OneHandClap

Well, if you notice, even the idea of thriving is related to survival. Again, you have to separate what you are from what "God" is. You are a human being. If you want to stay a human being, which you probably do, you will do human survival stuff to stay alive. This isn't bad in any way. The trouble is imagining that God is some sort of single mind that is designing reality like a Lego builder. God doesn't really "make" stuff the way you're phrasing it. People have many ideas about what reality is, but the simplest way to know what's what is to actually surrender enough to the point where your brain gets really quiet. At that point, reality will just become what it is. There will be no filter between reality and "your" mind. They become one. Look at Zen. Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. Imagining that there is an endgame beyond being happy is the definition of suffering. It's enough to just be at total peace and let the experience flow. The love will come. What you really want is love, not to be anything other than human. Everything we do is for love.

Bam-boom. Altruism is a concept, but a useful one for building a world we would like to live in.

Okay, I'll try to sum this up neatly, but it will require dropping all beliefs for a moment. Forget the idea of a Matrix, of God, of darkness, of even spirituality. Imagine that before the Big Bang, as we call it, there was total stillness. Total peace. Nothing to do, nowhere to go. Just being. Then, WHAM. Matter, energy, time, space. A few billion years later, you're born. Welcome to the world. You learn a lot of stuff. Language, culture, religion. Maybe you even learn about spirituality and how to see "the big truth." Well, as you know, you did not evolve to be happy or know the truth. You evolved to survive as a human being. This means your mind is very good at conjuring up beliefs, delusions, ideas, memories, and emotions to keep you in line and make sure you survive in your environment. But what happens if one day, either through psychedelics, meditation, or just sitting around... something changes. You realize that you've been listening to your body and mind for your whole life, but you realize they aren't always right. There isn't danger around every corner. There is peace. There is a sense of stillness there. The truth is, all along, the stillness from before the Big Bang was always living inside you. It is you. You have just identified your consciousness with your body and survival so much that you forgot the simplest, dumbest truth... you are just a single instance in time and space, made of the entire universe. When this happens, you can call it God. You can call it Truth. You can call it anything. The point is, the truth is the simplest, most "duh" thing in reality once you've seen it. The body-mind realizes, slowly, that there is no need to be afraid, because you are not separate from the environment. You are not a body that can be killed. Peace sets in. There's just phenomena happening, and you are an observer from one part of the giant show. There's nothing to experience but happiness about being there. That's all the truth is. Everything else is dogma on top of it.

Yes, it's often true that we learn from our role models. But you have to remember that others are teaching from their own POV. On a plane, you will often hear "Put on your own oxygen mask before helping others." This is because if someone breaks you down, you are no help to anybody, right? You need to handle your own happiness before you can give it to others. When you find "the one," you will settle down and help them immensely, I am sure. That is the right time to let out your caretaker. But if you're just dating, be wary of who you give your energy to. Be mindful of who uplifts you and who takes from you.

Forgive me if I am reading too deeply into it, but it sounds like you are a trusting and empathetic person who wants to help people you're involved with. The thing is, though, that it's not your job to fix anybody or pick them up. Every individual has their own path of learning. So if you find people leaning on you, they are typically using you as a resource, not connecting with you as an equal. If you treat yourself as valuable, then others will respond to that. If you project yourself as being a caretaker, you will invite people with bad intentions.

For starters, just don't share money. If you go out on a date, split it. If you catch them asking to buy things, then move on ASAP. If you're not engaged, why do they deserve expensive shit? Basically, just stick with your feelings. Notice if they make you feel scared, unsure, or angry. If they do that more than 5% of the time, it's not worth it. And if they pull out ultimatums, run, don't walk away.

A lot of beliefs in there. How do you know God is infinitely powerful? Because you heard it in a video or read it in a book? Come on now. This forum is about investigating for one's self. Why don't you see Zen masters running around yelling about how they are God and they are the only real thing in existence? Because it's metaphysical speculation. Because it's taking truth at face value instead of knowing it directly. Because the truth is silent. There is no need to make forum posts asking questions if you are living from absolute consciousness. If you are challenging everything, you must also challenge what you currently believe about God. Just sayin'. All beliefs come crashing down in the end.

C'mon, homies. Nobody can be sad to this song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCaYB2N1adc

The trouble is that you are still holding that there is someone generating and perceiving reality (which you may call you as God, but that's a non-starter, because God doesn't do anything). There's nobody home. Consciousness is not a being, but an Absolute. And right now, you exist as a human body and human mind. That's how you're typing to me right now Every being is equally God beneath the surface. If you were truly God right now, you would be omniscient. You would be able to predict my every word and know everything that happened in the past. But I suspect that is not true for your current form of existence.

Well, this, my friend, is why I referred to solipsism. This is another belief along the path. Again, we have to keep in mind that Leo is not stating that whoever watches that video is the only one in existence. He's stating that "you," being absolute consciousness, is the only reality. And while yes, everything is absolute consciousness, there is no center to it. Whoever hears the words "you" becomes the center, in their own frame of reference. If you go down the rabbit hole of believing I am just an imaginary string of letters appearing on your computer screen, and that you are real but I am not, that is metaphysical solipsism. After all, you can only believe that is true because you think the thought "I am real, X is not." "I made the world." What happens to solipsism if there is no thinking? How can anybody take credit for being real? In short, solipsism is a thought pattern. Try to find the silence under your thoughts about reality.

Lol, I get you, no worries. As I said earlier, I think many of Leo's statements are provocative to shake people's minds out of their normal ruts. It's sort of like a cold shower for the mind that has always assumed it exists like a little man inside someone's skull. In saying the thing about "all that exists," I believe he is pointing out that most of what we imagine "out there" comes as memories, beliefs, imagination, and prediction. And all of those things, of course, can't lead to Love, because they are impermanent mental processes. I do tend to come at it with more of a physical angle than Leo. I think enlightenment can be explained very well to materialist people by saying, "Hey, look, it's just about making the brain relax and realize it doesn't need to fight for survival 24/7." Then the love arises naturally, and the brain stops making everything so ego-driven. I'm on your side in stating that yes, sometimes this forum does get attached to radical ideas that aren't literal facts. It leads some people down very dangerous roads because they prefer DMT to do the work rather than their own contemplation. Sorry if I misunderstood you

Okay, I tried to explain this in a previous post, but then you said you know and are just joking? So here we go - a short version. Everybody does and doesn't have their own awareness. As you and I are speaking, you are Thought Art and I am OneHandClap, and we are seeing this moment from two points of view. The information we receive is stored separately in "our own" minds. At the level of absolute consciousness, when we are at a state of complete surrender to the present moment, there is no sense of there being a separate "me" inside my head. There is only whatever is happening. Sounds, sights, smells, whatever, but they do not belong to anybody. This is what is meant by "it's all one." There is no one individual who is imagining every other person into reality like the master of a dream. We can say God is doing it, but that is just making God into an individual being. God is the very fabric of all beings. There is nobody dictating the show. The show just happens. And the show is God. As separate individuals, we are all perceiving "the show" from different angles. It doesn't upset me because I've done enough contemplation to know that solipsism is just a stepping stone on the path, and a trap. It is not the final destination.

Yeah, but sadly, not everyone on this forum is as grounded as you seem to be. There are plenty of "enlightened masters" running around here professing how they're the one true center of reality and we're all NPCs...

I think you are on to good stuff. Just important to remember not to get too deep down any one particular line of thought. That's how people wind up in psych wards and solipsistic psychosis. You are right that Leo may need to contextualize more, but unlike the Buddha, he isn't teaching to small groups. He doesn't know who will watch these videos, or their levels of understanding. That's why I do support small-scale coaching for the most part. Context is everything

Materialism gets a terrible rap around here, but try it on as a hat for a minute. It can be a workable tool if you are too deep in the rabbit hole of God realization. Consider that your body and mind evolved over millions of years to keep this organism alive. A brain is capable of producing any number of experiences to help you survive and make sense of what is going on. What are the odds that some of those perceptions are wrong? Like when you see a rope and assume it's a snake? Insights from tripping are valuable, but they are not the endgame. Taking every trip's perceptions at face value is asking to be misled in delusion. After all, your mind is constructing reality based on memories and beliefs. If you believe you are the only one in existence and take a shitload of acid, what a surprise if you "confirm" you are the only one in existence? True breakthroughs require a state of not-knowing. Trying to use your intellect to brute force your way to God realization will not work. Drop the labels of bubbles, God, self, other, universe, cosmic intelligence, duality. See past all of it. Look at what is still there. Keep sinking into it, and you'll find that the words were nothing more than half-broken signs on the highway. By the way, the idea of God playing a game with itself is half-accurate, but not the whole picture. Again, it is a pointing to the human mind, which cannot even imagine the infinite in any way. You are still imagining God as a single mind that has desires such as "entertaining itself," "not being lonely," etc. God has no desires. God is self-complete.

Oh, it's serious alright. Look how many people in Republican-dominated areas have died as a result of being more afraid of a vaccine than the very virus that is killing them and their elderly relatives. Again, Occam's razor. The proof is in the pudding.

Okay, a few quick things. One, you are dead on in noticing that this has become a chasing game to you. The ego is trying to play fetch. It believes that getting and presenting more elaborate "oneness" experiences will help you survive. How? Because it levels up your sense of self. "Oh, shiny! I can be God! How neat. Now... forget all this human stuff so we can be God!" It's a huge game that you are probably not aware is even happening. Only you are. You've noticed the pattern. As you said, doing work in the real world is what will really bring the peace. Yes, it is possible to surrender so deeply on psychedelics that you break through and lose the self-sense, but trying to chase this is the diametric opposite of actually surrendering. It happens naturally. The basic realization of enlightenment is, "Oh, shit, everything is actually fine just how it is." Y'know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Your only job is to realize, over and over, that there is no job to do. Reality will handle itself. You might have the impression that "you" are in control and must make major changes, but the good news is, you already know exactly what to do. The only thing trying to dissuade you from that is your primitive nervous system. Again, it evolved to help you survive and pass on genes, not to be "happy." The end of the rainbow is you. The pot of gold is you. Look for the peaceful, non-conceptual thoughts moment by moment, and bring attention to them so they become your primary focus. That "good feeling" is a taste of what you are. The more you can sink into it, letting it do its thing naturally, the simpler reality becomes. Things are fine, have always been fine, and always will be fine. The only thing that can't understand this is your survival drive.

One has to realize that when people are speaking of these extreme levels of awareness, there is a total breakdown of language. What we call the relative self is the absolute self, perceived from a dualistic state of consciousness. Relativity exists within the absolute. So stating that there is no self, all is God, all is one, etc., is really a pointer for the relative mind. It is provisional, like everything else. Seungsahn famously told students, "Stop dragging this corpse around. You are already dead." This wasn't him stating that the student was literally a zombie; it was a teaching directly straight at the heart of their dualistic conception of life and death. It was designed to arouse the basic, luminous quality of their mind. Likewise, people may hear Leo saying "There are no others," and take that to build a castle of solipsism. It must be understood in context. There are no others does not mean there's just you, the perceiving ego-mind, generating reality—it means there is no such individual mind capable of claiming ownership over any facet of existence. There is only consciousness itself, taking the shape of an individual mind. As you said in your post, God could in fact dream more than one "God," if we're referring to God as an individual being with an imagination. That is precisely what reality is. So long as we are using dualistic thinking (almost everybody on this forum is), we are individual minds communicating information to one another. At the Absolute level, there is no need for this transfer of information, because it's a self-sustained system in which there is nothing and nobody to communicate. But no matter how deep insights into no-self and impermanence are, we must all reckon with the base fact that we live as bodies. We have to take care of our own body, clothe it, feed it, give it shelter. We exist in limited forms, because this is the only way that the Absolute can know itself on a dualistic level. Tl;dr Limited existence is a feature, not a bug, of reality. Individuals and the Absolute are one and the same. Btw, to address your question of "What's it all about?" keep in mind that all of your questions are coming from a limited body-mind (as you said, a brain and nervous system) trying desperately to figure out reality. Its only job is to keep you alive. It does not care what is true. You might imagine your self, and all other "selves," to be knots in a giant tapestry of existence. When one undoes the knot, and the tapestry becomes smooth, where has the knot gone? These knots are essentially tension in our body-mind. This very tension is what keeps us from feeling connected to reality-as-it-is (AKA God). If we can undo the tension and let the mind be totally at rest, our knot will be done, and there will be nobody asking the questions. Only bliss.

I think we can call reality (or God, if one prefers) an absolute wellspring of intelligence. There is nowhere else from which it could arise. Then again, I think I grasp what your friend is trying to suggest in regards to the futility of words. Intelligence is a distinction that we make in comparison to a lack of intelligence. But seeing as there is no possibility for non-intelligence to exist, it's a bit of a moot point. The fact that we are having a conversation is proof of intelligence (which here we can term synonymous with order). Without intelligence, there is no structuring. There is no logical assembly. Intelligence is a prerequisite of existence in any recognizable form.

Yes, pretty much. The beetle in the box example is to demonstrate that we all have our own private definitions for internal states, which makes it hard to talk about. If I say "I feel bad," what does that really mean? Art in all forms is our attempt to communicate what it's like to "be us," since people can't really grasp your internal state through language. So when we learn words as kids, we are already placed in boxes that limit what we can share and how we can share it. There's nothing wrong with this limitation, of course, unless it comes to communicating complicated ideas that language can't really hint at. Which is where we begin to form beliefs and assumptions that go beyond the barriers of said language!

I mean, if we're being totally honest here, microdosing sounds like yet another egoic attempt to reach some pinnacle of God-realization that you believe you are unable to access in ordinary consciousness. The real benefit of meditation has extremely little to do with breakthrough, peak-experience moments. It has to do with the sustained and cultivated effort to remain mindful of mental aggregates and body-thought patterns, day in and day out, for the rest of your life. There is a reason sobriety is stressed during meditation retreats. You are already putting yourself in a demanding and intensive environment. Be careful about applying too much gas to the sports car that is your mind.

I got the vaccine months ago. It's up to you to use Occam's razor here. What seems more probable... that this vaccine is one of hundreds of vaccines to be produced, and that vaccines have historically preserved human life (and quality of life) better than anything else we've tried during pandemics... or, that the vaccine is some sort of global Illuminati plot to inject you with a tracker and enslave the human race for some unknown, terrifying purpose? I've made my bet. Make yours.

There are many paths to the same mountaintop. The mountaintop, here, means abiding in exactly what you are. And what you are... drum roll... is infinite peace and love. The most spiritual thing you can do is notice that you have spent your entire life listening to your body and mind to tell you what is going on. But here's the catch. Your body and mind evolved to keep you alive. They are your overlords, your parents, but they are not you. You don't have to listen to their narrative. Consider the possibility that you are currently living in an echo of true reality. You are getting caught up in words, symbols, and beliefs about reality, but not the reality itself. And what is that reality? Everything, nothing, yourself, the world, the cosmos, the infinite, the void, love, stillness, being, God. Pick a name. They all mean the same thing at the bottom of the barrel

Oh, anytime. It's a great logical thought experiment for communication in general. Wittgenstein was of the view that we as a culture play "language games" to learn how to communicate. For example, if your mother says "Pick up the red block," and you pick up the green one, she'll probably laugh, shake her head, and tell you no. If you pick up the red one, though, she'll clap and make you feel good. So in that way, we learn what objects are called and how we refer to aspects of our world. Explains a lot about why people get hung up on words

Thanks! It definitely is a divergence from the standard, dictionary use of the term, but I think in this context it's helpful to let us separate the various concepts that we all hold, yet refer to with the same words. Dunno if you're familiar with Wittgenstein, but his famous "Beetles in a box" piece is exactly why it's so hard to communicate between individual beings. We use the same words but mean radically different things. America to one person is not America to another. Same with God, love, truth, trust, faith, death, war, money.