cetus

@Nahm Yea one week in and 3 to go! He may find what he's looking for before that. We'll see.

@Faceless A man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it is dark- (Zen Proverb)

"I never meet a man that gave me more trouble than myself"

@Faceless Here's another good one.

@FacelessThis reminded me of something I once heard. "A man stands in his own shadow and wonders why he can only see darkness"

@Nahm @Faceless I guess that's what happens when you get detacheched for the "moment of Now". The mind will do that to ya.

@Nahm @Faceless You guys are the best!!!!!

@Faceless What should I do? Dinner is cooking on the stove and the g-f got pissed off and walked away at something I said. Let it burn? Oh yea!

@How to be wise Very apropos for this moment within my direct experience. The G-F and I were getting into a bit of a tiff just now. Things are a bit "distant" at the moment. I applied what you said here to that situation. What a wake up call! I wonder if I could get her to see this and we could laugh it all off at the nothingness of it.

@Joseph Maynor Maybe you didn't see Leo's latest video? He outlines future plans for the forum here @20:00 and how he wants to take it to the next level. But he most important overall message from Leo was "Start Doing the Serious Work". https://www.actualized.org/articles/going-buddha

@Key Elements @Nahm IMO, Leo is becoming the perfect diamond free of all aggregates of self. I wish him such clarity that his presents can only be known by it's surface reflections.

@Nahm I'll second that! @Shroomdoctor Just to add this. Experience is a great teacher too. Keep expanding/growing in all directions inward and outward and you find there are no limitations to anything! It's wide open and you are it- it is you. I'd like to leave a short but powerful video by Eckhart Tolle that I listen to at least once a day. "Under the surface all things are interconnected"

@Guillem You can easily see at least one aspect of animals that is close to what is considered to be enlightenment. Animals live totally in the moment of now. The concept of past or future, birth and death has no bearing over them in their experience reality. They take every moment as it comes with no personal judgement. So it would be fair to say from that observation alone animals are far more "enlightened" than most humans.

@Moses

@Faceless So glad to have someone to share this with my friend. @tsuki Sure thing. Here's one of my favorites. Human consciousness preoccupies itself with these entities, and virtually ignores their spatial background. We consider it "nothing" in the sense of that which has neither importance nor significance, forgetting that without the spatial field, none of these entities could be manifested or distinguished. There is, however, between space and entity the same polar relationship as between crest and trough, for which reason "nothingness" is not simply the contrary or absence of "being", but rather its ground and origin. As a newbie I remember reading this for the first time at the book store (pre-internet times) and I was totally blown away. It was like YES! What a discovery. Like finding gold. I was searching for something but I had no idea what it was until I read Allen Watts. He opened a huge door for me.

@Faceless This manuscript by Allen Watts was one of the first things I read when I was a newbie many moons ago. I still have that original copy today. https://justpaste.it/TheArtOfContemplation

@Nahm "Godspeed Leo"

@Applejuice It's certainly heading in the right direction. With more practice you can let go more and learn to float like a leaf down that stream of no thought. That stream eventually leads to an ocean of pure, empty, perfect awareness. When you become completely dissolved into that ocean, that is the void.

@starsofclay How does a butterfly know when to emerge from it's chrysalis?

@Sirius Give up living in the head. Live in the now instead!

The best part about nothingness is that it shines.

@Viking Let's put it to the test! Is there a meaning to anything before the mind assigns one?

@Nahm I tried that once. I must have concentrated too hard. I gave "myself" a headache and wasn't in the mood.

"The quieter you become the more you can hear"

@okulele I used to wear beads around my wrist as a reminder to stay present. After you've practiced for a while it does get easier because it gets more ingrained into you. So it's always right there and becomes second nature. You could also put a small stone in your shoe. That will keep you really present!! Whatever it takes. Be inventive!