UnbornTao

Additionally, I'd say your approach, disposition and overall relationship towards things is the priority, not so much what one may do. Wanting to discover some aspect of your experience shifts your relationship to it, facilitating introspection. You are then suddenly contemplating what things are, not just at the effect of them.

- "Is my dick big enough?" - "I won't dignify that with an answer"

There isn't one right now but I'd imagine that a second episode might come up at some point. edit: think this was answered somewhere else. What's paradox? is supposed to be the second one in the series.

"What do you want me to say?"

Lol Just in case, it was a joke.

You and Schmachtenberger, Wilber, etc

You have to kill a goat with your bare hands and eat it raw.

How could we define each term? How can we move in the direction of experiential understanding?

So did you just fall out of a coconut tree?

Honesty. To be clear, if (big if) you actually realize your nature and aren't just jerking off, which is likely the case. In any case, why would you openly claim that stuff, knowing that it will be received in the wrong way?

Made flan!

Good post.

Red, although there're several types of them.

Maybe there's nothing after all. Not to be confused with nihilism. Don't believe this. To add some: others, life, mind, experience, objects. Any distinction that shows up or appears as, real. But knowing what's the case ourselves is a totally different matter and won't be what we think it is or might be.

Why not? Life's short.

Testify!

Distinguish between intention, which co-arises with action and contains an element of want, and desire, which is a complementary conceptual activity of wishing for an imagined experience to occur in the future. The latter does not require action, while the former arises with it.

Confucius.

I don't think that "skill" applies to consciousness, but I get your point. Fair point, as I haven't studied his work deeply. Discerning between authentic individuals and charlatans is tricky. What are they about, and where are they coming from? This should remove many candidates. That is why I said "philosophy" in the conventional sense (intellectualizing, mostly) might be a more apt term to describe what he's up to, based on the sense I got from paying attention to his experience. With some effort (lying), you can get convinced that someone is awake and "knows" more than they do in actuality. When it comes to consciousness, "pure" or untainted by intellect, comes to mind, much like the spirit of Zen.

Okey doke.

In short, your mind is making stuff up that may not be grounded on "reality", true events or fact, whereas getting present tends to decrease your conceptualizing, providing a more accurate perception of what is happening within your experience. What's left in your experience when you strip away the ideas of chakras, hell, god? Feeling, thoughts, perception; elements in a raw, intimate and present form that are somehow more real. Even though you may benefit from them, reconsidering your relationship towards them--acknowledging that these may be beliefs and so not existentially true--helps create distance from them and opens up genuine questioning. Therefore, increasing one's presence is a good direction to move towards. Hope that helps.

Don't go by rumors. We may postulate, given some creative freedom (conjecture), that it's true already. And you're fine. See? Neither is it relative. So horror or fear doesn't apply here, so to speak. I'm not talking about psychedelic states. Should make a distinction between what's existential and what's mentally produced activity; the latter is what fear is about, and with enough consciousness, it can be decreased and stopped. Why would you be afraid of the truth if it's always been the case and, to get poetic, it is you already? So again, taking what you've heard on faith is not going to serve you. That way, you create certain expectations that aren't based on what's real, but add on to it.

I'd say it's more about the self-transcendent nature of beauty. It may not be about the object of perception, but perhaps about the fact that it exists--existence itself. Like wondering: what is this experience really about? For example, where is beauty found? You may read a poem that don't quite understand, or perhaps find it uninspiring. Although the poem remains the same, after going through a particular experience, reading it again may take on a different meaning, making it particularly beautiful to you this time.