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Hi this is the second time I am asking this question. I think I figured out how to ask it better this time. I am sorry if the question seems seemingly simple but I take a long time to set up the asking. Last time I asked this question I got a lot of people ignoring the question to tell me not to ask it. I want to see what it is like to fear death. I don't think I have had that fear truly before in my life, and if I have, it slipped out of my memory, unnoticed. I want to see that fear of death, understand it, or at the least, be able to compare life and death in a meaningful way. currently death has no meaning to me, and I do not fear it... I'm not really sure what to say. The methods for consciousness work I currently use limit how I can pursue that. I only practice Acitve Mindfulness, where I practice my awareness, or other mental skills, while being active throughout the day. When I spend time contemplating, it is during walks. Otherwise I am simply practicing returning to awareness as often as I can, and increasing my ability for it. This primarily comes from the statement, "awareness alone is curative" - compared with my need to be motivated and capable of taking action. So, I will be walking when I contemplate the fear of death. That is the limit to what work I will be doing towards understanding or experiencing the fear of death. I tried comming up with ideas, tried contemplating it a few times, but I feel lost, and am looking for suggestions. I need a different angle, one that I have overlooked - and I've honestly got no angles at all. My best idea was to investigate the fleeting nature of life, but that has got me no where meaningful. Two questions, either or both, I am seeking an answer to: How can I contemplate the fear of death while walking, to either understand it, or experience it directly? What is it like to fear death? please do not get distracted by the following: I am not going to run into the street or anything along that line. I am not going to do any drugs. Those of you who think I shouldn't fear death, just leave. You only show your arrogance and uselessness as a peer to peer mentor if you fail to accept my simple and direct question. don't try to talk about ego. 90% of the forums right now are obsessed with ego, and as such, the discussion is spam. I have ego. You have ego. It is what it is. Ignore it, if you cannot, then don't post here please. similarly, 75% of the boards go on and on about enlightenment, consiousness, and nonduality on a level where they literally contradict themselves or other posts just to explore cleverness. I am not seeking that here. The neti neti method is not one I want to apply to my seeking the fear of death. Please trust that I know what I am seeking and asking for, and answer one or both of my questions directly. Do not try to analyze who I am or try to argue against what I seek. again, sorry for the long post. TL:DR/summary - answer this question: "how can I fear death?" or this one: "what is it like to fear death?" - and don't go see it as anything other than a simple question. no drugs no ego no "you shouldn't fear death". I have a pursuit I want to test out to see where it leads me. I found myself stuck, not sure of how to pursue it. I am simply looking for some way to move forward in my pursuit.

@Shanmugam You are asking yourself about nonduality.

Fair enough. Your arguments have value indeed. I never followed sadhguru for Enlightenment related teachings I only found some valuable insights in his general talk and wisdom. For nonduality teachings I only follow Rupert Spira and you know that. And your advice is always valuable.

My approach really isn't different. It's just that my work is much more holistic. Most teachers teach a strictly narrow path toward enlightenment in the same way that most math teachers only teach math. But that doesn't mean that life is only about math. See, most enlightenment teachers won't talk about how to have great sex. Because that's not their specialization. But that doesn't mean learning how to have great sex isn't deeply rewarding and worthwhile. Or that becoming enlightened obviates such learning. What you see with Actualized.org is not me being a nonduality teacher. You see my general passion for learning about life, of which nonduality just happens to be ONE facet. My goal was never nonduality, but living a great life and learning about a variety of cool stuff. Enlightenment is ONE domain of life. It just happens to be a very important domain because it's the domain of "What is the substance of EVERYTHING?" That's a pretty important and epic domain. But nevertheless, it's just ONE domain. And enlightenment is -- strictly speaking -- no more important than anything else. There is no reason why you should become enlightenment. And there is nothing wrong with you if you choose to ignore enlightenment entirely and decide to go become a potato farmer or an axe murderer instead. Life is free. You can do whatever the hell you like. Just be ware of the consequences. You cannot derive an ought from an is. If it's an illusion... so what? Life goes on just as before. The only difference is you understand it's an illusion. You can still raise your illusory children, walk your illusory dog, jerk your illusory dick, and eat your illusory ice cream. You can be miserable in the illusion or joyful in the illusion. Either way it's an illusion. And it doesn't matter how you feel about it from the universe's perspective. But how you feel probably makes all the difference from your perspective.

Just be a radically openminded scientist. Which means, you don't exclude any phenomena a priori. You are open to running any kind of experiment and you are willing to accept the results whatever they end up being, even it the result is paradoxical, unorthodox, radical, or undermines the very enterprise of conventional science. The perfect scenario is to realize the Absolute for yourself, become fully enlightened, and then you will be able to do incredible science if you still desire to. All scientists MUST study and seriously contemplate epistemology, metaphysics, transpersonal psychology, holism, and nonduality. Without that, you cannot be a good scientist. With that, you can be the next Einstein. FYI, many of the fathers of quantum mechanics were mystics. They were no orthodox materialist fools. Which is why they were able to figure out quantum mechanics in the first place. The best scientists think precisely along the lines I advocate. They are radically openminded and anti-traditionalist. Don't get discouraged about science. It will reform itself in the next 100 years. We need good people leading the way. Science is quickly coming around on nonduality.

captain fireheart. Phew! I braved yet another ego shitstorm. Not sure when the next one will hit. The emotional weather forecast predicts sunny tomorrow... But who knows; those damn weathermen are wrong most of the time. Speaking of weather, I think that's been a main contributing factor. The long winter, lack of light, and loneliness is making me stir-crazy. Suicidal thoughts, but no planning. I just collapse on my bed. That's much easier to handle, because the body usually gets up on its own. Over the past couple days, here's what's helped me: familial support, talk therapy, staying in nutritional ketosis, omega-3's, st. john's wort, prayer, and patience. Still, things are very rickety. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. Anyway, I released my EP, Captain Fireheart, tonight. It's a rendering of the five stages of grief, what I felt after my friend committed suicide. It also pays homage to the awakening process. I sprinkled in a few nonduality references here and there, as always with my songwriting. By the way, the album art is one of his drawings. He was going through his own awakening process before I even heard about enlightenment. Back then, he kept telling me about Terrence McKenna and the power of psychedelics, and he kept asking me insistently, "WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS? WHAT IS IT?" In my ignorance, I dismissed him. But now, I'm carrying his torch. He's the one who brought me to this path. If only I knew then what I know now... Rest in peace, Captain. May you be blessed. You can check it out here: To access lyrics, click on the individual songs, or go to the bandcamp site: https://bschwartz.bandcamp.com/album/captain-fireheart The EP is meant to be listened in one sitting, since the songs flow into each other, just like emotions. I also plan to publish it on spotify eventually. All in due time. Cheers!

Be very careful here. Your understanding of science is lacking and your perspective has many factual inaccuracies. Here are some corrections for you: Science has conclusively disproven the existence of matter, absolute time, and absolute space over 100 years ago. Black holes, anti-matter, curvature of space-time says nothing about the ontology of such things. You are confusing phenomena with substance. Spirituality doesn't disqualify proper science, nor vice-versa. Reality according to quantum mechanics is an infinite quantum wave function (nondual singularity) with no such thing as space, time, particles, or a physical world. Quantum mechanics has shown that the process of observation necessarily affects all knowledge of the world because subject/object are entangled. Most of the fathers of quantum mechanics were in fact mystics. They did not believe in materialism. Biology has never proven the existence of an ego. Science has never proven the existence of a physical world. Science has never proven the existence of any boundaries between objects. The best cosmological theories seem to show that the universe arose from nothing. The latest evidence from biology is showing that evolutionary mutations are non-random. All of the above inaccuracies come from mainstream cultural notions of science, which are 300 years out of date and totally backwards. Real science is not what people think it is. And the most modern science fully supports and is compatible with nonduality. Obviously, because the universe is nondual. There is a big difference between strict scientific observations (which are valid) and science as a materialist religion (which is invalid). The place where popular science gets into trouble is when it tries cast the world as a clockwork universe. But this has been clearly disproven for over 100 years. The worldview of Aristotle and Newton is dead. The only problem is, 99% of people still don't realize it. Because their understanding of modern science is a woefully inadequate cartoon caricature.

@Jackthelad Well, either way, I think the obvious thing for you to do would be to basically be the Actualized Roast Master General and really just let us all have it with our ‘nonduality’ and ‘mindfulness’, etc. There’s a gold mine of material here. Like how Ray Ramono derives material from marriage, and Seinfeld from doing nothing... you could create the genre of good hearted, yet deeply bitter, nonduality “seeker” mockery.

Hello folks, long time follower, first-time poster here. This past summer, thanks to following the path laid out by Uncle Leo (That's what we call him in my home, although he's younger), I woke up. I see and experience the unity daily and at times become so zoned out while meditating, I tear up with bliss but still have many old remnants and still have issues with the idea of a soul. Here is something that I have been contemplating off and on for a little while now, I hope I can explain my thoughts. If things are as I see them now, there is only one soul, but if things are not as they seem, I would consider the soul to be an array variable, as is used in software such as this very Forum and any program that is not extremely basic. For those who are not familiar with programming, here's a copy/paste of what an array variable is. "An array is a variable containing multiple values. Any variable may be used as an array. There is no maximum limit to the size of an array, nor any requirement that member variables be indexed or assigned contiguously. Arrays are zero-based: the first element is indexed with the number 0." By combining Buddhism with software practices and throwing nonduality out the door (or at least seeing the soul as a many-sided coin as the base of everything), perhaps the soul can be considered an array variable. All of our thoughts, experiences, and actions are smaller variables which accumulate over time and become a part of the larger variable -- the array/soul. The first element "0" could perhaps represent our birth/death/purpose/anything of utmost importance to the variable. When the functions that make use of this variable end (this existence), the variable would either be wiped clean and freed up, or recycled and embedded into a new function. This could explain both transcendence and reincarnation. This idea might not be a new concept but figured I'd share my thoughts and say hello to you fine people. Hello! How ya dooooooooooin?

I came across a page where someone has beautifully conveyed what I wanted to convey to some people. Make sure you read the complete essay. He talks about a beautiful paradox in a very good way. . I think it will be really worth it for many people to read especially those people who are 'conditioned' by some of the neo-Advaita teachers.. Also look up 'Andrew Cohen' and his confessions. http://www.lifewithoutacentre.com/writings/the-birth-and-death-of-fundamentalism-in-nonduality-and-advaita-teachings/

It wasn't a metaphore and it wasn't a belief. I've had the experience of awaking from life to see that it was just a dream. You can too. At this level of realization, ordinary life as you knew it is over. You are literally physically dead. Don't assume you've got enlightenment figured out. There are many depths to it. Realizing no-self is one thing, and realizing that all of reality is unreal is yet another. It is possible to be so conscous that you look around the room and the very physical objects you see around are realized to be non-existent. Someone could point a loaded gun to your head and you would not care if they pulled the trigger because you absolutely know it is unreal and makes no difference. Your true nature is infinite and unkillable. Because you already are death itself. "There is no doubt whatsoever that the universe is the merest illusion." -- Ramana Maharshi At this point I sometimes forget that 99.9999% of people -- even those who pursue enlightenment -- have no direct experience of what I am saying, and so to them it sounds like nonsense or exaggeration or cute metaphores or philosophical theories or some word game or me misinterpreting the scriptures. It is not that. It is precisely as I said. The only problem is, it's too damn radical and requires years of hardcore consciousness work to glimpse without 5-MeO-DMT. Many of you guys are still underestimating the full ramifications of nonduality. It's far more radical that you presently realize. That is okay. It's impossible to understand it so long as you are yourself. All I would suggest is, don't get cocky. Don't think you got this thing figured out just because you watched some Rupert Spira videos or did a few hits of LSD. There's more to the rabbit hole than meets the eye, and lots of people I notice are starting to get too cocky here -- starting to dismiss all reading and all theory as mental masturbation -- just because they've dipped their toe into it or watched a bunch of over-simplified neo-advaita videos. The scriptures are voluminous for good reason. This stuff ain't so simple as people first expect. Show respect to the wide range of subtle literature on this topic. Read all the books on my book list in the Consciousness category. Only then will you will start to apprecitate the depth, complexity, and subtlty here.

It was LSD. I have not done 5-MeO in over a year. At this point I am extremely sensitive to even small doses of any kind of psychedelic. A recreational dose will send me into full-on Buddha-like nonduality with all the classic insights you read about in the scriptures and books. It's quite amazing.

yin and yang. Nonduality: There is absolutely nothing I need, ever. The Dream: As a video game character in a simulation-less simulation, I have many needs. A good idea is to fulfill them. Gives me something fun to do while I'm waiting to die. Nonduality: There is absolutely nothing to seek. I am that I am. Tat tvam asi. The Dream: I can spend my entire life seeking and still not find everything. How cool is that? Nonduality: I am Nothingness/God/Brahman/Consciousness/Awareness/Einsof/Abyss/Allah/White Whale/Flying Spaghetti Monster, and I just sit there, being myself. The Dream: I am a unique video game avatar, with quirks, strengths, weaknesses, and apparent free will. I can spend my entire life in the dream discovering myself. That involves lots of suffering, but also lots of peaks. The cool part: I can learn to make suffering just as meaningful as the peaks. As mah neighbah Nietzsche once said, "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how." Nonduality: In order to discover myself, I have to die. The Dream: In order to discover myself, I have to live.

check out science and nonduality youtube channel. there are tones of scientists connecting consciousness, enlightenment and physics

@WildeChilde The difference is what you're identified as. If you identify with being a tree in the forest, when that tree dies, that's the end. But when you identify with being the entire forest, you never die. Materialism says you are the little self. Nonduality means you are the Infinite Self. It's a very different paradigm. Yes, the little self will die. In fact, it never really existed. But the Infinite Self is Absolute.

This is very common for newbies. If you see the true masters, they are all very relaxed and enjoying the moment effortlessly, without thinking about spiritual principles. And there is nothig worse than preaching spirituality, nonduality to people. Some quotes for inspiration: “My family hates me when I am a Buddhist, but they love me when I am a Buddha.” Forgot who said that ”The goal is not to perfect yourself, but to perfect your love.” Jack Kornfield ”You didn’t come here to be perfect. You came here to be real.” Ralph Smart (?) Jack Kornfield himself once told about a student of his that said, “I am dissapointed” Jack asked, “About what?” “You! Because I thought you were calm but seeing you in this retreat, you look like a italian shoesales man.” In other words, although Jack has been practicing meditation for decades, he is still imperfect. He said one time that he always skip a step on the stairs to save time. I don’t know if you mentioned this in the Dropping The Roles You Play video, but that is ine role that we, self-help junkies, should all be very mindful.

I resonate more with the second group. I find myself being pulled toward this process. I've entered nonduality - usually with psychedelics and a few glimpses without. One question on your phrase "they know that it is the only way out". I've had awareness/realization that what my self wants will not materialize or be fulfilled. All the hopes, desires, intentions, planning, goal setting and actions will never "arrive". Yet, my mind-body often behaves otherwise. My mind engages in thinking like "As soon as xyz, then. . . ", If she would just xyz, then. . . ". "If I had just said xyz, then she wouldn't be upset with me". As well, when I sense distance with my girlfriend, my body produces neurotransmitters and hormones. I yearn to hold her. I feel anxiety that I may not hold her and feel the intimacy again, there is fear she may leave. My blood becomes more acidic, I feel pain in my gut. I interpret her actions and inactions as signs she is losing interest in me. I desire reassurance to settle the insecurity. I feel motivated to please her. People advise me to "set boundaries", "to develop better communication", "to take care of myself", "to articulate what I need in the relationship". This can be tempting as "The Way Out" of uncomfortable feelings and suffering. Yet, sometimes I'm aware The Story is the issue and that my self is trying to get something, somewhere that doesn't exist. That the loss of The Story is "The Way Out", Yet, in spite of this The Story and associated feelings continue - even when I am aware it's just The Story. What is the next stage? To just be aware of The Story and all it's thoughts and feelings? Or to focus on the illusionary nature of the self and Story to reduce the strength of The Story?

So to be clear, you are arguing that enlightenment-which at its core can be described as a transcendence of dualistic concepts- is itself a dualistic concept, i.e. a person is either Enlightened or Unenlightened? This strikes me as a paradox. If enlightenment is a realization of nonduality, then how can you apply dualistic concepts to it? I vastly prefer the Buddhist description of enlightenment (or at least the one that Thich Naht Hanh uses in his writings). You are already enlightened. Everything that encompasses enlightenment is already within you, the process that we think of as enlightenment is just the process of pealing back the layers of ego, mindlessness and other bull that prevent us from recognizing our "inherent" enlightenment. This removes the dualistic nature of enlightened vs. unenlightened, but what I really like is that it removes the idea of "achieving" enlightenment from the equation. It turns it into something you "realize" instead. This solves the problem of applying dualistic thought to something that by its very nature is nondual, because there is no distinction. An unenlightened person doesn't become enlightened, rather enlightenment itself is a never ending state of becoming more enlightened. Long story short, I like Leo's way of presenting enlightenment as something with stages. It helps limit dualistic thinking and emphasizes enlightenment as a process, while still acknowledging progress along the path. Just my two cents.

@Outer Stephen Hawking, for example is a major scientist. Or Sean Carol. Or anyone else. You haven't investigated this issue deeply enough. Philosophy of Science is a very nuanced and deep topic. Stay humble and open. There is way too more this nonduality stuff than meets the eye, or than most nonduality teachers teach. The applications of nonduality are very far-reaching. Just be willing to investigate rather than arguing. Be thought, patient, and careful in your research. Go read 20 books about epistemology and philosophy of science. Take a few university courses on it. Then we can talk further.

@StephenK Mouse and I don't really disagree on much. It's mostly just a difference in emphasis and style. He wants you to take a very narrow approach, pure neti neti -- because that's the approach that apparently worked well for him. There is value in that if your only concern is the direct pursuit of the Absolute and nothing else matters to you and you are 100% motivated to get to the Absolute. For a few people that will work. But for most people it will not simply because they have a lot of psychological obstacles to deal with first and they won't resonate with neti neti. Each path has its pros and cons. And then there are issues outside of the domain of strict nonduality, like epistemology or philosophy of science or mastering your emotions or how to be a good human being or what you should do with your life... none of which will be adequately addressed by neti neti or any other one method or teaching. The fuel of all these spiritual debates is that one person tries to push his spiritual path onto everyone else because he feels his path is the best, assuming it will work for everyone else. This assumption is totally false. But that doesn't stop the person from trying because he's a firm believer in his one path. Because most people haven't seriously walked multiple paths and they have been radicalize by one teacher or another and turned into zealots. There's nothing new about this. It's been happening since the dawn of time. Everyone believes their path is the best and should be adopted by everyone else. You have to appreciate that reaching enlightenment is a totally separate matter from effectively teaching and spreading enlightenment. The greatest spiritual achievers are not necessarily the greatest spreaders and teachers. The teacher has to meet the student where the student is at. And many enlightened people don't know how to do that. In the same way that the best physicists are rarely the best physics teachers. To whittle all of life down to neti neti is extremely short-sighted in my opinion. And as a teacher, it doesn't make sense to me. As a teacher, I have to be open to a variety of tools and methods. There are SO many amazing tools for raising consciousness and personal development that I would never want to abandon them all for neti neti. Some spiritual paths are very narrow, emphasizing only the Absolute. Other spiritual paths are very broad, emphasizing diet, right conduct, compassion, psychological development, paranormal abilities, right relationships, etc. Neither one is best. There are tradeoffs to each and you have to choose for yourself which is right for you at which time in your life. Personally, I employ both types of teachings, narrow and broad. I find both incredibly worthwhile.

Actually you aren't inside a dream, and unless you can actually give some solid evidence to suggest otherwise I'm sticking with the physical universe. All lucid dreaming shows is that we can influence our dreams if we are aware of them. Then again we "close our eyes" and what we can do in each reality is markedly different, not to mention the stability and stubborness of this reality leads me to think of it as "default". You don't KNOW it's a dream, despite that many spiritualities think so. Spiritual experience isn't proof of teachings but a RESULT of them, important difference. They end up confirming preconceived notions, so there is a cognitive element to them. It's only a "dream" insofar as our brains construct reality on a "best guess" through our senses. We are actively "hallucinating" reality. It's impossible to be "non-conceptual" for if you were then nothing would make sense, you would not have "insight" or "divine knowledge". It would be indecipherable chaos. The "no evidence reality is physical" is nonsense, it's literally all around you. If it's physical you can interact with it, touch it, feel it, experience it through senses. Even in your dreams things are physical. The exception is a few sensory illusions. While you could argue that the mind makes distinctions between physical and nonphysical, I can argue it makes the same illusion of oneness. Oneness, nonduality, these are concepts. Simply believing in them allows my body to experience such a state, but when I stop believing in them then the distinctions return. It makes me doubt the truth of oneness and nonduality, seeing them as merely just another lens to see the world. Also, just because "awareness" and "consciousness" are mysterious and poorly understood doesn't mean we can make judgments on them. As for the free will not being real, you're late to the party on that. Though the answer to the question is rather foggy.

Of course real high-quality science is not in opposition to spirituality, and vice versa. Science just needs to be purified of its metaphysical dogmas and to clearly understand its limits. That's all. Science has always been corrupted by dogma, and it will continue to be for centuries to come. Science is in the process of weeding out its own dogmas. But this process takes millennia because people are so stubborn. In the next few centuries nonduality will to incorporated into science, and after that happens, every scientist will say: "Duh! Of course the universe is nondual. Those scientists in the 21st century were just stubborn materialistic fools."

I'm not good with all these spiritual words for everything.. ..but are the two aspects discussed in this tread(infinity/nonduality and finite/duality) what we mean by SHIVA and SHAKTI?

Hooray! I'm glad it makes sense to you. This is just information theory. The more cuts you have, the more 'bits' of information you have. So nonduality is a complete lack of information: zero. But it is 'made of' infinity so to speak. If you bend the metaphor a bit more, then the infinite paper and the infinite cut are actually the same thing. Duality (and information), is infinity cutting itself. But BEWARE. The metaphor is not the territory. I'm just talking like a run of the mill scientist, and playing fast and dirty with words and concepts (cuts).

The same link as between the number 1 and the number 2? So here is my poor metaphor for nonduality versus duality: Imagine a large sheet of paper that is infinitely large in all directions. It is perfect paper, it has no discernable attributes other than the fact that it's infinite. You can however count it, there's exactly one nonduality. Now, get some scissors and some infinite time and cut the paper in half. Now it has an attribute a cut (or boundary if you like). And if you count the areas, there are now two areas - this is duality. Interestingly you've created a finity (two) from two infinities: the infinite paper and the infinite cut. End of metaphor.