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In my experience, IFS and "nonduality" are both necessary as far as holistic spiritual work. Here's the problem: IFS alone is very nice, but it's a delusion to think you can ever properly integrate the parts without dropping ego attachments. The ego construction means an inevitable preference and prioritizing of certain parts due to attachment. And nonduality is very nice, but without IFS you have not integrated, so you're in a let-go state but with many of the same issues that you had prior to enlightenment. It is best to do BOTH, otherwise your results will be limited.

@Reciprocality no, it's not the possibility of awareness that I'm questioning. It's precisely its presence that I'm questioning. To say it is present because it is necessary is to subject it, and I think we can agree that awareness, literally the pre-sent, transcends all that mental faculty. Well I'm having trouble with your logic too, friend. At this point it's coming off rather circular as an argument. I mean.. something that exists must be necessary, simply because it exists? What you're literally saying is this: Existence = Necessity. Of course this will leave room for no miracle because then there's nothing to question other than the implications of the logic. If Existence = Mystery then there is substance, rather than empty belief. What is so wrong if we encounter a duality with this lens? We are simply questioning the aspects of reality as they present themselves. No point in shying away from this for the sake of nonduality.

So I hear and agree with everything you've stated thus far, except for this post right above ?. The problem is I'm not fully acquainted with the concept of ego, so I try to avoid it. I agree with you here, strip away all identities and what remains is nonduality itself. Only question is can there be a intuition of such a modality if I may call it that? I can tell that you use the term imagination rather conventionally. I'm only wondering if it can ever be possible for you to try to broaden this in a sort of all-encompassing was. Otherwise you leave no choice but to agree with you that the absence of imagination does include the possibility of a something remaining. I mean what if imagination cannot be absent? What if there was something like a metaphysical (or multidimensional) imagination were reality suddenly has levels to its realness? This may very well sound ridiculous but only until we enter the realm of dreams. This, by the way, was the approach I was willing to take in proving to you that all is imagination without actually “killing you".

Why? So that it can make sense? ? But that's exactly what I'm saying, though. However, of course, when I say this, it will come across as the most meaningless statement one could make rather carelessly and dry. You say that there is a priori intuition of those things outside consciousness that we may define as (X), and that it is through the sensibility of space that we can learn of their presence and imagine their identities into reality thus rendering the (X) identifiable. This is how I've come to understand you thus far. Now, what I'm saying (from a mystical pov) is this: There - here - is only Knowledge. This knowledge is not the knowing of things (X) or information, no. This knowledge is nonduality complete - it is knowledge of the knowing of the knowing of the knowing for infinity, and never the knowing of a what or who or why and etc, no. Thus, knowledge is knowledge. It is nonduality, it is whole, and it is here, with us and within us, it is the absolute. To awaken to this requires no reasoning or induction of any kind, it merely requires a mere moment of silent observation. Is this not obvious enough? If I were to ask you, “How do you know that you exist?” won't the most honest and yet simplest response be, “I know, because I know.” ? Is this not the truth? You know that you exist because you know in the first place? See.. Knowledge is the first place; it is, in fact, the first and last; it is, in truth, the only place. Thus so, there is nothing outside of existence, for there is nothing outside of Knowledge. Then, from this Knowledge, arises that dormant serpent which you have constantly referred to as intuition, what the Indians call “Kundalini”, what my people call uMbilini, and what the religious scriptures call “Lucifer” which literally translates to 'The Lighter', or 'Light Bringer', for it is this very intuition that awakened Adam and Eve in their edenic, nondual, nature of consciousness. Intuition is secondary to Knowledge.

I guess part of the confusion is- if there was blackness/nothingness/no phenomena from the start…there never would have arisen an ‘I’ thought or a forum discussing nonduality or a galaxy. These “things” prove there is THIS. If there’s just groundless nothing the “proofs” of THIS don’t even arise-and we’d be none the wiser because we’d never know about it either. I’ve grasped these ideas before and been in the flow but sometimes confusion sets in again. I guess I should just focus on this current moment- if there’s THIS now (proven by me sitting in a chair) then there has always been THIS.

You could say that if phenomena never arose, and there was merely this “blank slate”, well then you could say that it (the nothingness) would be the only thing that matters, for what is matter other than that which we care to be aware of? See the real question here is: Would there be an awareness of anything if you, Creator, cared about nothing? And it is not that there would never be awareness of nonduality, no. There would never be any enlightenment of what it means to be you, Creator.

What if phenomena never “arose” and there was just a blank slate forever and ever(blackness/nothingness) with no consciousness or awareness. Would it ultimately not matter because regardless of what appears there’s only THIS? I know there’s only THIS but if there was just nothingness forever then there would never be conscious awareness of nonduality or THIS (which I guess doesn’t matter). Trying to work this out internally and it’s confusing the heck out of me. Any pointers or advice to clear this up is welcome. Thanks

Okay see.. this is why I needed to know what you meant by consciousness. See, for me, there is a difference between awareness and consciousness. I'm saying that there is no anything without consciousness, including “structure to reality”, for consciousness, if I may describe poetically, is that great magician that makes the impossible quite possible. And what is the impossible? The impossible is there - here - being a you and a me, the impossible is there being the existence of worlds and world makers, and innumerable finite objects in these world's, the impossible is the opposite of nonduality, it is the Maya - or what people have chosen to call “the dream”. Awareness is a relative term, because according to me, everyone is in the know. So awareness has to do with spiritual growth, one becoming aware or awakening to an aspect of Maya, then another aspect, and another and another. Generally, what people refer to awareness, in their own terms, is actually relatability. Simply because one cannot relate, the other-self will say s/he is unaware. Simply because the other-self can relate and possesses sufficient intellect to demonstrate this relatability via language - one will say,“S/he is awakened” or “enlightened” Otherwise, whatever the other-self says to one's self it will sound like nothing but mumbojumbo nonsense. This is what day-to-day communication is like, isn't? So awakening or awareness is quite relative in my sentience, it all depends on spiritual growth. The true priori that you regard to, I will say is Knowledge itself - simply knowing that there/here is knowing, this is complete, this is whole, this is nonduality. There is no other.

We share the same soul or we are one soul. Rather than saying that other minds/bodies/spirits don't exist and everyone else is being imagined? Of course, this is only in the context of soul referring to that all-encompassing essence of all existence. In discussing consciousness, there is no reason why one should negate the self or other-self, and individual freewill, for the sake of reconciling the diversity of the universe with the notion of one God. Why can't God be diverse, why can't s/he divide and multiply as much as s/he wants while retaining nonduality? In this world we can clearly see everyone working to actualise their personal dreams/visions/ideals, so why can't creation be a co-creation? Are you not your own individual? Do you not have history, do you not have ancestry? Have you walked and struggled no journey in order to reach where you are now? So why say you have no self? And am I not also my own individual? Why should one of us be a dream for the other to be a God? I just don't get it.

Love feels good because it IS Good. Good can't be a quality we assign to ourselves because there is no self separate from anything else. Nonduality, no good/bad, no self/other. You are experiencing the discord of judgmental thoughts about self and other and future. If I fear paying a fine in the future, I don't listen to that fear now, it's aversion. So I lie out of that avoidance. Then because I still won't feel what I'm feeling, I think I'm bad for doing this and feel guilt and regret. That guilt and regret feels bad because I, Self Love, never look back on myself and feel lacking. I only ever look forward.

Wouldn't be so sure about that. In fact, let me rant a little bit here. I would bet my left nut that there are more people here on the forum and in Leo's following who think they're awakened, but are actually delusional solipsists who believe their finite mind to be the whole of reality because their un-integrated spiritual ego has totally corrupted the mechanism by which they sought/seek Truth, namely what they perceived to be "direct experience", but which, because of the corruption, is not at all direct experience, but a perception of reality filtered and (mis-)interpreted through the finite ego-mind (I've talked about this extensively yeterday in Someone Here's post) that then proceeded to inflate itself and latch itself onto "experience". That's what I honestly believe and I feel very sorry for all the people (and yes, there are no other people), who, like myself, had (and some still have to, some will have to) go through this absolute hell of solipsism because a) they weren't ready for it (not yet sufficiently integrated), thus their mind/ego corrupted what was supposed to be insight into the nature of No-Self & nonduality b) the use of language is absolutely crucial, and on this forum, a lot of people just don't give a f*ck about how they comunicate these dangerously powerful ideas to others, with Leo leading the way (although I think he's working on that, so props where props are due) and people parroting him, because they think it sounds cool and awake. If it's a "tough pill" for you to swallow, then sorry, you're still missing something. A tough pill to swallow is probably a sign that, yes, you got something right, but in a wrong way. And if you're lonely, you're not awake either. We're all alone together. No f*cking wonder that big spiritual egos would dismiss the importance of no-self. Rant over.

Exactly! Solipsism is a kind of Monism... the Monism of the finite mind. Totally agree. Actually, yes, that's precisely what Leo says. He says that his mind is all there is. Well there you have it, that's why no-self is crucial. That's how the ego corrupts insights and turns nonduality into solipsism.

it's just all an appearance in consciousness, you could really just leave it at that, all self-referential selves and imagined seperates are emerging because of attachment. of course if you directly experience an experience of no center to a self it will make a lot more sense. issue is, when you try to understand this conceptually you are in the framework of having a felt-perception of a center (again because of attachment that you are stuck with) it's purely getting manufactered in mind, maybe that can trigger awakening but it kind of falls route to nonduality people who get trapped in framework levels of understanding, solipism definitely has depth to it in direct experience. the question is really if you actually awoken to it, how you shift perspective in these seemingly emerging appearances of seperate selves and take new actions in life that's where the money iz at

The bodies can talk to each other back and forth no problem. The illusion is the experience that there is a real YOU over there in that body and a real ME over here in this body.(Duality) The bodies are completely empty, there isn't a real living individual inside of them or anywhere for that matter. (Nonduality) ❤

Neo-Advaita types. Like Jim Newman and Tony parsons . If you listen to certain nonduality/Advaita teachers who are on the scene at the moment, you may get the impression that there is something terribly wrong with having a personal ‘story’. Having a thought-created story about yourself, your past experiences, your relationships, your feelings, your desires and hopes and fears, and so on – in other words, being a living, breathing human being – is a clear sign of delusion and duality. And you need to wake up from this mess! If you go to a public meeting held by a teacher of ‘radical Advaita’, and they invite questions, and you start talking about something personal – for example, the death of a loved one, an addiction you have, a painful event that happened in your past – they will tell you that you are ‘stuck in your story’, or ‘lost in the dream of time and space’ or they will simply say you are ‘still a person’ and ‘haven’t woken up yet’. The fact that you ‘told a story’ shows that you are still coming from duality – you are still identified as a seeker, stuck in the personal. Once you ‘get it’, you will no longer tell personal stories. You will exist in the eternal Now, and know nothing of your past.

@justfortoday thanks for this amazing post❤.could you answer a question for me? 1)do other characters of mine have imformation/knowledge about this dream that i don't? For example- when I go to school.how is it that my dream character teacher knows more about this dream world than I do when the teacher isnt even conscious and doesnt have thoughts and feelings of his own? How is he able to give me practical advice (eg-how to solve a math equation or how to speak french) Why is it that you justfortoday seem to have more understanding of awakening nonduality and spirituality than me? Justfortoday is a dream character(with out thoughts,feelings consiousness) I am imagining right? Have I dreamt up that justfortoday is posting on the actualized forum and has more knowledge about awakening than me?If so should I follow your advice? And if you say "yes" am I not just dreaming up that you said Yes? I could have just as easily dreamt up thay you would say "no" right? How can i know if something that is unconscious,unfeeling and unthinking is telling the truth? And what about the opinions I think people form of me? Am I dreaming up those as well? For example I feel as if you(justfortoday) will think "what a stupid question ineedanswers has asked.ineedanswers must be really dumb". Since I am dreaming you up and dream characters dont have feeling/thoughts do you even have the ability to form a opinion about me?

Your intuition is the most dangerous thing to your survival. Your intuition is the most dangerous thing to whatever positonality you are in right now, it is the biggest threat to your social situation, your relational situation, your family situation, your job situation, what you believe about yourself, what you believe your purpose is and all that shit you have in your head Your intuition is literally the inner guru, it is highest form of intelligence within you. It is literally the lighthouse of God guiding you in your storm half sinking ship trying to return you the state of harmony/nonduality/stillness/childlike innocence The moment you realize how absolutely terrifying it is to trust yourself but you do it anyway is when you stop projecting your intuitive authority that is inherently inside of yourself to explore and think about how reality works for yourself - this is the end of validation seeking, and becoming a man who knows what he wants (or woman<3) and for those seeking life-purpose, your intuition is literally the calling to your life purpose and IT TAKES TIME for it blossom and unfold and have deeper realizations for why you are here, but it's so important to really begin to trust your gut feeling as much as you can for that blossoming to come, how many of you think you have found your purpose but have some backround doubts? , i don't exactly know how the life-purpose program works here but it's not difficult to realize truly what you as God wants for the world - what have you came here to give? give. give. give. give. Because your intuition as a child was guiding you until you got socialized and I bet if you REALLLLLLLY reflect back on your life SO many times you had this feeling that 'this is wrong' but you look around at everyone doing it and you naturally DISTRUST your own intuition, and so begins the creation of attachments and a seperate self that is being created to adapt to whatever everyone else in your environment is doing - all your 'self' is merely a product of your environment and most of you guys reading this have realized this is not you, and now you are working on detaching yourself from that - some of us have really dysfunctional and traumatized self but the intuition is returning to your essence/enlightenment/a non-dual state/harmony You stop adopting other people's paths in the mind and realize your intuition is the light under your feet right now showing you the path Of course if you're really far far gone into the mind, it's good to look for guidance, but it's so fucking limiting. It really is, and I bet a lot of the time you guys feel so unsatisfied and limited by things, like you had made such amazing inner progress but you seem stuck looking to go further. That is the calling for striving, and the intuition can emerge if you can listen. It literally is like your antidote to attachments to a self. your medicine to your seperateness, if you learn how to listen (entering a massive bumpy terrifying road) you begin to see the massive surge of love for yourself, the coke-like confidence emerge, everything you have been looking for, it is actual transformation. It is an inner bond unlike anything you will ever find, it IS THE connection you seek most of the time in other people. You don't worry about failing, you can always rely on yourself and fall back on yourself instead of this need to find a mommy and daddy, this is SELF LOVE. You do the right thing and build this trust in yourself to do what is right, and you stop being tortured by the fear you will do something wrong and revert to the emotional patterns that trap you --- that you will be rejected in society, you will be ridiculed, you will be unwanted, you will be left out, no one will like you, the fear of not being normal - it all begins to dissipate the more and more you trust in taking action through intuition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScljRnoebQ0 Anyways I would be curious if any of you guys have thoughts about it or whatever, hope it sparked some thought for you

@Inliytened1 Hey! Hope you’ve been doing well Since you’re one of the mods, I’ll run this by you I don’t want this video to start a Nonduality war. I only want my testimony to open people’s minds to further possibilities to discover So if this thread turns into a close-minded fight, go ahead and lock And everyone, again, be open to what Leo says. But also be open to what else there could be for you to discover on your own?

Here we go! first ever psychadelic trip experience! First a little background story,ive been practicing spirituality for 8+ years hardcore and in most of my day im in no mind and so called nothigness with being concious of infinity(not too strong) had over 10 enlightement experiences without drugs so i could compare it and knew whats happening...Considering that i didnt want to take even 1g because i knew it could open me up bad but didnt know how much, so i took close to 1g of dried mushrooms on the empty stomach as first try.I took it at 11:20 am,i started to feel changes 20 min after eating.What was left of ego started to melt and i already start to see infinity better nothing special but could feel changes...already in 40 minutes into a trip i went into what i was calling God head(but its not really just really weak one thats taking shape)everything was light and fun.My intent was to find out some queastions about authenticity and life and test how it will open me up since ego is not strong as regular person..in 50 min in it was still 2 steps back and stronger infinity experinece than 10min ago(as i compared it with my sober enlightment experience)... Suddenly i could feel vibrations through my fingertips and after each vibration i could feel joy/happiness, everything around me got a sense of erotic feeling(remembered Leo saying its like making love to reality thats what i thought atm but its not related)at this point everything was nice until suddenly i could feel the shift hour and 10 into a trip..Suddenly i wasnt conected with my body i could easily see im not the body and when looking at hands i could see those are not my hands(had that experience sober so nothing new)...until suddenly oh boy it hit me i was faced with my death all this thing called life dissaperead it was just pure experience and it was so shoking that it freaked me out...i was facing with my death no association to the body whatsoever and diassociated with this thing called life! At the time that was really tough thing to swallow,didnt know how i would relate to anybody and life in general because there is no life! And shock didnt end there i got face to face with Gods presence like never before and first thing i noticed how powerful he is (immidietly saw why they call him allmighty God) its so much power that all i could do is to go on my knees in his presence it felt like im just a spit of dust...you could feel how alive he is and that hes holding the strings of reality..this is what i wrote at the moment:"God is no joke hes all powerful Respect at his knees Now i get it!!! Face to face with god it was too much Im inside pure conciousness its unreal This is serious shit im not even kidding dude Im completely dead its so radical that its too much" At that moment realized why supressing experiences is a feature not a bug some experiences are too much to handle that its sometimes better to deny it to save yourself! At that point i started to pray to God please dont go deeper i dont know i can handle more its too much it was scary because i didnt know how deeper it will take me and it could take me much much deeper and i took close to 1g...this lasted 30 min or so but sense of time is seen as imagionary so i dont know...slowly it took me back to what i would say nonduality phase and there it was for 3 hours or so but big problem was that i got disconnected from my body and when you are,body sends signals of anxiety hits i would call like little knife..this lasted whole day it was like hell and i was doing grounding exercises to help with it some weird energy that was shooting in my legs got also fear that i wont get kundalini awakening or something ? whole trip lasted from 11:20am when i took it until 11pm when i went to sleep exhausted...my conciousness is still expanded until now... I dont think i would take psychadelics anymore mybe in a year or so because it opens me up so badly and Truth is so radical that when it hits you its so serious that its hard to stomach and you see why illusion/mixed with enlightement is best for me atm...next day it was freaky to talk to people because you can see that Gods speaking to you not a person ? It was lifechanging experience but wouldnt want to experience it again or rather not soon because i feel like i survived with my head almost chopped off?

@Alex_R A-dvai-ta (Sanskrit) means not-two-ness. It's basically a form of teaching nonduality where one constantly tries to point out the dualities of thought. May I introduce you to the legendary Neo-Advaita Bears?

I regret to inform you guys that I made the decision to demote Nahm from being a Mod. Since he is one of the biggest members of this community I know plenty of you may be upset by this, so here's my explanation: I have noticed over the last few years that Nahm's posts/advices were becoming more and more out of touch with people. Like he was talking at them or through them, not meeting people at the level they were at. Often his posts were cryptic and ambiguous to the point of confusion. I made several private messages to him about this over a year ago, hoping that he would see the problem and correct it. His posts and replies were becoming so out of touch at times that even I had trouble understanding him. It felt more and more like he was communicate from inside his own spiritual bubble, unable to see how his posts were failing to land with normal people, or even myself. Often I would read one of his posts and just have no idea what he was trying to say or how it would help. And if I fail to understand a post, I know 90%+ of others will not understand it or be helped by it. This failure to understand is not from lack of consciousness but from the style in which Nahm chooses to express himself. The issue isn't that Nahm is not a developed or conscious guy, but the obscure and nonsensical way he communicates. I turned I blind eye to this for several years, hoping it would correct itself naturally. Unfortunately it has gotten worse. The parroting of neo-Advaita platitudes in response to people's relative questions and problems has become too much, especially recently. When I explained this problem to Nahm via PM and tried to communicate with him about correcting it, he started to spout those same vapid neo-Advaita platitudes at me. This is not the kind of communication I can stomach from my Mods. It also became clear to me that he was not interested nor capable of changing his ways. Nor do I want to force him to change his ways if he doesn't do so of his own recognizance. The issue here being that platitudes such as "there is no you" or "that is just a thought" do not help people and in fact start to do the opposite. I do not like neo-Advaita style teachings and I do not want this forum to turn into the kind of place where some normie asks a straight forward question and the response is something like, "There is no you, that's just a thought, there is no one to awaken." These kinds of teachings do not lead to the God-realization I am trying to guide people towards. With that said, I have no personal ill feelings towards Nahm. He's got many wonderful qualities, most of all is his big heart. I have met him in-person and he's a great guy to hang out with. I know he's coming from good intentions, but his style of teaching nonduality simply does not align with what I am trying to teach about God-realization and the future direction of Actualized.org teachings about awakening. I know many of you love Nahm and I know he has helped many of you in various ways. I appreciate that and his service to this community since the forum's inception back in 2016. Unfortunately he can longer be a Mod and the situation may devolve to the point where I have to ask him to leave this forum entirely because he keeps parroting the same neo-Advaita platitudes in every situation and I don't know how much more of that I can tolerate. Honestly, I've been tolerating it for months already. I tried to turn a blind eye to it because he has a long history here, he's helped many people here, I consider him a friend, and many of you guys look up to him. But it's just clear to me that this is not going to work out long term because our styles are so different. What he teaches is not what I teach. And I am okay with that to some degree -- not everyone has to agree with me or teach spirituality like me -- but the vacuous neo-Advaita talk has become too much recently. This is a great example of the problem of conflating relative and absolute matters to the point of disconnect with the normal people. When a store clerk asks you to pay the bill, the proper response is not, "There is no one who can pay the bill, and no bill to pay." I know some will be upset by this and will disagree with my decision here. So, whatever your feelings are about this situation -- good or bad -- share them here or forever hold your peace. We will not be able to move on from this until the air has been cleared. So take the time to do that now. I'm sorry it has come to this. I wish Nahm the best. Nahm, I sincerely thank you for your years of service to this community. Really. You put in so much of your heart into this. And we all saw that. Attached is a screenshot of my last communication with Nahm on this matter so that you understand why I made the decision I did: https://i.imgur.com/3WKAELm.jpeg This was not a decision I wanted to make. Note: do not attack each other over this.

There is not a ‘you’ and an ‘it’! There is thought attachment & projection, apparently. Nonduality! Not. Two. “Becoming more conscious” ? OMG to so much LOVE! ?

Nondualist & nonduality is a duality. ? ?

Nonduality of ‘goals’. Conscious creating. Dreamboard. SM58♥️

You clearly never read a word about Muhammad other than those from islamophobic propaganda. Muhammad is a serious spiritual teacher, He suffered a lot in the name of the Truth and the name of God. And he loved Jesus a lot, he always talked about him. He didn't breach nonduality, but he breached his version of the truth that suited the society he was living in. Study a little bit about Islam before making such bold claims. Almost every religion is found by Nobel figures, It is then gets corrupted by people. Shame seeing such ignorance from a mod.