Truth Addict

@EvilAngel Food and sex are cool. They're in the first stage in Maslow's hierarchy. I would be careful with alcohol consumption though. Look after your health because it's unexpendable. And alcohol is unnecessary for happiness.

@Rasheed Books usually do the thinking for you, especially the long ones. I now prefer videos because they give me clues and leave the contemplation for me. (Leo's videos started bugging me for doing the contemplation part). Before I learned how to contemplate, books were better. So, the keyword here is contemplation.

@Gili Trawangan Deep sleep is just lack of form. The absolute is not exclusively formless. It is formed as well.

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You see that car on the road over there? Completely still. Imagine the following scenario: You are sitting on the platform and thinking thoughts about that car, and then out of nowhere, a thought pops up: "move forwards", and the car moves forwards. Another thought pops up: "move backwards", and the car moves backwards. Another thought pops up: "blow horns", and the car blows its horns. etc.... Imagine that being the case for so many times, like a million times, until you get addicted and forget that your thoughts have no effect on the car, then actually start to believe that you control the car with your thoughts. You will create stories for how you control the car, and make scientific research on the visual field and its relationship with thought, blah blah blah. Imagine that, out of the same nowhere, the car stopped going in accordance with your thoughts. You think: "move forwards", and the car moves backwards, burns up, or does not move at all. You will be disappointed and shocked at why it doesn't obey your thoughts anymore (a little hit to your ego). Now imagine that your own body, arms and legs and everything, stopped going in accordance with your thoughts. You would go crazy and literally die, because thoughts won't seem to be in control anymore (so who is in control?). You will realise that the little control you thought you had was all illusory, that you don't own free will, and that it had you all along. Now, does that mean that everything is random and out of order? No, of course not. It's all planned. The little illusion of control is planned in order to keep you alive (as an ego). Because if you (God) go against yourself (thought/ego), you will die as an ego, and remain as God. So, how do things happen? How is reality alive? By God's will, of course. God does not need to think. God is before thought. You see? You started out life in accordance to God's will, you were pure bliss, you didn't even know you existed. And later on, you started clinging to things being some certain way and not some other way, thus ego was born, and so here you are. Welcome back!

So everything we say here is pointless?

Just enjoy the ride.

There is no path to be walked. We're going to nowhere.

Belief in God is God. Delusion is God. Fantasy is God. Ignorance of God is God. Wake up! Although being asleep is also God ?

@electroBeam It does not matter what you choose. Both good and bad Karma are irrelevant to God-realisation. The only function of Karma is morality, and the only function of morality is to keep other people from killing you. That being said, as long as you resist suffering, you will not be able to see God. Just as much as you resist anything else. As long as you resist, you will still be a devil, and you will suffer. Accept everything, including resistance, and see God.

From your earlier post, I doubt you ever experienced any higher states of consciousness.

That sounds like suffering on your side. That's irrelevant to what I'm trying to point out to you. Anyway, where exactly is this 'there' that the moon would be in, other than your imagination? If you're not looking at the moon right now, how do you know with a 100% certainty that it's still in the sky? How do you know with a 100% certainty that there is even a sky if you're not looking at it right now? You might say: I could go outside and look at it, and that would prove that I'm right. But that would be you imagining a future where you could go and do that, not actually experiencing any moon in the present moment. If you want to understand spirituality, you must discard all notions of future and past at first. I don't have a problem with it too, except that it's not the absolute truth, but rather just a perspective, a very practical one indeed (which is the best thing about materialism). Materialism is highly dependent on imagination/assumptions, and materialists believe that it delivers the truth (notice: belief = imagination). Materialists poo poo metaphysics, but you (especially materialists) can't escape metaphysics. Become aware of that.

@FoxFoxFox Well, true. But then how are you going to communicate that with someone who doesn't understand what you're talking about? The only way out of the mind is awareness/observation. I know. But I had to use duality for the sake of writing this thread.

Gym is great! Anything that can get you in a flow state will do. You need more flow states.

Why do you want an answer? I don't need your answer, keep it for yourself. Become aware of your mechanisms. And let me help you out a little bit. It matters to you because you believe that the world is material. You deem everyone who doesn't believe the same thing 'deluded' and discount them. You're like super obvious, classic materialist. Then there would be 8 billion human beings minus one, telling that one a story about the existence of the moon. Very simple. Stories are not true, nor false. They're just stories. Become aware of that.

You make it sound like it matters. Like your identity is dependent on the moon's existence. It's possible that the moon gets hit by a massive meteor while you're not looking. Who knows? What do you know other than right now? Literally nothing.

LOL. This can't be further from the truth. Ordinary states of consciousness are just as real as the higher ones. All states of consciousness are real. There's nothing but states of consciousness. That's what the higher states show you.

@Serotoninluv

I chose to say "remain as God" because I thought it was a better put than "live as God". The ego is temporary, God isn't. The ego dies, and God doesn't. That's what I meant to say.

Easy, just move from thinking to doing. I mean spend more time on physical activities (even unrelated to discipline activities) than on mental exercises. That'll improve your discipline to a certain degree, and then you'd have to deal with the rest.

I think it's necessary for everyone to (at least try to) take the other side's point of view in order to avoid 'Paradigm Lock'

We can't just take the pros and leave the cons from each side and think we're fine, because that's the essence of bad politics. Each party thinks they have the best values and ideals, and so they trash all other parties. Instead, we should move more into systems thinking and integration, aka stage Yellow of Spiral Dynamics. Systems thinking requires nuanced and specific studies, and it approaches each project/problem with radical open-mindedness. To a systematic thinker, each case is different. And the whole system must be taken into account before applying solutions. Integration means that we can't remove the left or the right, but that we should help them evolve and educate themselves.

Where did you see that?

Acceptance/surrendering alone can make a devil turn into an angel. Acceptance/surrendering alone can make all hells turn into paradise. Love suffering to death. ❤️

Prayer works on every level if you truly believe.