zazed

Be aware, think nothing of it, continue. You are not the body, whatever it does, unimportant.

A quote from the article: https://philosophynow.org/issues/61/What_Is_The_Nature_Of_Reality Even scientists realize we are not the body, and we are perceivers, perceiving reality through a limited interface.

I may do it while cycling stationary, if that is ok? I've found exercise meditation very rewarding, and challenging. Muscles screaming in pain, drops of sweat itching on the skin, the mind that is asking to stop soon. And then trying to realize fully, there is no self, this is just sensation, it just is. Accepting the suffering as it is. I use no music, video or any other "relaxing" shortcuts when i do this. Relaxing in being while the body is suffering, is very rewarding

I'll join around 20:00 CET. I'm doing awareness or mindfulness meditation, which is just being being, its the only kind i do

When you are frustrated you are living in the past. Thinking about things that happened some time ago. Are they now here? You are frustrated, because you have a story of how things should be, and it is not playing out how you imagined. Now you are worrying about the future, trying to figure out how to do it better next time. This is text-book selfing, or self-identifying. There is no reason for awareness to teach, you should just be able to be being itself, now. I have a similar problem when i'm aware. My brain will start thinking and imagining how i would explain it to one of my friends who is interested. Or even how i will explain it in these forums. This makes my brain like some kind of tiger, ready to jump on whatever should happen during awareness. If it pounces, i am lost. constantly searching for clever insights, instead of just being pure awareness. I'm living in the future, excited to explain next time i see my friend, but this is not enlightenment, this is the self. Work more on your own enlightenment, not on that of others. You are giving control of your self, of your own enlightenment away to others by teaching about it.

A longe haired messiah is better than any old pope in my book!

but you are not getting emotional, who is preaching? try not to self identify with the teachings. you are not the body, you are not teaching. the words of non duality are not it, they only point to it. it's like a road-sign to a restaurant, the sign is not the restaurant.

i'd enjoy seeing this happen in the future.

@SOUL fair enough. i still would like more information to understand your views, if you're still willing to share? I didn't mean to imply anything about needing to understand eachother, was merely referring to our different usage of words not being a factor for disagreement, because they are just language. I could've used better wording.

I expect nothing less . But when conversing we need to understand the other person's perspective, to be effective communicators. My perspective, is that my true self is not this person or body, but pure being/existence in this moment. So anything i think, is not me. Consciousness to me is awareness, it is pure being and presence, so these 4 concepts are synonyms to me with slightly different "taste". Awareness or "being" doesn't express itself, it just exists, it just perceives. So if your consciousness expresses itself, then you must mean what i call the mind, because my mind expresses itself, or maybe something else entirely Sight, or hearing and all senses are mind. They enter into consciousness, but they have no inherent meaning to it. To have a car enter consciousness as a car you need to first use the thinking mind. Because all human concepts, such as language, or the idea of what a car is, are unknown to consciousness. Consciousness is eternal, I learned about cars and colors when i was a kid. Sight also functions through the eyes and is facilitated by the brain, sight is part of the physical world inherently. So consciousness cannot know a car directly. Consciousness knows the car because it is aware of my mind knowing the car. The brain/body/thinking mind projects its experiences into consciousness, or rather consciousness is aware of it all. Everything the mind thinks, sees, smells, feels, says, does, which can include control of the body. All of this enters consciousness, and consciousness is aware. But that is only regarding my body. Consciousness is aware of everything, more than just this body, it is aware without "knowing" anything. Consciousness is limitless, this body and its mind are projected into it, but there is a lot more projected into it. Meaning we are not the body, nor the brain, nor the mind. We are consciousness and awareness itself. Following my loose "definition", consciousness is something that inherently cannot express itself. So you must mean something else, when you talk about consciousness, I think you might mean maybe "seeing" when you say consciousness, or even all the senses. I am not sure. I don't use ego, because I just put everything this person Zazed thinks, sees, hears and says under "mind", because to consciousness it doesn't really matter in how many pieces i try to label my mind. The mind will never be consciousness. But that is atypical, and not something most do either, but it's my experience.

I always enjoyed Tool. And it is very spiritual for me. I've meditated on heavy metal. But that is actually more of a challenge. You become this tranquility within a storm. Heavy Metal can be emotional music, doing mindfulness meditation with your speakers blasting it, is a good way to train yourself for difficult situations. Most people are fine meditating when everything is perfect, symmetrical, zen sounds, soft lighting, incense and candles. But what if you are in real trouble in the real world, how will your peaceful practise help you there, when all has gone to shit?! You can't kill the metal

We are saying the same stuff mostly. You are using consciousness in a way I've not seen used. Most teachers equal awareness and consciousness. And consciousness cannot express itself. But they have a saying in Belgium "As long as the child has a name, it's fine". your ego, i suppose you mean the thinking mind = my mind with its aspects of thought and self your consciousness, i suppose you mean the 5 senses = my mind as arbiter of the senses, controlling them your mind, you equal this to awareness = my consciousness (this is awareness, and the enlightened true self) More or less, but the English language is failing us here actually. I don't know why you differentiate between the mind expressing itself as images and sounds, versus the mind expressing itself as thoughts? But I've found the thinking mind influences everything you see, when you look at a car, it has a color, it's a nice or ugly car, you know its a car. This instant "knowing" of concepts related to the car is not pure awareness/consciousness, but the thinking mind labeling stuff. This knowing is expressed upon our consciousness, which is pure awareness. It's like consciousness/awareness is aware of the labels put on the car by the thinking mind, but there is awareness they are not my own labels. But again, the English language makes this horrible to explain

ok

Lovely question. I think it depends on your mindset. Lot's of westerners no doubt practice Tai-Chi as a pure low cardio sport. Without the correct mindset that is all that it is. If you are just going through the motions, there is nothing inherently spiritual about the motions on their own. It's the same with meditation actually, there is nothing inherently spiritual about sitting cross-legged on your ass. But if you work towards enlightenment and do Tai-Chi with mindfulness, and based on the slow movements and serenity, that is clearly it's intention, then it can likely be very powerful. It's been on my todo list for a while, to learn Tai Chi, and practice it with full mindfulness.

I've come to this conclusion some time ago. The language goes in circles around the concept of enlightenment. It's like talking about the taste of apple pie, no amount of talking about it can help you taste it, if you haven't tasted it before. But when you do, you know, this is apple pie. Now i still like to read about spirituality, and watch youtube. I do it because i am not enlightened yet, not all the time at least. And i find it inspiring and showing new perspectives. But i also know not to expect anything, it's just re-framing what enlightenment is like from various perspectives. It's like listening to people talking about these concepts brings me back to how it felt, and then back in that state often. Like, if i pick up Wei Wu Wei, which is really abstract writing (not even talking about enlightenment), i am instantly enlightened when reading it. So I study not now for the knowledge, but just for inspiration/entertainment/passing time/perspective. Reading is like meditation for me, but easier. If i read i am instantly enlightened, i lose all sense of identity when i read anything, especially something spiritual.

Exactly, there is only mind/ego as it is now, and there is consciousness. And if you say "i am well aware of how it moves in me", you are enlightened, you are consciousness being aware. That is when I=Consciousness is fully understood.

I don't really know the correct definition for ego. I think i just call it mind, everything i feel, touch, taste, smell, see, hear, say, write, think is mind. Then there is consciousness, i as a mind barely understand it. I notice the mind is quick to claim anything, and in it's claiming it put itself back into focus. The biggest danger is it's telling the story "I am enlightened now", or even worse when meditating : "Wow, I'm feeling this thing now, this is interesting". Because it can never become consciousness, no more than a banana becoming an airplane.

Exactly, this is the big roadblock for most seekers. You can only speak from mind. But there can be consciousness of the mind speaking. The mind still has its desires, life goals, loves, hates. But there is also consciousness. Everyone is already enlightened, but they have grown their mind into a needy, greedy, fat, insane child, and self-identify with it. Most people are not really working to become enlightened, they are trying very hard to make their mind enlightened, or free their mind, or kill the ego, which is all impossible Language is broken sadly , because we say "I speak from mind". This causes strange hard to follow abstract discussions Because the "I" should mean "pure consciousness" for a Buddha, and there is no real relationship between mind and consciousness. I've found there are two separate things: Mind speaking Consciousness aware of mind speaking The only thing that really can be said about our true nature is: "There is consciousness" All spiritual practice and literature can be compacted to that last phrase.

This answers the negative also. For those enlightened that didn't share. It may be the ego telling you out of fear, you are not really fully enlightenment, identifying within some mock humbleness. There is no reason to share, and equally no reason not to share.

Fascinating. All the suffering in the world is internal suffering for the mind. Since the mind parses it and labels it as suffering. In this way it is part of your mind and part of your reality, but there is only your reality for your consciousness. You are everything. Your consciousness has awareness of the mind's label of the suffering. The mind's label and the suffering is not your consciousness, but it happens inside it. Wanting to make us happy is a weird concept. For yourself, what the perception of our happiness concerns. It is a mental story of the answers in this thread and how your mind interprets them as happy. Then your consciousness is aware of the vision of our happiness constructed by your mind. This may make your mind content, it does nothing for consciousness as pure awareness really. But for a lack of a better thing to do, and a Buddha sitting all day is not very productive, its preferable to make the mind happy by making others happy. Words don't really exist for these things, it sounds so abstract were language fails Fascinating stuff

@Steph1988 I already shared a video from a Muslim perspective. Other than that I have little to no interest in Muslims. It's not an important issue for me. Aside from the fact that i don't like generalization. Human beings are all individuals and unique, and putting labels on people, like christian, buddhist, muslim, black, white, is factually incorrect(not even talking about morals here). There are many types of black people, many types of Christians, many types of white people. You can not say a Christian is always so, a muslim is always so, a buddhist is always so without being totally deluded and stuck in black and white thinking. If people honestly think all Muslims are the same, because they all believe in the same book, that is dogmatic thinking i cannot refute. It shows little life experience and knowledge of the world at large. No two people in this world think and behave the same. Anything more i can say would be just the same, and would be a circular discussion. It's a very easy and simplistic view to generalize like that, and to put people into categories and then treat them based on these categories. A point was made by some, that we should be able to criticize Islams. But that point is a total side track to the discussion and a way to hijack this thread to bash Islam. This thread about racism and my post about Muslims never stated we cannot criticize Islamic people. Nobody here stated it was forbidden to criticize. My post was showing a video with a story, on how a white american entered an american Muslims home, and executed him, for no reason. Well, the reason was racism and hate of Islam, most likely. Let's be clear, killing a Muslim does not fall under the allowed context of criticizing, it's just murder, and a hate crime in this context... I should have read my own post again, before replying to @Socrates, because i allowed myself to be completely side-tracked in the heat of the moment.

So, this morning as i was walking into work i was contemplating some teachings about non-duality. As i was walking up the stairs to the floor i needed to be in, i realized i was walking inside myself. It was the strangest sensation, as if reality folded in upon itself and i was the only single thing left. I was able to realize this multiple times today and is part of some realization about reality that is growing in me. There are many senses one has. Sight, hearing, feeling, thinking. So when walking around and looking at the world, one is not really seeing the world. Everything enters consciousness through the eyes, and the eyes work together with the brain to create vision. So when you would think, "i am seeing the words of Zazed here", you are wrong. One does not read my words, the words and the screen exist only in your consciousness. Words don't have any inherent meaning, its just ink in forms. The brain interprets them and everything it sees, as such one is constantly only seeing itself. The air, the moon, the sun, your lover, your enemy, they are all imaginations in your mind, by vision. Now why is this important? It seems to be part of being fully present and becoming enlightened. By realizing i'm walking around inside my own mind, there is a quieting down that happens. There is less desire, because i realize i'm not seeing a hot girl on the corner, but just myself. The hotness exists only in my consciousness, the girl exists only in my consciousness. Reality is light rays entering my eyes, and there likely is a girl there somewhere. But the girl out there, and the girl inside, is not the same girl. And i can ever only meet the girl inside my consciousness. Sound works the same way, just a different sense. Feeling works the same way, just a different sense. I like to compare it with art. Because consciousness is the canvas. The senses are the pencils drawing upon the canvas. But what is drawn is not a flower, it is just the pencil of sight, drawing a flower upon my canvas. The canvas is pure consciousness, the pencil is the eye, the flower is the mind. This realization brought a strange sense of peace, and stability to my mind. I feel like a rock that cannot be moved from it's path in life anymore. And i feel peace, knowing that everything is playing out inside my mind, and that it is within my power to change interpretations as i see fit. It is my toy, my playground. I am the world fully, or i see only myself.

@Socrates The main gripe i have with your post is this : "the truth is that a religon that commands its followers to kill infidels" But it is not a religion itself that command's it followers to kill infidels. It is certain charismatic terrorist leaders recruiting and convincing people to do this. I may have said some things that can be easily refuted if you cherry pick. Yes i unknowingly used a straw man fallacy. But i was more trying to ask the question. What is your proposed solution then? These 1.6 billion Muslims are here, they are not going to go away over night, what to do? You should be allowed to make jokes about a religion, as i stated in my post. Yes they did and do retaliate, but again, brainwashed individuals and terrorist leaders are the culprits. Not your average Joe Islam, with a wife and kids at home, like there are 1.6 billions. If i go out with some friends tomorrow, and kill some columnist for making a joke about Jesus, and say we're christian crusaders. Does that suddenly make all Christians a problem, or we just idiots that needs to be locked up? That is where you are falling into the fallacy of black and white thinking: "A few thousand Islam are terrorists, so the full 1.6 billion must be so." It's oversimplification and bad mathematical statistics too. And yes you are not saying this literally, but you are implying it by saying Islam is wrong as a religion. As for criticizing Islam, i don't see the added value, or how that solves anything. The only solution is stabilizing the middle east. Spewing hatred on the internet will do the opposite and further antagonize people. I agreed in the end, that their book is not the most open-minded towards other religions. But there are still wisdom's in it, and kind things too. It does not automatically make every believer dangerous or a problem.

A coke and two butterflies in my garden. Seriously, 15+ years of study, and working through mental issues, and building a successful career. I always find other people interesting too, you can learn a lot trough the study of personality flaws in other people. See the inner working, see the predictability. Many people think they make choices, but if i can predict their actions with 100% certainty, how much choice did they really make?

I'm an atheist studying enlightenment. I think there is a method to mind. There is nothing i "believe" about it, because i think faith is self-indoctrination. Always skeptic, i am studying my own mind and have found glimmers of proof towards enlightenment, and learned a lot about my self in the process.