snowyowl

nice, but then of what is 'the mind' a concept?

I didn't know he has staff, lucky bloke! I follow his youtube videos (which are mostly of his meetings with students) and sent off for his book 'Being Aware Of Being Aware' the other day.

Hi I can't really recommend which teacher you could try as it depends on what works for you, plus I haven't met many in person. But here's a few others I can think of. Rupert Spira - lives in Oxford and travels round the world https://non-duality.rupertspira.com/meet/ Tony Parsons - not sure where he lives but he does hold meetings in London (Covid permitting) https://www.theopensecret.com/calendar Spiritual covers a wide range - there's Buddhist / Zen type groups & teachers too, but I'm not sure if that's your thing.

Thought is a stream of language, it's effectively talking to ourselves; speaking out loud is talking to someone else. But then everything is just awareness (or being) taking various temporary forms. The sofa I'm sitting on is made of it too, but what's different about thought / language is that it is an abstraction, it's form labelling and pointing to other forms. This is us human's greatest superpower and greatest flaw, because it makes us feel separate and superior to the rest of nature.

@Javfly33 the alternative perspective I'm not expressing very well, is that the music, colour etc are self-aware, and that is me. I am unified awareness, I am the phenomena we call everything. But yeah, that's not a very practical perspective for everyday life in society so if we want to be a person we need to split it up like you put it.

I think if you literally have a completely empty mind there would be nothing to remember, not even any awareness of time passing, rather like being in a dreamless sleep state, or a general anaesthetic. But there is a state of pure awareness without thought, where there are still sensory activities like hearing, feeling etc, which just flows through without anyone to observe it or think about it. I've got the TMI book as my meditation project for next year - btw it's available for free download on archive.org if you're short of cash.

Love you too Javfly But can I ask about this: "Awareness being aware of everything." It has a subtle suggestion (in my loosely held opinion) that you're driving a wedge between 'awareness' and 'everything'. Is there something called awareness which is distinct from its content (everything), or are everything and awareness just two names for the same unity? Is the screen distinct from the picture? Sorry if this sounds like I'm splitting hairs but I come up against this everywhere in the nondual scene. Otherwise such a beautiful letter

"As above so below"? I can't pass the buck onto God for changing stuff if I'm not supposed to change it either. But I get your point, even though I'd use a different language to this.

Seeing life as a whole ... yes but where I get stuck is that my resistance, my wanting to change something, is also part of life! So, letting life flow means stopping my urge to change it. But that's changing something! It's a strange loop!

Yeah, I've had a sleep and think I get it now. Conditional happiness (ie pleasure) is what we chase after (or run away from unhappiness). Unconditional happiness is, like nirvana, already here, we don't need to go anywhere apart from uncovering it from the layers of our psyche which are obscuring it. Including the seeking which is just another cloak over the naked reality

Eh? You're saying that happiness is what makes me happy - how is that an insight? What do I need to do to get there?

These two quotes seem to contradict, is it the 'thing in the world' which creates our relative happiness (unhappiness), or our attachments? Maybe I've quoted you out of context? But I agree (in theory) that non-attachment = unconditional happiness. BTW, who or what does the attaching? I thought there's no-one there inside with free will to attach to stuff anyway? Or, it's all imaginary. illusory? Edit: why is this your last insight you're sharing with us? I love your posts here, but if you've decided to stop it'd be good to know why

I like this analogy, and I've never been comfortable with the perspective of 'illusion', non-existence of ego etc. Any analogy is limited of course, we can just as well talk about height, breadth and meta-perspectives too. I'm not keen on the word 'reality' either, which creates (for me) more confusion than light and clarity.

I don't think this is only a feature of 'western' society. In the 'east' too, from what I've heard, serious spiritual practice is done by a minority, there's plenty of Buddhist monks even who don't meditate much. But it's okay, if stage orange is where most folks are at, meditation is a good tool to help with progress until we're ready to move on. In fact, meditation can be a constant in an uncertain world, staying with us whatever stages we're going through.

Just call it Being, Absolute Reality, or Infinity, then you can still be an atheist if you want. Why are these labels so important anyway, when it's the nameless awareness which matters?

Hi and welcome to the forum! Let's see if I get this. You had a glimpse of infinity at 10, then spent 35 years living a regular life, followed by 5 years of spiritual research. Well, that's pretty awesome, but you don't mention if you have a practice apart from your peyote trips. You seem to know a lot of theory, and has any spiritual path and practice appealed to you to commit yourself to daily practice?

I remember that Ajahn Sumedho of the Theravada tradition used to teach about a background 'sound of silence' - mentions it here in the introduction (p14) https://cdn.amaravati.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Ajahn-Sumedho-Volume-4-The-Sound-of-Silence.pdf

This may be true, I don't really know. But what's your reasoning why a socialistic economy would be less prone to a severe recession?

@SamC is it high or low pitched? I get both myself, but the low pitched is also known as the Worldwide Hum (or Taos Hum, or just The Hum) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hum which isn't necessarily Tinnitus but there's various theories as to the cause. Another thought - have you had your ears checked for ear wax recently?

Sorry to hear you've been going through this, and welcome to the forum. Please take care of yourself and your health, that is the most 'spiritual' thing you need to do at the moment. Give the detox time to clean yourself out, engage with the professional help. Try spending time with nature, start an exercise routine, healthy diet, good sleep routine and daily meditation. Slow down a bit and relax. Learn to have regular friendships and relationships - remember that females are whole people too, not just for sex. At 18 years old you are beginning your adult life, don't worry about awakening etc, look at Maslow's Pyramid and focus on where you are at. Please try to find peace in the moment you are in, rather than chasing after sensations and experiences to get happiness somewhere else.

@Danioover9000 sorry to hear you've been depressed, but good that Crysty helped you with it. Much love to you both

Rupert Spira made a comment once which made sense to me. I forget the details, but the gist was that for most people, nondual experiences are beauty and love. Beauty is when you forget yourself in something impersonal, like some art, or nature like a beautiful sunset. Love is when your ego merges or expands into another person. Basically you realise the boundaries of self are relative, change according to the situation, not fixed to your individuality.

@Moksha Interesting ... I've re-read both out posts, and although there's a difference in vocabulary, but there's a similar structure. One centre (feeling or truth), with a diverse collection of types (specialised feelings or body/mind/perception etc). Not so far apart after all.

@Moksha I'm intrigued ... how can there be a hierarchy of truth like this? A sensation is a sensation, a feeling is a feeling, I don't get how that is anything other than the absolute truth? Thought can be untrue, I get that, if it's not pointing to the 'right' thing. Thought can interpret a feeling accurately or inaccurately, but the feeling or sensation itself is, well, just itself.

This reminds me of a revelation I had the other day. "It's all feeling." Emotions, yes they are feeling. Sense perceptions too, are feeling the energy vibrations we receive from outside the body. Even thoughts are feelings running inside the brain/mind - more specialised feelings, but internal types of feelings made from the sensation of memories circulating in awareness, specialised because they are structured in language. In fact, awareness = feeling = matter/energy sensitive to itself.