cetus

@Martin123 Are you sure that is what it is?

I agree with @Martin123 . You need to let go of EVERYTHING that is you. Everything since the day you were born. You gotta go WAY beyond your comfort zone. It's a total surrender of the most precious thing you own, the self. Even the seeker is an illusion. This needs to be confronted head on. Do that over and over until the truth breaks wide open..

@zazed I like that one!

I feel that any answer that satisfies the mind is not the answer. and it is the process of contemplation on a koan that is often more valuable than the actual answer.

@Nahm I was contemplating that one. Oh well haha I'll find another.

@electroBeam That's cheating ! Seriously though, lots of koans don't have an answer to them. They are meant to break the mind that needs to find a logical answer to every question. The mind goes round and round in circles until finally it exhausts itself and gives up. At that point the master can start the true teaching because the student's mind has turned to tapioca. My answer would be; "A wise man buys Duracell Batteries because he knows an emergency can always strike". But I could be way off on that one!

There is something happening here that is not happening. If you try to look for it with your eyes, you can't see it. If you listen for it with your ears, you can't hear it. If you try to understand it with your mind, it will never make sense. But it's always right here.

The greatest truth to realize is there are no truths.

@Dan Arnautu Maybe the big bang was just God hitting a power cord.

@Dan Arnautu Look at it this way Dan. When you play a song on your guitar, it's not only the audible notes that make the song, but the silence between the notes. And a silence put at the right moment can be very powerful in itself. Silence is like a canvas that you paint a picture on through music notes. Silence/stillness/nothingness is always around us. Nothing could exist without it, including a beautiful song.. BTW- I picked up a 3 string fretless cigar box. Tons of fun!

@Natasha This is one of my favorite Mooji satsangs. Jesus is not seen as "Other". "This is an unshared space. For it to be shared, there would have to be two. Here there is not even one" How powerful is that! The problem I have with Christianity is that Jesus and God are viewed as "other".

"It's Judgment that defeats us"

If a person was truly enlightened, who would remain to know that the ego never existed?

@bobbyward Always good to hear from you. Wise words!

@abrakamowse I think of it this way, when we attach "knowing" to conscionesness than it becomes an aggregate also. All aggregates arise mutually within the known = "lower-self" consciousness. Higher consciousness is pure consciousness, beyond the knower that creates aggregates. Self is like a leach clinging to consciousness.

@Emre I've been on this path for a while now and I haven't completely lost my mind yet. That's how I know there is more work to be done.

Meditation went really deep today! A level of stillness was realized that was never experienced before. When looking from a place of deep stillness, what was seen was more stillness. Stillness within stillness. Infinite levels of stillness.

@username I use an OM mantra. Silently saying Om or sometimes listening to monks chanting OM through headphones. Yesterdays meditation just went much deeper than usual for some reason. The stillness kept getting more refined/subtle. Stillness within stillness within stillness within stillness......................

The age old question "what am I?"

@eputkonen It's an infinitely deep ocean of stillness. And like any ocean, it has it's waves, storms, wind, sun, ect. on it's surface. And life is always throwing a wave at the body/mind that has to ride it out sometimes. haha But seriously, we are all so much more than just the surface. Experiencing the infinite depths that you are is transforming in itself. The surface pails in comparison to that awesomeness.

@mp22 Not exactly like that. You have to completely let go of yourself to become no-self, no-thing. Just saying to yourself that you are no-self is just more "you" trying to be no-self. That's a really long hit or miss road (except for using some kind of drug to force a no-self experience). Which is not my first choice. You could look at it this way. You know how a computer has an operating system. You can't use the old OS to reinvent itself into a completely new OS. So the fastest way to install a new OS, is to completely remove the original OS first. "You" temporally become no-self or non existent. If your willing to let go of the OS that you run on now, the new OS will be installed in the flash of an eye. You see the hardest part about this is letting go of the old OS. The rest is easy!

@mp22 It's bringing concentration to a point of perfect focus on a subject. I was hammering the "I don't exist" when the "shift" happened to me. @Gailan explains the same. I'd like to also mention that it's kind of a hit or miss thing. So don't get discouraged if it doesn't happen the first time. It's like your brain needs to discover something completely new.

@Gailan What John Hagelin presents @9:00 seems to describe your experience of a "shift in perception". Samadhi : "Where the whole brain is functioning in an integrated way that is not seen in any other state of consciousness -waking, dreaming or sleep" I wonder what is special about the "I don't exist" practice that enables the whole brain to suddenly come into complete synchronization and experience -Samadhi (higher consciousness) ? Is it that a sense of self (fight or flight) keeps the brain hemispheres segregated and in a state of lower consciousness? As you experienced, that "shift in perception" is quite noticeable. Discovering for the first time that we all possess a higher level of consciousness that can be tapped into is nothing short of amazing!

@SnickI'll never forget The night I heard on the radio that John was assassinated in front of his apartment building. I Kept thinking "why would anyone want to kill John Lennon?" It was totally surreal. The rock radio station I had been listening to played John's music all night long. There was nothing anyone could do but light a candle and be with John through his music..