Nahm

Yes, you can not react. You can even respond instead of react. This is arguably the greatest discovery in one’s life. This matrix of the mind, what you might call the world, will keep on going. You could say it runs on determinism, cause & effect, reaction....but you my man, you will be waking up from it. You are not of this world. You are not mechanical.

I hear ya, and can appreciate that. Likewise, don’t ‘take this the wrong way’...but honestly, I’m not ‘on a level’ as you might believe, I am just not focused on thoughts that don’t resonate (like demons, etc). I also do not find ‘something to understand’, nor ‘understand something’. It can not honestly be said that I understand, because I is just another thought awareness is aware of. Yes, this makes sense. Look to perception & feeling for clarity....and physically point to this suffering. You’ll notice this can not be done, because it’s a thought. The nature of the thought is about a you in a future suffering...it’s about what might happen...but the suffering is occurring right now, via the focusing on the thought. By suffering in this sense, I mean the true nature is (via feeling) responding with ‘nope, sorry, can’t go there’...but you’re focused on these thoughts in spite of the feeling of resistance, or discord, with the true nature. When there is pain, there is pain. When there is not pain, but a focus on thoughts about potential pain, that is mental anguish / suffering. Yes. Do not allow this to be ‘existential’ or ‘philosophical’. This is not about ‘something that’s happening in some other place or some other time’. This is in regard to NOW. The direct experience, NOW. Is there a demon or whatever else in your direct experience, NOW? No. There isn’t. What is directly experienced, is the thoughts about it. Keep it simple...you are focusing on the thoughts, NOW. How do those thoughts feel - great, or, not great? Clearly - not great. Focus instead on what does feel good, what does resonate with the true nature. That can be literally anything else. There is a momentum to this, and that momentum must be known in direct experience. That is, you must focus on what does feel good to you. When a perspective does not resonate, let it go (simply because it doesn’t feel good). Sometimes letting a perspective go equals realizing ‘I was wrong about that’. Being wrong, realizing ‘I was wrong about x’ is one of the greatest, most freeing feeling experiences. Similar, if not the same, as letting go of a belief. The more you ‘play this game’ of aligning thought with your true nature...the more Truth is realized...the more you are focused on what you do want - and the more you are creating that which you do want in your life. Humility shall set you free my good man. It is a thought. You are focusing on it. It does not feel good. There are infinite ‘what if’s’ you could be focusing on...so be a bit picky and focus on what feels good to you. You might say, you have the ‘voice of God’ within you, and ‘it’ ‘speaks’ in feeling, in resonance, aka alignment with it, or discord against it. Just ease up on yo self, and listen to the true nature. Say (inwardly) “this is what is coming”...and let it. “this is what is going”...and let it. Yes, I agree with feeling into it, exploring the feeling. Not focusing more on the thought, but feeling ‘into the body’. The sensation, and the sensation. ‘Find’ that fear in the body. Where exactly is it? What exactly is it? What is it’s shape? What color is it? If the body releases some emotion....let it. You can also let go of thought, by focusing on perception & feeling. Walking Meditation outdoors is great for this, because there is a lot going on in perception & feeling, making it easier to focus on it. Another way to let a thought go is by focusing on any other thought or subject which feels good to you. Another is by putting all attention on breathing from the stomach. Feeling the sensation of the breathing. If & when it is noticed attention is on thoughts, gently, effortlessly, return attention to breathing from the stomach. If you do this and notice you ‘strayed’ to thoughts & brought attention back to breathing from the stomach a hundred times - feel good about it. Don’t hold expectations, just do it to experience it, yet, feel good about doing the ‘work’. Have faith in momentum, until you directly experience the results for yourself.

‘It’ will soon be laughing ‘with’ you. Those are thoughts. Notice some thoughts align with the true nature, and some thought are in discord with your true nature. Choose wisely. That’s a thought! Rather than expressing a thought which is not aligned (reacting)...let it go. Don’t be the chef who tastes every dish and sends all of them to the tables regardless of taste...serve only the aligned, sweet tasting true nature. Let those which do not ‘taste good to you’, go.

@levani Excellent advice from @Sagar Takker . I’d add so called fear is no more than thought attachment, you might say the mind ‘tricking’ itself into suppressing, avoiding...Self...no thing...”it’s”own source so to speak?. Bringing sense of humor to this can help cut the tension / thought discord of repeating attachments (beliefs). Many trips “to” no thing until there’s no one to ‘go to’ no thing anymore...and never the direct experience of another entity. However, apparently, some testify to what Leo said, that entities like demons etc are actual. Again, never encountered this, but just some suggestions that come to mind if you do...run the ‘filter’ of: thought, perception, feeling. ‘Break the experience down’ to what is actually, experience. If that still doesn’t cut it, demand that the “demon” tell you it’s name. Don’t accept any name. Repeatedly demand it say it’s true name, ‘who’ ‘it’ really is. ? Godspeed. Letting go of thoughts is ultimately (because nonduality is only surfaces, only appearances) the key.

Unlearn the thought / belief “I”. Then this belief won’t be in the way next time. Nothing doesn’t not vanish in nothing, nothing is nothing.

@Leo Nordin That is not my sentiment, intention or perspective at all, and sorry I was not helpful. Please be mindful nonetheless of the guidelines regarding name calling. Thanks & I sincerely wish you the best.

@Leo Nordin This is what I was pointing to about the lens. There is no ‘way reality is’ in regard to creating, fear, responsibility, working, school, attention...this is the true nature.

“I'm the one that's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.” ”Orange is young and full of daring, but very unsteady for the first go round.” ― Jimi Hendrix, Bold as Love You can never find what you’re looking for when you go where you don’t want to go.

Happiness is literally nothing, no thing, not of this world...ever present, all pervasive, Being ‘this world’. Instead of looking for happiness, inspect beliefs and let go of those which you create as barriers to who you really are. It can be helpful to trace this way of thinking back to who you learned it from. Probably mom or dad. Faith in choosing what resonates with you, in terms of patience, and seeing what momentum is for yourself is the key. Don’t drag the unwanted story around anymore. Let it go, cry out emotional misunderstanding. Meditation...the ‘other than thinking’.

@zeroISinfinity The Jed I.

@zeroISinfinity ?

For the sake of clear communication of sentiment, I have never had any interest in ‘having an impact or meaning’ on or for you. There is no experience of a you ‘here’. (Those are thoughts, assumptions, being projected). Wants... Harmony of body / mind / energy without contingency (of others). Unabashed expression (vs justifying / rationalizing thoughts / wants). Contentment with what is. To realize I am the ‘will of life’, ‘consciousness’, etc. (That I am not ‘other than’ ‘this’.) To realize there is no actual delusion, sans the experience of one’s own thoughts / perspective. That it is an ‘othering’ lens you can put on and take off, which is essentially judgement of oneself. To realize happiness is all that is seen, is the very ‘seeing’. To realize ‘life’ is just a lens. To let go of security, need, attachment of knowledge, and all similar thought activity that is ‘the separate self’. The experience of helping yourself realize the true nature. To experience family, raising kids, etc. To realize ‘the world’ doesn’t exist (specifically in a capacity that it is separate, and you could work for it). To realize there are no distinctions, especially in regard to separating a ‘yourself’ via believing your own distinctions in regard to ‘others’. To fully see through the mechanics of fear and create freely, in, of, and as, the true nature. To see through the falsity / duality of ‘seriousness’. To realize nothing can ever be said about nothing / (thought, perception, feeling... ‘it’s’ all just “experience”). Edit: And sex. How could I forget! Two being one. ? (If it seems as if I”m being unclear at all please let me know if you’d like any elaboration, in the sense, co-inspection of direct experience.)

Putting that aside for a minute, what comes to mind in the simpler sense, as to what you like to do? What do you know you don’t want to do? What activities do you enjoy most? What are you most interested in?

?? ♥️

@SirVladimir ?

@snowyowl

Those are not “things”, as in “separate” or “other” “things”...those are thoughts. There are no “things”. Things, is a thought, about there being separate “things”, about there being “separation”. (This belief is the belief you are a separate thing...which is thought attachment.) So there is no ‘thing’ to arrive at, only the realization of thought attachment, the belief in separate things...what’s ‘arrived at’ is No Things. But this is not ‘arrived at’, it’s what you already are, infinite being, No Thing. Try to think of any thing which is like awareness. It’ll ‘drive this home’. “Empty your cup”.....empty of the belief in “cups”. Look at “a cup”, in the honest recognition “cup” is a word you learned, a label, the conditioning of ‘separate things’. ‘That’ is not “a cup”, it’s ‘perception’...and the thought ...“cup”. There are no “things” “in” perception. There is no ‘that’ in perception, only “in” thought. “My mind” is also a belief in a separate ‘thing’. Examine perception...is there a seeing of a my mind? Is there a hearing of a my mind? Or is there a thought....”my mind”? Inspect direct experience. “How” is just another thought. This thought, like all thought, is dual, or, based on there being separation, “two”. It implies there is a separate you....and the separate mind, or, thinking. One can not pass what is not there. One can surrender the belief.

Does ‘makes sense’ mean ‘aligns with what I already believe / know’...or ‘feels great’?

@Leo Nordin What is the most ideal answer you could possibly hear? What answer resounds, lights you up so to speak?

@SamueLSD Addictions are often a coping behavior for an emotional misunderstanding related more fundamentally to identity. You could aim to stop the addiction in the behavior sense, and you can aim to release the emotional misunderstanding prior to the coping behavior. There are lots of ways to go about it. A dreamboard full of what one wants can also be very inspiring.

No one is appreciating this thread and doing their best. ??♥️

Subject & object are thoughts. Look for them in perception & feeling. (To deeply realize they are thoughts).

I remember years ago reading Stillness Speaks, and then seeing him talk on Oprah, and just being in awe.

(An offering of a different way to go about it) Masturbate, listen to some music, go on a long walk somewhere. Relax as deeply as possible, love yourself, pamper yourself, appreciate every little thing as well as the magic of the whole of your experience. Relish and enjoy your meditations and activities. Recognize something so seemingly simple & mundane as breathing is an impossible miracle that was taken for granted. Let go and relax so deeply that it is recognized the ‘push & pull’ experienced here is between feeling and the mind, or, unconditional love & attachment to thoughts. Recognize your conditions...right here right now is perfect as is... and in the awareness of this, in the recognition feeling is paramount, the conditions are already let go. The body will follow by releasing emotional misunderstanding. Forgiveness Meditation can really help this along. Just reading it can trigger releases. That ‘push & pull’ experience is inevitably experienced differently, as it is recognized the mind plays a role in attempting to suppress the emotional release with veils of thought. (Typically thoughts about you in a past or future). Reveal to yourself, or, get in touch with, intuition, your higher knowing, such that it is more & more recognized that any discord in experience is the resistance to the arising thought now, and not the implied content of the thought (you in a future at work etc). This is the freedom if you will, of Now. The liberation from ‘control’ of the finite mind. This opens the door to possibilities & recognitions that you are the creator-creating-creation, and you have a dream in you to experience the actual unfolding of. The desired outcome of the retreats is many releases resulting in mental equanimity and the emptiness / fullness of love. This is available everywhere, always. Notice there is only here, you never experience ‘there’. Notice there is only now, you never experience a then, a past, nor future. Letting go is the profound key, in comparison to pushing ‘your self’. That is the perpetuation of the self referential thought story (thoughts about you) which can be surrendered in the ever present love, peace and understanding you truly already are.