Forestluv

@daniel695 Follow your true desires. They are connections to the True You.

@Elysian There are some nice insights in there ?

That is fine in your present state of consciousness. Yet to expand further and see things you currently cannot imagine, you will need to relax that resistance and open.

That's like saying Infinity is conditional on being infinite and Everything is conditional on being everything. This sounds like a mind in a trap of trying to figure it out.

I think that is some confusing word usage. Absolute Freedom is not a condition. It is always present regardless of what conditions the mind perceives. Any condition or situation you can imagine - absolute Freedom is present. Absolute means Everything / Infinity. All conditions are within Absolute / Everything / Infinity. Absolute really really means Absolute. At the human level, freedom is relative and dependent on conditions. For example, "I can be free if I am not imprisoned", "I can always be free, except if I was being beaten", "I will be free after psychotherapy" etc.

Is it fair to refer to that type of peace as "relief"?

Absolute Peace and Freedom is unconditional, it is not dependent on circumstances.

@Salvijus Thanks for the neck practice video! I've had chronic headaches, in part due to head and neck tension. I imagine it's very common. I like how the video integrates meditation with the neck practices, rather than quick head cranking to get it over with.

A glimpse of the Ox's tail!!

Pointers can be helpful for human minds to awaken. Yet, it's best to speak of it delicately. As you wrote, pontification can be a distraction.

Because Everything includes every thing as One. Everything really really means Everything, including all perceptions of things. There is no thing outside of Everything. There is no thing you or anyone can think, feel or do outside of Everything. There is no object or concept outside of Everything. Thus, Everything = No thing = Nothing. Everything / Nothing is Absolute. There is no conceptual escape hatch. Concepts of nonduality and duality collapse into Everything / Nothing.

Agreed. A personality may speak intellectually of no-self without awareness of the personality. The embodiment of no-self is key.

Nonduality cannot be understood, yet includes all understandings. Nonduality is not a perspective, yet includes all perspectives. Everything = No thing = Nothing

Everything really really means Everything.

This is sooo difficult to point to for minds that haven't plugged 30mg of 5-meo. . .

@ground @SoonHei The human mind is conditioned to use pronouns such as "I", "me", "you" in a personal context. In daily life, pronouns are used in a personal context 99.99% of the time. On this forum, personal pronouns seem normal and fine for discussions at the human/personality level. Yet, when conversations start entering trans-personal / no-self zones, it can get a bit awkward and tricky at times. Here, "I", "me" and "you" doesn't literally mean there is a real self. We still use pronouns because without pronouns conversations get very awkward, inefficient, confusing and annoying. However, there is an underlying understanding that we are not literally referring to a self. It just makes conversation more efficient.

I had similar snags to what your questions suggest. Below is a long description of a few things that helped me get through the perception of separation block. It took me about a year, using various techniques. I describe below the one's that seem so helpful. This is not any type of Absolute Truth or Enlightenment guide. It is only methods I used to re-orient my minds perspective. It's like training wheels. Once you learn to ride the bike, get rid of the training wheels. This is just one approach. If it works for you great. If not, great - ditch it. 1. One of my biggest resistances to seeing One Everything was this sense that I had to choose either / or. I had to choose that I was either an individual person I felt like or a person-less type of whatever that is One with everything which I did NOT feel like. Since I felt like I had to choose between the two, my mind kept coming back to thoughts like "but wait a minute, how can I not exist?". Thoughts similar to the ones you listed above. Here, I explain a different approach in which BOTH are true. You are that individual person AND a person-less existence within One Everything. Your mind has undergone millions of years of evolution and a lifetime of nonstop conditioning to train your mind to only be aware of the perspective that you are a separate being from your surroundings. We are not rejecting this perspective, we are just going to relax the mind so that another perspective arises. The image below shows two simultaneous perspectives. There is a young woman AND an old woman. Yet, the mind can only be aware of one perspective at a time. Your mind is locked into one perspective. Let's say the human mind has evolved to easily see the image of the young woman. And from early childhood every child is conditioned to see the young woman. Thousands of times each day. One's entire view of life is based on the young woman perspective. 99.99999% of people don't even know the old woman perspective exists. Very few people can see the old woman and when they tell others about it, other people resist. They shall say "It's so obvious there is a young woman. Are you telling me the young woman is actually an old woman? You are crazy!!" . . . Asking questions and debating from the perspective of the young woman will not help you see the old woman. It's better to just relax the mind, observe and allow it to arise. Now, we can't make a person see the old woman. We can just *point* to features and hope the person awakens to the old woman. What type of person will be able to see the young woman? Person A: The closed-minded logical debater. We tell him, "look at this line - this line marks the nose of the old woman". The person responds "Hogwash!! That line marks the cheek of the young woman. Science has proven this. Prove to me that line marks the nose of the old woman. You are trying to tell me that line is not part of the young woman when it obviously is!!". . . Well, we won't get very far with this person. . . Person B: The curious open-minded explorer. We tell her, "look at this line - this line marks the nose of the old woman". The person responds "I still only see the young woman, can you give me another pointer?". OK, this thick line looks like a necklace on the young woman, yet it is also the mouth of the old woman. Our student responds "I still only see the young woman. This is really frustrating. What else can I do". We could advise that she just relax her mind and forget about the young woman for a while. So, she relaxes her mind. As thoughts about the young woman arise, she let's them go. This is really hard to do because the mind is conditioned to only see the young woman. As our student continually lets go of young woman thoughts, the mind quiets and then one day "OMFG, there is the old woman!!!!". . . . Yet, it is only a glimpse. The mind snaps back to seeing the young woman. But now, this is no longer conceptualization - she has seen that old woman and knows it exists via her own direct experience. Yet, she needs to keep relaxing her mind to allow the the young woman to arise. With practice, it becomes more common and easier to see the old woman. When we return to look at the young woman, it's just not the same anymore - now that we can also see the old woman. 2. Similarly, the human mind has evolved and is socially conditioned to only see one perspective - that I exist as a separate entity. To "see" the other perspective of One Awareness, we need to let go of our attachment and conditioning to see the individual self (the young woman in the above analogy). The trick is, to be open to "pointers", yet don't get caught up on the pointers. Don't analyze the pointers. In the above example, saying "that line is NOT the old woman!!!" doesn't help. Of course that line isn't the old woman, it is within the old woman. If we just pointed to the old woman, you would have little chance to awaken to it. As well, saying a mantra like "I can see the old woman, I can see the old woman". Doesn't help much either. I think it's best to take in the pointers, relax and let it appear. 3. There are lots of pointers toward One Awareness, similar to the one above. Here is another. Sit in your room and look around. There is awareness you are present. Let go of the past and future and all ideas. Just sit there and be amazed that you have awareness that you exist. It's amazing!! That is the one thing that has never changed in your life - that sense of "I AM". Your body has changed, your thoughts have changed, your life has changed, the world has changed, your likes and dislikes have changed. Yet that sense of "I exist" is unchanging. It doesn't matter if you are hungry, cold, thinking, watching a movie, angry, have a headache, broke your arm - none of that matters. That sense of "I AM" is always present, whatever is happening. This sense of "I AM" is more real to you than anything else. It is the most intimate part of your being. You know this is true more than anything else in your life. I AM present right now. All those thoughts in your head are irrelevant. Regardless of anything you think, the "I AM" is still present. So, just let all the thinking go or just let the brain think and drop below into the sense of "I AM" presence that is more real than those passing thoughts and feelings. Get to know this "I AM" sense of awareness. 4. Once you can rest in this sense of "I AM" presence, look around the room. Let go of your mind's conditioned perception of differences - focus on sameness. What does EVERY thing in the room have in common with your sense of "I AM" present in this moment? Every thing in your room is also present in this moment. Every thing in your room has presence right now. Focus on the sameness. Every thing is presence. Every thing is the same presence, in that Every thing exists in your room. There is a "sameness" of presence. If your mind starts thinking "well, that object is different than that object. How can it be all the same?". Remember, we are NOT saying there are no differences. We are not saying the young woman image doesn't exist. Yes, there are differences, that's another perspective - just let that go and relax. . . So, every thing in your room is present. The all have a sameness in that they are all present. Now, look at how all these presences are interconnected. The presence of items that contact tables, the presence of molecules in the air you breath, the presence of body contacting a couch. It's all interconnected presence. Now is the big jump. . . see it as One Everything in the room. All the things present are interconnected into One Everything that is present. Here, there is no separation. Show yourself something in your room that is not within Everything. You can't do it. Even the thoughts passing through your head are within Everything. How about memories? Those too are within the One Everything in the room. Try to think of something or do something that is not within this Everything. Think of an elephant. Do cartwheels across the room. Laugh. Cry. Whatever happens in your mind or body is withing Everything. And all objects in the room are within Everything. 5. Get glimpses of that One Everything. Your mind will likely snap right back into seeing individual objects and get attached to differences. That is OK. That is just the other perspective (the young woman). Seeing separation is not right or wrong. Yet, if you can get a good look at that One Everything, that is a direct look at a hair on the Ox's tail. 6. Does this mean we strive to always perceive this One Everything? Does this mean there are no objects and no differences in life? No. It is just a different perspective and it is very practical in day to day life. After all, we drive a car, drink water have conversations with other people. It will be very difficult to have this One Everything perspective in public and when you are doing stuff. That is why it is so important to set aside quiet time practice to return to this One Everything state of being. Meditation, yoga, a walk in nature, sitting by a river and observing. . .

@SOUL Beautiful

@SOUL It's seems like you have had some awakenings of the simplicity of being in the present moment. From that vantage point, all the seeking, intellectualizing, theories, debates about enlightenment appear as irrelevant and a distraction. Everything is in this moment Now. It can't get any simpler than that. Once you have seen that and have embodied that the seeking energy to find it "out there" by traveling, doing retreats, conceptualizing will fade away. In the simple NOW, all the conceptualization, theory, debate etc. just IS. It's just happening in the Now. It's ALL just ISness. That is the simplicity. Conceptualizing about how conceptualizing is a problem is itself conceptualizing! In the simplicity, there is no problem - it ALL just IS. The mind needs to ADD complexity to view it as a problem. The simple ISness has ZERO problem with any spiritual path, complexity or spiritual theories. ALL of that simply IS. It's all the same ISness as a duck, leaf, cloud etc. It all simply IS. Yet, this is extremely unpalatable to the mind. If this is true, we would just be sitting around in silence ISing. Part of my ego backlash here was getting upset with all this talk about spiritual paths, spiritual concepts, insights etc. I spent over 20yrs. on this so-called "spiritual path", thousands of hours on the meditation cushion, spiritual books, dharma talks, retreats etc. And know I find out it was all unnecessary bullshit? That the real truth is simply being right Now and all that is happening right Now? For a little while, my ego was pissed it wasted all that time and was taken as a sucker. I then challenged this so-called "spiritual path" and all the conceptualizing and tried to tell people it's all unnecessary B.S. We are always zero steps from enlightenment - it is always present right here and Now. Then I started becoming aware that all the spiritual path nonsense can be a distraction to awakening, yet it is also within the awakened state. It is the simple ISness of Now - just like everything. It's all one giant Everything. For a while, there was no more seeking energy. It felt like their was awakening to truth, yet there was still this sense of being unsettled. With time, a new energy arose. It was not the previous seeking energy. It was arising from a different source. Then I realized this isn't The End. In a sense it was the end, in another sense it wasn't the end. Then, all the spiritual "B.S." was a distraction. I started seeing flowers within the field of bullshit. I had never seen these spiritual flowers before and a sense of love, appreciation, wonder, gratitude began to arise - as well as new deeper manifestations of knowing and being.

@korbes It sounds like you are at the "I AM" stage. Also known as the "observer" stage. There is awareness of presence, yet still an observer that perceives "I AM presence", that pen is presence, that tree is presence etc. There is still the perception of separation. The questions you are asking are arising from the "I", "me", "my" perspective. Your questions are assuming there is separation and reinforcing the sense of separation. If your questions arise from a sense of openness, curiosity and exploration - there is a great chance of having insights and going deeper. If your questions arise from a skeptical ego that already knows the answer, wants to analyze and debate - there is little chance of having insights. If you feel a sense of genuineness and interest, I can share a couple exercises that may be helpful to embody and move through this stage.

It seems some dangerous situations are learned and others are innate. For example, the child need to learn that entering a road may be dangerous because a car may be approaching. Yet, what if a child stood on the side of a cliff and looked down. Assuming the child was never told it would be dangerous to jump. Do you think the child would intuitively know it would be dangerous to jump?

I’ve been laying down contemplating Everything is nowhere. It can meander into some wild territory. . .

I keep ending up at this One Everything Nothing Infinity. And there are always lots of Ox tracks around the area. . .

Thank you. I understand better now ?

I’m just trying to understand the context of how you are using the terms consciousness / awareness so I can follow this thread. Wether it’s real or not. . .