Forestluv

It does not have that effect on me, yet I could see it doing so for others.

@Pouya One method that works for me is “reality checks”. Several times a day I do a reality check and ask “Am I dreaming”. To see if I am, I hold out the palm of my hand and see if I can put my forefinger through my palm. The moment my forefinger touches my palm, I know I’m not dreaming and consciousness returns to what is actual now. I’d say this one exercise increased my consciousness from from 5% of the day to 50% of the day. After I while, I started asking this question in my dreams. My dream character would ask “Am I dreaming?”. The moment my finger goes right through my palm, I know I’m dreaming and consciousness returns to what is actual (in the dream). Some people call this lucid dreaming. What I found was it doesn’t matter if my finger hoes through my palm or not. In both cases, consciousness returns to what is actual in the moment.

@David Hammond ♥️ ?

Ime, I would say both methods have value. Rather than the term “bypass”, I would say “a different route”. I would say neither route is free and both require effort and work - it’s just that each method had different type of effort/work. When the two methods are integrated, an emergent property arises that is greater than the sum of their parts. That’s just my experience, I can see how others would have different views based in their own experience.

I realize the intent here may be humor. Yet please don’t start trivial thread topics like burning one’s mouth on hot coffee and linking it to dramatic images of a human committing suicide.

I place a lot more truth value on the mind-body experience than the thought story that arises from the direct experience. At best, those stories can be a helpful expression of the direct experience - similar to how tears or laughter is an expression of the direct experience. However, I’ve found that thoughts tend to want to”run the show” and decide what is true and false and assign meaning. This often creates a twisted sense of being. For me, direct experience comes prior to the thought story about it. Yet my thinking mind does not like accepting this, because it’s role becomes diminished. Only about 1% of thoughts is sufficient, yet my thinking mind wants 90% of the action. My optimal balance seems to be 99% direct experience, 1% thought. Yet it is very challenging for me to maintain that balance.

@Mu_ Thank you for making yourself available for this. ♥️ ?

Yea, just 1% of cowbell is sufficient. It’s a tough pill to swallow for the cowbell guy.

I was having a discussion on this with @Nahm yesterday. I originally said thoughts are like the guitar player in the band. Nahm said thoughts are more like a guy in the audience with a cow bell. I laughed and realized it’s so true. My thinking mind wants to create a story in which thoughts are really important, like the guitarist. It doesn’t want to admit it’s just a cowbell guy making noise.

I can see how that is true in many contexts and situations. Yet, ime it is not universally true. For example, psychedelics related to spiritaul states was anything but lazy for me. In some ways, it took more effort and courage than training for the marathon races I’ve done. Imagine a person is to cut down a forest and they can use a handsaw or a chainsaw. Is it lazy to choose the chainsaw? I would say no. It takes work and effort to learn how to use the chainsaw and the risk of injury is much higher with the chainsaw. Yet at times, the chainsaw is a much more efficient tool. Personally, I find it best to use both. Both tools have value when cutting down the forest.

None of them do in low doses. The one that has the highest chance of that is adderall, and I limit it to a very small amount. Any more than 10mg starts to feel toxic and buzzy to me. And I don’t take it more than 2-3 times a week Well. . . When I was younger, I also had drug addictions and dependency issues. I think one of the keys is to to which drugs will will over-power the mind body. Some drug, like meth or heroine, will over-power nearly all mind-bodies and cause damage. Other drugs seem to be helpful for some and damaging to others. For example, alcohol is really bad for my mind body. It’s just bad chemistry. There is a really high risk that I would drink excessively and fall into dependency/addiction. It’s just a battle I don’t want to face so I don’t drink. Lots of other people drink socially and have no problem with it. I’m just not one of those people. On the other hand, most people will develop some type javascript:void('Remove Format')of dependency/ addiction to a drug like adderall. When I first tried it, I had to be honest with myself. How is my mind-body relating to this drug? Can it take it in low doses on occasion? Sometimes the answer is “yes”, sometimes it’s “no”. For me, it’s really important to listen to my body and trust that my body is telling my the truth and guiding me. For me, caffeine is much more addivitive/ dependency on my mind-body than lsd microdosing, adderall min-dosing or modafinil. That’s just how it is and what my body is telling me. I’ve also come to realize that “drugs” are not just chemical substances. Many activities also alter my mind-body chemistry similiar to drugs. For example, running is like a drug for me and I have to be careful how much I do it. I am prone to running too much and it can become an escape, just like a drug. Too much starts to have a negative impact on my mind-body and life. Currently, my running “dosage” is 5 miles twice a week. Other people may have a different optimal “running dosage”. For others, it may not work at all. Similarly, yoga and hiking are also “drugs” in a sense for me. They can be highly beneficial for me in a certain context and range. I’ve also found it helpful to be mindful of the balance chemical chemical drugs and activity drugs. For example, modafinil seems to be beneficial in limited dosage and frequncey, yet I’ve noticed I’ve moved more toward introspective contemplation with this chemical and less yoga activity. This isn’t necessarily bad, yet it is a mild concern for me because the balance is shifted. Perhaps I need to be more intestinal now with yoga, or perhaps I can be intentional and combine modafinil with yoga practice. I now realize this was a long response that didn’t directly answer your question. I would say I don’t have any specific recommendations because people vary so much. I have recommendations for what not to try (e.g. cocaine) yet I would say a person needs to explore chemicals with potential benefits and see how their mind-body responds. Yet, not at the expense of beneficial “activity drugs” like exercise, meditation, yoga etc.

@Jkris I was just discussing this with a friend yesterday. Here are a few things that resonated with me. 1. Thoughts and thought stories aren’t necessary for beingness. There can be an underlying belief tat thinking is necessary to operate in life. Realizing this isn’t true, can help relax the mind. At most, 1% of our thoughts are needed to function. This is a very radical idea for me. I’ve gone stretches of 10min or so, and have done fine. Actually, life seems to flow a lot better without thinking. The mind-body is like a jazz band and some guy in the audience keeps clanging an annoying cow bell. He insists he is the band and the band can’t survive without him. It’s distracting and unnecessary for the music.For example, these words are just being expressed right now, I don’t even know how this sentence will end. It feels like bizarre magic. 2. I’vefound that trying to repress thoughts can be counter-productive. I’ve found it more at times helpful to get curious about the nature of thought. What is the underlying nature of thought? Sometimes when I meditate, I will sit and wait for thoughts. Like a cat waiting for a mouse to come out of the cupboard? Here, I actually want thoughts to arise. That is the whole experiment.To discover where these thoughts are coming from. What comes prior to the thought? Ironically, sometimes when I do this, no thoughts arise. I just sit there like a cat waiting. Before long, I started experiences stretches of a few minutes without a thought.

@Swagala Nice insightful direct experience. Thank you for sharing it with us ♥️ ?

Notice that your body has sensations of discomfort. It is trying to communicate something. Now let’s look at the thought story that arises from these body sensations. Is that what your body is trying to communicate to you? Or is that a story the mind created? Also notice how this terrible story will intensify the depression and lonliness. This in turn will intensify the the thought story to make it even worse, which makes the body feel even worse. There is a negative feedback loop that can be difficult to break. Perhaps consider allowing the body to simply express the sensations without the added story. Observe the sensations and allow the body to release and express itself. Allowing the thought story to dissolve can allow deeper insights to arise. The thought story is like an annoying cowbell, it’s a distraction and getting in the way of progress.

Seeking truth for truth’s sake is an orientation. It is a way of life. It is genuine seeking of truth and requires great courage. It can be simply called “seeking truth”. Seekng truth for personal rewards can cause unhealthy psychological dynamics because the self is oriented toward seeking rewards, not truth. It can simply be called “seeking self-centered rewards”. Adding in the “truth” part can provide the self with some cover and allow it to avoid actual truth,. This often leads to a distorted view of truth . For example, someone in a relationship may claim they value the truth and want truth, yet if the primary fuel is self seeking rewards, truth, honesty and trust will become twisted within the relationship. Even worse, the false belief that one is seeking truth will actually prevent them from being open and willing to genuinely introspect and see the actual truth. There is nothing wrong with seeking personal rewards, yet I think it’s a healthier psychological dynamic to be honest about it and drop the “truth” part. It’s like a scientist seeking experimental results for personal rewards such as promotions and grant money. He would be highly biased and not oriented toward seeking the actual truth.

@Billy Shears The self likes to be the arbiter of what is true or false. I think a better question would be “How would I know what is?” How does one know sadness is sadness and not anger?

@Paul92 Emptiness is only depressing when it is misunderstood.

This reminds me of the movie “Into the Wild”. It’s a story of a young man who did exactly that.

I would start with a different framing : “I am Everything””. Go out in nature and be one with nature. Experience that you are within Everything. The term god can be loaded with baggage. I found it helpful to put it aside for a while and work with Everything / Nothing

@Angelo John Gage You’ve got a sincerity I appreciate. Awakened beings often have a similar feel to me. It can feel polished, shiny and spiritually. There’s a genuine rawness I like about your video. Perhaps due to your life history. Plus I’ve never seen a guy that feels like NJ to me awakening and speak like you. I sensed it immediately. I think it’s really cool and that you can connect within certain crowds that many nonduality teachers can’t. And not just the nonduality, also personal growth and living a good life.

@vpandey You won’t figure it out, because figuring is within it. You can get direct experience of absolute in the room you are sitting in right now. Yet it can be difficult because the mind is conditioned to perceive relative and direct experience with absolute involves a “death” of a separate self. So the mind will spend years conceptualizing about reality, enlightenment, absolute etc. The power of psychedelics is that they dissolve both dualistic conditioning and the self. It can be done without, yet takes a lot of willingness to let go and “see” it and usually involves a lot of practice.

@Angelo John Gage I think this is an awesome video. I think you can resonate with a specific audience better than any nonduality teacher I've seen. I grew up in N.J. and I now live in the Midwest. There is a big population of guys I think you could connect with really well. I'm not making any value judgement here, yet this is the general description: guys that have strong masculine traits and intellect. . . guys that tend to enjoy stuff like trucks, beer, barbques, fishing, hunting, camping, grew up Christian, home-improvement, football, shooting pool etc. It's hard to describe, yet you have the "IT" factor in this "genre". I cannot connect with guys in this genre. I come across as too emotional, yoga-loving, academically arrogant, soft, woo woo etc. I can connect with people in other areas, yet not here. It's like seeing one of the guys I went to high school with in N.J. awaken and come back to help the other guys awaken. I think it is totally awesome. A few comments on the content: -- I love how you framed it as "the real red pill". That is totally what it is. I have tried to use this frame and guys dismiss me because I have zero cred. in this area. But I think you totally pull it off because you've got that cred. with this group. -- I like how you discussed opposites of good and evil as being two sides of the same coin. Going from nonduality back to duality is very difficult to transmit. I particularly like your analogy that life is one giant movie and everyone is playing their role - yet since One Everything is Everything, both good and evil is within Everything. --I think the part about how "you can experience God" could be a bit confusing because it includes both the little dualistic "you" and the One nondual "You". I would have stressed this a bit by saying something like "you can experience God, which is the Ulitmate You - the ultimate You is within Everything. -- I think a lot of terms used to help people learn nonduality can be used essentially as synonyms. Words like Everything, Nothing, Reality, ISness, Oneness, God etc. I would have grouped them all together and maybe say that they are essentially the same. When I was learning nonduality I didn't know that the words are essentially the same and got confused. I noticed at times you would say something like "The One Everything is God". I would have added a bit more to highlight all the words that collapse into one when we enter nonduality. -- I like how you spoke that Christianity teaches the God within. Again, you have the "IT" cred. with guys in this genre. There is no way I could pull that off. I went through a long hardcore atheist scientist stretch and guys in this genre smell it out - they just know that I was not a real Christian that awakened. -- I didn't sense any intellectual arrogance in you. Yet you were confident and intellectual. Again, I think that is hard to do for a lot of intellectuals - I have this academic intellectualism vibe that masculine guys interpret as being arrogant. They can sense I was never part of their group. As hard as I try not to do it, I often come across as talking down to them. -- I like how you used a lot of masculine traits at the end when describing the biggest Red Pill - stoic, leadership, confidence, power - Marcus Aurelius and how he could have had all the power and sex he wanted, but he went for the biggest red pill. The underlying sense for me was "this is a man". I would have lost this audience as I talked about "surrender", getting in touch with one's emotions, like their inner vulnerability etc. Yet you described it as "gaining control of your emotions" - strength. I think there are a lot of people that can benefit from your style and vibe. In particular, I think you can reach a large segment of guys like few other nonduality teachers can. It is awesome to see and I totally wish you the best.

@Giulio Bevilacqua I think this is a very good question for self-inquiry and contemplation that can yield deep insights. Yet I also think it can be over-intellectualized and conceptualized - which can be a distraction. There are many different nuances and ways it could be answered. Many different ways we could use the terms "witness" and "disidentification". Personally, I've found it helpful to engage in practice that observes the "ISness" of the underlying dynamic. There is an essence of direct experience in this area that is inexplicable. During meditation, I've asked "what is identification?" and I watch. If I get into thinking, I'm off track. I just watch and observe for "it" to appear. A thought like "I procrastinate too much" may arise. Just observe that. Observe the "ISness" of that identification as if it was under a microscope. Is there a feeling present associated with the thought? Is there an energy present? Is there a sense about it? Do more thoughts arise that are linked to the first thought? It involves observing, not analyzing it or trying to figure it out. If that arises, then I stop. I've found this type of nonverbal direct experience to be much deeper than merely thinking. I may try to put the direct experience into words, yet at that point the words aren't so important. The underlying sentiment is much more important.

I would make a distinction here between "development" and "awareness". I would say the Tier1 stages involve much more development. Awareness really expands during the Tier1 to Tier2 transition. I would also make a distinction between the underlying developmental skills/values and the personality. For example, consider the development of learning algebra in middle school, pre-calculus in high school and calculus in a University. Clearly, a University student who has studied calculus is at a higher developmental level than a middle school student studying algebra. Of course the University student could be a jackass and taunt middle school students as being dumb. Yet that doesn't change the underlying principle that calculus is more advanced than algebra and the University student is more advanced in this regard.

@kieranperez Personally, it's much easier for me to express love to someone I love than to myself. I really had to re-think this. I think I was conditioned to believe that doing things for myself was selfish (bad) and doing things for others was selfless (good). I suppose there is some truth to that, yet I became way off-balance. I was trying to take care of others and neglected myself. So I ask myself "How can I be good to myself in a loving way?". I came up with some ideas and asked if that action would be loving to someone else. For example, I have a lot of body tension and the idea of "self massage" came up. I asked myself "If someone I loved had a lot of body tension, would giving them a massage be a loving act?". My answer was "yes", so I figured it was a form of self love. Another example: I noticed I was stressed out and eating poorly and I wasn't preparing healthy meals for myself. The idea of "cook myself a healthy meal" popped up. I asked myself "If someone I loved was stressed out and unable to prepare healthy meals, would cooking them a healthy meal be a loving act?". Again, the answer was "yes", so I started preparing myself healthy meals. I actually got into it. Looking into recipes, food shopping and learning to cook. I prepared myself a yummy meal. One night, I took it to the next level. . . I created a nice peaceful environment with music and candles. I added in a bath and self massage. I don't know if this officially qualifies as "self love", yet it really felt like I was being loved by myself.