Water by the River

Well, I guess, if you like drilling into the psyche of the people, then you also have to allow some drilling by the people, of the people, for the people. You know, sportsmanship and such. And lets take all the drilling with a grain of salt, and do the drilling it in style & humour. Which we all mostly do, I guess.

yes, her ways truly are. To not always speak about God as male. If there wouldn't be a show like that, Infinite God/ess would need to create one I guess...

An Infinity of Gods, co-creating a shared dream. Looks for me the separate-self wants to be the Absolute, wants to be God. And instead of paying the price of self-transcendence and death of the separate individuum/ego to truly become truly Infinite Being, we instead blow up the separate individuum/self to God-sized-proportions. And for the problem of all the "other" separate-selfs/egos: Also Infinite Gods. Somehow also oneself, but somehow also Gods. Seems for me like I want to have my cake (Transcendence/Absolute/True Being) and eat it too (staying the ego/individuum/separate-self). Oh well. Looks for me like the quadrature of the circle, but what do I know...

(1) No, and (2) yes and (3) yes. There is a reason why there is fluctuation between your openness and closedness, and that are open with psychdelics. And I am talking about how to permanently remove that reason, and stay open. Ok. If you perceive no value or truth in that video, then you perceive no value or truth in that video. Just do what you do and like to do, and do it in the way you like doing that. For me that is completely fine. I guess you will also get fruits&benefits from your path and increase the openness.

Concentration on that Koan long enoug literally results in an Awakened nondual state of Infinite Being, and doing it even longer it can result in Realization of True Being. And that IS the sound of the one hand clapping, literally. What a wonderful & relaxed teaching tool for the Roshi. Imagine: No explanation needs to be given. No discussion with the disciple. No questions. One can easily reject any answer to the Koan-solution by just shaking the head. Only the right state of Infinite Impersonal Being will pass... and then its already done. Sounds a bit one-dimensional (if only done like described above, which of course it isn't done purely like that, but there is a tendency for it often) for this time & age? Yup, same here... But in the right setting works perfectly fine.

That why it is a Koan. Which any pointer to Reality is. Some longer, some shorter. He asked for: In Zen they also give "What is the sound of one hand clapping". Points to the same Reality, has the same answer. Which is a realization of Infinite Being, presented & combined with a nondual Awakened Awareness state. So the explanation above was so to say to premium-deluxe-royale-maximum-explanation-Koan. Which guarantees a smack from the Head-Zen-Roshi for too much explanation & conceptual-overkill-Koan(s), but hey... I am not a pure Zen non-conceptual aficionado. And if somebody wants a filibuster yours truly is not exactly opposed to that also...

Find out what you really are. And what Reality is. And if these are two separate "things", or just one Reality. And if there can be anything "beyond" or besides Reality, like "two Realities" (which is of course a contradiction in itself, but normally not examined). Or if that Reality is infinite, nondual, one (or alone) without a second, all there is. And then if this Infinite Reality/Being is what one really is, or the thing that says "I" in the mindstream. Something along these lines... Finding out if one really controls which thought emerges next in ones mindstream is a good investigation-question. Specifically, do you control which thought you think next and its content? And the next. And the next. That investigation gives a very good indication on wether the entitity one thinks one is really controls which kind of thought/feeling emerges next. Do I control which thought/feeling emerges next in the mindstream? Maybe play around with that a little if you are interested.

One doesn't even control which thought emerges next, or its content. Any thought/feeling, especially I-feelings/I-thoughts/Identities happen by itself. One can not control which thought/feeling arises next. There is just the illusion-thought (also arising by itself) that one could. Which itself is a thought which "one" didn't control. A thought is a "universal" event triggered by causes & conditions of the totality of all form/manifestation/Infinite Being. The feeling/thinking that "I am" is just an arising happening in True Being, but not controlled by anything separate/ego. There are just clusters of thoughts/sensations taking owernship for other clusters of sensations (like thoughts/feelings/bodily sensations), happening and moving by itself in True Infinite Being/Reality. On an Absolute Level, it is that radical. That should be a little hint that the separate-self/individuality/ego doesn't even exist in the first place in the way one normally perceives/feels it, but is just a brilliantly made illusion. It is an illusion of the highest degree happening in True Infinite Being. And that True Being can understand that, and realize its True Infinite Being. Selling Water by the River

Welcome to Infinity of Gods. One could call that the Solipsists end-game. An infinity of separate-God-selfes. Indras Net (see link below) gone "ego" or "separate-self". The alternative would be: There is only one Reality. A Nondual & Infinite Unity of Infinite Being/Consciousness. Maybe that the whole thing is just the Real You, infinite and Impersonal Pure Consciousness/Awareness/Reality, splicing itself (apparently) up in infinite perspectives of Indras Net? Not a separate "God" in each node? Every single spiritual tradition over millenia that has made it to the nondual realization declared that there is ONE Infinite Being without (a second), manifesting itself in a myriad of (appearing) perspectives/beings. If that Infinite Being is infinite, it is by definition a unity, a Nondual being without anything outside of it. And no other besides it. That Infinite Being is Reality itself. There are not two realities. With declaring an Infinity of Gods, one is just cementing a separate-self (aka duality, not non-duality/Awakening) and blowing it up to God-like dimensions. Which is the opposite direction of stabilizing Nondual Awakening by transcending that which causes the separation/duality. That is at least my experience. One Reality, one Infinite Being, without a second. That is the testament of all spiritual traditions that came before and that made it to the Absolute. Just a little information sign along the road of Infinite Gods, if you don't mind. In order to not loose time traveling in the opposite direction of the intended destination. Every being is the own master of its Karma, and has freedom to choose. Selling Water by the River

If I wanted to use Sarcasm that would have read a bit differently. You can use ase many puffs as you like, no problem with me. It is just that the video posted by Arthogaan contains quite complex arguments, and I had the feeling that I was not able to communicate the points I wanted to yesterday evening - maybe not the right time, but I don't know. Hence, a good night of sleep. What that says about me I leave for you to decide

Hm, maybe consider watching the video Arthogaan postet - after the weed and a good night of sleep. Goodnight

Then its happy ever after & no clouding over ever again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality "Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within the universe, as opposed to that which is only imaginary, nonexistent or nonactual" If you want to go against the realization and testimony of countless realized beings over millenia because you found something that they didn't see... The Reality of the dream is the dreamer. That is not just semantics. But go and find out for yourself...

Nondual. Of course you are also the appearances, and contain them at the same time. But that is not your ESSENCE. The appearances are the dream (the appearances). You are the dreamer. Containing the dream. And the appearances. And that Reality NEVER changes. And identifying with anything changing in the dream = suffering. Why? Neither constant nor free of suffering/resistance, which is the hallmark of any separate-self identifying with anything CHANGING in the dream.

Lets use the old definition of Siegmund Freud for psychological sanity (vs. insanity): You can work and love. That can be done perfectly well with a spiritual awakening, even better than before. With Insanity, normally not so much... What caused/triggered that Insanity for you?

No, then it is an illusion you identify with. Sorry to say, that will become clear with Enlightenment. You ARE your True Nature, by definition. That which can't be totally open to "my true nature" is the illusion. But anyway, that leads nowhere. Practice neti neti and cut it all off. Then you will get the awakened states to realize that.

No, it is just illusion arising within you. Like empty appearance, a hologram, dream-stuff, a dream at night. They are all temporary, and anything temporary is not real. They arise in True You. Nothing of that would exist without You. Dreamer & dream. Ex-ist-ing = standing out from reality, existing by itself. Existing for itself, by itself. Apart from True You. You can exist without all these arisinsg/appearances. But not the other way round. These appearances can not exist without you, they can only appear in True You. They don't ex-ist or stand out from reality, because True You is existence/Reality itself. You exist. The appearances not. They appear in You.

The "I" that you really are doesn't stop being limited, and then becomes limited again. What you are is always infinite, the whole reality. The I that you write about is the illusion arising in True You. It seems your identiy shifts from being a person to being something else (Infinite, Abyss, whatever). Find out how this identifying (identity) works (investigating these Identity-arisings on a micro-level, and cutting them off). Find that which doesn't change. And get rid of this fluctuating "I", of each and any "I", because they are all fake/illusion. Neti Neti. And then see what remains. True You, what you really are constant and doesn't change. Your Being doesn't change. That is what you are and never can not be. YOU are not "the" Infinite and then "the" abyss and then breakingthewall and then something else and back again and over the over. You are always You. Capital Y. You don't change. Your essence doesn't change. The show that arises within in you does. But that is not the nature of you, not your Awareness, not your Being. Find that which doesn't change and can't change. On how to do that see my past posts for my 50ct on that.

As we apparantly all do as we please. Then have fun climbing up the endless mountains.

Just add a few dimensions more (that "you" forget now in real time), and you have endless perspectives or POVs. Noneuclidian Vision like below, a one-dimensional chain of endless 3D-Pocket dimensions, or Indras Net in 3D. Infinite possibilities to pull that off, game of mathematics. That is called Indras Net. Like one policemen watching the monitors of lots of security cameras: One Infinite consciousness (the policeman), endless cameras ("bodys or better 3D perspectives, with endless monitors), endless monitors. And now just remove policemen, camera and monitors, and stack all of these perspectives together into a dimensional model of your choice. And forget all other cameras in real time. Of course just a metaphor to make it clear: ONE (without a second) Infinite Awareness/Consciousness/Being, splicing itself up into infinite perspectives and forgetting these in real time. And totally empty and impersonal so that it can be and feel like "everything/everyone". The same way you can forget in time what you did exactly 1 year ago, you can forget all other perspectives "in space". People had visions of Indras Net, or of something like that, since the beginning of time, often while tripping on the local psychedelic of the season: Nice book btw. Indras Net. Each perspective reflecting each other perspectives. The outside of another human/being/holon is the reflection of that "node/being" in your "node/being", see this picture. And mathematics can already do that right now in endless unimaginable n-dimensional spaces, the math exists also in our world... One just can't imagine it, but calculate with it one can... or https://www.actualized.org/forum/search/?&q=Indras Net&author=Water by the River

Mine too. How about transcending & shutting down the hand at 50s? Looking into its nature of that desire/curiosity/intention, and seeing it as mere appearance arising in your Infinite Being, like any other curiosity/desire? And smiling back at the lovely & beautiful owner of the hand, Maya herself? Just respectfully asking. Really. Still a fan of your psychonautic endeavours & explorations. Water by the River

"And they do know that all is an imagined illusion happening within "their" own Infinite Being/True Being by definition" I think we align quite well, although its difficult to express these thing just in writing. With imagined Illusion I mean that the tree "out there" is no solid object existing independently existing from the human/consciousness perceiving it, like its normally perceived with the dualistic and materialistic view. The appearance itself is real. It appears. But it is just a lucid, groundless mere appearance. Like the appearance in a dream. Normally, in the standard-perception is seems to be external/out-there (duality), and solid (or material). In truth, its neither "out there/external" (nondual), nor solid/material (but appearing as lucid hologram-like (mere appearance, imagined, "dream-stuff" so to say). And yes, (self-)consciousness implies often a separation. With perceptions perceiving themselves I want to express that there are states where there is no I-thought and I-feeling. Then it is literally the universe perceiving itself, Being perceiving itself. That is also what I mean when writing "impersonal". Although this report of Steven Norquist is a bit "pushing" the empty/scary character , which can be the initial reaction if this realization goes very fast, in truth its the most wonderful state imaginable. http://www.hauntedpress.net/What_is_Enlightenment.html It is Awareness in and by itself, not the "personal" consciousness. There never is and was a personal consciousness, it is only non-personal Infinite Being/Awareness. "Impersonal" can sound bad, but isn't: Its all ones True Being, and that is aware, and eternal. Containing the whole world, and also a human and its thoughts/feelings. It is a much larger Being than the previous illusion-human. And much more blissful. This Awareness in and by itself (of Infinite Being) "lends" or appears as personal consciousness (which isn't conscious at all, because True Infinite Being is the Awareness/consciousness cosplaying limited personal consciousness). So nothing is really lost besides the illusion of being just a small separate human. True Being can not be lost, ever. Immortal. Eternal. Unborn. Does that clarify a bit? Did I understand you correctly?

You are right. Actually, I didn't have you in mind at all when I criticized the usage of God as pointer, because you know what you are talking about, or have that as direct experience/realization. Which can probably not be said about everyone claiming that "I had a God-Realization and I am God and had an awakening that I imagine everything". Maya often smiles lovingly at the authors of such statements....

On an Absolute Level, "it" or better True You is solipsistic. Alone and infinite. True You/Infinite Being is "alone" because "it" is infinite with nothing possibly outside of it. But that is True You/True Being. And someone who is not enlightened doesn't (by definition) know the difference between the current identity and True Being, or else he/she would be enlightened and no longer be asking these questions... So talking about Solipsism and God is just counterproductive when talking with beings who have not realized their True Nature. Because they will project their ego on the concept of God or Solipsism, no other chance. First become Nothing (no separate-self), then you will be everything (Infinite Being) - Thisdell stage 4, becoming Thisdell stage 5/Enlightenment. But better not project a little separate something (illusion-separate-self) on everything (Roger Thisdell stage 3 "Godmind"). Or: I am God imagining everything. That makes Thisdell stage 3 a cul-de-sac, no way forward to stabilize Awakening in daily life and ease the suffering. Which is exactly what we see here, with a few added ETs. Is Infinite Being not enough? Does it need to be called God? As I have written several times, I don't really like the pointer God, because it is normally loaded with other meaning on top. God = omnipresent, infinite, timeless/eternal/immortal, creating/manifesting/imagining the whole gig: Same for True Infinite Being. One without a second. But all the stuff projected on top of it when using the pointer God instead of Infinite Being, the one without a second, is often not for the faint of hearted. It anthropomorphizes Infinite True Being/Reality with properties and intentions that are just not there on the most fundamental level, and then proejcts it on the illusion-ego/illusion separate-self. "I am God". Only very few can truthfully say that, because most have not realized their True Being and can't tell the difference to ego/separate-self. And those who can say that truthfully and not fall for the illusion normally don't talk like that, because they know from their own practice it is not beneficial for beings with the ego/separate-self illusion not fully seen through. As soon as one talks like that to not enlightened beings, they almost always project the properties of True Being (or God) on themselves, their separate-identity, which they still have not seen through. Because else they would be enlightened. And these separate-self-identities-arisings/illusions are that which have to be cut down/transcended for Enlightenment to happen. And using the grandiose word "God" tends to blow these illusion-arising up to cosmic proportions: "I" imagine everything. No. "Your" True Being does. But what is that? What is the constant always here True Being? Here also in Deep Sleep? Before ones birth? And if one would fully know the difference between True Being and separate-self/ego, one wouldn't talk about these topics using pointers/concepts like God/Solipsism, because it would be all clear anyway... And one wouldn't need to state I am God and I imagine everything, because.... well... TO WHOM? Well, I guess you get the point. At the level of Infinite Being one is alone. But there is no one there to feel alone, because that would be an anthropomorphic illusion arising of a separate-self WITHIN True Being. It just is what it is. And always has been. And with an enlightened being talking like that it is not necessary. Makes no sense. One sees and knows the Awakened Nondual enlightened State the "other" is in (and nobody really home), and it is clear. Imagine a discussion like: I am God! No, I am God! No, you are not! We are God! That is all illusion, starting with the words "I" and "we". Lot of talk of God and Solipsism happens on Thisdells stage 3 "God-stage, God-mind". Infinite Nonduality with separate-self/remaining identity/ego not fully seen through". It is contradictory, not stable, with lots of illusions still going on. And that is presupposing its done from real nondual states. Most of the time, its done from not nondual states, just from the conceptual level. And from there, it is more insanity than anything else. The discussion then goes like: "No, small you is not God. Big You, True Being, is. But first find out what that is before talking about God & Solipsism". And because of all these contradictions that doing that move includes, there is so much discussion here about these topics. Because it is not clear, but contradictory. Sometimes I use the pointer God, but normally it is not a good pointing/teaching tool. Ever noticed that very few enlightened teachers that are public talk about how they are God and imagining everything, and they are all alone and Solipsism and so on? They do, if you listen between the lines or read/see enough stuff. Sometimes even explictily. Sometimes, even complete books like the Supreme Source have been written, that even got the approval by our host as God Realization. And these enlightened teachers normally don't talk about them being God/Solipsism. Not because they are too stupid to know what God is, and what Solipsism/Aloneness on the Absolute Level means. And they do know that all is an imagined illusion happening within "their" own Infinite Being/True Being by definition. If they wouldn't, they wouldn't be enlightened. But they don't throw that in public at a poor ego to blow it up to cosmic proportions, because that doesn't help their students going from Thisdell stage 3 to 4 to 5. It usually even prevents getting the ego stage 1 to witness stage 2 to nondual stage 3. Because to get there sobre and without psychedelics, one already has to kill/transcend the ego/separate-self quite a lot... Nothing kills sobre Awakened Nonduality better than saying to oneself: I AM GOD. A "normal" identification of I am a human so and so suffices to do that... And one more thing: If Nonduality (or Buddhism) gets bashed: Nonduality is NOT automatically Enlightenment, or realization of True Infinite Being/Reality. It is Thisdells stage 3 Godmind. A boundless nondual infinite field of Awareness, with a separate-self still well and alive hijacking that! And that most Buddhist are not enlightened should go without saying.. Stage 3 Godmind. That is where one gets with psychedelics. And maybe even stage 4 a bit. But I have never seen a mainly psychedelic aficionado get to stage 5, True No Self (also nondual, but without center/separate-self-illusion, truly being the Infinite Totality/Being). Stable Nondual realization of Infinite Being in daily life. Maybe somebody knows one, would be very interested. Can't rule out that one exists, or that one wakes up just by the impulse of a psychedelic. It is just, I have never seen one. I know quite a lot that have done that with transcending/meditation of the false illusion separate self. So basically "Nonduality" and "Buddhism" gets bashed, because one doesn't know that stage 3 "Godmind"/Nonduality is not yet True Being or Enlightenment. Of course merely Nondual Realisation doesn't bring "God-Realization", or understanding that True Being imagines/manifests all of it, and that ones True Self is that. That is stage 5, or the link (Supreme Source) above. Or True Enlightenment. Psychedelics get one to Nonduality, maybe in more sophisticated cases to realizing that it is all imagined/manifested to fool "oneself". But it doesn't get oneself conforming to the impersonal infinite nondual enlightened mindstream. And that is why this "realization" is not stable in daily life. Still suffering/resisting the content of ones own True Infinite Being. "Solution": add a few ETs from higher levels of Reality, and call that higher than realizing and being ones True Infinite Being. And be proud on ones own continuing suffering/resistance towards happens within ones True Infinite Nondual Being, and declare that as inevitable. Or something like that. Well, quite a show Maya is dishing "us" up this time, isn't it Selling God&Solipsism Water by the River The Koan still is: What is the True Being of the ET at the end, really? And that of any other ET, n+1?

A very good and important topic to contemplate about. I also spent a long time with the topic of what causes actually Awakening, and its relationship to suffering. I tried to include as many past & present cases into my perspective on it as possible. On suffering in the context of Awakening, Enlightenment, the meditation path and my personal experiences (and my personal pet-theory of it all): -warning, the usual conceptual overkill of yours truly ahead- The following is my perspective based on what I have seen/read about other cases, and my own experiences. Without some form of suffering (or more precicly in Buddhist terma Dukha which means not suffering, but more unsatisfactoryness) nobody would ever start the path to Enlightenment/Awakening/Liberation/True Being, because one would be happy & satisfied doing the myriad of projects to become happy and free of suffering/unsatisfactoriness in our culture/time. Maslows pyramid up and down. What is not so well known: Even Maslow put towards the end of his life stage 6 on top of Maslows pyramid of need: (Self-)-Transcendence. So for the start of the "Enlightenment-project" (which is a contradiction in itself, but that is another story...) one needs either a) a mainstream-culture that pushes spiritual liberation/Awakening (and for our lifetimes, Maya goes "not today darling" on that topic, or b) some form of suffering or dukha (unsatisfactoriness) to start the journey. Then during the path to Awakening/Enlightenment/liberation, the old cycles of suffering/unsatisfactoriness don't stop at once. Here is how it developed for me, in a nutshell. The nature of the separate-self/ego to cycle between being happy for some time, then suffering/being unsatisfied/resisting what is/unhappy, then start a new project to make it happy, and round it goes. If God would write a manual to make a Samsara/Illusion game with (separate) self and others, it would go something like this: Give them some unsatisfaction and a carrot (expectation of happiness induced by a certain experience in the future), let them chase, then give them temporary happiness(=not resisting what is) and them make 'em suffer again. And given them lots of levels of carrots/games to chase and try out for permanent happiness. That is all that is needed to have a game with separate-self. The chasing goes from Maslows pyramid base stage 1 apparently up to chasing ETs n+1. Then, on an efficient path (my case Mahamudra/Dzogchen), the bliss of ones True Being (Awakenings to Nondual Awakened Awarenes) by cutting off the thought/feeling stream of the separate self in real time (also called meditation, if done correctly) starts flowing. At some point of my path (mainly Mahamudra&Dzogchen), I literally could start producing my bliss for example while meditating, walking, in meetings (at least some of them when I just could watch the show ) and so on... That normally starts after some years of meditation (on and off the pillow) when the vast spaciousness of boundless awareness starts showing up and the contractions in the head get literally relaxed. That impressed me pretty much. That bliss didn't hold with "hard" problems/really bad events in the beginning, but it started the become stronger and stronger, inducing more and more awakend nondual states of blissful silence. A positive feedback loop. More and more facets of True Being started to show up, see my last post on the remnants of separate self that need to be seen through. Creating more and more Awakening and bliss. At some point the shift can happen towards realizing what one really is/True Infinite Being, or Enlightenment. Since that normally implies a gradual transcendence path/process over several years that one has been fed each and any core-separte-self identity/suffering during the meditation by Maya in the years before, pretty much all of that stuff is transcended. Because Maya will "throw" anything at you that she has to keep the illusion going, and she has a lot. But it can jump to Enlightenment any time (Karma, aka genetics but I prefer Karma, more encompassing), induced by various events, often suffering, before that path/during it/at the end of it. For most it takes the whole path. The more gradual and longer the path, the more stable is the realization later. Yet, once having realized True Being, it is no longer in doubt. So, that was my experience, now comes my theory: Beings are karmically wired more or less fortunately/differently. Some wake up because their visual field conforms for some reasons (base state, Kundalini-Awakening, whatever) very well to the True Nature of things (mere appearance and not solid objects out there, Infinite field of awareness, boundless, timeless, always here, basically my last long post about a mindstream conforming to the enlightened mindstream. Or at least they have the potential for that shift to happen quickly. and their core-separate-self-identity-arisings are for some reason (Karma,...) easily seen through when contemplating&self-inquiring. For these beings (1) and (2) in place, some trigger can cause Enlightenment. Suffering-example: Tolle. Kundalini/Energetic: Ramana. Anamanda Ma, countless examples in history. Branch of that is shaktipat hitting a "fertile field". Then there are the normies, like yours truly, who need an either need a) an efficient practice (like Mahamudra/Dzogchen) first to induce awakened states, then get rid of all illusion/separate-self remnants, and then some good pointing out instruction of the real state of things (the properties of True Infinite Being, basically my last long post). quite some time/years needed to start inducing awakened awareness/mere nondual appearance of the visual field via meditation/trekchö/cutting off each and any thought-arising in more and more highspeed by looking into its (empty/consciousness) nature out of which thoughts/feelings are made. Until then of course also suffering in cycles. But getting "over the hump" towards bliss-inducing state happens here in the fastest and most efficient manner, as least in the opinion of yours truly. The beginning steps of that path are also concentration meditation, like in b) below. But quite refined ones, and not for too long before one shifts practice. Learning to produce ones own bliss with being in these awakened states. This way, gradually getting rid of large parts of suffering by slowly transcending the "sufferer", and replacing misery of the separate-self with the bliss of awakened states. and then, towards the end of the road (or if one is gifted/fortunate/lucky also in the middle of the path) the shift to realizing True Being and its immortality (or infinite-always here nature), and with that removing the final fear of "death" or disappearance. b) a practice that is less detailed and focuses more on brute-force willpower/push-through concentration meditation: Jhana, Zen, "sit and die before the wall" approaches that need to push with willpower through lots and lots of suffering. Here, we are again at lots and lots of suffering (at least at the beginning stages, but also all along the path from what I have seen), because Maya will throw everything she has at you to get you off the pillow/meditation, not that one wakes up and leaves the game prematurely... And now the second part of the post, why are the paths with less/minimized suffering not practiced more widely? As @Arthogaan has noticed correctly in the post below, and I had the exact same thoughts many times... Short answer to the question above: they are more complex and need more maintenance/coaching/understanding. So they are more difficult to teach & multiply & roll out, and normally need personal coaching. they have mostly been kept secret until recently because of the various dangers, like for example ego-inflation, nihilistic misuse-potential, or just plain and simple misunderstanding potential of complex practices, which leads to stagnation in the practice. Why do we have mainly enlightened ones who got lucky/were lucky with karma/genetics (see above), or from the paths 2b) Concentration meditation/Theravada/Zen? Because until recently the highly(!) sophisticated methods of Tibetan Buddhism like Mahamudra/Dzogchen/... (who have developed much more and way more sophisticated than for example Zen/Theravada which are very similiar to what was done in India 1000 to 2000 years ago (although I love these traditions very much) were not accessible at all. The Tibetans "concentrated" more on spirituality as a society, 1000 years of R&D of enlightened lineages and sometimes a large part of the adult population in the monastaries (~15%+). Head of state = Dalai Lama for a long time. Basically, main focus of that culture&society including government was Enlightenment. Of course there was also a lot of stupid things going on, like war between monasteries. But the overall development of buddhist meditation in that setting was unparalleled. Compared to that (sorry) Theravada and Zen sometimes feels a bit like "living fossils" (said in a joking way), although I like them very much and they do work quite robustly and produce fully enlightened ones. The Tibetan Teachings are very sophisticated and either need lots of focus on them (like reading the books of Brown 10-20 times and experimenting a lot), or a good and enlightened teacher explaining them and checking for understanding (which pretty much didn't exist until recently, all secret teachings are out, see books of Daniel Brown. "best of" collection of Menri Trizin, selected by Menri Trizin (probably those with which he achieved his own realization) to be translated by Brown). Another problem is they got a deeply cultural "lingo" and quite some hyperbole (the Tantric teachings of generation/completition stages and especially the lower Tantras). Quite hard to approach. So the only thing not published by Brown of these systems are some of the secret pointing out instructions for Enlightenment, although quite some are published, for example his Akrid book (Pith Instructions for A Khrid rDzogs Chen. Yet, reading that in parallel to Pointing out the Great Way is probably better than starting with that book alone). That system plus a bit Jac O'Keffee, Roger Thisdell, Massaro, Wolinsky for the final steps towards Realization (I wrote quite a lot about these), and some psychedelics for state-peak-previews... These elements I assume will be found in the Global Dharma of the future. Then some more aspects: Concentration Meditation Systems like Zen or Jhana/Theravada are quite robust: Don't need so much teaching/feedback during the process, are more brute-force and less complex. More robust, less efficient (in the meaning that one needs to push through suffering with meditation, and that they can be slower/less pleasant, and many meditators end in the many cul-de-sacs of the path where one can just stagnate if certain nuances are not understood. But done long &hard enough they work. Metaphor: The axe to cut down a tree. Doesnt need fuel & maintenance & sophisticated handling like a forst harvester.... which brings us to: The Forsest harvester to cut down the forst of Illusion: Mahamudra&Dzogchen&other Tibetan Buddhism techniques, see for example Daniel Browns books & videos: can work if done correctly/understood correctly/coached correctly in the fastest way possible by swiftly creating Awakened Nondual States most pleasant way possible (minimum amount of pushing through suffering on/off meditation pillow, taking the meditation off the pillow into daily life at the earliest possible point. avoiding pretty much all cul-de-sacs of the path where meditation practice can stagnate/level out if something is not done correctly, which means and end to the growth of Awakened Nondual States. Mostly they don't even appear then in first place, and one remains in the mericless claws of the separate-self-contraction/suffering. but are way more complex than the standard concentration meditation practice like Zen/Jhana. Pointing out the Great Way, Brown has hundreds of pages of descriptions of the various stages/steps and how the path develops through them. So many many things to potentially do wrong if something is understood incorrectly. Zen-Koan-meditation would just push through these errors if done long enough, but an incorrectly done Nonmeditation (done too early) or One Taste meditation goes nowhere and stagnates... Selling Water by the River