Moksha

@Breakingthewall Let me try this, because it is closer to how I see it: it would be better to say that reality is a mind that can imagine everything. what the mind imagines is the same as the mind, that is, it is a form of the mind. If the mind does not imagine anything, it is nothing, but it is. it's you. then, the absolute is you. immutable because it is always you. mutable because you constantly change shape You see that the mind imagines (mutability), and also that the mind does not imagine (immutability). This is what I mean by relative reality and absolute reality. In your language, imagination occurs within the mind, but it is not the encompassing mind that does not imagine.

So you believe that all of reality is illusion. Or all illusion is reality. That's cool if you see it that way, but I see absolute reality beyond the dream.

@Water by the River Well said, and an apt koan ? Before frog, still pond. After frog, still pond. Beyond pond, I. @Breakingthewall It's true that science is an accumulation of ideas, but even children's games have rulesets. Science is based on phenomenal observation, and the derivation of laws which seem to govern it. Do you put any stock in quantum physics and astrophysics as helpful in understanding the nature of the cosmos? Do you see the cosmos (time/space/matter) as being relative, depending on the perceiver? If so, do you see the possibility for a reality that is not relative, but absolute?

Have you considered that there is absolute unchanging reality beyond the transitory form and formless states within the dream? Whether it is the expansive cosmos in all its glory, or the unfathomably dense particle following the cosmic crunch, it is all still dream. What is beyond the dream?

That's precisely why silence is so powerful. It communicates beyond thoughts, which are always endarkening. There is nothing so silent and penetrating as pure light.

@thierry Rumor has it that God loves to dance ??

It depends on the state of the aspirant. Some respond well to subtlety, others require being hit over the head by a sledgehammer. It's why gurus vary so much in their methods of teaching. I agree with Ramana Maharshi on silence being the purest language, unfortunately there are so few people to hear it.

Congratulations on scratching the scratchless surface of the Mystery.

The absolute is beyond duality, despite the appearance and disappearance of the dream within it.

Or another way of putting it, the cosmos comes and goes, but the unmanifested is beyond the form and formless states. The mystics rarely go to this level, but for example: This multitude of beings is created and destroyed again and again in the succeeding days and nights of Brahma. But beyond this formless state there is another, unmanifested reality, which is eternal and is not dissolved when the cosmos is destroyed.

As I see it, absolute reality is within everythingness (the cosmos) and nothingness (the void, or infinite potential). However, the cosmos and the void themselves are extreme dualities of the dream. The absolute is beyond the dream. It is beyond existence/nonexistence, beyond form/formless, and beyond imagination/emptiness. It is incomprehensible, indescribable, and nameless and it is the absolute essence of it all. It has aspects (love, seamlessness, immutability, timelessness) but it is beyond attributes.

Absolute reality beyond the dream is stateless, changeless, seamless, and timeless.

Only on the surface. We have disagreed from time to time, and Leo has fired a few shots, but deep down he knows his own demons and respects sincerity.

Theories are useless for solving suffering. To be of any use, the knowledge has to be direct. Find a way to keep the window open (meditation, contemplation, self-inquiry, or whatever creates space from your mind), and the clouds will eventually clear enough for you to see the sun.

Objectively, there's unquestionably a difference but who is in a position to judge the suffering of one person vs. another? There are people living in mud huts in Kenya who are more happy, more fulfilled, and more engaged in life than some of the richest people in America who are miserable with ego-entitlement. I'm just not a fan of judgment in general. It tends to reinforce egoic boundaries, rather than dissolving them.

Mental illness and disability are hardly an easy path. Even with someone you know intimately, it's foolhardy to compare paths. Spirituality is always an individual journey, and the less judgment of others, the more awareness you can focus on clearly navigating your own path. Not that I'm judging your judgment

It's true you can't control destiny at the individual level, but you can learn to control whether or not you resist what happens. In the absence of judgment, it is all just energy flowing through you. In that way you can choose to be free.

I hated having roommates when I was younger, but there was no choice. Eventually I reached the point where I could afford to live on my own. You will too, but you may have to pay the price of losing privacy for a while. Look at it as a spiritual practice. If you leverage it, you can learn to let it flow through you without suffering, and expand the lesson to other areas of your life. Millions (billions?) of people on the planet are in the same situation, and they make it work. ChatGPT to the rescue: A 2020 report by the National Multifamily Housing Council found that 32% of renters lived with roommates. In other countries, such as in Europe, living with roommates is also a common practice among young adults, especially in urban areas where housing costs can be high. Overall, while we do not have an exact number for how many people on the planet have roommates, it is safe to say that living with roommates is a common practice in many parts of the world.

@Yimpa ⚡There's nothing like unsuffering love.

Well said. You are the universe, shaping yourself to realize yourself.

Relationships can create diamonds out of coal if you allow them to unshape you unconditionally.

Absolute reality is unconditional awareness, beyond states and statelessness. Maybe Ralston defines enlightenment differently, but I see it as the process of the absolute realizing itself within its dream. Because it is a process, with an apparent beginning and ending, it cannot be intransient.

Awareness turned outward is imagination. Awareness turned inward is enlightenment. Desire determines the direction.

Allurement is egoic. It dissolves boundaries by consumption, rather than by realization, and is the opposite of love.

I'm 100% confident not only that it exists within the dream, but that stillness, detachment, and uninvolvement are synonyms for love. I understand words aren't helping here, so will be still.