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@Loreena Wrong question!! but if you really want to answer it, the answer would be nothingness or emptiness.

Nothing can be added to it, nothing can be substracted from it (Tawhid). Given its infinite character: everything can be added to it, everything can be substracted from it? I'm wondering: are there realizations somewhere in infinity where it would mean exactly the opposite? From a singularity perspective to a duality perspective? Is there more than duality? Is there triality? So is there more to it than Nothingness and Everythingness and Singularity? Would this not be possible within infinity?

Paradox is fundamental. Existence is basically paradoxical. Lets see some examples. Existence is all that is out there, but it is also identical to the Self (consciousness) that's "in" here. The Self is everything, it is infinite, but it is also a tiny point of nothingness. The Self is pure emptiness, yet it is everything at the same time, there is no space in it. There is unity, yet there is diversity. The Self is changeless background which experiences change, yet it is change itself. The world is illusory, yet there is nothing as solid as that. Mind conceals our true nature, but its the mind that takes us back there. Knowledge is ignorance, yet knowledge itself brings us out of ignorance. Realization is effortless and most natural, easier than breathing, but it also take a lot of effort and is immensely difficult. A seeker seeks that which he already is. All there is, is perfection, yet we see all sorts of imperfections around us. I'm sure there must be many more such paradoxes. The mind blowing thing is that we can see through them. IMO, these arise out of the limitations of mind, which tries to desperately make sense out of something which is beyond its capability, and lands into the pit of paradox instead. Those who think that they will find a definite answer to the hard questions will be disappointed. The answers are paradoxical, and sometimes there are no answers. Paradox appears as a rule rather than as exception. It is perfectly ok, but our mind is uncomfortable with it. The realization that (almost) everything is paradoxical, self contradictory, must be an indication of something. What is that something?

The most important backfiring mechanisms have to do with the inner workings of your mind: Your modes of thinking, your emotional reactions, your fears, your motivations and values, your habitual behavior patterns, your beliefs and justifications, your paradigms of reality, etc. As a simple example, how might valuing sex or money or security backfire? As a more advanced example, how might valuing spirituality or enlightenment backfire? As a general rule of thumb, once a system reaches sufficient complexity, the greatest danger to its survival becomes a backfiring of itself. A sort of collapsing under its own weight. Which is why to reach the greatest heights requires shedding egoic material, or purification to the point of nothingness or spirit. The word "spirit" connotes lightness of mechanism, and this is a good pointer of what you should be working towards. To be conscious, it to be able to see how a mechanism truly works, and its backfire potential.

From the perspective of using 5meo, what if any difference is there between "infinity/God" and what is "nothingness/the void"?

I really do think everything is connected. I think that frequencies, geometry, music all are interconnected. They all are based on "somethingness and nothingness". Music would be nothing without silence. You need silence for rhythm in beats, songs etc. Geometry would be nothing without nothingness. You need to have the nothingness in which geometry can be shown. Same goes for frequencies. This list can continue to infinity. Life is one beautiful dance between these two opposites, which are actually two sides of the same coin.

@Dodoster Thats right. Moving forward and going back to what Leo was saying in his video on Naive Realism, when we go to work and lock the door behind us and walk away, is your house still there? Your mind says, "of course, stupid, its right behind you". But what's there? Possibly a void of nothingness. The only thing real is what's right in front of you in the present moment, from your personal experience. The house exists as a concept now, a thought. If you turn around to see if your house is still there...boom! There it is. But something comes out of nothing, so.....maybe I'm just taking for granted that objects exist when not in my direct experience.

You may of heard the word Shiva, and may have a idea or something that springs to mind when you hear that word. I am going to shed some light, on this. Shiva, means that which is not. Its refering to The Nothingness everyone keeps on talking about. Shiva is that which has always been, and always will be, the very womb of existence. Without the earth, there is no human & animal life, Without the sun, there is no earth, Without our solar system, there is no sun, Without the universe there is no solar system, Without shiva there is no universe. It is everything. Who knows what eles is out there, who knows what other planets other life forms inhabit, how far does this stretch out to, does it go on forever? Never stops! And there are infinite planets & suns and life forms. I don't know. What I do know is shiva goes on forever and ever, because it is without form, so what could limit it. A limit is something that applies only to form. Limited in shape, size, duration and so on. But nothing? Well you figure it out for your self. Shiva is described as darkness, the reason being for this is, light is finite, a lightbulb and even the sun, will eventually die out, even something as powerful as the sun is still limited, to time. And will eventually lose its ability to give out light. So based on this quite Logical reasoning, its described as a infinite empty darkness. I wouldn't get to caught up on that though because your mind will create a image, and that which is imageless, can't be limited to a thought of darkness. it is that which everything manifest from, and that which all manifestations fall back into. Many words have been given, to this God, Tao, absolute ect. So every master is one who knows himself/herself as a expression of the devine shiva, And imbodies that consciousness, shiva consciousness, Christ consciousness, buddha mind and so on. You get the point. And when one has ego death meaning they literally, lose there experience of being themselves, they then know themselves as the infinite without question because they are it. Shiva also refers to a yogi who knew himself as the devine, thousands of years ago, but I won't go into that in this post. I have to give credit, to sadhguru who I learn this stuff from in a little ebook I was reading this morning, and I gave my own little twist on it. Hope you liked it. Peace

I know to the mind's eye this picture looks bleak, But it wasn't that way at all. Like I said it felt as if it was the source of everything. It felt like home. I remember when I experienced this void or nothingness that all questions fell away. It was if it knew everything and everything was taken care of. It was the most blissful thing I ever experienced. It was communicating with me without saying a word. What was it saying to me? "Don't worry, I got this" "I always have and always will"

@Visionary Yea, that's what I was thinking too, but I'm not sure. And I have experienced something that could be considered "the void" before on two occasions. It was empty, timeless and infinite. But it had a quality to it that is indescribable in words and it seemed to be the source of all things.. But since this 5meo experience of infinity and God came along that leo talks about, where does the void fit in? I posted a picture once of what I thought infinity looked like (from my direct experience) and Leo shot that right down saying that no way is infinity like that and it was full of colors, and infinite and anything but empty and it was god. So what's the truth? I'll post that picture of what I experienced as "the infinite void". It's called the "shiny black nothingness" and that describes it perfectly.

No, it's not. It's Nothing. And Nothingness is the one eternal constant. Experience is Everything, and it's impermanent and ever changing.

@brovakhiinIt holds some value as a model of the physical universe based on string theory, but leaves majority of questions unanswered (at least for me, I have not studied it deeply). It brings up more questions, like - is there is 2D matter of which this space is made of? From where such matter came? where is that 2D "space"? If it is consciousness, then it must be directly observable. If we are consciousness essentially then we should be able to experience the Self as a 2D plane. But we experience ourselves as 0D, non-local, non-spatial and timeless nothingness or emptiness when we reach our core. Anyhow, if the computations can be reduced to a 2D math, there is a potential to simulate those too. If it is just math, it doesn't matter how it is described, it must be computed, or in other words, must be manifested only via a simulation. That's my uneducated guess anyway

@John Flores You are 100% correct. I was just reminded of this in meditation in a huge way. A porthole of sorts to the infinite opened up within awareness and I totally choked. It was absolute nothingness. It looked like darkness within darkness from my ego's perspective. Man was that empty! The mind totally refuses to accept that level of emptiness. And I just got a glimpse from the outside and that shocked me instantly back into myself and it was gone in the blink of an eye. I see one thing clearly now. Anybody who can willingly let go of the ego and voluntarily step over that threshold to face that level of emptiness that awaits deserves to be called enlightened. People could read and study enlightenment and learn all there is to know about it and talk about it all they want, but when it really comes down to getting there it's all about faith in something way bigger than you. Only total surrender of self and nothing else will help you than. In the face of that your totally on your own. Either you surrender everything that is you or the journey ends right there and you remain as you are. So bottom line, when infinity presented itself, I totally choked by holding on to myself in the face of becoming nothing, and therefore everything. I guess I wasn't ready for that!

Nothingness must exist exercise Sit comfortably and quietly, still your mind, and become aware of direct experience. Notice that Nothing must exist for you to be aware of something. Notice in your visual field that there has to be Nothing in front of the thing you actually see for you to see it. If there was "something" in front of the thing you were seeing you would see that "something" and not the something that you do actually see. Notice that In your audio field there must be Nothing for you to hear what you actually hear. If there was "something" you would hear that "something" instead of the something you do actually hear. When hearing silence there must also be Nothing for you to be aware of it. Notice that in your body Nothing must pervade and filter through all the sensations you feel or else if "something" pervaded and filtered through what you were feeling you would feel that "something" instead of what you actually feel. Finally, notice that in your mind, in that dimension in which you are aware of thoughts, that there must also be Nothing for you to be aware of the thoughts you are actually aware of, or else if there was "something" you would observe that "something" instead of the thought you do actually observe. Nothingness must exist for us to be aware of anything at all.

Okay... This is weird. I am either blind or there is really no new video yet... I would not be very happy if Leo accidentaly killed himself by a psychedelics overdose or got ubducted by aliens or hit by a car or... Naaah... It is probably just another patience test... (the) nothing shatters everything (These are my thoughts from a couple days ago). I can´t have it both ways... It´s not possible that the world is just arising and made up by me, who does not exist and that at the same time it´s made of stuff like particles. If it comes from nothing, then it´s nothing, it can´t be there and not be there at the same time. This makes no sense. I thought that it exists on ONE level, even if it is just that level in which I am seeing it and I do not know what is true for that level but that there is the level above this in which it´s contained... But it turns out there is no container or contained. There is neither just part of what I thought there/real/true nor is all of what I thought, nor is there both something there and not, nor none. I don´t know what "existing" even means after this. The words, my thinking tools can´t help me. I´m getting shivers... How can this view possibly be freeing when it just shatters and takes EVERYTHING you know from you? It does not even leave a color to imagine, to picture nothingness with. Yes, on the one hand it´s all magical and mystic but this gets a taste of mad, alone and unsafe too. If I make the physical world up then there is nothing and nobody around, if I even make myself up then that is creepy. If I make this up I am the creator and engineer and I don´t even know what the fuck I am doing. It´s NOT empowering and changes nothing about the fact that I will eat, drink, shit, sleep or at least perceive to do so. Or is this supposed to take the fear of loss and death and failiure from me? Or is it supposed to disattach me from every belief I could cling on? This makes me unable to really keep seeing the world like pretty much everyone around me. This is something I can´t even tell anyone about because they will finally have evidence that I am nuts and you know what? I think that is what is happening right now, I am going nuts. I can´t do anything rather than bump against the borders of my own system, of crushing it and I can´t stomach that this is even possible. I have absolutely opposite feelings about this. It´s the BEST and the WORST and I kind of don´t want to lean into what it makes me feel because I am SO, SO terribly confused. I am getting auto immune issues from this. No joke. Ahahaha... Okay reading this about one week later I am entertained...

It is so important, that we find a burning desire for liberation, that there is a longing, a calling even, In the very depths of your being. Its time we stop looking at it, as some great achievement, that only The Buddha, osho, sadguru and so many more attained, stop looking at them through a filtered perspective, like there celebrity's. Loads of fucking normal everyday joes, are waking up today! with technology being all pervasive in this generation, loads of enlightened people are able to point to something that they themselves, are conscious of. This isn't for the esoteric Anymore, this is available to anyone now. This is what everything is, its all one thing, and duality happens within this non duality, its a self aware reality we are experiencing. If we want to wake up, then we have to let everything go, empty our cup to make room for the new. clinging to your knowledge, past, and the way you think things are will keep your ego spinning its wheels for years and it will be a waste of time. Do what ever you have to do, if you need to take psychedelics, to have a ego death, then do it, drugs are here in this life for some reason. True liberation though is a experience of abiding in ego death, because, and I don't give a shit what your ego thinks, I am god and so are you, this is the deeper level of reality, the deeper truth, god is more of an IT rather than a he or she. And when I say the word god, that is then seen through a Filtered perception of the past, Pay attention. God is the entirety, off everything and reality's deepest layer is nothingness, thats what everything is. Including you, unless your somehow outside of everything, the ego sees even reality itself as separate from it, through a subject, object relationship. This is me, and this is reality, its not like that it is all one thing. Don't make nothingness into a object ,because then we separate it from everything, its just the true nature of things isn't physical, and its only intill you experience that for yourself, will you really know, don't make it into a belief, if you haven't experienced reality as non physical, then just be open to that possibility, (empty cup) Don't make your life into a proccess of accumulating knowledge, instead stay alert and empty and learn about life instead, that's the only way your going to get the new, and getting the new is your experience telling you how things are rather than story's and concepts, holding onto sentences like "all is one" ect doesn't mean shit, its the experience you are looking for, you will only know what you are once you are it! That's when its the real deal. Something Practical- Let your nose lead your vision from now on, by having your eyelids half way open, you will find the perfect position were you are viewing everything through the guide of the tip of your nose, it just takes a little attention, but don't forcefully focus on it, do it in the most relaxed way, and you will start to fill a pressure in your third eye ( forehead). Stay empty and let the light of non duality come in, this is something I heard from osho, many masters have figured this out, martin ball has also mentioned about the symmetry Of the non dual state of awareness. I can't tell you how to get there, because everyone is going to have a different story to tell, because variety is the spice of life and its much cooler for reality to experience itself in many different ways, (simultaneously) So everyone's at a different place, but we all need to eventually, know ourselves at the same place, we are already there anyway, most are just not conscious of it yet, its not anyone's fault, its not a bad thing its just the way things are at the moment, its got to be taken into our own hands now though because we have this wonderful opportunity, us as human have the capacity to increase our consciousness, and wake up! So let's do it! Anyone who has ever woken up to the unity of life, has never regret it. We have a few persistent beliefs that really make a difference, in our experience like Believing we a object, that reality is physical, that The Voice in our heads is us (fundamentally) There's so much to learn and you will be your own greatest guru by being completely honest with yourself, and really observing your experience, and self. We are all together.

I'm reading a book by Osho called the secret of secrets and in this book there is the following except: Just see the contradiction: emptiness and life. Life is male, emptiness is female. Life and emptiness – both are two aspects of the inner God. When you have not chosen either in pre-ference to the other, when you have not chosen at all – you have been just a watcher – you become that God whose one aspect is life and whose other aspect is death, whose one aspect is perfection and whose other aspect is nothingness. THEREFORE WHEN THE LIGHT CIRCULATES, THE ENERGIES OF THE WHOLE BODY APPEAR BEFORE ITS THRONE... And when the light moves inwards and circulates inside your being, because there is no outlet left.... That’s what meditation is. That’s what Buddha is doing under the Bodhi Tree. You sit silently, you close all the doors, and the light circulates within. Then for the first time you become aware of the body and all that the body contains – all its mysteries. This small body contains all the mysteries of the universe. It is a miniature cosmos. I don't understand the bolded part. What is Osho trying to tell us to do in his book? Not get attached to either emptiness or phenomena in our meditation practices? "because there is no outer left" does that mean when there is no attachment left thoughts just circulate aimlessly around and that's good for some reason? A little confused... thanks!

Are you saying that consciousness/awareness/nothingness/ is just imagining/thinking of stuff and the stuff it thinks about is reality? As if nothingness is sort of dreaming all this stuff up and that includes us and therefore we are part of the dream. This also means that we in the dream don't realise we're in a dream. This would explain why stuff feels solid because just like in a sleeping dream where we think that the objects we touch are solid, so too do the objects in this dream feel solid. I think the problem in this discussion is the lack of a definition of the word real. When you say that reality isn't real do you really mean that it isn't physical? Even if it's not physical it can still be real.

"The important part i want to emphasize is this conversion of non-duality to duality since it is the absolute essence of creation." ". It is really you who creates your entire world, every "value" you apply to one of those orbs creates your complete experience of reality. Duality is the labelling system of the mind of how to identify anything and is build from relativity from all the other values. Changing one value as to say directly changes the relation with all others and this simply is your perspective or vision what life looks like or gets experienced." This sounds about right, hehe. Great read. Very profound insight. You articulate the experience and insight very well. Thanks. Well, you can say it was an experience under the influence of a drug (natural shrooms). You could also turn it around and say it was an experience WITHOUT the influence of the mind Cos your mind was gone during the experience. There was only you and a gateway to raw consciousness/nothingness/infinity ...-- and this gave you profound insights about reality... Cos I fully agree... The world we find ourselves in is dualistic in every way. The mind operates through dualistic functioning, as you say. The so-called "physical world" thus also appears dualistic. Light, Dark, Good, Evil, Pain, Joy, Life, Death, Self, Other, Friend, Enemy and so on. But even though the world appears dualistic in nature, it is possible to see that this dualistic nature naturally arises from the counter-point: a non-dual reality without seperation, without labeling, withouter any self, without any world...only Oneness..., Awareness is left. And it is from this non-dual infinite limitless oneness/awareness that the "normal" world is created through. So yes, as you say, creation goes from the non-dual state to the dualistic state We all come from nothingness. And we will all vanish into nothingness. And out of nothingness will we come again. Existence will come again. 0, 1, 0, 1, 0,1. Death, Life, Death, Life. "If you use your mind to study reality, you won't understand either your mind or reality. If you study reality without using your mind, you'll understand both." - This is a great quote by the Zen master, Bodhidharma. To attain great wisdom, one surely has to lose the mind every now and then

Nice trip report mate. Sounds like an eye-opening experience. Great read. Can you be more specific of how this trip has changed you today? What was the dosage? Do you have problems sleeping after the trip? Have you tried LSD and if yes, can you give a overview of the difference between the LSD- and the Shroom-experience? ( I have never done shrooms, only LSD... But my next psychedelic trip I think I want to be shrooms, and not LSD, since I've heard by hear-say that shrooms can be more profound). I have done LSD a few times, and experienced what I think is partial ego death where I sort of just became one with the music and the visuals and vanished from the world and all my anxious thoughts. I felt pure love and oneness. When "my mind" slowly came back I freaked out as well. I was almost disappointed, like "WHY CANT I JUST BE IN THIS STATE OF PURE LOVE/NOTHINGNESS FOREVER? CMON" ... I was terrified actually, lol. And I sort of had to remember how to function in a human body again. Scary stuff. But eye-opening stuff.

Hello forum members of Actualized.org, I have always been fully fascinated with the actual phenomena of reality and time. Several years ago, I had a complete ego death and this experience is still deeply embedded in my being and everyday actions and perspective. First, I want to give you an abstract overview of what my psychedelic experience was like and what deeper direct insight the experience showed me. Please note that this experience was life changing and completely forced me to reconstruct my believes and solid foundations of what I thought what reality seemed to be. During that time, it was hard to cope with all these ideas and "normal regular life". I'm still giving it a place and will keep doing this my entire life, but it was both the best as the worst experience i have ever encountered. Nothing can be unseen, but with mindful intention you can transform what you make of things. For my trip report I mainly want to focus on the important things I experienced but I will give a general overview what the set and setting was. Everything started on a regular vacation day. My friends and I had decided we wanted to try some magic truffles again since earlier experiences have always been really enjoyable and funny. On an empty stomach we all ate some truffles and slowly the effects became apparent. Some weightless feelings like being on a cloud while walking, increased colour vividness and perception in all senses. We all quite enjoyed the experience quite well, just the total ridicules of being alive and that this "substance" or tool is able to affect the experience of reality so dramatically that it almost feels like the matrix. Morphing solid shapes, everything breathing like it is totally alive like one large being. These experience often go with pure awe for beginners and can be an eye opener or something that destroys your world, perspective is crucial in how you will experience life and thus having a broad knowledge is essential to be able to position yourself in life, even if you don't exactly know what real truth is. This is why I have great respect for all people that give their life to peruse understanding and knowledge, becoming a sage like @Leo Gura also states in one of his videos is my ultimate pursuit. So, there was this moment in my psychedelic experience where I slowly began to drift away. I was standing somewhere against a statue next to some friend looking at this massive willow tree on a small island several meters away. The whole tree was illuminated by a light and I was slowly being hypnotised by its presence, the branches timelessly waving in the air. Before I entered this upcoming trance my emotion was pure indecisiveness due some situation where my friends split up and I was not able to choose whether I wanted to go with them or stay. Eventually I stayed to look after some friends but was thrown in this deeply hypnotised state. My presence was slowly merging with the tree across the water and I began to feel its history and future. I felt the cold of the winter and all the seasons that cycled over a thousand times, maybe an infinite times. I really cannot tell since time slowly ceased to exist and I became it. Everything was fast-forwarded like a time-lapse, people walking by, the environment changing over hundreds of years, until time came to an absolute end. Now reflecting on this experience the force that drove me to a complete ego death or dissolution was the pure indecisiveness I entered it early with. My reality window or perspective couldn't decide what to experience or focus on and eventually I became absolute nothingness. This timeless state of being that was undifferentiated and a complete void was still perceived as being nothing. Now this is very hard to grasp and only direct experience can show you what true infinity and nothingness is at the same time. A nice sentence I like to refer to is; Ultimate silence holds the greatest potential of invoking anything infinitely larger that itself. One of the most beautiful moments was the witness of the absolute transformation of Non-duality to the Duality. After an infinite amount of time had past in the absolute non-dual state there was a moment where two orbs of light came into my vision. They shared this dance what felt to me like pure love and reminds me of ying and yang. From the non-dual unlimited potential arose the perspective or experience of two entities both identical and it was me who give their distinct identity. I felt that I was them but also reflected on this from a distant perspective, which in turn created an experience of separation. Slowly my perspective began to zoom out or expand and I saw that my entire vision was filled with these dancing energy orbs until my complete view of normal reality emerged from this. As if reality was build from these pixels and that the human experience is somehow at this current level of awareness. This experience was just pure awe, but coming back was the hardest part. Dealing with the feeling of being infinitely away from this reality and then coming back you get overwhelmed with what you experienced and at first I just freaked out. My friends told me I was away for a long time and this really scared me. I didn't feel safe because i still had to grasp what this reality was, how it functioned and who these people were. I wanted to go home because that was the only safe place I could remember but luckily my friends calmed me down. It was one intense ride for sure! The important part I want to emphasize is this conversion of non-duality to duality since it is the absolute essence of creation. I know this can be labelled as "just a experience while being under influence" but the message is clear. You only begin to fully grasp what real masters of the mind are talking about when they speak of enlightenment. It is really you who creates your entire world, every "value" you apply to one of those orbs creates your complete experience of reality. Duality is the labelling system of the mind of how to identify anything and is build from relativity in perspective from all other values. Changing one value as to say directly changes the relation with all others and this simply is your perspective or vision what life looks like or gets experienced. Mindset, vision, belief are really the key to enlightment and will only be reveal by true dedication, integration and pursuit of knowledge. Tell me what you think about this! Has anybody else ever experienced such thing. I have the feeling that some people might have had the similar experience but were not able to completely verbalize it. EDIT: One thing I want to add is that the creation fo the universe by the big bang is exactly the same process. We arose from a timeless state and the universe as we know it was born by the creation of relativity (duality) from this non-dual indifferentiated state. Relativity is the core requisite of experiencing reality by using the ego. As relativity was born so was time and the space continium. Interesting philosophical questions arise if you take this as how this mental universe is created, are there any real bounderies if there is no ultimate outside perspective? Who knows Namaste, fellow adventurers.

I am back - sorry. I feel bad for being confusing so I'm gonna make up for it by dumping more of my thinkings onto you! hope this is fun and not annoying do not mind if I sound like I am telling you what to do. I trust that you understand that words are just words, and the understanding you discover as inspired by your experiences is what matters. [1] of course it could be a hindrance. under-thinking is a hindrance too. finding the balance, is what will work best. there is no definite point of balance. a certain point past too much under thinking has enough of an effect to transcend your current level of consiousness on a meaningful path, and a certain point below over-thinking sees the same thing. and all points in between are where the balance is good. but the thing is - the lowest conscious person still develops over time. the highest-conscious person still develops over time. if you feel you need to take a step back from where you are, why not give it a try. [2] but what is thinking? [3] these are one and the same - the illusion of the physical world is the same illusion which contains the mind. I admit the physical world appears with more consistency - and it is true that manipulating it appears different than manipulating our thoughts. if a car hits us we get injured. but how that injury is real to us is the same as how our thoughts are real to us. So how this applies to your questions here - overthinking is nothing more than spending time with reality. It is less pragmatic - but it is just as real. In a way - the world around us is a higher level than our self - so if we want to think about the world, we can go out and manipulate it and see what happens - and we can ponder what has happened and reflect upon in curiously. these are one and the same - just the manifestation appears to differ. [4] I am in my life attempting to find out how to be more directly productive in my surroundings, and spend less time in fantasy lol. I daydream, I think and then pace and think and think and think. I watch a youtube and then watch another and another, or I post in forums until 5 hours have passed. So I am learning how to work in the real world. I guess it just takes practice and time. I guess - if you want to think so much that it takes all your day, find out how to be a mystic in a monastery with a minimal lifestyle to maximize thinking time. Or find a way to turn your time spent thinking into a sellable asset in the market. but if you don't want either of those - then work to learn how to negotiate with yourself, so that you think when it's time to think and act when it's time to act. I am going for that last option hehe.. [5] I recently heard Leo say in a video that when he speaks of the authentic self.. he isn't talking about identity. I forget what exactly he said. so I am going to explain as best I can what I currently understand of the topic. That existence is nondual infinity. and the authentic self is that nondual infinity. In our manifestation, we are finite - so we never become authentic, because authenticity is.. well, infinity. or nothingness. or God or nonduality or whatever you wanna call it. I am that, you are that, the stone is that, our belly button is that. whatever we do in the material world is That, and in this way it is OK however we choose our actions - and reconciling the meaninglessness of infinity with our existence is more or less what pursuit of the authentic self is. As we work to figure it out, we naturally become more at peace, and in being at peace we find more satisfaction in life. Right now you think a lot. work with that - we can't make a big change all at once - it's hard to quit cold turkey. Leo said in a video or maybe in a post in the "aske leo anything" thread, that he still has the monkey mind now all the time as much as before - the difference is that he responds to it on a more enlightened level. (I am paraphrasing) So to work with your thinking and searching for authenticity: experiment, and be mindful, and work to follow where intuition leads you. [6] I have constantly thought my whole life. the only time I am not thinking is when I am asleep. For me my thoughts have naturally taken the form of direct sensation, rather than sound or words... it is like I thought with touch... and so my thoughts were always very much abstract, which meant a lot of information is represented at any moment. this doesn't mean I'm more intelligent or anything I don't think - tho I have had people comment on how it seemed I spend a lot of time thinking, which well, is true, heh. the point is - I definitely "over" think. it got to a point three years ago - where I was thinking so much it was creating a massive anxiety feedback loop, and I crashed and lost everything and hid in my parent's attic doing nothing because I was too afraid to go outside. the defense mechanism? that was - listening to 3-7 streams of music at once, playing 10-hour repeat songs on youtube on multiple tabs. and playing a lot of videogames. I needed to escape my thoughts. maybe thinking is an escape method - no, it is an escape method. but - well, thinking is existence. when we touch the wall, we think it - and that is how we know it exists. so if you feel that you are thinking too much - then work to think less. but what I can say is - when thinking is too much, it will prevent you from eating enough in a day, it will prevent you from cleaning your space, and it will prevent you from succeeding at work. and there's a good chance you will be trying to escape your thoughts. if you have not reached that point - then it is your decision - think less and do more, or do less and think more. I am sure that it is going to work out fine either way - because all we need to get through this world is make sure we can eat enough to keep us alive til the end, and maintain our immediate environment so that we are safe in it. if that requires thinking - then think. if that requires doing - than do. identify your long term goals, and short term goals, they aren't always the same and often compete. we work to find out how to balance those goals - but as long as we get through properly fed and secure in our environment, then we've done a good job of it. it's our choices that determine how that journey manifests. what is authentic for us is going to happen - and searching for authenticity is only working on our self to pursue what we believe is good for us. and If you are here - then you've identified that what is good for you is self actualization. and.. suddenly I feel as if I've said nothing in this post too. hopefully that is only an illusion. well, it is, lol... sorry lol! You said you enjoy to think, so if you mean the same thing that I mean when I say I enjoy to think, and have bothered to read all the things I said, then you appreciated it. and oh! I appreciated creating these words too. OK! now I can walk away from this moment feeling satisfied with what I've shared

reality is infinite. the physical assumption, is what is measurable. but measurable existence only exists in the finite point of view of the measurements. the measurable existence is only existent when measurements create evidence. if measurements are the reality, these measurements (including experience, seeing, touching) are infinite - infinitely local - there are infinite cases of the local phenomena of measurement. only in the local existence does the locality of our awareness exist - in the infinite scale, there is nothing because it is infinite that the local noise is so insignificant it is small. the point on the graph has no dimensions to it - but infinite points create a line. this is the reality we live in - what we believe is physical existence, is nothing but a grouping of local, dimensionless points of reality, pretending to be substance, but there really is no substance. we measure patterns and assume there is a diversification of energy in a field - but we are just projecting something onto what is nothing. when we zoom out we see that there is really nothing. if we zoom in, we find nothingness. except we cannot - because our zoom is measurement, and where there is measurement there is the illusion of the measurable world. our finite experience is only experienced finitely because we are using a finite vantage. this does indeed appear to be a self-fulfilling statement - but, well, yes, that is exactly right. the physical world is only self-fulfilling. the infinite consciousness of reality is what creates the illusion of form - and what is in reality nothing - everything is nothing, and nothing is everything. we care about measurements and death because we are finite phenomena. but the reality is, that we are not finite at all - nor are we phenomena - we are one infinite nothingness. zoom in on what appears to be form and you will find nothingness - zoom out and you will find nothingness. this is the reality. and what spawns from nothing is everything. what is consciousness - we measure things with our tools - but no matter how advanced our tools become - there will always be some phenomena our tools cannot measure - the next infinite layer of dimensionless phenomena pretending to have form. this is what is consciousness - we can measure it better but we will never have it in our measurements. in this way, we know that reality is consciousness and not nothing - consciousness is the dimensionless phenomena which pretends to have form. but even being aware of this idea - is the falseness of the measurable world. our science will continue to believe it has discovered what creates consciousness - and a new question will arise to ask, what is consciousness? a question which our finite tools cannot measure. consiousness, existence, nothingness, measurements, these are all the same nondual thing that gets pointed to in different measurable ways. our physical world is also nothingness, and consciousness. all is as one, this is the nature of the infinite.

That is trippy as hell, but true if you think about it. The mind comes after, not before because nothingness spawns everything including thoughts into being

Question that belief, don't just brush it off as trivial. On what basis do they exist? Because someone said so? You've admitted that everything is just arbitrary labels. Existentially, not in terms of "USEFULNESS", what makes anything real then? Show me something real. Better yet, show yourself. If you never had a single thought, there would be nothing. You wouldn't even have the concept of existence or non-existence. There would be no you, no God, no science, no philosophy, no morals, no ideas about spirituality, no mind, no universe, no enlightenment, no ideas about realness, no ideas about nothingness, NO BELIEFS OF ANY KIND. There'd only be ............................... We can't describe it. But we do think. And THINKING is what makes us feel like there are things happening, and that somethings are true and some are false. That somethings are "real" and somethings aren't. That there's anything at all, happening anywhere at any time. Absent of thinking of thinking, it's just fucking nothing. So yes, everything that we say "exists" is just an idea. We created it in our "minds", and it has NO REALITY outside our own minds. There are no "people" or "places" or "things" or anything OUT THERE.