Consilience

Yeah if your goal isn't enlightenment, then self inquiry is pretty useless. With Kriya, I felt like all of the various focusing techniques were just too complicated and unnecessary. What are we training with meditation? Fundamentally, we're training mindfulness which could also be called awareness. What is mindfulness? I like Shinzen Young's definition - Concentration power, Sensory Clarity, and Equanimity. These three skills are the skills that yield the results of meditation. These three skills are what purify the mind, heal the emotional body, build physical pliancy, and essentially raise one's level of consciousness in the long run. I'd also throw in attentional stability as an important subcomponent of the concentration power piece which is where The Mind Illuminated comes in which Shinzen doesn't really address in his system. Kriya felt like it was overcomplicating the whole process while also missing what the primary aim of meditation practice is all about. Mainly, training those three skills to apply in every day life. Even if I were to use Kriya meditation techniques, at the end of the day I'd still be training concentration, sensory clarity, and equanimity. Furthermore, I want a meditation technique I can use all day every day. Kriya is really not conducive for life practice, but something like anapanasati (mindful breathing) from TMI or even Shinzen Young's See Hear Feel technique I can easily do all day long. But Kriya definitely has its fans. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the aim of Kriya or what types of benefits are available. I'd be curious to hear other's take. I believe some of the breathing techniques could be helpful for purifying emotions, but as far as building mindfulness.. Eh?

I've never had great results with Kriya. The Mind Illuminated took my meditation to another level. I basically feel like I'm high dose microdosing every time "I" meditate now. Id also recommend contemplating with Self Inquiry. Self Inquiry + serious meditation + psychedelics = bruh

But in a sense yes enlightenment does. Because the truth of the matter is the mechanism that is creating suffering and depriving happiness is a mechanism built entirely out of delusion. When the truth is fully seen, suffering becomes an impossibility and the source of authentic happiness is found. How can one know authentic happiness without knowing what's really true?

This is precisely incorrect. Desire is the underlying energy for survival activity. Even if you identify as awareness, desire will remain regardless, as will survival activity. I guess in a sense "you" no longer desire, but it's not because desire no longer arises; desire to live is going to remain until death. Also, identifying as awareness is another attachment that needs to be let go of to know thyself. Can be a very sneaky last ditch effort of the ego to survive.

Taking psychedelics will put all your fantasies of loving Now to the test. When your reality is crumbling before your eyes, how grounded and enduring is your love for Now? I don't view them as a means to enlightenment, but I respect their capacity to keep me honest about how far Ive come. How can I claim to have reached enlightenment if I become terrified on acid or am suffering through insanity on mushrooms? A real master wouldn’t be phased at all. I agree though that you cannot escape the sober work though. Id recommend being more holistic with your thinking OP.

This statement is false.

Or maybe you can't do anything? How can anything be done if there is no one to do anything? Hmmm...

Awesome! Really happy the post was helpful Feel free to DM if you have any questions on the book, meditation, etc.

Start with Shamatha meditation. Specifically, the Anapanasati technique which literally translates to mindfulness of breathing. This will cultivate not only concentration, but long term very pleasurable, tranquil states of mind that are ideal for insight and contemplation, whether for existential truths or more relative “down to earth” self help insights. A great book that explores this technique in depth is The Mind Illuminated. 10 minutes per day of Anapanasati with a focus of the breath sensations at the nostrils, slowly working up the time at your own pace, is a great place to start.

Agree with @Barbara building consistency is key. My personal minimum when starting and even to this day is 10 but 5 mins is better than 0. Fatigue can definitely be a defense mechanism. It can also just be you’re not accustomed to being that relaxed unless you’re going to bed. The mind will adapt over time. In terms of techniques, you can keep your eyes open, do standing mediation, or strong determination sitting for longer durations. You may also look into using a body scan technique. This will help sensitize you to the energy of the body and then from there you can return to the breath. For example if you’re doing a 20 minute sit, the first 10 minutes are a body scan, last are a focusing on the breath. Just an example. Note that overtime, your mind will work through this fatigue. Turning into the fatigue and using it as your meditation object is also another powerful technique. You may find that with enough penetrating mindfulness, the dullness/lethargy transforms into a fluid, even vitalizing source of energy. This, however, takes a lot of consistency and training.

I disagree. So would Peter Ralston who was the one that opened me up to the possibility a little over a year ago. Not that I should blindly take his word for it or you should blindly take mine. But we also disagree about Absolute Beauty so Im not surprised there’s a clash here haha

@Gesundheit You completely misunderstood the happiness I was referring to. Imagine a happiness that is entirely independent of whether or not one is in a happy state.

Hmm... I think I get what you're saying. Do you think it's really necessary to go about hating the dualistic Universe into annihilation? It seems like that's just more projection, emotion and self generated interpretation of experience, not Consciousness.

@Spiral Wizard that was a really interesting video.. ?

I used to have this perspective. Now I disagree. The search for truth is derived from a desire for self knowledge, or knowledge of reality. What is the context for this desired knowledge? A belief of its intrinsic importance to the pursuit of happiness/the good life. We ‘believe’ we’ll somehow be better off with this knowledge, aka be happier, which is ultimately the context for such a pursuit. The happiness I speak of is a meta perspective to what Jed is talking about though. It is a happiness that transcends both heaven, hell, and any and all states of consciousness which is why the cost and answer to such a question “what is really true” does not matter. Just because this thread has already entered this territory with the quotes, yes “Im” writing in subject object duality. Gft over it please and thank you.

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All I can say is regardless of whether you deny perception/consciousness, it’s here, it’s primary, it’s completely undeniable. Any extra metaphysical claims about the substance of reality are subject to unfalsifiable skepticism. Rather than chasing a phantom substance which may or may not exist, enlightenment is about discovering the nature of what is Absolutely True. This requires careful concentration into the heart of what underlies perception, all experiences, and all thoughts. When you’ve studied epistemology and direct experience long enough, you’ll understand why Leo as well as a great number of people on this forum have let go of the need for thoughts to explain Absolute Truth. More specifically, why we make the claim that thoughts cannot explain Absolute Truth. The truth of the matter is that any thought cannot be Absolutely True due to the nature of thoughts existing as functions of time which is of course an illusion constructed by the mind, the fact that thoughts are symbolic representations of reality (the map is not the territory, never has been, never can be), and finally, the fact that all reason and rationality will always dissolve into an infinite regress of reason where one must eventually concede that they’re taking on a belief. Thoughts can be used to talk about the nature of thoughts, exactly what Im doing now, but this still isn’t the nature of thoughts Im speaking of. Less mental masturbation and more direct observation dude. And again, whether you want to chase phantom metaphysical substances which cant ever be proven due to the nature of conscious experience only having the ability to exist as experience, by all means go for it. But it’s not really the type of work you’ll get very far with.

Well that and it’s literally not consistent. Just because the mind constructs the consistency, it’s actually a different moon. The light, rotation and position have all changed. Moment by moment, some facet of direct experience has changed. Even the fridge is not the same fridge while staring at it moment by moment. Whether one’s level of consciousness is capable of observing the fluctuations in perception and see through the illusion of consistency is a different matter.

Try as hard as you want to deny that your direct experience is reality. The fact of its “isness” or “being” is the fact of its reality. It’s not a myth that reality is consciousness, it’s quite literally what you’re directly experiencing right now. To deny this is asinine. If you want to believe there’s a 2nd layer underneath your direct experience, aka the consciousness you THINK is a myth (your mind projecting on top of your direct conscious experience), s’all good. However at least recognize it’s a more convoluted belief system that requires extra mind baggage that careful, objective, direct study of experience and reality does not need. In fact, if you studied your direct experience long enough you’d notice all sensory perception has no solidity to it at all, it’s just a fluid, spacious, fluctuating field of is-ness popping into and out of a void; the “objective” reality science thinks is out there is quite literally impossible if they knew what they were actually studying, which is perception. The thoughts that think there’s a 2nd layer are also popping into and out of this void. But Im guessing you haven't meditated long enough to perceive this resolution of direct experience/reality/consciousness/perception. It required an extremely stable, mindful concentration of what is really happening vs what your mind thinks is happening.

Im well aware. Nothing you said here has anything to do with my post.

What he's teaching here is a very spiritually immature pov. A true master knows that a thorn can be used to pick a thorn out. Spiritual practice, self inquiry, meditation are tools, strategies to recognize what was always the truth. Sitting here saying there's nothing to do is incredible unhelpful 99% of the time. Even in zen they recognize ACTUALLY doing nothing is better than the doing nothing 99.9% of humanity is running around with. Additionally, I would bet money most of the people spitting this neo-advaita perspective couldn't sit in a room for 4 hours straight without distraction or stimulation without suffering. Meditation, "the path," isn't just about falling into some illusory trap of needing to do something. It's about becoming conscious of the ways your ego is still manipulating you and in control. Meditation is a litmus test for how full of shit you are, how strong your spiritual ego is.

This is what you gain with insight and wisdom from spiritual practice.

Success and money =\= level of consciousness. It would be even weirder if it did..

LSD for suuure. I met my soul on Acid. Can't introspect much harder than that honestly.

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