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@philosogi you already experienced nothingness because you were nothing before you were born.

so between numerous role models I follow, including "our" Leo Gura and also (I recommending) Tai Lopez, there is often a message of - study. Reading, research. Certainly I'm intending to pick up a habit of this in the future, of digging into philosophy and psychology and history and physics, however that is not a now-concern... I have other focal imperatives for the nearer future. So I'm not pushing for that study habit just yet. But, I wonder, wouldn't the types of literature and discourse that Leo often criticizes as low-level consiousness, not be necessarily bad? I'm trying to go through my (so to speak:) "spiritual" work through a pragmatic approach of in-the-action mindfulness, rather than one of solemn meditation - I have been in my life spending "too much" time reflecting or daydreaming or gaming, and instead not-doing, so one of my main current priorities is to focus on being pragmatic whenever I have the capacity to be focused and with healthy pose of body (my body atrophy and subsequent weakness from my 3 years of depression), and when my body and/or my mind is not up to that task, I'm more often than not making sure to rest in some way, even to the point that I allow my mind to return into "sleep". this leaves no room for meditation or for direct study. So my idea is - I could be reading fantasy books, watching non-documentary movies. It really is OK. For two reasons - as I move forward in my mindfulness work, I cannot just suddenly be mindful all the time - so neurotically criticizing my consumption of so-called low-consciousness content is silly! just watch it/read it, no big deal. But Also, the thing that I'm very aware of - which Leo and most other role models too, either are unaware of or neglect to emphasize or even mention - is the reality that all experiences in life are just as meaningful in inspiration, worth, good, etc. - as anything else. Well, we sort of do talk about this - but the more precise nature I'm referring to is how: Even a child with no experience, we learn from; Even an addict with full-scale neurosis, we learn from; And even from the addictive medias - we learn from them too. So in this way - when working on mindfulness - consumption of "low consciousness media" has a twofold direct usefulness in our pursuit of transcending our low level of awareness - The first being that it is a good way to practice being mindful of our addictive nature - just because we have these addiction sensations and drive doesn't mean we must avoid that activity, altho being mindful of the self is possible in such moments certainly hard - in that it gives us practice of allowing our awareness to falter and yet still return; and when we can keep ongoing consciousness more powerfully, we can increase that strength. The second being - that with mindful attention to the movie etc for the focus of finding inspiration, with enough practice (and I have a whole life's worth for this specific skill) we will actually discover that literally all things inspire our growth of ideas. Of course, in that, I bank on the strategy that being the monkeys we are is in fact the authentic "self" that we are - tho we can transcend that self with increased awareness, despite the infinity and the nothingness and the nonduality that existences is, in contrast to that absolute existence our "local" existence remains to factually be one of sensation and duality. We may be struck by delusion, but to deny that delusion blindly would in fact be denying the nonduality itself! disclaimer - this has been a discussion of thought from my current perspective. I do not claim any of it to be true or useful for you, and certainly none of it is True being. but these ideas are true and useful for me any thoughts, responses, reflections, piggybacking, all encouraged thanks for reading.

When we go to nothingness, I'll be experiencing going to nothingness

I seem to follow a slightly different path and outlook then other's on here, but thought some might find value in my experiences and comments on this matter. So... for those who aren't familiar there is a space or position we can inhabit where everything is everything. Words can't describe the place, because words in and of themselves are tools or products of differentiation, which create degrees of separation and conditions. Even calling it nothingness is a flaw in my opinion, because that is a differentiation that narrows the scope of this place and everything that it is, creating misguided connotations. I prefer to call it un-differentiated everything, but lol, even that is flawed... but maybe less so? When you are in this position, "you" are a part of this undifferentiated everything, and the differentiation of "you" does not distinguish itself. The sound of water running is you, everything is you, but only a "you" in the sense of being the localized experience (in my opinion). This is different from others who say the you does not "exist", you can still exist while being non-distinguished, in my experience. Anyways, it's a really nice space that I can slip into at will, but maybe unlike others it's not one I'm trying to be in at all times. Instead I find great value in just having free access to that space and also how it counterbalances or provides contrast to being in a position with differentiation and conditions (which is of course any time our mind begins to categorize distinctions). The benefits I have found so far from that contrast are the following: It loosens up the intensity of attachment to differentiation at its most fundamental level, which also makes more flexible existing structures of mental differentiation with their associated conditions, rules, and biases. This provides more space, more freedom, to pull away from those structures and let our body's chemical build-up rest and clear out, which helps ease mental rigidity and fundamental prejudices and internalized programming. It sensitizes me to the contrast between the differentiations that arise as the world changes around and within me versus the differentiations I stack on top of it with my mind as it narrates, labels, categorizes, and distinguishes change. This gives a person a kind of blank slate to build upon based just on the natural flow of the universe and it makes more visible the internalized direction our programming will take us within a moment. This is great for trouble shooting, because you can catch unhealthy directions, slip back into base state non-mental differentiation, and then "re-set" with something more positive. It's kind of nice to be in the un-differentiated space and feel the pull from my mind back into mental differentiation because things feel so good (labeling it good or positive or blissful is a differentiation). This is helpful, because I can stay in non-differentiation and let everything be everything and let my body naturally rest and re-orient itself so it starts pulling me towards positivity, rather than trying to be positive through the creation of conditions. It's a nice alternative, because often through the effort of creating positivity we create conditions that actually push us away from it or make it seem out of reach. It's great for dealing with energies and situations we would tend to differentiate towards the negative. Facing and becoming those energies in a "I am that" sort of manner, but different because, when you are un-differentiated, there is no need for the second step of differentiating that I am that... lol this stuff is kind of challenging to talk about. When you become the negative, the negative becomes everything and everything is more than negative, which eases things and helps a person's body process that stress and get back to a balanced kind of state. Conditions we have for love and the embodiment of certain positive positions become much easier to meet or non-existent, because you become them, which means you're natural reactions of rejection or resistance to those feelings don't get in the way to block or disrupt their emotional expression. The limitations or caveats I have found from this space are: This state of non-differentiation is only localized within my domain. Although I am embodying others and can feel without condition, they have to choose and be capable in order to be in the same place to meet me there. However, they are effected or influenced and helped to more easily get there because of the captivation and emotional transference that can happen during communication. Thinking and speaking pulls a person out of the space, however being in or out is not a binary "yes or no", but with degrees of shifting and degrees of overlap, so a person can think and then sink back into it, allowing for the best of both worlds in a way. There is value in both differentiation and non-differentiation. Like yin and yang, the magic is in how they dance and inform each other through contrast. I think people get caught up in conditions when they slip out of this space and try to force this condition of being un-conditional at all times, which creates a kink or paradox that might stymie people who don't certain levels of calmness and stability and perspective already in place. Anyways, I hope these thoughts help some people. Any thoughts or questions, please let me know.

Entry 128 | Zero Fucks Given Theory: The fear of criticism can prevent you from sharing your work with the world. Don't be consumed by it. Applying it: Even if you have niggling fears in the back of your mind about completing a project, just complete it anyway. Don't give a shit about what others think about you. Honourable shoutout to @Zane for introducing the "Zero Fucks Given" method! Today, my music videos arrived ready to publish on YouTube. There were several voices in my head regarding the criticism I may face with these videos. Largely because I have never released music videos incorporating singing as a feature. What will people say? Will they like my voice? Will they hate it? Will they pretend to like it? Will they ignore it? But when I looked back at everything that I had done to create these videos, there was no way that I could NOT share them. So that's exactly what I did. The voices of criticism in my mind will just have to lump it. To be honest, those voices are an essential part of a musician's creative process. Sure, music can be created out of sheer nothingness. But without the important critical voices, those ideas would never evolve into something magical. However, when those voices simply can't shut up and let me enjoy the moment, the need to rise above them presents itself. So with zero fucks given, I will now shamelessly share my music videos with you. Not because I want to be liked, nor do I want anything else in return. It's simply just what I have to do to serve something bigger than myself: the creative Muse. Pick of the day:

@philosogi but will you be remembering then fun we go to nothingness?

@Snick-The ThinkTank The YOU is the most irreducible element of this whole thing. All there is, is YOU. And YOU is not an absence of anything, it's the presence of everything. Whatever ideas you have of Nothingness or Void, it's not that, it's more like the opposite. The Void is bright and full.

Nice! I'm looking forward to feel "fantastic amazing, drowned-in-pussygrabbing, president of my united self, rich, loving-tripping-best-time-of-my-life-independent hardcore attracting best at what there is to best at and who has eternal love that shines through the internet through other side of cosmos and divine being mr-nothingness-himself-is-blessed-extrasuperblessed-becauseImamazing-godlovesmethemore-I love God the more he loves-the poor children in Africa and North-Korea, I'm sure he ment well-loverboy". Sounds like a great exercise! Will try it out

There is always this question comes to my mind that if our life end up as nothingness as Leo says so why do we have to care much to do everything perfectly and to achieve most of our goal! So my point is in here that if we go towards nothingness then there would be no point to remember anything no matter what we do in this life, no matter if we have long or short life, happy or unhappy as it will all go to nothingness. However its different for religious people since they believe for another life afterwards.

There is always this question comes to my mind that if our life end up as nothingness as Leo says so why do we have to care much to do everything perfectly and to achieve most of our goal! So my point is in here that if we go towards nothingness then there would be no point to remember anything no matter what we do in this life, no matter if we have long or short life, happy or unhappy as it will all go to nothingness. However its different for religious people since they believe for another life afterwards.

Entry 127 | More on Death I don't know specifically what I want to write in this entry, so I'm just going to type as I think. Death has been on my mind recently. What with my uncle being on the verge of death now after months of coping with cancer and everything. But also, I had a dream in the last few nights about death. At some point, it occurred to me that I had never witnessed anyone die right before my eyes. This caused my subconscious mind to simulate that event in the form of a dream. It was night, and I was stood at a crossing with around 20 people. As we waited for the traffic lights to change, one guy stepped out in the middle of the road in front of the oncoming traffic. It was obvious that he was hoping to commit suicide. In the shock of the situation, I looked away at the instant the car ran over the guy. I slowly looked back to see the man lying on the floor with blood gushing out of his severed leg. He wasn't dead. But he wasn't far off. He leant forward as if to grab his leg in pain but, of course, it was missing. Something suggested that he was regretting the idea. Then earlier today, I envisioned another suicide scenario happening on my way to university. I imagined the guy jumping off one of the university buildings with the cry "OH MY GOD." Again, it suggested that he regretted the decision completely. But his fate was unavoidable as he splattered on the tarmac. Thankfully, these were imaginary scenarios. But why now? It's not like I'm actively looking to commit suicide nor do I wish to see it happen to someone. Nevertheless, it got me thinking about death. It hit me in the Indian music ensemble that one day, I will die. One day, I will return to the nothingness of death. And somehow, I don't feel scared about that. Given that the next few years will prove to be the most challenging for me, this is something that I must keep in mind. Nothingness is whole and complete as it is. There needn't be life at all. The fact that it exists for the meantime is just a blessing. The pursuing of goals for materialist benefits seems shallow and unnecessary now. Once upon a time, I just wanted to be a famed guitar player. Now, I just want to make the most of what I am now. The process seems more important than the end result. Now is better than then. All I can do is enjoy the moment for what it is. Any goals that I pursue will come from that place of love and joy for being in the now. They won't become my life. They will just form a part of it. Because if there's any goal that's worth pursuing, it is to love life to the full. Pick of the day:

@West Heard that guy's name a few times. He sounds pretty interesting in that respect. Like you say, he must have done a heck of a lot of consciousness work to become so resilient to and accepting of the pain. I've not yet been experienced to physical pain of that nature. Although, my karate background may have made me more able to withstand the pain later on. It's hard to say. Meditation will certainly lessen the suffering, maybe to the point of nothingness one day.

Yes nothingness is the matter but the mind and the Ego doesn't want to accept that so they distract my whole being so much that i can't really let it flow ! And even if sometimes i can, it's coming, even if i start to understand that what comes from the mind got to be rejected in order for this process to complete itself.

Emptiness, Nothingness as i like to call it

Nothingness is real and is who I am "Split wood, I am there. Lift up a rock, you will find me there." - Jesus

I like it that someone understood/read this I think most people have allergy to numbers. Also I was just hit by the realization that if that which I am seeing is illusion, false, that means it is untrue, that means it is a mirage, nothing, 0 ultimately. It is just perceived as something by the true 0 that we are Mindfucking. So everything we see is the untrue nothingness and the one that sees is the true nothingness, but that which we see is still who we are Just the false us in an ultimate sense

Yeah, exactly, we are the same nothingness\pure awarenesa experiencing two different infinities part of a bigger infinity. But we're identified with the separate body and mind that we observe, which is an infinity itself, that's why it deserves to be! All infinities are made in Absolute infinity's image. Smaller scale. But the awareness is where we all meet into oneness. And only That is true- that and the present moment experience of that awareness. The experience is of something untrue by itself, but its the awareness that makes it true as experience

Like soul is saying- The teachers you are asking about have recognized that addiction to spirituality is no different than any other addiction. The problem with a lot of the spirituality message is that it suggests that all of these amazing things which are outside of your experience will all the sudden be given to you if you become enlightened. What that does is creates a feeling in people that what is already in experience isnt whole, so they need to seek out enlightenment to be whole. It is the same cycle of wanting that is behind any addiction. Outside of perception is nothing. Assuming that you need to find what is outside of yourself is assuming that you need to know nothing. It is completely unknowable. Liberation is realizing that what is happening is already whole. It is not about becoming a psychic, or attaining some power that will make a self more special. It is about what is already there recognizing that it already is. It is not about what is already there reaching out into unknowable nothingness and pulling an object back to itself. There is no one there to be improved in the first place. There is what is happening, not what might, could, or should be happening. All of that is the thought process of self, and is an utter illusion. It is what Leo would call a trap. The assumption underlying it is that to be happy, the dream has to be made better with objects that are separate. It's ass backwards, and it is the self trying to fight against not having control.

Check again, now there no God, only nothingness.

There is free will. Right & wrong are opinions. You are depressed because you're choosing to think depressing thoughts. Thought, then feeling. Listen to something happy and you'll feel happy. Allow the momentum to build. Your problems as you describe them here stem from choosing to believe that you don't have free will. The fact that you chose to believe it should be your proof that you are doing the choosing. Often, people who trip balls until they are practically unconscious misinterpret their pending unconsciousness as a nothingness and derive that there is no free will because there is no 'them'. You typed that, so clearly there is a you. Clearly you chose to type it. If someone claims they experienced nothing, obviously they were still there to experience it, so it's not nothing. Relax. Do something you enjoy.

Do you really know that it doesn't? Where does this certainty of yours come from? Maybe you haven't uncovered enough of the world and yourself yet to see the conflict? We all have limitation and ignorance and then even more ignorance that we are blind to. Every person carries some degree of being blind to their own blindness and that also includes me of course. It's a reality and a responsibility I actively address and keep in consideration when making conclusions and feeling certainty about a thing. I've spent days tracking the chemical build-up of certainty in my body at times, noting down how it changes my experience of reality as it crosses thresholds and how to balance it out and lower it with other actions and energies. Maybe to you enlightenment is not an idea, maybe it's something more. I don't know what your definition of enlightenment is or what you've maybe experienced it to be. People have many different ideas about it, many of them flawed and overly extreme in my experience. To me it's a word, some people use to symbolize an idea of what they think might occur after some kind of change or realization. Now from what I can tell from your first post in this thread, you consider that change to include the realization that the "I" is a delusion. I do not agree that the "I" is a delusion along with other variations of oneness and nothingness and singularities. I see them carrying the flaw of corruption through reduction via over-simplicity and conflicting with multi-dimensionality. Personally, I am both "I" and "We" at the same time, superimposed, without rejecting or discarding that initial "I". With permeable boundaries between the "I" and "We" that limit the amount of communication and transposition to adhere to specific contexts within a moment. Those contexts being the balance and interaction of pattern and motion or matter and energy or chaos and order... there are many names for it, all with pros and cons. You may not agree and that's okay. I have no skin in the game, when it comes to how you choose to view reality within the self-contained world of yourself. Just like you have none for my world. I mean yea, there is in-congruence and a little conflict when those worlds communicate and compare perspectives, but there are worse things in the larger world to deal with.

Day 5: I just had two profoundly different experiences with the University I used to attend. The first experience was with a program called career connect. Woke up early no traffic heading to the Valley and finding parking easily then being driven to the place we were going to have the orientation. My favorite part of the whole thing wasn't exactly the orientation but, it was the ride there. Being in the shuttle going down the freeway and while others were talking to people I mostly sat there silent staring out the window and looking up at the clouds. It reminded me of simpler times when my parents would drive me places and I'd sit in the car just not saying anything and just staring out the window. Those were some of the fondest memories I'd had of my youth. The best of the best was looking out a planes window and just admiring a birds eye view. So as I sat there we arrived at our destination got to say hi to all the people working there and got to know the inner workings of the cruise line they worked for. I also had a really friendly chat with a person who worked there and we kind of got to know each other. I had no problem speaking and socializing. I shared with him stories about my travels and it related to the industry to since it was cruise ships and that's about hospitality. Then on the shuttle ride back I felt the same way just looking out the window and enjoying that view. Today on the other hand the experience wasn't exactly that great. I went to an alumni reunion and actually the first person I talked to was a really nice lady who I had a class with and I enjoyed that class because I got to express myself. The problem was though is that I dislike these socially awkward situations. That's how the whole thing felt like though one big socially awkward situation. In situations like that I kind of retreat into my own thoughts especially when there are people there that I hardly know. It had some good moments but, not exactly that many. I had expectations for the event but, all and all I came out of it disappointed. It was a story of other people although I wanted people to know my story and my story was that I didn't exactly have a kinship with academia or my University to begin with. So many people feel as though they have some kind of relationship with the place they graduated from. As for me I just felt kind of a sense of nothingness. I wasn't raised in the typical growing up way I just wanted to get out of anything that had to do with school ASAP and find some work. Unfortunately for me my upbringing didn't make me the most social person or the most successful because of how turbulent it was. This experience really fell flat because I figured I went through this horrendous traffic to get there, paid for the parking, and looked forward to it. At last when I finally got there just to feel socially awkward and weird in front of people who I kind of barely knew. I think to myself sometimes that I was so responsible as a young person. I may have not had the best social skills, I didn't exactly make that many friend, and I may have not gone the extra mile that many times in my life ON THE OTHER HAND I was responsible. I did what I was told when I was younger. I finished my assignments, I came early and on time to classes, I got my work finished on time and sometimes even ahead of schedule. I was also well behaved and didn't start any trouble. That's why I have such a personal struggle and a very deep vomit inducing disgust with the adult world or as some people like to call it the "real" world. This world consists of things called jobs and this is when it gets real ugly. Most of these "jobs" that you will be accepted in when you're old enough to have one will be things that don't feed your passion and make you feel like an automaton. The other thing is nothing is more subjective than "getting a job" you're just a piece of paper either an "application" a "resume" or a "resume with a cover letter". I think it's so impersonal and dehumanizing. No where on those papers does it show your personality, the struggles you went through, the kind of life you had, and the passion and potential you poses. Nope your life is reduced to a piece of paper that is no longer than a page. The human element is completely missing from the equation as well when all the jobs need to be applied to online and you can't just walk in and talk to someone. Anyway I used to write stuff like this in a private journal. I think though that hopefully the majority of people on this website are cognitively complex enough to appreciate my musing and philosophies on life. Although I on the other hand need to understand one thing and it was actually good that I took that UCLA trail for the Peers program about making friends. I remember when I told the counselor that I had a long winded conversation with someone about philosophy and life but, then she told me that gets boring and it's unsustainable. She told me that friends are made by talking about common interests and my interests are video games, science, technology, chemistry, politics, geography, and travelling. That's a good piece of advice when I go too far down the rabbit hole with these philosophical excursions with others and in my writing. I'm more than happy for the entire world to be exposed to my writings and philosophies and to contemplate them once in a while. I think that's what the world needs more of what do you think @Anna Konstantaki?

@Salaam What is connective tension in relation to consciousness? I am not following why the skills you are describing and enlightenment are mutually exclusive. I understand you think it's an idea, and a primitive one, but enlightenment is not an idea. It seems you enjoy parsing things out with precision and these ideas about oneness and nothingness seemingly take that away from you, but...it doesn't.

Enlightenment to me is a flawed and limited idealization created by people who are hurt and ignorant while being pushed by the pressure of their pain and their desire to escape it. I recognize those flaws in it's foundation and instead focus on my own conceptualizations. I focus on goldilocks zones, tension, harmony, synergy, balance, accessible potentiality, humanity, spirit, and multi-dimensionality that brings about real, physical change and is mirrored throughout the rest of the universe as a nested pattern of motion. For over 10 years now I've been working to expand my senses, slow down my perception of time, increase my tensile resiliency and map out by feel the movements, patterns, shifts, and transitions going on in my different layers of consciousness. This gives me an incredible amount of experience and information to compare against these people chasing enlightenment or describing whatever they attain or experience as enlightenment. None of them come close to the nuance, multi-dimensionality, and synergy of what I've experienced and see everyday in the world around me. Nor do they employ as rigorous and nuanced a system of guidance, grounding, and accountability. Oneness, nothingness, non-attachment are all limited and primitive in comparison at best and delusional or extreme with their iterations of "everything is an illusion" nonsense at worst. Why should I limit myself to oneness when I can choose superimposed multi-dimensionality? Why should I choose nothingness when it's a limited and extreme concept crafted by people who jump to conclusions about observations within their own mind before even developing the tools needed for nuanced observation in the first place? What they think is an experience of nothingness is in reality filled with so much shit going on at various speeds and scopes and they're completely blind to it. Why should I choose non-attachment, when I have freedom and harmony with connective tension which lets me consciously modulate the degrees and flavors of both attachment and non-attachment. That skill in and of itself makes Buddha look like a beginner jumping to false conclusions to me. Enlightenment is like checkers, as far as nuance, when I'm instead working on a chess level framework of reality. Which probably sounds arrogant, but the difference in complexity and potentiality bares true. Anyways, this Ralston guy is talking about honesty or authenticity in your clip. Authenticity in my experience is actually a fidelity of connection with your own inner chemistries. Protecting it from distortion which increases the level of synergy and automated reactivity between your intent and your output. My work within myself has reached such a particular synergy as to release certain limiters our body puts in place, which amplifies my feelings and their intensity. Long story short, lying makes me sick because I'm so sensitive and aware of my subconscious layers and have to protect them even more from my conscious decisions than the normal person. It's not a moral thing per se, or not just a moral thing, but a matter of health and protection of my connection with my spirit for me. Not just my health, but the health of all, because the only action I can ever truly categorize as evil is the corruption of trust. And when I talk about spirit, I'm talking about my tangible connection to the feeling of my spirit, which is modulated by the amount of meaning being derived from my actions and expressions. I can actually feel my spirit or soul, whenever I want, no matter how scarce a situation as long as I can overcome the resistance to initiating that action. Ah, so you're in prove it mode. You distrust me and see me as a threat or a danger to others, hiding behind anonymity? Even though you, yourself are posting anonymously as well. You think maybe, someone who makes these claims should be famous or exalted or already established right? He shouldn't be some normal dude writing on a forum just like anybody else? I'm not special and I'm my own kind of normal, which in contrast to other people's normal maybe sounds extraordinary. But, whatever. Lol, I can feel your prejudice, but I get it. I'm a challenge to beliefs you've already internalized and are currently defending. My Wife and I have a radio show and I've posted the link a couple times when people asked about it. You can see my name on there. I've got nothing to hide.

@Annetta THe one infinite creator (the ultimate nothingness/void, not the nothingness most refer to, that which cannot be experienced for it is beyond consciousness and experience) gave birth to infinite love/awareness, which was divided into "clumps" of light, which created the universe, galaxies, planets, and smaller and smaller units, allways dividing into smaller portions of consciousness/love/light/awareness. You are right now experiencing 3D expression of consciousness, which is purposefully imposed by limitations. Enlightenment = you merge with higher portion of yourself, you have always been that, only now it is allowed in your experience, so limitations such as time/suffering vanish, for you have outgrown them. But that is not the end. You as a consciousness have always more infinity to merge with, and to allow the one infinite to know itself on a completely unique new level. To explore more of the mystery that it is. With less limitations and more freedom every step of the way (all limitations being self-imposed, ulimately all is the Self, only you experience it in chunks) The chunks that you experience is what you would call soul/spirit/higher-self experiences "at a time". Ultimately you are the higher self, which has already merged with the whole universe, but right now its experiencing itself in time. In its childhood. This is projected into whatever experience it chooses, to explore a certain theme, and that is your life. Once you die veil of forgetfulness will be lifted. Once you die, unless you have completed the lessons you wished to experience and learn from, you will go "omfg I love it gotta go again" and you incarnate.