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Can You Still Serve Yourself And Be One With Everything At The Same Time? @electroBeam, when you were a child...you would play imaginary games with imaginary characters...didn't you? When I was very young, I was (at that time) the only child and my parents were building a house...way out in the county. I spent many days...months in fact...playing by myself alone. I would create fantasies...cowboys one day...sailors the next...whatever seemed fun. Now, I was all of what was going on...there was only me...I even controlled what the imaginary characters did...and yet I could still serve myself in my part of the adventure. Sometimes the "bad" guys won a battle...but the war raged on. This is what made it fun. Now if children can figure this out this much...why not an adult who has realized his or her true nature? "In order to serve the body/mind, you need to think dualistically, and that is just laughable in the state of being one." - not laughable...realizing there is no other does not mean you can't recognize the illusion that is still is apparent and not be able to think about it. A mirage doesn't disappear just because you realize it is a mirage...you only realize it is not what it appears to be (water) even though you still see it. Dualistic thinking is still very possible. "So can you serve the body/mind and be in competition with other people, while being your true self?" Sure...why not? Imaginary cowboys and indians when you/I were playing alone as a child. There can be a competition and yet know it is all a play of imagination. The issue here seems to be you are trying to reconcile "being one with everything" and "being a separate self"...but who you really are (i.e. nonduality) is not "being one with everything" nor "being a separate self" nor both nor neither. This will not make sense to the mind.

Hello, I sometimes have the wish to tell my close family-members like my old parents about enlightenment. The problem is they are very close minded and not open to anything as far as I know but they are highly intellectual and philosophical. I know you can question, if it is meaningful at all to talk about enlightenment, but this is another topic. For me it is interesting in the first place to see how they react and of course I would be happy if they at least think about enlightenment seriously for some seconds. Now here comes my question: Do you know how I can introduce them at best to spiritual enlightenment/nonduality? Have some of you showed your friends/family members about enlightenment and how did they react?

Don't introduce them to spiritual enlightenment/nonduality. Society / family wants ambitious people who are useful and who can feed their egos. Unless your way of life becomes a message , their is no point in introducing them verbally. Dropping your knowledge , ego is very arduous, needs patience.

@Echoes , I have an analogy to try to put your comparison in perspective. Awakening (and nonduality) is about realizing you are dreaming, while metaphysical knowledge is about learning how to play well within the dream (although you may not realize you are dreaming). That is also the difference between enlightenment and spiritual powers...one who is enlightened may not have spiritual powers (and even if they do, may have no interest in them)...and on the other hand you have one who has spiritual powers and can do amazing things but still a trapped by the illusion (and suffering). Awakening does not bring knowledge of metaphysical mechanism or laws. Knowledge of metaphysical mechanisms or laws does not bring awakening. One is seeing through the illusion...the other is getting good at manipulating the illusion.

Way back, at the beginning of my spiritual search and studies...I joined a weekly meditation group. They were also interested in healing and so they got into past life regression. I explored many of my own (in relation to current blocks). Outside of regressions, I have had memories of past lives come to me as well. One experience in particular I will share. A friend from the meditation group introduced me to an old friend of his. This friend took an instant dislike to me and was actively mean to me whenever he had the chance. I thought the reaction was too strong to be something of this life, and I suspected a past life connection. The topic of past lives did come up, and this friend did not believe in it or that he has ever lived before. So I knew I could not work in any way with him directly. That night I decided to delve into past lives between us that might result in this instant hatred. I found two. I knew we are all connected on "higher levels" and so I decided to reach out to him on a higher level. I saw him before me in my mind's eye and I explained that i figured out the problem between us. I said I did not remember, but know I do and I was totally at fault. I asked his forgiveness and he seemed to nod. A year later, I met this friend of my friend again and his attitude was totally neutral. Eventually, he warmed up. Years later, as good friends, we were talking about how we met and he said he could never figure out why he disliked me so much when we met. He also said, he couldn't figure out why it was different the next time we met. I have had many experiences of past lives (that I remembered or had to look into to remember) that had effects and when I worked on it, the situation changed. So I would have to say, from my own experience - past lives exist and reincarnation exists. Nonduality does not exclude the happening of reincarnation, but I would say it just means there are dreams within dreams. I haven't had anything to do with past lives though in over a decade. Yeah, it happens...but it is just another trap and distraction. Now is more important.

hey guys, I've been researching lucid dreaming for about 2 weeks now and it seems to be a very interesting topic. (and I also had one short lucid dream ) but I haven't found much about the correlation between lucid dreaming and nonduality/spiritual growth. can lucid dreaming be used in order to grow spiritually (spiritual purification) ? does lucid dreaming bring me closer to awakening? is it worth it to put a huge investment of time and energy in working on lucid dreaming when my "real" aim is truth/enlightenment? or should I rather put more time in self-inquiry/meditation/mindfulness/etc... has anybody experience with this? or thoughts on combining spiritual purification and lucid dreaming?

I know I told you I totally agree with the neti-neti method and self enquiry (or maybe I didn't tell you). But this does not mean that everything is not you. Every single thing one by one is not you, but Everything together? Why do you not believe about the end point of non-duality if you follow nonduality teachers? Not that you have to believe, but we're having a forum conversation, so I don't want to circlejerk around

@Prabhaker I agree with you, but there are some things that just science cannot talk about, but maths (the only true science) can : Those are 0 and infinity. We can map, on the level of mind what happens with enlightenment - I'm only speculating, but I see no real fault to doubt my reasoning: My goal is to represent the entire enlightenment journey with mathematical formula that will prove even to the thickest mind/Ego that it should forego a journey to find their true nature. When one trully becomes aware they are just awareness, this is when you reach being 0, from appearantly being something between 0 and infinity. Now that you truly are 0, you have no other choice, but to float on top of everything, just like you've always done and even be aware of infinity, because you are THAT light. Since you are 0, you not only merge with it, you are it, because there is nothing else. There is only the numbers 1,2,3,4…. Only they are supposedly real, but with enlightenment we see that only 0 and infinity are real and the numbers 1,2,3… are illusions, caused by the reality of 0 and infinity, they are the play of life, the finite numbers. 0 AND infinity(God)? But that's two! Infinity + 0 = Infinity = 100% = 1 whole = Non Duality = You, because ISNESS. If you are more than 0, you cannot merge with everything, become everything, reach samadhi and BE GOD - God is not nothing, God is Everything. The experience of Ego is also part of God, part of Everything and I can see how as long as I take myself to be a thing, I will only be apparent PART of everything and will be impossible for me to merge with it. It's a finite number. What do you think? I just love maths, next is experience, but you must agree, there needs to be something that will be helpful to ultra logical people to begin their journey and reach what @zazed claims to have "reached". I do aknowledge that you can be the truth but are not saying the truth intellectually perfectly, which is understandable, because the truth cannot be expressed in words and also the real @zazed is not typing here, he is just observing his Ego type just like me and everyone else, because we all are 0 already, we just don't know it yet, well I don't, many of you have probably already reached this state of knowing called Enlightenment. I'm a 0 that has merged into an Ego, because maybe I think of it as my everything, but I am aware of other things as well and know for a fact my Ego is not everything, it is not God My attempt is to do it with maths, which is far stronger than words. I also aknowledge that this is not experiential truth, but an intellectual truth is also something that I hold valuable and, again, I want to stress that people with ultra logical minds need to be nudged towards the experiential truth through logic. They won't listen to something else. If we want true Enlightenment and the end of suffering for All human beings, not just for ourselves, we need to think of new things and not only be selfish and think about ourselves! This is counter spiritual TLDR: You are nothing (awareness, 0), God is everything(infinity) - Awareness merges with God automatically, we have NonDuality, the only reality. You merge with God and from this standpoint you've always been that, you were just taking yourself to be a number between 0 and infinity for the lols?

Ikr, every nonduality teacher ever: there's noone there, no free will, stop seeking, there's nothing to seek Matt: fuck it just love hahaha

@Socrates If you find your life purpose, that will serve as the backbone for much of your education guidance. But also nonduality, etc is sure to come in handy no matter where you go. Just following your curiosity and bliss is also a good way to go. Study what you LOVE. Yes, more great books coming.

In the Law of one there is an explanation that makes a lot of sense. Good vs. evil = Entities oriented in service to others vs. Entities oriented in service to self. From the point of view of nonduality, the one, they are both eqauly important expressions of infinity and neither of them is prefered. However! Service to others is a more efficient way of approaching existence. Why? Because when you are service to self oriented, all other entities are seen just as mere extension of yourself. This is in a sense narcissistic view of enlightenment, which isn't wrong per se, it is just a different approach, one that lacks empathy and love isn't bursting from you into space, but it is oriented towards you and only you, not hesitating to use others in order to get your desires met. On the other hand, service to others oriented entities are having the advantage of cooperation and mirroring. They see themselves in others, not from a point of view o a narcissist, but as a mirror, and can consciously act as a mirror to others, bringing more balance, more well-being, more love and more compassion, inherently working towards creating a civilisation of very warm loving beautiful goodness. The conflict of good vs. evil is really just a game that both agree on playing, they are both part of the same consciousness, just exploring different approaches of exploring and expressing infinity. The tricky part comes in where the service-to-others oriented ones "fight" against evil. They can never "fight" against them in the manner of hate or inferiority, or anger, because whenever they approach the interaction with anything BUT love, understanding and compassion they polarize themselves to the other side of the spectrum which is SERVICE TO SELF. So in that sense, service to self would win. There is good and evil. Both are equally valid, both are beautiful, both are miraculous phenomena in existence. The question is... Are you strong enough not to fall prey to the temptations of the darkside Young Padawan?! <3

Also, labeling a person as a zen devil is a duality. It just is. A label is a concept that is inherently not acceptance. It is a function of the story of me. Think about it like this. In nonduality, if there is any disagreement, both parties are wrong. That is an implication of unity. Any disagreement or resistance is a red flag for the separate self. But also, they aren't wrong because right and wrong are non-existent. We just are as we are. There is no other way that it could be. There is no awareness, no I, no seeking, nothing other than being. Reality is being. The illusion is assuming that it is not being how it is.

Hmmm, it seems to me that the most important pieces of the course are about cultivating a deep inner listening , such that one can adjust to the experience of nonduality easily and at will. It is as much, if not more about cultivating awareness and using various tools until you find the one that suits you the best. Without breaking my word, i can say that it is a collection of very highly effective techniques from all over the place and times...from ancient to modern....nothing strange or unheard of in different circles, they are very reputable techniques. It has been heavily researched and well thought out. There is plenty of data and numbers for those who need it, but that is where we are going away from, yes? For if thinking and analyzing where the path to oneness then we would be there, yes? The real question is, do u want it and are you willing to do the work to get there? It isnt easy, but it is completely possible. Best thing i have ever done for myself and the world, hands down.

Mind doesnt need to know anything, what You need to do is sense the presence of nothingness with Your (Nothingness') Awareness, which is the same as awareness becoming aware of itself. That's tricky, at least for me, but my practise is clearer now with this understanding (ok maybe its good for the mind to know something hehe :D). So Nothingness becomes aware of nothingness, but this is the realm of nonduality, so to answer your question awareness, nothingness, God, presence all are one no-thing that is you, consciousness, absolute infinity. It's tricky (impossible for the mind to become aware of true nothingness) so thats why disidentification with mind/Ego is needed, so you can increase the faculty needed to sense that nothingness - that faculty is awareness! Only awareness can sense awareness (nothigness); only infinity is big enough to hold within its sight infinity; Only nothingness is small enough to see nothingness; Only you can discover your true self! I am not enlightened, but this is my understanding so far.

Tim Freke, a nondual account, gives us a well grounding talk about science, philosophy, love, mystery, nonduality, and much deeper.

Oregon Eclipse happening August, which I'll be attending. The Organization NonDuality and Science will be attending which I'm excited the most for. Been to Burning Man a couple times and it seems nowadays diluted with everyone on happy drugs. Slowly becoming mainstream and I feel is losing it's original essence. Tribal Gathering is great. 18 day festival in Panama where dozens of different indigenous tribes get to come and share their culture and also their plant medicine. Ayahuasca, iboga, mescaline, etc

@Laisa Sweet! From LA. You guys have the best dark forest psy! I've noticed an increase of dark in LA recently. I'm not sure if you know but the organization Science and Nonduality will be a part of this event. Their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/scienceandnonduality Are you much into the Psytrance culture?

You are not going to enter nonduality until you deeply realize that duality produces suffering by design. Sounds like you're being shown this important lesson, but are sort of discounting its importance. The trap would be to sink back down into your old materialistic paradigm. The challenge of course is facing the truth head-on, without deflecting it. Chasing material objects will never satisfy you. This would be true even if you never started on the path to enlightenment. At least you know what to do about it if you are serious about ending suffering. Otherwise, suffer away and enjoy it. BTW, nonduality does not preclude success, money, sex, or relationships.

Nonduality Wars not allowed here but.. IMO psychedelics are like pouring salt in a snail, the EGO screaaaams, some people don't like it, and some other kind of like it

yea, I wish i had more time to read that stuff. In my free time I'm reading Eckhardt Tolle's awakening book, then I'll probably read Siddhartha again, but right this second I'm reading my Criminal Law textbook, then ill be reading my property book until about midnight. Haha. There's always somehow time to read stuff more interesting things though. Also I'm reading a great book called Open Secret by Wei Wu Wei. Its an incredible book about nonduality.

Depends how deep your enlightenment is. It will definitely help. But you'll require a lot more additional work beyond your first enlightenment experience. Years and years, thousands and thousands of hours. But on the bright side, you got nothing better to do, so why not get started? In the meantime, learn to enjoy your suffering. That's all enlightenment will really teach you in the end: how to enjoy being. The deep awareness of the suffering of duality is an important step towards the peace of nonduality. Keep noticing how much you suffer, over and over again.

I have always been a person who pursues self-improvement and that will never change. And I find Leo's work and similar videos inspiring, and will continue to both practice mindfulness, self-reflection, and youtube as a resource, for increasing my capabilities in life. But I don't find there to be much merit in the pursuit of direct meditation habit, searching for enlightenment, nonduality, or Leo's idea of authenticity and self-actualization, not for me. I'm looking for some people to respond to my thought on it. Basically, I've found a loss of meaning in what is done - whether I find enlightenment many ways, or am a person who is trapped in the lower self, nothing about the universe or existence itself changes in anyway. it is only a change in perspective - and this change in perspective is not something I really want. it's nice Leo's video of the 10 things you want but don't know it - but I just don't really find much meaning in "Wanting" or "desires" and whenever I say that I "want" a thing it is always just a decision. I want to relax, aka, I will now take the day off. Sure there are emotional drives that I notice - but in the end I always am making a conscious decision in these acts. What I intend to pursue regarding those is cultivating my focus and my mindfulness in the moment. Some times I may meditate as a way to increase these, but the habit I will form regarding meditation is mindfulness in the moment, or short breaks of self-observation or meditation, or a short break of a kind of intuitive release. something in a video I saw about allowing the mind to wander. so I will be using meditation as-needed, not as a habit. most often I will just lay down and nap, or if I'm on the work, take a walk outside. these are not "meditation" lol! but there is a way to make them like meditation, and that's what I'd be working on. The thing about nonduality and the authentic self - chasing that accomplishes what, enlightenment? I trust that enlightenment would be a great thing, and maybe later in life I will pursue it. but now - there are more pressing things in my life - and that is the thing. even in nonduality there is duality. (and even in duality there is nonduality) I was thinking about this before, and I've self-observed minimally, the other day. And as I sat in self-observation this morning I noticed a curious thing - when my eyes are open I see rich imagery, and when my eyes are closed I see no imagery at all. I do not fabricate images when my eyes are closed. this is something I always knew but - the point is, even if I find the enlightened perspective of how I really understand how all things are as one, infinity, nothingness, however you wish to call it. We go on living life as normal, just with a new perspective. Pursuing that is necessarily an endeavor of ego and duality! and even if we had a perfectly nondual perspective, there is necessarily a vibration of energy however way we theorize it which creates the illusions of duality and that won't change. I will not in my life find a situation where I'm a monk meditating all day in order to be as authentic as possible - in fact if I wished to be as authentic as possible I would just decopose as quickly as possible - but I do not do that because the splash of dual existence is nothing in comparison to infinity, that the true authentic path is to allow my splash to naturally unfold. our duality is itself the authentic nature of existence. and my splash does not follow a path towards monk-dom, and now I find it does not seek enlightenment. I do not really know what the ego is - in my perspective, ego and duality are one and the same. after all, all things are nondual in the end - the duality is just the illusion - right? but even that cannot be known. it's advised that nonduality can be directly experienced and witnessed - but so can the duality. I heard recently a person say, "what is "Real" in meaning? it is just an honorary title." and he said something about how in quantum mechanics, we call one thing or the other thing real but both realities are equally valid. This falls the same with duality v nonduality. both are valid. and if I were to fully pursue nonduality to be as nondual as possible - I would be discarding the dual existence that it so convincing. as I've mentioned before in this post - my perspective at hand is that in infinity my splash on the "consciousness field" so to speak is irrelevant - the perspective shifts create flow and being - and I can work on those without needing to dump my efforts into nonduality and enlightenment. through mindfulness, and being. It is not necessary for me to sit and contemplate enlightenment and nonduality, in order to exercise my ability to be present and aware. and in my limited life I will not reach the level of enlightenment of a monk - I will have significant dual existence, and it is more to my merit to work on making my dual existence one in the present moment, strategic, and aware. Sometimes I will meditate. sometimes I will self-observe. sometimes I will contemplate existence. but mostly I will practice mindfulness in the active moments. I will work on flow and focus and strategy, and work on negotiating my emotions so that they are no more than an experience, and not a tide which consumes my being. I will work on my practical skills beyond these - my skills of cooking, minimal lifestyle, employment. not in the immediate moment and future, but I will find life purpose both in work and in casual pursuit - maybe they will even tie into each other or be one and the same - but right now my "life purpose" is becoming self-sustainable within the next five years - not a 20-year goal - but it is what motivates me. I may be focusing my current efforts on picking myself out of my chair. walking to a new place. laying my hands upon some object. and manipulating in. this is what I've found to get me moving in an effective way - along with the various paradigm shifts which allowed me to focus on my work in this way. but by no means is this an enlightened decision. by no means is this "the final shift" by no means do I think I will stop self-improving, and self-actualization completely, just because I found a certain perspective that leads to this decision. But the path I am following is not the path of enlightenment and nonduality. it is a path of duality. and this is the path I follow. I feel that I have always been more in touch with intuition than the others around me. I do not know for sure what "intuition" means or how to truly tell that my ideas come from intuition instead of logic. and IMO - intuition and logic are like yin and yang - one cannot exist without the other. but I feel as if I am following intuition on several levels. and I know that logic is a part of my decision. But I do not feel that this is a decision of Ego. well - like I said - it is because ego is really just all of duality. but I have in the past been strongly swayed by my ego, but in this moment - I am swayed by intuition. maybe it is an intuitive response to a logical clinging onto duality. but I cannot just up and discard my duality - which means I will have restricted resources, or even wither away and die, if I try to focus on nonduality in my present life situation. I need to improve my dual existence first before it can even be worth pursuing enlightenment and nonduality - and I won't even pretend to carry on the assumption that that "will" happen later - that would be holding onto ego Thank you for allowing me to type this out. speaking and righting is another form of thinking and processing. I also look forward to any and all responses to my expressions here. and while I will minimize my forum use both here and elsewhere in the future - they consume me with ego, forums. I find it too distracting and too much of an influence on my emotional consumption -which is something I am working to minimize. so be it. but I will not kill my forum use outright - after all, expressing is a form of thinking, and the dual experience of the Other is an extension of my self that I must not sever off

I'm not trying to enter into right or wrong debate here, or enter into any religious dogmatic talk whatsoever, but I wanted to take a spirituality dimension to connecting my Christian upbringing to the new Buddhist principles I'm reading. Could the two teachings be mapped like this? Nonduality = spirit Consciousness = mind Emptiness/Awareness = body Absolute Truth = God Attachment to ego = sin I know they are different religions, but I'm trying to see the overlapping similarities between the two so I can integrate what I'm learning together. Let me know what you think Please be mindful and respect Leo's guidelines in this is not a forum to assert religious dogma

Thanks! It's nice seeing you and some others I recognize posting around. I'll still post and ponder, just... I'm making a move to shift the focus and frequency of that study and contemplation. I removed my avatar because I'm working on focusing on my existence rather than my identity. The purpose of this thread's posting was half for the sake of me "feeling" the finality of a decisional shift, but also to get my thoughts on the forum so anyone who is interested in hearing the perspective has an opportunity to be a critic tbh my presence on the net will be more noticed on the other sites I frequent moreover than on this one. I dunno how often I've been posting here but I will still visit this site once in a day or in two at least, but for less time and with less posting. but I couldn't express my purpose in this shift on the other sites and like I said. I enjoy thinking through conversation pondering existence as if we can know it, or as if our experience of it can become better or more true. mmhm yea this I suppose this concept has many facets to it and I've found a new one. I was at first thinking "wow lookit this I can find authenticity and tell my ego to go away and find new ways to more often and more fullly see existence as infinite and without self and I can ponder who "I" am but then I realized - oh. There is no self, but perception. there is no infinity, but that which I cannot know. These things are the yin and yang. as long as I see one, the other is there too. I do not need to find the other, because all finding it reveals is that the one I see now is no more untrue than the one I cannot see. but the duality will always be an inherent necessity in the nonduality. I think this is along the line of my thinking - that I was trying to be just like Leo. I wanted to be like him - even though I continued on knowing that I was "me" and not him on anyone else here - I wanted to follow Leo's path and follow the path others have laid out. And now I see the path that lies before me, which is not their path, and is not a copy of their path. it is not "mine" per se so much as it is the steps I am taking. it's so weird saying "I" and "me" and "mine" lol. The understanding of these words I hold in my head, but it does not get held in the word itself.

I'm going to reply to my own topic to extend what I've said, from a different angle: If we are in absolute terms not our ego, and are a zero neutral dimensionless empty awareness field (I'll just call empty awareness from now on) where conscious qualia expresses itself, then it could be said that 'self' as we know it and identify with is not real. i.e. the practice of not self. So this means that what we identify with, such as objects of perception (such as our body) and feelings etc are not us, but our true nature is the empty awareness that we project out of, which through nonduality principals is the timeless and spaceless essence that we all share in common. So this then goes onto say that anything we experience is not us, and we should cling to it, but from a conventional point of view we are our ego, so survival is based on accepting this egoic projection as real, but the teachings say don't cling to it and think that our ego is really real or the absolute truth. Hence our perceived inner world and outer world is the same projection but categorised and labelled differently for sake of self-sustaining agenda by our ego minds with sole purpose as survival. We need to understand this to let it go. And when we let it go we can't escape it but we can at least put it in perspective. This means that in reality there is no really real distinction between our inner and outer world - and what goes on in both is just as real as each other, hence why the teachings emphasize 'thinking' and 'emotions' are just as important as 'speech' and 'actions'. Where I'm heading with this is then the association with 'integrity'. I have found 'integrity' or 'authenticity' requires the realisation that no inner world exists, i.e. dis-identification with a 'private world'. Hence we connect and take seriously the fact that what we have in our minds is absolutely connected with our outside world, hence no secrets, hidden emotions, thoughts that are not aligned to reality, guilt, feelings that are different to what you would show the outside world. Now, when this happens, isn't that called 'presence'. Can't you achieve that state when being 'mindful'. But, it's the next level. It's living like that. Now, it doesn't mean revealing your private life to everyone, and definately doesn't mean acting out your impulses, but it does mean when things arise that are unwholesome to let them go, and if they repeat it's about taking responsibility to see where they arise from and sorting out any latent incompleteness that is causing the thought that doesn't have integrity. I've started living this way and I have seen real shifts in how much 'integrity' has helped me be more mindful, present, finding inner peace and to be more genuine. It's helped me feel more connected with others and myself and reality. I'm interested in any questions or other views that people have on this. Am I just re-creating practices that are already out there? Is this new take on Not Self, NonDuality and Integrity that I'm practicing? Does anyone else do this? Am I making sense? haha