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My friend is fascinating. He does not follow any self help, or enlightened gurus... Yet, after I told him about consciousness work and consistently conceptually mindfucked him with No Self, Enlightenment, Non-Duality, Absolute Infinity he slowly started to shift his paradigm and move to a more Non Dual way of thinking/conceptualizing. He is at the point, where he BELIEVES that enlightenment is true and a non-dual perspective is the right perspective, yet the thing is, he doesn't care to do any of the hard work to become enlightened. He does not meditate, or read any books to advance his overall intellectual knowledge on the subject. He simply lives life like everyone else does. He has a girlfriend, who he is very happy with, and he has a passion, which is music, he smokes weed, drinks, eats junk etc. I just had a deep conversation about this with him and I curiously asked WHY it is that he cannot put in the work to become more conscious. He told me that the truth was, that he simply doesn't feel that he needs to know the Truth. He said he is completely content with the suffering that he has to go through while living in a conceptual reality. Now he also admitted, that he has never had any direct experience with the true nature of anything, other than on LSD (maybe.) He said he ultimately trusts life. He believes that whatever is true and meant to be, will come to him, and if he is meant to do enlightenment work, it will eventually come to him. For now though, he finds no need in inquiring rigorously about the Truth. He likes his conceptual reality. Still, he talks and understands many of the concepts of enlightenment on an intellectual level and agrees on pretty much everything that I communicate to him about this work. I want to know, is there anything wrong with this approach to life? I'm asking this simply because I feel that I am largely stuck in this same stage of development. I conceptually understand and believe a whole lot of what is being discussed here, but I sure as hell don't live it through my bones. I still go out every now and then and drink/smoke/put on roles filling my void. I'm still clinging onto myself, not wanting to accept the nothingness that I am. I guess the only difference between us is, that I put in the work to make this stuff a reality, not just more beliefs and concepts. What does it mean when he says, that he is fine with all the suffering that comes with living in a concept based reality? is there something wrong with this attitude? Does my friend have potential with this work?

Can be, I don't know. I went for enlightenment because it felt right. I am very intrigued by nature and contemplated since I can think. So when I heard about it from Leo I was like: "Whuuuuut? This shit is possible?" So there was never a need to push myself or something. It was how things went. So it's right for me. However, I'd say it's not for everybody at all. A lot of people need to experience other things on the "table of experiences" and they will have their "enlightenments" through that. One thing you'll realize after enlightenment (stream entry), is that you have just been introduced to a new "table of experiences". To a new show. So there are at least a few other fields in consciousness you can get enlightened about and they'll probably be even harder to get into. For example understanding how relativity works, what an object is, what emotions are, what thoughts are, how this dream works, how nothingness works... etc. So yeah, let's see where it takes us.

I was watching Zeena and Nikolas Shreck vs Bob Larson part two yesterday..and they spoke of this topic. Nikolas said all of the information gathered and stored and imprinted in your DNA will be returned to your higher self after your death, although it is a popular belief in the LHP that if you follow Abrahamism, everything that is you; your psyche, personality, being, whatever you want to call yourself will cease to be and you will become nothing due to your submission to the universe and the Abrahamic egregore on the astral plane using the information you've gathered here as it's own energy source. This popular LHP belief also proposes that the white light is actually a trap that lures RHP followers into the battery, and that those who have followed the occult and evolved themselves spiritually will be prepared to traverse the after life realm with their astral body (through programming their chakras and mastering astral projection) and return this sacred information and stored data to their higher self, and potentially ending the process of reincarnation, and existing eternally. Speaking of Alan Watts, I'm reading his book The Book on the taboo....and he mentionsthis idea of black nothingness after you die, and says that people create afterlife ideas simply because they cannot fathom and wrap their heads around the idea of non existence I also think it's important to note that while some ideas of death and the afterlife sound more plausible and may fit ones paradigm more than others, and regardless of what a god/deity tells you, what you read or hear from some spiritual master, or what revelations or epiphanies you have about death, no one knows for sure what the fuck is going to happen, or if anything is. The expectation that a "something" is going to happen is based on faith, and we should all make the most of this eternal moment now, and this one life never to be repeated in history again (that I'm sure of) the fact you or I or Leo even exist is such a miracle and is beautiful for no reason but that it exists, and if you've read this, you are lucky beyond most people's understanding

@Dodo You gotta love Adyashanti. What I said about whether nothingness is conscious awareness or not has a lot to do with how I feel theses days and I'm questioning what is true reality. I could throw out knowing all together. It's ran it's silly course.

@cetus56 I just watched this video with Adyashanti and this reminded me of our conversation about whether nothingness can be aware. Starting 11:11 (lol synchronicity), it's interesting to contemplate.

Adyashanti talks about nothingness and who we are.

Curious. Don't give me some kosher bs theory answer. Look within to answer. I'm starting to resist the theory more and more; the dogma. Am I God, am I a pissant? Am I superior to both and neither? Am I inferior to both and neither? How can I attach any trait to me good or bad? Am I glory or nothingness? Bigness or smallness? Strength or weakness? Purposeful or purposeless? Necessary or random? A great video on point.

I don't know either about this. But seems more plausible based on my current experience. By the way don't get me wrong, the hallucination bit is awesome. Here's my problem. If the brain is hallucinating everything and brain exist, who is hallucinating the brain in the first place? We will go back to nothingness every time no? This is the same as finding a God out there or the beginning of the universe.

I don't know. Does nothingness have consciousness? What would nothingness be conscious of? Maybe consciousness is a aspect of existence only. Could it be that the absolute has no awareness of existence or of itself? If existence is Maya. And all existence is created by consciousness, Wouldn't that mean that consciousness is also an illusion? I know that's thinking outside the box here.

Yes, if there is such a thing in the first place. Maybe it proves the use of conscious nothingness.

Dodoster's guess is that Dodoster is probably a figment of nothingness' imagination.

"Then why is it, that we feel out of sorts when we are sad, negative, angry, disappointed? Why do we pull ourselves back to happiness?" There is no you to be happy. That is the bad thinking. You need nothing to be happy. "Even unconscious people know it's not right when they are stressed, anxious, unhappy etc." "This is the entire point of life, to be happy, why do we have this bias between equanimity, happiness, calm, peace etc?" Watch these two videos: "Why are enlightened people so happy, so calm, so soothing, funny, all of these traits we know are good, if reality is nothingness?" Watch this one: And finally this one:

Then why is it, that we feel out of sorts when we are sad, negative, angry, disappointed? Why do we pull ourselves back to happiness? Even unconscious people know it's not right when they are stressed, anxious, unhappy etc. This is the entire point of life, to be happy, why do we have this bias between equanimity, happiness, calm, peace etc? Why are enlightened people so happy, so calm, so soothing, funny, all of these traits we know are good, if reality is nothingness?

I am having a continuous spiritual experience after practising Mooji's clear seeing technique. Everything that is, will always be surrounded and grounded in Nothingness. It's a simple fact. You can always zoom out. Nobody has seen the nothingness, because it is outside of existence, it contains existence. Existence is a bubble in Nothingness. I am grounded in Nothingness and shine within nothingness as nothingness. Everything that is will always be ungrounded. It's not form that is holding this together. It's absolute nothingness and it's who I am, that's why I speak with such conviction! Actually there is a self, it's just no self. But truth is that the self is! Always, no matter what!

Let me rephrase the question : Is my nothingness the same as your nothingness? Sounds silly!

This point is something that has really been on my mind lately. I feel like I have established pretty clearly that reality is all there is. Reality basically is composed of sensory perceptions, thoughts, and nothingness. It is strange to me however, that there are other human beings in my direct experience that seem to be having their own version of reality. If there is only one reality, then how does one explain the seemly billions of different realities that exist (and even more if you include all sentient life)? It seems that their realities are just as valid as what I am experiencing. So if it seems like other humans are experiencing something similar to what I am experiencing, is there more to reality than what just I can perceive? Does that make sense? If not I can try to clarify a little better.

How could it not disappear? If it didn't literally disappear, you couldn't go to work, because your consciousness would be populated by "your house". The reason you can't be both at your house and at work is because your consciousness needs to empty itself first. Like an LCD screen, it has a hard time displaying two images at the same time. This is not a matter for speculation or philosophy. You need to look at your direct experience. Blink your eyes right now and notice that your room disappears. That's what's literally true. Everything else is concept. Your mind fudges literal truth so that you can live in a cushy conceptual matrix. This work is all about stripping down the conceptual matrix to what is literally true. Don't conflate this with silly expectations of burglars not being able to enter your house. When you're switching paradigms, you have to recontextualize all your old facts about reality. Instead of thinking of reality as a solid physical thing, think of it as a collections of dreams or hallucinations. In a dream, a tiger can eat you, even though both the tiger and your body are imaginary. Reality is literally no different than a dream. It's just a bit more consistent, clear, and vibrant. There is no "substance" behind the dream. The dream is not taking place anywhere, like in your brain. There is no brain! There is no world. It's just pure dream afloat in nothingness. That's idealism for ya.

It's both, depending on your level of consciousness. The Divine Paradox is this: God is in all things, and yet God is not any of those things. Atman = Brahman. Form and formlessness are one. The Absolute is the sum total of everything relative. But practically, you need to learn to distinguish God (Nothingness, formlessness) from all the forms you see around you (Maya). Even though Maya and God are identical, a distinction can still be made between the Absolute and the Relative. Since you're already extremely familiar with the Relative, your work now is to connect with the Absolute. Once you accomplish that, then you can come back into the Relative to see that it's actually not separate from the Absolute. It's sorta like separating an egg yoke from the white, and then merging them back together into one whole egg. You can't appreciate the wholeness of the egg until you've experienced the yoke and white separately.

@Anna1 There is no subtle body. That is an illusion. All distinctions are existentially false. Reality is Nothingness.

@Leo Gura But Leooo, so are you saying there could be non-physical organisms? I've actually never thought about that. I think my core assumption was if something is not in our perception, then it is literally nothingness. But not-perception is still a thing right? So it's not nothingness. And if reality is absolute then it can contain individual souls that had past lives, human egos and pizza galaxies where everything is made out of pizza. Damn, that actually makes sense in a very weird way. But eighter way one part of the dream wouldn't be more spiritual than living as a human ego or an ant. They should be equally ignorant from the nondual perspective.

Vedanta "It is this Akshara (the Imperishable), O Gargi, so the knowers of Brahman say. It is neither gross nor subtle, neither short nor long, not red, not viscid, not shadowy, not dark, not the air, not the ether, not adhesive, tasteless, odourless, without the sense of sight, without the sense of hearing, without the vital principle, mouthless, without measure, neither interior nor exterior,. It eats nothing, nobody eats it." - Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 3-8-8. ............................................................................. Buddhism “There is that dimension, monks, where there is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor wind; neither dimension of the infinitude of space, nor dimension of the infinitude of consciousness, nor dimension of nothingness, nor dimension of neither perception nor non-perception; neither this world, nor the next world, nor sun, nor moon. And there, I say, there is neither coming, nor going, nor staying; neither passing away nor arising: unestablished, unevolving, without support [mental object]. This, just this, is the end of stress.” - Buddha (in Nibbāna Sutta: Unbinding (1))

@Leo Gura I have experienced a complete ego-death, which showed me all that is arises from nothingness. However, I have difficulity putting this knowledge into actual practical use in the ego game. I think trying to explain/understand what it is on a intellectual level will only make me walk in circles and will do the opposite of becoming enlightened. Isn't the purpose of self-enquiry ultimately to understand that one should stop seeking? Like going full circle to realize one already is and that all external theory will bring you further from the truth? Or is there no such thing as truth at all?

@Principium Nexus You are the Truth. You are the Self. You are Brahman. You are the contents of experience stripped of thought. You are the whole of awareness. You are the holder of the ego as thought. You are not the voice. You are the Truth basking in itself. Don't think of yourself as the screen, that is concept, belief. Whatever you are is nothingness. Pure emptiness. Emptiness is anti-conceptual. That's a huge hint. But all somethingness occurs within emptiness. So you are all non-conceptual somethingness too. The Self is God.

Philosophy leads you nowhere, Moses, Jesus, Buddha and every enlightened master had a realization, they were not philosophizing. The most important thing about India is that it has no philosophy in the same way that other countries have philosophies. The word 'philosophy' means love of knowledge. In India we have never praised love of knowledge; we have praised love of experience. Knowledge can be borrowed, experience cannot be borrowed. That is why we have called our way darshan, not philosophy. To call darshan Indian philosophy is basically wrong. Philosophy is a mind thing - you think about it. Darshan is a realization, a thing of your innermost being; you realize it. Philosophy needs logic; darshan needs silence - no thoughts, everything in absolute nothingness. Only then you will come to know yourself. Philosophy means to think, and darshan means to see. Both are basically different; not only different, but diametrically opposite. Because when you are thinking you cannot see. You are so filled with thoughts that perception is blurred, perception is clouded. When thinking ceases, you become capable of seeing. Then your eyes are opened, they become unclouded. Perception happens only when thinking ceases. So Buddha is not a philosopher; neither is Jesus. They have seen the truth; they have not thought about it.

@Edvard in a way, all the unconscious in the world are also yourself. Your lifetime as an individual is unique. There can't be two exactly equal leaves. But see, why cling to this experience if deep down you know that you are infinite? I was walking on an avenue, and I could see that it wouldn't fucking matter if I threw myself to a car. I was so conscious of my true nature that I become desidentified with my body. Crazy thought have been popping in my head, and the secret here is to trust. No matter what it is, trust. You are the creator of it all. Imagine like all your visual field collapsed and there was a deep nothingness. From that, arises everything. You don't have to change your responses. It is matter of treating yourself with kindness. Become a cool parent to your ego. There are no enemies. If it is hard, take a break.see? The more relaxed you are, the greater love you receive. The more you expand your breath, the more aliveness you will feel. It is a scale. A great question: "Can I let that go?" be honest here. If you can't, let it be. It is there for a reason. Maybe the problem is not that you are getting fat, but that you guilt yourself from eating. The moment you drop your guilt, things will begin to transform automatically You begin to feel like you are flowing with life, just like a cat or a small child are. Do nothing means just being. Ppl, if you approach enlightenment from a neurotic and desperate way, this life-long pursuit will make you miserable. Instead, spoil yourself a little do something that society doesn't approve haha I trust you It's so freaking funny to be in this frequency. I feel like I am just being a channel. Haha. The moment you trust yourself is the moment you become whole again. You become a force of Nature once again. You become as strong as a fucking waterfall or a volcano ? hahaha and you don't even have to make effort. Hahaha. You just sit back and let God work itself through you. Hahaha. it's amazing. You remember the funniness of this human incarnation. Haha. Watch your ego wanting to get serious. Haha. I hope you have noticed that you have noticed that. The stairway to liberation comes when you become yourself once again. When you relax like a child. When you move with such softness that it feels like your making love. you won't get too far by hating yourself. You are exactly where you needed to be. Got that? Haha Hahaha you're a joke. Remember? Hahaha aw.. No matter where you go, the Divine controls you. Freaky, uh?