Someone here

Yeah I think there is similarities. But also meditation is just sitting silently and emptying one's mind. While prayer is directly talking with a higher power (God) and asking it for guidance. They are not the same thing. Good for you and happy to hear ?

@28 cm unbuffed thank you ?

@mandyjw let's say you are going through extremely difficult times. It's so tough that you can't just do it on your own. You need a higher power to guide you.what are you going to do? To whom are you going to pray? Nonduality doesn't accept a separate sky daddy who can hear and answer your prayers. Because god is the universe bla bla

So I should just "surrender"? Can one pray to the universe?

I want to be able to pray to God as a separate entity exists beyond my power without being clouded with the hints that God is me.

Recently I made the claim that my early grey hairs are due to me being wise (I think I was joking) My friend rose to this and found an online test claiming it could score my wisdom (it was on nerdtests, can't add url). I was actually a bit crushed that it scored me only 33%. Although I took what solace I could from the fact that that number is said to have some occult significance (I don't know much about that stuff), I was actually quite gutted as I've placed wisdom pretty high in my aspirations my whole life. I was wondering, can any of you think of a way I can find out once and for all if I am wise?

How do you know whether you're enlightened tho? ?

Just by asking whether I'm wise means I'm not wise?

Come on man.. Don't get too absorbed in the no-self worldview too much.? We can still talk relatively and assume that there are separate selves with separate "wisdoms". And some people are definitely more /less wise than others. I assume as one grows older and gains more experience and exposure to life, he gains more wisdom. So in that regard you are right. I'm not wise.

Nobody knows.

I bet if I made a thread asking "how do I know if I am enlightened", Leo will lock it and will tell me something along the lines "dude, stop mentally masturbating" ?

It's An even more important question Is how do I know if I am enlightened?

The question of what is real and the followup question is the world as empirically observed real are very broad philosophical questions essentially representing an entire branch of philosophy. For this particular concerns, about whether only you are real and the other people are not, look at it like this: Consider the amount that what you observe conforms with a world that goes on while you are not looking. For instance, when you leave a room and then come back later, all the other people are not in exactly the same spot as they were. Rather complicated events unfolded according to strict patterns such as physical laws. The amount of computing power it would take to simulate such a thing, even moreso if was post hoc, is well beyond the capabilities of the human brain. Thus, if the rest of the world is not real than you--as in your body and brain--are almost certainly also not real. So, no, you are not the only real person in a world that stops being real once you stop looking at it with only a bubble of reality around you imitating what it would be like if that bubble was actually in a real, bigger world. But maybe the whole thing is fake, and then we are just left with cogito ergo sum, noting that the "I" is not defined. However, the difference between so-called simulation and so-called reality might be naught if there is no observable difference. Even if this whole observable universe was a simulation on some alien supercomputer, what's the difference in terms of reality? What does it matter if the tiny particles of the universe are actually each an electronic bit in some supercomputer or if there is no such supercomputer and the particles are particles. What is a particle really? Just a piece of information. It is only meaningful to call something a simulation when simulating something actually means doing less than having the real thing. A stuffed animal is no longer a simulation when we actually build an animal piece by piece, atom-by-atom that is identical to the so-called thing it simulating, an animal. Video games at current technology only offer virtual reality because they are not powerful enough to simulate the amount of information encoded in what believe to be reality not even to the practical end of offering an identical experience to a user or an identical mind to the virtual beings as those held by people in the allegedly real world.

I know this will sound weird, but I will give it a try. Since I was a teen I used to feel like I was the only real person and everyone else and everything only existed when I saw them like in a dream. I am 25 now and feel that way again. When I leave a room I feel it no longer exists. I feel that nothing existed until I was born. This means no real person won the 100 million dollar lottery last week and at the same time nobody died in an earthquake last week because neither of them really exists. Sometimes I feel I created the universe and made myself a part of it but purposely forgot so that it would be more interesting. I am just your average person. Maybe this is how I wanted it. I feel the answer will be revealed when I die, as if my life is just a long dream. Does anyone else feel this way? Even the guy who bullied me in 8th grade, did I create him ? I just ask myself are there really 7 billion souls on this earth plus the 20 billion that ever lived or just one: me. Sometimes I really think hard about this. When I see someone leaving work, do they really go home to a family or do they no longer exist til I see them the next day. I am not mentally unstable and would like to share your thoughts. Thanks.

I can let go of my helpless attempts at comprehending an incomprehensible universe if only I can have faith and trust in the universe. Tbh I don't trust the universe at all. And not sure how "to build" that trust

I have a really hard time comprehending time, and as a result motion (location changed over a period of time). I'll watch my hand wave in front of my face (for whatever reason), but really all that I am experiencing at each point in time is the location of my hand NOW, and a memory of where it was before. I never really can see it move - all I have is the vision of it, sitting still at this point, and knowing where it was before. Motion is something that has changed from time a to time c. But at what time does it move? Is it point b, in between a and c? But look at point b: it itself is still. There is only motion because...and we start over. Motion doesn't seem to be possible right NOW...we can only "know" it exists or have memories of it. And in reality, it also seems impossible to me. Another thing about time, is what the smallest "time unit" humans have. If I am engulfed in something, not paying attention to time, only what I am doing, it could be maybe even half a second. Everything happening in that half a second happened at once. The laugh "HA!" all happened at once. Then if you pay attention, you can consciously realize when you are at the beginning hhh of the HA, and the end aaa of the HA. But still, a snap is too quick even for paying attention. I can hear no beginning or end - just it. Yet, two clicks can happen within the amount of time a snap takes place, and I can hear both of them. Maybe the human brain is limited on this, to the point where eventually two clicks could be close enough just to make one. But just pondering the existence of these clicks is really really confusing.

@Tim R I place high value on understanding. Because I don't trust the universe. I don't have faith that I'm protected and "everything will be OK" in the end. So I try to supplement that by more "figuring out". At least now I have understanding. I can't accept that I have neither faith not understanding of reality.

Of course reality is a puzzle. An infinite one. Unsolvable one. You told me it's a mystery.

Another word for "reality". For what's happening.

I'm not sure I understand your point Are you saying "the now" is an abstraction?

Happened across this yesterday; "If a fool can see his own folly, he in this at least is wise; but the fool who thinks he is wise, he indeed is the real fool"

Yes. To some degree

@Windappreciator I posted the question half as a wise crack, but I think the answers led me to some learning. Being wise isn't just knowing lots of why's.

Totally.

@Windappreciator yes I do want to be wise. You made me consider what do I mean by wise, and the eventual definition I came up with is "one who knows the course of action that will lead to the least suffering". This leads to Present Awareness's thoughts; my wanting to be officially wise led to suffering when I was told I wasn't.