Moksha

Maybe anesthesia is the new 5-MeO-DMT

Interesting thing about morality is that it is ultimately informed by intent. Dishonesty, for selfish gain, accumulates negative karma. I came across this earlier today, from the Buddha: One who says what is not true, one who denies what he has done, both choose the downward course. After death these two become partners in falsehood. - Dhammapada 22:306 This exemplifies what I see as the flaw in the philosophy of Neo Advaita. Believing that the relative world is only a dream, and therefore morality is unimportant, defies the wisdom that informed Advaita in the first place. God is Love. Acting contrary to your inner nature will lead to suffering, while living with integrity will set you free.

It's not about glimpsing over and over. It's about integrating your realizations into your life, and actually deconditioning your mind. Until you stop trusting your mind, and clinging to attachments, you will not be truly free. All relatively speaking, of course.

Yes, ultimate reality and relative reality are all God. God created the cosmos, and is the abode of the cosmos, but is beyond the cosmos. Sub ek, it's all One. You are right to be concerned about the pitfall of identifying as an "enlightened person". The ego is so nefarious that it will corrupt even enlightenment, by claiming it as a badge of honor. There is only Consciousness, expressing itself through creation, experiencing life through the forms that it creates, dancing through the dream, and sometimes lucidly meeting itself within the dance. It is all about Love. Whether within the dream, or beyond the dream, the essence and purpose of it all is unconditional Love. You can be aware, even within the dream, of the sameness of us all, and still celebrate the uniqueness of you, and of others, knowing there is ultimately, only You.

@Vignan I can't help you with psychedelics, bro, Have never taken them, and probably never will. I have no judgment, either way. There are people I respect that have taken them, and have seen good results. All I can tell you is that it comes down to this: Do I trust my conditioned mind? Has my ego ever actually delivered on what it promised? If not, maybe there is a better way. Realize who You are. Whether it takes psychedelics or not to realize, doesn't matter. Just realize.

Every story is fiction. The only truth is directly realized. Even these words are narrative in the story, but maybe they can help point you to setting down the book, and being.

Ego is annoying that way. It is always looming at your back, ready to stab, the second you stop being aware of it. Worse, the more spiritual progress you make, the harder the ego fights to stay alive. You have to grit your teeth, working through each night of the soul, until you emerge on the other side, a little clearer and stronger than before. My experience has been the same as what Ram Dass describes. I feel it will be a lifelong journey of fighting to stay vigilant, rather than listening to the taunts of my conditioned mind. Deconditioning is hard work, but each little victory is worthwhile.

Psychedelics won't make you good. Maybe they will provide insights, that will help you along the path of unconditional love, but they won't do the work for you. I just came across this today, from Ram Dass: Even after I understood the need to disentangle from my attachments to get there, it has not been an easy or rapid process. Instead of the instant enlightenment I envisioned from psychedelics, it has required years of incremental practice to even begin to get free of the conditioned feelings, habits, and unconscious urges that keep rising to the surface. And it's not that they have gone or will go away, but how I identify with them as I shift more toward the soul that Maharaj-ji reflected back to me.

Are you able to see past the conditioned personality of people, and resonate with the Consciousness that is who they actually are?

@Heaven ?

Healthy ego is an oxymoron. The ego is false identification with the conditioned mind, which ultimately leads to suffering. Letting go of thinking, and directly abiding in who You are, banishes the ego. Unfortunately, few of us are able to stay present always, so inevitably the ego returns. Thinking isn't inherently unhealthy, as long as we don't identify with it. A nice quote I came across yesterday, from Ram Dass: But it turns out giving up conceptual thinking is not so scary after all - in fact, it's a relief! I keep telling people, "You are not who you think you are." So-called objective reality is only relatively real compared to the deeper reality of the Self... The paradox is that to really practice mindfulness, you have to let go of thinking. The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master.

@Codrina Right back at ya ?

I've only been under anesthesia once, but believe me, when it hits, you have no choice but to go under. The cord is severed. Meditate all you want, it's still 3...2...1...lights OUT. Human consciousness is precarious. You can be conscious one moment, and then go deeply, cleanly out, the next. When I woke up, it was the most rested I had felt in years. Don't confuse human consciousness with ultimate Consciousness. We, as Consciousness, never go out. We only change states of Self-awareness.

Why does it have to be a radical experience to be meaningful, or even life-changing? What if the realization was boringly simple? So simple that your mind refused to accept it? Radical experiences don't end suffering. They are usually only temporary. The end of suffering is deeply realizing that your conditioned mind will never bring you happiness, and You are already infinitely abundant. Are you willing to let go of your thoughts, and simply be? That internal alignment is the end of chasing enlightenment, and the realization that nothing ever needed to be chased in the first place, which is inherently liberating and beautiful.

@The Buddha Ultimately, I suppose it is

In the relative realm, there can be no objective standard for claiming one truth is "deeper" or "more radical" than any other truth. It is just different perspectives. In the ultimate realm, there is objective, changeless, timeless truth. It is entirely unified, and therefore, there are no separate truths to compare with one another. It is all simply truth.

I understand, and have felt the living, spiritual energy emanating from some gurus. You don't even have to be physically in their presence. I have had experiences listening to Eckhart Tolle, or Mooji, and feeling the Consciousness of their presence, resonating with the same Consciousness within myself. Sometimes it is a teaching, but often it is pure silence, and feeling the energy within that space. For some reason, I keep referring to Ramana Maharshi recently, but his primary teaching was silence. Different gurus are best suited to different aspirants. We have different levels of awareness, and learn in different ways. Ultimately, it is all Consciousness, but there are many paths to the same Self-realization.

? It is beautiful. Letting go of the false promises of the conditioned mind, and directly realizing Yourself as unconditional Love, is the ultimate liberation. Curiosity isn't inherently imprisoning, as long as you don't cling to it for Self-discovery and validation. The cosmos is fascinating, and there's nothing wrong with enjoying its wonders, but true Self-knowledge is entirely non-conceptual, and can only be directly realized. All the best in your beautiful journey!

@allislove Your avatar name says it all ?

Nice catch! And perfectly apt. Consciousness "traps" itself, in order to experience phenomena. If there was no trap, there would only be changeless, ultimate reality, devoid of sensory experience. It is all Consciousness, in different states of awareness, intentionally.

True, but only from the Ultimate perspective. Just because a soul is on a journey of Self-discovery doesn't make it less real. It is only relatively real, but it is still real. It is an expression of, and therefore still a part of, God.

Realizing the addiction is the first step toward dissolving it. You're right about forcing yourself to change. It doesn't work, because it doesn't address the core issue. You are looking for happiness through experiences that can never provide what you seek. How many millions of lives have been wasted, desperately diving into one experience after another, only to realize that it never provides the fulfillment that it promised? As your intuition is telling you, the answer is to be aware. But aware of what? Most of us require a lot of hell before we finally realize that the chasing itself is the source of our suffering. This whole time, the answer is within. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to dive so deeply into yourself that you directly realize the infinite abundance that You already are. Everything with a beginning must also end. So let go of the transient. Discover the infinite, changeless, timeless Love that is your essence. Abide in You.

It might be different in Sweden, but here in the U.S., a B.S. degree in psychology is useless. If you want to make a career out of psychology, it is pretty much mandatory to get an advanced degree. Personally, if you are looking to help people with spiritual growth, I would avoid psychology entirely. Focus on the direct path of your own spiritual growth, followed by helping others with theirs. If you have a strong research focus, you could take the transpersonal psychology route, but that would likely mean getting a Ph.D. and working in an academic setting.

By my definition of enlightenment, it is a tiny proportion of people, and even they don't fully meet the standard, because they are still human. Enlightenment means "to be filled with light", which is the dissolving of every attachment, and perpetually being unconditional love. If what you are asking is why awakened people meditate, it is primarily because the practice strengthens their spiritual discipline, and makes it easier to swim upstream, against the current of their conditioned mind. Waking up is only the first step in the soul journey back to our unconditioned Self.

Some of the comments here are verging away from honest criticism to borderline personal attacks. Nothing wrong with providing feedback, but please ensure it is constructive.