Kiyo1104

@Hojo Thanks, I appreciate the explanation. I think I understand your perspective better now. I'll have to contemplate it some more.

A few months ago I asked whether some dreams could be locked into a permanent state. Your answer was that every dream must eventually collapse back into pure emptiness and that all forms are inherently temporary. Afterwards I revisited your episode on impermanence, where you explain that God is an infinite shapeshifter and therefore cannot be permanently locked into any form, because that would limit its infinite nature. At first I wondered why couldn't God simply make some dream-bubbles permanent while continuing to imagine infinitely many other dream-bubbles? Wouldn't that still preserve God's infinite creative capacity? But after contemplating this further, I started to suspect that my objection was based on a mistaken assumption. I was imagining God as simultaneously dreaming multiple independent bubbles of consciousness. However, if I understand your position on absolute solipsism correctly, there is only one dream bubble (the appearance of multiple dream bubbles simultaneously is imaginary). If that's correct, then a permanent dream would not simply be one permanent bubble among many. It would effectively trap the entirety of consciousness/God itself, because there is no separate dream bubble outside of it that could continue dreaming other realities. Am I understanding this correctly? Does impermanence ultimately follow from the fact that there is only one dream bubble rather than many simultaneously existing dream-bubbles within one consciousness/God?

This confuses me a bit because If I understood Leo correctly on absolute solipsism, there is only one dream bubble -the appearance of other dream bubbles, other people having their own dream bubbles, or multiple dream bubbles existing simultaneously is imaginary. So when you say that other people are having their own dream bubbles from the perspective of the universe, it sounds as though you are describing multiple centers of consciousness existing simultaneously. How is that compatible with absolute solipsism? Maybe I misunderstood what Leo meant by it.

I've been trying to get as far as I can in understanding reality through contemplation, since I'm still preparing myself to eventually take a psychedelic. I'd really appreciate hearing your answers to this: Does consciousness/God actually operate through mechanisms, or are mechanisms themselves just imagined limitations within consciousness? For example, psychedelics seem to temporarily dissolve egoic limitations by interacting with brain receptors, allowing shifts in consciousness that can lead to God-realization. Since these states often appear inaccessible through ordinary means, does that imply psychedelics and brain structures are genuine mechanisms required for awakening? Or are these mechanisms themselves imaginary (appearances within consciousness rather than something consciousness is truly bound by)? Could God awaken to its true nature without psychedelics, death, meditation, or any other apparent mechanism at all? If consciousness is truly infinite and sovereign, wouldn’t that mean it cannot be fundamentally constrained by any mechanism? And could that also explain why all forms (including the ego) are impermanent (because they are self-imposed imaginary limitations within consciousness)? And are questions like these only fully understandable through direct God-realization experiences (via psychedelics), or can contemplation alone lead to genuine understanding?

I see. Maybe that's why awakened people call this a "dream", implying that waking up to truth is inevitable. Thank you for the replies.

I assume that the answer to this question becomes clear from higher states of consciousness, but who knows when (or if ever) I’ll be able to take a psychedelic and realize it for myself, given my bad genetics for psychedelics... So for those who’ve had deep psychedelic breakthroughs into the nature of God, did it become clear to you whether all dream-characters eventually awaken back into God-consciousness, rather than remaining permanently lost in a dream? Can God design a dream from which it cannot wake up? And I apologize if this has already been asked before. I tried looking through older threads for similar discussions, but I got a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of them.

One the one hand, it seems impossible. But then again, since God/consciousness is dreaming all of us simultaneously, couldn't God make some dreams/egos permanent while making others impermanent, thereby retaining its ability to shapeshift?

I see. I've wondered whether God could create a hallucination/dream so absolute that it could never awaken from it. Since reality is infinite, would that possibility also be included within infinity? Or does ego always dissolve one way or another, regardless of how delusional or deeply stuck in a dream it is (for example fearful of it's death as Leo pointed out). I think about Leo’s episode “Understanding Impermanence”, where he emphasizes that God is the ultimate shapeshifter and therefore cannot remain frozen in any particular form. But I wonder whether his perspective on this has evolved over time, especially after accessing new states of consciousness over the years. And to answer your question, I'm unsure whether ego can be immortal, I gravitate towards 'no' but absolute infinity (and its implications) confuses me and makes me wonder. And yes, by immortal I mean eternal (I think of these as synonyms).

@Leo Gura Is it possible for God/consciousness to remain lost in a particular dream forever and never awaken? I understand that physical death dissolves this "stuckness" within the human dream, but I’m wondering more generally whether God could ever remain permanently identified with a finite character (even beyond forms of existence where there is no physical death) or does God always eventually awakens back into full access to its Will .

Thank you all for the replies! I really appreciate it.

Hi, Leo, I’m trying to understand a subtle metaphysical point you’ve talked about. You’ve said that no illusion can be permanent, because any imagined state eventually collapses into a deeper truth. In your own words: "Truth cannot be hidden, denied, or avoided indefinitely. Falsehood and illusion are always a finite game. Falsehood and illusion are unsustainable because they are self-contradictory. God must be itself. God cannot not be God. Because Truth is itself. If Truth was not itself, it would be falsehood, which is absolutely impossible." At the same time, God can imagine any state or dream, even one that seems endless. For example, God could imagine an eternal-feeling dream of pure stillness or bliss. Does this mean God can dream an experience that APPEARS to last forever in linear time (the same way a human can dream something that feels endless) even though it still ultimately collapses? In other words, how does the impossibility of true permanence reconcile with the possibility of imagining a dream-state that feels eternal? I’d really appreciate any clarity on this — I’m genuinely curious about how these pieces fit together.

@Hojo @gettoefl Thank you both for elaborating further. Great insights.

I see what you mean by that. I had some non-dual insights that point to just that, although bigger awakenings are still ahead of me. Thanks Leo for clarification! I understand now. Hey, was that sad marriage part truly unnecessary? 😭😂

Thank you so much! Your points make a lot of sense; in fact, I think hold the same position, but couldn't present it this well. And you are right, "can the self stay forever?" is the best formulation of my initial question.

Ohh I see. Thank you for your input and time. I appreciate personal perspectives 😁

I see. Thank you for the elaboration. I understand that 'real' and 'unreal' are dualities that collapse from God's "perspective". I have to be more careful with terms like 'dream' and 'illusion'. Maybe I should have phrased my initial question as: "Is it possible from Ego's point of view to have an unchanging eternal state (even something absurd like alternating between green and blue indefinitely), or is that bound to change since all finite things are impermanent?"

Well, I've been following Leo since 2016. Up till now, whenever I wanted to find the answer to some question that intrigued me, I managed to find it either by watching Leo's videos or reading already existing threads on the forum. So I suppose that I created the account earlier to ask something, but never did since I found the answer. However, this is THE one question that I couldn't find the direct answer to. So I tried making an account to ask it, failed in registration, tried again with this email address, and it said that this email is already in use, so I figured that the account already exist. And here I am 😅

Well, I'm sorry if I caused suspicion. I tried creating a profile recently, but failed somewhere in the authentication process. Today I discovered that I had already registered via this account who knows how long ago and decided to ask the question that has had me puzzled for quite some time. I don't intend to cause problems, but I realize you cannot know that from your perspective. Ban me if you see anything unusual. I'm just curious about Leo's answer to this question.

I read your explanation in the comment below, but still don't think that 'just feeling' is the right approach in this case. I'm aware of the many traps of thinking too much in this work, but I have also seen great explanations that were able to cut through so much bullshit and help me save a lot of time from self deception. That sure does sound unnerving... Thank you. That explanation seems the most concrete to me. Thank you. I had an insight of time being a part of the illusion, and that's why I lean into the whole 'APPEARS to last forever UNTIL you wake up' approach as well.