Consilience

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Posts posted by Consilience

  1. Posted

    5 days straight during an online retreat with Shinzen Young alternating between his See Hear Feel vipassana technique/shikantaza/self inquiry. My concentration was so sharp I was watching the moment by moment flux of the phenomenological field expand and contract out of and back into literal nothingness. There was a palpability to the context out of which reality was arising and dying into moment by moment such that this context, this emptiness, was experienced to be more real than perception, even though it was no-thing, an actual void. Even when the self was manifesting, I saw with crystal clarity the perceptual aggregates that are typically knotted up and coagulated into the feeling of "me," but in this state, even this feeling of me was seen to be completely unreal, moment after moment after moment. Perception was experienced as almost being liquid, fluid, spacious, wave like, effervescent, contractive and expansive. And when perception is experienced with this degree of mindfulness, one's ego suddenly has no solidity whatsoever. It's like form became quicksand and all that was left was formlessness. 


    It was magnitudes beyond anything I've experienced while on a psychedelic. The problem with psychedelics is that they're so energetically overloading this can have a scattering effect of the mind; the psychedelic is dragging the mind into the present moment, sometimes violently. Whereas with this degree of meditative absorption, there's a lightness, a clarity, a precision, a purity that I've yet to experience on psyches. However, it also felt like I integrated every psychedelic trip I'd had on that retreat.

    Now whenever I meditate, regardless of what technique, I pretty much enter into some sort of absorption state. These states in and of themselves are not "it." It's easy to see the illusion of self and world when in such an absorption state. Can we see the illusion of self and world while we're getting chewed out by our boss, while we're experiencing physical pain, while we're trying to hit on a girl, while we're driving, while we're meditating for absurdly long periods of time, etc.? There are many litmus tests to our degree of understanding besides the frequency or intensity of absorption during a comfortable practice period, I've come to realize. However, having a powerful, sustain, sober satori seems to be an important first step towards an authentic experiential embodiment of truth. 

    Lately I seem to be hitting into the "white infinity" part without psychedelics and the fear of death has started spontaneously popping up during sober practice. I just assume death coming up as a theme during meditation means I'm doing something right. 

  2. Posted

    27 minutes ago, Alan Reji said:

    Seriously, what's going on?

    How many gurus actually teach about the depth of self deception? How many gurus even know the mechanisms behind self deception? 

    There's enlightenment, and then there's deconstructing the MANY processes and mechanisms of the human mind that compose the self structure. My personal theory is that many gurus that end up becoming zen devils are gurus who never bothered to study their own bullshit, aka didn't bother to study the mind in the way that they studied the absolute. 

    This is why I appreciate the teachings of people like Leo or Peter Ralston. Full Buddha level awakening alone isn't full "enlightenment," in a sense. 

  3. Posted · Edited by Consilience

    9 minutes ago, Raptorsin7 said:

    @Consilience How does this relate to chakras and opening/feeling into different chakras?

    The chakras will open in their own time as a by product of this work. I would leave the chakra opening to the intelligence of the body rather than the intellect. 

    I dont know much about chakra openings other than what Ive personally experienced through serious practice, which is they’ll open on their own, in their own time independent of whether Im trying to open them or not. 

    Not a yoga expert though. But I can tell you truth doesn’t need fully opened chakras to recognize itself. 

  4. Posted

    4 hours ago, Raptorsin7 said:

    What is the process of unwinding the contracted energy

    Extremely careful, persistent, observation of our direct experience either through mindfulness or inquiry. Usually both are present. Mindfulness could be thought of as experiential inquiry and inquiry demands a mindful mind. Or just sitting and doing nothing at all. There has to be a clear seeing that the aggregates of this self contracted energy  do not form anything called a self. 

    A metaphor is this “triangle.” There was never a triangle, only an appearance of one when the shapes a are ‘contracted’ in a certain way. Yet after one sees there is no triangle, you can still observe the lack of triangle even when the aggregates are contracted to form the shape of the triangle. 

    To have this type of observation with the self requires an incredibly sharp, attention and awareness. But once it’s seen, the whole insight goes on auto pilot. Poof. 

    The fun part is, there’s so much further to go with understanding reality than the illusion of self. The seeking turns into a playing and exploration completely void of attachment or meaning, the purest expression of joy and happiness are now possible even within suffering and pain. Of course, this too takes time to develop, “de-envelope” (uncovering what was always the case) and the typical use of develop (cultivating, training). Both of these developings being direct logical inconsistencies yet the paradox resting as the actuality of how the seeker will find the end of their path to be. An ever unfolding, growing, cultivating dead stop. 

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  6. Posted · Edited by Consilience

    By finding an intrinsic source of compassion for all beings.

    Recognizing that the foolishness you find in them is foolishness you found in yourself at one point. 

    Understanding everyone is on their own spiritual journey's and are exactly where they are, and could ever be; the idea that they could be any other way than how they are is your own egoic projections. 

    By seeing through the illusion of moralizing.

    By awakening to Absolute Nihilism. 

    By recognizing the underlying primordial perfection of reality and all of its manifestations. 

    By cultivating your own wisdom and recognizing that the work you're doing on yourself is the work needed to free the world from foolishness.

     

  7. Posted

    2 hours ago, BipolarGrowth said:

    I’m probably not an Arahant yet by the TB definition. 

    The TB definition would mean you could literally sit for 12+ hours straight without moving and experience 0 suffering. Probably not is probably an understatement. 

    However! Happy for you man. This seems like a big breakthrough... one of those where there won’t be any chance coming back... so to speak :)  

  8. Posted

    Does your life suck? Or can you recognize the divine bliss of heaven by sitting down and breathing? If you knew such bliss, even hardships, illnesses, and struggles will be contextualized and recognized as primordially perfect.

    Speaking from someone who has a very difficult to manage illness that’s being exploited as a cash cow by the US pharmaceutical industry. Heaven is still available.

    As the suffering increases, the harder such a view becomes, obviously. Stop focusing on the immensity of the suffering imo. You can’t change that. But you can change your own. This is, counterintuitively, the work needed to help alleviate the suffering of the world. 

  9. Posted

    18 minutes ago, kinesin said:

    Enlightenment is the calm after the storm, not the storm itself.

    It is neither the calm nor the storm and yet is the nature of both the calm and storm no, therefore inclusive of the calm and the storm no?

    But yes let’s be clear, manic episodes are not enlightenment nor are needed for enlightenment. However, an enlightenment experience can generate a manic like response. Manic relative to what our society considers normal and relative to how the ego-mind interprets the experience based on it’s survival agenda, conditioning, etc. 

  10. Posted

    1 hour ago, RendHeaven said:

    "You have to realize that a dream is also a self. In true no self, even a dream is just consciousness."

    "So no matter how wholly you escape the dream, it's all within consciousness."

    "True God Realization puts an end to this simple binary notion of asleep vs awake."

    Love this reply hahaha.

    Love this apparent paradox! What ever should the seeker do with so many contradictory teachings and communications... my goodness.

  12. Posted · Edited by Consilience

    1 hour ago, OneIntoOne said:

    @kinesin
     

    I've thought she is deeply enlightened.

    This video tripped me up against Leo's latest God realization video.

    Braking my head how to make sense of both.

    I feel both are true but i can not glue them together.

    What she’s defining as consciousness would not be how someone like Peter Ralston defines consciousness and certainly not Leo. She says verbatim “consciousness is separation.” Yet goes on to describe how there’s actually no separation, hence defining this “no separation” the same way Ralston or Leo may describe “consciousness.” 

    Ralston uses the word consciousness or being to describe the that which is totally indescribable. How could you reconcile the surface level discrepancies between this video and Ralston? By recognizing it’s all a word game. There’s no objective vocabulary with this stuff so you really have to read between the lines when listening or learning from different sources.

  14. Posted

    3 minutes ago, WelcometoReality said:

    Tools for deconstruction:

    Journaling (Getting it down on paper makes the construct easier to spot)

    Spiritual Autolysis (same principle as journaling)

    Self Inquiry (Deconstructing the constructor)

    Labeling practice (naming what is thought and what is feeling as the experience is happening)

    Does anyone have more tools to add?

    Shikantaza fosho. Literally just jump straight to the end of the deconstructive path lol.

  15. Posted

    Great stuff above.

    What I find interesting is that deconstruction happens at so many levels, insanely subtle levels. The more one can deconstruct hidden mind patterns, attachments, distortions, the more one can see clearly into the nature of both the relative and absolute.

    I remember reading about the “uncognized mind” in Peter Ralston’s The Book of Not Knowing and having no idea what the dude was talking about. Well as it turns out, this uncognized mind is a web of supra-subtle beliefs, attachments, thoughts, views, orientations about reality, that are so subtle our default state of mind is incapable of seeing them clearly. As one cultivates a powerful mind through spiritual practice, one starts to bring more and more consciousness these unconscious cognitions - this awakening into relative and absolute domains of mind is deconstructive by default. When these are clearly seen, their relativity and “arbitrariality” is seen as well. 

    Eventually, this place of total deconstruction is the only fertile ground for authentic construction of self is possible. Thus, if one’s goal is to self actualize, a process of powerful construction, the only way to fully embody this would be through a total deconstruction. And even then it may not be enough. The habits of mind are one of the most powerful forces in nature. These habits ARE literally life! 

  17. Posted

    1 hour ago, DocWatts said:

    As an aside, I find it endlessly Interesting how one of the visionary scientists whose discoveries paved the way for quantum mechanics (namely the photoelectric effect and brownian motion) could never come to fully accept the eventual implications of his discoveries.

    The additional irony being that Einstein's Relativity Theory was itself built upon the work of previous scientists (such as Max Planck) who themselves wouldn't or couldn't accept the implications of their own discoveries.

    Agreed! 

  18. Posted

    1 hour ago, DocWatts said:

    Quantum Mechanics ended up being folded in to the Materialist paradigm, and I see no reason why the same thing wouldn't happen with the discovery of aliens who can break the light speed barrier.

    Yes the same thing would definitely happen eventually. I'm not disputing that. What I'm saying is that there will be a biased against any major contradictions or new discoveries because of the way survival works at the individual and collective level. People's biases right now will be that these UFO's don't contradict any of our current paradigms of science or technology and therefore, it would be shattering if we were to discover something like an object of significant mass can suddenly travel well beyond the speed of light. We already know objects can travel beyond the speed of light from QM - quantum entanglement has shown this long ago. The hard part would be accepting an object of significant mass can.

    Don't forget that even Einstein had trouble accepting the implications of quantum mechanics. "God does not play with dice." He wrote to one of the fathers of QM, Max Born. 

  19. Posted

    1 minute ago, DocWatts said:

    How so? It's my understanding that the Materialist Reductionism paradigm allows for the possiblity both of interstellar travel and intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe. How does the existence of aliens overturn the underlying assumption that Matter/Energy is all that exists of Reality?

    Because if Aliens were actually visiting Earth, it would mean they're able to travel faster than the speed of light. There are more mainstream assumptions in science besides the idea that matter and energy are all that exist. Yet taking this single example, faster than light speed travel - there is no room in our current paradigm of spacetime that would allow an object of significant mass to travel beyond the speed of light. In other words, if Aliens were indeed visiting, these UFO's would necessarily need to be using a technology that takes advantage of forces, laws, or discoveries that are outside of our current paradigm of reality. And even if not strictly outside of our paradigm, something that is beyond our conception of our paradigm that would more likely fall into "woo woo" territory by most rationalists, atheists, and scientists. Also consider the fact that even if an object of significant mass were to travel at the speed of light, this is still absurdly slow for traveling across the cosmos. A quick google search shows that the nearest star system, the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy, is around 25,000 light years away. The NEAREST. If there are legitimate Aliens, they are using technology that is taking advantage of discoveries we currently have no conception of. 

    There could also be potential facets to UFO technology besides the fact that they would need to have faster than light speed travel that challenge our mainstream view of reality though. Wouldn't know for sure unless we had access to said craft. 

  20. Posted · Edited by Consilience

    2 hours ago, 4201 said:

    At the end of the day nobody would cry if those UFOs were actually confirmed to be aliens. Nobody would "suffer a shattered worldview". I don't think anyone actually cares about defending that no-alien worldview it's much more about the meta-POV of "Do I believe cheap stories? Am I able to admit I don't know?".

    Disagree. The mainstream scientific materialist paradigm would be deeply shattered if this was indeed some sort of extraterrestrial technology. Their entire paradigm of reality would come under question. Don't forget the depth of how far an ego or collective ego will go to keep its survival strategy and orientation alive. This type of shattering would be a form of psychological death, something the ego is very much in the game of preventing. 

    Moreover, the most meta-POV on this topic would be to admit you don't know both ways. You don't know whether they're aliens, or whether they're not. We'll just see what happens as more information comes out over time. 

  21. Posted

    37 minutes ago, The0Self said:

    I largely followed Rob Burbea's path -- it felt like a massive gain, simply beyond belief. But when enlightenment apparently happened, it was the end of need, not the satisfaction of need.

    Tbh I don't understand this in the context of my above reply haha. Yes Rob Burbea's teachings on enlightenment are great, allow I don't consider them to be a complete picture, necessarily. In fact, we could say they're TOO complete... Or something. But this is the case with any and every teacher :)

    Yes the needing is in and of itself is no longer needing. Satisfaction is derived not out of a gaining, or a perspective of any kind. We might say satisfaction is just the actuality of our direct experience. 

  22. Posted · Edited by Consilience

    58 minutes ago, VeganAwake said:

    Remember bro, it's not a gaining of any kind. Its the dissolving of all concepts and beliefs identified with as 'ME'. The glass is full there.

    Reread your quote. It has ’nothing to do with,’ in and of itself, a gaining of any kind. But something is certainly gained with enlightenment. True, genuine, authentic happiness is ONLY possible if one knows first and foremost what is real and what is false. And beyond the fact that enlightenment carries with it the possibility of true happiness, what is gained is the recognition of what is true. Through a total deconstruction, the only authentic construction of reality, precisely and literally nothing at all, is seen to be primordially perfect and self-validating as true. There is a big danger with framing it as “gaining “ something though, but damn sometimes a fish can’t live in fresh water. Sometimes that salt water is needed.