SOUL

Since there is unity I am also the noisy, moving, temporary, never-present, finite fill in the blank. Haha

Yes, kind sir, an amazingly joyful one to you as well.

Which post and which part? Some of it even confused me! BAHA

i'm easily entertained.

This thread is like wow... so funny. I had no clue what that woman in the woods with her dog was saying but I want her to feed me blueberries, too! Baha Tapping with Brad ...haha

Is it a choice to make about choosing what makes one happy? Why choose to be the chooser of the choosing of what makes us happy? Just be happy with being happy regardless of whatever circumstances one finds themselves in. Then when we are choosing it's not choosing what makes one happy, we are choosing things that have no influence over whether we are happy because we are it just to be it. We have already made the choice to be happy with just being it, not about choosing the circumstances which makes us happy apart from the circumstance of just being it. Of course, 'happy' is really just a mood which isn't really a reflection of genuine joy and the liberation that inspires it but that is another discussion altogether. You only asked about 'happy'....so happy.

When I was in HS I made a drawing that had the words 'now' and 'here' separately on two different walls and then there was a reflection of both in a pool of water that lined them up to show it saying 'nowhere' as someone was leaning in to drink that water...... yes, my 15-16 year old mind was blown by this and it still reverberates till this moment. Be now here Be nowhere I wonder whatever happened to that drawing....hehe.

I had to contemplate this along with having some other commitments which provided me some time to explore it. Yes, it is an experience in whole that is initially an expression from that whole in what appears as parts to the mind because of it's separating habituation. Although, we can recognize and realize that this is an illusion, it's not as it appears, and to this illusory perception of the mind we are merging two into a whole but it always is an expression of the whole anyway. It could be said that the absolute is the unchanging and the relative is the changing. It could be said that the manifest is the objective and the unmanifest is the relative. It could be also said our experience of the absolute in spiritually is relative in nature and the experience of the relative of the world is objective in nature. I even got confused a few times trying to write all that.... so I'm not too sure it's that clear. It's a whole experience that has quite a few ways of being expressed in experience and our perception of it isn't universally consistent in just one way. I guess this was a very complicated way of replying to your question with 'I don't really know if it is'. Haha

That is a very genuine expression of contentment and peace which very few experience, a radical acceptance of what is. Kudos.

I guess I should have clarified that with the Manifest it is comprised of both subjective and objective. It also is that we have perception of the subjective and objective simultaneously as a whole experience. That is the vexing question of how do we know if we have accurate perception because that perception is also comprised of both the subjective and objective as a whole. This is why I don't rely on accurate perception for liberation and my peace.

To the degree that it can be accurately perceived and successfully communicated.

It absolutely is determined, this is what the Manifest universe is, with the quantum craziness aside. Yet there are no assurances that we perceive the objective isness accurately but may only be the subjective experience we perceive. The unmanifest isness is still undetermined and the potential is infinite so that is all that may be described of it. The mind trusts its own perception but do we in awareness trust the mind's trust of it's perception. I prefer to find peace and contentment in just being even if it is a delusion of the Mind I perceive.

It absolutely is that dance between the subjective perception and objective isness. It seems this is what the original topic was touching on. Quite often this dance of delusion in trying to 'find the truth' is a fixation which serves as a source of self suffering more than it is a cessation of it. In a recent conversation somebody said to me they had no problem with suffering to find the truth because truth was their ultimate goal. Although all we are finding is our personal subjective truth with no assurances that it is universal objective truth despite the proclamations that it is.

The 'man behind the curtain'.....the man, the curtain and the 'behind' are all a delusion. Haha

Which do you seek? To 'know if mind is deluded' or to 'experience the cessation of self suffering'? I experience the cessation of self suffering and if that liberation is merely a delusion then so be it..... let's dance!

Well, the ego is the personification of our self's desire to identify with itself so even though it's not much more than a conceptual construct it is a manifestation of the many impulses, urges, ideas, beliefs, thoughts, desires and mental paradigms.

You are a very active imputer of truth on this forum with all your beliefs about what is impossible or can't or must and on and on that you attempt to project onto everyone else's experience.

...and that is your belief which you believe is all you see but you cannot create this experience for anyone else except your own self. This comes to the core of this thread's topic, can we trust our own mind if is capable of being deluded? Belief is the psychological trust we place into something being what it appears to be. So can we trust the trust of our mind? If in our experience we have the cessation of self suffering then there is no doubt in our liberation even if it is a delusion, it is what it is because it is our experience of it. There is a delicate dance between what we perceive things to be and what really is. So even though we get to draw our own map of meaning, our perception of what is doesn't actually change what really is but just maps out how we perceive it. This is why I create a simple map that doesn't have difficult requirements for the cessation of self suffering so I do experience that liberation. In celebration of life.... So you impute truth to the concept and belief that if one imputes the tiniest bit of truth to conceptuality one will never let go of belief and lean towards belief so you don't let go of this belief and lean towards it. See how that works? Dances with words.... Precisely. Although, it is when we identify with the belief and attach our 'self' to it that there is the potential to self suffer because of it. This is why I suggest in unattached awareness of the self and it's contents including belief allows for liberation from self suffering. My own experience realizes this even if it is merely a delusion...haha I liken the ego to the self's advocate......it wants us to attach and works to attach to the construct and content of self to justify itself. This is us..... Dancing with delusion.

You sure do dance, you dance around with words and your words have no meaning because they are empty and have no truth, you say it yourself and you believe it. Liberation doesn't require dropping beliefs, that is just your belief and is a limitation for you, not anyone else. Liberation is the cessation of self suffering and if you experience liberation this is what you'd be saying to me. Of course you're not saying this and it is revealing because I can see right through your dances with words.

If awareness doesn't change as you suggest how can it become something? To become something is to change. Is awareness part of this everything that is changing? Then why do you say awareness doesn't change? It's not as mysterious or esoteric as it sounds in that quote. It's the perception of awareness, are we looking at the tao or from the tao? Although don't confuse this with another duality, it's really just one perspective and whether we see the nature of its change is in our perception of awareness.

People often interpret illusion to mean 'does not exist' yet it more accurately can mean 'not as appears'. So an illusion does exist... it's just not as it appears.

Wait... we have the option to not evolve? Haha

@Anton Rogachevski Well, even the words 'unmanifest awareness' are just labels we use to communicate meaning to another and our mind uses those labels for conceptualization so labeling itself isn't what causes the feeling of separation. When we attach our awareness of being to a self identity in something like labels, beliefs, concepts and on and on that sense of separation blossoms in our consciousness because it realizes the division between what we are and we are not in the mind through the sense of self identity. Even if someone identifies as the one who severs attachment, dissolves ego, dis-identifies, becomes no-self, resists something or actively does something to attain it creates a feeling of separation as duality. Abiding in unattached awareness of being is such a subtle non-activity it confounds the mind because it has nothing to cling to in self identity. So, in effect the feeling of separation is the source of self suffering and abiding in the unity of unattached awareness of being is liberating to our conscious experience.

A duality is perceived in the feeling of separation from the sense of self which is the attached awareness of our consciousness in the manifest. Our unattached awareness of our consciousness is unified with the unmanifest awareness of the absolute and feels connected so there is a perception of unity. The question is do we bring attention to and endorse the attached sense of separated self or do we abide in the unattached sense of the unified being? That will answer whether there is a perception of separation/duality or a perception of one/unity. I experience liberation and there are still beliefs. I believe that these words I type have meaning that can be communicated, I believe that when I hit 'submit reply' these words will post on the forum. Although, I also believe that the meaning and posting of words have no influence and effect on my experience of liberation. Liberation is the cessation of self suffering not the cessation of belief. Belief is merely a mechanism the mind uses to help us successfully navigate in the manifest existence. Belief can cause self suffering when we attach our awareness to those beliefs so create self identity on those beliefs. If we abide in unattached awareness of being present any belief held has no self identity creating or sustaining effect in our experience so the cessation of self suffering can be realized in liberation. Belief in that experience is nothing more than just a psychological feature that helps keep the organism alive and not the cause of self suffering. You have beliefs as well since you type out words trusting they have meaning that can be communicated and hit 'submit reply' trusting they will post on the forum. If Leo paid the bills they will.....we believe.

Yes, I probably should have said at least one of the forms of awareness is formless. This unmanifest awareness is accessible to our consciousness and from the perspective of it we perceive the unity and it's absolute nature.