vizual

Who is it you think that is feeling/seeing things right now in your experience? If it is a person, where can you find this person located in your direct experience? You are not a body, you are not a thought, not even the seeming continuation of these things. You can't die because you were never there in the first place. Imagine seeing an intact eggshell, you immediately assume there is eggwhite/yolk in it, or a developing chick. But when you open it up you see it's totally empty, you just imagined the contents. When you see someone die, nothing really dies because there was nothing in that body that has any true substance that made that body a "person". The same goes for the concept of time. You assume your life happens within this container of time. Like time is this force that is propelling this universe from time-slot A to time-slot B every moment, and that "you" are just being dragged along with it. That's what people assume, but is that really true in your direct experience? With the concept of time people automatically assume there was a world before they were born and a world after they die. But again, this supposed world that exists somewhere in time, isn't really there. There is just consciousness, and it is not a 'thing' or a person.

A non dual experience is an oxymoron.

I have a problem with the word "surrender" in the context of spirituality. When I think of the word surrender the image comes to mind of me giving myself over to the enemy when I am losing the battle. As a final act of desperation in hopes of acquiring mercy from my foe. But maybe that is just my limited understanding of the term, maybe you have a different interpretation of the word. In Truth, there is no one to be surrendered to anything. There is no battle, there are no enemies. All the games you are playing in life, they are all part of the grand scheme. You can't surrender the game, because you are the game.

The problem is that you can not say that you are God. Because the thing that is saying and thinking that it is God is the ego in this case. God is not a person nor a thing, so nothing can ever claim to be God. I think it's more accurate to say that general experience is divine - or of divine nature - in stead of claiming you are God. You say that you are brainwashed by society, and so it's hard for you to recognize you being God. But your "brainwashing" is also of divine nature. If you try to remove your brainwashing to a new state, in which you can claim yourself to be God. You are just as brainwashed as before.

"Ironically, the the thing you think you are is the only thing keeping you from being the thing you really are." -me "There are no enemies nor competitors in life, what you really want for you is what everyone else wants for you as well" -me "There is no such thing as love, merely the absence of ignorance, which you might call love" -me I apologize for the pretentiousness by quoting myself

The only real yoga is Karma Yoga

The Afterlife is the same as the Beforelife. Take it as you will.

Do the activities in which you feel you are getting the most out of. Don't let guru's convince you that certain kinds of meditations are useless. There are a lot of guru's who say that it doesn't matter what you do since in truth you are already enlightened. And that is true, everyone and everything is already "enlightened" but that doesn't mean anything if there is still a personal identification with ego. The same goes for the advice of to "just let go". Just letting go is good advice, but only when the student is ready. Like in learning to play a musical instrument. To fully express your art through music you first have to learn to master the notes and the techniques before you can "let go" and let the music flow through your fingers. This isn't a totally fair comparison since everyone can, in theory, become truth realized in an instant. Even though it almost never happens. So... keep practicing, or stop practicing. Find new types of techniques, read new spiritual books. Take a new look at your lifestyle. There is no one right answer. The most important thing is your intention. Be as pure as possible in your intent and the answers will come eventually one way or another. The whole search for enlightenment is one big game of trial and error. It's like you have a huge set of keys and you are trying to figure out which one fits the lock. The only way to find out is to try them one by one until it clicks. Guru's can - maybe - help you in narrowing down your search, but they will never be able to tell you which key fits the lock.

Brb, going to sit in a dark room for 15 days

If you want to attract high quality friends you first have to become a high quality person. Like attracts like. In your post you are only judging people and saying what you don't want and like, in stead of saying what you do want. A golden rule in attracting the right things is that you stop judging and constantly gauging the results, and in stead you start loving and trusting the process. If you shoot everything down at first glance you won't get very far in manifesting your preferential desires and goals. Open mindedness and mental flexibility is key.

Only consciousness exists, therein lies the true beauty and wonder.

The only somewhat valid definition for enlightenment I can come up with is: "Truth is Absolute". There is absolutely no wiggle room in trying to define the truth, when two truth-realized entities cross paths they have the same exact knowing of truth. Yet, they can have a vastly different way of expressing their experience of it in words. There lies the problem in these definitions. When the ego hears a definition which totally makes sense it gives itself a pat on the back for "understanding" enlightenment, it gives itself the permission to rest on its laurels because it already "knows". The only way that coming up with these metaphors and definitions, along with trying to find truth in subjects such as biology, physics and philosophy, is that the absolute truth is nowhere to be found in concepts. You can have an explanation of every little(and big) thing that goes on in the universe and still be totally oblivious to the truth.

Now or never.

I'm wondering how open minded and liberal people are about having sex and/or relationship with transgender people. So let's say you are a guy and you meet an attractive woman(or so you think). You chat her up a bit, and at the point you want to take her home with you she confesses she was born a boy. Would you mind? Would you be grossed out? Or would you embrace the experience? This goes for girls also who meet a guy who was born a girl.

Drama and people arguing about definitions of enlightenment actually make me chuckle

All fears stem from the fear of the loss of Self. You have equated Self with the physical body, as long as you identify with the physical body there will be fear. When you realize the true Self(as opposed to the false Self) all fears will slowly vanish, since the true Self is incapable of dying. Finding the true self is easier said than done when you are currently engrossed in the false, it won't come for free. But it's something to keep in mind while you are looking for bettering your life.

What about when you feel a good connection and attraction and you would never guess she was born a boy until she told you. Would just the idea of her once being a boy deter you? What exactly about that idea puts you off from it?

What's wrong with selfishness? Are you scared you don't get what you want because everyone acts selfishly? Isn't that also selfish in itself?

No way dude, I do daily meditation, self enquiry, chakra balancing, yoga and prayer. My guru told me my consciousness level is over 9000

So many people worried about the future of the "human race" lol. The human race, just another wave in the ocean and there is no way to discern when the wave started, nor when it will end. Good luck with uploading your consciousness into a computer. Better yet, tell me when you find your consciousness so we can compare yours to mine.

@Frogfucius A single point? Tiny atoms? Matter? Energy? Force? All connected? This is all crazy talk. Conceptualization is a bottomless pit. You can divide your experience of reality infinitely small and infinitely large. And every single belief you try to take on as truth will be tested(and shot down) by reality. Science and Spirituality are the biggest obstacles to seeing the truth, in today's age. Good luck

It's quite simple, all experiences require an experience which experiences something "in time". Everything that has ever been experienced in time is not enlightenment, even if you had a momentary loss of self. It's the self that is trying to get back to that state... in time. All actions and rationalizations the ego makes are all in time, it's the ego that is trying to become enlightened, but it never will. The ego always wants to become something, whether it be enlightened, a saint or even "no one". Becoming enlightened is not a rational experience, it's not even a spiritual experience, or an "experiential" experience. It's simply not an experience at all. All efforts the ego make to become enlightened are futile. This can be frustrating, but it's part of the truth, the ego has no power to make anything happen. Things happen despite of the ego, not because of it. So when the ego chases a thing it cannot understand, enlightenment, it can become very angry and frustrated because it is the ultimate thing it can never attain. Is this anger and frustration necessary? It's not but it probably depends on how you are wired. People with a strong attachment to their intellect probably have to face a stronger internal battle with their monkey mind than others to cross the other side. The only thing you can do is let it play itself out with the least amount of resistance.

No you can't. Enlightenment isn't something you can believe yourself into, it's beyond beliefs and concepts. Every thing you think you know about enlightenment is false, it's not about being one with the universe nor being everywhere. How can you visualize something you can never know what it is? Sure, there are a lot of guru's who use a lot of fancy words to describe their experience as an enlightened being but these words only point to the real thing. "I am the universe" is just a pointer, there is no such thing in true enlightenment. Enlightenment isn't something you can find, nor can you understand it since there is nothing to understand and there is no one who is doing the understanding. Throw away all your beliefs and maybe you will see the truth.

The observer and the observed are the same thing, or rather no-thing. When you watch your thoughts, thoughts appear. But no one separate is aware of these thoughts. The same as you watch out of your window and birds appear, no one is watching these birds, yet they appear. True consciousness is not a thing that watches over everything, true consciousness is everything. It's what is called unity.