Explorer_42

It depends on a person. I'm really energetic on any strain. My friend is lethargic wether it's cubensi or truffles.

You might've had your first "being in the present" moment. When some idea deeply resonates with you in the moment and you atune your awareness to it, it can lead to some deep contemplative states. Enjoy, those cane be very insightful and pleasant states.

Don't you see how "what improvement is" for you is completely arbitrary to your personal bias. Everything is absolutely perfect. Because it's all you and infinity is absolute perfection.

It's as close to existence as it is to nonexistence. It's prior to the duality of existence-nonexistence. It is non dual

@BipolarGrowth that's correct. It's more of a metaphor.

Even absolute have a goal - exploration of itself in the only way it's possible - exploration of it's own infinite creativity from inside out from all possible finite perspectives. There's no end to this game and it's fun forever.

@axiom this is pure gold. Thank you ?

This is the problem. Once it changes to "in my experience" we can have a chat.

@Muhammad Jawad and who but yourself is looking for the shelf. What you're going through is probably the problem of "hand trying to grasp itself". As for above question: "Whole Self/awareness responsible for the actions (good/bad) performed by my body? " - in simple terms this one is your answer.

“If you think that you understand the Brahman, you do not understand - and have yet to be instructed further. If you know that you do not understand, then you truly understand - For the Brahman is unknown to those who know ‘it’, and known to those who know ‘it’ not.” -Alan Watts The further I go the more accurate this description is in my experience.

The Truth is you are responsible for your actions, and should not justify "sinful" things with no-duality. If you shit on the carpet, you can say that you've imagined shitting on the carpet. But in your direct experience there's now smelly shit on the carpet an you're responsible for it. If you take a needle and poke your finger, there's nothing external that made it happen. The relative truth is that you've poked your finger and now you're bleeding. You did it to yourself, nobody else, and you're responsible for this situation. Maybe watch "zen devilry" video from Leo. It might clarify what you're struggling with.

This sentence shows that there's somebody doing something using your body. And on top of that you deem it as sinful. I'm a bit lost here. So : 1.who/what is doing the action ? 2.who/what deems it sinful 3.who/what is experiencing all of this

Look at your hand and as yourself "who's moving this hand right now?" You. There's nobody else behind the curtain pulling the strings. Observe how Ego is trying to find justification for all unskilful actions. Own up to your actions. You might find Jordan Peterson a bit more useful at this stage than Leo.

@Leo Gura reminds me of one of my favourite quotes of Alan Watts: "We thought of life by analogy with a journey, a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at the end, and the thing was to get to that end, success or whatever it is, maybe heaven after you’re dead. But we missed the point the whole way along. It was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing or to dance while the music was being played." What else is there to do than dance? And you dance best when you're not focusing on the steps behind and ahead of you but when you lose yourself in the present moment.

@justfortoday This is exactly what I felt during my first awakening experience. That I'm infinite and as God I have no equal to experience/interact with. So I play this oldest game of hide and seek with myself to fell like "we are in this together" until I realize what I really am.

@Inliytened1 I'm aware of that the map is not the terrain. It's just a visualisation of the concept to aid in understanding. Constructs are not real but can be useful. Truth is real, but it's not always useful.

@Inliytened1 So practically it is one layer(perspective) of the film at the time, but the illusion of "simultaneously" is direct effect of infinite amount of layers of film glued together so every film is synchronised with each other on the same timeline. @justfortoday thank you so much for sharing, this helped me greatly understand the singular timeline issue.

@satyajit I really like that analogy.

There's infinite amounts of paths to enlightenment. You're just making one for yourself it this very moment. If meditation and yoga works for you then stick to it. Gautama Buddha didn't have psychedelics and yet he did it. Different strokes for different folks. Find what works best for you.

@SQAAD Yes. The same consciousness is experiencing bot phenomena.

@SQAAD I think Leo's style of teaching is very unique and direct and I really appreciate that. It's perfect just the way it is. But again the difference between you and Leo is completely arbitrary. "Leo" is a construct of consciousness just like you are. The thing that's staring at this very message right now is "it" whether it's you or Leo reading it. Leo and you as a construct doesn't really exist. The thing in you that say "I do exist" that's the ego. Your true nature is way beyond that.

From this day onward 69 should be the new symbol of God/oneness.

@Jahmaine About "highest human potential", it reminds me of this story of Chinese general invading a Tibetan temple. There was one monk who didn't flee which greatly agitated the general. He said : “Don’t you know who I am, monk?” the General hissed. “I could take this sword and run it through your belly without blinking an eye.” The monk remained stolid, his expression unchanged. “And don’t you know who I am?” he replied. “I could have your sword run through my belly without blinking an eye.” That's peak selflessness at zero personal bias. Hope it does help.

@softlyblossoming I think the amplification is just a perception. It's more like it's always been there but because of all the other clutter at the forefront it wasn't as obvious. I was in a very bad place at the time and "taking a step back" proven to be very helpful. Ajhan Brahm teaching on few bad bricks not making a bad wall helped a lot. Deep investigation of what is a thought and where does it come from is pretty powerful. Leads to detachment from it and results in direct alleviation of daily suffering. (Leo got a really good video on it) Whatever negative emotions occurs in your life, take a second to investigate where does this "thing" come from. After a while of this practice it becomes second nature of " oh here's sensation of frustration, it arises and then goes away". It's a bit like pulling your "self" (whatever you identify it with) a step back from the stream of thought's and emotions and simply observing it without judgement. It can be done all the time on daily basis so your life becomes constant meta-meditation/mantra. Listening to wide variety of teachings/teachers - they're all just talking about the same "diamond of infinite facets" but each person is looking at it through a different facet. So some teachers will resonate better with you than others. Look for that underlying universal thing - that's the truth. I know it's gonna sound hippie but surrounding yourself with positive messages (dhamma) on daily basis attune the mind to the thing it's looking for. I guess calm mind is easier to observe. Psychedelics helped me dissolve the "solidity" of the reality. I've only done DMT/LSD/Mushies a handful of times(15 total) but I've always had a deep respect for those experiences so I've took long breaks in between. From the perspective of time I'd recommend DMT the most. It's the most powerful but less frightening to begin with, as it doesn't last long and can be reloaded multiple times in each session. Different substances work differently for everyone from observation of me and my colleagues. So don't work yourself over if you don't experience what your friend does.