TheOneReborn

I guess everything that happens under the Sun has a metaphysics to it, but is "power" and specifically social power metaphysical in its nature? I think of what social power, status, confidence, etc allow to be borne into the world. All the things that are done and not done because one has power over another, all the ways in which Being flows because of power. How must we properly situate and reflect on the nature of power in the universe and our own society? When in non-dual states I venture out into the world. When I'm with friends or at the office, my non-dual awareness fades as I get sucked into the energies and "frame" of other people. I notice how the mental frame of some prevails over others, and over myself. If I can muster the strength and self-love to enter into non-dual awareness again, I notice how fundamentally the game of social power and status has an existential and metaphysical dimension to it - the dominant personality impose their frame and understanding of what the world is upon others. My body can literally sometimes feel locked in certain places and my eyes feel unable to meet other more powerful people in their eyes. All this results in unconscious reactions by me. I notice how my body feels more or less open and free depending on what the "power situation" of the room is. It feels like there is a literal energy to this thing. All of this is to say that I feel like "power" of one thing over another, is a force unto itself. What do you think the nature of this force is (the force which by which one thing asserts itself and dominates another and closes off different futures), and is "power" the best word to describe it?

When I feel inside I feel such unreal amounts of pure seething hatred and rage for people, society, the world, myself, and the universe. It's the main aspect of my shadow. I'm angry against everyone who ever made me feel small or unworthy, against my dad for making me work as a young child in his failed businesses, against the universe for taking him away from me in a terrible 6 month long ordeal where he was paralyzed in the hospital from a stroke, against myself for never expressing myself and ending up as a 30 year old who has never truly lived, against everyone who walks around with a smile on their face. How the fuck do I let all this go?

Just realized this belongs in the spirituality sub forum Sorry

Fearful of life Avoiding negative emotions I find too much comfort in clinging to ideas Afraid of being challenged with new information Always trying to conceptualize and intellectually capture things Ignoring my own feelings and intuition Too arrogant

Absolutely. Trauma creates unconsciousness and unconciousnes is the enemy to spiritual work. It creates an area of your life of your body that you wish to so utterly dissacciate with. For victims of serious trauma like rape or bearings, etc, their battle is in one way more difficult due to the gravity of the hurt but in another sense it's easier since they know where to locate their deepest pain. For highly sensitive people (which most spiritual practioconers are) the trauma is more difficult to locate. I was never raped or beat as a child, but I have such negative emotions and memories associated with my family due to the tension between us, our emotionless, my father's anger and negative attitude and cynicism, my mother's depression, etc. I feel traumatized by their pain. I feel traumatized by their lack of interest in my deepest emotions. I feel uncared for at the deepest level.

I think Leo needs to make an episode on "Getting Over Your Childhood" That's really the core of so much spiritual development work.

Thanks guys. This really resonated. Even now I woke up today and read these comments and realized there is the tiniest assumption in me that somehow love is "silly and stupid" and that feeling "good" is the same too. I come from a very stern and emotionless Iraqi family. All engineers, military people, professionals, etc. No respect or appreciation for vulnerability, expression of love, etc. They are also traumatized by decades of war and conflict and violence. They are scared to show vulnerability and I am also, who grew up safely in the West, truly scared to feel vulnerable. I also realize more that language is the enemy here insofar as I cannot bear the sentence "I don't think I love my mother" or "I feel like I hate my father". I realize now that none of these sentences can be absolute truth. And that the Truth of my love or hatred for my parents cannot be stated. I have both deep love and some hate for my parents. I have to learn to deal with these conflicting emotions. It's ok that I feel conflicting emotions inside me.

Success in this field comes from childhood trauma and deep sensitivity Happy shallow people cannot become spiritual. They have no need to turn lead into gold.

From the Tao the one From the One the Two From the Two the Three From the Three the myriad of all things I would argue that the Three is critical. The third is the observer who relates the positions of the Two. One vs One sees only one. One vs Two sees Two and the multitude of all Twos. The Three is conciousness. Conciousness is relational. It relates and ascribes to difference absolute context and absolute relation.

I love Schopenhauer. I definitely think he was decently enlightened. Where do you recommend I start with Nietzsche?

Truly an awesome and courageous individual sharing his spiritual journey with the world and raising the conciousness of millions of people.

You have to learn to let your ego be one layer below you. Let your ego be itself. Just don't get caught up in it, and identify it. You are nothingness. You cannot take one step in the world or one breath without the ego. It's the ego which desires to mark the world with itself. Let it do that. Observe your ego. Don't identify with it. Witness how your ego defines itself against your fears, against that which you choose to not be concious of. Just observe our ego, that's really the main idea. Over time your ego will become thinner and thinner, and the duality between concious and unconscious within you which creates your ego will become more tangible to you. You will learn to surrender your ego and enter Samadhi more easily, more often. You can only do so by experience and developing your intuitive sense of your beingness.

There is something happening to all of us, beyond what words can describe. It causes me to look at the world and say "that's me". It causes me to at the same time look at the world and say "it's all not-me" The visual static that overlays my entire visual field is due to the blood in my eyes. The visual static is me, at least it comes from my own eyes. In an enlightened state, my head feels light as a feather and the two eyes act entirely as one, but against my heart. My mind moves into my heart, my eyes collect, but my heart processes the world. It sees only love. This is the best I can describe my awakened states without saying too much. This all feels like just a medical phenomenon? Like enlightenment is what happens when you kill your brains hold of your body by thinking itself to death. Now this is all happening within conciousness, so I know that many would say this is a model that I am claiming and it's happening within conciousness. But at the same time, we all know that the last thing we need to throw in the trash is our own model and idea of spirituality. Spirituality is as meaningless as porn when compared to awakening. It's just a concept of something to do and think about. It's a human affair, it's part of the fucking movie. Language as a social phenomenon is an Absolute Truth. The awakened person utters or thinks to himself "it's all me". There is Absolute Truth in "that" that statement was said. It was said as part of a completely closed and unitive system of being. The saying of "that's all me" and the sayers experience are one. The Dharma to which he has awakened, and the awakening, as a medical phenomenon, are one. When I say "medical" I mean it is about us, but not of us. It is of our bodily systems and processes in a way that we are completely a slave to. In the end though, awakening is nothing at all. Conciousness, the " I am" against the world, even the medical view of the world is all there is. It's just me. That's it.

But when one is in a real awakened state, "mystical" along with "medical" all fade away. They are both false. One is probably closer to Absolute Truth (mystical) but because they both are dualistic terms, they are both still infinitely far from the Truth itself. They are both just models. I guess what I'm also trying to do is give the "medical" model more legitimacy. To view the body as just dumb matter is as legitimate a view than to view the whole world as throbbing with life and beingness. Both are true in their falsehood.

Fundamentally the question is whether enlightenment and non-dual awareness has a "medical" quality or feeling for anyone else too?

You are an infinitely deep tube. Your will to think or do certain things is from this tube, which is undeniably you. Your ego has zero free will. You as God have absolute total will and sovereignty over your actions and thoughts. Yes, your thoughts are you, just not your ego. They arise from your unconscious mind. How do you gain control over your will? You need to develop your conciousness. You need to develop your eye-conciousness, your neck-conciousness, your left forearm-conciousness, your left testicle-conciousness. When you recognize all bodily sensations as pure conciousness and absolute truth, you will have a level of will and control that you thought was super natural. Others will look to you as a living God. Here's the catch though, you can only do that by surrendering your entire life to God and Truth.

I've heard it used in different contexts but it all seems to me to allude to "right action" or "divine action". In my awakenings I've had insight into my nature as "being the truth" in which my body and chakras all flowed without any resistance and in such a moment I literally was the "truth" and had the sense that this was my "right action" and my absolute right way of being - that I was in such a moment most myself? Am I correct in framing "Dharma" in this way? That it is when one becomes "truth" itself and surrenders totally to God instant to instant?

You need to let go of your expectations of how you should feel. Seek deeper and deeper conciousness without fear. To get to a solid bliss you need an ego death. If you've already had Samadhi once then the biggest obstacle holding you back is your understanding of what it will feel like again. The goal is ultimately to see with your eyes but to "be" fully your heart. When the heart sees the world it sees only itself. You need to also just let go of your anger and impatience mate.

God is everything you've never seen. You are everything you've never seen. You are God.

Feel like I'm going crazy these past 2 or 3 months. I feel like I can believe anything I hear while simultaneously thinking that nothing is in fact actually true. I feel utterly lost and confused about what mentality I should have and how I should think about life and the world. I know this comes with the territory and I feel like I'm pretty close to another kundalini awakening to be honest, but when does this end? Do I just have to surrender into the confusion until I'm left with the absolute truth of the present moment? How do I do that?

No, I've been falling off the practices past month or two. I feel too fucked up physically and emotionally to meditate. I started swimming again to ground myself in my body though and am really trying to get healthy again.

Beautifully put.

I'll reiterate because I think this is significant: a major aspect of awakening is the realization that "you" have never actually done anything ever. You are physically incapable of doing anything but being conscious of certain things and unconscious of others. That's all you've ever done all day your entire life.

God's will (to the extent that you mean the higher self) is what happens when you just let your ego go. You become an observer. Your hand moves and your hips thrust without any intention from you. You let yourself be moved. You have never actually intentionally done anything. You've only ever been an observer. You are not a physical body, remember. You are just "awareness of" the field of being before you. Awaken more and realize that you've never actually had control over anything at all, except your own conciousness. Become conscious of yourself and being and you'll recognize that God's will is just the flow of the universe without the petty resistance put up by your ego. The main idea is to remember that you actually have ZERO control over the physical world. Think of every unconscious action you are doing right now. You move your toes, hips, clench your stomach, your asshole, scratch your head, click your teeth, tap your feet, etc. Do you as an ego have control over any of these actions? No. They've only ever just happened to you. Even when you "intentionally" move your hand while staring at it, the moving of the hand happens an instant before your recognition of it moving. To surrender to God's will and live life in flow you need to awaken.

Oh God, I faint upon the pulse of the thought of you