Breakingthewall

Consciousness is a misleading term that no one explains clearly. Right now I am conscious of myself in a crowded subway stop. I am conscious is a construction within the manifestation of reality now, therefore consciousness would be the manifest reality at a given moment. If reality does not manifest as perception there is no consciousness, but there is still non-conscious reality. You, that is, the perceiver, cannot understand this since for the perceiver perception is absolute since without perception he does not exist, but this is a limited vision that the perceiver has since he cannot conceive of any reality outside of himself.

The problem with these methods is that every mind is different, with profound differences. For me, trying to focus the mind is torture and impossible. True meditation began in a way that seems quite silly, reciting a mantra while walking down the street constantly: nothing means nothing. Little by little I was accepting this fact. It doesn't mean that nothing means anything in general, but that I want to put myself in a state of mind in which meaning is deactivated. When you deactivate meaning, the mind stops creating conceptual thought threads, they fade away naturally. This doesn't mean that you have broken through the mental boundaries completely, but that you have gone down from the superficial conceptual layer, you are outside of it, the mind becomes liquid, fluid, but it is still limited. You can go for quite a long time without any thoughts, because if they don't mean anything, you don't need them to survive. Then you can try something else: you become aware of your sensory perception, of sounds, the sensation of your body, the sensation of the flow of reality. Is this the reality? Or are you the one who perceives these sensations? Are you the witness of the flow that occurs, of perception? So, without this flow, this witness, what is it? If you separate yourself from perception, the perceiver reveals himself as a non-existent point, there is no perceiver without perception, there is absolutely nothing. Is this nothing the final realization? No you have to be able to bear this, because the first time is horrible, it is perceived as death. If you are able to bear the sensations of absolute absence, horror of emptiness, it happens that nothingness reveals itself as the absolute, the absence of limits implies the total, then nothingness opens up and reveals itself as everything. It's like the nothingness opens and it's full. Full of what? Of you. You are that, the absolute

Not bs, just beginner meditation, you have to focus in something because if not you start thinking and conceptualizing, but for me it never worked, it's forced and useless, but just for me

Happiness is the inevitable consequence of real detachment. Real detachment is only possible with openness to the absolute. Happiness is the absence of suffering, suffering is contraction, attachment, desire, living at the superficial level of perception. At this level you can minimize suffering by trying to satisfy your needs, that is, being directed by the evolutionary force and collaborating with it, which is not "bad", but it enslaves you. If you want to be free you have to take a step back, understand what perceived reality is and detach yourself from it as much as possible.

The question is, what conciousness is? Really conciousness is just perception, perception means the fact of perceiving something. You can't imagine anything without perception because "you", the self that arises being an human is made of perception. We are like a software that develops itself integrating the sensorial perception which is given meaning from a structure created by evolution. All this about spirituality is penetrating this whole structure and dismantling it until reaching the final essence. A being made of perception cannot imagine anything that is not perception, because "imagining" is perception. Imagining is a structure of thought created by synaptic connections that integrate the received sensorial perception with the base structure prepared to give it meaning. Getting out of there is not easy, it is impossible to imagine a non-conscious creative force because non-conscious is equated with non-existent by the perceiver, and the perceiver is a creation of the perception. They say: enlightenment is collapsing the duality between perceptor and perception, then only the reality manifested remains. But sometimes lacks here: what is the reality manifested? They will say: pure conciousness. Ah ok, then why it arises? Why it's in the way that it is? Why it's alive, perfectly synchronized? They will say: because conciousness does it. Ah, then conciousness is something that does things....well, seems that conciousness is amplifying it's meaning. Then the final answer: because conciousness is God? What? How? Awake! Idiot! Let me alone 😭 Conciousness is just an arising, just perception, you are without perception. How? Impossible to imagine or perceive, because who imagine or perceive is just the perceptor, the point of a iceberg that is projecting a thin hologram that's a mental construction. That mental construction of course is real, because it's substance is the substance of reality, but means nothing, it's just a relative appearance. The real thing, the absolute, is beyond any conciousness

Exactly, without duality conciousness ceases. You could say: really there is not duality because everything is the same, etc, but anyway the appearance of two is needed. Without consciousness there is cessation, but cessation simply means absence of consciousness, not absence of absolute reality. Awakening, or enlightenment on whatever you want to call knowing your true nature means realizing that the reality beyond perception, nothingness, not the void in which you are aware of the void, but nothingness, meaning nothingness as the absence of any perception, is the living totality, the absolute potential. It is not a logical mental understanding, it is an opening that occurs in you when you transcend precisely the consciousness

Do this mental exercise: imagine that you would be yourself without sensory perception. Then imagine yourself without memory, then without mental movement. What would you be aware of? Absolutely nothing. Your field of perception would be nothing, so there would be no time, but this would be the absolute, the total potential from which infinite manifestations can emerge. This is the absolute, the nothingness that is everything, something outside the possibilities of thought or imagination, you could be open to it but not perceive it because perception, or conciousness, are happenings that happens in that potential Of course conciousness "always" happens, because no conciousness is out of time, then without conciousness it's not happening, but it doesn't mean than conciousness is absolute, it's just an arising, but this arising always happens because when it's not happening is not "when", it's never, but this never is the absolute. Some meditation is needed The human mind needs a concious cause for the cosmos, because an unconscious cause can't be imagined, but this concious cause would be relative. Absolute means total, don't need intention, be aware of itself, just because it's absolute. It is without will or awareness, it's because can't not be, then don't need any conciousness, conciousness just arises, as anything else Real awakening means be open to the absolute in yourself. You are that absolute that can't be thought or imagined, and for "you" is the same be conscious or unconscious. It's just difference of state.

If you focus your awareness in inside, and are able to get free of the chains of your circumstance, you will realize the unlimited, then you would be conscious of the unlimited, but if you don't do that and you are only aware of your pipe of crack, the unlimited alive still exist, because it's absolute, but it's out of the conciousness, the conciousness is nothing, just appearance. The absolute is out of the time, out of the time is out of the conciousness, because conciousness always, absolutely always, implies time. If you are conscious only of the immutability, you are unconscious. Be conscious needs change to be conscious of itself

Maybe Ralston is a beginner in understanding, who knows. Conciousness is a relative concept, means the reality that is manifested. The absolute is beyond the conciousness. Conciousness is the temporary manifestation of a facet of the absolute, the absolute is absolute even it's unconscious of itself, conciousness is the light that shows a part. any part is the absolute, but infinitely out of the conciousness, only a limited part is conciouss of itself, the point of the iceberg, the other infinite iceberg is in darkness. It doesn't need to be inligthened, because it's absolute in the dark and in the light. Awake and anesthesia with propofol are equally absolute. The thing is that unconscious reality is outside of time , it's not "happening", but the point is that "happening" is a relative appearance. Conciousness is a relative appearance.

Reality is unfolding perfectly, your body is doing millions of synchronous processes uninterruptedly, which in turn are synchronized with millions of external processes. There are no coincidences, everything is intertwined, synchronized down to the last subatomic particle. To meditate is to dissolve into this reality, to give up control and to soak in the flowing energy. You are that, the path unfolds, you flow with it. It is mysterious, intricate, beautiful, alive. Like an ecosystem in the jungle, perfect, wild, intelligent.

@Ishanga there is something interesting about sadhguru: he never talk about meditation. Meditation in the sense of the observation of the mind, the structures of the experience and the experienced, the difference between void and full, those things that make the mind plastic, flexible. His approach to enlightenment y mostly physical, energetic. That's right? Shadana doesn't care about the movement in the mind right? Just about the energetic flow

Thanks for sharing what you studied, it's very interesting, but as you said, better don't believe, nor disbelieve. For me it's an idea that have some contradictions

What @PurpleTree says is that this idea about cycles or reincarnation that ends when you achieve "enlightenment" maybe is just a mistake and reality doesn't works like that. @Ishanga why do you believe that? Maybe you achieve moksha and then are more cycles, or maybe reincarnation is a misunderstanding and never happened. Have those ideas without really knowing them seems a hindrance

I think it's evolution, but who knows

Sorry to know. Yes, when mess happen meditation is not easy. Some 5meo was useful for me in those situations

Thanks! How's your meditation? Still every morning?

Not so easy for me, in my experience if you want to open yourself in a real way you have to meditate very seriously, 2, 3 hours every single day for long time absolutely focused in how you are attached, in the movement of your psyche. There is a time when it's easy be on silent, no thought, but there is still attachment. It's something mechanic. For me is still very difficult to break the attachment, the limitation, but I manage to do in some moments. Then you see the experience in what it is, and what reality is, the unlimited that is the total potential, the nothing that is everything. Not easy to get out of the human, a hard work, but must be done. Anything else is confusion

In some moment you realize that anything that happens is an aspect of the absolute that you are, then you accept yourself and stop fearing yourself, because you open yourself to what you are.

You say that without understandig what I said. It's not theory, it's something that you have to do , open yourself to the unlimited. You answer just by reaction, it's very difficult to talk with the people here because no one in interesting in breaking the attachment of the mind, the experience, everyone is only interested in being special. Extremely difficult the topic because people is arrogant and surrounded by walls

The fact of existing is absolute beauty, or is perceived like that if you remove the human bias

Yeah, but "beauty" is just a relative appreciation. It's different for example if you are in a gulag in Siberia working as slave, then you see the "ugly", but both are just facets of the absolute. The absolute is not beautiful is absolute , but of course you could see the beauty of the ugly

Another unclear point about “the man” is his Buddhist view of the cycle of rebirth. So you are trapped in a cycle, for some reasons, and you must free yourself, stop the cycle. So what? There are no more cycles. Never? When is never? Next month, when you do mashamadi? And then eternity in non-experience? Who would be in non-experience? Nobody. So there would never have been cycles, so it is the same whether they end or not, so their sacred mission is bullshit. There will always be experience, because non-experience is “never”. Obviously.

Realizing the absolute doesn't need stop thinking, because without thought you are still in the experience, perceiving sounds, feeling your body. What is needing is realize what you are without any perception, detach yourself from the perception, then the perceptor dissapear. The perceptor is the door that closes, is like a barrier. If the perceptor opens itself detaching the perception, the unlimited manifest. Then the experience is revealed as an arising that is emanating , you can't think in it because if you do, you are in the experience again, you could think realizing that thought is just the experience, doesn't mean absolutely nothing in absolute perspective. It's a difficult game, but not so magic, it's normal, possible

Liberation means detachment of the experience, be detached of the perception, then the unlimited manifest, it's not thinkable because any thought is in the experience, then it only could be realized out of the experience. Then any adjective like "illusion" closes because is in the experience, in the mind

It's not how it works. The experience is the perception, the emanation that is arising from the absolute. If you erase all perception the absolute realizes itself. It's absolute void absolute potential, it's not "happening", it's not an experience, the experience is happening in it. You could call it illusion or real, its exactly the same because that differentiation happens in the experience, out of the experience there is not illusion vs real. The experience is relative, needs a perceptor and a perception, without perception there is not perceptor, then there is not relativeness just absolute. Any perception emanates from the absolute, then it's the absolute, a face of the absolute, then it's same real than the absolute, just presented in relative form. In short, that of the illusion has not meaning