Search the Community

If you want to call realizing Infinite impersonal eternal True Being (and staying awakened nondual states sobre) reductionism of Consciousness... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductionism "Reductionism is any of several related philosophical ideas regarding the associations between phenomena which can be described in terms of other simpler or more fundamental phenomena.[1] It is also described as an intellectual and philosophical position that interprets a complex system as the sum of its parts.[2]" Luckily, Infinite/Absolute/Nondual Being doesn't have parts. Nondual. Only in duality/ignorance it appears so as being divded and having parts. Nondual doesn't have parts. So reductionism doesn't apply. Selling better don't play reductionism with Nondual Infinite Being by the River PS: Wise new video by the way. Meeting all children of your True Being where they are at. Stabilizing from yellow to turqoise to coral and so on. Nice. A solid base to stabilize the love that resides in Infinite Reality if it is not divided.

That is why I wrote infinite. In-finite. Not-finite. I didn't write Infinity as you did. Something not-finite can't be measures in any way, that is its defining property. Not higher nor lower, not more or less, not here or not here. Infinite Being. Always here, and never any kind of form. Reality itself. Infinite Reality, to be precise. Unchanging. True Being. Techically, Infinity is manifestation. A mathematical object. Manifestation and appearance. Happening in Infinite Being. But not the Infinite, as in Infinite Being. Only the content or what appears in Infinite being can vary, different Infinities, appearances, understandings. All the understanding you grasp is understanding of more content/manifestation/appearance/shadow/illusion. Realizing/Being/"Understanding" the Infinite Absolute of True Being on the other side is Enlightenment, which actually brings the satisfaction you seek with your understanding-project of infinity of infinities. Confusing the Infinite or Absolute with Infinity is btw. the core difference between true Impersonal Infinite Nondual Realization and a nondual realization still interpreted through elements of subtle ego/personality/separate-self filters. It is btw. the core mistake you are still making, and that will not change until you get a big clap from the One Hand and finally let the rest of whatever remains of your separate-self or "Leo"-ness die and see through it as mere appearance. Temporary form arising, a hypnotic illusion covering True Infinite Being. So basically seeing through & cutting off in real time what remains of your remaining separate-self gig. So well, can get more Infinity than Infinity: Yes, true, known since Cantor. Different classes/sizes of Infinity exist, and that why one can get more Infinity than Infinity. But can't get more infinite than infinite, can't get more absolute than absolute. That is how absolute is defined. And Absolute=infinite. Non finite. I know makes this differentiation doesn't make sense for you, but maybe just keep it in mind. Somebody once made a really smart video on youtube about open-mindedness. Maybe stay open-minded, so that the One Hand has a change of finding you and clapping the rest of the Leo-illusion out of you? Trust me, nothing more wonderful than that. In that moment, all Aliens & ETs in the Infinity of Multiverses will give you a hug, and whisper in your ear: My Darling, we just appear to be different, but actually we are all one, lovers of truth and understanding united in Infinite Being and of the same essence. And then you can continue meeting & hugging these way more intelligent beings and bask in their understanding of Infinities, but coming from infinite nondual being before the trip, and letting them appear in nondual true being during the hugging. Then we would have a truly happy love affair, since the essence of these beings wouldn't leave you after the romantic trip. Selling Water by the River PS: As you know, no Lèse-majesté inteded, always. And always with (imagined) alien respect & love.

Yup. When "it" is not Absolute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_(philosophy) Can't get more Absolute than Absolute, can't get more Infinite than Infinite. I agree in so far that many Enlightenments (by far most of them) are announced when it is not Great-(Zen-lingo) or final/full-Enlightenment (Impersonal, Death of the separate self, real Satori), but just Nonduality, or Unity of the separate-self with the universe (just nondual, not impersonal, just unity of personal + Universe, or Kensho). Or, the difference between waking up and a nondual dream.

... and no imagined rodent has been hurt Enlightenment doesn't mean that one is always right when it comes to relative truth like the things you mention. It just meaning knowing what you truly are, and what Reality is. Answers to both is the same. And on top, having that accessible all the time means nothing else than being to switch off/cut-off any ignorant I-thought and I-feeling of being only this little body mind, which makes the states (1)-(4) available all the time. And this can be done (without lying to oneself) if the Awakened State is accessible anytime (1) Infinite boundlessness of the Visual Field (and any other perception/dimension) (2) its groundlessness, or mere-appearance (imagined) character "hovering" in Infinity (3) the eternal nature of this Infinite Reality/Consciousness is always known (4) there is no (zero!) separate-self I-thought/feeling still hypnotizing. Impersonal. Empty. Silent. Vast. Yet, giving rise to all appearances and thoughts. And if one chooses to, one can cut off these thoughts/feelings off in real-time. The magic word is real-time, Or high-speed cut-off of any thought/feeling arising that ignorantly believes in being only this body-mind. Speed & strength of awareness, before any thoughts starts hypnotizing oneself and are believed&elaborated. And that takes normally many years. But its worth it. The high-speed cutting of of (4) isn't always necessary, but that ability is what opens up the Awakened states described in (1-3). And if thoughts then rise again, simple mindfulness lets let flow in Infinite Being without believing them, if (1)-(3) are powerful enough. And: Being able to generate (1)-(3) with (4) induces so much bliss that the annoying separate-self arisings don't "grip", even if they are not cut off in realtime but just watched in mindfulness. Ego-wanting/avoiding only grips when one is not in a positive enough state already. One has a human, but one isn't one. True Being is Infinite Reality. That doesn't mean one does stupid things for to ones relative vehicle, like James hand-into-the-fire. Beings who know their True Nature are not brain dead. And that is having Absolute Truth always available. Or Enlightenment. It is not an idea, and there is zero doubt about it that this is final. Can't get more infinite than infinite, and there is and only can only be THAT. And any Alien, ET or way-out-spectacular-appearance-of-consciousness appears only in THAT. Nice to understand&see, but not really urgent in any way. There were enlightened Zen Masters who thought Japans Imperial Wars were great. So one can be totally wrong on relative stuff. But the Absolute stuff must be handled. Selling smiling little annoying Buddhist-rodents by the River

@Osaid good points. I find the following thought experiment interesting: Imagine that all it would need for Enlightenment (realization of True Infinite Being instead of being a separate-self/human) would be taking psychedelics. Truly realizing Infinite Being means understanding that each and any identity and thought is just an object. No character/ego-element not made from subject into object arising in Infinite Being in real time. If psychedelics don't deliver that (which they apparently don't do, has been tested many times), and yet would cause a permanent blissful nondual state, that would mean nothing else that ego and its normal occupations with I/me/mine and all its endless needs Maslows pyramid up and down, not to talk about being soooo special (a brief look at current state of the world suffices) would at least partly survive untranscended. And then we would have permanently blissful non-suffering (and hence NON-CHANGING) super-egos running around, established in blissful nonduality, doing its remaining turbo-egoic-thing. . Not for the faint of hearted... So, there is and will remain an entrance price for staying in blissfull boundless impersonal nonduality: The transcendence or seeing through each and any separate-self I-feeling and I-thought in real time. The death of the little self, understanding it never existed, and only Infinite Being IS and apparently played the game of being something separate. And what would a Roshi say to Water by the Rivers telling his little pet theory and thought experiments: Empty your cup and back on the pillow! And he would be right. Oh well... Singing "If I can Dream..." by the River

When first stepping truly into True No-Self or truly impersonal Infinite Nondual Being, it kills the separate self. Literally. It no is longer believed at all, just as an assembly/Gestalt of incorrect ignorant ideas and feelings, realized as appearing mirage that just pretended and cut off in real time. The snake is the rope. Which is Infinite Impersonal Being. And "the" "Realizer" of that is also more BS-clusters of thoughts and feelings. That closes the loop. The separate-self illusion has then no ground to stand any more in infinite groundless mere appearance Infinite Being. Then, it is replaced by an Infinite Ocean of Suchness or groundless mere nondual appearance. Only after quite some familiarity with that does the normal hypnosis of unawakened human life seem as the altered state, and the empty Suchness as the unaltered state. Yet, that is how things truly are.

Suffering in cycles is the force that pulls all beings and souls back to the source. Even the demon. The more separation/duality/split off from the Source is experienced, the more suffering happens, and the more evil arises as coping mechanism. If love is not available, evil acts as coping mechanism. And only huge suffering forces the demon back on its path, away from separation and evil towards the other path, returning to the source/love. Ever heard of hell-realms/dimensions, full of evil? Thousands of NDE and OBE reports exists of these, throughout all ages&cultures. Anything split off from True Infinite Being as apparently separate being (illusion) suffers in cycles. That is totally obvious in certain Awakened states. Where there is not THAT, there is only suffering in cycles. Anything but impersonal nondual Enlightenment with the self-contraction of the separate-self gone suffers. Not all the time, but in cycles. Only in these realizations/awakened states of Infinite Impersonal Consciousness is the love of True Being flowing fully and unrestricted, and that finally lets the separate-self-contraction drown in oblivion. Interesting that you are not aware of that, not even conceptually. Evil is separation and splitting off from the source, and compensating and coping for that in extreme cases with evil behaviour, and love is the opposite force, which pulls all beings back. Reality "breaks" evil with suffering. And huge evil = huge suffering necessary. What do you think hell realms NDE/OBEs are? That is spirits way of nobody gets left behind... PS: I am not talking about animals here, but more complex beings. Like humans/demons and so on... Selling basic spiritual compass/intuition by the River

@Ahbapx lets ask the important questions are you in control of your mind, or is it in control of you? Try sitting for a second or having a walk in the park. be fully conscious, who is making the decisions? Are they automatic? You have to be able to take a step back from the mind and observe it for what it is, a tool. Can you effortlessly distance yourself from your thoughts, or do you sometimes let them suck you in? You will notice mind is a powerful machine, and you need to take a step back sometimes from it. Then you can return to it consciously and directing it in whichever direction you choose. I say a balance needs to be achieved. Too much mind? Yoou need to stop. Too much no-mind? You need to start. You have to follow the path by using the power of the pathless path. There is no path and there is a path, its paradoxical. I wouldn't have it any other way. The mind cant get any of this, but to being it is the simplest thing. Make sure that Consciousness Moooji points to controls where you look, and not your mind. But do this in the park, perhaps while sitting on a bench. Take back control and ground yourself in impersonal consciousness and then orchestrate your mind from that backwards step position. Let go, try not to judge anything or aanyone, even someone you perceive as annoying, like someone shouting and disturbing your peace. Dont judge anything and dont think, tune in to the true reality through Being itself.

No, that is having serious depression. Enlightenment means that your mental landscape is no longer limited by emotional and mental structures but flows directly from the source. It is a change in frequency. Within that flow, things like fear or desire occur, but they are seen as a flow of what is, like everything that exists, and one does not identify with them since everything passes and changes. There are no limits and therefore anything is dwarfed in its importance, you are not that, but the flow itself, and this flow is impersonal, it is a phenomenon that occurs given the absence of limits, which ultimately is what you are: absence of limits, from which reality emerges , then you, the reality, perceive itself without any doubt as eternal, and you perceive your alive substance, the intelligence, the life

I also believe using both is best and most efficient. At the final stages of meditation, one can dissolve these last and very subtle lenses. When taking for example the Mahamudra-system, which I consider as the most sophisticated system on the planet (together with Dzogchen), the Yoga of One Taste (advanced practice, 3rd stage in Mahamudra system) makes the visual field boundless, infinite and mere appearance/lucid. Basically the effect that many psychedelics have. And no, that is not yet Enlightenment. https://www.actualized.org/forum/search/?&q=yoga of one taste&author=Water by the River The final lenses of deception/illusion are not yet dissolved at stage 3. But here we are already on very trippy terrain, visual field nondual, boundless and infinite and mere appearance. And now comes the kicker: stage 4, Nonmeditation Yoga automizes the techniques done at stage 3 in such a way that even the meditator can be dissolved. There is no longer a separate-anything doing anything, the meditation does itself. Awakening, or Awakened Awareness (nondual, boundless, infinite, groundless, and impersonal, or not only personal), does the meditation. As long as someone does the meditation, the illusion with the dream-character is still well and alive, even if its nondual and what not. A nondual dream. https://www.actualized.org/forum/search/?&q=Nonmeditation Yoga&author=Water by the River What happens at stage 4 Nonmeditation Yoga can no longer be fully described. But it can be understood what happens or happened once it happens. And it takes a loooong time at stage 4 Nonmeditation Yoga, at least for most, until crossing over to Enlightenment happens. No other. No you. Just Infinite Consciousness/Reality, an Infinite Ocean of Awareness, its essence forever unchanged. Eternal. Always having been the case. The former separate-self just an illusion. And until one gets the hundreds or thousands of hours (if one is not a prodigy) in these states to make it to the big bang, if one tries to do that with psychedelics, one has ones brain fried long before. And a God-complex on top if one doesn't start on the humble side from the beginning (which few do), since the ego projects itself already busily on the nondual infinite field, see stage 3. And if one has bad luck, ET comes along and gives a seductive smile... But that is another topic. And the limitations/problems of meditation practice: Getting to Nonduality, stage 3. Takes a looong time, and many things can be implemented incorrectly. Then, meditation practice NEVER leads to Nonduality,boundlessness-infnite and mere appearance. That happens to 98%+ of meditators, because the meditation techniques used are so inefficient that multiple thousand of hours of hardcore head-against-the-wall meditation would be needed... Few are made for that. Mahamudra on the other side can be used efficiently in daily life if done correctly. Without Mahamudra Pointing out the Great Way style I would have gotten nowhere, and even with that I read the book 15 times over 10 years to get it. To get a nondual state take enough shrooms et voila. To experience Infinity take some 5-MeO et voila. It prooves that its real. Most meditators without psychedelics give up before that. One knows if one does something correct with meditation if these psychedelic-induced awakenings happen from meditation. Hope I have answered all your questions. Selling Water by the River

Yes, at the end, you are that, but it's something impersonal, is the substance of the reality, just absence of limits. Is absence of limits a self? Or something?

"It" is. Always there. Infinite, boundless. Groundless. Any boundary would appear within "It". "It" is Infinite Reality itself. "It" is Nothing when no appearances arise. Nothingness. Groundless. Void and empty. Not even space. Yet, "It" is everything as soon as appearance appears. Without appearance, there is no time. "It" is not even self-aware then. Yet, "It" is always "there". "It" has the potential for awareness if some appearances arise, and for self-awareness if I-thought/I-feelings arise as appearances. "It" doesn't arise. There is no beginning to "It". Who or what would watch "Its" arising? Only "It", the only Awareness. "It" is fundamental. It can not not "be there". "It" can't go anywhere. Anywhere would be imagined within it. "It" can't end, since It would perceive its own end, and so it wouldn't end. Nor begin. Before any appearance, "It" is. After any appearance dissolves, "It" "is" still there. Neither existing (as anything), nor non-existing. Words of time loose there meaning, because "It" is more fundamental than time, since there is no time without changing appearances, or "objects". "It" is Infinite Consciousness, Infinite Universal Reality/Being. And "It" is "You". Capital Y, True you. Impersonal You. Or better, "not-only-personal"-True You. But nondual, Infinite Being, big You. Not small/illusion you, but that which is always there. Even in deep sleep. Impersonal. Infinite. Immortal. "It" looks through all eyes, is the essence of every being and every appearance. And to do that, "It" needs to be impersonal. Only impersonal (not-only-personal, but universal and fully empty) Awareness is "compatible" to look out through all "personal/individuated/not-empty" eyes/beings/perspectives. "It" holds all perspectives, looks through all eyes at the same moment (not sequentially), but forgets these "dimensions" of all the other perspectives "real-time". "It" imagines the clouds covering True Being/Infinite Awareness, hiding "It" in the clouds of solidity, materiality, duality and separation. Magnificent illusions. "It" plays a game of hide and seek with "Itself". When one has access to verify that sobre anytime one feels into "the" Infinite (which means that one fully realize the structure of ones own perspective ("subject" and all appearances, truly nondual) and has access to that realization anytime (nondual, infinite, mere appearance, impersonal, groundless ,Awake).... this realization is the case for each and any being, since "It" is boundless , infinite and limitless. There is nothing besides "It". N+1. ... one walks in the home one never really left. There is nothing else, nor can't be. The only price: The frog has to jump fully into the mixer and see whats still left of its essence. And THAT is it. Neti Neti until Infinite Being is realized without the clouds of boundaries, separation and duality. And the crocodiles ensure that at one point. One lifetime, the frog actually gives up resisting and playing games, gets rid of the last clouds of duality, and jumps in the mixer. And finds out that the frog never really existed, only appeared to do so. And then the former frog (Which never actually was a frog) wins the ultimate price: Everything. Each and any possible universe arises in Infinite Being, as Infinite Being. Since there is nothing besides "It", nor could be. The mixer only appears as mixer before the Gateless Gate. Beyond the Gateless Gate, it was just the wind that has blewn away all the clouds of duality and ignorance. So who is reading these words right here, right now? Offering best-practice mixers by the River

Please excuse my sloppy answer. It is just when one assumes that no Ego-elements/separate-self-elements are remaining in the psychedelic state... That is a bit, um, Contrast it with this here: Adi Da was quite problematic in other ways , but here you can get a feeling of what no filters/lenses/clouds looks like. And that is a nondual/infinite/mere appearance/awakened state up the hilt, making the true state of "things" absoltely obvious, the realization of Absolute Reality/True Being/Infinite Consciousness a no-brainer. Concerning the last subtle ego/separate-self-clouds/lenses/filters: One just doesn't see them, since there is way to little time in the psychedelic states to transcend these filters/lenses, and normally way to little training in transcending these filters/lenses/clouds done before. One looks THROUGH THEM, and doesn't even notice they are there. And then interprets the infinite nondual experience through them. And what is missing for Enlightenment is the impersonal part: No filters/lenses/clouds left. If you would understand/see these (very subtle) filters in these states, you could sustain the enlightened/awakened/boundless/nondual state AFTER the psychedelic has lost its effect. The infinite and "godly" states of consciousness are nothing but a big trap that parade "in front" of your Real Eternal Being. And btw., "classic" full Enlightenment is infinite, nondual and boundless, and mere appearance/imagined. And impersonal. And the "godly", ET or "whatever" states in that case parade "in" it, "in front" of it. And its YOU by the way. Just the True You. Not the god-state+reamaining filters/lenses. When filters/lenses/clouds/ego are switched off, isn't it logical that Awakening/boundless/nondual/mere apperance states just continues (or is no longer covered by duality), making the eternal always here "suchness" of True being available all the time. Just throw the frog in the mixer and see what remains. What remains is eternal. The rest is just illusion, parading in front of your eternal Being. Ranging from rat to crocodile to human to God to ET. And ET is better for sexy marketing and probably more fun than throwing the frog in the mixer, I assume. It is just if you throw the frog in the mixer, the imagined crocodiles tend to stay away, because, um, they intuit they would follow the frog into the mixer. Selling Water by the River

I wasn't asked, but since that didn't prevent me from commenting ever since, please allow me my musings... So, here is the Ultimate Crocodile. Or Trap. Since it is pretty close to Ultimate Truth: The problem (or rather near impossibility) in realizing Ultimate Truth/Full Enlightenment (not even to talk about realizing & keeping that on a stable basis in daily life) with mainly/only psychedelics (vs. a combined meditation and psychedelics-approach) is that the separate-self/ego is never fully seen through, and happily hijacks all insights gained and projects itself onto them. Like nondual merging with the visual field, aka non-dual-Unity-states of a still separate-self merging with the visual field. that the visual field is mere empty appearance hovering in Nothingness that this Nothingness is "IT", is Infinity, in all possible dimensions, is boundless limitless nondual Consciousness/Suchness "God-Realization" (aka that pretty much everything which appears is imagined to fool oneself into a false-body-mind-identity. That includes past&future imagination. Which is true, but still there is a subtle separate-self-something left and not seen through having all these insights, and proclaiming "I am God". It is not truly impersonal yet, and Absolute Reality is impersonal. Yes, True You is totally impersonal. Shocking, but true. But only shocking from before the Gateless Gate. After the Gateless Gate, it was just one more trap on the path/maze to Infinite love&liberation&freedom). That is pretty much the development Leo has taken, from nondual, to Infinity, to "God-Realization". And then some ETs (which is of course just more appearance/mind-stuff/content consciousness) since the God-Realization didn't went any further from there. And then after some psychedelic-substance-fallout-crocodiles ET said not permanently in this life darling, but maybe permanently in the next life in the 7th heaven, and the message was heard, and the phone was (increasingly) hung up (for now). Ultimate Truth is beyond all of that. Contains all of that. Unchanging. And eternal. All the rest mentioned above rolls "before" and "in" your true formless Infinite Being like a show. Waking/dreaming/deep sleep/normal life/nondual/infinite/God-Realization/ET/crocodiles: All these states roll before your True Being like a show, never changing anything real even for a moment. All just appearance. What is watching all of that? What can never not be here, even in Deep Sleep? And btw., the essence of the frog is completely understood by throwing it into a mixer and looking what it is made of (Suchness). That is how the frog gets truly impersonal. And the essence is all that stays, eternally. The rest is just changing appearance, an illusion, a show. Including any "understanding", which can be dead&gone&forgotten. The essence never can go anywhere, ever. That is what each being truly is. And realizing & embodying that is true freedom and liberation. And why is this kind of psychedelic "God-Realization" not stable? Psychedelics: The filters/lenses of the last subtle separate-self illusions don't get disassemled/transcended/cut-off in real time (aka impersonal, or "not-only-personal-awareness,"). Because of lacking strength&speed of Awareness in cutting all of that off in real-time. And that is why Infinite Nonduality/mere appearance/Awakening states break down after the trip: Unearned wisdom/states. Not impersonal, but still personal/separate-self/ego. In "God-Realization" there are still remnants (although subtle ones) of an ego/separate-self too much left alive & hijacking the insight/state. Meditation: Transcending separate-self/ego-elements (speed and strength/knowing each and any separate-self-arising illusion/I-feeling/I-thoughts/...) leads to nondual/infinite/mere appearance states: stable & personal transcended (aka impersonal), "earned". Psychedelics: psychedelics lead to nondual/infinite/mere appearance states without transcending all (subtle) separte-self/ego-buildings-blocks: unstable &"unearned" & can hijack the states: "I am God/-realized, whatever". The True Being of every being (Infinite Consciousness/Reality, impersonal or universal Awareness) is always right here, eternal. Can never change. It can only appear to be clouded. Looking out for less-than-impersonal-crocodiles by the non-personal River

Well, I am happy you survived your episode(s) last year (in doing a few hundred trips over a year or so if I remember your statements on that correctly, but I am not sure. But at least a lot of trips...), and now are write something like this. That will create better/more sustainable Karma for readers/author for sure. Not everbody is a tough enough cookie to survive a few hundred trips (especially in a short time-span), at least without totally wrecking his/her life. Lets skip the question of how you learned that. Or which of the crocodiles mentioned smiled back hungry. And the age-old question of state vs. stage, transformation vs.peak experience. https://www.actualized.org/forum/search/?&q=transformation&author=Water by the River For example: or 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 Your favourite (although imaginary) non-100% Buddhist rodent selling water by the River to (imaginary) "others" and wondering which will be the (imaginary) crocodile to cause his final retirement from the water-selling-job for good. Luckily, the crocodiles are also all made out of water, since there is only water. by the River.

Absolutely! It also helps to have an impersonal source of well-vetted Self knowledge like Vedanta.

The videos do contradict each other in some aspects. Because the word/signfifier "God" is not used refering to Impersonal Infinite Being (devoid of any properties besides being infinite & potentially aware). But used for a "God" loaded with feelings of individuality, some personality-remnants which are still being in nondual unity with all appearance (and even if its a world bubble appearance) in the psychedelic state. In truth, the same Infinite Impersonal Being is looking through all beings and perspectives. Not a God here and a God there, which are also the same God (somehow, but not explained how. The only explanation tha works is fully empty & impersonal consciousness. And only that fully empty & impersonal consciousness is able to reside in and be all beings). That is by the way the whole problem with the psychedelic-only/mainly path: One gets the nondual unity with the limitless bubble of appearance (this world and any fancy psychedelic realm), but not the totally empty impersonal part of Infinite Consciousness/Being. And that is why its not stable without the psychedelic. The way forward is the dissolving/transcending/cutting off with high-speed-awareness (aka meditation training) any and all of the remants of I-feelings/I-thoughts/concepts/ideas/all of it that this "God-bundle-identity" consists of. That ends in Infinite Impersonal Being, or sobre stable Enligtenment. Infinite Impersonal Being containing the former (now transcended and seen trough) personality patterns and this world, and any other being & other world. And this Impersonal Infinite Being is looking through all eyes. So who is reading these lines? That solves the Solipsism dilemma, and nothing else ever will. Selling Real Impersonal and fully empty Solipsism by the River PS: Short form: Psychedelic Awakening = not fully empty/impersonal separate-self-remnants hijacking the experience and projecting themselves on their visual/experience-field bubble, and calling that God. Not for the faint of hearted. Infinity of Gods is just a nice conceptual try to keep the remnants of the separate-self illusion alive and credible and not let them die/transcend them fully, which would be Impersonal Infinite Being. Outcome: Suffering & no sobre Enlightenment. To declare that superior to sobre Enlightenment, add a few ETs. Which is nothing else than more appearance & understanding of it, but who cares. PS PS: Even more shorther form: Conceptual Solipsism is just a game to keep the ego alive a bit longer, give it a bit more refuge/ground to stand on, and project itself onto the whole universe. Et voila, an Infinity of infinitely extended God-Egos Gods.

The Importance Of A Philosophical Position Before one can do any serious philosophy, it is imperative that s/he understands one's own position regarding something as fundamental as how one thinks of the world of one's experience: Is it out there, happening independently from one's mind? Or is it in here 🧠, occurring through the mind's constructive capacity? Note that I'm not simply referring to the world, but to a world of one's own experience, rather. This is because I want to make it clear what it is we're dealing with here, as some of us, if not most, will be quick to argue that they are without a position in this matter because they are not philosophical. However, you do, in fact, have a position, even though you might claim to have no interest in philosophy or down right have nothing to do with it. This is because philosophers aren't doing anything alien to the plain man when doing philosophy, as with botany or geology or any other science, the philosopher only does what the plain man will do rather unsystematically. You have a position regarding the world of experience. Everyone does, for experience is quite a universal thing in the human world, wouldn't you say? No, it is merely a matter of you not having made a distinction of your position, yet. And thus making it distinguishable from, let's say, your neighbor's or any other philosopher's position which might contradict yours should you be given the chance to discuss it. Your position on the world of experience simply refers to how you understand your experience of the world as you experience it. For example, when you're waiting in a line to a food stand, do you regard this as a personal experience or an impersonal experience. You might be quick to think that this is obviously a personal experience because you're the only one who can understand what it is like for you in that particular moment of waiting. But some will understand it to be impersonal simply because s/he is not alone, everybody else who is in line is experiencing the same thing as s/he is – waiting for food. See, no one has asked you how you're understanding the experience of waiting in line, but you are already doing it anyway. And so it can be with your position of your world experience. How you understand your experience of the world is a position of its own philosophical merit. The only difference is that no one had asked you to express it. Without a self-realised position, it may be difficult to do some proper philosophy because you have no referential framework for considering other arguments. Some folks might argue that not having a position is good because it allows you to be open minded and free to develop your own unique philosophical position. Yes, that would be true if a person in fact did not have a position in this matter. However, experience is a universal thing, and chances are that a person would have long developed a position before s/he could even reflect on it. For instance, when it comes to the question of whether there is an external world or not – just the world that we know, the world of experience: I reject the position of an external world, that is, a world external to one's experience. And, I may not be so interested in figuring out which school of thought affirms the existence of such a world as much as I would be interested in learning more from the schools that don't. This can happen, yes. However, because I am interested in doing philosophy in a careful way, I am determined in learning from both positive and negative arguments, having realized my own understanding of the world.

It is. It is your true self - impersonal awareness beyond all shapes/densities/qualities. Whereas your sense of self that has a quality and density to it is personal. It is ego. A mask. We confuse ourselves with the mask. But behind the mask there is awareness in which the dense sense of self is seen. That space beyond all shapes in which every shape arise is what would be called your true self in classical spirituality.

Answer: We can’t catalog every experience and what specific individuals think about it, so to get true useful knowledge we need to reduce experience, which is existence shining as consciousness, to two fundamental categories: which is always a conscious intelligent subject apparently transacting with discrete inert events. Of course, it is wise to point out that chasing objects that one believes will remove a sense of lack caused by ignorance of one’s non-dual self is futile. At the same time, how will a conscious being discover the futility of object happiness, unless he or she chases objects, which we all do from the get-go? It’s only after realizing the futility of that pursuit that you become open to another point of view. My teacher, Swami Chinmaya, emphasized experience because Vedanta attracts a lot of intelligent intellectual people who think they can read their way to freedom. However, he insisted, as does Vedanta, that the solution to the sense of lack and inadequacy could only be solved by self knowledge, which needs to come from outside aka an impersonal teaching and a dispassionate teacher of self inquiry because unconscious biases are always present. His most famous disciple, Swami Dayananda, however, found it necessary to swing the pendulum back to the knowledge side, so his signature teaching distinguished experience from knowledge so that the experiential crowd could work their way through their resistance to knowledge. As you are probably aware, there is a very strong anti-intellectual bias in the yogic community. They are generally chasing samadhi, which they define as a discrete experience, a thought free state, whereas Vedanta defines the self as samadhi, a non-dual understanding that that values all objects equally. A particular sutra says, “a yogi in samadhi sees no difference between a nugget of gold and the excreta of a crow.” So the pendulum is always swinging back an forth, correcting itself if you will. When the mind becomes too extroverted, it becomes painful, so it seeks answers within. When it becomes too introverted also suffers the sickness of enlightenment. A mature cultivated person doesn’t give undue importance to either the world or the self but sees them both as non-different. Consequently, they enjoy dynamic peaceful lives.

Yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahamudra "literally means "great seal" or "great imprint" and refers to the fact that "all phenomena inevitably are stamped by the fact of wisdom and emptiness inseparable". Aka mere empty "imagined" appearances, not existing "out there" but within the Infinite vastness of True Being/Universal Consciousness as mere appearance in this nondual field, not as external objects "out there", aka duality. There is a lot of cultural lingo in Buddhism, especially Tibetan Buddhism, that I didn't understand in the beginning, like why they called it Great Seal. Or Emptiness. Or dependend origination. Or Middle Way. Or No Self. Proto-Mahamudra was imported from India around the 10 century, so the term comes probably from India and is used there also. Daniel Brown once said Mahamudra (for example in his book Pointing out the Great Way) is best for Awakening, and then adding Dzogchen-Methods (the books he translated later, kind of a collection of best of Tibetan Buddhism selected by 33rd Menri Trizin. Mahamudra as explained in Pointing out the Great Way = a nearly mathematical step by step method towards Awakening (Nondual Infinite Field at least temporarily seen by impersonal Awareness itself, but some very subtle processes/filters/lenses still clouding full realization). Before that comes Nonduality (or One Taste), or a separate-self (or ET) merging in Unity with the Infinite Field (of earthly or alien form). Dzogchen = Great Perfection, or the path that completes path to Enlightenment. Or fully ripened Awakened Awareness/Awakening, no clusters of separate-self arisings not transcended/seen through/still clouding Impersonal Infinite Being/Awareness. In my perspective the by far most sophisticated and fastest meditation methods (Mahamudra+Dzogchen) on the planet. Nearly all other methods/systems/techniques/traditions are found within these methods one way or the other, but not the other way round. Selling the Great Seal by the River

Great post. Couple things. I wouldn't count thoughts or feelings as objects, as you can control thoughts and emotions, just like they can control you. A person can be a positive thinker or a negative thinker. If one focuses on practicing looking at the brighter side of things over a prolong period of time one can produce a mind that is positive. The same is true for its opposite. The next thing is it is not good to repress negative emotions. All emotions seeks expression and they will have their way. You have two routes to dealing with negative emotions. You can sit with them and allow them to express until they fizzle out, or you can logically sort them out with yourself or another that you trust. But you can't ignore them. Also life is NOT just impersonal, it is highly personal as well. If it wasn't you couldn't have a first person perspective experience. It's like a video game or a movie. You can take the perspective of the character, or the objective view of what is happening and both have their own merit within their own paradigm.

1. First understand that Life is a zero-sum game. 2. The objects you seek don’t contain satisfaction/happiness. If they did the same object would produce the same joy or suffering for everyone. 3. Objects are anything you seek other than yourself. For instance: feelings, thoughts, events, situations, relationships, etc. 4. It’s natural to seek objects, but the results of your seeking are not up to you, although you can influence them. 5. So do your very best and don’t ignore the moral dimension of reality. 6. Look for the lesson in unwanted results, take them cheerfully and correct what you said or did that produced them. 7. Without compromising your principles try to accommodate yourself to the situations presented by the field of life. 8. You will inwardly react personally to what happens, but it is wise to keep negative reactions to yourself. Life is impersonal and doesn’t care what you think. In so far as people take things personally, it is best to not express negative reactions unless they are requested. 9. This wisdom and the attitude it encourages is called Karma Yoga. It works. The benefits are: it removes the anxiety for results which usually compromises your skill in action, which allows your karma stream to efficiently and happily carry you to your goal.

Feels like coming home, doesn't it? Or like drowning in the River, killing "me" softly... Forgive me some comments, but here are some practices that helped me a lot at that stage to make that Nondual Awakening nice&stable: The only missing ingridients are letting these states of Infinite Nondual Awakend Awareness ripen (they ripen by themself since the illusion has become instable. The path starts showing itself to itself now). Yet, one can put a blow-torch (Nonmeditation-Yoga in Mahamudra for example, see below) on the remnants of the illusion, to evaporate them faster... At some point, the only illusion still arising is the "one" of the one realizing all of that ("realizing" Nonduality and mere imagined appearance and so on). Then, the Impersonal Infinite Totality can wake up to itself, exactly when the "one/personal individuality/being separate/former separate-self" is seen through as mere concept/persistant illusion, a bundle of ideas/concepts/I-thoughts/I-feelings, and never having been anything more than that - and then the illusion drops away, being replaced by the Infinite Vastness of True Being/Reality, realizing itself as it truly is. That happens when every thought/feeling/and appearance of the "outer" world is realized as mere appearance hovering in Infinite Nondual Vastness/Being/Nothingnes/Emptiness. Then IT can be realized. And realizing that despite the illusion of separation has been appearing (as illusion), THIS Infinite Being/Reality/Universal Mind has always been the case, despite being temporarily been covered by coulds of separation-illusion/ignorance. There are teachings for speeding up that process (ripening from Nonduality (Yoga of One Taste in Mahamudra) with remnants of a separate-self to true impersonal Infinite Being/Reality (Nonmeditation Yoga in Mahamudra). I found these very helpful. https://www.actualized.org/forum/search/?&q=Nonmeditation yoga&author=Water by the River Pretty sold out by the River

Porn is porn. Jerking off is jerking off. If you just watch some porn and jerk off and leave it at that all those other mind fuckery wouldn't even come into play. Now, there's a problem, now we analyze, now we build upon what we think is the cause, now we go get help, now we talk and make it seem sooooo complicated. Now life goes on and porn will still be there after you die. It doesn't care about your neurotic relationship to it. It is impersonal. But not you, everything is about you. Life revolves around you. Not porn. It's not even porn. We gave it that name. It's just energy fucking. Having a grand ole time while we need to go get therapy. Go jerk off and jerk off some more. Jerking off is having a party too. Everything is having a party except the mind. The mind hates parties. It wants to vent, argue, criticize, judge, complain, demonize, hate, envy, attack, I mean everything but party. Even when it parties, it gets nervous and has to drink and do drugs to feel at ease and uninhibited. It can't relax. It needs constant stimulation. Complications. Go jerk off and feel good without having to not feel good about feeling good. Even when it feels good it has to feel guilt and shame. Go jerk off some more and jerk away the guilt. You'd be wishing you could jerk off some more when you turn into that emptiness . No fingers or hands or porn to jerk off to. You'd be coming back for more. Then you'll be right back in therapy. Geesh, an Infinitude of total madness.