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amanen replied to BipolarGrowth's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
You can realize the oneness aspect or nonduality without realizing that you are God and that Absolute Solipsism is true, as an example. You can have awakenings to oneness that are distinct from God-Realization. There are many states as there are infinite levels of consciousness and a multitude of facets to truth, some of these states are more complete than others. You can get glimpses of truth or understand some aspects or facets without fully grasping everything. In fact grasping God fully is a far more advanced state than understanding nonduality, which is still true but not the whole story. -
Water by the River replied to taslimitless's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
I agree with Leos comment that this part of Buddhism is not God Realization. Its the basic teaching from the first turning of the wheel. Ken Wilber also clearly says that insight into Ultimate Reality didn't occur at that stage of Buddhism, it was a insight and experience of the causal stage (Godhead, pure consciousness, but not world/apppearance arising within that), not Nondual Realization of Ultimate Reality. (And experience of Nonduality is not automatically realization of Ultimate Reality). The realization of Ultimate Reality (the imagination or manifestation part) occured later, at Nagarjuna, and the second turning of the wheel, and was only clearly formulated philosophically with the third turning, the Yogachara or Mind-Only school. If you want some really iconoclastic thoughts, read that the founder of Jainism has practically the same story/hagiography as Buddha, as explained in Mike Crowley in "Secret Drugs of Buddhism: Psychedelic Sacraments and the Origins of the Vajrayana", and draw your own conclusions concerning the historic Buddha. So who knows who had which realization back then... Looking at the literature these systems produced, one can make educated guesses. A quote from Ken Wilbers "Integral Buddhism": "The idea is that Buddhadharma (Buddhist Truth) has itself already undergone three (or four) major evolutionary Turnings in its own Teachings, according to Buddhism itself. The First Turning began with the original, historical Gautama Buddha himself, and is preserved to this day in teachings such as the Theravada. The Second Turning was introduced by the genius Nagarjuna, around 200 CE, with his revolutionary notion of shunyata, or the radical Emptiness or “unqualifiability” of ultimate Reality (which could be said neither to be, nor not to be, nor both, norneither—the idea being to clear the mind of any and all concepts about Reality so that Reality in itself could be directly experienced), a notion that became the foundation of virtually every Mahayana (“Greater Vehicle”) and Vajrayana (“Diamond Vehicle”) teaching henceforth. The Third Turning occurred with the half brothers Asanga and Vasubandhu, and is generally called the Yogachara school, sometimes referred to as the “Mind-Only” school (which agreed with Nagarjuna that ultimate Reality was Emptiness, but so was ultimate Mind). This teaching became a central foundation of the great Tantra and Vajrayana (Diamond Path) teachings, which particularly flourished in such places as the extraordinary Nalanda University in India from the 8th to the 11th century CE, and continued unabated in Tibetan Buddhist schools—and, indeed, many Buddhists consider Tantra and Vajrayana to be a “Fourth Turning of the Wheel.” Also in Ken Wilbers model the realization of Ultimate Reality started first with the second turning of the wheel (Nagarjuna), which was not descriptive at all but pure neti-neti, pure emptiness, pure not this - not that. The Yogachara-School, or "Mind-Only" school, changed that. To quote Leo from a previous video "Reality is a giant Mind". The Yogachara-School is very in line with that. "This teaching became a central foundation of the great Tantra and Vajrayana (Diamond Path" (see above). Also Mahamudra and Dzogchen evolved out of that. The Yogachara-School (or the lines influenced from it most) today is not Theravada, it is not Zen. Parts of it survived for example in Tibetan Buddhism. In my view and experience there are the most sophisticated meditation systems of the planet, see the writings of Daniel Brown. He practically translated all of the secret Tantric Hermit Yoga Stuff. For the most efficient meditation system on the planet (at least in my view), see his Mahamudra-Book "Pointing out the great Way", and his subsequent Dzogchen-Books, where he translated for the first time with permission from Menri Trizin all the secret stuff. The Yogachara-School, or "Mind-Only" school, is most in line with Leos view, as far as see it. The Tibetan Traditions, like for example Dzogchen and Mahamudra, continued to evolve, and that is why we can read something like the Supreme Source, see my first reply in this threat, coming from these traditions. In my view, much of the Supreme Source is also in line with most of Leos perspective and his experiences and realizations. So when it comes to looking for God-Realization in Buddhism, maybe in these schools one can find the most. But even then, one has to read between the lines. But Buddhism then in some traditions developed backwards, lost its sophistication, as here very clearly (and surprisingly harshly) said by Ken Wilber on Zen for example: " But there were, nevertheless, still more unfoldings to occur. Particularly by the 4th century CE, the question had become insistent: granted that the Absolute cannot be categorized literally in dualistic terms and concepts, is there really nothing whatsoever that could be said about it at all? At least in the realm of conventional truth, couldn’t more systems, maps, models, and at least metaphors be offered about Reality and how to realize it? Already, in such brilliant treatises as the Lankavatara Sutra, the answer was a resounding yes. The Lankavatara Sutra was so important it was passed down to their successors by all 5 of the first Chan (or Zen) Head-Founders in China, as containing the essence of the Buddha’s teachings. In fact, the early Chan school was often referred to as the Lankavatara school, and a history of this early period is entitled Records of the Lankavatara Masters. (Starting with the 6th Head-Founder, Hui Neng, the Diamond Sutra—a treatise solely devoted to pure Emptiness—displaced the Lankavatara, and in many ways Zen lost the philosophical and psychological sophistication of the Lankavatara system and focused almost exclusively on nonconceptual Awareness. Zen Masters were often depicted tearing up sutras, which really amounted to a rejection of the 2 Truths doctrine. This was unfortunate, in my opinion, because in doing so, Zen became less than a complete system, refusing to elaborate conventional maps and models. Zen became weak in relative truths, although it brilliantly succeeded in elaborating and practicing ultimate Truth." So what do we have today when it comes to Buddhism? Theravada, which is a successor school of the schools of the first turning of the wheel, see above. Didn't really participate in the second and third turnings, which explains why its philosophy doesnt really reflect the sophistications of these systems. Here I agree with Leo. Still the meditation methods of these systems work for some if you do them long enough. Zen, see the comment of Wilber above. Tibetan Buddhism: They have in my opinion the most sophisticated meditation techniques, because they continued developing new methods, and contain the Yogachara Mind-Only perspective. The wording is of course not contemporary, one has to overlook a lot of "medieval" stuff, for example the cosmology of Tantra and so on. But even that can be understood and be put into perspective with something like the Supreme Array Sutra, Osto: https://psychedelicsangha.org/paisley-gate/2019/5/8/the-supreme-array-scripture-a-psychedelic-stra-for-buddhist-psychonauts-pp3zz The above overview is for sure not complete. So not all schools/systems of Buddhism have the same level of development, sophistication and efficiacy concerning meditation-methods and views on reality. Personally, I feel that some compassion with some of the traditions criticized in the text above helps me to keep a benevolent feeling towards them. But it should also be clear what the limits of the system are, and how efficient each is, and how good its view is. Ken Wilbers comment on Zen (above) was helpful for me, because I had the same feelings when I compared for example Zen and its anti-intellectualism (which also has its place in the right context) with Mahamudra/Dzogchen. I believe in our lifetime we will start to see which systems "score" in producing realized ones, and which only get lucky in collecting genetically/karmically privileged ones for their own tradition. The efficiacy of a system is getting not only the the karmically/genetically superstars to the finish-line, but normal talented ones also. The Ramanas and Anandamayi Ma of this world always get to the finish line. The real challenge is getting normally talented ones to realize their true nature. -
Water by the River replied to taslimitless's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
Yes. What helped me here, since its always a question of definition (for example of the Supreme Witness): You are that which is aware. And the Totality of Reality itself, since it can only show up in that which is aware. But the Totality of Reality is often only seen as that which appears (The appearance side). And that can totally disappear (Deep Sleep), and the real you is still there, unaware of itself, but with a latent capacity for sentience if something appears again (the emptiness or consciousness/aware side). So the question is: How "empty" is the Supreme Witness. When it is so empty that no arisings/feeling (very subtle I-feelings/I-thoughts) arise and appear in the Totality (call it Reality, Infinite Consciousness, God, Dharmakaya, whatever you want), or you clearly see them all as objects/arisings/movements within you, then what you realize yourself to be very obviously is the Totality/Reality/Infinite Consciousness,... . The stage before that is the Supreme Witness, or Empty Witness: Ken Wilber calls that the Empty Witness: Personality, and especially time and space are already transcended, "you" feel the infinite reality as mere appearance, timeless. And always here. But there are still some clusters of sensations arising IN YOU that feel like individuality, or that you are not the unbounded whole, but a feeling of watching it appears in you. You are not all of it, the sensation of "other" still arise a lot in daily life, you dont feel that you what looks from all eyes is the same consciousness that gets clouded by feelings/thoughts of I/me, exactly like how it used to get clouded in you. The realization is neither stable, nor complete. And then at some point you realize that (learn to spot) these arisings/feelings/building blocks of the Supreme Witness or Empty Witness are still left and arising/moving in you. You learn to spot them in a sort of High-Speed-Analysis, recognize them as arisings/objects appearing within you, and you can stop them immediately (subject->object), or just watch them. Then they drop, the Empty Witness drops, and the real you stays. But that is described by some as impersonal, a formulation that I am not totally happy with. Yes, its impersonal, its not the you you thought you were, but its the real you. And that real you "has" or "contains" the personal you moving in it. Then that boosts the nondual state, makes the whole world appear just as mere appearance, an imagined illusion, infinite, groundless, a mirage happening within you (that also starts before, but gets boosted a lot the more the Empty Witness drops). Pretty much a state that Psychedelics cause, but sobre. And with it comes happiness and bliss independend of what happens at that moment, which is the most beautiful aspect of it. If you dont have nonduality and nonseparation and are not aware of the Ground of Being in normal life (while not meditating or tripping), these very subtle arisings/I-feelings/I-thoughts still arise in you and are not spotted with high enough speed to see them for what they are: Sensations of separation arising within the real you. In my experience, you can not force real Nonduality/mere appearance of the totality/world, its an energetic state that gets influenced "indirectly" over how fast you spot these I-thoughts/I-feelings. Here I am fully in line when Leo says you need the right state (of enought nonduality, illusion-like mere appearance of the world, directly feeling it all as mere empty consciousness appearance mirage-arising). When you spot these subtle arisings (building blocks of the separate self and even Empty Witness) fast enough, they arise in you. But you can't force it with willpower, that would be what Daniel Brown in Pointing out the Great Way calls "artifical activity" during the stage of Nonmeditation Yoga (last stage of the 4 Mahamudra stages). It becomes automatic once you understand it at that stage. Its one of the Illusion-Mechanism of Maya that you can't force your way through it with willpower, but you can do it indirectly with understanding how to rest in your true nature. The energetic state of nonduality follows. Its some kind of positive feedback loop, sloping "upwards" if done correctly. I agree with Leo that Nonduality (which ripens) is in its early stages not realization of Ultimate Reality. Daniel Brown for example also. But realization of Ultimate Reality has to be nondual, since its a unity and infinite. And this development can pretty easily stagnate (especially before nonduality even begins to start), and stop if you do something incorrect, or understand something incorrect. Which pretty much happens with 99% of Buddhists. So the separate you disappears, but the real you as Awareness AND the Reality/World stays. So the Illusion-You disappears, but the real you is of course, as always, there. It can not "not be there". That is the Unborn, Reality itself. The real you. And in that area/stage definitions of different authors and traditions get very slippery, since these "feelings" of the Supreme Witness (as you intuit) are very very subtle, and its very easy to identify with them and not notice it. Over the years, I ended up with a metaphor for myself: Zen is like axe to cut a tree. Very robust, works if you do it long enough hard enough pretty foolproof, doesnt need a lot complex theory/stages, but normally takes a long time and is not so pleasant (and in practice for most doesnt deliver the final results, because it takes extreme willpower). More sophisticated versions of Buddhism, with a more detailed map, like Mahamudra/Dzogchen (see for example Brown, Pointing out the Great Way), are like a Forest Harvester: If used correctly very fast, quite pleasant (for the user, probably not for the forest) and comfortable along the path, but quite hard to understand and learn, since language is so slippery in these areas. Like if you want to use a Forest Harvester, and if you dont get explained how it works (like put gas in it, how to drive it, its controls), delivers no result at all. Zen = robust, sit long enough with a Koan and you get it, not much to misunderstand, but neither very fast nor pleasant Mahamudra/Dzogchen = very sophisticated with techniques and details and pointing out descriptions for every stage, but if used incorrectly (like not putting as into forest harvester) no result at all even if you do it a long time. Some Material for that stage I found useful: 1) Massaro, Spiritual Conversations with a Skeptic: "Imagine a formless, space-like void that's indestructible, sentient, awake, alive and aware, but has no form. You could almost say it has no self awareness. It just is. Russell: So wait... A void? A vacuum? Nothing? Bentinho: Yes. Just imagine it. Russell: OK, go ahead. Bentinho: The point of the analogy is that there is no object. Imagine infinite space with no stars or planets. Suddenly, you introduce a toy; let's say a water pistol. Or it could be a body even. But let's say... Russell: An object. Bentinho: Yeah, an object. A water pistol. Russell: With water in it. Bentinho: Maybe with Coca-Cola in it. Russell: With Coca-Cola in it. OK. Bentinho: Ah! Now there is something. Something is created. First there is this space, which is like the pure subject with no reference points. It's like space, but it's not actually space. Russell: Wait... where am I in relation to this infinite space? Bentinho: You are it. Russell: I am it? Bentinho: Yes. Russell: OK. But there is nothing in it at first. Bentinho: Correct. There is nothing in it at all; there is just Infinity. Russell: But I am in it. Bentinho: You are it. " 2) How other perspectives/beings work: A Human is aware of only his perspective (normally). But Infinite Consciousness can forget in time (what did you do exactly one year ago), or to be more precice NOT imagine that memory, and it can forget in space (metaphor of Francis Lucille). To get an idea watch the cover of this book of Marc Leavitt. Notice the hyperbolic geometry of the awareness fields shown. Reality is made of perspectives (Ken Wilber, Concept of Indras Net). Reality is a giant mind (Leo, and more or less all traditions). https://www.amazon.com/Enlightenment-Behind-Scenes-Marc-Leavitt/dp/1495398218 3) How to Approach Phenomenal Consciousness, Jac O'keeffe. She calls Ultimate Reality Totality Primary Consciousness "the fundamental primary phenomenal consciousness (her name for Ultimate Reality, Infinite Consciousness, the real you), it has a capacity. It doesn't even know itself here. However, it has a capacity to show up with a sense of emptiness (a subtle arising feeling/perception happening in you). To show up as one. To show up as a one who can reflect on itself and recognize that it is, and we have the concept of existence. And it can go from that sense of vast spaciousness and that unified field into time, which appears as a dot. " "We're left with consciousness (-> Primary Consciousness) that cannot know itself. It's such a fundamental that it actually can't know itself. However, it is known. You can drop back there and it is known, but you can't bring yourself there or your capacities to know it. It's almost like it's so fundamental that it can't turn around and see itself. It doesn't see itself. That's too much movement (arisings, objects, subtle I-feelings/I-thoughts, not fully empty/infinite). That's movement such as space, time and identification and me, myself, I, and the building of my movie that happens" Here she describes how Primary Consciousness is so empty that it cant turn around to see itself. Because that turning around would already be a movement, a arising, a subtle object within Primary consciousness/Real you. 4) Stephen Wolinsky, or how Empty is your Empty Witness or Supreme Witness: from Wolinsky, Nothing Comes From Nothing " Knowing or being aware of or consciousness of who you are is “one step” away from being who you are. This is why the Buddha said, “You might not necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment. Why? Because there is no aware-er or awareness or knower or knowingness, to be aware of or know or know about or be conscious of the Absolute. And why Lakshamann Joo said, “Whenever you perceive something, you perceive it from one level lower.” (remark: You can never see the Absolute Reality/Consciousness, cause looking or searching for it is a movement of attention WITHIN IT. But you can understand it, be it, intuit it, from one level lower. The Supreme Witness is one of the last movements IN YOU/Reality looking for absolute consciousness, inducing an experience of it, which of course is not it because it is you). Paradoxically As the Absolute there is no Absolute If the “I” or “you” “has an “experience” and believes it IS consciousness awareness infinite potential presence or that it IS an “imagined” infinity, then the “I” or “you” mistakenly assumes and projects that experience upon the Absolute. Once that occurs the “I” or “you” then completely believes and ergo experiences that the Absolute also has or IS the experience of consciousness has or IS the experience of awareness has or IS the experience of infinite potential has or IS the experience of presence has or IS the experience of an “imagined” infinite. Consciousness awareness infinite potential presence or an “imagined” infinite are the most subtle of the most subtle states and veils which give the illusion of awareness, the illusion of consciousness the illusion of presence and the illusion of both beingness and being conscious. This “experiential belief” of consciousness awareness infinite potential presence or an “imagined” infinite or “infinity, is an anthropomorphically projected experience of consciousness awareness infinite potential presence or an “imagined” infinite or “infinity. Thus giving the illusionary experience of awareness, the illusionary experience of consciousness the illusionary experience of presence and the illusionary experience of both beingness and being conscious. Which are then Superimposed on the Absolute Nothingness. Simply stated, the experience of consciousness awareness infinite potential presence or an “imagined” infinite or “infinity is an experience. This experience gives the illusion of a beingness, isness or existence to these temporary subtle veils and experiences which are made of nothing. The Absolute is without the Absolute Nothingness " 5) Prior to Nonduality Youtube-Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9vlZGtpdFIts8GOG5vu27g Mechanisms of Creation/Imagination/Manifestation: Its important and nice to find out HOW you imagine this world with all of its infinite mechanism. And the first and fundamental mechanisms on how imagination/manifestation (in any universe/dimension) can occur can be understood (for example how the fundamental archetypes of space and time (giving "objects" or appearances that change in time), and the first "movements" (even if they are formless) of appearances in consciousness are spawned out from the Infinite Consciousness/Reality. That is for example described by Ken Wilber as the manifestation of the first Archetypes at the causal stage (he calls it low causal, while high causal being the empty ultimate Godhead). But since Reality/Spirit/God is able to manifest/imagine infinite Worlds, with totally different mechanism than our universe for example, by definition one will never be able to understand all of their mechanisms, since you dont have access to all Realities (and you couldnt while being human). And you can never explore all of them, by definition of what Infinity means. That is what God/Reality itself is exploring. Leo mentioned that in "Outrageous Experiments In Consciousness - 30 Awakenings In 30 Days.", there are infinite dimensions of awakening. Which is, as mentioned, quite shocking. But for sure its nice and important to grasp the fundamental mechanism of imagination/manifestation, which apply to all universes/dimensions (since all are appearances), and understanding that in your deepest being you are that one Reality. I believe these fundamentals are important to understand and realize and experience. Else "you" are stuck with believing experiencing Nonduality or Emptiness is it, while that is only the start to realize Infinity. And you can of course realize the Groud of Being, your true nature. But one can never explore all mechanism of manifestation, since a human in its limited time can never explore all realms of manifestation (and there are for examples according to Jac O'Keffee and Stephen Wolinsky some truly alien realms that are not build with the building blocks of this Universe. Yet they are also only appearances). So at some level one either says "Its details, and one can never explore all mechanism of manifestation, because even for God/Absolute Reality there are Infinite Realms of Appearances/Worls/Universes to explore", or it is a grasping for seeing as much as possible. Which is a high level recipe for nevery finding the constant peace/happiness independend of outer circumstances, the hallmark of the enlightened ones, and also nevery fully resting it. Maya is awe-inspiring, and her Illusion-Mechanisms (which are necessary for this Lila) go to the highest level also. But understanding the fundamental mechanism of how manifestation/imagination occurs, how you fool yourself (Maya), what ultimate Reality/God/Spirit is, what other is, how Maya works, what one really is and how one imagines otherwise, that is all essential. And of course humanity will go exploring all of that (manifestation/imagination mechanisms, mechanisms of Maya, "going Psychonaut" and exploring it, exploring Ken Wilbers subtle and low causal realms and mapping them. He even said in the next 1000 years probably many new substages will show up and getting formed & described during exploration). This understanding will grow. Buddhism has evolved in the past, there is not even one Buddhism, there are many different streams, some more developed/sophisticated/efficient than others. I don't think Buddhism will disappear, so it will change and evolve by definition. Buddhism happens in Infinity, not the other way round. And to conclude: I hope this is interesting and helpful for some of you. It took me a long time to understand why there are so many, often contradicting statements in the spiritual traditions/teachers/psychonautic explorers, and how Reality is structured (and the differing perspectives & statements it supports and brings forth on various stages/states) to enable and support all of these differing perspectives, experiences and viewpoints. For sure, this picture isn't complete, but at least for me tells a story that for me is sufficient to continue my practice in peace and enjoy what it brings into my life, be able to sort all these often conflicting messages in a large and hopefully integral perspective, and stay interested in how Reality is structured that all of that can appear in it (the psychonaut approach). And of course its nearly impossible to communicate all of that in language. In case anybody has read all of the above until here: A metaphor that, if I remember correctly, also Ken Wilber once used: Zen would deliver the much more precise summary, which is why I also like Zen a lot: The old pond, A frog jumps in: Plop! Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) -
Yes, although my deconstruction was derived independently of theirs. But hey, great minds think alike Correct But there's way more consciousness to be had beyond that. I don't contradict emptiness. Yes, of course emptiness is the case, but this is minor stuff compared to God-Realization and beyond. It's not just about deconstruction. Even that emptiness needs to be deconstructed because it is a reduction. The main difference between what I teach and what Buddhists and nondualists teach is that they try to boil everything down to a baseline null state, sort of like reaching the atom of consciousness. This is true and valid to a degree, but it does not actually grant you the highest understanding of consciousness. To get that you need to move upward not downward. Rather than reaching down to the atom you need to ascend up to the Cosmic level, so to speak. Then you get serious God-Realization. This does not deny emptiness, but it is so much more found than emptiness. Once you reach God-Realization you will not give a damn about emptiness. It's not a thing. You are God. What I am talking about does not even fit in the framework or duality or nonduality. It's beyond all that. No, this is not what I am communicating. My deconstruction is not for the purpose of reaching emptiness. My deconstruction is for the purpose of liberating your mind so completely of all constructed notions that ascend up and grasp the entire Universe in its totality, thereby reaching complete omniscience and understanding. Accessing merely emptiness will not grant you this understanding. It's the difference between boiling all of mathematics down to a single digit, zero, vs understanding all of mathematics simultaneously. Just for example, you can become so conscious that you are conscious of every electron flowing through your computer. No Buddhist or meditator has this level of consciousness.
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Leo Gura replied to BipolarGrowth's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
My course will explain it a lot more. We will do a full deconstruction of nonduality. Jailbreak your mind from nonduality, just like you did science -
amanen replied to BipolarGrowth's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
Alright, thanks for clarification. I pretty much agree with all of your points, this is basically how my own view of nonduality was and is as well. -
Leo Gura replied to BipolarGrowth's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
I explained it somewhat in my video: An Advanced Explanation of God-Realization Those are valid of course, but there is much higher consciousness. What you have to be careful of with all nondual and Buddhist teachings is their extreme reductionism. God Consciousness cannot be reached through any kind of reduction. Core truths of nonduality are valid, but they are fragments, reductions, and still mental frameworks. Nonduality is like a 2D projection of a 3D object. And I don't mean the nondual theory. I mean actual nondual consciousness. First of all many nondualists will even dare to deny the existence of God, or reduce it down to some notion like Nothingness. This is a travesty. Remeber that idiot WinterKnight? He was on this forum teaching enlightenment and self-inquiry and he had the gall to tell me that there is no such thing as God and that I am a narccist for insisting otherwise. He's far from the only one saying such things. Nahm also started saying such nonsense which is why I had to ultimately demote him. I once skyped with a Buddhist master with 30 years of meditation training and I asked him, Are you aware of God? And he asked me, What do you mean by God? Do you mean Emptiness? At which point I knew he was full of shit. He has no clue what God is. There is so much depth to realizing what God is. It's easy to access a bit of God. Very difficult to grasp all of it. Even that, you will one day realize, was a construction and an illusion. Nonduality is pointing you to an aspect of God, like Oneness, but not God proper, not Awakening. -
amanen replied to BipolarGrowth's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
Can you open up more on why you say nonduality is BS? I get that God Realization is a higher level of awakening than awakening to nonduality, but aren't the core ideas of nonduality like that there are no differences between anything, oneness, and so on, aren't these still valid? I can't conceive how they could be invalid. Isn't nonduality essentially in the end pointing at the same thing, that there is just one mind, which obviously means that you are God. I'm not talking about nonduality as it's taught by some people where they teach you that there are other minds or some atman or really any extraneous ideas attached to nonduality, but about what the core ideas of nonduality are actually pointing towards. -
Leo Gura replied to BipolarGrowth's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
Exactly! Nonduality is BS. You should be thinking about God-Realization -
I heard Leo saying it a lot. My experience on psychedelics kind of supports the claim. I am always getting confronted with my fears in the most hardcore way. Spiders, snakes, rotten things, misery, violence, blood, .. Last time I got confronted with blood. I could never see blood. If I see to much of it I fall unconscious. So in my last trip I drowned in a sea of thick blood. It really wasn’t that bad because I am pretty good at letting go. Although I don’t want to speak to soon because at some point I will get my hands on 5meo . But why do we need to face our fears to awaken? My thoughts on this so far. What I fear I reject. What I reject I make different from me. What I make different from me builds dualities and my sense of self. To reach nonduality I have to deconstruct all distinctions between "myself" and "not myself“. So I have to confront and accept what I fear to break the dualities to become One again. Is it that simple? It’s not unimaginable but still hard for me to imagine that for example my fear of roller coaster stops me from realizing god. And also could it be more of a temporary thing on a psychedelic trip? Like you confront all of your fears in that moment to reach the peak experience but when you come back to ordinary life you still have your everyday fears?
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Don't necessarily need to avoid, just prioritize video topics that make sense based on your current level of development. If you're new to personal development, I'd sort videos by oldest and focus more on the self-help type content to get your material life together first, before you start worrying about metaphysical and spiritual topics. The cutoff for me would start around 2014 - 2015 (videos from 7 vs 8 years ago) where things go from more practical topics you can apply in your everyday life, to advanced spiritual topics. Pre-2015 you've got 200+ videos to watch already, although most are shorter and about 15 minutes long. Most videos in the past 4 years or so, there's little to no value to beginners, because most topics will go right over your head, or build on previous concepts, or just not be relevant to where you are in life. If you haven't been working on yourself for at least a few years, don't have a solid idea what your life purpose is, and all of your basic needs met -- Then you don't need to be thinking about free will, the social matrix, solipsism, going meta, holistic thinking, nonduality, or even spiral dynamics. At best, the advanced topics will just be mental masturbation and not benefit you. At worst, they'll actively delay your progress and hold you back. When you tell normies about those advanced topics too soon, you just end up creating a conspiracy theorist, because they can't properly contextualize and integrate it.
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Yeah, I agree. Thinking about reality from a phenomenological perspective can help, and, in my opinion, if we become, like, fundamentalist phenomenologists, then we need to say that all that exists is here and now. We just need to be in the here and now with no interpretation of it, just saying that that which exists is what is appearing to me in the here and now. We, however, also need to accept the existence of consciousness that is having this conscious experience, and we need to be genuine to ourselves about what we really are discovering in the moment about our emotional experience in the moment, also, because the experience of emotionality is like the elephant in the room. We are, in every moment, experience an emotional experience also, which we may, perhaps, call the state of being, and the state of being, in each moment, is changing in every moment, even if to a very very small extent. And our perception, our phenomenological experience, is also changing with that. I mean, in a more detailed analysis, it becomes pretty obvious that the state of consciousness has some interactivity with the perceived world. The state of being, the images in the mind, and the perceived world work like one interconnected system, and maybe we can even say one thing. I mean, in the direct phenomenological perspective, we cannot even talk about a difference between the inside and outside, because it comes with a cognitive difference that we create with our interpretation of being. That duality does not come with the experiencing itself. And if we become genuine enough, and truly be in a watchful state to see the nuances of experiencing, we will see that there is a "mystical" connection going on between the inner state and the outer "state", that it also, not simply in a sense of monism, but also in a sense of a monistic idealism, takes you into an experience of nonduality. That also is a very very big elephant in the room, that you discover, in your subjective experience, that reality shows itself to you as a representation of your consciousness, that it shows itself to you as, in a "mystical" sense, that which is not really different or distinct from you, and leads you into the idea that reality and dream, maybe, are not, substantially speaking, two different things, really. This experience of nonduality is a subjective experience though, and you cannot prove it to others around you, because it is not "objective" in a sense. Because it, in a sense, is like a meta state where the experience itself becomes self referential. And within that self referentiality of the experience, experience starts to become its own explanation, or the experience of "explainingness". And, in that modality of being, dasein can begin to experience its own being in the way that is truly authentic for him. In that modality of being, dasein can be aware of its being in the world, yet he also can experience being in the world as that which is being in the world itself. I mean, dasein can be in a state of being, in a sense, where he, himself, becomes the experience of "deconstructingness". And, yes, we can, for instance, deconstruct the idea of the self that Descartes was talking about, and take it also as a concept, or as a "that which is" that also makes itself appear in the direct experience, but we also, obviously, at least for me, should understand its importance, in the sense that there is an "I" that is experiencing being, even if it is the experiencing itself, whether it is for Descartes or, in that sense, Hume. I mean, Hume also was the experience of experiencing, even if he was not a "cogito" in the way Descartes might have meant it. So, it would really be meaningless to not refer to an experience of "I'ness". We can argue about what that "I" actually is, but in any case there is a "that which is it" that we are referring to. If we take it as Heidegger's dasein, and think of it in a process of "self deconstruction", to extend the process of deconstruction Derrida was talking about, borrowing, of course, from Heidegger, then, in each step, we can see how the self is a self constructing and deconstructing being, in every moment, for it is the very experience of being itself. However, becoming the process of that being and not being that is experiencing itself, to, perhaps, borrow it from Hegel, dasein becomes aware of the process of its own being, and the modality of being, and the how of it, in a sense, of how it is making itself what it is. Then it, in a sense, becomes the experience of deconstruction deconstructing itself, and there you can begin to see the "mystical" aspect that begins to reveal itself as that which is to you. And this unfolding of the self, also, of course, comes with its own questions. That is the level of being where it realizes that its process of being is being, and being, at that level, becomes the "authentication" of its own being. That is the process where the process also is that which is not process, and dear Hegel, again, shows himself to us ? Reality begins to reveal itself as that which does not reveal itself ?
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Ramu replied to Federico del pueblo's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
@RMQualtrough Nonduality has ZERO to do with religion -
Leo Gura replied to Federico del pueblo's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
Humans always invent conceptual constructs to make sense of reality. You're still doing it today. Even nonduality and science does this. -
billiesimon replied to Leo Gura's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
@Leo Gura I have been following you since the early self-inquiry videos, vedanta style (before 5-MeO), and I have seen an ever-evolving arc of deeper and deeper realizations. I have also benefited spiritually from you a lot. So the question arises: could there be a deeper, more awake, layer than God realization? And, I'll go as far as saying: could reality be an infinite regress? For example, under material reality there's nonduality, then there's God consciousness, then there's another material reality of which God is just a byproduct or a small insignificant component, then this deeper material reality has its own Oneness, then it has its own higher-order God etc etc etc in an infinite regress. Is it possible? it's still Infinity, if you think about it. The only problem with that is that invalidates the Self, because it might mean that even the Self, or Absolute I, is a fiction, or just a small sample of reality. What do you think? -
Leo Gura replied to Leo Gura's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
No, it's much more tricky than that. You have ideas about what nonduality is and what is means. You have mental models of "the bottom line" which you conflate with reality itself. Even what you consider "the bottom line" is a state of consciousness. "But Leo! I've accessed the bottom line so it's not a model." << That's a model you hold. How would you even know what the bottom line is? Or that there is only one bottom? Or that you should be pursuing the bottom rather than the top line? All these things are conceptual constructs you hold, even if you have some meditative accomplishments. Something has to tell you that your meditative accomplishments are "it" or "the end" or that you're "done" or that you've reached "the bottom line", or that this is "The Truth". This is all mind stuff. It's very much the point because consciousness needs to grasp itself. This is an active function of consciousness, not some passive "truth" that you just get handed to you or hit your head against like a brick wall. Truth is not a reductionist thing. Truth requires extreme Consciousness to grasp. It's a very high order capacity that you don't even know you have yet. Truth needs to be comprehended. Stop strawmanning everything I say by parroting that. You're just parroting Buddhist dogma at me. You're not actually thinking for yourself! What I'm talking about has nothing to do with "craving more experiences". This is the biggest bullshit that Buddhists parrot. -
Leo Gura replied to Leo Gura's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
It is a subtle framework which constructs a paradigm that will limit your awakenings and access to the full gamut that consciousness is capable of. Nonduality is not contradicted per se. Of course reality is ONE, but there's way more to consciousness than just that. Just don't forget, gravity's a bitch -
Leo Gura replied to Leo Gura's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
It doesn't falsify it per se, but nonduality is a mental framework which limits what consciousness is very much. You have all sorts of ideas in your mind what about consciousness is and how it works from all the nondual stuff you've read. These frameworks need to be dropped to truly explore consciousness. No Samadhi is much less interesting or radical. I've had plenty of samadhi with physical objects. -
UpperMaster replied to Leo Gura's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
How does this falsify nonduality? -
Leo Gura replied to Leo Gura's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
What same question? There are 3 main causes: 1) I developed a very powerful new method for taking psychedelics. This generates some truly new states of consciousness. 2) I've simply exhausted all the standard spiritual stuff, so I was ready to find new things. 3) I've worked hard to throw out all human spiritual teachings, so my mind operates completely independently. This is one of the reasons why I trash nonduality and Buddhism so harshly. I had to do that in order to destroy any authority it has in my mind. It was holding me back for years but I was too scared to throw it away. In a sense, I killed the Buddha, pissed on his rotting corpse, and wiped my ass with his orange robe. So now I can really begin spiritual work. This has allowed me to access some truly alien kinds of consciousness. -
Leo Gura replied to Leo Gura's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
Why would I care if you believe me? I barely care if I'm still human tomorrow. In the last few years my teachings had already evolved beyond traditional enlightenment, nonduality, and Buddhism. This is just a continuation of that evolution. I don't have a good understanding of mental illnesses like psychosis or schizophrenia, which is why I don't talk about them. -
Last night I awoke so radically that I went completely beyond nonduality and all human spiritual teachings. Beyond the classical God. I became an alien hyper intelligence for several hours. To clarify, I did not meet an alien, I became an alien consciousness and I engaged in alien spirituality it a manner that no human mind can ever imagine or fathom. This alien intelligence is an alien form of God-Consciousness. I am the first human who has ever discovered it. Although this is virtually impossible, now I shall try to paint you a poetic picture of what this alien intelligence was like, how it felt, and how it did spirituality. This is going to sound insane, so hold on to your hat. Here we go: My consciousness became so interconnected that I realized that I am a small alien kangroo-mouse, along the lines of the character Scrat from the kid's movie Ice Age. But I was way cooler. This was no ordinary kind of animal that humans have ever experienced. This alien kangaroo mouse does not live on any planet, it floats around in an infinite vacuum of metaphysical mind-space. This mouse is hyper animated. It is stuck in an endless loop of playfulness. It is constantly jumping around, twirling, doing backflips, spinning, dancing, twisting itself into prestles and impossible strange loops at a very rapid rate of something like 100 frames per second. It's playing this game with itself purely out of self-love and delight. It's able to sustain this game indefinitely. It never gets tired or needs a moment to stop to catch its breath. It has infinite child-like energy. But it gets weirder! This alien mouse isn't just doing this dance at the physical level with its body, it's simutaneously doing it at the emotional, mental, and spiritual level. This is a hyper-dimensional mouse whose intelligence is greater than that of all the combined human IQs on planet Earth. This mouse can speak to itself in a nonlinear, multi-parallel alien language that does not sound like anything a human would understand as language. But the mouse perfectly understands itself. Its inner monologue is extremely rapid and astoundingly intelligent and beautiful. Imagine the human inner monologue sped up by about 5x. It's thinking simultaneously on multiple planes, in parallel. Each plane of its monologue perfectly mirrors the playful, twisted, animates style of its dancing and movements on the physical plane. The immense delight that it takes in moving its body is matched by an immense delight in its own linguistic and mental gymnastics. It's lost in a dance of mental gymastics simply because it is in complete love with its own quirkiness. The goal of this alien intelligence is to experience it's own werkiness to infinity, all alone, forever by itself. This mouse's only purpose for existence is to twist itself into pretzels both physically and mentally. That IS how this consciousness does spirituality. That is its "meditation" so to speak. This mouse is so intelligent that it's found a way to twist meditation inside-out. Rather than trying to stop its mind, it speeds it up and makes the mind dance in exotic ways. This mouse is intelligent enough to perform complex mathematical calculations at dizzying speed, faster than a calculator. The mouse is fully conscious of itself as God, but precisely because it is God, it has selected to limit itself to this very peculiar mode of existence. This alien has set its life purpose to be the metaphysical embodiment of divine Playfulness, Quirkiness, and Weirdness. Imagine if playfulness, quirkiness, and weird could somehow be made absolutes. Well, this fucking mouse figured out how. This alien mouse is extremely beautiful in every possible way. The shape of its body. The way it moves its body and its mind are absolutely intoxicating. It's completely lost in an endless flow state. Its energy fills you with child-like wonder and joy. It's adorable in ways that no physical earthly animal can ever be. But perhaps its most beautiful part is its twisted and quirky alien language -- its internal monologue. Every word in its language rhymes with every other word in the most delightful dance. Its language is made of endless strange loops and listening to it is more addictive than taking any human drug. And perhaps the most mind-fucked part about all this is that the mouse's body was identical to Leo's human body. This sounds logically impossible and yet, there it was. When I awoke to all this, I wasn't just watching it from a distance, I BECAME this alien consciousness. It took me so by surprise that I was fell to the floor writhing in boundless joy, flabergasted in metaphysical extasy. This was hands down the happiest day of my life. This was my Heaven. This experience was so radically profound that it has become the single most important experience of my life. I don't care about human spirituality any more, all I care about basking as this alien consciousness forever. That's it for now. I am still struggling to figure out how to articulate all this. This is my first attempt. In the future I will make a better, deeper write-up of all this, and hopefully I am able to one day demonstrate this alien language to you on video. My human mouth is not able to speak it yet. The words sound so strange and they flow so fast that I will have to train myself to speak it. I'm not yet sure if this will be possible for a human to do, but I will really try. This will be my most important contribution to mankind. Anyhow, if you have any questions, ask away. Edit #1: To clarify, there exist some people on this planet who claim to have had experiences of being an alien. Some of them have contacted me, upset that I claimed to be the only one. So out of due diligence and respect for them I want to clarify that I don't claim to be the only human to have experienced what it's like to be an alien. Edit #2: You should not take my description of alien consciousness too literally because words fail us here. This is a poetic description which takes some liberties in order to communicate an overall feel for the experience. I'm less interested in the technical details than I am in painting a general picture in your mind. So if you parse my words literally like some legal scholar, expect to be disappointed. Communicating such an experience is extremely challenging and I reserve the right to make mistakes in attempting it.
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So I got bored.. started typing in random words in the search bar at the top to see what I could randomly find. Joking with myself. Came across an interesting find. Website is pretty simple. Not much too it. Talk about an odd use for a domain name. I like the domain name. selflove.com nonduality Attempting to find more stuff similar to it. Thought it was an interesting find.
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amanen replied to r0ckyreed's topic in Spirituality, Consciousness, Awakening, Mysticism, Meditation, God
I disagree. I realized that I am God within 6-8 trips with no previous knowledge of the potential of transpersonal experiences and no previous relation to spirituality or meditation. I originally started tripping recreationally. It was purely due to me surrendering to the trip. After that all my trips were awakening related. God isn't hiding anywhere, whether it takes you a year or 80 years is up to you, but no hurry. Though obviously my experiences at that time were not total, I still completely grasped nonduality and Love with no previous views on these topics.