Endangered-EGO

@BipolarGrowth We can have a phone call about this if you want, but why don't you share your understanding of metaphysical reality so everyone can read it in this thread?

@Someone here Okay, fair enough, however the things that are not perceived are not necessarily "untrue". There is still a possibility of it being outside of our reach. The fact that you cannot know if other humans are sentient, doesn't mean they aren't.

@Nahm Yes the inbetween thought practice is really helpful, however, there is possible identification with the stopper of thoughts, the intention or the act of stopping thought and the switcher of awareness. Which is also imo a layer. Maybe I should just focus on the inbetween switch and not the switch. the after the stop and not the stop.

@Nahm I don't know what you mean by me-ism. My experience is real. even if it has the substance of a dream. Me is nothingness as a structure, and other objects/perceptions as it's contents. Lower self may be an illusory identity, but still an experience, which may not make it necessarily true but it exists.

@Kalo Matter influences the objects of consciousness, the ego, the lower self. anaesthesia for example. Now what is the unchanging consciousness underneath it, isn't clear to me. You could make the case about "jumping" in time from the instant you fall asleep until the moment you wake up. But that's too subjective for me. Especially if you are not idealist or solipsistic.

@Moksha Well because the illusory thing that was projected within me, the ego, was also projected within other-selves, but the fact that my self was illusory and the nothingness, means that other-selves are also illusory. However, there is no direct perception/evidence of the other-self being sentient, just the projection of my ego into other people, which was destroyed by the insight into no-thing-ness of the self. I'm not sure everyone is on the same page here. Intuitively I would say panpsychism (top down). From pure perception I can only say Solipsism, and from wishful thinking: idealism. It's not clear to me (yet). I wonder if it is clear to you guys. If there is any doubt.

@Tim R Okay, what are your thoughts about idealism? Is it a lucid dream or is it just a regular dream?

@Moksha Yeah well nothingness within me came with a mirror of no-thing-ness in other-selves. Well it was long ago, I'll ask the solipsism question when god shoves his grace down my throat again @Kalo I used materialism to show that matter (and time) influences contents of consciousness and to compare materialism with bottom-up panpsychism. Because Materialism can be true IF you include consciousness in as the most fundamental thing within objective reality.

@Someone here You see, what I don't agree with this direct perception thing is, that you cannot gain knowledge from this. Because from your direct experience, I don't perceive anything, I am just a meat robot that imitates a human. You talk about different creatures even though you cannot know if they are sentient by using your direct perception. How can you know that the thing you are is the same as me. have you perceived being me? So there is no consciousness within my being, from my perspective, there is no consciousness within you. You are not consciousness you are only an object within my consciousness. You see how this doesn't make sense up until a certain point. I literally just made a post about it building a worldview built on perception =only truth. What Kant said about the filtered perception of the world, doesn't influence the structure of consciousness, just it's objects.

@PureRogueQ How? do-nothing meditation? Working with shinzen young's recognition of intention seems to stop the creation of additional layers.

@Mason Riggle so being mindful of how I am adding additional layers into the ego. Won't that lead to me identifying with the recognizer of it? I guess I just need to be mindfull that the adding layers just is the same ego as the first layer which never stops. @WelcometoReality yes, but mindfullness made me add an additional layer in the first place ^^ mindful of mindfulness might be the answer.

@SOUL Haha, that's what they want you to think. They want you to think it's over. But they bought ALL of the mainstream news media in one of the biggest disinformation campaign ever made. Have you heard about silver? NOBODY on reddit bought silver. Apparently the queeze hasn't happened yet, and proof to me is all the BS they try to push into the news. However I am not a trader so idk the specifics and mathematics. But don't be so sure.

@mmKay I heard about someone who suffers from DP/DR and the dying at night was induced by sleep apnea. If it gets too bad for you, you can check it out.

I experienced the nothingness regularly a few years ago, but since then it disappeared and I haven't really been able to get the full blown experience again. I might need to mention that it was probably trauma induced (not sure it was a weird year). I don't think it is enough for me to just deconstruct reality and focus on the now. I believe that it's hidden by the "fear or dying" that's particularly strong in the region above the heart. Now I am kind of in a dilemma: I want to experience it without being able to go through the "death-part". I'm doing this sober, because even if I take mild psychedelics (like weed) and push through, I would have a panic attack and have a really bad time. I know that torturing the mind into the nothingness is probably the fastest way, but I don't think that's the right thing for me, because suffering+eternity=hell. I believe that the subconscious walls that block the nothingness is more fear than it is constructs and beliefs. Ironically I think that the thing that prevents me from accessing it (fear) is also the wormhole into the singularity. I will probably experience a little bit with the fear of dying and fear in general, but I was wondering what possible solutions you guys could have. Unfortunately the fear of death is reflected in a lot of aspects in life. I experience a lot of fear. Fear is also a lack of love. Any book recommendations on fear (of dying), fear of nothingness etc or good teachers that help to exterminate endangered egos like myself?

@OctagonOctopus Well the trauma was in reaction to eternity while being high. The next 6 months where I experienced it, I would describe it as the nothingness without love. It is exactly what is described: eternity, reality being a dream, nothing has substance, no self, no other (all alone). It came at random moments during the day, at the gym, while eating, in class etc. The first time was terrifying, but afterwards it was mostly empty. The fear of it also didn't show up after I stopped experiencing it regularly. Fear of other things came afterwards. I am really not sure. You know that love can elevate your concentration towards something, it's easier to focus on a pleasant sensation than on a neutral one. Fear also absorbs you into what you fear, the more you fear it the more intense it gets, the more you fear it. What's the difference for you between ego curl up and nothingness?

Either I don't understand it or some people have a weird solipsistic-idealism worldview. You do know that when you die, your family will continue to live and the world you leave behind will still be. Or don't you believe that? Don't you guys believe that we live on a physical plane? People who say when you die, everything ends, is from the non-ego perspective, because all experience cease to exist. That doesn't mean everything dies literally. Other people don't exist, doesn't mean they are soulless meat-robots, but that the ego made the illusions of a self in other people with a story etc. They do exist and have souls/egos. From the world of formlessness you can use perceive everything as empty, but it might not be a metaphysical truth, just a perceptual experience. Maybe I am misunderstood: People exist, but our ego gives them a story. People seem to not-exist when realising that oneself doesn't exist. That's it. I think this needs clarification. The fact that the world is a dream and empty doesn't mean the forms don't exist.

@Osaid The difference is the perspective and the collective world. @Mu_ Yes of course it is a story, the physical world. This world, no matter how much or few substance it seems to have, we agree that we are here for a limited time, and the dreamed world has stability. Everything is one from the subjective view, but can we agree that we share this, even though we cannot know and this doesn't help on the spiritual path, that we share this dream/world/place with other conscious beings? From a meta perspective.

@Someone here You will only know what you can know.

Oh shit maybe this dream doesn't end with my physical death, FUCK....

@Bodhitree Well it is kind of exactly how I would imagine it. Really funny if you think about it. I would make a world where little creatures play all the time. We have these tiny humans that do different things someone works with teeths (dentists), someone works with eyes, someone works with food, someone works with children, they live in tiny boxes and imitate each other all the time.

@Leo Gura 2 things: 1. Am I the only dreamer on this physical plane? Or is everyone dreaming up their own reality in an infinite amount of parallel universes? I assume you don't believe that the other people are empty shelves. Awakening certainly seems like reality is a dream, and I (ego) tried to change the dream, that of course doesn't work for me. The I that dreams, is this a collective dream where everyone influences a certain part of the dream, or does every soul just dreams something else? 2. If the dream ends when you die, you shouldn't take precautions about your own death, no need to tell your family good bye, no need to keep a small (or big) inheritance for your children. Physical death might not be stopping the collective dream either. So it's either this physical plane is Gods dream limiting itself to this character within the dream, or God limits itself to all the separate entities within the dream. Now Leo claims that it is possible to consciously manipulate the dream, but isn't that what is already happening. The I that wants to manipulate the dream is always part of the dream that is dreamt by the higher self. So this would explain why it's not possible for the dream character to lucid dream, it's just possible for the awakened I. But the awakened self doesn't want anything, it already has everything it wants right? So full enlightenment might not make you so okay with the dream that you don't even desire/think to change the dream, because the lower self would have to be perfectly aligned with the higher self.

Some people/religions assume there is a reincarnation loop, that only ends with enlightenment. Other people/religions assume there is an afterlife, an earthly heaven with trees flowers etc, or an multiple astrals. A different interpretation is a formless pure light/love interpretation of becoming God. I really really hope that none of those is the case. It seems to me that death is simply the cessation of every "thing". I'm okay with that. I am also not sure about the no-thing-ness. Because as far as I saw into it, life is a dream, and waking up from the illusion by dying might mean that there is a "place" with more substance. Maybe ego death is not the same as actual dying. However it's just a memory for me. As far as my interpretation goes is that this pure consciousness incarnates again and again, but does my perspective incarnate? I don't think so, and hope this isn't the case. A drop goes into the ocean and an after being mixed up an other drop is born out of the ocean. So consciousness reincarnates, but not perspectives. Some people claim that after death we can decide to come back or not. I would love to hear the interpretation of someone who considers himself enlightened enough to get it.

Yesterday something came up. I already knew I had mild anxiety for a few years, but damn, I realised I am afraid of everything. I also of course believe my worldview to be true. I fear the known bad things in life, like torture accidents pain etc. I also fear the unknown "bad things" in life, like something happening that I couldn't have imagined. I fear dying and death, and I fear the possibly endless reincarnation loop, karma and afterlife-hell. I fear becoming insane and interpreting a mental disorder with awakening. I fear uncertainity and not-knowing. I fear time and timelessness. I kind of know that all those fears come from mildly traumatic life experiences, but a part of me believes this worldview to be true. Suffering waiting to happen. I simply don't know what to do with those things that come up, I heard this is a normal process but it kind of feels like I am doing something wrong. I might contemplate about my worldview. Especially about the things I don't want to look at. Any tips?

@Arthur8769 The experiences were years apart. It was trauma induced DP/DR. However during the 6 months were I was regularly absorbed by the void, I was often so absorbed by beauty it was incredible, everything was more vivid and intense. If you want to get out of the nothingness, I would recommend not to rebuild a "stronger self" but a loving self. I made that mistake. It made me feel miserable. In case you are interested how I experienced that one-ness heaven, I merged with the feeling of my right hand and asked " What am I if the only thing there is is the hand feeling?" --> Boom ego death, and I slowly glided into heaven for a few days. I am out now, back in samsara Shinzen young would recommend you try to love the experience to death. Watch his video on youtube about the dark night of the soul. He is my favorite meditation teacher.

He is not wrong he is describing some part of the nothingness. It is possible to experience it without love, I had the full blown nothingness without love years ago. The pit of the void, dark night of the soul. I also had another distinct awakening into "Heaven" perfection/love recently. Nothingness without love is terrifying. Or nothingness without One-ness. The mind freaks out. @Arthur8769 Be kind to yourself, ground yourself. Nature is a miracle. If you look for beauty, you will become absorbed by it. beauty in see hear feel. Nature, music, people/animals.