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A lot of guld nuggets in this video. He's obviously awake. I can relate so much to everything he says. Full control over emotions. You can still be sad but it's a choice. It's beautiful. Acting is a spiritual quest. He talks about how many actors are enlightened, Jim Carrey is a good example, because they learn that during acting they actually become their role. And this is the same they've done all their life: acting and then becoming the person. But that's not who we are. Depressive vs expressive. Yes, depression is the opposite of fully expressing yourself. "no-brainer" = "enligthenment". Yes the brain is a limiter. It narrows the Whole (Reality) to a narrowly defined "thing"; your survival is now all that matters. He talks about "What if your girlfriend broke up with you? Or you lost your job?" , would you still be happy? Would you have control over your emotions? The thing is: most people will be depressed and sad if they lose their dream job/dream GF/dream BF and there's nothing wrong with being sad/depressed, but here is what is "not-good": They don't WANT to feel sad/depressed while they are sad/depressed. And that's real unhappiness, when you resist your emotion. And why don't they want to feel sad/depressed after their loss? BECAUSE SOCIETY LOOKS DOWN UPON SAD PEOPLE. YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE SAD, says society. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO SMILE ALL THE TIME AND WORK THAT HAMSTER WHEEL 24/7 haha. See, if I lost my mom/dad/my dream job/dream GF w/e I'd probably also be sad. But I want to feel sad if that happens, I'm not the least in doubt. I want to. And I can be happy again anytime I want to. happiness and sadness is a duality. it's the same thing. It's all Happiness with big H (i.e. Love) as long as you don't resist. Enlightenment = No resistance / being in flow / free = being unlimited = being in-control = expressing yourself freely Being "normal" = resisting (in order to survive as a separate self) = tension in mind&body = being limited = being controlled by external things = not-being-in-control = being depressed Sadness is a beautiful emotion. Why are sad movies popular? It's beautiful, cos you can let go after you've watched it. Sadness is beautiful emotion if you realize its your own doing; that you in ACTUALITY can break free ANY TIME, you want to. But most people can't break free. And they can't break free, because they don't realize that it's something you can do. LOL Oh god. Great video, that's just why I wanted to share it in a post for itself on this beautiful forum. So how do you become Happy for good? You stop searching for it externally. And start looking inward to see who you are. When you find out who you are / what you have left out all your live up until now, your prior false self will be shattered, and you can now be anyone you want (which is the "state" of the true self: <nothingness/everythingness/God/Love/Consciousness/The Acting Self Always In Full Control>. You can be sad, you can be happy. You realize you're fully in control, and the most stunning part: that you've always been. Prior to awakening you were just pretending not-to-be-in-control. hehe;) You were (are, if you are not awakened) pretending to be a 'poor little me', swayed by external conditions. A victim. Either you believe you are on parole, with God up in the sky looking after you (religious people), or you believe you are just an accident. A biological accident that happened in a universe that is basically a cold, unintelligent machine with no deeper meaning, no finer emotions, no purpose, no love, no intelligence. (atheists/ hardcore scientific-minded ppl). Haha. What's up all pretenders on this forum. When are you gonna let go and stop pretending to not be in control?:D Stop pretending = letting go = not resisting <3 Could you at least pretend to let go of the "reality is a cold machine"-myth and try, just TRY, to imagine yourself to be believing in this myth: The Universe is playful. It's Intelligent. Reality is warm, filled with emotions, filled with purpose. Who's filling it up with play, act, intelligence, warmth, emotions, and meaning? ........... YOU. You. You. You. God. You are God. It's all your doing. If you want reality/the universe to be a story of a God-creator in the sky looking after his children to behave well, then that's what it is. For you. If you want reality/the universe to be a story of a natural, physical, scientific, hard-coded, tough, rough, fully-automatic, cold, unintelligent machine made up of Natural Laws, where there just randomly, accidentally happened to be life on an otherwise lifeless rock floating around in dark space, then that's your story. Then you have to conquer nature and defeat it. That is what it's all about then. For you. But both these two myths (the religious & the fully-automatic-model) make you feel like a separate self. You see that? They re-nforce your concious/semi-unconscious deep belief that you are a separate human being isolated from everything else, living a temporary life, and that after that you will be death forever and ever in eternal darkness/nothingness. A separate isolated self that has to seek happiness externally during his/her limited life-span. Either from God in the sky -- salvation, by being "good" -- or from external, materialistic factors such as prestige, success, fame, money, social status, power, sex, food..., you name your addiction. But you see. No matter how much you try to be-good to please the Lord up in Heaven, or no matter how much success, sex and money you get, it will never make you really Happy. Why not? Because you still believe that you are a limited, separate 'self' living in a cruel world that will you no-good... You *KNOW* that you will eventually die and lose everything. And that makes you deeply depressed on the inside, whether you realize it or not. As long as you think of yourself as a temporary, separate self, you will constantly feel that you: lack "something". You will fear a lot. Regret a lot. You will be depressed by society/cultural norms/other people's opinion, because you always try to live up to their standards. But the only standard that matters is your own standard. Change your standard. Make the universe something that is intelligent. Buy into the acting-myth. That it's all a dream/act/game. And that you are the actor. That's a lot more fun than the fully-automatic and religious model, cos then you are eternal. You are just right now acting out one meta-characther, and after that characther has played its role, you will play a new one. You see? You are Divine, Eternal, Infinite, All-Powerful. You now see that it's all your dream. You are making it all function. It's all part of your play. It's all your doing. You feel CONNECTED. You are part of an intelligent dance. An intelligent play. The purpose is to see what we can imagine. How far out can we go? And how loving can we be? How powerful are our Divine Creative forces? What can we imagine? What can we do? Look at the past 10.000 years of human history. Look at all we have imagined, both "sad" and "beautiful" things. It's all play. It's all Creation. Your Creation. Of course just remember that you on purpose always choose to do something consciously and something unconsciously, simultaneously. If you did everything unconsciously, then that's equal to a deep sleep without dreams. That's where you go after you die. Until you wake up again:-) If you did everything consciously, you'd be nothing/everything/God. You see that? You can't listen to music, eat melon, beat the heart and shine the sun, all 4 things consciously, simultaneously. So you choose to do 2 things consciously: the music and the eating of the melon and then you do the sun-shining and the heart-beating unconsciously. :-) So even though everything is your doing, of course you will relatively speaking still be surprised when your conscious doings overlaps with the your unconscious doings, like the tree that might fall over your car tommorow, or how your loved one may get a sudden heart attack in 2 years, or how it's gonna rain like shit in 1 hour, or how you make an apple fall down from the tree while you read a book under it. By letting some things be done unconsciously, you can focus on something (i.e. make distinctions and thus manifest 'things'). That's what life is: a special type of focus. Your focus. Create. Express. Imagine. Love. <3 You see, if you could let go of all beliefs you have absorbed from the outside, what would be left? Pure experience. Pure being. Pure qualia. Raw conscious experience. And then you are free "to now put on" any myth you like. Will you choose the religious myth? The fully automatic machine-myth? Or the intelligent/play/act/dream-myth? See, all myths have their purpose. The religious myth was necessary for the evolution of ethics and "good behaviour"/good manners (a lot of harm came along too though, ofc). The fully automatic-machine myth/atheistic myth was necessary for the evolution of science and technology (which also brings good and bad things with it). Now we are in a unique position, us people who are living in the Western World. We have the comfy life now. We live in a democratic society where people mostly behave well, because they have been taught to behave well and because they can get food on the table everyday. And we got powerful technologies like the internet. So we can study anything we want. And we are all connected in a way we've never been before. And we can focus on what's behind everything. We can focus on ourselves, find out who we really are. And then when we have found that out: we can create our own myth and transform the planet. Make it a better place. Help ppl wake up. We need a new myth. A spiritual myth. A myth where all human people are seen as conscious souis who have chosen to live their human lives themselves (and for a deep mystical reason!). As divine beings, not just as "biological/cultural/ethnic human beings". As avatars of The Godhead. As "physical" vessels for love/imagination/infinity/God/Consciousness. The play/dream-myth, where you by buying into it slowly can start to see that it's all One. Oneness. Because it's all play (God's play), but it's play with a deep intelligent manuscript behind it. Your manuscript, not your ego's or the cultural/societal ego's manuscript, but: God's/Your's manuscript. Everything has meaning, purpose, because it's part of an intelligent plan. You start to see reality as something filled with meaning, intelligence, emotion and purpose and love. Then we can create a more loving society on Earth with less suffering, less pain, and more love, more creation for creation's sake. But also see, that there can only be "good things", i.e. happiness, good, beautiful, joy, surprise, laughter, love etc if we have something opposite to contrast it with: sadness, hate, bad, ugly etc. That's why life is not just from the get-go: paradise. If it were paradise from the get-go, it would not be paradise! Haha, you see? It would be nothing. "paradise" is only "real" if we also got its opposite: hell! You can't have hell without paradise, you can't have paradise without hell. Just like you can't have life without death and vice versa. And fundamentally all these relativistic dualities are one and the same thing: God/Love/Consciousness. We did it. To dream. For creation's sake. When you can transcend all perspectives and all dualities and let go of the dream, what you are left with is Paradise though. Paradise with a big P. Because you see it's all something you do. It's your garden of play. Of love. Of imagination. Of creation. You are now consciously in full control over all your emotions. Want to be sad? be sad. Want to be happy? be happy. Want to hate? hate. Want to love? love. Want to be bad? be bad. Want to be good? be good. Want to be beautiful? be beautiful. Want to fear? fear. Want to be at peace? be at peace. When you're fully awake, you are in absolute control and everything that happens to you is seen as your own doing, consciously or unconciously, doesn't matter, still your doing. and it is beautiful and you want to be Loving towards everyone and everything with a big L, cos how can you not Love yourself?????? <3 Create. Express. Imagine. Love. <3

How do you know that kundalini has awakened? And it is kundalini and not something else?

Kundalini is said to be the evolutionary and transformative energy that can be awakened in a person via spiritual practice. In my experience, this healing energy works wonders, from being able to heal real, physical, tangible areas of the body to profound emotional change that can radically change a persons life. Im talking healing acne, back issues, hearing issues (in my experience), to truly allowing one to fully feel their emotions and heal them. Ive also recovered from disassociation from this. Awakening is fun and dandy, we get to see the truth and become one with god, realize we are god, but lets be really honest here, profound emotional and physical change and healing is huge and to the most suffering, broken people this would mean would mean the world for them to have this resource and healing. I have not done years and years of work and have integrated god consciousness and such, so i cant ENTIRELY speak for that, although with how broken i was, and how i see so much suffering i the world, and so many people with disorders such as schizophrenia, autism, and other disorders of the mind, i think this aspect of what im awakening to seems way more important and profound than inquiry for truth, as this is what will really transform people and the world. So why arent we talking about it more??

" She actually believes she is this character!" And you believe you are the awakened characther. Which you are, sure. We are what we believe. Now, what do you choose to believe in? God or Ego? Doesn't matter. God = Ego, Ego = God But still, what DO you actually choose to believe in? The poor little me-myth? Or the "full responsibility"-myth? aka "the play"-myth? The play myth, I dig that, so I believe in that. Not that I'm any better than your girl there. She believes she is a girl. Nice. Then she is a girl. I believe I'm God. Then I'm God. We are what we believe. All is absolutely One. Or it is not even One. It's ________________________ and we won't give it a name.

I’d say it’s a possibility, and i’d say it’s possible a lasting sober awakening requires a sober breakthrough. on the other hand, who’s he to say he would have fully awakened without those original psychedelics? i see a few guys who awakened dismiss their previous psychedelic use, but what if those early psychedelic breakthroughs laid the groundwork?

@Lenny Thanks a lot for the detailed response man. It really put things in perspective. ? In some ways I think that my consciousness has shifted a lot in the past 5 years or so. My ego is definitely less of a problem in my life, I've learned to live with and accept who I am, and who others are, and try to practice no judgements and unconditional love. I'm generally more aware of my thoughts which help a lot with day to day living. But I have learned that I do still hold on to a lot of concepts and beliefs that limit my potential to become my highest self. And I'm working day to day to recognize the sneaky ways it holds me back. This forum is a helpful tool for knowledge, and a sense of belonging. But ultimately, I'm realizing that I'm looking for an "Ah-Ha" moment here, where someone is going to say something that makes my "brain" click, and I'll wake up and "know" that I'm awakened. I need to stop thinking this way, or anyway about it. The self-inquiry that I'm doing won't lead me anywhere because I keep trying to conceptualize and then deconstruct those concepts. I need to go past the deconstruction phase, but I think I'm too afraid to see what's on the other side of that. Like many have said, by asking all these questions, I'm standing on the river bank wanting to jump in and asking all of you how cold the water is, how deep it is, how many fish there are in there, where does this river go to...etc. I'm afraid that this will bring me somewhere I regret going. I still hold on to reality as a safety switch. If it gets too real, and can always question if Awakening is even "a thing" or "do I even need to go that far" or "this is good enough"....but all of that is just fear of the unknown and my ego kicking at screaming about it. At some point I just need to let go, at some point I hope I'll be ready. (Even though I know I'll never be ready) haha. Thanks again ??

OK cool. I have read this book before. Because previously, you sort of hinted that you are awakened so I ask that question to test you. Glad to know that you understand so much. Thanks for sharing.

If you have awakened, you won't be making such question. There is nothing to improve. Even in the game of the relative domain, body language and manipulating appearances is not the most powerful. It can be a shortcut for short term results, but its not the highest level of game. Your psychology (beliefs) and energy is faaaaaar more important in relationships. Watch how mystery the best pua, doesnt use good body language and seduces every one.

All the comments are very profound here. But seems like I don't need a model anymore after awakening to the truth of consciousness, some time ago. but I want to have the crystal clear understanding of all of the important models and how they interrelate. The models are scaffoldings to simplify the complexity of reality to those who are not yet awakened to the truth. Seems like we are already on the other side of it, and now analyzing it for more clarity.

Who got that recognition? :-) Who saw it for what it was? What do you mean by 'here'? And what/who experienced this regathering of the ego? :-) Oh, so it was dropped like it was hot? By who? Who dropped it ? -------------------------------------------------- @VeganAwake-------------------------------------------------- To keep this discussion really simple, if you do not fully agree with this: Nothingness = Everything = Love = God = Ego = Consciousness , then I can safely say you're still lost. In either way, if you do actually agree, then we have nothing to discuss. Also if you disagree, there's no point either in continuing this "discussion" between I and myself. And it's perfectly fine to have an other recognition, experience or belief here... no judgement at all. <3 -------------------------------------------------- @VeganAwake-------------------------------------------------- I know you don't actually judge me. But still: Do you judge me for writing so much here about love and peace? Making <3's all the time? If your state of consciousness/enlightenment does not grasp/understand that Reality is in fact All About Love, then sure, you may still be somewhat awakened/enlightened/liberated, but it's pretty incomplete in the humble opinion of no one :-) Much love <3

I had the same concern as well. I spend some years observing them and what I have understood thus far us that they tend to mistake it as a *technology* thinking is faster and better method towards liberation but in actuality they consume substances for years and years with no actual progress in their baseline consciousness. And also their sense of self and self importance is as strong as their conceptual word about what enlightenment is You will often see these people arguing a lot about what awakening is or who is awakened or not, since they are speaking from the relative. They are also very capable of getting angry and be defensive You can just see how far is someone from actual selflessness just from how right they think they are and how serious they're taking themselves. They think this is a work you have to do, and seems reasonable because it keeps the ego going, it seems they can't realise that this is all about dying So yea, I believe psychedelics is a great way to deceive yourself because it gives you the sense of pursuing spirituality while keeping the ego going and strong, missing the point that spirituality is not about you. But I think this is also true for meditation and other methods done incorrectly. You have to be very careful with that stuff. "The only work that spiritual purify us is that which is done without personal motives" - Sri Aurobindo

So you are awakened? In which areas? Improve your body language.

Well, there is an important disctinction here, because although my Kundalini has risen to the top, it is not yet lodged in the Crown chakra. I can raise it with some effort and keep it there for a while, but then it descends again, usually after an hour. Full enlightenment would be the ability to keep the Kundalini lodged in the crown permanently, but very few people have achieved that. Such people are known as Jivanmukta, Boddhisattva or Saints. In art they are usually depicted with a halo around their head, to indicate their permanently illuminated state. According to Gopi Krishna, a person would need to keep their Kundalini raised and lodged in the Crown Chakra for three days and nights. I once got quite close during the summer solstice, but I'm not quite there yet. When my Kundalini is dormant and resting in the Muladhara, I am just like anybody else, a completely normal person. I do get some special abilities when I raise my Kundalini, but it takes some effort. In my case, I have some healing abilities and have spontaneously exhibited incidents of clairvoyance and precognition, as well as interaction and communication with higher beings. Now, it is important to note, that even when the Kundalini serpent itself is dormant and resting, there is in fact a stream of energy that is constantly moving from the genital area along the spine and into the brain. This phenomenon is known as Urdhvareta and is much sought after by Tantrikas. It has a physical aspect, because I produce no semen, it is sucked up into the spinal fluid and absorbed by the brain. In terms of my normal state of mind, it is not that different from everybody else's, I am perhaps calmer and more content than most people and my material wants and needs are much diminished. Still, I have to work and pay my bills, just like everybody else. I have developed my own method of meditation, after much experimentation and just stuck with what works best for me. There is nothing interesting or noteworthy about it, no special positions or mantras or anything like that. I simply practice letting go and allow Shakti to rise in me and work through my system, activating and clearing all the energy centres one by one. Depending on the kind of day I've had (stress is a serious hindrance to the activation of Shakti) it will usually take from a half hour to an hour to reach a state in which Shakti is fully flowing and infusing every cell of my body with light energy. The sensation when this is achieved in indescribable, but could perhaps best be compared to a constant, unceasing orgasm, interlaced with feelings of love, benevolence, compassion and an inflow of divine wisdom. It is usually at this point when I connect to heavenly beings and interact with them. The clearing process, before I can reach this Shakti-infused state is accompanied by periodic convulsions, as energetic muck, which accumulates during the stresses of the day is cleared. If I'm out in public, the convulsions are barely perceptible, but when at home alone, I allow them to be more intense, for a more thorough cleansing. During this process, my testicles and prostate are overactive and are constantly pumping nervous energy into my brain, via the spinal cord. It is a bit like being electrocuted, I suppose, except extremely pleasant and joyful. Only sexual metaphors can do it justice. I did practice some Hatha Yoga (as well as Kung Fu and Tai Chi) in my youth, but not on a very serious level. Probably, it was my lack of preparation and guidance from an experienced teacher or Guru that led to many problems down the road, as my Kundalini awakened. However, all these techniques, whether Tantric, Yogic or Breathwork, are all really just preparation. The real deal is working with the Goddess and allowing her to rise in you. I take a theistic approach to awakening / enlightenment and emphasize the importance of surrendering to a higher power.

This book is so paradigm shifting that you will inmediately take it as bullshit or false. Even if you have awakened, you have no fucking idea how your unconscious mechanism works. The animal nature and sex force is so strong that people kill and commit suicide for not achieving their reproduction purpose. Here Jason (PUA/Marketer) explains all the honest signals that are silently subcommunicated through your body language from behind your concious awareness. Do you want to understand why some people simply seem intimidating, powerful and gain respect? Read this to become aware of such tricky thing. If you become a slave to applying this principles you will sell your soul, but if you become aware of it you will be free from the chaos/karma and fakeness of those who appear powerful.

@Dumuzzi , thanks for your responses. Your situation is extremely intriguing so do excuse the endless questions. Can you describe how your access to divine communication coupled with a fully awakened kundalini affects your daily life. Presumably, you work for a living and have to relate with a variety of human and challenging situations. Do you, for example, have foresight or intuition to guide you? Do you operate with a meta-awareness wherein you can see yourself in the world and also not as part of it? How do you deal with irritation and anger? These questions could apply to anyone who has had a full kundalini awakening, of course. Another question about different types of meditation - are there some which worked for you better, or which according to inanna are more effective, such as Kriya yoga?

"All those petty fears and points of anger are all just part of the waking up process, and don't really matter by themselves. Don't get hung up on little things, its not important in the bigger picture. " Beautiful. And this especially touched me, cos it's so true (I edited it a bit for kicks): " Deeper understanding of the spiritual path: Time The spiritual path doesn't happen chronologically or linearly, or even timely. There's no time. Its not like you wake up one day, do a bunch of stuff, then one day get enlightened... That's all part of the imaginary story and that's where the "you're already enlightened" confusion comes about. You're forever waking up. You are never not-waking-up. You never stop waking up, and you never ultimately 'wake up' either. Even now writing this Mescaline trip report. You haven't woken up. You were awake all along! The idea that you took some mescaline, woke up and now is awakened is clearly laughable. The idea that anybody just wakes up one day is laughable. Time is an illusoin. Only within the ideas of time and space does that happen. In reality you're all humans and all beings that ever lived. You're waking up all the time. You're awake all the time, sometimes you're just "wakingly" asleep. Sometimes you see you're awake, sometimes you don't, but these aren't really two separate events that happen in some points in time. They happen outside of time. Now. You are both hiding and seeking at the same time, so to speak. This mescaline-experience isn't happening within a particular time; it's just another one of "those times" where you see you're awake; and that's how it's always been: Spinning from awake to non-awake, not at any particular point in time, but it just happens. Now."

Consciousness is an infinite scale, relatively speaking. Lowest is complete absorption in ego/character (= not seeing the character for what it is: a character). Highest is complete absorption in your true self, i.e. God. It's impossible to actually *become* the highest during day-to-day-life, since day-to-day-life implies controlling the character (but you can become very aware and feel that the character is not the whole You, but a fantasy imagined by You). During human life you can, however, become infinitely close to God / Your True Self. In that sense, there is always more to it than "mere" enlightenment. You can always expand your consciousness -- and most importantly: you can expand it in infinite directions! There are infinite flavours, colours of God. <3 Anyway, in this discussion, it's always important to be very clear what we mean by "enlightenment"/"awakening". Here is my own analogy of the path: You start your life at one side of the river: complete ego-absorption, completely asleep. - At some point you maybe get a glimpse of the True Self -- micro-awakening -- which tells you that the 'poor little body-mind-self' is not the whole You. This is where you are thrown into the river. You are not awakened yet in the fullest sense, since you are still very much "not free" and doesn't actually understand what you are. But you are still "more enlightened" than all other people who are still completely asleep. Because you sense/know there is something bigger than your ego. The spiritual journey begins. I also like to call this the awakening of the mind. You sort of understand and can maybe even rationlize about 'Oneness', 'ego', 'God', 'non-duality' etc., but you don't actually *get it*. - If you keep being passionate about understanding reality/truth/yourself and strive to become honest and authentic, then at some point you will reach the other side of the river. This we could call the awakening of the heart. Now you *get it*. You feel it. You understand deeply in both mind and heart that your persona/body-ego-mind is a character that You are playing. And that You = Divine = Everything = Nothing. You are free. - Now that you are on the other side of the river, you are what we would call awakened, enlightened, liberated. But you are not done yet. In a sense the REAL journey starts now. You see the woods on this other side of the river. And you naturally walk into the woods. The deeper you walk into them, the higher your consciousness becomes. This is all relatively speaking, needless to say :-) Words are of course meaningless in regards to True Communication. I'm just pointing a finger.

To the people here who have awakened: Do you see reality as sort of a Sci-fi dream or a virtual world that you're experiencing while you know that this isn't what reality actually is? If any of you watch Rick and Morty. Does it feel like you're Rick who never takes this world seriously because he knows there are infinite worlds and possiblilities to explore, and everyone else is oblivious to it? Is awakening as mind-blowing as you would think going through a wormhole like the end of Interstellar would feel like? I just want to hear what the experience is like from a Sci-Fi perspective (even though Sci-Fi is a construct in our illusionary reality) lol

The irony of Awakened Conscience is the felt experience of feeling one's own every-which-wayness.

This is in the area of my reply. Please excuse the gnostic style throw down. The awakening of Conscience is a topic on my plate lately. Conscience- The intelligence of the universe which is connected to one's inner truth. Aquired Conscience from childhood conditioning is different from Culture to culture and can't really be relied upon. Awakened Conscience is the same in everyone. The language of the smile,,,, Awakened Conscience knows and informs one immediately. Detects bullshit, establishes proper boundries,, etc., The I Ching is helping me to cultivate this connection with inner truth. Work in progress. Very abstract reply, I realize. Hope it helps,,,

This is an excerpt from a book called Zhaun Falun (Turning The Law Wheel). In this excerpt it explains what Enlightenment is and what it entails from a QiGong Masters perspective: "So if energy practices have such a long history, you might be wondering just what exactly they’re for. I can tell you that ours is an advanced Buddhist method of spiritual practice, and so it seeks to bring you to divinity, or what’s known as “Buddhahood.” And Daoist methods, similarly, seek to foster enlightenment, or enable you to “attain the Way,” as it’s called. The idea of becoming divine shouldn’t seem absurd, or far out, as it may to some. For example, take the concept of Buddha. It’s a term from the ancient Indian language known as Sanskrit. The term has undergone various permutations in China since arriving there long ago, being translated phonetically as foah-toah, foo-too, and eventually just foah. Translated into our own language today, the term simply means “one who has awakened,” and refers to any being who has gained a state of awakening through spiritual discipline. So it shouldn’t seem that far-fetched. Consider that extraordinary powers can come to those who engage in spiritual discipline. While six types of powers are now generally recognized, there are in fact a myriad number that exist. There are individuals who can, just while sitting in place, do things that normally even physical action couldn’t accomplish; or they might be able to see the true workings of the universe in multiple dimensions, and how it really is, and see things that are invisible to others. I think you would have to agree, then, that they have attained a higher state of awakening, or spiritual attainment, and are no longer mere mortals. So it’s only fitting to call them spiritually awakened, holy, or divine—or in ancient Indian terms, a “Buddha.” And this is what these practices are in fact meant to achieve. Some people can’t imagine why anyone would want to do practices like chi-gong or tai-chi for anything other than health. The implication being that that’s all they are for. But that’s a very shallow view of these. People can’t be faulted for thinking that way, though, because many instructors of these practices are only focused on health, and nobody is offering guidance of a higher, more spiritual sort. I don’t mean to imply anything bad about what they’re teaching. That’s the role that they are meant to play—to keep it at the level of health and popularize these arts. But many people are looking for something more, for something spiritual, that can take them further. Yet without a true spiritual teaching to guide them, it’s going to be hard and they are apt to get into trouble. Instruction of a higher sort involves bigger things, naturally enough, and so you really have to go about it in a way that’s responsible to people, or the world. And that is why we have had good results all around. Some of what we talk about is a bit lofty, for sure, and to some people it might sound hard to believe. So I’ll do my best to draw scientific parallels to help make sense of things. Some of the things we’ll be discussing provoke strong reactions from people, who quickly dismiss them. They think that anything that isn’t known to science, that they haven’t personally experienced, or that seems impossible to them must be nonsense and divorced from reality. But is that the right way to look at the world?—to write off anything not known to science, even if it’s because of science’s limitations? It seems to me that this line of thinking puts a little too much faith in science, and is itself divorced from reality. If everyone had this mindset it would utterly stifle any scientific progress or innovation. And you would see few developments in the world, more broadly. Every technological development represents a step beyond what was formerly known. If the world’s innovators had treated the unknown as “nonsense,” we wouldn’t be where we are today. Many people simply don’t understand practices like chi-gong or tai-chi, and think they are nonsense. But that’s not the case. Consider that scientific instruments have detected that the bodies of true masters of these practices emit everything from infrasonic waves to ultrasonic and electromagnetic waves, to infrared rays, ultraviolet rays, gamma rays, neutrons, atoms, and trace metal elements. All of these are very much real and physically exist. There is a physical basis to everything. And the same would certainly hold true for the other dimensions and realms that we discuss. So there are no grounds for writing them off as nonsense. Since these practices are meant to make us divine, any discussion of them is naturally going to touch upon a lot of deep things, and we won’t shy away from them. It’s curious that practices like these, which have such a profound purpose, sometimes have very ordinary-sounding names. For example, chi-gong* simply means “energy practice.” But they are more properly referred to as spiritual practice—or in traditional Chinese culture, as self-cultivation. For that is their purpose. Of course, there are many individual names for such practices, but as a whole they should be referred to as spiritual practices. The case of how chi-gong got its name is telling. It has to do with the state of affairs in China some twenty years ago, when these practices first started to gain in popularity. China was in the middle of the Cultural Revolution at the time, and there was a strong stigma and hostility surrounding traditional thought and culture; only later did interest in these practices peak. Without getting into the earlier spiritual names for chi-gong, which predate known history, we can see just from the names it’s had in this cycle of civilization what the issue would have been: they were very much religious, owing to the times they date back to, and often had what people would have considered “feudal,” or backward, overtones. Examples included the Great Way of Practicing the Dao, Vajra Meditation, Way of the Buddhist Saints, The Dafa of Buddhahood, and The Nine-Cycle Method of the Golden Elixir. Naming your practice something like that during the Cultural Revolution would have gotten you denounced and attacked—even if you were sharing the practice with people out of good intentions, like to promote better health. And so nobody dared to use traditional-sounding names. What most instructors did, instead, was to adopt two non-controversial terms—chi and gong (“energy” and “practice”)—from traditional Chinese spiritual texts to refer to their practices. So even though you now see some people researching the history of “chi-gong,” there’s not much to it. It would have just been referred to as spiritual practice, or self-cultivation, before. So the term chi-gong is just a recent invention that was meant to suit a modern, secular sensibility." If anyone is interested the full book can be downloaded here. It talks about spiritual things from a scientific perspective. It talks about other dimensions, the soul, the cosmos in the microcosm and the macrocosm, supernatural abilities, karma, healing, the true history of mankind, transcending the 5 elements and leaving the 3 realms and many many other fascinating things: https://falundafa.org/eng/eng/pdf/Zhuan-Falun-2018-v1.9.pdf

This was my second time trying psychedelics. First time was on 8 Hawaiian baby wood rose seeds. Disclaimer This trip was freakishly personal to me. I'm not sure how well it transfers over to you guys. It has to do with a lot of my personal dogma and beliefs, and basically unravelling those. Anyhow I thought I'd write it to show sceptical people what psychedelics can do. My intention My intention was to answer these 3 personal questions: 1) How do I overcome my pickup fears. 2) My life purpose has taken a big turn recently. I use to be a software engineer but now I'm starting to not like that job so much and want a more management role. What skills should I learn, What direction should I take. 3) How is my meditation practice going? Am I doing enough? Too little? Set I cut about 20cm of san pedro and brewed it old fashioned. Plenty of tutorials out there. You cut the spines, cut the skin off, cut the white bits off, put it in a blender, boil it for 4 hours, etc. Setting My rented house. Trip At 5:00AM, I decided to drink a quarter of it. It took me till 7:00am to finish all of it. The nausea and vomiting was the worst I've ever experienced in my life. I vomited over 6 times, and felt very nauseous for a good 2 hours. Was convinced I ate some of the mold on the cactus (who knows maybe thats why I was so sick). It was horrible. 7:00AM Felt very mild effects. No visuals or anything fancy. The only thing was I remembered the the entire world was a child's play set. God was just there, a kid, playing with her dolls. I remember remembering that all the serious stuff was really just for fun. Elon's rockets are just play toys for fun. Mining vehicles are for playing around in. Countries are for playing around in. Everything is made of pixie dust: magical, mystical, awesome dust. Fun dust, playful dust. I remember remembering that murder is that playful pixie dust just doing its thing. Its all for fun, even murder. 8:00AM. Things were a bit of the same. Just remembering what life was all about. My "physical avatar" so to speak became slightly more honest. My ex girlfriend came from out of her room and started freaking out over her exams. I told my ex girlfriend/flatmate that she should calm down, relax, and enjoy life. Her life is just a toy ground for her to play in. Unsurprisingly she took that the wrong way, but I was incapable of seeing it any other way so just kept reaffirming that life was a big playground for her to have fun in, and that this is what I see, believe and is my opinion. This was coming from a place of sincerity and respect, but seemed rude to her of course. 9:00AM Heard other mescaline trips do well outside, so decided to walk around the block. Time by this point was gone, so was physical space. I got lost a hundred times while walking, couldn't tell how much time passed and lost the ability to tell how far away sounds were coming from. They all seemed distorted. The trip got very slightly more intense at this point. Yet still no visuals or anything crazy. 9:30AM No other but You! Became aware that there really isn't any other but you. Your POV is the only POV that exists. All other POVs are stories, things you've never experienced first hand before. You're living a life right now, whatever that is, and that's the only life in existence right now. And its the only life that has ever lived. 10:00AM Where's the fear coming from? From believing that there's anything other than you. Placing importance and value in thoughts, the external world and delusion. Believing its real. That's where its all coming from. Every time you mistake Truth for being the external world/thoughts over ME, it brings fear. Its a natural consequence. Where's the suffering coming from? Coming from you having to pick between Me and those delusions/thoughts/external world. Its like a cringe-ish episode of its me or the dog, where the dogs are your thoughts and I'm... well I'm ME. All the suffering is coming from the tension to choose between your delusions, which you've placed on a pedastool, placed importance and value to, over what you TRULY want to do, who you TRULY want to be, which just happens to be... ME! Ta da! 11:00AM Why do I suffer from wanting to pick up girls. Because you've got it backwards. You think that you need to pick up women to get something from them. In reality, the women you get is a reflection of how well your inner state is going. What you actually seek is ME. That's right, not a hot bootie, not some super feminine woman you can express your masculinity on... BUT ME! That's where its all coming from. Haven't you noticed that even though you're some tiny, little guy out there, completely limited by his masculinity, his biology, his evolution, out there in this big 3D world, yet you are capable of dreaming up the hottest, most adorable, most feminine, most godly women anyone could ever imagine? You know how she needs to look like, how she needs to walk, how she needs to talk, what she wears, what she does every day... You're so good at it that it causes problems because you can't find her out there! How can a masculine, biologically limited male do that? If you need the femininity from her, how the fuck can you dream it up and more in a second!? Where's all that imagination coming from? Its coming from ME! I am your perfect woman! I'm the most perfect woman you'll ever find. You're placing waaaaaay too much importance on the external world and your thoughts. When picking up women, the important bits aren't the approach, what you say, how you look, what she says or looks like. Why are you approaching her in the first place? That's the most important bit. You have an unchanging, eternal, Godly desire to pick up women, to seek ME. Its the seeking me that's the important bit. That's what you're excited about. Finding that perfect one is finding ME. And so you suffer from deciding to chose other over ME. When picking up you choose other by saying "oh everyone will think I'm thirsty" or "oh she wont react well to me " or "oh she'll call the cops onto me" or "this isn't the appropriate time" -- all of those actions? Choosing thoughts over ME. You love me to death, and every time you choose other over me, you get sad because you're rejecting me, the only one you truly love. Literally your only soulmate. By choosing ME, over those thoughts, you choose to love me rather than reject me. And that's deep down what you want. You want ME, you're crazy over me. Look at how you're acting. To get over suffering means to drop those thoughts, drop the fears, let them go, and focus very intensely on your WANT. Your want is the greatest pickup course you could ever get. Thoughts, objects, external world, these are all impermanent. They come and go. Sometimes they are trendy, sometimes not. You don't really know because all POVs other than yours are unreal. But your WANT, that's unchanging, permanent. Unlike the others, that will be there even when you die. When there's no ego. You know everything there is not know about attracting girls just by being here, being apart of ME. Finding me isn't hard, chasing me aint a puzzle, you know how to do it. Its simple, pick ME over those thoughts and the external world. That's what I like, that's what I find hot and sexy and what a real man should be like. I'll reward you if you do that, big time. 12:00PM What about my career and meditation? Same shit isn't it? Chasing me in different ways. In your career, pick ME! ME! I'm the one you should pick! In spirituality pick ME! All your suffering in your career has come generally from you choosing what society, your colleagues, family or friends want over ME. That's it. You place so much importance in your culture, your family and your work colleagues that the thought of picking ME over them freaks you out. But honestly, deep down you know ME is the right answer, but you just can't do it out of fear. That's where the suffering is coming from. From that tension. Thoughts are like waves, they are scary, dangerous, but they only exist at the top of the ocean. Underneath they aren't there. There's peace underneath what your colleagues, culture and coworkers think about you. You get there by dropping those thoughts. And embracing what happens when picking me. To resist ME, or to cause tension between ME and your thoughts, is equivalent to getting knocked out by the waves. Needless suffering. The wisdom here is, every thought that tells you "oh my boss will get very angry for not picking up the phone on the weekend" or "my parents will kill me if I get fired" or "I'll be a disgrace to the family if I get fired" are all nonsense because your boss's POV, your family's POV, your parent's POV don't exist, and your fear is coming from believing they do. Would you really fear your boss if you didn't believe his POV was real? No because you'll see that your boss aint real, ME is real, and therefore that's all you need to be happy. You don't need your boss to be happy. Same with meditation. Where's the anxiety, insecurities about your meditation practice coming from? Fear that Leo is more right than ME! Fear that other spiritual teachers are more right than ME! "Oh what if Leo's right, what if I'm not meditating enough" >> BRO! You're picking your thoughts of Leo over ME! Your problem aint the length of meditation, its believing Leo over ME! Grow the balls to pick ME over the words and opinions of your spiritual teachers! The best spiritual practice you personally can do, is to learn to pick me over other. Start focusing on ME, putting your attention on ME, withdraw your attention of others. Appreciate ME, be grateful for ME, observe ME, contemplate ME, stop putting the same effort onto others: your career, spiritual dogmas, etc. I'm a possessive woman, I want all the attention, I get upset when you put it outside of me. I want to see that you care for me. Happy God happy life. Women get their traits from somewhere. Your biggest problem right now, all of your issues, are coming from putting value, importance on things other than ME. That's what you need to do more of. Less pleasing your spiritual teachers, boss and family, and more pleasing ME. 1:00PM Meta Notes By this time a cop came over to me asking if I was ok. Apparently I had been talking to several neighbours without realising it. Apparently I told a couple about the stuff mentioned above, which I only remembered after seeing the cop. After telling the cop with the most amount of charisma and confidence I had ever expressed to another human being before, that I was fine and was just walking home, he let me go. Got away from that one luckily. I wrote some last notes down at home: Deeper understanding of the spiritual path: Time The spiritual path doesn't happen chronologically or linearly, or even timely. There's no time. Its not like you wake up one day, do a bunch of stuff, then one day get enlightened... That's all part of the imaginary story and that's where the "you're already enlightened" confusion comes about. You're forever waking up. You never stop waking up, and you never 'wake up'. Even now on this san pedro trip report. You haven't woken up. You were awake all along. The idea that you took some san pedro, 'woke up' and now is awakened is clearly laughable. The idea that anybody just wakes up one day is laughable. Only within the ideals of time and space does that happen. In reality you're all humans that ever lived. You're waking up all the time. You're awake all the time. Sometimes you see you're awake, sometimes you don't, but these aren't 2 events that happen in some point in time. They happen outside of time. You are both hiding and seeking at the same time so to speak. This san pedro experience isn't happening within a particular time, its just another one of those times where you're awake, and that's how its always been. Spinning from awake to non awake, not at any particular point in time, but it just happens. The biggest takeaway is: stories of spiritual teachers waking up is untrue. That's just a rip off, dualistic version of something that cannot be explained. God's Love for You Your God's only child. You are literally the centre of the universe. God doesn't want anything more than for you to be happy. You're the only one God cares about. All lives that ever happened, happened HERE. It didn't happen over there, it happened HERE! HERE is an explosive blast of 'waking up' happening, which comes in all sorts of interesting forms. All that ever happened HERE is waking up. Biggest Gift The biggest gift that ever happened in this world, was the creation of the path and 'seeking'. God's been awake all this time, God's well aware of that state. But how do you FEEL, ENJOY, IMMERSE yourself into this state? How do you appreciate how fucken amazing it is? You don't get that in an awake state, you get that through waking up! And that's the point, aim of suffering and fear and being small. The point is to grow, to overcome, to expand. Because by doing that you FEEL, APPRECIATE, ENJOY and IMMERSE yourself with God's beauty and elegance. Its one thing to be awake, its another to overcome fear. Being awake isn't necessarily better than being non awake. Again you're simultaneously awake and non awake at the same time - you need both to tango. Being awake is lame without waking up. You don't appreciate the state you're in without the waking up process. And with that means a few things: 1) The point of your life is not success, impressing people, changing the world. The point of life is simply to be on the path. To choose ME over others. To grow, expand, overcome fear. That's the point - and you don't need me to tell you. You're already doing it, you already know what the point of life is. 2) Appreciate suffering, fear and adversity. Actually be grateful its there. Without it, you wouldn't FEEL Me. You wouldn't be able to flirt with me, make out with me, have sex with me. How lame. You'd be just enlightened... Not knowing what unenlightened feels like, not knowing how good it feels to be with me. And see overcoming suffering as a means to itself. The point of pickup isn't to find that perfect woman... its purpose is to simply overcome fear. To do it. For the sake of doing it. Same with your career... the point isn't to get rich, its to overcome your fears and pick me. Every time you overcome that fear, you should celebrate, you're feeling a miracle, literally a miracle. You are feeling something that wouldn't be possible if awake was the only state. You're feeling the highest ability to Love. Your life aint special, and there's no destination It doesn't matter what happens, whether you found the perfect girl, got heaps of money, etc. All that really matters is growth and feeling ME. You think your life is so hard and disastrous, but HERE has replayed lives for eternity. Yours is another. All for the single point of waking up. Whatever else happens doesn't matter ultimately. All those petty fears and points of anger are all just part of the waking up process, and don't really matter by themselves. Don't get hung up on little things, its not important in the bigger picture. And it also doesn't matter if you enlighten. If you wake up. Waking up is just as important as being awake. By doing the process, you're already doing the best you can to get maximum results. Try and see the beauty, and awesomeness of seeking itself. Why seeking is important, why its a miracle its here. Why you need to seek. You don't have to be jealous or envy 'enlightened' people. They are just one side of the coin in this path, not the better side, just one side. Last Notes: 1) Pick ME over others. If you can't, that's ok, life would suck if it was easy all the time. 2) waking up vs awake are 2 sides of the same coin, they don't occur in time; you could say they occur simultaneously. \ 3) Most importantly: Enjoy the seeking and waking up simply for the sake of it. Enjoy the process, appreciate pain, suffering, see how it facilitates waking up, which is the most beautiful thing that can ever be experienced.

It's hard to say. There are no rigorous definitions for any of these terms. People use them willy-nilly to refer to many different states and conditions of consciousness. I would just point out that there are thousands of different awakened states of consciousness and consciousness has infinite degrees of wokeness. So it's a very vast territory to explore. Stop thinking of awakening in a linear, binary, or one-dimensional way.

@Nak Khid haha did you mean "touche" ? It seems like you're struggling to hold paradox in your mind. The subtle distinctions you have to make here are more nuanced than your black/white, real/imagined, all or nothing paradigm. Imagination is real! and reality is imaginary. You imagine reality, and reality is everything imaginable to an infinite mind. We're just limited in our everyday un-awakened state. You have to develop your ability to make fine distinctions about reality by actually doing the work. Armchair philosophy wont get you there, and really, language wont either. gl!

Siddharameshwar maharaj died in 1936 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddharameshwar disciples: Sri Ranjit Maharaj (1913–2000) was with Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj for 12 years from the young age of 12 until the age of 24 Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) was with him for a two and a half years, 1933-1936.[15] Shri Muppin Kaadsiddheshwar (1905–2001) Maharaj met his Guru Shri Siddharameshwar Maharaj in 1935 and was with him for a period of about 1 year. Sri Ganapatrao Maharaj Kannur (1909 - 2004) was with him for 13 years. Shri Vilasanand Maharaj (1909 - 1993). Shri Ranachhodray Maharaj, Baitkhol Karwar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddharameshwar _____________________________________________________________________________ Bentinho Massaro like Sadguru had no teacher. Massaro makes no mention of one in his biography on his website. Below he mentions Dzogchen, a tradition of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism. He has mentioned Nisargadatta (died 1981) who was a disciple of Siddharameshwar (died 1936) https://www.bentinhomassaro.com/biography He says this (excerpts) "it wasn’t until the age of around 16, that Bentinho’s search for Enlightenment really started to pick up in both speed and intensity of the desire to seek and “find the Source of all of existence,” as he put it to himself at that time. At the age of 18 he had his first memorable shift in consciousness. He experientially saw that the presence he had been looking for was always already here. Ever since this first and introductory ‘shift into enlightenment’ he has been riding the waves of an intensely awakened life.... After his initial awakening at 18, his sharings online started to shift from a more traditional yogic point of view, into a view more comparable to the teachings found in Dzogchen—which is based in the understanding that the natural State of Emptiness-Awareness-Bliss is always already at the root of each experience. Bentinho’s slogan at the time became ‘Always Already Present.’ He began a relentless quest, exploring all kinds of teachers, philosophies, and methods, including studies in India. He stayed with each practice only long enough to digest what was useful to his goal. Eventually exhausted, he realized that all the spiritual “authorities” were no more enlightened than himself, and he made a radical decision: to seek only within his own being, following his own resonance and trusting his intuition without hesitation. There he discovered that the “ultimate answer” was to be found in the presence of Existence itself—in all its infinite potential. “I sank into this indescribable freedom that knows no boundaries,” he says. “This enlightenment was the end of an unpleasant dream based in illusion and the beginning of my true life as an awakened consciousness.” This background helps explain an extraordinary creation that Bentinho launched in late 2014—an online university for enlightenment that many (former!) seekers claim is the quickest available way to achieve actual, experiential Self-Realization. Bentinho named it Trinfinity Academy to indicate the three categories of his teachings: Enlightenment, Empowerment, and Infinity. ______________________________________ https://www.bentinhomassaro.com/read/from-traditional-spirituality-to-a-truly-free-existence (excerpts) From Traditional Spirituality to a Truly Free Existence Bentinho Massaro: I teach two paths, self-realization, which is more along those lines, and self-actualization. What is much, much higher than anything you read in the books by Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ramana Maharshi and the Buddha and all of that nonsense (which is great stuff—again, I teach it too and there is value in it) is to listen to what makes you come alive. Because that comes from a place tailored specifically to the purpose you were created for in this life. And if you don’t pay attention to that, and if you override it with mental spirituality, you will die of cancer or something else, because you are not being useful anymore. True spirituality is to not "know better," but rather to follow your heart, follow your heart, follow your heart, be humbled—over and over and over and over again. This will empty you out. This will truly empty you out, and simultaneously disperse you across the galaxy as Everything. It will make you so passionate and engaged with every little aspect of your life, that you will now truly fulfill the purpose that Spirit brought you here to fulfill. If anything, I don’t feel I have to give you a specific answer or toolkit. I feel that all I want you to know is to follow that new intuitive impulse that you have been receiving—that intuitive voice from within that guided you to an event like this, that is moving away a little bit from the more traditional spectrum of spirituality you are used to. I would say, wholeheartedly follow that impulse with everything you have, and let nobody tell you differently. _________________________________________________________ Above he mentions Nisargadatta Maharaj who was also mentioned in the OP Nisargadatta Mahara (1897 – 1981)was a Hindu guru of nondualism, belonging to the Inchagiri Sampradaya, a lineage of teachers from the Navnath Sampradaya and Lingayat Shaivism. The publication in 1973 of I Am That, an English translation of his talks in Marathi by Maurice Frydman, brought him worldwide recognition and followers, especially from North America and Europe. Siddharameshwar (mentioned at the top of this post was Nisargadatta's guru - below "my guru") Nisargadatta: My Guru ordered me to attend to the sense 'I am' and to give attention to nothing else. I just obeyed. I did not follow any particular course of breathing, or meditation, or study of scriptures. Whatever happened, I would turn away my attention from it and remain with the sense 'I am'. It may look too simple, even crude. My only reason for doing it was that my Guru told me so. Yet it worked! Following his guru's instructions to concentrate on the feeling "I Am", he used all his spare time looking at himself in silence, and remained in that state for the coming years, practising meditation and singing devotional bhajans: My Guru told me: "...Go back to that state of pure being, where the ‘I am’ is still in its purity before it got contaminated with ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that.’ Your burden is of false self-identifications—abandon them all." My guru told me, "Trust me, I tell you: you are Divine. Take it as the absolute truth. Your joy is divine, your suffering is divine too. All comes from God. Remember it always. You are God, your will alone is done." I did believe him and soon realized how wonderfully true and accurate were his words. I did not condition my mind by thinking, "I am God, I am wonderful, I am beyond." I simply followed his instruction, which was to focus the mind on pure being, "I am," and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the "I am" in my mind and soon the peace and joy and deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared—myself, my guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained, and unfathomable silence. (I Am That, Dialogue 51, April 16, 1971) Many of Nisargadatta Maharaj's talks were recorded, and formed the basis of I Am That as well as of the several other books attributed to him The life force [prana] and the mind are operating [of their own accord], but the mind will tempt you to believe that it is "you". Therefore understand always that you are the timeless spaceless witness. And even if the mind tells you that you are the one who is acting, don't believe the mind. [...] The apparatus [mind, body] which is functioning has come upon your original essence, but you are not that apparatus. Nisargadatta was critical of a merely intellectual approach to nondual Truth. He had a strong devotional zeal towards his own guru,[web 3] and suggested the path of devotion, Bhakti yoga, to some of his visitors, as he believed the path of knowledge, Jnana yoga was not the only approach to Truth. Nisargadatta also emphasized love of Guru and God, and the practice of mantra repetition and singing bhajans, devotional songs. Nisargadatta taught what has been called Nisarga Yoga(Nisarga can be translated as "nature"). In I Am That, Nisarga Yoga is defined as living life with "harmlessness," "friendliness," and "interest," abiding in "spontaneous awareness" while being "conscious of effortless living."[13] The practice of this form of Yoga involves meditating on one’s sense of "I am", "being" or "consciousness" with the aim of reaching its ultimate source prior to this sense, which Nisargadatta called the "Self". The second edition of I Am That includes an epilogue titled Nisarga Yoga by Maurice Frydman which includes this passage: "This dwelling on the sense ‘I am’ is the simple, easy and natural Yoga, the Nisarga Yoga. There is no secrecy in it and no dependence; no preparation is required and no initiation. Whoever is puzzled by his very existence as a conscious being and earnestly wants to find his own source, can grasp the ever-present sense of ‘I am’ and dwell on it assiduously and patiently, till the clouds obscuring the mind dissolve and the heart of being is seen in all its glory. Nisargadatta did not prescribe a specific practice for self-knowledge but advised his disciples, "Don't pretend to be what you are not, don't refuse to be what you are." By means of self-enquiry in the tradition of Advaita Vedanta, he advised, "Why don't you enquire how real are the world and the person?" Nisargadatta frequently spoke about the importance of having the "inner conviction" about one's true nature and without such Self-knowledge one would continue to suffer.Nisargadatta claimed that the names of the Hindu deities Shiva, Rama and Krishna were the names of nature (Nisarga) personified,[17] and that all of life arises from the same non-dual source or Self. Remembrance of this source was the core of Nisargadatta's message: ‘You are not your body, but you are the consciousness in the body, because of which you have the awareness of ‘I am’. It is without words, just pure beingness. It has become soul of the world. In the absence of your consciousness, the world will not be experienced. Hence, you are the consciousness… remember what you have heard… meditate on it. Meditation means you have to hold consciousness by itself. The consciousness should give attention to itself. This consciousness is Ishwara. As there is no God other than this consciousness, worship it.’ ‘The knowledge “I am” is God. It is Ishwara, as well as maya. Maya is God’s power. All the names of God are of this consciousness only in different forms. Remember the fact “I am not the body” and get firmly established. That is the sign of a true seeker.’ The Seven Principles of Nisarga Yoga (As identified by Nic Higham, 2018) 1. Non-identification and right understanding 2. Interest and earnestness 3. Spontaneity and effortlessness 4. Attentiveness to being 5. Right action 6. Going within to go beyond 7. Awareness of Self