Heart of Space

No worries! It seems Zephyr actually illuminated what we're talking about very well actually. We both have the right idea I think. Words are too fickle sometimes.

Absolutely could be. The thought crosses my mind all the time. Or it could be that enlightenment is not real and there's nothing to achieve here aside from a little emotional stability gained after meditating.

That's a misinterpretation. It's not meant that you cannot self-actualize at all before you reach enlightenment. It wouldn't make any sense to say that. I was only pointing out that there is most likely a radical amount of self-development to do after enlightenment and that it is not the "last step."

I don't know if I agree with this. I've heard a lot, including from Leo, that self-development begins at enlightenment. Obviously, to get there though you have to be extremely disciplined, consistent, and have a intuition for finding truth. I think I have all those. Another note for you all, my "n" ad "b" buttons are broke. My keyboard is all kinds of fucked up lol.

My life is about as fucked up as a life gets in a first world country. It's an absolute nightmare, so it could be a lot of things. If I recognize those things fully they shouldn't stop me though should they(question mark)

Longest for me was an hour and 40 minutes. I can regularly do about 40 minutes at a time.

Page 2 and The Fountain is only mentioned once. For shame. Very underrated film and one of the best films with enlightenment as its theme.

I agree and disagree with that perspective. You can still self-actualize and smoke. But, you have less incentive to do so because smoking can bring you to a state of happiness without any of the hard work. It's a kind of cheat code that doesn't force you to work for your happiness as much. That was my problem with smoking. If I ever start smoking again it would probably be used almost strictly 30 mins to an hour before bedtime. It's a real problem if you're getting high all day for sure though.

Alcohol has been apart of some of my worst nights and has also been a contributor to my worst behavior. My life would be better if I never have touched the stuff. It hasn't destroyed me by any means, but I do have a minor drinking problem. Haven't drank in two weeks and that's a miracle. The last year I went full months drinking every evening maybe skipping a day or two here and there. Worthless chemical.

Yea, that sounds similar. I would be interested in watching that, go ahead and shoot.

Yea, but his response was petty and defensive and served no real purpose other than to sustain his bloated guru complex.

I wish I could say I've had a true enlightenment experience, but I can't. I have experienced some pretty profound states of mind, albeit on drugs. The last one I had was pretty recent. I experienced it after going lying down balls deep in pot cookie realm. I was really tired, I started to slip into a state between sleep and being awake Eventually, I was in sleep paralysis, my body unable to move at all. I've grown very comfortable with sleep paralysis as I get it often. For some reason I started thinking about religion and wanted to pray to god. Which is weird because I'm very much an atheist. I was religious when I was young until about 11 or 12 when I discarded my religion. I remember when I realized that Christianity was BS it was incredibly depressing to me as a child. It sucked the magic out of the world. Well, I started praying to God, just like I would the christian God when I was younger. At this point I could still see my room, my eyes were slightly cracked open. Then the weirdest thing happened. I started to become more aware and I had a realization that I was looking for God the wrong way. It's as if I had previously been stuck focusing on a concept. It's hard to explain further than that. As soon as I had that realization I became very self-aware and my body disappeared and I had the sensation of space. My room fractaled into a kaleidoscopic pattern and I was starting to lose my sense of self. I stayed calm as the experience got more and more intense as my awareness grew. It got to a point where I became scared of permanently losing myself and I quickly woke up out of that state. Experience over lol.

Duality usually has to do with the separation of soul and body, or at least body and mind. But I think I understand what you're saying. And it's a good question. I'm not sure I believe such a state exists. So, I guess I'm curious to hear the answer too.

Wait, so you actually get information about dead relatives that is verifiable objectively? Why not put yourself to the test and show what no human has ever done before and prove your ability in a study? It has nothing to do with money or notoriety. Something like this would change the world and turn everything we thought about reality on its head. Either that or you'll get proven to be false like the thousands of people before you with similar claims.

Ok, I follow most of everything in this post. What I have issue with is some of the stuff you said earlier. Do you disagree with this statement: "Happiness is a state of the biological brain and can only be temporary." And if you do disagree, why?

Physical meet ups would be hard, but you could do stuff like google hangouts or whatever. That'd be fun. Texas boy, here.

Ok, so are you claiming that the state of happiness is independent of the biological brain? That doesn't make any sense. You're getting a little woo woo on me here. Perhaps you could explain further?

Op, what do you mean by duality? Because most people are talking about the soul and physical body. I'm not sure what exactly you mean. Man, you're all about that Mooji aren't you? I liked him until I saw a video where he was clearly being egotistical and having a guru complex. I tried to find the video, but he has so many I couldn't. To describe it, this girl was questioning him about kundalini energy and at the end she asked him if he had experienced those energies and he got defensive in his response claiming that it was simply "childs play." I can't stand people who dress funny, have Jesus beards, sit in chairs in front of an audience, and pretend to be enlightened. It wreaks of ego and guru complex. You have to be careful about people. Some are just charismatic and use vague language about letting go of the self.

My go to. In all seriousness, I don't play any music because it takes away from my ability to focus and be aware. Great stuff in here though, will be stealing to listen later.

I'm always kind of confused when people talk like this. Happiness is a state of your biological brain and can only be temporary. So, you're just trading one type of happiness for another arbitrarily because you think that one is worth more than the other. I mean whatever floats your boat, it's your life and your decision.

Well, by that given definition you kind of have to buy into the idea of death if you are a rational person. Death is just the name for when there is a cessation "of the biological functions that sustain" your body. And I'm sorry, but what? Communicating with the dead, like how? Are you certain you haven't just deluded yourself into thinking that you communicate with the dead?

This is NOT a thread trying to promote the use of illegal drugs. I scoured the user guidelines to make sure this is a Kosher topic for this board and it is to the extent that we talk about spiritual growth so keep that in mind. This is a topic I am very interested in and I know a lot of people in this community are as well. My first experience with psychedelics was the single most mind blowing experience that I had ever had up until that point in my life. I believe that these experiences can raise your level of self-awareness significantly and show you the most detailed inner workings of your mind. You become separate to yourself and are able to objectively evaluate everything as if you're looking at things from the perspective of a newborn. The knowledge that I've acquired on these experiences is why I'm here on this forum part of the community. Leo has repeated very precisely and consistently things that I've learned with these experiences, which confirmed to me that he is legitimately a very self-aware person. People who've actually seen, for example, that there is no free will are very few in number. I understand that this point of view is met with skepticism from those who haven't had similar experiences. You absolutely should be skeptical on this topic, but make sure it's a healthy skepticism and that it's not a negative view of drugs in general that taints your view. It's also not an easy pill to swallow (pun intended) for those who've spent hundreds of hours meditating to know that the knowledge they've acquired could have been received by simply ingesting a small amount of a chemical which alters your brain chemistry. I abstain from psychedelics now, and have for several years. I strictly use meditation as a form of self-exploration. I will probably continue down this route, since meditation allows for more meaningful changes in your mind and life in general. There was someone who had a great analogy for when comparing psychedelics and meditation practice. Psychedelics allow you to look from an outside window into the house of enlightenment. Meditation allows you to live in it. Anyways, I'm really interested to hear opinions from both sides. Whether you think these experiences are just delusional drug highs, or you agree that they are tools that allow you to see deeper into reality.

I saw this topic and fapped right after, thanks OP. I've done no fap before for a solid 3 weeks. I didn't notice much tbh. I don't watch porn, I think that's the true culprit, not fapping. At best, you don't get those random urges to fap as much which allows for better concentration. Idk, I may give no fap another shot at some point.