Bruins8000

Thanks for your reply Leo. Can you give an example if you don’t mind?

The odds are there are innumerable experiences (apparent individuals having experiences across the cosmos) but how can we know for sure? It would seem like an extreme waste if the human experience and animal experience here on Earth was it. How can we truly know otherwise though? How can we know there are other experiences in reality?

How common do you think life is given the scale of the universe/multiverse? Also why do you think it pops up in certain places and not others? If Infinity can do anything why make a good amount of space dark, desolate, and lifeless? (Talking about the lack of life in our solar system in my second point)

Why does THIS need to experience the duality of form? Why not stay rooted in the infinite perfection of no separation? Yes I know ultimately form and formlessness are one but it still begs the question- why go through the troubles and struggles of form? I don’t subscribe to theories/ideas that THIS was bored and wanted to explore itself. Putting the attribute of being bored on the ALL seems like a fairytale to me. I don’t think the ALL gets bored like a human.

Again I’d say the idea of 1.) THIS 2.) contemplating 3.) why it experiences form seems very dualistic to me. It shouldn’t need to do anything or want anything

My reply would be- why does it need to express itself? This puts forth an idea of a 1.) THIS, 2.) the need to express, and 3.) the expression. That appears to be dualistic…

Trying to reconcile infinity with the possibility of a finite universe. What if the universe and space-time was curved? Say you create a magnificent spaceship that reaches the absolute end of this universe but at the end you just start back where you began. How can a “closed” system such as this be reconciled with infinity? Is there a nothingness/somethingness beyond this even though it couldn’t be penetrated? It would be ALL but would also be limited. This isn’t easy to convey but essentially if a finite universe was proven to be true how does that reconcile with infinity?

It seems likely (in the context of nonduality) that there are infinite universes/dimensions etc. It’s pure infinity. In a multiverse scenario could there technically be a universe that destroys all other universes? Does THIS play out all possibilities or no? Seems the further you explore this some conflicting possibilities smack up against each other…or maybe our logic about what’s impossible doesn’t matter! Curious of your thoughts

I posed this question before but my wording may have been confusing In order for THIS to have a seeming experience is a body required? Yes I understand the body doesn’t TRULY EXIST SEPARATELY. But it seems in every dream or every imaginable experience or life there’s always the “appearance” of an individual consciousness within a body having an experience. THIS being infinite and all- aren’t there other ways for experience to appear without the body? Seems limiting if THIS can only have experience with the same rinse and repeat formula: body with an apparent individual consciousness doing something I’m stuck at the moment- please help me get clarity on this. Thanks

Building off that- does experience by its definition always need to be limited in some way? Can the ALL experience being the ALL…

Looking at reality as a dream. Why does the dream always appear to be structured the same? It’s always a body (first person) experiencing something. Is THIS limited to only being able to have experiences if an individual body with an apparent individual consciousness arises? The universe is infinite in all directions and all dimensions so I’m thinking it wouldn’t be limited to this arrangement all the way up and down (I.E subject “body-mind” experiencing object “insert experience/life here”).

THIS is without beginning or end and obviously is infinite in every way possible. Countless galaxies, countless dimensions both within and without. The idea of a multiverse framework seems very probable. Obviously if there were different universes there would be no mandate for them to all follow the same rules of physics or even be anything remotely like each other. Is it possible in one of these infinite realities there could be physical beings in bodies that are completely immortal? I’m not talking immortal in the sense of immortality we all have by identifying with THIS. I’m talking about an immortal embodied form. I can’t see why this would not be possible considering nothingness is pure potential and possibility. My question kind of stems from the fact of our worldly lives and how our bodies eventually die. When I start to wonder why it has to be this way I catch myself as I’m being shortsighted…maybe it’s only this way in this version of reality Thoughts??

I know ultimately nothing = something but nonetheless pure absence does appear different than thingness/experience/the myriad of stuff we can see, feel, and hear etc Isn’t it simpler and easier for THIS to stay as blackness/no experience/zero? Why the charade of “separate” body-minds, living and dying, etc etc Is something better than nothing? What if there was just blackness and no experience ever? Would the truth of nonduality remain? Deep down I grasp the “answers” but recently I fell into a bit of a funk. That clarity has been clouded again.

In nonduality is the appearance/existence of life necessary or just what happens? Theoretically could there just be rocks, planets, light, heat etc. without an observer or the presence of intelligent life?

So if ultimately time doesn’t exist then how do we explain aging? Aging seems to be a byproduct of linear time. Obviously it would be better if humans and animals didn’t have to deal with the downsides of growing old- so why does aging happen? Should we view old age and being 23 for instance as opposites? Or are they not truly opposites?

@Carl-Richard in the ultimate sense THIS is non-dual. Separating an idea of time out from the whole would be creating a boundary and duality. Obviously in a relative sense we utilize the idea of time.

What if phenomena never “arose” and there was just a blank slate forever and ever(blackness/nothingness) with no consciousness or awareness. Would it ultimately not matter because regardless of what appears there’s only THIS? I know there’s only THIS but if there was just nothingness forever then there would never be conscious awareness of nonduality or THIS (which I guess doesn’t matter). Trying to work this out internally and it’s confusing the heck out of me. Any pointers or advice to clear this up is welcome. Thanks

Many wise people such as Nagarjuna always stated Existence and Nonexistence were extreme views and not truly possible. Why is this? What was meant? I have an understanding of this but wanted to get others ideas.

Random thought that came to mind while reading this. Existence by definition is dualistic because it would need something outside of it to call it Existence. Is Nonexistence dualistic as well because it’d need “another “ to call it Nonexistence? Wise ones often say Existence vs Nonexistence is the last duality to overcome

I guess part of the confusion is- if there was blackness/nothingness/no phenomena from the start…there never would have arisen an ‘I’ thought or a forum discussing nonduality or a galaxy. These “things” prove there is THIS. If there’s just groundless nothing the “proofs” of THIS don’t even arise-and we’d be none the wiser because we’d never know about it either. I’ve grasped these ideas before and been in the flow but sometimes confusion sets in again. I guess I should just focus on this current moment- if there’s THIS now (proven by me sitting in a chair) then there has always been THIS.

@WelcometoReality isn’t non-existence impossible though?

Obviously in an ultimate sense there are no individual selves/conscious entities…there is only THIS. However “individual selves” appear to exist. Why do they arise just to fade away? Why not eternal individual body-minds that don’t die off or why not the possibility of individual selves never arising at all? I know ultimately there are no individual body-minds. However why even the appearance? Why come into being if it’s just going to perish? Wouldn’t eternal “ nodes of consciousness” or them never arising at all seem cleaner and simpler? Ultimately death doesn’t exist but the appearance of things dying and fading away does. In my bones I know it ultimately doesn’t matter what appears but WHY this particular appearance in this particular way? Thanks

So does human “life” or the appearance of separate selves have any great value or importance in itself? Or can it ultimately be seen as just another phenomenon, nothing greater than a bunch of planets or meteors flying around with no “observer” or some other random appearance?

Thanks Leo- I will