An young being

Most of the people who undergo extreme suffering either die quickly or undergo the pain for a short duration. Even if they continue experiencing pain, their mind gradually gets used to it and they return back to their normal standards after sometime. Isn't it nature's beautiful and balancing act of reducing suffering and prolonging their survival at the same time?

Consciousness is said to be fundamental. And yet, we wake up after sleep with no memory of being aware during sleep. Could it be the case that we were indeed aware during sleep, but our memory is not switched on during sleep to record or recall our experience?

Darth Vader

@Florian You are right, but I was talking about the ego dissolution experience. It's true that psychedelics ( and also long term meditation) increase serotonin and dopamine levels, which I believe is the cause for the synchronicities and hallucinative experiences and also allows the universe to be more in control of you, and you to be more in control of the universe. But, I firmly believe ego dissolution is the result of switching off your brain parts that limits you and draws boundary to your body and ego. The brain has evolved to contain you to your ego ( for your survival, of course), but by switching off those parts, you realise that you have no boundaries. Here is a research article that supports my view: https://bigthink.com/mind-brain/we-now-know-what-a-spiritual-awakening-looks-like-inside-the-brain/

These are just my views, so feel free to shatter them. 1. Both psychedelics and years of meditation work by reducing activity in the brain and can produce the oneness experience. We are not producing any new experience here, instead we are just shutting down the veil created by the brain. Both psychedelics and years of meditation does this job perfectly. 2. Psychedelics do not produce all the beneficial effects as years of meditation. Imagine you are a rich guy and you are born with a Mercedes. Will he experience the same joy of attaining the Mercedes compared to a poor guy who worked hard for years and earned the same Mercedes ? In the first case, it was a gift, while in second case it was a reward for your hardwork. 3. Spirituality and meditation builds your character and makes you ready for that divine experience. The experience of oneness will shatter you into thousand pieces if you are not ready for it, especially if you are clinging strongly to your ego. Even extreme meditation alone is not enough to make you ready for it. It works the best only if you work from the lower chakras like survival and happiness to the middle chakras of unconditional love, compassion, gratitude and forgiveness. Then only you can go to the higher chakras of enlightenment if you wish to attain all the benefits of it, even though you can skip those lower and middle parts. 4. Psychedelics are there for their therapeutical benefits, but not strictly for enlightenment. If you are not able to achieve the oneness experience with years of meditation ( atleast 5 to 10 years), don't straightaway jump into psychedelics. Strengthen your heart first by filling your mind with love, compassion, gratitude and forgiveness, weaken your ego ( by enlarging it's circle of inclusion) and then try meditation. Even if you didn't experience the so called enlightenment experience, you would have already reaped many benefits from the process. Still, if you are longing for that experience after doing the above, then you can try psychedelics where it is legal.

I understand what you meant, but using science to justify Spiritual concepts might help it to reach wider audience. I understand your enthusiasm, but as even Leo says, there are many levels of enlightenment. We have many posts to discuss that, so let's not go to the farthest end and try to explain it in simpler terms. If you tell someone not interested in Spirituality or Enlightenment that sleep is not real, very few people will believe it, even if it's true. On the other hand, if we prove something using science, people will readily accept it. My goal here in this post is not to understand reality at it's deepest or rawest form, but trying to use science to justify a spiritual concept that is widely acknowledged, which is awareness is fundamental. I meant not to dwelve further than what I already know, and to verify what I already know using science, so that more people become interested in it.

It might help a lot, especially for those people experiencing mental suffering, but for those people who have moderate to lots of free time, I suggest meditation and mindfulness while simultaneously developing a strong heart and a purpose. Once you have tried that with no results, maybe you can try other methods like psychedelics. Enlightenment is extremely beneficial, it can even cause permanent changes in your way of thinking, but it's better to make sure you are ready to take that all in at once.

Ok, I will be open here. I don't want to understand the nature of awareness,atleast for now, because it's too complex for me to understand. The main point I want to make here is that, many people argue that awareness is not fundamental because there is no awareness during sleep and something called unawareness exists, even though it is inside awareness. This is because awareness comes back after deep sleep. My question is, is there any research that supports that memory is inactive during deep sleep and doesn't record awareness? If that's the case, nobody can claim that we are not aware during deep sleep. I believe that memory is exclusive to brain and ceases to exist once our brain is dead, but awareness is fundamental.

I perceive it because there is no memory of me being aware during deep sleep. That's the only way I can guess if I was aware during deep sleep or not. How else do you suggest I can find out if I am aware or not during deep sleep? @Princess Arabia while this has some good ideas, this doesn't entirely explain if I am aware or not during deep sleep. I am aware that I slept and it felt good, but not during the sleep, but only after completing it. The peaceful feeling could very well be the result of my chaotic memories being aligned during sleep.

Fear of death is created for survival by nature. Those who feared death lived longer lives and survived. Man of current conscious levels wouldn't have existed if the ancestors didn't fear death. Fear of death won't vanish completely from humanity until we have complete control over our mind and it's experiences.

Thank you! But all the credit doesn't go to meditation, I naturally had some resistance to pain ( only external) but I fortified it with the help of meditation. Seems different people have different resistance to pain.

I was able to overcome suffering due to external physical pain using meditation to a large extent by focusing on the pain ( in specific cases like heating and getting beaten) but for some reason, I was not able to escape the suffering due to internal pain( eg. Pain caused due to head ache) .

I have no experience regarding solipsism, but I have experienced great synchronicities that fundamentally need everyone and everything around me to work together just so that I can learn some things. If the universe can do that, then sollipsism is definitely possible.

I have experienced that everything can be an illusion created by the mind or something else ( not through meditation or enlightenment, but directly experiencing pain, suffering and sensations without a source to create them ( some educated people call them hallucinations). That doesn't mean we don't experience it. We experience the present, no matter if it is real or an illusion, just like we experience pain in our dreams.

After sleep, you don't remember you were aware during your sleep. After life, you are always aware, so you don't have to remember that you were.

Agreed that nobody can be a complete vegan or even vegetarian for that matter, but choosing to murder two people instead of one is always better, and murdering a guy to save your own life is better than murdering a guy to steal his fortunes, although all of them are technically bad. Nobody can decide what is right or wrong, what is justifiable and what is not, what is a need and what is a desire, but if your conscience tells that you are doing something bad, don't do it. Don't try to justify doing it by comparing with something or somebody else. If your heart feels that it is wrong, then it's wrong for you. If your mind does the 'wrong' thing, you will regret it later. ( I am not even talking about reincarnations, I am talking about this life).My heart says that I don't have to eat non vegetarian food, because there are many healthy and tasty alternatives available, so I don't eat it. I never try to convince others to be like me ( all my family members eat non veg), but if you choose to go in the direction of being a vegetarian or atleast reduce the consumption, I strongly encourage it.

I too can enjoy the physical pain caused by pinching myself hard, but can you enjoy the pain when your body is operated without anaesthesia? If you can, please teach it to others, so that we can save some money on anaesthesia. Pain is unavoidable and it definitely leads to greater appreciation of the times without pain but consciously killing an animal that can't even comprehend what is pain is avoidable. They might be concepts but in that case, you realizing that you are the only one who experiences the world is also a concept.

That's a big assumption, can't even be proven with direct experience.

You or I can, but those poor animals can't.

Pain is an extremely unpleasant feeling that causes suffering. It is bad because it leads to extreme suffering. It was created by nature knowingly or unknowingly to help animals to save their lives. There were animals that existed which are incapable of experiencing pain, but unfortunately they weren't able to survive. Yes, the current methods used to kill animals definitely cause pain.

Plants don't feel pain and has no emotions it can experience

Good bye. But I don't think it's so easy to leave this addiction.

Humans can survive and be healthy without eating meat. So, it is not a need. You took time to think how you are affecting other living beings' happiness and that itself is a good thing. If you love meat so much, you can reduce the frequency of eating meat. Then, when you realise you no longer need meat to be happy, you can entirely leave it. Or just wait for 10 more years and vegan meat will be available all around us. Then, everyone can enjoy meat without feeling guilty.

What I believe is that it is not possible for God to create a perfect life for everyone but it is possible for God to create a seed that evolves ultimately into that state and we are caught in between the transition

If everything is possible, it is also possible that everyone is happy without any negative emotions including boring.