Nathan

By that rhetoric how is God able to empathise with the felt experience of suffering an entity experiences whilst beleiving they are separate? Whenever I suffer I conceptualise god as an out of touch perspective divorced from the felt experience of suffering. I can sometimes be in a state where I am able to recognise how suffering can be a vehicle to greater compassion but to subject a less aware perspective to suffering without their awareness of its utility (no ability for informed consent) seems antithetical to compassion to me. It's kind of hard to convey what I really mean because suffering is a topic that I always get stuck on to be honest. I just can't condone suffering in good faith from any vantage point I've lived so far so whenever I suffer I'm always extremely resentful about it.

Mckennas lectures go into the weeds a bit,never fully understood the hype. Perhaps I need to do a heroic dose of shrooms first 🤔

When I awake from a dream, I realise the inhabitants of that dream were simply imagined and have no POV outside of my own POV. It's deemed that the dream reality has been supplanted by the subsequent waking reality. But from my own POV in the waking reality that distinction is simply conditioning imposed by that reality. How is it possible for any reality to be more legitimate than any other?

I have similar Trust issues and related to this post hard ?. I'm reading up on how to heal the associated trauma. From my experience, everything seems to ultimately fit together pretty neatly. Trust that what you went through will be justified in retrospect.

Please stop swatting me. Please. I'm begging you. Don't you understand how I suffer? Please.

Any answer to that question would put a condition on love, which isn't necessary. Love isn't an effect requiring a cause. It's hard to understand with the mind because the mind is used to understanding the relationship between cause and effect.

If you're to truely understand what it really means to deprive someone else of life, to make that decision for them..you have to honestly grapple with the fact you're going to die too. Our shared mortality is one of the strongest factors that unites us, but nobody likes to think about death and we lose a lot of empathy as a result of that aversion.

You're analysing the concept of oneness and creating a gloomy narrative about it that makes you feel isolated and dejected.@Flyboy 's analogy is spot on. I know it doesn't feel like it now but you've stumbled upon something profoundly beautiful. It may feel like the complete opposite of beauty for some time; during this liminal period take good care of yourself and reach out for support when you need it. A caveat though, be careful expressing yourself about all of this in real life.

I was completely convinced of the materialist paradigm until one day I had a sober perceptible experience of shared consciousness. Everyone's emotions just hanging out in the open like that..so vulnerable and endearing. The reason I started browsing topics in the sphere of spirituality was because I was chasing that experience. I've had acid experiences where you feel like you're on the same wavelength as your trip buddies and it's like you're all coming from the same place. I don't understand it at all but I gather it relates more to feeling than thinking anyway. Interested to see what people have to say about this topic ?

You don't always have to weigh the effectiveness of your actions against all of the suffering in the macrocosm. Helping to make just a single person's life a little easier isn't a trivial thing, it's actually a pretty big deal. Learn to narrow your focus when it serves you. If you want to, you can take action to alleviate some of the unfairness in the world, that doesn't mean you're obligated to consume media relating to all that unfairness.

He must be swift as coursing river...With all the force of a great typhoon!

I've had two similar experiences (lots of synchronicities, beleiving certain scenarios and images represented specific meaning for me in particular and that I was supposed to encounter them etc). It did feel like I was becoming more sane as opposed to the opposite, yet looking back on actions I took in retrospect it's hard to fully understand where I was coming from. ? Both were diagnosed as transitory psychotic episodes and after the remission of each I wasn't advised to take a medication regimen or anything like that as a prophylactic. The first episode was very traumatising, then there was a 4 year gap of complete remission before the second. The second wasn't a big deal and I didn't really cause any issues for anybody,but it was the same kind of experience internally. My girlfriend said she wouldn't have even known if I hadn't opened up about it. You sound lucid. Interacting with people and reality in general after leaving our "normal state" for a time is bound to not be as smooth, your mind is busy analysing what happend and where you stand. These experiences can be disorienting. Time feels like it goes quicker when you're not filling it with novel, memorable content. Just take it one day at a time and don't catastrophise about the future too much. It's not the end of the world and you aren't the only person in life to ever deviate from a conventional headspace. If it ever happens again, it won't be your first rodeo and you'll handle it better. Do things you enjoy and try to employ your sense of humour when thinking about it all, it doesn't have to be deadly serious all of the time. You'll probably find yourself more equipped to relate to and empathise with people who've been through similar experiences going forward too which is a plus.

Call me out for being closed minded and making sweeping statements but the way I see it.. All of the mystical experiences reality has to offer amount to little more than thrilling distractions if they don't dent your apathy towards the plight of your brothers and sisters. Love is the path and mercy is the recognition of unity.

It's going to be okay. When the mind is building a narrative it can interpret scenarios within the context of that narrative and colour them in a particular way. I recommend engaging in an activity that's stimulating enough that it'll give pause to your thoughts and doesn't contain content that you could misconstrue as menacing or threatening. Maybe a game? Like a simple platformer like Mario or some free mobile game? Just an idea. Hope you feel better soon.

@Loba ❤

You deserve your own love. Don't let some jumped up diety boss you around y'know?

Stand up for yourself. If nobody has your back, have your own back. Love yourself. ❤

First time seeing what I could only describe as the void during meditation. As I was disappearing into it I felt a heaviness on my heart and felt fear, kinda felt like I was going to have a heart attack or something. It's kinda put me off meditation if I'm honest. ? Any advice?

Maybe one day.

Zazen meditation

@trenton I think I'll try different types of meditation for now. But that abyss is very curiosity invoking. Sucks that I'm afraid of change. ?

Find something new to love. I get it just comes across as some dumb airy fairy platitude that's insufficient in the face of everything that you listed but it's pivotal. It's not some cheap shitty balm you squirt on the gaping wound of infinite suffering and loneliness to help you cope a little easier despite it all. It's transformative. Tips the whole game on its head. Rooting for you always

We hurt one another when we're unconscious of the consequences of our actions. I can forgive that. But if god is the wellspring of intelligence and love; the architect and orchestrator of the universe...why is there so much suffering caused by situations in which there is no apparent actor to be unconscious of the action. E.g. suffering caused by natural disasters. I hold a lot of resentment for god. Too scared to allow myself to see things clearer beyond this point. I guess I'm afraid that even the highest version of myself (which is still personify as another) isn't perfect and is just coping the best it can with the situation it finds itself in and makes plenty of mistakes at it's own expense. That it is really is dark. Just venting idk :(.

@Breakingthewall @Nathan @JuliusCaesar @Leo Gura @cetus ❤