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Where do you stand on your Life-Purpose? If you meet this 'ideal woman' tomorrow and she asks you 'What contribution have you made to the world that you're the most proud of?', what would your answer be? This is your problem right here. If you can't answer this question, the conscious women see you as a guy practicing 'new-age pop spirituality' and they don't take you seriously either. That's why you meet those kinds of women yourself! And, to give you an idea of how things could work with someone who's genuinely awakened and who genuinely has integrity, she will be interested in what your Life-Purpose is, she will see whether it aligns with her values or not and if it does, she will fully support it. An unconscious woman will hold you back from following your passion if it means that the profit goes down for a month. But, a conscious woman will not nag you when that happens and she will support you instead.

By the way, there is no such thing as be an awakened person, there is access to awakened states. if you are awake, you are awake, if you are asleep, you are asleep, now.

I would love to get everyone's opinions on the realities of finding a highly conscious partner as a young person. I'm 23 yrs old but I've been doing this work earnestly for many years, and I've gotten decently far for my age. However, of course, it's rare to find anyone in their 20's who takes this stuff seriously. I seem to run into two situations when I'm talking to a girl I'm really interested in: I meet some girls who are into spirituality, but it's more of a new-age pop spirituality. Moreover, I find that most women I meet in this group often have a lot of trouble with really basic maturity, like managing their finances, developing emotional intelligence, and communicating well. I meet some girls who are super mature on a character level and I have great chemistry with, but they have absolutely no interest in spirituality... and my dedication to spirituality is confusing/frightening to them. I know that the deeper I get into this work, the bigger the rift is going to be between me and the people in my age group when it comes to spirituality. I've done the pickup thing and I've also gone to tons of spiritual events in Austin, TX where I live... and the only dates I go on end up in one of those two groups. I generally have no problems attracting a partner, but it would be so much easier to get along in a long-term relationship or marriage if we both have those same values. I really genuinely would like to get married and have kids someday, but this is leaving me wondering - should I just settle for someone who I get along with on a personal level even if they don't care too much about spirituality or just practice new-age pop spirituality? It seems to me that I could spend years pounding nightclubs and hippie events and still never find someone in my age group who is going to take this stuff seriously. Not just as a hobby or a couple of yoga classes - but genuine spirituality and awakening... aka cares about and experiences the shit our boy Leo talks about. I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this! Super grateful for this community and for Actualized.org!

Let's see, @Javfly33 is right, awakening is the end of suffering, and whoever says no is not awake and has never been awake for a second. what happens is that it is extremely difficult to be awakened and you return to dream state, then you suffer. but that is not why you are going to say that awakening is not the end of suffering, it is, completely. mental suffering is like physical suffering, it pushes you to withdraw from a harmful situation. if you succeed, the suffering ceases. If you are awake, you are out of suffering, and whoever says no does not know what awakening is, equates it to knowing things, which is precisely the dream

@Sugarcoat I've watched a couple when I first found God and even then I was like these people are saying absolutely nothing they are just repeating the same phrase over and over again. I don't think they know what they are talking about or they are so awakened they have become drones of reality. I will see comments under the video saying stuff like 'wow this is really deep and eye opening' I can't beleive it.

I swear to god. I downloaded tik tok a few weeks back to see what’s up and have barely opened it since. Such social media can be nice tho if you closely curate exactly what you follow so you create this specific feed for yourself . And the Awakened subreddit has golden nuggets once in a while too but this place is something else

@Javfly33 don't burn yourself friend , Just expose your thing, there are those who appreciate and understand it, and others who don't. My opinion: you're right, when you're awake to a certain degree there is no boredom or suffering. but you can be awake now and not be awake in half an hour, when I come into your house to tell you that you will be impaled tomorrow, you will get into deep sleep with nightmares. I mean, It is not easy to maintain awakened states. we're on it, at least we get awake moments. for something one starts In general, I agree with a lot of what you have said.

she leads the awakened drones. they just ramble on saying the exact same thing over and over and over. They have 40 minute videos repeating the same sentence in different ways

This type of awakened person you’re describing probably wouldn’t write such a post so I don’t see the point of this on who’s behalf are you even speaking on

Thanks for describing your experience. I do agree with that, based on my own experience. And thousands of others in all cultures and centuries described it like you do. That is a very important element of the path. It probably sounds quite a bit nuts, boring and strange. At least I would have interpreted it like that a few years ago... But that is exactly how the Impersonal (Silent/Pure/Empty) Infinite Consciousness perceives all of its manifestation in certain awakened nondual states, watching itself, perceiving itself, being itself and the world, by itself, for itself. (1) That starts to happen when the self-contraction/separate-self is seen through, transcended and cut off either with high enough speed & proficiency, or with some more energetic state-change techniques. So the resulting flow of bliss makes it no longer possible for any grasping/contracting thought/feeling-arising to grip & contract the focus/attention (and cut the nondual field into two, or duality), and create bad emotions/stop the flow of bliss. And motivating the separate-self with that resulting suffering again for searching or avoiding certain experiences to eradicate the suffering, and relax the contraction again. That process you describe is the natural way that leads the transition to the deep identity level change to ones True Nature, the Infinite Silent and peaceful/blissful Abyss of Pure Consciousness without location or any kind of objective appearance... When not finding IT (or Consciousness, or oneself), at some point the localization of consciousness dissolves, making every appearance (thought, feeling, cloud, tree, the whole world including ones "small self") just an appearance arising in the Infinite, silent & empty and not-personal Eternal Reality of Ones True Being, Infinite Consciousness, or Reality itself. (2) And when it is seen that even the "Understander" of this Nondual and Awake Realization is nothing more than a bundle of "understanding"-thoughts arising WITHIN THAT, then Full Enlightenment is finally seeing that there never was a separate-self besides an illusion, and nobody (besides) an Illusion actually woke up. Pure Infinite Consciousness/Being was there throughout, undisturbed, just containing some illusion-arisings. And yet, that Realization or waking up of that perspective of Indras Net makes all the difference in the dream of that perspective, finally dissolving the self-contraction/separate-self illusion even of the "Understander" of all of that for good. Selling Water by the River PS: (1) are the stages of dissolving the separate-self into nonduality, and (2) is going from Nonduality/Unity towards even relaxing/dissolving the "Understander"-separate-self-illusion of that into Infinite Consciousness/Reality itself. More on that in this post: PS PS: For Infinite Reality to create a separate-self/self-contraction/ego and to maintain it, there are just two emotions needed that have to regularly occur in cycles (not permanently, that would also kill the separate-self) : 1) suffering (in the meaning of non-satisfied-ness, or "non-bliss" , and 2) boredom. That starts all of the projects for getting back again the bliss via certain experiences (whatever that may be varies a lot). A bliss that would be there if not the separate-self-contraction would stop its flow via contracting. Of course, that can only be seen after having touched the natural bliss of ones True Being, because if that would be seen earlier the whole process would be shut off immediately. But if there is no technique available to just cut off the contraction/suffering, one has to stick to grasping for certain experiences, because that is then all one has...

Is not about kidding myself. Is about setting the bar to a level that is enough high so the word "being Awake" means actually something real. I do not consider anyone to be awake if he falls into ego. Since Reality is always Now, if Now you are not awake, that's it, you lost. You might as well say that you awakened 10 years ago, but the previous 9years you have been a crack addict with a miserable life in very poor and compressed states of consciousness.

You really think god will put someone in that "awakened" state for a long time? God wants people to live life and suffer. I was once in this childlike state where everything was magical and new but it didn't last very very long, it was a high state induced by psychedelic. You can't control your state of consciousness

Yeah, well, life is a dream. So what? The power of the dream should not be underestimated. If you think awakened people can't get addictions I think you're kidding yourself. You still have to be vigilant against bad habits otherwise you will end up like Alan Watts, an awakened alcoholic who drinks himself to death. Awakening is not a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Beautiful post! Exactly what I needed to hear. I recently had an experience that changed my way of thinking about things. It was such an intense understanding that I knew I had to start living my life this way. Every day I am improving on integrating that understanding into my life and my anxiety has really improved because of it. During this process.. I am realizing awakening is such an individual experience and that challenging myself to think in a different way is not always easy. And that's okay! So long as I can recognize and improve every day. Sometimes reading some of the posts on here can be disheartening because so many people hold on so tightly to what they believe is awakening. It made me question if I am just losing my mind or if I am actually on a journey of awakening. What I have come to understand is that we all have different experiences with our journey and are at different stages. There is no right way to become awakened IMO. Yes . there are things to do that definitely support advancement in your journey but those things are there for when each individual is ready to use them. I commend any and all that even show curiosity in awakening because I feel it means they are on their way in their own time. My focus should be on my journey and not to worry about what other people are doing. I can learn from those people and pick out the advice that resonates with me. For me..u know when I feel something in my heart then that is something I may need to consider utilizing in my own journey. Thank you for posting this! ❤

@Leo Gura i really dont understand the correlation between: "everything is perfect, there is no death, reality is Infinity so It is exploring all of its possibilities...etc" And "There is so much danger going down that path, maybe you never reach the end, some people have paid the costs and never awakened..."

Good observation. It is easy to think that you are awakened when you are living in a peaceful environment. If you send them to a hard environment, their socalled awakenedness would come to end, haha.

THIS^^^....my loved ones....started to look unreal....I died inside when I saw it. For awhile I became so indifferent to it all, then I learned to love it. Then Reality informed me that Solipsism is only one way to perceive Reality and that my previous way of looking at reality was just as valid as the waking up to it being purely imaginary. Then Reality showed me it could put everything back to how it looked before with me still able to break out and return it to unreality as well. Basically once you wake up, you can put yourself asleep again but do it consciously, and you can wake back up fully as well. So basically there is NOTHING TO FEAR. Once you fully awaken, you are awakened permanently.

It's why I kept my mouth shut. There is no point in causing an uproar. But I do plan to visit some other religions and experience them since I never have before. But to stay on topic these scriptures will talk you out of the Christian Church. But not out of Christianity because true Christianity is to recognize yourself as Christ. https://biblehub.com/john/10-34.htm https://biblehub.com/psalms/82-6.htm https://biblehub.com/luke/17-21.htm Jesus is basically saying you cannot reach God realization unless you recognize yourself as the Christ. https://biblehub.com/john/14-6.htm But people thought that meant you had to take Jesus as your Lord and savior. NO!!! You take Jesus as an example to emulate, and through following his example you awaken to the Christ within you. This is why Jesus would call himself the Son of Man sometimes and the Son of God in other instances. The term Christ refers to a state of consciousness in which you are in direct communion with Oneness/Totality. Once you reach this state as a sober permanent state you have lived a life full of love so thoroughly that you are awakened to Heaven Within. God the Father is the Masculine expression of the Absolute, The Holy Spirit is the Feminine Aspect, and the Son part of the trinity is the human that has awakened and properly integrated both the Father and Holy Spirit within. This is what the Trinity teaching refers too.

It's not a trick of the ego, there you guys go demonizing the ego again. The ego is not a trickster, the trickster is an UNDERDEVELOPED EGO. When the ego is not properly developed it engages in trickery. This demonization of the ego needs to stop. I feel the prescence of God wherever I go, you think I don't realize this? I swear yall are always trying to teach when there is nothing to teach. I have awakened to the fact that I AM LOVE, I AM INFINITE BEAUTY, I AM INFINITY GOODNESS, I AM PURE INNOCENCE. But I also have the ability to feel the fear and distortions in others. I can also feel the earnestness of another. When I walked into that church I felt the love of small children doing their best to learn love. I awoke to Absolute Solipsism but I also awoke to Absolute Relativity. Reality is both ONE and MANY. I am referring to the MANY aspect, and that MANY is earnest and doing the best it can. All demonization of underdeveloped aspects of the Absolute doing their best is a reflection of a lack of Spiritual Progression and Maturity.

Allow me some further musings on the topic. In stage 3 Yoga of One Taste (One Taste = Nondual), Nonduality starts showing up. But Nonduality is not Impersonal Infinite Consciousness, because one can be in nondual Unity and still think that one is an "enlightened person", or any other crappy concept or self-identity for that matter. The ripening of Nonduality goes from stage 3 Yoga of One Taste to stage 4, Yoga of Nonmeditation. Nonmeditation, because the meditation has become so automized that the need for any separate-self agency feeling doing anything is no longer necessary and is discarded and also cut off. And then one is accident-prone to the possible accident of Enlightenment, Impersonal Infinite Consciousness realizing itself. At that stage, doing anything is just creating another cloud hiding the sun of ones true being, because doing anything would be another thougt/feeling-movement in Infinite Consciousness/Mind/Reality. And psychedelics are very nice for helping the whole process, and for exploring the Multiverse and other interesting stuff. But for transcending the last subtle separate-self-identity-arisings (subtle separate-self thoughts and feelings), and cutting off the sometimes arisings-non-bliss-feeling-bad-arisings (in other words: suffering) that are a part of the separate-self-package, I have yet to see one case (just a single one would be very interesting) where that has been done mainly on a stable basis/outcome in daily life with only psychedelics. That can be very well had with meditation practice. Meditation: Actually, from all I have seen, getting rid of all the clouds of the separate-self takes a long time in certain states (boundless, timeless infinite consciousness, nondual and the separate-self already nothing but a feeling of "individuality", some "nothing" watching the nondual totality), 100s of hours. Maybe 1000s. For most practitioners at least, including yours truly. On the stage 3 and 4 of the stages of Yoga of One Taste and Yoga of Nonmeditation alone (and these are not boring or annoying sitting meditation hours by then, but blissful and wonderful hours in daily life in something called Post-Samadhi-Meditation (or off the pillow meditation) in the book). And in that 100s or 1000s of hours subtle separtate-self identities/arisings get spotted, seen (subject->object), transcended and cut off. And I can assure you, oh boy, these are sometimes really sneaky and subtle. When all of that is transcended, the sudden Deep Identity Shift/Understanding can happen. "Yes, there is nothing else than THAT, and "my" essence is that, and what "I" thought I was was just a movement/arising of thoughts/feelings/centers within THAT. My True Being is all of Reality. But nothing specific. No separate-anything. The whole enchilada without center and core". But its not a elaborated thinking. It is Infinite Consciousness UNDERSTANDING/REALIZING itself, and there is nothing else than THAT, never possibly could be. The understanding in thought-form gets elaborated LATER, after Infinite Consciousness/Reality has understood itself, the nature of the world and its own nature (nondual). Psychedelics: bring a lot and strong forms of the Awakened States (nondual, infinite, mere appearance, and a lot more). States that one would only get by meditation if already very empty, or the separate-self-arising (thought/feeling)flow already cut a lot. So the states are very awake/nondual/infinite, but the separate-self-arisings is still colouring the experience. Although they can also be very subtle/empty at that state. And that is my little theory that explains all phenomena and examples I have seen so far: There is just not enough time and deeply cut-off/transcended separate-self-arisings in psychedelic states to cause that deep Identity-Level Shift of Full Enlightenment. And often, and maybe even much more problematic than the point just mentioned, there is a lot of nonduality/Unity in psychedelic states but a lot of separate-self-feelings/identites/... still left. Not a pure and impersonal Nonduality/Unity, but rather a Unity loaded with not-so-impersonal-stuff. And that doesn't fully count as these 100s or 1000s hours mentioned above, because they may be not so flashy consciousness/awakened, but are already quite nondual/Unity and very very impersonal/empty/nearly-no-separate-self still left. Only last fragments, being dissolved as time goes on. Short form: Meditation: Unity/Nonduality/Awakened States only when very large parts of separate-self-arisings (thoughts/feelings) are already gone/transcended Psychedelics: Lots of Unity/Nondual/Awakened States EVEN with separate-self-arisings (thoughts/feelings) in large parts not seen trough, even with the help of the psychedelic. Full Enlightenment: And for the sudden Deep Identity Level Shift of Full Enlightenment the separate-self-arisings/thoughts/feelings need to be ALL seen through/Transcended/cut off (which at the same time is also a huge boost of Nonduality/Awakenings, making the whole field an infinite nondual groundless mere appearance field hovering within ones timeless true always here Being, and Infinite Awareness Space with separate-self-center/Individuality fully gone. Just THIS). In Full Enlightenment, there is no agent left that is still believed, no center. So one IS Reality itself. And literally everything that could ever appear is a manifested/imagined arising/appearance, imagined by "the" Infinite Mind/Consciousness. And that "Mind", or Reality, dreams and is deluded until "It" realized there is only itself, watching itself, fooling and believing itself in endless appearances. If there is "someone", or arisings of a "you" that thinks "it" is enlightened: Welcome, that is another illusion-layer (as Leo correctly points out). It is maybe an Enlightenment (Nondual Unity with the Infinite Void), but not Full Enlightenment. And for the impersonal aspect: Sounds horrible, in practice its wonderful: One is this life "oneself", next life maybe life something else completely: Different personality, different body, Human, Alien, whatever. Impersonal Consciousness open up exactly that. Like dreaming being someone/something else at night. But the price of transcending this specific bodymind has to be paid. And since its only an illusion, only has some fear-defense-mechanism BEFORE the Gateless Gate of waking up to ones True Identity, Infinite Impersonal Consciousness, or Reality itself. Water by the River

For that, please check the book. Really, it would be worth it. Noting and labeling is waaay to slow, among other things. If you hit a baseball, and would have to note/label what you are doing, that would take way too long, multiple tenths-of-a-second up to seconds. The ball would be long gone. To get good, one has to hit the ball without any thinking. And to learn to do that really well, one gets coached for every miniature-movement of pitching, and how that grows and develops. Zen and noting/labeling is like: Just hit the ball. And even if you hit the ball, how to hit it really far? Or how to hit all balls (even subtle separate-self thoughts/feelings). Like, how to induce really Awakened/Nondual States? Because that happens only with a high speed cutoff of all (even the subtle separate-self-arisings/thoughts/feelings) That needs a good coaching system. Noting and labeling is still thinking, and thinking is way too slow. Like, really way to slow. A very important aspect in my description-post was: High-Speed Search into the nature and emergence of concepts (or rather, into the unfindability of anything solid in their nature, or finding consciousness/empty Awareness/Reality/Suchness in each and every thought arising, and into the temporal phenomenology of their appearnce). To first realize what that nature of thoughts/concepts is, the book needs quite some time. And only realizing that nature correctly, fast enough and how it emerges temporally, is what actually dissolves the thought fast enough, without causing any other fast/subtle thoughts/feelings in its wake. The mindstream is really tricky here, really fast and subtle hard to spot separate-self thoughts, feelings and sensations. So how is this High Speed Search/Cut Off task done, for example at a certain stage: see the quote below. The time-aspect of emergence, staying, disappearing of thoughts is examined. NOT the content, but the temporal structure. That is totally different than noting & labeling. Noting & Labeling is thought-based, content-based, not structure based how it all emerges in the mindstream from a temporal perspective. And that temporal thought-emerging process then changes with practice dramatically. Also, I just scratched the surface of the stages and methods. What most meditation-methods do is like: Here is New York, there is LA, drive west. What Mahamudra does is give you a map for each interstate-crossing. Literally. And just driving west normally ends in a cul-de-sac, meditation gets impossible boring or needs endless will, because one sees zero progress and no changes. I had to read that book (the important passages 10-20 times) to get it, and had to align it with my ongoing practice-experience. It needs some meditation-experiences to understand what the different stages are talking about. Meditation experience generates new meditation-experience-referents, with which gets worked then in the next stages. I can not cut down a 600 page book into short posts, just give some little previews and differences of what is innovative in this system and not found somewhere else in other systems. Selling Water by the River "PS: To give you just a small taste of the level of technical precission of the stage description of what happens. And what the meditators of most other systems only learn coincidentally and as unconsciousness competence (they wouldn't be able to tell WHAT precicly they do, or changed doing). And that is just one change of many on the path of that system: The Mind-Moments mentioned in the quote below can be for example thougt-arising-events. Brown, Pointing out the Great Way, chapter Skill of Reckognition: "At this stage of meditation the practitioner is likely to experience a series of shifts in the way events seem to arise and pass away in the mental continuum, as if the temporal organization of events itself were changing. Four such rearrangements occur in stages: (1) Awareness of the initial phase of arising only. Mind-moments arise so rapidly that one appears to arise just as the previous one ceases. The practitioner is aware of only the moment events arise and is not aware of their duration or cessation. This awareness of the immediate arising is expressed in Pema Karpds phrase "at the moment it is born," as well as in Tashi Namgyel's phrase "happens to arise." (2) The tripartite unit of arising, staying, and ceasing (byung, gnas, song). During the next stage the practitioner notices not only the initial moment of arising (byung) but also some discernible duration (gnas; literally, "staying") of the event, followed by its cessation (song). The entire unit—arising, staying, ceasing—constitutes a single discrete mental event, irrespective of the category of mental content. (3 )At the next stage, the practitioner experiences another shift in temporal experience, characterized by awareness of only moment-by-moment arising and passing away (skye 'gag). Mind-moments are experienced to be very short-lived without much discernible duration. They arise and pass very quickly. Tashi Namgyel calls this stage "momentary arising" (thol ba). [Comment from me: and here at (3) the magic can start: Thought arising get faster and faster when one looks at the temporal structure of their emergence and into their essence/nature, but they are cut off immediately (without much descernible duration). It takes a long time to get there. When at that stage, thoughts that normally elaborate over several seconds show up at once, one "knows" their full content before they even elaborate in the mindstream over several seconds, and can cut them off immedeately. That gives a complete new understanding how the mind works at that high-speed-level, and is the beginning of Awakening if cut-off in sufficient speed so that the NO thoughts elaborate but just emerge as capsules. Then, they start to stop emerging for some time. And if they emerge, they are different. It also starts to show Infinite Consciousness as timeless always here reality, Existence itself. Not as idea, but as experience]. And that skill then gets developed over several more stages.] (4) During the final stage the practitioner comes to realize that the idea that discrete events arise and pass over time is itself a mere construct of the ordinary mind. All distinctions concerning the seeming temporal unfolding of mental events are found to be empty, and the practitioner develops a new realization of the mind's real nature as always here (skye med). The first three experienced rearrangements in the temporal unfolding of the mental events pertain to the skill exercises, while the fourth pertains to the subsequent yoga of unelaboration. [Outcome is that each and any thought-arising can be cut, or alternatively watched in a lucid manner] Although the three parts of the skill meditation are said to be experienced in stages (rim pa), this distinction is not always explicit since the actual root-text instructions are typically given in a combined form." And the insight described here is the High-Speed-Cut-Off Searchtask into the Unfindability of the essence of thoughts, which then evaporate. And also looking closely HOW thought emerge, stay, cease, and what is always right here. That boosts Awakened/nondual States if done correctly. And also gives the first intuition of the always here, or eternal/immortal nature of consciousness/reality, not as idea, but as direct understanding.

Let me try to answer your questions as brief as possible. That is challenging, because the Mahamudra system is technically very complex with many stages. I like to compare Zen/Theravada to cutting a tree with an axe, while Mahamudra is something like a forest harvester: The axe was available already in stone-age and worked, robust and slow. The forest harvester needs precise handling and thorough understanding & training, but is waaay faster. Anyway, lets try the impossible at least roughly. Here is my main thread of the explanation on Mahamudra in the Pointing out the Great Way style (Daniel Brown, 600 page book, around 200-300 pages on the juicy main-practice-stages of Mahamudra). To give you an idea/feeling (not really possible to do in brief, but I try): The description of two main steps: Stage 1 of 4, Skill of Recognition Stage 3 of 4, Yoga of One Taste (One Taste = Nondual) Lets start with Stage 1 of 4, Skill of Recognition It is a "High-Speed-Search-Task into Nature of thoughts, into the "Unfindability/Emptiness" of thoughts. They evaporate when looking into their nature. The nature of every emerging thought/concept, emerging out of Infinite Consciousness/Absolute Reality): And the nature of thoughts is its unfindability: Thoughts have no location, they are "made"/essence out of Infinite Consciousness. Thoughts dissolve when looking into their nature (Aware Empty Infinite Consciousness). One can never "find" a thought. They dissolve when looking into their essence. They move within onself, and dissolve when looking into them And that process/phenomenon is used. and with that cutting off (=Trekchö), since its nature is empty Infinite Consciousness/Suchness. Consciousness literally stops the thought then. At one point when one is fast enough, one sees the order of emergence IN the Infinite Mind is Understanding or just some other cause Thought emergence (fully formed, fully emerging in mili-seconds, but not yet "elaborated-out" over several seconds) being elaborated out over a part of a second to several seconds) And step 3 doesn't happen then. It is cut off. THAT is was brings Awakened States (nondual, boundless, basically if done fast enough. The thought "capsules" start emerging faster and faster then, 10-20 thoughts capsules per second+, and at some point Awareness stays "on top" of even that. That is where the magic starts (Nonduality begins developing, and the mindstream can get silent, bliss starts flowing. A very discrete and "hard" psychological process). And that happens in the beginning phases still on the pillow, but can also happen very much in daily life when intensive thought activity is not necessary. Later, it becomes also possible with sophisticated intellectual/creative thinking, when Awareness has become strong enough to stay lucid THROUGH the thought-elaboration. No longer hypnotized, the creative/intellectual happening within oneself on auto-pilot. Awakened Awareness and its Infinite Intelligence tends to take over, the separate-self/ego gets out of the way. That makes it also much more effective, since the ego/separte-self tended to act as a filter. From this Awakenened Awareness all intelligence and creativity comes from anyway, that is why creativity is so highly valued and pleasurable. This Awakened Awareness is the source of bliss anyway.... So, then the next step described in this post (Stage 2, see link above, jumped due to the specific question of Leo for "daily" practice: Stage 3 of 4, Yoga of One Taste. One Taste = Nondual boundless consciousness. Getting that into daily life. When enough proficiency of creating lucid states with this High-Speed-Cutoff is generated, the Awareness/Lucidity doesn't get lost when thinking. It stays. And with it the Awakened States. And then daily life starts getting nondual, especially if no academic thinking is necessary (still large parts of the day). With academic style thinking/creative thinking, it takes more Lucidity/Training, but is doable. 2nd TOPIC OF THIS POST: God-Realization in your words, or "You become conscious of God as an Infinite Mind dreaming up reality." And this (Yoga of One Taste) brings us then to the "base camp of Full Enlightenment", the "jumping platform" where Full Enlightenment can happen (some of which main aspects you refer to with God Realization): Stage 4, Yoga of Nonmeditation. I have written elsewhere about it, see link above. The Nondual Stages of Yoga of One Taste would get confirmed in other traditions (Zen for example) as Enlightenment/Satori/Kensho. But not Great/Full Enlightenment, or God-Realization in your wording. That is an "accident", for which Stage 3&4 make accident-prone. I agree with you that Emptiness/Void is neither God Realization nor Full Enlightenment, where also that "You become conscious of God as an Infinite Mind dreaming up reality" is realized. I am starting more to understand why you emphasize that in your language/system of experience, and I agree on the importance of it. In Zen, there is a differentiation between just shallower Enlightenments (Kenshos, Satoris) into the empty nature of all appearance, or into emptiness. The separte-self can still be very alive then. The Full Enlightenment on the other side, the total dissolution of the separate-self, leaves one with exactly that realization: "You become conscious of God as an Infinite Mind dreaming up reality." Although there is no more you, nor God, but Reality itself becoming consciousness OF itself IMAGINING itself as all there ever could be. This Enlightenment is probably between 10-50 less common than the real thing of Full Enlightenment. Probably that is why you are so annoyed with the large majority of Buddhist Enlightenments (either contemporarily claimed or described in literature). Let me give you four examples of that differentiation (I could give many more, but that would blast the post. Ok, I admit, its already blasted and way too long... forgive me). 1) Huang Po https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huangbo_Xiyun "One Mind Huángbò's teaching centered on the concept of “mind” (Chinese: hsin), a central issue for Buddhism in China for the previous two centuries or more. He taught that mind cannot be sought by the mind. One of his most important sayings was “mind is the Buddha”. He said: All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists [red by me]. The One Mind alone is the Buddha, and there is no distinction between the Buddha and sentient beings.[8] He also said: To awaken suddenly to the fact that your own Mind is the Buddha [Nothing exists beside IT=God=Reality=True You], that there is nothing to be attained or a single action to be performed – this is the Supreme Way.[9]" 2) Yogachara school https://integrallife.com/toward-fourth-turning-buddhism/ "The very notion of the “not-twoness” of Emptiness and Form opened the door, as we briefly mentioned, to other even “stronger” versions of nonduality or (metaphoric!) Wholeness, one of the most prominent being the Yogachara, introduced by the half‑brothers Asanga (more of a brilliant innovator) and Vasubandhu (more of an acute synthesizer). Another name for their school—Vijnaptimatra—is usually translated as “Mind-only” or “Representation-only.” The point here is that the “not-twoness” of Emptiness and Form allowed some philosopher-sages to come up with other terms for the “Form” that was seamlessly conjoined with ultimate Emptiness or Shunyata, one of them being “Mind” itself. The idea was that “Mind” itself was the same as Emptiness—the Yogachara philosophers were adamant that they were talking about the same “unqualifiable” Emptiness that Nagarjuna was, but by also referring to it as “Mind” they were giving (some would say metaphorically, some would say absolutely) a type of compass that would help relate ultimate Emptiness to an everyday reality everybody was aware of (such as, namely, the Mind). The Zen saying, “The everyday mind, just that is the Tao (ultimate Truth)” is a good example of this type of Yogachara thinking. And it showed clearly how one could “bring everything to the path,” starting with your own, simple, everyday awareness. This opened so many other doors—especially Tantra and Vajrayana—that it is referred to as “The Third Turning of the Wheel of Dharma.” Buddhism has philosophically run a long way. Hinayana didn't even have the full Nondual Realization of Absolute Reality, Nagarjuna made Madyamaka (nothing can be said about Ultimate Reality). And where did it end? The philosophy all which pretty all sophisticated Tantric Buddhism system rely on? MIND-ONLY, Yogachara. We need to at least differentiate the 2500 year system of Buddhism into these development steps. If not, we are fighting with a "fossil-philosophy"... 3) The Supreme Source, one of the main texts of Dzogchen (quite close to the Mahamudra above, Brown uses Dzogchen and Mahamudra elements together): on which breathtaking beautiful absolute perpective you agreed: There is gold in Buddhism, Full Enlightenment, God Realization. And tools to make it stable in daily life. The later systems of Tantric Buddhism, but also Mahayana, have at their philosophic core Yogachara or Madhyamaka (I have written on that elsewhere). These two qualifications of Ultimate Reality are in line with what you call God Realization. 4) In Zen 3 pillars of Zen, Kapleau: Some quotes from that book: "ROSHI: With a first enlightenment the realization of oneness is usually shallow. Yet if one has genuinely perceived, even though dimly, and continues to practice devotedly for five or ten more years, this inner vision will expand in depth and magnitude as one’s character acquires flexibility and purity." The story of Bassui: "You become conscious of God as an Infinite Mind dreaming up reality." "This way is no other than the realization of your own Mind. Now what is this Mind? It is the true nature of all sentient beings, that which existed before our parents were born and hence before our own birth, and which presently exists, unchangeable and eternal. So it is called one’s Face before one’s parents were born. This Mind is intrinsically pure. When we are born it is not newly created, and when we die it does not perish. It has no distinction of male or female, nor has it any coloration of good or bad. It cannot be compared with anything, so it is called Buddha-nature. Yet countless thoughts issue from this Selfnature as waves arise in the ocean or as images are reflected in a mirror. To realize your own Mind you must first of all look into the source from which thoughts flow And: Realization Emptiness, or Void, IS NOT YET FULL ENLIGHTENMENT: "In this propitious state deepen and deepen the yearning, tirelessly, to the extreme. When the profound questioning penetrates to the very bottom, and that bottom is broken open, not the slightest doubt will remain that your own Mind is itself Buddha, the Void-universe. There will then be no anxiety about life or death, no truth to search for. In a dream you may stray and lose your way home. You ask someone to show you how to return or you pray to God or Buddhas to help you, but still you can’t get home. Once you rouse yourself from your dream-state, however, you find that you are in your own bed and realize that the only way you could have gotten home was to awaken yourself. This [kind of spiritual awakening] is called “return to the origin” or “rebirth in paradise.” It is the kind of inner realization that can be achieved with some training. Virtually all who like zazen and make an effort in practice, be they laypeople or monks, can experience to this degree. But even such [partial] awakening cannot be attained except through the practice of zazen. You would be making a serious error, however, were you to assume that this was true enlightenment in which there is no doubt about the nature of reality. You would be like one who having found copper gives up the desire for gold." Or: Not yet Full Enlightenment-Realization. "But even now repeatedly cast off what has been realized, turning back to the subject that realizes, that is, to the root bottom, and resolutely go on. Your Self-nature will then grow brighter and more transparent as your delusive feelings perish, like a gem gaining luster under repeated polishing, until at last it positively illumines the entire universe [infinite nondual mere appearance boundlessness of ones nondual limitless being then]." "You must understand that anything appearing in your consciousness or seen by your eyes is an illusion [imagined], of no enduring reality. Hence you should neither fear nor be fascinated by such phenomena. If you keep your mind as empty as space, unstained by extraneous matters, no evil spirits can disturb you even on your deathbed. While engaged in zazen, however, keep none of this counsel in mind. You must only become the question “What is this Mind?” or “What is it that hears these sounds?” When you realize this Mind you will know that it is the very source of all Buddhas and sentient beings. And that ends in Full Enlightenment: "keep asking with all your strength, “What is it that hears?” Only when you have completely exhausted the questioning will the question burst; now you will feel like someone who has come back from the dead. This is true realization. You will see the Buddhas of all the universes face-to-face and the Dharma Ancestors past and present [they all have been expressions of this Infinite Mind of yours, of the only Reality there is or could be, dreaming up all these worlds]." There is nothing else than: "You become conscious of God as an Infinite Mind dreaming up reality." And that becomes stable in daily life when there is no longer a separate-self, but only Reality. God. True Nature. Whatever one wants to call "It" then... And that Ultimate Reality is Impersonal Infinite Consciousness. "It" is both nothing/impersonal, but also everything there could be imagined. It is Reality itself. The True Core of each being. As long as something of a remaining separate-self projected on it, its not stable in daily life. The remains of that separate-self will also "colour" all higher insights/realizations. Bliss doesn't flow yet full time, so the suffering will make the being continue and refine anything that is not conforming to this Ultimate Reality, ones True being. Or according to Huang Po, The One [Infinite] Mind that dreams or imagines it all up all Reality. Water by the River PS: Ok, yours truly confesses: short is it not, the post.... But please don't hit me too hard, took some time to write, and I got plenty of other things to do also.

I think it depends more or less on the quality of consciousness. I consider Sadhguru as a very awakened being because he is consistent with his content, I never saw him say something that was in direct contradiction to reality, he is quite sharp and to the point, I would expect something like that from a highly awakened being, his composure is always consistent too. He could be a genetic freak for all I know, but an outstanding fact about Sadhguru that I never notice with the plethora of spiritual leaders out there, is that he has never played victim to the masses, never been antithetical to criticism no matter how harsh, always volunteering to teach people in the most compassionate thoughtful ways, I see this quality of him as outstandingly brilliant and exceptional. It's like the energy or vibration you feel simply feel in his presence, even through a screen, you can feel his energy has all encompassing rejuvenating compassionate and almost liberating. This I will consider as the quality of consciousness and since he has been consistent for years now, I'll call it a stage rather than just a temporary state. I'll call that awakening versus development.

Lol when did I say it was? I have already awakened to Love, To Beauty, To Authority, and to Absolute Solipsism. So why is there anything wrong with me going to a church? I went to see if our comments about the Church are valid and from my perspective we actually rail too hard on the forums against the Christian Church. When I was there the same presence I feel when I get my awakenings was there. Churches are lower developmental avenues for those on the Spiritual Path to experience the Absolute. They don't get a direct experience, it's indirect but it's a start.

No offense to her, but what she wrote was umm plainly obvious. Jesus himself said this. https://biblehub.com/john/10-34.htm What Jesus was saying, is once you have awakened to your ONENESS with God which is Life/Death/ Experience/Consciousness/Reality/Infinity/Love/Beauty/Intelligence/ Etc. then you have attained Christ. When Jesus calls himself the only begotten Son he is saying you awaken to yourself as the Son/Daughter of God when you attain Oneness. A good definition of Love, is Unfiltered Unity. When you awaken to Oneness with Totality, You achieve the trinity also gender has nothing to do with humans, gender is poetic description of how the Absolute Manifests itself or expresses itself in Creation. So Bernadette has biases she needs to clear up to properly understand what Gender is. The Trinity is this. The Holy Spirit is the Feminine Expression. The Father is the Masculine Expression. And the Son is the Awakened Human who has properly united their inner feminine and masculine aspects and have become a purified vessel in which the Absolute can flow through without distortion. St. Germain understood this too. https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7451986.Comte_de_Saint_Germain