abrakamowse

Thanks @Azrael for sharing!! Awesome! There's a lot of pointers that will be useful for everyone here! Thanks again.

We already live forever...

Here there's a buddhist monk required by the justice for money laundering. Being Buddhist doesn't make you automatically a good person, same thing as a christian priest is not "christian" because he says so... even the Catholic and Protestant Church doesn't follow the Christ teachings so... we need not to be biased towards any religious group. http://www.voanews.com/a/thai-forces-ring-temple-standoff-buddhist-monk/3726823.html It happened in the Dhammakaya Temple http://www.dhammakaya.net/about-us/dhammakaya-temple-history

@Geo did you read about spiritual bypassing?

@nightrider1435 Glad to know it can be of help for you. I like that website. I would recommend you to listen to their podcast. Really interesting.

@Orange Spiritual Bypassing It can feel like you are stuck in a kind of hell. Unable to go back to the old ways of excess, avoidance, and unconscious suffering, but also unable to open fully to a new way of life. You have one foot in and one foot out. The resistance to embracing the next iteration of your awakening can be strong as all get out. It can come in the form of falling back into old self-destructive patterns (which, sorry to say, won’t give you the fix they used to), becoming “depressed” and attaching to that identity, and the good ol’ trick of spiritual bypassing. Spiritual bypassing is when you use your past insights to avoid your present feelings. I’ve seen that there is no self, so I don’t need to do any personal work. Everything is love so I can just ignore how much I hate myself right now. I know suffering is optional, I’m not suffering, I’m past that point. Really. More here: http://deconstructingyourself.com/mindful-awakening.html I am learning about that myself. I just send you the link because I noticed how similar was to what you were talking about.

I think the judge "thing" is more about labeling things.

@Dodo Yes, I agree... I think that was the way consciousness gave a big shock to the ego. The ego worst fear is to lose the identity. The problem is that he doesn't know that "For whosoever will save his life (ego) shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life (ego) for my sake (consciousness) shall find it."

@Dodo I had a dream some years ago that I described as "the worst nightmare I ever had"... when I woke up it was like I couldn't think well. I was in shock... In the "nightmare" I lost my identity. I didn't know who I was... I wish I had that dream again. At the moment when it happened I didn't know anything about spirituality. That made me investigate spirituality differently. I was doing it wrong.

@Prabhaker very good book! Thanks!!!!

@Natura Sonoris I see... Ok, here there's a cheaper one but not sure if it is the same quality and it's not very cheap. :-P https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/isbn/9780824828936/

$ 25 here https://www.amazon.com/Ox-Herder-Zen-Parable-Illustrated/dp/0807615110/ref=pd_sim_14_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0807615110&pd_rd_r=MA4X9TGF33K3RAR1MBB9&pd_rd_w=W50J4&pd_rd_wg=GxTPc&psc=1&refRID=MA4X9TGF33K3RAR1MBB9

The only thing I know is that I AM. The problem is that after the knowing that I AM thoughts appear and say "I AM the body" "I AM bored" "I AM sad" "I AM happy" That happens because those thoughts are covering reality.

Awesome Martin!

@Snick what is doubt? I know is a thought, but what generates it?

And even that is only an idea... the mind makes it an object right?

But how that sensation of physicality is created? If there's no consciousness we wouldn't be knowing that there's a body. That's why I think that the body is inside consciousness. In fact there's no inside or outside, but you got the idea...

I had the feeling that the body mind creates the thoughts and consciousness picks up which one is the one needed to experience. Consciousness is the discriminator that the advaita vedanta teachers talk about. But I don't know, just guessing.

That makes me remember a part in the Bible where a soldier goes and asks John The Baptist about what he should be, because he was a soldier and he had to kill enemies. John said "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely--be content with your pay." He didn't tell him not to kill...

We are eating ourselves

I really have no idea what I am doing, but I am doing it anyway. I am trying to focus on awareness, observing everything as the witness. And meditating everyday half hour or more. And when I meditate I do mindful meditation with self inquiry. I also do meditation observing an object, like a candle, a glass of water, etc...