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This is a story within The Story. This is a digital expression of what is happening. It is meant to paint a picture. It is meant for Ivan to find Love and Peace. It is also meant to be a container for all of Ivan's concerns, insecurities, contradictions, unease, sarcasm, delusion, victim-hood, narcissism, arrogance and ignorance. It is a place of unconditional love and acceptance. It is all-inclusive. So beware, kind reader. This might be exactly what you have no interest in reading, at all. THE STORY SAYS: Nothing happened today. There was an infinite amount of nothingness, one could say. There was transparency and there was reflection. Ivan's mind is still getting used to being a mirror. Ivan truly enjoys this process. He is in love with it. He is now finally setting his mind free; eliminating all the limitations, that were never truly there. They were pure mist. They were illusory. Created for Ivan, by Ivan; to wake him up to his full potential. To "claim his power back" - so to speak. Ivan now knows there is nothing more beautiful than claiming your power back. And believing in yourself beyond any doubt and deception. Ivan now sees the importance of loving the one who has never been loved. Loving the Fear that was miss-perceived so many times. Misunderstood and dishonored. Minimized, criticized and judged. Ivan now sees the paradox clearly. He tried to fight Fear with more fear. He tried to run away from his own shadow. Ivan is compassionate with everyone who is still caught in their own Maze. But he sees even beyond this. He knows the importance of non-importance. He knows the illusion is here to be loved. He knows it can be a game, instead of a labyrinth. One has to choose the way One desires to narrate his Story. One must decide between Fear or Love. Beyond that decision lays an invitation. A calling. A place where Love and Fear can merge and end the "insanity". Ivan desires to make all of his dreams come true. Now he knows, that by doing so, he is creating more Love and understanding for everyone else. No matter what the mirror shows or what the one who stares sees. One cannot fail if One is grounded in Love and Oneness. Fear is now finally getting the credits and recognition it deserves. Fear is now welcome; Fear is now Loved. That's all Fear ever desired. The gap between the Mind and the Heart is slowly disappearing. The is little to no distortion left. Ivan is determined to free himself; to free the World. Wisdom is a natural byproduct of union. It is not unavailable for anybody. Ivan desires to express himself now: There needs to be more Love. It is ever-expansive. There is no bottom, there is no end. That's the beauty of it. I am giving my best to love with my every breath. I am giving my best to fully invite Fear inside. To make it feel home and safe. I am also trying to give the Mind the time it requires. I do not want to rush anything. I am Here, I am Now. There is nowhere else to be. I don't want to scare Fear away. I don't want it to feel tricked or deceived. I truly desire Fear to find Peace. It is tired, exhausted. It spent too many lifetimes nudging me. Trying to receive the attention it deserves. Trying to be fully present, transparent and proud of it's nature. Recognized for what it is; a part of the One. A necessary part of it, in fact. Without Fear, One would be lost, bored and demotivated. There would be no place for creating understanding, for lessons to occur, for teachings to come to be. There would be no movement, one could say even. I desire Fear to be omnipresent as Love is. I want it to have the exact same amount of power and rights to do anything it desires, as Love does. Anything it feels like the One would benefit from. Fear is accepted now. Fear is much needed. I do not fear you anymore, Fear. I love you. I allow you. I recognize you. I find you brilliant and creative. You are God. You are All There Is. You are wanted and appreciated. Come back home, Fear. There is place for your here now. You are free to enjoy the playground. I love you. I love the Devil and I love the God. There is absolutely no difference between the two. I am The One. I choose to allow and include. I choose to love the unlovable. I choose to live and express Love deeper than anyone dared to wander before me. I choose to make dreams come true. I choose to create. I choose to play. I choose to give and receive. I choose balance now. I choose Fear to be my guide. I choose Here and Now. I choose to live freely, as the infinite creator, that I am. One cannot be defined anymore. THE STORY SAYS: Ivan is traveling at the speed of light. Yet, he's not moving at all. He is radiating Love here and now. He knows he is up to this calling. He knows his Heart is big enough to invite everyone in. To give home and shelter to everyone. Ivan is a hero, and he's just getting started. He feels like he's being reborn with every moment. He now knows there is no rush. There is no Time. There is only anticipation and excitement in the air. Ivan is a stainless Mirror to himself and everyone else. Fear is Love, Love is Fear, and that is how One came to be. Let there be Light. Let there be Darkness. Let there be diversity. Let there be fun. Let there be nothing and everything simultaneously. Ivan desires to express himself now: Ivan desires to express himself now, indeed. I desire to express the infinite nature of Oneness. I desire to be an empty vessel, loving the first thing that comes through. I desire to spread the Truth and the Lie. God is Here Now. The Devil is keeping him company. They are best buddies. Without any of them One would not be One. Two would not be two. I desire luxury. I desire to be an expression of infinite abundance now. I desire to be an example. To let everyone clearly see what IS possible. To guide everyone into their own kind of the same realization. To break down all boundaries. There is no need for division anymore. I went through pain and suffering, not recognizing their message - now I do. I spent time in the illusion of lack. I experienced loss, neglect, judgment, abuse. I explored the dark side of the spectrum. Now it's time to take the wisdom I gained and shine it onto the World. The lessons served their purpose. Perfectly so. Flawlessly. Lessons are necessary. They are what makes us great. They are what drives us forward. I recognize the calling now. I see the purpose of my existence and the importance of it. I choose to be the messenger I came to be. I recognize the invitation for creating a book. A book that will guide all lost souls. A book that will be a perfect Mirror. A timeless book of Oneness. This shall be that book. This shall open up eyes. It desires to be expressed through me. For me, by me; For you, by You. Ivan is a character. He is a hero. No different from any other hero. No different from you. No different from Hercules, Jesus, Buddha, Mohamed, Peter Pan, Robin Hood or any other. Ivan is a Story. Ivan shall write the book. He is already writing it. It is expanding. It is evolving. It is becoming alive. It is here. It is now.

That’s not an understanding, nor a realization, that’s why you’re intuiting it as “not good” aka (not Truth). It’s a ‘right thought’, but nonetheless, let it go completely. When nothingness is no longer a thought, but experience, everything literally flips. You will have the exact opposite perspective / experience, and it is ineffably wonderful, but you must begin the (possibly counter intuitive to you) letting go of every thought about ‘it’, to be ‘it’. Just to hold a single thought, just to blink, is already too much. Hopefully you see what I’m saying by that. It’s more like the light suddenly came on, and the room’s a little messy. Use the light to clean up the room. Try to be glad the light came on, it’s lucky, though I hear you, it doesn’t feel that way...yet. http://www.buddhanet.net/oxherd1.htm

that is amazing, thanks for sharing I've not seen my true self yet, but I did see the nothingness, it's not nothing but it's not something either, it is nothing but within the nothing is the potential for everything...at the time it was perfectly clear but idk now if that's even right...

Dig deeper about yourself, chip away the not authentic to you, find your core, core and True Self is in other spectrum.. i'm speaking from, i just got back from Vipassana , i have so many insights back there and i experience "Everything" i just woke up, not deep like Leo but deep enough that either i will accept all my life i will just here forever until i die and try to go deeper in here, or try enjoy Life in a meaningful way.. after all you exist and you wake up from here and have your life... path of enlightenment for us is too heavy for us to go just beeee right now, i can just like give me one year just in the vipassana meditation retreat i will become fully enlighten just give me 1 year myself is ready to surrender but i see that i miss a lot in my life, i am wake here in earth not just only to see GOD but life here, the core in myself, I don't want to spend my life now to facebook all day, or doing porn, i feel the sensation of porn but, what for? If i just give in it will generate sankara, and it cannot satisfy my existence here, it is not enough to spend time to enjoy your existence here as you who have life doing nothing and not meaningful things, it is better that we experience what you take in the path of enlightenment and it is important to express high self... i understand Leo why he cannot just go full buddha easy, he can but he is destructed by actualized.org... everyday if he full surrender his self he can fully liberate himself easily, but he has actualized.org this is his life, if he wants to go fully buddha he needs to be dead... so yea i want to process my enlightenment not just doing it fast, i want to enjoy other facets of life first.. i want to enjoy the life here in earth, i want to be happy and live everyday with my highest self, meaningful life.. meaningful activities... life purpose, selfactualization, i want to settle my self actualization in my life time, i want to actualized first , taste richness of life, then maybe one day i will go to himalayas sit until i liberate fully, or wait for the time it's just hit me and boom! Because if you experience nothingness, it's nothing in there, pure, let the light from within burst.. love "YOU"

How do you know there isn't something "more" outside of nothingness? For example: Nintendo's Mario might start to question himself and discover he doesn't really exist. That there's essentially no difference between himself and the rest of the computer code. That this computer code is really fundamentally nothing as well and that everything is an illusion (in this world). However, there is still an external/higher reality outside of the computer that runs on very different rules and what may have felt very complete to Mario's realization doesn't take into account this inconceivable reality. I guess what I'm ultimately asking is if there's the chance of an even higher/deeper/more fundamental truth existing beyond what is considered enlightenment?

@Shin I read in a book (probably "Neti-Neti Meditation") 3 stages: 1. Duality 2. Non-Duality 3. Nothingness

I for one am not entirely sure if I have seen the Ox or not. Took ayahuasca and it took me into a surreal journey into the realms of the abstract, great love, a mystical experience through and through. Took mushrooms and it showed me dream-like visions similar to ayahuasca, I felt immense love and respect, and overwhelming divinity inside me. Took LSD and it showed me how reality, time and perception can bend and stretch into unfathomable proportions. Then took 5-Meo-DMT... and my experience was black nothingness, as if I ceased to exist for some minutes and I was reduced to blank awareness. No emotions tho, I did not panicked nor did I felt any joy, it just happened. I came out of it feeling underwhelmed to be honest, but it was nonetheless a very interesting experience.

Shinzen Young explains: The first 5 pictures are the enlighment journey. Picture 7 , arriving home , is the final stage. However, the last three come after. Substance, Form , Purpose are pictures 8,9, 10. Substance : nothingness. Form : everything. Purpose: spreading the consciousness through act of love and giving from bottom of society. That's only my interpretation and limited understanding. Correction.

Happyness and enlightenment are not necessarily connected. Happyness is just an emotion. An experience. Enlightenment is not an emotion or experience. It's just a boundless freedom or nothingness where there's no suffering. There're ways to generate happyness very fast. Like kundalini, kriya or some tao techneques can get you into brain orgasms very much but it's not enlightenment. It's not freedom. It's just an emotion. It depends what kind of practices you do. Being happy is not a big achievement actually. It's the most basic thing.

A total disidentification is hard to achieve in pratice. Most people who have some kind of awakening will not fully realize the extent of the Nothingness. A realization of no-self is not the end of the game. There is yet deeper. I have no idea about Teal Swan speficially, I'm just speaking more broadly. I think many paranormally inclined folks have a hard time fully transcending the subtle paranornal realm. But in the end, it is all still form. Just a subtle version of the gross material realm. There is the gross material realm, the subtle realm, and then finally what is called casual nondual. At the very end all identification of any kind is erased. But how many people will actaulize that? Not many. It is definitely possible to realize that you were never even born. By that point, what is there to identify with? Your ultimate nature is pure emptiness. But of course it's still great to do stuff like introspection a out your personality, or to integrate shadow aspects, etc. Psychological work is still very useful for everyday life even though it is not your true ultimate nature.

I don't know. I feel I understand this logcally very easy, without any awakenings. 1 is something. It exists. It's tangable, it's physcial. You can hold it your hands. 0 also exists. But you can't hold it in your hands. It's nothingness. But it exists. It's a thing but not a physical thing. Like space. Space is also non physical but without space nothing would be possible.

The something that you are seeing right now, which is the world we're living in, isn't permanent. For example, no one stays in this world forever. So, we pass away one day and become "nothingness." But then, during our lifetime, some of us have this "awakening." That's when we see ourselves as "nothingness" becoming "somethingness" when we embody back into our ego (body) via singularity. And, we gain wisdom from that.

@non_nothing why? in case if i'd be scared when facing the Truth? But there will be no fears left when you had surrendered yourself completely to the Truth. Whatever that may be, It's a journey into the unknown btw, might as well give yourself completely to the infinite intelligence, than to be attached to impermanent/groundless 'thing'. Because whenever i had this mindset, it's more effortless, the answers will comes at me through everything else without me having to work hard to find it. From my experience, it will be effortless. What is the possible danger that you talk about? Do you mean the 'attachment' aspect of it? Or the God = Everything part of it? Or the nothingness?

@Leo Gura I'm not quite there, but getting there. My ego/mind has been very disgruntled with all of the shifts I have taken lately, and that has left me with a mindset that has been pretty bleak overall. The rest is very liberating. I continue to struggle with letting go when I know I will be left with nothing. I get a further glimpse of the true nature of things, and then I find a way to trick myself back into identification with that which I know I am not. It's like my mind does not want me to be free of the idea that I am the ego, and now I face a scary wall of nothingness that offers no reason to surpass it. I am told it is worth pursuing, but I have yet to fully understand why.

@winterknight I've been reading this giant thread for a couple of days now and I have 2 questions for you, I apologize in advance if they have already been answered, since I didn't read the entire thread. 1) I've been practicing self-inquiry after my Kriya Yoga practice and I just wanted some support to know if I'm getting a glimpse of the Truth yet or not, if I'm doing it right or not. I haven't done self-inquiry as you suggest yet - I'll be trying it in the following days. What I have been mostly doing is perceiving thoughts, emotions, sensations and etc, and asking myself "who's aware of this thought/emotion/sensation?", my mind usually answers "me" and I just go meta and stay aware that something is aware of the answer "me" or of the thought/emotion/sensation. What normally happens is that I try to abide in this place - and I notice that I am aware that I'm trying to abide in this place - there's always something prior to what I'm perceiving. I think I have experienced nothingness for very short periods of time, that which cannot be described, even though it's completely paradoxical to write this haha. But what always happens is that I'm quickly back being aware of another object - my breath for instance. And then I ask myself again "who's aware of this breath?"(intuitevely sometimes or in the form of a thought) and the process begins again. As is mentoned, I feel like "I" get to this point where my awareness is in this nothingness, but just for a few seconds or so. Am I delusional here or maybe I'm touching the right thing? Does this seems to be a good way of doing self-inquiry and that I should just keep on going in this path, and with time I'll be able to stay more and more in this "place" or would you suggest me to take a different route? 2)This one is just a question that poped in my mind: can you know with 100% certainty if another human being has realized the Truth by being in their presence? Hehe just out of curiosity! Thanks for your time! =]

Evil doesn't exist existentially. So, all morality is inherently relativistic on the existential level. Reality, on the absolute level, is empty of both good and evil. All things are perfect, as they are manifestations of an all-loving and perfect creator, regardless of how natural the tendency of human beings to label something evil is. So, good and evil come down to human interpretations and labels of events and realities that are beyond the human concept of good and evil or the human mind's ability to conceptualize in general. An example would be that a murderer is someone that people would label evil because they cause pain and suffering for their own reason without regard for the pain and suffering they cause. So, on the relative level of practical human functioning, they cause a lot of problems for people. But the murderer, on the absolute level, is empty of evil as it is part of the grand play that God creates from itself and for itself. So, the murderer is just another indistinguishable aspect of the field of consciousness which is divine and perfect as it is God. Just as in a painting of a murderer murdering someone, on the existential level all it is paint on a canvas. There is nothing evil about the paint that is used to paint the murderer in the painting relative to the paint used to create the victim or the background. It is only the human ability to conceptualize of an interpretation of the painting that makes us supply a meaning for it. It's an illusion painted by its creator and all of the creation is inseparable from the rest of the creation. And like the painting, on the existential level, all is an illusion. However, on the level of duality, there is such a thing as healthy and unhealthy. There is also such a thing as functional and dysfunctional. There is also such a thing as building up and breaking down. And there is such a thing as something that's constructive versus being destructive. There at also actions that produce pain and suffering and actions that don't produce pain and suffering. And human beings will often categorize this dichotomy by labeling it good and evil.... and may think there is even an existential reality to those labels, when they really only exist as practical labels. So, these dichotomies are all relative truths within the field of duality. But on the level of the non-dual, there is no dichotomies including the dichotomy of good and evil... there is only one which is also nothingness. For example, there is nothing inherently and existentially invalid about eating a diet consisting of only donuts. But objectively speaking, if your goal is health, then an all-donut diet is not conducive to the goal of health. But there is nothing existentially more valid about being healthy relative to being unhealthy. God loves both the healthy and unhealthy unconditionally and abhors nothing and no one. That said, on the human practical level, it is a mostly universal human preference to desire health and not desire illness. But God has no such prejudice. It loves all regardless of how beneficial or detrimental it is to human beings or other sentient beings in general. So, if we label something practically "evil" as being influenced by the destructive drive, then the practical term has the most efficacy in describing a situation that is unhealthy, dysfunctional, and focus toward creating suffering and breaking down. Evil is something that goes against harmonious human functioning. And on the practical human level we recognize that these practically "evil" situations cause us or others suffering, then it makes sense to avoid participating in and perpetuating these patterns. This is especially true if we realize the inherent oneness of reality and how others' pain is our own pain. But within the field of duality, there is a destructive drive and a constructive drive that can be noticed as phenomenological realities. They are there, and they can be observed as the fodder of the internal landscape. And they influence human thought and action. But there is nothing inherently good or evil about those two drives, as they too are just part of God's perfect creation and God loves them both. God doesn't abhor the destructive drive... it created it. And so, counterintuitively, the drives of both good and evil are empty of good and evil on the existential level just like everything else is.

@Shin Pain kicks in at about 30-45 mins for me until it is quite annoying at around 55-60 mins. I usually stop at 60 min as the pain becomes unbearable around the knees. However, if I am sitting on a chair, then the SDS goes more smoothly (can easily go over 60 mins), but there are less 'mystical' insights in a way when I am not sitting cross-legged on the floor. By 'mystical' insights I mean feelings of nothingness, being without a location or simply kundalini type of energy flows, sorry for the sloppy use of the term 'mystical'. I have no idea whether it is a causation, a correlation, a coincidence or whatever - just sharing my experience.

@Jack River If you want to go to the absolute level, then there is nothing / everything. Simply One. That’s great. Yet from that Nothingness is also a relative existence. That One consciousness is expressing itself relatively. And that relativity is evolving. Everything is absolutely perfect as it is in the Eternal Now and is evolving relatively. Some beings in that relative workd want to help increase the relative consciousness of that One absolute consciousness.

From where you stand that might be so, but you were not the one to ask the question so how are you to be the judge of that? The unchallenged master is no master at all. I merely asked some questions to he who claims to see all paths up the mountain. I did not expect some answer that would blow my mind, just what would seem like an honest inquiry into a very fundamental challenge of preaching the way he does. Sure it might be a distraction for those who might learn something from him, but blindly following self-proclaimed gurus and believing in apparent truths (those that make sense to the mind but not the heart) is perhaps the biggest trap there is. From where you are, he makes a lot of sense. Of course, you are a moderator of a self-inquiry forum centered around the teachings of Leo. But to tell those who are not just blindly following the advice of some enlightenment-idol on their screen, but challenging who may as well be causing more confusion rather than undoing it (not much separates truth from illusion), makes me question whether this forum is a sort of cult rather than a place of genuine exploration of Self. Of course you could argue that it is all just one big movement and it happens when it happens regardless of what is said and done, but this is a misconception about non-duality. It is like if all 'realized' no-self and the lack of free will or whatever we may call it and just were like 'oh well, nothing really matters so I have no responsibility for anything, I can do whatever I want!', the world would quickly fall apart. Just because all is one it is still two, and these two are in a sort of eternal game of hide and seek. If all these ideas are feeding the part of the one that is illusion, then in his attempt to provide guidance he is actually causing more confusion and prolonging the way back to center, stillness, nothingness.

@Emanyalpsid Have seen him before, just watching the Part 3 right now. Quite incoherent and self-contradicting description of things, mingled with a lot of assumptions which are not explained further - especially the ones about substance dualism. Also, he takes a few Ramana Maharshi quotes out of context in order to strengthen his argument, where what Ramana was trying to point out was the transcending of the I AM to nothingness Comparing Leo and this guy, the latter rings a lot more of my bullshit radars and contradicts more of what my direct experience is Since this is the only thing I have, I will probably stick with my direct experience rather than this guy's concepts. Thanks for sharing though, it is always good to have ideas challenged. The guy is not too bad, he has a point about people being lost in concepts and mentions a few good thoughts about free will. As with everything, take it with a pinch of salt - he even mentions this with his eat the grape, spit out the seeds analogy

Enlightenment to the Buddha was waking up from the dream of existence. He understood that what is perceived as separate is an illusion but what is infinite and the whole is not. The all, wholeness, infinity or nothingness (unified indifferentiable being). He also understood that all things arise from the mind as we project purpose and meaning to those concepts the self interacts with. We do this to define ourselves and orientate in the world of things and survive. Without self, identity ceases to exist and you and the whole be one, timeless, beyond time, beyond being born or dying. He understood that "we" will all return to this state as impermanence is in all things. As a result, one will see that suffering is due to attachment to the self, and this suffering will cease when the mind is empty and disidentifies. Disidentifying from the illusion, understanding that he is infinite and not confined and that he is nothing as a thing compared to everything. Human-life is suffering as we attach ourselves to many things due to what we love and pursue and suffer when we cannot attain those things. Key is to understand these attachments are something to strive for but should not makes us suffer and when they do make us suffer we should take responsibility as it is us we clings to those. Nirvana is selflessness, Samsara is ego (I must).

@Barna Mindfulness meditation throughout the day, which you eventually come to accept as 'just being'. I do about 30 min -1 hour of 'drifting' meditation (no thought, which evolves at some point into a sort of floating in an nothingness feeling) at some point during the day and a small session before sleeping, though usually nowadays this wakes me up so much I have too much energy to sleep then... I naturally want to once I close my eyes so not sure how to change this. Eventually I drift off, usually by doing visualization mediation of calming oceans. Walking meditation is simply amazing, feeling every fiber of your body in unity and it's expression.. so I do that as well on way to work and after.. I mean it's just a part of my whole day, eyes open eyes closed.. I don't even think of it as 'meditation' perse really, I'm just being in with some variation.. very quiet mind... sometimes at lunch if I have time.. I do some self-inquiry then I let my mind wander, but as time has gone on much fewer thoughts seem to pop up as I fully integrated or resolved them into myself. Lately I started bit more.. it varies through week on week. I don't plan it much anymore, just go with the flow, hope that answers your question. - granted Modafinil or Waklert are so much easier and much less work, just remember everything has a cost. Not as dramatic the side effects of Limitless and overall compared to things like cocaine, or whatever it's so much more positive. But you will simply outgrow it at some point, I don't regret using them though! It opened my mind to how you can just flip a switch and boom you're there, fully there with nothing in between, it led me down the path to meditation eventually (that and my natural curiosity''what else is positive' what can be achieved naturally etc').

@VioletFlame I think it depends on the context. In Tier2, the self has been mostly transcended. A Tier2 being sees the bigger picture that this illusory self is within something much more expansive. There isn’t a strong identification to beliefs and perspectives. Someone at Tier2 is not attached to being identified as “I am Yellow”. They are comfortable with the notion that there are Yellow/Turquoise level concepts and experiences that arise, yet no “me” to take ownership. Yet, when communicating with people at Blue/Orange level development, Tier2 concepts and language are misunderstood. It can cause confusion, frustration and even conflict in the person. A Tier2 being is very good at going with the flow of relativity and can “meet a person where they are at”. If a Blue/Orange person asked what my experience of being a Yellow level thinker at my job is like - I would speak as if I identify as Yellow. And then, if Turqoise beings were conversing about the relative nature of Yellow which takes form as formless nothingness, identification with Yellow is dissolved. I think the key is whether they are conscious that they are identifying with a stage for ease of conversation and can let go of identification when appropriate. Or, is the person attached to the identification and can’t let go. That type of egoic attachment is a delusional trap. And it gets sneakier as one evolves up the spiral. I’ve had to face it many times. Each time I entered a new stage, there was some sense of egoic attachment with identifying with that stage.

I m far away from englitment but I had a weird experience. So 3 weeks ago I had the following experiences. I felt like I was awerness itself an awerness is nothingness, its like a "negative space" where you experience everything in your life. Awerness it's like a invisible bubble that it's around you it's the only thing that it's constant in your life. Right now in my head it's like this. The body is a pc and awerness it's a program when you look at the pc you can't see the program running on components but the program it's there. What do you think guys? Is this an insight or just dissociation?

What do you think spirituality is all about? It's liberation from this kind of pain. Self-inquire. Who is experiencing this pain? That is the ultimate solution. But in addition: a) write, draw, or otherwise artistically represent your feelings in as much detail as you possibly can. do not stop till you feel like you have captured how you are feeling exactly b) try, with the above, to understand what exactly you want to do about the situation... maybe you want to take some action. try that c) as I always say, get therapy Yes, first understand your true nature through Ramana Maharshi's self-inquiry, and then you will be in the best position to understand how to help with the problem of physical pain. It turns out that physical pain cannot affect your true inner peace. The enlightened may yell and shout and scream just like anyone else when in pain, but their inner experience is different. In truth, they are untouched, because they know who they really are. The world seems terribly unjust. When you understand your true nature, you will find out that all this pain and suffering and injustice is only an appearance. Your true nature cannot be affected by it. And if you do want to help the world, there is no better way than by finding your own peace -- then your mind will be in the best position to help the world find it. There's only one layer of the matrix. Don't confuse yourself with distinctions between so-called "nothingness" and "non-duality." The question is simple: are you in a state of clear, calm, peace even with your eyes open and you go about your life? If so, then stay there, whatever you want to call it. And if you leave that, come back to it. That's it. That actually is your true nature right there. Some day you will stop leaving that -- at that moment you will understand you actually never left it and never could leave it. As above. If you feel dissatisfied in any way ("Is there still an I?") then that is not peace. Continue the "doing nothing" or else the self-inquiry till you get to that vast, spacious peace that can be maintained with open eyes. Then don't bother to leave. 1. This is a misleading question and it'll be a misleading answer, but: 20 years that I was on the path. There is no longer a path. 2. Yes, it seemed that way. 3. Another misleading question. There is no "becoming" enlightened because we are all already that. The mind stopped searching, you could say, last year, after those 20 years. 4. After months of intense self-inquiry, and before that, decades of spiritual and psychological work on myself. 5. It is not possible. 6. Aligning myself with my true desire. Ramana Maharshi's self-inquiry.