Preetom

@SoonHei Glad you found it helpful You're welcome. Yes you need to come to this technique over and over again until it becomes unbroken (That's how Ramana Maharshi originally prescribed it and he saw no conflict in day to day action and continuing self inquiry) . In the beginner stages, you need to cultivate a lot of interest for the 'perceiver' that knows, not the experiences that are known. That love for your Self, for your Consciousness will motivate you to self inquire more and more. Just stay with that sense of 'I'. If it stays in the head for 1 hour, let it be. Keep watching it. You don't have to deny or fight against it. At best you can ask ''who is the perceiver of this feeling?'' to gently relax your attention. Either way, you are not getting lost in thoughts but staying more present. I'll share one more helpful pointer I got from Adyashanti about self inquiry. If it takes you into thoughts, complaining, judging etc no matter how logical or clever or non-dual it sounds, that's a clear indication that you're not doing self-inquiry as it should be done. Rather you've been tricked and lured by the traps of your mind. It's not a thinking or figuring out process. If it takes you into deeper and deeper all pervasive feelings, deep emotions etc..which you keep on dis-identifying from...until you reach a thoughtless pure observation or I AM; then you're doing it right. Self-inquiry should make you more and more grounded and hyper alert in present moment. Yeah sometimes mental storms can come up but the point is not to fight them or start a clever argument with thoughts against thoughts. The point is gently disidentifying and tracing the attention to fall back on itself... It's almost like learning a musical instrument. You can get lessons from a dozen masters, but when all is said and done, you must sit with that guitar consistently...learning your way day after day, month after month. One day, you start to get a 'feel' of it for yourself and from then on you don't need any pointer or master anymore. You carve your own way. You are fine as long as you check these 2 things. 1) Don't stop inquiry while identifying as an experience, no matter how gross or subtle that object is. Remember, you are not an object but the 'knower' of all objects. 2) Don't look at a thought like ''there is no me'', ''I'm now enlightened'' or any clever argument to confirm your progress at all. I strongly take it as a hypothesis that if I'm really Enlightened, I won't need the thought, ''I am Enlightened'' as a verification to end the search. It is direct BEING! Anyone can think that thought anytime. You'll know when it happens. YOU can't miss YOURSELF. After that, you won't need any confirmation from anyone

One has to sit and willingly look at the movement of thoughts in order to understand the deceptive nature of thoughts. Mere hearsay from someone or believing something won't do it. Yeah one can have a new trophy in his intellectual showcase, but not real living insight.

Affirmations or negations don't work because self inquiry is not an intellectual process, but a tracing of present moment feeling. Through thoughts, you can reach an intellectual understanding but never the 'felt' realization. Let's say you feel that 'i' is in the head. Then ask yourself 'who is the perceiver'?' or 'what is it, that knows this experience in the head?'... and gently notice what happens to that sensation and your attention. The logic is 'I' can't be the sensation because I am aware of it. The moment you realize this, your attention starts to loosen from that sensation and relaxes more and more...attention starts to revert back to wherever the hell it came from. This is what is called attention turned on itself or being aware of being aware or sinking the mind into the Heart One of 2 thing can happen 1) the grip on that sensation in head will either dissolve or loosen and you'll 'experience' pure I AM without any particular identification. Then just stay there. 2) or that sensation will loose it's grip BUT another subtler sensation will feel like 'I'. Then you dis-identify from that as well...until you reach I AM. Stay there...until a thought/sensation takes you away again. So the questions are not the purpose of self inquiry. They are just tools in order to relax the obsessive focus from objects to the Subject. You won't locate the subject but you'll know when a shift happens. That's why it is said mind can never go there. Even if you're 'stuck' in that head sensation, keep watching that I feeling. That's concentration practice happening right there. Eventually, that identification must dissolve and attention will fall back on its source. Note: this is the spiritual effort one must exert. Self inquiry is not an idle formula. It needs tremendous focus and perseverance. It is such a complete technique that it builds your concentration and detachment simultaneously along the way. At final stages, the 'I' will never identify with anything ever again. That's why it is known as the direct path, meaning that you don't need any pre-requisites. Only requirement is 100% willingness and desire to walk through the path all the way...until the nut cracks...no matter how stupid or boring it feels along the way. These boring moods and labels are usually associated with thoughts. It doesn't mean that the process is a hoax, it means that mind is trying to trick you to stop. Final note: this technique can't be mentally discussed. One has to spend hours after hours with this until one gets a 'feel' of it. It's exactly like an adventure in the jungle I mentioned. You must take that adventure yourself, whatever you need to know or fine-tune, you'll learn them on your own along the way. Just remember this mantra, "Nothing perceivable or conceivable can be I"

@Jack River It's done through refined intellect or clear seeing without any judgement. Anything that is perceivable or conceivable is seen as unreal because they are all subject to change. If this process is consciously kept up, all 'objects' of Consciousness are seen as unreal and only Pure Consciousness remains. The self ceases to identify itself with any object ever again and shines as THE SELF. It was always THE SELF...it only appeared as the ego self due to ignorant identification. When that spell of ignorance is broken, only the Absolute is... That's when neti neti spontaneously comes to its end and what is prevails as it always is.

That's a trap!!!!! God help us. Self-inquiry is a super simple method. It's so simple that everyone needs to complicate it. Self inquiry is neither a 'who am i' or 'there is no me' mantra, nor a concentration practice, nor a clever intellectual mental gymnastic to brainwash and convince yourself. Self inquiry is.. 1) become present right now 2) then whatever rises at this moment as an I feeling (a thought/sensation etc); gently following that to its source. You must start from exactly where you are. If the 'i' feels to be in the head, that's the starting point. 3) along the way seeing every objective identification as 'perceived', while you keep falling into the 'perceiver' 4) a non-located subjective experience is reached at one point. Pure sense of I AM. Stay there. 5) eventually you'll drop from that state due to latent mental tendencies. That means repeat from step 1. NOTE: 'there is no me' is thought. That means you've already lost it. Restart from step 1. Repeat this thing for millions of time if necessary... day after day, hour after hour...until all delusion is burnt once and for all and nothing takes you away from Enlightenment. I'll finish with an amazing metaphor for self inquiry I heard from Rupert Spira. It's like you're lost in a jungle but there is your private camp at its center. You take days to trace your way back to your camp. Again you get lost somewhere else in the jungle....again you trace back to your camp....this cycle goes on... After a while, you start returning to your camp quicker and quicker....after some time, the entire jungle becomes familiar to you...so much so that you are NEVER lost again in that jungle. Self inquiry is just like that. You actually need to trace your attention or I-ness back to its source over and over...you need to take those steps back to YOU. At the final stages of self inquiry, it becomes so easy that just the thought 'I' immediately takes you to the Self. Getting lost in the jungle and shouting, "there is no me, I'm not lost, I have a camp" etc won't bring you back to your camp. You actually have to trace back. Get lost. Trace back. Get lost. Trace back....

@winterknight Can you suggest how to nurture an intense desire for Enlightenment?

20 years balls deep in nonduality plus having family background supporting this, and yet this guy hasn't been able to crack the nut? I feel pity.. Nonduality is a very defined philosophy with defined methodology. If you wanted to be a swimmer but you instead jogged for 20 years and then wonder how come you can't make it as a swimmer, then I hate to break it to you that you need to see your own error instead of bashing against swimming. The instruction says unbroken self-inquiry/witnessing is necessary to break free the prison of the mind. Am I doing that? No? Then why the fuck am I complaining? Is it the fault of the method or fault of myself who isn't following the instruction?

Yes that's the idea. You don't let the 'I AM' to become 'I am this or that'. When you continuously separate the subject from the objects and don't let the subject cling with any further objects, that fictitious ego 'I' vanishes. Because this ego 'I' has no independent existence of it's own. It can only claim it's validity by sticking itself with an object (thoughts, sensations, attachments). Then in it's place, the True Self shines

@winterknight 1) In order for intense, unbroken self-inquiry to happen; is some sort of disillusionment towards the tantalizing external world necessary? I mean one can't necessarily chase the subject and some object at the same time... what are your thoughts on this? 2) This is related to the 1st question in a sense. Your 2 most recommended approaches for Enlightenment is Psychoanalysis/dynamics and Self-inquiry/Surrender. But aren't these 2 things contradictory? Psychoanalysis is the study of the categories of the mind, while self-inquiry is bypassing all categories and seeking/resting as the source of mind. So do you recommend psychoanalysis to size down the neurosis of the mind so that intense self-inquiry can begin later? I can't see how the two can go on simultaneously...

In my opinion, I think just after Enlightenment, Stoicism is the greatest way one can go in life. In fact, I really see only a minor tweak that can shift Stoicism into Non-duality. In Stoicism, there is a Nature which is accepted unconditionally and the Soul is molded according to it. Then, one fine morning, no distinction between Nature and Soul is recognized. And BAAAM!!

I heard teal swan saying that Water has huge potential to instantly raise one's vibrational frequency. No wonder taking a bath feels refreshing and good

@111111 But the point of SDS is to push push push through all distractions, pain etc over a long period until a spontaneous breakthrough or surrender happens. For an experienced meditator on flow, 30 minutes goes by in like 3-4 minutes

@111111 I came across the same claim as well. It is mostly recommended by physicians and doctors. They basically say that sitting at one place for more than 30 minutes can have adverse effects on heart, blood sugar, obesity etc especially in front of TV, computer or at work where after few minutes the mind starts getting numb. I think we all have the experience of sitting in front of tv for 3-4 hours at stretch. But I heard Sinzen Young himself saying that there are monks who have been doing this SDS for days, weeks, even for months over the centuries. Yes the legs, waist can freeze but he says that those are only temporary effects and one should come back gently out of SDS. I think we'll agree a real monk is physically far superior than any average joe, generally speaking. So who should we trust? Thousands of years old, well documented tradition or some modern medical hypothesis?

I think I forgot to quote your entire post. Eternal and afterlife cannot be equated. That which is eternal can't have an afterlife or a previous life. Those things are in time

Eternal means ''Ever-present''. Not something that lasts in 'time' forever. That is called ever-lasting. Eternal is not in time. The idea of time (past, present, future) is happening in eternity(now)

seriously? I feel like having a heart attack several times a day

@Charlotte Yup quite a long journey ahead of your niece. I guess that's the inevitable hero's journey. She has to lose herself first in order to find herself. From Pre-ego to Ego to Post-ego. I see it like this. Consciousness and Universe are never two things. But... 1) In Pre-ego(babies and animals), Consciousness is utterly lost in the flow of the Universe. No separate self. 2) Then in humans an ego is formed. A distinction between consciousness and matter is felt in one's bones. 3) Then comes Enlightenment/Post-ego. Here the Universe is utterly lost in Consciousness/Self. No separate self or object remains. Just like the Hero's journey, she comes back to basically where she started from and yet it is so qualitatively different. Such is the paradox/strange loop/full circle whatever you wanna call it

@Charlotte Great! So for whom is 'Time' relevant then? It is neither our experience nor the truth nor found by someone And yet the entire globe is caught by it's neck by this thing called time. It's interesting to contemplate on it. Reveals how pernicious and persistent the maya/dream really is and how we are literally drowned in it like a fish in the sea. No wonder self-realization is the greatest hero's journey one could ever take, where literally everything around us is working against the flow.

Do you feel yourself growing 'old' with time?

Glad you find it resonating with you

Like almost all other religions, built with good intentions but diverted to land of delusion

@Dan Arnautu ''Raising one's Consciousness'' in ruthlessly practical Enlightenment work sounds fishy and creates more confusion in the long run. In my opinion, do not use it in Enlightenment context where the default mode of inquiry is based on the ground that Only Consciousness is unchanging and primary, while everything else is only a derivative appearance. With that being said, ''Raising one's Consciousness'' in a loose and layman's term means 1) Being more and more present every single day and situations 2) Listening to one's thoughts and emotions. What message are they really carrying? Inquiring, journaling and contemplating on them. This process right here itself is a very potent one for pretty much all psychological clarity. 3) Being honest with oneself and slowly developing values and life decisions based on the above mentioned observation. Basically, going from auto-pilot to a conscious entity. At least, I prefer to use that phrase in this context.

Leo already gave a purely nondual answer. I'll share something intermediate. Hope it helps with your investigation. I think I came across this in a Ramana Maharshi Book first. I AM is like a Hybrid. Between the Absolute Awareness and dead insentient stuff called body, arises this I AM (A seemingly personal Consciousness). That's why this I AM seems to possess the quality of both, I AM is aware and also it seems to be identified with body or objects of perception, which makes it appear like a subtle sense/sensation located in the body. So the teaching says, investigate and grab hold of this I AM, divest all it's identifications and limits. Thus it loses all 'physical' qualities and revert back to shining as the pure Self(Awareness). More accurately, it is the realization that there never was a personal consciousness or I AM located in the body to begin with. I AM is really like that negative space Leo showed. It is pure space, but it also simultaneously appears like a located, square object. When all it's objectivity is subtracted through clear seeing, that negative space reverts back to infinite space. It was never a separate entity out of infinite space anyway.

(fantasy question) If everybody in the world woke up one morning and tore apart all the money, would the value of the world decrease, increase or remain the same?

@winterknight Another question related trying to do self inquiry all day. Is it helpful to ask alternative questions like, 1) Where is I, the speaker while talking 2) Where is I, the listener while listening to a lecture 3) Where is I, the doer while an activity so on..... I mean engaging in action and subtly looking for the 'subject'. Or is it better to stick to only 2-3 minimum amount of questions?