This Forum Is Becoming Less Curious

[r0ckyreed]

I’ve noticed something I have seen on the forum and a lot in myself lately and that is that everyone here (myself included) is becoming less curious or aka a know-it-all. I see all of these posts on “I have Awakened to this this ask me anything.” Or “I have awakened to this or that.” I don’t know why. I just notice less openmindedness and less people asking genuine questions in their original posts. 

Self-deception is contagious. To engage with the self-deception of others is to become self-deceived myself. I just wanted to point this out because nobody really seems to question anything on here.

People are just coming to share their self-deceptions thinking they are sharing an awakening. 

I am really writing this post to remind myself here of what I need to do. I think the best way to counteract self-deception is to always remain curious and don’t get caught up in needing to share anything with others. That very desire to share an awakening with others is part of the self-deception. 

If I know the truth, why do I need to share it with others? I know it’s because I am not confident in it and want some validation. But nobody can ever validate such things because it assumes they are not self-deceived.

I guess the key here is to propose genuine questions and keep being curious. I need to remind myself that awakening is a dream and part of the self-deception. Awakening isn’t the end of curiosity but part of it.

A know it all stops learning. I have become that in many parts of my life. 

In what areas are you a know-it-all? How have you been able to stay curious and learn? How can we foster a culture of learning here? 

I need to think about this more. I just needed to get that out of my brain for now.

I am now starting to think that Awakening is a Self-deception and true awakening is realizing that and becoming free from self-deception. But I also question that too because how can I become free from self-deception of reality itself is a self-deception? Nirvana and Enlightenment seem to be Buddhist fictions. All I see in spiritual communities is everyone parroting the same ideas with no original thought. Spirituality is just another human game. I don’t even know who is awake anymore. All the spiritual gurus I thought were awake, I am realizing that they are all full of crap just by hearing their self-deceptions in their own work. Osho is not awake. Mooji is not awake. Jim Carey is not awake. Tolle is not awake. Jed McKenna is not awake. Peter Ralston is not awake. The Buddha is not awake. Leo Gura is not awake. Jesus is not awake. Maharishi is not awake. Bashar is not awake. David Lion is not awake. Nahm is not awake. I am not awake.

What are some of the best ways to stay curious? Some people are more curious than others. Genetics and environment play a part in that. It is a self-deception to focus on the awakenings of others.

Sorry if this is a ramble. I have experienced jhanas and cessations and had mystical experiences into the nature of Absolute Beauty and Intelligence. But it seems like there are infinitely more places to go in my consciousness. I can never reach the end because there is none.

It seems like the final awakening will be in my death and everything else until that point will always be subpar. Death seems the only way to reach “the end” or “beginning” however you want to look at it.

How do you stay curious and become even more curious? The more insights I have, the less curious I notice myself becoming.

Edited April 13, 2023 by r0ckyreed

[Thought Art]

I am curious af personally.

But, what you point to has long been a theme here.

[Yimpa]

You’ve certainly made a bunch of claims that could be questioned.

[Moksha]

13 minutes ago, r0ckyreed said:

I guess the key here is to propose genuine questions and keep being curious.

Sincerity will never lead you astray.

As for curiosity, do you see a difference between conceptual exploration and deepening direct realization?

[Thought Art]

Oh you added a lot

[Water by the River]

23 minutes ago, r0ckyreed said:

I’ve noticed something I have seen on the forum and a lot in myself lately and that is that everyone here (myself included) is becoming less curious or aka a know-it-all. I see all of these posts on “I have Awakened to this this ask me anything.” Or “I have awakened to this or that.” I don’t know why. I just notice less openmindedness and less people asking genuine questions in their original posts. 

Self-deception is contagious. To engage with the self-deception of others is to become self-deceived myself. I just wanted to point this out because nobody really seems to question anything on here.

 

True 

Looks sometimes like this here:

 

I believe these two here are sweeter:

 

Curiosity, compassion, marveling at the wonder of all of this, and always keeping some humor considering that the Clap of the One Hand is also the biggest Joke ever (not) told.

Being too serious always feels like the suffering of a separate self, not being amused by its own visual field. Or, the short visual form of that statement, in 14 seconds:

 

 

Water by the River

 

 

[Yimpa]

5 minutes ago, Moksha said:

As for curiosity, do you see a difference between conceptual exploration and deepening direct realization?

Any differences that those two have occur in the Mind.

Furthermore, they can both happen simultaneously. 

So there really is no binary answer to this question, from my point of view.

[BlueOak]

Internet - Shares information quicker. Everything loses some of the mystery. Everything is STILL speeding up. Easiest to see in the media but also in the workplace if you've lived for a while. I wonder if eventually, a need for instant gratification will reach a peak and then slow down with one of these newer generations when they reach a burnout too quickly.

Cynical - Lot more people are cynical or skeptical around us, and this inevitably means we are too. We can cite the various social issues of the last decade. This is the opposite of being curious or open-minded.

We are in a pulling-back phase and have been for about 10 years to my mind. I tend to think we go through phases of consolidation and exploration. If I want a positive spin on it. Like a closing and then an opening of the mind. I personally find it very difficult to deal with, almost universally in day-to-day life, as I constantly want to go in the opposite direction toward exploration.

Just part of the cycle. 

Edited April 14, 2023 by BlueOak

[Moksha]

2 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

Any differences that those two have occur in the Mind.

Every experience is within the dream, but is the quality of experiencing thought-entrapment equal to the quality of experiencing enlightenment?

[Yimpa]

1 minute ago, Moksha said:

Every experience is within the dream, but is the quality of experiencing thought-entrapment equal to the quality of experiencing enlightenment?

Probably not, but who’s judging 

[Yimpa]

33 minutes ago, r0ckyreed said:

What are some of the best ways to stay curious?

By understanding yourself at ever deeper levels. 

Now, if you want to label that as self-deception, then there’s nobody on here or out in the “real world” who can change your mind.

[Moksha]

Just now, Yimpa said:

Probably not, but who’s judging 

Certainly not the absolute  Within the dream there are highs and lows, and the absolute chooses where it appears to go.

[Hojo]

What you need to do is create a group or tribe of people specifically existing to explore consciousness together all being non bias and open minded in real life with out it turning into a shit show. Somehow the ancients managed it in the wild while mapping out consciousness. True hero's 

[Yimpa]

7 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

By understanding yourself at ever deeper levels. 

Now, if you want to label that as self-deception, then there’s nobody on here or out in the “real world” who can change your mind.

[r0ckyreed]

34 minutes ago, Thought Art said:

Oh you added a lot

Yeah. I apologize. I’m mentally exhausted and was not in my best state of mind when posting all of that. But it was something on my mind that I wanted just to get out of my brain and get an outsiders perspective.

[r0ckyreed]

26 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

By understanding yourself at ever deeper levels. 

Now, if you want to label that as self-deception, then there’s nobody on here or out in the “real world” who can change your mind.

I don’t think understanding yourself is a self-deception. I think the colloquial conceptions of what awakening is are a self-deception. Buddhists like to define it as the end of suffering which is a self-deception. There is no end of suffering. Vulnerability is ingrained in life.

Even Leo appeared to be self-deceived of his conceptions of enlightenment. 

I hear people claiming to have awakened but all I am seeing is them still inside their own matrix. So yes, awakening is not excluded from self-deception. It is possible to have false awakenings and insights, which goes against my initial intuitions.

Edited April 13, 2023 by r0ckyreed

[r0ckyreed]

18 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

I thought Leo banned this stuff. AI is not awake lol. AI is part of matrix lol.

[HMD]

1 hour ago, r0ckyreed said:

The more insights I have, the less curious I notice myself becoming.

Stop turning those insights into beliefs, theories, or models. Because that's the only way in which insights can make you less open-minded. Yes, you can have an insight that being less open-minded is good, but if you have that insight, then being less open minded might be better for you in that scenario. 

 

Also, You can't always be open-minded right? There are phases for everyone and a balance must be struck between open-mindedness and close mindedness. 

Edited April 13, 2023 by HMD

[Moksha]

25 minutes ago, r0ckyreed said:

I don’t think understanding yourself is a self-deception. I think the colloquial conceptions of what awakening is are a self-deception. Buddhists like to define it as the end of suffering which is a self-deception. There is no end of suffering. Vulnerability is ingrained in life.

You're correct that there are false awakenings, where the absolute convinces itself that it is lucid but it is still thought-identified. It's a common spiritual trap and everyone (including me) is wise to be wary of it.

Conceptions of awakening are never awakening. It is direct realization, or it is false.

When mystics speak of ending suffering, they are referring to the suffering caused by identifying with the conditioned mind. Desires and fears always lead to suffering, because they are based on the false belief that the object of desire or fear is real. Love, integrity, and happiness are only directly realized within.

[Yimpa]

47 minutes ago, r0ckyreed said:

I thought Leo banned this stuff.

Not true. This is what’s not allowed:

“Posting AI-generate content like text, images, or video without disclosing that it was sourced from AI”