Johnny5

@EmptyVase ? excellent, it's a process, it doesn't happen all at once. But basically that's surrender.

@EmptyVase Great taste of the difference between theoretical v.s. direct understanding. You'll get the glue thing too. I'm kinda hesitant to use that word "experiential" because in spiritual circles it often invokes the idea that you need to have special experiences or whatever. When really it's just a matter of recognition from having a first-hand frame of reference. Just like you do now. From your own experience, yes, but in an everyday ordinary way. In the same way that a comedian might do observational jokes about. Like standing in line at the groceries. Everyone who has life experience with that, knows what it's like. It's no different with this. P.S. No need to be physically fit in order to turn inward. Again everyday ordinary, it's really just a matter of being observant of your own subjective somatic state, and meeting the energy there with your attention. Certain practices and indeed psychedelics can be very helpful tools with that, as long as you understand which is subordinate to which.

@Stoica Doru Descriptive, not prescriptive. ?

Rather than navigating by rules and rationale, how about navigating by observation, integration, flow? Eyes-open vs. eyes-closed. Lucid vs rote.

You can see then that it's more about re-evaluating life-long beliefs, opinions, views, context etc. than it is about mastering any kind of technique or chemical. And that states or levels of consciousness are still only dreamt. The key to both is the energetic component to which we have been oblivious most of our lives. That's the glue that holds it all together, that's the "structural integrity" of the non-lucid dreamstate, that's where obstacles to realization are rooted, and so that's where the real work is done. Which is also where good breathing is of great benefit.

Note that "welcoming them" doesn't have to mean liking them or trying to feel differently. It simply means feel unreservedly however you truly feel (energetically).

@Bulgarianspirit You can't take anything at face value, you have to hone your own discernment and contemplations and sift the wheat from the chaff to find out what's true. Nobody can do it for you, and those most eager to try are most likely to mislead you. Lots of people trip balls, very few of them wake up. And most who wake up don't use psychedelics. This does not reflect on psychedelics but on the people using them. The only reason people are asleep in the first place is because they generally accept appearances uncritically, so most of them will keep that kind of mindset with the psychedelics, just as they do with meditation, yoga or any other "spiritual practice". It's all about intention. If you're waiting for someone to give you the answers or show you the way, you will die waiting.

@Bulgarianspirit Just use whatever is useful to you. The discussion never reaches any kind of conclusion, it's the exploration and contemplation that matters.

You're doing it all the time, but you keep telling yourself that it's something else.

@dyslexicCnut The key to relieve suffering is to make peace with the design of reality. And the key to making peace with it, is to see how everything fits together and everything is necessary. And the key to seeing that, is to release everything you hold about it that causes you to take it personally. That is part of the dying, and that's the mercy of the process. Unpleasantness may be inherent in reality in a way, but suffering is not. Suffering is the emotional contraction we inflict on ourselves about reality, as a result of misperceiving it. That is part of the human design, but not of reality as a whole. Of course humans are part of the design of the whole, but once you understand which is which, the suffering becomes optional. It serves a purpose until then (neural networks only learn through positive and negative feedback), but at some point it needs to be re-evaluated and shed. Your post suggests that you're already past that point, so that's the good news. The thing to understand about duality is that it works a certain way, and in this sense God's imagination, being infinite, is bound to perfection. Without the balance of yin and yang, so to speak, the wheels would come flying off. So it's either this or nothing at all. From here, you can explore all the parts that you're still at war with, until you get to see each of them as both useful and necessary, and you get more and more of a birds eye view of the whole thing. The more you see of that, the more you will see of the intricate perfection of the design. Once Love is recognized, everything gets redeemed.

Thanks for the reminder! ?

As much as science may have a lot of things right, it has a whole lot more things wrong. Not only conventionally speaking, but more importantly for our purposes about the most fundamental things about reality. And that turns out to make all the difference. Most scientists and certainly mainstream scientists are as ignorant about this stuff as the next guy, and you'll want to leave their views behind if you ever want to move past them. But that's a big if... "Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and praise that as common sense? The commonest sense is the sense of men asleep, which they express by snoring."

this^^ ...except there is no devil's lap.

If the monk thinks it's just him, he is wrong. It has nothing to do with the monk.

@BipolarGrowth They drink, smoke, gamble, and make merry. Can't possibly be enlightened...

The thing is that solipsism as such is a position held by the mind. Whether someone attacks it or defends it doesn't really matter. "Battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won." Because it's a content vs. structure thing. The problem is not so much with the content as with the structure. As a structure (i.e. a mental position), it is no different from any other -ism. Including materialism. A world view is a world view is a world view. Truth is not a world view, world views are what (seemingly) obscure truth. So at most it is yet another device for deconstruction, thorn removing another thorn (such as the one that says there are multiple consciousnesses "out there"). Not a place to rest your head.

In any dream, nobody is conscious except the dreamer.

There are probably degrees of skill in the art of floral arrangement. Higher skill would mean you are better, at floral arrangement. So what? Good for you. ? God already loves as much as possible and always has. It doesn't depend on human evolution, nor does it deny human evolution. In a sandbox, all the various sand castles are still sand.

@Javfly33 Out where?

I think Leo does a pretty good job of warning about limitations and nuances and whatnot, in fact I do believe he has a whole episode dedicated to that for SD. It's good to discuss these things. The most obvious one that comes to mind for me, aside from mistaking the map for the territory, is that models easily lend themselves to pigeon holing, and of course making those ubiquitous comparisons like right/wrong, inferior/superior, etc. Interested to see what anyone else comes up with.

I haven't looked deeply into yoga, and even I can tell that you haven't either.... ? No obligation to look into yoga or anything else of course. But might not want to let everything stand or fall with chemicals.

?

@Leilani Yes it is, and relatable.

By paying attention to the defacto evidence of what you are drawn to and the big picture of how your life unfolds.

Someone should make this quote into a spiritual meme ?