Batman

Proof is itself finite, so how could you prove 'that' which is in-finite with that which is finite? In other words, proof is a limitation within infinity, and will never, ever, could represent, not to mention be, infinity. Infinity is the 'substance' of every proof, and already is self-evident. Even in court, a proof is not the truth of the matter which is being litigated by the parties. Proof serves to convince a judge or an arbitrator regarding factual claim. But the judge or the arbitrator will never have direct experience of the facts in the matter they adjudicate. They can only judge based on the claims and facts brought by the parties to them, and rule for in favor of the party that argued the more probable case. This is so with Consciousness (although every analogy eventually fall short of the mark when you approach absolutes). You cannot proof Consciousness because Consciousness is the substance of the proof. This is a self-referential problem, and why only you can be directly conscious of infinity, because it is you (and by you I don't mean the self ego mind). Only Consciousness can be 'conscious' of Consciousness, for it is it's inherent 'quality'. You, as a self, will never be able to prove to another self that Infinity exists, because it does not exist in the relative reality that a relative self exist in. This is also why arguing with materialists, or trying to convince anyone regarding absolute truth, is doomed the failure. Only Consciousness can 'know' itself. So you can only invite a relative self to inquire it's true infinite nature as Consciousness.

Yes, a lot of the suffering is due to the way society conditions and orient us almost exclusively towards survival. Our entire social institutes, nations, cities, family, schools, revolve around survival. When survival is the dominating context of experience, suffering is a natural result. This is because energies of survival are directed toward what isn't, not what is (truth). This is why some teachers are directing their teachings on "the present moment". In actuality, the social institutes were constructed by humanity in order to make survival accessible for most of the individuals in society. Unfortunately, the detrimental result of this self-shaping institutes is a transverse lost in our sense of being, which is replaced by activities of survival. But survival is only an element in being, and thus most of us find our self in the midst of the rat race, confused and wondering what happened to the 5-6 years old kid who just started to discover experience.

I see your contemplation regarding the matter and sympathize. As you probably have heard before, this is no matter for belief, only direct experience. You should not believe anything anyone tell you, including this very sentence. I must say that I sense a flavor of both skepticism and authenticity on your part, did you ever try any psychedelic? Regarding enlightenment and survival - of course enlightenment does not end survival. After enlightenment nothing changes. You remain to exist a self, which will always remain bounded by the principle of survival, and operate in the relative and self-referential reality. Nevertheless, enlightenment will probably readjust the self, and recontextualize the self's experience towards a more authentic way of being. After enlightenment, any form of manipulation, lying or deceiving becomes almost ridiculous, because you will see it for what it really is. So yes, in the context of social survival, enlightenment may chew on the ego's energy to deceive the other. But it does not mean that enlightenment is detrimental to the self. On the contrary, a false-self is probably more toxic to the organism that it inhibits, and causes more damage to the integrity of it's experience. I invite you to be completely and brutally honest with yourself and others for a month, and see how it affects your experience. By the way, most people who will grasp their true nature have probably already fixated a form of living that sustains their survival in a way that leaves spare time for inquiring into their own existence. It is almost impossible for an individual that is totally invested in surviving to become conscious of it's true nature. But again, you should throw away everything I just said. It is only relevant as a springboard if you are not already oriented towards truth.

I think it boils down to the 'characteristic' and 'shape' of the mind that is 'looking for' the truth. I would consider giving a try to a different approach, because the mind cannot internalize the ultimate truth of itself (but he can look for it until it's inevitable demise). Try to view it this way: the fundamental 'substance' (so to speak) of the mind, is the 'thing' that the mind is 'looking for'. The search itself is made out of the 'object' of the search. The truth is so 'close' to you, that you can't perceive it or conceive of it in any way. Unfortunately and eventually all analogies, sophisticated as they may seem, fall short. You don't have to find any truth, because It is you (and by you I don't mean the self, ego or mind, which are functions of survival and are not your true nature, which is you).

True. However, enlightenment is only possible with profound honesty. In our day and age, most 9 to 5 jobs out there are manipulation of mind for the purpose of creating a strong base for survival (usually by accumulating money and social status), causing exhaustion of the body and the individual's core sense of self. I suspect that individuals who 'experienced' deep enlightenment will find it very hard to keep manipulate their life like this, and will resign to a path that is more aligned with the impact enlightenment had on their mind. In my experience, the deeper your enlightenment gets, the more it will become intolerable living in a routine that does not align with your internal sense of being.

As a self, your identity will align with your spiritual discovers this way or another. However, if you adopt some words in a book or hearsay as the truth, this is no different from being a religious person and it is the sure way for developing a spiritual ego. Briefly, learn to distinct belief from consciousness, work to become directly conscious of the nature of ego\mind\self, and be honest with yourself and others.

Being directly conscious of your true nature is totally different from knowing it. It doesn't matter how aware you think you are. Awareness (also known as Experience), no matter how 'deep' or 'high', is not the same as Consciousness. Awareness is only a limited form of Consciousness. Awareness (mind and perceptions) was molded, shaped and designed around survival, and not around discovering it's 'Source'. I don't know how far into the work you are, but if you became directly conscious of the nature of some aspect of your personal experience (such as mind, survival, perceptions, self, awareness, emotion) than you probably know by now that your don't perceive, conceptualize or experience the ultimate 'root' of these matters in any form, you just become totally conscious of its 'fundamental' truth or being. Direct consciousness will blow your mind. 5MEO annihilates your mind so you have Direct Consciousness of your true nature without practicing yoga/meditation/contemplation etc. You are not going to be in God mode, because the annihilation of your mind will 'kill' you for some time (but not the body that you identify with). Of course it is going to be scary, but the intensity of the fear is dependent on the mind structure of the individual (mainly, the amalgamation of thought and emotion that was formed around the individual's life, death and all the knowledge he consumed regarding Psychedelics, 5MEO and ego death/dissolution, including what you are reading right now). Remember that the mind's job is to keep itself intact, not inhaling some molecule that blows away the mind totally, due to some deep yearning for some infinity solace. But don't let fear hold your back. Always remember that fear is also an emotion, intelligently and brilliantly designed by the principal of survival to inhibit an organism from engaging with future experience that the organism thinks that is detrimental to it in any way, shape or form. Indeed, fear is a self-imposed illusion, which is crucial for survival, but may limit us from experiencing something which is not really dangerous to our life and health.

Because you haven't fully grasped what survival is. It is you who is deciding that the present moment is not enough, for the purpose of survival. Mind interpretation and assertion of value for circumstance is completely fabricated to serve your survival. Thus, your energies are not directed toward what is, but toward what isn't. You should really work on contemplating what "boring" really is, and the self-referential nature of personal experience. Get that every distinction and every "charge" or "value" in your awareness - whether perceptual or conceptual (green, high pitched voice, sour, slow, ugly, good, boring, delicious) - is revolving exclusively around your survival. Being conscious of the self principle, does not mean that you stop being a self. You can still strive for personal achievements and develop your 'character', but you will be more free of your attachment to your adopted ideals - because you will see them for what they really are, fabricated and conceptual reality adopted and designed by your self (with much contribution from your family, friends and society at large). Being free of this predicament will allow you to adopt a more healthy relation to the Now, and align your self with what is true. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to experience directly how every aspect of your experience is designed for survival of the self.

Who is the one executing the "and"? The one that sliced the two in the first place.

Life is only an active resistance against the dissolution of form. Did you mean that Consciousness/Formlessness is mysterious?

But it's true. Whatever is outside your awareness, does not exist for you. The kitchen is only a distinction within your awareness, composed of perception data and concepts (including language). Those are all forms of knowing, you can only know a kitchen within awareness, otherwise it doesn't exist. Granted, there maybe other individuated awareness that may know the kitchen, but it is not the same kitchen because every awareness contains different interpretation and even different capacities of perceptions. Communication, and language specifically, is what allows us to bridge the gap between our split awareness and co-know the kitchen under similar terms, for the purpose of interaction and survival. Awareness, or perceptions and mind, is only a form of consciousness. A limitation. A process designed only for the purpose of Survival. Ultimately even the content of your awareness is a fabrication of the Truth, because perceptions and mind serve the self, not Consciousness. Awareness is not existence, it is only knowing.

Life, reality, existence are all meaningless, but it doesn't mean anything! Meaningless is also meaningless. Meaning is a function of mind and survival, not of Being. Being just is. It is prior to meaning, because meaning is a pure fabrication of the mind, giving service only the purpose of self survival. Meaning has no intrinsic meaning of itself, it is just a field of thought charged with some value imposed on perception data. If all the "content" in existence was destroyed or vanished in some way, or there was no way of knowing existence or processing what is (via perceptions or mind), than all you are left with is pure isness. Isness is devoid of meaning because it is Nothing. And this also has no meaning, unless realizing this changes the meaning you are assigning to any aspect of experience (life itself, interactions, relationships, hobbies, work, objects etc.).

You write well, fellow traveler. Safe travels.

Yes, calisthenics is awesome and very challenging. I like to balance it with yoga, because sometimes I am getting the chills that calisthenics revolves a lot around ego, due to the impressiveness and uniqueness of the exercises at hand (mostly HSPU, Muscle Up, Front & Back Lever, Planche, Flag, Pistols etc.). It easily extracts reactions from others watching you do this exercises. Calisthenics may be a huge ego trap, as you can see from the people obsessing over it as the end all be all of human movement. Also, calisthenics feels (for me) very one-dimensional if you are working on it for a long time. Gotta mix things up.

Hey, I would propose for you to ask yourself if your fascination is from the result of new consciousness or from adopting an highly articulated beliefs based on someone else experience. Of course you should not take anything from a book as belief, but merely a pointer for your consciousness. Regarding your communication with Ralston via the book - it surely isn't about adopting new beliefs, it is only to "empty your cup" which is filled with mental activities (assumptions, dispositions, beliefs, memories, emotions, etc). Letting go means genuine not knowing, because knowing is a form of limitation you impose on "direct experience" or Consciousness. Emptying your cup might be hard to comprehend because most of us believe we are the thoughts that arise in consciousness. This is false because thinking is an activity we are doing, even if it seems that thoughts occur "on their own". This goes unnoticed because we are unaware of the origin or nature of the mind, and that there are aspects of it that is not even in our cognition. Some mind activities are just operating in "the background", without us even noticing. This maybe what you mean by "deeply held beliefs", but I'm not sure if that's what you pointed to. This is also why psychedelics such as Psilocybin and LSD are so powerful in uncovering aspects of mind that are not cognized by our awareness. If you have taken Psilocybin and LSD, you probably noticed a certain, general feeling, of relief, but you can seem to know how or why. This is because some molecules operate exactly on the activity of mind which we refer to as deeply held beliefs or assumptions you have regarding your self and reality. These assumptions are, again, operating "behind the scenes". They are very nuanced and the mind is assimilating and fusing them into your experience without even you noticing. This assumptions largely revolve your sense of being - your self worth, your sense of separation from others, your basic drive to survive and so on. Getting beyond these assumptions (or bringing "subconscious mind" into consciousness) is no easy task due to their inherent invisible quality, and to the fact that most of us have this feelings "running" in our background for most of our life, and it seems as if it is an intrinsic part of your experience. It isn't. This is totally our own doing, even though it occurs outside your awareness and consciousness. It is great to start emptying your cup by dropping beliefs which are easy to recognize as a story your take for granted, even though you never experienced it for yourself. This why the example you brought up regarding the shape of the earth is so classic. Most of us never had an experience of an oval-shaped earth, but we take it for granted because it is the dominating belief in the matter in most of societies. This does not mean that the story we all have regarding the shape of earth is not an accurate way to represent it's characteristics, only that we blindly adopt beliefs as facts. This is also why emptying your cup from one belief is not meant to serve the adoption of a new belief (such as that the earth is flat). It only serves you to be open for the truth, or what is. You can still absorb knowledge in different domains of thought. But I have a feeling soon you will recognize that knowledge is a very limited form of consciousness, and because there is so much more beyond, it will be hard to be "satisfied" just by indulging in it.

Try concentrating on breathing deeply and let go.. join the Infinite breath.

Who cares? any answer you'll get to this question will only be speculation. Furthermore, not only no answer will deepen your consciousness, it will actually add another belief or story. Your falling prey to just another mind trap, trying to conceptualize Enlightenment from an obscure angle.

There are different degrees of ego dissolution. I would propose that ego death is the dissolution of both the self-mind and perceptive faculties. This could be "achieved" using Psilocybin and other molecules, yes. It is possible to resist the dissolution of the ego using the self-mind and the perceptive faculties, by trying to "hold onto" your known reality (hence "anchoring" you in ego consciousness). This is why letting go is very powerful in "psychedelic" states. An initiated psychonaut learns with time to cultivate the letting go "skill". But it is also powerful, and probably even more important, in default states. Letting go of your mind activity (beliefs, concepts, memory etc.) will grant you with greater openness and possibility towards deeper consciousness (which is limited by your mind and perceptions). Enjoy the ride.

This is because you are trying to grasp what God is using your mind and intellect. Stop personifying God, it is not what you think it is. Intelligence is only a distinction in the human domain, referring to certain capacity of a being to cope with obstacles. God is also infinite intelligence because "he" is not limited to any form whatsoever. So basically you can carve any degree of intelligence from it. You are also confusing your self-mind with God. Self-mind is a only a form of God, so of course that a self-mind that absorb any teaching will only form a new matrix of beliefs and concepts. Self-mind cannot and will not "realize" God, because it is only a limitation "within" God. I would also suggest replacing the word God with Consciousness or Nothing or Emptiness, I have a 'feel' that you have some form of negative connotation towards that word and this is never a good disposition for inquiry.

Good luck with that approach.

Freebase, do you must.

It didn't.

Truth is not a quality. Really contemplate What is Truth. It is also not something to be grasped by mind. Truth is prior to mind. See beyond the mind. Truth is not something to be transcended. It does not lie in the relative domain, it is an Absolute. Truth is the nature of all.

You should not base your conclusion (or even conjectures) on hearsay and belief. Smoke (or vape) DMT and see if it makes any sense to be in that state all the time. No proper human begin is really devoid of ego in his regular state. It will be impossible for the self to survive, provided that ego is self. It is hard-wired to our biological nature. But all of this are really just words and stories. Try some DMT and 'see' with your own 'eyes'.

Many of us are familiar with LSD, Psilocybin, N,N-DMT, 5-MeO-DMT etc., as powerful tools for consciousness work. What about MDMA? I don't recall Leo ever addressing this specific compound. In my experiences with MDMA, it seems to reveal the ego as a a Love-refractor. Ego (or in other words the matrix of mind) will filter the ability to Love, because Loving everything will be detrimental to the self. Hence, the ego-mind will reduce the capability to Love certain aspects of experiences, on the basis of how much the specific circumstance adds or reduce it's survival. However, when the nervous system is flooded with Serotonin and other neuro-transmitters that MDMA triggers, it overwhelms the ego-mind ability to screen out love. However, I experienced MDMA journey very few times, so I find it difficult to extract conclusive insight on the matter. This is my take on this substance, so far. Would love to hear you view on the matter, based on your personal experiences with MDMA.