Consilience

"Practices have no value at all..." Egoic dogma "Practices perpetuate the belief of the illusory self." That's like saying eating food perpetuates the belief of an illusory self. When one can meditate while recognizing they are not the one meditating, true meditation begins. Practice and truth are not incompatible, it's ego that thinks they are not. "You cannot practice dropping the illusory self, either it happens or it does not." True, but you can create conditions that facilitate this event being more or less likely to occur. Inquiring "Who am I?" is more likely to reveal THIS than sitting and watching reality TV all day. Therefore, practices can help. "Spiritual seeking is just another form of spiritual materialism." True, but seeking is a part of the path. It's spiritually egotism to dismiss its value. If one never begins seeking, one will never awaken to truth. How do you not see this? “Those who are actively seeking enlightenment will not find it because the act of looking for it is the distraction from it.” ― Enza Vita This is true. But if one never learns about enlightenment and begins seeking it out, they will most likely remain within the veil of ignorance. I hope you can begin appreciating the relativity of what's at play here. You can tout all you want about how useless practices are, but this doens't mean all practices are about enlightenment. Believe it or not, there is much more to life than your singular enlightenment. There are realms of consciousness and mind that one can discover that have nothing to do with the absolute. Dismissing duality, dismissing practices, dismissing life, is just a form of spiritual egotism that I've seen perpetuated by a number of individuals on this forum over time. I'm not saying this is necessarily the case for veganawake, but I do see dogma in this post. Lot's of dogma. I will reiterate, if it weren't for beginning practices and seeking enlightenment, I would not know what I know now. I won't say I'm enlightened, but I do not feel separate from enlightenment. And I have my practices to thank for my discoveries along the way. Edit: But even communicating what I mean is impossible because of language. The practices aren't "mine" and "I" do not do them, however the practices continue to persist, survival continues to persist, and I am none of it. And the practices are what revealed this truth.

If I had taken on this mentality at the beginning of my journey, I would've been defeated before I began. Try to not to be swept away in absolutism, the ego loves moralizing and creating definitive answers when there are none (look at politics as a great example.) The ego hates admitting relativity. For example, my meditation practice is not about finding truth. It is about slowly transforming the mind. While this practice isn't necessarily useful to recognizing THIS as you frequently point out, it does help embody the actuality of THIS. When the mind stops projecting 100s of thoughts every minute, when the mind starts to reign itself in and slow down, reality is seen more carefully. In this way, the practice doesn't pull one away, but helps connect to the source of being, the source of reality. Contemplation, as a practice, is about becoming conscious, but it's also admitting you don't know. While it's true that THIS is it, THIS is everything, THIS is being fueled by an insurmountable amount of mind, of projections, of good/bad, craving/aversion, distractions, beliefs, assumptions, life story. Until one contemplates the amount and significance of how the mind is warping one's experience of THIS, THIS cannot be seen fully. There is deep truth to what you're getting at here. Truth has nothing to do with practices. But it would be foolish to dismiss the value of practices, of techniques along this path. Moreover, everyone's path is different. For you, perhaps dropping all practices is what you needed. But this is certainly not the case for everyone.

Disagree with the weed usage negatively affecting trips. Ive recently cut way back on my usage but when I took LSD for the first time, I was getting high every day. Still had a beautiful trip. The difference perhaps was that I was meditating 1 hour every day (still am) and doing self actualization work. How much do you meditate? Do you do yoga? How’s diet and exercise? Do you know how to effectively concentrate while sober? Do you work towards your life purpose Purification work is beyond merely using weed but I would recommend quitting the frequent weed use for sure. This is also why I don’t like the idea of tripping with someone, your empathy on psychedelics can become so much stronger that the trip can start revolving around other people rather than your experience and contemplation. Meditation training is also a must imo, or at least knowing how to process and let go of thoughts. Thoughts have insanely powerful effects on experience while tripping. You’ve got to be ready for good, bad, insane, all the thoughts without being attached to them. If you cant do that sober good luck doing it while tripping. Take some time to revitalize your spiritual work and personal development before your next trip and consider tripping alone. It’ll be worth it.

Do a 1 hour strong determine meditation sit and let us know whether it’s masculine or feminine. Tbh though, it had qualities of both. It helps me be more masculine though but also helps me tap into more femininity.

I contemplated this exact topic recently. Ill list my train if thought: Why do I get AA? Because Im afraid. What am I afraid of? Rejection Why do your fear rejection? Because if I see a girl Im attracted to, I want her to be attracted to me back. Why? Because I see a possibility, I see a potential for two people to impact the other’s lives and I want her to see/feel that opportunity as well. Why does even this matter? Because I don't want to be alone. So I determined, for me, AA is coming from a place of neediness for someone to be attracted to me, neediness for my feelings to be reciprocated, and a neediness to be in a relationship. This was all quite interesting to observe as I didn’t realize these emotions where present in my experience until I looked under the hood. Much easier to process and let go of conscious emotions than unconscious ones.

Used to have a similar attitude. Began consciousness work and started noticing more and more synchronicities (these “messages” you’re referring to). Now I have way too many synchronicities to discount and ignore them. I almost think there are various ways of interpreting and different lessons available within one synchronistic event, and different synchronicities can be more or less strange/powerful. Id suggest just being open to learning lessons from the events of your life.

Take responsibility but let the past go.

After my meditation session I go take a shower and begin my day. Eventually the distinction between meditation and not meditating will be gone as @Shin alluded to.

Peeling back layers of content to get to actuality can be deceptively challenging. Especially when it comes to analyzing how our experience is being influenced by microscopically subtle thought patterns and beliefs. Self-psychoanalysis has been a very important practice towards understanding actuality vs. content/interpretation.

Ahh the ol no free will trap ? Spoiler alert: it’s both and neither! Wicked strange... makes no sense. And yet...

You’re right.. that’s weird. Try this one!

Can't offer any success stories, but I would recommend loving-kindness meditation. It's kind of an underrated, under discussed topic on this forum, but it really helps pry open your heart center. And the more you do it, the more open your heart becomes. Just a simple mantra really, May " " be free from suffering. May " " be free from ill will. May " " be filled with loving-kindness (or just love if you prefer). May " " be truly happy. When doing this, make sure you give this love to yourself as well. As in, say "I" rather than only giving it to others, self-love is important as well. When you're doing this, don't just go through the motions, really try to mean what you're saying with sincerity. Truly recognize those you're speaking out to as their own beings with their own lives. It also helps to visualize them actually receiving the love you're giving them. Over time you'll open yourself up more and more and genuinely feel the love. I'd also recommend holotropic breath-work for working through and processing emotional traumas. This will help circulate and clear out your energy and help you uncover where you're body is holding on to trauma, particularly in the torso, stomach area. I'd recommend this video to start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-2d2... Yoga. Get your body feeling good, feeling healthy. When you take care of your body, your body will help take care of your mind and emotions, truly. As you're working towards opening up to love, making sure your body is ready to receive and give this love back out is an important step. As odd as this may sound, your emotions are very much grounded in your body such that an unhealthy body will not be as conducive towards processing and opening up to emotions as a healthy body. So I really recommend hath yoga, and honestly probably kriya or kundalini too. Also, just a bit of normal, daily meditation. Literally just breath and be, nothing else. It doesn't have to be anything crazy. 5-15 minutes per day or more if you like. It's amazing how healing a small meditation practice can be. I'd start with loving-kindness, and end with normal meditation. As your mind begins to build calm and focus, it will naturally begin to open up to the subtler emotions like happiness, joy, empathy, etc. as well as connecting you with an authentic reservoir of love, which is none other than you. And last point, just be patient with yourself. If your intention is to feel love, the universe will help you achieve this end, as this is in alignment with your true nature. So just be patient, be kind, but be persistent with this goal. You'll make it, no doubt

To everyone saying there never was an ego, you are misunderstanding what’s being said. Ego = the psychological survival of particular communication styles, preferences within form, the way you dress and look, the fact that a body continues to eat and survive, etc. The self is falsely identifying with this force of survival and thinking it is a static and consistent ‘thing’ when it is fundamentally a stream of appearance surviving, while also never truly surviving. This force, this energy has nothing to do with enlightenment, with truth. Saying it never existed is one perspective yes, or acknowledging the force of the energy’s existence is another. Just keep in mind the relativity here. There is survival post awakening.

Eat the oats! Oats are fine in moderation. As long as you're not binging, you'll be good.

Interesting. This is a contracted view of ego. While in a sense, there is certainly wisdom to this perspective, we can also expand the ego's meaning to anything that carries out survival both biologically and psychologically, the sense of separation, and the individuality of your specific experience of life and 'the way things are.' Believe it or not, this force of survival, this energy of survival, PERSISTS after one awakens to who they are. And this stream will continue to cascade after one steps out. Enlightenment is about stepping out of the stream and watching it pass by, not disrupting it, not casting judgement on the stream and trying to stop it. The stream will flow regardless as it as been doing for eternity. At least... That's what I think From this pov, freedom cannot obstruct ego anymore than ego can obstruct freedom. Freedom is your natural, authentic state. Ego is merely appearance, it's form, it's distinction. The Truth is always true, that's what makes it truly true. And plus, the stream is beautiful beyond description, it would be a shame to fight against it.

Fantastic post!

Yeah I bet so ? Edit: In terms of what I wrote earlier, I was kind of making a joke. There are a lot of non-dual teachers that claim how everyone is already enlightened and have always been. I see the wisdom and validity in such a statement, but I also dont always feel so enlightened even though sometimes I see how it could be no other way.

I never said I was enlightened. Im pointing out something in experience and trying to point out how this experiential insight can only be communicated through duality/distinction because all language is dualistic in nature. For my experience, meaninglessness doesn't really come up no. Reality is. Being simply is. Nothing more, nothing less.

The meaningless being talked about is beyond distinctions. You can create the distinction “meaninglessness” which you must do to discuss it with language, but the real, direct experience of meaninglessness is beyond meaning vs. meaningless distinction.

Believe it or not, all of these are relative. Im also an INTJ ? Merely by creating objects for which descriptions or processes can apply [water (object) is transparent, light (object) has a speed (description), sun (object) converts (process) hydrogen to helium (objects)] you are creating relativity. There are no objects, there is only the undifferentiated whole of existence. All is one, from the most object standpoint.

@Stakres because Im not a primate, but this was an important reality I lived years ago. And in a way, identifying as a primate makes more sense than identifying as something like “awareness” because the primate is literal experience whereas awareness is an idea being projected into experience. But even both seem to be slippery identities and still not quite it.

The thing doing all the focusing throughout the practices is not me. Neither is the thing creating the joy, happiness, and equanimity. So... What am I?

Super interesting perspective, thank you

Close ???

How can a verb happen through Now?