SOUL

There are people in this world who have such extreme mental conditions that they require professional help. All those people who are professionals paid a lot of money to get accredited as such and the last thing they want is potential customers not choosing to spend $300 an hour for years for them to be told by the professionals what to do and prescribed drugs that would need to be overcome to get the healing the more mild cases these typically entail. If they were only left with only the extreme cases they couldn't afford to be professionals so they expand their customer base by scaring mild cases into thinking they're more extreme than they really are and that's the professionals are the only ones who can help them. Although, there is quite a bit of regurgitated and repackaged pseudo psychology that people passed around as being more effective than it really is. The heart of the matter is regardless of whether you're seeking help from professionals or exploring ways to help yourself the individual needs to take it upon themselves to do the work of healing. Too often most people whether they're going to professionals or purchasing self-help programs are simply seeking someone else to tell them what to do and want a quick fix instead of doing real self work and soul-searching.

@Ether Are you not understanding that it is your reasoning that is preventing you from being it presently. It's a redundancy paradox of you not being aware of it is why you don't have the awareness of being it right now.

I am living it. Chop wood, carry water before, chop wood, carry water after. Reached what? The enlightenment path isn't a path to enlightenment, it's a path with enlightenment. Every moment on this path is walking awake to being present now with the whole being, with the whole consciousness, with the whole universe. It seems one thing preventing you from being fully awakened is your idea that you haven't reached it or that it's a future happening when it's really a present happening, it only ever happens in the present. The ego has gripped onto this idea to keep it's identity as the 'seeker', it's infused itself to the consciousness work in such a way that it prevents you from realizing it presently. Resolving this within your consciousness will open you up to being awake in the present with everything, every breath, every step, every emotion and thought, even every mundane aspect of life will awaken. It's right now, there's no reaching that needs to be done to be it. So live it.

Actually, we all are aware of being present now to some degree but the first word in that description is the challenge. Are we doing it infinitely or mostly or partially or barely? This is how the consciousness work can influence our experience of awareness in being present. Although, the challenging nature of the work doesn't change the simplistic nature of the task.

I prefer the short explanation: Infinitely aware of being present now.

It appeared in your op as if you were associating emotions with 'fake' action and that would be an inaccurate representation of life. Our actions typically have both 'real' and 'fake' motivations, inspirations and imaginations often simultaneously within the very same source of them. Since many in the mystical community would say all of life is an illusory experience wouldn't that imply all we do isn't 'real' anyway? What I'm just trying to convey is that painting things into black and white terms is just more dualism theology so I would suggest a more holistic approach if one wants to be authentic.

Emotion plays an integral part of life with love, passion, fear, pain and desire giving a sensory basis for our experience as animate beings.

What is the significance of the silence in between words? What is the significance of the sounds that make up words? What is the significance of the vibrations that make up sounds? What is the significance of what vibrations bounce against to create sounds? What is the significance of vibrations doing the dance that they do? What is the significance of something filling nothing to create everything? What is the significance of asking these questions rather than the peace with just being present?

The issue I see is people have their preferred paradigm perspective and they want to filter everything through it in calling their own preferred paradigm perspective 'reality' and 'truth' but the others are 'illusion' and 'false'.

@Nahm Absolutely, although the self-mortification and self-denial in his day is the no self, ego death and 'you do not exist' teaching of this day. The middle path teaches us to not be obsessed or identified with self or no self, with ego or no ego but instead to attune our awareness in the present moment of just being. In the in the simplicity of this middle path we find inner peace. I speak this from experience right now not from a teaching.

So you are suggesting that upon awakening Sidhartha first talked about something not related to his own pursuit, not related to awakening? Being too preoccupied with the 'pursuit of what we are' as nothing or something is exactly what this wisdom is speaking to right now.

@Nahm The illusion of atoms is both being empty and full, being both something and nothing, the ones who are awakened to the middle way are liberated from that illusion.

Thousands of years ago a seeker was lost on the path between the extremes of self indulgence and self mortification, of living to the self and dying to the self, but then was awakened to the middle path and liberated in enlightenment. Awaken to being in the moment of nirvana.

The brain has evolved to create conceptualizations in an effort to understand 'what is' and that is it's 'what is' state of mind. Our awareness is observing this state of mind but it isn't in itself that state of mind. Ultimately what is called enlightenment is the clearing of awareness so it isn't subject to and dominated by the ever-changing state of mind so it stays present in the moment simply being.

So to illuminate and clarify this all what we seek in experience through what is called 'enlightenment' is to be present in the moment just simply being with all the ideas and concepts of non-duality, no mind, 'you do not exist' and truth with a capital 'T' that are typically associated with the 'enlightenment' serve to be additional distractions of illusory perception and not distinct characteristics of the experience sought.

The separation between mind and 'no-mind' is an illusion and the distinction between them doesn't really exist in perspective just like the mind's formness of duality and 'non-duality' is an illusion with no distinction.

Duality is a transparent illusion in the mind so non-duality is equally an illusion.

If glass is sand before and after is it ever really glass? hehe

Time is change dancing with now.

Glass is made of sand but when it's broken glass doesn't turn back into sand.......

Why don't you ask it? I did.... and we laughed and laughed..... it's an inside joke.

Duality exists.... just like unity does and trinity and quadity? and on and on and on all the way to infinity so all the ones that aren't duality count as non-dual. For whatever reason our minds have a propensity to see things as duality and even be fixated on it when really it isn't it at all and this could explain why some get equally fixated on non-duality to break free from it. Although to me that would be akin to being consumed with a theory of non-unity, non-trinity or even non-infinity....sure, the mind doesn't typically have those other paradigms gripping it like duality does but to set oneself against something is continuing to give power to it in our mind. In an epic form of irony one creates a duality by being in opposition to it so to drain it of power in one's mind we shouldn't set ourselves against it, just accept it because it is merely one of many forms that exist in the finite of infinity. I didn't watch the video but non-duality undoubtedly includes duality other than the obvious terminology of it, it's setting oneself against it ideologically. So as an alternative one can seek unity with infinity and remove the focus on that other altogether.

So many traps in your sig by the way.... just sayin'....

Trap Every way, even a theory that theories trap can trap. Being present realizes enlightenment not theorizes it.

I like his approach, very down to earth and genuine, but his ideas are pretty much the typical rhetoric found in 'non-dual' belief paradigm. Though, he sure does work that 'selfing' angle pretty hard...hah