softlyblossoming

@Matthew85 Hey what's up? I enjoyed reading your comment, and it made for a great pointer after The0Self and Inliytened1 readied me for it with our back and forth's. Here's my thoughts regarding what you said. I'd love to hear what you think about them — for example: Do they sound like good insights? What would you modify? @Tyler Durden Not always what you truly want, but what your dominant belief's, assumption's and expectations will show you. AKA your conditionings/karmas/habitual ways of experiencing. And what we truly want is desirelessness, as all desires are the desire for the satisfaction of that desire, a partial/finite version of desirelessness. And complete/infinite version of desirelessness is Absolute Truth. Have a nice evening

@Terell Kirby Is Truth a choice? Can Truth be freely chosen by me, right now? And then, wham, there it is? Is faith alone that it is enough to do this?

@The0Self So let me get this right. I try to become aware of everything at once, which culminates in becoming aware of nothing in particular (aka no object at the expense of another object), at which point awareness automatically flips around to become aware of itself (awareness of awareness). Next, I openmindedly wonder about who enters and exits this state of "self-aware awareness". Good enough? When doing the inquiry, do I (a) try to notice who's entering and exiting whilst the entering and exiting is occurring by intentionally calling up & giving up the state repeatedly (or should I say, "unintentionally losing it a gosh darn millisecond later" in my case ), or do I (b) just contemplate it from the state? But for now: by using the above method. Gotcha. In the story means no true/ultimate/absolute/real/inherent substance. Wonderful. Thanks again, man.

Being is God. God has no opposites. Opposites are something it dreams up. If you have a shift in consciousness to God consciousness you will be just pure Being..but God consciousness is not "an experience" as of the ego. It can't be pinned down with words because words are finite and God is Infinite Thanks for the clarification, and sorry for being such a stubborn donkey about all this . I do have some more questions though: Is Absolute Infinity the same as absolutely no dualities? If there are absolutely no dualities, and belief is a duality, then I get how God isn't a belief — It's God/Itself/Non-Duality. And another word for duality is opposite, so your reply makes sense and it clarifies a lot (thanks ). Can Being result from taking on the Belief* in Being? *Absolute Belief means believing in one thing to the exclusion of all else, such that it becomes the only thing one is conscious of. I understand that defining belief like this sort of 'cancels out' its nature as "belief" (because "belief", as with any object within consciousness (unless there's only one left), is indeed a distinction/duality). However, if becoming completely certain of the truth of non-duality was the method by which one arrived at God — just as recognizing unconditional love or goodness to the exclusion of their opposites might be — I think it's fair to call holding a single belief "Absolute Belief". If relative truths are beliefs*, why can't absolute Truths be Beliefs? *Please see my last reply (the post above this post) for a quick run-down on the experiences that've led me to all but conclude that truth = belief, and the logic behind this. Does this explain the many facets of awakening?* *Here, each Belief would account for each of the different 'truths' (facets) by which someone experiences non-duality. As such, by taking on a belief with absolute certainty, it becomes a Belief. Are the many facets of awakening Belief(s)? You said you're a meditator and non drug-user. I am too. What techniques have been working so well?

What is believing? what are beliefs? Are they any thing else, or more, than thoughts, repeated as true? @Chris365 'Thoughts repeated as true' makes enough sense to me. My working definition, off the top of my head, is that a belief is something known to be true and believing means knowing something. So understanding is believing, and thinking is predicated upon believing. If someone is Being, but doesn't know that they're Being, they can literally just look to their direct experience to see for themselves that they aren't Being. On the other hand, if someone is Being, and knows that they're Being, they can literally just look to their direct experience to see for themselves that they are Being. If you don't know you're Being, by what means do you know you're Being? Well, I'll tell ya. Here's the story of a profound experience I had, and the events that followed: I became certain that I was experiencing non-duality and, simultaneously, found myself experiencing in a way that matched descriptions of non-duality. However, as soon as I doubted that what I was experiencing was indeed non-duality, it simultaneously stopped being identical to descriptions of non-duality. Then, non-duality again, and utterly simultaneously, I wasn't doubting. Then, no more non-duality, the very same moment I started doubting. And so on and so forth. So I thought to myself, "there's a correlation here: whenever I'm Being, I'm certain that I'm Being, and whenever I'm not Being, I'm not certain that I'm Being". After that, I started to take notice of my beliefs quite a bit more in every day life. I found a similar correlation was present in conventional happiness: I am happy when I have reason to be happy, and I am unhappy when I have reason to be unhappy, or doubt my reasons to be happy. So now I'm like: If the presence of a particular state of consciousness coincides with the belief that it is justified (in the case of conventional happiness), or that it is what is (in the case of non-duality), it would make some sense to conclude that states of consciousness are intimately related to belief, be it in the form of justifications for that state being the state that should predominate now or simply the belief that 'this experience is this experience'. And I've noticed something else interesting... Non-dual pointers ← convince people non-duality is true, which I propose is what's leading to people directly experiencing non-duality. Meditation techniques ← do the same. As such, I'm trying to wrap my head around how Enlightenment transcends belief. Think about it...every time you've experienced non-duality, you've known for sure that the experience was non-dual (because it was immediately obvious), and notice that every time you haven't been in that state, you'd either had your doubts or known for sure that you weren't enlightened. Likewise, when you've been happy, it has always correlated with a reason to be happy, and when you've been unhappy, it has always correlated with a reason to be unhappy. Now, is that just a coincidence or are your beliefs responsible for your state of consciousness? I've since been drawn to (almost) conclude that the truth of something is literally the presence of the belief that it is true, including states of consciousness (which, by definition, are experienced directly), and that; therefore, even a direct experience is predicated on a belief. The down-side of this is that it's caused me to have a super hard time taking anything to be absolutely certain, which, if my almost-conclusion is true, should prevent me from realizing Absolute Truth. I'm hoping someone here can help me to deconstruct the conclusions I've drawn, and I'm very open to that possibility. I'm not trying to debate for the sake of trolling, this is just how I learn . FYI, I believe that the opposites of belief are doubt (partial disbelief in x), closed-mindedness/dogma (complete disbelief in x) and forgetting (literal non-existence of x). In accordance with this model, experiences of self-transcendence can be explained as disbelief in the ego, or it having been forgotten. Think about all those reports of, upon awakening, someone pronouncing "consciousness has always been this way, I'd just never noticed before" in light of the absurdly obvious truth that: you can't remember what you've forgotten.

It's in the story, but you could say one would have to cease being aware of objects (or the not-self), which would automatically bring about focus on the underlying constantly changing stillness which is infinite, everywhere, and nowhere, forever. There would no longer be the sense of other-ness. @The0Self Thanks. I have a few questions about this, if you have the time. 1. In what story? Were you referring to the story that I believe about my quest to realise Absolute Truth; i.e., my 'life story', or were you referring to some other story? 2. What is in the story? Did you mean to say that the answer to one or both of my questions is in the story (which?), or that Being is in the story, or something else? In the interest of making those questions a bit easier to answer, here's my current interpretation of your communication: The answer to my question — which of course is Being — is in my 'life story'; i.e., the story I am writing, in and with my beliefs, about what I am and have been doing, which in this particular case was, and is, attempting to establish causes (in this case; high quality problem solving) that will lead to my desired effect (realising Absolute Truth). Therefore, because Being is in my 'life story', that is where I should look to find it; therefore, to discover Being: I ought to investigate my life story. Please let me know where I've misunderstood you, my good sir. 1. By '(or the not-self)', are you referring to 'the not-self' as an example of an object to cease being aware of, or is it another term that means 'one would have to cease being aware of objects'? If the latter case, could 'the not-self' also translate to 'not being aware of objects'? In the interest of receiving the message you meant to send, here's my current interpretation of what you said: However, in order to discover Being, I must also cease any awareness of objects; therefore, I ought to investigate my life story with the crucial caveat that I mustn't do it whilst being aware of objects. 2. Are beliefs objects? When you wrote 'the underlying constantly changing stillness which is infinite, everywhere, and nowhere, forever', were you describing Being? Following on from my previous (potential mis- interpretations), here's what I took away from this part of your communication: If I can do that, it would automatically bring my awareness, single-pointedly, to Being. At this point, having discovered Being, there would no longer be the self-object duality. Because the loss of the self-object duality necessitates some sort of an inability to believe, I would now be Being without believing that I'm Being. If you'd be so kind as to answer the above questions and let me know where I've misinterpreted you, that would be divinely spectacular and incredibly appreciated. By Being silly! @Inliytened1 Is Being the opposite of believing? How then do you know that you are in fact not believing, and aren't believing in not believing? How do you know for certain that Being isn't believing in Being? Is Being not believing?

When you're mind becomes silent, the answer will be revealed to you. Try dancing without thinking. @Danioover9000 How can my mind be silent if I'm not believing my mind is silent? How do you stop thinking? How is it possible to not believe in something?

It's a great question and it cant be answered...when your Being your just Being..there's no need to conceptualize about it and any explanation I give you will be more concepts. @Inliytened1 How are you Being without believing you are Being? And how do you enter the state of Being without believing your way there?

No that's still concept. I mean the level of Being. @Inliytened1 How is it possible that there is a level of Being without a belief in a level of Being?

You become the Truth. You ARE the Truth, you just didn't realize it. @Inliytened1 I thought the ego is already made up of its beliefs? So, I already am what I believe is true, no?

@Inliytened1 How do you know it's infinite? I mean, how do you know you know, like for sure? How can you be so certain of a truth, without believing it? Isn't that still, ultimately, just faith, or certainty, that what you know is true? How do you transcend belief?

@Federico del pueblo Check it out

@Carl-Richard & @The0Self Thanks for your answers to my last query, guys @Tanz I feel like my ego is in a constant battle with itself to construct a reason to stay damaged and a to do list to heal up. However, when I allow myself to feel healed (positive emotions like peace and joy) now, without "earning them" in any sort of conventional (materialistic) way, I feel like some kind of crazed spiritual vigilante*, sometimes downright evil, and sometimes find myself in an altered state akin to what I imagine "communing with the devil" might feel like. Because it is so difficult to maintain my self-image as a 'good, honest, virtuous and morally righteous person' when I let myself feel good for no reason at all, I wonder if what I'm experiencing is a form of cognitive dissonance due to this action (choosing to feel good/healed/happy anyway) clashing with my core belief (I have to act 'good, honest, virtuous and morally righteous' to deserve to feel good/healed/happy). The questions I have for you, as you appear to be familiar with this sort of thing, are: Am I using my self-image to fill an unfillable void? Is that why mirroring my self-image in my actions is leading me on an unending hamster wheel of impermanent psychological healing? Am I even really healing any of these wounds if the healing never lasts? Is the ultimate form of healing from one's psychological wounds healing now, for no reason at all, and with no actions needed to heal further or remain healed? If not, what is it, and could you describe a little as to how you managed it? If I don't try to fill my inner void with anything anymore, will it lead to long lasting psychological healing, or further damage? Is the end result of 'feeling good without any reason to' spiritual enlightenment (no self image)? Do you have any ideas with regard to what could be going on with me, that you'd like to share? *Vigilante — noun — a member of a self-appointed group of citizens who undertake law enforcement in their community without legal authority, typically because the legal agencies are thought to be inadequate. Thank you for any input, ~Robert

@Carl-Richard Is Enlightenment just a matter of changing our beliefs? What aspects of the path are dependent on our beliefs? Is it all just about beliefs? Can knowing this be used to fast track our awakening and how would you go about this?

@Federico del pueblo While reading your reply, I noticed how poor the grammar was in my OP, so I decided to go back and edit it. Then I realised I had written it like a bit of a bonehead, so I've rewritten it again here, properly this time. A pursuit only becomes a hamster wheel when you rely on suffering to motivate yourself to achieve your goal. On the other hand, if you are satisfied whilst you undertake the pursuit (for example: samsara, survival, self improvement, meditation, business, Wall Street, relationships, academics, or you name it), engaging in the pursuit will not produce suffering, so you're gonna think of the activity as just a fun hobby like anything else, and not as an uphill battle. Here's how personal development really works: When you are satisfied, you have escaped the hamster wheel. You have experienced satisfaction many times in your life, e.g. your birthday, that friday feeling, winning at sports in school, etc. You can create the feeling of satisfaction with nothing but your own mind, and under any circumstances. There are several tools you can use to remain satisfied whilst pursuing things that stress you TF out. For example: Listening to The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, which can be found for free on YouTube and Audible (if it is your first purchase). This book is a collection of tools aimed at getting you to stop caring about outcomes and regrets so much that it interferes with your ability to enjoy everyday life. Practicing Leo's Satisfaction Meditation. Practicing meditation techniques that you enjoy doing. My favorite meditation technique is Shargrol's Structured Noting Practice Sample. Practicing the Buddha's path as taught for free by my teacher, Dhammarato. As his YouTube channel has over 1000 videos, I've selected this particular video to share here, as I think it's going to be perfect to get you started: Joy Is A Requirement For Practice | Ashley. You can find his contact information in the description of the video. The secret key that unlocks personal development is being satisfied (aka feeling good) right now. Unfortunately, this will take a lot of hard work to actually put into practice in your life, and the effort is unavoidable, but totally worth it. Most importantly: self-help and spirituality should make both the present AND the future feel good, not just only one or the other. I will end here with a quote from one of the early Buddhist discourses, that says of the Buddha: "He teaches Dhamma that’s good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end, meaningful and well-phrased. And he reveals a spiritual practice that’s entirely full and pure." I agree. I went through this same exact problem for years. I was still going through it 10 seconds ago, until I remembered that I write better when I'm happy, and following that wholesome thought (wholesome thought just means thinking something that makes feel good now), eradicated every trace of suffering from my direct experience. That’s a good thing. We want meaningfulness because not having any meaning in our lives tends to make us feel depressed and anxious. When you feel motivated to do a good thing (in general, but not absolutely all the time, so not as some rule you enforce on yourself), try checking if the reason you feel motivated is because the outcome is fucking amazing or because the alternative sucks ass. Mindset shift. I want you to be motivated by all the good things in life, not all the shitty things. This is the practical application of being motivated by Love (for good outcomes) vs Fear (of bad outcomes). Now this is super important: Do not EVER beat yourself up for being motivated by the latter. In fact, a good rule when doing personal development is to not beat yourself up. However, it is critical to remember that this applies to not beating yourself up for beating yourself up as well (ad infinitum). Determining which type of motivation you're drawing power from should take less than a minute, and the way to find out is shit simple: Just check to see if thinking about doing it is causing you to suffer. If it takes longer than a minute, that’s totally fine and normal at first, but your long-term goal is to know yourself so well that it’s very obvious why you’re motivated for something within about one minute. Do not EVER beat yourself up for not knowing the answer as quickly as you did the last time. Training in a meditation technique called “grounding the emotions in the body” might help with speeding up this checking process (it did for me, for some reason). Here’s a tutorial for that: Kenneth Folk: The Direct Path (Part 1) That’s exactly correct. You hit the nail on the head. And that’s exactly what I’m trying to get you to do: ease some of the pressure we put on ourselves to do things. Also, stop using the word "overcome" because it subtly implies struggle and effort. I’m gonna rip this bandaid off early: ultimately, you are to blame for doing that to yourself. However, if you beat yourself up for doing it, that is not the way. And if you beat yourself up for beating yourself up, that is twice as much not the way (it’s the fucking definition of spiritual bypassing). The problem is making yourself feel bad as a way to get what you want. Some militant types will say that you can solve this problem by beating yourself up even more. I’ll tell you right now, that’s the slow and hard path. The fast and easy way is to stop beating yourself up, period. That doesn’t mean stop being disciplined altogether or some moronic similar variety of all or nothing thinking. Rewatching Leo’s video called Learning = Making Distinctions can help you out a tonne in understanding my next sentence. You literally need to divorce the emotional connection that’s been fused in your mind between beating yourself up and doing what you truly want to do. It sucks that we even have to go through all the BS that comes with such a task, and it's not even really our fault: punishment is a huge part of how most parents raise their kids to be effective members of society, and then school teachers compound the problem. There’s an old saying in neuroscience: “neurons that fire together wire together.” This means the more you run a neural-circuit in your brain, the stronger that circuit becomes." (read: The Mind is The Map: Neurons That Fire Together Wire Together) You can have more than one goal at once. You’re not a single celled organism. You’re allowed to doubt yourself and not feel whole. This statement kinda just sounds like some kind of spirituality flavored all or nothing thinking from my POV. The solution is to stop using doubt as an excuse to suffer. It’s possible to doubt without suffering when you’re not attached to the outcome of the inquiry. The way to stop spirituality from becoming another hamster wheel is to remind yourself that your goal is not to doubt painlessly forever and ever, but only to inquire without pain in this moment. So feel free to worry again later, and you will (period), but not right now. To be honest I’m still struggling with that one, man, and I don’t really feel qualified to give advice on it, but here’s my two cents: The problem is the word “just”. Here's an example sentence to point out why this is slightly absurd: "So I “just” have to let go of xyz? What an empowering piece of advice! Time to "just" let go of my entire sense of self too!" Here's another great one: Don't think about pink elephants. Instead of trying to forget a lifelong bad habit out of existence, I’d start with thinking thoughts about other things to take your mind off of the problem. Then when you’re more relaxed from thinking these wholesome thoughts, it won’t bother you so much. Now that you're happy, and if it doesn’t cause you suffering to do so, you can try to solve the problem of your attachment to the opinions of others by noticing how those thoughts bore a resemblance ANTs (read: 9 Types of ANTs: Automatic Negative Thoughts that invade our relationships and how to exterminate them) I hope this helped answer your question more satisfactorily than my original reply, and just because you sound a lot like me and it's a trap I fell into HARD, I'll add one more tip: if you aren’t happy now, don’t worry about what thoughts are true or not true in some existential or spiritual sense. And if you can’t manage to stop doing that right now, just try again the next time you remember to, and in the meantime: try not to worry about the fact that you were worrying (and then consciously choose to feel good about yourself because what you've just done is stepped off of one HUGE hamster wheel (it's just like we said before: don't beat yourself up over not being able to stop beating yourself up (ad infinitum))). Besides, you can go back and investigate the metaphysical stuff Leo talks about when you are able to ponder such matters without suffering over not finding an easy answer. I know I said that was the last tip, but actually I have another thing for you to remember: One small step down from a hamster wheel is one giant step down from hamster wheel kind. Hope this helps or made you smile now, ~Robert

@Federico del pueblo No, it isn't. It's only 'chasing' if you are making suffering to motivate yourself to get the thing. If you are satisfied whilst you are engaging in chasing/samsara/survival/living/self-help/personal-development/spirituality/meditation/business/wallstreet/relationships/academics/you-name-it, it will not producing anymore suffering, so you will think of it as just a fun hobby like anything else, and is not a struggle or 'means to an ends'. If you don't believe that anything you are doing is of any importance, and you don't care about the future or past, etc, etc (listen to The Power of Now, which you can find for free on YouTube which explains more ways to stop caring about outcomes and regrets so much that it hurts you now), then you can do basically whatever you want within limit of common sense & it won't create anymore suffering. So, in summary: If you aren't suffering, it's not samsara, it's nirvana. So when you play on the hamster wheel without creating any suffering, it's nirvana. The way to stop creating suffering is all that stuff I just said (not think what you're doing is important, not care about past/future, etc, etc, etc, etc (you can read The Power of Now, author explains the details)). Most importantly: Self-help and spirituality should make the present AND the future feel good, not only the future. The Dhamma is good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end." — Buddha (paraphrased, probably)

@Swarnim That does sound very refreshing indeed! Thanks. My plan is: After setting an intention to experience something similar to what he's talking about, I'll check him out by listening along to a few videos whilst I meditate. And I feel the same way about embodying gosh darn EVERYTHING spiritual that I experience. It sucks ass, but it keeps me motivated!

@Vincent S Hi, Vincent. 1. Stop taking them frequently and feel good because you're not making the same mistake anymore. Now the lesson was both learned and the learning was acted upon, so you don't have any valid reasons left to feel bad. 2. Now that you are happy again, and without fully losing connection to that peace you are feeling, conduct an investigation into if you feel bad because of what happened or because of an unconscious fear of making the same mistake in the future. 3. If the former, remind yourself (using whatever words actually convince you of this) that you can't change the past. If the latter, recognise that you actually won't make that mistake anymore because (a) you learned your lesson and (b) you acted on it, therefore (c) your fear was irrational and this means that there is no valid reason to continue feeling it. "Never mind, start again." —S.N. Goenka

@Glemace It was this video. @Swarnim How do you do it? (Teach me, bro I suck, I always forget most of the day ?)

@catcat69123 Two definitions come to mind: 1. Spirituality Definition: Everything. 2. Psychology Definition: You when you are happy and thinking clearly.

@paprika If you've been rolling around in bed for the last 3 hours because you're too stressed out to fall asleep, you can just take a pill and problem solved, right? No one would call that drug addiction, it's just normal acceptable OTC medication use. Ironically, the pill doesn't work if after you take it you start stressing out over how it's gonna turn you into a drug addict and it was a bad idea. So you take another pill, and get more stressed because now you're hallucinating slightly and you thought "oh no I took too much". So you take another pill. And so on. @Salvijus Spitting straight facts here, bro ?? @paprika He didn't demonize booze, all he said was be careful not to use the immediate benefits of the sleeping pill as an excuse to take it every night. If you want reassurance that you're not a bad person for not being sober 100% of the time, wake up from your self-help grind-wheel to the reality that life is here to be enjoyed. If you want reassurance that your moronic rules about why you should never drink or when you should drink or what's a proper reason why you should drink, you're literally bending logic and inventing clever phylosophies to justify seeking those compulsions. No rules, no problem.

@Kuba Powiertowski Thank you for sharing so much. My next question is how to purge ignorance? Do I just focus on my breathing, silence my mind and relax? Will Rupert Spira's pointer/technique from his books also work for this? Is it important to know about the different types of thoughts or should I just silence them?

@vizual I think I get what you're saying — be motivated for goals that, or take actions that, provide lasting fullfilment, right? But ultimately, what is there other than hedonism? Like what if even seemingly anti-hedonistic lifestyles come from a desire to be happy (because what else are desires ever really for?)? Can you really escape the desire to be happy, or is doing that a cleverly disguised desire to be happy? Intelligent hedonism is still hedonism, surely. I feel like these meanings of life are roadblocks to happiness even greater than what they provide. Like imagine being so happy you don't have to try to be good any more. Imagine not being bothered by meaninglessness. Imagine a life so good you don't need a reason or purpose to live it. Imagine not needing to exert any effort to feel content. What do you think, sounds pretty good eh?

I try to take life as unseriously as I can, but without acting on the urges/impulses that arise as a result of taking this attitude. Basically I try to act like it is a serious affair, but with an attitude that it isn't.

Fantastic read. What do you think of this pointer by Rupert Spira: "The only way to view awareness is to 'be' it" with regard to where it leads as a pointing out instruction, not what it says as a truth claim? Is it a strong general direction for stripping away the layers of the ego? Do you have an alternative pointer or two that have worked better in your experience? Can we ultimately reduce the essence of spirituality to acceptance? If we can't, why then does acceptance keep showing up at the bottom/end of so many of my contemplations? And why is it, as a quality of the mind, the biggest catalyst for continued progress with so many others? Has anyone found a bigger/better/more powerful contemplative catalyst? Is acceptance the most important factor in all of enlightenment work? What are the other notable factors, in your experience?