Moksha

We are all Judas, and we are all Jesus. Some of us just haven't realized it yet.

Yes, and dying in the potter's field that I bought with the blood money.

Yes. I also remember coming down from the cross and ascending to life.

If you don't pursue awakening, it will pursue you.

@Mu_ Every concept is a mind fuck lol. Tat just is.

There is no forever. There is only now. If you are free from depression now, I am happy for you

If you desire to be joyful, you are not joyful. How can you desire to be joyful and be joyful at the same time? If instead you mean, "desire to continue being joyful", then you are setting yourself up for unhappiness. Joy is found in the present, never in the future.

Awakening is You.

You are your own guru. Awaken first, then find a guru that can help you stay awake.

They are enlightened because they have surrendered all desires, including the desire for joy. Peace, joy, and love are their natural state. The Buddha’s contemporaries described him as “ever-smiling". Not in the "fat, happy Buddha" sense that you see in misguided statues; these are actually based on a Chinese monk named Budai. The Buddha is most accurately depicted with a small smile. There is a reason enlightened people are known for their happiness and sense of play. It's more than just the absence of suffering:

Dissolving desire doesn't mean dissolving joy. Desire is the misalignment of what is with what you want it to be. Joy is embracing what is, and realizing that you are what is. There are people with terminal cancer that have awakened, and every remaining moment of their life is filled with joy.

The mind is the brain trying to make sense of the other senses. It just doesn't realize that in doing so, it is also prakriti. Enlightenment is the realization that you are not your mind, you are not your personality, you are not your body. You are Source itself, the eternal essence experiencing life through those things, but not defined by those things.

Consciousness is the illumined sky. Thoughts are the clouds that float across the sky.

Comparing to an LDS perspective, Krishna is the Godhead rather than Heavenly Father. The main difference is that Krishna is one being, while the LDS Godhead are three distinct beings united in purpose. Another difference is that there is only one Krishna, whereas Mormons believe that there are many godheads, propagating throughout eternity.

You don't. Uncertainty is inevitable, and embracing uncertainty is the path to enlightenment. The enlightened recognize the nameless Mystery that is ultimate reality, but they cannot describe or comprehend it. Direct experience is the closest you can come to understanding reality, because it is self-verifiable. But even through direct experience, all you can do is point to Tat and shrug.

According to eastern philosophy, mind itself is used by Brahman, along with the senses, to play in the world of form.

Enlightenment is detachment from our aversions and desires. That includes detachment from our political values and beliefs. You can still allow them, but you no longer identify with them, or take them so seriously. You become even-minded toward everyone, because you realize everyone is the same.

Well said. Suffering happens when we resist reality. We complain about what is, and we want what is not. It's like the Chinese finger trap. The more you fight to escape, the tighter the trap becomes. The secret to freedom is to embrace the trap by pushing your fingers into it. Only then does it release its hold. Some people spend their entire lives suffering by resisting what happens to them, when they might have enjoyed beauty and peace through acceptance. Nonduality = Reality = Integrity = Clarity = Wholeness = Peace

@The0Self You are describing conceptual enlightenment, which is a contradiction. Enlightenment is nonconceptual. It cannot be named, and can only be experienced directly. At best, people can be it and point others toward it, but it is ultimately a personal journey of Self-realization. It is being Consciousness itself. It is beautiful, unitive, spacious, holy light. The Buddha describes it as the end of suffering, because suffering is resistance to what is. Enlightenment is the end of resistance.

There are many paths to awakening. You can "force" the awakening by taking a psychedelic, but you take the risk of not being ready for the realization. Suffering and the traditional yoga paths of meditation, renunciation, selfless service, and devotion can all lead to awakening. The advantage they have over psychedelics is that the awakening is more likely to happen when you are ready for it. Not being ready for it can create an existential crisis, which is a risk to your psyche. That doesn't mean people can't successfully navigate the crisis; many have done so. I hear The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a good user manual for that path

Gita to the rescue

Sort of, except it isn't work and there is no achievement. It is the dance of dissolving into yourself.

Consciousness is the only nothing there is. Everything else is its dream. It is always awake and dreaming. In the dream, there are levels of consciousness. The individual mind, or the individual anything else, is consciousness playing the puppet game through infinite dream forms. Don't try to understand it, just realize it

@outlandish Interesting stuff. Maybe mind is just this case of Source playing through this brain in this moment.

@deci belle Beautifully realized. It is a one-way freefall into the soul void that is Self. The deeper you go, the more you are. I have a sense that the mind creates the ego for a reason. It's almost like it is protecting itself from itself, until it no longer needs protection. That may be why my instinct is to avoid psychedelics. It feels more safe to dissolve when the time is right. This may be why some people suffer an existential crisis after experiencing psychedelics; their mind isn't ready for the realization yet. You can pluck the apple from the tree when it looks ripe, but it may be wiser to wait for it to fall when it is ready. It took a long time to let go, but I'm loving the downward plunge.