MiracleMan

Well, you're an easy target man. I mean you claim to be awake, but then you work so hard to convince others you are awake, you take everything personally it seems, you constantly try to attack/defend youre point of view and then scream "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME" when people fight back. Basically, you sound like a frustrated bully who no one wants to be around. Why do you give a fuck so much about what others think? Seems awfully suspicious for such an enlightened person. What's happening here is people are calling you on your bullshit and it pisses you off, and you lack the wit to fool anyone, hence your frustration.

Dear God I need a bigger bag. It's like a soap opera but with spiritual drama! I'd just stick with "who am I" all those other questions are just confusing you.

You two rascals and your shenanigans.... @Etagnwo Now don't get her a fake ring now okay? Bahaha.

Yeah it's hard to fake real butter bahaha

The secret is real melted butter

Pure rubbish, most of it. You've attempted to define the undefinable. To say Truth is non-dual is already saying too much. Why do you think it's called non-duality, because it sounds cool? It doesn't mean ONE, it means NOT TWO. To say 'all is one' or reality is nondual is using language to define reality, and are clumsy or inadequate pointers at BEST.

Well, we're at a cross section here of spirituality and the western self-help phenomenon. They couldn't be more opposed, which I find comical on this forum a lot. This is nothing personal, it's just funny to see folks bashing materialism, but they are 100% materialistic, they are spiritual materialists in a way, because they are on this spiritual quest and they believe they just need to try harder, obtain more knowledge, do yoga, employ more meditation techniques, read more books, get to "X" level of consciousness, obtain this state of mind, reach level orange. This is all fine an dandy, but the point is you can never become enlightened that way, and for a forum that is over obsessed with enlightenment, well, you just giggle a little, and I giggle at myself for being so serious about the same complaints, and making the same mistakes listed above. We are sooo fucking conditioned, even when we see intellectually that materialism is totally flawed, you can't just drop that conditioning over night.

Thanks bruh, needed to hear this today.

@Applejuice @Nathan You guys really are idiots, I don't know why no one is doing you the favor of telling you this. Then again, natural selection, hmmm....

Loving what arises is by far his greatest gift in my opinion and something I try to employ in my daily life. I think the teacher depends on what resonates with you at a particular time. For a long while Matt really did, he just tends to go off-road so to speak, maybe it's not a bad thing to have a little fun sometimes, I do like talking about crystals and aliens as much as I like joking or mocking it. I'll make fun of it for being rubbish with no objective proofs, and other times I'll entertain the possibility of subjective truth. If a crystal works for someone, even though I can't prove it, who am I to say it's rubbish? I'm trying to simplify things because I have a habit of overthinking, I'm easily drawn to flashy things that aren't necessarily a part of my direct experience. I'm easily distracted by intrigue. So right now I'm listening to Rupert Spira a lot, it's a bit sobering, a little dry at times maybe, but the message is simple and he uses examples of direct experience to convey his message. If I had ran into Rupert last year I might not have been attracted to the message. Douglas Harding and Richard Lang are teachers I really like. There are so many factors in choosing spiritual material. Also, don't take my approach seriously, I can be an asshole, it's something I'm working on. I'm trying to be a bit less of a dickhead these days but I'm not sure its sticking.

The old spiritual paradigm is way outdated bro. I mean, they don't even address crystals, crystalline DNA, the physical location of the Akeoshic records, aliens and Pleiadians, golden escalators, prophetic predictions and dates, starseed activations for hundreds and hundreds of dollars, night clubs in heaven. This new age path of love is the only path! All that nonduality and self inquiry stuff is a bunch of old bullshit that doesn't work at all. Matt teaches non-duality, trust me, it's subtle, and I've watched literally every video he's made and read his book, the core of all his teachings are nondual. He goes for the feminine approach and caters to inferior ego structures, hence his audience is mostly women. It's not a "new" paradigm, the love path has been around for thousands of years too. Loving kindness is not new. Matt is very clever at branding with his message. Absolutely nothing he teaches is out of the ordinary or a new perspective. Once you read several hundred books on spirituality you'll see how fucking simple the message is. And eventually the battle will ensue to actually do the work instead of entertaining your ego with promises of a path that works.

I'm doing a daily Vipassana routine, I'm doing some landscaping in my backyard, a little each day. I'm taking the stairs everyday at work. Soon I will be floating in a float tank everyday after work, I plan to do 30 days in a row. I've got plans to start BJJ, but I gotta talk to my doctor to make sure I can safely do it (got a titanium plate in my neck).

This is one aspect: the feminine. You're allowing things to unfold as they do. The other aspect: masculine. This is penetration, piercing through, or Zen in other words. There can be a balance of these two. Sometimes you need to take the masculine approach and pierce through, especially when you've cultivated a gut level understanding of the teachings but it's not fully integrated as of yet. I thought Leo explained this pretty well in his video, when he talked about "being the embodiment" of what he teaches.

This is the best thing ever! "If you meditate and no one sees a picture of it, did you really meditate? .....no you did not!"

That's because you think you're special, and now you want to be around other folks who also think they're special. Just admit this has nothing to do with seeking and spirituality and you'll be okay. You're deceiving yourself, and it's really fucked up seeing the bad advice here telling you to further isolate.

Really?

It's possible because Einstein or any other person for that matter is just an idea. Einstein isn't real, you aren't real, you're a thought. Space and distance is a concept, a belief, an idea, they have no reality. You have billions of thoughts everyday you aren't even conscious of. It's totally possible for someone to find Tesla floating around in their awareness, because he's just a thought. All minds are connected because all minds occur in the same place so to speak. Your own government experiments with this shit all the time, why not try it out? Psychics, telepathy, remote viewing, are actual occurring phenomenon. Can some folks take advantage of it and just bullshit it? Yes, and they do. There are cheaters in academia and science as well.

If anyone just tries smoking it and shutting their eyes or go into a pitch black room, the mind is totally illuminated and it's what I could describe as an internal trip. Using cannabis recreationally, as with alcohol or any substance, is really ignoring a primary effect of the drug. Addicts use drugs because it reduces or elimates "self" for a brief period of time. It connects you with God but it's from an external and temporary source. The drugs are extremely effective in this, but they don't last and what happens is you form a correlation between the object and desired effect (release from self). Hence why when you try to take drugs away from an addict he will fight you tooth and nail, because your taking away his primary connection with the universe, whether he's aware of this fact or not. All addicts are trying to get back "home" essentially. See how ingrained alcohol is in our culture, it stems from not being comfortable in your own skin, and intoxication provides an outlet to shed your inhibitions. Unfortunately there are many undesired side effects. The goal of 12 Steps is to show the user that conscious contact with God is possible without the external source. Hence the 12th step concludes the path beginning with "Having had a spiritual awakening..." Read any book about 12 Steps, any of them, and it's really pushing you toward non-duality. Went on a tangent there but those thoughts just kind of spilled out. I myself struggle with using cannabis recreationally, but I find myself more and more meditating after consuming without conscious effort, it tends to occur spontaneously.

Edibles are wayyy more trippy than smokeables! In fact, I hate these mega high strains that are over 25% THC, it's just doesn't work for me, it makes me panicky, paranoid, elevated heart rate. I prefer the indica strains or hybrids that favor indica, they are more "body" high than "head" high. I ate 2 brownies last weekend, and when I went to sleep that night I had these awesome out of body experiences, though sometimes this happens without taking anything. I feel like a snake shedding skin, I'll fall out of my body after some effort to break free. I can sense that a body is still present on my bed but I can move around my room freely. Really strange!

I've seen a lot of books about the Sutras of Patanjali, but I cannot find a book that IS the Sutras themselves. Are there just no full English translations of the text? I've seen this website, http://www.swamij.com/yoga-sutras-list.htm, but can anyone vouch for its authenticity?

I needed to hear this. Thanks. It's hard doing this work in isolation, without guidance from another. Faith is sort of a requirement on this path right? We confirm from experience, but before the confirmation occurs we need to have faith that what we're doing is worthwhile, otherwise how do we go on? You're basically saying be a light onto yourself in this sense?

I'm struggling with this hardcore. I tried talking about it with a sponsor once because non-duality and consciousness is my "higher power" in recovery, but it's also synonymous with God in my view, so from now on I'll just use God in place of that and I find i get less "what the fuck" looks from people. I also have some hardcore militant atheists in my social circle. I grew up a nerd in highschool, got beat up, played D&D and LARPs, magic the gathering, etc, so this circle was littered with intellectuals as well, so a lot of my friends are not open to these ideas unless they are strictly fantasy based. I have a hard time making new friends as it is, and it makes me feel even more isolated to not be able to talk to anyone in real life. I cannot find a teacher, guru, or any guidance. Most of what I find in spirituality around here is Yoga, which totally misrepresents it as only a physical exercise with some spiritual flare tacked on. I can't talk to most Christians, who I can definitely relate to, but they are so dogmatic and focused on scripture and morality. The other day I had to listen to a Christian openly bash Buddhism for being dispassionate and a method for suppressing emotions. What I would give for a spiritual buddy, not to lean on eachother but at least share the path were walking on.

"What is this" is the same question from my childhood! I would ask why does anything exist, what IS this? Maybe self inquiry is a naturally occurring phenomenon?