Forestluv

? ♥️

@Lisa2525 It seems like your mind and body is uncomfortable with the amount and pattern of your drinking. Enough so that you have spoken to friends about it, searched for information online and started a thread on a forum to discuss it. Yet, I would be cautious about adopting an identity that “I am an alcoholic” or adopting the opposite of “I am not an alcoholic”. There may be something minor going on and few tweaks in perspective and behavior is all you need - such as making some new friends and engaging in new activities. Or there may be something deeper going on that needs more work to resolve, which may involve counseling or a support group. There are a variety of support groups available - both online and face-to-face. If you feel drawn to this route, I would encourage you to find one that resonates with you and feels healthy.

I don’t disagree with you. It’s relative to assumptions and how terms are defined.

Note taking notes and journaling can be a great method. If you want to post it here, perhaps you could start a journal.

The passage of the story you quoted doesn’t address that. I suppose we could imagine things and add it into the piece of the story above. Or perhaps one could contact the author of the story to see what he imagines. If we assume that there is a thing called enlightenment that is good and we assume that there are some beings that do not have access to this goodness and we assume that such beings are lesser, then I would say yes, it is unfair. According to the story you posted from Johnakan, no chance. According to the story you cite from Hindu and Buddhist scriptures, yes chance. Cool stuff. I like stories about reincarnation and souls. Sometimes I imagine each being is a pod exploring earth and all of our souls are connected to one Mothership. As pods break down and die, they get recycled into new pods. In one sense, it isn’t unfair since all pods are the Mothership. Yet if one assumes that pods are different, some pods are better, and one is restricted to a certain pod fate for eternity, then that would be unfair. It’s essentially saying there is a “me” that got stuck with a crappy fate for eternity.

@DrewNows Some nice spanish moss on those trees ?

When you write “enlightened person”, does that suggest clarity and understanding in all those components? Or could an enlightened person have degrees of clarity and understanding? For example, deep, clear, integrated understanding in #2 / #3, yet several gaps of understanding in #4 / #5.

Bud

In the U.S., psychiatrists are generally focused on treating mental illness through medication. Psychologists, social workers and counselors are much broader and can help with a variety of life issues. They are generally not so quick to recommend medication and use a wide variety of methods like talk therapy, CBT, EMDR etc. Depression is not necessary to gain benefits. Years ago, I saw a counselor to discuss regular life issues and to explore my personality. I found it helpful in a limited context. I’m not sure how things are structured in your country. You mention you don’t have depression or anything. What are you currently experiencing that raised questions whether you should see a psychiatrist?

Part of spiritual work is facing our fears. Standard doses of psychedelics may involve experiences that are uncomfortable. If that seems scary and overwhelming to you, you can try low doses of psychedelics. If that is still too scary and overwhelming, then you are not ready to explore consciousness with psychedelics. If that is the case, try something else. There are other ways to explore consciousness.

@Firebirdz From a nondual perspective, the question doesn’t make sense since the question assumes duality (separate things such as a person, product, a sale, money etc). Yet nonduality vs. duality is also a duality that dissolves. It is like asking: “If that is ONE carton, how can it include a dozen eggs?”.

This is dependent on your current understanding of “me”. You are conflating personal and trans-personal concepts. At the personal level, this is a recipe for disaster and will cause an immense amount of needless suffering. Notice how immersed you are in this narrative. It is as if you are convinced a stick is a snake and being held hostage by it. Assuming it is a snake and insisting on speaking about how dangerous snakes are will keep you trapped. Yet letting go of the attachment and identification of being held hostage by a snake can be extremely difficult. It doesn’t seem like it should, but letting go of that delusional identity is letting go of one’s identity. It can be hard to say goodbye to the stick, stand up and walk off into a new uncertainty.

@Aakash ? ♥️

Requiring that symmetry is necessary to realize God is an egoic idea. Realizing God may or may not involve symmetry. It is not a requirement. It’s like saying running 30+ miles per week is a requirement to run a marathon. It’s pretty good advice for most people, yet certainty not a requirement. A low mileage plan with lots of cross training is often sufficient.

Go to the space before you were born. Where there are no thoughts, words, images, symbols etc. Whenever a thought, word, image, symbol etc. arise, let it go because that came after your birth. If direct experience arises in this space, don’t try to explain it with any thoughts, words, images, symbols etc. Because all that came after your birth. That’s it. Yet it ain’t easy. That is an Orange level of exploration. That is totally cool and legit. There are many logical and scientific explorations that are sooo fascinating. I love that stuff. Yet be mindful of conflating and thinking it’s an expansive realm that includes more advanced stages beyond logic and reason.

No. You keep employing mental faculties. That’s not it. Ime, that is the #1 deterrent and it can be extremely difficult to let go of.

@Enlightenment My deepest experiences with 5-meo have come while laying down or sitting. I suppose it was symmetrical. Yet I did have one deep experience on 25mg doing yoga, which I suppose is asymmetrical. @kieranperez The key word is *requiring*

You are unaware of how many distinctions are here. As I said, it’s not mental. All this stuff dissolves.

@krockerman If you don’t have issues with mental illness and don’t have a strong strong family history of mental illness, the risks are very very low, unless you start off with monster doses. As well, you seem to be in an either / or mentality when you say “I’m afraid of taking psychedelics”. What does this mean? If that means taking 1,000 ug of LSD, using psychedelics three times a day everyday or tripping in Grand Central Station N.Y. during rush hour - then I would be afraid as well. You can microdose or min-dose. You can dose one time or once every six months. Perhaps a mini-dose once every few months feels right for you. Or perhaps a mini-dose opens a door and you feel curious to explore more. Or maybe not. . . The mind loves to create problems that don’t exist. If you are curious, try a few micro or mini doses and see how it goes. The risk here is much lower than the risk of eating unwashed fruits and vegetables.

Pretty much, yea. Sometimes it is that simple. Other times it is more nuanced and deeper. For example, there are times I’m not sure and it’s not so simple as a clear correct diagnosis or a clear mis-diagnosis. Rather than trying to find one perfect clear view, I try to be open to clarifying my view. This involves being open to information and different perspectives, yet also experience and intuition. For example, when I traveled to Colombia I had a lot of ideas about what the country was like. When I got there, I spoke with locals regarding Colombian culture and personal safety. I realized many of my ideas weren’t quite right. That they were sorta right, but not quite. The locals helped me clarify my ideas. Yet I also had an intuitive sense if someone was speaking with me genuinely or if there was some agenda going on.

Ultimately, form is formless and formless is form. Ime, direct experience is key. It’s not something that I could figure out mentally. I was shown the deconstruction of all distinctions to Nothing and the re-construction of distinctions to Everything. You mentioned that you can’t use psychedelics and meditation isn’t deep enough. That is a limiting belief. These realizations can and have been revealed in people without psychedelics. Yet for many people, psychedelics will allow space for revelations. Ime, psychedelics revealed many facets of nonduality - many of which were whacky and destabilizing and I went through developmental stages that seemed to fluctuate between sane and insane. I had about 50 trips before clear revelations of null void and absolute infinity manifested. I didn’t trip a few times and realize the breadth and depth of this clearly. It was a long process. Without psychedelics, the clearest revelations came in a sensory deprivation tank (90 min.). Things kept dissolving until the only thing present was my heartbeat and “I” went to a place before “I” was born. It was sorta like consciousness was back in the womb. Everything after birth dissolved. There was no “me” because that “me” was created after I was born. There was no images or thoughts. No things like houses, horses, coffee, language, womb, fetus, birth, brain, people, no whatever. Everything that appeared after birth was dissolved and was absent in this mystical space of consciousness. An immense amount was deconstructed (all things constructed after birth). Pretty much all things we perceive as form dissolved. It was deeply profound, yet not quite the null void because there was a type of ineffable essence/presence One of the most important things I learned is that it’s not mental. Language, images, symbols and mentality all get deconstructed away and dissolve as the null void is approached. Another key for me was a genuine desire to explore this and a willingness to try new things and let go of whatever needed to be let go of.

@Joker_Theory Nonduality means not two. If there is a difference between a formless state and the formed state you currently perceive, that it is a duality. As well, nonduality vs duality is a duality that dissolves. Look around you and see that formless Nothing is formed Everything. "Form does not differ from Emptiness And Emptiness does not differ from Form. Form is Emptiness and Emptiness is Form." -- Heart Sutra

@kieranperez I remember this question being asked a couple times and Leo commenting on it. A google search with keywords - actualized.org , eeg machine and Leo - may help. I’e found google searchers to be more powerful than the forum search tool.

@Ampresus This sounds like “fight or flight” getting triggered in which a person perceives a potential threat to the well-being to oneself, friend and/or family member. The body responds into a fight or flight mode for survival. Nothing wrong with that, it can have practical value in some situations. Yet the mind can also perceive it’s environment from a distorted lens and misjudge actual risk. When fight or flight gets triggered, it can turn into a feedback loop through thought stories and mis-perception. This can amplify sensations and lead to excessive discomfort, worry and an OCD pattern of checking and looking for things in the the environment that it may perceive as an imminent threat. The mechanism can be hyper-sensitive, mis-calibrated and dialed up too high. If this arose in me, I would try to step out of the dynamic and ask if I am interpreting potential risk in the environment clearly and if my response is proportional to the risk. Context is super important. Ideally, I want to devote a certain percentage of my mindfulness to those risks and use the rest of my awareness to enjoy the event. I may only need to devote 5% of my mind to potential risk and have the other 95% enjoying the event. In other situations, I may need to devote 95% of my attention to deal with a dangerous situation. . . . The problem arises when I mis-diagnose a situation by under-estimating or over-estimating. I’ve been in low-risk situations where I excessively worried, thinking it was high risk. And I’ve been in high-risk situations, mindlessly wandering around unaware of risk. If excessive fight or flight continually arose - in spite of my cognitive understanding that it is irrational - there may be some type of underlying conditioning going on that I should introspect and deconstruct. It sounds like you feel a need to not only protect yourself, yet also family members. Perhaps re-access the situation to see if you are seeing it clearly. Is the environment really a risk to your safety? If so, to what degree? Is the safety of your family members dependent on you? If so, to what degree? . . . For example, if someone in a public fitness center was checking out my girlfriend with elevator eyes, I may find it inappropriate and annoying. If she was uncomfortable with it, I would want to be in tune with that and communicate with her. Yet it’s not really threatening in this context. We are in a public place. There is a very low risk of severe harm in this context. It’s not like a look of desire means he is going to stalk us the rest of the day and eventually drag us into a back alley where five of his friends are waiting to beat me up and abuse my girlfriend. . . Some guys give those kinda looks and vibes. However, if he approached us, physically grabbed one of us and said something to intimidate us - that would elevate the situation and intervention would be appropriate. . . As well, if I am traveling with someone and sense some personal risk to us, I may communicate with my partner without exaggerating the risk. For example, as we are planning the day in the hotel room I may say “Hmmm, it looks like we will be in highly concentrated tourist areas today. We won’t need our passports, so perhaps it’s best to leave them here in the hotel room”. Excessive worry can actually attract what I am worrying about. For example, if I am in a highly concentrated tourist area and there is a sign asking people to be mindful of their belongings to avoid theft, it may be wise to put my wallet in my front pocket and not to set my backpack down and walk away. If there is something of value in my backpack, like a train ticket, I may push it down to the very bottom of the pack. Then, I wouldn’t worry and I would enjoy the tourist attraction. If I am anxious, worrying and obsessively keep checking that I still have my wallet and everything is still in my backpack, that could attract attention to me and could actually increase my risk. And I am not attracting other things like appreciation, wonder and meeting new, interesting people. Law of attraction stuff.

@Kushu2000 All of the jhanas are absolute infinity, as is everything.