Zephyr

#3 If a person who was blind his whole life asks you "What does a cloud look like?" How would you answer this?

@Joseph Maynor I don't know. For predistination to occur, we will need to have a pre-determinator. I'm not saying that there is no posibility of a higher conscious being or entity. Everything is possible. Maybe there is a God watching, then we are predestined. If there is no higher entity, then destiny does not exist.

I use to be a Christian. Learning non-duality made Jesus' teachings makes more sense. God to me right now means nothingness. Even saying that makes it into somethingness God is

I use to be a Christian too. That's so cool that you tried searching up those stuffs you were afraid of back then. I did it that too. In fact, I have an ebook Satanism Bible. Same thing as Christianty though. Beliefs are just concepts though. Irrelevant to Truth/God. You wont be needing them if you want to take on this journey.

Well, this is one hell of a way to become awakened ?

Why would a person want to become enlightened? What's in it for him/her?

Loving yourself from time to time alone can be quite powerful. Especially when going through hard times and dealing with strong emotions. It's all about how you talk to yourself. The most practical way I go about it is saying the phrase "It's okay" It's okay to feel weak. It's okay to feel hate towards others. I can understand that you feel hurt. It's okay to be socially awkward, bro. It's okay to be addicted. It's okay to feel shame and to doubt yourself. It's okay to seek and suffer. *Talking to myself as if I'm talking to another person

To me, the ego, whether good, bad, healthy or unhealthy, is quite fascinating. Just makes me feel marveled and be moved by the expression of the universe itself and the mystery of it all.

I see it most common on new users though.

That's one of the first thing that came up to me when I moved here. No retreats. No teachers. No buddies. I interpret it differently though. I look at the bright side. You should just do more Self Improvement work. You got to change some of your out looks and stuffs. I always say "at least" .. At least I still have access to the internet from time to time. At least I have a phone in which I can read e-books. At least it's peaceful here. There's no body to relate to but I guess that can also be a good thing. At least you can just grab a beer and chill anywhere. At least no body is stopping me from meditating. At least the cost of living is cheaper. Anything positive? I know you have a problem. We know you have a problem. It's your problem. There's only you and your problem now. No, there's no you, your mom, your dad, and the problem. There's only the problem and there's you. It's you + the problem. Nobody else bro. You are own your own. Good luck and have fun.

Should be posted on Self Actualization section, Not Non-duality section mods should handle this

Yup. That's why the Filipino Dream is slowly becoming a dream to leave the Philippines and move to a different country. (btw, this thread I think is in the wrong section of the forum)

Bro, you got to chill. I can guess that even if you move to another country and bring the same mind set, the same attitude, the same outlook on life as you have right now, you'll still be facing this problem. That which is in your self. Not anything external. I've been to another country. Right now I'm in the Philippines finishing my school. I can guarantee you being in another country does not increase your consciousness what so ever. Thus, this consciousness journey has nothing to do with which country you are in.. How about the people? Yes, sure, I can see a lot of people here that are not emotionally developed, I am self is one, and I promise it's the same thing as in any other country. U.S. is almost just as worse. There's no problem here in the Philippines with developing your consciousness. It helps a lot when you have a mentor/teacher/master. But you don't need others as much as you need yourself. Being in this forum tells me that you have access to the internet. The internet is big, bro, you got to take advantage of this. You're own your own with this. In terms of opportunities and success, there's no reason for you not to become successful in the Philippines. Even some of the most successful people in the Philippines didn't have education. Imagine that. I'm not saying you should just stay here. I'm just telling you that it's not as bad as you think it is. You are going to face the same problem when you go to another country. You are going to face yourself.

Ego Death - What comes after Ego transcendence Ego transcendence - What comes after enlightenment Enlightenment - What never comes

18

@Fidelio You seem to know something that many people don't seem to know. How can I acquire the knowledge you posses?

When you don't know whether the you got lost or the thread did.

Al Hallaj on who is God: "Before" does not outstrip Him, "after" does not interrupt Him "of" does not vie with Him for precedence "from" does not accord with Him "to" does not join with Him "in" does not inhabit Him "when" does not stop Him "if" does not consult with Him "over" does not overshadow Him "under" does not support Him "opposite" does not face Him "with" does not press Him "behind" does not limit Him "previous" does not display Him "after" does not cause Him to pass away "all" does not unite Him "is" does not bring Him into being "is not" does not deprive Him from Being. Concealment does not veil Him His pre-existence preceded time, His being preceded non-being, His eternity preceded limit. If thou sayest 'when', His existing has outstripped time; If thou sayest 'before', before is after Him; If thou sayest 'he', 'h' and 'e' are His creation; If thou sayest 'how', His essence is veiled from description; If thou sayest 'where', His being preceded space; If thou sayest 'ipseity' (ma huwa), His ipseity (huwiwah) is apart from things. Other than He cannot be qualified by two (opposite) qualities at one time; yet With Him they do not create opposition. He is hidden in His manifestation, manifest in His concealing. He is outward and inward, near and far; and in this respect He is removed beyond the resemblance of creation. He acts without contact, instructs without meeting, guides without pointing. Desires do not conflict with Him, thoughts do not mingle with Him: His essence is without qualification (takyeef), His action without effort (takleef).

The "If I follow the spiritual path, I won't be able to make money. I won't survive." trap

I think that I should tell that I think that you need to think more about what you are thinking about.

@faithful I coulnt say it better @beatlemantis Journal Entry from way back on Depression/Apathy Concepts/Things I learned from Sufferings: 1. Depression: it only happens when I have resistance while in recovery state. Resistance + Recovery State = Depression. When your body becomes fatigue and your mind goes black and white this is when what I call 'Recovery State' starts.. For me it can last for weeks. I think it's a mechanism that puts us in economy state to conserve energy. This is for you to recover from the backfire you created through excessive exertion of will power, brute forcing, beating yourself, neurotic motivation, etc. This forces us stop Resistance. Resistance is pretty much the 'shoulds' and 'ought to be' that creates this conflict. The more resistance we have and the less awareness we have the more suffering we will likely experience. Especially for a person who don't meditate. When in Recovery State one should be aware of ones resistance. From personal experience recovery state just put me into involuntary awareness/meditative state. For people who never done meditation before this might be a different experience for them. They might add more layers of resistance since they are afraid of not thinking, not doing and just being. This only makes recovery state stronger, and then if one has low awareness the resistance will get also become stronger. This is why when I am depressed I play a lot of video games and masturbate to escape the recovery state which only is inviting me to the present moment -- to stop doing and just be. So this is suffering at it's finest. Eventually this leads to suicidal thoughts unless if awareness is shone to the conflict. Deep inside we all want to choose recovery state over resistance. This is why you can't just go up to a person who has depression and say "just cheer up" because that's not Recovery, that is Resistance. We no longer want to be happy (superficially) but we want to be happy. This is why that person just want to be left alone if he/she is not understood and accepted. Saying "cheer up" just pisses that person. We, as a society are just conditioned to Resistance. This is why depression is not rare in our society. This is why when someone is depressed we must choose understanding and presence rather than trying to fix the external problem that is causing the 'depression' ... Deep inside we want to be more intergrated rather than our problems fixed. ------ Kind of messy but I hope this helps a bit

Both.

This enlightened dude