robdl

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Posts posted by robdl

  1. Posted · Edited by robdl

    On 7/6/2020 at 2:22 PM, Leo Gura said:

    That's the ego's entire game: fear of losing itself.

    Indeed.  I'd go a step further and say that the ego = the game = the fear.   It's a single, unitary movement.  There's no distinction between the ego and the game, or between the ego/game and the fear.    The ego is the fear is the game, even though language makes them appear as separate things or processes.

  2. Posted · Edited by robdl

    1 hour ago, VeganAwake said:

    Yep that happens of course...

    People can turn doing nothing into a practice ?

    The mind can only operate through a sense of effort --- I mean the mind is this effort/volition ---  so it approaches meditation in the same manner as it would approach any other worldly activity, right?  It wouldn't know how to approach it any other way.

  3. Posted

    1 hour ago, VeganAwake said:

    One of Leo's videos that helped is called "Distraction the egos favorite defense mechanism"

    When I look back now after several Awakening experiences it's easily recognized how important it was to Calm the whirlpool of the Mind or Chronic pathological over thinking( monkey chatter)

    Traditional yogis believe that our souls are divine and therefore our true nature is a state of peace and bliss. But the whirls of consciousness that disturb our minds prevent us from experiencing our true nature. To reach the state of stillness—known as Samadhi—that allows us to experience the divine within us, we must reach the point where all the whirls of consciousness completely cease.

    A very straightforward translation of the sutra that defines yoga. Is quieting the mind through meditation. 

    Yoga is the ability to direct the mind exclusively toward an object and sustain that direction without any distractions. 

    But either way, whether the aim of your practice is to experience the divine bliss that is your true nature or simply to become more present and comfortable with uncertainty, quieting the mind is the path that will get you there. 

    The question is whether having a goal/aim/direction/focus itself in meditation is simply another distraction from unconditional awareness.

  5. Posted · Edited by robdl

    Indeed, it is paradoxically both stillness and aliveness/dynamic.

    Adyashanti described it perfectly:

    "When you enter the stillness of the eternal now by letting go of the fictional me, you see that reality, enlightenment, or God is like a flame.  It's alive, ever moving, and ever dancing --- the flame is always here.  But the flame is impermanent.  There is nothing about a flame that is permanent, static, or stable.  If it were, it would be dead.  Reality is alive, ever on the move, like a flame that leaps up from the log into the air.  Truth is continuous movement.  This movement, this aliveness of Truth, is constant.  It never ceases.  It is timeless.  Impermanence is the only continuous thing, the only permanent thing."

  6. Posted

    1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

    Not so hard really. If you ask most masters about their childhoods and how they got into spirituality, many of them will tell the same story of having spontaneous (psychedelic-like) mystical experiences, kundalini activations, astral projection, lucid dreaming, etc. when they were in their teens. Not to mention that basically all of them were deeply interested in metaphysical and spiritual questions from their youth. It is not at all an accident that they got involved in spiritual work.

    I notice this in myself. I was born a philosopher. I would estimate I have double the baseline level of consciousness of the average human and my sensitivity to psychedelics is at least double or triple that of a typical human. But even so, I never had spontaneous mystical experiences as many masters do. So I am nowhere near the top of the bell-curve of spiritual giftedness. But it is no accident that I ended up in this line of work.

    1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

    Not so hard really. If you ask most masters about their childhoods and how they got into spirituality, many of them will tell the same story of having spontaneous (psychedelic-like) mystical experiences, kundalini activations, astral projection, lucid dreaming, etc. when they were in their teens. Not to mention that basically all of them were deeply interested in metaphysical and spiritual questions from their youth. It is not at all an accident that they got involved in spiritual work.

    I notice this in myself. I was born a philosopher. I would estimate I have double the baseline level of consciousness of the average human and my sensitivity to psychedelics is at least double or triple that of a typical human. But even so, I never had spontaneous mystical experiences as many masters do. So I am nowhere near the top of the bell-curve of spiritual giftedness. But it is no accident that I ended up in this line of work.

    You're not a philosopher.  You may do philosophy, then you may do your laundry, then do whichever next thing.  ;)

     

  11. Posted

    Analysis, whether it is self-analysis or analysis performed by a psychyotherapist -- can it lead to further self-deception by reinforcing the division between the "I" (self-analyzer) and that which is being analyzed (accumulated experiences/memories/knowledge/beliefs), when in fact the "I" is one and the same process as that which is being analyzed?

    As Krishnamurti has said,

    Quote

    "Analysis implies division. There is the analyser and that which is to be analysed. Whether you analyse yourself, or it is done by a specialist, there is division, therefore there is already the beginning of conflict."

    Quote

    As we said, there is division between the analyser and the thing to be analysed, division between the observer and the thing observed: this is the root cause of conflict. When you observe, you always do so from a centre, from the background of experience and knowledge; the `me' as the Catholic, the Communist, the `specialist, and so on, is observing. So there is a division between `me' and the thing observed. This does not require a great deal of understanding, it is an obvious fact. When you look at a tree, at your husband, or wife, there is this division. It exists between yourself and the community. So there is this observer and the thing observed: in that division there is inevitably contradiction. That contradiction is the root of all strife.

     

  12. Posted · Edited by robdl

    Also, @Shanmugam has made the point that self-inquiry (as explained by Maharshi), choiceless awareness (as explained by J. Krishnamurti), and witnessing meditation (as explained by Osho) are in essence the same (he can correct me if I'm misunderstanding him on that).  What are your thoughts on that, @winterknight ?  Is there a commonality between all of these forms which language and terminology cloaks? They all appear to aim to de-objectify awareness and inwardly invert attention to pure-subject

     

  14. Posted · Edited by robdl

    choice implies a chooser entity -- but what is the chooser other than accumulated thought-memory-experience-knowledge content?  What is the thinker other than thought content?  So choice arises out of thought/the past.

    Thought sneakily chooses but doesn't realize it has done so --- thought projects a thinker which falsely assumes it has chosen.  But the thinker and thought are one and the same unitary process.

  15. Posted

    1 hour ago, winterknight said:

    In my opinion 'awakening to different facets' of things (including love, as if it's something separate) is a big confusion. There's a single truth (and not even that), which goes beyond concepts, people, facets, angles, degrees, etc.

    Though other people are free to believe what they want. 

     would you say that there is no such thing as spiritual progression-degrees and that all matters of comparison-measurement-progression-degrees are purely thought-self's attempts at self-feeding?

  19. Posted · Edited by robdl

    21 hours ago, SriBhagwanYogi said:

    Even if i meditate do self inquiry i cant Control my desires, they control me like i am animal lol 

    There is sexual desire.  Then a condemnation-resistance toward it which reflects the desire not to sexually desire.  So now you've just  shifted the problem from the desire for sex toward the desire for purity/chastity --- but it's  all desire, just in different cloaks, reacting to/within itself.

  20. Posted · Edited by robdl

    On 7/27/2019 at 3:38 PM, Beginner Mind said:

    I smoked some weed recently and it suddenly occurred to me that there is a constant like/dislike relationship happening between myself and life.  A constant resistance to what is.  To even the smallest things in life.  And I realized that much of my resistance to what is is totally unconscious and automatic.  So, I'm left to wonder, how does one deal with resistance when that resistance is unconscious and seemingly beyond one's control?

    To try to suppress, deny, change, fix, escape, condemn, or control the resistance is subtly and sneakily the very resistance itself, adversely reacting within/to itself.

    The entity which experiences resistance and the resistance itself aren't two separate processes, but a single, joint, self-reacting thought-process.

    Thought may take the aforementioned and become the conceptual "knower" of it, which is again thought dividing itself into knower-known, experiencer-experienced, etc.

  21. Posted

    Just now, Nahm said:

    @Meditationdude For what it’s worth, having taken 6+grams of shroom tea many times, and 30+mg meo a handful of times, both insufflation & vaporized...the shroom trips were far more powerful. Probably because I did only the shrooms 20 - 30 trips before trying 5-MeO. Sounds like that’s where you’re coming from. I know it’s not the popular testimony, but you might actually find the outcome to be the opposite of what you’re thinking. Meo is quite powerful and also particularly smooth imo, compared to the mindfuck jungle shrooms can be. Meo is also very dialed in to just being / consciousness. 

    I would agree with this.   The first couple minute come-up on 5meo was like the trepidation of realizing you're surfing a 1000 foot tidal wave, but mushrooms last so long and your mind can take you down so many negative rabbit holes during that time. 

  24. Posted · Edited by robdl

    43 minutes ago, Meditationdude said:

    The only psychedelic I’ve tried is shrooms and even then it makes me really anxious every time before I build up the courage to take them. I like shrooms but 5meo scares the shit out of me, how can I get over this so I can finally try it? What can I expect? 

    Ultimately for me the curiosity and drive (you could even describe it as a calling) to try 5meo surpassed my fear of what may happen.  

    I was willing to pass through any potential terror or insanity to achieve breakthrough. 

  25. Posted · Edited by robdl

    15 minutes ago, Synchronicity said:

    @Leo Gura I’m not saying Conservatives are more advanced at relativity. If you read my previous posts, I say that Liberals are more advanced in that area.

    I’m saying Conservatives are more advanced in other areas that I’ve listed...

    And ultimately the strong points can balance out

     

    Right, if "consciousness levels" are defined by the growth/advancement from absolutist worldviews to relativistic, that's a narrow/selective definition is what you're saying.