Carl-Richard

Better than having a Blue shadow. That is where your own Blue is supposed to come into play. Why are you so averse to behaving according to some standard at a dinner party? Why should a family gathering be about you and your self-amusement? You're lucky to even have a family, and it's one of the few pillars of safety and emotional regulation you have. Where is the sense of graditude and duty to see, feel and respect your family members as they are? Do you not care for them the same way you would care about a child, despite their perceived immaturity? Now for something maybe less Blue: these are questions to contemplate, not to be taken on blind faith, as all family situations are different.

I think we're starting to take the analogies a bit too literally. All organisms have an innate desire to express their innate capacities, in line with survival challenges and competition in natural evolution. For example, if you have the capacity to run say 10 m/ph, you will most likely run 10 m/ph when the appropriate situation arises. It doesn't make sense that you would run slower than what you're capable of. Likewise, if you're capable of "permanent" (stabilized) non-dual awareness (which you are), and if non-dual awareness is something desireable (which it is), and if it does not impede with functioning (in fact it highly improves functioning), you will be drawn to that. First, it was contemporary mystics, then religious traditions, then scientific research. I subscribe to the idea that you can make it your new "default state", meaning it's your go-to way of operating, but it's not necessarily "permanent". Some enlightened people report that things like low blood sugar levels can kickstart the self-referential machinery, which makes sense, as that would be what this part of your psyche evolved to do (telling you to alter your current behavior, and more generally giving you insights and disrupting current processing). The self-referential machinery has in most people become overactive beyond what is functional (mostly due to the mismatch between modern society and our evolutionary adaptations), and this is proven by the fact that it's possible to exist in a state where it's minimally active and where that actually massively improves functioning.

I think you have a Zen stick up your Zen ass 😆

😂 You're being quite "direct" today, I see?

Well, in the case of your loved one, being with her all the time is practically impossible. You have to tend to the other drives, and they're somewhat conflicting (and it's necessary to do so for survival). But with enlightenment, it's not impossible. If the drive is there and it's possible to fullfil it to the greatest extent, you'll be inclined to do that. To use a different example: just because it might be practically impossible for your girl to have an orgasm, that doesn't mean she wouldn't want that 🤣

Making the realization of formlessness not fade with the appearance of forms. No, you're of course completely in love with her, but there is still a natural driving force that wants you to be with your loved one all the time Of course, human relationships are complex, and there are competing forces, but so it is with spirituality (definitely for me, as well as others who struggle with some of the ramifications of awakening). I ultimately want to be with the realization all the time, but when I get too close to it, I get scared. So the analogy is actually pretty spot on (maybe because we're dealing with human drives in both cases).

I guess. I said it was a human argument after all To be clear, it's not only about helping other humans. A realization that doesn't stick doesn't feel like a complete realization. You feel naturally drawn to making it stick, maybe not just as a human but as a being. The fact that the formlessness fades and you feel lost in the illusion again is evidence of the incompleteness.

You know some threads are going to be good just by reading the title.

You would feel inclined to privilege the one over the other because you're human. That is a reason. To deny that reason would be to deny your humanity.

It's a human argument It's also a "why not?" argument. What else is there to do? A bored sattva is a bodhisattva.

Pure formlessness usually doesn't last very long. Eventually, you return to human form, either the one you were originally, or a different incarnation (). So unless you want to keep returning to the formlessness like a spiritual tourist, you would probably want to keep it with you regardless of what form is appearing (or not appearing). Besides, it's in human form you can help others to awaken, and they would surely benefit from being hooked up directly to the source through their guru without the guru having to go on vacation every once in a while.

Ah, formlessness. In that case, sure. Reincarnation would be the case where you don't return to the original dream you exited. Nevertheless, "enlightenment" is often conceptualized as when you retain the realization of the formless while still being immersed in the "formful" (relative reality), i.e. being lucid in the dream. Awakening to formlessness is a taste of this realization; pure lucidity, but without the contents of the dream. The former (enlightenment) is of course much "harder" than the latter (awakening).

When I was around 18, I was fascinated by the time distortion effects of weed, and I had a spontaneous compulsion to contemplate the question "what creates the perception of time?", and I thought really long, and I landed on the answer of "it's how often you connect to your memories", which is actually pretty accurate. How often you connect to your memories is also how often you connect to your ego. In the brain, it's how often you activate the Default Mode Network, which correlates with self-referential thinking, i.e. self in relationship to others and self in relationship to time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_mode_network

which is a spectrum that we're all on 😌

The point is that despite the massive shift in perspective, the dream doesn't actually end. You're still a human being (in a relative sense). You've just opened yourself to a larger perspective.

I don't know. Probably because it's catchier and more impactful. "Guys, I've awoken!" vs. "Guys, I see things clearly now!"

Reincarnation.

No, it's ironically only relatively true that you're dreaming this finite dream. The finite dream is in the relative domain. The fact that you're a human being reading this sentence right now is only relatively true. From the Absolute perspective, you're God dreaming all dreams; an infinite dream. You don't have to, but it sure is wise.

I can't be asked reading that awfully formatted article, but I'm just going to say: the fact that brains correlate with certain experiences does not mean they "cause" them or that the phenomena experienced are "not real". By that logic, nothing you experience is real.

I don't have to

True.

People who get into spirituality don't generally aim to be miserable.

Take a break, be a normal human for a while and integrate your insights.

Right now, you're dreaming, while realizing Absolute Truth would be like becoming lucid in the dream.

You're confusing Absolute Truth with Maya (illusion), which is a classic mistake solipsists on this forum tend to make. It's hard to grok what we're talking about conceptually, which is why mystical experiences are needed to actually grasp it. You have to die psychologically to see through the illusion (the illusion of your limited POV). Illusion can only ever be a subset of Absolute Truth, not identical to it; i.e., the personal can only be a subset of the transpersonal, not identical to it.