Anton Rogachevski

@ivankiss That is one of the most beautiful prayers I've ever seen. Thank you dear friend for sharing your art here. It's bringing in so much color, to a cold rational world.

@VioletFlame Amazing! Thank you so much for sharing here.

Well, the ego is the personification of our self's desire to identify with itself so even though it's not much more than a conceptual construct it is a manifestation of the many impulses, urges, ideas, beliefs, thoughts, desires and mental paradigms. And so it's the impulses that dellude. The innocent little ego is the devil's scapegoat. Therefore any statement beginning with: "My ego" is basically delusion.

I liken the ego to the self's advocate......it wants us to attach and works to attach to the construct and content of self to justify itself. Since it's an idea in the first place, how can it "want"?

There's no beforelife nor afterlife to a thought. Yep ego is just an idea. You are not it anyway. And the real you never lived, nor will die. I presume the thing you want to keep are the memories, which are just an accumulation of recordings in the neurons. They are only significant to you right now because you are attached to them. You call them "My" memories, and so you feel as though a part of you will go if they go. But in fact the attachment is just an act of fear, fear of the void, emptiness, of ultimate death. Fear not, for it is already the case, embrace darkness, and you will be free of fear. Love fear and allow it be a part of you. Then you won't care for some old files in the mind's hard disk to be lost. It's just images, not you, nor are they yours. When you are born again, you won't remember, but you will get new pictures, on your new "hard disk". It will be marvelous because you will get to experience all the emotions like for the first time.

@ivankiss Great to hear. It's just a common trap, in any case it's good to be aware of it. In a sense there's truth to the fact that thought is free, and one can play with it, and form the reality in which it's comfortable for him to live. It's a great post-rational insight - It frees you, and allows unconditional positive regard. You decide what's right for you, and no one can ever change that, you put your opinion at the top, and become self honest about things. It's really been healing my soul, to be free. Thank you for reading and being here dear friend, Hope to see more of your material here, And I'm sorry if I hurt you in any way with my arrogance. Actually our deep mutual contemplation beared fruits today, I had massive insight into the nature of thought (post it as soon as it's ready)

Careful with confusing enlightenment for - "pretending not care about anything." One cannot think his way into liberation. "You can't wash blood off, with blood." (old zen quote)

This is the sanest thought possible. This proccess has been described as going crazy in the past. Let go! Allow yourself to lose your mind completely. Surrender to not-knowing.

You are a great artist! "The ego" is the attachment to the idea of self. Please see the post above, i've updated. By the way, blaming the ego is creating two egos.

@Joseph Maynor Master vs student. Or the nature of wisdom. (see my signature)

Where is the zen master when he's needed? If it really didn't exist, this forum would be futile my dear friend. ------ @ivankiss said: "My" ------ The sneakiness occurs when thought are glued together. For example: "I did this" = Thought+Thought+Thought = "action" In fact only once you apply logic you can declare reality. While in fact they are noises within a void.

There's the sneaky thought!

@Joseph Maynor I guess he gotta work both ends of this paradox.

Indeed. It's pretty much the sentence that appears in 90% of zen books. Good day!

Wow. Thank you for you input everyone. I really appreciate our conversation. Upon revisiting I see that it doesn't matter, I gotta keep inquiring.

One could say vision is itself a form of thought. But if we were to create division then no. It appears as if thougts are imagination files playing.

Perhaps you are right sir. Since in the deepest realisation one sees the manifestation as no different from the source, it is changing.

The trouble here is to assume that the now is narrow like a second hand in clock. This is a rationalization of non-dual state insight (which is post-rational). In fact the now is ever present, stretching to infinity in both ends, it was now at the big bang, as it is now today, and in a million years it will still be now.

Even that I don't know if I can say for sure. I want to know because it's necessary for the process of inquiry to know even what you are looking for (or not looking.) Thank you for your input, Cheers

Hi dear friend, How do you know this? If I may ask? Obviously the writer of the commentary might have got it wrong. (he did say the true tao is ever changing) But I must take it into consideration and observe to truly know. In a sense, the Tao can also be inappropriately translated or understood, or not! Since "change" is interdependent of "no-change", which implies duality. The book might also be wrong. (which is the least likely option, but still.)

@kieranperez I see you are now in great pain, and you are pushing yourself needlessly into doing something, but in such a state you can't come up with rational ways of action. First you must treat the wounds, and from there you will have a better shot. I saw people that were near death from drug and drink abuse, and now they are far more successful than me. It's pretty much a miracle, except it's a fact. I know you might not seek advice right now, but I must share this path, because it's less known, yet extremely effective in helping people in difficult situations. People that tried all sort of therapy, and spiritual paths, yet couldn't stop the suffering. I myself was like that, and I was lucky enough to have friends that we're literally saved from death by this program. This kind of evidence I simply couldn't ignore. Also it's very cheap - about 10 dollars a month I would presume, It's also a donation based, so you can even not donate. Thank you for sharing, and being here. You are loved. Good luck to you! Please read here if you are interested: ( I would say CoDa might be the good choice, but look at the other options.)

This site is an amazing source of rare sounds that one can play while doing many activities. It's helping to stay focused for a long time, and block distracting noises. It's free, and there's many cool features and many many different sounds. For me a total bliss! Check this out: https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/huuVocalSoundscape.php

The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma It's almost as amazing as Tao Te Ching. If you want to see real basic Zen, there's no other source.

@SOUL So duality is a choice made at the second of labeling yet unmanifested awareness. This makes it all very easy! Just don't label if you don't want separation to occur. And so everything within awareness is awareness, but one can label and divide it to manifest objects. Are you a wizard? What a bliss, Deep bow to you, old friend.

@Nahm I only know Nahm is infinite, other than that it's all delusion and fantasy.