Too many of you will never get it because your mind is too attached and locked into Buddhist/New Age dogma and ideology. If you can't even bother to sit down and deconstruct Buddhism, then there is nothing more for you to learn. No awakening, knowledge, intelligence, learning, etc. will ever be possible for you until you think for yourself.

I like that. Smart individual. But still the traditions and culture of Buddhism is biased against thinking and geared towards shutting off the mind. It isn't just a Buddhist bias, Buddhism is part of a bigger paradigm in the East that emphasizes shutting off the mind and sometimes appears to have negativity towards thoughts, and assumes thinking is the cause of suffering. A lot of suffering can stem from "negative" thinking, but a lot of freedom can merge when you are able to control and develop your thoughts, think freely/critically/deeply, and also let go of thought. From my experience, it is impossible to develop the thinking capacity from meditation alone. You can meditate all day and attain peace of mind and cessations, and you can still have low intelligence and intellectual capacity. Consider the significance of what is lost when you follow any strict path. Buddhism is one mode. If you follow any strict path, you create your own constraints in your own mind. The worst obstacles are the ones we create for ourselves. The only fact is that reality is ultimately too profound to be knowable. The only thing you know is that reality/consciousness exists. Everything is a belief. Nothing. I would not change anything because then I wouldn't have learned all valuable lessons and avoided the many traps that I have avoided. I wouldn't know what I know now having not experienced what I have. I avoided so many group-thinks just by my overall natural attitude of taking ownership of my own mind. I take a general attitude of saying "I don't know." If everyone admitted their ignorance, we wouldn't have so many ignorant people following these doctrines, cults, religions, conspiracy theories, etc. All those are really about is people not taking full responsibility over their own intelligence. All I did to avoid the mental jails that people put themselves in through group-think, etc. was just observing people, how they thought, and how they acted. My role model is Sherlock Holmes. What I love about him was his independence of thought and influence. I strive for that. It is a life-long pursuit. False. That same logic has been used throughout history to say "You are never going to discover this or break the world record like X has done before." Meanwhile new discoveries and records are broken through. Watch your assumptions. The path does matter. Not all paths lead to the same peak. That is another Buddhist/New Age delusion. You assume you know the Truth, but the Truth is unknowable. Nobody has and never will know the Truth/Absolute because Existence/Truth is always prior to any knowledge and concepts. How do you know? You make the Absolute finite by saying that it can only be one way the same at all times. What if the Absolute is Infinite and this means that no matter how deep you go, there is deeper to go and everything new as you go to realms unexplored. By saying nothing is new there, you are basically saying mankind has already figured out reality. False. Let go of the appeals to authority. You don't know what infinity is and I don't know what it is either. Infinity is unknowable. Like for reals man, what do you REALLY know about anything? I can admit that I don't know anything but that I exist, and everything else is a belief. Can you? Let go of your attachment to being right and commit to truth. The simple truth is that you and everyone else thinks they know but are merely pretending.

It makes much more sense now to think of God as the subconscious and ego as the conscious part of Mind. But then again, this useful model isn't God. I must throw away all models and maps in the end, but I will start with what I got for now. At least I arrived at my own conclusion and made that understanding my own. It makes it all seem more truthful than blindly believing in the model of Buddhism. I even see the issue deeper now. Truth is so personal and private. It cannot be shared with anyone because to even talk about it or think about it is to model it and all models aren't the experience itself. All models and beliefs are ultimately untrue. Saying it as subconscious and conscious helps me make sense of It but may be interpreted in many ways that limit It. Buddhism is another model. It has its own utility. It has greatly helped me understand my own suffering. Buddhism has been very inspirational for me to meditate and to become a healer. Buddhism has gifted me a beautiful perspective into the natures of suffering, happiness, and self. The first time I studied Buddhism in college, I loved it. I fell in love with it. I became attached to it and considered myself a Buddhist but I realized that I was just playing another ego game of attaching to another thought system. I deconstruct Buddhism not because I hate it but because I care about truth more. If there is even such a thing as a true Buddhist, then I think they would share a similar love for truth and detachment from all belief-systems including Buddhism itself.

I think I get you. It is like my subconscious mind is constructing a round earth and everything, and then my ego mind or my conscious part of the mind is believing or imagining that the earth is flat or round. I am constructing the world through subconscious mind but the conscious mind or ego is not aware that it is? I am growing trees right now with my mind because they are my mind, but I (ego, conscious mind) am not aware how I am doing it in the same way that my subconscious mind is growing my hair but I, the conscious mind, don't know how I am doing it. Of course this unconscious and conscious minds are an imaginary duality. I think I got it. There is no difference between me growing hair and me growing trees. There is no difference between me creating reality and me creating thoughts.

I am not sure I follow because flat-earthers imagine the earth to be flat from space and round-earthers imagine the earth to be round from space. I don't know if earth is flat or round, but the shape of the earth doesn't depend on my belief of it. Likewise, the earth being stacked on by turtles is a belief and not what is absolutely true. The mind can delude itself about what is the case.

Why are you so attached to Buddhism?

Agreed. Even reincarnation is an unfounded belief. Where is reincarnation in your direct experience? If there is no past and no future, then there are no reincarnations of Buddha or of you.

My priority is to understand Truth and Consciousness, not Buddhism. I don’t think anyone really understands what Buddhism is but the Buddha, assuming he even existed. If the Buddha existed, then the truth died with him. Buddhism is Buddha’s truth not yours. Buddhism, like Christianity is another fairytale game of telephone now. Pick whatever poison you want: Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, etc. It is all thoughts and beliefs, not truth. It is easier to deconstruct Christianity, much harder with Buddhism. Why is it so hard for you all to deconstruct Buddhism? You won’t like the answer. By the way, there was no tone, argumentation or projection in my original post. All I said was to think for yourself by first deconstructing Buddhism and all ideology. If Buddhism was really about Truth then you should have no problem questioning it and deconstructing it. If anything, it is many of you who are projecting. You have no idea what work I have or have not done, and that really shouldn’t matter. If me deconstructing Buddhism is a waste of time, then this is the best waste of my time. Any thought you are attached to, you must let go of. A true Buddhist even let’s go of the whole idea and belief system of Buddhism. Look at the Buddhist sage who proclaimed: “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.” Transcend Buddhism or not. I made this post because it is clear to me that the paradigm and belief system of Buddhist dogma is highly prevalent here. Btw, I have had more breakthroughs just by my own independent contemplations than I ever had with believing in Buddhism. You can borrow some tools from others to start off, but at the end of the day, you need to do it yourself and make it all your own. Don’t be a follower, be a leader! Independent thinking and intellectual freedom is the greatest gift I have given myself. Again, do you care about truth or about being right? What if Buddhism does not align with Truth? What will you do then? If you think Buddhism is true, how do you know? What is the correct understanding and practice of Buddhism? That will be a hard one to answer because there are so many traditions. Traditions are about culture, not truth.

Enjoy the movie and your popcorn! Don't forget the butter!

Where am I mistaken? Buddhism is a belief-system based on the realities of suffering and how to overcome it through The Four Noble Truths, to ultimately attain Nirvana. None of that is about Truth but about belief and making you feel good. The Truth will feel brutal to you because the Truth kills all fantasies you thought were true. No belief system can be true. The Truth cannot be modeled and formalized into a belief-system.

You can spend your whole life trying to eradicate suffering but that doesn't mean Truth will be handed to you. Of course, you need to be at a certain level of development (i.e., Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs) to even care about pursuing Truth. But it is a bit of a paradox because if you don't care about Truth and only eradicating suffering or conflate the two together, you will spend your whole life suffering and eradicating it never getting to Truth.

Maybe the simplest reason is that the Buddha never existed by as an idea in your mind or that Buddha did not understand God. Big assumption. I already covered that in my original post. How do you know what Truth is? You already assume you know what Truth is. That is a question mark. If you already have the Truth, then why be so defensive and adamant of Buddhism. You are lost in thought. Buddhism is a thought system. The opposite is the case. Sure some may appear to be open to the idea that the Buddha never existed or the Buddha never being enlightened. But they don't take that idea seriously. If they did, they wouldn't spend years in a monastery parroting the ideas of someone who could never have existed or never have been enlightened. That kind of commitment takes a certain amount of ignorance. Lol. Dude. Buddhism is and modern science are belief-systems. They are conceptual in nature. Buddhism and science depend on belief and thought. And like I said before, no thought or belief is the Truth. Truth is what remains after you kill Buddhism and all your beliefs/thoughts. Sounds like a lot of projection, assumption, and justification to give away your intellectual autonomy. Good luck.

Amen. And all other worldviews. And every “spiritual guru,” author, book, video, and teaching. Everyone wants to listen to a guru, but nobody wants to do the work themselves and be their own guru. “Spiritual” laziness is what it is. Taking full responsibility over my own intellectual/spiritual path, along with daily contemplation has been the greatest experience of my life. So much suffering is caused by outsourcing that.