Gili Trawangan

You're 18. Go chase some girls and have a good time! Always follow your passion, not what other people tell you, or what you think you should be doing.

@FoxFoxFox You say so yourself, it is conceptualized as such. Even Being is a concept. The Absolute is unfathomable, it does not fit any concept. Once again, the Absolute cannot be fully known, everything you are aware of is not it. Then again, maybe you're right, I'm speaking from my current level of understanding, and I freely admit that there may be more to realize.

I find that 'do nothing' is good when the mind is quiet. If the mind is agitated you'll just get monkey mind. So, if the mind is agitated, concentration might be best. Focusing on one object, such as the breath (the one I use, the breath coming in and out of the nostrils). Once the mind is quiet, do nothing will take you to awareness itself, which is where you want to "get to".

I think both perspectives may be correct. The Absolute as absolute nothingness, from which all concepts arise, including love. The Truth prior to all concepts. Or the other perspective, the Absolute as nothing and everything at once, creation as Love. "Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, Love is knowing I am everything, and between the two my life moves."

The problem with the word experience is that it implies an experiencer. The truth gets corrupted right then and there.

Great post, thank you.

@Preetom That makes a lot of sense. Love is a concept that has never been prevalent throughout this character's life Thanks!

I've just watched this video for the first time, beautifully explained.

Yes, the sense that it has always been ok. It's quite hard to put into words, there weren't really thoughts going on at the time. As the level of consciousness began to decrease, if one can say it that way, there was the knowing that the sense of separation would return, so maybe there was some grasping at that point. At the same time, there was the certainty that that knowledge would never be called in to question again. But at no point was I aware that love is a fundamental aspect of reality. It's not to say that I didn't experience some feelings of love, but love as the very fabric of reality the way everybody talks about here? Not really, I missed that.

@Preetom In the moments leading up to realization, there were feelings of strong love that seemed to be localized around the heart area. They then subsided. When reality awoke to itself, let's put it that way, I wasn't aware of love anymore, there was just awe and laughter at the magnitude and shock of that realization. I couldn't experience love as a fundamental aspect, it was just all consciousness. And the knowing of myself as the Absolute.

'@Preetom I'm struggling to become conscious of the love aspect of reality, is there any particular approach one might try?

A few moments after realizing for the first time, experientially, that I am all of reality, a thought crept up: “What tremendous responsibility! I can actually CREATE ANYTHING I want!” It quickly went away and was replaced with awe, but in the days and weeks following realization, between moments of utter peace and joy, that thought emerged again and again, along with other thoughts that seemed to be trying to figure out the “experience”. Questions on free will and other people, and an attempt at figuring out the next stage. “What to do now?”; “Am I really the conscious creator of all of my reality?”; “How can I embody this understanding in a way that serves the greater good?”. “But it doesn’t feel like I have free will, it doesn’t feel like I can create my reality.”; “What would God do?”; “But I AM God, there’s nothing else.” What went unnoticed most of the time was that these were egoic thoughts that were sneakily (and metaphorically) reconstructing and perpetuating the illusory separate self. “I”, the illusory separate self, was lost for hours on end in loopy circles of trying to figure stuff out and thinking of the future. Until there is pause… Wait, who is asking all of these questions? A question is a thought. Do I actually have a choice in what questions are being asked? Take a look. A thought appears effortlessly in me, a field of awareness. “What to do?” Then another thought appears: “Do this and not that.” The third thought sneakily comes, enmeshed with the second one, and this one usually goes unnoticed: “I’ve just made a choice”. There is only a thought that says that I’ve made a choice. Noticing this thought is enough to see that it just another thought. Without believing this third thought there is no choice, there is nothing to ask, there is no problem to solve. Choice is just another concept that appears in awareness. Thoughts are just thoughts, there is no self that binds them, only thoughts seem to point to an entity having them. But look at the HERE and NOW. There is no self choosing, there is no one choosing, there is no choice. It just is. Silence. Peace. This illusion must be seen through again and again, the illusory separate self is an ingrained pattern that will continue to come. Unconsciously believing to be a self is not a small thing, it keeps coming back. So self-inquire again, and again, and again.

Try to capture the now with a thought. You can't.

@Nahm Beautiful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPWvpDm076o Reckoner You can't take it with yer Dancing for your pleasure You are not to blame for Bittersweet distractors Dare not speak its name Dedicated to all human beings Because we separate Like ripples on a blank shore In rainbows…

Well, it's whatever you want it to be. I don't feel lonely, but you never really know the future, loneliness may arise. You can look at other people as you, or you can let yourself get involved and see them as beings that you're interacting with and that you can connect with. There's no ultimate answer to this, it's how you look at it.

@abrakamowse @pluto I've even heard him say that enlightenment, or what you would call awakening, is a freebie. That the hard part comes afterwards

It just does, that's probably the most truthful answer You could also say that music can help transcend the mind. For a brief moment language, concepts, the mind and its limitations are transcended and the beauty and love that's beyond the mind is tapped into.

@Preetom Yeah I resonate with this list. They can all cause frustration, but for some reason I actually like number 5. I've always enjoyed knowing nothing about the future, it's liberating

@cetus56 Thank you!! I've just listened to it, it's wonderful, very illuminating. I love how he changes ego from a noun to a verb, it's a very useful way of looking at it.

@pluto@ sorry, can't delete this tag @Nahm hahaha, that's a great analogy, that's what it feels like!!

@Preetom For me, thought can still bite and it has, particularly in the last couple of days. I don't think I'm in the clear yet from having spotted this, it feels like I need to practice coming back again and again to awareness. It's great that the tiger has lost its fangs on your end! @pluto@ wrong tag, sorry @SoonHei In my case, sometimes. I understand what you mean, thoughts that come from 'that deeper place' are peaceful and nothing to be concerned about. They can be beautiful thoughts, of gratitude, awe, admiration, love. However, the thoughts that I described are unpleasant. They don't come with peace, they come with restlessness. With craving. And once the spiral starts it's hard to stop. @Serotoninluv Thanks, I will check them out

You bet! This is all quite humbling

@Joseph Maynor Indeed.

@pluto Great thread, I loved that Bashar video you posted, the first one, it helped to put into simple words what I've experienced. I also get your distinction between awakening and enlightenment, it certainly feels like after awakening there is still so much to learn about how to live from this understanding.