Someone here

@Vibroverse in your question.... you already assumed that we have two distinct things.. Dreams.. And reality. You already assumed the difference and then you ask if there is a difference?? Of course the answer is yes and no. That's why it's better to not categorize the present moment and then you have direct access to absolute Truth exactly as it is.

There is no dream or reality. There is what you are experiencing right now. What is it? I don't fucking know.

How did you do it?

?Alright.

True ? When are you gonna stop quoting yourself tho? Lol jk

@mandyjw @Nahm is it just a different way of saying "feeling good /better is all that matters"?

Well it's not just 'fun'. It's 'important'. At least for those who find it so.

One day.. A guy called Isaac Newton (who had a crush on knowledge) asked a (seemingly) silly question : why does the apple fall on the ground and the moon does not fall???? That question is the cause for all the crazy technology and advancement we are experiencing in this Era. (not sure if it's folklore but interesting to think about lol).

@seeking_brilliance I see. In practice I have to learn how to be comfortable with it tho. Or simply disentangle yourself from the issue of knowledge entirely and rest your mind.

@mandyjw OK thanks. That makes sense. Only thing that trips me up is the notion that "it's false because it doesn't feel good". Aren't these two separate things??

@seeking_brilliance ofc

Yes of course I want to feel better. I can go party and get drunk rn and feel better.. What good is that in the long run??? I'm still a fragile human being who is sensitive to all sorts of suffering.. Sickness.. Death etc... What is your conception of "feeling better"? Chasing a temporary fix (high) doesn't work..

@seeking_brilliance are you comfortable with not-knowing?

I do believe there is a correlation between happiness .. Pleasure.. Pain.. Suffering.. Etc. Tbh there is no such thing as what you call "causeless" happiness. Unless you can explain it to me.. Maybe will change my mind. But I do think happiness is a condition. And just like all conditions.. Temporary and unsubstantiated. It's not like you can be happy all the time. You have to experience pain and suffering. In fact I'd argue that happiness is only 20% of life (generally). While 30 % is suffering. And the rest 50 % is mundane and boring (just another day). Tbh I'm leaning toward a depressed nihilistic view on life recently. But this nihilism also has been a great pain-killer. I was walking home one evening earlier this year.. my existence shifted with a single passing thought.... I was chronically stressed at work.. overwhelmed by expectations.. grasping for a sense of achievement or greater purpose and tip-toeing towards full-on exhaustion. Then it hit me: “Who cares? One day I will be dead and no one will remember me anyway.” I can’t explain the crashing sense of relief. It was as if my body dumped its cortisol stores. I looked at the sky and thought: “I’m just a chunk of meat hurtling through space on a rock orbiting the sun In the middle of the nowhere. Pointless.. Futile.. meaningless.” It was one of the most comforting revelations of my life.. To discover that real happiness along with other kinds of illusions are indeed illusions. Please dont get upset or anything.. Im just sharing honest opinions on hope for clearer communication. Don't know if you ever went through a nihilistic phase in your life. But I'm stuck in one atm . It's kinda like when you are so autistic smart that you simply can't buy the BS that people use to comfort themselves in this dumb meaningless weird existence.

Yes. "it" being chasing money and sex and whatever else material gains in order to achieve happiness.

Don't know what that means lol. Yeah I think God CAN hide from itself because it's absolute.

Agreed. Ok lol. I understood what you said btw. Just not sure how it's linked to the post you quoted.

Let me ask you this.. Is it 'you' who is no one outside of him or 'me'? (relative me vs you :Leo vs Akshay) Because you are saying it works like a dream where there is only ONE Dreamer dreaming the WHOLE THING....So you are not open that simply there can be two dreamers or 7 billion separate dreams?

@mandyjw don't go full 'Nahm-mode' on me and explain yourself lol...

Well I've tried a lot of stuff (material stuff) and as expected I end up craving for more. Because the nature of those things is transitory. It's like chasing a mirage. So I'm convinced that chasing experience or external conditions Will not result in deep satisfaction (and this goes against what 99% of people are busy doing). Will result in a temporary satisfaction before the longing resurfacing again. I haven't found a resolve to this issue yet. Except maybe complete monk-mode and abstaining.. Fasting etc... Which doesn't work either. Some people are just not born to be monks.

Death is a belief. Nothing factual about it. The universe might disappear In a blink of an eye for no good reason and you might not have to experience death. (hope this ain't too radical lol).

I think I agree with this conception. Although I won't boil it down to just that. A question tho.. How do you go about eliminating that ego.. In the teaching it's illusory in the first place..? For example if you work on thoughts (what's known as monkey mind).. There is no thinker..it's just an explosion of mental imagery spontaneously foaming out of the 'mind'.. (as one example). Yes exactly. Furthermore.. I can't picture how are you supposed to hang out permanently ego-less..? As Alan watts puts it.. "you wouldn't know who's shoe to put on in the morning" lol.

No matter what you do.. There is always a sense of lack.. Incompleteness.. Disappointment.. Not good enough.. Etc... Why is this the case?? Do you have answer to this question?

@Valwyndir just curious.. Are you Connor Murphy?

Inspired by @The Lucid Dreamer. With the suggestion that Beauty is an absolute. And omnipresent quality inherent in existence itself. What makes something beautiful and something ugly? What makes something beautiful beautiful? What is beauty? Is it an objective universal value? How can it be objective when people have really different orientations and tastes when it comes to beauty and art? Is the picture attached at the bottom equally beautiful as a pile of dog shit? And who's to decide which is ugly and which is beautiful? What is beautiful about a beautiful face? Some argue that the more symmetrical your face is.. the more beautiful it is ..But why? Why is symmetry beautiful and asymmetrical faces ugly? I guess I'm asking a question similar to why is sugar sweet or why sweet is sweet.?.. . At some point we just hit rock bottom and well.. It's just the way it is. A biological evolutionary explanation is that it's a survival mechanism. The brain colors your perception of the world and show you beautiful the stuff that is necessary for survival. You see a super model beautiful because that's helpful for urging you to mate with her and breed. Your dog doesn't find beautiful people to be beautiful because it's unnecessary for his survival. While he does see beauty In dogs more easily. and you don't. What this perceptive fails to explain is art. What good is art to survival? Though there is no generally agreed definition of what constitutes art.. and ideas have changed over time.. general descriptions typically include an idea of imaginative or technical skill stemming from human agency.. and creation. Share some ideas from outside the box about the nature of beauty and art.