DocHoliday

@Truth Thanks as well... I guess?!

@AuthenticMeli Thanks, I’m glad you understood my post correctly and I could help you to learn something new?

I think it does, even though you're obviously right when you think that's it a (useless) duality that crumbles in on itself, but you could say that about virtually everything out there.

One of the most informative and insightful Alan Watts videos. Be sure to leave your comments and impressions!

@Prabhaker Okay I see what you mean. Seems like I’m good to go then?

@brovakhiin Interesting...would be awesome if it actually does something for you!

@Prabhaker Thanks, that was quite insightful and important. But does that mean now that I shouldn't even start at all because I don't fulfill the right requirements (as almost nobody does accoding to the excerpt)?

@moon777light Thanks, I'll try it out!

@Tearos Yeah sounds good, good luck with that:) Communication is a very intersting thing as it is, just as the use of language in writing, a tool to manipulate reality. Therefore, it all depends on what you want to achieve through your communication, what's the goal - or respectively what image you'd like others to perceive. This can all be done by- and through language and most obviously even more through your behaviour and the way you hold yourself in face-to-face conversations.

Seems as if you're going the right way based on what you're presenting:) I experienced the same thing many times... sometimes it is a projection that is untrue but sometimes it can be quite accurate, depending on the situation and the person. I felt the same way as you for some time that I actually thought that I was better than others for the same reason that I was "working on myself" but in the end, there just isn't a judge who will give you a prize for that... what enlightenment teaches you (once you implement it into your life to this point) is that you're essentially not any better than the worst neurotic criminal you could find - we're all part of the same thing. Therefore, the most humble thing to do (imo) is to keep working on oneself as long as one sees it necessary to do so but to refrain from comparing and contrasting oneself to others. On the path of self-actualisation and self-realisation you will only very rarely receive any validation at all from other people, let alone feedback in regards to how you're doing. You can rest assured that this validation and the security "to be on the right side" will come to you through your individual degree to remain calm and collected whenever another opportunity to be arrogant and falsely superior presents itself. In that sense, as long as you remain mindful and present and don't get triggered, everything's just fine.

@Sven nig***....just say it, goddammit. EDIT: Oh, I didn't know it gets censored, I'm sorry.

Come on guys, not again... we understand that there is some fear and worry involved in all of this but it won't help to bitch and whine about it, it won't solve the problem! Finding permanent solutions to a problem is never achieved by manipulating the external, you always have to face the internal (first). Running away and being scared is the least productive thing you could do in such situations... get a fucking grip already and leave spirituality and non-duality out of the equation, these things don't really go together, at least not thus far and things are still fine. The "collective consciousness" will go wherever it goes, yet you can always choose to either be afraid and hide in safe-spaces or to face it head on and make the best from what you've got.

Wow, what a coincidence that someone came up with this thread, as I have the exact same problem as @nick96 . Sucks pretty hard, so if anyone has some serious advice on this, i'd be worth to me (and surely some others too) more than anything.

@Nahm ❤️, Bruh.

Consciousness is always conscious of itself by default. It's the nature of consciousness to be self-aware. You say that "I am aware", yet you haven't realised that in order to be conscious, there is no you required. T h e r e i s n o y o u r e q u i r e d . You are awareness, you are consciousness. T h e r e i s n o y o u r e q u i r e d . God, we're so fucked by language, it's shocking... If we just took pronouns less literal, our lives would be so much easier. T h e r e i s n o y o u r e q u i r e d . Damn, if this isn't a good mantra, I don't know what is... The body is nothing but a medium through which the universe experiences itself. T h e r e i s n o y o u r e q u i r e d . T h e r e i s n o y o u r e q u i r e d . T h e r e i s n o y o u r e q u i r e d . T h e r e i s n o y o u r e q u i r e d . T h e r e i s n o y o u r e q u i r e d . T h e r e i s n o y o u r e q u i r e d . T h e r e i s n o y o u r e q u i r e d . T h e r e i s n o y o u r e q u i r e d . T h e r e i s n o y o u r e q u i r e d . (click here to read more)

@Neo Sure, it's a concept, but that's not bad thing. Even enlightenment is a concept, yet we still use it to describe and illustrate a particular "thing". Everything that we ascribe any meaning to becomes a symbol and a concept to some degree. We can't escape making use of them but we can start to look beyond it, to see it for what it truly is.

How "self"-awareness is created. The mirror in front of another mirror = INFINITY!/Infinite Feedback

@Vingger Bitch, that’s what I’m saying:P (no offense)

Good thing you’ve decided to share it. Even though these experiences aren’t phenomenally grand and exuberant experiences, that’s what further little enlightenments look and feel like. People always assume that enlightenment has to be like a freaking firework or something where a bomb explodes in your head or whatever.... it really isn’t like that at all because that’s a projection of yours, an egoic wish and an expectation that just won’t come true in most cases. True enlightenment experiences just feel like.... nothing. If you’ve watched Leo‘s interview with Ralston this is exactly what he says and confirms. True enlightenment experiences wouldn’t even normally be recognized as enlightenment experiences BECAUSE THERE IS NO ONE TO CALL IT THAT ANYMORE WHEN IT HAPPENS, that’s exactly what it is and what the beauty behind it is. Everything else that your egoic wishful thinking would like enlightenment to be , is not it.

Yeah, I'd say just keep them in the back of your mind and don't take them too seriously - don't get too hung up on them. You can regard any duality as a swinging pendulum, so when you've fully experienced one extreme, you'll naturally gravitate more to the other side until you will find a balance between them and you will settle for the middle way - that's when you know you have "arrived". Just takes some time though, as you have to let life naturally unfold. You'll be fine

First off, welcome to the forum, I'll be your personal tour-guide, please hand me your jacket...(jk) Secondly, you have a lot to learn, obviously, it's totally fine. What you're going through can be quite tough at times, and is tough but in the end it's what will transform you the most. It is true that life itself and everything in it is absolutely meaningless, that's right. But, that's actually the best part about it to be honest. Realising that everything is absolutely meaningless will give you the freedom to do whatever you want, or in other words: you'll stop worrying so much about what you decide to do or what you decide not to do, because in the end it's all the same, really. I mean, when you will truly discover that there isn't even a separate you that chooses in the first place to begin with, it's gonna be even clearer to you. But to get back to the issue at hand, the menainglessness of all will free you up and it will stop pressuring you to do certain things you thought were absolutely necessary to do. Life doesn't necessarily have to be experienced on a mendatory basis, but you've been given a chance to experience it as you want to experience it, really. So, this should give you enough motivation to do whatever you want to do and to find out what life has to offer. What you need to understand about love is that love, as it is advertised and commonly understood, is completely wrong and quite far from what true love is. Normally people either fall in love with others who represent a part of themselves that they would like to amplify (get more of) or a part of themselves they'd like to have as they can't come up with it on their own (co-dependence and compensation of lack). True love is the degree to which you can recognize yourself within other people even when they are foreigners to you. Accordingly to that degree you will treat them as if you'd treat yourself because you have to understand that when it comes to love, you actually love no other person more than yourself. Therefore, no-self is the highest form of love because you simply can't help yourself any longer at that point to instantly recognize other people as yourself and treat them as such. Romantic love-relationships and marriage and all this other stuff is a crooked caricature of that and in the end it always turns out to be as shallow and fake as it truly is, because it's not the real deal... but many won't ever come to that realisation, that's why they tend to go through so many various relationships, partners and failed marriages and so on... I hope this was somehow helpful to you and your current situation as a quick little starter. EDIT: Right, you can still engage in relationships and marriage and start a family and do all of those things, but your motivation for doing so will change/be different and as always, before doing anything in particular you should always ask why you want to do it, what's the true reason behind it.

I've written about this before in some other post, but it's obviously, as you can imagine, not physical death that is required - don't commit suicide!What is meant is the death of the particular you that you think you currently are, it's the you that thinks he's the active observer of reality or the doer of anything specific. There is no separate you that exists along many other "you-s" and "I-s", that's a complete fiction and a story we like to tell ourselves. The real you that you will come to discover is pure consciousness. As consciousness you cannot die as you've never been born in the first place. There is no defined beginning or end to consciousness as it is infinite and boundless. The way in which you experience the sensation of "I am" is the same that I experience - it's the same consciousness. Therefore, there are no real boundaries and that's what gets us non-duality. "You" and "I" is the same in terms of our existential foundation - but of course in regards to grammar and as pronouns, they're different distinctions again, as they have to be.

@Faceless Watch out... it's not inherent to thoughts that they create problems, it's much rather the identification with thought. Thinking isn't bad in and of itself, because you can't stop thinking, it's impossible. It's the identification with a certain thought or a compiled group of combined thoughts that's going to affect you in every conceivable way, not just in a negative harmful way.

Jeez guys, some of you really need to get their conceptual understanding straight. First off, there's the distinction between mental and physical suffering (pain). The latter will always remain and be there, no matter what (unless you train like a zen monk or something.... unimaginable hard and straining training that is, that will somehow get you used to physical pain so you won't be as reactive towards it as you currently would be) Then there's the mental side of suffering which is what the Buddha would refer to when he said "Enlightenment is the end of suffering", or something very similar along those lines. As some already have correctly pointed out, this side of suffering is diminished greatly or even completely eliminated through enlightenment. The reason we then proceed to care about the suffering of "others" is because we see ourselves suffering within them, it gets reflected, so to say; therefore we obviously emphasize with them and care about them, even though a Buddha would never go about it by adopting the suffering or sharing it in some fashion, no, he would always keep a smile [ ] on his face as he is able to see himself in the other person and has fundamentally realised that this type of suffering is unneccessary and can be overcome through self-realisation. It is an act that is put on by others/infinite consciousness, yet the buddha has essentially stopped acting through his limited role and realised that one is free of any bound roles and thus, does no longer proceed to choose (mental) suffering when he can do otherwise. EDIT: Suffering in its mental form always arises in a correlating fashion that is directly proportional to the degree of separation (to the degree you hold yourself as a separate, individual ego that is somehow in control over what happens and occurs)

@starsofclay Thanks for the reply:) @Shin Hah, good one...