Moksha

Love is seeing through the delusion and realizing that there are no boundaries. Love your neighbor as you love yourself, because your neighbor is yourself.

I don't need to meditate to be. Meditation is a practice, and you can be while meditating, but being doesn't require anything outside of itself.

People like Leo understand the difference between psychedelic realizations and the actual integration of those realizations in your life. Regardless of what wakes you up, you still get to trudge the hero's journey.

You and the reflection are both reflections, and it goes infinitely. It's like consciousness created this world of mirrors, and it floats around, reflecting itself in them. Reflect on that

That feeling of "it goes deeper" is the recognition of Tat, the ultimate reality, which you realize when you wake up, but are unable to understand. It is the ultimate mystery, and it has no name.

Serenity. Love. Joy. Clarity. Unity. Creativity. Playfulness. Abundance. Spaciousness. Holiness. Different pointers to the singularity that is consciousness experiencing itself. When "I" am awake.

In the world of form (which is the dream itself): Levels of consciousness: dreamless sleep (sleeping mind, not dreaming in the world of dream), dreaming (sleeping mind, dreaming in the world of dream), awake (awake mind, dreaming in the world of dream), Turiya (consciousness, awake in the world of dream), Brahman (consciousness, not in the world of dream). Notice what happened to the mind? Physical sleep is just another level of abstraction of unconsciousness. Human beings are a microcosm of this game, which is played by consciousness itself. In the ultimate sense, what @Nahm said.

You see it now Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to continue seeing it.

@Someone here "You" beat me to it There is only one consciousness, now. Consciousness makes a game of infusing itself as the essence of everything in the world of form, playing peekaboo with itself, but it's always the same consciousness. The awakening game is not a concept; it is the experience of consciousness realizing itself.

@Someone here You're right that the physical body itself is part of the conditioning. It is biologically programmed to have attachments. Otherwise, how would it survive? The point is that we don't have to identify with the conditioning of the body or of the mind. Consciousness is completely free from conditioning. It is the sun that dissolves the clouds that obscure you from yourself. Nobody is pure consciousness; when that happens you go poof. Enlightened people are present enough that most of their conditioning no longer defines or directs who they are. I know you're not a Gita fan, but here are some pointers if you care: How do you do it? Another pointer:

This forum is based on the realization that there is no self. That is what enlightenment is. Self-actualizing means self-dissolving. You wake up to the reality of who You are.

We thought our way out of it

You don't need to be aware of any thought. You are the awareness itself. You can notice thoughts as they arise, even play with them, but don't be defined by them.

By dream toy, I was referring to the plaything in the world of form. Everything in the world of form is the imagination of Brahmin. When Brahmin is playing, Atman is the essence of Brahmin in the plaything. The form itself, aside from Atman, is just a plaything. It is an illusion. When Atman awakens, it realizes itself, which is Brahmin. Whew

By putting others first, you are only putting yourself first. Because you are all that there is. Sacrificing the self is nothing more than the Self tossing away a dream toy. It's not something the self does; it is a sacrificial act of the Self. If the self thinks it is doing it, that is the ego in its victory pose

@Inliytened1 ? Every act of the Self is Selfish, which is to say, it is Love. The Self loves the Self because it is the Self.

@Inliytened1 People think that selflessness is sacrificing yourself for someone else. That's too limited in scope. Selflessness is sacrificing your self for the Self. I suppose that makes it a Selfish act

See what you did there?

Exactly. Thinking will never lead you to understanding. It is a will-o'-wisp promising to light your way, but instead it leads you into the swamp of oblivion. You will find yourself by not thinking. It's called Being for a reason

Pain is the result of damage to the body or mind, and cannot usually be avoided. Suffering is self-inflicted damage from being unwilling to accept the isness of the Now. It's only necessary until you realize that it is unnecessary.

Consciousness is different from thought. If you trace "You" back to Yourself, what do you find? Sublime, eternal awareness. It is a moment of pure reality, and there is no thought. You can notice thoughts drifting across the sky of You, but you aren't pulled by them. You can even actively direct your thoughts from this place of being, and discover an ocean of creativity and intelligence that your little wave mind could never have realized on its own.

Whether you wake up in the traditional way, or through a conscious-altering substance, you still have to do the work of dissolving your aversions and desires. The ego doesn't die just because you're awake. It fights to the bitter end to defend its pretense of an existence. It lurks in the corner like a good little shadow as long as you observe it, but the moment you look elsewhere, it looms with a knife at your back. Enlightenment tastes like poison at first, which turns to nectar. The ego tastes like nectar at first, which turns to poison. Once you learn that lesson, and remember it enough times, you will finally find the wisdom to deny the ego its day. Not today, ego! Not today.

David Bowie does a great ego impression

@How to be wise

@actualizing25 When they awaken. It's not a choice. Suffering happens to you, and if you're lucky, eventually you ripen enough that the suffering slams you out of the dream and back into the reality that you are. Leo might say, you could just take a psychedelic instead. I'm old school though; I prefer the path of suffering