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The ego is a false illusion that you have identified with, its only function is to help you navigate through this physical reality. This is difficult to accept at first because this means you've been living a lie your entire life up until this point. Don't try to chase this state as you'll never reach it, your only function in this reality is to just be and enjoy whatever life has to offer you. The paradox is that Nothingness = Everything. Again. your mind is not going to grasp this so just practice mindfulness and be aware of the sensations going through your awareness and try to pinpoint where they are coming from. You are going to be confused for a while but that's part of the journey, this is a just game you created for yourself since you had nothing better to do. It may feel like you are dying at times but this is a process of rebirth This is one of my favorite quotes that I hope will help you "What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly." -Lao Tzu

@Leo Gura Thank you for replying Leo, Yesterday I thought the first glimpse is the hardest and that I now know how to get there easily. Well, I just meditated again and tried to get there. I knew how to reach out for it but I couldnt become it. Once I came near to becoming it, my heartrate increased, adrenaline, heavier breathing and existential anxiety kept me from becoming it. What you said makes perfect sense. Is there a better way to think of nothingess thats not so frightening? Maybe, oneness or something better that I can tell my ego? In the past I have always thought of enlightenment in a good way of being everything in nature. Now I just fear death. Of course I understand what my ego "did" there but I cant help it, of course. I dont want to "be gone"! I dont want to forget my ego. Its what has always kept me going in this world. Isnt it foolish to throw it all away? Its funny, Now I feel so much love for my ego. I had a hard time during the last couple of years (depression and anxiety) and I always tried to think back to times (mostly childhood) when I felt so much love for myself and the love of my parents. Those were the happiest times of my life so I always try to feed my ego with them to be able to live better. I thought that it was unconditional love but was it really that and does it matter? I see the paradoxes I think. But how do I put my trust in something that I dont know yet what it really is. The "teachers" say it is the true self, it all I am. How do I trust them? I guess it all comes down to: Realizing that ego is an illusion. (I guess I am not fully convinced yet) Digging deeper into the existential anxiety/terror that occurs close to becoming nothing. (Somehow it tells me there is something real about the nothingness that I am to become) Maybe I can try to concentrate on the things that in the past led me to believe ego is stupid. Maybe it helps if I read and understand more about what exactly happens in terms of existential terror when I chose to become it again and kind of foresee it so I am prepared to react and not helpless. I am quiet confused now. If anyone can help I would appreciate it.

I guess then really the question I am asking is. why is enlightenment not just an transcendent mask of ego? losing perception of a thing is only a lack of object permanence. What really is Ego but a sense of self - and what is nonduality but a sense of self? letting go doesn't cease the existence of the object - only the attachment to it. But both the Sage who speaks his mind shows he is attached by his insistence to share it - and the Sage who holds silent shows he is attached by adhering to the principal he imagines up to explain things away. Thought is not limited to words and images and sensation. Awareness is thought too. literal being is thought, as we can experience it. Experience itself is the ego - It has been recommended to be in the moment, to be aware of the direct experience without judgement without allowing the rational mind to rationalize the experience. I do not deny the inherent meaning in such an activity - but it is like in quantum mechanics - the measurement itself changes the existence. True existence is necessarily unknowable - because knowing AKA direct experience is limiting existence to a measurable state. awareness is our most authentic tool of measuring the world around us - but measurement itself is why duality "exists" = measurement itself results from the "influence" of ego. in a certain way, "true" or however you name it - enlightenment is in ceasing to be aware altogether. we cannot escape our existence - only transcend it - and to transcend it does not leave the existence behind in any way. that existence is still there. to return to the discussion at hand - we name certain thoughts and experiences. in this way we create duality. Both in asking if he glimpsed nothingness, and in answering - we all have forced the topic to be about somethingness. Nothingness cannot be remembered - and we cannot be aware of it. There would be no experience in nothingness - and no sensory input - no awareness - no consciousness - no body and no mind. Nothing that we can imagine* can be nothingness - we can't even look at it sideways with our periphery. I am not yet familiar with the neti-neti method. but any method is not nothingness. this is not to say that we are futile to attempt to pretend to glimpse at it - but instead the intention is to reveal the practicality in releasing the need to ask if we've got it. the answer will always be no. It is only something we learn from in pursuit of, but never something we reach - and if we believe we've reached it, we are fooling ourself by means of ego. *or be

Buddha does not use the words atma, atta - "self". He uses just the opposite words: “no-self” - anatma, anatta. He says that when mind ceases, there is no self left. You have become universal, you have overflowed the boundaries of the ego. You are pure space, uncontaminated by anything. You are just a mirror reflecting nothing. When thoughts cease, who are you? An utter emptiness, nothingness, no-thingness. It is because of this that Buddha has used a strange word. Nobody has ever done such a concept before, or since. The mystics have always used the word “self” for the interior-most core of your being. Buddha uses the word “no-self.”

@aryberry Infinity/Nothingness is NOT an experience. Ego ends forever after true enlightenment. It never existed. Life as you know it ends.

@Leo Gura why exactly, tho, is the whole enlightenment process not just another trick of the ego? experiences of nothingness, infinity, another being, not just a trick of ego? just as we can never prove the existence of physical matter because it all falls back to sensation. we cannot prove the existence of non duality because it all returns to the fact of our awareness being aware of everything but its direct self. awareness proves duality in the exact same way it denies duality. where am I even going with this question. I'm too asleep. peace, friend.

Well, try it again Everyone goes through different experiences during their practice. The neti-neti is meant to show you that you are not an experience (na+iti = not that). So then what are you? Of course, the experiencer. The experiencer is the nothingness behind all experiences. It is like that here and now. The next step is to see that you are the origin of all experiences, and the dichotomy of experience and experiencer is only an illusion.

@Bebop Thanks for replying Bebop, I am almost speachless. Its hard for me to believe that it was genuine, but then again there is no possible way I could truly explain it with words because I have never had it before. One thing that I am sure of is that I didnt try hard at all. I was almost bored by the parts of the video when Leo went through the different senses and thoughts. "Of course I am not taste, duhhh" Despite from other meditation sessions in which I tried so hard to grasp something that might enlighten me, today, I did not intend or think of an outcome like this in any way. After having that moment as confused and excited as I was, I almost didnt make it to the end of the video. The next thing I thought of was to ask about it in the forums. Then I cooked a meal. I didnt feel any different, just excited and mind blown. After eating, I am writing this now. I am scared to forget and doubt it. I am trying to write down as much as possible to remind myself. Somehow I already start to lose some of the memory of what it REALLY was like. It wasnt the question of who I am that kicked it off. During the session I asked myself many times without results who I am or who the observer is. First word perceiver had a huge impact on me to understand more and that something must be perceivinig. But the thing that kicked it off was the thought of nothingness, trying to imagine nothing and then without being able to grasp it, just trying to be it. Trying to be something that I had no idea of what it might be but it must somehow be perceiving everything. I wonder why I didnt feel/experience any relation with that nothingness, it felt completely foreign. And the fear was like an existential fear of being sucked into the nothingness, not ever being able to get out again. I think before trying to get to that nothingness again I might have to do some deeper research on peoples experiences and what happens next or else I will be too scared again and wont get any further than today. Edit: @Natasha Funny how in that exact moment you post the reply with the guide Thanks alot!

@Santhiphap Yes it sounds like you had a glimpse of nothingness. It's not an experience but rather what everything arises out of, your mind is not going to be able to grasp this. Keep going with it, ask yourself who is aware of the sensations

So this is the first time I'm actually doing some self-inquiry, I have no idea what I'm doing but I've decided to journal to help me in this process because I just became really frustrated without it. I currently have no idea how to do self inquiry, but I'm going to figure it out. I'm looking for some tips on how to do self-inquiry, questioning my identity and who I believe I am, finding out who am I, literally, and I want to know what's true. I'm not looking for you to tell me that "dude you're awareness! you're aware of it all! " or "you're nothingness!" I understand all of those ideas, but I want to experience awareness and nothingness for what it ACTUALLY truly is in direct experience. that's all I want, I just want the truth with the ultimate intent of living with an accurate perception of reality. and who I truly am. this is my first inquiry --> "What exists for me? I can feel things on my body, sensations, I can hear sounds, I can see objects from my eyes. What else? I can hear thoughts that I have no idea what they are or where they are located, they’re just there. I can bring up images that I have no idea what they are or where they are located, they’re just there. Anything else? No. this is all that exists for me. What are these things? I have no fucking clue, I just know that they exist and that there is an experience of them. Where do I exist? Take a guess. I exist in thoughts again I have no idea what they are or where they are located, they’re just there. I’m labeling them thoughts because I need something to ground me in this work. What is a thought? Truly? It’s an experience. What is an experience? The recognition that something exists. What exists and doesn’t exist? What exists is something that I can perceive or notice, whatever label I want to use here. What doesn’t exist is what I can’t perceive and what I can’t notice again whatever label I want to use here. So what am I? “I” am a label created inside an experience." I'm just looking for some tips and maybe a little guidance in this process and maybe how others do self inquiry, how you started, how you progressed, Thanks.

Just wanted to show some LOVE to my Actualized.org family! Happy Valentines Day! (Even though it's celebrated tomorrow.) I wanted to express my gratitude to Leo and everyone on this forum that has helped me on my life journey. And I appreciate the support I've received here, and non-judgemental caring attitudes and advice! We are all in this together! God is Love/Absolute Infinity/Nothingness. We shouldn't wait for one day out of the year to celebrate love and gratitude for the people that we care about and bring meaning to us. It should be celebrated everyday! <3 Love and Peace be with you. Namaste!

So if I'm not the body or mind but just a field of nothingness that is aware of the body and mind happening inside it, why am I not aware of other people's body and mind and thoughts and feelings like they were my own ego? This field of awareness is locked only to my ego somehow? Doesn't this field of nothingness stretch out into infinity and observe everything?

No, you are the body and mind wanting to become the field nothingness. That's the difference. Start by not wanting to read your own mind.

Good, so let's quickly cut to the chase by airing out some of the hidden assumptions in your reasoning. Do things really exist for YOU? Or do things simply exist? Do YOU hear sounds, or do sounds simply arise? Do YOU feel things, or do feelings simply arise? Are YOU bringing up images? What is that YOU? Are there really things, or simply arising sensations? Do things exist, or do amorphous sensations arise and pass away, having no constant existence? What actually exists for more than half a second? Anything? You say you exist in thought, but is that REALLY what you believe? Do you cease existing in between two thoughts? Keep exploring all these questions. This is the right track. But it will require much practice. Try to get REALLY clear about what you believe you are. Not ideas of "Nothingness" but REALLY! If we put a gun to your head, what is going to die? << That's more like it. All your ideas of nothingness are gonna REALLY hold you back. Drop them. Pretend like you've never heard anything about enlightenment, and then proceed with the self-inquiry.

to me experience means the recognition that something exists. I don't think I'm the perceiver perceiving the perceived. I experience that there is perception of these things.. that's all. "I" refers to "me" "awareness" "nothingness" whatever label you want to use. I realize that I do still identify that there is a me experiencing these things because I need a premise that explains the experience that's occurring right now. Your premise is based on that "I" don't exist. which I understand. but that doesn't deny that there still is experience happening regardless if there is someone behind it which of course enlightenment says there isn't. I'm looking to find out what is the source that even recognizes that something exists in the first place. that's the thing I'm interested in. which is nothingness. which I'm really trying to get to the bottom of even if there is no bottom to be found. Sorry if there's a lot of confusion.

Who wrote the post? Well if we speak in relative terms then you did it as the human being you are. I.e you, whatever name your parents have given to you, did it. If we speak in absolute terms, then litteraly no one wrote it (and there also isn't any "it", there is no post to be read anywhere:)) . But that "no one" / nothingness / no-thing isn't the same as saying that 'no person wrote it', it's more like saying that absolutely none wrote it, cos there have never been anyone to write it in the first place. There exist no persons. All there exist is nothingness/non-duality/God/infinity -- which is what the real YOU is - but out of this is created an apparant dualistic world (i.e. YOU in fact created it), which YOU currently believe you live in... - and YOU also believe (i.e. trick your self into believing) that it was created without your 'will' (i.e. "I'm not responsible for my birth" and so forth)... and so we have the seperation between 'you' (the ego) and "not-you" (other persons, outside world)... This seperation doesn't really exist though - it's an illusion. Everything that happens to you and everything that you do are two sides of the same coin: It's in fact at the same time all YOUR doing (as you = the real you) and at same time not your doing at all (as you = the illusion of the ego). Have a listen.

@eskwire I just want you to know that there is certainly nothing wrong with being celibate but there is also nothing wrong with being in an intimate sexual relationship either. What matters most is your thoughts and feelings behind what you are doing/actions. And besides you said the f word........FEAR! Which lets me know that you might have some type of childhood vow or experience that has led you to believe that relationships are not worth pursuing. I think it's pretty common for many when pursuing enlightenment and consciousness work to think relationships are a waste of time. They can be time wasters and unfulfilling if your mind is not in the right place. The TRUTH is you don't need anyone to complete you. But we also need BALANCE, and relationships can be GREAT personal development growth when applied correctly! Although we need to be comfortable being alone and with ourselves and I'm pretty sure Absolute Infinity/God/Nothingness did not put us here to be completely alone and not interacting with other people. Also keep in mind there absolutely nothing wrong with not getting married or having kids at all. Everyone is different and has their own path to take. All healthy committed relationships start from a place of self love. And any time you have issues in a relationship you look within to find answers. Because when you change yourself and your perspective the world changes around you. And what about Non-duality relationships? I see relationships as a way to expand my spiritual growth. And for some people it may be apart of their life purpose. I have come across some great reading and studying material when it comes to relationship stuff that you may want to look it. Here's a book you may want to look at, that I'm currently reading right now: Spiritual Partnership - The Journey to Authentic Power, by Gary Zukav This books goes along with a lot of the stuff Leo teaches here on this site about consciousness and sage work. It think it will resonate with you. http://shiningworld.com/site/shop/index.php?route=product/product&path=18&product_id=133 I also LOVE this video. I wish I had seen this video when I was a lot younger. This is what a healthy relationship looks like! I also want you to know I really understand where you are coming from. I have not been in a long term committed relationship in almost 10 years now. In my last relationship my ex-boy friend raped me and I had 3 months of vaginal bruising. He stalked me and I had to put a 6 month restraining order and leave the city where I lived to be safe. Then a year later I got involved with adult entertainment for 6 years. I left the industry after a near death experience from being drugged in a bar. I also left the industry feeling that men were evil, horrible creatures, that were out to get me and that I wasn't good enough to be in a relationship. I became very insecure about my body and my looks. I did a lot of therapy, reading, and spiritual work to be where I am now. I've learned that you attract what you are. If you love yourself, you will attract someone that loves you too. I know healthy good relationships exist. My dad recently passed away in Oct. of 2016. My parents were married 40 years, and my dad was abusive to my mother and I. My mom healed and realized her self worth and soon after met a guy at a grocery store in Dec. 2016. They have been dating and inseparable ever since. They are madly in love with each other, and are planning to get married. We are expecting a proposal on valentines day. I know if my mom can find somebody that easily, I know that I can and so can anyone else as long as they love themselves. Good luck on your journey, whatever path you may take!

@Awomanaware There are so many things to be grateful for! lol It's hard to list just one. I use the gratitude list a lot with my hypnosis clients to help them change their perspective, focus, and thinking patterns on the positive things happening in their life. I am grateful for absolute infinity/God/nothingness. Because if absolute infinity didn't exist...would we exist? lol Is that possible?

I'm quite glad you brought this up, because loneliness has been one of my biggest life challenges so far. As an introvert, I like to spend a lot of time on my own; meditating, reading, writing, playing music, etc. But I find that if I spend too much time on my own then I can fall into loneliness and depression, because there are other people I need to fill this 'emptiness' as you put it. This is why I have also struggled with neediness in my relationships. That said, I would insist that you don't feel in any way ashamed of this emptiness. It's actually a very spiritual thing that has been referred to by spiritual traditions as the 'void.' This is why meditation is hell sometimes, because it's just you and yourself, naked and open to reality and nothingness. If you stick with that though you can reach a breakthrough where you transcend the need to 'belong' - this either happens or it doesn't. Like Leo said though, don't use meditation to avoid real-world interaction. It's not a substitute for socialising but it can allow you the solitude you need to purge the neediness that comes from surrounding yourself with company all the time. In solitude you choose to be alone, but in loneliness you resist it. In summary, it's about striking the right solitude-company balance for you. Some people will naturally thrive spending their lives in the company of others, whilst other people, (myself included), will cultivate a creative existence out of our desire to be alone. Whichever way we switch our dials though, it seems that we all need both when push comes to shove.

I just don't get why am I not aware of the room, or of your body and feelings? So I am limited to the body?? I asked this qouestion before, but nothing that has logic to me, that keeps non duality as truth, wasn't given to me 2. Who am I? I am the will, the one who moves my hand (who decides to move it) who wants something, or the thinker, I'm nothinhness = I don't know about that... That what you describe as nothingness is just a still mind, a down lieing will, a brain that is not focused, a attentinon that isn't anyway particular but is active... Doesn't disprove that that does not come from the bran/body, So I'm still the brain, or the councious thinker, the will that is acting trougt my body (and not trought yours), the personality, character and so on (the cou... yes all of that can change (hit my brain with a bullet, or drugs and so on) but it's still from the brain... I'don't know, I'm nothingness, or we are all one, or I'm not that I that i belive it's me, I can not be found... I think those are all delusions that come from an experience of a still mind that is awake, and and non focused attention that is in it's source or just all over the place but without indentification... Nothing of that proves non duality to me, it's just an experience... I'm stuck, hope to get ,,enligtemenet" (reading and meditating for 1-2 years) When I meditate, and search for the I, I can get still, almost no houghts, there is no particular I to find, I know I'm not the body, and all senzations, no one thought... But the perciver, the thinker, or the will that moves my hand, or that wants to go someware, hm hm, who is aware of that? that's somehow a stupid question that can get you an deluded experience of no/sef (I had a glimpse), but is it the truth? Imagine a knife that searches for it self, it isnt the top, it isnt the handle, it isnt the blade, so it does not exist-stupid? I'm nothing particural, I'm the unity of the whole body mind structure... I'm not ultimate awareness, I'm not you, and when I'm in deep sleep there isnt any awarenes-point, but my body is there and other people see me...

So there is no I at all, hmm, i often imagined awareness as empty something that is experiencing everyhing else,,, like an empty I-still something ... but what if there is no awareness at all, no empty experiencer, it's just experience, yes there is an awareness to that, or a nothingness but not as seperate awareness, but it's litlery nothing, so I am nothing, the experiencer does not exist, there is only experience and nothing else, that nothing else is the real me... OR, is it the other way (my point of view) ... If I denie what is, what is left is nothing, then I delude my self that I'm nothing and not me-body/mind... HMM HMM (the knife that does not belive that is a knife, it can not find it self, so it does not exist) but if the knife would accept it self as a knife, and acnowledge that there is nothing to search just to be what you are, a knife, a human... I'm human that searches for nothing to be nothing, and when i get to the point where I belive or feel that i can not find anything then i belive to that, that I'm that nothingness-what does not exist at all (the experiencer does not exist), but a human does as whatever we are ... Maybe I'm the experience it self, that denies it self so that I apeare as nothing like there is no I at all... I still belive that I'm the unity of all body/mind experience wich core is the counciusness that operates the body and thoghts, wich thinks and has will...... I'm fucked up!!!

Thx. It's more like that: I come to you and say I have a dog... and I show him to you, and you say I don't see a dog, I ask how? I point at him, then you say a see a dogs leg, not a dog, or a dogs hair, not a dog, not evan a hair, i just see a brown point (a smal part of the brown hair) wait, it's not a bronw point, it's a molekule, a atom, a proton, a subatomic particle, and that particle is a hologram or it's actually nothing (whatever) so at the end you say I don't see a dog, there is no dog, there is nothingness... I say yes, i know what you mean but your not correct, the dog is not the hair, the atom, the leg, the head, the dogs mind, you have to look the whole and that's a dog... (call me crazy if there really is not a dog) I belive you Leo, I belive also Quantum mechanics... I belive and love non duality, bud do I understand it-No, i watched all your videos and on your meditation I hade that glimpse experience from your meditation, I can still my mind, ,,go deep" relax, but that's it nothing special... anyway that's the DOG story from my point of view... THX for answering (my englis isn't the best)

This first picture was taken In 2003 it's been known to be called "Gods eye" We are in a vast & beautiful dream! From the vastness of the cosmos, to the tiny beautiful details of this dream, that which is the driving force of everything, is more profoundly intelligent than we can comprehend. The fundamental nature of this dream is without form, we know that, nothingness, but I think really its so much more than mere nothingness, it is beyond our limited understanding as humans, but chances are it is truely unlimited in every way, and the best way I could describe it is "Magic" To the true beauty of this earth, to the unfathomed depths of space, count yourself lucky, that we are awake and conscious of anything, let alone this wonderful life. We are all one. I hope you enjoy it. Like he's said in the movie American Beauty, there is "A incredibly benevolent force that wants me to know there is no reason to be afraid" The Light of God is already within you.

Why? Well, Ralph, from Infinite Waters, explains it. I posted this in another thread. What he said here makes sense to me. Leo also explains... When you experience Infinity, you might have noticed that you're left with a huge residue of bliss or "divine love" that came along with it. Well, what Ralph and Leo are trying to explain matches the meaning of love via infinity. "There is no you." "We are one." "We are everything / nothingness." "We are infinite awareness / peace. Our ego is fictional." Ok. We get it. So? The question is, what are you going to do now with this wisdom?

@eskwire last time I had sex was over 6 years ago and I have no immediate plans to change that. idk if I count as "celibate" because I do indulge in fantasy with masturbation occasionally, so in that way I behave sexually. occasionally I've created an account on OK cupid, had a little fun perusing profiles, but ultimately trying to set up a conversation with people was... weird. unfulfilling I guess. but letsee to ponder your questions. for me I figured out I "should" be celibate mostly because sex itself was kind of uninteresting. long story short... there was enough about sex that gave me reason to just hold off from it. I would occasionally think about relationships without sex, and sometimes it seemed kind of nice and like I said I've been social enough to be thinking about attractive peeps and maybe trying to talk to people in the pursuit of something but... I've basically been denying to myself that I have interest in not bothering, at least for now. of course, I should disclose that when I was in high school I boldly told myself that even if I never found a partner in my life I'd be happy just being on my own. and that because of that, I preferred to put off dating until college or some time around then. I suppose I've been basically temporarily celibate, but with the end date unspecified, this whole time. for two years in college I was in some relationships, but after the last one I reinstated my celibacy. (well with freedom to pine for contact I wasn't really pursuing.) by your third question. I'm unfamiliar with the language you used to ask it, but from what I read it sounds kind of like you've had a lot of relationships that are short lived for quite some time now? IMO that's a dangerous habit to fall into. it's possible that you could approach the situation, assuming that is your situation, either by mindfulness with celibacy, or by mindfulness just doing the same... trying to be fully aware as consistently as you can during that time, letting go of self-judgments and just acting like an impartial observer of the situation. either way, being mindful I trust would facilitate growth in the area of romance for you. I mean I think I understand what you mean by this. but my thoughts regarding it is... if we feel as if we should avoid something, well that's moralization. it may not be the way it has been framed by others in this thread so far, but it is still being named a distraction. In Leo's video I remember he really emphasized how when we say we shouldn't do something, we actually are rejecting the true desire that we want to do it. but I also then said, that it is both - when we moralize we split ourselves - we outright deny that we actually want to do the thing by trying to say we shouldn't, as well as we unknowingly deny the fact that there are reasons we want to not do the thing. and by splitting it in this way, we are forcing various levels of unawareness on ourselves. dogma. the truth is that our choices are all equal. and they are nothing. our individuality does in fact draw us to some things and away from others, and this is all we really need to make our decisions. the moralizations and dogmas of rules and expectations are a distraction from authenticity. generally my advice - and this is the first time I'm expressing this so I apologize in advance - is: when we use our words and thoughts and ideas to state things, we can instead of using these ideas as beliefs of right or wrong or desired or undesired or good or evil. we could realize that our ideas are necessarily *false, not false as in not true but rather as in inherently not infinity, that they are dual in nature. that the authentic self is nondual but in our small-scale duality existence, we can only truly ponder dual thoughts, and so the enlightened path is to realize that the duality is inherent - and with a neutral perspective, allow the dual experiences to only be a guide for our pursuit of authentic existence, as nothing dual can be authentic. we cannot even reach authenticity or enlightenment, these are not destinations we arrive at or trophies we acquire - enlightenment and the pursuit of the authentic self are simply the nature in which we live life out. existence is infinity and as such our nothingness is automatically a part of that no matter what we do. but using morals and beliefs makes us stand rigid against the tide of infinity, in which we break - and awareness is how we become like the sapling who bends with the wind and therefore does not break, and becomes one with the flow.