How do I capitalize on the fact that I create my reality?

[TrippyMindSubstance]

I've had peak experiences on psychedelics that showed me that "my reality" is just the result of a bunch of distinctions created by my mind - basically infinity filtered in some way that results in a finite experience. 

It seems that parts of infinity must be rejected/blocked in order to form this finite experience, otherwise if I just let it all in I end up with infinite oneness. My problem is that I can't seem to configure the settings on my "filter" meaning I can't choose the parts of infinity that I want to let in and the parts that I want to block, which results in a fairly random reality that might not be very joyful, peaceful and satisfying.

What is the point of realizing that "you create your reality" if you can't choose how you want your reality to be. In that case, the "you" in that sentence is actually referring to the absolute You aka God, not the ego "you" which is the one that actually has preferences on how this reality should be. 

All in all, if I can't use spirituality to make my reality/life better, what is the point? Why not just go become a Christian or Muslim and accept that I'm powerless and just submit to the will of God? I honestly wish I could do this because I think it would make life so much more simple, but now I feel like I know too much, and I would never really be able to integrate myself into their "system" with their beliefs.

I feel very spiritually frustrated these days.

[Matthew85]

@TrippyMindSubstance I understand your frustration. I have had similar feelings at certain points in my life. You are far from powerless. But you can use your power to create the experience of feeling powerless. The ego "you" and god are not separate. That is an illusion you are creating to have a unique experience. If you desire to have more control over creating your day to day reality. You will need to deconstruct all of the beliefs that you have accepted as truth and change them to empowering beliefs that reflect the life you want to create for yourself. It will take discipline and focus but the benefits are immense if you are willing to do the work.

Edited July 25, 2021 by Matthew85

[LastThursday]

It's tricky.

What you call the "mind" is yet another set of distinctions; what are these distinctions created by? If the mind isn't created by distinctions, then it must be infinite oneness as you say.

The mind is in fact seamless with reality as it is all infinite oneness. If we redefine reality to be this way, then reality is creating distinctions within itself automatically. This must be true for anything to exist at all. If there's nothing to be distinguished then nothing can exist. This is how reality bootstraps itself from nothing, all it needs is that single spark of distinction and the rest follows. Distinction is built into the fabric of reality. Distinction is reality.

"You" are yet another set of distinctions - and you can already see where that leads.

Reality does what reality does. God does what God does. In fact doing is overstating things because it implies separation: a doer doing something. More accurately reality exists or unfolds or arises or is.

So joy, peace and satisfaction are just more distinctions. The distinctions are in constant flux. Joy comes and goes and so does everything else.

The utility of spirituality is in recognising reality for what it is - and not seeing yourself and your mind as separate from it.

[TrippyMindSubstance]

@Matthew85 I understand that to some level but I still struggle with it because the idea of going through this process of deconstructing beliefs and replacing them seems like nothing but another thought right now.. another carrot on a stick for me to follow with the hopes of it bringing me satisfaction, but ultimately distracting me from the present moment. I know it's kind of a bad response to what you said but I just have this intuitive sense that my answer can only be found right here right now, not after a few years of work.

 

@LastThursday I think I get what you're saying, but I'm struggling to "stabilize" it. It feels like the understanding is flickering in front of me but I'm struggling to see it for long enough to completely make sense of it. Let me try to focus.. 

So it's not God creating my reality from "the outside", it's reality creating itself. There is only one reality with no "outside" force to shape it. Reality is distinctions, and me being in control of those distinctions vs god being in control of those distinctions is just another distinction to further "grow" the present moment in complexity. I feel like I'm currently lost in a sea of distinctions and only digging myself deeper and I need to relax and let the distinctions fade in order to see the truth. 

[TrippyMindSubstance]

So I tried to relax and let all distinctions subside, but it didn't seem entirely possible since reality is distinctions. I know @Nahm has spoken about creating your reality before, so I checked out his youtube video about it and something definitely clicked. 

My entire initial post was essentially me creating frustration for myself by constantly repeating these thoughts about how I'm frustrated about the fact that I can't create my reality. I was creating that reality for myself. It's true that I'm not completely powerless because I have the power to make myself feel frustrated like that, and I also have the power to make myself feel good by thinking good feeling thoughts, and that is what I should do right now.

I've had experiences where I was in lots of physical pain, and I couldn't just feel good by thinking nice thoughts, but again, all that I have right now is this present moment. That memory, as well as the thought of some future experience where I'll be in too much pain to be able to feel good just by thinking nice things is just another thought occurring in this present moment. In fact, it is a counterproductive thought that is pushing me back into that same frustration I was feeling at the beginning of this post. Right now I will focus on some nice thoughts/feelings that I like and let that make my reality more peaceful, satisfying and joyful.

[Leo Gura]

You're still missing the surrender to God part of all this.

That's not some religous dogma. That's the core of waking up.

The ego wants to use God's powers to manipulate reality. So be careful falling into that trap. God's powers are not meant for the ego. The ego will not get God's powers.

[Matthew85]

@TrippyMindSubstance You should always follow your intuition. You may be missing the constructive power of thoughts though. Imagination or thoughts is what creates reality. There are many profound insights you can have right here right now. You can certainly find contentment in the present moment. That is actually the best place to start from. But if you are looking to construct a new reality for yourself, I haven't seen that accomplished without changing your dominant beliefs and thoughts. It doesn't need to take years. You will often see changes in a few weeks, sometimes days. I have felt the frustration you are feeling and wanted to share what I have discovered that has worked for me. 

[TrippyMindSubstance]

@Matthew85 Fair enough, I appreciate the input!

@Leo Gura How do you navigate the balance of surrendering to God vs exerting your own (ego's) will upon reality?

There were times where I've found myself on both ends of the spectrum, where I either realize that:

- my will will always ultimately fail me with no option left besides total surrender to the truth/oneness/death and getting to this point of complete surrender is the purpose of life

or

- the truth/oneness/death is always "chasing" me, and the very act of resisting surrendering to it is the exact process that creates existence, or in other words, running from death is the driving force/energy of life. So in this scenario, resisting surrender and exerting my own will is the point of life

 

I feel like this is all totally circular though, where even surrendering to God is a sneaky attempt at manipulating reality because if I surrender to God, I'm doing so with the belief that it's going to make me enlightened or whatever and my reality will be better because of it.

But at the same time, if I exert my will upon reality, it's not really "my" will, as in I didn't choose to have these desires, I just mysteriously have them (or you could say God put them there) and me acting on them can be seen as me surrendering to the will of God. 

[Leo Gura]

@TrippyMindSubstance It's like learning to surf. It simply requires experience and massive trail and effort until you get an intuitive feel for it.

There will never be an algorithm for this. So just get in lots of practice.

Resolving this problem at its root requires deep awakening. The ego cannot do it. The ego has to fully surrender. And you're nowhere close to that yet.

[mememe]

8 hours ago, TrippyMindSubstance said:

All in all, if I can't use spirituality to make my reality/life better, what is the point?

why? why can’t you? 

maybe it’s because you are fast goal oriented.

so your life gets worse every day? sounds a bit like it.

concentrate on what you can change for a better instead of concentrating what is not possible right now (it might be in the future).

[Leo Gura]

If you actually actualized spirituality, you would not need to make your life better. Just being conscious of yourself as God is enough for you to feel complete. Everything else would just be the cherry on top.

You don't do spirituality to make your life better, you do spirituality to realize your life is already Perfect regardless of how it is.

Of course you can still make material improvements, but they are of little import relative to your spiritual connection to reality.

The purpose of spirituality is to build that inner metaphysical connection. It is like an umbilical cord to God. To ask, "But how can I use this cord to make myself rich?" misses the point. The cord itself is the highest prize.

[mememe]

@Leo Gura yes and, where does that umbilical cord go to?

it‘s still is very much connected to the material world isn’t it? planet earth is not just an abstract.

i understand that every practical skill to change anything must be learned in advance (it’s a time consuming process).

if @TrippyMindSubstance is catched up in a lower stage of the maslows hierarchy of needs - the situation is perfect, but not. so practical skills might be despite everything spiritual still needed to make life better - it’s not that anyone is born and hey - perfect - no changes needed any more i stay this way. we would have gotten stuck in the middleages (if we haven’t).

Edited July 26, 2021 by mememe

[Leo Gura]

1 hour ago, mememe said:

yes and, where does that umbilical cord go to?

it‘s still is very much connected to the material world isn’t it?

It's a metaphysical cord. It has no length.

[mememe]

54 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

It's a metaphysical cord. It has no length.

it’s not about the leangth. how weird..

do all men always think in leangth measurement?

probably a superstition, and then again such a basic insight.

Edited July 26, 2021 by mememe

[LastThursday]

10 hours ago, TrippyMindSubstance said:

It feels like the understanding is flickering in front of me

This stuff is not for the chattering mind. All this talk of distinctions is just to keep the mind distracted with a good story.

This sums it up completely:

9 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

You're still missing the surrender to God part of all this.

You are diffusing your "mind" and "you" into reality itself. You are learning to be indistinct from reality/God.

[Nahm]

13 hours ago, TrippyMindSubstance said:

I've had peak experiences on psychedelics that showed me that "my reality" is just the result of a bunch of distinctions created by my mind - basically infinity filtered in some way that results in a finite experience. 

It seems that parts of infinity must be rejected/blocked in order to form this finite experience, otherwise if I just let it all in I end up with infinite oneness. My problem is that I can't seem to configure the settings on my "filter" meaning I can't choose the parts of infinity that I want to let in and the parts that I want to block, which results in a fairly random reality that might not be very joyful, peaceful and satisfying.

You already are, via focus. The current lens of focus is “my problem”. Focus instead on the solution, on what you do want. You won’t find “the filter” per se, as ‘you’ is the lens & filter. 

13 hours ago, TrippyMindSubstance said:

What is the point of realizing that "you create your reality" if you can't choose how you want your reality to be. In that case, the "you" in that sentence is actually referring to the absolute You aka God, not the ego "you" which is the one that actually has preferences on how this reality should be. 

Scrutinize that belief / projection / assumption. 

13 hours ago, TrippyMindSubstance said:

All in all, if I can't use spirituality to make my reality/life better, what is the point? Why not just go become a Christian or Muslim and accept that I'm powerless and just submit to the will of God?

Be aware of strict dualities, this or that’s, held in mind. All seems black & white but is entirely always in actuality grey. The black & whiting is only in the thought, while reality is an apparent continuum without distinction or separation. 

13 hours ago, TrippyMindSubstance said:

I honestly wish I could do this because I think it would make life so much more simple, but now I feel like I know too much, and I would never really be able to integrate myself into their "system" with their beliefs.

I feel very spiritually frustrated these days.

It’s not about looking for new, or ‘right’ beliefs. It’s about more deeply inspecting & realizing what is already the case. Adopt the practice of daily morning meditation, to allow the layer of self referential thinking, “me as the thinker & doer”, to fall away in deep relaxation. Be more aware of your vibration, how you feel and why. Make a dreamboard. 

The universe exists only for your experience of it. Have fun. That is “the secret”. 

[TrippyMindSubstance]

@Leo Gura @Nahm @LastThursday Thanks for the help guys.

It seems that even though there is a time and place for surrendering and a time and place for imposing your will, it's becoming quite clear that I'm still missing a big chunk of the surrender aspect and I still have so much fear and resistance to work through.

I have a deep fear that if I surrender I will get screwed over, because I need to take responsibility for my life in order to not get screwed over. Obviously this is true at some level, you can't just sit around and do nothing, but at the same time I know that this is mostly a bullshit excuse because a lot of the ways in which I refuse to surrender aren't exactly me trying to take responsibility for my life, but are more centred around me trying to avoid facing certain fears, and every time I try to manipulate reality to avoid these fears, they get re-manifested in another way. 

 

[Matthew85]

Surfing is an excellent Metaphor. The universe or god is in a co creative dance with itself as you. Surrendering is about learning to trust and align your will with that. You want to learn to align your mind with god. How do you do that? Well as has already been suggested, you need to investigate and scrutinize the beliefs and assumptions you are holding. Another effective way is to start cultivating more appreciation and love for yourself and the world. With practice you will learn to intuitively feel when you are there and when you are not. You will also start to see that most of the fears you are holding onto are illusions the ego mind is generating. Don't stress about all of this too much. Spend some time investigating what excites you in life too. Start to explore that. More joy is available here and now for you. Look for it and you will find it. 

[Nahm]

@TrippyMindSubstance

For sure. Life is just one big shit sandwich after another and you just gotta eat em & suffer through until it kills you or you die of old age. Whenever it get’s rough & you’re not feelin how you’d like to, just suppress that nonsense of feeling, bury it deep down inside. People have been not meditating daily for eons and there is no reason for you not to fall in line and live an unexceptional mundane life filled with fear. It’s all Radom luck man, maybe you’ll be a politician and make your millions from fear mongering. ? 

[Gianna]

You capitalize by knowing that you have everything, are everything, feel everything, love everything, and create everything. 
You will never stop 'capitalizing' on everything you create, even if it's "bad". 

Edited July 26, 2021 by Gianna