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While there certainly is a difference between awakened and unawakened beings, it has nothing to do with the term enlightenment, it is more about how the awakening changes the way that person moves through and navigates life. Enlightenment isn’t actually about knowing yourself as god. If you still have the need to know yourself as god, or proclaim it in any way, it is a rather immature and unintegrated stage of awakening that can be a huge sticking point. Thats for a couple of reasons. firstly, only something ‘other than god’ would need to proclaim itself as being god. Why would god need to say ‘I’m god’,.. I mean... should I write it in my resume now that I’m enlightened? Do I get a free parking spot at selected restaurants that says ‘reserved for god’? Secondly, If you’re proclaiming that you are god, you can only say that to god. I mean think about it, why would you need to say ‘I am god’ and by the way, I won’t even say that you’re speaking to yourself, because that’s another trap the ego likes to hide in, but it just simply implies that you consider the person you’re proclaiming it to something other than god. Such energy can only perpetuate arrogance and entitlement, which are sticking points of ego, not enlightenment. tldr: saying ‘I am god’ is the most unenlightened thing you can ever say, you’d be probably much more spiritually aligned by sharing about how much you love bagels, as opposed to how deeply you know yourself as the divine. ps: bagels are amazing I haven’t come from an American culture and didn’t know how much I was missing out.

@ElvisN wouldn’t call it Semantics, none of the people you mentioned are Fully Self-Realized, it’s not like a 1=1 scenario where all awakenings are of the same depth and understanding. This is emphasised pretty clearly by Neo-Advaitans and teachers who haven’t awakened to love. these teachers may be awake, but have they had the 10th Ox Herding picture kind of awakening? Most haven’t. again not doubting these people have all had awakenings, and probably incredible experiences on Psyches and they’ve helped them so much, but they are not at the depth of True masters such as Ramana and Nisgardatta. If you want to see an embodiment of true western masters, go read/ watch Rupert Spira and Francis Lucille.

My hunch is thats an intellectual construct for you. If you had awakened and embodied the singularity of experience, you probably wouldn’t be on the forum asking if its ok. You could do an experiment: dedicate the next three months of your life being permanently high on substances and see how it goes.

I awakened already, and being dis-identified with ego, living with no attachments and knowing Truth doesn't automatically give you the best subjective experience of life. I think you live your best life when you are doing and experiencing things you personally value the most.

Haven't awakened in one fell swoop on psychedelics, but have accessed mystical states that have opened my mind in ways I didn't think were possible and have been a huge catalyst into personal growth and deeper inquiry into the nature of reality. The psychedelics didn't do it alone for me, its all about intention and what your mind is open to, how deeply you question, the understanding you already have. You need some context into non-duality as a roadmap and not be locked into any limiting paradigm.

Youre wrong in that you think psychedelics are a useless tool/technology absolutely, but youre right in that it can make some people just go back to baseline. Shamans (and other spiritual traditions like yogis) have been using these tools for healing since the dawn of time. They do work. But its not guaranteed it will work. You need to put in just as much effort as the psychedelic is. The point of psychedelics isn't to significantly increase your baseline. Thats a point you're getting completely wrong. Its to get you(temporarily) in touch with your deepest self so that you know how to increase your baseline. Its to show you states of consciousness that are so bizzare that your mind opens and it unlocks blind spots, things that have been getting you stuck in your journey. Its a tool to boost the process you use to increase the baseline, but it does not increase the baseline itself. Thats why the work is still needed. You won't find anyone who got awakened through psychedelics because thats not their role. Their role is more fundamental then that. Their role simply replaces the role of having a guru or listening to a teacher. With psychedelics you can channel your own teacher who is perfect for you. Who asks: has anyone gotten enlightened by their guru? Like seriously guys come on, no one gets enlightened by spiritual teachers. Therefore spiritual teachers and gurus are a waste of time, ineffective. Dont listen to them kids.

@GreenWoods To me it just seems like you're trying to make some sort of equation or science out of behavior post-awakening which I don't think is really possible. Can I ask; have you had an awakening? And do you 'live in Non-Duality'? Basically, that's a fancy way of saying are you stabilized in absolute Peace and Happiness and have you recognized the truth of your being. When you truly awaken to love and realize The Absolute/Self is all that exists, and you abide and live the understanding, yes you will of course act from a place of love and truth. This is why I don't believe people like Mooji/ Betinho have had full awakenings, how could you manipulate and abuse Women sexually if you know you're only abusing yourself. I also see your point about Veganism, but I'm not sure many Non-Dual teachers have actually investigated this deeply, so could genuinely be ignorant about it. The Separate Entity doesn't exist so it's not a matter of whether free will exists, the question doesn't need to be asked. From the point of view of a separate self it SEEMS we have Free-Will, so if you add a belief, 'There's no Free-Will' that's just another belief, not the truth based on an investigation into your own being. You could say all is God's will or The Absolutes will. People often wonder well how do I take action if there is no Free-Will or No Entity, well you now actually have The Universe/Absolute as the power behind your actions, not merely a separate self that didn't ever exist to begin with. If by Altruistic, you mean the more loving you become in general then yes. But, love isn't simply just donating all your money and feeding the poor, it can be, but doesn't HAVE to be. Holding the door open for someone is love, treating all others as if they are your very self is love, even these simple acts are acts of love, it doesn't have to be grand gestures and huge donations. I really wish I could link you a Satsang but it's paid content and I'm not allowed, I might PM you the link and it's down to you if you wanna purchase it. Love has no end to how deep it can go, God=Love=Consciousness, love is literally reality. Teachers who haven't had an awakening into love haven't gone deep enough. However, awakening doesn't mean you have to live a life of poverty or donate all of your money, as I have said you can be awakened and manifest your dream 'life' simultaneously, and act more loving. You don't have to choose Wealth (or any other form of 'Worldly Success') or Awakening, @Nahm has a thread on this I believe. My best piece of advice would be stop creating beliefs and idealizations of how Awakened beings have to act and behave, have true, deep awakenings, Realize the nature of your being and the nature of reality, Abide as that understanding and then find out yourself. Also remember, this understanding is expressed uniquely in each being, as each body/mind is unique, while we are simultaneously all one. Another fun paradox. I posted this on another thread, and it may help

Great post brother!! I think one of the easiest ways to identify whether something is ego-driven or from an awakened heart is to watch the feelings that arise when this motivated action is NOT carried out. If feelings of guilt or the diminishment of one's sense of self worth arises, it was most likely an egoic motivation tied to social conditioning. For example my wife gave a homeless man a cheeseburger and told me later that it made her day and made her feel good. Now its true this is a win-win situation as in my wife felt better and the homeless man got a meal. But if you look deep into the actual motivation behind her action you will find something quite startling... I will leave that for another discussion. Before awakening I remember walking past a homeless man asking for change one time. I just continued walking and the guilt got so bad that I actually turned around and gave him like five bucks or something. I remember feeling like an uncompassionate human and my sense of self-worth felt diminished in that moment. When your sense of self-worth depends on a certain outcome, action or inaction, you're tied to social conditioning and caught in The Matrix as I like to describe it. True self Love or Unconditional Love has no conditions. When this Unconditional Love is fully embodied and the ego has fallen away, a sort of disentangling from social conditioning occurs and it's recognized that actually nothing needs to be done... but why not do something? The paradoxical nature of existence reflects perfection on every level... but then a question arises within THIS perfection. But why not make the world a better place? See you simply cannot go wrong in whatever THIS IS. ❤ Great post brother I thoroughly enjoyed reading have a good day my friend ?

There is no such thing as an Enlightened person, how can a person become enlightened when all there is is The Absolute/ Natural Pure Awareness/ The Self. Awareness simply recognizes itself. Also, teachers/ awakened beings don't NEED people to awaken, but they can see the suffering in so-called 'others' (Themselves), and from a place of Love wish to assist others in ending their suffering. However, you can't Awaken someone, you can assist in their journey and 'help' but in reality, teachers are there to help on someone's journey. Anyone who says they are an 'Enlightened Person' still have a LONG way to go until full realizsation. This video from 8 Mins in covers this so well 'We are all the light of this being, in some cases, it is veiled by our own thoughts and feelings.' 'I see you all as The One light of being. I don't have a mission to enlighten anybody.' Rupert is amazing 'I have no sense of being an 'Enlightened Person', the nature of my being is just clear to me.' 'In some cases, being is still veiled more or less thinly by a veneer of thoughts and feelings. Hence the need for these retreats, meditations, contemplations and conversations.' Everyone is The Self/ The Absolute/ God/ Love whatever you want to call it, but many just don't recognize this or know this consciously yet. If I was to emulate a teacher, Rupert is the perfect embodiment of this understanding. However, I feel working 1-1 with 'Students' can help them realize the light of their own being in an easier manner, as we always forget each person has a unique path, with unique questions and stumbling blocks on the path to Self-Realization and noticing their own being. I will always be in debt to my teacher, I remember 'getting it' and just smiling on the Skype call, realizing This is it, it was a beautiful 'experience.'

@VeganAwake I get you, but how would relatively speaking, anything ever progress with this mindset? Everything is perfect, and nothing needs to be done, yes! But does that mean we should just let wars carry on, people starve and people live in poverty etc? Sorry, but I will never be on board with using The Absolute as a form of Spiritual Bypassing. From The Absolute perspective I 100% agree with you- Everything is perfect as it is! But, then let's say you're homeless, would you just never fix it? If you're overweight would you not go and lose weight? Do you see my point, I'm speaking from a 'Relative' perspective. And, I wasn't talking about coming from a place of lack or Ego, more Post-Awakening once one is at peace, happy and fulfilled and then felt as if they wanted to devote their life or participate in humanitarian work, maybe that's their LP, my points before were we're FREE to do as we choose post-awakening, I think we're on similar lines, in terms of not needing to do anything at all to be Fulfilled, but if someone chooses to, I'm sorry I don't agree that's coming from lack. I think motivation/ Desire can come from different places, and it may simply come from a place of love to want to help people, and not from a place of Ego. But, of course, at the same time, it could come from a place of Spiritual Ego, it completely depends! Another example closer to your heart might be Spiritual Teachers, truly awakened ones aren't doing it from a place of Ego and wanting to save people or redeem them, but from a place of love and wanting to help people awaken. Is Tony Parsons acting from a place of Ego? Was Ramana Maharshi etc? I'll be honest, you'll say this is just ego, but I often feel you sometimes come from a place of Spiritual Bypassing, and use awakening as an excuse not to act in certain areas of life as it's 'Ego.' Maybe I'm wrong, and I'm open to being wrong, but that's just the vibe I get, and it's the same vibe I get from Neo-Advaitans as well. Everything is perfect as it is, and THIS as it is is completely perfect as it is, where only The Absolute exists. But, on a relative level, if people are starving, wars are going on, Corona Viruses are spreading (!) then action needs to be taken. Or, on a personal level you lose your job, or you are overweight and have health issues, then that is what is happening NOW in THIS and you aren't going to just leave it are you? This short passage slightly explains what I mean- 'As October's tune-up, I have decided to write about the joy of Presence and being Present. Seekers and even awakened persons have the belief from somewhere that you have to become present in order to experience Presence. In fact, the opposite is true! We ARE Presence. The more we recognize this Presence that we are, the more Present we become. This process can be effortless even exhilarating. What you see is that the effort of “trying to become present” masks the obvious – we are Presence now! We are fully experiencing our Feeling of Being here and now. Without the pure Sense of Existing, nothing else is possible! Life begins with Presence. No need to look for it. You cannot avoid it! Now, let’s ask why it matters? Why does being Present in the Now matters? First of all, this knowingness automatically brings us into our bodies and into our immediate experience. However, for many people, the “real now right now” in their life is unpleasant. Then the need for habitual mental escape surfaces. Anything that looks remotely painful or unpleasant or ugly gets rejected without a second look. However, as we emphasize over and over, YOU CANNOT GO ANYWHERE! So when you deny and attempt to escape your “Real Now Here” you end up in a phony “nowhere land.” In fact, you have not escaped at all. Instead, you have become, in the immortal words of Pink Floyd, “comfortably numb.” You cannot attempt to escape life as it is moment after moment day after day and then expect to feel fully and wonderfully alive. This is called “spiritual bypassing.” It simply does not work! The sooner you lovingly approve, accept and embrace your arisings just as they are in this moment, the sooner you will in actuality transcend them truly and completely. THE WAY IS THROUGH! Move towards what you are afraid of. You will discover it is just a shadow! This being Present as Presence – fully approving of what is as it is now – is the key to unlocking and allowing the all-important shift from the small struggling “I am little separate me” into the vast, vibrant and increasingly awake sense of who we really ARE! Presence is that which is 100% okay with THIS! Listen now as I repeat our message. It is that important! What are we saying? We are saying that you WILL have to move towards, into and through WHATEVER experience life is presenting you right now in this moment and in your life as a whole. This is regardless of the positive, negative or neutral meaning that you may be giving it. In fact, the meaning that you are giving your experience IS the value that you are going to get from it. YOU create the meaning of your experiences! When you gently remind yourself to simply BE with whatever comes up, when you allow simple awareness of the emotional state you are in, Presence will become obvious! Am I happy? Am I sad? Do I know what I feel? Most do not know what their existential now feeling IS! Our conditioning has created an internal false judgment system which assumes that our now experience is NOT okay. It is flawed or broken or not good enough. What is now is not okay. Therefore, just being with WHAT IS now is not okay either! When we let this BS go, when we are finally able to allow, approve, embrace and just be with it... whatever it is... this is when the shift may occur! We will naturally become aware of our vastness. This leads to the natural interconnected knowing of the great love that we are too. Love, Interconnectedness, Presence then become more that mere words! The sweetness of the moment AS IT IS can now surface effortlessly! It creates the knowingness of that inner freedom to arise within us. At first one may get glimpses. The more this is practiced, the more it opens up to us. This is why I work so hard on the actual existential daily activity in my students lives. I want to draw attention to what IS going on vs. the various meaningless concepts we accumulate. This is why I often bring the focus to your character and your tendencies and your Enneagram type. My goal is to make sure that nothing is swept under the carpet. To make sure that all will be exposed. Nothing will remain hidden. This is the way to elevate, release, and embrace your super-intelligent exquisite Big Self in an authentic deeply integrated and very real life positive spiritual awakening!'

Yes, but you've seen me in full force. Should I just let that go without judgment? There's definitely time in that thought. I'm perhaps projecting that what happened in the past might occur in the future. I rely on other people for emotional support and I believe that I should be independent, above this. The recent example of this was that I realized that I never stopped needing emotional support from my mother. When I awakened, that problem was fixed but I also consciously realized that I could never go to her again for emotional support for the real challenges I was facing, the ego backlash that came on the heels of a mystical experience or awakening. I was alone. I mourned my real life relationships, even though on the outside, they were great. I saw then that the connection I sought from them and always hoped to get would never be found. Out of the nonacceptance or that, or needing to integrate that over time I became reliant on other people here, projecting my need for emotional support on them. The need to be "seen" persisted, but now it was projected onto people who I thought of as awake, people here on the forum, teachers. It is hard to accept that no one will ever see me. No one will ever love me. I am not. I am already. I am love. The form, the programming wants to throw all the monkey wrenches it possibly can to avoid facing this. And yet, it's all it ever really wanted all along, actualized. @LastThursday

I'm sick, with a bad cough and my thoughts just sucked today so I focused on connecting with belly breathing when I was driving to get my daughter. A thought came up about a comment I was considering and I thought of a connection to it. "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." "CLOSE, but no cigar." Back to breathing. I thought about how good it felt to focus on my stomach and I thought of the accidental boob on the dream board and Ramana Mararshi's analogy of being like nursing babe. Then *CLICK*. I've been looking for my mother outside of myself. Soooo... many connections. Recently something about the "mother wound" came up and I was like, "I don't have that, my Mom is perfect!" She is though. That's the thing. I'm a spoiled brat. Where was I driving today? To get homemade turkey soup from Mom's because I'm sick. I'm 31. Last year, my Grandmother was dying and my Mom was not the perfect Mom anymore. She was distracted and wasn't there for me at all. I was having a horrible time for a lot of reasons and called her a lot looking for emotional support and it wasn't there. I ended up awakening shortly after Grammie died. My dependence on Mommy for all my emotional support was gone. I was empowered and when I wasn't, well...who could I talk to about this? Not my actual mother. I thought about this. I considered it and I mourned it. Some. I've been making projections about people on the forum since before I even awakened. It's an emotional attachment, a need. Looking outside for my connection with source.

@crab12 This was kind of what I was trying to say, but I guess it kind of came across as fighting fir Stage Orange, which it wasn't meant to. More a healthy integration of Orange and an ability to enjoy duality in a healthy way. Say an awakened being wants a nice car, maybe they will opt for environmentally friendly cars such as Tesla (Example I don't know exact specs) instead of a Diesel car, and maybe they want a large home but will opt for a Stage Yellow self sustainable house that generates it's own energy using renewable sources, and has a vegtable garden and stuff like that, as this would be more beneficial and utilize less resources, it doesn't have to be as simple as Spending Money/ Desiring Things = Bad. But, I can see why, consumerism in excess causes lots and lots of issues, so it's all about finding that balance where we can enjoy things 'Guilt Free' without causing too much damage and actively trying to help the situation. In my case I went Vegan after seeing animal agriculture videos, but wasn't into spirituality at the time, and still don't think this makes me superior or more enlightened at all, I just don't want to support the animal agriculture industry and it happens you can live in optimal health with a Whole Foods Plant Based lifestyle. So, I can still enjoy the occasional treat 'Guilt Free' so to speak. Yeah, in terms of the Hermit approach I take a more 'Tantric' outlook in that we can experience all of life and duality in it's greatness in a conscious manner and don't need to become hermits. I often believe many of these hermits are trying to deny the 'ugly world out there' and haven't embraced the world as the very Buddha Planet, and The True Heaven, so are still potentially subtly rejecting duality! This also happens with Cellibacy a LOT, There is 'natural cellibacy' where the Sex Drive drops away naturally e.g. Ramana Maharshi and then forced celibacy that leads to nothing but repression and shadow issues....Priests beeing pedophiles for example? In my opinion, we should never deny something that is as natural as our sex drive, but of course we can make it more conscious and loving- like anything! Just to be clear I LOVE helping people, but I don't see to expense my own wellbeing as a result, I think that's BS to be honest, why not have both? Maybe that's greedy, but I feel we should be able to have our cake and eat it too Be able to enjoy basking in pure joy of The Self/ Non-Dual Honeymoon, while also enjoying the 'Duality' of human experience and embracing being a human and a unique one at that that has a personality and interests and things they love, what fun would it be if we were all a whitewash of awareness? Pretty boring.

@GreenWoods Yeah you can't embody The Absolute perfectly or you'd literally have no experience of a Human, just Infinite Awareness (which is absolutely what we are) bit that alone, with no body, human experience etc. Unless you plan on dropping the body, you will have to play the game of Survival, of course it can be done more consciously Post-Awakening, I thought I made that quite clear in my post. I'll go through each point numerically from your first point. 1) Survival isn't merely a survival of the body, have you watched Leo's videos? That is beyond reductionist. Survival means your relationships, human psyche, personality and on on and on and on. It encompasses far more than just the body. Just because one has a desire for financial abundance does not necessarily mean they are 'Selfish', of course many Businessmen/women are, but that's another story. You can be an unselfish millionaire, just because you create wealth for yourself doesn't instantly mean Selfish, it should also be emphasized one person cannot save humanity by themselves in terms of altruism. Of course, we should donate to good causes, but just look at the Bill Gates foundation, throwing money at problems isn't the solution. These issues run way deeper and are far more systemic and require complex and nuanced solutions. 2) You can never perfectly express oneness, that is a ridiculous idea. Otherwise, you'd never eat as your prioritizing your needs over someone else's. I'm not even sure what you're suggesting wth this comment, but it is impossible to perfectly embody oneness, I thought that was obvious? You are of course going to have to favour yourself slightly in situations, otherwise you would give up all your possessions to those less fortunate and go and live on the streets, that's not very practical is it? This is literally the kind of survival I'm talking about, to survive means you will cause issues elsewhere, it's about doing the best we can. A full awakening actually realizes the humanity of oneself, a lot of early awakenings subtly reject duality, I did for a long time. To me this is the easy way out and allows for spiritual bypassing in so many areas of life, and actually prevents shadow work and integration which can be tough at times. So, yes, sometimes you will make decisions that benefits you/ closest to you- If you buy a house it means someone else who was interested in it can't have it, if you eat food, it means someone else can't eat it. 3) Not once did I say altruism = emotionless robot. What I said is that those who don't embody their humanity can become like a robot, some spiritual circles actually say having no feelings and thoughts 24/7 is the highest state, it's complete bullshit and literally the definition of Psychopathy to have a lack/ no emotions lol. Being Altruistic tends to involve duality funnily enough (even though as I said Duality= Non-Duality but for purpose of this I will separate the 2) as you are helping 'others' who are yourself but you get my point. 4) Never heard of spiritual ego then I see? Someone who gives away their possessions for the reason of being able to say, I gave away my possessions I'm so spiritual is as much ego as the Rapper boasting about how much money they make, it's all trying to act superior. Of course if one wishes to give away all possessions that' VERY different and that is just what they wish to do, however, it doesn't make one 'more spiritual' to do so. No, if one buys themselves luxury goods because they enjoy them and they are useful, why shouldn't they be allowed to? To me, this just seems like you have ideas of how Awakened beings must behave, but it just isn't the case, if an enlightened being wants a nice house does this suddenly mean they aren't awake? Again, I go back to that's basically saying if you eat that's saying this body is superior to others. Also, someone who doesn't buy nice things just because they're spiritual could also be operating from a Spiritual Ego standpoint as I said. And, sorry to break it to you a lot of 'Enlightened People' (don't actually exist, but at early stages of awakening they are often referred to) there is often a superiority complex of 'I'm enlightened, you're not' which can lead to issues. Look at the issues of Mooji and Bentino Massano to see this first hand. 5) It is an ever-deepening process, but while you are alive you can never embody it 100% it's near impossible as we have both already discussed. However, love can be deepened in many different ways and not just through Philanthropy/ Donations. For example, any billionaire can give away a few million, but can they stop work for a week and spend good quality time with their Kids and Grankids, for them that would be a deeper example of embodying love. And, yes an awakening to love is a key part of a true awakening which many don't have. Love will then express itself naturally in one's life as we embody this, but that doesn't necessarily mean we give up all our possessions and spend all of our days feeding the poor, it can be expressed in a number of ways. Always doing the best we can in any situation and always deepening our love, this never ends. Awakening is only the beginning of life. 6) As I have just mentioned, a Body/Mind can only do it's best in any situation and love is an ever-deepening process, we can't be perfect but we can always deepen love further, it literally has no end. 7) Here I guess you're suggesting all profits should be donated/ spent in an altruistic manner. However, I feel differently. I believe, if one creates a profitable business that is built on helping people and providing value, why shouldn't one enjoy the fruits of this in terms of material benefit. Of course, I am not saying to NEVER be philanthropic or donate, but I'm just saying you don't have to give away 100% of the profits to be 'Spiritual.' That is a complete fallacy in my eyes. In terms of my plans, yes I own my own businesses and yes I wish to create complete financial freedom for myself (sorry) and no I don't believe this makes me less spiritual or suddenly less awake lol. I will be very generous with my money of course and have plans to help my family very much so financially speaking, as well as eventually raise children and a family in a happy, healthy environment. Of course, I will also donate to charities and great causes, and may eventually even look to personally help causes I believe strongly in, or who knows to start my own. But, I will not deny money sorry. The Buddha actually has some good teachings on prosperity for 'Laymen' and says those who aren't monks should actually go out and earn as much as they can! Of course he also advocated being generous with this money, and also being sensible in terms of saving and investing. Maybe the Buddha knew that money is simply energy hey I just want to make it clear, I believe embodying love and kindness and altruism to the greatest of our abilities is a huge key on our journeys, and being generous with money is also essential (counter-intuitively this creates more abundance in one's life) and receiving for the sake of sharing is something I live my life by, without sharing what would life be? Whenever something happens, we want to share it as much as possible. Just because one creates abundance does not been they are instantly 'Selfish' in fact it could be the very opposite, that you get there by helping people, how is that in any way selfish? Philanthropy isn't the only way to show love, but is, of course, an incredible way. I just don't agree that you can't be both wealthy and 'spiritual' I have tried to answer your questions in as much detail as possible, but if you have any more please do ask and I'd be happy to answer Also, I would be really careful to not create money issues that end up in your shadow by conflating selfishness and greed with Money, this will actually prevent you truly understanding the energy of money and abundance and lead to more issues further down the line. I have just read all your other responses also, and yes I agree with The Self itself is the Guiding principle post-awakening and integration, and this pretty much means you live from a place of love and truth, although nobody is perfect. However, it doesn't mean you have to give away all of the money that you don't need always, it means you live a life full of giving and helping 'others' when in reality you are only ever helping, talking or seeing yourself. Therefore, knowing everyone to be your brother and sister how could you then act in any other way? Why would you want to hurt yourself? Also, in terms of giving away money, I agree hoarding beyond a protective amount is pointless. But, you could also invest money in a conscious way to help businesses/ things you believe in grow and in return create even more value for the world. While I agree that philanthropy is important, I feel you're looking at things in quite a reductionist manner in terms of how we can express love and The Self, there is an infinite amount of ways we can embody infinite love. In regards to your stage orange comment YES! That is the issue, I am literally saying to create a business FIRST that is built on helping people, not a stage orange Profit only business, these are the sorts of businesses that will also outlive Stage Orange, that's my point and are actually benefiting humanity!

Lately it seems like when old patterns of "Oh my god, this is a disaster" come up, or "asking" happens, the solution is swift at its heals (heels, funny "mis"spelling there). The past couple days after the fit I threw in front of my husband about being a terrible mother have been great weather, meaning I get the kids out to play, feel like a great mom and get my outdoor meditation fix as well. It amazes me how quickly I can get things to turn around when I feel overwhelmed by them. Last night and this morning just through watching music videos a desire came up to have a female friend, (or be that friend I don't know) who is always pushing the limits, always in the vortex. My two best friends both moved away this past summer. Then today I talked to my sister and sort of awakened to what incredible potential we have to work together in so many ways, but because we're sisters there's lots of "stuff" there that keeps us from connecting and communicating. Over the years as we grow that stuff falls away. She told me today that she wants to talk about our childhood and compare our perceptions of it, I thought that could be really interesting. I "came out" to her about my youtube channel and shared it with her. I've been talking with her about the law of attraction. She is a personal trainer, extremely motivated with her yoga business, also teaches tai chi and does intensive courses to train people to be yoga teachers. She is finishing her degree now and taking psychology courses, and has realized that she needed trauma training to teach people as intensively as she does because it "bubbles up". I've always perceived us to be like opposites in a way, but always similar. I've always turned inward, been the introvert, she's the extrovert, over achiever. Those opposites no longer seem real to me. She no longer seems other than me. I don't know exactly what will come out of it, but I do see that I over looked and avoided something really wonderful here.

Its probably the breath of fire that makes you feel that way. Continue until you feel energy doing weird stuff in your Body, this strange energy awakened my Kundalini. You can also try the Wim Hoff method, its even stronger than the breath of fire.

Because if you want to play the game of survival you need money? Awakening doesn't mean you stop living, the opposite in fact. It's when you truly start living. Before enlightenment chop wood and carry water; After enlightenment chop wood and carry water. People like to think when they awaken they will become 'above human' 'superhuman' or some other absolute BS. In fact, a true awakening is when you become more human than ever before. You realize that while you live as The Self, you still live as a unique expression of The Self as a human. And, as that human, you will have a personality, interests, likes, family, friends, a job probably etc and will be completely unique to anyone else. Awakening allows you to realize what you truly are is Natural Pure Awareness, The Absolute, God, whatever you want to call it and yes you abide as this. However, you are awareness experiencing itself as a unique human, so if you deny this you are literally denying life. If you try to become an emotionless robot who has no interests and no personality you are simply rejecting Duality. (In reality Duality and Non-Duality are literally the same thing but that's for another post) So, this whole money BS is basically people projecting that Enlightened people either are or see themselves as superior, which isn't the case, well some teachers do like to see themselves as superior. In reality, NOBODY is ever enlightened because a person can't become enlightened, and those that say they are, may well be, but are not fully Self-Realized. In reality, EVERYONE is merely The Absolute, however, 99.9% of people have no idea of this and are completely oblivious to it. You are not superior because you're awake, in fact, a true awakening is very humbling, as you realize literally everyone and everything is your very self, how could you be superior? Therefore, yes you are also still having a human experience, and unless you don't want to live in the society you will need money to function. It's also such a backward question, wouldn't you rather conscious, good people became millionaires/ billionaires by actually creating true value and weren't exploiting people, instead of the many unconscious wealthy individuals we have. The problem is a lot of awakened beings often ditch society and I don't blame them, however, it means those in power are far from awake or conscious and look what we have created. Imagine conscious people in politics, business, in normal jobs, sports, etc imagine how much better things would be. So, to answer your question after that rant, you could simply say, Awakening doesn't make me/someone special, in fact it shows how all humans are merely God/ The Absolute/ The Self, and it doesn't mean I'm no longer (Insert Name) or no longer a Human. I still have a personality and have what makes me human. However, it means I abide and operate from a place of truth and love, and from this place, I would be much more conscious in my actions and wouldn't con people out of money. Wouldn't it be better if we had, good and loving people who wanted to push humanity forward in charge of big businesses and in important positions instead of the corrupt, greedy and power-hungry people we see today?' Also, please don't demonize money on your journey, all you will do is create a shadow issue around money that will prevent you from making money and create blockages in your life. Money is simply an energy, just because those that have the most are usually quite corrupt doesn't mean money itself is evil. Money is a tool that can be used for the greatest reasons or for the worst reasons. Be conscious earning and spending money, and always be grateful for what you have, when you buy something, and when you earn money, this helps create a welcoming environment where you can become wealthy. (you'll still have to work for it, I'm not saying you can simply magic up billions) Sorry for the long post, but this is a common issue and one that affected me for a while, I thought I couldn't be spiritual and run a business, it's complete BS!

Yes I agree he is a great teacher and explains things very well. I used to believe it was important that I helped people wake up... like it was the destiny of the human race to all become awakened. I no longer hold these beliefs... if Awakening occurs it occurs if it doesn't it doesn't either way it does not matter whatsoever, there's no meaning purpose or value in it at all, but simultaneously if someone wants to help make the world a better place or help awaken people that's what is happening...why not. The neo-advaitist's as everyone else is calling them, are saying that you cannot awaken the separate individual because the separate individual is an illusion and any attempt to awaken it is futile and ridiculous. Awakening is the disidentification with the illusion. In my experience once I turned my seeking energy 180 degrees within I recognized the ME that I thought I was was the illusion itself. When this energy and illusion fell away, it was simultaneously recognized it never existed, the line dividing duality and non-duality, subject and object was completely recognized to have been simply an illusion all along. The oneness that's always been the case was clearly revealed. "The separation never occurred" - A Course in Miracles Have a good day my friend take care talk to you soon ?

Well, yesterday night I got a message from @Leo Gura - while watching the 5th season of House of Cards - in which he asked me how much 5-MeO-DMT trips I needed to wake up. After answering his question I shared with him a short version of the story how it all happened -- how I woke up. He suggested then that I should share this with you guys to inspire and educate you. And although it's still strange for me to talk about it in detail, it's the right thing to do. Just a year ago I had one wish and one wish only: To know exactly how it is like. And I will give my best shot in trying to articulate it. Before I start though, I will give you some perspective where I'm coming from at this. What my background is, because that's utterly important if you want to understand how my journey took place and how the dynamics of the awakening worked. +++ My Background: How I Got Introduced To Self-Actualization / Enlightenment +++ So let's go back two years. I'm 19 years old, sitting in my old room in my parents house in the night watching Leo's first video on enlightenment. At that time, I moved to Berlin, began my studies and I felt completely fucked up. I mean, my life in general worked out. My studies were going great, I moved to the city that I wanted to live in, ... . But I was feeling just shitty and insecure. I got bullied when I was 12-14 years old for making crappy rap music and it seemed that all that fear and insecurity from that time started to bubble up. I had a chronic feeling of being overwhelmed with my life, being anxious because of that and I didn't have the courage to speak about it to someone because I was deeply convinced that it would make me seem weak and like a victim - and I could not allow that. So, if you asked a friend of mine at that time, he would've described me as this charismatic, confident dude whose life is going pretty well. That's what I pretended to be on the outside. I am pretty charismatic and confident - so that's not a lie - but I used it as a shield so that people wouldn't notice what is going on with me. Coming back to the night in my parents house where I watched the first enlightenment video, I'm just like: "That's my last chance. I have to try this, if this works (and I just believed Leo at that time because I resonated with his style of teaching) I can live in peace." I hated myself at that time, hated who I was and how my life went, so it seemed like a good idea to kill this guy called Azrael. Also, I was fascinated by the idea that this could be possible. I had never heard about the concept of enlightenment before and although I was deeply interested in psychology / philosophy and naturally way too curious about this world, I had kind of given up on ever really knowing what is going on here. This seemed like a solution to that as well. So, I started to meditate the next day. +++ My Journey: How I Made It Happen +++ I have one big advantage over other people and that is: I get fascinated with stuff pretty deeply. Like, when there is a topic that I'm interested in I melt into that. I will research everything that there is about it, look at all the experts in the field, fall platonically in love with them, mimic how they talk and think, what they are interested in. I will live in that dream of that fascination. I will think about it all the day, associate everything that I do with it and make it my thing. That's basically me. That's why I am so young and so old at the same time. Because I live that shit. And as you can guess, I did the same stuff with my journey. I meditated, self-enquired, contemplated and tried to wrap my head around it. In the first year I was just very motivated and tried to get it all in. I knew nothing about it and I wanted to "get in there". So what happened? I actually began to feel better. I had my first realizations, I had cool meditations, began to experience my first mystical experiences and started to do psychedelics - mostly LSD and DMT. So, a year goes by and I'm sitting at home. I moved a few months before that to a new apartment and Leo just released his video on "Free Will". Still, one of my favourites of all time. After I watched the video I meditated on the question "What is going to happen next?" for an hour. In that meditation a very strange thing happened. It felt like something cracked in my head and a lot of thoughts came up. I finished the meditation, began to cook something and noticed for the first time that I am able to listen to my thoughts while knowing that I don't say them myself. Looking back at that, I think it was the point at which my unconscious opened a gateway to my conscious awareness and started to really process some shit. After that, the most horrifying year of my entire life started. My anxiety increased to a top, my unconscious thoughts increased to a top and just hypnotized me all day long. I just couldn't stay mindful. I was scared to leave the house because I was hyper-sensitive about everything. I was a mess. I was so fucked up that I doubted that this is still purging and I sometimes assumed that I am just mentally ill. That I'm a schizophrenic, with PTSD, anxiety disorder and paranoid. That's basically a good description on how I felt for most of the days. At that time, I had probably the deepest realizations. Funnily, if you are in such a bad state you grow a lot and pretty fast because you are meta-analysing yourself all the time (because you are so fucked up) and through that you naturally have a lot of realizations and crazy experiences. From time to time it would stop for 1-2 weeks and I would have deep moments of bliss and clarity. Then the roller-coaster would start all over again and it would get worse. Just a big fucking mess. Needless to say that this was also the time in which I tried everything. Every kind of meditation you know, every kind of teaching that is out there, any psychedelic that I could get my hands on. I was on it. I tried it, analysed and tried to use it to get me out of that horrible state. As I will later state, this time was the time in which my mind began to awaken. I just wasn't really aware of that because simultaneously it was flooded by so many disturbing thoughts and my body was fucked up with so many tensions and bad emotions. This cycle basically kept going for the whole year, intensified and lowered, intensified and lowered. In the summer I got tired of it. I got tired of feeling so bad. I even had suicidal thoughts sometimes (which then freaked me out even more). So I stopped seeking. I still committed to the practice, still did my thing but I just gave up that this would ever stop. I just couldn't see how. In the autumn and winter of that year I started fucking around with 5-MeO-DMT and shrooms. I also started using HoloSync. At that time I had some interesting changes happening. After my first 5-MeO-DMT sessions the tensions in my head completely vanished. That was nice but I was still in pain, still in fear. I also didn't have the nice blissful phases any more, I just felt mostly tired and sick of this shit. That was basically my journey. A big fucking mess. A lot of trial and error, a lot of dedication and fascination. +++ The Awakening of The Mind +++ In the summer of this horrifying year my mind awakened. I had a few awakening experiences before that but non that lasted. In the summer I had one Kundalini awakening. I just sat on my couch, was pretty exhausted and tired that day and thought about a girl that had rejected me at that time. Suddenly this ball of energy came shooting up my spine and into my head where it exploded. The first thought I had was: "Fuck, am I going to die right now?" It was pretty intense. After that I took a walk and was just completely shocked and fascinated with what happened and how I felt. All the anxiety and attachment was gone for this evening. And I could recognize the source. I could recognize where everything is coming from and who I am. I went to a buddy later that evening and it felt like he was a creature - not a human. It was crazy. The days after that experience the state completely vanished and I went back into my fucked up mode. However, my sense of self was now completely rooted in source. I could - if I wanted to - know who I truly was. It was clear. But at that time, I still thought that this cannot be it, because I still felt so damn bad. I didn't know that my body had to awaken as well to be completely rooted in it and to feel the peace and calmness of the awakening. +++ The Awakening of The Body +++ The awakening of the mind is basically realizing who you really are. Being able to recognize source. That's great, but only half of the deal. You can be able to recognize that with your ego still intact raping you like nothing changed. And you won't be able to realize what really happened because your ego is still there. The daemon is still there. Now, here is the story of how my ego integrated and how it brought me into total balance. Roughly two weeks ago, I'm laying in my bed waking up (normally). It's a regular morning in Berlin. I'm still a little bit tired and dreamy, thinking about my daily meditation. And I'm like: "Ah, I don't wanna meditate. I just wanna sleep today." I'm pretty grumpy in the mornings btw. This is not the first morning that I think that way and so I begin to think a little bit. Why do I don't want to meditate any more? This is my favourite and most intimate thing I do every day. And then I'm thinking about the last couple of weeks. How do I feel? How do I feel? I feel pretty good. Wait a minute, I felt good for a pretty long time now. Why am I not thinking about spirituality any more? I used to think about this every day 24/7? Why am I not thinking that much any more in general? I'm pretty relaxed all the time. Where are my chronic tensions in my abdomen? I haven't felt them now for ... Wait a minute. And it goes on like this. That morning I realised that I had awakened. It was the strangest thing. I wasn't able to tell for some days what really changed, I just knew that I didn't feel bad any more and that all my motivation to do my practice just disappeared. (I still did it of course - gotta be disciplined with this and not listen to your thoughts.) After some time I began to think about myself again because I wanted to know what changed. A few nights ago I skyped with my good friend @Huz and I came up with a metaphor that describes it pretty well. +++ The Metaphor: How It Feels to Wake Up +++ So, in the normal non-integrated state of egoic consciousness - wow that's a phrase that sounds pretty evil just writing it - it's like you have an invisible suit that you wear at all times. This suit has one property and one property only. It makes it hard for sensations, emotions and feelings to get out of your body. So now with having this suit on, when you have a sensation or an emotion that goes through your body it will naturally be resisted by the suit and so ping back into your system. It's like there is a resistance through that invisible suit. So that sensation or emotion will go another time through your body and by that amplify the effect it has on you. Because it cannot get out easily. It might get out after some time, depending on how strong your suit is, but it's hard for the poor little thing. Through that you tend to "attach" to what is going on with you. Even more, you begin to identify with what is going on inside yourself because the effect is so strong and always repeats because of the resistance. The same thing is happening with your thoughts. You have a thought and it cannot get out because of your suit. It gets back. Makes another round, triggers other thoughts that cannot get out that trigger even more thoughts. Through that a constant chatter of thoughts is made possible. As you start your practice you begin to unconsciously work on your suit. As you purge more and more shit its resistance gets weaker and more thoughts can go out of your system at first. Then, as this happens a lot of the repressed thoughts are now able to release themselves and your system is flooded by them. Because your suit is weaker they can get out but because of the volume of the repressed thoughts that are now set free it seems like you are regressing - although you are not. Through that process you might be able at some time to recognize who you really are because so much changes inside of yourself. That's great and that's what happened when my mind awakened - however the suit was still on - although weakened. When the body awakens what basically happens is that the suit looses its last resistance and falls off. Through that your body is now able to think and process emotions naturally without unconscious resistance of the suit. This of course implicates that you loose most of your inner tensions and that the volume of your thoughts go down, because they are not amplified any more. It also implicates that you are able to recognize who you are much easier because the strong identification with your sensations, emotions and thoughts is released and really everything that you are aware of finds a perfect balance. This also explains why I did not instantly recognize what happened to me. My meta-analysis, my pain, my tensions, my thought stories just left like a daemon that raped me and through that I just was and am in a state of peace that is not questioning itself all the time and is not trying to get away from itself. I hope this makes sense. +++ The Aftermath: What Now Then? +++ Well, I don't now, to be honest. Right now, I am pretty relaxed. I still do my normal day to day shit, I still have all my preferences, dreams and desires. I don't want to get away from myself any more and I know who I am. I am quite empty. I guess that's a phase in the beginning. I will see where it takes me. I will commit to my practice and see what comes next. I hope that I am able to find a lot of more metaphors in the future about this and I'd like to write more about it to help you guys and make me understand it on an intellectual level. One thing that is very important to understand here is the following: In all my seeking, non-seeking and whatever I did I always made up this picture in my head of "how it would be if I'm there". And that's natural in the non-integrated state of egoic consciousness - oh I love this phrase. I think that this transition took place because when I chased this picture of "how it would be" I was at the same time doing all the work that unconsciously set up all the dynamics and mechanisms to transform my whole being. It took the time that it needed and it didn't give a fuck how I felt about it. When it was time it first awakened my mind and then later awakened the body and when that happened and both came into balance it was just like the picture dissolved and I was shot from my path into a big fucking ocean in which I have to now find out how to swim. It's like I just completed this level and am now at square one again - just in a different world. Well let's find out what's going on in here, right? Because the levels never stop. That's the fun of the game, I guess. I'm thankful to all the members on this forum that I had and have great conversations with. Especially I'm thankful for @Leo Gura who introduced me to all of this and is a constant inspiration, source of education and a fucking pain in the ass to be more committed, @jjer94, @Ayla and @cetus56 who made me realize so much with their beautiful writing and lastly @Huz my great good friend from the UK with whom I have the best conversations about all of this and who is always listening and responding to my crazy voice messages. Cheers, Az P.S. Feel free to ask me whatever is on your mind about all of this. I'm happy to help and to further clarify what I stated here. I will - in the future - post a lot more about the techniques that I used, about more of the dynamics of the process, new trip reports and all the other good shit that we all love to talk about.

@Nahm ”I’ve never actually faced any criticism from friends & family. We just missed, in the heat of a moment, that where each of us is at on our path, is precisely where we “should” be...it is what is...maybe we expected otherwise, and maybe we kinda of ‘paid the price’ for that misunderstanding”. i feel anger. I feel that I have been criticised unfairly by my narcissistic parents. ”Maybe I’m taking where someone else is at, and where people I know are at, and where I’m at...and expecting things to be other than they are, as if there was a “right way”, a “right teaching”, a “correct objective view”, etc. This leaves me feeling some kind of worry, as if I need to figure out which is the “right”, or “rational way”, or “correct way”. Yes I definitely feel my mind trying to moralise things. I feel pressure to follow Leo’s teachings. “I don’t want to suffer like the people I keep coming across in my life. It is a fate worse than death to be ordinary and live a consumeristic lifestyle. For me it is the definition of hell. determination. All the people around me I see are blind to the ways they hurt themselves. “I don’t want to talk about over thinking, nor self referential thinking. I don’t like when people talk about that”. i overthink a lot myself. So I guess the emotion I feel is denial. I want to stop overthinking but I feel like my mind is stuck in a permanent state of overthinking. It is a mechanism to cope with my problems. “I notice sometimes I am so moved & inspired, that I end up frustrated when others don’t accept my understanding”. I don’t feel frustrated by it. But I do feel dejected for a brief moment. I accept that they won’t understand because the understanding only occurred for me because of a few lucky circumstances and the right mindset. ”I sometimes notice that I see people through a lens of sameness, but also sometimes through a lens of labeling them, or pigeonholing them, or, differences”. yes, I often get a sense of superiority when I look at people around me. I see them as the same, caught in the matrix of daily human life, even though I was there not long ago. ”My understanding of why stage blue is often offended by stage green, is really clear. I enjoy the feeling of harmony I experience with my understanding of spiral dynamics. I’m so glad I took the time to better understand myself and others, and how we are all connected”. yes. I feel a sense of relief that I discovered spiral dynamics. I have a sense of clarity that I’ve never experienced before and it is beautiful. It gives me structure as well because I have an end goal of moving up the spiral . ”Occasionally, I expect people to change to be like me, but then I remember we’re all the same, and we choose different thoughts, and I have a hearty relieving laugh about it all”. i don’t recognise people as the same. I tend to put them down in my mind. It’s something I need to work on. Fundamentally I know we are all the same, but I often forget. ”No one will ever be able to relate to awakening, who has not yet awakened”. i haven’t awakened, so I can’t really say how I feel about this. But I think I would tend to agree. ”I relish in putting how I feel, before anything I think or say. The effortlessness of life has been revealed to me, and it is pure joy”. i am still dominated by my mind but over the past year I have really let go of expressing things in ideas and often frame things in terms of emotions, yet because of past trauma, I have not fully opened up yet. ”If I had the last brownie on earth, and couldn’t share it with anyone - I’d eat it, and enjoy the heck out of it, with a big smile on my face”. I would feel guilty and feel sad that the other person could not share it with me. I woud give them the whole thing.

@Mongu9719 This is going to initially sound odd, but how do you feel when reading these statements? Some might not resonate, and even feel off-putting. If there’s any “triggering” experience, what is the emotion which arises? ”I’ve never actually faced any criticism from friends & family. We just missed, in the heat of a moment, that where each of us is at on our path, is precisely where we “should” be...it is what is...maybe we expected otherwise, and maybe we kinda of ‘paid the price’ for that misunderstanding”. ”Maybe I’m taking where someone else is at, and where people I know are at, and where I’m at...and expecting things to be other than they are, as if there was a “right way”, a “right teaching”, a “correct objective view”, etc. This leaves me feeling some kind of worry, as if I need to figure out which is the “right”, or “rational way”, or “correct way”. “I don’t want to suffer like the people I keep coming across in my life”. “I don’t want to talk about over thinking, nor self referential thinking. I don’t like when people talk about that”. “I notice sometimes I am so moved & inspired, that I end up frustrated when others don’t accept my understanding”. ”I sometimes notice that I see people through a lens of sameness, but also sometimes through a lens of labeling them, or pigeonholing them, or, differences”. ”My understanding of why stage blue is often offended by stage green, is really clear. I enjoy the feeling of harmony I experience with my understanding of spiral dynamics. I’m so glad I took the time to better understand myself and others, and how we are all connected”. ”Occasionally, I expect people to change to be like me, but then I remember we’re all the same, and we choose different thoughts, and I have a hearty relieving laugh about it all”. ”No one will ever be able to relate to awakening, who has not yet awakened”. ”I relish in putting how I feel, before anything I think or say. The effortlessness of life has been revealed to me, and it is pure joy”. ”If I had the last brownie on earth, and couldn’t share it with anyone - I’d eat it, and enjoy the heck out of it, with a big smile on my face”.

So, it's been some time since I've posted on my journal. So much has happened. My main theme is divine masculine and divine feminine. I finally understand. By embodying both, we really see things in such a different light. Females understand men more then men do lol. So let me share something, Little by little I've become more and more masculine. True yang. Fire. I've embodied it to the extreme. I've felt like a true man. If that makes sense to the person reading. The divine masculine resists the divine feminine. Once someone awakens their divine feminine you are in balance with oneself. As long as we stop resistance. And example of what I'm talking about is acting like a girl while being a "male" so let me restart. Yesterday I chatted with my best friend, But he would always trigger me. For no reason I would get triggered and we realized that it's when he embodies his divine feminine. My divine masculine would resist so much. The more masculine I became I would resist him more and more. I would never want to talk or when we did talk I would get triggered. We discovered that whenever he embodies his divine feminine I would feel this resistance come from my soul. The place in between my heart and solar plexus. I felt this "fire" there. I could feel the degrees in which he embodied more of his yin nature. His natual chart showed his masculine and feminine at both 5 while my masculine was at 8 and feminine at 2. Long story short. We talked and since we figured it out he switched to embodying his masculine side. I would no longer get triggered by anything he said and I felt fine chatting with him. I then discovered or felt like I had a twin flame. It's been a theme that's been coming up a lot in my life. I never understood them till now. The girl I loved would always feel resistance when I used to embody my divine feminine and chase her. Then I switched and unconsciously switched to more of a divine masculine nature and stoped caring. I no longer cared and the roles switched (I still don't fully understand this, since online they say you can only be divine feminine or divine masculine. It just feels right to call her my twin flame if that makes sense? Maybe it's another connection that I'm just associating as twin flame.) This is only understood by people who have awakened both inside of them. Anyone who has awakened both can switch between the two and have different degrees. I became a girl, literally. I saw from a girls perspective. I emoboided the divine feminine. Yin to the extreme is such a good listener. We both realized soooo much about both of our natures. I finally tapped into both. he has delt with this his whole life. Saying as a kid he never understood his feminine side and would resist it so much. I never understood until yesterday. Girls understand guys so much better then we understand ourselves. Like we created all these amazing analogies. And example of one was that divine masculine is like a sun, Shining brightly. While the divine feminine is very cold and doesn't care about the shining masculine. Another one was a divine masculine when angry is like touch me and you will burn while the divine feminine is you look at me you burn. I've never been angry while in my feminine state as I've only fully embodied it yesterday, but that is the example he gave me. It fit so much for the masculine side that I'm sharing it here. He also shared a lot of the insigts he has gotten since he was a child, which really helped me understand this feminine side. Femine is very caring. Like a mature women. It was such an eye opener. I realized so much and when I finally embodied/ switched from a divine masculine to the divine feminine I cried. There was soooo much that happened yesterday that I would have to use pages of words to explain what happened. I can now tap into both divine masculine and feminine. Different degrees. Use and switch to solve problems. I have grown once again. Also, if anyone has had the chance to awaken to both their divine energies I would love to hear about it oh yeah, I no longer get triggered by his femine side since I've experienced the divine feminine side. Oh some of my own insigts are: when I embodied the femine side I contemplated and I realized that sex no longer means the same thing. It's about connection. I also had zero drive for goals and saw that I stoped caring about sex. I had all this sexual energy before and once I became a "girl" I stoped unconsciously seeking it. Wow, this is truly amazing. My whole perspective on life has changed. I realized that the divine masculine has all these judgements about the feminine and the feminine is so kind. I just wanna go on and on about my insigts. Like, the divine feminine is such a good listener. She doesn't look at you while she listens but she actually wants to hear what you have to say. while the divine masculine is always trying to talk over someone or share what they just thought. He wants eye contact and all this extra stuff. Oh and when I'm in the divine masculine state my body is more "open" like my arms are open and my legs are not so close together. But in the divine feminine state all my body parts are touching each other. It feels nice to curl up. if anyone relates then I would love to listen.

My theory is that some people have a more or less inherent ability to awareness and consciousness through introspection but not having awakened those abilities becomes tools that instead of helping transcending ones problems actually work as excavating tools, digging the hole one is in deeper in every possible way. At some point the bubble of ignorance is popped - typically through crisis - and you suddenly gain a lot of clarity as a result of all that contemplation work you've done without realizing it. Other people have little or no ability to introspect and are externally focused around their problems and it makes it very hard as no solution is found "out there". ...it's a theory, that matches my experience.

I think you often think I'm then talking about separation or some form of an individual that gets enlightened, I'm really not. What I'm saying is the first glimpse of truth, The experience of No-Self is the beginning, not the end. I stated that the separate Self is an illusion, the Little me is a fiction, and all that exists is The Absolute, the 'world' is simply The Absolute, the world as we know it doesn't actually exist as anything except Presence, The Absolute or whatever you want to call it. 'To move from the belief, I am something, to the understanding that I am nothing is a path of exclusion - I am not this, not this, not this. To move from the understanding that I am nothing to the all-embracing feeling-understanding that I am everything is a path of inclusion - I am this, I am this, I am this. The first is a path of understanding, the second a path of love.' Rupert puts it well. No Self, is the path of exclusion, and not the end of the path, but the beginning. True Advaita/ Non-Duality takes us to Absolute Peace and Happiness without any cause. I like you @VeganAwake but honestly, a lot of what you say sounds very much like Neo-Advaita, 6:27 - As he says it's fine for people who are already at peace and happiness, however telling people who believe there is a Personal Entity that there is 'nothing to do' is such a shitty teaching, for starters that belief needs to rid off, there is something to do! As I said this is about the seeing through of separation and the separate entity, and the recognition of the true nature of our beings that brings this absolute peace and happiness. These teachers are speaking from the 'other side' and most listeners are not there, therefore, the teachings simply are not helpful in most cases. So, if someone is unhappy and there is nothing they can do is that just it? Does this person not deserve happiness then, as there's nothing they can do about their unhappiness? I always say the deepest teaching is that of a transmission of presence and being in the presence of awakened beings. However, when that is not possible, and even on top of that, practices are very beneficial for a number of reasons. Most of the people listening to Neo-Advaita teachers are NOT happy, are NOT at peace and have Zero/Little experiential understanding, therefore, saying there is 'nothing' one can do is literally a pointless teaching in MOST Cases. Of course, in some cases, it is the EXACT teaching they need if they've been seeking for decades and are still stuck, but as a blanket teaching, it is very unhelpful. This article by Rupert is beautiful and a great reminder for those on the path, I forget how eloquent his writing is https://non-duality.rupertspira.com/read/the_disentanglement_of_the_self

I'll get pushbacks for this, but to me, they say this because they only have partial awakenings, they're definitely awakened and have had awakenings but tend to get stuck at the whole 'No-Self' rap, however, they help a lot of people and that's what matters most. To me, you could say these guys are the League 2 of Spiritual Teachers, and teachers like Francis Lucille, Rupert Spira, Adyashanti, Ramana Maharshi and Nisgardatta Maharaj are the Premier League. Shit analogy but can't think of a better one really. The funny thing is if they actually truly practiced Self-Inquiry they'd realize No-Self is simply not the final answer, and is in fact the I-Thought clinging onto a new Identity that very subtly rejects 'Duality.' 'There is nobody there, nothing to do' is a great teacher in certain situations and for certain people, but when used as a blanket message is hugely reductionist. That said seeing through the illusion of self is a HUGE step on the path, and one many won't take, and as I said IS a genuine awakening but stopping here is like running in an 800M race and deciding the finish line is only after 200M. Basically your selling yourself short. Once you start to teach, you also rarely develop further and 'crystalize' (Leo seems a rare exception but he's not exactly a full time touring speaker and is more focused on his own growth) Like I said all teachers are amazing in that they are trying to help people awaken and that is beautiful. But, this doesn't mean all teachers are created equal, although saying someone has had a deeper awakening is like a crime in some circles of Non-Duality. Also, saying practices aren't worthwhile is reductionist. In some cases people may benefit from dropping certain practices, as Practices in a Non-Dual sense are meant to take you into the silence and experience the truth for yourself. (Ramana literally invented Self-Inquiry for this purpose) But, practices can have other benefits for people- Meditation/ Breathwork can help with sleep, anxiety, healing etc, much of this isn't necessarily related to Non-Duality but clearly practices benefit many people. Then you also have the issue of past lives, (if you believe in past lives/ karma) you could look into these guys past lives and see decades or lifetime of spiritual practices for example to prepare them for awakening, and most would have done some form in this lifetime, they may not benefit them now but that doesn't mean they never have. For example, those who had spontaneous awakenings could have had lifetimes of practice e.g. Ramana and Eckhart Tolle, or they're just super lucky. Practices may not benefit everyone, but benefit many and help many realize the True nature of reality. Neo-Advaita is actually quite dangerous imo, when embodied as a belief system it can be very toxic and confusing, they are talking from a place of understanding but their listeners are unlikely to actually get it experientially so may go home and tell their children 'There's nobody here to take care of you anymore' etc, extreme example but we have to be careful of the ramifications these things can have. Many more developed teachers have written on the modern issue of Neo-Advaita, so I'll link some articles below. All I'll say is take what you can from these teachers, but don't become dogmatic about the message, they never really talk about Love, The Absolute, The Self etc and to me miss many facets of awakening. Also, suggesting no work needs to be done is incredibly appealing right? What would you rather do, be told there's no work to do, or actually put in the effort to grow yourself and work on your shadow. Even if there is a spontaneous awakening, there is still embodiment and shadow work to be done, which these teachers forever miss out on. The neglection of teachers like Adya and Rupert could be as realizing deeper truths would involve deep inquiry and put their current livelihoods at risk, we have to remember awakened beings aren't always free of self-bias. I personally went through this crisis as was an Eckhart Tolle addict, and realizing his teachings weren't the be-all and end all was hard for my 17 year old self to take! You could say they are at the Neti, Neti Stage (Not This, No Self, Nobody here) but have failed to embrace the path of Inclusion in that I am everything, I am love, I am The Absolute, which is a much more complete teaching. This is it, as it is right now, but not in the Neo-Advaita use of the word. I used to love Rupert Spira and read most of his books and posts, he for one wrote on this subject: https://non-duality.rupertspira.com/read/suicide_and_awakened_behaviour230 https://non-duality.rupertspira.com/watch/suffering-and-neo-advaita