Water by the River

Leo, imagine you were having the scenario above as a lucid dream at night. And you clearly know that you dream, and that you will wake up at some point. And you experience this dream, and clearly know its just a temporary passing dream. How much would this affect you? The dream would still be very sad, you would probably still cry. But you would clearly know it is a dream. And that this dream won't last forever, and can't and won't change your essence, and is mere appearance. And now you can imagine Enlightenment as being aware that this life and world is just an appearing dream. Including your body, thoughts, I-thoughts, feelings, anything. And this realization is always available, because all thoughts and appearances have become mere lucid appearances "dancing" in Infinite Being. Dreamstuff. Wouldn't it make much more sense to work towards waking up and making the dream lucid (Enlightenment), instead of chasing more dream Aliens and understandings? Because the chasing/grasping is the opposite of resting in choiceless Awareness for long times, which is necessary for waking up. And btw., nobody has said there is no suffering. There is tremendous suffering in this world, and most beings take that as very real, because for them it is not a dream but appears very real, and very dualistic self vs. other, and very much suffering/self-contraction. Did anybody doubt that? Francis Lucille, The Perfume of Silence: "Suffering, psychological suffering, is not necessary and can be avoided. However, there is certainly pain and that cannot be avoided. Hence the distinction. To enjoy pleasure and suffer pain is part of the package of having a body. Psychological suffering is the most intense of all and it is not necessary. If you don’t want to make a distinction, I cannot explain why psychological suffering is not necessary. Psychological suffering is related to the notion of a sufferer, a person. It is always related to past and future. Consider for instance the case of my friend William Samuel. During World War II he was in China. He was assigned a Chinese interpreter who was a Taoist sage, although he didn’t know it at the time. The first thing that he noticed about this man was that he was always happy, smiling and enjoying. One day they were in great danger. William’s platoon was being pursued by the Japanese who were very close. They were running back towards their lines. There were hills on the horizon and the sage pointed to the purple line of the mountains and said to William, “Look, how beautiful!” William said, “It was the last thing I would have thought about at that moment.” Some time later William discovered that three months earlier the sage’s wife had been raped and killed by the Japanese and that they had also killed his two sons. That’s what triggered his interest in this man, and he eventually became his student. This Taoist sage was free from the past. He may have been in pain, but he was not suffering on account of the death of his wife and children. In seeing the beauty of the purple hills while under enemy fire, he was teaching a wonderful lesson in courage and love. It is hard to imagine more atrocious circumstances." and And why is there evil and suffering? For learning. According to pretty much all OBLers, there is a life review after death. The soul gets reflected from the energies/emotions it caused as evil-doer, and can learn. The soul of the victim can also learn to not do what the prepetrator did. The impacts caused from ones life come back, for learning and reviewing. This can be a quite hellish experience, for example Jürgen Ziewe describes a suicide-bombers afterlife. Not for the faint-of-hearted. I think your view that everbody goes singing with the angels/aliens and becoming Infinity after death is a bit naive and is not in line with thousands of OBElers of the millienia exploring the Afterlife-Realms. I can only recommend you to cause as little havoc as possible with your followers, and lead them in a good direction. It will all come back to you. In the dream called Afterlife-review and Afterlife-realms. Bon voyage!

Infinite Absolutes. The One without a second maybe was fruitful and multiplied I guess. But yes

Appears to happen. Watching out by the River

Nobody is done. Actually, there isn't even somebody beyond the appearance of somebody. There is,was, ever will be only THAT. Cosplaying sometimes as somebody in its own Being. But that is another story. Stabilizing Awakening via resting in True Being is just a stepping stone to whatever other adventures there may be appear, beyond having a human appear in ones Being. And yet, it is the stepping stone of fundamental importance, from duality ("somebody" in here, "other" out there) chasing experiences/states/awakenings/whatever (another word is suffering in cycles) to truly starting to become able to rest in bliss even in the so called "ordinary" world (which in truth isn't ordinary at all, but holy manifestation of the Divine Ground). And from thereon, become truly able to celebrate the journey, which in truth never really happened beyond appearing to be happening. Which takes the whole stress out of the game.

Directly aware. That is the beauty once THAT which is always the case has been realized. It is always right here and available. A God/Alien/Awakening you can loose is just mere temporary appearance. But THAT is always available once the filters/lenses of ignorance (aka arisings of center/self/self-concepts vs. "other"/appearing world "out there") have been fully seen through/transcended. Once these filters/lenses/arisings of ignorance/separation/duality have been removed, its impossible to unsee the true state of "things". Ralstons constant Satori/Kensho. . "Something" which is "Nothing" and "everything" is always the case. Never can not be. Koan: What is it? Chagdu Rinpoche, quoted by Ken Wilber: If it has a beginning in time, it is not it. Selling that with no beginning in time by the River

To realize what Reality is and what my true being is, 15 years+ after starting with a Mahamudra and Dzogchen based practices similiar to Pointing out the Great Way. Before that, some years of Zen-like meditation, but that would not have led anywhere I guess (not efficient enough, at least not for me. Too much brute force effort required). So nowadays I am enjoying the bliss that comes along the release of the ever-grasping self-contraction/ego-illusion and effortless in True boundless nondual impersonal Being, getting rid of the remaining "character-hangovers" (Chat-GPT: "The lingering emotional or mental effects you feel after being deeply immersed in a fictional character or story.")... Ask my wife . And somtimes I wonder why some chase their own merely appearing and temporary (Alien-,x/y/z) tails in a grasping way (wanting x/y/z Awakenings or else suffering/contracting/grasping), which is exactly is the opposite of getting rid of the remaining lenses/filters by resting for really long periods of time in choiceless Awareness, which would make true Enlightenment possible. And propagate the tail-chasing as superior. Mayas illusions and cul-de-sacs, all the way of the path.... So, Godspeed by the River

Ok, and here my reply to your edited/updates points: Maybe. Yet, I would recommmend getting the opinion of a good PR-consultant on wether statements of these sorts are useful. Even if they are true, it could be that a large part of the audience finds them maybe not so - um- sexy. And considering that, then the second question could come up if these kind of statements are "sheer intelligence". No doubt about that. Ken Wilber was once asked if he understands something that the Buddha doesn't. His answer was "How to drive a jeep". And maybe I have understood some things that you haven't. Marveling at the sheer intelligence of the highest things by the River and opting for hugging some of its waves

"Ad hominem (Latin for 'to the person'), short for argumentum ad hominem, refers to several types of arguments where the speaker attacks the character, motive, or some other attribute of the person [here: (lacking) intelligence] making an argument" So you can't or are not willing or not able to argue your position, but the others aren't intelligent enough to undertand and agree to your points. And all of that is not Ad hominem, because Intelligence is not an attribute of the person(s) as you state, "Intelligence is nothing personal". On the other side, here intelligence (or the lack of) is refered to as a property/Attribute of the person ("you three do not have the intelligence"): You know what, the strangest thing is that I am so out of habit of forming any self-contraction caused by any these contradiction-in-themselves that you produce that I still truly like you! Giving Leo a big hug by the River

Um... What do you think happens in Enlightenment other than something along these lines? The difference to psychedelic awakening is that this stays available and accessible in daily life, and is not distorted by filters/lenses of the remaining ego/separate-self projecting itself on any states/arisings . Ralstons constant Kensho/Satori statement. Again, that is just your assumption that there is something left trapped in a rat movie. You are confusing Enlightenment with mild nondual boundless states (with illusion/other/ignorance/separate-self-arisings still active/hypnotizing). These states ripen normally for years until the full Waking Up happens and any limited identity/hypnosis is discarded as mere illusion. Or this view can set you up for exactly the show that Leo is performing: Keeping the separte-self/ego well and alive, going chasing awakenings, understandings and what not, projecting itself on aspects of Spirit, resulting in Spirit Interruptus so to say. Costing you possibly decades or life-times of not stabilizing Awakening. And instead of enjoying and celebrating the Exploration of the Infinities of Infinite Consciousness from an enlightened/awakened/blissful/always home - realization, one uses these higher states to cope with the still suffering separate-self/ego and ease the pain. But like I always say, the point of the ride is the ride. The journey is much more thrilling when more urgency/grasping/suffering/state-chasing is in play... So everything is exactly as it should be. Each soul chooses its own adventure, following its intuition. Some have intuitions arising from previous failed projects, some need that project yet to fail. Yet, every soul rejoices in its freedom to follow its own path and adventures, even if these lead to suffering sometimes. Bon voyage, Godspeed and enjoy the ride!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem "Ad hominem (Latin for 'to the person'), short for argumentum ad hominem, refers to several types of arguments where the speaker attacks the character, motive, or some other attribute of the person making an argument rather than the substance of the argument itself. This avoids genuine debate by creating a diversion often using a totally irrelevant, but often highly charged attribute of the opponent's character or background. The most common form of this fallacy is "A" makes a claim of "fact", to which "B" asserts that "A" has a personal trait, quality or physical attribute that is repugnant thereby going off-topic, and hence "B" concludes that "A" has their "fact" wrong – without ever addressing the point of the debate." "Use in debates: Ad hominem fallacies are considered to be uncivil and do not help creating a constructive atmosphere for dialogue to flourish.[29] An ad hominem attack is an attack on the character of the target who tends to feel the necessity to defend himself or herself from the accusation of being hypocritical. Walton has noted that it is so powerful of an argument that it is employed in many political debates. Since it is associated with negativity and dirty tricks, it has gained a bad fame, of being always fallacious.[30]" WbrR mumbling "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses" (If you had kept your silence, you would have stayed a philosopher) by the River PS: @UnbornTao Cool Picture. Yours truly would be the (only?) guy smiling I guess.

What would be aware of the absence of consciousness? Consciousness or awareness. And here one runs into the singularity of the Absolute where all words and pointers fail. What is always right here right now? Necessarily so? How could THAT not be the case? And at the same time THAT is so empty that it kills any remaining individuality or separate self arisings/contractions. Including the alien. What we normally call consciousness is a self reflective type of consciousness, an arising. Temporary. Illusion. And that can already be Nondual, or a nondual alien, yet identified with it. The Absolute is utterly utterly empty. The psychedelic version of it is not. The end of the game is sayonara to any type of center, lense, individuality or separation. The Absolute is so fundamental it can’t turn around and see itself. The alien can. Hence alien consciousness. And not clap of the one hand. Clapping the Alien with the One Hand by the River

The answer to that question is so profound that if you took bufo 100 times you would still not reach the bottom of it. It will be revealed to you one degree at a time. After like 500 trips I still don't have the full answer. Hint: Infinity. You will drop dead before you have the full answer when the goal is exploring the appearing Infinity. Exactly. Emphasize: Struggling. Anyways, Godspeed and all the best as always! Relaxing and celebrating the magnificent flow of the River

That which is truly aware doesn't come and go. Sometimes "it" has nothing to be aware of. I see this deep intuition in your posts, and why you value Ralstons material so much because of that. In my view, that comes deeply from your soul, and I consider it as a very precious intuition of your soul. And THAT which is aware watches all the Ant/Human/Alien/Divine Being "individuality" (aka consciousness), which is nothing else than the subjective appearing side of the nondual whole. It is still an arising in the dream... For me its perfectly clear why Reality looks for Leo the way it does (some "consciousness" higher than the other). Because he has never let go fully of all of these juicy subjective parts (aka what he calls higher consciousness, or "consciousness of" Ant/Human/Alien/Divine Being, n+1), leaving some filters/lenses and subjective distorations (aka states) still in place. Even in nondual states giving rise to beings more complex than humans (Alien)... And I totally understand why he totally doesn't understand what I am saying and why I am saying that. My challenge for Leo would be: Sit down on the pillow, meditate until suffering and boredom stops, die on the pillow, then die some more, then die until the Leo-thing is done with, and then see what is really the case when one is able to shut down the arisings of the illusionary separate-self (aka Leo) in real-time - sobre. And if that is not doable, then why? Hint: Leo not quite dead transcended and done with. Ah, the untranscended self-contraction. And once this bug is fully transcended in real time, then tell us when the bliss of the Absolute and the release of any form of self-contraction has started flowing, if the Alien is still so fascinating. Maybe then he will understand why everyone who has achieved Enlightenment (or realized ones own True Nature) values the flow of bliss and the infinite release of Duality, or resting in ones True Being as the Summum Bonum. All possible questions are answered in this. All there ever could be (including Alien) is just mere appearance in ones boundless Being, and the bliss of that Being drowns all grasping. And the end-point of this multi-life-journey is not exploring the multiverse in a grasping way to ease the contraction of the untranscended separate-self. That is done until one tires of it, which can be speeded up with insight. Then, one can still celebrate Gods Infinity of realms. But then, in a non-grasping way, a celebration, because the self-contraction that suffers/grasps/contracts is dead/gone, a mere illusion that once appeared in ones True Being. You will never have the answer going down that road, since its Infinity on Infinity on Infinity forever. God will never run out of Infinities/Aliens/Diving Beings/whatever n+1. You will drop dead before you have the full answer going down that road. But if that is the only tool you have to ease your self-contraction a bit, well, go ahead on do it until you are tired of it - this life or the next. Which, btw., is also the point of the ride: To do what you like until you get tired of that. Or maybe have some insight into the whole process and jump to the next step. Less tiring & suffering. Either way, its how Reality celebrates the appearance of your life. In that sense, let's celebrate the journey we are on to the best of our abilities, and Godspeed in/by/on/as the River PS: UnbornTao wouldn't be UnbornTao if yours truly wouldn't get a snarky comment on his blasphemy, so... and Namaste! PS PS: Leo, having read Reductionism from you quite a lot quite lately.... How about replacing that with Essentialism, and coming home? See you there! And then, from "there", the exploration of the Infinity of Infinities is a celebration, being & feeling at home wherever possibly one seemingly goes.

Yes.

Hey, I even plead guilty to platitudes by the River! And besides, I truly wish him the best, like I do to all of you.