Truth Addict

On the ultimate level, there's no difference at all. Same exact thing. On the mainstream level: Material is anything that can be "quantified" by some scientific measuring tool and broken down to smaller portions and then expressed in theories and/or mathematical equations. So that we can "objectively" test and derive scientific (material) truths from (which happen to be absolutely relative). Examples: apple, car, bus horn, magnetic field, atoms, electrons, gravity, etc... Non-material, is what's not the above. Examples: thoughts, love, fear, God, paranormal abilities, dreams, out-of-body experiences, etc... As you can see, material requires the confirmation of others (what's called "objectivity") an example of herd mentality, non-material only requires first-person's confirmation. So that's an easier way to answer your question.

@Paul92 It all boils down to this: 1) You're not happy. If you are truly happy, you won't care to ask. 2) Your happiness is completely conditional, true happiness is completely unconditional. You think you're happy because you're life is going your way, but what happens when it stops? Would you still be happy? For example: Would you still be happy if you woke up someday in a prison cell? Or lost a loved one? Or your whole life goes crashing? Or you know, anything worse than that. Would you still be happy? 3) You don't know the Truth. So, what do you even know? Look how easily you have been deluded by this spiritual claims about what you should do or be! Ground yourself in Truth, so that nothing can shake your ground. Or, Forget about all that, and go back to your regular life. But come back again when you're tired of suffering.

If you want to kill anything, question it.

@Jed Vassallo Awesome! A modern cave, that is the dream!

@Nahm@now is forever @Aaron p Everything is synchronicity. It's all one, happening in the present moment. The ego is just looking for some similarities that are of its concerns and dismissing others that are not.

I had a dream that I was dreaming. What a beautiful synchronicity!

Ignorance = not knowing

If I hated you, would you still love me?

My finger just clicked on the "Submit Reply" rectangle, and guess what?

I recently realised that I should spend more time alone with silence and stillness.

It's very complicated. I don't know how anything starts at first, I guess it starts very simple like a single cancer cell, then becomes a serious cancer by time (billions of cells and connections). It's not like someone wakes up some morning and says: "hey, let's start a cult and become a cult leader and conquer the world." Every ego is capable of creating a cult, it's just a matter of luck and the accumulation of circumstances meeting their needs to create it.

@SQAAD Interesting case: 10 people using their psychic abilities to win the lottery. Who's gonna win?

@Recursoinominado Don't you see it? What is a thought but a pointer? A thought is never the actual thing. Point is: stop believing them.

@tashawoodfall You're supposed to become more skeptical, not more deluded. I doubt that fire can burn. Can you prove that it can?

@Robi Steel 'Brains do not exist' does not mean they're useless, or unnecessary. It just means they're secondary and relative to the primary and absolute. It means that reality is not physical or material. The brain is a very important tool in this relative realm (dream). It will disappear when the dream is over. So just don't mistake it for being absolute. I suggest you watch Leo's episode 'What is Consciousness?', many of your questions will be answered. Of course, direct experience is still required. Conceptual understanding is only the first step.

Watch more mindfully and be analytical. You'll get better by time.

I mean my very self. And yours.

The magician who is always capable of deceiving itself. For what? I don't know.

Sit back and enjoy the movie.

@EvilAngelQuick question: Why not resist what is? Why accept it? If you can answer that correctly, you'll have the answer.

Love is what holds Reality together. God is one because of Love.

@alankrillin The point I was making is that this vegetarian and vegan movement is just complete nonsense, and complete waste of time and energy. Eat whatever you want to eat. It doesn't really matter. Again, beware of the ego and its sneaky projections.

Actually quite the opposite. First of all, it depends on ignoring the fact that everthing, including green trees and plants are alive. How do you know that trrees don't suffer? Why are you so sure? Every idea is created by the ego, including the ideas of murder and animal rights. The ego which is comfortable with not facing death, will find a way to survive by claiming that trees and plants are not alive, when if fact, they are. So if we're to be truly honest with ourselves, eating green is also a crime. By the way, people eat each other all the time in business, marketing, etc... But since the ego is not seeing death directly, it will just sweep it under the rug as if everything is fine. Basically, survival happens at the expense of others, whether they are plants, animals, or humans. And believe it or not, for you to survive you must have been criminal and evil your whole life. Otherwise, you'd be dead.

@How to be wise @Nahm I live in a Muslim society, and I myself had been a Muslim for a good 5 years. Most people around me pray every single day five times at least. None of them is enlightened, not even the oldest and most wise of them, guaranteed. I used to do the same for 5 consecutive years. I almost never skipped a prayer back then. Only to find myself nowhere near Allah. I even used to wake myself up at 3 or 4 a.m in the cold (which I am very sensitive to, since I have some thyroid problem) just so I don't miss the prayer. I didn't know the essence of prayer, and I used to make it somehow imaginary, until I learned about meditation from Leo. So, how can someone be meditating for 30 years without getting enlightened, or at least, make some progress? Well, ask my parents and my "sheikh". Prayer in my society, is done for egoic reasons, escaping an imaginary Hell and and winning an imaginary Paradise. Also, it is done in a very rigid and dogmatic way, where your eyes must keep looking at the ground directly where your head touches the ground with your right hand is over the left one, and both are put on the belly, etc... It's also irrelevant to the practical life, so you can lie and cheat and steal, and your prayers don't have anything to do with that. It doesn't make sense to my society that their prayers should inform their behaviour. For them, it's just irrelevant. (of course, in theory they can easily write an odyssey about the benefits of prayer, which nobody really knows about). I am planning to return to my prayer practice when the winter is over. I might find something of value there, since my consciousness now has expanded more than ever.