axiom

Nurture probably also plays some role. I think it might also be beneficial, in certain circumstances, to have experienced extreme suffering from a very young age (i.e. 5 years old), and for this to have extended all the way through the formative years (up to young adulthood) with absolutely no one to turn to. If you’ve spent decades deeply contemplating “why?” and moreover “why me?”, and the abuse was severe enough to have made suicidal ideation a mainstay of your existence, then the only places you can finally arrive at are: (1) Lifelong depression or other mental illness; (2) Suicide; (3) Total forgiveness and deep understanding. It seems likely that the massive neurological rewiring involved in reaching (3) above could be a significant advantage. This may be a pretty rare set up too though.

It’s just a word. Coca Cola is a pretty good pointer too.

God says don’t forget to have fun.

@Vibroverse Exactly. Everything is a story, including this.

And of course, all of this is just a story.

All ideas about the world, when distilled to their very essence, are simply noise.

And thoughts are frequency. Thought-forms. Spoken words, comprised of syllables, each their own frequency. That which is spoken is in some sense evoked. ‘Frequency’. ‘I’. In the beginning was the word, as they say

There is noone. There is never anyone. You are not reading this. A computer uses function calls to remember subroutines. There is no 'I' there. The appearance is not personal. That's the whole illusion from beginning to end. It can take the form of thinking you're making a cup of coffee, to thinking you are everything / God / infinity. Every step of the way, the 'I' is fiercely protecting itself using whatever means it can, including self-deception.

“My” “experience” 24/7 is as @RMQualtrough describes. There is no one. “Thoughts” and “writing” still appear. Really they are just appearance though, and taxonomically indistinct from anything else. ”Remember” is a misnomer. There is no remembering. There is only appearance. Really all words are just “blah blah”. Including this.

Nothing changes after death. You are very literally already dead. To the extent the ownership-taking / seeking energy has not dissolved, "you" will keep attaching yourself to other apparent objects. How'd you like to live 100 years as a window? A week as a piece of toast? Or another stint as a human? Go for it. This is "reincarnation". Take salvia for a preview. Enlightenment is the recognition that there is no you and there never was, and gets "you" off the wheel of seeking and attachment forever.

Consciousness is only a story.

"Why?" is to separation what dopamine is to boredom. Similarly addictive, and a very temporary fix. "Why?" is useful for dream characters to go about their dream business. In truth there is no why. Enlightenment exposes such a notion as merely a dream.

@RMQualtrough Neo Advaita language seems to be about exhausting the sense of self, as it gives it absolutely nothing to hold on to. It is designed to be maximally frustrating and maddening. An impenetrable wall of reality. Neo Advaita recognises that the self will otherwise try to apply or utilise new "valuable information" in its quest for enlightenment, which of course just keeps the illusion going.

Hard times create strong men, Strong men create good times, Good times create weak men, Weak men create hard times. A lot of this is going to change over the coming decade. We're in for some seriously hard times. Professional victimhood simply won't be seen the same way. It will be an unaffordable luxury.

There is understanding of Advaita (rare) and misunderstanding of Advaita. That is all. Enlightenment actually has nothing to do with facets or concepts or realisations. Ultimately it is the complete absence of all these ego games / dream logic. All of the work anyone thinks they have done towards enlightenment is useless, and is completely without meaning.

Very close. The mind doesn't exist either though. Really, "mind" is just a story about the appearance (that it must belong to something, else how could it be? But this is only dream logic) The word 'seeing' also subtly implies duality. Really it's just appearance, complete on its own, without need of seeing. There is certainly what seems to be seeing, but this is a misapprehension borne of whatever self remains.

That's where separation begins.

There is no mind. There is no interaction. There is only the appearance. This. Actually, noone is thinking about this or seeing this. It's just appearing as it is, complete and undivided.

You can't be enlightened if you know what enlightenment is. You can't be enlightened if you don't know what enlightenment is. There is what seems to be enlightenment, and it is without a you. Really, there is no enlightenment, and there is no you. There is only this. If the self begins to form concepts around it, it becomes part of the personal storyline, part of the dream.

It's sort of the other way around. If you are not enlightened, you may think you know truth. But enlightenment is not knowing, and not being able to know.

Right. Appearance can appear as "knowing", just as it can appear as "experience". But both are just appearance. As such, "knowing" is a misapprehension. It has no value and no meaning. In a particularly weird dream, a penis glued to the forehead is the deepest attainable truth. The dream characters all think to themselves "Look, we know that a penis glued to the forehead is the deepest truth! Until you realise this you have not truly awoken!"... but their belief is no more profound than "blah blah blah". None of it has any meaning beyond the self-serving logic of the dream. Including this. This post is exactly equivalent to "blah blah blah". All talking, all writing, all thinking... everything... is meaningless.

@Thought Art I don't know anything. That's the meta bit. Chasing states of any kind is to be diving ever deeper into the dream.

Hmm. Enlightenment is a once and done thing. “God realisation” (deeper and deeper trips) is an endless journey wherein the ego remains fully intact and is even amplified. They are quite opposite things. One is a type of scientific exploration. The other is meta. Enlightenment is not really a state. It is in fact the end of all subjective experience.

Could be. But even this is only what seems to happen. It isn’t actually happening.

Then what’s the problem? Enjoy it!