Preetom

This right here strikes to the heart of the matter. The corresponding spiritual dissonance, discomfort and confusion that results due to the absence of integrity between what we think we want(or should want) and we really want(where our lives are actually heading). "According to the prarabdha (i.e. destiny] of each one, He, its Ordainer, being in every place [i.e. in every soul] will make it play its role. That which is not to happen will never happen, however hard one tries. That which is to happen will not stop, in spite of any amount of obstruction. This is certain! Hence, to remain silent is the best." -RM to his mother Only this level of honesty and faith can pull this off. Thats why our small little minds get tortured and explode when it tries to think ''big thoughts"

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As winterknight said, trying to bring Truth down in the world is another project of the spiritual ego. There is a notion of 'intregation' in advaita vedanta. But its NOT how that word gets often thrown around. It's not a non-existent 'Natasha' that now has to intregate various aspects of Truth and by doing all that, 'Natasha' will grow more enlightened, more functional, more holy, see more oneness/harmony etc over time. Thats a caricature of 'intregation'. The nonduality teacher Fred Davis explains it well. Its not 'Natasha' integrating Truth but rather it is Truth which erases ''Natasha-ness" and the patterns associated with it over time. This idea is also heavily propounded in Adi Shankara's Vivekchudamani. Sell-realization is not a mere project one can somehow get over and move onto the next project. Shankara says after self-realization, any idea other than constant abidance and attachment to Self is delusion and needs to be rooted out. That is intregation. But unfortunately, this message can easily be misunderstood and then label nonduality as anti-human. Thats why it requires tremendous maturity and self-groundedness to stomach this stuff.

Thanks for elaborating on this! The way I understood that verse is one first and foremost has to realize the Self by turning more and more inward. But instead of doing that thoroughly many people fall in the mire of thought patterns like "contemplate about everything", "everything is god/brahman", "try to see god in everything", "i have to intregate everything" etc all the while the puzzle of self still remains intact. And as a result of that, the irreversible breakthrough never happens and one fails to live the living "experience" of it. Instead they cant help but settling for nondual beliefs and ideologies and a new set of "enlightened morality"

''First the disciple has to be prepared and purified with the teachings and practice of stillness and self-control. Then he is to be initiated in the creed that ''All is Brahman and you are that pure Spirit''. But who teaches the faith of ''all is Brahman'' to the half taught and ignorant, truly entangles him in the strong snare of hell'' - Yoga Vashishta (chap 39, verse 23) @winterknight would you agree with this?

Excellent! This is something Ramana Maharshi and Rupert Spira says occasionally. The Self is already complete. There is no case where the Self is not itself. That's why in order to 'know' the Self, all one has to do is to cease knowing things other than the Self. It's the relaxation of objective attention and instead promoting subjective being. Yes, that's certainly another kind of external samadhi. But most good spiritual teachers including Rupert Spira don't recommend that right off the bat. One needs to establish the singularity and supremacy of the Self all alone at first. Once that breakthrough is there, the 2nd part of consuming everything else into the Self becomes almost automatic..just to find out that there never was anything but the Self.

Good god! There are just so many things that can fuck one up anytime anywhere that I sometimes marvel in awe how in the world this thing called 'life' ever seems to work and remain stable?

Certain latent tendencies. From an early age I never resonated with conventional views of life. I wasn't rebellious or anything. Instead I mostly kept to myself. That led me to start reading bhagavaad gita everyday in teenage years but didnt understand much. Then once I came across vedanta and modern sages like Ramana Maharshi few years back, their eloquent and lucid delivery made nondual spirituality my most favorite topic. I've always found myself almost unable to seriously think about things everyone else is seemingly working on: Building the personality, future, holding onto the past as solid ground for reference, accumulating wealth, security, validation, partner, community, shoulds etc. As I grow older I find it harder to resonate with these things. So yeah I think my 'uncommon' samskaras as opposed to 'regular' samskaras initiated and still kept my interest in spirituality. Not really frustration. And not really seeking some exotic piece of knowledge or state anymore. The biggest challenge for now is feeling physical discomfort. While doing self inquiry, there is usually tremendous amount of feelings of heaviness, constriction in chest, head etc. Its been like this for few years now. Now its still there more or less but I kind of got used to it. Before it used to seriously knock off my ground.

Exactly. There is nothing left to do, have, become, grasp, reject. Do you see the nature of desire and mental movement now? The very chase towards something or away from something is the thrill, the adventure, the grind. But once you are complete, its game over. You can have all the knowledge, wealth, communion, power in all worlds of all times. Then once you have it...wait..thats it? ? All movement aims to reach this repose. Also known as unconditional happiness. Resting in oneself.

possibilities

Derailing threads into nondual squables about who is closer to god is inclusive to absolute goodness

You can definitely send them 100g tuffles or whatever

There is a place called ''Self-actualizaion Journals'' in this forum for all the verbal littering, word vomit and monologues. No one will warn or fight you there. But in other places, one needs to be coherent to have any somewhat intelligent 'dialogue' and conversation. One can't simply spew whatever he/she wants right into everyone's ear.

@RendHeaven HOLY HELL you destroyed everything! I bet you are great at parties @Conrad Dang even God has tough days at office

This is basically the cessation of inside-outside duality by becoming enlightened. Check whether you can 'experientially' mark with pinpoint distinction where your body ends and the world begins. You can't! This inside-outside duality is purely a conceptual position we blindly take and the dualistic nature of sight reinforces this belief. So now if you wanna explore this topic more deeply, let me share 2 ways of doing it. 1) Pure Objectivity: Notice that whatever you can perceive CANNOT be you. You see a car, so the car is not you. In the exact same mechanism, you see an image of a car as a thought or feel certain sensations. So that's why these bodily sensations and thoughts cannot be you as well. Everything is objective, ''out there''. Whereas, you are the pure subject; formless, inconceivable, imperceivable. So that breaks apart the inside-outside duality. 2) Pure Subjectivity: Everything including the body and the world are simultaneously rising in YOU. There is no objectivity. It's all inside you. Pure subjectivity, simultaneous creation wherever your attention falls. This too breaks apart the inside-outside duality. Both these ways breaks apart notions of deluded materialism, causality and the erroneous view of duality which leads to suffering. But our problem is, we have half assed both views and created this duality of subjectivity inside the body and objectivity out in the world. The way to break free of this cycle is to take either of these 2 views to it's full circle and breakpoint singlehandedly and not mixing them together somewhere halfway.

We need all the avengers to close up this woo woo mess ?

the prophecy of your name coming true ?

@Paul92 Why are you believing Leo or other woo woo nonsense? Go live the life you enjoy. If that fails, then come back.

All these woo woo stuff will always be speculative and open to doubt and debate. Thank god enlightenment/truth has nothing to do with these fancy things. It is only to do with one's own very existence. And fortunately, neither a camera nor other people are required to recognize the truth of that.

There is another way to see this. Enlightenment is always, already and the ONLY case. Whether we know it or not, agree it or not doesn't matter. What is absolutely true is true nonetheless. Let's call that truth ''enlightenment". Now could it be the case that there are some ideas(like brains, materialism etc) that are actively denying the truth. But yet truth remains truth nonetheless. So by mingling with some portion of that brain or making some other physical changes( like psychedelics, shamanic breathing, fasting, yoga, visualization, trance etc) those delusive thoughts, beliefs and way of seeing things get deactivated. Like some sort of unvieling. And then truth is 'recognized'. But its not like the truth got born just then with a brain state. If it were the case, the truth wouldn't be worth shit.

thats inevitable more or less. The only way to not misunderstand something is to literally BE it. Considering this, every single thought, belief, worldview, interpretation is religion

Holy hell MY EYES

The misuse of text formatting creates eye cancer Eye cancer promotes proper use of text formatting Proper use of text formatting creates healthy eyes Healthy eyes goof around and create the misuse of text formatting

LOL good luck invading planets while floating on sea

Where Are Other Peoples Thoughts Located? Other people, their thoughts, sense of location all comes up in YOU