softlyblossoming

@Mu_ Damn, that's cool.

Great thread, guys. Thank you especially for these instructions, @The0Self. Is 'The Witness' state from Advaita the same as the 6th jhana of 'Boundless Consciousness' from Buddhism?

@Batman At the end of the day I'm just trying to help you/others understand non-duality, bro. I felt like the maybe hangup was an important point to make because I see a lot of people thinking their ideas are the Absolute, so it's a point that I feel like, even if not you specifically, others who read these threads can benefit from. I wrote the maybe thing poetically, so all I was trying to do is an artistic writing style. Hope someone learned something still, and only the best wishes to you.

Yeah, but I could clearly get a lot better at giving pointing out instructions. I'll try to explain it again and hopefully it will click for you. What you are doing when you think "Not maybe. For sure." is making a double-standard. You are saying to yourself that all truths are inventions, but not realising the full extent of the implications of what you've said. You see, if all truths are invented, then the truth that "all truths are invented", like all other truths, must also be invented! The mind is stuck on a loop -- it goes around and around claiming to have discovered all sorts of invented things to be true and all sorts of true things to have been invented, but it never awakens to Reality because it is trapped inside its loop and Reality isn't inside its loop. So the point I'm trying to make is that nothing is certain, including the claim that nothing is certain. But that's a paradox, so upon hearing it, the mind reacts with confusion and disappointment because its nature is to seek things that are not paradoxes, things it can cling onto, things it can 'know' to be 'for sure' rather than 'maybe' because the mind cannot cling to a 'maybe'. The mind lies to itself by saying things like "the paradox is for sure" without understanding that the paradox itself is that the paradox cannot be for sure if the paradox was actually for sure. It's confusing because it's pointing towards a truth and the mind cannot know or cling to a truth! If something was for sure, then it wouldn't be invented/illusory -- it would be real. But if everything is invented, then that means -- nothing -- actual nothing -- is what is true. So the irony is that there is no real insight, just lies all the way down. Truth is just a word we use to describe delusion. You will never get Enlightened is the cosmic joke. Everything you ever wanted, but you don't get to enjoy it – that's enlightenment. If this is going over your head, don't worry -- it will eventually become strikingly obvious if you keep at the non-dual spirituality stuff! You're on the right track. If it still hasn't clicked, maybe just read these other ways of saying it and it will, idk: 1. Is it that "all" discoveries are inventions or is it "all discoveries except this one" that are inventions? Only one statement can be true because "all, except" is by definition not "all". 2. If everything is an invention then saying "everything is an invention" would also have to be an invention. The end. 3. Ego vs No-Ego - Ego: All I know for sure is that all knowledge is invented. - No-Ego: All I know for sure is that all knowledge is invented, including the knowledge that I know for sure that all knowledge is invented, so I know nothing. 4. And if I know nothing, then I cannot truly know that I know nothing, so maybe I do and maybe I don't. Maybe. Why maybe? For sure. Andd uhh yeah that might be why man said "maybe" but idk im not him lol

Maybe you're not wrong. ...But maybe you're always wrong. ...But maybe there is no such thing as a right answer on a test without a question. 'Maybe' doesn't mean 'yes' or 'no', but it might. Truth is not 'for sure', but maybe it is. Maybe Truth is, maybe Truth isn't. Maybe everything is maybe. Does a dog have Maybe-Nature? Does a dog have Invention-Nature? Maybe.

Why maybe? For sure. When you "discover" something, you are actually creating (inventing) a distinction of that thing. That distinction never existed in your experience until you created it. When it comes to the conceptual domain, where all forms of language reside, it is even more obvious that it is a distinction created by mind/intellect. There is nothing 'for sure' in reality. Everything is maybe/apparently/seemingly/appearing-to-be/perhaps-this-way-perhaps-that-way/dependent on our state of consciousness or our paradigm or our beliefs/etc. The reality is that reality is constructed/imagined/illusory all the way up and all the way down with no topmost/bottommost/'ultimate'/'final'/'true' layer. Nothing is true = nothing is 'for sure' = every honest answer is a 'maybe'. This not-for-sure-ness is the Buddha. The Buddha is the Dhamma. The Dhamma is what's not for sure. Whoever sees that things aren't for sure, sees for sure that that's the way they are. The way they are doesn't change into anything else. That's the way things are. That's what the Dhamma is like. And that's what the Buddha is like. If you see the Dhamma, you see the Buddha; if you see the Buddha, you see the Dhamma. If you know inconstancy, not-for-sure-ness, you'll let things go of your own accord. You won't grasp onto them. There's no way we can guarantee for sure that this has to be this, or that has to be that, so the Buddha said to just put it down as "not for sure." No matter how much you like something, you have to know that it's not for sure. No matter how much you dislike something, you have to understand that it's not for sure. And these things really aren't for sure. Keep practicing until they're dhammas. —Ajahn Chah (source: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/chah/not_for_sure.html) I hope this cleared things up or you find it useful in your contemplations, @Batman

Guys, how can there be any sort of consciousness of the absolute? How can we become conscious of *actual* nothing? Nothing can't be conscious because when it is it's something. Like in the neti-neti method: not this trip, not this insight, etc, etc. Am I on the right track?

@Salvijus Brilliant answer, you explained that perfectly to me, thank you so very much! I thought it might have to do with the 'that's not me' and the 'it's all me' sides of the coin!

Hi, I love what you're saying here. This resonates . Is the way to get enlightened by entering into the state of samadhi and just staying there through thick and thin, letting it sort-of deepen, until enlightenment occurs? Would you mind describing how it feels to transcend vs dissolve the ego? Thank you .

I Heart Huckabees

Amazing thread! Thank you so much for making all of these, my friend

Hi, Greenwoods, how do I know my kundalini is awakening? What signs and symptoms should I look out for? Thank you, brother!

http://www.leighb.com/jhananeuro.htm Many of you may find this helpful

@BipolarGrowth Bacopa Monnieri is popular. Bacopa has a large and consistent effect on delayed word recall. In my personal experience this seems to be the case too. I've found it easier to recall numbers, dreams and random things picked up in conversation while I've been taking Bacopa consistently. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Nootropics/comments/44g05u/best_nootropics_for_memory/

@GreenWoods That's awesome, and thanks for the replies . I've been getting better at entering sleep paralysis plus not getting scared and intentionally waking myself back up out of fear. I've had that "consciousness fading" effect happen in the past during the paralysis state, where my mind became super concentrated and unified and body sensations started to disappear, but not today unfortunately. Today I just lay there waiting for that to happen (it didn't), and enjoying the euphoric vibrations in the body . I can really see the huge potential of this for consciousness work though, so I'll have to keep trying. Btw, if you ever need someone to zap with the transmission...