Moksha

Maybe the meaning is in the story itself. Have you ever dreamed that you could fly, or that you were running from a monster that would inevitably catch you in its claws? Clearly the dream has value, beyond timeless, unchanging, relentlessly formless reality. Otherwise, why would Consciousness dream? The best of both worlds is to be awake, within the dream. Enjoy it for what it is, but don't take it too seriously

What if there are different dimensions of reality? In relative reality, there are separate subjects and objects. There are causes and effects. It is a tidy Newtonian universe, never mind that it starts to fray around the edges at extremes. When you push the universe to its limits, macrocosmically or microcosmically, you see relativity for what it is. Einstein realized this, as have quantum physicists and astrophysicists following in his wake. In ultimate reality, there is no separation. The subject is the object. Consciousness is the incomprehensible uncaused cause. People bash their heads against the conceptual wall until they are bloody, refusing to relent until they "understand". Eventually, if they are lucky, they directly realize the truth. And when they do, they inevitably laugh.

This. Knowledge is bound to the conditioned mind. Humans have such a hard time accepting mystery. Let go of knowing, and be. We have the macrocosmic mystery of the universe, and we have the microcosmic mystery at the subatomic level. Underlying that is the deepest mystery of all: the mystery of Consciousness. The one thing you cannot doubt about yourself is that you are Conscious. - Eckhart Tolle The more one studies attempted solutions to problems in politics and economics, in art, philosophy, and religion, the more one has the impression of extremely gifted people wearing out their ingenuity at the impossible and futile task of trying to get the water of life into neat and permanent packages. Religious ideas are like words--of little use, and often misleading, unless you know the concrete realities to which they refer. The word 'water' is a useful means of communication amongst those who know water. The same is true of the word and the idea called 'God'...The reality which corresponds to 'God' and 'eternal life' is honest, above-board, plain, and open for all to see. But the seeing requires a correction of mind, just as clear vision sometimes requires a correction of the eyes. Belief clings, but faith lets go...Our minds have been prepared for it by this very collapse of the beliefs in which we have sought security. From a point of view strictly, if strangely, in accord with certain religious traditions, this disappearance of the old rocks and absolutes is no calamity, but rather a blessing. It almost compels us to face reality with open minds, and you can only know God through an open mind just as you can only see the sky through a clear window. To discover the ultimate Reality of life--the Absolute, the eternal, God--you must cease to try to grasp it in the forms of idols. These idols are not just crude images, such as the mental picture of God as an old gentleman on a golden throne. They are our beliefs, our cherished preconceptions of the truth, which block the unreserved opening of the mind and heart to reality. The legitimate use of images is to express the truth, not to possess it. 'Unless a grain of corn fall into the ground and die, it remains alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit'...What religion calls the vision of God is found in giving up any belief in the idea of God. By the same law of reversed effort, we discover the 'infinite' and the 'absolute,' not by straining to escape from the finite and relative world, but by the most complete acceptance of its limitations. Paradox as it may seem, we likewise find life meaningful only when we have seen that it is without purpose, and know the 'mystery of the universe' only when we are convinced that we know nothing about it at all. - Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity

@Bodhitree Go where you feel the resonance. Enjoy your realizations beneath the bodhi tree. Only you know the shade that will bring you rest. I am an outlier in this community. I'm not young, have no interest in psychedelics, and have seen little of Leo's content. Still, this was the sanctuary that I stumbled across after my eyes opened, and I will always honor it for that. Our community is a melange of mirrors, Consciousness gazing upon itself, diffracting its reflections in every direction, but somehow ultimately pointing to the sameness of us all.

Don't skim. Spiritually feast. Disregard the concepts, and realize the profound truths that dissolve the boundaries between superficial traditions. 1,000 holy books sped-read are of less worth than one book, Consciously realized. The Perennial Philosophy appears in every age and civilization: There is an infinite, changeless reality beneath the world of change This same reality lies at the core of every personality The purpose of life is to discover this reality experientially, that is, to realize God while here on earth - Aldous Huxley Various books have spoken to me, perhaps most profoundly the Bhagavad Gita, not because it is clearer than others, but because I encountered it when I was ready to receive it. It is not so much about the book, as about your readiness to hear, beyond the clamoring of the conditioned mind, in the stillness of the spaciousness that you are.

Loneliness is a normal human emotion. Most people are genetically and environmentally wired to seek companionship. Maslow's hierarchy places social needs at the middle of the pyramid. A good friend or spouse can make living more beautiful. Better, they can make living more challenging It is easy to be woke when you are sitting in a cave, but the real test comes when dealing with the egos of others. Ultimately, we are all the same Consciousness. Loneliness is an illusion. It is an attachment of the ego, but rather than blaming yourself for it, realize why humans evolved the emotion in the first place. It contributes to our survival. Through spiritual practice, it is possible to distance, and even dissolve, the need for others. Once you do, paradoxically, it is easier to love.

@lmfao Beauty of psychology; the placebo is better than the effect.

@BlackMaze Cool experiment But what if the subconscious is free, and it just takes the conscious brain longer than the machine to recognize the choice? Better, what if the subconscious isn't free, but the Consciousness that informs it is calling all the shots? ? @lmfao Wouldn't x-z, stabilizing y be more of a bobble than a spin? I tried both, and sometimes it changed, but sometimes it didn't. There goes my Nobel Prize.

@BlackMaze I might get a Nobel Prize if I could prove free will Unfortunately, even altering my perception on command still begs the question of where the command came from.

@BlackMaze I tried changing the direction on purpose, but couldn't do it. My mind just switched back and forth on its own. Guess that is proof we really don't have free will

So weird, she kept switching directions as I watched. I noted each time that she switched, scrolled back to before that time, and she still moved in the new direction despite seeing her move the opposite direction at the same point earlier.

Alan Watts has a nice book that I recommend adding to your reading list: The Wisdom of Insecurity. Life is unavoidably insecure. In a transient cosmos, how can anything be secure? Everything is born, and everything must die. Chasing after security is the definition of suffering. It is a fool's errand. The answer is not to clamor up a conceptual model like Spiral Dynamics. It is to let go of the insane egoic demand for certainty, and directly realize that your ultimate nature is already secure. Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God. - A Course in Miracles

Why is that? Love is seamless. Seeing the value of "others" is the same as seeing the value of "you". It is all the same Consciousness. The deeper your awakening, the more easily love is effortless. You see no difference between others and yourself, and realize the sameness in every being. What is love, other than the realization that we are all ultimately the same?

It is a common misunderstanding that awakening solves all suffering. It doesn't. There are many awakenings, each taking you a step closer to fully realizing your ultimate nature. In my experience, the deeper the awakening, the more severe the backlash. The ego doesn't go down without a long, bloody fight. Spirituality is not just epiphanies. It is integrating those epiphanies into your daily life, until you develop the spiritual muscle to remain present in every moment, no matter how turbulent life becomes. Meditation and conscious integration, when diligently applied, will do that.

Consciousness is just a name, like God, Brahman, or Mystery. It doesn't have anything to do with "consciousness" in the medical sense; it doesn't go away when you sleep, get knocked out, or drink too much. It doesn't even go away when "you" die. It is always here and now, and it is all. Your human mind cannot conceptualize it, although many people try all the same. As Consciousness, you can directly realize your ultimate nature, but that is beyond conceptualization.

The universe, and humans, and every other transient being is bound to die. That is the nature of relative reality. Celebrate the separateness, grieve the loss of loved ones, and even the loss of you, within the dream. When your eyes open, you will see the seamlessness, and you will laugh

Perhaps the secret to Self-realization is not trying to make sense. What happens when you let go of the demands of the conditioned mind? When you realize the silence? Have you seen the space and the serenity in simply being?

By ultimate truth, I am referring to the underlying ultimate reality, beyond the cosmos. Ultimate truth is timeless, changeless, infinite Consciousness, which is beyond all forms and boundaries. It is uncaused, and is the cause of all things. Relative truth is the dream realm created by Consciousness, bound by illusory time and space, from which all forms arise, and to which all forms return. Both ultimate and relative truth are real, within the realms that they inhabit. It is all Consciousness, in different states of Self-awareness. The Bhagavad Gita describes this beautifully, especially in Chapter 8. The Day of Brahma ends after a thousand yugas and the Night of Brahma ends after a thousand yugas. When the day of Brahma dawns, forms are brought forth from the Unmanifest; when the night of Brahma comes, these forms merge in the Formless again. 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. 1,000 yugas equals 4.3 billion years; clearly it isn't literal, just a figurative reference to the near-eternity during which the cosmos lives and grows, before returning to dormancy, in an endless cycle of creation and destruction. Commentary on this chapter from Eknath Easwaran Just as day follows night in eternal, unvarying rhythm, so does the entire universe undergo cycles of creation, death, and new birth…It ceases to be – or, rather, it continues only in a subtle, unmanifest form, a dream in the mind of [ultimate Consciousness]…cosmos after cosmos arising from the black immensity of nothingness – is quite similar to modern theories of the expanding and contracting universe put forward by contemporary cosmology.

Tolle describes the biblical story of Jesus visiting Mary and Martha, who are sisters. Martha is running around the house, making preparations for a gathering, while Mary sits at the feet of Jesus. 38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” 41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” - Luke 10:38-42 Tolle's point is that there is a time for being (Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus) and a time for doing (Martha busily engaged in preparing food). Spiritual seekers often have a predisposition toward being vs. doing, but still find it necessary to navigate between these dimensions throughout our life, based on the circumstances of the moment. Wish there was a universal answer, but it depends on each person's circumstances. Someone may become overwhelmed in the world of work, and suffer tremendously from stress, anxiety, and bone-deep weariness. If significant enough, the suffering can eventuate in their awakening, without any deliberate direction toward being. Others may spend decades meditating in a monastery, with all of their physical needs freely provided, and still not awaken. After his awakening, Tolle spent 3 years simply being. He sat on park benches and observed nature and people. Then he felt a profound need to ask the universe to accelerate his transition into doing. He was ready to act on the insights he had gained following his awakening, which eventually led to "The Power of Now". The same overall pattern was true for me, different in some details, but I won't go into that here. My perspective on meditation is that if you are forcing it, you aren't doing it right. It does require diligence, but the diligence naturally arises when you are ripe for the lessons that meditation will teach you. The conditioned mind responds most readily when gently and lovingly guided, rather than when fiercely reprimanded, like a stubborn child. When you begin to realize the fruits of meditation, it becomes its own reward, and the practice is self-sustaining.

As with any teaching, take what resonates in this moment and disregard the rest. A teaching that seems like a loophole today could be an epiphany tomorrow. Bhikkhus, the teaching is merely a vehicle to describe the truth. Don’t mistake it for the truth itself. A finger pointing at the moon is not the moon. The finger is needed to know where to look for the moon, but if you mistake the finger for the moon itself, you will never know the real moon. The teaching is like a raft that carries you to the other shore. The raft is needed, but the raft is not the other shore. An intelligent person would not carry the raft around on his head after making it across to the other shore. Bhikkhus, my teaching is the raft which can help you cross to the other shore beyond birth and death. Use the raft to cross to the other shore, but don’t hang onto it as your property. Do not become caught in the teaching. You must be able to let it go. - Thich Nhat Hanh

True teachers help you to remove the internal rubble that keeps you from the truth you already know. Instead of asking that is Leo's loophole, or any other teacher's loophole, ask whether they are helping you clear the collateral damage of your conditioning. All that I or any teacher can do is reflect back to you who or what you are. An apple falls when the moment is right. - Eckhart Tolle Once the detritus is cleared, there is no need for any teaching. There is only being.

As a scientist, I understand the rules of evidence. I know experimental design, statistics, and validity. But all of that is bound by the parameters of relative reality. Ultimate truth is only directly realized. Guides can point the way, but it happens when you are ready for it to happen. Your eyes open, and you see, beyond you, into the seamless Self that infuses every being. When you realize the sameness of yourself in every tree, every rock, and every enemy, that is the epiphany.

Have you ever experienced a lucid dream? Once, as a kid, I not only dreamed that I was dreaming. I dreamed that I dreamed that I was dreaming. You abide by the parameters of the dreamscape, but paradoxically, you are aware that it is only a dream. That awareness frees you, even within the dream. Deeply within, there is serenity, despite where the dream takes you. You can't entirely unimagine relative reality, because you would dissolve yourself in the process, but you can see it clearly for what it is. When you open your eyes, within the dream, you realize the freedom of your ultimate nature. You can still enjoy the dream, for what it is, without being bound by it.

@Pateedm Thank you ?

A hard core solipsist wouldn't grieve if someone they love died. After all, everyone and everything is an illusion, outside of their own reality. I don't consider solipsists to be enlightened. They have had an incremental awakening, but haven't yet arrived at the summit. Enlightenment is not only the realization of your ultimate nature. It is seeing the sameness of yourself in every other being. It is unconditional love. Life is worthy of honor, celebration, and grief. Seeing clearly doesn't diminish the value of living. To the contrary, it enhances the experience, beyond what is possible when you are blind. It is the transience of life that makes it precious. Realizing your ultimate nature, beyond relative reality, frees you to live lucidly. Instead of dismissing the dream, embrace it. You created you for a reason.