Preetom

What he means is that first of all, there is no tree. There is only your perception of the tree. That perception of the tree is pervaded with 'your' knowing of it. It goes even deeper. It's not like there is one thing called a perception of the tree, and a second thing called your knowing of that perception. ALL there is to that perception, IS the knowing. We never find the knowing 'of it'. We only know knowing aka spirit(the term which Adyashanti uses more)

Inquire into the one who suffers

"Make sure you sense the presence of being, without that all of the spiritual teaching is just blah blah blah.." "The sense of being has enormous transformative power, the rest is basically rearranging one's neuroses" -Adyashanti

As daddy Mckenna would say, it's not about killing a non-existent ego. It is about destroying the mechanism that seems to cling and identify with the ego and it's certain patterns. That being said there really is no absolute aspect in our personality. Any conviction we have about not changing or remaining unaffected comes from our true identity which is aware presence. But as usual thought can never know Awareness, thus it mistakenly attributes our true identity on the ever changing phenomena of body-mind-world.

the source is the all pervading, non objective aware presence. You are really knowing it right now! In fact, that's the only thing you're knowing and you've ever known. But it still eludes you because you are imagining and searching for it as something which it is not and thus denying it's presence. It's exactly like you are watching a movie on TV but you are saying that I need to focus for 1 more hour to see the screen. You are already looking at the screen! WAKE UP! You are expecting that the screen will one day show up in the movie. It won't! The screen is ever present at where it's at.

Concentration is always towards an object While inquiry/contemplation is attention turning on itself and resting in it's source try it and let us know

Step 1: Hone in that sense of I AM Step 2: Clearly see and dis-identify from any 'thing' that the I AM seems to be attached with repeat...until Enlightenment happens

@Mu_ Happy new year!

haha Ramana Maharshi gave the analogy of giving an elephant a chain to carry in it's trunk, so that it won't go for anything else to pick up. This is the essence of concentration meditation. I was reading Sanatana Gamana's book where he/she mentions that there are 2 ways to effectively quieten the mind. 1) Either by holding 1 thought in exclusion of all other thoughts(which is basically concentration meditation) 2) or by letting go of all thoughts and holding on to the subjective feeling of the self that knows all thoughts(which is basically self-inquiry)

Another huge upside of adding this counting in breath concentration meditation is that it really shuts the mind down much more effectively than just focusing on breathing. As the mental verbal faculty is kept busy counting breaths, it cannot usually spin more thoughts that easily

Enlightenment is really narcissism taken to it's full circle. In advaita vedanta, this incomparable love for oneself above all else is called the bliss/love aspect of the Self/Enlightenment. But it gets delusionally facilitated by the separate self ego which breeds more suffering rather than bliss. There is really no around. Where would you go?

omg that face kills me everytime Does it always have to be yes or no?

@Rilles Yeah I've tried it. It's actually a very precise and simple concentration meditation, makes the mind calm and alert. The way I did it was counting breaths..in and out..1..1..2..2..3..3.....upto 10..then repeat from 1

It's true tho if we are really honest. Our lives are really only about US. Even our benevolence and charity is for us as well. How can it be otherwise? These is only one knowing being presence. It can only pretend the otherness, something which is just not there. me me me me me...that's all there is, whether enlightened or not~

Certainly not with oily hands

Can you really be grasped? Or are you a slippery seal?

Interesting way to frame it. What do you 'see' with and without that lens?

@Joseph Maynor Is the ego something you have or something you are?

An excellent live demonstration of self-inquiry through the negation of the 5 sheaths as taught in classical advaita vedanta.

@Gerhard This is how I access laughter Another thing I tried which is Osho's 21 days mystic rose meditation retreat(personally at home). The rule is you got 3 hours straight routine everyday for 21 days. The first 7 days are 3 hours of continuous laughter (its possible and it feels natural as well! to my surprise) The next 7 days are 3 hours of continuous crying without any judgment The last 7 days are 3 hours of pure witnessing meditation where you witness all the contents in a detached, nonjudmental manner. This retreat will open up many constricted channel within you.

I think he means that the 'illusion' changes, not the reality. Just like the content of the movie(illusion) changes, but the screen(reality) remains changeless.

Its not about what you should or should not know. I was asking if you know anything else for certain right now.

Cool. Is there anything else you know for certain?

Hope this video helps you with more clarity in that line of thinking I remember Jed Mckenna saying that it's not about destroying a non-existent ego. It's about destroying those parts which can't seem to stop clinging and identifying with ego and it's antiques

What is it that you know for certain?