Wisebaxter

Ok I think I get it. It does raise some other questions for me but I think that as I'm operating from an unenlightened perspective my questions will be racked with assumptions and concepts and I'll just confuse myself even more. For now it's enough to understand that anything observed in this world is both imperfect and perfect. I think that's what you're saying and it makes sense. I'm a shameless Tolle fan-boy, that's the problem

I have found your answers on here really helpful and insightful but I was a little shocked and I'll admit it, even offended, to read the piece on your blog slamming Eckhart Tolle. I think this is because Tolle opened me up to spirituality and changed my life so drastically. My question is, how does an enlightened individual view anything in this world as being less than perfect, less than it should be, if all is one? Does this mean that being enlightened doesn't necessarily stop one from being judgemental and critical? I was especially surprised to see such criticism levelled at someone like Tolle, who has done so many great things for humanity and helped so many people.

Who does these practices separately? And who blends them together? As I mentioned on a similar thread, the meditative practice of 'residing as awareness' and the Self Inquiry Leo outlines as 'watching awareness' seem somewhat similar, or is there a difference? Perhaps the former is more about letting go and the latter requires more focus. I'd love to know what you guys do. I would like to combine the practices if possible to save time. My goal is realising my true nature, so I'm wondering what would be the best and quickest way to get there. 5-MeO maybe lol. That's on the cards, but I want to use traditional methods too for lasting growth.

@Aaron p Thanks dude, but without the correct knowledge, how do I know I'm doing things correctly? Do you just mean I should experiment and not get obsessed with theory etc?

@tedens Thanks buddy, that's good advice and quite uncanny as this has been the thing that's ben helping me recently, since I discovered it. Putting awareness on my consciousness. With you now saying this - I know the universe is speaking to me and telling me to carry on with it

@Nahm You're the best Nahm, thanks

@Nahm So perhaps I can make love a pivotal element of any practice. If it makes me more loving - I'm heading in the right direction? If it decreases fear and increases a sense of connection etc

@How to be wise I have to say that from what I've read it sounds like a classic chakra-related issue. You may have awoken some kundalini energy and it's hitting you like a steam train. Is it painful? Or just uncomfortable?

@Nahm Hmm, that does sound like a good way forward, to become as conscious as possible of the shift in awareness after meditation and to notice how your mind pulls you back into Maya. To be able to compare the meditative state with the 'normal' state seems very powerful. I'll give that a shot. Thanks for your help.

lol a heart attack? Come on dude, I think they'd have worked it out by now if they were going into cardiac arrest.

I didn't quite understand this sentence Nahm, could you clarify? Sorry, what's in+? As for shortcuts, Martin Ball claims to have become enlightened through taking 5-MeO DMT. How can we be sure he hasn't? Only he knows. I'm not looking for a short cut per se - just to be able to do things correctly and not waste time

@How to be wise That sounds intense. Interesting that it's unpleasant. It could be some kind of kundalini buildup in your heart chakra, due to one of your energy centres becoming unblocked, pending the experience you mentioned. I wouldn't like to give you the wrong advice as I'm no expert, but I have a feeling that the answer will be something along the lines of 'allow it to be and don't fight it. if you fight it the energy will have trouble flowing.' Try that and see if it works at all.

So just to wrap this one up guys - we could actually blend meditation and self-inquiry into one session? Where we might flip back and forward between letting go (mediation) and focusing on awareness? (self inquiry). Or should we really be doing some kind of separate practice for both of them each day? Perhaps the answer is just to experiment. I just always have this fear that I'm going to be wasting time doing things wrong. I would really love to be able to blend the practices together though, to save time.

In Leo's new video on self inquiry he mentions that the essence of self inquiry is 'observation of observation' and then adds that this is also what you're doing during meditation. So is there really a difference? Could you incorporate the two practices into one? When I meditate I do Adyashanti's 'True Meditation,' where you allow everything to be and watch your awareness, so this is indeed very similar to how Leo describes self inquiry. Of course there are types of meditation which aren't so similar. Could the difference be that with self inquiry you're not 'letting everything be' so much? Maybe you're exerting more effort into the process of concentration, so there's much more laser focus...

Its funny you should say that as I've been experiencing this for the last few months. When I stare at patterns for long enough they start melting. First of all I put it down to detoxing from weed, but I don't think it's that. The other day it was really intense, almost the same as on an actual trip. Glad I'm not the only one. Maybe it's what @Aakash said, that reality is breaking down, perhaps as a result of spiritual practices?

I sense two things from Jim here. One, that he's actually had some deep insights which have changed his life for the better, two, that he still has a wounded ego and there is a level of bitterness, frustration or angst there. He hasn't integrated his discoveries to the extent that he can move easily through life without needing to spout them off every few seconds as a form of protest or as a neurotic need to assert his 'truth' in the face of delusion, perhaps to persuade himself in the face of some remaining 'inner doubts.' He seems self absorbed to the extent that he can't empathise with the reporter and clearly confuses her and makes her uncomfortable. Still, I agree with what he's saying. Like others have said though, this could be the result of Zen devilry. This, of course, is all just my own story and interpretation, perhaps a projection of my own state of consciousness.

I'm not entirely sure why you're experiencing these things, but I'd like to just say well done for doing all that hardcore shadow work.

Good link. This passage on 'Do nothing meditation' helped answer my question: "This meditation is closely related to the Advaitic practice of neti-neti ("not this, not that") and to the practie of Self Inquiry as taught by Ramana Maharshi. The techniques are somewhat different, but the intention and outcome are very similar." So, maybe it's down to individual preference whether you use 'do nothing' meditation or self inquiry to realise your true nature. I'm wondering if the best approach would be to just use the hardcore self inquiry method Leo outlines where you fix your awareness on awareness, with no 'letting go' involved. Plus it's also building your concentration skill and helping to calm the mind. I think I remember Adya saying something about the 'letting go' being important though, as the universe's nature is acceptance.

I see, so some forms of meditation are more 'self-inquiry,' based, including 'True Meditation.' That's great to know and explains a lot. If that's the case, is the main benefit of concentration meditation the fact that it just calms the mind then? Or build focus? Rather than being the best for enlightenment? Adya says he did concentration meditation for years and in the end he gave it up as he found it too based on control rather than letting go. He says it won't bring you to your true nature. True Meditation is specifically about letting go of control and just letting awareness go where it wants to. I find this quietens the mind quite nicely. But Leo's description of self inquiry isn't so much about letting go, more about focusing on awareness. As long as awareness is trained on itself, that seems to be the core factor of self enquiry. Concerning self inquiry, do all these questions, like 'what am I?' Am I the body? Am I the mind? Not need to be asked? Leo says you just focus on awareness. Maybe the questions are just to get you to the point where you realise yourself as awareness so you can start focusing on it.

I might create a journal for it on the journal section here. Are you gonna post some of your stuff? I'll be sure to name drop you dude as you should get the credit you deserve. You could perfect this technique, develop it further and maybe write a book - could be quite lucrative for you.

@Aakash I'm excited about this. Something tells me it'll be quite powerful. Perhaps it would be more productive to wait until you're feeling a bit negative so all your inner bullshit comes up?

@Aakash Cool man...is that a bit like journalling? I haven't done much of that. I like the sound of the writeway technique. I'll jump on board as one of its earliest practitioners. Just stream of consciousness writing...sounds dope. I like the idea of asking yourself who actually wrote it too. I'll try this and report back

@zambize Love that dude, you broke all that down really well. I'm gonna read that through a few times and soak it in. I like your theory that these practices all point you towards the same goal And then there's the enlightened folk who say that in a non-dual sense even suffering is a part of the whole! Apparently you can be enlightened and still suffer but it just doesn't effect you in the same way as you're not attached to any of it. So maybe you're not suffering....as you can tell mental masturbation is my forte Contemplation works best for me when I'm trying to actually have an experience of what I'm contemplating. Otherwise it just stays as theory and can seem a bit dumb and detached as you say. All I can say it, thank God for psychedelics haha. I'll stick to those as my main guide and use these practices as icing on the cake perhaps

@dvdas Yeah I've actually finished his book recently, it is great right? I like how he breaks it down and gives you different types of meditation practices for achieving specific results. The problem is, it kind of confused me more because it made me think, well which one should I be doing? Which one will get me there the fastest? As in 'there' I mean enlightenment of course. He mentions that breathing meditation is good for relaxing, but does that mean it's good for enlightenment? I'm just going with Adyachanti's method at the moment as that seems good to me and I dig his style. I do love Om Swami though and his story. He has cool videos on YouTube too.

Really? He said that? That's interesting. To be honest meditation confuses the hell out me. I do it every day but there are sooooo many different types of mediation I never know if I'm doing the right one, if I'm sitting in the right way...should I be controlling something? Shouldn't I be? At the moment I'm doing something a bit similar to you, feeling the void, but perhaps without the concentration. I just release 'wanting' and 'effort' and the void kind of envelops me. I guess experimentation and doing your own investigation is important. But the idea that I could spend years doing it wrong freaks me out