andyjohnsonman

I really enjoyed that thread thanks for the giggles

I've noticed as I meditate lying down i quite often fall asleep, but when I wake up my mind i become aware of the thought chattering in the same way as a dream and alot of the time the observer can't distiguish between whether I was asleep or just in monkey mind thinking about things which is also basically a dream world. Has anyone else experienced this?

I feel like there is a difference between being mindful and letting go. Am i right in saying when you are mindful you see thoughts as like a dog walking in the park and can let the thought pass you where as using the letting go process you keep with a thought and emotion in a mindful way until all the emotion has been released from the thought or emotion? I am comparing vipassana meditation to David Hawkins Letting go technique

There is scientific evidence that if you damage a persons part of the brain that mediates empathy that person doesn’t feel empathy anymore doesnt that disprove idealism and show that the materialist paradigm is accurate?

Isn't the universe being made out of consciousness (not as a physical plane of existence) also an ideology until you have had a direct experience of it? It surely better to go into it as a hypothesis that maybe it is maybe it isn't until you have that experience otherwise you also make it into an ideology

So I have always been an extrovert with many close bonds and friendship groups. Over the last few years since getting into actualized content, I have become more introspective and have been spending the majority of my time alone reading, meditating or being mindful of thoughts. I remember it was Leo's lifestyle minimalism video where he said about friendships being the icing on the cake and to get the foundations right first. However over the last year I have really isolated myself which is fine but when I go on social media it gives me the impression I am missing out. I suppose the question is as happiness and fulfilment is what most people are seeking how important are friendships and have I gone too far the other way by isolating myself from these? If you think of monks or enlightened beings meditating in a cave they dont have any friendships but theres something in the back of my mind telling me I should be more sociable and being a lone wolf isn't my authentic self.

Has anyone heard of or been to the landmark forum? I was wondering whether its a cult or it actually has good personal development ideas?

What are your views on this? The idea that the more one thinks about death the worse one needs myths and stories to distract from it. Which has created a materialist society.

So I was contemplating what a stage yellow world would look like but actually this is a very hard one as the other stages it is very clear as to what their points of view are (blue rules and order, orange materialism, green equality) but as yellow takes into account all perspectives and sees a part truth of them all that would mean that yellow doesn't actually have an individual point of view and therefore hard to see what would matter to them or how things would look? What would their perspectives be? Just an integration of all perspectives? if so there would be no individuality to each person to make them unique.

What are your views on this? The idea that the more one thinks about death the worse one needs myths and stories to distract from it. Which has created a materialist society.

@winterknight So reincarnation is a belief? How can you be sure enlightenment is the absolute truth then if there could be more truths revealed once the body dies. Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question.

So this morning I got fired from work due to something I couldn't control from my past. Since I have got more into spirituality and having a daily meditation habit I have become more mindful. This situation a few years back would have torn my whole life down but I had a sense of detachment from this whole process, didn't blame others and it really made me realise even more than normal how much of an illusion the whole ego and playing ego games is. I let go of all my worries by having a cry and then tried to be present with reality rather than all of the stories my mind was trying to spin of what i'm going to do with my life next. Has anyone else noticed how in times of despair maya is become aware of more than normal?

@winterknight Do enlightened beings know what happens after the body dies? I am really curious to know this thanks.

It really dawned on me today that what I have seen as reality is but a hallucination and i think this is down to being in desperate depressed times

@winterknight What happens after the body dies? Will you remain as the true self forever or will you reincarnate to another ego and another body?

If you are completely present in what the Zen masters call no mind and all concepts are removed wouldn't that mean if someone talked to you while in this state you wouldn't understand them as you would just hear the sounds of the language and not the concepts that the sounds produce?

check out a youtube channel called "fluidified" thats my go to

When i was younger I used to smoke weed and get panic attacks which led me to stop smoking for a while too. After a daily meditation practice and understanding of the ego and the realisation that thoughts are illusory and will all pass it has made me have a much better time on them. I have also taken mushrooms a few times and i feel meditation has really helped me get past even the roughest of trip so i think you should be ok.

I feel like when I am being mindful and observing my thoughts in a way I am actually being less present as I go into the inner world of my thoughts and look at them I am not in the moment as much in the outer world. I know many people will say this is a duality but at my current stage of mindfulness I feel like mindfulness is actually making me less present. An example would be when talking to someone instead of being present in the conversation and the natural flow of it I will observe my thoughts which can affect the flow of it and bring me into my internal world and out of being present with this person. I don't know if anyone can relate to this or has any solutions?

I had a thought during meditation yesterday that i would like someone to help me answer - If non duality is the stripping away of all beliefs to reveal the ultimate truth that everything is consciousness, then how can thoughts be illusion as even though they are aren't grounded in direct experience they arise from consciousness which is the ultimate truth?

so how are thoughts illusion then if they are within this one consciousness which is everything which is absolute truth?

Yes well im starting to think that there is no ultimate truth maybe that is the delusion as the Buddhist insight of dependent origination suggests., Maybe these kind of advaita notions are the delusions and there is no direct experience as all experience is conditioned by previous experience? It's very confusing how a thought has no relevance if it is consciousness which is the ultimate truth.

https://9gag.com/gag/aeM8rvm