Enlightenment

@Serotoninluv Don't you think that the fact of you blacking out (if by that you mean non-consciousness) on supposedly so consciousness increasing substance, says something? I'm trying to compare this null void with my DPT breakthrough. In this null void, the castle analogy from Leo's video made a lot of sense to you? In my experience, it felt like if somebody would come up at that moment and smash my head with a hammer, this null void would still persist but the shape of the head would change. That analogy made sense to me after I emerged. Would there be any suffering if your whole body would be burning at that moment? Was the transition to null void gradual or rather like tripping very hard..... and poof - void?

If 34mg wasn't enough for you, maybe try to smoke freebase

@MM1988 Not anymore, I wouldn't trade places with them. Satisfaction from having a family, experience with girls, sex, doing drugs etc. Those are all concepts and behind them, as a fundamental thing that you want is bliss, well being, positive state of the mind if you would now get infinite bliss - none of those concepts would bother you. You know what I mean If you're truly a nihilist. From the net hedonism perspective, spirituality wins. EDIT btw. why heroin? If you want to enter a low inhibition god mode do meth + benzos

Exactly If you take those experienced meditators in the lab and measure their fear/startle reaction to unexpected loud sounds, they come out as most fearless in the population

There are very experienced meditators and teachers with decades of practice like Kenneth Folk, Shinzen Young, Culadasa, Michael Taft that are not 100% convinced about the ultimate truth I recommend watching the entire interview with him on Buddha at the Gas Pump https://deconstructingyourself.com/podcast/dy-004-feather-light-paper-thin-guest-shinzen-young Shinzen Young says that this is not something he can say with great confidence LSD study shows decreases in alpha, beta, theta and delta brain waves but what about gamma? A neuroscientist in a video where Martin Ball smokes 5-MeO-DMT said "consistent with a lot of the other research that's been done, gamma tends to increase" so if the fastest brainwave increases, isn't that in line with what materialist paradigm would suggest? General anesthesia There is an argument that if you become sufficiently conscious (master Samatha meditation), you can have some consciousness even in deep dreamless sleep. This is true, however, general anesthesia seems to knock out even those people completely to non-consciousness https://youtu.be/AyFdmhwCpOM?t=23m49s Nirodha samapatti AKA anupādisesa nibbāna. There is some controversy on whether or not the version of nibbāna where there is an experience can be called nibbāna, but what about this sort of classic version of nibbāna where there is no experience at all, no consciousness, no non-dual/being infinite? I mean exactly like a materialist would imagine a death to be like. It requires very good meditation skills, furthermore, it's traditionally said to be only possible for non-returners (anāgāmi) and Buddhas (arahants) so only highly awakened with great meditation skills, we may say very conscious people. All this training to discover a materialist paradigm fitting extinction of all mental activity. Many believe that this is precisely what Buddha meant by Nirvana.

@MM1988 @Mikael89 I can relate a lot to you, I was unsuccessful with girls, neurotic as fuck, depressed, nihilistic. Now after almost 2 years of my obsession with this topic (a big part of that was a hope to solve those problems) I am: - not depressed at all - still nihilistic but I guess that is just part of the deepest structure of my personality, no need to change that - my neuroticism went from very high to very low, probably something like bottom 5% of the normal distribution, much lower automatic fear/startle response from the central nervous system - still unsuccessful with girls but I couldn't care less at this point Enlightenment will not cure all your neurosis (you will be dead without any neurosis) but enlightenment + Samahta which is a concentration practice that eventually makes you perfectly concentrated like a laser effortlessly, will reduce it greatly. Read The Mind Illuminated, start practicing it 1,5h or more every day and in addition to that try insight practices in sequence like I wrote there: As for heroin - yea you will always have that option so why not try to destroy neuroticism first and then decide?

@Leo Gura I haven't tried 5-MeO yet, but I had an experience on DPT of what I would call complete ego death, beyond senses, time and space, the most humbling experience I've ever had. The moment after I came back it felt extremely true. Until I will try 5-MeO, I can't claim it was the same. Reaching absolute infinity through meditation and confirming or denying whether it's the same or different from 5-MeO, this curiosity is something that has motivated me for the last year to do very heavy Samatha practice and I'm not that far away from equanimity stage where I will be able to access it, I think 3 months left max. When I will finally get my hands on some 5-MeO and compare it - I will write a report. Wish me luck

I don't know. Yes, however, I don't think that realization or enlightenment can, for example, cure antisocial personality disorder or any personality disorder for that matter. Maybe at that point, these people have such a strong equanimity from decades of concentration practices, that they are able to see a feeling of certainty as an empty mental construct Question is, can a dream character truly be certain that he woke up, seen through objective lens if even for a moment or wasn't it just another mental construct?

@SgtPepper Kenneth 4 tab LSD experience of universal consciousness actually was an event that started his meditation practice and also cured his cocaine addiction. I just find it interesting that his certainty of this truth has faded over the decades of practice and experiencing it over and over again. I get what you're saying, there are insight, concentration and morality practices which are all interconnected but not the same

Other "alerts" within a big mind exist and have their own dissociated (from infinity) perspective. Some level of suffering is necessary for survival.

Extremely high LSD dose

What a pathetic cope mechanism from the media. Let's just lie to defend our materialist paradigm because otherwise it may be challenged and we don't want that!!!

@egoless Why don't view it as a state that regardless of whether or not you think is true, increases your well being greatly

@Unwiring 2h in one sitting is very long no matter what meditation you're doing. This kind of meditation is really different from the classic focusing on your breath because here you're not instructed to focus your attention on anything specific, or even care about it at all, monkey mind also tends to be more prominent here, that's fine. Your only goal is to silently sub-verbally repeat that mantra. At that point when aversion starts to arise, I would recommend to just stop. Try 2 shorter sessions, something like 50 min in the morning, and 50min in the evening. There's no reason that you have to do it in one sitting.

@Tistepiste This is BS, they come from TM organization which is like a semi-scam, well for 900$ that is what you get from them, a "special" mantra that is somehow dependent on your age. Don't believe that, just choose any that seems easy to repeat. I'm 23

Since then I've done a lot of meditation, 90% of which was concentration AKA Samatha. The Mind Illuminated is a great book on this subject. Mastering Samatha has great value even if you're enlightened as it allows you, for example, to not suffer even from intense physical pain. @Tistepiste @Unwiring you're welcome

@Tistepiste No agency moment happened suddenly, but the first glimpse was so subtle that I bearly noticed, then expanded sense of self, after that there were 2 major shifts which also brought the different perception of the self and its relation to the world.

@Tistepiste 20x2 first day and then 2h every day for the next 10-14 days and it gradually removed my self until no agency

@Tistepiste No, some of my psychedelic trips were more challenging

@Tistepiste Yes, something may change after 40 minutes, 3h or whatever the time may be, but I mean about 10h is like a good test for whether this specific type of technique you are currently trying, will work or it's better to move on to try the next for now

"The basis of Buddhism is a doctrine known as the Four Noble Truths. The First Truth is that all life is suffering, pain, and misery. The Second Truth is that this suffering is caused by selfish craving and personal desire. The Third Truth is that this selfish craving can be overcome. The Fourth Truth is that the way to overcome this misery is through the Eightfold Path." "Despite the fourth luminous jhāna’s many virtues, it doesn’t result in the complete absence of craving, or in the perfect equanimity that would entail. However, through experiencing the bliss of equanimity in the fourth jhāna, you begin to understand the possibility of perfect bliss and perfect equanimity." "Perfect equanimity and the complete cessation of craving are called Nibbāna in Pali (Nirvāna in Sanskrit)."

According to Buddha life is suffering and cessation of consciousness is the most blissful thing that can happen to you, and after enlightenment, you will never be reborn again which is good.

@Outer Self-inquiry is very good but I wouldn't use it as a mantra. In self-inquiry, you actually ask those questions and try to figure out who you are without feeding the intellectual mind. In mantra meditation, you just completely meaninglessly repeat that word quite fast without any questions. First I would separately test all of the most popular/effective techniques like: mantra, headless way, noting/labeling, self-inquiry, actualism, aware of awareness. Then mastery of Samatha which btw. takes a lot of time, then with powerful mindfulness of Samatha do Vipassana insight practices, and only then if everything failed I would try to mix techniques.

@archi Which mantra you choose doesn't matter, just a word that your mind doesn't know the symbolic meaning of, and preferably is 2 syllables long. For the most part, I was using "HIRIM". Here are some examples. Sit, close your eyes, start repeating that mantra in your head (not out loud), just thinking it up over an over again sub-verbally. Don't use a lot of effort, as time goes mantra may become distorted, quieter, longer etc. don't try to correct it, let it be. If you forget and get lost in the mind wandering or start falling asleep, just come back to the practice. Do it for 20+ minutes It will either work reasonably fast and after 10h~ of practice, you will have some changes in how it is to be you outside of meditation, like an expanded sense of self, less self-referential thoughts etc. or it's not your meditation fit and then I would recommend switching to something different as it's unlikely to work.

@Tistepiste For this type of practice, mastery of Śamatha is required as far as I understand it. I haven't master Śamatha yet therefore no.