Osaid

Experience isn't a multiplicity. There's no such thing as two experiences, three experiences, etc. No one has experienced differences because no one has experienced a different experience. In order to compare "me", you have to define me first. You do that by imagining differences, like chimpanzees. "You" aren't a difference. Differences are imagined. Just because you can conceptualize it doesn't mean it is experienced. There are limitations to thoughts and concepts, which you are unable to see. That is your crux. Addressing dualism is dualism. It's like you want me to address Santa Claus. Chimpanzees don't have consciousness. That is, again, a concept/dualism, which is not experienced.

I wouldn't actually. Perks of non-duality.

Separation. Separation. Separation. Separation. Separation. Dude, you can't have it both ways. On the one hand, you say humans and other entities don't exist. Then you use those very same non-existent entities to measure your "degrees of consciousness." You're non-dual when it suits you, and dual when it suits you.

Pizza awakening is real

This art style actually looks really cool and unique. My favorite so far! Easy winner. Great description.

Very simply, this part is the only "real" one. "Going into illusions" is like "going into unicorns." Hence, all of these are actually part of the mental/intellectual illusion, since it is based on separation, dualisms, and other "unicorns." Understanding unicorns is the belief in unicorns.

Meditation is for watching thoughts appear and disappear, and the natural disillusionment that follows from that. It's about watching your imagination and seeing how it works. Closing eyes removes visual stimuli, so it prevents your mind from latching onto objects in the environment. A pitch black room works even better than just closing eyes IMO, since you can keep them open if you want, it allows more "freedom" in that sense. If there is less stimuli in one direction (sight), focus on another stimuli (thoughts) will be enhanced. In hindsight, if you pay attention, experientially all objects "disappear" if there isn't sufficient light to illuminate them visually. All that is left of "objects", without sight, is just physical touch. This prevents the mind from thinking about external objects, and thus primes it for observation/inquiry. The assumption that it's about "cutting off from the environment" isn't true and probably comes from stereotypes, for the record. It's not about anything you can think of, it's about seeing what thinking of things actually is.

Sharp! What we are seeing here is simply the limits of intellect playing itself out. The "incompleteness" and "desire for higher awakening" is simply the limits of intellect and logic being felt. Non-duality is not some kind of conclusion derived from logic or intellect, it is a perception, in the same way that the color red is not a logical conclusion, it is a perception. The intellect endlessly tries to come up with its own logical and tautological forms of non-duality to compensate, like "solipsism." Osho put it well:

Cool experience. But this would occur now (as everything does), and so it is subject to the implications of that (time and separation are thoughts occurring now, not separate or in time).

It absolutely is. Your intellect will never point to or describe something other than what is occurring right now, because your intellect itself occurs now. It's the classic self-reference problem, which you keep shrugging off.

Non-existence is not true, it is intellectual stagnation. No one experiences non-existence. How could an ideology based on a supposedly non-existent entity (humans), be "true"? That means no one experiences it. If something doesn't exist, no one perceives it. Solipsism is equivalent to the word "non-existence." It is the belief in non-existence. You can't define or describe reality by imagining things that don't exist. Go figure.

What is there to falsify? Humans/others don't exist. Reality exists. You are basically saying: non-existence doesn't exist, and existence exists. Something that doesn't exist says nothing about what exists...because it doesn't exist. There aren't different types of non-existence, that is just your intellect putting fancy labels on non-existence, like "solipsism" and "others." You are just giving non-existence different labels, like "humans", "others", etc. Your intellect is running you in circles. Come back to non-duality please!

Ah ok, got it. Intellect gets tricky with its conclusions, so I wanted to be anal I guess.

There is no such thing as "no experience." This is an intellectual conclusion, like "non-existence." Awareness/consciousness is not something had by people. It is exactly like saying "there are no unicorns in my experience so unicorns have no experience." Who has no experience? Unicorns? Your conclusion is still imaginary. The entire thing is imaginary. Your mind isn't describing anything. You can't describe reality through non-existence. Saying something doesn't exist says nothing about what exists. That is pretty much the crux of "solipsism." It's another intellectual form of non-duality.

It's not simply that imagination is delusion or that it's unreal or something. It's that you can't imagine something that isn't happening right now, and the belief that you can is "delusion." No one ever experiences something that isn't happening now, that is the assumption/delusion/belief which needs to be seen through. When you identify as something you aren't, you aren't actually that identity since that identification is happening now. All is subject to now, even if you think otherwise.

Appearance is now. That's why it is appearing. Now is never "not now", although thoughts can appear as "not now." Example, "yesterday", "tomorrow", "past", "future", etc.

It's the base assumption that you can imagine "yourself" in past and future which creates emotions like anxiety. It's the assumption that you can imagine yourself which causes a butterfly effect of behaviors and feelings. Self-inquiry, meditation, etc., helps to create disillusionment from thoughts, and slowly creates distance between thoughts about self. That is why you will see incremental emotional improvements in meditators, similar to therapy. Enlightenment isn't about thinking or adopting some ideology, it's about a clear binary perception that you could never imagine yourself. And that, in turn, completely transforms how you feel emotions as well, and completely eliminates anxiety, for example. Meditation can help create enough "distance" for that perception to occur, although it's not truly mandatory.

Nothing like "spiritual bypassing" was suggested. Yes. Anxiety is felt. That doesn't mean the cause is true or existential. Emotions are not being discounted. Self-inquiry and other spiritual practices help guide people away from imagining snakes, so to speak. There are different experiences, but none of them really involve a separate self. The belief that there are separate selves causes the unpleasant emotion. Just like how believing a rope is a snake never involves an actual snake. People can believe in separate selves, and people can believe in unicorns, but neither of which are ever actually seen or experienced. It's how the belief feels. Someone who believes there is a bear in their closet will feel fear, because that is how the assumption feels. Realizing that there is no bear in the closet feels like relief, because the belief/assumption stops operating. Emotions are very important, but that's probably for another conversation.

Physical objects are just what is occurring now. They don't point to things that aren't occurring now, and they don't describe anything, unlike thoughts. For example, a hammer can't describe something else, but the word "hammer" describes a hammer by causing you to imagine a hammer. Descriptions are intellect, they point to objects, but they never are objects, since objects don't describe. Only imagination describes. The key point is that the thought is never reaching outside of what occurs now. "Now" encapsulates the entire experience. Thoughts about vacation can happen now, but physically there is no vacation, and that's all there really is to it. Are you referring to the nature of thought, since it can't describe anything outside of itself? There are things left over without thinking, but you just can't imagine what they are. They aren't anything you think they are. There aren't "things" because "things" are imaginary divisions. There isn't any thing, hence, "nothing" or "no thing." Yes.

The delusion is that there are humans who are unenlightened. You can't imagine what you are. Thoughts can describe unenlightened humans, and so humans are able to believe it through their imaginative capacity. In the same way how you could ask someone if they experience the past, and they'll say that they do, even though it is technically never experienced. Thoughts describe the past, but no one truly experiences the past. Thoughts describe, but what is described is never experienced. Nonetheless, thoughts still describe. And humans can think. And so, the trickiness of enlightenment ensues. It's not a matter of lower or higher consciousness, it's a matter of seeing that you weren't ever lower or higher in the first place. It is a complete uprooting of dualism in its entirety, forever. There are no degrees to realizing that a rope isn't a snake. And no one actually ever experiences a rope which is a snake.

You're the one introducing limitations, not me. You're saying consciousness can go higher, which means it can limit itself to being lower. Consciousness is never in time, so there is no such thing. From your perspective, it might seem limiting, but I am actually trying to point to a complete lack of limitations. Mind and intellect are creating imaginary limitations like "higher" and "lower." No division/separation means nothing is defining or containing or limiting anything, because there isn't anything separate to do that. Your world is certainly different from mine, we could say. Because you think differently. But someone who thinks they are a unicorn, isn't a unicorn, even if they think it. Someone who sees water in a mirage, never sees water in a mirage, even if they think it. They just think and assume in both cases. No one is ever contained by what they think, by the very nature of being conscious and being aware. That's what absolute means.

😂 Intellect in a nutshell

This notion of "higher consciousness" limits consciousness. Isn't it much better to not be limited? There aren't things that can have lower and higher consciousness, because, yeah, you guessed it: it's all now. You're holding all those notions in your experience right now. Also, I suspect you are conflating knowledge/understanding with consciousness or something. You can of course increase your knowledge and learning to a certain degree, probably infinitely. But absolute consciousness is meta to such dualisms. Spiritual practice is mostly for reaching enlightenment. After enlightenment, it's not like experience stops, so consciousness continues unfolding in all the variety of ways it tends to do. I'm not really trying to discount your psychedelic experiences, for the record. It's just the pesky false self that can persist.

"More than now" is a concept which could only ever occur now. The vantage point is always now, no matter what. To see the past, you have to be in the now. To see the future, you have to be in the now. There's no such thing as a past while being in the past, or else you are simply in the present. There's no such thing as a future while being in the future, or else you are simply in the present. Your imagination is throwing you for a loop. There is no difference between someone who only experiences the past, someone who only experiences the future, and someone who only experiences now; there is no difference between any of those periods of time. Thoughts don't thread time together. There is just thinking, now. It is always thinking, now. It is always concepts, now. There's nothing beyond the absolute. Ralston even told you this one during the interview. Imagination is now. Concepts and speculations aside, it's always here, now. Meaning, it exists, and you are experiencing it. If it's not now, it's not here. It's not even a matter of saying "your imagination doesn't exist bro, it's just concepts." Everything is now and subject to now, it doesn't matter what it is. But for imagination, that also means it isn't really describing anything other than itself, since it can't describe something other than now. Meaning, what is always seen is just imagination occurring presently. I thought I was consciousness! How could what I am hide from what I am? There is no "consciousness" and "me" because both are the same occurrence. This is just another way of extrapolating your idea of yourself into time. You cannot imagine yourself, period. Because "imagination" and "yourself" is the same occurrence; there is no separation. The imagination isn't describing anything outside of itself; outside of what is presently occurring. I'm sure you have memorable and interesting experiences. But those are now too.

I see a "cover photo" button right where the banner is on my page, at the top right of it. If it's not there, then it might be a mod thing.