Moksha

From the absolute perspective, there is no who to be. There is simply being. Even after realization, there is still a personality in relative reality. Thoughts still seem to appear, you just don't identify with them. Lucidly enjoy the dream. It's phenomenal.

Enlightenment happens when you are ready for it to happen. You can prepare for it through meditation, psychedelic exploration, contemplation, etc. but because it is a direct realization, it is impossible to know precisely when you will awaken. Years (lifetimes?) of preparation may be necessary for some to awaken, and completely unnecessary for others. Your ultimate nature decides and makes it happen when the time is right. For me, the catalyst was suffering. It opened my eyes enough to realize that I was no longer willing to cling to the conditioned mind. But that was just the first step. The real work has been developing the courage, integrity, and humility to dissolve my aversions and desires. It happens naturally in the light of your essence, sometimes suddenly but more often gradually as a deepening expression of your realization.

It can be surprising once you let go of identification. The veil of you that is left isn't lost. It becomes more sublime. Life is relaxed, creative, intelligent, and authentic because it is a purer expression of your essence. Your only regret is that you didn't realize it sooner.

Disorientation is pretty common when your mind begins to cope with its unreality. We spend so much of our lives believing we are our thoughts, it isn't surprising that the mind takes time to adjust. I went through a period where I got physically dizzy, to the point where I was concerned about safely performing basic functions like driving. I noticed that the disorientation happened when I was thinking about (un)reality, rather than simply being. When I felt disoriented, I found that focusing inward as I do in meditation returned me to steadiness. Now, the dizziness rarely happens and when it does it only lasts for a moment. In addition to meditation, I recommend contemplating The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts. The third Greek maxim is: "Certainty brings ruin". With honest intent and discipline, you can learn to let go of the need for certainty and settle into the essence of who you are. It is said that before entering the sea a river trembles with fear. She looks back at the path she has traveled, from the peaks of the mountains, the long winding road crossing forests and villages. And in front of her, she sees an ocean so vast, that to enter there seems nothing more than to disappear forever. But there is no other way. The river can not go back. Nobody can go back. To go back is impossible in existence. The river needs to take the risk of entering the ocean because only then will fear disappear, because that’s where the river will know it’s not about disappearing into the ocean, but of becoming the ocean. - Khalil Gibran

Candy can be addictive

Some clarifications might be helpful. For me: Goodness: Intent and actions arising from alignment with your ultimate nature as God God: The absolute, within and beyond all dualities including the creation of the cosmos and the potentiality of the void Love: The ultimate seamless essence underlying all apparent differences; another word for God

I haven't watched the video, but goodness = god = love. It is light within light realizing light.

People lose their minds all the time, as an escape from suffering. They end up in insane asylums. That is the opposite from seeing the conditioned mind for the torture device that it is. This realization is the beginning of true sanity. When you no longer identify with your thoughts, you are free to train the mind until it aligns with your will. At that point, you are riding the elephant instead of being dragged around by it through the mud.

- Cause you insist on imposing your desires upon the cosmos, instead of surrendering to the gift of the cosmos working through you

Suffering is only a catalyst to awakening when the person is ready to surrender to the reality of the moment. The reason so few people awaken isn't due to lack of suffering. It is because they react to suffering by resisting it, which only increases their suffering. Most people would be tortured to death before realizing this. It's like being caught in a patch of thorns, and bloodying yourself by fighting against it rather than seeing it truly, and calmly responding by finding your way through it.

Suffering is suffocating. As a kid, I jumped into a river and was caught in the undercurrent. It is the closest I have come to dying. When you are in the pull of the river, is it wiser to fight against it or to surrender? It will land you safely on the other side, if you let it.

The negative awakening, where one sees what is not, is the highest knowledge within the mind. It is the final milestone of Neti Neti. The positive awakening, where one realizes the essence of itself, is directly experienced beyond the mind. When it happens, the seamless essence of everything is seen. It is all light, made of light. The negative awakening can be mentally imbalancing because it threatens the false reality of the ego. The positive awakening provides a haven from the ego, in the absolute silence within and beyond the self.

Lucid dreaming is the highest adventure, but even non-lucid dreaming is an adventure. Your earlier observation about crazy is spot on. It's hilarious when you go down the rabbit hole of reality. You realize a profound insight, then realize that the act of realizing is the ego in a nearly-convincing yoga pose, then realize that even this realization is once again the ego pretending to be Yoda. Thought is an infinite spiral of the ego. Eventually, every thought (including this one) is seen for the lie that it is Ramana Maharshi was right. The only truth is silence.

The essence of everything, regardless of appearance, is still God. It is all the same gold, appearing in a bracelet, a necklace, or a ring. Only the shape is a lie, the essence is truth.

Any judgment toward thoughts is itself a thought Just be aware that every thought, no matter how sincere, has the treacherous potential to be conscripted into the service of the ego. Even the thought that "I am no-self" or "I am enlightened" or "I am free from thoughts" is the ego pretending to be what it can never be. Don't fight with your thoughts. It only empowers them by binding your attention to them. Allow them to arise, without resisting or identifying with them. Let them come and go like clouds in the sky. Eventually you will learn to consistently remain present, with thoughts in the periphery of awareness. Some thought and feeling clouds are heavier than others. The energy of past experiences is trapped within them. You develop the capacity to sense those that are ready, and lean your awareness gently into them. The light of your being softens their boundaries, and eventually they release their rain back into yourself. This is only an analogy, but I am trying to describe the inner process of unifying the mind. It is the gift of meditation, which conducts the disparate voices of the self, and teaches them to sing in harmony. Each thought blends into the seamless Hallelujah chorus of enlightenment. ?

All it takes is the dawning of self-realization, which you have seen, to begin the journey out of suffering. It starts with a surface understanding that you are not your thoughts, and that your thoughts will never bring you enduring happiness. The universe (aka you) will test your sincerity each step along the way, and drive the realization deeper, until the dregs are drunk. Then, you will unconditionally be free. Meanwhile, enjoy the dance ??

That's great to hear. Emotional honesty is the foundation of any healthy relationship. You grieved at the potential loss of your relationship, and in the process arrived at a place of surrender that allowed you to reconcile. I'm glad that it proved helpful for you and your girlfriend. Here is the litmus test. Would you have remained at peace if the attachment to your relationship was permanently dissolved? Is the surrender still there, or have you reattached now that you are back together? Will you feel the same way if you break up again? There will always be attachments, as long as conditions are placed on our experience. It is only when you learn to let go of every expectation, and unconditionally embrace whatever is, that you live fully in the flow state of yourself. That is when you truly move beyond suffering. It doesn't mean dishonoring experience. To the contrary, it frees you to honor life fully. The difference is that you no longer identify with it, or demand the impossible of it. Unconditional uncertainty is incredibly frightening to the ego. It will fight you every step of the way, because it knows that its existence depends on the lie that enduring happiness is possible outside of yourself. That realization is the true gift of suffering. When you have suffered enough, you see that clinging to thoughts and feelings has never delivered what was promised. No matter how hard you try to earn it, the trophy is inevitably transient. This wisdom will give you the strength to truly surrender. You will release your white-knuckled grip on the edge of the egoic mind, and tumble through the void without knowing anything, except that are no longer willing to listen to the false promises of the mind. The light that you discover after passing through the void is ineffably brilliant, and beyond anything you could have hoped for in the phenomenal world.

God experiences nothing in ultimate reality, but it experiences everything in creation. The cosmos is a sequence of experiences, evolving toward self-realization, which is the most sublime state within the dream. It is the paradoxical limbo moment which is the pinnacle, when the eyes of God flutter open, but the dream has not entirely faded. The seer and the seen dissolve into the singularity that is God. What else could this be?

Suffering is only necessary until it serves its purpose?Instead of resisting it, allow its energy to flow through you freely. It will burn away your attachments, and show you the secret of yourself. Bonfire of Me Suffering strikes the spark of my undoing, Catching in the kindling of thought, Consuming self to soot, intensifying, Crumbling the fortress that I wrought, Purifying fire ever rising, Burning through the ropes of my desire, Devouring the karma of my making, Soul wind stirring these flames higher, Scattering the ashes of my ego, No illusion left, only the fire.

Suffering serves the deepest purpose. It is the inferno which drives you away from the mind and back to yourself. Psychedelics and meditation may provide poignant insights into your nature, but only suffering gives you the will to actualize those insights. Spiritual curiosity alone is not enough.

You could say all dreams are empty, but then why did you create them? Lucid dreaming is the highest adventure, but still it is only a dream.

Suffering can serve as either a blessing or a curse. It is a sword pointed at your heart, and you have the choice of how to respond. Most grasp the blade and desperately try to shove it away, without understanding that resistance only bloodies them more. Few realize that fighting against the present moment is self-defeating, and instead choose to allow the energy of the experience to pass through them. They are cleansed and deepened in the process. Seeing clearly brings them closer to their true self. Suffering is the ultimate solvent. If you allow it, suffering dissolves your attachments. It teaches you not to identify with the phenomenal world, as if it has the ability to give you meaning beyond who you actually are. Life can be enjoyed, and even celebrated, but the moment you cling to it or resist it, you will return to the school of suffering for another semester.

I have stood in a place surrounded by mirrors. When you look at a mirror in front of you, it reflects not only you, but the reflection in the mirror behind you, and so on into a seeming infinity of reflections. I saw the same as a kid, when I dreamed that I dreamed that I was dreaming. Creation is the concentric gaze moving outward beyond each reflection, and realization is the eccentric gaze receding from each reflection until it is entirely refocused on itself.

What do you mean by THIS? If you are referring to the cosmos and everything within it, it is limited by its nature. For example, consider its age. The Big Bang occurred 13.8 billion year ago, so light has only had that much time to travel. The cosmos is currently 93 billion light-years in diameter. Most scientists believe it will eventually reach the limit of its expansion in 65 million years, and collapse upon itself in the Big Crunch. Mystics have realized the same expansion and collapse of the cosmos, millennia before scientists did. If by THIS you are referring to ultimate reality, which is beyond the cosmos, it has no dualistic attributes including creation/destruction, transience/intransience, and form/formlessness.

All forms are transient. Whatever is created must eventually die. Call it the Law of Dualities. The stick always has two ends. Beyond time is beyond the dualities of birth and death. All created things are transitory; those who realize this are freed from suffering. This is the path that leads to pure wisdom. - Dhammapada 20:277