Preetom

I've read it. It's beautiful. Precise and worth coming back to multiple times

But the hell fire seems to be everywhere...

million dollar question...hmmm..

@winterknight Thanks for the replies. I really appreciate your patience and willingness to look at things from unusual perspectives

I've been thinking about this.. Reality/Truth is non-conceptual but yet we try to rationalize, explain and understand things in our life on our own terms. Ultimately, it goes nowhere; an answer to a question seems to bring up 10 more questions. It seems this drive for understanding is an unending maze that we aren't even aware of. Exactly like how we chase wealth, relationships after relationships, pleasure etc. on endless loop pretty much all our lives; ignoring the fact that this strategy clearly isn't flying (wakey wakey ); yet virtually no one is stopping. How is the drive for understanding any different than this? Sure it's a more refined form of drive than pursuing gross things in life. But the mechanism seems to be the same. The only way this maze can perpetuate if the inmates of the maze forget that they are into a maze and actually going nowhere; preventing them from self-exploding and thus enable them to continue the chase. Have you ever thought or seen anyone thinking ''Okay, clearly I've failed on all levels possible in my life. I give up. Completely. No matter which direction I take, I end up in the same place. I give up''

you're right. Actually Hinduism shamed sexuality a lot less than other religions I guess. It freely expressed the male-female polarity through myths, deities etc. I was pointing towards the various yoga instructions Krishna gives to Arjuna in each chapter. They sound very rigid and superhuman.. Btw do you consider Bhagavad Gita as a helpful 'non-duality' text? I think I've heard about commentaries which criticizes Bhagavad Gita as a poor non-dual text but as a fairly good religious and adventurous text. Personally, I've found texts like Ashtavakra Gita, Mandukya Upanishad, Panchadashi a LOT direct and coherent which stands the test of incisive higher reasoning into our direct experience. These texts still stand infallible because they point to our experience and we can never legitimately deny that. And thus there have been commentaries which say that Arjuna actually never got Enlightened in it's real sense. He basically replaced his previous set of limiting beliefs and morality with a more robust and wise set of understanding for life. He basically went back to his kingdom, doing his samsara business, but this time more intelligently. It's like you never lived the 'Truth'. You heard a version of 'Truth', believed in that and then tried to act like a good boy according to that as best as you could.. Plus the entire dialogue of Bhagavad Gita sounds very dualistic and full of traditional ideas of God and devotee.

The myths go in the opposite extreme as well, banning and shaming sexual interactions and reproductions. In Bhagavad Gita, some things are framed such a way that it sounds like it's impossible to realize the Self if one ever takes a foot towards a worldly life. The Upanishads were generally called 'Aranyaka', meaning a business done by renunciate sages in the forests lol. It shows that this 'Truth' actually never had a place in the mainstream world as it doesn't have any material utility in general scope. I guess that's why this 'Truth' never invaded into mainstream society even though it has been all figured out for thousands of years..

Having glimpses is only glimpses (3rd stage of glimpsing the bull). It's like little puzzles that unfold and lead to the big ending. But it can't be said to be Enlightenment. If it isn't permanent abidance, it isn't Enlightenment or realization of true Self. After Enlightenment, absolutely no doubt remains regarding what one is and what is the basis of Reality. Yeah, there can be loads of things and mysteries going on in many levels, but things do get resolved at a very fundamental level once and for all. What I'll share shows that how highly Buddhists regard Enlightenment. From preparatory stages to the climax. Stage 1-5: All about concentration building and preparing the mind. Stabilizing the turbulence of mental waves and really nothing to do with Enlightenment. These stages are all about effort after effort. Not letting the mind wander but sticking it to one point, building access concentration. All other desires and distractions melt away by negligence as you persistently strengthen the mind through the object of concentration. The progressive stages represent deeper states of access concentration and mystical fireworks(You get tons of body-mind reaction when you do mental-energetic work). Completing the 5th stage (taming the bull) represents the pinnacle of a disciplined and concentrated mind (where the bull follows you like an obedient dog. This same bull used to run off to mountains from the slightest scent of distracting thoughts and desires) Ramana Maharshi's comments regarding these stages about concentration building: When one thought is persistently held in mind, a war begins. All other thoughts try to overpower that single thought. But persisting on that specific thought at all cost results in a strong mind. (this is stage 1-5 in a nutshell) Stage 6(Riding the bull home): This is the starting point of non-duality. This is basically being aware of being aware, sinking the mind into the heart, taking attention to it's source, riding the bull to home. This is a serene state where there is no effort, whip, emotional fireworks and discipline involved. You have already passed through these things. The mind just keeps falling back into it's source. Stage 7(Bull Transcended): The mind(bull) has totally merged into it's source. It has evaporated as if it never existed. There was no bull in the first place... Stage 8 (Both Bull and Self Transcended): This is where the last vestiges of personhood get annihilated once and for all. All the self-abidance 'non-practice' finally 'clicks' something. THIS IS ENLIGHTENMENT in it's truest sense. There remains no sense of 'I am'. You're done. Done means done. No levels of Enlightenment involved! Stage 9 (reaching the source): This stage represents the adjustment the body-mind goes through after Enlightenment. There is no body-mind independently doing things to be more pure. It's more like Truth indiscriminately flooding everything. The entire mode of perception recontextualizes itself according to this Understanding. ''Too many steps have been taken returning to the root and the source. Better to have been blind and deaf from the beginning!'' - this shows that life as you knew it is gone forever. The old life feels like a distant, weak murmuring memory.. ''Dwelling in one's true abode, unconcerned with and without - The river flows tranquilly on and the flowers are red'' - This points to the automatic recontextualization that takes place. Stage 10(return to society): Back to the market. Mountains are mountains again. Rivers are rivers again. Chop wood and carry water...your simple gestures, smile and silence becomes the most transformative agent for others; not your lectures on non-duality (that's the nutshell. I could elaborate each stage, breaking down each sentence pointer. But I hope you get the basic idea. It's a model after all, so no need to be too fussed over it) NOTE: You can see that how traditional systems were hardcore and prepared the body-mind solidly BEFORE Enlightenment(a super disciplined monastic life supported this strategy). So after Enlightenment, there wouldn't be much work involved. But modern advaita direct path, as it is taught, is the reverse of this process. Here, you can be Enlightened first and relatively quickly, but there would be years of slow deconditioning after that.

This makes sense because most enlightened ones who had children, had them before their search even began...

@winterknight Can it be that after escaping the maze, they (enlightened ones) generally don't feel like bringing new generations in this hell and see the whole drama unfolding in front of their eyes all over again...?

I'm pretty sure that kid is a boy. There are other videos as well, where this same kid asks question. That aside, as Rupert's primary teaching method is so grounded on our present experience and not some exotic theory; I guess this is why young people get his point fairly quickly. It becomes obvious because IT IS HOW WE EXPERIENCE LIFE. The more we grow up, the further we seem to get away from this alignment

Beautiful

Reading various posts about ox herding, I've thought about an alternative explanation of this whole metaphor which syncs perfectly with advaita vedanta. But people here might burn me at stake if I start expressing it

Dafuq is this? One thing is sure tho...your prayers won't work if they are haphazard like this

@SriBhagwanYogi This all basically boils down to staying with the pure I AM and stop imagining the I as this or that. Can I say it like that?

@who chit Can you describe or link the particular form of self-inquiry that you found to be most helpful for you?

This one as well @SriBhagwanYogi You know shit has hit the fan when the TV itself becomes conscious lol

@Mikael89 Well my view on this is, there are many many layers of reality that we can't sense with our limited mind perception. The regular body-mind identified state of consciousness (which prevails among more than 99% of people on earth), is one of the most constricted and narrow-gated states of being. There are obviously vast realms of 'weird', subtle experiences that we come to know through research, spiritual practice etc. Chakra, healing, siddhis etc. do point to new realms of experience. It's just that this whole business has framed these things in a very muddy manner and gave it all a bad name. So yeah, fluffy, exotic words and stories seem far fetched, but you can't deny the experience if it happens to you

Is it possible to transmit and communicate that level of Understanding as it is?

wow..rarely I see such question which answers itself first even before an answer comes forth lol. Is this kind of question a genuine inquiry to know or is it just seeking the approval of what it already taken as granted?

@7thLetter I'm glad that someone brought up this topic. I've been thinking about it for the last couple of days. I see all over the internet ''just do it'' mantra, how David Goggins was lazy at first but conquered all his bitching and moaning...but the question is, why doesn't it work. It only works in like less than 1% cases. Which made me think how difficult it is to actually make a whole civilization or tribe more advanced. Looking at our own lives, clearly it takes stupendous amount of time, backsliding, engaging, giving up, re-engaging just even to make some superficial change like changing one little habit here, changing one little thinking pattern there...imagine how complex it must get when applied in a mass population. I guess we have to accept at some point that, no explanation is perfectly complete. Just the fact that we are breathing now and it is sustained, really has no explanation. Sure we can make up models, so called biological scientific models but everything collapses at certain point..

In my experience, I've found that this 'state' doesn't come if I search for it or try to reproduce it on demand desperately. It's rather when I continue to see what I am NOT and as the attention starts to loose it's grasp from phenomenal experiences; 'I' just fall back into 'myself'. A holistic being takes place. The first time I experienced it, it was unforgettable. I literally felt like a little rabbit caught by it's neck in the jaws of a lion. The ocean of Being is so vast, it just floods and annihilates everything; leaving only itself...

Yes I've read it. Clarifies things about post-enlightenment. I think that's a good map to have but we never know how things will actually turn out..

Personally I got the most out of his 4th book Yoga of Consciousness.

@SoonHei As Ruper Spira would say, the highest prayer(or mediation) is being aware of being aware. You feel God's infinite presence(aka your own presence) so deeply, that you are just basked in silence; unable to desire or ask for any superficial stuff.