Moksha

Maybe physical addictions are easier to recognize, but the more insidious and intractable addictions tend to be mental. Mental disorders are the result of addictions or fixations, which are just another form of addiction. The deeper you sink into the absolute within, the less pull addictions have on you, until eventually you are entirely free. True spirituality is less about stunning realization, and all about seamless integration.

I agree, assuming that by "there is only you", you mean "there is only the absolute". What I'm pointing to is the hunting horn of the ego. Catching glimpses of the absolute is like spotting the great white stag in the forest. Spiritual seekers chase it, hoping to claim it as a prized trophy and hang it above the throne in their egoic fortress. The wise kneel humbly, and wait with eyes downcast for the stag to approach of its own volition. If they are free enough of ego, the stag will lie down next to them and become their dear companion. The absolute is not a possession to be acquired, or an experience to be enjoyed. It is the true essence of us all, creating the conditions to realize the unparalleled glory of itself. The most phenomenal wonders in the cosmos can't compare to a pure heart. I'm sharing this with everyone on the forum, and have only the below feedback to share with you personally: If you look at the record of my posts, I rarely call someone out on their ego. It's intentional. When pointed out, the ego puffs itself up defiantly and becomes even more bloated than it was before. For that reason, there's little to be gained by naming it. It's like standing next to someone that just farted, and politely ignoring the miasma because you don't want them to feel embarrassed. Given that context, I'll say this once. I feel that you have an enormous ego, to which you are largely blind. You maniacally post more threads than anyone on this forum, most of which are long and rife with judgment. You seem to take enjoyment in calling out the egos of others. This behavior only enhances your sense of spiritual superiority. When sentences are being perpetually passed on others, in the conviction that you are right and everyone else is wrong (including even your mentor, Leo), be sure that ego is at the helm. You can use this as a spur for deeper growth, or dismiss it as the drivel of someone beneath you. I share it in sincerity, as someone that has struggled for a long time with an ego of my own.

@Water by the River I should have anticipated the analogy when the gladiator asked, "Are you not entertained?". Still, my favorite movie ever ⚔️ There's a lot of talk here about "serious spirituality". I understand the intent, but am glad people are realizing the value of moderation, even in the spiritual journey. As Tolle said, "Don’t trust a guru that never laughs." @Razard86 I was pondering this morning that the greatest obstacle to deepening realization is not jousting at conceptual windmills (e.g., crusading for the idea of absolute solipsism), Don-Quixote style. That can be distracting, but it tends to eventually exhaust itself. All good. The true enemy, which stands behind your shoulder whispering where to strike, is the ego itself, appearing as an angel of light. When it tells you that you can't possibly thrive without its guidance, see it for the lie that it is. True wisdom is directly realized within. Everything else is empty illusion. It's possible to gradually dissolve attachments to external desires and fears. Love does the work for you, you just have to allow it. It is a deepening process of absolute liberation. Severing the strings to maya doesn't require heroic effort on your part. All that is truly needed is sincere submission of the absolute to itself. When you get old like me (I'm 57), if you're lucky life wears you down to the point where you are ready to see your suffering for what it is. You realize that the desperate need for safety and happiness, which has driven you to construct a conceptual fortress around yourself, only isolates you from the light of your absolute nature. Until the fortress is dissolved, ego brick by ego brick, you remain enslaved within a prison of your own making. The deconstruction doesn't happen over night, but it does happen, and the light of your absolute nature floods more steadily through. You develop a keen scent for the ego. Not only do you detect it in others, but you are attuned to its parasitic attempts on your own awareness. Gradually, you learn to remain focused on the absolute within, no matter how alluringly the ego flashes its wares on the other side of the gate.

Transience bulldozes relative reality. Everything that begins must also end. Humans will end, this planet will end, and the entire cosmos will eventually end. No worries, the screen doesn't care whether the movie is starting, in credits, or in motionless intermission.

No question that this forum has a cultish undercurrent, then again the same is probably true of most spiritual forums. People are drawn to the appearance of authority like flies to a fetid corpse. If you truly want to awaken, instead of casting your awareness to the feet of another specter, claim the authority of the absolute within.

@Water by the River It's doing battle with the hydra in the colosseum. Every time you lop off a head, two grow back. When facing the ego, all you can do is duck and weave, until it exhausts itself. Gladiator is my favorite movie of all time, by the way. ??

There is a state of deep immersion, which Ramana Maharshi calls internal samadhi, which is beyond physical sensation. External samadhi enhances the senses, without losing awareness within them. External samadhi is holding on to the reality while witnessing the world, without reacting to it from within. There is the stillness of a waveless ocean. The internal samadhi involves loss of body-consciousness.

I'll let him clarify what he meant I was just pointing to the absolute reality beyond the appearance of form and formless. You're right that the unmanifested is beyond imagination. The same is true for the void, or non-existence, or whatever name you choose for the negative polarity that counterbalances the cosmos within the dream. This multitude of beings is created and destroyed again and again in the succeeding days and nights of Brahma. But beyond this formless state there is another, unmanifested reality, which is eternal and is not dissolved when the cosmos is destroyed.

Interesting how logic is presented as being the answer to everything, but when challenged it wilts. Inevitably, it paints itself into a conceptual corner, from which it can only whimper "none of these questions matter". You're incorrect that the absolute can only know itself through appearance. Awareness is aware. If you don't believe me, ask your Leo god. Not only is the absolute nothing, it is everything, and beyond nothing and everything. In this beyond, which is intransient reality, there is no true appearing or disappearing, only the imagination of such. You still haven't answered my question about the absolute imagining itself within multiple apparent forms. Realizing this answer will save you from absolute solipsism.

He's correct. The cosmos (creation) and the void (potential) are extreme dualities of the dream. One can't appear to exist without the other not appearing to exist. The unmanifested is beyond existence and non-existence, it is unveiled absolute, and it is pure reality.

@Razard86 "When the Absolute ZOOMS INTO a perspective character, that perspective that houses the character IS THE ABSOLUTE." Yes, but do you believe that only this particular character is the absolute? Or do you believe that other characters can also be the absolute within its cosmos? "And it is NOT beyond logical comprehension. The ONLY thing beyond logical comprehension is the fact that it has no origin, is eternal, and can disappear and reappear for all eternity." Having no origin, being eternal, and creating/annihilating at will seem significant enough not to be dismissed outright by claiming that logic is capable of grasping the absolute. "But how it TRICKS itself through self-deception it uses LOGIC to do it. Therefore you have to use LOGIC to UNTRICK yourself." Logic can only take you to the gate. It cannot shove you through to the other side. You can only be invited in by the absolute, which is who you actually are. It is a passage of grace. Direct experience and the paradox of the mystery are beyond logic. "There are no more realizations left once you figure out the self-deception." Do you agree that the depth of realization correlates with the depth of integration? Is the absolute fully realized within a form when it is still primarily driven by external attachments? "And stop saying BEYOND. THERE IS NO BEYOND. There is no direction. You never travel anywhere. You can say it isn't bound but BEYOND implies a travel or direction." Beyond is as good a word as any to describe that which is unbound by time, space, matter, experience, or change. "Again...that bubble is absolute." Every bubble has boundaries, does it not? If not, why call it a bubble? "Think of the VOID as the intermission room, this void is surrounded by infinite dreams. You zoom into all of them at the same time. Now each POV/Dream is itself the ABSOLUTE. Therefore the moment something leaves that POV it doesn't exist." Do you believe the absolute can co-inhabit multiple forms within the same dream? If not, it seems you believe that this form talking with your form in this moment is not also an avatar of the absolute?

Absolutely. Most people still believe that they are people, and that manifesting the desires of the veiled absolute within their form means manifesting the will of the unveiled absolute. Baby steps.

See my sig

I have a soft spot in my avatar heart for fellow INFJs Wish you the best in your meditation practice. "The Mind Illuminated" was my go-to, but there are many other great guides out there. The mind is like a bull desperately trying to escape from its pen. A skilled rider may be able to stay a few seconds on its back, but even the best will eventually be thrown. Instead of directly confronting the bull, try distracting it by offering some sweet grass. It doesn't have to be the enemy, and can actually learn to be your friend. ?

@Razard86 Much of what you've realized, regarding the absolute being all, is true. Still, are you open to the possibility that your current level of realization can deepen? Or does the absolute within your form believe that it has realized all there is to be realized about itself? Regardless, if you can answer the below it will help me better understand your level of realization: "Many on the forums think I am saying the avatar is all alone, HELL NO the avatar you see is no different than the other avatars you see, it is just an appearance!!" Correct, all avatars are illusions of the absolute. "If you are in your room, with your doors closed then there are NO OTHER ROOMS in the present moment. If you do NOT SEE any other visuals....then there are NO OTHER VISUALS. If you do not hear something, then that sound does not exist. YOU ARE EXISTENCE. If it is not within your awareness then it does not exist!!!" Who is the "you" in your room? You seem to be referring to the absolute experiencing its dream within a certain avatar? Do you acknowledge that the absolute can experience its dream through other avatars, in other rooms? That it can see other visuals and hear other sounds through other avatars? Do you acknowledge that the unveiled absolute is beyond all avatars, that it is beyond logical comprehension, and that it is beyond experience and change?

It's like a fireworks show, with a single rocket spiraling upward and exploding, to illuminate the sky above your head. Before long a few more fireworks offer their light. Eventually the entire sky is filled with cascades of light, a cacophony of patterns and colors dancing everywhere in maya. Finally, the serenity of night. Within and beyond all of it, the fireworks and the night sky, the absolute attends its phenomenal dream.

@Water by the River Bodhi originally has no tree, but me. The mirror has no stand, save where I stand. The Buddha-nature is always clear and pure, beside myself there is no more. Where is there room for dust, to entertain myself is now a must? Amazing how much space there is here on the other shore, all boats welcome!

I'm not sure, but it seems to have a bald head. ?

@Breakingthewall I'm glad to hear that the absolute within your apparent form is beginning to spontaneously realize itself. Has it started to realize the absolute within and beyond other apparent forms yet? It's a blinding field of light.

@Judy2 By turning your attention inward, I don't mean thinking about thinking. That only entangles you further, like struggling to free yourself from a Chinese finger trap. Have you tried meditation? It's about focusing on something other than the mind, rather than trying to control the mind. For people that struggle with hyperactive thoughts, meditation can be a helpful step toward realization. It trains you to allow thoughts to come and go, without identifying or engaging with them. If meditation isn't helpful, mantras and physical yoga can be a useful starting point. Regardless of what takes you inward, realization is sinking into the stillness of the absolute. It is pure blissful silence. Sometimes spiritual insights will spontaneously arise when I meditate, which is beautiful, but then awareness returns to its source. Eventually, you reach the point where abiding in awareness becomes your default state. It sublimates the experience of life.

@Water by the River Saving one sentient solipsist at a time

Do you see that the idea of you is equally a barrier? Yes, the absolute is seamless. It is within and beyond everything. Mystic 101. The problem with solipsism is that it crumples this realization down to the myopic perspective of the observer. He is unable to see the absolute in everything, only in himself. Everything else in his perception is dismissed as empty illusion. He forgets to dismiss himself while he is at it.

I'm the angel on his shoulder ?

Who did you have high hopes for again?

@Razard86 It's true that where much is given, much is expected. Truth and accountability are correlated. When the absolute realizes and then denies itself, the karmic ripples spread farther than when it remains asleep. Had he not been a son of the morning, Lucifer wouldn't have fallen so far into the abyss. Still, this is at the relative level. Only the absolute is accountable, and its path unfolds as it wills. I understand the purpose of telling people they have free will. It is a shrewd way for the absolute to wake itself up. Although people don't actually have free will, the absolute within them, which is who they actually are, does. Regardless of the granularity of will, the actions people take will always have consequences. For the record, we are fighting for the same side. Ego ahoy! ⚔️