tsuki

Well, for me - today's game was to suffer until you give up and go along with it by showing aggression. That was pure happiness. I would have never guessed it given my recent advice to @MarkusSweden. Funny how you can screw yourself over by trying to help haha . As for the OP - one more advice just to screw myself again: You never know what other people think. It is you thinking up their thoughts as you read their behavior. There is no guarding your happiness. Once you start to guard it - you've lost it as you are defending it against yourself.

There are always 3 stages of this game: I don't know what I'm doing. I know what I'm doing. I try to use my knowledge to conquer the game. The first stage is when you feel lost. The second stage is when you feel progress. The third stage is when you suffer because you don't know that you play a different game. When you know the rules of the game (like you laid them out in the OP), there is only the stage of conquering and suffering. It signifies the moment that you should know that you don't know. To return back to square one and feel lost. This is done by surrendering to your suffering. To give up. If you give up so thoroughly that you give up yourself, you become the spectator. You can enjoy the irresistibility of your suffering. The game just goes on without the player.

@Shakazulu It always really seems that way until you really have to go, doesn't it?

@Maycol So, in short: you do not understand what enlightenment is, but you understand what it isn't? That anything you pick that claims to point towards it is not sufficient? Could it be in fact related to the ability to always discard something? Why don't you discard your discarding and try a different approach? Assume from the start that all is one and see how many problems you can fix. Wouldn't it be that all problems are fixed that way? In one swoop? Or would it be that it would break logic that you so dearly hold on to? Would you be willing to become insane to reach enlightenment?

From Leo's blog.

Very good. It does not matter where you look, as long as you do. You can travel the world just to see that everywhere is the same and realize that everything is you. There is no path, but only a fool doesn't walk it. How would you see the world as not you, if you were to see that it is you? You are a perspective. To see yourself as a perspective is a perspective in itself. If you do that, then there is no you. There is only reality that watches itself. To arrive at that point is to see infinite beauty. Isn't life either beauty or utility? You can see that everything is beauty if there is nobody to benefit from utility.

Hahaha . You got it .

When you watch a good show, you feel the characters' suffering, and yet - this is precisely why you enjoy the show. Enlightenment in this context is to see that you are both the character and the spectator. That you enjoy your life precisely because you suffer. That suffering is irresistible to watch. Irresistibility is the hallmark of a great performance. The greatest performance is reality. It is so real, that you cannot help, but watch when the right time comes. When it comes to your question about animals: What is the difference between your suffering when you watch them, and them suffering? Before you read this sentence, did suffering of aliens concern you? Everything is as enlightened as you are, because you are everything. Are you perhaps questioning your own enlightenment here?

@Faceless Yes. Measurement implies gain/loss which relates the world to 'I'. There will always be 'enemy' to fight when one chooses to split himself from the world. To deny oneness is to blind yourself to yourself. To introduce the unknown/other to fight. This is why there is always an illusion of progress. You cannot defeat yourself. The insight of today for me is this: Paradox is the symmetry of reality.

Thank you nonetheless. Seeing your concern for whomever cheered me up. After all, I and @MarkusSweden are one. He's the capital letter and I am the full stop. @sarapr Just look at his post count! He posts in all threads, so no wonder that threads the posts in become hot! (Also kidding!)

@Faceless Haha, using measure as a measure of embodying immeasurable . Ego is so very very very sneaky. I'm alright friend Thanks for your concern

Sorry Markus. I just don't understand why you're using your intellect like this. I guess that we're reflecting each other too much to share one space. Crafting flawless posts, wondering if we're helping, or breaking. It is sometimes difficult to just dance.

Acknowledging your faults is easy. What about acknowledging faults of others? Isn't that a little faulty of you?

Also: lots of shoulds and shouldn'ts for the advocacy of spontaneity.

The impulse to make plans arises spontaneously. The impulse to go, or not to go through with your plans arises spontaneously as well. That constant spontaneity is spontaneous as well. This is what life looks through the lens of 'now'.

We all experience infinite love for the drama of our own life. It takes infinite compassion for yourself to wake up from that.

@zunnyman Fear of death is a powerful driving force of change. If it is an important part of your life, expect it to surface regardless of whether you pursue enlightenment or not. You may decide to stay clear of psychedelics because you may die 'because of' them and pursue meditation instead. After doing it for 5 years you may decide that it is not going anywhere and take 30 day meditation challenge just to realize that it may physically kill you. If fear of death is what stops you - it will always stop you from you stopping it. It is, after all, what stops ordinary people from asking what am I even doing this for? I will die, after all! Try asking yourself: who is going to be there to witness my death? Me? Physical death is the ultimate stop. If your life is so miserable now that you want to become enlightened, why do you fear it? It is what stops everything, including suffering. Try to find solace in it. Why don't you use it to propel yourself towards enlightenment? What if you die before you get enlightened? Did that question occur to you?

We are all enlightened, friend ❤️

@Mikael89 @Ether Oh man, you guys have no idea. Enlightenment is seeing stillness in ceaseless movement. To let go of 'I' is to get rid of the barrier that prevents the movement. It simply moves. By itself. Precisely because there is nobody to benefit from it. Infinite meaning in pure nothingness.

@deci belle Is there a difference between the term described as: going unnoticed, no one noticing , 'I am not the person' and simply not relating stealing potential to attain benefit/avoid losses? One cannot steal potential to gain something, as one steals it by discarding himself. There is no-one to gain anything and that's the point in my understanding. This part throws me off. In the first paragraph, you stress that there is no reason for going either way. Later however, you seem to point towards redirecting this saved energy towards self-refinement. What is the counterbalance for self-refinement for 'ordinary people' if there is no difference between going either way? Is it simply that enlightened beings consciously direct energy towards 'growing up' and circumstances change by themselves in response? Ordinary people direct energy towards changing circumstances and 'grow up' in response to them. Again: what is the difference between refinement and gratification from the point of view of spiritual alchemy? I'm still learning the language you express enlightenment in. We may misunderstand each other. My path manifested enlightenment firstly as the never-ending shift of perspective. I think that you refer to it as fire. This fire is sustained by effortless observation of symmetries of everyday situations. That one counterpart of a symmetry can be turned on itself to produce the other. This itself is such a violation of rules for 'ordinary people' that obvious solutions to everyday problems are unthinkable for them. Today I understood that one can 'sustain' fire as the never-ending breaking of rules only by perpetually 'burning' oneself. To be the fuel. To willingly die, to forget everything. That nothing matters anymore. This can be interpreted as only working with not-knowing by doing no one noticing of the shift of perspective. By not trying to change perspective to gain something. Then, this change is indistinguishable from seeing. You just know that it was the perfect moment. This shift of perspective in ordinary people is when they play the trick on themselves. They are reborn. To see the fire is to become its fuel. Is there any relationship with any of this to your spiritual practice?

@Maycol You are welcome friend.

@Applejuice Remember that this is the game of courage, not of fear. When you start to fear to lose this, it is precisely the moment to cast it away so thoroughly, that you even cast away hope that it will come back. It is to be cast away so deeply that you may never get it back. To return to your own self. If you try to grasp it and make it stick with you - you will lose it. This is the game of contradiction and paradox. Learn that it has no rules. It is only audacity that will get you there. Great sharing. Godspeed!

God, this is so beautiful! Thank you @cetus56!

@Faceless Great video! I really enjoyed it. If you don't play life, life will toy with you. It will always seem like there are problems to solve. The great hoax is that you are the one that introduces them by trying to fix things! You fix one thing and the other breaks precisely because of what you did. Unless you can find solace in your deficiencies, the world will always seem hostile by taking things away from you!