Tim R

@Hotaka How exactly did she die "for him"?

So many people on this forum regard the ego as their foe, as some psychological aberration, like a tumor, like a mistake, like their worst enemy. And yes, I know. selfishness/egoism is the source of all devilry and evil and so forth, we've heard it ad nauseam. But to treat the ego as some horrible thing/idea that we must get rid of is 1. not going to work 2. egoistic in and of itself The ego is just as much part of the divine as anything else. Accept it, treat it as you would treat your pet, love it, nurture it - and before you raise out of your chair, appalled at this statement: to nurture your pet is not the same as fattening it. But to keep it healthy and always in check. Jung says in his book "Modern Man in Search of a Soul": "We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses."

@DecemberFlower You are confusing love as an emotion with Love as existence. Fear is Love, though it might not necessarily be love.

That's not how survival works tho Survival = maintaining some particular form/identity Fear = emotional response to threat to that particular form/identity Haha, but that's still our ego fighting to survive, only in a cooperative manner

@Javfly33 I'm sorry to hear that and wish you great strength. Reminds me of Spira's screen-analogy to consciousness. In that analogy your father would be like a character in a movie. In reality he is of course the screen, pretending to be some particular character and when this character dies, then his consciousness doesn't go anywhere (because it was nowhere to begin with). The screen (consciousness) is nowhere and therefore can't go anywhere. @Javfly33 Concerning reincarnation: to be (re)born or to die is to identify with a certain pattern/form. Let's look at a river. "The river" as such doesn't exist, it is a constant flux (hence it's true nature is emptiness/shunyata). As the ancient philosopher Heraklit said "Pantha Rhei" - "everything flows". The moment you identify this pattern as "the river", it is born. But because it ("the river") is always changing, it is also in a constant process of dying. This is the eternal cycle of (re)birth and death: Samsara. Birth and death are identical, because the moment you say "there it is!" - it's gone. Here's another example. Look at the flame of a candle. We say "there is the flame!", whereas in reality, there is no flame, only a hot stream of burning wax. "The flame" as a pattern/form that you could identify as such is of course an illusion - therefore Samsara is just an illusion. And as our last example, let's look at the ocean: there aren't any waves, appearing and disappearing. There's just the Ocean - Nirvana! playing and pretending to be Samsara.

Smells like Zen

@Nahm Enlighten us, what is ego if not thought?

No. But you can alleviate narcissism in general, that's what I meant. (at least as far I know, maybe I'm wrong)

@Gesundheit Nope, because to love someone can also mean to restrain someone. What you gonna do, condemn and oppress the narcissism in him/her? No, of course not. You accept the narcissism as given, entirely. Only then can you change/alleviate it. *some people are simply not serving your selfish agenda (again: "selfish" is not a bad word)

No. There is nothing more selfish than the desire to become enlightened. @Gesundheit Don't label "selfishness" as something "bad". SamC got it exactly right. And as I already quoted Jung; "Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses." @Gesundheit If you don't have access to the book, here's a lovely excerpt from the book read by Alan Watts.

Word...? @Eren Eeager Do you remember where/when Leo said that? Gotta add that to my quote collection Yeah, it's easy to be "selfless" as long as selfish desires are fulfilled. Guess we all are selfish to some extent, even the greatest masters. But how to "measure" the degree of selfishness/selflessness? What is a "high level" of selflessness?

As I said, it's entirely ego-centric/ego-centered. It's I dealing with me for the good of myself. It can't be done. You can't lift yourself up by your own bootstraps. Ever tried that as a child, pulling on your suspenders, hoping that you would start to fly? Guess we all did

It doesn't exist, so there's nothing to get rid of. You can of course realize that it's an illusion, but the nature of illusion is, that they are also just illusions. Furthermore, "you" (ego) can't do anything about it since "you" don't exist - equally of course, "you" can't not do anything about it. Quite the opposite. It's the most egoic thing you could possibly attempt to do. It's completely egocentric, literally. Which is good. Because only so can you realize that it was a complete hoax all along.

Spot on

This guy spent 86 minutes in the quietest place on earth, he beat the previous record of 67 minutes. After a while his mind started to race, then at a certain point he began to hallucinate. I was wondering, how long do you think a very experienced meditator could spend in this room? Preferably someone who's experienced with psychedelics and hallucinations - because this guy was clearly freaked out by his (very mild) visuals and his mind got very busy, very quickly.

That's what I was thinking too. Which is also why I'm puzzled why nobody has attempted to beat the record? Maybe it's weirder than we think. On the other hand: how weird can this possibly be (compared to psychedelics this is obviously absolutely nothing), I mean common, some mild hallucinations, as Daniover9000 said it's a really nice opportunity to observe a new state of consciousness, nobody disturbs you, you can meditate as long as you want... sounds lovely!

https://erowid.org/psychoactives/faqs/faqs_tryptamine.shtml Scroll down to "Self-synthesis of DMT Derivatives". This is as close as you'll get to producing your own 5-MeO.

Well, but life isn't all suffering. There can be intense joy in life. Remember that moment when you were happy? Remember that feeling of "Man, even if my life would be mostly a nasty and unpleasant experience - it would be worth it to experience this one moment of joy and happiness"? Now, I know that many people don't look at life this way. All they want is the pain to go away - but you see how this is actually also a way of saying "Yes!" to life? Because fundamentally want you want is a happy life, obviously. You don't want "no life at all", but a life that is worth living. People who are suicidal say that they don't want to live anymore, which is the actually the result of the desire for a happy life, but having lost all hope that they could ever live a happy life, and so they say that it would be better not to live altogether. Which is perfectly alright, imo. @Elshaddai You say "spare them life's suffering". Which is of course the same as saying "spare them life's happiness". By not bringing anyone into existence, there's nobody to spare from life's suffering/joy. Also, you say "death is guaranteed", which is true. Therefore you must remember this: when you're dead, it's as though you have never lived. Let that sink in... It also means, that it's as though you have never suffered. In the end there really is not right/wrong answer to this question, because it's completely up to you whether you think life is worth living despite the suffering or not. Both ways are acceptable.

Lol, of course you can't do anything about it. But you're also not blocking yourself from awakening.

Indirectly it might do so, yes. By making you more focused, less stressed etc you can work more efficiently and so forth. But it might also make you realize that being rich isn't necessarily a desirable goal

Hang on - you didn't experience this on any psychedelic?

I don't think any guru would say something like that. They might say "you suffer because you are under illusion (attachment, ego, etc.)", but suffering itself is definitely real and not an illusion. In fact the Buddha said "life is suffering" as his opening statement, so.. Suffering is not an illusion. Maybe it is in the final analysis, but the illusion is real and so the consequences are real in a certain sense, too. Not if one has truly understood nonduality. You don't walk around seeing all the suffering in the world and brush it off, saying "oh that's nice, that's good, nobody's suffering". Quite the opposite is true - you walk around seeing all the suffering, saying: "oh that fact is not good - it's suffering and it's real despite the fact that it is GOOD". Of course it is GOOD. But its suffering and suffering is real to those who suffer. The illusion is also Real, that is nonduality. Maya and Brahman are identical and so all the suffering is just as real as Brahman. If someone hears about Zen for the first time, they might think something like "oh well, apparently I'm the Buddha anyway and so I can do whatever I want to do! Time to wear filthy clothes, steal things, be selfish, be violent, I'm the Buddha, I'm enlightened, I'm God, I can do as I goddamn please!" - but that only shows, that one hasn't yet truly understood, because if you did understand and you really knew it to be true, you wouldn't have to say or do it! @Dodo But I understand the predicament. Depends on the person I guess. How much guilt is involved? You said she was like a mother figure, so maybe one feels guilty towards her and thinks that it is your duty to suffer, in order to... what - expiate? Would you feel guilty if you wouldn't take away her suffering? Observe this guilt, what is it? It also selfishness. So what are you to do? - Not to help is selfish and you feel guilty because of it. - To "help" doesn't happen out of love but out of the selfish desire to get rid of you guilt by expiating! So you always end up being selfish. And then you feel guilty for that. It's a perfect trap. All you can do is realize that the trap isn't real and that there's nobody trapped - and then what? Well then you realize that you can't do anything wrong. And so this question about whether to help this poor person or not has no right nor wrong answer.

Lol, no

To assume that anyone is in the position to decide whether we are allowed to commit suicide or not is exactly the same as assuming to be in a position of deciding over someone else's life/death altogether. Are you allowed to live? Well, nobody is in the position to decide that for someone else, at least according to our common sense and law.* Are you allowed to die? Do you see how this is basically the same question? *I live in Europe; death penalty is not allowed, so my reasoning might vary to the laws of your particular country.

Love is unconditional acceptance of what is, yes? Yes. Existence/Reality "does" exactly that - by virtue of existing. You see?