Batman

This post actually feels like a good first step in the direction of honesty, which will allow you to rebuild your integrity.

The Meta-Skill of knowing how to acquire any skill efficiently.

I think I can get what you are communicating. But a name is only a concept, used for the purpose identifying a certain object (usually a life form that participates in human culture such as humans, cats, dogs, etc), or a group of objects (such as a family name which refers to some linkage between human beings). Given it's conceptual nature, name has no meaning whatsoever, unless we assert meaning to it. And I sense that it is you who is 'trapping' yourself inside a certain character, that is recognized by some name. Of course you are not your name. This is not the only concept you are not Being. Your entire self-concept is a fabrication, and is not who you really are. So feeling trapped by a specific name is no different from feeling trapped by some belief, such as that you are smart. If you believe you are smart, you will act to reflect this self-image to others, reinforce it for yourself, and avoid activities that may nibble in this belief. Feeling trapped is the reasonable outcome of any self-distinction you assume. So, name is just a small piece in the puzzle of the self. And yes, if you have associations or meaning that you imposed on your name, you may find you are trapped by them, because you identified with them, maybe even without noticing. The only one trapping you. is. your. self.

Yes, this happens when you are being dishonest with yourself, and lack the consciousness to distinct whether your understanding comes from belief or from Consciousness. This is pretty basic stuff IMO, distinguishing between concept and realization. But it is a common trap to fall into. Hope your head is fine though.

Look, I can really sense you man. But why care so much? Peterson, Harris & Co. (and also more self-help "gurus" such as Jocko WIlling, Tai Lopez and whatever) are all on same band-wagon of materialism intellectualism, who got stuck really hard in the "orange" values domain. That's their thing, and being trapped in belief system for so long should not interrupt you, because this is just how society works. You can't have Tolle, Ramana, Spira, Adyashanti, Leo Gura, Ralston, Osho, Wilber, and so on (order has no significance) without throwing some Petersoniasim in the mix. That's how society works, it has different layers of mind that reflect the consciousness of the individual. You should deep in the Spiral Dynamics water, maybe it's model might clarify this for you.

Shit, this is interesting. I want to read this.

Do you really believe you are all those things? I think you are confusing who you really are with some self-concept you have about yourself, which is what is causing you to feel so separated and judgmental toward the 'other'. Good luck.

If you'll do the work, you'll start to notice that alcohol does little to relieve you of your traumas and makes you feel a lot worse than before. That is because raising your consciousness will decrease your ego energy, and you will be more tuned with your body. So you can drink, but don't be surprised when you'll find out that drinking is a shitty activity.

I sense that you are very much 'stuck' in your own mind. It is very common. I would suggest meditation to chill this turmoil.

As stated before, no words can do justice in describing what you true nature is, because words only act as a representation of the thing they refer to. Nevertheless, since we don't want to leave you with nothing, and with the purpose of invoking interest and motivation in you, I'll invite you to imagine what is it like to discover, suddenly, that everything you are and everything ever happened to you was you making love to yourself. Another metaphor is the feeling of being hugged by infinite number of arms, which, to your surprise, are all yours. Another one is the dissolution of all distinctions, that blocked the unifying essence of everything that is, which is Love. This is of course not to confuse with the human emotion "love", which is only a form (or expression) of Love. This is where using the words "infinite love" to describe your true nature becomes a slippery slope, since in our personal and cultural understanding of the word love, we use it to convey a very limited scope of emotion. It is imperative to drop the associations we regularly tie the this word, so we can be open for a genuine and authentic experience of being Love (with capital L). It is not about being romantic, cuddly or in a social structure such as family, friendship, etc. This activities may help us feel less separated in our experience, and thus more loved, but they are not what "infinite love" refers to, although they are a form of it.

Yep, Truth is what is. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that 'Truth just is'. Every thing you want to attain or achieve means that you are directing your energy towards something that isn't. That's ego and survival.

@loub Amazing stuff. It really doesn't get better than that. And yes, obviously, it is undeniable. Deceit, corruption, misrepresentation, omission, lying, twisting the truth are all forms of dishonesty and are the opposite of what the word integrity refers to. Every act of anti-integrity will nibble and gnaw in the being, leading it down a more crooked path, and diminish the possibility to be one with what is true. This is also why without integrity and honesty it will be almost impossible to become directly conscious of what is absolutely true. How could it not be? It's what true, and you won't get what's absolutely so by being dishonest with yourself and others. Thanks for sharing. If possible, please share the details of the event. It might reflect for us how you experienced the principle of honesty.

I think you might be confusing between the Now and experience (mind). They are not the same, although experience (Mind) is a limited form of the Now. Your experience is not what is absolutely true. It is Mind, which was designed (or 'imagined') for the purpose of survival. It is only "real" within the reality (or prism) of self-survival and relative existence, not absolute reality. Mind is a subset, expression, and a realization of possibility within Consciousness, and so is a limited form of it. So, in that sense, you might say that experience (or Mind) is pure imagination, yes. But I sense the the word "imagination" may have negative connotation, so I would stick with a limited form of Consciousness. Unfortunately, even the most precise words are merely representations of Consciousness. The dream analogy might help in reconciling this, given that the substance of the dream is the dreamer's Mind, and so the dream is, in a sense, an imagination of the Mind.

From an absolute perspective, yes, of course. But as a self, you didn't create actualized.org, neither does it's existence is dependent exclusively on your finite mind. There are more finite minds that can distinct actualized.org within the reality of the self. So, I don't really see the point of what you are saying. If you realized your True and Absolute nature, congrats and hooray. Enlightenment is key in proceeding into transformation in accordance with what is Truth. But even after Enlightenment, you continue to exist as a separate self in a relative reality. If you are not speaking from direct consciousness, then you are in a complex condition my friend, because then your post will based on belief or hearsay, and I get the sense that this is the case for you. Nevertheless, I hope I'm wrong.

What book did you read about it? I think the problem with the charka model is that it has too much stigma, new age vibe, and seems very conceptual and abstract on the surface. A lot like the word and concept "Enlightenment".

The brain is a distinction (or an appearance) in the mind (which is the prism for experiencing reality as a self). As a distinction, it serves the reality of self-survival. This appearance or distinction has a certain uniqueness to it, because within the reality of mind, altering the form of the brain may cause changes in that reality. However, because it is only a distinction in a relative reality (the reality of self-survival), any changes to this distinction it will only affect the relative reality, whether by destroying the ability the experience it, or by expanding or contracting the mind, changing it's parameters and causing a different experience (or awareness). Nevertheless, it will still remain the reality of self-survival, albeit different. So, the brain is a unique distinction within consciousness, which appears to be the distinction that is most closely linked to the ability to experience consciousness in a specific fashion (due to it's inherent limits and capacities). Of course, according to science the brain has much more functionality other than generating experience or awareness, which we are not aware of (such as self-regulation of hormones). All the functions of the brain (including generating experience) seems, I suspect, to serve the persistence of a life form (human, dog, cat). Thus, the brain is the primary organ evolved in sentient creatures (aka form that can actively resist dissolution) to regulate survival.

@HonestlyAsking You should start asking yourself this questions. Maybe you will realize who and what you truly are, although I highly doubt that. Good luck anywayz. @DaHonorableCourt Sounds like the shrooms worked well on your identification the self. Being relieved from the clutter of ego, the tension and contraction of awareness were relaxed, enabling you to directly 'experience' your true nature as infinite consciousness. What was your experience of visuals? Did you try to close your eyes?

Let's assume that Leo Gura is delusional, and all his "followers" are blinds. What does it make of you, the one who registered to the forum and submitted this claims? I for one don't waste my time going into churches or cults to tell them they are delusional. Sorry to ruin it for you pal, but don't waste our time with you unsophisticated, non-humoristic, boring style of troll.

In a relative sense, thoughts are the function of mind and thus are meant to serve your survival in some way. They are the expression of a distinction you learned to create when you were a child, somewhere around when you learned language. The fact that they can also appear spontaneously and involuntary shows you how powerful is the motivating force that stands behind the conceptual self. If you watch your thoughts closely, scrutinize them, you will notice that mostly they serve you to map out your internal beliefs and concepts using language, so you could express them toward the other or actualize them some how in your experience. In self-enquiry they can also 'reveal' aspects of your mind that is not present in your cognition (also known as the negative distinction sub-conscious or uncognized mind). This is my personal experience thoughts.

Proof is itself finite, so how could you prove 'that' which is in-finite with that which is finite? In other words, proof is a limitation within infinity, and will never, ever, could represent, not to mention be, infinity. Infinity is the 'substance' of every proof, and already is self-evident. Even in court, a proof is not the truth of the matter which is being litigated by the parties. Proof serves to convince a judge or an arbitrator regarding factual claim. But the judge or the arbitrator will never have direct experience of the facts in the matter they adjudicate. They can only judge based on the claims and facts brought by the parties to them, and rule for in favor of the party that argued the more probable case. This is so with Consciousness (although every analogy eventually fall short of the mark when you approach absolutes). You cannot proof Consciousness because Consciousness is the substance of the proof. This is a self-referential problem, and why only you can be directly conscious of infinity, because it is you (and by you I don't mean the self ego mind). Only Consciousness can be 'conscious' of Consciousness, for it is it's inherent 'quality'. You, as a self, will never be able to prove to another self that Infinity exists, because it does not exist in the relative reality that a relative self exist in. This is also why arguing with materialists, or trying to convince anyone regarding absolute truth, is doomed the failure. Only Consciousness can 'know' itself. So you can only invite a relative self to inquire it's true infinite nature as Consciousness.

Yes, a lot of the suffering is due to the way society conditions and orient us almost exclusively towards survival. Our entire social institutes, nations, cities, family, schools, revolve around survival. When survival is the dominating context of experience, suffering is a natural result. This is because energies of survival are directed toward what isn't, not what is (truth). This is why some teachers are directing their teachings on "the present moment". In actuality, the social institutes were constructed by humanity in order to make survival accessible for most of the individuals in society. Unfortunately, the detrimental result of this self-shaping institutes is a transverse lost in our sense of being, which is replaced by activities of survival. But survival is only an element in being, and thus most of us find our self in the midst of the rat race, confused and wondering what happened to the 5-6 years old kid who just started to discover experience.

I see your contemplation regarding the matter and sympathize. As you probably have heard before, this is no matter for belief, only direct experience. You should not believe anything anyone tell you, including this very sentence. I must say that I sense a flavor of both skepticism and authenticity on your part, did you ever try any psychedelic? Regarding enlightenment and survival - of course enlightenment does not end survival. After enlightenment nothing changes. You remain to exist a self, which will always remain bounded by the principle of survival, and operate in the relative and self-referential reality. Nevertheless, enlightenment will probably readjust the self, and recontextualize the self's experience towards a more authentic way of being. After enlightenment, any form of manipulation, lying or deceiving becomes almost ridiculous, because you will see it for what it really is. So yes, in the context of social survival, enlightenment may chew on the ego's energy to deceive the other. But it does not mean that enlightenment is detrimental to the self. On the contrary, a false-self is probably more toxic to the organism that it inhibits, and causes more damage to the integrity of it's experience. I invite you to be completely and brutally honest with yourself and others for a month, and see how it affects your experience. By the way, most people who will grasp their true nature have probably already fixated a form of living that sustains their survival in a way that leaves spare time for inquiring into their own existence. It is almost impossible for an individual that is totally invested in surviving to become conscious of it's true nature. But again, you should throw away everything I just said. It is only relevant as a springboard if you are not already oriented towards truth.

I think it boils down to the 'characteristic' and 'shape' of the mind that is 'looking for' the truth. I would consider giving a try to a different approach, because the mind cannot internalize the ultimate truth of itself (but he can look for it until it's inevitable demise). Try to view it this way: the fundamental 'substance' (so to speak) of the mind, is the 'thing' that the mind is 'looking for'. The search itself is made out of the 'object' of the search. The truth is so 'close' to you, that you can't perceive it or conceive of it in any way. Unfortunately and eventually all analogies, sophisticated as they may seem, fall short. You don't have to find any truth, because It is you (and by you I don't mean the self, ego or mind, which are functions of survival and are not your true nature, which is you).

True. However, enlightenment is only possible with profound honesty. In our day and age, most 9 to 5 jobs out there are manipulation of mind for the purpose of creating a strong base for survival (usually by accumulating money and social status), causing exhaustion of the body and the individual's core sense of self. I suspect that individuals who 'experienced' deep enlightenment will find it very hard to keep manipulate their life like this, and will resign to a path that is more aligned with the impact enlightenment had on their mind. In my experience, the deeper your enlightenment gets, the more it will become intolerable living in a routine that does not align with your internal sense of being.

As a self, your identity will align with your spiritual discovers this way or another. However, if you adopt some words in a book or hearsay as the truth, this is no different from being a religious person and it is the sure way for developing a spiritual ego. Briefly, learn to distinct belief from consciousness, work to become directly conscious of the nature of ego\mind\self, and be honest with yourself and others.