Search the Community

You have to go way deeper. If you really dont think, nothing never happens. Thats what enlightenment is. Realization occurs that you are already what you are and where you are as always been, forget about birth, not even moved nor began. Thats why meditation is must. Specially living in darkness and silence at least more than couple years. If you think that now is life, instead of non duality, this is not even close to enlightenment. @GreenWoods @PureRogueQ This what enlightenment is. You no longer operate from ego, just control the ego. No longer think as ego, you become the moment and just thoughts arises. Ego is just a device to connect to duality. Identification with 1 thought brought back entire duality (for ego). Therefore no longer identification with thoughts, only when it is necessary (because survival needs never goes away). No longer day dreams, future expectations. Being the moment and completely free. When you so called close your eyes, there is no time, you nor universe, just nothingness. And become the freedom and moment. Do you think after nirvana, you still operate as a normal human being? ? so what is the enlightenment for, mental masturbation? ? Guys these sentences are not you put down, but make you realize enlightenment is way deeper than your current consciousness level. Be aware of this and dont be stuck in your current level.

This is your problem. Understanding the 3 characteristics cannot be accomplished through the intellect, only through hardcore practice. When your concentration becomes so stabilized onto the present moment that you start seeing underneath the fabrication of perception, you'll understand impermanence. Perhaps "nothing" is permanent like you say, but honestly, who knows? What is nothingness? What is the present moment? Why would some very reputable dharma teachers claim that even the present moment is empty? I don't have any answers. No one will through a forum. The only way to find out is through the radical responsibility of a rigorous meditation practice.

@Tim R sorry for rambling. How did you get to that conclusion? Well, if reality is nothingness, but here we are, perceiving "things", would it be that these things are made of nothing ... what else can it be?

@LastThursdaysomething is nothingness structured. they are not opposites since they are basically the same, the question would be: is the "act" of structuring something? it is like a thought, therefore it is not something in the material sense, but I would not call it "nothing" either. the only possibility that nothing has a structure is that it really does not have it ... that it is an appearance. But where is the difference between real and appearance? There is not. Appearance became real in the moment that it is Structure is shape? I'd say yes. But there is a difficult question: how the nothing thinks?

Birth has never happened. Birth, death is just a thought itself. Now is before birth and after death (if you dont think). Nothingness is now. There is no such a thing as going or coming back. Instead of thought process. There is no such a thing. Anything you say is something that you have learned, including yourself. Knowing is the greatest illusion, including knowing the word of “illusion “. These stuff just comes from so called knowledge, if you never learn yourself , including birth, can you born?

When I say "it" I mean reality that we live in. Not the "it" that Enlightened Ones refer to. I'm just talking about the "real" world or what Enlightened Ones would call the illusion or dream. When I say "work" I'm referring to the universe as we know it. The "first" quantum partical that spin out of infinite nothingness to "work" i.e. to be able to reiterate itself so all things could be created by it. Any other partical wouldn't work and dissolve or not work. Not have the precise mathematical that could reiterate until the entire universe could be created from it.

@LastThursday structure means there is something rather than nothing. non-structure is nothing. nothingness structures itself in patterns of increasing complexity, forms that create and dissolve, from a hydrogen cloud to a human brain

I have a theory. When one looks at the odds they go astronomical, like 1 out of 1 plus a thousands of zeros after it for just one thing to happen. Let's say you have a universe creating machine. Let's say all that's really needed is one quantum partical to act a certain way. One partical to spin out of intelligent infinite nothingness with a certain mathematical spin that reiterates itself. Everything in our known universe could be created on that one simple equation. Like a fractal.

This is unbelievably complex. But I like the fact that Vedic philosophy, Kant's ideas and Vaknin's current philosophy called 'nothingness' all coincide together in terms of their core concepts. Of course, Leo has his own philosophy and it would be nice to see his answer on this.

You are infinite nothingness, that is also infinite Love. You are the only being in existence, and are eternal and immortal. You only exist Now, as time and space is in your imagination. All of Reality is you dreaming. You created this dream from nothing, and gave yourself amnesia to experience what's like to be a 'human'. Although sharing this explanation with 'others' can raise some eyebrows, which is why most don't talk about it with others. Leo has much better indepth explanations in these videos:

Nope, there is no logical explanation possible in language for your question. Thank god for that. Imagine if there were???!!!....realitywouldn't be reality anymore, everything would turn to nothingness, all mystery gone. The only answer we can give to the question is that you in fact are Leo, me and Trump, just as much as you are 'insert your own name'. And that you chose this experience of seemingly separate povs/selves for the thrill of it. Actually, Oneness is the case/truth. But this isn't something that can be understood through words or logic.

Hey guys. I'm Indie Im 19... I have no gender but that wasn't an option btw Leo... and I've been watching these videos for a while. Spiritual gifts run through my family. I had my first taste of Nirvana (nothingness, unity, peace, lack of distinction) at 15 but it was completely random and out of context and I didn't understand it at the time. I thought I had dissociative disorder my whole life, then I understood it as a non-dual state and feel blissful there. I had a few enlightenment experiences after hard work with contemplation, meditation, astral projection, and tripping, but contemplation being the biggest factor. To clarify what I mean by enlightenment is the understanding of the infinite nature of the universe, especially complete acceptance/ love and experiencing and perceiving life as very trippy even when Im sober, detachment from self, desirelessness, and nothingness all stemming from an indescribable awakening/ that left me sobbing tears of joy for hours because EVERYTHING MADE SENSE and it's so beautiful. Now I am in college and the material world seems so silly to me, even though I understand it's importance in human perspectival development, I am trying to figure out how to be true to self and Self while figuring out how I want to fit in this world with this new understanding without dropping out and disappointing my parents. I want to become some sort of neo-sage who helps people awaken but in a more modern way to appeal to my generation. I've already started leading yoga and helping people astral project and asking dogmatic young Buddists existential questions but I can't help but look at the world and wish I could do more because of how unconscious culture is and how much suffering it causes. Basically, I'm confused because of how transcendent of logic enlightenment/awakening is and my mind constantly trying to make sense of it and I'm also confused about what to do with my life with this new understanding because I bounce back from bliss zen detachment with no motivations or desires, and a completely zoomed out experience, to the egotistical material world that seems rather trash in this society. I need to understand how to aline ego self, God self/realization, and my life in a way that feels authentic. I feel like a lot of Leos videos show you how to get enlightened but not what to do with it our how to cope with it, because while beautiful, it's rather visceral and confusing to the psyche and ego. I know Love is the answer ultimately but I wanted to hear out some practical solutions or ideas. Also I'm trying to talk to other enlightened/awakened people because I have a hard time expressing/discussing all these meta perspectives in my current friend group I always feel like I can't explain it, its over heads, or woo woo. I also need to learn how to talk to different places on the spiral and reach people where they are.

It is not the ignorant way. it is nothingness, which is not knowing, being.

I find it easier to contemplate in terms of 'everything' rather than 'nothing'. Eg, I am a doing of everything, the whole universe, vs I emanate from nothingness. I guess they're both equally true. Or even to say simply, it's a mystery beyond my rational thought, which can be seen through pure being.

No mind= No self = Nothingness =God =No duality = Now

My opinion: nothing will happen, the pattern that you are shaping the nothing will simply dissolve. as you say, me, the neighbor and my dog will still be alive, but they are the same as you, simple (or complicated, better) forms out of nothingness. if you do deep you realize that who you really are is nothingness, and that nothingness is. everything will remain the same without you, because when you die your form will disappear. do not worry because I will continue to exist, I am you. Regarding reincarnation, I think that perhaps there is some continuity of the pattern that you have been, an evolution. but what we call identity is an empty pattern. it's the substance of nothingness that fills it

I finally got an enlightenment experience. Subject of enlightenment: nothingness Method used: self-inquiry

You obviously have not realized that form and formlessness are identical. Your consciousness is not the highest. Stop listening to these teachers who tell you that nothingness and formlessness is distinct from form. Everything is Absolute, which means experience is Absolute too. Well, they are wrong. There is nothing but Infinite Mind. So to say that something is "of the mind" is silly. Everything is of the mind. Mind is not limited to thinking stuff or "monkey mind". This notion of mind as "monkey mind" is a very problematic and incorrect view of Mind. If you want to shut off the Mind, then you lose your body too, because your body is nothing but Mind. You also lose other humans. And you lose the world. All of that is Mind. If your goal is to shut off Mind, your only choice is to kill yourself. LIFE is MIND! And let's not pretend like life doesn't matter. It matters to you, otherwise you would not be hear talking, trying to persuade people of your ideas. I don't presume that. Nothing exists but myself. All of you are illusions within my own mind. And likewise for you. Yes, God is stuck in a limited state as a human. This is obvious, otherwise everyone would be awake. No, this is wrong. You have created a duality between formlessness and form. Psychedelics offer far more than "ego death". Ego death is not even the most important aspect of psychedelics. The most important aspect is the change to one's state of consciousness. And THAT is enlightenment. Whether ego death occurs is not even that relevant. God realization is certainly an experience. I've had it many times. And so have tens of thousands of other humans. I could talk for hours about all the functions of God, because I have directly experienced many of them. They are wrong. I could say the same about you. Two can play that game. All of your fave nondual teachers are misleading you to lower states of consciousness. This is absurd to claim. Reality IS imagination. If you don't realize that, you're obvious nowhere near as conscious as you imagine yourself to be. God and imagination and Love, etc. are not my dogma. And they are not interpretations. Nor are they relative things. What I'm talking about is ABSOLUTE INFINITY -- not anything like some Christian's limited vision of Jesus. There is nothing higher that ABSOLUTE INFINITY. And any teacher who is not stressing INFINITY does not have the highest consciousness. Reality is INFINITY. Period. You cannot get around this with any technique or teach or realization. It will always be INFINITY. Nothing less, nothing more. No. This is wrong. Psychedelic experiences are as Absolute as Absolute gets. You don't know that. I'm a pretty unique guy Psychedelic affect me very uniquely. For example, I get almost no visuals from vaped DMT. Well, they are wrong. Remember, psychedelics don't work well on many people. Especially people who dabble in them. I have not met a single enlightened person who as done serious psychedelic work. Most of them have dabbled with a couple of trips. This means they are not qualified to talk about psychedelics, or even enlightenment. Being immune is not bullshit. I have personally seen so called enlightened people take DMT, for example, and still not being conscious fully of what things are. And on some people it just doesn't have much effect at all. It's not even that they are so much immune. They are just dabblers. They take one trip and say that's enough. Talk about self-deception. I've seen enlightened people take a baby dose of 5-MeO-DMT and then pussy out and refuse to take any more, thus remaining ignorant. Show me an enlightened person who has done breakthrough 100 trips on a wide variety of substances. I have tripped close to 150 times. So I speak from very deep experience on this matter. I'm not just speculating. I'm telling you things that few humans on this planet can fathom. The next time you talk to an enlightened guru who tells you psychedelics aren't it. Before you listen to him, first ask him: How many trips have you done, and on what substances, at what dosages? This will give you the true reason for their dumb ideas. This is wrong. DMT produces enlightenment and beyond. BTW, DMT is nothing, so it does not contradict your idea that nothing produces enlightenment. If nothing produces enlightenment, then why do all of your gurus charge you money for retreats and teach you practices for enlightenment? They are obviously full of shit hypocrites. DMT cannot produce enlightenment but a workshop or retreat can? Pure horseshit. I can generate an full enlightenment in 15 minutes on command. You guru cannot. There is nothing dualistic or relative about 5-MeO-DMT. Realization is a state change in consciousness. Mind is Infinity. So your point is moot. False. I have fully realized Absolute Truth on psychedelics many times. And as far as knowing what Truth is, I know what it is regardless of what state I am in, regardless of whether I am on psychedelics or not. Truth is experience. It's so simple. Truth is NOT nothingness. Although nothingness is also a part of Truth. Experience IS nothingness. They are identical. This misrepresents the power of psychedelics. All that is true but it is peanuts. The key point of psychedelics is Absolute Truth. If you don't reach Absolute Truth on psychedelics, you're doing them wrong, or your brain genetics are not suitable for psychedelics. Wrong. All states and experiences must be Absolute Truth, otherwise they could be exist and you could not be conscious of them. For anything to arise in consciousness requires it to be Absolute Truth. Because Truth is just existence. A thing cannot exist and not be True. Everything is of the mind, because the only thing that exist is Infinite Mind. You're making the mistake of diminishing "mind". And ironically, you're doing this using your mind. Your entire physical body is purely "of the mind". As are all physical objects. I am conscious that my mind designed my body. Are you? Where do you think your body came from? Who do you think created every hair on your ass? Most of your so-called gurus are not even conscious of self-design, which is why none of them teach it. Self-design is one of these most important realizations you can have. If you call yourself enlightened and you are not conscious of self-design, you are so far from full consciousness. If you are not conscious of how you designed every hair on your ass, you ain't really awake.

@Origins ok. I used ego as one "form" or "content" of awareness with no strict definiton. Its not that improtant though. The important thing is it is a content. No content has power over awareness. Strict definition is not needed in this context. When for example vizualization (with or without an ego) is happening to manifest something in reality, this is already content of awarness. The vizualization has no power over situation. The only thing that has power is that nothingness. But i already said that and i think we agreed on that. The disagreement is probably only in words we use. But i still stand behind the statement that it can be missleading to people saying they have free will, because they are mostly identifying themself with their ego.

Thoughts aren't lies, the logical mind needs anchor points and interconnections to navigate, thus words and concepts. Lies upon lies create complexity, complexity creates pain and the pain creates a pressure and movement to a new state. One can create a problem out of nothing and thus also create a complimentary problem free state where one might want to produce motion to. The strain created in the problem resolves one into the new state. This may be why you're calling your original state as always god and always nothingness and the present state becomes a complexity that must resolve to being god or nothingness. I have a hyperactive throat chakra and when I really wish to push it, I create a storm of thoughts, words and concepts out of nothing in a real world situation and with that storm are created huge influxes of fear, motivation and innumerable qualities that one can float around in. It's consuming but it works and I've held very many successful conversations and negotiations this way with no real context but only floating in thoughts.

Thoughtlessness. Which is “nothingness” or “being” and “now”. Thats why nothingness can not be experienced, can just be.

Nothingness - Existence - Nothingness - Existence - Nothingness ... And so to infinity. A wave is made up of troughs and crests; and they always follow each other

Space literally doesn't exist. Everything exists relative to everything else. If there exists one object in a universe is it possible for it to move in any direction? No, because there is nothing else to be relative to in terms of location. The single object literally exists perpetually in the center of that universe. Infinite nothing expanding outward forever on all sides. Create a universe with two objects and you can now move each object relative to eachother. So, the appearance of distance or space is created by the objects themselves, therefore it is a property of the objects. The mere existence of the second object creates the possibility of the appearance of space. The space in between has no properties. Nothing changed with the space itself, the only thing that changed from the first example universe is the existence of a second object. Space, distance, or dimensions implies the properties existing within nothingness. Nothingness has no properties, there are zero dimensions. There is only the appearance of dimensions because of relativity of things or objects that exist within nothingness. There is only ever present eternal nothing.

TL:DR Received Dzogchen oral transmission. Became aware of Awareness itself, which is Empty, Boundless, Vast and ever-present. Started entering nondual state of consciousness. Progression Received Dzogchen oral transmission. Turned on the music, and started ascending. After the first plateau, there was no sense of self. I tried to sense IAMness, but in vain. This may correspond to the stage of "Self and Ox transcended". There were 6 more, radically increasing in intensity. Then, after focusing awareness on itself, realization came. I have become aware of awareness itself. This realization is in fact so incredibly obvious, but, paradoxically, it's hidden in plain sight. Very hard to speak of this. Awareness of Awareness is now only available when things are relatively still, but it is clear that this is trainable. Now I know what I am, and what I have always been. Empty, Vast, Open Awareness. It is indeed Nothingness. It is also not located anywhere in space. The mind is still. I do not experience any intense bliss, or feel an alternation of consciousness in the previous sense - this is not necessary. This is a place of no desires, no needs, and no suffering. This is the first fruit of Dzogchen. Now, this state of knowledge has to be explored and sustained throughout movement of Form. This to me is the ultimate path. This is a place of true happiness, peace, and tranquility. How do you go from realization to confidence? It's by entering into that flow of pristine awareness knowing itself, and then sustaining that. Sustain the flow of mindfulness and awareness without distraction, without grasping. Maturity and confidence arises as the practice continues. Awareness is open like the clear sky. The moment I try to conceptualize or grasp it, it is contracted. But when I looked at the sky, it became clear that this Vastness is the true attribute of Awareness. Sometimes, I get spontaneous bliss, arising from moments of clarity and equanimity. Every experience is arising in this Emptiness. Awareness is not located in space, much like emotions and thoughts. There is often a strong knowledge that reality is a dream. When you identify with Awareness, there is no suffering. Pain and pleasure are seen as the are - without labelling them as good or bad. They are just what they are. There are degrees to this knowledge state - the more you practice sustaining rigpa, the less suffering you experience. Way to enter this state Relax into the Vast, Empty, sky-like Awareness, which is IAMness. Rest in IAMness without grasping or clinging. Further investigation Rigpa brings inner stillness, peace, equanimity, confidence, and freedom. I am slowly starting to disidentify with the mind and body, and identify with Empty Awareness. Because I know that this is my True Self. It is so fucking vast. You can take as much bliss as you want from it, but it is not that desirable anymore. When in rigpa, good and bad fade away - there is just a play of Form. Every experience is seen for what it is, without background conceptualization and labelling as good/bad. Old egoic habits are seen through, and slowly dismantled. That includes self-image, judging, resisting and looking away, demonizing, grasping/clinging. Every Form is, and has always been impermanent. On the other hand, Emptiness is unchanging and ever-present. Obstacles BUT, currently: Awareness is still restricted by individual consciousness There is a duality of Emptiness and Form This state does not arise in sleep. That will come later. For now everything given is more than enough, and the practice continues. Dzogchen could be defined as a way to relax completely. And this is true. This is the way to the ultimate relaxation, under all circumstances. Pristine Awareness is much like a mirror. A mirror reflects objects, but it is not affected by them. Pristine Awareness can be aware of an infinite number of forms, and it remains unchanged. I also realized that reality I experience is completely arbitrary. Over the last week, when abiding in rigpa, when I am aware of thought, sight, feeling, it is seen it for what it is - a form - and it doesn't move me, because it is neither good or bad. Glimpses of nonduality There is an ability to see Awareness as clearly as ever before. Now its effortlessly seen as Vast, Empty and present in every experience. Also, it is clear that every Form is reflected in it. What is different is that now, the boundary between Emptiness and Form can be dissolved. In this state, instead of awareness of form, there is just seeing/hearing/touching. There is an experience, but no experiencer. In fact, this duality is constructed by the mind, an can be stopped. Woke up and immediately relaxed into awareness of Awareness. And then slipped into nonduality, by stopping producing duality. Next steps Abiding in nonduality, and seeing what happens. By now, it is rather restricted in the sense that I am one with what I currently experience, and the knowledge comes after experience. But there are further stages to this process. The main practice is to explore nonduality, and look where it leads me.

@Adamq8 @GreenWoods consciousness is nothingness . Nothingness or consciousness can just be. As sleep, before birth and now. During your so called sleep or before birth, you are just being, there is no thoughts there as consciousness, or nothingness. Even word of nothingness is not nothing. Therefore nothingness or consciousness is just “being”. Therefore you can not experience consciousness or nothingness, you can just be. peace guys.