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I think I can add some valuable insight here for a few reasons. Firstly, I have been working with mentally ill people (mostly schizophrenics) for 7 years now, so I know a lot about the ways they behave from first-hand experience. Secondly, I have experienced both nondual states (using psychedelics) and total insanity using deliriants like Daturah and Diphenhydramine (don't take these, please! Both of these substances I have only tried once out of curiosity and had I known exactly what awaits I wouldn't have taken them at all. They are extremely toxic to your body and offer no value whatsoever for your personal or spiritual growth, and you are putting yourself in serious danger). First, let's talk about schizophrenia. The first thing you have to realize is that schizophrenics SUFFER immensely from their condition. There is this sort of romanticised notion in some New Age circles that schizophrenics are merely misunderstood, that you shouldn't treat them with medication, and that we should just let them be or even learn from them, because they are in a way "wiser" than we are or "know" things that normal people don't. Let's be frank, this is total horseshit. Only a person who has never had any personal experience with schizophrenics would say that. These people are suffering tremendously and even with antipsychotic medication, they are barely able to function like a "normal" person. There are many different forms of schizophrenia, and every individual case is different, but there are certain patterns. Paranoia is a huge one - one of my clients believed there were snipers aiming at him constantly, he was afraid the people at the grocery store might kill him, etc. Another one had episodes where she believed that poison gas was coming out of her shower, that she was being raped by strangers all the time, and she regularly believed me to be her mother, father, brother, child, romantic partner from twenty lives ago, and so forth. She also thought people on the radio were conspiring to murder her. She regularly broke down in tears weeping, because she couldn't take all this suffering anymore. If you didn't even give these people antipsychotic meditation, you would condemn them to a life of even more extreme suffering, and they would wreak total havoc within their communities. Sapolsky's lecture on schizophrenia is very enlightening as well, by the way - for example, he talks about the case of a schizophrenic woman in a neolithic tribal society that he got to know during a research trip. That woman was not revered as some wise old shaman or something. The people in her tribe had absolutely no tolerance for that woman's antics and had no clue how to deal with her erratic behaviour. One of my clients was particularly interesting. When he had his psychotic episodes, he described them as "seeing shapes/figures" and "non-existence". When these episodes occured, he was terrified to death, and the only thing that would help him was his emergency medication. With this one, I am not entirely sure what to make of it, but my guess is that what he described as "non-existence" had more to do with depersonalization/derealization than awakening. Now let me share some of my experiences on Daturah/DPH vs. those on psychedelics. They couldn't be any more different. I imagine what mentally ill people like schizophrenics go through is a lot more similar to what you experience on deliriants than what you experience on classic psychedelics. On these deliriants, I experienced full-on hallucinations: Having conversations with people who weren't really there, thinking I was in a totally different place from where I actually was, trying to grab water glasses and only realizing when my hand moved right through them that they weren't actually there, hearing a cacophony of both familiar and unfamiliar voices, both male and female, seeing spiders crawling along the walls everywhere and actually FEELING their touch when they crawled over my body, seeing dark figures (a man dressed in black wearing a hat, the shadows on the wall turning into swordsmen dueling each other, for example), thinking I was smoking a cigarette which wasn't really there, etc. All combined with a terrible feeling of dread and paranoia, extremely painful RLS and the all-around feeling of being poisoned. It's like being thrown into a real-life horror movie. Never again will I expose myself to this. The only positive I can take away from these experiences is that I feel like I can relate better to my schizophrenic clients. Psychedelics, needless to say, are completely different. The hallucinations are beautiful, mandalas everywhere, eyes looking back at you, waves of love and pleasure rolling through the body, letting go of the ego and effortlessly melting into the ocean of being, total bliss and ecstasy, profound realizations and new perspectives, and so on. It's not even remotely the same. Therefore, my best guess is that what is called "depersonalization/derealization" in psychiatry has very little if anything at all to do with awakening, but that they are very different phenomena. Your question is a very good one though and one I have contemplated myself for some time. Hope this helps in clearing up some confusion.

I mean, we already know that death is imaginary. That’s not even a question. The question is just what dimension of consciousness are you going to enter into when your entire identity as Someone here dissolves. The model I’m entertaining lately is that when your physical body “dies”, your ego completely dissolves back into the Infinite where you spend an eternity in perfect Love and wholeness. This is what the Hindus call “The Pralaya” which is the state you enter into after physical death: Peace, uninvolvement, pure bliss. I think this is the Light that people experience in near death experiences. And I think in a weird, strange-loopy non-linear way, we could say that “eventually“ after spending an eternity in your perfect wholeness, you “decide“ to incarnate again or dream up another story. And that this is a cycle that you as God are doing to sort of pass eternal time with adventure. You could say that you’re playing an eternal game of hide and seek with yourself. You get lost in your imaginings thinking that you’re a separate entity going on all these escapades, until you eventually find out it was all just a game you made up, and then you can just have a good laugh. And then you do it all over again. I don’t take this model super seriously though. Because this makes it sound like it’s some linear cycle where you dream up one life after another in a sequence, but when you enter into the light of eternity, there is no linearity there. You completely drop out of linearity, so the idea that you enter a new life “after” death is non-sensical. So I don’t believe there is a model that can really accurately describe what is actually going on here. The model can only be taken metaphorically.

I'm currently practising the "Letting go" technique which I learned about in the book by David R. Hawkins: Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender The technique is extremely simple but quite difficult to do in practice when it comes to more difficult emotions like depression. I can see the potential in using this technique. All the emotions that I feel throughout the day, no matter how difficult, can become stepping stones towards full awakening and bliss. I can turn this into a game, and challenge myself to let go of as many emotions as possible, even the positive ones. There are a few concerns though... How do I know that I am practising this technique properly? Is it really as simple as feeling into an emotion? Why does my mind try to make it into something more complicated than it really is? Even if my intention is to let go, I feel like there is a part of me that is resisting and trying to manipulate and control the present moment, using this technique. There seems to be a very subtle distinction between trying to let go and simply just letting go. How do I reconcile this? If I fully let go and surrender to the now, what does this mean for my career, relationships, family, the food that I eat and how I spend my time? I worry that if I surrender, I won't be able to perform to commit to anything or achieve any success because I have simply let go of wanting to do these things.

@Razard86 So basically, after a few hours of feeling a bit of a headache and masterbating a few times on LSD, I started to relax into the sensations of my body. It felt good to just focus on my breathe, and then I remember repeating a meditation pointer to myself, "Look for the one who is looking", and it brought my attention to just pure knowing of consciousness. This started it's own energetic process, and I started to feel this tension in my head start to dissolve and unwind, and then ultimately I felt these knots in my head like pop and dissolve. At one point it felt like someone was pulling my brain apart from the inside, like fingers were prying in it, and finally I heard these knots pop in my head when I breathed into them. I could hear like poof, poof, and then i felt this weird substance flow throughout my body. After this I finally got up out of my bed and I felt better than I ever felt before. I could feel myself as translucent rather than solid, and I could feel bliss coursing through me, I could feel tubes in the space where my head was, and it was like I could feel bliss coursing through me from these tubes. I had never felt like that, and this was trip was a few years ago, and even though I've had some other good psych experiences and learned a lot, I have never reached that same level of bliss and divinity before. My bad I misread your message. The one specifically about league of legends came after this one, but I consider it a lesser trip. Basically, on psychs you enhance your ability to feel and empathize with things around you, like I feel stuff on psychidelics that I did not even know was possible, but I also feel stuff that I rememebr feeling in childhood, birth etc. When I was playing league of legends it came at the end of an LSD trip where I was able to expand my capacity to feel, and so I was much more interconnected with reality. The league of legends game is not something seperate from myself as this conscious presence of experience, but normally there are blocks to our ability to feel into this interconnectedness. While playing I was in touch with feelings and I shed sufficient blocks in my psyche, so rather than just feeling sensations of the body like normal, my capacity to feel expanded out to the game to where I could feel a perfect sensational connection to what I was seeing in the game

Because that's the only thing I found worth while to do in life .I could just simply sit around playing video games or masturbating all day .but is that my highest potential? Is that what I really want deep down in my heart ? If I could figure out reality I would be drowning in infinite bliss and understanding.

Try Transmissions. They can ramp things up. Sat Shree has free group transmissions on zoom every morning. If you live in America then the time might fit your schedule. With transmissions it is not very important to be focused and present, but to be sensitive and open. Once you made the connection with the transmission energy and it starts really working for you, then you could be in complete monkey mind and the transmission would still work, it would put you into deeper meditation and cause bliss, nondualness and peace and maybe also a peaceful mind. If you want to bruteforce strengthen your focus abilities, you could try mentally chanting something like "aware" constantly during meditation. It still requires focus, but it becomes much easier to stay focused, because it kind of prevents other thoughts and constantly reminds you of the task. The faster you repeat "aware" the easier it becomes to remain aware. You could start the session with 30 times per 10 seconds to exhaust the mind. Then 20 times for a fast pace and then 10 times for a slow pace. Once your concentration becomes better, after weeks or months, you can then lower it to 5 times per 10 seconds. And then to normal breath focus. And then to observing your thoughts.

Right now my awareness does not include solipsism, although at one point I did have this. This was during an experience that was something I considered a psychosis at the time, and it was a bit gradual though did have a symbolic river that was crossed that showed how serious it got. It actually started out as a beautiful experience of the utmost profundity upon my arrival at a physical location I loved, and I, with the depth of the gorgeous, ancient, and fresh Atlantic ocean I was by, loved the present moment so much and accepted reality to the point where my past memories were the perfect context for my promising future I fantasized about with pure optimism as well with a good dose feeling into my then present environment. I know this is what caused the sort of shift in awareness that elevates emotions, good and negative based on "set and setting" despite that term usually applying to entheogenic rather than endogenous type mystically inclined alterations. When I departed from that holy Atlantic sanctuary which I ascribe some special psychological/soulful compatibility with me and entering some place I hated, there was dreading return to the society I deeply felt I had been free and away from in a way detached from awful strictures and routines of behavioral conformity such as school, work, government, capitalism, social norms, and so on to the infinity of the parts that make up that disgusting engine. I had a breakdown with a powerful existential crisis that eventually changed my life for the better. It was so bad. I had never really suffered before, and although now I am an advanced sufferer and with a pain tolerance like that of someone stabbed with thousands of katanas, scimitars, and knives that just keeps walking expressionlessly while incapacitating enemies, I had philosophical ruminating about the nature of reality and truth as well as nihilism, death, and all the classics like that. Intense anxiety. And dissociation. And depersonalization symptoms, which were just from me not understanding how to interpret the spontaneous no-self experience my mind was being deluged with. The most distinct "crossing point" memory here was when I woke up one morning and noticed that my socks shuffling on the wooden floor were not real, this being some realization based on how focus was drawn to the visual field with the kind of reconsideration of society's model of consciousness as an epiphenomenon or unimportant triviality when it comes to the fundamental ontology of reality one gets when consciousness changes enough to never be looked at the same way again. In my case, this was what I misinterpreted as a fading, although it was only my self that was fading like a painting in the sun that lightens its shades into less contrast. Now, of course I still have a self, but the "no-self" experience I refer to is simply a type of knowledge that your thoughts, emotions, and body are just a single phenomenal object among a system of phenomena in your consciousness with nothing that signals it out other than its own biases begging for attention. It's a contextualization of you with the not-you that is in "your" consciousness. So not-you being in "your" consciousness leads you to identify with not-you, like how a nature mystic's mind might imagine that they are nature, that they are the coursing blue waves that crash on the sand or that they actually are the process of the sun going up and down the horizon everyday in that ancient cyclical ritual of "the deities behind the scenes" like the winds that carry house-destroying storms or the wildfires that tarnish forests and turn them to black ashy wastes (nature's revenge). During this time, I doubted that other people were real. My mind speculated although did not know that I was a lonely God that created the universe, and I was terrified my world would come to an end if only I rediscovered I was God. Anything that I had experienced up until that point, like my mother or my romantic interest or school or society or the beauty of life or the memories or the future or good or evil or whatever became seemingly at risk. It was so real. Visceral. The sincere thought that you could end any moment and learn some horrible truth about reality that was so distressing God needed to suppress it was absolutely frightening. The fear of an intruder breaking in and attacking you is not as bad because that is only a relative concern. The dread of a Ukrainian child hiding in a basement is not as bad, at least in principle, because it is only a relative concern. What I am talking about is an absolute concern. An apocalyptic one. My view of the world could end, and that, in the case of the world being illusory, would also cripple the whole of reality's structure and alter it to suit this original state I feared. I understood the viewpoint of solipsism, which is the linguistic philosophical model that births after the experience, which is the "present moment" of the colors and feelings right before you as your life's phenomena being totally vivid, whereas the past and future and other people's perspectives are abstract and exist only in Nothingness. Look outside the field of vision, and what do you see? Nothing! Do you see any other people? No! Reconnection to love was important. I love life again, and even though I loved myself deep down throughout the entire experience, there was always a wide variety of hate for whatever. I am autistic, so when I look at the visualizations of some cosmic and metaphysical type of love in my mind, it remains an intellectual understanding and, even though there is definitely an amazing emotional beauty to it, I simply cannot cry about it. I can look at a flower with hummingbirds feeding on its nectar, the complexity of the billions of life climbings into the structure of the hummingbird with its dual interaction with the recipient of its beak's attack seen as evidence of some principle of love. Reality loves the humming creature, and it loves the flower. It also loves a king that oppresses his people, especially if my own emotions are irrelevant to the metaphysical love. Queens that oppress, on the other hand, show a great side of duality or of some social change . . . Change might be a flower going through its seasons like a snowy and beautifully cruel winter with cold that kills the flower's act of blooming and scares the hummingbirds down to the southern regions. However, there are also springs and summers. Other black-and-white-negating gray zones like autumn that show duality is not sufficient as an explanation but only multiplicity, arising from infinity. In our realm, this usually involves motion . . . Motion = time, or rather, all time is derivable from motion. We might be pedantic and say time is a human model based on motion, but we will not. We might be confused and think that the past and future are reducible to the present moment and are mere illusions or ignore the problem altogether by stating how their differences collapse under the hypercosmic unity of Nothingness, but we will not. In reality, the present moment is what must disintegrate into past and future! For example, when somebody says their current conscious phenomenon is comprised of visual objects they are entranced with, in the world we live in, that refers to objects of space moving through time. Motion. An apple requires motion to exist. It needs at least some existence across motion. What is an apple that has no time other than just Nothingness? If somebody bites an apple, that is movement. Nietzsche's ink-daubed quill hitting a parchment as he writes his works is movement. The sun and the moon and stars are movement. All this that is in the cosmos is motion wherein there is a relativity between different parts of time: Nietzsche's quill raised above the paper versus the moment when the black ink is seeping into the fibers of the paper is not in the present moment; they are in past moments and future moments relative to some arbitrary reference perspective which might be more vivid as imagined. A dog chasing a cat and then the cat scratching the dog does not happen in the present moment; it happens in motion. Motion can never have a single frame isolated from the passage of time because that is nonsense. A process happening only in the present moment is nonsense. A star committing supernova in a single infinitely small sliver of motion where there are no different, separate sub-events like the light flashing at differing angles is incoherent. So, this proves the existence of multiple sets of phenomena within consciousness. By this same principle, other minds can exist. Other minds are not other realities but only other thoughts, emotions, and phenomenon-based stories, of life. Animation of the universe. Surely, if reality allows motions where separate acts exist in a same overarching act, like two halves of a dance constructing a whole imagined dance, minds can have the same. If reality can create smell, sight, demons, lemurs, dirt, heavenly bliss, etc., surely it produce through special creation other things. One might say, "Yes, but it is not happening right now." But how would you know if you were only a part of "right now" which happens to be motion. All things are the same Nothingness. So two minds of the same Nothingness are not ontologically incoherent. You can imagine multiple entities every time you simulate somebody else in your head . . . Dream people and real people are imagined as different. Obviously, laws of physics are imagined to exist. Objects have properties. If all conceivable properties exist, then other people exist which correlate with the property of objects acting by the physical laws which are correlatives with how the image of my brain and the total holonic system of my phenomenal consciousness are interlinked, woven.

Trip that started with people and material reality disintegrating like holograms and hearing "none of this is real" led me to looking back at the world from Gods perspective and realizing the "truth" is extremely lonely when you realize you are the only real thing in the universe. Went from beyond bliss for 95% of my journey and my desire for the truth kept me going until I reached the end. The aloneness was more real than anything I've ever felt. Even though I knew the characters in the dream were not real I didn't want to hurt them by not coming back. Very similar to the girl in the dream from Infinity Chamber. When I finally started coming back in and out of material reality I realized that the ego was simply a protection mechanism to make this life more real and meaningful. It’s like an anti-virus program meant for a positive purpose but can also get a little out of control. Has anyone else experienced similar insights?

... material reality would be less meaningful without it. There is value in both the red and blue pill. Notes taken immediately after journey... It's all a dream - But there is value in meaning and shall I say it, forgetting I created everything. There is value in playing this game. There is so much value in relationships. In loving. In Family. There's even value in overcoming obstacles. Although this is all a game I have the ability to make this game as fun, adventurous, meaningful, experiential, and epic as ever. Although you will never be able to forget experiencing everything and everything as God. The blessing and gift the experience gave you is realizing how much you miss people and relationships. Know & remember your powers. Appreciate the game & beauties of life has to offer. It would be fun to be a king but even way more fun is to be the David who became the king that overcame the obstacles. Make the player I got chose the best it can be. Give 100% effort in literally every minute of life. Today will always be known as the day I woke up to who I really am. A day where I eradicated every "self" limitation and realized how precious and valuable every min of life is. Where I realized how precious and amazing everything life has to offer. Especially relationships more than anything. It's the day I saw everything like Christ where I was able to walk both on heaven & earth "3D" at the same time. The day I chose to come back to this material world with "some" limitation over pure bliss and being completely unlimited. The day that I realized how much I missed this material life and how many things I took for granted. How many things I wasted so much energy on that didn't matter. How much I valued others free will and not wanting to control them even if I could. How much LOVE means to me. How much I LOVE people's flaws. How can I play small when I literally created the game?

Density of Oneness Spirit Guide: It is very hard indeed to say anything at all about the density of oneness because any attempt to define it, is to limit it. And this density has no limitations. So I will offer you some thoughts that will point you in the direction of understanding, but please remember that this density is actually the doorway and the destination. It is the process and the end-goal. This is where you are One with the Oneness. This density of consciousness is that which contains this whole reality and also contains all other realities. For this reason it is the portal through which you may leave this reality and enter another. But it is SO much more than just a gateway. It is Oneness. To be at one with the Oneness is an experience for which there are no words. Perfect completion. Wholeness. Home. Belonging. Centeredness. Being completely seen for all that you are and wholly loved exactly as you are. These kinds of thoughts are the best I can offer for what it might be like but, as I say, they are just words and they do no justice, truly, to the experience. Bliss beyond anything anyone here in separation is able to imagine lies there. Peace that transcends anything I can even hint at. Greg: But, doesn’t the density of oneness also include all the negative stuff? I mean if it has all the joyful and peaceful stuff… what happens to the fearful, angry and sad stuff that it surely also encompasses? Spirit Guide: Perfect comprehension happens to it. At that level of awareness there is nothing at all that is beyond the scope of your mind. Your mind IS the universal mind. You perfectly know and understand absolutely everything that ever was, is, or will be. To bring your inquiring consciousness to something is to gain the WHOLE of the understanding of it. It is simply not possible under those circumstances to have a “negative” response or feeling about something. And such a deep and perfect comprehension IS bliss. You see that everything is a work of creative art. And it is ALL beautiful. You love, love, love EVERYTHING. All perspectives are your perspective and so there is nothing that you feel called to change. There is nothing that is problematic. Nothing that is incomplete. All IS. You are One with the All. And All is perfect. Until… Until you come to decide, to choose, to WILL that something should in some way be created somewhere in a way that would please you more. And promptly, in that moment, you are a part of Life that has created some imbalance within yourself. In that instant you find yourself inside a reality. If it is THIS reality that you find yourself in, then you find yourself at the 7th density of consciousness, ready to plunge as deep as you need to go to fulfill that desire. And so the game, for you, begins again. This density of consciousness is represented inside your body in your Inner-Heart chakra. This 8th chakra is hidden, it might seem to you, deep within the 4th chakra. Many highly spiritual people who have actively meditated their entire lives do not find this chakra – mostly because they do not know to seek it. But it is there and it is the place where source-energy enters your being and nourishes you. No life would be possible for you if this chakra was not, at least to some extent, open and allowing energy to flow. This chakra has been very poetically described by some of the most ancient spiritual and mystical traditions. Look for descriptions such as a jewel hidden in the centre of the city of your heart… and a flower within the flower of your heart…. These kinds of ideas. You have not read much of such scriptures so these are not easily available to me to address. But you can seek them out. The truth of the 8th chakra is not really new. And the ideas that you will find expressed in the ancient traditions is that it is the most beautiful and precious thing you can possibly find. That it is elusive and that it takes commitment to find. That it is hidden deep, deep, deep inside your heart. You have, in your meditations, found this 8th Chakra. I would urge you, if at all possible, to show others the way. To assist those, who wish it, to find this also. Greg: I’ll do that. Spirit Guide: That is good. But remember, YOU cannot take them there. The best you can do is point the way. If they are ready and willing your pointing will be all they need. If they are not, then nothing you can say will take them there. But I make a subtle point. I agree with you that this would be a wonderful gift for you to give. March 16th, 2022.

@FromSweden I like what Russell Brand said once: "I do meet people that are alright with the material world. 'I am a material girl living in a material world.' but for me, no. I sense and have always known that this is not it, that this is not real. Nobody gave me any grammar to explain it, becuase If you grew up in England, people don't talk about it, they just tell you to chase things like women, money, career, football and fame and the things that actually work you sort of dismiss like you owe them money, ' oh I have to avoid yoga and meditation' that have been portrayed by the mainstream as artificial or luxury. But it's not artificial or luxury, it's the most authentic thing there is, it's more real than any of us. If people don't need enlightenment then they don't need enlightenment, if there is not a problem then there is not a problem. But if you have some kind of scratch, some kind of itchy irritability, some yearning, some craving, some dissatisfaction, then perhaps it's because you're not looking in the right place and you need to look within, and that within you lies an infinite capacity for bliss through a connection to higher things." - Russell Brand

In this guide, you will find no method. You will also not get Enlightened instantly. But you will get a foolproof ticket to Enlightenment on your unique path. The most reliable way to get enlightened is to just have ONE thing. If you have that, no one can stop you from getting enlightened. And that is... DESIRE. A deep longing, yearning, and desire for ENLIGHTENMENT (or TRUTH/LOVE/FREEDOM/BLISS/PEACE). When you have the desire, you will CREATE the circumstances, you will ATTRACT the guru, you will MANIFEST the information you need to get enlightened in a way that is most accessible to you. If you have the desire, you can trust 100% that enlightenment will happen. With that trust, you will surrender more and strive less, which will pull you more towards enlightenment. PS: Suffering comes to you as a catalyst to ignite that desire. BLESS your suffering. DESIRE more. Then LET GO.

Absolutely!!!! It makes it even BETTER once you get over the shock of the recontexualization of realizing you are God. Because that's basically what realizing that others exist within your own Mind is. (Again, the Godhead not the ego mind) It's the realization that you are God and this universe is all yours. The bliss cannot be fathomed.

This is happening at an Infinite level of Consciousness. You are not conscious of it as you are cosplaying as a human otherwise you could not fully be the human. But you are dreaming everything into existence at an infinite level right now and hiding it from yourself. But that doesnt mean its behind the scenes anywhere its right here. So should you realize directly at the level of Being that the human you are cosplaying as is imaginary you will become Infinite Consciousness and yes the dream could cease to exist. That's what we call death. But what we call death is actually Infinite, Divine Consciousness. Infinite Bliss and Infinite Love. It is possible you aren't ready for the dream to cease when this happens and so you return to your costume - you return to form- though forever aware that you are Infinite Consciousness donning an imaginary mask. And should you awaken again to your true nature it is possible that the dream would cease altogether. It all depends on your level of attachment to this particular dream, which is usually very strong if your ego is strong.

Ponder on how beautiful it really is that there's no difference between sunrises and sunsets & the beating of your heart. Pure sensations & manifestations of Consciousness ... No objective reality hiding beyond the veil Direct divine love loving itself unconditionately and playing around like a happy child in the imaginary sky Showing Itself to Itself only when you look at it/yourself You are so beautiful, so majestic, so heavenly. The show is only present within God's awareness, manifesting itself as this present experience. Soooo much love I feel it overflowing infinitely like a wide open infinite spring, beaming all over with ecstatic bliss from my heart center and flowing through everything boundlessly and eternally... I cannot contain it, it's boundless, oh, I am it, I am boundless, I am You, You are Me ❤ "For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, (...) all things have been created through him and for him." Your heart is the heart of the Universe And the sun & the sky is made of Consciousness as well as everything else. You are rising every morning when you look at yourself in your imaginary loving sky How beautiful is that ❤? I'm melting into a boundless ocean of pure love here Oh God ❤

I think that bad karma (a karma of suffering) only perpetuates as long as you don't act uppon your higgest desires. And really that's the challenge, to align with your bliss, because pain will arise anyways; your bad karma. But you stay true with your integrity no matter what because you know that is what you wanted to do.

Yoga, Qigong and Chinese Tea. Now that's a way to live without coffee. Bliss.

And also notice this little story: None of you were ever interested in Truth. That's a lie you tell yourself. If you were interested in Truth, you would stare at Redness all day long in absolute bliss and satisfaction. All that is already is Truth. You have no interest in the Rawness of all that Is. Before you could be interested in truth you had to go through an entire quest of Recontextualizing Truth. You basically put a bunch of sugar on your Truth and now that you are "enlightened" you say "Oh look how wonderful truth is". If you had truly through Truth to be wonderful, you wouldn't have needed to recontextualize it at all. You only like Truth in a recontextualized state. You have a very particular kind of selective interest, and Leo in particular values "Understanding" more so than "Truth". If he valued Truth, he would look at Redness and be satisfied. His quest would have been over before it had started. This quest of Understanding is a result of a particulate incarnation. The Truth is this: It was deemed so. That's all. Notice how unsatisfying this is to an intellectual chimp mind greedy for understanding. That kind of chimp mind will naturally ignore this, and go on to seek more and more and more. And it was deemed to be given, as it was deemed to be sought after. It is in no way different from the ant, who has it's own selective desires. For the ant infact, a state of unseparation and grand totality of awareness might already be present and mundane. It might be much more interested in serving it's colony. That which is mundane to the ant might be the entire purpose of all of existence to the chimp mind. Why? Because it was deemed so. Causes don't originate Effects, rather: Causes are deemed to be Causes of Effects.

I just see you taking this as too black and white (or rather, introverted and extroverted), and like you have some resentment around the introversion part that is maybe, probably I think, being unfair due to the resentment. Perhaps coming from some pain in the past or struggles you currently have, which are totally legit and understandable. I could be way off, totally. But just maybe it's best to try and appreciate each side. This doesn't even have to be just a "dishonestly trying to make everything equal so I can feel better" thing, I think if you actually, legitimately, looked at the pros and cons of each side, you'd find a bunch on each. Of course, you'd have to step outside your biases and such, which can be difficult fosho. But ya, just try it out. Even asking others for their input here is a step you can take. Make a list. Think outside the box. You can do this exercise with any polarity. It'll hopefully make you see in a more balanced way and simultaneously feel more at peace, balanced, and whole. What are the downsides of x (your preferred side of the polarity. In this case it sounds like it's extroversion)? Ex: Missing out on the awesome feelings you can have alone doing spiritual exercises; the peace, the bliss, love, etc. Ex: Getting too caught up in what others are doing and then feeling empty due to not living your own values. Ex: Being too social to the point where you have to deal with more politics and interpersonal drama, thus sapping your energy and positivity. and then... What are the upsides of y (the side of the polarity you dislike, in this case introversion)? Ex: Confidence at being able to be anywhere in the world and know you can feel at home since all you need is you. Ex: More thoughtful (not necessarily, but perhaps there's an increased likelihood if you do more introversion) Ex: More clarity in what you want out of life and thus perhaps more chance in getting there. Also... I think it's important to know that not all introverts are necessarily more thoughtful or spiritual, and not all extroverts are necessarily more confident and social capable. Maybe extroverts are in general more comfortable expressing emotions around others which can maybe make them seem more confident. But all the while they could be extremely shy or uncomfortable. I at least have remembered hearing that from people I considered extroverted and very confident. Yet they still suffered from lots of low self-esteem etc.. In Sum: Looks can be deceiving.

How is sitting in a room narcissistic? Maybe I don’t understand. Sitting in a quiet room does simple and pure, don’t it? However, I wouldn’t judge something too fast. I assume you haven’t done it. I haven’t done it, so I really can’t say, but it seems fascinating to experience almost total silence. Most people I know cannot sit in total silence with their own minds. Even studies show that people prefer to be shocked than to sit for 15 mins with their own thoughts. If you can do this quiet room while being totally in bliss and no desire for anything else, then you have “accomplished” something most humans haven’t. You have found a happiness most cannot even dream of. Doing this while in pain and suffering is a whole other level. What are the goals relative to? Why do you use your mind at all? It is all for your survival as an ego. Pretty much everything you do is to survive as an ego. Take note of all of what you do and all your goals and really ask whether it is in your self-interest or not. It is all dependent on your ego, your self-identity. What doesn’t make sense?

All it takes for You to get conscious of Truth -> Awakening to your true nature. Get to know Yourself/God/Consciousness/This. You are Truth. This is why the only way to the Kingdom of Heaven is the 'Son of God', 'The son of God' is God in form = You dreaming the whole world up rn, including your human ego-mind & body. This is the entire Universe. ->Your direct experience.<- Pointer : To die before you die. (Ego-death) I'm not talking about physical death or harming your physical body by any means. This Universe/Life on Earth = Your direct experience How did the Universe begin ? The Universe is an idea. Your direct experience, this right now is The Universe. *Year zero* began when You/God started to imagine Its birth as a human on a planet called Earth. Which is Now. (The present moment and Consciousness are One. This is Eternity. There is no time You are absolute) You wanted to experience the duality of goodness and pain. Without you dreaming up the whole narrative, your past, birth & childhood and so on, this present moment = ? Words are just pointers.. You are the Creator. The Creation doesn't exist on its own. Everything is being held within Consciousness. Because Consciousness = You = God dreaming up your present experience. Please, never attempt to kill your physical body before its natural timing. Nature and God are one. The natural flow of things is the manifestation of Infinite Intelligence. Don't rush it. Natural death is the ressurection, the cemetery cross is a metaphor. Well, now try to guess what it means. And the fact that after that you take the universe/direct experience/dream with you as the awakened whole God. (God/You/I/The Creator is going to ressurect Reality after this dream will be over) Then create a new Earth/Dream, whatever You want, as you leave this dream of pleasant and unpleasant stuff, and enter The Kingdom of Heaven/ Infinite, absolute Goodness/Paradise as Realized-Truth, Fully Realized God, Lucid Dreaming in Paradise as God. Infinite will. Love Bliss Everything You please & love. You came into form/started dreaming *the world of good and evil* in order to know Yourself/ to get completely God-Realized. It's the prelude before Eternal bliss, heaven & love Pointer -> Metaphor -> (read beyond words, see beyond symbols) 'Solar Eclipse' being held within 'One Sky' Two Eyes One Seer One light, two candles Solar Eclipse, One Sky One in control, two hands (All the above just words/pointers, return to the present moment/direct actuality, for that is truth, that's where/what I'm/You're pointing at.) In order to look into your eyes you have to look into the mirror. What's behind/outside of your direct experience? The universe/Direct experience is like a mirror of God's Imagination. There's no human face, the idea of your human face is dream stuff as everything else that appears as some thing in your direct experience. Your never saw your face. God has no human face. Your face is formlessness. This right here right now is It, God is Consciousness dreaming up the whole creation game rn. Pointer ... One Eclipse ? One "Sky" "?" Truth will never make you suffer because suffering is the byproduct of not being awake. If you try to find out the truth by searching for answers to questions regarding the context of this dream, you will only get so far. If you want truth, don't look into the painting for answers. Look for the artist. Not His avatar, not his paintings. The One looking is The One. Which is What? Well, ??? Hi there, You eternal Me. ? Whatever Avatars/Creation/GodinForms - Oneness, One Love, One God, Wholeness ❤ Oh God Self-realization = God-Realization = Truth = Liberation ❤? Much Looooooooove

As many of you know, i've had a very rough time with the latest trip/ awakening. I see it as, i've fallen into the "ego-trap" of solipsism, and now i understand "classic solipsism" as " only my ego exists, everything else is imaginary". Which is of course huge misunderstanding. All my suffering in life, was nothing but a joke, compared to what i've been through lately. Seriously. I was a mentally stable person, but i totally underestimated what i was capable of going through. Be careful what you're getting into. I have big compassion for all people out there, who, just like me, fell, or will fall, into this hell abyss. So, here are some quotes, of beautiful souls of this forum, which helped me so much, with going through this. It helped me reframe this topic. I have no idea, what would i do without you guys. i want to sincerely thank you, for all the help, all the support, here on forum, and on the PM's. There was much, much, more than in this topic, but i can't include everything. Those are quotes, i've saved in my notepad, to read in the worst moments. THANK YOU GUYS. I really, really, love you all! Hope, one day, it will help someone else. In enlightenment, you're dead. There's no you left. You have realized that you are nothing, and everything is nothing. And don't let people fool you when they hear someone say "there's no you" and then they immediately reply "yes, you do exist!! you are everything!!" Well I got news for you: yes, you are everything. But in many of these cases, that "everything" can very well be a projection of ego onto a "larger" self, which is the case in normal solipsism. It's a case of "inflation", where the ego simply latches on to the finite mind and then claims it & itself (it projects itself onto the whole of finite experience) to be God as in "finite consciousness is everything there is". No-Self is probably the central insight - and of course, No-self has many "aspects" to it, like Love, Infinity, Everything... If Infinity doesn't mean "No-Self", then it's not Infinity and not enlightenment. Infinity simply means "no boundaries". It doesn't (just) mean "all possible experiences at once" (there are no "all possible experiences", strictly speaking), which is what some poeple believe the word to mean. Consciousness (you) are infinite as in: you have no boundaries and no limits, in no dimension. That's where the whole omnipotence / omnipresence stuff comes from, and of course, it's true. Consciousness is omnipresent (or as Shunyamurti says: "omnicentral"). Same goes for Love; No-Self = Love So yeah. Solipsism is based on a self. And this self can assume vast dimensions and make claims like "I am God" without actually knowing God, but instead just projecting itself onto finite experience and thereby claiming that to be everything there is (I am everything, as this finite "bubble", this is all there is). It's a highly dualistic doctrine. Enlightenment = No-Self, which is the same as God - and if No-Self isn't emphasized by whoever claims to know God, I'd be very suspicious... No-Self = No boundaries (Infinity), no finite "bubble", no "figments of imagination", no "POV", none of that. Also, No-Self = no problem. So there's no "though pill to swallow". So long as there is, you're missing something... Missing something!!, not "got something wrong". You might got things right, but only partially, hence the feeling of "having to face the Truth". Which inevitably will be the case, almost nobody gets all of it in one fell swoop, so keep going until there's neither you nor problems left. You ARE the Truth, there's nothing for you to face. @Tim R guess this whole solipsism issue boils down to what you identify with: A) Relative domain/ego -> This can be a huge trap. Beliving that my separate self or POV is the only thing in existence and other people are just figments of my imagination. Actually a belief which has the power to drive you insane. B) Absolute/God -> Well, this is the truth. Can't really be conceptualized and highly paradoxical. Nahm summarized it perfectly by saying "We're all alone together". @nistake You might not like it, but here we go again, because this is where confusion easily arises... "the only one that can awaken" is misleading... so is "you are God". I mean, who is the "you" that can be God? There isn't one... there is only God/Love/Reality. It's not a someone, a you or a me that it could be. It's not localized anywhere, it's not behind the eyes, it doesn't have a POV, it's nothing. This is the realization that is missing, if not from the direct experience of most who are on this forum, then at least from the communication that takes place here on a daily basis. @Gili Trawangan 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". @Tim R If I think "I'm alone in the Universe". "My mom/wife/brother/whatever is not real". My emotions are immediately, directly saying "FUCK NO!" and I'm like "NO but I've BEEN TOLD BY THE WISE MASTER that I'm alone in the universe. I'm intelligent! I'm woke! I'm not a normie!" I'm not listening to my emotions. So I suffer. Suffer. Suffer. "I'm gonna get it! I'm gonna push through this wall!" Nope. You aren't. That wall just isn't there @mandyjw This is the numbest, dumbest realization out there. Nothing changes. There already aren't other people. Put your hand on a surface. Without thinking is there two sensations, one of "my" hand and one of "the surface". Or is it in the direct feeling ONE borderless sensation. Likewise Love is just plain borderless. This has always been. Always will be. You don't go around denying the existence or validity of people. Maybe you see them for the first time, your heart bursts open and you can't stop crying about how fucking beautiful the previously fat bitchy post office lady suddenly is seen to be, but other than kinda thing day in day out everyday, no big deal! Jesus people. It's that fucking simple. Everybody love everybody! -Will Ferrell "Love one another" - Jesus There ya go. @mandyjw Part of the problem is that solipsism is already defined. And as its been defined in the past by philosophers, its extremely misleading and NOT absolute truth. “Solipsism” in that way essentially means “my ego is all that exists”. Lol @aurum There is no one to be all alone. The ego co-opts awakening and claims ownership of God. There isn't a 'you', Reality/God is beyond being a self or not a self. It's infinite, it can appear as a self or as many selves whilst never actually being anything. These are thoughts that are being believed, you're too caught up in this forum's narrative. Truth is love, peace and happiness. There isn't 'other', but what's being missed is that there isn't a 'self' either. @Gili Trawangan You have to be careful about how you are using your mind here. Notice that a lot of mental activity is going on -- thinking -- and this thinking is putting you into negative states. This is not awakening nor consciousness, this is the ego-mind at work. Your mind is trying to compensate for lack of consciousness and awakening by coming up with philosophical conclusions and stories about reality. A thought like "I don't exist" is NOT awakening, nor is it high consciousness. I recommend a few things: 1) Stop thinking about this stuff so much and instead do a meditation practice like mindfulness with labeling so that you bust out of your mental masturbation. You have to learn to step outside your thoughts and observe them. Thinking about thinking is not the same thing as stepping outside of thinking and observing it. Taking your thinking too seriously is the fundamental problem here. 2) Make a rule with yourself that no matter how much you suffer or what you think, you will never physically harm yourself. 3) Make sure you create a fulfilling life for yourself before you go deep into spiritual seeking. Ground your life in normal stuff like career, life purpose, fitness, healthy eating, socialization, sex, relationships, friendships, learning, etc. 4) If you're going into spirituality have a rigorous practice that you do, not just thinking about spirituality. Thinking about spirituality is NOT a spiritual practice. @Leo Gura Solipsism is based on a duality, namely that of self (or: "consicous") and other (or "unconscious"). Consciousness is not centralized/localized, it is not inside your head, it is not exclusive to you, it is not exclusive to other people, it is not something on can either have or not have, one can neither "be conscious" or on the other hand, "be unconscious". There is no "your POV". It's an illusion, i.e. it seems like there is one, but there actually isn't. Consciousness is omicentral, it's everywhere. You are not conscious, other people, animals, plants, rocks, mountains, whatever, they are not unconscious either. The universe is consciousness. The whole of it. And everything and everyone in it is consciousness, but it's not what you think it is. You think of consciousness as this bubble of appearances, that's not at all what consciousness in and of itself is. @Tim R I know, I know, it hurts... But it is an illusion, a misunderstanding. She is as much consciousness as you are. The only thing left for you to understand is that you, as an ego, as the centralized consciousness that you currently believe yourself to be, are an illusion - the same of course applies to other human beings. What some people, including me, mean when they say "others don't exist", is exactly that; namely, that people don't exist as these centers of awareness - however, we all do exist as a singular field of consciousness, and it's possible to become aware of this. And then, Solipsism is solved. Beause you finally see that 1) you don't exist as an ego 2) others don't exist as egos 3) we all are one consciousness Even to speak of a "we" is already saying too much, because it implies "many". But that's for another day. If a so called "insight" makes you more miserable than before, that is a very solid indicator for you that you got something wrong, you missed something. That my friend, is good fucking news. @Tim R Ukrainian people, you, us, others, Leo, are creations of consciousness. Consciousness is uncreated or in other words infinity - because its not a thing, just the 'space' and more, for anything to happen. The quality of that 'space' is actually what everything is made of too. So that is what You are. It's asking yourself "Who am I?" and then you answer conventionally "I am Forza21", but then you ask again "Who am I beneath Forza21?" and then your answer is no thought - pure Consciousness - thats what we as living things actually are. When Form/creation appears within consciousness, it becomes distinct from consciousness by other forms/creation. Consciousness doesn't create distinctions that is why there is no you or me. Although I will add, paradoxically, Consciousness does create distinctions through its creation. That is why there is a you and me talking on this forum. In summary, everything is still real + you know the Truth. The One in you, is greater than the out in the world. and that One in us all, is the same. Hopefully that makes sense. @SgtPepper As a matter of direct experience, there are no others. There is only the aggregation of sight, taste, touch, sound, smell, and mind. As a matter of becoming directly conscious of what one is, it is experienced that the consciousness "inside of me" must be the same consciousness "inside of another." Why? Because this consciousness is completely pure, complete without quality or form. When looking into another being's eyes and questioning what they are, we can come to directly realize this consciousness looking out of each other's eyes shares the exact same nature and therefore by necessity, must be the same consciousness. It is paradoxical and a mindfuck. When one directly experiences Absolute Unity, all is seen to be one. It's not that other's don't exist. And it's not that you exist. And it's not that I exist. It's not that you are me, or I am you, nor is it that you are God and I am God. It's that there is a movement of infinite unity, and interdependency. The activity in one's mind is at the end of an infinite, interconnected chain of causes and conditions giving rise to outcomes and effects. All movements of relative reality interpenetrate and connect with all other movements of relative reality, at all levels. The personality cannot be separated from this totality. So when it's seen that there is no such thing as 'the' "personality" or the self, that the self is just a purely spontaneous movement, when we TRULY experience our real nature, what we are on all levels of relativity and absolutely cannot be separate from anything or anyone else. This is Solipsism. But that word and its philosophical implications are a poor conceptual framework for the unity I speak of. When the ego mind intellectualizes this, all kinds of resistances, fears, and twisted interpretations arise. When consciousness awakens to its own nature, a reservoir of endless compassion begins to open. Why? Because the suffering of another is, to some degree, experienced as one's own suffering. The suffering we find within ourselves is the suffering underneath the mind activity of other. There is no separation. There is no duality. When we see the necessity of alleviating our own suffering in order to come into union with truth, we see the necessity in alleviating the suffering of others, and perhaps all beings. For it is impossible to truly end our own suffering and therefore truly awaken to our true nature as long as a single being remains lost in Samsara. At least, this seems to be where my experience is going. @Consilience This is exactly why teachers like Rupert Spira reject solipsism, because people misunderstand it. It's generally a really bad pointer. It's also so ridiculously ironic that people have lately started shitting on the lessons of Neo-Advaita, because it's exactly what is needed to not misunderstand absolute solipsism. You are not your body-mind. You are infinite consciousness imagining body-minds. Infinite consciousness is alone, because there is nothing outside of infinity. @Carl-Richard Realizing how Creation is perfect, how Oneness is perfect, realizing that it is the best way it could be. Because it means that God is Whole, One and not seperated. You are literally all of Infinity, all of God right now, If you realize this on deeper levels you will realize the Perfectness and Love and Bliss and Beauty that Leo mentioned. Also, You are Infinity, so every person that could ever exist within Infinity is right here. Every possible human, animal, alien and universe shapeshifted into your bubble, became the substance of your bubble, become you, is you. You as God will keep dreaming and shapeshifting for ever, so from a relative perspective, all these other dreams, all these other forms exist too, and from that perspective you also aren't alone. @GreenWoods i also want to thank @Kksd74628 for all the love and support on priv and @Inliytened1 for all the love and explantations, even though i'm not ready for it love!! Forza21

What ive read sofar from the replies is that suffering and pain is intentially a fundemantel mechanism for seperation and survival. So yes, God loves turture and pain and we dont have any choice but to accept it. For me evryone who thinks this is all about bliss, love and free will has only seen one side of the coin.

I am sure there are people here who could assist me with the idea of material matters. It is definitely my weakest pursuit in life. I have no income at all. Money seems to have always come to me by happen stance so that I have enough to buy whatever I desire, such as trips overseas, computers or good food. But for many years now, I have long desired to find a place to live by myself, alone, and have been working on many projects to see to it that it does happen some time in the future. In the waking world, I am totally at peace with the situation as is, because I always internalize every situation as being spiritually useful and it has indeed allowed me to find an astonishing degree of personal happiness, bliss, and fearlessness in all situations. Yet, within the subconscious plane, I basically just lied to you. There are the occasional times when I dream, I am met face to face with a true inadequacy— voices that say I am "lazy", or "stupid", a strange energy of underachievement mixed with doubt, that i am doing the "right" thing. When I wake up from such intense energy, I meditate and this energy of doubt goes away. Hm, how convenient for me? I strongly desire more spiritual realization and freedom to do as I please. This is the crux of my bind, that needs illuminated (and I will probably challenge you on anything you suggest so be careful!) Everyday, I happen to be able to do whatever I want with absolutely no obligations to anyone. I don't have to meet or talk with anyone unless I am absolutely certain they will raise my vibration (so to speak), which also means that I can end conversations short if I feel so inclined. So is the case, that when I work longer than an hour or two on my projects I feel my bliss starting to leave me. Thus, I never work more than my bliss allows. But, no further am I, in fulfilling that small (yet still persuasive) desire for a home of my own. With no real focus on any particular project, so far my plan is to continue at the pace I have been going, and simply trust that eventually my work will improve or (by the grace of the universe) my work will simply start catching on. In this way, I can focus on my enlightenment as primary and burn through the belief I need more instead of the karma of desiring more. Perhaps your perspective could grant me additional insight on the matter.

I would like to share something written by my guru's guru, Yogeshwar Muni. Many knew him as Charles Berner, the originator of the Enlightenment Intensive retreat, but what not everyone knows is that he went on to be an accomplished yogi. After having many peak experiences to only face a dead end, his guru, Swami Kripalu, gave him the key to achieving God realization. This is a rare path, and I would like to share an introduction to that here. Chapter 1 Introduction to Natural Yoga In the Western world it is not considered very important to be guided by the heart. We would all like to be more able to love and be loved, but we have learned to trust our heads. We have been educated, not only in our educational system, but also in our society as a whole to use our heads. It has brought us a certain degree of material success, but it has not succeeded in giving us the happiness, the peace, the consciousness, and the love that we all want. The teaching of Natural Yoga is the way of natural union with God. From my spiritual teacher Master Kripalvananda, I learned a method of opening my heart, a method of surrender. This is not to say that knowledge is a bad thing, because it is not. But it is not enough; nor is just opening your heart. We are so much more advanced in our heads than in our hearts. What we need is to learn to open the heart and surrender. But surrender to what? In Natural Yoga one surrenders only to the Truth. Another name for the Truth is God. God is the Absolute; the Absolute is Perfection; and Perfection is Truth. Natural Yoga is about knowing God not just intellectually, but consciously and directly; it is about surrender to God. It is necessary to re-release the energy captured by the closed heart. The heart, in turn, has been captured by the mind; and the mind controls it. It is not possible to figure out how to re-release or to liberate the life energy that has been entrapped. The more you use your will to make it happen, the more life energy gets captured. But when the heart is re-opened, the mind loses its grip on the previously captured energy, and life begins to flow again. If you surrender to anything and everything, your life becomes a complete waste. Your desires run wild and you run into incredible difficulties. In Natural Yoga, by surrendering to God, by surrendering to the Truth, the suppressed energy is released and transformed. Then liberation is achieved. Once you surrender the body, feelings and mind to God, the purification process begins. But the ego resists it. It says, “Oh, no, you don’t. This surrender business is not for me!” If you have a lot of toxins in your body, there will be a strong reaction. If you are sickly, overweight, use drugs, smoke cigarettes, or drink coffee or alcohol, the body will react very strongly and make it very difficult for you to continue surrendering. If you sincerely want to do Natural Meditation, you need to work through these difficulties and prepare for the process of full surrender, of completely giving over your body, feelings and mind to God. Then as you continue to surrender, your mind begins to purify spontaneously. There are four ways to awaken or liberate the life energy. One of them is by physical exercise; another is by understanding the Truth; the third is through devotion; and the fourth is through the transmission of divine energy form teacher to student. If you do a lot of exercise, stop using drugs and eat a pure diet, your body will become purer. And when it purifies, the life energy will be liberated. My life energy was liberated by understanding the Truth. I had a realization of the Truth of life. As a result, the life energy in my body went “whoooosh.” I rolled all over the floor and acted crazy. I didn’t know what to do with it! I tried to figure out what it was all about. For years I tried to find out what to do with it and how to handle it. I did not succeed until I met Master Kripalvananda, affectionately called Kripalu. He is the only one I ever met who really knew what to do with the vital energy. He was a great yogi from the great tradition of Natural Yoga. Something led me to his feet. He had the knowledge, method, and power to transform the life energy; and he could teach and transmit it to others. And finally, if you devote yourself to whatever is divine to you and open your heart and serve it, through great love, your life energy will be liberated In Natural Yoga, the life energy is awakened through the transmission of divine energy from teacher to student. The transference is a gift of life energy from the teacher to the student. The great advantage of transmission of divine energy from teacher to student is that you know what is happening; you how it has come about; and you know you have someone to guide you. Once the divine energy is transferred, the rest happens spontaneously and automatically as you continue to surrender. 1. You begin to treat people better, not because you are forcing yourself, but just because you want to. 2. The body performs purifying actions, moving spontaneously into yoga postures whether you have ever heard of them or not. The postures occur in the exact way necessary for your body to purify. 3. The life energy becomes restrained and elevated. 4. The attention withdraws from the senses. 5. You go into deep concentration. 6. You go into spontaneous meditation. 7. You go into equanimity or union with God. This does not happen in two or three seconds; it takes a while. It may take days, weeks, months or years; but it happens according to the grace of God and Truth, according to the wisdom of the divine energy that guides you. The process of Natural Yoga proceeds according to your degree of surrender, the previous work that you have done in this life and others, and the wisdom of your spiritual teacher. Divine union is the ultimate outcome of Natural Yoga. Your own true, divine nature comes into union with God or Truth. Natural Yoga brings not only bliss, but also consciousness, Truth, health and happiness. It brings natural humility and saintly behavior. Impurities are transformed into Divine Love for others. Eventually a complete and permanent transformation of one’s human nature takes place. This is a long-term project; yet it is the promise of Natural Yoga. Chapter 2 Surrender The key to Natural Yoga is surrender. By surrendering in meditation you achieve union with God or Truth. There are many names and ways of thinking about the Ultimate. Choose the way that has meaning for you, then surrender and go into union with it. Natural Yoga is natural union, a union that happens naturally without the use of willful direction or guidance. Natural Meditation means following the natural path, the path that is automatic and spontaneous. But this can only come through surrender. This is why surrender is the key. Without surrender, the will is involved. When the will is involved, nothing happens naturally. There are a lot of advantages to meditating naturally. You might say that surrender is “letting it be.” Letting things be the way they are, is a form of surrender. The dictionary defines surrender as the opposite of victory; surrender is yielding or giving in. It implies being forced to give in, to give in against your will. In Natural Yoga surrender means giving in by your own choice and letting the will of something other than you have its way. In Natural Yoga, you not only surrender, but you also surrender to the Truth; you surrender to Perfection; you surrender to the Absolute; you surrender to the Ultimate. You surrender to the cosmic finality. Call it whatever you like. You don’t just surrender. You surrender to an Ultimate. You have the choice to surrender or not. In Natural Yoga you choose to give in to the Divine. This is the key principle of Natural Yoga. You don’t need to know anything else. Everything else supports this key principle. So you need to understand it well. It is not easy to surrender, but it is the key to spiritual growth. If you surrender to the Divine, then automatically and spontaneously, you are on the path to the Truth, to the feet of the Lord, to Divine Love, without having to plan, to know, to force or to concern yourself in any way. The difficulty is that when you choose to surrender, there is a reaction. Therefore, you can only surrender to a certain degree. If you could surrender to the Truth totally, all at once, you would experience the Truth and you would have complete union with the Truth. Some people refuse to surrender at all. They say, “I’m using my will and that’s it. I’m not surrendering at all!” A few have surrendered totally. We call them God. Most of us are in between with some degree of surrender. When you have a reaction to surrender, don’t stop surrendering. Simply surrender more. Even if you don’t want to, go ahead and do it anyway. Perhaps you pull back your surrender to some degree. But if you do surrender, a little bit of purification takes place. Not only do concerns go away, but also the body and the mind purify to some degree. So when you surrender that much again, the reaction is not so strong. And as you continue, your capacity to surrender grows deeper and deeper because the reactions are less. It would take a lifetime to sort out the best way to have a supremely happy life, achieve complete liberation, attain absolute freedom, and reach total union with God. By the time I found Natural Yoga, my life had been spent trying to work this out. I had assembled about fifty different, quite excellent methods of dealing with the body and mind, like massage, Polarity Therapy, Rolfing, Feldenkreis, Hatha Yoga, breath restraint, good diet, Gestalt Therapy, Mind Clearing, Emotional Trauma Release, praying to God, and many others. I was trying to design an assessment method to test every person who came to our spiritual growth center and then direct them to the techniques they needed. I had an elaborate plan worked out with a marvelous testing system so that each person’s plan could be adjusted to just the combination they needed and varied as their needs changed. I was excited by all of this and was beginning to make some sense out of it even though it was a fairly complex subject. Then one day I met my beloved spiritual teacher, Kripalu. He taught me Natural Meditation. With Natural Yoga all you have to do is surrender to God. And the perfect thing happens to you at just the right time with the correct intensity to do exactly what is necessary for you whether it be in your mind, your body or your feelings. It brings about the exact degree of purification you need. And then the process continues naturally without any need to ask questions or make plans! What a relief! What a Godsend! Unfortunately not everyone can surrender to God. First of all, many have not found God. Others have no absolute anywhere in their life. It’s difficult for them to find anything to surrender to. Secondly, many are so impure and toxified that if they do surrender even a little bit, their ego can’t stand it. They clamp their will down with all their might. These people must find Truth, through some other method, through Enlightenment Intensives, for example. They need techniques to remove their mental and communicative obstacles. Once their minds become purer as a result of techniques such as the Enlightenment Intensive, then surrender is possible for them. For those who are ready, for those who have prepared themselves, the path of Natural Yoga is open. Natural Yoga is an option if they so choose! Many have had deep experiences of God, Truth or Divine Love. But these experiences fade with time. All willful techniques are limited because you can only know God in a surrendered state. As soon as the will is re-activated by arising desire, the deep experience lost. Many people are sincerely driven time and time again into the realm of peak experiences only to fall back again when desire arises. Some have sought experiences using drugs, only to crash again. Taking drugs is certainly willful; and you cannot willfully maintain union. Only in the state of surrender to the Truth can the Ultimate goal be continually experienced. It’s a gradual process. Where willful techniques leave off, surrender begins. This is not to say that willful techniques have no value. They do! It is necessary for almost everyone to participate in them to get themselves to the place where they can surrender meaningfully to the Truth. To do Natural Yoga, one must be able to surrender and let the will another be done. It is God who is the doer in Natural Yoga. In Natural Yoga you release the body from willful acts. You allow the life energy in the body to do what it wants instead of willfully trying to do something. If your body gets tired, let it fall over or just collapse on the floor. Once the body rests for awhile, it wants to move again. Whereas ordinary meditation uses the will, in Natural Yoga you let the life energy, guided by the divine, move the body in whatever way it sees fit. Do not try to concentrate your mind or attention on any particular thing. In willful meditation you concentrate on one subject or willfully try to maintain a state of openness. In the case of Natural Yoga, you let the attention go wherever it wants. It might go onto anything. You surrender the control of your attention to the divine and letting it do what it wants. The divine directs the energy that guides the attention. It will go where it needs to go in order for you to make the most rapid progress in your meditation. Meditation may not always be what you want; and often, it is not. Sometimes it is boring. Sometimes it does seemingly pointless things like the grocery list. But that is what needs to be done. The energy is trying to release your attention from the “grocery list” so it can go on to other things. You say, “Oh, I shouldn’t be thinking about the grocery list; so I’m not going to think about it. I should be thinking about God.” You are using your will. It is all very well to think about God; but if you are using your will to direct your attention, then you are defeating the method of natural union with God. If you surrender your attention to God, the life energy in the body and mind will be guided appropriately. In meditation you go through what you need to go through. No one has to tell you anything. God is the only therapist. If you have God or the Truth as your therapist, you can not do better. The only fee God wants is surrender to Him. You can say Her if you prefer. The Goddess is Truth. Truth is the way things actually are no matter what perspective you take. You just let meditation happen whatever way it wants. Let His will be done, not yours. Surrender, then, is to choose to let God, the Truth, or whatever you want to call it, guide your body, feelings, and mind, your thoughts and attention. You will be lead you through the most fascinating, exciting, sometimes boring and even terrifying journey to to union with the Truth. By surrendering to the life energy, the body can naturally go through what it needs to go through in Natural Yoga. It does not become tired. The mind goes through what it needs to go through so it does not become stuck or frustrated trying to control the attention. And the feelings can flow when they are ready; when they are not ready, nothing happens. So just let it be. One can do many hours of Natural Yoga over long periods of months and years. The serious aspirant can devote his or her whole life to this activity. Four to eight hours a day spent in meditation is not unusual for a serious practitioner of Natural Yoga. Generally, the energy in meditation moves a lot at first, then slows down to nothing and the aspirant goes into yogic sleep. You may think that you should be alert and busy. Your will tells you, “I think I should be awake, active and busy.” And there is God’s will. Sleep is coming on naturally. If you have truly surrendered, you let sleep come. If a hand wants to move, let it move. Whatever happens let it happen! There is only one condition, surrender your body, mind and feelings to the Truth,. If you have done that, there is no error. Whatever occurs, including sleep or anything else, happens properly and automatically. Why doesn’t everybody do Natural Yoga? It’s so easy! I mentioned the obstacle of reaction. Many people are attached to the ego; that is, their ego wants to be in charge. It wants to be the doer and wants to cause things to happen. “If I do this, then I want that result. And I want the fruits of my actions.” Following the ego is the ordinary Western way of proceeding. It is also the Oriental way of proceeding to some extent. When you willfully act, God responds to a degree, if you have acted ethically. You can get bound to the ego and get stuck in the role of the doer. You are the one who is doing it, rather than surrendering. Following the ego can only take you so far. But most people are not ready to give up the role of “doership.” They are not ready to go on to Natural Yoga. God is the doer of all things. Imagine a slave master who has many slaves and who wants to build himself a nice house. He sits up on his dais and says, “Slave, you come over here and you carry these stones. And you slaves there, you pile them up. And you mix the mortar. And you design it. Come on, jump!” And they start jumping and carrying stones and they build the palace. When the palace is finished, the slave master invites his neighbor over. And he says, “Look! See the palace I built! See what I did!” The slave master is the ego and the slaves are God. God is the doer of all things that appear in the form of nature. God in the form of nature does all things. The ego sits back and says, “Look what I’m doing! See what I did!” The ego thinks it is the doer. But the ego does not create anything; it does nothing! The body is part of nature; the mind, feelings and thoughts are part of nature. The entire physical universe is part of nature. All that happens is done by God working in and through nature. Surrender releases the divine energy that makes everything work. The divine energy is what guides your body, mind and feelings in Natural Yoga. If you are strongly identified with doership, surrender will not occur. But you can give up the ego and say, “God, I surrender to you.” It would be like the slave master saying, “Slave, I surrender to you. I realize that you have been doing the work anyway and I’ve just been taking credit for it.” It is not just a matter of stopping what you were doing; it is a matter of realizing that you never were and are not the doer. God in the form of nature does all things. The act of surrender is simply the gradual realization of the Truth. As long as you are attached to the fruits of action, you are held in a trap. You hold on to the idea that you are the doer. “I did it. I worked all day. I want my pay.” So if you are attached to the fruits, you are automatically the doer. But it is not true. The fruits do not belong to you. They are all God’s. You are not the doer. God does it all. So what are you? You are the one who either surrenders to that fact, or resists it. You are the one who can make the choice. You can either surrender to the natural way which brings about union with Truth or you can fight it, saying, “No! No! No! I’m going to do it the way I want!” Sometimes people feel that if they decide to stop doing something, nothing will happen. They think that not doing anything is surrender. This is not true. They think, “I won’t think any thought; I won’t move a finger; I won’t breathe.” There is a very simple way to test this. “ Well since I’m the breather, I’ll stop breathing.” But it is not you who starts breathing again because it was not you who was breathing in the first place. God in the form of nature is causing the body to breathe, not you. And in the same way, nature causes the brain to think, the hunger to come, the sexual urge to arise. All these things happen by the will of nature. Thus it is the ego that stops people from doing Natural Meditation. Everyone has an ego. However, if you can just yield some of your doership, some of your attachment to the fruits of action, then you can open the door to Natural Yoga. Natural Yoga liberates you from both pleasure and pain. You protest, “Wait a minute, don’t you take my pleasure away! I’ll put up with some pain as long as I get some pleasure.” By surrendering to the Truth, you gradually get over the suffering of pain and the enjoyment of pleasure. In life, pain is the payment, pleasure is the reward. It is the fruit. Getting caught in this endless cycle of pain and pleasure is ordinary human life. An individual who wants liberation seeks to transcend this cycle. A practitioner of Natural Yoga, instead of pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain, seeks only union with Truth, perfect awareness of the way things really are. He or she becomes more and more detached. Both pleasure and pain become the same. A sincere meditator seeks pure consciousness of the way it is. The ‘way it is’ is often called ‘That’ in yogic scripture. Pure consciousness of ‘That’ is bliss. Pure consciousness of the “way it is” (‘that’) may be called direct knowledge. When you have direct knowledge of ‘That’ which is true, you are in bliss. This is union with God. A liberated individual having transcended pleasure and pain comes to know God directly. If someone just talks to you about Truth, it tends to be dry. If someone just talks about God, you may feel belittled. But when you are the one that ends up knowing the Truth directly, you are in the state of bliss. Bliss is not the same as pleasure. Bliss is pure consciousness of Truth. The state you are in when you go into union is bliss. Bliss is not the titillation of a nerve ending; that is pleasure. If that nerve is not titillated, then it is painful. “Oh I feel so lonesome and left out. I feel depressed and hurt.” This happens because the nerve fiber did not get its electrical stimulus. But if you have pure consciousness of God or Truth, it is bliss. It is union with God. How do you to reach bliss? By the realizing that you are not the doer. By surrendering to the Truth. This leads to pure consciousness of the Truth and you have bliss. I speak not from theory, but from experience that this is the case. Surrender even in the early stages of the process of union with God, leads to bliss and to God. By the grace of my spiritual teacher it has happened to me. I can say that direct knowledge of Truth is God, beyond doubt, beyond certainty. There are many schools of thought, many religions and teachers who teach surrender to God in the form of the divine energy. The Christians on the day of the Pentecost were invested with the Holy Spirit which is the same thing as divine energy. They spoke in tongues and rolled on the floor, called out to God, cried, and laughed with joy. The purification had begun. The Holy Spirit had descended upon them. Chi is another name for the divine energy. Tai Chi tries directs this energy. The name is ‘Orgone’ to the Reichians. They permit the energy to flow and to surrender to it. These are all steps in the right direction. They are all excellent techniques. In Natural Mediation, we deal with the same energy. In yogic tradition, the guru gives Shaktipat initiation awakening the divine energy in his or her students. My spiritual teacher has provided us with a broad perspective of the spiritual growth process based on his experience in Natural Yoga. He practiced ten hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year for over thirty years. His life was Natural Yoga. He understood and practiced Natural Yoga in the context of ancient scripture. He was taught by his teacher, Lord Lakulisha, who achieved divine body through Natural Yoga. Natural Yoga has a history of thousands of years of sincere meditators experimenting, going up blind alleys, finding the way and then staying on course. They continued until they achieved the highest state of union with God, the development of the divine body, and the fulfillment of life. There are many names for this meditation. When I was in India, Swami Kripalvananda called me back into his room and wrote something his chalkboard in Hindi. I had to ask the translator to come back. Kripalu wrote, “The name of this yoga is love.” I did not know what he meant at the time. Now I have a good idea. Love and surrender are the same. One’s most outstanding quality is love. And God is love. So when you surrender to God, to Perfection, to Truth, you love Him so He can love you. This is what leads to union. Without love none of it is possible. Love does not mean surrendering to people’s personalities, weaknesses, inabilities, failures, or impurities. You surrender to the Divine, the Divine that is everywhere and in everything. You should not surrender to imperfections, disease, insanity and false knowledge. Surrender only to the Divine Truth which is in the heart of everyone. This is the act of love. Kripalu told me that for thousands of years, it has been the custom in India when greeting or parting to say, “Victory to God!” Jai Bhagawan If you like to read the remaining parts of his small book, you can find it here: http://www.naturalmeditation.net/Design/nmdocument.html