WelcometoReality

@Linda22 As someone with social anxiety myself and someone who tried to get rid of it for 15 years.. One of the best things I did was accepting that I had it. When I was trying to get rid of it I was pushing myself really hard to be something that I wasn't and that was exhausting. Also it made me even more uncomfortable in social situations than I already were. I think a better approach to it is try to relax in those situations and be yourself. Even though that can make the social anxiety feel worse in the short term because it feels like you're really vulnerable at first. In the long term though you feel comfortable and grounded. At least that's what worked for me. Hopefully I'm making some sense. ?

I would define experience as the 5 senses plus thought. And separation as the sense that there is something experiencing from within the body. That's a good starting point to examine further imo.

@Gabith ??

My only tip is to meet the fear which you are distracting yourself from. That will balance out the energies in the body and make it feel more relaxed.

Yes. This is a good pointer but instead of a "majority" I would write "ALL". ?

A need to belong because there's a sense that you do not belong already?

A life without struggle and with contentment

Yes, all experiences are outlived. The question is if there's identification to parts of the experience. There might be fear and there might be a thought of an I which resists the fear. Both are parts of the experience. Like sweet and delicious dessert. sometimes at least. Other times it's like moldy bread or burnt french fries, but your hungry so you eat it anyways. And then your full and satisfied so you stop eating.. until you get hungry again. ?

Yeah it's funny how that seems to work. When we're in flow there is no perceived time. It's only after we go out of flow, when the small I "wakes up" (?), that we recollect how much time has passed. Oh yeah. Distraction is the key to its survival. But the fear is always there in the background. ? I distracted myself for years but why prolong the inevitable? ?

What exactly do you mean by this? I do perceive "time" a bit different than I used to. I might have a memory of doing something but it's hard for me to remember which day I did it. It could have been yesterday or 2-3 days ago or a week from now. I also don't always remember things that are out of my daily routine but that problem seems to have become better. Seems like the brain needs some time to restructure after the realization but it will get better. ?

@Someone here ?

@Razard86 That's a great insight. Thank you for sharing it with us. ?

Who is god? Ultimately noone is god but there can be identification to thought-feeling patterns that claim that it is god. These patterns tend to fall away but can be held as true for quite some time.

Yeah, memory is "attached" to the body in the form of thought so memory can't be it. Can you find any separation between the now and consciousness? To me it seems like they are the same thing. At the same time there is a connection to the body in day to day life but in certain states the body disappears and there is only consciousness present.

Isn't the now eternal?

I'm not trying to discredit you. Don't you think what I said previously makes sense at all? ? Couldn't it be that way? Or is it completely impossible?

That awareness is aware of itself.

After you had your "solipsism" realization things looked completely different than before right? It seems so clear that the bubble is all there can be and you can't imagine why you believed in an outside world. What if there's a realization of no self that you haven't realized yet? And after you can't imagine how you could have believed that there actually was a self that was experiencing. I know how contradictory that sounds so please don't get stuck on the words. ?

If you want to talk about direct experience then go deeper into it. What I mean is that you don't know what I am talking about so your projecting that onto me and saying that I don't know what I am talking about. But this discussion has degraded into some sort of quarrel which I have no interest in. Enjoy yourself and good day! ?

I mentioned it because of what you wrote above. If it's not helpful then leave it aside. Neither you nor I are talking about direct experience here. We're talking about conceptual knowledge and that may or may not be derived from my own experience. You are assuming it's not but you don't know which do you? Perhaps this is all projection on you part.

I was just stating two extreme cases because we were talking about the illusiory nature of the world. I'm not saying you should renonce the world. Pizza is too good imho. ? This wasn't meant as advice and perhaps it was a bit reckless of me to talk about such things.

Why does it sound like flipping a coin?

There's two ways to go after that realization. Embracing or renouncing the world. There are examples of both. Jesus embraced it. Ramana Mahashi was more of the type that renounced it. He would probably have died if he hadn't been taken care of by others. Those are the extreme examples of course. Everyone will need to find there own path.

Yes it's normal. The swinging back and forth between clarity and confusion tend to happen in the beginning. Just let go of wanting to hold on or resist any of the states.