Moksha

Isn't it phenomenal?

@Gesundheit Is it possible to love someone, whether yourself or others, without attachment to the outcome of that love? For example, I love my children without feeling attached to whether or not they reciprocate. It's nice when they do, but even if they didn't, I would still love them. What I've found is that I am able to love others better, the better I love myself. For quite a few years, when I suffered the most, I tended to cause suffering, especially for the people I loved. Things are better for the people I love now, since I suffer less. If you are not living in fear, but Consciously, do you think that could help you love your family better? People, especially our families, tend to catalyze unconsciousness, because of patterns that have been in place for a long time. That's why earlier I wondered if you might be able to practice Consciousness in a slightly easier setting, then gradually bring it to your family. You can't force people to be Conscious, but simply by being Conscious yourself, you are giving them the best chance to reciprocate.

If I may ask, what do you see as the difference between attachment to your family and love for your family? What do you see as the difference between attachment to yourself and love for yourself? What do you see as the relationship between love for yourself and love for your family?

Nice. Looking the devil in the face takes courage, integrity, and relentless will. Don't worry, love dissolves it.

@Leo Nordin All the best, bro. At some point, each of us has to find our own balance between being and doing. There are times when we are more immersed in one dimension than in the other, but either extreme tends to be unhealthy. You have your whole life ahead of you, make the most of it.

This question goes to the heart of identity. I have been working through a lot of this myself. When you toss a stone into the sea of Consciousness, your realizations ripple outward. It can be disorienting. Everything you based your identity on begins to dissolve. 1. My person is an illusion. 2. The persons I love are also an illusion. 3. The entire world is an illusion. 4. What does morality mean? 5. Why does anything matter? For me, the solace has been returning to the core realization. I am Consciousness. When I realize Consciousness, what is it? Does Consciousness feel like an alien scientist that is spinning out energy forms in a sterile cosmic laboratory? Partly yes, but it is much more than that. Consciousness also feels infinitely abundant, and eternally brims with light and love. There is no hatred, evil, or suffering in it. These things only exist in the world of form, not because they are Conscious, but because they are Unconscious. The realization of Consciousness is the banishing of these things, and the battle between Consciousness and Unconsciousness goes forever. One cannot exist without the other, and both are inevitable, as long as Consciousness dreams. This morning, I was wondering why the Buddha, after his enlightenment, felt compassion for the world. He knew that the world is an illusion, including the people in it. Why feel compassion for a dream, with such ferocity that you are willing to leave Nirvana, and spend another 40 years loving characters in the dream? The Buddha knew that Consciousness created the world for a reason. People are not only dream characters; we are Consciousness itself, dreaming. Consciousness is divine. The creations it enlivens are its temple. We are not just abstract video characters; we are the divine experiencing its own creation. Sorry for the long answer, but it boils down to this. Realizing Consciousness frees you from fear, but not from responsibility. Waking up from the dream actually creates responsibility. Consciousness is committed to its creation, and it loves through you.

In naming yourself, have you not made yourself, and anything you say, a falsehood?

You can build spiritual muscle. If you are able to realize the state of not-knowing/fearlessness/peace of mind when alone, practice maintaining that state in increasingly challenging circumstances. Other people are hell ? Maybe set yourself a more realistic level, like maintaining awareness while walking through a park, or while watching CNN. From the place of Consciousness, these passing forms can be hefted, like you are in a spiritual gym. The more you lift, the lighter they seem, not because they have changed, but because your spiritual muscle has grown.

@Endangered-EGO Do you see the common thread in your own experience: you are most spacious during "effortless concentration" and while "giving up any goal". Awareness is more a letting go of effort, since it is our natural state. Consciousness always is, if we would just stop struggling against it, and realize it. I haven't tried Shinzen Young's technique, but I like the idea of it for meditation. As humans, on the local scale, we survive through the expansion and contraction of our breath. On the life scale, we expand into adulthood, and contract into death. It is true for every form, on different scales. Consciousness itself is continuously expanding through creation, and contracting through realization. I see it as discontinuity within a continuous field. Individual personality is the closest discontinuity, but there is discontinuity in every other personality and form, even at the cosmic scale of time and space, all within the continuous field of Consciousness.

Yeah, it feels right. Identity is just the illusion of forces cohering together within an infinite field. The Buddha describes personality as a bundled blend of spices. He compares it to walking through a village marketplace, where vendors display their ingredients on mats. The spice-seller takes a banana leaf, and doles out small heaps of spices, like ginger and coriander, then wraps them up in the leaf and ties the bundle with a banana string. Each personality is a unique blend of five skandhas, or "heaps" of ingredients, which are energy formations: Rupa (form) Vedana (sensation or feeling) Samjna (perception) Samskara (forces of the mind) Vijnana (consciousness) Who knew that our personalities are nothing more than energy formations within an infinite continuous field?

@Endangered-EGO The more you are able to notice the gaps in anything, the more grounded in Consciousness "you" are. Maybe a better way of putting it is, paying attention to spaciousness helps to desolidify the energies of the personality, and reduces their pull on attention. Whatever you attend to, you empower. Attending to spaciousness will deepen your Conscious presence, whereas attending to your thoughts will further entrap you in them. "Spiritual thoughts" is a funny realization Your instinct is right; the problem is with identifying with them. They are just another thought form, pretending to be spiritual, but they are not actually spiritual. Spirit, or Consciousness, is continuous. It cannot be a thought, because thoughts are inevitably discontinuous. Our awareness of this can ebb and flow, but Consciousness is always. I have been feeling this for some time now, a nearly constant realization of spirit or Consciousness, but it still ebbs and flows, and like you, I still feel some pull from the energies of the personality. "I don't know" is the best turning point Continue not to know. Instead of trying to do anything, maybe it will be helpful not to try. Just notice those moments when you realize that you have drifted back into your mind, and the realization itself will create more space from your mind.

@Endangered-EGO Have you realized being Consciousness yet? I believe you have, since you describe small awakenings. That realization of infinite spaciousness, free from perspective, is the anchor. Attention amplifies. The more attention that is focused in Consciousness, the less pull there is from the thoughts, feelings, and other energy forms of personality. Conversely, the more attention that is focused on the energy forms of personality, the stronger these forces become. I have been practicing this, and yesterday something weird and a little scary happened. I experienced this reverse time loop, where my attention was reeled in, like watching my life in reverse. I was brought back to this experience of being a very young child, and looking through the eyes of the child. Then I sort of popped out of myself, back to being Consciousness, but observing this bundle of energies that I had identified with. I thought, "the boy in me is dissolving." It was a little disorienting. I couldn't detach entirely, and I didn't want to. But there was a lot more space than is usually the case. One other thing to share that might be helpful. I have been realizing continuity vs. discontinuity. Consciousness is infinitely continuous. All of the energies of personality, and more broadly of relative reality, resolve to discontinuity. There is no true solidity or continuity in the perceived world. For example, we perceive our thoughts as a continuous stream, but once attention is focused, we realize the gaps that exist between our thoughts. It's like a movie that appears to be continuous, but is comprised of separate frames with small gaps between each frame. I am enjoying observing these gaps. When you notice the gaps in your thoughts, and the gaps between your feelings, and even the gaps in your desires and your appetites, you realize the spaciousness underlying and infusing all of these energies. You realize that "you" are nothing more than these energy fields, and that Consciousness is experiencing "you" within its infinite spaciousness. As a practice, I think it might help you to try noticing these gaps.

When you realize yourself as Consciousness, your sense of self dissolves. Your personality is just a field of forces - thoughts, feelings, perceptions, memories, physical drives - that you used to identify with, but now see them for what they are. You are the field within which these forces arise and fall, and they no longer have much pull on you. The forces themselves have lost some of their coarseness, and have become more sublime. As Consciousness, you realize your infinite abundance. You can enjoy the forces for what they are, but no longer take them seriously, or direct your attention to them for long.

@Javfly33 "You" are no more than intentional, misdirected attention.

@Someone here I am timeless (and so are you)

Any pure attention, even for a moment, is an awakening. If you are able to feel the energy in your hands, and notice that you are observing this, you are, in this moment, awake.

No form can express the ultimate beauty of the formless. Exactly Free will is infinitely creative, and is not bound to any form.

Direct experience is pure awareness, and the absolute absence of thought.

@73809 Ego is the dream

Anything pursuing or pursued is part of the dream.

@VeganAwake Yes Experience is creation. It is imagination. It is intentional, misdirected attention. It loves doing it, always and infinitely.

Creation is nothing more than attention being misdirected, with intention. It is willful, pure imagination. The reason you see the form behind the glass is that the form is only that. Your attention is creating the form, just as it creates every form.

Have you tried? It is a good spiritual practice. Look at anything without needing to label it. Names dissolve into objects which dissolve into attributes which dissolve into nothingness.

@Vipassana Yes, and nonduality dreams all dualities ?