softlyblossoming

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Everything posted by softlyblossoming

  1. Brought to you by: the arbiters of reality!
  2. @BipolarGrowth Did/does this insight come from the absolute perspective?
  3. @Shambhu Thank you for sharing your knowledge
  4. @Spence94 Thank you. It's like being oriented to the present moment and not the big win at the end, right?
  5. Can the "path" be simplified to not seeking in this moment, again and again and again? Is this practice enough for complete final enlightenment? What would you add to it? Thank you and with metta, Robert
  6. @SOUL Thank you again for taking the time to explain everything in such an easily understood format. I'm so glad that things are finally starting to make sense! You have a way with words, SOUL.
  7. @SOUL Thank you, that was a very lucid clarification. In light of what you've shared, I'd like to rephrase my original question, if you don't mind answering it again : Can the spiritual "path" be simplified to not doing the seeking behaviour in this moment, and repeating this practice that I am calling 'not doing the seeking behaviour' in the next moment, and so on?
  8. Beautiful. I'm letting this sink in for a few minutes and rereading when it feels intuitive to do so. Thank you.
  9. Thank you. My take away: Unify seeking. Seek only one thing and do so gladly. I think this is a key thing many people misunderstand. Hi, Brandon. Would you elaborate on this point? My take away: Seek happily. Hello, and thank you for your compassionate contribution to my thread. I have three questions following what you've been kind enough to share with me so honestly: 1. Can there be experiences/states of 'no I-thought' before enlightenment, or are those only 'false/fake/pseudo-' non-seeking? 2. Are you qualified to give shaktipat transmission and would you be open to doing these for me? If you do not offer this freely, how much would I have to pay you for - say - 10 sessions? Is 10 a good place to start, or are more typically required to start to see results? To what degree is seeing results important vs. superfluous? 3. Do you know of anyone offering free authentic shaktipat transmission? 4. Is it better to recieve shaktipat from one guru or multiple gurus? With metta, Robert
  10. @gettoefl Thank you, I always appreciate a Christian mystics perspective as most of the perspectives I've studied come from the East (Hinduism and Buddhism). I think I get how it can be a dance and be unchanging at the same time, or at least more so than I did before reading. @RMQualtrough Hey, I just wanted to apologize for my slightly bizarre misuse of the English language earlier. I was in a peak state at the time (sober, but certainly ungrounded) and was starting to see how the particular words we use, even totally made up one's like "probahood" , don't matter as much as I had once thought, and that the message they carry is of the more substantial significance. I got a bit over-excited by what I felt at the time (and would describe as) language beginning to be understood in a new way, and decided to chuck out a couple social conventions and get a little experimental with it for my own inconsiderate entertainment as much as the joy of learning. My intention was not to be a troll and I'm so glad, in retrospect, you didn't take it that way and treated my comments and questions with respect in spite of the goofy delivery. It hasn't gone unappreciated, and thanks again for taking the time to engage with me in a calm and grounded manner. Sorry!!
  11. @VeganAwake @Inliytened1 Thanks guys, some wonderful elaborations. It's lovely to have you two stop by and contribute to my thread as you've both already contributed so much to my unfolding awakening in all of the other threads we've spoken on. All the metta.
  12. @SOUL Wise words duly noted. I will curb my conceptualizing and pontificating. Thanks! I love walking! I like to focus on the impermanence door while I walk because it really relaxes me. I really feel that "over-effort-ing" in my meditation held me back for ages, not just from progressing at the art, but from enjoying it too, which I think go hand in hand. That said, it's lovely to hear someone else had a similar experience as this helps me to trust my direct experience more and not worry too much about "doing it wrong by being too chilled/non-austeer about the whole thing". Thanks again!
  13. @Zeroguy Thank you for such a comprehensive reply, that's really appreciated. @WelcometoReality Thank you, that was very straight to the point. Do I need to continue my meditation practice or am I good to just let it dissolve on its own?
  14. Who knows, maybe he'll be one of God's favorites. A friend of mine claims he got infinite discipline after Enlightenment, but I'm not sure to what degree he was talking from the non-dual or even just trying to get me motivated for the path. I agree with @BipolarGrowth.
  15. Quote by William Shakespeare: “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” Spiritual Reframe: "Heaven is empty and the angles are here." Or maybe both are empty and neither are here. Will reconciling Nothing with Love end the dilemma?
  16. @gettoefl How can it dance if it's unmanifested (not here). I think it's just the manifest that would be dancing, but isn't because time isn't real, so really it's just the manifest staying the same. I would love if you could explain to me and sorry for being kinda dumb as a brick, but I don't get it .
  17. @RMQualtrough Thank you. You are incredibly open-minded and wise. Please for give my single-minded and one-sided interpretations. My monkey mind was wild and heart weak when I wrote my prior comments. May you have a pleasant weekend.
  18. @RMQualtrough Yoooo! That description was visceral for me. The last sentence hit me like "fucckkkkk". Yeah, it's like the human mind has like this need to make the inunderstandable understandable, so we make up a whole bunch of shit about a creator and a divine will, when it's just like shit happening by straight up magic - magic in the sense that it's not possible for the mind to grok what's actually going on, so reality appears as magic from the mind's limited POV, I mean - reminds me of when Leo said 'you can't understand the infinite with the finite'. Yo, that's crazy man. Appreciate this reply big time, gave me mad food for thought. Feel like I'm tripping just reading you describing your trip, crazy Yh, I feel inclined to agree. Do you think Leo just made the God-Realization up so he could trick himself into thinking his mind understands itself completely when that's not possible, or do you think it's possible AKA guarunteed for real (because anything possible must be true or it's not possible)?
  19. @BipolarGrowth Thanks again, man. Your reply pointed out a tonne about NS and cessation I didn't know about. That was awesome. Nice breakdown.
  20. @RMQualtrough Nice post. This last line really sent it home. I think there's no creator (sub-vision reality) and it's "just this". Reading your words leads me to suspect that the human desire for knowledge is the source of it's subversiveness and inability to recognise the truth that all that is is "just this"; i.e., nothing but what appears to be. What do you think about this? Could the creator Itself be an illusionist/magician? Somehow, I feel like this improves the probahood of Leo's 'miracle awakening' (an old blog video) being correct, as existence being all there is would then also have to be the work of a mage. Thanks
  21. @BipolarGrowth Hi, Brandon. Do you think those trips could really have been experiences of nirodha-samāpatti, since the memory cycle got backsliced? I've heard that, in the 9th state dhyāna, practitioners report being unable to remember what happened for the last several seconds (and sometimes even minutes in the case of a very long cessation of the perception of feeling) just after entering and before exiting the attainment. Not to mention you describe both the trips and your cessations as black hole experiences. It just seems potentially suspicious to me as I've also heard cessations described, phenomenologically at least, to bear striking resemblance to nirodha-samāpatti, with the prime suspected differentiator being the duration of the absorption (or, in other words, the length of the memory gap). I'd love to get your feedback on this. Btw, big fan of the YouTube videos, looking forward to your next trip report story time with Chester on your lap. Not to impinge on your creative process or anything of that nature, but I was wondering if perhaps you could talk a bit about the black holes? I'm sure this would interest some other viewers as well. Thanks
  22. @hyruga Thanks for thanking me! It's probably not the full picture, but I hope it helped!
  23. @hyruga You can always do whatever you want. However, we are afraid that if we give ourselves everything we want in the present moment, we no longer will have the resources or even the desire to continue to stand up for what we believe in, therefore rendering us unable to prevent our shadow from running wild and spoiling all of our aspirations and dreams for us, causing us to have a more shitty life than if we had been afraid just a little longer. For me, this means long enough to become financially stable, defeat our impulses/cravings, or accomplish whatever self improvement means to us personally. The solution is to recognise that we are already completely perfect without having money or fewer bad habits, and then we don't need to work on ourselves anymore! This is essentially what I'm beginning to learn from my spiritual guides and practices. We change our attitude to ourselves so we don't feel like an incomplete project who needs optimizing before they are ready for happiness, but as a beautiful already finished product that never needed to be optimized. Now we have our end goal (sustainable happiness) and we didn't even need to do any work to get it! It's like a total win-win situation! This is just my current feelings on the path. Pic related
  24. It's ok that I'm sad and feel guilty! I'm allowed to harbour this ill will toward myself that the productivity culture has instilled in me! I don't need to reject even the fact that I am continuously rejecting myself as not good enough in so so many ways. Thank you and best wishes to yourself and all of the lovely forum users who have come here to learn and develop under your guidance and our compassionate support for each other, may we find ourselves happy and healthy now and for years to come