Batman

As long as there is a self, there will be "problems". This is why we construct the self to begin with. The self's job is to label some aspect of experience as a problem, so it could be solved to serve the persistence of the self. Psychedelics can rather quickly "expose" this self-agenda dynamic, and 'bring to light' Consciousness regarding the nature of self and mind. Once self and mind nature is fully "known" or "recognized" by Consciousness, it is possible with contemplation or integration to transcend self and mind, or formulate a new, healthier self, which is more aligned with what is true regarding it's nature.

Thanks. I really liked your post, relaxation is indeed important and fruitful. Can you clarify what do you mean by observing unconscious tensions with 'heightened awareness'?

Get a cat

In your dreams you also believe that your 'Consciousness' comes from the body, but we all know this is not the case. In the dream you are not conscious of the deeper reality of the dream, which is the dreamer's mind. Even if your perform surgery on your brain in a dream, you might still perceive a brain. Moreover, damaging the head in the dream might even cause damage to the perceptions within the dream. This is because even the dream world has some persistency and realness to it. If someone is hurting you in your dream, you will be fearful and might even react to protect yourself. But when you wake up, you realize the the entire dream, including the one who tried to hurt you, was of your own making. When you realize this to be the case, your identification with your dream character dissipates. Although the dream analogy does fall short in some aspect, the case in our "reality" is not very far from it. The perception of body and the feeling of a subjective experience and an ability to control an object of perception or awareness does not negate the possibility of a fundamental existence.

You can take psychedelics such as Psilocybin, LSD, DMT that on a certain dose will lead you to a "no mind" experience. You won't have all the complex conceptual activities that are imposed on your perceptions (memories, imagination, interpretation, thinking, etc.). In this state you will not identify with your self, because the mind that generates the self is temporarily inactive. You might also do meditation or contemplation. But usually they are not as effective as psychedelics, and usually require tons of persistence and discipline.

This post actually feels like a good first step in the direction of honesty, which will allow you to rebuild your integrity.

The Meta-Skill of knowing how to acquire any skill efficiently.

I think I can get what you are communicating. But a name is only a concept, used for the purpose identifying a certain object (usually a life form that participates in human culture such as humans, cats, dogs, etc), or a group of objects (such as a family name which refers to some linkage between human beings). Given it's conceptual nature, name has no meaning whatsoever, unless we assert meaning to it. And I sense that it is you who is 'trapping' yourself inside a certain character, that is recognized by some name. Of course you are not your name. This is not the only concept you are not Being. Your entire self-concept is a fabrication, and is not who you really are. So feeling trapped by a specific name is no different from feeling trapped by some belief, such as that you are smart. If you believe you are smart, you will act to reflect this self-image to others, reinforce it for yourself, and avoid activities that may nibble in this belief. Feeling trapped is the reasonable outcome of any self-distinction you assume. So, name is just a small piece in the puzzle of the self. And yes, if you have associations or meaning that you imposed on your name, you may find you are trapped by them, because you identified with them, maybe even without noticing. The only one trapping you. is. your. self.

Yes, this happens when you are being dishonest with yourself, and lack the consciousness to distinct whether your understanding comes from belief or from Consciousness. This is pretty basic stuff IMO, distinguishing between concept and realization. But it is a common trap to fall into. Hope your head is fine though.

Look, I can really sense you man. But why care so much? Peterson, Harris & Co. (and also more self-help "gurus" such as Jocko WIlling, Tai Lopez and whatever) are all on same band-wagon of materialism intellectualism, who got stuck really hard in the "orange" values domain. That's their thing, and being trapped in belief system for so long should not interrupt you, because this is just how society works. You can't have Tolle, Ramana, Spira, Adyashanti, Leo Gura, Ralston, Osho, Wilber, and so on (order has no significance) without throwing some Petersoniasim in the mix. That's how society works, it has different layers of mind that reflect the consciousness of the individual. You should deep in the Spiral Dynamics water, maybe it's model might clarify this for you.

Truth is what is. That's it, you don't have to go any farther than that, because that wouldn't be the Truth. And yes, of course you can't think the Truth. A thought is a concept, an abstraction of the thing it refers to, and so it will never be the thing itself. But I sense you are confusing the Truth with some relative truth (such as, the fact that I just farted). I suspect that you know very well when something is relatively true, and when it is relatively false. For example, I could tell you that my penis is 25cm long. This is false, on a relative level (which is the level by which human beings measure stuff). From an absolute 'perspective', there is no penis to begin with. Experience is not the Truth, because experience is the end result of processing the Truth for the purpose of self-survival. Your senses and your mind are designed to serve the persistence of your self, not what is Truth. So yes, in the reality of self-survival, which is the relative reality you know, your experience is true in the sense that it reflects what you know. Of course experience can change, if your self transform. But the experience will always reflect the self that you are at that 'moment in time', and nothing else. You can take a psychedelic and transform the self for some time, and have a different experience. But it will still be an experience of some self. It's ok, you can stop with the mental gymnastics, it won't get you the Truth. But relative truths are pretty easy to come by, you only need to know the parameters by which it is known to be distinct from the false.

Shit, this is interesting. I want to read this.

Do you really believe you are all those things? I think you are confusing who you really are with some self-concept you have about yourself, which is what is causing you to feel so separated and judgmental toward the 'other'. Good luck.

If you'll do the work, you'll start to notice that alcohol does little to relieve you of your traumas and makes you feel a lot worse than before. That is because raising your consciousness will decrease your ego energy, and you will be more tuned with your body. So you can drink, but don't be surprised when you'll find out that drinking is a shitty activity.

I sense that you are very much 'stuck' in your own mind. It is very common. I would suggest meditation to chill this turmoil.

As stated before, no words can do justice in describing what you true nature is, because words only act as a representation of the thing they refer to. Nevertheless, since we don't want to leave you with nothing, and with the purpose of invoking interest and motivation in you, I'll invite you to imagine what is it like to discover, suddenly, that everything you are and everything ever happened to you was you making love to yourself. Another metaphor is the feeling of being hugged by infinite number of arms, which, to your surprise, are all yours. Another one is the dissolution of all distinctions, that blocked the unifying essence of everything that is, which is Love. This is of course not to confuse with the human emotion "love", which is only a form (or expression) of Love. This is where using the words "infinite love" to describe your true nature becomes a slippery slope, since in our personal and cultural understanding of the word love, we use it to convey a very limited scope of emotion. It is imperative to drop the associations we regularly tie the this word, so we can be open for a genuine and authentic experience of being Love (with capital L). It is not about being romantic, cuddly or in a social structure such as family, friendship, etc. This activities may help us feel less separated in our experience, and thus more loved, but they are not what "infinite love" refers to, although they are a form of it.

Yep, Truth is what is. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that 'Truth just is'. Every thing you want to attain or achieve means that you are directing your energy towards something that isn't. That's ego and survival.

@loub Amazing stuff. It really doesn't get better than that. And yes, obviously, it is undeniable. Deceit, corruption, misrepresentation, omission, lying, twisting the truth are all forms of dishonesty and are the opposite of what the word integrity refers to. Every act of anti-integrity will nibble and gnaw in the being, leading it down a more crooked path, and diminish the possibility to be one with what is true. This is also why without integrity and honesty it will be almost impossible to become directly conscious of what is absolutely true. How could it not be? It's what true, and you won't get what's absolutely so by being dishonest with yourself and others. Thanks for sharing. If possible, please share the details of the event. It might reflect for us how you experienced the principle of honesty.

I think you might be confusing between the Now and experience (mind). They are not the same, although experience (Mind) is a limited form of the Now. Your experience is not what is absolutely true. It is Mind, which was designed (or 'imagined') for the purpose of survival. It is only "real" within the reality (or prism) of self-survival and relative existence, not absolute reality. Mind is a subset, expression, and a realization of possibility within Consciousness, and so is a limited form of it. So, in that sense, you might say that experience (or Mind) is pure imagination, yes. But I sense the the word "imagination" may have negative connotation, so I would stick with a limited form of Consciousness. Unfortunately, even the most precise words are merely representations of Consciousness. The dream analogy might help in reconciling this, given that the substance of the dream is the dreamer's Mind, and so the dream is, in a sense, an imagination of the Mind.

From an absolute perspective, yes, of course. But as a self, you didn't create actualized.org, neither does it's existence is dependent exclusively on your finite mind. There are more finite minds that can distinct actualized.org within the reality of the self. So, I don't really see the point of what you are saying. If you realized your True and Absolute nature, congrats and hooray. Enlightenment is key in proceeding into transformation in accordance with what is Truth. But even after Enlightenment, you continue to exist as a separate self in a relative reality. If you are not speaking from direct consciousness, then you are in a complex condition my friend, because then your post will based on belief or hearsay, and I get the sense that this is the case for you. Nevertheless, I hope I'm wrong.

What book did you read about it? I think the problem with the charka model is that it has too much stigma, new age vibe, and seems very conceptual and abstract on the surface. A lot like the word and concept "Enlightenment".

The brain is a distinction (or an appearance) in the mind (which is the prism for experiencing reality as a self). As a distinction, it serves the reality of self-survival. This appearance or distinction has a certain uniqueness to it, because within the reality of mind, altering the form of the brain may cause changes in that reality. However, because it is only a distinction in a relative reality (the reality of self-survival), any changes to this distinction it will only affect the relative reality, whether by destroying the ability the experience it, or by expanding or contracting the mind, changing it's parameters and causing a different experience (or awareness). Nevertheless, it will still remain the reality of self-survival, albeit different. So, the brain is a unique distinction within consciousness, which appears to be the distinction that is most closely linked to the ability to experience consciousness in a specific fashion (due to it's inherent limits and capacities). Of course, according to science the brain has much more functionality other than generating experience or awareness, which we are not aware of (such as self-regulation of hormones). All the functions of the brain (including generating experience) seems, I suspect, to serve the persistence of a life form (human, dog, cat). Thus, the brain is the primary organ evolved in sentient creatures (aka form that can actively resist dissolution) to regulate survival.

@HonestlyAsking You should start asking yourself this questions. Maybe you will realize who and what you truly are, although I highly doubt that. Good luck anywayz. @DaHonorableCourt Sounds like the shrooms worked well on your identification the self. Being relieved from the clutter of ego, the tension and contraction of awareness were relaxed, enabling you to directly 'experience' your true nature as infinite consciousness. What was your experience of visuals? Did you try to close your eyes?

Let's assume that Leo Gura is delusional, and all his "followers" are blinds. What does it make of you, the one who registered to the forum and submitted this claims? I for one don't waste my time going into churches or cults to tell them they are delusional. Sorry to ruin it for you pal, but don't waste our time with you unsophisticated, non-humoristic, boring style of troll.

In a relative sense, thoughts are the function of mind and thus are meant to serve your survival in some way. They are the expression of a distinction you learned to create when you were a child, somewhere around when you learned language. The fact that they can also appear spontaneously and involuntary shows you how powerful is the motivating force that stands behind the conceptual self. If you watch your thoughts closely, scrutinize them, you will notice that mostly they serve you to map out your internal beliefs and concepts using language, so you could express them toward the other or actualize them some how in your experience. In self-enquiry they can also 'reveal' aspects of your mind that is not present in your cognition (also known as the negative distinction sub-conscious or uncognized mind). This is my personal experience thoughts.