The0Self

Even if there is a sort of reincarnation, I take it you probably don’t remember your previous life, right? If that’s the case, then you probably won’t remember this one — i.e. it will be like you never existed, if you do reincarnate, though in that case of course “you” reincarnating is a bit nonsensical.

Don’t worry about enlightenment. Maybe just give one of the full meditative paths a shot. Enlightenment is pointless and can only happen if you absolutely can’t resist incinerating everything so that not even a single belief remains — not even that you’re a human living on earth, in “the universe.”

This is precisely the sort of thing that ripped the materialist paradigm right out from under me. I was diagnosed with narcolepsy when I was 19 and started having this type of precognition type stuff happen in dreams. Can’t really think of any examples but what was even more compelling were the astral projections I was having — literally walking and flying around my neighborhood. In a dream, nothing is impossible, and that’s the only playground we have. Nothing is too mind blowing to take place.

1. more experience 2. upping the dose 3. (this one is perhaps most important but you can’t choose it) obsession about what is ultimately true and coming to terms with the fact that you have no idea what it is and you’re not happy about that one bit 4. gently coming to terms with solipsism — as ego-death is highly, highly suggestive of solipsism, and if you’re afraid of that, it could maybe be holding you back Maybe... I don’t really know for certain. It depends on the person, it seems.

Ultimately? What IS, is right... Or, there is no right or wrong. Right for you, on the other hand, is true for you, and you can use positive feeling as an indicator that something is right for you, and negative feeling to avoid what is wrong for you. Not just base level pain/pleasure, but one working model one can use is deeply feeling into any thought about yourself, and if it makes you feel bad, then it’s untrue and wrong for you — you can then either act on its converse (right action), or abandon it (if you’re trying to find the untruth-unrealized state, i.e. liberation from all ego and all belief).

^^ @aetheroar Yeah as I stated above, I really didn’t hear any recommendation lol. I guess it could be taken that way. I agree with your sentiment otherwise, if we were talking about someone intentionally recommending hardcore psychedelic use.

Perhaps. I would never recommend psychedelics and yet... I used a whole fucking lot of them... and it was a somewhat fundamental part of my path when I used them. But the solipsism was absolutely insane (only at the “time,” of course), yet undeniable. Leo is perhaps just braver than I to recommend them. Also... ? I think he was just saying basically that (1 month of) psychedelics will do a lot more than a bunch of sober practice... I don’t necessarily hear any recommendation in what he said unless I read into it a certain way and settle on a particular meaning.

Which is a thought. It’s a strange loop. By thought, in this context I really just mean experience. There is no thought. No universe. Only what is, which can appear as a dream. Awakening is the un-realization of the false, after a deconstruction process that begins with the realization that you and everything and everyone you know is only an appearance with no actuality — “truth exists, and this isn’t it.” Then when that deconstruction is finished, everything is seen straight through and no one is there to really be distracted anymore from the underlying reality that “I” am floating in paradise; empty infinite eternity, without other. Everything dual is illusory. Relationships appear but aren’t actual.

Here’s the actual method, but you’re already whole so it would just be to pass time and play while tricking yourself into thinking that you’re serious about letting go of the story (getting enlightened). Ask: Who...or what... am I? What is me? What can be known to be true? It should quickly be obvious that the only thing I can know is that I am. Because I can’t be sure of anything. You can do this meditatively with self inquiry by just withdrawing attention from all object by trying to find the subject of whatever appears to you. This can be done at all times if you’re serious, and whenever you’re not doing it, notice what you’re doing... there will at that time be an engrossment in the story — so you identify it and withdraw from that too. Repeat until nothing is left to know except [I AM]... but that will never happen because once there is no non-[I AM] object, there’s no I AM either. But if you just want to play around with some techniques that make you feel better in “this” life (there isn’t really anyone with a life, much less is there another life), Metta and dedicated and relaxed very-still meditation generally seemed to work nicely for me...well, for this character/ego-suit, anyway.

No one exists but you. And you... are only a thought. Alone in empty eternity. It’s so obvious it’s impossible to not see... Unless... you imagine a space-time universe that you traverse with an emotional system and an ego to keep the dream meaningful, and you imagine that things can begin and end. When that illusion drops, after a long and painstaking journey, there is simply everything; ALL there is, for no one. Simplicity. Anything else is a dream.

Degree of awakening = degree of awareness of your own inauthenticity. ❤️

Nah. It’s whole and complete already and it’s already over before it began. Disasters will happen — It’s just the bottom end of the emotional spectrum, and it’s there as a flavor every bit as valid as the top end, but only with absolute selflessness, agape, can this be appreciated. The absolute is quite fine steering the ship — The judgement of what happens hides this. Plenty of people probably wanted to kill those people, and they failed. Failure happens since success is also a thing. However if for instance time traveling back to that time to do that does in fact seem to happen, then that’s perfect as well. Strife serves its purpose, in a sense. Infinite love is completely devoid of morality — it’s not needed. Good and evil as opposites are interdependent and illusory — the garden of eden story is an allegory for this.

@Vincent S It’s funny you say that because LSD seemed to be the most useful for this to me as well. And I used a lot of different compounds. By far the most powerful were LSD-25, 5-MeO-DMT, and ketamine — all with their own benefits and drawbacks, but at least for me, all equally far more powerful than anything else.

I haven’t even finished reading but I resonate so incredibly much with this and it’s just so familiar to my story. I had the same thing with utter solipsism and non-doership and to explore it further I took psychedelics and I, my dream character, treated it as if I were going to war every time I tripped. And the psychedelic was taking me, not the other way around — this perspective literally seemed to be the reality at the time. All stories now but I literally have the memory of having the experience of creating the entire universe timelessly. It was just impossible to stop, for a while. I too have always felt disconnected. But for me it was because I was consciously disconnecting myself. I’m the kind of character who laughs a lot more than most, and get the urge to cry with a sort of blissful sadness quite a bit. Not so much now but most of my life. I would intentionally hold back and each time it felt wrong like I was fortifying the wall I built to keep truth out of my comfy lie. I’ll read the rest of this later. Sounds like you’ve had a crazy journey. ?

That which has a beginning and an end, is not. The black hole of non-being on both sides fills God with fear and so God looks away... Having successfully bamboozled itself, God celebrates... By living as you.

Really, solipsism is a stage you go through, it seems. It can become obvious that not only can nothing be known besides I AM — it’s not even imaginable that anyone including the almighty God could know anything at all besides I AM. So, that becomes clear... But then, that doesn’t mean I AM is known either, it just means absolutely nothing else can be known.

Nice! at once; timelessly

If you seem to be in a universe which is other than you, then your universe is your own -- it isn't shared. But really there's no one in, and nothing outside, the appearance that is pure emptiness appearing as everything. Not making any claims here, but in any case, whatever the truth is, simply is. Whatever is false, simply is not. It's no use resisting what is true.

@Breakingthewall In that sense yes, you are that — only without the you or the that. It’s not meaningfully condensable, as it’s without basis or core, and so it is and is not, and there is no it. Nor is there a not-it; not-this. That’s why being wrong about this is impossible. In other words, there is neither a case-closed, nor is there not a case-closed, nor anyone to arrive at it.

There are no other life’s, and there is no one with a life. There’s simply the whole of everything, which isn’t a thing — there’s no separation of any kind at all, but attachment (“your” life) can seem to appear in that. In a sense, death is the imaginary place where you reside and hide, incognito — which is self-referential and empty since you are simply that which hides as the imagination of death... There is no you, and no death.

^^ @Breakingthewall Underneath all the layers of self, there isn’t a primordial core — It’s not that you see through your self to your true nature... the self is just seen straight through, such that it isn’t even seen. The so-called layers of self (emotional and personal attachment, etc) seem to function to miraculously avoid facing what is most absolute, direct, and obvious: that there’s nothing else; this is everything, for no one.

Just to reiterate, if you're talking about the particular, same "self inquiry" that I am, then any questions are kind of just taking you in a direction away from the direct actual technique. But inquiry as a general practice in stillness, such as Adyashanti's description, can be wonderful as well -- reminds me of a sort of blend of Culadasa's analytical meditation and still point meditation, if you've read TMI.

@Rilles Page 25-30 of Adyashanti’s The Way of Liberation pertains to your post very directly. Here’s a quote from page 30: ” Inquiry is the art of questioning all of one’s assumptions, beliefs, and interpretations as a means of opening up space in the mind for intuitive wisdom to arise. Once space is opened up, simply rest the question in the stillness of conscious being. Watch. Keep faithful vigil with the unknown. The vital moments of breakthrough come when you least expect them. ”

Sorry, wasn’t implying you didn’t. Just saying the process of self inquiry can be a lot simpler. But inquiry as a whole in the way you describe can be fruitful, sure. Idk, maybe try “what’s left?” or “for whom?”

That doesn’t really describe what is usually referred to as self inquiry. See Nahm’s response (which include Ramana Maharshi's instructions).