Heart of Space

No, no, man. You misunderstand me. I was just in a silly mood and I made a silly post. I'm sure your posts are very well thought out and I value your opinions. Don't pay attention to me I am a mere court jester.

OMG, this is THE Ramana? Sir, can I get your autograph? You're a straight legend in my book. I hear that you could literally meditate until death, no fucks given. That's crazy. Wow, to think the real Sri Ramana Maharshi would come back to life to post on an internet forum actualized.org. Truly extraordinary times we live in.

Are we all going to pretend that this guy I'm quoting doesn't have the best/funniest username to profile pic ratio?

Alternate title to the video: Heart of Space reacts to nonduality in 2014

Illusion is deviation from truth. Seeking in some sense is deviation from truth. But seeking can allow us to let go of a lot of the other ways we deviate from truth. Once you do that to a good extent you can let go of seeking and then only truth remains. It's not so much a paradox as it is scaffolding to help you get to truth and is deconstructed at the end of your spiritual journey.

I'm not sure it means anything. But, I've had similar experiences. I've even had it turn into a very strong buzzing like there's electricity buzzing at that point on my forehead. Had that kind of stuff randomly since I was a child. I've heard of others having similar sensations. Not sure there's actual significance, but it would be cool to hear other's perspectives on it.

A honey bee has no ego, yet it collects honey.

How very relevant, very pretty song. I enjoyed that a lot, thanks Nahm. Damn it, someones cutting onions in here again....

I'd say absolutely. Your personal development as a human being is almost independent to realization of truth. I think that they are heavily correlated, and that enlightenment itself, while it doesn't make you perfect, it can absolutely make you far more efficient and learning and growing as a person because you fully understand the nature of mind, so it doesn't get in your way and stifle your growth like it would have before. This is important to understand I think because people often project (like Leo talks about all the time) their own vision of what enlightenment is and what it means to be expressed in human behavior. Because of this, people will often nit pick and close their minds to what enlightened people have to say because they see that the person is flawed in some way. For example, I was talking to someone who failed to sit through a 10 day vipassana retreat because they saw that S. N. Goenka is fat and they rationalized that this is not the lifestyle that they see for themselves. They completely closed their mind to learning from what he had to say. This is bad, because if you close your mind like this truth can slap you straight in the face and you reject it for petty reasons. Always stay open minded. Anyways, sorry this is kinda a tangent I realize.

It was many factors, one of them included you and many other members of this forum and this forum as a whole. I can't help but randomly cry, not cause I'm sad, but because I see how much beauty and love is in the world. I was a bit of a blubbering mess even on my hour commute to work today. I just can't help but have tears it because there's so much beauty in everything and it's so overwhelming. I used to be so angry and resentful of the world because I thought it was such a nasty place and that everything was against me. I hurt myself and others in the process, because of my ignorance and blindness. I'm just so appreciative of everything in my life that has lead me to where I am, where I'm supposed to be. You, Leo, and this forum as a whole is something that I'm so incredibly grateful for. I'm so lucky, so blessed. Life is so incredibly precious. I know you probably weren't counting on such a long post as a response, but I think it's difficult to convey the incredible importance of a place of discussion like this and I want to at least attempt to convey my utter gratitude for what. I can finally live my life and that means more than anyone could imagine. I'm going to live my life in love for others and help others connect to God, that's who I am now. Love is all there is and I see that now. But anyways,I wish you good luck on this journey in life as well as everyone else here. I know this probably seems overly sentimental, I just can't help it man haha.

I just wanted to compliment people on their thoughtful posts. I don't know, I kinda like that Shin dude, he's the apple of my eye.

Man, some really great and insightful posts in here. Very intelligent and self-aware people on this forum. Honestly, I've got nothing to add after reading a lot of the posts.

No need to apologize, man. Good luck to you.

Really interesting discussion guys. I want to add to it really bad, cause I love this stuff. After skimming I think I agree with @Mighty Mouse, but I'll read and respond to some stuff when I get a moment to be a rascal at work and not actually work.

You're being a bit of a stickler about my words, my man. Replace 'Do you like that better,' with 'do you find removing the only from the sentence more appropriate as advice for the original poster?' You're being a bit close minded about how I use my words and in addition you're making assumptions about what I believe and how strongly those beliefs are held. Words are just words, if you understand the fallibility of words and their meaning you'd be a little more open minded in your approach to talking to me. I'm genuinely trying to meet you in this discussion, but it seems you're intent on finding something wrong with what I say. If this is the case there is nothing I can say that you will agree with and us talking is ultimately fruitless. Discussion full of fruit is pretty awesome wouldn't you say?

Oh ok, take the 'only' out then if you feel that's misleading in some way. Getting to is-ness is a way to enlightenment. Do you like that better?

I'm a bit confused by your response, it's a bit cryptic. I was just saying I'm not sure the real effectiveness of neti neti, or self-inquiry and I feel a Vipassana style works better, but ultimately I could absolutely be wrong. Which is why I made sure to add that he, or she, should do what feels right for them. My only point is that when you concentrate on 'what is' you in effect are doing self-inquiry and neti neti. If you can focus on a sensation in the present moment, the moments with no mind you are experiencing reality without the mind taking ownership. I feel that neti neti in particular could be a bit neurotic because it seems like instead of trying to quiet the mind you're having the thought, "this sensation is NOT me" rather than just seeing the sensation as it is. I believe the goal should be see sensations as they are rather than "this sensation is me," or "this sensation is NOT me." It should look more like "this sensation is this sensation." In my humble opinion. Like I said, I could be wrong. Smarter more experienced people than me would disagree so I'm open to being completely wrong about this.

My opinion is not going to agree with a lot of people on this forum, but I think that self-inquiry and neti neti aren't necessarily the best ways of meditating. If you focus on a sensation and attempt to quiet the mind, you are seeing reality as it is and as a result you are doing same thing as neti neti and self-inquiry in a way. The thing I've always noticed with self-inquiry is that I'd inquire about the self and then my mind would try to find an answer. Any answer it finds is false because that is just the nature of the mind, so I'd often simply go to the present moment with a sensation. I don't know, just take this for what it is and do what you feel is right.

Very true and I totally acknowledge that there's probably more to this. Always a student. Thanks, man.

Hey guys, I got enlightened and I just wanted to share my experience. So, I've meditated and meditated for years and just a few days ago I was finally told by my guru that I was ready for my enlightenment and all I had to do was climb to Gods temple on the tippy top of Mount Everest. So, I climbed, strained, and struggled up that mountain for days on end ready to receive my enlightenment. Some of my fingers even fell off and because of how cold it was my penis was no bigger than a hydrogen atom. But like the badass mother fucker I am I just trucked along staying mindful the whole time. After days of arduous climbing I had finally reached the temple completely exhausted, almost dead, but ready for enlightenment. So, I go into Gods temple and sit down on a pillow seemingly laid out there for me and God floats down while some new age electronic music plays (you know the stuff) on the speakers. "Wow," I couldn't believe it, God was sitting right in front of me. And God said, "you are finally ready for your enlightenment." I said, "Thanks God, this is great, this is the best moment of my life, I've been training so hard for this and struggled massively for years to get here." I was in tears I was so happy I was about to finally become enlightened. God then clasped his mighty hands together and moved them towards me as if he was going to reveal something to me. I was about to explode with excitement and amazement. And then God said "just kidding!" and poofs out of existence. Silence. I was pretty dumb struck at this point. I could feel how tired and broken my body was from the journey. My utter shock slowly transformed into major disappointment when I realized that this was what was really at the end of the tunnel of my spiritual practice. But I then shortly accepted it and let it go. My disappointment faded and I was left with nothing but bliss and peace. But it wasn't some mystical magical super ultra peace bliss, and I wasn't in some jamba juice state of super conscioussness, I wasn't strange looping, I didn't open all 45 chakra chocolates, I didn't even have a cool guru beard to match my nothing that I had received. It was just a simple pure satisfaction for what is. Far better put, a very ordinary lack of unfulfillment. When you truly realize it you'll have the laughing fit of your life. All this for nothing. Seriously, I was brutally cramping from laughing so hard. Good one God, you definitely got me. No doubt those who read this will be confused. I know, I'm sorry. Good luck everyone! Pah-pow.

Because it was the dropping away of all self narrative, all narrative in general. Reality as it is. There's a million ways to convey it, did you have a more specific question? Funny enough, the actual moment came after the initial trip, during the end of the come down.

I think you're misunderstanding me a bit. I said that any belief is not enlightenment, as in the belief itself is not what enlightenment is. Enlightenment is reality as it is, at least that is a facet of it. Beliefs happen, I'm not trying to belief shame or anything like that. Only pointing out what I did because people get caught up in the very alluring intellectual entertainment of hypothesizing about what reality is or isn't. There's an easy mistake to make if you're seeking enlightenment and you question your belief in physical reality only to replace that with an equally strongly held belief in another narrative about reality. Does that make sense, or am I still losing you?

I'm a bit of a penny pincher, so I use my self created ghetto wipes. When I'm in my parents bathroom, there are preparation H wet wipes and I it's a real treat for my butthole when I get to use them.

You know sometimes when I take messy poops, you know the softer wetter ones, I often will wipe a few times and then wet the toilet paper so that I can clean my bunghole better. It makes me feel more secure about my booty hygiene.

A limitation on words, not your ability to actually be and live your life. It's important not to confuse the two. Kisses and hugs!