Water by the River

yes, that is a good summary. Substance = True Being.

How do you know? Do you speak from personal experience? (sorry, heard that one somewhere before ). Or is it deduction from cases you think are enlightened and who still suffer? There is a path beyond Enlightenment to stabilize this freedom from suffering, but the tools to do that are given for the first time WITH Enlightenment (peak to plateau to permanent). And most "Enlighenments" are just Awakenings with remnants of separate-self hijacking the newfound Nonduality. And yet, the amount of bliss and release from the suffering of the self-contraction that resting in True Being (or Awakened infinite nondual timeless Awareness) brings, once it has become accessible, is astonishing. And that bliss and force of True Being has the potential to stabilize that in plateau to permanent. These statements of yours are in contradiction to roughly 2 millenia+ testaments of beings who have realized their True Being. Suffering is the "rubber band" that makes separate-selves return to their True Being. Hamster-wheels until the original condition is restored. Suffering is what guarantees that no being is lost in the illusion of separation forever. The longer one chases states/experiences/whatever, the longer the hamster-wheels spin. One could even say that the separate-self IS suffering/resistance/contraction (Adi Da called the ego self-contraction). Because one of its main essences IS the suffering/contraction/localization/resistance to what is. Suffering IS the ego IS the separation/separate-self. I can tell you from my own experience that it is felt exactly as that (self-contraction), which becomes obvious at some point on the path, as contractions in the head and body. When these contractions/solidities (mainly in the head at the end in my case) fully dissolve and drop, the boundless field of consciousness becomes infinite and truly nondual. It is such a relaxation of tension/contration/localization/constant-background-contraction/"baseline-suffering". It feels like vast-spaciousness, nondual, limitless, so free and open. Bliss itself. And honestly, every being not living from this obviously and inevitably suffers, is in the claws of the merciless self-contraction. This becomes then totally clear once one has experienced this dropping of the self-contraction, which then creates compassion. Which stabilizes (paradoxically) Awakening and Nonduality even further. That is the beginning of boundless vast Non-Duality (not yet Enlightenment), in which Awakened nondual Awareness ripens (Roger Thisdell stage 4 to stage 5) towards Enlightenment, or the full dropping of anything separate, truly becoming Infinite Being. Here the bliss starts flowing, and the path starts showing itself to itself. Fueled by the bliss of True Being, which already starts giving a powerful attractor point starting here. Selling the bliss of vast nondual limitless spaciousness at the River PS: And for the "trying" to dissolve suffering. Yes, trying doesn't work. The dissolving of suffering/self-contraction is the case once it happens. Until then, while trying, there is suffering.

No, its was the other way round for sure

uhum. ok. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicides_in_the_21st_century So lets look up all the people who had everything that mainstream-society sells as summum-bonum.... In other words, to be precise: No hamsterwheel-project left to distract themselves from their self-contraction/ego ... money, fame, friends, lovers, success, n+1, all tried and found to be useless/unsatifying in the end, and not interested or smart enough to be motivated to investigate ET n+1 et al.), and therefor got depressed and killed themselves? Seems like a loooong of pretty "succesful" "people" to to me... Selling a-path-to-transcendence-instead-of-the-hamsterwheel-de-jour by the River

"4:30 Happiness is not in the movie": Selling "The happiness is in fact a quality of the screen" by the River .... !

True. In the meantime, I enjoy every dream at night that is not lucid, and am thankful when waking up on having been seduced by the dream to buy into it. Lets go to the movies! I like Francis Lucilles take on things: For example, Suffering & Indian spices https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bnLNkG6uR-w or this here: and this here Selling Indian Spices by the River

@BipolarGrowth Yes, if one looks at the right places in Buddhist texts (and, for that matter, in any other spiritual -ISM), such stuff can be found: It even received the verdict of God-Realization by our host. And while being not exactly humble, in a) the right enlightened state, something like that can be expressed truthfully, and b) with the right audience (just ready at the tipping point towards enlightenment with the ego pretty much transcended, just in need of these pointing out instructions to cross over), it can even make sense and be beneficial. But since a) and b) don't often align, such texts were kept very secret in the traditions until recently. Because if disclosed by non-a) to non-b), we get something like here, and one God-Ego congratulates the other (or more often, jealously fights it), and both marvel in awe at ET-God n+1., um, yes where were we ... it can become an inflation of God-ego to cosmic proportions celebrating the Absolute Solipsism Narcicissm gig in hilarious ways, exactly walking in the opposite direction of salvation, and instead of transcending the ego it gets blown to infinite proportions, ah, well, um, there is a high likelyhood of less than fortunate results. But since exactly that is happening, and the geenie is out of the bottle, the mustard out of the tube, the cat up the tree, and since it is anyways & always, since else it wouldnt be happening... Lets sit back and enjoy the show, and maybe gently tell some sensitive souls on which path is transcendence/salvation/Sat Chit Ananda and which path is ... you know, the gig with the hamsters, both from this earth and not from this earth. Selling Solipsism the Supreme Source by the River

"In the past I used to struggle with that. I had about a 6-12 month period where I felt like I was losing my mind and things were somewhat erratic and even dangerous. A few times I came close to physical death. But eventually, with even more awakenings and inner work my mind reached a new level of stability and groundedness. Insane groundedness and peace. I am profoundly happy much of the time now. I bask in GOD's infinite beauty everyday. My consciousness glows with GOD-realization and my mind has become poetry. That is the upshot of all this work." "When you realize reality is Perfect, that GOD is Perfect, you just surrender to it and you are happy and at peace. The ego is always trying to manipulate its way into a better reality. But with Awakening you realize there is no better reality than to surrender to GOD's Perfection." "You must let the beauty of consciousness penetrate you. If you are not overjoyed with your own consciousness then it's not awakening. The highest consciousness is so delighted in itself it is in endless joy. God needs nothing outside itself to be endlessly happy and satisfied. If you feel incomplete or something is bugging you -- if lack of other is bugging you -- that just means a serious lack of consciousness. So you ain't done with the work. Awakening is the realization of Absolute Perfection. Nothing at all is wrong or missing. A hallmark of full awakening is zero fear. You are too conscious to fear anything." "I have Awoken so profoundly that I opened a portal inside my skull to a colorful Infinite Cartoon landscape full of striped and polka-dotted sentient Alien creatures doing cartwheeels, backflips, and helicoptering around. I have Awoken to an Infinite dreamscape of pure fun and Love! I gained complete access to imagine the Universe any way I want. That is what true God-Realization means. If you think I've gone insane, I've gone way beyond any insanity a human can ever imagine. It's the most amazing thing I've ever experienced and the happiest I've ever been in my life. I'm explain more later. For now I'm having too much in fantasy land. Cheers! As I've told you guys before, reality is all in your Mind. Only now I have completely broke through every last limit of my Mind. The only problem is, ya'll are still stuck in your human dreams and it would take a nuclear explosion to break you free from your closedmindedness. So don't come whining to me about that. I am only responsible for my Mind." "It goes beyond any one example. Just the fact that reality is imaginary is my deepest love for reality. If reality was anything other than imaginary, I would be deeply disappointed at the stupidity of reality. The first time I realized reality was imaginary was the happiest day of my life. I said, "Thank God! Of course! Finally it makes sense." If reality was not imaginary it would be an insult to intelligence because then reality would be limited. But of course reality cannot be limited because there exists nothing outside of reality to limit it, and this is the greatest thing about reality." Bold markings by yours truly. And now tell me that you are not doing it to be happy & blissfull & ease the suffering. And that True God Realization is not salvation & potential for an end of suffering. Ok. Already done. And True Being/Infinite Consciousness is not the avoidance of suffering. It is bliss itself. Sat Chit Ananda. It is the origin and true home of all bliss, The bliss each and every being longs for, and knows in its heart as its True Home. The bliss of True Infinite Being, Reality itself. You have tasted that. Hallelujah! Selling Hallelujah at the River

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccidānanda Well, not exactly a new observation of which yours truly is apparently not stopping to mumble about, that the realization of the [Infinite] Being (sat) and cit ([Infinite]consciousness) brings ananda (bliss, liberation)... "Saccidānanda (सच्चिदानन्द; pre-sandhi form sat-cit-ānanda) is a compounded Sanskrit word consisting of "sat", "cit", and "ānanda", all three considered as inseparable from the nature of ultimate reality called Brahman in Hinduism.[9] The different forms of spelling is driven by euphonic (sandhi) rules of Sanskrit, useful in different contexts.[9] sat (सत्):[10] In Sanskrit, sat means "being, existence", "real, actual", "true, good, right", or "that which really is, existence, essence, true being, really existent, good, true".[10][note 2] cit (चित्):[12] means "consciousness" or "spirit".[13][14][15] ānanda (आनन्द):[16] means "happiness, joy, bliss", "pure happiness, one of three attributes of Atman or Brahman in the Vedanta philosophy".[16] Loctefeld and other scholars translate ananda as "bliss".[13][14] Satcitananda is therefore translated as "truth consciousness bliss",[8][17][18] "reality consciousness bliss",[19][20] or "Existence Consciousness Bliss".[7]" All of that reminds me of this little anecdote: A guy dies and is sent to hell. Extremely frightened because of that, he is very surprised when he arrives; beach, palm trees, sun is shining, happy people around in shorts and bikinis. Behind the next corner there are people eating great food and there's some cool music playing. After some time of wondering, a man in an expensive suit approaches him and says: "Hi, you must be the new one. Welcome to hell, I'm the devil. As you're gonna spend eternity here, make yourself comfortable and have a drink. If anything bothers you, always feel free to ask me." The guy still doesn't really understand what's going on, this is not what he expected. But finally he decides to inspect the area. Everywhere he goes, there are people laughing and having a great time, there's games, party and fun all around. Then he arrives at a steep cliff that divides the paradise hell from an area underneath, and there is hell as we know it: demons torturing the doomed, there's fire and the smell of brimstone. Shocked, he runs to the devil and says "Devil, how can that be? Here, we have the sweet eternity and down there people are tortured and burned! How can that be?!" The devil laughs and says "Oh, that. That's the Catholics - they want it that way." But well, its a free country... Exactly. And when the True Infinite Impersonal Boundless Being (aka Awakened Awareness) starts becoming clearer and clearer, that bliss starts flowing. Without the need for any experience/state/"changing of what currently is the case" required. Releasing the ego/separation-contraction. Killing it softly. And it is that bliss in which the endless hamster mill of "grasping activities/state-chasing/projects of the separate-self/ego chasing states/salvation via experiences to escape the suffering/resistance to the here/now" drowns for good... Selling Sat Chit Ananda by the River & smiling at the hungry crocodiles PS: The separate-self IS the cyclical suffering/resistance to what is. Until that is seen through/transcended for good, no Sat Chit Ananda with "on-board-devices".

That would be AWAKENING n - 1

One can die a bit differently than the physical version for sure... http://haunteduniverse.net/What_is_Enlightenment.html Like, still with a pulse, but the former illusion of separation/separate-self dead. Once you see through this illusion, it never gets its full power back to make-believe. Which is actually the best thing that can happen if the annoying bug is robbed of its hypnotizing power. The death of the caterpillar is the birth of the butterfly. But death is death, and before the Gateless Gate it can look like annihilation, especially if it is not gradual but fast. Only later it is seen that it was just the death of an illusion. An example: https://scienceandnonduality.com/article/a-spiritual-awakening/ Francis Lucille: "At this point, I felt that my death was imminent, and that this horrendous event would surely be triggered by any further letting go on my behalf, by any further welcoming of that beauty. I had reached a crucial point in my life. As a result of my spiritual search, the world and its objects had lost their attraction. I didn’t really expect anything substantial from them. I was exclusively in love with the Absolute, and this love gave me the boldness to jump into the great void of death, to die for the sake of that beauty, now so close, that beauty which was calling me beyond the Sanskrit words. As a result of this abandon, the intense terror which had been holding me instantaneously released its grip and changed into a flow of bodily sensations and thoughts which rapidly converged toward a single thought, the I-thought, just as the roots and the branches of a tree converge toward its single trunk. In an almost simultaneous apperception, the personal entity with which I was identifying revealed itself in its totality. I saw its superstructure, the thoughts originating from the I-concept and its infrastructure, the traces of my fears and desires at the physical level. Now the entire tree was contemplated by an impersonal eye, and both the superstructure of thoughts and the infrastructure of bodily sensations rapidly vanished, leaving the I-thought alone in the field of consciousness. For a few moments, the pure I-thought seemed to vacillate, just as the flame of an oil lamp running out of fuel, then vanished. At that precise moment, the immortal background of Presence revealed itself in all its splendor." Selling the death of the caterpillar by the River

Mahasamdhi? Never read/heard of one believeable case. Rainbow body maybe/probably, but for the other stunt: Nancy would probably go:

holy grails, hm? and Silva, Freddy. First Templar Nation: How Eleven Knights Created a New Country and a Refuge for the Grail And apparently, God commands: Grail! n+1 even nowadays, although the application-method has been updated I have heard

After being low-carb [the highly refined ones at least] ffor a long time, I shifted that (while still being low carb) to something along the lines of http://plantpositive.com/ . The page is way more substantiated (studies mentioned) than most paleo-aficionado-books.

Blaise Pascal — 'All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.' In my opinion, survival is only a part of the distraction mechanism (especially nowadays), and by far not the biggest. Mayas smile, and the need for keeping the Illusion/Lila-"spinning" and always active, explains it much better... In the perspective of yours truly, a much bigger part comes for the "need" for Lila-mechanisms/"projects" of the separate self (Ken Wilber called these Atman-projects, see the book of the same name. Making separate-self/ego = God. Wonder in which forum I have ever noticed that... ), or keeping the separate-self illusions always spinning. Because if it would stop, and could sit blissfully in silence alone in a room (the Blaise Pascal quote above), the whole delusion would crumble down very fast in a short time. So a nice test to sort through real (and wannabe) Realization would be something like this: Put them all in a room, shut the door, sit' em down, 5 days silence whole day & night, and see who complains, or looks bored, and who just smiles blissfully something like Colette Davis: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ-t2OZnesC/ https://www.instagram.com/thatbeyondduality/ Feel the energy. No, she is not on drugs. And why is there illusion/separation/Lika/divine comedy/play? For the aficionados of using the signifier God, with best regards from Maya herself: Selling sitting quietly in peace & bliss alone at the River with the crocodiles & hoping they don't bite

The crocodile will maybe view it differently

Suffering & trying to ease suffering by anything else than realizing True Being: There are way more hamster wheel-projects in the Universe than the few depicted on Maslows pyramid of hamster-wheels needs... Rumours have it that some of them are delivered not-from-this-earth... Trying not to ease suffering (by realizing it is too a pretty large part a hamster-wheels-show,aka Maya): That is for the true aficionado, I must admit. So, looking at the state of the world, it is pretty much happy hamster-wheel every day! So: So, also this is part of Dzogchen, or [Gods] pristine Great Perfection. What remains to be done is then: Selling refreshments to hamster-wheel-afficionados at the River

Very good. That is why speed of Awareness [of recknognizing each and any arising in the mindstream before it starts hypotizing oneself] is so important. When the speed (and strength, aka not getting hypnotized by core-separte-self-issues... It will throw anything at "oneself" that it has to keep the illusion going] is so important: The past is generated "on the fly", by the "modulating" Infinite Field/Mind/Being right now. There is no past besides it "self-existing"´outside if the now [the Infinite Field]. And the question if the field was ever modulated/expressed "itself" as it is imagined/modulated as "past" right now is itself filled with duality up to the brim, and less fundamental than the Infinite Field itself. Which is another mindf*** of the highest degree. The past as Schrödingers cat. Seeing this process in real-time is what reveals the properties of the Infinite Mind as "always here", or eternal, or unborn, or timeless. One True Being is literally always here. It gives a first and quite impressive taste of the immortality of True Being. That is by the way the essence of Mahamudra stage 2, Yoga of Unelaboration. Nice description for that is in Pointing out the Great Way, Brown. There are specific instructions to open up that realization, very detailed. One can have that realization (for the aficionados, a "facet") by chance, or by direct induction (which is of course more efficient). And the realization of this facet is of course, inclusive, as all really important facets are "all inclusive" with realizing ones True Being. Can wake up only once, the rest is more dream-content, no matter how fancy & extraterrestrial. Selling Water by the River

Nagarjuna arrived at the Ultimate Consclusion for the game of "making the last meters" to describing the Absolute "correctly" already some millenia ago: " Its [Absolute/Reality/True Being] character is neither existent, nor nonexistent, / Nor both existent and nonexistent, nor neither". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhyamaka IT is neither Awareness (nor anything else for that matter), nor is it not Awareness, nor both, nor neither. IT has the potential for Awareness, and that is already said too much. The ultimate "via negative": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophatic_theology Nothing definitive can be said about it. Only pointers pointing as close as possible. And finally, at the last mile approaching IT, they all fail... POINTERS! Ones True Being IS it. When there is no illusion or ignorance or separation of any kind left. The answer for the Koans is a state of enlightened being and understanding. IT can understand itself. Reality can understand itself without any doubt left. One who still needs something from anything (and be it confirmation, approval, teaching, being thought, being confirmed, or anything at all, whatever its nature) beyond a mere personal preference or "hangover" from the now [mostly transcended] former separate-self personality, has some mental material floating in ones Being to look at/transcend... And not that I don't have my "hangovers", yet nowadays I mostly smile at the little bugs floating in my Being... (ah, nice try, my little lovely hangover-bug, and Trekchö/cut). At the end of the day, Reality shows exactly where the rubber hits the road: Is there still resistance to what is, aka suffering? Or dukkha (unsatisfatoryness or suffering. Resisting. That is not direct primary emotions or bodily pain, these still occur. Even feeling sad or having lost something/separation can be a "direct pain", with added psychological resistance/suffering put on top (suffering/resisting), or not. Ken Wilber: Hurts more (because added clarity), bothers you less, Reality shows where the resistance of separation/illusion (separate-self) still occurs. Brown, Pointing out the Great Way: Third, put in order all phenomena as one taste using the metaphor of water and waves. Just as water's waves have arisen from the water itself, likewise all phenomena come from the mind-itself. Understand this so as to practice in such a way that emptiness has arisen in every [seemingly manifest] aspect. Saraha says, "So long as [manifest perceptual] aspects become elaborated [aka conceptual stories/thoughts are arising and believed and not cut or seen through off in high-speed, aka keep hypnotizing oneself] from the mind[-itself], the natural mind is your teacher." Herein it is explained that every single phenomenon [appearance "outer" world, thought, feeling, anything at all arising internally in the mindstream and in the "external" vision of the world(s)] becomes the entire dharmadhatu, or that one taste manifests as many. For the practitioner who realizes this, emptiness comes forth encompassing all [phenomena of all realms and times - ET included], which is the end-state knowledge. (PK, f. 13a). [Brackets] by Selling Water at the River

The thing is, how do you ask yourself that? Obviously not with the mind, because the mind is superficial. Then, without the mind no question could be done, just a movement could be done, the movement that penetrates, that opens. If the mind is asking: what is that hears? You are going to get a mental answer Yes. Koans work "non-mental", both in working with them and answering them to a Zen Master. A mental "answer" is not an answer for a Koan. If one goes with a mental answer (instead of a "hard" Awakened Nondual, or even enlightened state in this case as an answer) to the Zen Master, one gets a no no from the Roshi. The answer is given with ones whole Being. Something along the lines as you write, the movement that penetrates, that opens. And if this Koan if applied to the very end, it can indeed "make one feel as if one has returned from the dead, and seen all Buddhas of the universe face-to-face".

... and with the right tools & techniques it doesn't need a "brutal face against the wall for 10 years concentration meditation" approach to do that/change baseline. Althought in the beginning, concentration meditation is useful. There are more sophisticated/efficient meditation systems/methods, and less sophisticated systems/methods... The less efficients ones are more robust (against erros along the path), but less efficient/slower. Shovel vs. excavator.

You are very welcome. The Tibetans know that path and these effects since centuries. It is the standard development along this path... : Two pathways of Awakened Awareness [Nondual boundless Awareness]. 1) At some point you realize that you're not operating out of an individual localized consciousness anymore but you're operating out of being the Unbounded Wholeness, a place that is no place has no location and has no reference point. [Pathway of Non-localization] 2) Or, at some point you recognizes something quite evidently distinct from Awakened Awareness to ordinary awareness it has brightness it has awakeness it has intensity it has softness it has sacredness it has sparkling immediacy [Pathway of metacognitive awareness of these attributes of Awakened Awareness to monitor if one is in this awake state or in ordinary clouded awareness] So there's something evident about Awakened Wwareness in its brightness and lucidity and its just awake. It is different from ordinary awareness So once you recognize that as something it's usually quite familiar you're recognizing and you've found your way back to your True Nature. Once you recognize that it's usually a big shift, and that is why it is linguistically marked [in the heart sutra mantra of “GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA” That that's why it's linguistically “PARASAMGATE” gone way way beyond the localization of individual consciousness in your information processing systems operation to Awakened Awareness. And it's accompanied by a huge metacognitive recognition that this is something quite different from what you usually experience “BODHI SVAHA”, ooh what a realization. So when you have that you see that you're operating out of that vast limitless ocean of brilliant Awakened Awareness Love that is your True Nature. How do you don't judge the authenticity of it it used the accompanied by moving your heart. If it's accompanied by spontaneous gratitude or devotion or compassion you're on the right track. That's the first map. If you learn something in this path that self-importance isn't terribly important. Somebody once sent me a picture. It said “I finally looked at the bigger picture in life. I wasn't in it”. Life is different when lived from Awakened [nondual] Awareness. The world gets suffused with brightness, lucidity, love, joy and bliss. You see for the first time how all these filters and lenses of the separate self literally have solidified and darkened the brightness and lucidity (nondual mere appearance, vivid, sometimes hologram-like nature) of the nondual infinite field/vastness. Mere bright appearance flowing in Infinity. That, and the bliss of True Being that starts flowing and sustains itself in these states, is what sustains Awakened Nondual States in daily life, and lets it ripen... It is a positive feedback-loop which stabilized and ripens the "baseline" of the mindstream towards nondual non-separate Boundless Infinite Awakened Awareness. The path starts shows itself to itself. Selling Water by the River