Shmurda

I think infinite open mindedness is how we should define the absolute since it is both intelligent, self creating and without limitation (as far as we can tell). If a human becomes as open minded as they can possibly be, then as you said, they realise they know nothing. This insight is part of the awakening process and can create turmoil for the thinking mind. However, at that stage one hopefully has stopped believing that any truth is to be found in thought and so they shouldn't be too phased by this realisation. One common trap I fell into was thinking that I had realised I know nothing. On closer inspection this is still an attempt at knowing.

Nothing is happening on this forum. Within the appearance that nothing takes are a subset of members of the forum. This subset of members are taking the teaching of "nothingness" or "God" or whatever you want to call this appearance and they're using it to deceive themselves into believing reality is non-dual. This only serves to reinforce their own sense of separateness by weaponising the ultimate statement of non separation and using it to serve their own ego-centric agenda. This is the same old agenda: an attempt to assert that the ego has the truth and now it's time to school all the other ego's about how right it is. This time however, it's wearing a very cunning disguise that says "reality is a dream and I don't exist". This statement (or similar) then become the tool it uses to assert its existence. If you really want to wake up, put down the keyboard, sit on the cushion and humble thyself.

@electroBeam first off I wana say that the appearance of my separate self likes your posts in general and I have a lot of respect for the spiritual journey that the appearance of you appears to be on. That said you are falling into the trap I outlined in the OP. Notice how you took what I said and dissected it from the perspective of the infinite, completely bypassing the point of the post in order to school me on non-duality. If your interest was really in being a good teacher, as you appear to be trying to do, you would be sympathetic to the point of the post and attempt to respond in a way that enables cooperation. However, you instead choose to reinforce your position of being ultimately knowledgeable in field of non-duality (lol) by dissecting the post from your Godly point of view.

@VeganAwake still not stroking your non-existent ego with the non-knowledge that nothing doesn't exist

I dunno man. Don't take this the wrong way, obviously I don't know you or your story but it sounds like you could be rationalizing your challenging experiences by saying it's twin flame or dark night or chakra opening. Have you considered that your ego might be trying to maintain itself by making these rationalizations?

Hey man, Can I ask, how do you know you went through the dark night of the soul? How do you know your solar plexus chakra is opened and that your next steps are kundalini and the heart chakra?

Anyone got anything useful to add to the discussion?

Many spiritual people, including Jesus, Mother Teresa and David R Hawkins have suggested that physical healing can take place with the right amount of consciousness and love is applied to the process. I have personally experienced the healing power of love in my own psyche, and it makes sense that, by extension one could increase the body's capacity to repair itself with the right attitude. However, I'd have to experience it to believe it, or at least review a scientific study. Anecdotal evidence and new age speculation are not trustworthy. So, anybody got links to a study involving conscious/attitudinal healing?

@AwakenedSoul444 I think one reason people find it hard to believe you're almost at peak LOC is that, from what you've written on this forum, you're still attached to beliefs. Generally speaking, the ambiguity of deciding what number someone is from 1 to 1000, usually only through online interactions, is huge. And they give out these obscure figures without details of how they arrived at "672" rather than "678" LOC. It presents an opportunity for devilry. Ramaji is awake from what i've read, and enlightened people cant be expected to do everything right. Maybe its fair to say there's a gap in the model.

@Someone here Actually I think thats what OP is saying. The reason this teaching is dangerous is that most people are pretty far from God and therefore will interpret the teaching as "oh I can sin freely and enjoy it because its all God" when in reality they are weaponising this teaching as a way to reinforce ego. Speaking of reinforcing ego, your response is very quick to point the finger. Maybe there is an ego behind that finger?

Uh oh looks like the humans noticed one of our cameras in action

@justfortoday Can you describe the moment you realised you were awake? It sounds like you think it is permanent, not psychedelic induced? If so, did you have some period of being incapacitated? or a long retreat? What kind of practices were you doing to trigger this realisation?

Hello readers, I'm writing this asking for advice. Lately I've been putting in a lot of time on the cushion and also trying to align my life completely with what I want to be by cutting out the stuff that's holding me back like drugs, alcohol and laziness. Anyway my question is, as I become more serious about awakening, my hatred for the ills of humanity, on an individual and collective level seems to be growing. Now, this isn't a totally one sided development. I also am feeling more willing to love, help and connect with people and I make an effort to do so. However, I am noticing that as I'm coming to understand how completely and totally pointless our existence is, I'm having less patience for the kind of bullshit that I witness in a daily basis. For example, I was driving home today and I decided to spit on a car that was blocking the road and then I drove off feeling slightly annoyed. It wasn't even funny. I just thought, you're a cu**, have this. I hear people telling me all this stuff about plans for the future or what they want for dinner. Basically anything related to self interest I just think what a load of shit, you don't really know anything and you're kidding yourself. Now, obviously you're going to tell me "well it's your ego projecting it's newfound views on everyone else." and yeah, that's true. But it's also hell. I feel like I've discovered something true - that we're a bunch of selfish monkeys living a pointless existence and shitting where we eat and then creating some narrative to hide that fact from ourselves. Tell me I'm wrong? How do I enjoy my experience when everywhere I look my ego is disgusted?

@Arzack what I said was too generic because we need to deal with projections on a specific case by case basis? I thought it was quite specific I gave an example.

@Arzack I'm constantly meeting projected thoughts that are no longer important and recognized to be limiting beliefs, but these things still capture my attention. What is the best way to deal with these projections? Example: "i wish i didn't have to do this extra work" and then feeling annoyed.

@The Lucid Dreamer what a great reply. It would be good more people like you in the world.

Thanks for reminding me of that friend. I am able to see the wounds and conditions that have lead us to be the way we are and I do love the deepest part in us. I'm just so sad about how far astray we are. So many of us are like drug addicts always looking for a fix that might finally make us happy and for some reason we find a limitless field of distractions ready to fool us. It looks like we'll sooner all die in a fireball of our own hunger than look within.

But is he really trying to point the flaming sword away from good and evil? How could we know? We've literally nothing to compare it to. The cosmic joke is real, that's for sure. The poor can be as happy as the rich and death is the great leveler and all this striving leads to the same place. But why is it a cosmic joke and not a cosmic cuddle? A slap in the face that basically says "you fool, how could you ever think you were anything but me. No, you don't get to choose, you are me and you will live and die exactly as I am. Now suffer and die or work to escape the suffering and then die. It doesn't matter either way because I love you in every form." Well, that's well and good God but I'm a starving child in Africa and basically have no choice but to suffer and die and I will never feel happy about your love. Thanks for trying really hard though...

And to top it off, it turns out I have taken the form of these pointless monkeys and am subject to all the nastiness and limitation that entails. I guess awakening is now defined as "learn to enjoy this shit show unless you die before that happens." wow, great.

Shunyamurti has previously spoken of the benefits of psychedelics. He has even recommended using them in the awakening process. I think in this instance he is speaking of psychedelics as a sort of holiday for the ego to use as a temporary relief from itself that it then uses to justify its existence further. I think that is a fair assessment. However, Shunyamurti is a very spontaneous speaker and at times is sloppy with his choice of language. It ends up looking like he contradicts himself. This is something he clearly is not aware of, and no one at the ashram seems to be checking him.

Hello everyone I hope this post meets you well, I have been doing a lot of consciousness work lately and its really starting to shift my life in the positive direction I always wanted but was too lazy/fearful/apathetic to realize before. I also have some traumatic baggage that comes to visit every now and then to haunt me with thoughts of hatred and self loathing, but this has subsided a lot recently, or so I thought. Last night I was at my friends birthday party. Everyone there was drinking but I decided not to since I noticed its started to interfere with mindfulness practices and I'd like to quit. However, I thought that smoking some weed would be alright since it doesn't have the same blunting of awareness effect that booze tends to. I will say here that I have had a long a tumultuous relationship with weed. It generally makes me socially anxious to some degree and I knew that this occasion would probably be no different, but I smoked it nonetheless. Anyway, I smoke the joint and I'm talking with some people and I notice that my thoughts have become a lot more critical and "little me" is feeling a lot more like an animal trying to escape its torment, rather than a collection of thoughts that just kind of hang out in the background (typical sober state.) The party moves on but every interaction I have from this point on taunts the animal further. I say something critical, I think that I'm being an asshole, then I feel worse and the cycle repeats itself until my self esteem is literally at rock bottom. I can't even speak or look people in the eye. Someone makes a joke that I'm the butt of or someone says something that could be perceived as rude and it cuts me really deep. I finish my food quickly and go to bed with suicidal thoughts. I want nothing more than for my existence to end and I curse myself for this life. I stay in bed the whole night and the party goes on without me. I leave in the morning. I feel a bit better now but my question is, what the fuck? everything was going so well so why do I get handed a depression sandwich for something so trivial as a few tokes of weed and some awkward interactions? Is there some way I can address this inner potential for desire for oblivion? Or do I just chalk it up to a freak occurrence? I did let the emotions wash over me but it didn't make me feel any better...

@Roy I live in Vietnam so outdoor weed dirt cheap! High grade is still pretty pricey though. About $12/g of some 7/10 indoor grown. Thanks for the tips lads. Tbh I think I'm gonna quit because it's clearly bringing the shadow parts of my personality out more. I guess that could be a blessing because it allows me to see them more clearly, but since it causes me to drown in the pain rather than simply witness it, it's probably better to leave it out altogether. I have done some journalling since, and realised that I actually enjoy the pain and I'm doing it to myself. The only reason I think it's a problem is because it doesn't conform the idea of who I want to be. So, next time it happens I'm gonna eject from the social situation, kick back and embrace it.

@Rilles Good advice. Honestly I've been smoking for 10 years on and off and it's given me far more grief than enjoyment. Almost like an abusive relationship, I'm holding out hope that one day I'll be able to fully enjoy it.

Thanks for the detailed reply. I've heard of the fabled use of weed for shadow work before but I've never done it myself. I will say you are definitely right about it revealing unconscious elements. However in my case it seems to exacerbate these weaker, lazy and self loathing parts of myself. Let's say you get stoned and you start to feel like God's asshole, how do you go about the work from there? I get judgemental thoughts when I'm sober, but when I smoke they literally take me over. It's fucked. I have a managed on a few occasions to take that bad feeling and let it literally crush me. Then I'm able to transmute it. However it only works for that occasion. Next time it's business as usual.

I've come to a time on the path where I think I'd really benefit from a one to one student-teacher relationship in helping me fully realise and integrate the awakening process. However, I'm not sure how to go about this. Maybe you guys could give me some advice? I'd like the coach to: Assess my understanding and current practice then offer their perspective on what I need to do in order to deepen this understanding. Have material available so that I can see their own work and decide whether I resonate with their approach before requesting a formal session. Get to know me and point out misconceptions and thought traps. Has anyone had any good experiences with this approach? If so, how did you find your perfect teacher?