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@tsuki I didn't mean that they would have free will after enlightenment. I was saying that, even though we don't have free will we make choices (which actually are illusory) depending on our belief system. But since on enlightenment one realizes nonduality of the world and there is no 'good' and 'evil' anymore than how do they decide what to do, since each thing is equally good. Either you hit your head at wall continuously or sit at one place continuously or go have sex with many men/women or go kill your nieghbour, they are all supposed to be equally good, because there is no duality. (They are all different arrangement of atoms in this universe caused by physical laws) SO, why don't they do 'evil' things ? Because for normal people its social conditioning, fear of jail, morality etc, but enlightened person is beyond the thought based things.
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So, I intellectually understand that there is no free will and there is no individual 'self' anywhere. Its just an illusion having a separate self going through life. Universe is just one process. So, there is no distinction of 'events' from universe's POV, like if one human kills another or rapes another its just a process. Although victims may fell various bad emotions due to different arrangement of atoms in their head. Still, rearrangement of atoms is just process which may produce negative feeling in the individual human. Inherently, in this universe there is no 'good' and 'bad'. There is not even a separate 'thing' in universe that exists by itself. Because its all one. If enlightened person realize this by experience then why don't they act 'evil' ? Why don't they go on killing or raping people? How do they decide what to do when everything is just equally good in this universe, whatever you do. Since there is no duality they could do anything. And if non-duality is true, then how can an individual live in this universe? Because by definition an individual is supposed to have distinction between what is good and what is bad for him and then pursue something and avoids something. If there is no 'good' and 'evil' since nonduality is true, then why don't enlightened individuals do 'evil' things (which actually are not so evil from Universe's perspective)?
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Bobby replied to Tony 845's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
@Tony 845 there were about 2 months where i was like 'damn life is great' after i had my first awakening. then all hell broke lose for 10 (with plenty of nice peaks though). stay mindful and don't stop practicing. and if u have kundalini i highly, highly reccomend the teacher craig holliday as well as the K books on Leo's list! I don't have direct exp of such, but i am fairly confident from that Craig and those books can efficiently help you go from kundalini to nonduality -
TheAvatarState replied to SQAAD's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
@SQAAD I'm not quite sure what you mean. If I lived in a different reality, then I would never meet you. So, by definition, doesn't everyone you meet have to share your current, inherent reality? Am I missing something? Of course people can be on different frequencies or levels of Consciousness, but everyone you've ever met shares your reality. Has to. Unless you're starting to doubt whether anyone else is real or not... That can't be possible, because if you were the only valid point of Consciousness in the universe, and the universe unfolded around solely you, then there would have to be something outside of you. You'd have to be living in some type of simulation, with another real world "out there," and that outer world would have to be nondual. The reason nonduality is the Ultimate truth is because everything is one, and it embraces the paradoxes we see out in the world. You; along with everyone you've ever met, is a sliver of this infinite consciousness, all one. As it has to be. -
TheAvatarState replied to Truth Addict's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
Time is a strange beast. It'll enslave you. If you're really interested in Truth, then the illusion of time can't be something to put your hopes on. That's what everyone else does. "Give it more time, it'll work itself out." "Give a single cell billions of years of time, it'll turn into present-day nature." When has time EVER been on your side? Time is the only thing we don't have. Why would you trust in time if time is an illusion? It sounds like your metaphysics is still grounded in materialism (there are more subtle forms of it). The perspective that "change = distance divided by time" is useful for physics and modeling, but in your own life, you've recognized that all you have is the present moment. Hmmm, how do we make sense of this? From the conscious, present awareness that you are, what does "change" really mean? Is every single cell in your body not changing in every moment? And yet, does the background presence that you are ever change? What is change? How does that relate to your current understanding, and how could that relate to nonduality? How do you bring about change in your own life? And if you're inclined to say "well I need a goal and some time" then ponder whether there's a more direct path or understanding to be had. You may have many misconceptions about what spirituality really is. I highly recommend watching Leo's video on What is Spirituality. But ask yourself: What is spirituality? Is spirituality about meeting some other celestial beings? Woo-woo stuff? Or is it about knowing one's own spirit or self? What could be a higher calling than that. to truly know thyself? Any time you reach to grab Truth with your mind, you instantly take two steps back. Try to understand why this is always the case; it's more certain than the laws of physics. Then become directly conscious of how this happens in real time. Ask yourself: Am I aware? Did you need to think to come up with the answer? It's not a trick question. It's as direct as can be. If you had to think about the answer, then that's the problem right there. Awareness comes prior to thinking, reasoning, seeing, tasting, touching, feeling, emotions, everything. If you can truly understand and experience this, then that's as pure of a spiritual/mystical experience as you will ever get. If really hope I didn't just confuse you more, lol. Laugh. Love. Live. What more could you possible want? There seems to be an egoic longing within you still. Try to locate what that is. And don't attack it. Genuinely try to understand it. Every facet, every angle. Love it. Get to know yourself before you even begin to transcend. -
@Leo Gura He teaches you how to get laid, make money through creating value, taking the right opportunities, and he approaches it in such a systematic manner where he goes in depth about every factor that is contributing to a specific goal and how all different factors function together . Kind of like what you do. You both address the heart of the problem, and from there architect a solution that is sustainable, real and takes in consideration all factor. But nowadays i can't see why Eben's advice would not be appealing to both higher level consciousness and lower level consciousness persons, I actually think its something flawed within his marketing strategy, he isn't advertising himself to a larger audience. And yes i do think it would also appeal to ORANGE, it's not like ORANGE is dumb, it just values self interests, and that's precisely what he teaches you. He doesn't have to water down his teachings for them to appeal to ORANGE, look at Sadhguru for example, his teachings are TURQUOISE but despite that a chunk of his followers are surprisingly, ORANGE (looking to take advantage of some of the benefits, like emotional control, or stopping the monkey mind, or feeling peace) and with Eben he's not teaching you NONDUALITY, hes teaching you to fuck chicks and become a creative money maker ! What more could appeal to ORANGE? But maybe i'm wrong, maybe ORANGE is impulsive and doesn't like to think hard and long in systems to manifest their self interests. It's just a shame that a person like Eben Pagan is getting an average of 500 views, within the first year of a video going up. His advice is much more advanced and valuable that some Tony Robbins feel good shit or some bullshit non systematic CharismaOnCommand advice, Their advice is good to hear and watch and heck even resonate with in the moment, but never is it gonna take you to that second or third step in your life and never is it gonna teach you the skills to actually cultivate mindsets to be able to make your own advice, your always dependant on them for the next piece of non root addressing solutions for problems.
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now is forever replied to kieranperez's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
a lot of south american shamanism is rain forrest shamanism, i’m sure you can find shamans there if you go search for them, i even guess they will teach you a very direct nonduality. i guess it’s different as the ancient big cultures of south america like aztecs, maya and inca didn’t make it until now, the old cultures are subconsciously more suppressed even, they couldn’t transform their knowledge in the same way as india or most asian cultures did, due to historical reasons, so they never developed in that sense “mainstream” sages or techniques. i started to read carlos castaneda quotes like fortune cookies... in my experience the “sages” from south america i heard of - if you can call them sages, are mostly story tellers, like clarissa pinkola estes. and there is a lot to learn from ethnological research of stage purple communities and family living and how they interact with nature. -
@Inliytened1 Eben is stage yellow. Just because he doesn't teach straight up nonduality, don't write his teachings off as "lesser."
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TheAvatarState replied to Rilles's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
Try to understand. It's the perspective that can't be "perspectived." Because it's by definition the cumulation of all, including the one your thinking right now. The mind can conceptualize it as a perspective, but that is an aping. Nonduality is not a perspective. If it was, who or what would be perceiving it? And a perspective, by definition, is a singular point of view! Also notice that the mind can only hold one perspective at a time. -
TheAvatarState replied to Rilles's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
@Yousef sort of. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think nonduality is the infinity perspective, containing all other perspectives. But the word perspective kind of breaks down here, because a perspective requires something to perceive it. All perspectives are fundamentally partial. But nonduality is itself, it can't go outside itself to view itself. It created itself. So it's not so much a perspective as it is all of reality. That's why you need a direct experience of nonduality, because it can't be grasped only from the mind. -
TheAvatarState replied to Rilles's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
@Rilles that's in the dream, at least, because you're the only thing conscious in the dream. Think of minecraft, as you move through the world it gets rendered, and the next village over doesn't exist until it's a certain number of chunks away. Now what if the very fabric of waking reality is consciousness? If everything was directly rendered and aware of itself, even deep space? If we're in a giant, connected mind? Think of your dream, but make a huge recontextualization, that you could simultaneously inhabit several perspectives, but the ultimate viewpoint is nonduality. -
Akuma replied to sarapr's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
@sarapr You must be very new to nonduality. Logic is just one facet of intelligence. However, you can't grasp nothingness with your logical mind and you can't use symbols to encapsulate reality. Your logical mind is finite, reality is infinite. When asked about enlightenment and nothingness, Bodhidharma replied - there is nothing to say, there is nothing to teach. However, you must study and learn, but you also must practise diligently. Find a balance between the two. I said this metaphor to someone here yesterday, but it illustrates what we are discussing quite well, so here it is: What disappears the moment you say its name? Answer: - Silence You see the more you try to explain what silence is to someone, the further from the truth you will be. The more words, language and sounds you make to explain what silence is, the more you will puzzle that person. The only way to understand silence is to stop philosophising about it, become quiet - and there it is. In his videos, Leo is using his finger to point at the moon and you are paying so much attention to his finger that you are missing the moon. -
What I present here are Leo's original 65 core principles (plus 2 of my own), compiled and organized into an extremely helpful list to help orient you through life. I call it "The Compass." For this is a man-made tool to help guide you through the turbulent oceans and wild mountains of everyday life. This compass POINTS to Truth, but is itself just a collection of symbols. I have found this guide to be extremely accurate and useful in my own life so far. If you haven't already, please watch The 65 Core Principles Of Living The Good Life as Leo goes into much more juicy detail on each principle. All credit for this post goes to @Leo Gura. The first 4 principles are the purposes of life. Orient your life to embody these: Raise your consciousness. Raise your capacity to love. Take in the beauty of life. To feel alive! To not have a single day where you're just going through the motions. The key to this is to bring consciousness into every task, even the most mundane. Practice present conscious awareness and acceptance. There is no suffering to be found here. (This is my own principle I added) Ego is the root of all human problems and suffering. Self-deception. Self-bias. All fear, all judgment, all evil, all anger, and all suffering are delusion and falsehood. Do not demonize anyone. No ideology or dogma of any kind. Be radically open-minded. Recognize that you enter this world not knowing anything. You must explore all facets of reality without any pre-judgments, for you truly do not know a thing unless you've experienced it. Being close-minded cuts you off from direct experience. Also recognize that many of the deepest truths are counter-intuitive and will appear silly or crazy on the surface. Question everything. Especially the most "obvious" things, as those are often the most misunderstood. Question the outside world as well as your inside one. Literally. Everything. Direct experience is King. In order to cut through the bullshit of society and your own mind, ground yourself in your present direct experience. Do not judge things which you have not personally experienced. If someone talks to you about something you've never explored, keep your mouth shut and your ears open. Self-experimentation is the only way to truly find what works. This requires radical open-mindedness. Prioritize big picture thinking over technical knowledge. Care about philosophical and metaphysical matters. Genuinely care about the Truth no matter the cost. Love Truth for Truth's sake. The Vow; my blood. Genuinely intend to understand every point of view. Appreciate that the world is nothing but different perspectives. Integral thinking. Spiral dynamics stage yellow. From studying multiple perspectives, gain a meta-perspective at the intersections of all. What does that tell us about life? Every point of view is fundamentally partial; there is a sliver of Truth to be found in every perspective. Pull from hundreds of diverse sources. When you do this, the Truth gets triangulated and the big picture emerges. Lifelong learning and self-education. Cultivate a thirst for knowledge and wisdom. This process should never end. Do not be cheap with your self-education. Develop a system for taking notes and organizing the information, such as a commonplace book. Observation. The essence of learning is observation. It is through observation that insights come. Build your metaphysical connection to reality. This is what spirituality is. You are not an object that exists in the universe, you are existence itself; you ARE the universe. Do the opposite of what everyone else is doing (of course don't be dogmatic about it, be conscious of how you apply this). Reality is deeply counter-intuitive. Expect that reality will work the exact opposite of how you think it will, until you get experience with it. Absolute Truth exists, but it cannot be thought, imagined, communicated, spoken, written, proven, or argued. Nonduality is the ultimate Truth. Reality is perfect. Reality is infinite and God is a real thing. The word God points to infinity. You are God. Remove ego from this realization. You created yourself, you are everything. Only when you realize you are God will you take full responsibility for your life. Reality is not material. It is a giant mind. It is all imaginings within a mindscape, and mindscape is all that there ever is. All one. Life is a dream. And like a dream, it is possible to awaken from it. That is, to become lucid and stop taking it so seriously. 99.9+% of people are deluded and asleep, and they don't know about any of these deeper principles. Which means you can't look to others for guidance on this path. When it comes to your own well-being, you are essentially alone. This doesn't mean you can't find help in a specific avenue where someone has complete mastery of, like a doctor or therapist or counselor. However, very, very few people could ever provide you with proper guidance in big picture thinking, and the only true guidance is to look within yourself. It's all there. I understand that these principles serve as a compass to help orient me, not a Holy Book itself. Question everything, but do the work. All of these principles make sense to me now but wouldn't have just a couple years ago. This is only because of my direct experience. Society is still in the Dark Ages. We are still in adolescence as a species. Very pathological and dysfunctional. God is the devil. This is a distinction that collapses. When you understand, you'll stop seeing evil in the world, and that all the "bad" things do in fact have a higher purpose and intelligence behind them. All identity is relative and fluid. The goal is to dis-identify with your egoic constructions and to start aligning with one-ness and Truth. This is the trick to overcoming death. Or put another way, it is the trick to realizing you're already "dead," to overcome that fear. Out of this nothingness, you can truly start living. Everything is relative. A thing is only known in relation to something else. Prioritize context over facts. Recontextualization is an extremely helpful tool. Everything boils down to inner game. Your psychology. Everything you think is "external" is actually a reflection of you. Authenticity. In every facet of your life. Develop a life purpose. Figure out who you are and what you want out of life. Without this, you get the default--mediocrity. Be a strategic motherfucker. The 7 pillars of strategic thinking are: 1. Strategic Intent, 2. Strategic Analysis, 3. Strategic Preparation, 4. Concentration of Force, 5. Detailed Execution, 6. Adaptability, 7. Study of Principles. Watch Leo's video with the same title. Take 100% responsibility. Anything less is suffering. Be a leader. Be proactive. Be decisive. Take risks. Be a creator. Tap into the joy of creativity. Provide massive value to mankind. Become a master at something. This should directly be tied to your life purpose. Reason and rationality cannot be trusted. All the highest insights are trans-rational. Embrace confusion, paradox, and not knowing. Develop emotional mastery. It is emotion that dominates the reasoning process. Integrate the masculine and the feminine. Do not lie. (my own rule, but one worth saying. Of course, follow this consciously. This should be 99%+ true, not necessarily 100%. Be aware that in many cases you feel like you should lie, there's a way to structure the truth in a way that's more acceptable. You should never tell a bold-faced lie. By lying, you actually poison yourself and stray from authenticity.) Do not manipulate. Satisfy your base needs so that you stop craving. Using Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs to self actualize video. Master your basic survival and livelihood. Learn business. Learn how money works. Keep your life simple and spartan. Practice minimalism. When your life frees up, the ego mind will seek to fill it with various obligations, commitments, and distractions. Use that time instead for personal development. Be a systems thinker. Develop an awareness for the ecological interconnectedness of things. Leo's Intro to systems thinking video. Think ecologically. How are you impacting the world? Be conscious. Happiness is only possible with enlightenment. No material possessions will ever make you happy. This is more certain than the laws of physics. Learn to be happy all by yourself. If you can't be happy sitting on your couch doing nothing, then you can't truly be happy. "Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god." -Aristotle Development AND Awakening; not one or the other, not one above the other. Without practice, exercises, and techniques, there will be no results. Theory alone, while important, will not produce much results. Here are the most important and powerful practices for personal growth: psychedelics, meditation, meditative yoga, journaling, contemplation, self-inquiry, visualization, and solo retreats. Plan to meditate for one hour every day for the rest of your life. Do not turn Actualized.org into an ideology.
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Good! Yes! Forget about nonduality and spiral dynamics for a while, and just live life...
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Leo Gura replied to Tony 845's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
That's because there is more to mastery than merely the realization of no-self or nonduality. You'd have to go deeper with your consciousness work and become conscious of what suffering and pain are. Which is NOT the same thing as enlightenment. You can be enlightened, but you do not have total mastery and you are not conscious of everything your body/mind is doing. You are not yet conscious of how you create suffering. Initial stages of enlightenment are very far from mastery of the mind/body. There's still tons of stuff you ain't conscious of. Hence in practice an awoke newbie will still suffer. -
Sahil Pandit replied to Akuma's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
@Akuma Can't wait to dive into this! Yeah, I really wish Joe would discover NonDuality already -
TheAvatarState replied to Sockrattes's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
@Sockrattes The "Absolute" is a word which points to something. That something cannot be symbolized or thought of. It lies beyond concept (and including it). Which means by definition, these machine elves must be a part of the Absolute. Because if they lay outside infinity, then infinity would immediately have to include them to stay infinity. If these machine elves were beyond nonduality, then you'd have to explain what they are and how they got there... Which gives you the same problem doesn't it? The true essence of everything is nothing. Groundless ground. As it must be! Really try to understand this, if you have any questions let me know. These machine elves ARE you. They are projections of infinite consciousness, resulting in a first-person experience or appearance. Does this mean you're going insane? Of course not! By that definition, we're all clinically insane, because this is nothing more than a mass hallucination! There's no objective hallucination that's more valid than the other. It's all you. It's all perception. Be open to the possibility that these elves are trying to tell you something extremely important. And listen with an open mind. -
I don't know guys. Now I am thinking that this enlightenment stuff is bullshit. I think that I have gone too far. I want to live a normal life now but I can't do it anymore cause nothing matters to me Anymore. I was committed to this actualized.org way an now I think I have made mistake and I kind of regret . And if this way is false I don't know what way to follow than. I wish right now that I have not known all this stuff. Cause my mind is telling me that I have gone crazy. I think leo might be crazy too. Maybe he has believed all kind if stuped stuff using psychedelics and all this theory And now I have done it also. Cause u can believe whatever u want under this substances. And this thought that I have gone crazy and that I have fucked up my life is always in my mind. And it is growing and growing. And I am afraid where it might lead. And I can't stop it. I don't know how to live anymore. I can't even say to therapist what is wrong with me. I think he will not understand all this nonduality stuff and will think I am crazy and will give me some drugs. I can't say what is wrong with me to my parents and brother and friends cause I was alone in this work. Thay already though I was going crazy with souch meditation and non dual work. And they might be right. And I don't see any way how can I come out of it. So I am here. Daubting meditation. Non dual work. My growth. Leo. This way. Enlightenment. My sanity. Hopeless. Have lost interest in everything. Afraid of staying alone. Afraid of thinking. Ally values, meanings , purpose have gone. It seems I am falling in darchness deeper and deeper and no one is helping me. And that no one really can help me. And I can't help myself eather. I think it will just get worth and darcker and at some point i might end this suffering.
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TheAvatarState replied to Hugo Ferraro's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
@Hugo Ferraro Thank you for sharing your journey and insights! I'm also in my early journey myself, but I'd like to share my thoughts. First of all, nonduality is not a belief/paradigm. Of course the ego can treat it as one, so watch out for that. But that's only your projection of what you think nonduality is at this stage in your life. A paradigm is a limiting belief system because it takes certain aspects of reality for granted, and usually makes a distinction between "subjective" and "objective." That is not nonduality. Nonduality is the ultimate Truth because it recognizes, cooked deep into the core, that all perspectives are partial. It's not a belief because you can become directly conscious and aware of this truth through a mystical experience. All spirituality points to this. And of course, the Truth cannot be written, spoken, or proven. It cannot be grasped with the human mind, it can only be experienced. And why would you expect anything less from the Absolute? Language, in essence, is made up of symbols that only mean something in relation to each other. Language breaks down at nonduality because it cannot point to itself. It is itself. Try to grasp the significance of this. You're completely right that there's a strong faith component when starting out. It's necessary with any type of experimentation, scientific or spiritual, because you simply don't know unless you do the tests. There's no such thing as faith-free. However, you need to distinguish blind faith from pragmatic faith and finding the answers yourself. Notice that fundamentalist religion is blind faith, and true spirituality (what we're doing here) is pragmatic faith, where faith is a stepping stone to Truth. Also, I don't like to refer to my journey as one towards enlightenment. My journey doesn't end when I reach enlightenment. And more so than that, enlightenment is not a destination. It's right before your eyes, you're just not conscious of it yet. I'm aware that seeking enlightenment is a dangerous trap for the ego, because "seeking" entails an "I don't want to be here" component, or an escape, or a longing. THAT is ego. Be open to the possibility that your drive for enlightenment could be coming from the ego. Because if you truly understood enlightenment, you'd understand that it's right here. All spirituality is, is to work on becoming conscious of what's already here. Enlightenment itself is the end of suffering and longing; complete contentment and peace with what's here. So why do you think you need to search for it? Now I'm not saying this is the case for you, just warning you of a common trap. Good luck! -
Forestluv replied to winterknight's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
When a phrase is beyond description, sometimes you give a couple statements: One that is closer to the Truth and one that is next closest to the Truth. A phrase like "the brain does not exist" seems like it can have different meanings / level of understandings. 1) The brain does not exist, because by strict nondual standards, nothing can be said at all. Merely saying "brain" is a step too far. Thus, the brain (or anything) neither has existence or non-existence. 2) The brain does not exist, because by non-strict nondual standards, there is One Everything. If there is One Everything, then there is No Thing - then Everything = No Thing = Nothing. The brain (or any thing) cannot exist separate from One Everything. 3) Since nothing can exist separate from One Everything/Nothing, both nonduality and duality collapse into One. The Absolute and the Relative are One. From the perspective of the Absolute, there is no brain that exists separate from the Absolute. From the perspective of the Relative, the brain does exist if one accepts relative terms. Thus, the brain is neither existence or non-existence and is simultaneously existence and non-existence. 4) All of reality is a like a dream. Literally, none of it exists. It's all an illusion. 5) The "brain" is just a concept that does not physically exist. If we examine a brain very closely with highly technical equipment - beyond atoms and quarks - we find empty space. I've come across all of these explanations and I can "get" each one if I assume different contexts and word usages. Would you say that one or more of the statements are "closer" to the Truth? Are one or more further from the Truth? Do they overlap with each other and kinda say the same thing in different ways? I think this can be an area of confusion for seekers and something I'd like to clarify within my "brain". -
winterknight replied to winterknight's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
By the strictest nonduality standards, nothing can be said at all, really, not even this sentence (so this is already one step down from that strictest standard). And thus nothing can be said of anything, either -- neither existence nor non-existence can be attributed, and no objects can be named. Not even the idea of "object" can be admitted. -
Forestluv replied to winterknight's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
By strict nonduality standards, would you say that nothing exists? -
winterknight replied to winterknight's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
Well it's not quite either. Certainly the idea of a radio wave is just a model, but that doesn't mean that only what you experienced exists. Actually a) technically even what you experienced cannot be said to exist if you go by strict nonduality. So if that doesn't exist then neither is there any question of what underlies it. But b) if you do want to say that the experience of the TV turning on does exist, then certainly there is something underlying that experience and which causes it -- that is, the set of universal laws, or else you can call it God's will (my preference). At best we can only make models of this. Thanks. Yeah, I know some people like this model, but not me. There is a single liberation (and not even that!). The mind may "change" after that, but those are not "deeper stages of enlightenment." Those are just the various bindings and tendencies of the mind altering over time. And really, enlightenment is the recognition that the mind itself simply cannot be said to exist. -
Mu_ replied to Emanyalpsid's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
Ok, thanks for the responses so far, but still and I find this interesting of conversation in general, its so hard to nail down what someone is pointing sometimes. Can you describe more by what you mean as no-thing. Is this a state/experience that is within your every experience. Is it wisdom gained through what you;ve pointed to in Buddhist understanding as everything being relative in relation to something else, conscious/reality, flower/soil/sun/earth, feelings/body/mind. This wisdom is a no-thing? Or is this no-thing an actual understanding of it/oneself/the universe and It being the source of all? See from where I stand, there is never not god/infinity/oneness/nonduality. I see what you've been describing within this bubble since nothing is not that. Absolute is a interesting term I was reflecting on my bike-ride to work after I used the term. It can have isolating/hierarchical interpretations. When understood of what I'm talking about, Absolute is not on this scale, nothing is not Absolute, so all is thus absolute. A baby craving food, is Absolute in that form, having Absolute experience. You or I awakening to this understanding again is Absolute in action as such and this experience is no higher or lower then the babies, its all Absolute/God/Inifinty. Waking up to this understanding as a human is a metaphorical pointing to a actual truth that is not merely just a belief a person/body/mind is having, its pointing like Buddhist believe the sun to rise in the east and set in the west, to a actual occurrence that humans fit within wether we are here or not. This isn't some ignorance arising in the clean eye of no-thingness or a illusion held onto a self for security, which I sometimes get the sense is where your coming from. Correct me if I'm wrong. -
graded24 replied to Goutam nimmakayala's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
An Indian here. To understand General Relativity one doesn't have to learn about Germany, or Jewish culture, because Einstein was Jewish and German. Same applies to non-dual knowledge. Calling it "indian-Nonduality" is the most unfortunate kind of oxymoron. If you understood nonduality such petty discriminations of east and west wont have any place in your psyche. And FYI, most indians dont meditate and they have no idea about nonduality. Most are involved in the bhakti-Hinduism which is no different from any other paganism. Sure there is whip of non-duality here and there but it is more like the relics of once great culture. So dont talk about how one has to learn indian culture to really understand Nonduality. Nothing can be farther from the truth. I lived in india for long, right in the cultural center, and all i saw was religion as usual. Religious gurus nothing different from western televangicals and religion nothing different from a set of rules to be followed with harry-potter-for-adults mythology.