SOUL

That's the story you tell yourself to distract from the point I'm actually making. You spin this tale in your imagination instead of actually taking a moment to consider the point I am actually making by the slight changes to the apparently repeated message. Think it through, after I'm done enjoying the beautiful Saturday afternoon I'll come back tonight to see if you chose to figure out the point and address it or just continue with your story telling...because you know how some people are just addicted to their stories.

@RMQualtrough Yea, humans are story tellers and even though people will have their 'explanation' story evolve over time the thing that doesn't seem to change as much is the attachment to the story. Their story is the 'truth'!...whatever version they're telling. Not that stories are the problem, who doesn't love a great story, it's the belief in the story that generates the attachment to the story. So much attachment they will abuse others, hate others, fight for and even kill for the story...to protect their story.

@Tyler Robinson epic

Speak for yourself, you were good until you said eventually you will whether you want to or not. You found it. That's fine, but just cause you found it doesn't mean another will. Go in peace.

The 'dream' is just another story that is used to justify reasoning of the 'life is not real' belief.

The ego is a portion of the body's sense of self so it's an autonomous agent of our psyche. It may take awhile before the grasp of the ego is loosened, it's grip is strengthened through our belief in the activity it organizes in the mind to build identity and it's grip is loosened by ceasing to believe it's activity. Although, being in conflict with the ego still justifies it so just abide in awareness and eventually the pull of the ego fades away.

@Matthew85 Don't confuse the conceptual framing of the beliefs for the psychological mechanism of belief. Also, in the way that we believe it either opens up potential to us or it limits the possibilities for us. If you think we have no control over it then that is a limiting belief for you, one that you have no control over but it has no influence in anyone else, it's just yours.

The mechanism that empowers the 'grasp' in our experience of mind is belief, more specifically it is limiting beliefs that serve as a barrier. Even the most awakening insights one might have can turn into a barrier if we allow it to become a limiting belief. As an example the insight that believing in good and evil manifests in us judging everything with that moral dualism. If we turn around and say we must remove this or it is a barrier to further awakening, freedom or enlightenment it becomes a limiting belief. We have now put this separation between us and something we imagine we don't have or could be. This is a condition we trust is true limits us by believing we have to do something a certain way to cross that barrier or close the separation. So while it may benefit someone to free themselves from the judgement of moral dualism it doesn't benefit them to think they are presently insufficient because they may currently still perceive that moral dualism. This can also be applied to the notion I see so often suggested that belief has to be removed. That is itself a belief and again creates a barrier between as we are presently and what is imagined in the future. It's a paradox of sorts to be at peace with being as we are and also still seek a more holistic expression of consciousness.

It's everywhere and everything if one allows it to be that.

@Leo Gura I guess it does have much to do with how the person is interpreting the experience in the moment. Some people can explore it more fully because they are just real comfortable in that space, some not so much...or not at all.

@Inliytened1 Proverbs 27:17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. Tho I understand, I will make an effort.

Maybe if you can strip away the labels and concepts that have been learned to describe the experiences and don't be quick to try find explanations. Quite often the mind will strangle it with those things so much so that we cannot full enjoy them or allow them to teach us as clearly as they potentially can. Not easy for sure but we don't have to chase the mind wherever it goes, let it fly off on it's own and instead keep awareness free to observe the activity in as free a form as it will be. Don't judge or compare your experiences, they are pure and perfect for you as it is.

Oh yea...this will end well.

You know nothing about me.

Ask myself my own name? Um....ok

It's a question....again it seems you like to play the role, do you?

So you play the part of the accuser? Interesting...hm

We can play a part in the story, even enjoy the story or change the script or plot of the story without having to believe the story is all we are. Enlightenment and solipsism are just another story.

@Razard86 It was a little joke which could have been simply laughed at but instead the addiction to drama and story telling is so hard to resist there needs to be another fix. It's just so silly.

If it's just you talking to yourself wouldn't it be you realizing that you are all alone? That's how the solipsism story goes, right? Tough to keep your story straight, huh. The ego is addicted to stories, it's addicted to identity and it does not matter if it's positive or negative, pain or pleasure, true or false just as long as you believe it.

Enlightenment and solipsism are just more stories to replace other stories and they are ruining the movie.

I kind of compare it to having a mystical experience through a substance or a meditative state then after the substance or state wears off it appears as if this 'awakening' went away with it. This is a dynamic of our awareness and the content of awareness. While the induced mystical experience is happening it has our full attention so it's prominence and impact is amplified in our awareness. In everyday life the roles that we fill to navigate the world requires attention to actually fulfill the roles. Now, as we fill the role in every day life after we have had an awakening experience this role usually has strong identity association that will entice us to believe we are that role. When that happens it can limit our conscious experience to a state before awakening. It is a skill that we exercise to be able to keep the awareness of that mystical experience while simultaneously fulfilling the roles of every day life. The skill is in being present fully in the role while being present fully in awakened awareness. The more we exercise that skill the more fully we can fulfill the roles of every day life while we have awakened presence. The highs of the mystical experience is stretching awareness but the lows we exhibit are more indication of our consciousness. So, sure, every day life with the socialization and the struggle for survival can distract us from being presence...if we allow it. On the other hand we can go through every day life with the fulfillment of being presence letting that be expressed in everything we encounter. Just something to consider.

Solipsism is spoiling the movie.

As the personification of our sense of self the ego can be whatever one cultivates it to be instead of the ego compelling us to behave on it's behalf under duress. The ego is only a fraction of the human experience of consciousness but quite often it is the part with the loudest voice and it wants to be the only voice, many allow it.