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Yes it helps me if I identify myself as what Enlightent people call ego. ( for me it's my inner voice saying "I" who is self aware, has inner hearing and inner sight) But as soon as I begin to look for that pure awareness Nothingness which is supposed to be my true self I become confused and I feel even more duality then before.

I have noticed when my mind goes elsewhere and not on what im reading. Like in meditation when im trying to read nothingness ? I only notice that I have been daydreaming instead of paying attention quite late sometimes

@Shanmugam who has the free will then? How can Nothingness have free will if it is the opposite of everythingness the it should be all predetermined right? To fill the everythingness gap within the Nothingness

@Leo Gura Life started as a potential out of nothingness along with an infinite number of other possibilities.

Yes, a way to live can definitely follow from enlightenment(s). That is essentially the whole book i'm writing is about. (except not -- it's actually a book about nothing) It is true that the solution is to follow your intuition. The hard part is in separating intuition from egoic confusion, however. Here's an excerpt from the section called Neo-Advaitan Confusion and another section on Core Values. ----- “If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.” – Abraham Maslow Some people think that connecting to Pure Being means literally doing nothing – especially nothing to help themselves. Maybe they listened to Eckhert Tolle’s Power of Now. Or maybe they want to “go with the flow,” because they saw it on a Bruce Lee poster and think that trying to do anything is a problem. Do not confuse the fact that you already are the truth with meaning that there’s nothing to do and nowhere to go. That is bullshit. I have never, ever met or heard of anyone who does absolutely nothing 100% of the time (that’s not dead or a vegetable.) Enlightened masters still do stuff: · Jesus sacrificed himself for his own reasons · Peter Ralston writes, teaches, and Kicks people in the face for his own reasons · Siddhartha Guatama talked to people about their problems for his own reasons it's not like they said "oh I'm enlightened now, fuck it there's nothing to do." Indeed, they're enlightenment specifically helped them take action. (Although one must be careful to separate enlightenment from transformation!) What we conventionally think of as us is actually a pattern of behaviors and stories exhibited by a seemingly constrained the universe itself. The ‘real’ us doesn’t even exist in the spacetime continuum. What’s important about that fact is that no one behavioral pattern is you because all behavioral patterns exist within spacetime. So, there’s no reason to identify with any one behavioral patterns. If you smoke, then no, it’s not Absolutely True that “you are smoker”– so, you don’t have to judge yourself so harshly for smoking and you don’t have to accept it as capital-T True that you will always “be” a smoker “no matter what.” Moreover, if you can correctly identify your unhelpful patterns, you can begin to change them to more helpful ones. Wakeful people have set strong behavioral systems in their life to help them follow their core values. As a result, they access pure being with less and less effort until it approaches becomes zero mental effort. So yes – there’s nothing we “have to” do, in a sense the only thing you have to “be” is yourself. But no – there’s plenty of work left; the life you’ve been living up to now is nowhere close to what your actual self is about. And even more no - there are internal pulls toward higher values that still pull one toward living up to their greatest potential. Unless you wake up every morning and have absolutely no struggle whatsoever to live your deepest values in-and-of-themselves every single moment of every single day to such an extent that you literally don’t care if you die at any moment because life is that good, then no, you’re not there yet. It’s easy for people to run around claiming that they’re enlightened just because they “understand” that there is no self. Its not like we can hop into their mind to see if they're lying. But look at what they do. Look at what they concern themselves about behaviorally. Look at what they stand for. Look at how they handle conflict. In particular, ask if that their actions connect to their deepest, most transcendent values 24/7 365. If not, then sucks-to-suck: they're probably not nearly as ‘enlightened’ as you might think. Enlightenment does not equal transformation, but it most certainly will help. ---- The Main Point: Balance theory with practice. Someone who truly ‘gets it’ will access pure being as much as possible. Their actions will reflect that fact, as they constantly live their core values for they'll realize that there's not much else to do anyway. ---- What are the cores value? The core values serve as internal "stars" for navigation. Or to put it another way, if you look deeply enough, the core values will feel like magnets that pull you in the appropriate direction. In truth, the core values do not "exist" in the "real" world. They are inexplicable and irreducible, only understandable from pure intuition. But who cares if they're "real"? Life is a game and the fun is in trying. You will never embody any core value perfectly, but the pursuit of our core values automatically helps us transcend life's distractions and remove our conditions-for-happiness. Thus, the main byproduct of our core values is Pure Being and Pure Happiness. It’s unnecessary to reinvent the wheel when it comes to figuring out what’s valuable. You are human and the core values are common to all humans, so you can perfectly well look at other humans to figure out your own core values. The following list comes from my own personal insights as well as research from Abraham Maslow, who called them Being Values. If you don’t believe me, good! I don’t want you to believe anything I say – I want you to investigate each idea for yourself. It’s through the investigation that you will help yourself aim at each value with laser focus. A person in Pure Being cognition will a life in accordance to the following core values: 1. 100% responsibility ---- “When we become responsible for our own values, we no longer have to struggle to make the world conform to our needs, rather we can adapt our own values to fit the circumstances that confront us in the world.” – William James “There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself.” ― Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” ― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning --- Taking 100% responsibility for everything that happens to you in life is the cornerstone of all personal development. It’s the well-spring for self-sufficiency and self-efficacy. No matter what happens, you always have a choice in how to respond. You have a response – ability. Specifically, taking responsibility means choosing to forego distractions in favor of solutions and figuring out how to transcend your conditions for happiness. Other words: autonomy; independence; not-needing-other-than-itself-in-order-to-be-itself; self-determining; environment-transcendence; separateness; living by its own laws 2. Truth, Wisdom, Curiosity, and Exploration ---- “The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.” – Albert Einstein, ---- We all have an inner pull to find out what’s true: a willingness to see what lies in the unknown, an openness to insight and the discipline to put insight to use. Indeed, the pursuit of truth is by far the most powerful journey a human can take. To go on this journey, take it as a given that you’re at least partially wrong about life and work to make yourself less wrong. Keep exploring until you finish. Then, when you think you’re finished, take it as a sign that you have gone the wrong way, for you’re never finished. Other words: honesty; reality; nakedness; simplicity; richness; oughtness; beauty; pure, clean and unadulterated; completeness; essentiality 3. Aliveness, Richness, Beauty --- “Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting.”-- Ralph Waldo Emerson --- We are each pulled toward having complete experiences of the world. We want to not feel “used to” the “mundane” objects of reality. We want to look into our lover’s eyes for the ten-thousandth-time the way we did for the first time. We want to find, observe, and appreciate beauty. We want to look in awe at what’s possible for the world of color, smell, and taste. And we have a pull to feel fully functional – connected to both our animal intellect and human intellect. I think this is the magic behind movies – they suck you into the experience completely so that there is no thought – only observance. I also think this is the reason some people do things like Cocaine – they want to feel the buzz of total pure sensory experience. The final note is that part of pursuing aliveness, richness, and beauty is the motivation to go out to nature. Wakeful people love going to nature. Other words: process; non-deadness; spontaneity; self-regulation; full-functioning; differentiation, complexity; intricacy; rightness; form; aliveness; simplicity; richness; wholeness; perfection; completion; uniqueness; 4. Simplicity, Space, Orderliness, Elegance ---- “In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.” -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow --- Life is simple, but we insist in making it complicated. Simplicity in this case refers to taking out the unnecessary junk from out lives – our schedules, our rooms, and our psyches. Space refers to space in our schedule to remain flexible. It also means having time to breathe and relax. Keeping things orderly, without becoming neurotic about it, contributes to a person’s mental health and well-being. A clean room is a clean mind. And in mathematics, a theorem exhibits elegance if it is surprisingly simple yet effective and constructive; similarly, a computer program or algorithm is elegant if it uses a small amount of code to great effect. Similarly, some of the greatest personal wisdom has elegance to it. Finding elegance in your understanding is a sign of growth. Embodying elegance in our lives is the ultimate form of mastery. Other words: honesty; nakedness; essentiality; abstract, essential, skeletal structure; minimalism 5. Authenticity – Vulnerability - Worthiness --- “The closer you stay to emotional authenticity and people, character authenticity, the less you can go wrong. That's how I feel now, no matter what you're doing.” - David O. Russell --- Authenticity is all about being real. Genuine, not an imitation. It means cultivating the courage to be imperfect, to set boundaries, and to allow ourselves to be vulnerable; It means exercising the compassion that comes from knowing that we are all made of strength and struggle; And it means nurturing the connection and sense of belonging that can only happen when we believe that we are enough. Emotional richness comes from authenticity and vulnerability, for we have to allow ourselves to open up to whatever may come. Other words: realness; openness; genuineness; emotional availability; 6. Benevolence, Justice, and Empathy --- “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson --- We want our work and our lives to raise the lives of our brethren. We all want to know we help. We don’t even care if others know, we just want to know that we do. Justice is about keeping the world in karmic balance. It goes beyond tit for tat. It also goes beyond doing unto others what you’d like to have done to you. Justice is ultimately about creating a better world through fairness. Empathy has four key elements o To be able to see the world as others see it. o To be nonjudgmental o To understand another person’s feelings o To communicate your understanding of that person’s feelings Remember: the natural, happy state of the human is a giving one. Other words: fairness; orderliness; lawfulness; "oughtness; rightness; desirability; oughtness; honesty; goodness 7. Wholeness – Direct Connection - Integration – Relative Perspective --- “You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.” – Alan Watts --- The truth is that we are not separate from the universe, we are the universe. Our greatest suffering comes from forgetting this fact. Wholeness refers to making a direct connection to universal oneness. We want to feel connected to our fellow man, our fellow woman, our pets, the trees, and the stars themselves. Achieving this connection simply feels better than anything else. It is the purest form of pure being. This is why we value sex so much. For most people, sex is the closest they will ever come to the ultimate connection. Integration means alignment of mind, body, and spirit. It also means taking imbalanced parts of our psyche and re-balancing them. Black and white thinking, or dichotomy thinking, lies at the root of many struggles. The universe is filled with paradoxes, and we want to become comfortable with those paradoxes. 8. Mastery -> excellence, effortlessness, and challenge ---- “A man cannot understand the art he is studying if he only looks for the end result without taking the time to delve deeply into the reasoning of the study.” ― Miyamoto Musashi --- We want to put forward work that we can genuinely feel proud of. We want to make music with just the right rhythm. We want our paintings to have just the right amount of color. And we want to enjoy the process of creating that work. We don’t want to strain to take the steps in the right direction. We want our work to flow out of us like nothing. Then again, we also want challenge. We don’t want to feel bored. We want to constantly grow our skills and grow our abilities. If we set a world record, fine – what’s more important is to set a personal record. Finally, we want to finish. We want to actually complete things instead of leaving them hanging. No one likes to quit if they know they can finish. To quote Robert Greene, “Think of it this way: There are two kinds of failure. The first comes from never trying out your ideas because you are afraid, or because you are waiting for the perfect time. This kind of failure you can never learn from, and such timidity will destroy you.” “The second kind comes from a bold and venturesome spirit. If you fail in this way, the hit that you take to your reputation is greatly outweighed by what you learn. Repeated failure will toughen your spirit and show you with absolute clarity how things must be done.” Other words: ease; lack of strain, striving or difficulty; grace; perfect, beautiful functioning; necessity; just-right-ness; just-so-ness; inevitability; suitability; justice; completeness; "oughtness" 9. Dispassion, Equanimity, and Nonneediness --- “What humans require in our ascent is purpose and realism. Purpose, you could say, is like passion with boundaries. Realism is detachment and perspective.” – Ryan Holiday --- We want mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper, especially in difficult situations. We pursue coolness in our society as a false way of approaching this peace. We want the ability to let the pain flow through our bodies and purpose flow through our actions. We want to not need anything. We actually want to give up the plucky level of passion shown by amateurs and take up the stoic dispassion of professionals. We don’t want our hearts dragged this way and that by the random external forces. To quote Ryan Holiday, “passion typically masks a weakness. Its breathlessness and impetuousness and franticness are poor substitutes for discipline, for mastery, for strength and purpose and perseverance. You need to be able to spot this in others and in yourself, because while the origins of passion may be earnest and good, its effects are comical and then monstrous.” Put simply, we want emotional discipline. Other words: composure, calm, level-headedness, self-possession, coolheadedness, presence of mind; serenity, tranquility, phlegm, imperturbability, equilibrium; poise, assurance, self-confidence, aplomb, sangfroid, nerve 10. Telos -> purpose, progress, completion --- “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” -- Friedrich Nietzsche “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” ― Viktor E. Frankl --- We want transcendent meaning without having to delude ourselves. We want the ups and downs of our days to add up to something bigger. We want to have a story that counts. We want to have some action, some drama, some romance, and some comedy in our lives. We want to have goals to aim for, a path to walk, and feedback for that path. Ultimately, we want a vocation – a calling, summons, or strong inclination to a particular state or course of action with an almost religious zeal. We don’t want to just work for work’s sake: we want work to become part of us in the best of ways. Other words: necessity; just-right-ness; just-so-ness; inevitability; suitability; justice; completeness; "oughtness"; ending; finality; justice; "it's finished"; fulfillment; finis and telos; destiny; fate; feedback; meaning 11. Playfulness-Creativity-Uniqueness ---- “The opposite of play is not work — it’s depression.” - Brian Sutton-Smith ---- Play is something done for its own sake. It’s voluntary, it’s pleasurable, it offers a sense of engagement, it takes you out of time, and the act itself is more important than the outcome. The fact is that none of us must take life so seriously. I don’t care if you’re the president of a major country, an open-heart surgeon, or a kindergartener: Play is part of the healthy human experience. Period. Play doesn’t just give us mental rest, it also grows our level of genius and self-efficacy. This is why many mammals play – it the most fertile ground for practice and mastery. It is through play that the lion cub becomes an elite hunter. Similarly, it is through play that the apprentice becomes an elite master. One form of play is creativity. Specifically, creativity means playing with in the unknown as you bring skills or ideas together in a novel manner. We all have a pull toward creativity, but shame may cover up that influence. Do not let this happen to you – it would mean giving up your godly power. Let it be known that you are god essentially because you have (better yet are) the power of imagination. There is nothing else in the known universe that has the ability to pull things from imagination other than the universe itself. The universe needs you to create and express your unique perspective. Other words: fun; joy; amusement; gaiety; humor; exuberance; effortlessness; idiosyncrasy; individuality; non-comparability; novelty 12. Unconditional Happiness --- “Unconditional happiness is the highest technique.” – Michael Singer --- It’s simple: if you value your true self, then you must value unconditional happiness. Why? Our true nature is unconditional happiness. The unconditional happiness that is our true nature is always there, no matter whether good or bad things are happening - it's the essence of what and who we are. We are universal observers and we love everything we observe! This happiness has no reason for it. It simply is. Everything else is just dress up or an excuse to allow ourselves to feel what’s already been there. Denying the possibility of unconditional happiness is a sign of delusion; a sign of denial of reality; a sign that you're playing yourself. As such, let it be known that we are all deluded at times. And that is why we must keep reminding ourselves of unconditional happiness as a virtue. Other words: self-transcendence; nirvana; heaven; pure being; pure joy 13. Death ---- “Death never takes a wise man by surprise; he is always ready to go.” – Jean de la Fontaine ---- This is about as counterintuitive as humanly possible – I mean, our entire intuition is to go move away from death, is it not? Don’t think that valuing death means literally putting your life at risk 24/7 a lå the flying Wallandas or Travis Pastrana. Although, if that’s how you want to live, more power to you. Instead, valuing death more is about recognizing that the option to not-live is always near and that death gives life some much needed urgency. It’s about being thankful for the chance to be alive and the chance to take everything in through the wonderful window of perception that is you. It’s also about coming to terms with your legacy and not living with regret. Ultimately, valuing death means becoming friends with the all-consuming Nothingness that permeates the universe. Are you unsure of what core values you value the most? Death will help you get that straightened out real quick – just think about what you’d like to do if today was your last day, this year was your last year, or the next five years are the last chance you’d have with your parents. Here are the main points to consider about death: Death is inevitable Everyone has to die; your lifespan is decreasing continuously; the amount of time you have for spiritual practice is small The uncertainty of the time of death human life-expectancy is uncertain; there are many causes of death; the human body is very fragile The fact that only spiritual practice can help you at the time of death your loved ones cannot help; your possessions and enjoyments cannot help; your own body cannot help Other words: making peace, pre-mortem, life-as-a-preparation, becoming friends with nothingness, knowing that this too shall pass --- The Main Point: Live a life of Responsibility, Truth, Freshness, Simplicity, Benevolance, Vulnerability, Wholeness, Master, Telos, Equanimity, Playfulness, Unconditional Happiness, and the embrace of death – watch your happiness skyrocket, for free. ---- One last point about the core values: do not confuse them with morals. They are simply what a person in the healthiest mental state will naturally pursue. They're what happens when you give a person time, room, space, energy, and time to do whatever they'd like however they'd like for as long as they'd like. Again, they're called core values because you feel them at your core and they're nice to live up to in-and-of-themselves.

@egoless I won't resort to optical illusions to convince you of the nature of "you", the answer is simple. So, changing it to the first person, your question is: "Am I reborn as another ego or do I become absolute infinity aka nothingness" What you perceive of as "I" is your ego. So your question becomes: "Is my ego reborn as another ego or does it become absolute infinity aka nothingness" Your ego dies with your physical death as your neurons stop firing. That's the answer to your question.

It all depends on the perspective. We can argue on that. What you and me call triangle? What if I call the triangle the "illusion" of triangle? What if there are infinite numbers of triangles from my perspective? And since ego is perspective too it also "exists" and does not exist at the same time right? Again very important question arises here. Why "my" ego "lives" like my perspective to "me" and not like "Leo's"? Does that mean that Nothingness aka god experiences - is aware of itself with infinite numbers of perspectives?

Yes but I mean from the illusional perspective wise. What happens to "your" ego or call it perspective after from "my" ego's perspective Leo physically dies? Why does "my" ego lives like "my" life to "me" and not like "Leo's". P.S. I use captions deliberately to show that I understand on the intellectual level that there is no me or Leo but I refer to many separations, many egos within Nothingness.

It's not personal, but it's not mechanical either, and it's infinitely intimate. It's as intelligent as a motherfucker too. Hence it's called God. It really feels like experiencing God, not some dry mechanical void. It's full of life. It's full of love. It's organic-feeling. Like being inside a giant infinite mind. If you took the minds of every single genius human being who has ever lived in the last 5000 years and multiplied them all together and raised that by a power of a million, you would not even have 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of its intelligence. It's intelligence is infinite. Divinity is the best word to describe it. Nothingness is literally divine. The very fabric of reality is self-seeing.

That's the beauty of Absolute Truth. The Absolute is none other than the Relative. Form is formlessness. Formless is form. The Absolute is not anything other than what's in your direct experience right this second. But it's also none of it. This very sentence you're reading right now is Absolutely Infinite. And also Relative. There are many illusions of separation (egos) within Nothingness. Like vortexes within one pool of water.

Hello reality! In this topic I want to discuss the "being" after death. What happens after our physical body dies? Do we "reborn" as another ego or we become absolute infinity aka nothingness itself and completely get rid of any ego? Since we may not become aware of it before we actually physically die let's contemplate.

@Leo Gura I understand you: Enlightenment and The Truth is not a theory to be prooven it just is the Ultimate Truth - I am it and I need to become aware of myself. And sincere intent to know this Truth must be initial inertia for me to Start this journey right? But how did you stay Leo after becoming aware of this Truth? How do you continue to do Leo's everyday stuff? And one very important question for my self enquiry process - please answer that even if you think it is My ego asking it. Are there many egos like yours and other's within Nothingness or is it just "my" ego?

However being, or being aware is limitless. From my inquiry it looks like I am not that which appears in nothingness, but the nothingness itself. Now I need to stop talk and be a good student

Day 33 Days in a row: 5 Start time: 9:25 a.m. Finish time: 10:10 a.m. Location: My room at my parent's house Technique: Mindfulness meditation Eyes: closed Highlights: By far the absolutely most powerful meditation that I've ever had. I focused in what my senses were perceiving and at some point it was absolutely clear to me how the only thing that existed was the pitch darkness, not even the darkness but the space in which all those sensations were entering. If nothing but that space existed, that also meant my body didn't exist, what existed were the sensations of my body that were entering into that space, same with all sounds and smells. If my body didn't exist, and the sensations were no different to the sounds I was hearing and the smells I'm smelling, and the mental images that were crossing my mind, then why would I be only the sensation of my body? I started becoming a sphere of nothingness which was filled with different things, sometimes the sound of a bird + the mental image of a bird, the numbing sensation of my leg, the mental words of my mind, the sound of my AC and even the alarm of my cell phone going off. Before opening my eyes, I told myself "nothing is going to change, you are still going to be this nothingness, but this nothingness can also be filled with colors and shapes". I opened my eyes and the sensation lasted for a little bit, but not so powerful. Right now I actually know that I have no legs, as I can't see them right now, I only have the sensation of legs. The feeling isn't as powerful anymore, but if I focus on it, it's so incredibly obvious I actually laugh.

What you expect in the end? Will it make your life happier and more fulfilled? And since you think that 5 Meo is part of that practice - What is 5 Meo in your opinion? Should not it be also nothing? And how could nothing within the nothingness open your "eyes" and make you awake?

Yes, the foundation is nothingness, correct

Yeah the "Me" is part of the web. The "web of beliefs" is probably also part of the web of beliefs Lol. These things will be naturally paradoxical to the mind as they should. The believer of the web of beliefs is the initial belief that of I. Who is having the I thought? Well self enquire, I mean its you. Nothingness is the effortless creator of everything.

@How to be wise You can do it right now- Everything will become the magic happening. Do you have a quiet place in nature somewhere around you? Go there sometime and sit with a quiet mind. Dissolve into everything by letting go. The sounds. The smells. The visual field of perception. See if all that doesn't heighten after the mind quiets down. Try closing your eyes and meditate on absolute nothingness. Than slowly open them again and allow existence to pour into you. If you allow it, some really amazing things can happen. This is no philosophy here. But don't take my word for it. Find out for yourself.

Because it's not about just asking the same question over and over again. It's about interrogating the answers that come. When an answer comes, "I am this, I am that, I am here...", whatever it is, you need to examine that answer. Find the truth in it - or the lack of truth in it. It's no use going 'no I'm not that because someone else said I'm nothingness'; you have to strip away the layers of 'you' that 'you' think 'you' are. And most of these are invisible to you. To be honest, it seems to me that an awful lot of people misunderstand self-inquiry. It's an ongoing, difficult, oftentimes frustrating process, and in the end you're not actually looking for an answer. No answer is going to come. You're looking to remove the assumptions/beliefs (both created by you and inherited from society/parents/school/peers/etc.) which sit in your mind and pose as answers. And most of them you aren't even aware of at the moment. So, yeah, I suppose it is but that's going to take years of ongoing, daily inquiry. Still, it comes away piece by piece; sort of a series of little disillusionments. I'm not 'there' yet, but my perspective and understanding of everything have significantly changed through a simple application of critical thinking to the situation I find myself in. Which is really cool. Just remember to not let your mind cheat you by stating answers from other people (such as "I am nothing"). If it helps, you can reframe the question slightly: "What is I?" "What is true?" etc.

You have to see that every realm of reality like our normal "waking state", "dreaming state", "sleeping state" comes with certain dynamics that shape what can exist in these realms. It's like every of these realms is like a frame through which certain pictures are possible because of the nature of the frame. Now, realize that your normal waking state is just one of these frames. It can see, hear, feel, touch etc. and that's it. There could be an infinite collection infinitely combined of these way's to perceive that would shape infinite worlds out of nothingness that would include literally everything you can ever think of. The vampire sits right in front of you right now. You just don't have the frame to see it. And if you had, it could be as real as a tree. Contemplate that. I'd strongly suggest that you don't have a body that can die. If you realize that and go through that experience a couple of times with psychedelics (you'll be totally shocked if you do) you'll see that merely your current frame ends. Your perceptions will go away and you'll begin to realize who you really are. Because something will still remain because it was never birthed in life nor will it ever die out of life. What happens then? I don't know. Probably a lot of different stuff for a lot of different individual frames that come to an end. Maybe these frames are connected and undergo development. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe they just die of and nothing happens, until another one comes on. Maybe. You'll see. But whatever happens will be fine because you cannot die. Because you are God. G - o motherfuckin' d. You'll live your life how you're supposed to live it. It's different for every one. Don't worry, you'll find your way. But as soon as you try to mark out an general case for every one, you'll fail. That one doesn't exist. Because if it did, all the subjective ones couldn't exist - although they do. Dude, if you don't wanna do it, don't. There's no problem. Nobody's pointing fingers here and laughing. But don't expect to ever know what it feels like to be in space when you don't actually want to fly in space with a rocket. Is it scary? Of course it is. It's outer space. Will you ever be able to get even a glimpse of it when you don't go. No. Simply no. Because to experience absolute infinity you have to go through a membrane that we call death. Now in front of this membrane (personally for you) there are all kinds of fears, daemons, stories, all the good stuff. And all of them will rush your way if you are on the way to cross the membrane. And they'll try to hold you down. And only the one who goes through that will be able to pass the membrane and experience absolute infinity. For one it might be easier, for another one it will never be achievable by "conscious will". The point is, to even get there you need the power of something as strong as 5-MeO-DMT. And even then it's not an easy ride. You can meditate for the next 40 years (which is great and you should do that because it helps on so many levels). But even then I seriously doubt that you get a glimpse of this experience because it's so different. It's so alien. There is no tool in your intellectual tool box to make sense of it. Maybe you do, there certainly are people who did it that way. It's your choice.

Hello my furry friends, I'm soon to be moving in a new direction with my life and leaving my old career behind to start a new journey in health / life coaching. I kept thinking to myself it's okay to get experience and build this new identity as a coach, because I can always move into the realm of spiritual coaching which would be rewarding to help raise people's consciousness. ...But this thought/feeling keeps visiting me. Am i just delaying the inevitable and fucking around? Playing into the illusion and avoiding the REAL work? Building a new self identity, new beliefs and new paradigm, and adding to, instead of dissolving self? It sure seems like the slow lane, or perhaps the sidewalk. I mean...there's no, "oh i'll just keep that little part of my self that I like, the coach part". I'll never stop this journey now, i'm balls deep, but my gut tells me if I REALLY, REALLY want the Truth, permanently, i'd should consider going ALL IN. It's only Fear that's stopping me after all... But then there are BILLS TO PAY, oh yes those oh so important bills. The message I'm getting is that life can't start until you dissolve self, so isn't the best tactical plan to make enlightenment the first priority, get that out of the way, no longer be a self, then see what is in store for me then? For those who have traveled this path for many years whilst building careers & life purpose, having families, being social and all that, do you feel like you are TRULY effectively dissolving your identity ? Will "life" pass me in the end without Liberation because I took the sidewalk instead of the fast lane? I FEEL SO CONFUSED. - General Nothingness <3

@123456789 Here is the explanation of 7th bhumika given in yoga vashista: Rishis say that the seventh janaana bhoomikaa is the last frontier of the realm of Jnaana. It is pure peace and cannot be explained by the power of speech. Words cannot describe that state of sublime quiescence. That is the ultimate stage – there is nothing more beyond that. After experiencing that state, some call it Siva, some people say it is Para Brahma, some people say it is Vishnu; and yet some say it is Soonya – Nothingness. Some people say it is Pure Energy, some say it is unconditioned Time; and some say it is Prakruti and Purusha. The Ultimate Reality cannot be explained by words, but still people call It by different names. After having this realisation, some start thinking about it in different manners, according to their capacities. Although it cannot be explained by anybody at any time, still they would be trying to explain it somehow. ......................................................... Here is the explanation of the stages 4, 5,6,7 given by Sri Abhinava Vidyatirtha MahaswaminaH, the 35th Jagadguru of Sringeri Peetham, (mutt established by Shankara): A jñànin involved in worldly activities is referred to as a brahmavid. If a jñànin has the practice of going into nirvikalpa-samàdhi and coming out of it on his own, he is a brahmavidvara. If he can be awakened from nirvikalpasamàdhi only by the efforts of others, he is a brahmavidvaräyàn. A brahmavidvariShTha is one who never emerges from nirvikalpa-samàdhi. His body perishes while he is in samàdhi. As a brahmavidvariShTha has the best pràrabdha, he is deemed the greatest jñànin.

Hi Waterfall. You seem far too deep in spirituality for depression to have a soil to grow in. Don't worry. Watch it play its course, in the meantime go deeper into who you are. There's infinite depth to nothingness. It is everything. You are everything.

Recently, I've been pondering what death will be like. Such a fun way to go about the day I guess I've never truly tackled this topic head-on, though I've always thought I had an opinion on the matter. While I never really gave it much thought, because I assumed there was an afterlife or something, I was confronted by my own experience, when I fainted in a nightclub (true story). It was probably a combination of the strobe lights and the RedBull, both of which I hadn't encountered before. That's neither here nor there. When I fainted, I suppose I lost consciousness for a brief moment. But the insight that struck me today, was what happened *during* the fainting episode. I was trying to remember what it was like while I was on the floor, unconscious: and it was nothing. I panicked as I thought, what if that is what death is like? One moment, I was dancing with my friends, and the next, I was being yanked off the ground and carried away. In between, was nothing. No darkness, because even darkness would be something; no experience whatsoever. Just total oblivion. It was different from a dreamless nap, because after a nap, you have some sense that time has passed. But from fainting to re-awakening, I had absolutely no sense of anything happening in between. There was just before and after, no during. Nothingness. And so, that brings me to my point: death is oblivion, *unless* consciousness is unrelated to an immaterial soul, which lives on eternally. So long as we don't believe in some sort of untethered soul, some aspect of ourselves that is unaffected by consciousness or a lack thereof, then we can only ascertain that oblivion is what follows death. And if we do believe in an immaterial soul, that cracks open the massive can of religion, and will require much more research... for the opinions on life after death between religions are as vast as infinity! Thoughts?

Yesterday, I was excited. And I was so excited that I wanted it to stop. I bought the book The Mind Illimuninated and I found that yesterday, I was in stage 8 of the 10 Stages for much of the day. Maybe stage 7 or even stage 9. I remember going into this state before from time to time. I'd feel my body exploding with joy, a rush of sensations everywhere. And I have to stop the meditation because I can't help but get distracted by how extraordinary this is. Sometimes I'd get a taste of it outside meditation. I remember programming once and I was suddenly enthralled by an intense joy. It was like being a volcano, but instead of anger, I erupted with joy. I got myself some really celebratory music and thought of how amazing life was. But when I chased after it, the farther it left me. I became attached to it. I kept a story of myself in my mind about how I was "the success story". Managed to get myself from the depths of depression into now. But the thing about it is that I kept my sense of self. As Peter Ralston said, it's like associating yourself as a hard worker. It might be true most of the time. But often they'd associate the hard worker image even when they're tired and need to rest. And because of this challenge to their image, they get upset. They might associate with certain music, certain people, certain activities and more that they lose themselves farther and farther in a false identity. The thing is even if I'm generally "A success story" by that means, that doesn't mean the unconscious associations of perfection, the end of it all and similar ideas are true. When people say Buddhism teaches to let go of desire, that's rather misleading. As if we're taught to become wide eyed happy people accomplishing nothing in life. But the deeper I go, the more I realize that what's really being taught is to remove rigid desire. And to achieve a desire of flowing in something, effortless, yet still powerful. It's like realizing that desire isn't a rigid metal bar no one can break, but like a clay you can form into whatever you want to. When I let go of that image, I fell into what happened yesterday. It was tiring at the end, but it was still pretty amazing. Phabhaker told me to try Osho Kundalini Meditation for my problems with excess energy. And in the beggining, I was told to shake as my body wanted it. When I thought I'd use up enough energy, it still kept going later on. The next stage was to dance and while I imagined a kind of elegant fluid dance, my body found its way to do something pretty whacky in kicking and flailing arms randomly while throwing in some hip hop moving dance. I heard a joke before about breakdancing monks. I never thought there's a chance it could be real. Heh. I felt like natural geographic is making a nature documentary on the ceremonial human being's dance into nothingness complete with classical music. And here you see is the natural homosapien of meditative tendencies dancing the way of Kundalini. But I just told myself to keep focusing. Then I was told to sit down or stand still but I was so tired, I just lied down. But when I lied down, I felt my arms needed to move. So I punched the air. And so did my legs. Kick. Kick. WATASHI KARATE MASTER. HARDCORE XXX! Motherfucker in the face! or whatever my bad Japanese is in a horribly done accent. But the deeper I went, the more I felt myself being absorbed. By what? I don't know. It was as if I was wrapped by nothingness. Like water in a glass. But without the glass. What do you imagine when you hear the word nothing? Do you see an empty box? Pitch black? No, it's just nothing. And that can't be imagined, thought or felt. Just experienced. I read that before stage 8 are like horses going in different directions. Obviously, it's hard to move well and the direction they move will come from the strongest horses. Stage 8 is when the horses move into the same direction, but at different speeds. Some horses rush forward wanting more and the other horses resist to want a slower pace. If I want my focus to be more matured, I had to allow these horses to move as one. One practice for stage 8 was focusing on nimitta. It was a picture of a luminous round object in someone's mind, appearing naturally. I was told to let it grow naturally and was told how to. As I practiced, I noticed the nimitta changing colors. Green. Yellow. Red. They never mentioned something about that. And I moved it around a bit back and forth. But I found I can only move it subtly. I felt a strange calmness. As if sitting inside an enormous temple, seeing the majesty of its heights and absorbing it all. This lasted for about 10 minutes. They described "popping" when we got out of this Jhana state. When I got out, I felt like I heard all the sounds and saw all the sights. Nothing in particular. Just everything at once. With an expansion of awareness yet with a penetrating depth of detail. And in my mind, it was all nothing. Take a book and you'll often have ideas of it in your mind. Cultural ideas. Spiritual ideas. Memories. Likes. Dislikes. Facts. Details. History. But if I saw a book in that state, I won't see that. I'd just see the colors, the lines and the shapes. And it's like that image of it in your mind but go farther to remove what certain colors and shapes and lines mean to you. And remove how these all come together to connect into something you see as an object because even that is an idea. And when everything is removed, there is only nothing. I tried a practiced that involving noticing stillness. It told me to imagine the universe around me first and contrasting that with my breath to gain a stillness. But I already felt it. I focused on this stillness, as if hearing the silence between sounds. As I type this, I feel pretty calm and tranquil. But I can be satisfied with it because I'm not chasing after that intense joy. Maybe to get nearer enlightenment, I have to be even satisfied without something luxurious as intense joy. Or maybe I'm losing focus and just getting bored. Eh, who knows? Not that I need enlightenment right now, do I?