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I've been following this discussion of you two and I think you both have a point, which is that there is no single path. There is also an important difference between Advaita and Neo-Advaita. It is as big as between High Street Yoga and Yoga - simply. The following is an excerpt from James Swartz's Neo-Advaita critique: "Mystics have proclaimed the oneness of all things for thousands of years. The science of self inquiry that culminated in the teachings of Adi Shankara in the eighth century has had a profound effect on Eastern religion and spirituality. Although we see the idea of non-duality popping up in Western thought from the time of Christ until the present day, it did not develop into a systematic means of self realization and has virtually no impact on Christianity, Islam and Judaism, unlike self inquiry, which deeply conditioned Indian culture. Until the colonial era, contact between the East and West was limited, but slowly the West became aware of the social, political and religious philosophies of the once powerful Oriental nations. During the last half of the nineteenth century, the New Thought movement sprang up in America. The founders of Christian Science, Unity, and Science of Mind and the transcendental poets were certainly familiar with non-dual thought. Around the turn of the last century, a few Indian mahatmas visited the West and more or less formally introduced us to the idea of non-duality. The powerful speech given by Swami Vivekananda at the Congress of World Religions in Chicago in 1893 was a milestone in the East-West spiritual relationship, proclaiming as it did the oneness of all religions. For some reason, Vivekananda put his own spin on the traditional teachings, emphasizing Yoga at the expense of Vedanta. It is possible that he felt that the West was not properly prepared. Whatever the reason, the Vedanta he introduced to the West was not strictly traditional and became known as New Vedanta or Modern Vedanta, a contradiction in terms, if ever there was one. Multi-Path Confusion New Vedanta introduced the idea of four paths or yogas—action, devotion, knowledge and meditation—which were supposedly suitable for different personality types, whereas the Vedas only sanction two: action and knowledge. The path of karma is intended for extroverts with a heavy vasana load, and the path of knowledge is for contemplative types whose vasanas are predominately sattvic. How the multi-path idea was meant to be an improvement is difficult to discern. Traditionally Yoga is considered to be a subset of the science of self knowledge, not a separate path to enlightenment. The practices of Yoga are not inferior to self inquiry but, as laboriously pointed out so far, are not suitable as a means of liberation. They are, however, extremely valuable to prepare the mind for liberation because without a pure mind, liberation is not possible. So with the ascendancy of the Yoga teachings, enlightenment came to be considered a permanent experience of samadhi, in contrast with the mundane experiences of everyday life, which it obviously cannot be if reality is non-dual. In any case, the experiential notion of enlightenment has been the dominant view for the last one hundred years in the West, although it dates back to a few centuries BC, where it is given voice in the Yoga scriptures of Patanjali. It has obviously been around for a very long time because we can trace the Yoga Sutra’s origins to the Upanishads, which are records of mankind’s earliest spiritual thinking. Air travel increased the East-West dialogue. By and large, the tsunami of export gurus that inundated the West in the 1960s peddled Modern Vedanta. The emphasis on Yoga was necessary because materialism had corrupted the Western mind. Although there was a strong spiritual hunger in the West, it was not really prepared to assimilate the essence of self inquiry. Materialists are doers and enjoyers and the idea of experiencing enlightenment is good enough for them. As the world became increasingly interconnected and spiri­tuality gained respectability, the bond between East and West deepened. Ramana Maharshi, Osho, Papaji and the Rise of Neo-Advaita In the eighties, the Western spiritual world became reacquainted with Ramana Maharshi, a great Indian sage, who had achieved a certain degree of international recognition around the middle of the last century, but who had been all but forgotten since his death. Ramana realized the non-dual nature of the self and taught self inquiry and Yoga. Neo-Advaita, sometimes called Pseudo-Advaita, the West’s latest idea of the wisdom of the East, came about mainly through a disciple of Ramana, HWL Poonjaji, commonly known as Papaji, although J. Krishnamurti, Jean Klein, Ramesh Balsekar and others contributed to it. Papaji, who was virtually unknown in India during his life, came to the at­tention of the Western spiritual world shortly after Bhagawan Shree Rajneesh, the notorious ninety-three-Rolls-Royce guru died. Rajneesh, the horse’s mouth concerning the topic of enlightenment for Westerners for many years, was a particularly clever man who created a very large following by wedding two largely incompatible concepts, sense enjoyment and enlightenment. His “Zorba the Buddha” idea gave a whole generation of rebellious, disaffected, community-seeking Westerners good reason to party hearty on their way to God. When Rajneesh, who rechristened himself Osho to avoid the bad karma his notoriety produced, died, his devotees, ever on the lookout for the next master, “discovered” Papaji, by this time an old man languishing in Lucknow, a hot, dirty, noisy city on the banks of the Gomati river, a tributary of the Ganges. Papaji, like Osho, was a clever man with an outsized personality. He was a shaktipat guru with a super abundance of “spiritual” energy, which some people claim he transmitted to his disciples. A shaktipat guru transmits shakti, spiritual energy, which causes an epiphany. After the transmission, Papaji informed them that they were enlightened. He should have known better—and perhaps he did—because there is only one self and it has always been enlightened. But this distinction was definitely lost on his followers. As it so happened, many got high on “the energy” and imagined themselves to be enlightened, a condi­tion known in yogic culture as manolaya, a temporary cessation of thought, or if you prefer an English term, an epiphany. It so happens that Osho’s followers, in spite of the fact that most of them spent long periods in India, had virtually no knowledge of self inquiry, even though they called themselves “neo-sannyasins” which translates as “new re­nunciates.” Renunciation is a tried and true Vedic spiritual idea, but in their case it is not clear what they actually renounced. Buddha was certainly a renunciate, but it would be a stretch to expect Zorba to renounce anything that interfered with his enthusiastic celebration of life. On the upside, his followers busied themselves developing sometimes ef­fective therapies to deal with their manifold neuroses. Osho was a Jain, not a Hindu, and seems to have more or less ignored the great spiritual tradition that surrounded him, at least after he became famous. His role models, whom he was not above criticizing, were Christ and the Buddha. Papaji, on the other hand, was a died-in-the-wool Hindu from a Brahmin family of Krishna devo­tees. His contribution to the spiritual education of this group was two-fold. He introduced them to Ramana Maharshi, whom he claimed was his guru, thus giving himself a golden, nay platinum, credential. And he familiarized them with the word advaita, which means non-duality. Hence, the advaita movement, which has attracted many thousands of Westerners. Although Ra­mana was Papaji’s guru, their ideas of spiritual practice, self inquiry, were quite different. Ramana’s involved persistent and intense effort on a moment to moment basis to dispel the mind/ego’s idea of duality, while Papaji’s involved only asking the question “Who am I?” and “keeping quiet” until the answer appeared, the absurdity of which was lost on them. Neo-Advaita Versus Traditional Vedanta On the surface Neo-Advaita, which has no worthwhile methodology, seems fairly reasonable. By and large it teaches that you are not the body-mind-ego entity and that you are non-dual awareness, both of which are in harmony with tradition. If reality is non-dual, then there is no one that is ignorant of his or her self because knowledge and ignorance are duality. If there is no ig­norance of who we are, there is no need for a teaching, a teacher or a student. In non-dual reality there is no body and mind to be something other than the self—awareness—so there is no bondage and no liberation, no suffering and enjoying, no joy and no sorrow. If you are non-dual awareness you cannot do anything, so there are no right and wrong actions. You were never born and you never die and experience does not exist. This teaching causes a problem because it does not take experience into ac­count. So you either have to deny the existence of experience, which can only take place in duality, or modify the teaching. You cannot deny the existence of experience—although Neo-Advaita does its level best—because it exists. So to tell someone caught in the experiential world that he or she does not exist, or that nothing can be done to attain enlightenment, is not helpful. The sages who gave us self inquiry were considerably more sophisticated and worked out an intelligent solution. They assigned a provisional reality to duality that is in harmony with the experience of everyone and then proceeded to destroy it, using teachings that correspond with the common sense logic of the seeker’s own experience. Without the notion of a provisional or apparent reality, which experience confirms, you are forced to superimpose the idea that all is consciousness on empirical reality. Needless to say, it does not apply to this level of reality. A verse in the scriptures on Yoga says,“a yogi in samadhi sees no difference between a lump of gold and the excreta of a crow.” Presumably, an enlightened Neo-Advaitin, in dire financial straits, might attempt to pawn a handful of crow poop and sweep his lump of gold into the garbage can. Non-duality, non-difference, does not mean sameness. It means that from the self ’s perspective there is no difference, but from the level of the body and mind there are only differences. This discrimination between what is real and what is apparent is the signature of an enlightened person. In fact, one of the definitions of enlightenment found in the scriptures of self inquiry is “the discrimination between what is real and what is apparent.” When you superimpose the notion of non-duality on multiplicity, you add a belief that will eventually have to be discarded at some point. This kind of spiritual belief, which is just ignorance, is exceedingly hard to investigate if it is taken to be the truth. No Teacher, Seeker, Path, Knowledge or Ignorance If reality is non-dual and a special experience of consciousness or a dead mind is not enlightenment, only self knowledge could be enlightenment. But Neo-Advaita does not accept the view that ignorance, which shows up as a lack of discrimination, is the problem, because it says that ignorance does not exist. This is a convenient teaching that plays to the strong anti-intellectual bias of modern seekers. It is true that it does not exist from the self ’s point of view, but a seeker does not know that he or she is the self or he or she would not be seeking, so this teaching is not a teaching at all. It leaves the seeker with no avenue to actualize the desire for freedom that attracts him or her to the idea of enlightenment, and is tailor made to produce frustration. That enlighten­ment is a blank mind or the absence of ego is an equally ill-considered notion that inevitably produces suffering when it is pursued. Both of these ideas are the result of level confusion, assigning the same degree of reality to pure consciousness and reflected consciousness—the experiential world. Of course, if there is no knowledge and no ignorance, there is no seeker either. And if there is no seeker, there necessarily cannot be a path. How Neo-Advaita squares this idea with its very existence is difficult to determine. If there is no knowledge and no ignorance, there is no teacher to pass on the knowledge that there is no path, seeker, knowledge, ignorance, or doer, etc. This is not to say that negation is not useful. Traditional self inquiry employs negation liberally. But it is half the loaf. The other half is the teachings that reveal the self, using the positive methods described throughout this book. The self is not a big empty void. Because Neo-Advaita is a nihilistic denial of the obvious, it has no methodology apart from its mindless negations. Being Present, Dropping Suffering Another popular teaching, “being present,” is unskillful because it does not take the vasanas into account. It is the vasanas that keep the mind worrying about the future and obsessing about the past. Desire needs to be addressed, not repressed with the technique of “being present.” The absurdity of such a teaching is evident when we look at it from the self ’s point of view too. When are you not present? For you to know that you are not present, you would have to be present. If you were absent, how would you know? The karma yoga view is a simple and obvious solution to this problem, but Neo-Advaita has not discovered it, even though it is as old as the hills. A further teaching, an injunction actually, informs the non-existent seeker to “drop”his or her suffering. How a non-existent ego would drop non-existent suffering is beyond comprehension, but let us assume that there is an ego, and that suffering is undesirable. Suffering is a powerful tendency brought on by ignorance of the nature of the self. It is subtler than the ego and not under its control. It can be removed by inquiry, but it cannot be dropped at will like a hot potato. Another glaring contradiction found in Neo-Advaita is the claim by the teachers that their statements stem from their own experience. It seems almost gratuitous to point out that from the self ’s point of view, which seems to be the only point of view Neo-Advaita espouses, there is no experiencer either. It is not the intention of the author to question the enlightenment or lack thereof of any Neo-Advaita teacher, although it is always wise for seekers to do so. It is my intention, however, to point out that enlightenment does not in any way qualify one to teach enlightenment. Furthermore, satsang, as it is conceived by Neo-Advaita, is completely insufficient as a means of self realization. To avoid the sticky question of a teaching and a teaching methodology, with its abysmal ignorance of the tradition of self inquiry Neo-Advaita uses the argument that their titular inspiration, Ramana Maharshi, gained enlightenment without a teaching and a teacher. Aside from the fact that it is, in very rare cases, possible to realize the self without help, the odds are about the same as winning the lottery, perhaps less. Additionally, this idea does not take into account Ramana’s extreme dispassion and the fact that after his enlightenment, he became a dedicated student of the science of self inquiry and actually wrote a scripture, The Essence of the Teaching, (Upadesa Saram) that has been accepted by the traditional Vedanta community as having the status of an Upanishad. Qualifications for Enlightenment Perhaps the best way to approach Neo-Advaita is not by what it teaches as by what it does not. Probably the most obvious omission is the notion of qualifications necessary for enlightenment. Neo-Advaita is burdened with an understandably democratic ethos, the idea being that anyone who walks into one of its meetings off the street can gain instant enlightenment, which is possible if you define enlightenment as an epiphany. But then again, you can also fall down a non-dual flight of stairs and have an epiphany. Because self inquiry defines enlightenment differently however, it insists that a person be discriminating, dispassionate, calm of mind and endowed with a burning desire for liberation along with secondary qualifications like devotion, faith and perseverance. In other words, it requires a mature adult with a one-pointed desire to know the self. The reason for these qualifications, which were discussed in chapter four, is the fact that enlightenment is a hard and fast recognition by the mind of its non-separation from everything; only a very rare individual will let go of his or her sense of individuality to gain another, albeit greater, identity. The mind must be capable of inquiring into, grasping and retaining the knowledge “I am limitless Awareness and not this body-mind.” To accomplish this, its extroverted tendency must be checked and attention directed to the self. To put forth the required effort, the individual needs to have the settled conviction that nothing in the world can bring lasting satisfaction. This conviction is what self inquiry calls maturity. To my knowl­edge, no Neo-Advaita teacher espouses this view. The reason is obvious: he or she would have no one to teach. I Am Not the Doer Perhaps the centerpiece of Neo-Advaita teachings is the idea that there is no doer. It has achieved considerable popularity in the Neo-Advaita world because it appeals to the something-for-nothing mentality. “You mean I can get enlightened without doing anything? Where do I sign up?” It also dovetails nicely with the idea of enlightenment as the absence of ego. If I do any spiritual work, I am strengthening my ego, or so the logic goes. It is true that the ego can co-opt the practice, but only if practice is done without the right understanding. This teaching, as is the case with all dogmatic statements from the self ’s point of view, contradicts experience. Everyone sees himself or herself as a doer and identifies to some degree with the actions done by the body and mind at the behest of the vasanas. If a teaching denies my existence, it condemns me to remain as the doer I think I am. Traditional Vedanta agrees that you cannot do anything to be what you are, but it suggests that you allow the science of self inquiry to help you remove your ignorance of who you are because enlightenment is a matter of understanding, not action. Importance of Karma Yoga for Self Inquiry It would be impossible to underestimate the importance of karma yoga for self inquiry. Karma yoga is not taught in the Neo-Advaita world because it is for the doer. Furthermore, it requires discipline and considerable patience, qualities not in evidence in people seeking instant enlightenment. It also requires continuous monitoring of one’s motivations and reactions to events. Additionally, it requires a willingness to change one’s attitudes. Finally, it demands a pure lifestyle because the vasanas continually divert attention away from the self. None of this is possible if I do not exist. And if I do exist, it is hard work. Not doing will not create karma—good or bad. But, because it is impos­sible not to do, the idea that there is nothing to do means that the entry-level seekers will just continue to do what they have always done. No blame, but the idea that there is nothing to do will not result in enlightenment or growth. To fill the non-doing void, Neo-Advaita, thanks to Rajneesh’s Zorba the Buddha idea, keeps the seeker hooked with an apparently positive injunction, “celebrate life.” How celebrating is not a doing is difficult to understand, but intellectual contradictions rarely stand in the way of an immature seeker’s desire to have fun. In contrast, self inquiry encourages sacrifice, the idea being that the ego cannot have its cake and eat it too. The desires that extrovert the mind need to be sacrificed for the sake of a quiet mind, one capable of meditating on the self, reflecting on the non-dual teachings, and assimilating the knowledge. When actions conform to dharma, binding vasanas are neutralized. Dharma means that I do what has to be done, irrespective of how I personally feel about it. I do not want to pay my taxes, but I pay my taxes. I may not get a vasana for paying taxes, but I will certainly eliminate any agitation associated with noncompliance. But when my desires are all that matter, is it any wonder that whatever non-dual experience happens in the satsang, when the mind is temporarily arrested by the group energy, quickly vanishes with the appearance of the next binding desire? This is why the Neo-Advaita world is little more than thousands of people, including the teachers, who have had scores of non-dual experiences, but who at the end of the day are still prisoners of their desires. Enlightenment is freedom from dependence on desired and feared objects. Ramana Maharshi, who had an experience of the self at the tender age of seventeen, understood the wisdom of practice. He sat in meditation on the self in caves for about twenty years and studied the texts of both Yoga and self inquiry after he was awakened, although this is not the party line of Ramana devotees. Had he been a Neo-Advaitin, he would have immediately advertised himself as an Avatar, started up a satsang and begun instantly enlightening the world. But he had the wisdom to understand that while the epiphany was the end of his seeking, it was not the end of his work. Had it been, he could have returned home, eaten this mother’s iddlies and played cricket like any normal seventeen year old Tamil boy. Is it unreasonable to assume that he applied the knowledge he gained during his experience, until the mind’s dualistic orientation was reduced to ash in the fire of self knowledge? The notion that his epiphany destroyed his sense of duality once and for all does not jibe with common sense. Devotion to God Another essential component of any valid spiritual path is devotion to God, as explained in chapter nine. Ramana gave devotion to God, meaning glad acceptance of the fruits of action, equal status with self inquiry as a spiritual path because devotion to God exhausts vasanas and breaks down the concept of doership. “Not my will, but Thine.” It also teaches that God, not the ego, is the dispenser of the fruits of one’s actions. But Neo-Advaita sees devotion as “duality” and has nothing to do with it. In fact, devotion works just as well as the idea of non-duality to prepare the mind for self realization because the self functions through the chosen symbol or practice to bring the necessary qualities for self inquiry into full flower. One view that needs to be examined in this context is the notion that enlightenment can be transmitted in some subtle experiential way via the physical proximity of a “master.”Traditional Advaita disagrees with this view for the reason that ignorance is deeply entrenched in the aspirant’s thinking and that it is only by deep reflection on the teachings that the ultimate assimilation of the knowledge is achieved. This assimilation is often called full or complete enlightenment. On the other hand, the transmission fantasy fits nicely into the Neo-Adviatic conception of easy enlightenment, as it does away with the need for serious practice. One need do nothing more than sit in the presence of a master and presto-chango!—I wake up for good. If this were true, however, the thousands who sit at the feet of enlightened masters everywhere would be enlightened. Another half-baked idea that has gained currency in the Neo-Advaita world is the notion of “awakening.” While sleep and waking are reasonable metaphors to describe the states of self ignorance and self knowledge, Neo-Advaita assigns to them an experiential meaning that is not justified. Just as anything that lives dies, anything that wakes sleeps. The self never slept nor does it awaken. The mind does. This waking up and going back to sleep—all of which takes place in the waking state incidentally—is a consequence of the play of the gunas in the mind. When the mind is sattvic, the reflection of the awareness shining on it causes the individual to “wake up,” i.e., to experience the self, but when rajas or tamas reappear, as they inevitably do, the mind is clouded over, the experience is lost, and the mind “sleeps.” Until the extroverting and dulling vasanas are purified, the seeker is condemned to a frustrating cycle of waking and sleeping. Where’s the Methodology? Finally, self inquiry has survived as a viable means of knowledge because it employs a refined methodology to remove ignorance and reveal the truth. Many realize non-duality within and outside the tradition but are incapable of teaching non-duality because they are either unsuited to teach or lack a viable method—or both. Neo­Advaita’s statements to “be the space for the thoughts” or “be as you are” are not skillful teachings, because they deliver a non-dual teaching of identity in experiential language. Such teachings give the impression that something can be done to achieve awareness and that self realization can come about through an act of will. In traditional Advaita, not only should the teacher have realized his or her identity as the self in such a way that he or she never re-identifies with the belief that the “I” is limited, but he or she should be able to wield the means of knowledge skillfully. Many Neo-Advaita satsang teachers use a picture of Ramana to lend legitimacy and gravitas to their satsangs, while they promote one of the most famous Ramana myths, that silence is somehow the ultimate teaching. While understanding the nature of the self in silence apparently finishes seeking for a very few highly qualified individuals, silence is certainly not superior to the skillful use of words in bringing about enlightenment. This is so because silence is in harmony, not in conflict, with self ignorance, as it is with everything. One can sit in silence without instruction for lifetimes and never realize that one is the silence, meaning limitless awareness. Knowledge, however, which is a legitimate means of knowledge, destroys self ignorance like light destroys darkness. Additionally no experience, including the experience of silence, can change thinking patterns. An experience of non-duality may temporarily suspend thought or increase one’s resolve to see oneself as limitless awareness, but the notion that the “I” is limited, inadequate, incomplete and separate is hard wired. It is only by diligent practice of the knowledge “I am limitless, ordinary awareness and not this body-mind” that the mind’s understanding of reality gets in line with the nature of the self. Why are binding desires such a major problem for anyone seeking enlightenment? Because they disturb the mind to such a degree that contact with the self as it reflects in the mind is broken, making self inquiry impossible. It is contemplation on the reflection of the self in the mind that allows the intellect to investigate the self in line with the teachings of self inquiry and gain the knowledge “I am the self.” Neo-Advaita characteristically wiggles out of the sticky trap of desire by claiming that the self is free of desire, which it is, but if I take myself to be a human being, it is definitely an impediment. If you swallow Neo-Advaita’s idea—and what experience-hungry ego would not?— it can lead to an unhealthy moral indifference. You can pursue your desires without reference to dharma and justify your behavior with the knowledge that you are not the desirer. You are “just playing in consciousness.” Seeking Emotional Fulfillment There is no way to know for certain, but Neo-Advaita seems to be more about emotionally unfulfilled individuals looking for an alternative to a hectic modern lifestyle, one that offers a sense of community, than a proper spiritual path. Far from the idea of relying on the self to supply emotional needs from within, most believe that enlightenment will help them gain the worldly things that have so far eluded them, particularly love. The attenuated hugs that the followers of Osho made famous and are favored by devotees of the famous Hugging Saint are much in evidence in the meetings of popular Neo-Advaita teachers. And it is clear from the behavior of many of the teachers of Neo-Advaita who have supposedly “got it,” that their enlightenment has not significantly diminished their lust for fame, wealth, power and pleasure. Keeping in mind the fact that everything in empirical reality is actually consciousness seeking its way back to itself, it would be unfair to suggest that there is anything sinister about Neo-Advaita. However its teachings, as I have tried to show by contrasting them with self inquiry, suffer from a lack of understanding of the nature of reality. To pass off ignorance as knowledge is not a crime; it does, however, have unfortunate effects on the unsuspecting. Although the truth is eternal and has been known forever, the comprehensive, systematic and refined teachings that crystallized into the science of self inquiry over twelve hundred years ago are obviously the last word in the enlightenment business. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, nor is an adaptation for the benefit of modern world necessary. Yes, self inquiry can always benefit from a linguistic update, but that is all. The teachings stand on their own. I was informed recently by a friend who has considerable knowledge of the Neo-Advaita satsang world that we have now entered the “Post-Neo Advaita” period. Not surprisingly, Neo-Advaita has not lived up to its promise as a quick and easy means of liberation and people are now looking for the next most incredible path to enlightenment. It seems their prayers have been an­swered with the appearance of the yang-yin duo, Kalki Avatar and his Mother God wife, founders of the illustrious Oneness University. This compassionate team will—for the modest fee of $11,500 for a two week enlightenment course—direct special energy from a golden ball into your poor confused human cranium and rewire your brain for enlightenment. As an added benefit, you will miraculously survive the global calamity about to befall the earth in 2012, which is slated to wipe out a significant fraction of humanity. Evidently this promise of personal and global enlightenment is thinning the ranks of the Neo-Advaitans who, in typically Western fashion, are always looking for the most efficient shortcut to limitless bliss. Does Neo-Advaita have any redeeming virtues? Just as high school is a prerequisite for university, seekers need to start somewhere and Neo-Advaita, imperfect as it is as a vehicle for spiritual practice or self realization, provides entry-level access to the idea of non-duality. Finally, because Neo-Advaita is probably more of a support group for like-minded spiritually inclined individuals than a rigorous investigation into the truth, it will continue in some form or other for the foreseeable future. But it will probably remain a lifestyle fad unless it investigates its roots and discovers the teachings of self inquiry."

To some degree. I'm conscious of pretty amazing stuff . But I still haven't achieved full on Buddhahood nirvanic bliss 24/7.

I got it dude. You are Enlightened and you 'KNOW'. Everyone else its just playing games. You know the truth, I don't. Cool. You go enjoy your boring Truth,. I´ll go Bliss myself out in ignorance "addict-seeking style". ?? Don't kid yourself, you wish you were close to Sadhguru in awakening. At the end of the day your fancy/cute advaita words are just words.. I prefer to trust people that actually deliver results, so mind your own business.

@Javfly33 It's all good. Just saying that extreme states of bliss, as wonderful as they are, aren't enlightenment. Ecstasy isn't sustainable, within the dream. Something I was pondering this morning, not specific to this discussion, but still relevant: Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. - 1 Kings 19:11-12

Fellas, typing this in a hurry, doing some errands on the side so please bear with the typos and shit. They say when the kundalini has pierced the last chakra, a person enters into a state of bliss, also known as samadhi. I read a poem by Rumi a while ago and it seems to allude to these states of bliss (tell me if you already feeling the tingling). In Intoxicated by love, Rumi writes Because of your love I have lost my sobriety I am intoxicated by the madness of love In this fog I have become a stranger to myself I'm so drunk I've lost the way to my house In the garden I see only your face From trees and blossoms I inhale only your fragrance Drunk with the ecstasy of love I can no longer tell the difference between drunkard and drink Between Lover and Beloved I've been exhaustively exploring eastern spiritual tradition and concept these past couple days. According to Eastern spiritual traditions originating the kundalini resides in the last bone of the vertebral column. These days I'm studying kundalini yoga guys.. And yes it's kinda insane. I really don't know the effectiveness of it, just exploring as much as I can. That state of pure union is what the mystics of every spiritual path reference, a rose is a rose by any name. There are different names to these but I think it all comes down to that one specific experience shared by all. It’s what Buddhists refer to as Enlightenment, what others call a spiritual awakening, or what Teresa of Avila, the Spanish Carmelite nun, refers to in her text on the seven mansions. As seen by its appearance across spiritual disciplines, a kundalini awakening can happen to anybody at any time on any spiritual path. Have you felt it too? I'm just beginning to gather bits of it in my regular practice, still not fully incorporated it. You don’t have to practice Kundalini Yoga, for instance, or recite a particular mantra to have your kundalini rise. The only commonality among kundalini experiences is the feeling of intense devotion or love for a Higher Power. Hopefully that made sense. When you have a deep longing for the divine, when you want to feel a sense of union with something greater than yourself, that’s when it’s said your kundalini has awakened. That can happen from walking in nature, reading a book, attending a lecture, learning meditation, having a dream – the list goes on. However, the kundalini doesn’t have to stay at the base of the spine – it can travel up your spine to pierce seven energy centers or chakras. At each chakra, the spiritual feeling is different and graduates from, “One day I will be one with Source energy,” to “I already am one. There is no difference between me and the creative energy that powers the universe.” Have you ever experienced something familiar? Just wanna know if someone here felt that intense boost of energy in the spine. I've even heard that kundalini can be dangerous but I really don't know yet. This is just my foray into these subcultures whereby I'm learning strange tantryc practices As I was meditating through space, and feeling the collision of energy and time, I began writing my thoughts in the form of a poem. I titled this poem as — A TRIBUTE TO KUNDALINI. A tribute to kundalini Both joy and love bring the world closer. No beginning and no end. Just a ray of light. The journey is long, the battle isn't over Glistening and wet, deep in the distance We look at this world with curiousity and myth Kundalini arises, it's never relinquished. Rises like a tsunami, it will always flicker in hope And come to you when you need it the most. Sometimes I imagine the kundalini might peirce through the different chkkras on the spine but sometimes I wonder if the kumdalme Let's see. I believe kundalini is the fusion of masculine and feminine energes. The Kundalini process moves dormant kundalini energy along the spine. It is waking up the divine feminine spiritual energy, known as the Kundalini serpent, that lies coiled and locked at the base of the spine, also known as the root chakra, one of the seven chakras that run along the spine to the crown chakra (seventh chakra). Kundalini chakras covers the in´s and out´s of kundalini and chakras. My symptoms included feeling like reptiles crawling over my lower back (spinal cord)and then ascending towards the neck where they meet at a center point right at the back of the neck. I even looked up some advice from Sadhguru regarding these practices. What kundalini did for me? It made me more creative. It does bring intense energy. Also my emotions are more charged when I'm feeling the energy coursing up my spine.

Hello All, Few months ago, I had a Kundalini activation. It was a blissful experience. Suddenly, I was hit and reminded there are certain areas of my life that still need healing. I worked through my shadow again and understand healing is cyclical. Had the opportunity tried Kundalini yoga too. During the yoga session, I felt kriya moved from my lower body up to the left side of my temple. Since, I haven't felt pressure or a donut wrapped around my head. The bliss is gone. More events from the past are starting to arise for healing, as I'm making headway towards the future of changing my life. This movement is faster than what I'm use too. Before the Kundalini awakening, I've went through my 'dark night'. Process much loss and grief in various areas of my life. Lost my child. Major health issue and thought I was going to die but, recovery right away once I went vegetarian. It was as if I had to move on from my old life and let go. Toxicity was very clear and I couldn't be unseen. Ultimately, my initial spiritual awakening was very intense and traumatizing. I'm learning, my symptoms aren't as intense compared to others. Not that I'm trying to compare but, just trying to understand because so many have experience severe health issues and other life changes. Is it possible because I've done the work that I might be experiencing less physical symptoms? I wonder if the Kundalini energy temporarily dormant? I still feel slight discomfort on my lower back. It's faint. I did not experience this shoot energy out of the crown/head. Or, other intense sensation of snake like movement. Maybe, something will happen later on. I don't know. I'm just curious about this phenomenon and wonder if anyone has also experience a lighter version of the Kundalini. Or, maybe you had a spiritual awakening first then, received a Kundalini activation later on like me. It's like having a new roommate in my body. I'm trying to go with it and flow. But, it can be scary at times. Fear that it'll be like my first awakening experience and all the loss I went through. I didn't expect this Kundalini activation and did not chase after it either. Don't even know why it happened. Or, maybe I'm not suppose too. Thanks!~

Here I am, gone. Looking at my desk, doing nothing. Focused on what's real. Thoughts can't disturb the Master when the Master it's Awake, focused on what's real. But the moment I chose fear, in the moment I believe fear, then thoughts will come up. The I will have chosen again Maya. Remember Awakening it's s choice. Don't obsses too much about how to get there or stay there. All tools are imaginary. God projects power to this tools. So it doesn't really matter. What it matters is, if there's something inside you that has gotten tired of darkness, of suffering, of betrayal to Light, or denial of inner Love without conditions. Is there something inside you starting to Awake to not accept anything else but total Liberation without not excuses. Is there something that Intuits, first comes my inner Bliss, my inner Being,my inner Power, then everything else. Is there anything awake in you that just is getting tired and suspicious of the dark thoughts or the ego: "You can't feel like X until you do this", or "You are not powerful enough on your own,you need y". Is there something starting to awake to the intuition that all power, victory and liberation is here right now,and that it can't be stored as an achievement, because the NOW is always here, you must choose always Light in the NOW, constantly. Because it is a choice. It's always a choice right here, right now. Just make sure you always choose Victory and Light here, right now.

Perhaps this video "Enlightenment – Transformative Experience or Journey of Self-Discovery?" by Swami Tadatmananda might shed some light to this topic for whomever this may concern. Confusion about HOW to get enlightened is the result of not knowing WHAT enlightenment truly is. The great master Advaita Vedanta, Shankara, said that enlightenment is gained only through self-knowledge. But is knowledge really enough? Some people believe that enlightenment, liberation, or moksha in Sanskrit, is an unwavering feeling or sense of being limitless consciousness, or a feeling of absolute bliss, or a feeling of oneness, oneness with the universe or oneness with God. But there's no such thing as a permanent feeling. They change constantly. Enlightenment is often called a state, but if it is a state of experience, a state that arises in the mind, it too will soon pass away because all mental states are impermanent.

Are there realities in which there is no suffering only bliss or is the Yin and Yang necessary? To me it seems like less suffering should be possible but idk, theres alot of 'needless suffering' with no obvious upside, except the experience itself. Can 'god' imagine a reality where logic like Yin and Yang doesn't apply? I guess, why not. imagine the unimaginable where what doesnt exist or make sense here does elsewhere. These questions dont even serve our ego and its basically all i really care about right now, so why do I even care about this, lol?

Finally found a prayer on YouTube that is non religious and feels closer to heart Chakra. I felt blissful and relaxed after listening to it. It was creating motions in my brain. Just pure sacredness that is very rare to find. Wish I could compose my own set of prayers like this. 5 min guided morning prayer. Bliss out. Peace Malaga Enli.

level of conscious (0 to 1000) reading of substances, just a joke 986 . >> 5 meo dmt impressions: God, absolute infinity, truth, shock and awe, terror 944 >> 2c-P Bliss, God, infinity, truth, sexuality 912 >> Mescaline Grandfather, safe, sancitiy, God , truth 907 >> 2c-B Introductory, gentle, love, sexuality 860 >> Ayahuasca, Pharmahuasca, and Changa Mother, alien, revelation, God 777 >> LSA and morning glory Agony, suffering, God, absolute infinity 768 >> LSD Cosmic consciousness, God, energy, awakening, confusion 814 >> penicilin Love, safety, protection, freedom from pain 696 >> DMT Extraterestrial, God, truth, beauty, twisted sense of humor, reptilian 686 >> Psilocybin mushrooms and 4 aco dmt Extraterestrial, confusion, infinity, healing, God, twisted sense of humor 677 >> Salvia Extraterestrial, confusion, break through, God , twisted sense of humor 570 >> Marijuana Trickster, God, love, dependence

Not properly making sure what I took. I once ordered some RC drug back in 2014 and the seller sent me a sample of something I assumed was the same drug just with a different potency. Hell no, it turned out it was a dissociative and the combination of losing grip of reality and feeling death creeping on you, and not knowing why it happens because I just took a small dose of the drug I ordered. That's scary many. Had I KNOWN it was a dissociative I wouldn't have freaked out the way I did. It didn't help it was my first time ingesting a dissociative and I had no clue about this class of substances and the experiences they offer. At least I learned how death feel like. Pure terror. Well at least in the beginning. A sense of peace and bliss will accompany that afterwards I'm sure.

desire absolutely anything in the cosmos should it come enjoy as best you can just don't pray it stays despise absolutely anything in the cosmos should it come endure as best you can just don't pray it goes you made this here, now live it in fully detached bliss as hereby described

Funny thing, I had a trip on mushrooms a couple days ago. It was intense, very intense, more profound than any other dozens of trips i've done before. At one point, my body was weak, I was melting in bliss, in absolute divinity. My body was shaking, I was laying in my bed, I felt like I was dying. So I put a blanket on (barely had the ability to do so), closed my eyes and I told myself that I am ready to die. That this is it. This will show me the Truth. As I was laying down I had all kinds of crazy visions, feelings, sensations, I was kind of ready, but also I thought about my parents, who and how anyone would find my body. Then I kept thinking that if this is what I think it is, there will be no one to find my body, because once I am dead, there's no one imagining this reality anymore, so who's gonna be left? Will there even be anyone here to find me? Well anyways, I really wanted to pee, and thought to myself that I don't want anyone to find me laying in my own piss, so some how I got to the bathroom and also unlocked my apartments door so that nobody needs to break in. Anyway, I laid there for a while and realized that I either already died, or that death is impossible, or it's not my time yet. I woke up, took a shower, ended a relationship with one girl I was texting with and went outside. So there's that lol!

@OBEler Everything remains the same but all encompassing bliss with everything arises

My latest insight. Punishment doesn't make sense. Only forgiveness does. This is the last part of human bonding and affection. Find someone who is more open minded. Find someone who isn't afraid to be bad. Who isn't afraid of me/you/anyone. Who isn't afraid of trusting me. This is also the last part of the human story. It's about polarity. It's the end of the journey in finding love. Bondage. What? No. Sex. No. Partnership. More like magnetism. Obsession. Yes. Delusion. Yes. Insanity. Yes. Embrace the darker sides of the psyche. Why is every bond so valuable? Why does bonding matter? Once you g your d into someone, once you bond with their brain, what's that chemistry? It's over. I'll knock you over. I'll get into your system. What remains at the end of everything when everything else becomes meaningless and it's only bliss and love at the end. At this point it's a volcanic explosion. This eruption. This erection. Everything is peace moving forward. Once this point is reached, bravo, it's tantric, you did it. Kundalini unlocked to 2.0 henceforth. Everything is slippery like butter. It's a paradox. On one hand a mother's love feels divine and enriching. On the other hand, a father's discipline, a friend's discord feels like a neurotic adventure, it's both spice and sweet, everything is free, everything is freedom, no more biases, no more fears, perfect liberation, the demon in me is the demon in you, the toxicity in me is the toxicity in you, the guilt in me is the guilt in you, we make merry as friends and then everything is forgotten, there is no need to forgive, because there was nothing wrong in the first place. Punishment doesn't make sense. Punishing what exactly? The factor that lies in me has a complementary factor present in you (you just don't see it), and that's why we attract each other's psychs.we are simply punishing different sides of our own psyche based on popular vote. But wasn't I also a part of you if we're all one eventually? It would be so nice if you reflect me back what I reflect to you. It's reflect. Not deflect. In that sense, we're simply mirroring each other what always existed sometimes at the periphery and sometimes deeper. Only our goals are different. In the end it's ecstacy. Just end the war already. (all animosity comes from fear) Peace Enli.

That’s the thing…you don’t. From one perspective these things exist, but if I zoom into everything until it’s nothing more than atoms and molecules bouncing around then from that perspective people don’t exist, personalities don’t exist, and thus everything you mentioned doesn’t exist. Likewise from the Absolute perspective (THE most “zoomed in” or “zoomed out” perspective) these issues don’t exist. Everything is perfect and you’ve gone beyond the world. Its more like the metaphysical substance underling it all is bliss, even if the surface images on the screen of consciousness are horrible; they are horrible yes, but it’s just an image within a greater context of bliss. Stop taking non-duality on as a philosophy and interpreting it that way… it isn’t.

@Hojo But how can that be god? He is never happy no matter what, if ur in god state u get bored from all the hapiness and bliss and proceed to create a hellish life were you are also not content because its horrific and painful. Like wtf its so paradoxical. That wouldnt be an omnipotent god at all.

Depersonalization is enlightenment minus becoming God or realizing you are God. I experienced Depersonalization and realized instantly that it is identical. This was an insight or an epiphany. The only reason I knew Depersonalization itself wasn't enlightenment is because if it was, all the people suffering it would be awake. So in a nutshell - God realization is depersonalization with the added bonus of God realization. But otherwise it's Identical. God is not all upside. God realization is bliss but also the epiphany that you are completely by Yourself and that there are no other conscious entities anywbere is blistering and shocking.. This shows that a non-dual state does not have always have to be all upside. To say that is to once again limit the limitless.

Yes. I saw too much deep structure similiarties in all the spiritual traditions. That made sense to me. That was the only coherent explanation of the Kosmos for me. And the concept of Integral (Wilber) resonated deeply in me. So, a long time nothing happened where it could be said that meditation is more than just mindfulness training. Relaxing, interesting, a bit of bliss, but also in the beginning just one of the hardest and most annoying things one can try. Basic meditation training: Formal training on the pillow, mindfulness during daily life. Over quite some years. Stage 1 Mahamudra: Skill of Reckongition: And the thing with the increased thought-emerging-frequency was really the point where it took off. First, the ability to stay "on top" of the mindstream and cut it at will. Later, awakened states with nonduality followed. Stage 2/3: So then, a few years later, Nonduality followed. Before that point, it brought quite some bliss. But nothing where one could say: Yes, thats it. Don't need any external proof or convincing anymore. Nonduality changes that. It is evident. Stage 4: And then later, after some years letting these states develop and ripen, always here Ultimate Reality started dawning. 4 Mahamudra Main-stages: 0: Initial Concentrative Meditation as preaparation 1 stage: Skill of Reckognition: Cutting off the Thought Mindstream 2 stage: Yoga of Unelaboration: Always Here (never not here, timeless) Mind opens up 3: Yoga of One Taste: Nonduality 4: Yoga of Nonmeditation: Separate Self gets transcended. Pure Impersonal infinite Consciousness/Awareness without any separate-self flying around in it, itself being the world and all manifestation. That is the deep structure found in every meditation system. It is always in a deep structure similiar to that. And the tricky point, where most of the discussion happens here: Between 3 and 4. Psychedelics do bring one to a pretty empty nonduality. But not to that which stage 4 brings.... Not fully empty and impersonal. Not fully conforming to the enlightened mindstream. Water by the River

The deciding step for really getting the nondual awakened states flowing what is described below. Before that point in practice, no Nonduality, the visual field rock solid "material" and out there "external". No awakened state. To get there took quite some years. Could have been faster with good coaching, but didn't have that. Imagine it like this: Many years of meditation the mindful-way. Zero awakened state from that, not to even think about Nonduality at all. Didn't even know what that really is, despite reading about it. And then the bliss of these states, and nonduality opened up.... But that was also a process over several years. Cutting off the mindstream like this, or at least letting it fully transparent flow in oneself (that is not the usual mindfulness, its thought train appears like an object-flow in you), changes the energetic states of the whole system. It is an indirect path (but it can't be different): You influence the thought via ATTENTION (this is something you can guide/focus/control). You can't directly influence the Awakened State, how could you. You look into the thoughts, like described below. They dissolve then, their nature IS emptiness/consciousness. That done long enough brings the energetic shift to the awakened states. At least for me. And for thousands of others, see the Mahamudra-and Dzogchen practicelineages. Since more than one Millenia. And of course you can do that also! Every being can. The essence of each thought IS Consciousness/Emptiness. The separate-self IS these thoughts, and corresponding feelings. One can dissolve them all. And that clears the way. Reality it litereally desinged in such a way that: Separate Self = Clouding over= thought stream when that is not cut/Trekchö, the clouding mechanism starts: Reality is "out" there/external/duality, "solid/material, and limited (visual field bubble has an imagined border) not infinite. Switch off the separate self thought/feeling flow, the illusion-system ("out" there/external, "solid/material, and limited) gets switched off). That design of Reality makes complete sense: Samsara NEEDS this illusion (external/duality, solid, not infinite) The illusion can be dissolved by aligning to Reality (EMPTY IMPERSONAL JUST AWARENESS, NOT separate self-illusion).when that is practiced to make the mindstream conform to Reality, the illusion arisings (external/duality, solid, not infinite) fall away. Yoga of One Taste And in that nondual impersonal state of Infinite nondual mere appearance/lucid/not solid Infinite Consciousness, one can dissolve the final subtle illusion: Subtle Separateness of a Transparent witness, still coloured by Individuality and Separateness. Yoga of Nonmeditation. I can only highly recommend you to read the book, start the practice (similiar as described below) over a longer time period, and see what happens. Psychedelics only lift the veil mainly concerning this here (external/duality, solid, not infinite). But they don't dissolve the Illusion mechanism, the clouding over. Let's describe it in Engineering-language: The separate self is a positive feedback-loop: Uncut/Untranscended thought-stream including separate self I-thoughts/I-feelings triggers a system that cause these illusion arisings for the visual field: illusion arisings (external/duality, solid, not infinite). And also regular dissatisfaction/suffering, which make the ego work on its next salvation-project to bring experiences that bring bliss and relieve. The endless circle of suffering, N+1. and an enormously stable clouding-over illusion system of the separate self. Works in Billions of people, normally nobody wakes up just by chance. Some do, then its normally Karma or something the like. But extremely few. Cut that system, at some point the cutting/Treckchö becomes self sustaining: positive feedback loop. Because its lovely, brings bliss. And before that tilting point, it takes energy, because its unpleasant. A negative feedback-loop while meditating. Mayas Illusion-protection-mechanism. Must be there, else everybody would be meditating. Then, via keeping the mindstream cut/Trekchö/Transcended, another positive feedback loop sets in: The Endohuasca-system gets triggered. This then makes the visual field mere appearance/lucid/not solid/infinite, and especially duality/externality goes. Brown calles it Boundless Timeless Awake Awareness/Consciousness. And resting in that brings even way more bliss, which allows dissolving core elements/Traumas of the separate self, and staying lucid in daily life also with problems. In these states, the last remnants of the separation-illusion are dissolved... Try to think in "positive-feedback-loops", and tilting points/mountain-passes to reach, having climed in goes downhill or automatic/nice/blissful. and initial uphill-climbs to get to the first downhill-track after crossing the mountain pass height Willpower/Suffering while meditating until a certain point, then blissfull/downhill/automatic. Then, ego/Trauma/pain throws curve ball, and the current meditation/bliss fails. Further practice. Momentum building. Gradually dissolving of the separate self contraction and suffering, bliss gets stronger. Increasingly, more and more difficult life situation can be handled lucid. And the magic point is, after some years: Sitting somewhere on a park bench, the bliss flowing, and: realizing the freedom & fullness of not needing anything. Water by the River From this Link: For me, the crucial Point for really getting the meditation "really" off the pillow into daily life was getting to THAT here Skill of Recognition: (1. Yoga of Mahamudra system) Now it gets interesting. That was the decisivepoint for me once I understood that, and implemented it. Afterwards, it started to get nondual pretty soon... If you look HOW the thoughts emerge, (1) out of what they emerge, (2) what they are, (3) in what they move (4) into what they disappear ALL of that (1)(2)(3)(4) must be present. Thoughts DO appear. From "something". Stay in "something". Consisting of "something" All of that is Emptiness, or Consciousness, or Nothingness. Thoughts are made of "that","move in that", "dissolve into that". and you will never SEE that, or can say what it is. Nothing. But not a blank nothing. An aware Nothing. Actually the essence of all world-appearances, but that comes later, when it gets nondual, at the Yoga of One Taste. What happens if you investigate into emerging thoughts this way, is that they get FASTER. VERY FAST. Like 20-30 emergent thoughts/feeling arisings per second, most of them rudimentary. The mind does this to keep the illusion going. To make it too fast for you. But at some point, you learned to get that fast also... Basically, looking into a thought, one sees its Emptiness/Nothingness (one doesn't find the thought, it evaporates). It is cut off. Dzogchen calls this cutting off "Trekchö". Daniel Brown called this stage a "High Speed Search Task into the unfindability of the nature of thoughts". A High Speed Search task into their emptiness, into their nature as consciousness, as Nothingness. So the emerging gets fast, very fast. Daniel Ingram also mentions that. But at some point, with enough practice and familiarity, YOU get faster. You spot and cut off every very fast, subtle, fragmentary thought arising. None of them "grips" you anymore, since you have seen them all, and their structure. Just thoughts arising very fast. You don't control which thoughts arise. Depended origination, they are just emerging by themselves. You can focus on just their arising (of thoughts), just their staying, just their going away. At some point, they just emerge, looking into their nature is automatic, and they immediately dissolve. No duration. Just emergence, and poof gone. And when you are fast enough, you get a continuance of staying mindful. When that happens its pretty clear what happened. Your attention got so fast that you can stay mindful even through the high-speed thought emergence. At the end, they come very fast, they don't get "elaborated out". Thinking, or elaborating the thoughts out, is slower than their emergence. They emerge already fully complete with their content, and then slowly get "talked/elaborated" in your mind. Natural reaction: So WHO the f*** am I (pardon my french) when I don't control what thoughts emerge and if they appear fully with their content in a fraction of a second, and get elaborated later in a hypnotic show over several second? good question... to be answered later. Outcome is: You know the nature of every possible thought (Consciousness-Emptiness-Nothingness), of the whole mental-continuum of thoughts, all that there can be. Their nature. you can cut off or transcend/just watch your normal mindstream in most daily situations without getting caught up/hypnotized by it, which already here leads to a lot of bliss. Not sufficient bliss to get ones separate self completely handled, but already quite wonderful. That is the start of real freedom. You know how your mindstream hypnotizes you, and gets faster when you actually look into each thought arising and its nature. At some point you get fast enough to cut off every arising, or let it elaborate in a controlled aka mindful way. @UnbornTao Oh please hit me. Instead of watching some nice travel-documentation as planned on TV yours truly did again the overkill...

Same in Mahamudra: "Tashi Namgyel's crossing-over [to Enlightenment] instructions are as follows: The likely time is when the practitioner has refined any intense experiences of nonconceptual stillness, clarity, or bliss, and then continuously meditates, having attained certainty letting the mind's [natural] brightness and clarity come forth in awareness," Brown, Pointing out the Great Way Selling Water by the River

Really Inspiring. Bon voyage on your path, that will walk itself soon enough all by itself, just following the bliss of its own essence. The Path showing itself to itself, after having won the grace of your True Nature. Some day, there will no one walking this path anymore. The path will become the unfolding of Infinite Reality itself. A Reality so wonderful expressing itself in every moment that no interference will ever be necessary again, or even possible again.... The states that can be achieved by meditation and energetic techniques are real and very powerful with enough practice. Most people get quite serious when they see that: The awakened states of for example infinite Nonduality, or Real Impersonal No-Self - Impersonal Infinite Consciousness Suchness, do have their impacts on the brainwaves, and for sure for the body-own Endo-Huasca-System producing a cocktail of body-endogenous Psychedelics: https://dmtquest.org/endohuasca-magic/ How else to explain the powerful infinite nondual awakened states achieveable by Psychedelics can be had with meditation and energetic practices, and which are so similiar to the Psychedelic experiences? Yes. Because it is a stage that has been earned by transformation and transcendence. States that have become permanent as stages. Going from states, to plateaus, to very permanent stages. And the remaining self doing these practices gets more and more refined. Pure. Impersonal. Empty. Transcendal. Not the remains of a separate ego/self, switched on and off by psychedelics, but never fully gone. The remains hindering the Full Realization in daily life, and are also projected on Infinite Consciousness during the trip, disfiguring its pure empty impersonal nature. So some lense always remain that prevent the final deep shift of Full Enlightenment. Ken Wilber: "The downside comes with people that only use psychedelics or drugs. And I found that over the years they just become mean it's somehow I just kind of closes them down. Its like you keep doing it and you keep doing it you keep doing and it doesn't quite cause the transformation. It can cause a peak experience but generally not a transformative experience and some people like David Deida will say that in order for altered changes of state to contribute to transformationpermit transformation it has to be basically endogenous not exogenous. It has to be has your own source. The people that do use both [psychedelics and meditation] and use it as a sacrament I think an enormous bit out of it. " Anybody ever wondered why that is? That Spirit/Infinite Reality prevents the crossing over through the Gateless Gate to Full Enlightenment if the soul is not purified enough, the separate-self/ego-illusion emptied out and transcended completely, all deaths died, all illusions gone? Maybe it is not a bug, but a deep deep feature? If we admit Infinite Intelligence to Infinite Reality, maybe Infinite Reality demands and requires giving up and transcending certain last subtle lenses also, letting the Illusion of separation fully die? And a high degree of compassion and some kind of Boddhisattva-vow? Because Infinite Reality itself IS Love? A fundamental archetype of manifestation, of essence? Sounds familiar and resonates? This combination of Transcendence and love is a deep structure of all spiritual systems of all ages. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj — 'Love says 'I am everything.' Wisdom says 'I am nothing.' Between the two, my life flows.' Water by the River

⚡You've already made significant progress. Continue practicing meditation, and once you are able to instantly recognize and dismiss thoughts without identifying with them, extend the practice into your daily life. It's the art of archery, where each thought is brought down with a precisely-placed arrow, before it even has the chance to fly. Notice your mental and physical habits, which cause you to suffer, and remain within the absolute instead of indulging in them. Gradually, they will dissolve and the inner portal will become more open, naturally without the need for psychedelics. One thing I've been wanting to ask is whether you are trying to sustain the extreme experiences you have on psychedelics, in the belief that this is possible as a perpetual state. It's not. Enlightenment is the unconditional flow state of the absolute, and ecstasy eventually resolves into serenity. As Ramana Maharshi puts it: The final obstacle in meditation is ecstasy; you feel great bliss and happiness and want to stay in that ecstasy. Do not yield to it but pass to the next stage which is great calm. The calm is higher than ecstasy and it merges into samadhi.

So when I was 18 I had a huge emocional release (huge criying) where I saw basically all my life I had the thought "thats not me!!!" and then something similar to the experience that Echkart Tolle and so many people relates happened to me, some kundalini energy awaked and I was at pure bliss for 2 weeks or so. I started reservación what was happening to me and at some point I found this blog and the YouTube channel. Later on I had a huge dark night of the soul, depression and all that stuff, I repressed all the LOVE that I had seen and, believe me, there was too mucho to repress. I had up and downs that came from that times but you can say it lasted until now that Im 24 yo. Almost every day i feel anxiety but I can handdle It, i dont know why I have It but I think It is related to that memory of the time I was in bliss. My question would be: how can i start to relieve that anxiety in a healthy way? I still lo ve with my parents and that doesn't help at doing emotional work. Also, how can I start to bring that awakening back, being my soul and body so scared of It?