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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.

@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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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?

@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.

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:

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.

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))

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