Nahm

@Guillem12 Inhaling. Then later, exhaling. Also, try inhaling downward such that you feel the expansion of muscles & tissue lower and lower. Then the same with upward. Then upward & downward expansion at the same time. Keep spine straight. Notice tendency of muscles to contract, and relax more & more deeply until it’s happening but it’s clear you aren’t doing it.

Imagine reality into being, then don’t imagine reality into being. Should be clearer.

@Guillem12 Start with up. When you really connect and feel it, then bring in the down connection.

@blessedlion1993 You could look into realestate. 500k at 7% market return makes 35k annually. A 500k airbnb for example nets about 260k annually. Many risks & disclaimers apply of course, but look into it if interested. You could also split the investment among a variety of locations, and live in them, while also using the money to stay / travel to wherever you want. Psychologically, loa & spheres wise, avoidance or the escaping of something doesn’t created much. Focus upon wanted does.

Meditative mind …. then that but … then self referential thoughts arise (a thought which the content seems to be about yourself but isn’t). Notice how quickly & sneakily thought ‘pulls you in’ to a story about a you in time. The more awareness is aware of this ‘story telling’ ‘ ‘monkey mind’, the less it’s believed / the more meditative mind ‘is experienced’ so to speak / by no one. There are apparent thoughts “about” a thinker of thoughts, about “the one who is thinking”, but there is no thinker. There is no “myself being conscious”, no “me which is constantly getting distracted”, no “me which can’t maintain attention”, no “me which goes all the way”, no “me which could or couldn’t maintain an it”, no “you which rests as pure awareness”, no “you which is stuck”, no “you for which it’s been a year”. There are these apparent thoughts… there is not that “other me” which the thought appear to be about. The awareness sought in thought content… is actually the awareness which is already aware of the thoughts. Look at your hand, that’s awareness. That’s what’s sought. Look at the chair. That’s awareness. Look at the sky, that’s awareness. The looking ‘itself’, is awareness. Awareness can’t be found, because all there is, is awareness. Or as Rumi says a bit more poetically, ‘what you seek is seeking you’ (not two). Keep it so incredibly simple… express & share how you feel, what you think about anything (so to speak), etc… but choose to stop talking about yourself. Thoughts about this alleged separate self will cease and ‘awakening’ will follow.

@iboughtleosbooklist

@michaelcycle00 If you had a bunch of words spelled out on the floor with legos, you could say there are words there, yet there aren’t really, they’re legos.

1 is conjecture, belief, someone else’s view.

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Did you eat em or make tea?

Great life advice relatively speaking, but horrible mindset on psychedelics. If your orientation mentally is what you can get out of it, this will clash with the effectiveness of the substance and leave ‘you’ disappointed & disillusioned.

Those are covered by Reiki & Vipassana. They overlap. The two reveal one bigger picture. I’d read a couple books on each, take the classes, try a retreat, and continue experimenting with the suggested practices & application. And most importantly, enjoy it.

@Loving Radiance Awesome. What a crazy friend mushrooms are. So wild lol.

Underlying the experiences is the identity or identifying. At first glance it may seem insignificant & just semantical, but while fears are thought of repeatedly, aka believed, to be “my fears”, it’s as if you’re saying “this is mine… that much is incontestable… now, how do I be without it?”. Once it is considered X (in this case fears, but could be anything thought of) isn’t, and never was “yours”, you are already without it. When a view, outlook, or perspective is chosen & focused upon… which does not align (via feeling) with your inner being so to speak, it simply doesn’t. It’s self evident and needs no logic, rationale, justification, or labeling. Most importantly perhaps, it needs no solution. Another lens… you are saying ‘your fears’ have to do with other people. If that were true there’d be absolutely nothing you could do about it, because of course you are not in charge of or in control of other people. But, if ‘your fears’ have nothing to do with other people, and only to do with your perspectives, then you’re absolutely in control as you can change your perspectives. Who you are, how you are, is never actual, it’s just a perspective. One likely very effective specific consideration… you say the fear comes back, as in fear comes & goes. If you tried to point to it you’d find you can not. But if a bus was said to come & go, you could point to it. This stands to help you see your perspective is what’s coming and going, yet, miraculously, you never come & go. For what never comes & goes to hold a perspective of any problem with what only comes and goes makes less sense by the minute, because you are the maker of sense, you are the ineffable sense itself. What can experience time must be eternal, what can experience finite must be infinite, and what can experience fear must be love. For what is eternal, infinite, and love itself… some perspectives will feel off. I suggest the new ‘label’ of ‘feels off’, rather than ‘fear’. ‘Feels off’ denotes to me… but ‘fear’ denotes this other thing (which causes me fear, or which I fear). That there is ‘this other thing’, is fundamentally what feels off.

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Option 3, share honestly your world view rather than your beliefs. 1 & 2 are assumptive a priori claims.

@Paulus Amadeus Claiming you (or someone else) have something is experiential but never actual. An experience so to speak of gained & lost, not an actuality of anything gained & lost. Or if you will, the claim is definitely (apparently) experienced, but there is no actuality of a having of said thing claimed to be had. Same for identity. There is certainly (apparently) the experience of being someone or something, but no actuality of it. If that seems vague or cryptic, though it sounds colder yet clearer to put this way, just apply the term monkey mind (which is likewise not exceptional).

In a separate universe or world which consists of separate physical things there would be separate ‘characters’, ‘elements of truth’, ‘solipsism’, ‘life’ and ‘endings’, as you say. And these separate physical things would have their own separate things. And there would be separate characters or souls which do, and this doing would be dreaming, and this dreaming would be separate.

There are only other people for a person.

There isn’t a how. It’s about letting go of thinking. Ya.

@Ulax What is your affliction? More importantly, where is it? Point to it. Well it’s the past. Be literal. Point to a past. Well, that’s a thought. Not actually a past. If there’s no past in your direct experience… and the thought is in your direct experience… then there is no affliction to overcome, sans the one you are repeating & imposing, upon yourself, via thought. That might be read as harsh, but is not meant that way. It’s meant to your benefit. You are not identified by your past. You are not identified by the actions of others. You are not identified by your thoughts, but ‘the work’ to do is recognizing that you are believing that you are, and bringing understanding, and thus peace, to that. That you are here, now, present, is liberation. That you are not the story you tell, is liberation. Very important… if questions arise, ask em. That is the way of non-aversion, of non-suppression. It is the way.

@Tim R I didn’t say focus is yours. I said it’s as yours as anything could possibly be. A slight concession to bridge some communication. You’re taking it too literally there. Likewise, the title says ‘what is a self referential thought’, not ‘focus is a self referential thought’. Although, focus is also a self referential thought. Unless of course, it isn’t.

@Tim R What is a self referential thought.

@Jannes It,1…theory, 2…me, 3…I, 4…myself, 5. You say there are 5 separate components at play (maybe 4 in all fairness), while the theory you speak of says not-two. You’re utilizing the theory, vs hearing it.

Memories experienced are no more yours than trees passed while driving down a road. Simply enjoy the beauty & richness of the experience. That is the work! Life’s teaching you. You think the lesson (and ‘solution’) is ‘somewhere else’. That’s aversion of feeling. Memories experienced are no more yours than trees passed while driving down a road. Focus though, that’s as yours as anything could possibly be. Who, spirituality, personal growth, etc, those are memories. That they are good & bad is judgement. The veil of judgement makes memories seem not like you - but yours.