jjer94

@Elton Squawk! Parrot alert! I feel bad for you if you really truly believe that.

This is not a sentence. These are words. These are not words. They are black pixels on a computer screen. These are not black pixels on a computer screen. This is the color black. This isn't the color black. This is seeing. This isn't seeing. This is perceiving. This isn't perceiving. This is 'what is'. And 'what is,' is all that there is, and ever was.

Great honesty! The more you cling to those awakening experiences (or any state experiences for that matter), the further away from enlightenment you are. So in a sense, you're further along the path than the clingers. I'll just throw this out there: It ain't a race. This is only a returning to what's already the case. It's not like you're going anywhere. All objects of experience come and go. But the quality-less knowing of those objects is always there. Extremely simple. See if you can get to know the "knowing" better, learn to see that every experience is made up of it. Cheers!

When I was young, younger than before I never saw the truth hanging from the door And now I'm older--see it face to face And now I'm older--gotta get up clean the place And I was greener, greener than the hill Where flowers grew and sun shone still Now I'm darker than the deepest sea Just hand me down give me a place to be And I was strong, strong in the sun I thought I'd see when day is done Now I'm weaker than the palest blue Oh so weak in this need for you

Life in a Nutshell

The Thought Brothers Do Self-Enquiry - (4) - Levels of Consciousness "Duuuude...where have you been!?" "Oh, you know, being a thought. How about you?" "Aw, man, you'd be amazed at what I've been up to. I've been taking a lot of psychedelics lately. And on top of that, I've been trying out all of these ancient yogic techniques to raise my level of consciousness. And now I've hit gold with Leo's new video about 5-meo-DMT... Once I take that shit, I'm going to reach a consciousness level OVER 9000!!!" "Okay, let's disregard the fact that we are thoughts, and thoughts can't experience anything at all... Why the hell are you doing that, man?" "What do you mean why!? To attain enlightenment! Ego death! And once I raise my level enough, it'll be much harder to go back down to the previous levels. I'll be a blissed out zen monkey...or something." "I mean, if you'd like ego death, go for it. There are many different experiences in this apparent world that you can try out. But let's examine this idea of levels of consciousness, hmm?" "Okay, what about it?" "Something just seems...fishy about it. Almost as if some uninformed spiritual teachers have spun this whole enlightenment thing into some kind of video game. Ask 'who am I' continuously for five hours, and boom! Level 5. Meditate for ten years...boom! Level 600. I mean, certainly there's a qualitative difference between an enlightened master and an average joe...but fundamentally, is there really?" "What do you mean, fundamentally?" "Well, we're talking about enlightenment, right? About discovering what you are fundamentally? Fundamental implies reality, God, Truth. That which is unchanging, unified, whole. Nothing outside of it, nothing other than it. Yes?" "Yeah, sure, whatever." "Okay. So then, how could there ever be levels to something that is unchanging, unified, and whole? Levels implies two-ness. How could there be levels to something that's ultimately One?" "Uhh...." *shudders* "So some spiritual teachers have put you on this rabbit chase after a carrot of 'levels' that don't actually exist..." "So you can imagine that you're actually going somewhere and 'raising levels of consciousness'..." "When in fact..." "You're actually going nowhere!!!!" "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" *thought-screaming interlude* "God, that's fucking terrifying! I almost want to imagine that I'm raising consciousness so I can have some spiritual objective...otherwise, what then?" "Well, then we'd actually have to LIVE LIFE! Instead of sitting and staring at a wall for most of the day!" "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" *thought-screaming interlude* "Okay, okay, let's calm down and assess the situation. There are no levels of consciousness. No one experience is 'higher' than another, no matter how grandiose it is. The experience of picking your nose is no more God than experiencing cosmic consciousness through 5-meo-DMT, although cosmic consciousness can surely open up the average person to that which they already are." "So what we are...is already the case?" "Yeah, I mean, it's pretty obvious. An apparent someone is reading these words, but that someone is really 'what is' masquerading as 'someone reading these words'. Then, inquiry's just a matter for arriving at 'what is'. No levels, no maintenance, no effort required for 'what is': consciousness, God, Being, Truth, whatever. Even these thoughts, which are just stories and illusions, can be a part of 'what is'. What's the point of trying to get rid of them, other than another rabbit-carrot chase?" "But it could be quite the achievement to successfully eliminate ego and monkey mind forever, don't you think?" "Eh, thoughts are thoughts. They're whatever. Stories and illusions come and go. Nothing wrong with that really, unless another thought says there's something wrong with it. I suppose the monkey chatter will subside on its own after realizing what is. Personally, I'd rather hike a mountain than ask 'who am I' a bunch of times. Wouldn't you?" "Yeah... Whaddya say we do that now?" "I'm game."

Paradox In language, there is lots of paradox. You are everything; you are nothing. You are emptiness; you are form. You are the witness but also the witnessed. Experience is fleeting; the Truth is everlasting. It's so confusing sometimes to stay in the muck and mire of words, isn't it? And yet, there you go, continuing to read someone's journal post for hope that some more words will be the key that allows you to discover your true nature. Only thought-stories/language contain paradox. In direct experience, there are no paradoxes. See if you can drop all of your conceptual baggage for a sec. All of it. Being and not-being, everything and nothing, Infinity, Absolute Nothingness, the Self and not-Self, the witness, kundalini and samadhi, arisings in experience, inside and outside worlds, awareness as the container, whatever the fuck spiritual malarkey you hold onto. Forget it for just this second and return to the no-paradox simplicity of direct experience. You already know that you are. And that knowingness IS all of experience. There's no difference. Knowingness = experience experiencing itself. Even thought is this knowing quality. When has this knowing ever left you? Can you ever experience anything outside of this knowing? Or is that question/thought just a part of this knowing? Now, what were you looking for again...?

! CAUTION ! "I'm unenlightened when I'm with other people and stuck in a materialistic society" You make it sound as though enlightenment is something that needs to be maintained. It's not. (Paradoxically, continual practice can be very powerful.) If you isolated yourself from everyone and everything, you would become a vegetable. If that's what you want, go for it!

The Thought Brothers Do Self-Enquiry - (3) - Science "...You still there?" "...Yeah..." *sniff* "It's tough man, I know. That @Ayla chick just exposed us as the charlatans that we are. However, although we may just be one big thought-story playing with itself, that doesn't mean we still can't have some fun, AMIRIGHT!?" "FUCK YEAH!" "AMERICA!" "FUCK YEAH!" "COMIN' AGAIN TO SAVE THE MOTHERFUCKIN' DAY YEAH!" "Okay, okay, what were we talking about before?" "Umm...Oh, yes, we were talking about memory and the subconscious. It's been making me think a lot about science and how it fits into all of this inquiry ---" "Dude, come on, you don't think. Thoughts appear." "Yes, yes, I get it man! You don't have to push your nondual correctness on me! Jesus. We have it enough with all those SJW's pushing political correctness and safe spaces." "Don't forget the 100+ genders! We don't want to trigger anyone reading this..." "Enough dude! So science. The pinnacle of truth in modern society today. Right?" "Yeah, I'd agree with that. I mean, look at all the technology that's come from all those landmark discoveries in modern science! Surely they know stuff about reality!" "Well, I was thinking...what if they don't?" "What do you mean?" "What if they don't know anything about what reality is?" "Dude, are you kidding me? Scientists have mapped out the human genome. They can examine stuff at the subcellular level, almost at the atomic level! They can collide subatomic particles together and create new ones! All research is peer-reviewed and therefore ---" "There. Stop right there. Let's begin with that. Peer-reviewed research. So we have a bunch of guys with pieces of paper certified from other guys with pieces of paper that they know stuff. Then those guys read through the research done by other guys with pieces of paper and say, 'Yep! It's solid research.' Then you have more guys with pieces of paper that reproduce the experiment and get the same results, so they say, 'Yep! It's a solid conclusion. We have new knowledge.'" "What's wrong with that? That's the way science establishes new knowledge." "It's not that there's anything wrong with it, per sé...but, how many people does it take to confirm that the research's conclusion is sound? How many people does it take to say 'This knowledge is true'?" "How many licks does it take to get to the center of the tootsie pop?" "Exactly my point. I don't know! You can have an infinite number of guys with pieces of paper confirming the same thing over and over again, but that doesn't mean shit when it comes to what is absolutely true. What, after some arbitrary number of guys saying 'This research is sound,' it becomes sound? It's all relative. But that's not all..." "'Call now and we'll double your offer!'" "Ha ha, very funny... No, what I was going to say was, science does all their research from the lens of objectivity." "Well, of course, you dufus! How else are you going to acquire objective knowledge?" "But there is no lens of objectivity! They make these assumptions of time, space, atoms, molecules, matter, etc. being somehow 'objective' or 'out there,' when all we have is our senses, which are totally subjective! There is no such thing as objective knowledge. Science leaves out first person experience, when first person experience is all there is!" "If there's no objective knowledge, then how do you explain all of science's achievements in the past two centuries?" "Well, just because science could never have any truth in it doesn't mean that it's not useful. If something works, it works! And, if you have some baseline assumptions about how phenomena work, like something as obvious as gravity, I don't see why you can't believe in those. I mean, I think it would be pretty silly to think that you could jump off a building and float upwards." "But, but...what about western medicine? Look how effectively they've mapped out the body and the brain..." "Again, these are all just descriptions of reality that help produce certain effects, but they are not reality itself. Have you ever experienced the brain?" "Well, yeah, we're experiencing it right now..." "No, look again, and look closely. Surely there are sensations wherever you call the 'head', but do you actually see a brain in direct experience? If you don't, how could you say --" "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!" *thought-screaming interlude* "Calm down, dude! Calm down!" "How can I calm down! I don't even fucking know if I have a brain! What about when I get a brain scan?!" "When you get a brain scan, what else is there but the seeing of the brain mapping on a computer screen? You still don't experience a brain. Or any bodily organ for that matter. All you experience is sensations to which you, the sly thought, label as bodily organs." "WHAT!? How is that even fucking possible?" "It's completely possible. It's our direct experience! Just look! It's so simple." "What does this mean then? I can't trust science or medicine with anything!" "No no no silly thought. Nothing's really changed. Their practices work. They're just not absolutely true. They never can be, because they've essentially paradigm-locked themselves." "Oh. So we can keep going to the doctor? I like him. He's pretty cool." "Yes, bro. Totally fine." "And what about research? What should I trust when it comes to articles that use science to give validity to certain claims?" "I don't know. Do your own experimentation! Whatever works, works." "Shit. All this talk of experimentation makes me want to go concoct some wild new dinner recipe. Whatd'ya say?" "I'm down!"

For those who have been seeking a long, long time and are fed up with it... This may help: https://www.amazon.com/Direct-Path-User-Guide-ebook/dp/B01AL2ZN2G/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= Cheers.

@Dodoster I didn't say that. I just ask you to describe what you see in direct experience. Good, you're on the right track. Notice how that which "sees" or "knows" the I-thought, or any thought for that matter, has no quality to it. It's not a thing or an object at all. Who said you have to let go of the I-thought? It's just a thought. What in your experience gives it power? Is it another thought that says "This I is a real thing and it should be believed"? Is it sensations that go along with the thought, maybe around where the eyes are? Do you own those sensations or do those sensations just appear? What is the "I" that wants to let go of the I-thought? Another thought? Where is the doer/chooser/let-goer in your experience? Can you find it, or is it just another thought that says "I choose/I do/I need to let go"? I think you've got enough material to chew on for awhile. Cheers!

Very beautifully poetic, Dodo! Although I'm not asking for more bullshit stories in your catalogue of bullshit stories. I'm asking you to actually look with no preconceived notions in your direct experience. Any question I ask is a focus point to confirm in direct experience, not an opportunity to spew logical proofs, quotes, or something someone else told you. Forget about "unmanifest nothingness" for a second. The I-thought. Is it not just another thought that arises? Just the same as "the sky is blue" or "chicken is for dinner" or "Jesus said ____"? If so, it comes and goes like all thoughts. But what you really are is still there, is it not? That which knows experience, without the need for logical knowledge?

Gooood! I'm glad you're confused. What is the I Am? What makes it the I Am? Who claims ownership over the I Am? More thoughts appearing out of nowhere? In between your skull? Do you directly experience a skull? Do you directly experience "Inside the skull?" Or are those more thoughts that say you do? Anything that requires proof is inevitably bullshit. Tattoo that on your sleeve. Only you direct experience counts, not the thought's stories about direct experience. All the best.

@comp13 It's really quite simple. Thoughts just love to complicate it. Surely there's an I-thought. But it pops out of nowhere, just like all the other thoughts about there being a "thinker," a "chooser," a "doer." You can discover this in direct experience. Once you do, you realize furthermore that the I-thought that claims ownership over any aspect of experience is just another thought, and really, nobody can own experience. The ego never existed in the first place. There is no central experiencer, only experience experiencing itself. Enlightenment is actually your present experience, just overlayed with thought-stories appearing out of nowhere (all false) such as: How can I attain enlightenment? Surely there must be something outside of experience? But science says _____! But Advaita Vedanta says I need to do Karma Yoga for another year so I can become enlightened! I experienced this vast loving openness, so I must stay in that openness and re-experience it to become re-enlightened! But everyone says I'm going to die! Look at all the bodies dying around me! I must be the body! Agh! I need immortality or else my experience is incomplete! But Leo says I'm nothingness! So I must look for that nothingness as if it were an object of experience! There must be such thing as objects. Otherwise I wouldn't exist! Maybe Mooji will have the answers... I'm so unhappy! I'm so upset! I'm so angry! Ooo Benhito Massaro talks about manifestation! That may be of use for ME. They say "Find out who is experiencing," but of course I'm experiencing! And on and on and on...until.....

Blah blah blah blah. Maybe you're not as ready for this inner work as I thought. Notice all of your stories about what you think is there, and your lack of actually looking to see what is there. What makes experiences "yours"? What claims ownership over experience? A thought? Without that thought, could a "you" own anything? You can sense your brain? Without the label "brain," does that sensation bear any resemblance to a brain? Or is it simply a sensation? The subconscious exists? Really? Take a look in direct experience. Aren't there just thoughts popping up out of nowhere, including the thought that says, "the subconscious exists?" Listen less to your thought's stories and look more in your direct experience is the best advice that I can give you. Cheers!

You can't "feel" enlightenment. Enlightenment is all there is. It's just what is already the case. "You" are only in the way. Find this "you" that wants to be enlightened. Is that "you" a thought? A sensation? Both? What makes those thoughts and sensations "yours"? Another thought? Dig dig dig. On a side note, does the brain or the subconscious even exist in your direct experience? I'm serious. Take a look. Cheers.

Excellent. A few questions to contemplate: Based on what you wrote, what makes this moment incomplete as opposed to your awakening experience? What if it's only thought that says this moment is incomplete, giving theories about ego, duality, and all those other stories you ingested? What if this moment is just as complete as the awakening experience, even with all those other stories you ingested? And most importantly, Who/where is the one who had the awakening experience and claims it as his own? Who/where is the one who also claims ownership over the body and the ego, according to your description? Cheers.

Therefore, there is no such thing as time, nor such thing as Absolute Now, because that implies time. What are sensations really, in direct experience? Without thoughts labeling seeing as seeing, touching as touching, tasting as tasting, etc... what are they really? Furthermore...doesn't Being and Nothing imply a dualism? Without the filter of mind, can you really find any dualism in direct experience? It's incredibly anti-climactic, because you haven't gained anything from all of this, only lost. But man, what a friggin relief to free yourself from the bondage of false beliefs!

Meditation A silent, peaceful mind is not necessarily a thoughtless mind. It is an allowing mind. Thoughts are like the weather. Sometimes it's cloudy, sometimes the sky is clear blue, sometimes it's storming hard. When the weather is allowed to do its thing, there's no problems with it. It comes and goes. It's only when an apparent "you" tries to grab at or push away the clouds that the mind is no longer silent. When the experiential realization occurs that the "you", the "thinker", is just another thought appearing out of nowhere, and that "you" never had any control over thoughts, there will be silence regardless of any mind weather. This is meditation. oh city lights fly at this speed oh heaven knows it ain’t me behind the wheel this time . . .

Very insightful to point that out. That's the essence of most belief systems, otherwise people wouldn't believe in them. The Law of Attraction, especially followers of The Secret, believe in it because it does serve the ego. You can sit and do nothing and WHAMO! A brand new porsche! How easy is that?! All I have to do is think and it will come! In my experience, flow and manifestation are indeed abilities you can acquire after doing enough inner work, but it's never like how the Law of Attraction describes it. Is it counter-productive to eat some food because there's a natural urge, along with the belief that you need it to survive? Does that strengthen the "self"? Is it counter-productive to drive a car because you believe it can get you from point A to point B? Does that strengthen the "self"?

Cool stuff. I know a friend who is at level 100,231 of enlightenment. She can punch her hand through rock. It's pretty impressive! I'm so envious. And thus, my life is incomplete until I reach that level. I've gotta work extra hard at my rock punching skills, or else I won't be happy. I also must be absolutely certain of my immortality. That's why I believe in scientology. I also believe in angels, loving vibrational frequencies, Freudian psychology, teleportation, curing constipation through hypnosis, and spontaneous combustion as a possible pathway to enlightenment. What would I do without these beliefs!? I'd have to admit, "This is it, and I know nothing." And that's so...anti-climactic! Ugh! Anyway, enjoy working towards teleportation. Cheers!

The Thought Brothers Do Self-Enquiry - (2) - Memory and the Subconscious "Hey man, you there?" "Yeah...yesterday was rough on me, but I'm still kicking." "Agreed. Whatcha doin'?" "We're thoughts, remember? We don't 'do' anything. We just appear out of nowhere." "Oh yeah, I forgot. Wait, forget? Remember? What's that all about?" "What do you mean?" "I mean, I feel like I remember stuff." "What sort of stuff?" "Like I remember talking about the mind yesterday, but I remember other stuff... Like when I stubbed my toe on that bedpost. Or when I ate too much at a day camp cookout and threw up in front of everyone. That was pretty embarrassing." "Oh, yeah, I remember that too! Man, you were such a pansy back then..." "Come on man! I didn't know any better. I was just a kid." "Excuses, excuses." "Shut up. Okay, so I claim to remember these things...memory it's called. At least that's what I've been told." "And what you've been told is correct. We were taught that the subconscious stores memory from past events..." "Hold it right there! How do you know that?" "Come on man, really? Have you ever taken an entry-level science class?" "No no no. Forget about what you were told and actually take a look in direct experience with me." "This is stupid...but okay, fine. What are you looking for?" "Memory. The subconscious. Can you help me find these things?" "Uhhh, sure! They're right over.......wait. Huh?" "Can't find them? I can't either! Whenever I claim to remember something, that's just another thought in the present moment! I can't think in the past. Memory is just another label for thought. I claim to remember all of these things, but that claim..." "Is just another thought. Fuck." "We have no way of actually confirming memory... Shit! I can't actually experience the subconscious either! That's also another thought!!! This thought appeared literally out of nowhere!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" *Thought-screaming interlude* "Okay, okay, let's calm down now." "How can we calm down! We just realized that memory, one of the main things we use to define ourselves, is a fiction! 'We' are fictional characters!" "Hey now, that ain't so bad, is it? That's actually kind of a relief." "How can that be a relief you shithead!?" *sobs* "Relax, relax. You know those emotions called guilt, shame, anger and regret? I'm sure I'm missing others, but all of those emotions that have to deal with the past and memory?" *sniffles* "Yeah, what about them?" "Well, they're based on the fictional premise of memory! Which means they are fictions as well! Which means we can literally see them as fictions now, if we examine them closely enough!" "Oh...I guess that is pretty freeing." "Yeah, come on! Cheer up! Okay, enough of this. Let's go chase after some video-objects. What do you say?" "Count me in!"

"That is one wise pussy." -jjer94

Is there even a difference between thinking and memory? Is there even such a thing as a mind? Take a look-see in direct experience. Actually look before reading the text below: You'll only find thoughts arising one-at-a-time. Memory is a thought that arises (in the present moment) and says "I remember" and mind is a thought that says "There is a mind and I am that mind".