Arthogaan

Member
  • Content count

    1,055
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About Arthogaan

  • Rank
    - - -

Personal Information

  • Location
    Poland
  • Gender
    Male

Recent Profile Visitors

3,327 profile views

Bookmarks

  1. Nature of paradox
    Spiritual Paradoxes Are Made Up.
    Like @Osaid said in another thread: Paradox arises when logic reaches its limit (the brick wall, as you call it). The mechanics of logic are the mechanics of conceptual separation: You make "sense" of the world by mentally cutting it up into pieces and putting these pieces into relation (=> relative truth). And this whole principle collapses once you try to approach absolute truth. You simply cannot express the absolute in relative (logical) terms; and whenever you try, so-called paradox will be the unavoidable outcome.
    And it's not that logic cannot grasp the Absolute because the Absolute is too lofty or complex... on the contrary: Absolute truth is much too basic and simple for your logical mind to grasp it. That's why there is this tendency to invent endlessly complex and colorful stories around it; without those stories, your conceptual monkey mind wouldn't have anything that it could sink its greedy teeth into and would consequently starve to death, which would mean that you (or rather consciousness) would be forced to face naked reality as it is. Which is exactly what your ego tries to avoid at all possible costs.
    But of course, all of this is just my logical explanation.

  2. No learning
    Is Consciousness Getting To Know Itself
    This beautiful radiant lucid hologram/Wholeness is literally appearing and disappearing every nano-second.
    Reality/God/You die with every frame. And then are reborn instantenously. So it's a superposition of being alive and dead. So in a way nothing really happens. There is no process. No learning, just a beautiful concerto being played out. And all your thoughts and sense of being separate are just part of that concerto played by infinite inteligence.

  3. How to trip/open on 5-MEO - Breaking the wall
    5-MeO-DMT First Trip, Report
    For me, the 5meo point is something really intimidating and I have to do it again one of these days but I'm procrastinating a lot. It is the total rupture. It's something that doesn't always happen, there are times when you simply can't, even if you vape a lot.
    The thing is to disintegrate, to stop existing as you completely. There is not a trace of you left, only an infinite hole remains. This can be terrifying on a very high level, and absolutely wonderful. It's terrifying when reality is an empty infinite hole, and it's wonderful when you take one more step and the total void is you. zero structure, absolute being. Nothing else is sought with 5meo dmt, or at least I don't. What does this experience mean? nothing at all, it has no meaning. you have opened yourself to the formless. Because It is the beginning of letting go, of surrendering to reality and living in openness continuously.

  4. Mental is a condom between you and God
    Need guidance in what I'm experiencing.
    This is a dream. This is reality. This is illusion. This is truth. This is God. This is consciousness. This is life. This is hell. This is heaven. 
     
    At the end of the day, this is simply this. Any further view layered upon this is something you are fabricating. When THIS has to be described or equated to a concept, folly has already occurred. When you add layers of meaning, it is like adding a condom between you and This/God/whatever other name you want. Regardless, there’s nothing wrong with playing these mind games with yourself. 

  5. No people just shapes and colors
    If there is no perception what do I do with all this me stuff
    There is no difference between a lamp and a human body. Both are just images on a screen.
    There are no "people". There are just some shapes which you say is a person. You might as well call a snowman a person.
    Try looking at the world as if humans and animals never existed. But all shapes and colors are still the same as before. Just remove the humanness from it all.
    Imagine instead that you are the cosmos looking at itself.
    When you see a lamp, imagine that you are not looking at the lamp but that the lamp is seeing itself.
    The room you think you're in is actually self-seeing. Every object sees itself. And the net result is that it looks like this room "you see". You are the only thing which isn't real in the room.
    You are not in the room! There is just a room with objects in it like chairs and bodies.

  6. Many great points by Osaid
    I was happier as a kid
    When you have a dream, is there is a dreamer which is inside the dream?
    Is it possible for there to be attention without an object or experience to pay attention to? Why does it seem that attention and the object of attention are always enmeshed? Maybe there is no difference between the object and observer? If there is no difference between the object and observer, then is there any space left over for a "self", or even a sense of it?
    To a degree. I did a lot of self-inquiry which incrementally changed my perception of things. It ultimately led up to a singular "drop."
    There is a psychosomatic relationship created using your imagination.

    You are using your imagination to create desires within yourself which you then act out. The problem is that the desire is based on an imaginary self. 

    As an example, if you imagine yourself in an undesirable future scenario, you genuinely believe you are experiencing that future scenario from that present moment, and so it creates a desire to avoid the literal imagination of that future scenario, which creates real physical biological symptoms in the present moment such as a racing heartbeat, high cortisol, etc. In other words, it creates the emotions which would transpire if that imagination really happened to you. You now have a desire to change your physical environment so that you can stop imagining the scenario which you imagine yourself inside of. For example, if you were stressed about going to work, calling in sick would cause you to stop imagining yourself at work and thus it would alleviate the stress and anxiety caused by that imagination. This psychosomatic connection can be severed by realizing that there is no entity called "you" which can be at risk of that future scenario in the first place.
    There is obviously the qualia and different phenomenon happening in your experience, that much is true, and perhaps that is what you mean by "seeming to be here."

    The imagined part is the entity which you imagine to observe that phenomenon/experience. There is no middleman which has to observe experience, because which part of experience would that entity be made out of?
    To be as accurate as possible, you believe that your imagination is representing real objects of experience, which is to say, you believe your imagination represents something beyond your imagination. You have turned yourself into an "object" inside of your imagination which you believe actually represents you. You use your ability to imagine yourself in order to place yourself inside of various forms of imagination about the past and future, so you have turned yourself into an entity/object which exists inside of those imagined scenarios which you must protect and look after.

    Similar to how when you look at the ingredient label of a food product, you have to imagine that those ingredients exist inside of the product. You are using your imagination to symbolize the existence of the ingredients inside of the food product, that is how you know the ingredients that the food is made of. So, the imagination serves to represent something in your experience, which would be the ingredients inside the food. You are doing this exact same thing to your "self", you are imagining yourself as if you are a real object of experience, but that imagination actually symbolizes and represents absolutely nothing in your experience. There is no part of experience which that imagination of yourself represents, it is purely self-serving. Once you stop imagining, then the self stops appearing too, the imagination is self-contained, and thus it does not actually represent anything outside of itself.

  7. Love and experience codependent arise too Osaid
    What is the root cause of distraction? Why can't we just be?
    Nice! I'm happy for you.

    When you don't judge the "flicker", you see it as it is. It is like a breeze passing by. Perhaps it is a desire or thought that pops up, recognize the reason and intelligence for why it shows up, and then simply deduce if it is worth pursuing. Is it pointing to anything real? Slowly and naturally you will become disillusioned if you observe it like this.

    Being able to enjoy what "life is made of" without any ulterior motive is exactly what love is. To love something is to desire to be with that thing, without any other motive. When the object of desire becomes existence, rather than meaning or imagination, existence literally transforms itself into the love that you want. The taste of vanilla is literally equivalent to love, because you cannot love something without experiencing it. There is no love if there is no object to love, they are actually both the exact same thing. 

  8. Another by Water
    Is It possible to know what Consciousness literally is??
    But kidding aside, this is the Zen version of the key stage from going what some call Nonduality/Buddhism/rodents  to Enlightenment. Beginning Nonduality is still in the dream, a subtle self merged in unity with the visual field, exchanging the dual dream for the nondual dream. But still a dream. When this Unity-self gets thinner and thinner, more and more transcended (Thisdell stage 4 to Thisdell stage 5), then:
    Everything - "every vestige of self-awareness", or any subtle I-feeling/I-thought/duality (all subtle illusions) have to be seen through and transcended with automized high-speed awarenes (speed, because these illusions arise extremly fast towards the end) and familiarity (strength, because there are some very subtle "feelings" and other arisings that constitute the separate-self) with these subtle obscurations. Speed & Strength of Awareness (courtesy to Frank Yang). And that has to be done automatic, no doer/agent doing it anymore ("Nonmeditation Yoga").
    And then at the end it can really break open, in a way that can't be anticipated: You will see the Buddhas of all the universes face-to-face and the Dharma Ancestors past and present. Literally. Their essence.
    Before that stages, afterwards nowhere to go... Infinite Being.

  9. Water Explaining AWAKE
    Important! - Nobody On This Forum Is AWAKE
    Enlightenment is in most definitions defined as seeing that all appearances arise within the infinite you, being imagined by you, through you. And you are that, the Totality, Tat Tvam Asi. That includes all arisings, including the feelings and thoughts of the separate self, including memories. And of course the boat (all spiritual teachings) that carried you to the other shore, that you cast into the stream after crossing over to the other shore. They also arise just in you. Reality/True You includes every possible arising or imagined form, n+1.
    I also agree that Just experiencing or becoming Emptiness or Nothingness is not sufficient. You can experience the Godhead as state (Cessation, Nirvikalpha), and even experience yourself as Nothingness in a nondual infinite state, and it is not yet IT. Why? Because there are still a very very subtle feeling of Inviduality, of being separate, that will continue appearing in you. Even if it is just a very subtle "Nothing" watching the infinite.
    And how to get the Realization into daily life? Like, seeing the whole infinite appearance bubble arise within you in daily life? Learn to get proficient in spotting this last feeling of indviduality/separateness, and cutting them off before they fully rise up and elaborate, put You under their spell, before they get believed. A High-Speed-Search-Task for the Emptiness of the separate self arisings, as Daniel Brown once called it. And when you are fully empty (your personality is not gone, it continues working more efficient and better than ever, its just blows like the wind through the Totality that you are then), you can sustain that. Nondual, infinite, blissfull, the not so separate self or character moving in you like the wind. You realize that you have always been that Totality, before with the illusion of something separate appearing in it. 
    @Leo Gura : I am (at least in my understanding of your writings, especially the one above) very close with my definitions of these terms  to your definition on God-Realization/Enlightenment. I understand why you put so much emphasize on understanding the points you mention above, because its sooo easy to stop short, and various teachers like Jac O'Keffee or Wolinsky, Massaro (I know...), Wilber, Davidya, even Bassui a few hundred years ago.... also emphasize that a lot: Further, never stop short. It is so easy to fool yourself, and stop at Nonduality with a separate self still left and not fully seen through.
    I also like your wording of imagination more than the classic buddhist wording of "empty or empty of inherent existence", the question of BiploarGrowth. ("Could you define imaginary as “something not having inherent existence and being completely reliant on Consciousness/You to appear”?).
    So, at least in my humble opinion, the more or less only point where I put a different emphasis than you (yet, which at least in my experience, has a drastic impact wether you can carry this realization into daily life), is: This last quantum of getting totally empty of the last Individuality/separateness-arising-items arising in you, not a lense seen through, but a lense fully transcended moving in you and not seen through, which enables you to sustain this Realization sobre without pychedelics, and to get it totally unbiased of any last separate self interpreting lense.
    @Leo GuraLeo, just one question: Where is your line of kicking out people? I understand that probably most people who write in a not so  polite way or are making fun, or being ironic/sarcastic in a not so light way, or are being arrogant, are probably not writing that while being aware of their True Nature (at least while writing it, yet some may be), but are a bit annoyed by some manifestation in their visual field (which in that case happen to be your writings). So, for them, a little challenge: How about writing it being aware that Leo is actually fundamentally not different from you, and writing your message in a loving way, even if you feel the urgency of critique? Writing while not rejecting parts of your visual field (in that case, Leos message)?
    I respect you and your work (which is marvelous in so many areas). I just have a different perspective on the utmost importance of getting fully empty, seeing the separate self arisings in real time fast enough and not getting hypnotized, and to be able to carry that realization described above into everyday life, and the ensuing happiness/bliss that it brings. Utmost at least in my experience, because it made the difference on so much more happiness and bliss that has come into my life so that I can not honestly write about this topic without mentioning the experience I had with this aspect.
    Let's respectfully agree to disagree on that one point? Namaste and all the best!
    Water by the River
     

  10. The best pointer is always a statement which directly contradicts the belief(s) that the recipient of the pointer is stubbornly attached to.
    You have No Control over Reality
    @Breakingthewall
    Look my man... I think we can agree that absolute reality cannot be put into words. Right?
    This means that one pointer towards the Absolute doesn't have any more or less validity than any other pointer. So the only thing that distinguishes a "good" pointer from a "bad" one is its usefulness... and how useful a pointer is depends entirely on who it is directed at.
    Slogans like "reality is illusion", "life is a dream" or "you are God" can definitely be useful pointers for newbies who otherwise wouldn't even know where to start their awakening journey; but they stop being useful the second that the relative validity of the pointer in question has been verified and now is being mistaken for an expression of absolute truth. As soon as that happens, someone needs to step in and say "sorry pal, but that's not it".
    In other words: The best pointer is always a statement which directly contradicts the belief(s) that the recipient of the pointer is stubbornly attached to. If you believe that you are your body, then the best pointer for you is "you are not your body". If you believe that reality is made of solid matter that exists somewhere "out there", then the best pointer for you is "reality is imagination". And if you believe that you are God, then the best pointer for you will be something along the lines of "you are but an infinitesimally small part of God", "you don't exist", "you is nothing but a relative concept", you are limited (and God is not)" or whatever other combination of words you might come up with that will do the trick.
    So you see, bickering about what description of the Absolute is "objectively" the most correct one is sheer silliness. You can twist and turn it as much as you want: All statements about the absolute aspect of reality are equally false. Which is exactly why I find all of these endlessly circular discussions about the supposed "true nature" of reality so incredibly hilarious and can never quite hide my (admittedly smug) amusement about this whole absurd spiritual clown show on here... cross my heart, how anyone can read the neverending torrent of equally grandiose and grotesque bickering that this forum is constantly being flooded with with a straight face is completely beyond me. Mea culpa, I guess!

  11. We do not control even the next thought - water
    You have No Control over Reality
    One doesn't even control which thought emerges next, or its content.
    Any thought/feeling, especially I-feelings/I-thoughts/Identities happen by itself. One can not control which thought/feeling arises next. There is just the illusion-thought (also arising by itself) that one could. Which itself is a thought which "one" didn't control.
    A thought is a "universal" event triggered by causes & conditions of the totality of all form/manifestation/Infinite Being. The feeling/thinking that "I am" is just an arising happening in True Being, but not controlled by anything separate/ego.
    There are just clusters of thoughts/sensations taking owernship for other clusters of sensations (like thoughts/feelings/bodily sensations), happening and moving by itself in True Infinite Being/Reality.
    On an Absolute Level, it is that radical.
    That should be a little hint that the separate-self/individuality/ego doesn't even exist in the first place in the way one normally perceives/feels it, but is just a brilliantly made illusion.
    It is an illusion of the highest degree happening in True Infinite Being. 
    And that True Being can understand that, and realize its True Infinite Being.
     
    Selling Water by the River

  12. Solipsism explained by Water
    The importance of Suffering
    On an Absolute Level, "it" or better True You is solipsistic. Alone and infinite. True You/Infinite Being is "alone" because "it" is infinite with nothing possibly outside of it. But that is True You/True Being.
    And someone who is not enlightened doesn't (by definition) know the difference between the current identity and True Being, or else he/she would be enlightened and no longer be asking these questions...
    So talking about Solipsism and God is just counterproductive when talking with beings who have not realized their True Nature. Because they will project their ego on the concept of God or Solipsism, no other chance. First become Nothing (no separate-self), then you will be everything (Infinite Being) - Thisdell stage 4, becoming Thisdell stage 5/Enlightenment. But better not project a little separate something (illusion-separate-self) on everything (Roger Thisdell stage 3 "Godmind"). Or: I am God imagining everything. That makes Thisdell stage 3 a cul-de-sac, no way forward to stabilize Awakening in daily life and ease the suffering. Which is exactly what we see here, with a few added ETs.
    Is Infinite Being not enough? Does it need to be called God? 
    As I have written several times, I don't really like the pointer God, because it is normally loaded with other meaning on top.
    God = omnipresent, infinite, timeless/eternal/immortal, creating/manifesting/imagining the whole gig: Same for True Infinite Being. One without a second. But all the stuff projected on top of it when using the pointer God instead of Infinite Being, the one without a second, is often not for the faint of hearted. It anthropomorphizes Infinite True Being/Reality with properties and intentions that are just not there on the most fundamental level, and then proejcts it on the illusion-ego/illusion separate-self. "I am God".
    Only very few can truthfully say that, because most have not realized their True Being and can't tell the difference to ego/separate-self. And those who can say that truthfully and not fall for the illusion normally don't talk like that, because they know from their own practice it is not beneficial for beings with the ego/separate-self illusion not fully seen through. As soon as one talks like that to not enlightened beings, they almost always project the properties of True Being (or God) on themselves, their separate-identity, which they still have not seen through. Because else they would be enlightened.
    And these separate-self-identities-arisings/illusions are that which have to be cut down/transcended for Enlightenment to happen. And using the grandiose word "God" tends to blow these illusion-arising up to cosmic proportions: "I" imagine everything. No. "Your" True Being does. But what is that? What is the constant always here True Being? Here also in Deep Sleep? Before ones birth?
    And if one would fully know the difference between True Being and separate-self/ego, one wouldn't talk about these topics using pointers/concepts like God/Solipsism, because it would be all clear anyway... And one wouldn't need to state I am God and I imagine everything, because.... well...  TO WHOM? Well, I guess you get the point. At the level of Infinite Being one is alone. But there is no one there to feel alone, because that would be an anthropomorphic illusion arising of a separate-self WITHIN True Being. It just is what it is. And always has been.
    And with an enlightened being talking like that it is not necessary. Makes no sense. One sees and knows the Awakened Nondual enlightened State the "other" is in (and nobody really home), and it is clear. Imagine a discussion like: I am God! No, I am God! No, you are not! We are God! That is all illusion, starting with the words "I" and "we".
    Lot of talk of God and Solipsism happens on Thisdells stage 3 "God-stage, God-mind". Infinite Nonduality with separate-self/remaining identity/ego not fully seen through".
    It is contradictory, not stable, with lots of illusions still going on. And that is presupposing its done from real nondual states. Most of the time, its done from not nondual states, just from the conceptual level. And from there, it is more insanity than anything else. The discussion then goes like: "No, small you is not God. Big You, True Being, is. But first find out what that is before talking about God & Solipsism". And because of all these contradictions that doing that move includes, there is so much discussion here about these topics. Because it is not clear, but contradictory. Sometimes I use the pointer God, but normally it is not a good pointing/teaching tool.
     
    Ever noticed that very few enlightened teachers that are public talk about how they are God and imagining everything, and they are all alone and Solipsism and so on?  They do, if you listen between the lines or read/see enough stuff. Sometimes even explictily. Sometimes, even complete books like the Supreme Source have been written, that even got the approval by our host as God Realization.
    And these enlightened teachers normally don't talk about them being God/Solipsism. Not because they are too stupid to know what God is, and what Solipsism/Aloneness on the Absolute Level means. And they do know that all is an imagined illusion happening within "their" own Infinite Being/True Being by definition.  If they wouldn't, they wouldn't be enlightened. 
    But they don't throw that in public at a poor ego to blow it up to cosmic proportions, because that doesn't help their students going from Thisdell stage 3 to 4 to 5. It usually even prevents getting the ego stage 1 to witness stage 2 to nondual stage 3. Because to get there sobre and without psychedelics, one already has to kill/transcend the ego/separate-self quite a lot... Nothing kills sobre Awakened Nonduality better than saying to oneself: I AM GOD. A "normal" identification of I am a human so and so suffices to do that...
    And one more thing: If Nonduality (or Buddhism) gets bashed: Nonduality is NOT automatically Enlightenment, or realization of True Infinite Being/Reality. It is Thisdells stage 3 Godmind. A boundless nondual infinite field of Awareness, with a separate-self still well and alive hijacking that! And that most Buddhist are not enlightened should go without saying..
    Stage 3 Godmind. That is where one gets with psychedelics. And maybe even stage 4 a bit. But I have never seen a mainly psychedelic aficionado get to stage 5, True No Self (also nondual, but without center/separate-self-illusion, truly being the Infinite Totality/Being). Stable Nondual realization of Infinite Being in daily life. Maybe somebody knows one, would be very interested. Can't rule out that one exists, or that one wakes up just by the impulse of a psychedelic. It is just, I have never seen one. I know quite a lot that have done that with transcending/meditation of the false illusion separate self.
    So basically "Nonduality" and "Buddhism" gets bashed, because one doesn't know that stage 3 "Godmind"/Nonduality is not yet True Being or Enlightenment. Of course merely Nondual Realisation doesn't bring "God-Realization", or understanding that True Being imagines/manifests all of it, and that ones True Self is that. That is stage 5, or the link (Supreme Source) above. Or True Enlightenment.
    Psychedelics get one to Nonduality, maybe in more sophisticated cases to realizing that it is all imagined/manifested to fool "oneself". But it doesn't get oneself conforming to the impersonal infinite nondual enlightened mindstream. And that is why this "realization" is not stable in daily life. Still suffering/resisting the content of ones own True Infinite Being. "Solution": add a few ETs from higher levels of Reality, and call that higher than realizing and being ones True Infinite Being. And be proud on ones own continuing suffering/resistance towards happens within ones True Infinite Nondual Being, and declare that as inevitable. Or something like that.
    Well, quite a show Maya is dishing "us" up this time, isn't it 
    Selling God&Solipsism Water by the River
     
    The Koan still is: What is the True Being of the ET at the end, really? And that of any other ET, n+1?
     

  13. Advanced teachings we unavailable
    The importance of Suffering
    A very good and important topic to contemplate about. I also spent a long time with the topic of what causes actually Awakening, and its relationship to suffering. I tried to include as many past & present cases into my perspective on it as possible.
    On suffering in the context of Awakening, Enlightenment, the meditation path and my personal experiences (and my personal pet-theory of it all): -warning, the usual conceptual overkill of yours truly ahead-
    The following is my perspective based on what I have seen/read about other cases, and my own experiences.
    Without some form of suffering (or more precicly in Buddhist terma Dukha which means not suffering, but more unsatisfactoryness) nobody would ever start the path to Enlightenment/Awakening/Liberation/True Being, because one would be happy & satisfied doing the myriad of projects to become happy and free of suffering/unsatisfactoriness in our culture/time. Maslows pyramid up and down. What is not so well known: Even Maslow put towards the end of his life stage 6 on top of Maslows pyramid of need: (Self-)-Transcendence. So for the start of the "Enlightenment-project" (which is a contradiction in itself, but that is another story...) one needs either
    a) a mainstream-culture that pushes spiritual liberation/Awakening (and for our lifetimes, Maya goes "not today darling" on that topic, or
    b) some form of suffering or dukha (unsatisfactoriness) to start the journey.
     
    Then during the path to Awakening/Enlightenment/liberation, the old cycles of suffering/unsatisfactoriness don't stop at once. Here is how it developed for me, in a nutshell.
    The nature of the separate-self/ego to cycle between being happy for some time, then suffering/being unsatisfied/resisting what is/unhappy, then start a new project to make it happy, and round it goes. If God would write a manual to make a Samsara/Illusion game with (separate) self and others, it would go something like this: Give them some unsatisfaction and a carrot (expectation of happiness induced by a certain experience in the future), let them chase, then give them temporary happiness(=not resisting what is) and them make 'em suffer again. And given them lots of levels of carrots/games to chase and try out for permanent happiness. That is all that is needed to have a game with separate-self. The chasing goes from Maslows pyramid base stage 1 apparently up to chasing ETs n+1. Then, on an efficient path (my case Mahamudra/Dzogchen), the bliss of ones True Being (Awakenings to Nondual Awakened Awarenes) by cutting off the thought/feeling stream of the separate self in real time (also called meditation, if done correctly) starts flowing. At some point of my path (mainly Mahamudra&Dzogchen), I literally could start producing my bliss for example while meditating, walking, in meetings (at least some of them when I just could watch the show ) and so on... That normally starts after some years of meditation (on and off the pillow) when the vast spaciousness of boundless awareness starts showing up and the contractions in the head get literally relaxed. That impressed me pretty much. That bliss didn't hold with "hard" problems/really bad events in the beginning, but it started the become stronger and stronger, inducing more and more awakend nondual states of blissful silence. A positive feedback loop.  More and more facets of True Being started to show up, see my last post on the remnants of separate self that need to be seen through. Creating more and more Awakening and bliss.  At some point the shift can happen towards realizing what one really is/True Infinite Being, or Enlightenment. Since that normally implies a gradual transcendence path/process over several years that one has been fed each and any core-separte-self identity/suffering during  the meditation by Maya in the years before, pretty much all of that stuff is transcended. Because Maya will "throw" anything at you that she has to keep the illusion going, and she has a lot. But it can jump to Enlightenment any time (Karma, aka genetics but I prefer Karma, more encompassing), induced by various events, often suffering, before that path/during it/at the end of it. For most it takes the whole path. The more gradual and longer the path, the more stable is the realization later. Yet, once having realized True Being, it is no longer in doubt. So, that was my experience, now comes my theory:
    Beings are karmically wired more or less fortunately/differently. Some wake up because their visual field conforms for some reasons (base state, Kundalini-Awakening, whatever) very well to the True Nature of things (mere appearance and not solid objects out there, Infinite field of awareness, boundless, timeless, always here, basically my last long post about a mindstream conforming to the enlightened mindstream. Or at least they have the potential for that shift to happen quickly. and their core-separate-self-identity-arisings are for some reason (Karma,...) easily seen through when contemplating&self-inquiring. For these beings (1) and (2) in place, some trigger can cause Enlightenment. Suffering-example: Tolle. Kundalini/Energetic: Ramana. Anamanda Ma, countless examples in history. Branch of that is shaktipat hitting a "fertile field". Then there are the normies, like yours truly, who need an either need a) an efficient practice (like Mahamudra/Dzogchen) first to induce awakened states, then get rid of all illusion/separate-self remnants, and then some good pointing out instruction of the real state of things (the properties of True Infinite Being, basically my last long post). quite some time/years needed to start inducing awakened awareness/mere nondual appearance of the visual field via meditation/trekchö/cutting off each and any thought-arising in more and more highspeed by looking into its (empty/consciousness) nature out of which thoughts/feelings are made. Until then of course also suffering in cycles. But getting "over the hump" towards bliss-inducing state happens here in the fastest and most efficient manner, as least in the opinion of yours truly. The beginning steps of that path are also concentration meditation, like in b) below. But quite refined ones, and not for too long before one shifts practice. Learning to produce ones own bliss with being in these awakened states. This way, gradually getting rid of large parts of suffering by slowly transcending the "sufferer", and replacing misery of the separate-self with the bliss of awakened states. and then, towards the end of the road (or if one is gifted/fortunate/lucky also in the middle of the path) the shift to realizing True Being and its immortality (or infinite-always here nature), and with that removing the final fear of "death" or disappearance.  b) a practice that is less detailed and focuses more on brute-force willpower/push-through concentration meditation: Jhana, Zen, "sit and die before the wall" approaches that need to push with willpower through lots and lots of suffering. Here, we are again at lots and lots of suffering (at least at the beginning stages, but also all along the path from what I have seen), because Maya will throw everything she has at you to get you off the pillow/meditation, not that one wakes up and leaves the game prematurely...  
    And now the second part of the post, why are the paths with less/minimized suffering not practiced more widely?
    As
    @Arthogaan
    has noticed correctly in the post below, and I had the exact same thoughts many times...
    Short answer to the question above:
    they are more complex and need more maintenance/coaching/understanding. So they are more difficult to teach & multiply & roll out, and normally need personal coaching. they have mostly been kept secret until recently because of the various dangers, like for example ego-inflation, nihilistic misuse-potential, or just plain and simple misunderstanding potential of complex practices, which leads to stagnation in the practice. Why do we have mainly enlightened ones who got lucky/were lucky with karma/genetics (see above), or  from the paths 2b) Concentration meditation/Theravada/Zen?
    Because until recently the highly(!) sophisticated methods of Tibetan Buddhism like Mahamudra/Dzogchen/... (who have developed much more and way more sophisticated than for example Zen/Theravada which are very similiar to what was done in India 1000 to 2000 years ago (although I love these traditions very much) were not accessible at all.
    The Tibetans "concentrated" more on spirituality as a society, 1000 years of R&D of enlightened lineages and sometimes a large part of the adult population in the monastaries (~15%+). Head of state = Dalai Lama for a long time. Basically, main focus of that culture&society including government was Enlightenment. Of course there was also a lot of stupid things going on, like war between monasteries. But the overall development of buddhist meditation in that setting was unparalleled. Compared to that (sorry) Theravada and Zen sometimes feels a bit like "living fossils" (said in a joking way), although I like them very much and they do work quite robustly and produce fully enlightened ones.
    The Tibetan Teachings are very sophisticated and either need lots of focus on them (like reading the books of Brown 10-20 times and experimenting a lot),  or a good and enlightened teacher explaining them and checking for understanding (which pretty much didn't exist until recently, all secret teachings are out, see books of Daniel Brown. "best of" collection of Menri Trizin, selected by Menri Trizin (probably those with which he achieved his own realization) to be translated by Brown).
    Another problem is they got a deeply cultural "lingo" and quite some hyperbole (the Tantric teachings of generation/completition stages and especially the lower Tantras). Quite hard to approach.
    So the only thing not published by Brown of these systems are some of the secret pointing out instructions for Enlightenment, although quite some are published, for example his Akrid book (Pith Instructions for A Khrid rDzogs Chen. Yet, reading that in parallel to Pointing out the Great Way is probably better than starting with that book alone).
    That system plus a bit Jac O'Keffee, Roger Thisdell, Massaro, Wolinsky for the final steps towards Realization (I wrote quite a lot about these), and some psychedelics for state-peak-previews... These elements I assume will be found in the Global Dharma of the future.
    Then some more aspects:
    Concentration Meditation Systems like Zen or Jhana/Theravada are quite robust: Don't need so much teaching/feedback during the process, are more brute-force and less complex. More robust, less efficient (in the meaning that one needs to push through suffering with meditation, and that they can be slower/less pleasant, and many meditators end in the many cul-de-sacs of the path where one can just stagnate if certain nuances are not understood. But done long &hard enough they work. Metaphor: The axe to cut down a tree. Doesnt need fuel & maintenance & sophisticated handling like a forst harvester.... which brings us to: The Forsest harvester to cut down the forst of Illusion: Mahamudra&Dzogchen&other Tibetan Buddhism techniques, see for example Daniel Browns books & videos: can work if done correctly/understood correctly/coached correctly in  the fastest way possible by swiftly creating Awakened Nondual States most pleasant way possible (minimum amount of pushing through suffering on/off meditation pillow, taking the meditation off the pillow into daily life at the earliest possible point. avoiding pretty much all cul-de-sacs of the path where meditation practice can stagnate/level out if something is not done correctly, which means and end to the growth of Awakened Nondual States. Mostly they don't even appear then in first place, and one remains in the mericless claws of the separate-self-contraction/suffering. but are way more complex than the standard concentration meditation practice like Zen/Jhana. Pointing out the Great Way, Brown has hundreds of pages of descriptions of the various stages/steps and how the path develops through them. So  many many things to potentially do wrong if something is understood incorrectly. Zen-Koan-meditation would just push through these errors if done long enough, but an incorrectly done Nonmeditation (done too early) or One Taste meditation goes nowhere and stagnates...  
    Selling Water by the River

  14. Detailed answer by Water
    What is LOVE?, or: Why we have to go to war
    Ok, I try. But be aware this is extremely difficult to do it in a monological form via text, and hardly complete. Good news is: At that stage the path shows itself to itself if one just continues with the right meditation/awareness techniques. The illusion-mechanisms pop up one by one. If applying a good understanding of what will show up, the process can be fastened. It is like adding a blow-torch to the burning down of the illusion-building.
    So, here we go:
    Any thought implying I/me. "I-feeling" any understanding you have ("I" understand) any doubt ("I" doubt) all of it very subtle and fast forms of feeling separate. Or thinking that. Very fast & very subtle. Way faster than a thought elaborated over several second. Tenths/fractions of a second... Speed of awareness is crucial, that is being trained here And strength of awareness, to be able to also cut off core separate-self identities and suffering/resistance. Reckognizing that, not getting hypnotized by that, cutting it off by looking into its nature (empty consciousness). and since its very hard to tell the difference if a thought-arising is laced with individuality/separation/identity: Cutting off all of them, just for training. Yet, one can at other times also maintain ones awareness during practical daily life/thoughts. And memory of the past: It is being imagined right now, appears as complete "chunk" out of Infinite Consciousness/Being, and then gets elaborated in thought (which is very slow compared to how it emerges "fully" formed. That is truly a mindf*** when your awareness gets fast enough to spot for the first time how the complete past emerges immediately as "whole block" and then is slowly elaborated, fooling one to believe one is that "I" having this memory and thoughts. You see then how each any anything is just emerging to fool oneself. That is an aspect that Leo emphasizes with his concept of God-Realization. The past is radically imagined right now, there is no past. There is only an Infinite Formless eternal "Field" modulating itself to give the appearance of a past. Same for the "future". You don't have a past, You are an Infinite Vastness that is able to make up the past on the fly, and then have thoughts/feelings-arisings that "believe" that. Yet, that Infinite Vastness/Being CAN UNDERSTAND, and so it can understand that the past is imagined on the fly here and now. That is a major understanding/building block of Enlightenment, or seeing that separation from it all (separate self) is just an imagined arising within oneself. One is not a human, but the Infinite Vastness/Being (which is luckily also always here, aka immortal/eternal, can't go anywhere infinite Nothingness with nothing outside of it) imagining a human and all its elements moving/appearing within itself. So it is
    Duality gone (visual field nondual) -> Nondual boundless infinite (boundary of the field is gone) -> Infinite solidity of "external" visual field is gone, replacing solidity with mere groundless lucid appearance -> imagined illusion/lucidity/non-material, mere imagined empty hologram like appearance. time is gone (as described above, past imagined right now) -> always here, never not here Infinite Mind/Being. Eternal, immortal, absolutely fundamental, all is appearing and arising in it, always. space is gone (imagined IN the infinte vastness of True Being) -> space doesnt exist outside, space is imagined in oneself, the vastness of Infinity (which is not 3d space), and there is no 3D-space (or any space at all, non-euclidian, 4D, whatever) possibly existing outside of your Infinite Being. No outside. Infinite. All there is. Space is not self-existing outside of ones own nondual infinite being. It is imagined by it. What is behind your face? "beyond" the visual field. Not (3d-)space, but the Infinite (Being). -> spaceless, dimensionless, infinite. Containing all possible dimensions and realms, high and low. all of that is imagined/constructed/manifested right here right now in ones nondual True eternal Being, Infinite Consciousness/Being. -> A mirage/illusion appearing in ones Infinite Being, giving rise to the illusion of a human life within it. Another way to say that is:
    In Pointing out the Great Way, Brown is one statement: If everything 
    (1) all appearance of the world/visual field is seen as mere appearance (empty) hovering lucid and hologram like in Infinite Vastness (that can still be stage 3&4 Thisdell with separate-self well and alive, and that is why that is accesible via psychedelics) AND (2) each and any thought/feeling arising/"internal" mindstream event (including everything one believed oneself to be, I-feeling, I-thoughts, the whole history, the whole asking what is Reality/True Being, ALL of it) is seen as empty arising in Infinite Being/Nothingness/Consciousness. which means that ones mindstream is then conforming to the enlighened mindstream, or close to how Infinite Reality really is. Then Enlightenment can happen. But it can't be forced, since that would be thoughts with a thinker identified with them, with I-feelings, wanting something. Infinite Being/Consciousness has to understand itself, with no artifical activity/separate self trying to force it.
    At that point, the properties of the mindstream above can be automized, and this automatic meditation/mindfulness can be protected ("mindfulness without [artificial activity]"), element (1) of Nonmeditation Yoga, see Pointing out the Great Way, Brown).  One doesnt't focus on anything (which Daniel Brown calls particularizing). This picking out something specific with attention (particularizing, the fastest process of the mind, way faster than thinking) is what creates Duality, or better disrupts the original nonduality. Instead, one watches how particularization happens, and transcends that in a way that the boundless nondual unity with/of the visual field is not interrupted. Element (2) of Nonmeditation Yoga, "do not take to mind". and then maintains and waits in that state. Meditation and Mindfulness in these awakened nondual states does itself. Enlightenment can't be forced, because who would do the forcing? Instead, the Infinite Vastness/Being can understand/realize itself (or its True Nature) when conditions are exactly right. That is then Enlightenment. Bye bye illusion-human, hello Infinite Being/Reality "having" a human,. Making the mindstream conform to the enlightened mindstream so that Enlightenment can happen is very important, because that part can  be done by intelligent and informed practice. And that is why an efficient system is way faster, more efficient for most than and way more pleasent than a brute force approach like
    sitting an staring at the wall (brute force method), concentration or Koan-style. more likely to work than betting on just by having the right Karma and enough of the mere-appearance-infinite-character of the visual field and thought/feeling space in place already (Ramana, Anamanda Ma), and then some contemplation based on the already very much conforming mindstream Only those who needed to walked the steps can tell about the steps. Those are on top can mainly tell about how the properties of the roof are/what Truth is, but its more difficult to talk about steps that didn't have to be taken/climbed because they were already in place.
    The low success rate of the Enlightenment-endeavours in my perspective is due to mostly using brute-force-methods (which need lots and lots of willpower and pushing through negative emotions on the pillow) with no clear map of the steps of the path and the lots of cul-de-sacs of the path, or prodigy-approaches of telling about nature of True Being, but not offering a method path for average-gifted persons (Ramana for example).
    So, conforming to the enlightened mindstream mainly is:
    (1) Visual Field nondual, mere appearance, "hovering" in Infinite Vasteness/Infinity, being manifested/imagined right now (2) every thought arising/feeling arising is seen as emerging out of True Being/consciousness, made out of it, moving in it. Especially all thoughts/feelings relating to I/me. Feels impersonal, no separate indiduality found in any of that. And based on that the separate self (what one thought oneself to be) can be realized as mere flow of colours/appearances/feelings/thoughts (which have a very coherent and well made structure/Gestalt, and therefor are extremly hypnotizing and seem believeable) appearing in Oneself (Infinite Being), including the whole past, and that one IS the always here Infinite Eternal Field of Being/Consciousness. And the former separate-self is like the tree-picture in this wikipedia-article (below): A representation for something that appears (the tree), but has no independend existence apart from True Being (which is the nondual infinite eternal vastness of Being right here and now, with the body and mindstream having no different priority or separation from all that is). A well made illusion. The picture of the tree concept doesn't point to a real tree outside of consciousness (an object), but to shapes/colours of an imagined trees within Infinite Consciousness, not to real trees that exist outside of Infinite Being, self-existing/indepdently existing outside of consciousness. There are no trees, just the concept of them, and some imagined colours/forms/sensations giving the Gestalt of an appearance of atree. Same way, there is no human/separate-self beyond the appearance-Gestalt, and the concept pointing to such an imagined self-existing entity. There is only Infinite Being, not the human (which only appears in Infinite Being).
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept
    There always ever was, is and can be the Totality of (true) Being, self-aware, perceptions perceiving themselves. Either with reflective-self-consciousness arising (like normal human mind stream), or just mere awareness of the Totality without the self-consciousness part, perceptions perceiving themselves. Aware, but not separate. The non reflective-pure awareness of this vast field/being is more fundamental than the temporary appearing self-consciousness (with I-feelings I-thoughts). The Awareness is the Sun, the reflective (self-) consciousness (I-feeling, I-thoughts) is the reflected light of the Sun on the planets.
    Basically, its replacing ones old mistaken identity (imagined false illusion separate-self) with the correct identity, Infinite timeless/eternal (always here) Being. The flow of the human mindstream with its practical thoughts and so on happen within Ones True Being. One has a human, but is not only the human. Thoughts or feelings of separation are known to be illusion.
    When that shift happen, this realization is always available by just reaching out, or immediately always present. The visual field IS mere appearance and lucid/hologram/groundless, it IS infinite, eternal always here. Thoughts and feelings ARE just floating in it, made out of it, and "it" is onself, nondual. And that can be felt all the time or by just checking/moving attention there. It can never really be unseen. Reality/True Being understands itself. It is beyond doubt, unshakable, deathless/immortal always here. And that is the kicker: One/True Being is literally immortal and infinite. Not the ego, but True Being with its nature of Awareness. One can never die, and nothing outside one self can truly threaten one, because there is no outside of oneself. Seriousness and danger is replaced with laughter and security.
    Resting in True Being generates bliss, even when approaching it in Thisdells stage 4. Its a self-reinforcing positive feedback loop: Cutting off thoughts, field nondual, bliss flows. Literally. And that reinforces the stability of Nondual mere appearance visual field even more. Awakening enchances awakening. Suffering/resistance to what is no longer grips in any form since a long time. If it moves within ones being, is seen and let go. Would the inherent bliss of True Being ever be exchanged with grasping for being an ET seeing more of manifested reality, but suffers because its not enlightened? (more on that later).
     
    That is a "hard" shift, it is not just thinking differently. It is for sure not "I am God and imagine all reality", which is just cosplay. It is Reality understanding itself, Infinite Being waking up to itself. What can do the understanding of that? Reality/Being/Infinite Consciousness. Waking up to its True Nature. That last shift is knowing what one really is, and that understanding/realization runs over a short period of time. Waking up. Happens only once. And is final. Is beyond doubt (since these would only be more thoughts/arisings moving within Reality and subsiding into it). The shifts/Awakenings leading towards it go over a longer time, many years.
     
    And then of course there are infinite forms of manifestation, ET n+1, with vastly more understanding of the relative manifestations, basking in their understanding of the imagination process, different dimensions, higher realms, non-euclidian space, completely other alien manifestation realms. Humans look like ants compared to that for sure. These beings have been reported since millenia, in all cultures, all times. Reality-creating and maintaining Gods (Brahman, Shiva, Vishnu and endless other names for them).
    But it is the same True YOU, the only Being or Awareness in existence. The same being. There is nothing outside of it. No other (being, God, alien). And one can have an unenlightened ET, not having realized what Reality really is. Beings of higher realms are not necessarily enlightened. That tale is as old as the spiritual traditions. Although many of these beings of higher planes are enlightened. An unenlightened ET (which by definition has separate-self-elements not transcended/seen through in real time, which are by definition nothing other than the elements resisting the now, or suffering in other words) is a rather sad and suffering figure compared to a being who has realized its True Infinite Being. Calling the lower higher, and the higher lower. Whose modus operandi is that again?
    But lets not end too serious: It is all an illusion-game, "nobody" really gets lost forever, and Maya smiles lovingly on all not-really-(self)-existing-but-just-appearing children of Reality, humans and ETs alike. Although it can appear & feel very real & serious.
    Selling Water by the River

  15. Nonmeditation chapter
    Sorry, but yes, Death is the End.
    For me that was the most tricky stage. One has to install an automized mindfullness-process that cuts of anything separate/I-feeling/I-thought automatically and fast enough, but can't use willful artificial activity for it (because that is separate-self/ego/thought process) again, and that is way too slow and cuts off Nonduality/Awakening). Best description for that stage I found is Brown, Pointing out the Great Way, chapter Nonmeditation. I had to read it dozens of times over the years to get the nuances...
    Jhanas also work, but in my opinion Mahamudra/Nonmeditation is more sophisticated and efficient. Historically, it was developed in Tibet over a long time with many many practitioners, while Theravada/Jhana looks for me more like way earlier Buddhism. Although it of course also works, see Frank Yang, Daniel Ingram and Roger Thisdell. But all(!) say that at the last stages they needed to add something like Dzogchen/Mahamudra/Do-Nothing meditation and not only willful concentration (artificial activity). 

  16. Mahamudra something
    I Asked Peter Ralston About Psychedelics, Here Is His Response...
    Yes.
    Someone once said (don't know who):
    “Enlightenment is an accident. But we can make ourselves more accident prone.” 
    That is for example the essence of going from One Taste Yoga of Mahamudra (making the mindstream confirm (or compatible) to the True State of things, like infinite, empty or non-personal, non-conceptual, nondual, boundless, timeless) to Yoga of Nonmeditation of Mahamudra (where one stops doing anything, since "anyone" doing something is an arising in the mindstream covering Impersonal Empty Infinite Consciousness. And the insight of what one really is, and what reality is, is Enlightenment. Can't be forced, happens by itself when the conditions are exactly right. Yes, its tricky. But has a structure to it.
    But stopping doing anything BEFORE the mindstream conforms to a structure/state where Enlightenment can happen, one can do "nothing" for a long time and the accident/Enlighenment wont happen. Basically going fully Tony Parson.
    Water by the River

  17. Art of archery - thought always leads to suffering
    Many People Who Are Fighting Absolute Solipsism Do Not Even Know What It Is
    If you let the thought get close enough that you need to consider whether or not it makes sense, it's too late. You missed the shot. To master archery requires realizing that every thought is a lie, and automatically shooting it down. It's not about struggling against or analyzing thoughts or habits, but about deeply realizing that they always lead to suffering. They are the enemy, and need not be given any ground. Take a clean shot and move on.
    Whenever a thought arises, do not be carried away by it. Be rid of thoughts.
    The more integrated you become, the clearer it is that thoughts are an unnecessary byproduct of the conditioned mind. You start to live directly, beyond thoughts. You are under no delusion that thoughts can help you, despite their insistence to the contrary.
    On the relative level, basic thoughts contributing to survival are fine, but they are dramatically less necessary than most people realize. Generally, you can survive just fine on autopilot.
    @Water by the River Lightning storm on the horizon. ⚡

  18. Let go of Extasy - by Moksha
    Many People Who Are Fighting Absolute Solipsism Do Not Even Know What It Is
    ⚡You've already made significant progress. Continue practicing meditation, and once you are able to instantly recognize and dismiss thoughts without identifying with them, extend the practice into your daily life. It's the art of archery, where each thought is brought down with a precisely-placed arrow, before it even has the chance to fly.
    Notice your mental and physical habits, which cause you to suffer, and remain within the absolute instead of indulging in them. Gradually, they will dissolve and the inner portal will become more open, naturally without the need for psychedelics.
    One thing I've been wanting to ask is whether you are trying to sustain the extreme experiences you have on psychedelics, in the belief that this is possible as a perpetual state. It's not. Enlightenment is the unconditional flow state of the absolute, and ecstasy eventually resolves into serenity. As Ramana Maharshi puts it:
    The final obstacle in meditation is ecstasy; you feel great bliss and happiness and want to stay in that ecstasy. Do not yield to it but pass to the next stage which is great calm. The calm is higher than ecstasy and it merges into samadhi.

  19. The only thing is to maintain the portal open - by Moksha
    Many People Who Are Fighting Absolute Solipsism Do Not Even Know What It Is
    I haven't studied many spiritual systems, but I'm happy to hear that others have realized the same.
    Grace isn't a common pointer in most of the Eastern writings, but it sounds like Mahamudra covers this more clearly. I only know grace through direct realization. When it happens, it is obvious that the absolute within the human had only a little do with it. Once surrendering identification, the infinite flood of the absolute reunites the apparently separate essence with its source. It becomes a continuous flow of light.
    Since then, I've realized that grace continues to inform my daily life. I can't choose to channel light any more than I could choose to awaken. It happens in greater or lesser luminosity according to its cadence. The only task of apparent me is to keep the portal open, which becomes frictionless as integration deepens and attachments dissolve. It's all about the I thought getting out of the way of the I am.

  20. Crossing the gate happens by grace
    Many People Who Are Fighting Absolute Solipsism Do Not Even Know What It Is
    True. I think you would like the Mahamudra-system a lot.
    Yoga of One Taste is the Neti Neti path to its end, Yoga of Nonmeditation throws away each and any effort and reamaining separte-self doing anything: One just rests in nondual state that one knows very well then, and waits for the grace of crossing over. Gateless Gate.
    "One can do NOTHING here to cross over to Full Enlightenment/Basis Enlightenment. Because that would be an act of a separate self. An effort. A movement of a separate self WANTING something, manipulating the mindstream, grasping for the understanding, doing something....
    One can only automize the meditation/mindfullness, staying fully present, letting the Awakened Impersonal Awareness flow by itself, let IT do the meditation itself, get out of the way...
    Bringing out the full force of this Utterly Impersonal Awakened Awareness. Ones True Identity.
    And that is the last contra-intuitive trap: ONE CAN'T FORCE IT ("artifical activity"). Because forcing it would be a separate self arising doing it. One can try to force it (for example Koan-style), but then the Crossing Over normally happens in a moment of grace, of relaxation, when artificial activity is not present."
    Selling Water by the River

  21. Last moments before 5h stage
    What is LOVE?, or: Why we have to go to war
    Long enough time in that state you are training in will open the window for the shift towards Realization. You already perceive the facets of the elephant quite clearly and unmistakenly (Infinite, no concepts, Reality itself, unmistakenly,...).
    Long enough burning of all remnants of the separate self/ego-clouds in clear brazing Sun of your Empty Pure Impersonal Infinite Nature will clear the last clouds away.
    And when "you" rest in that and need to do nothing (because who would do it) to maintain these Awakened Impersonal Infinite Nondual Awakened States of Awareness, then suddenly it can become totally clear.
    The last remnants of the separate self are very very subtle, way more subtle than concepts or I-feelings. They need to get seen as object and transcended/cut off again and again. Its like learning a high-speed search and reckognition task of not looking through these filters/lenses/centers, but seeing them moving in True You. When its pure enough, the shift will happen.
    When you have gone this path, you know and have learned how to cut off/transcend/let go of all these clouds, all filters of the separate self. That is why the realization is accessible sobre later. You know (automatically) how to produce nondual awakened states but cutting off the filters.
    What can help at that stage is for example the practices of the Mahamudra-System stage 3, Yoga of One Taste (One Taste= Nondual), and 4. Stage of Nonmeditation (Where any doing/doer/Activity is and be dropped and the nondual awakened state can still be maintained. In this stage 4 the mind continuum ripens so that the big shift towards Enlightenment can happen. Afterwards the access to the Infinite or Awakend Nondual Awareness is quite  stable, depending on the practice done before. It is very lovely "there". Already when approaching it it is so blissfull in these nondual states. In that bliss the ego-contraction dies/dissolves, because it is clearly seen and felt as contraction in the head, unpleasant and making nonduality localized again.
    I have written quite a bit about the Mahamudra stages of Nonmeditation Yoga and Yoga of One Taste. Maybe you find that interesting:
    https://www.actualized.org/forum/search/?&q=Nonmeditation Yoga&author=Water by the River
    https://www.actualized.org/forum/search/?q="Yoga of One Taste"&author=Water by the River&sortby=relevancy

  22. Explaining true no self and infinity
    Sorry, but yes, Death is the End.
    You are right that this is the last piece of the puzzle. Self-Awareness (bold marking by me), or awareness of its own existence is indeed NOT the   Absolute. Its the last illusion... I wouldn't say that for Awareness (since here we would be on slippery terrain), but for self-awareness/self-consciousness definitely.
    Massaro summarized it nicely. Maybe watch that video a few times, and then the other parts of the Infinity-series:
    Awareness is "always there" (or not, since its beyond existing and non-existing), at least as a potential for sentience (if nothing arises, aka cessation, deep sleep), but if there is nothing to perceive there is no (self-)-consciousness. Unaware Deep Sleep, Cessation. But it doesnt really make sense to talk about awareness/consciousness if there is no perception, since then there is also no self-consciousness or self-awareness. Its pure Infinity/Absolute. The clap of the one hand.
    THAT Reality/Being which can be unaware of itself is what you are. Not the (self-)awareness with which one identifies, that is one of the last lenses/filters of illusion. You can be nothing at all, unaware of yourself (since there is no self-reflective self yet), with the potential for sentience. In your case, I assume getting that is the last building block to Enlightenment and fully getting what you are.
    Without fully realizing that, there is a subtle murky "nothing" self (Roger Thisdell stage 4). Thisdells stage 5 (another video) is then the resolve of the contradictions of stage 4.
    Everything else after this True Being/Absolute comes later: Manifestation, Infinite Field of mere appearance, gods & humans & aliens and the whole shebang.
    The "I am self-Awareness/Consciousness" feeling/thought/Gestalt (very subtle, hard to spot, the end boss so to say) is the last illusion/filter/lense of the last separate-self that can be constructed. And since it can be seen, since it changes, its an object, temporary, moving in True You.
    Leaves us with the point who/what realized all of that? Reality/Being realizes itself. And that is called Enlightenment. Its not personal, its not anything separate. It is Reality comprehending itself.
     
    Jac O'Keffee:
    "We're left with consciousness that cannot know  itself. It's such a fundamental that it actually   can't know itself.
    However, it is known.  You can drop back there and it is known,   but you can't bring yourself there  or your capacities to know it.  
    It's almost like it's so fundamental  that it can't turn around and see itself.   It doesn't see itself. That's too much  movement. That's movement such as space,   time and identification and me, myself, I,  and the building of my movie that happens".
     
    And maybe most important. It is not an it, or an Absolute, or anything "third person singular"-pronoun at all that "has" "Awareness" and explodes into manifestation. IT IS You. True You. With a big Y. 
    That becomes totally obvious when the whole field is a mere appearance floating in Nothingness/Infinity (1), and you are "It" since there is no separate anything left at all, no center at all left (2). Nondual mere appearance, impersonally floating in the Infinite impersonal Universal Mind. Something reflecting about what it is (awareness,self-awareness, whatever) is already a separate-self (a manifestation, arising, moving within You. I-Thoughts/I-feelings have no dimension or form, but are still appearance/imagination/arising/"form"), and that hides the True Reality/Being. Too much movement... So yes, its tricky...
    Roger Thisdells stage model is nice. Since at stage 3 "Big-Mind" (Frank Yang called that God-state, easy to be reached via Psychedelics), one is already the nondual field (1). But getting the separate self mostly empty (Thisdell stage 4), and totally empty (Thisdell stage 5, centerlessness, Enlightenment), needs emptying out the separate-self completely. I have never seen one case where that was done mainly or purely with psychedelics. Not enough time in these states to empty out/transcend/understand the "high-speed-machine-gun-illusion-fire" of the separte-self-ego. But instead that lovely darling quite active appropriating all of the Nondual Infinity, Gods, Demons, ETs, n+1... Which sometimes is not for the faint-of-hearted.
     
    Ok, so, after mis-understanding the question the way I wanted in order to write about what I liked, lets come back to the original question: 
    And why the "first" movement happened?
    1.First, that is a question that presupposes duality. Form vs. emptiness, and also time. Which means it can't really be answered on the level of concepts. But lets try it anyway as good as possible, just so that it calms the remaining questions you have, so that you can rest in your True Being in a non-conceptual way so that the Big Bang can happen..
    2. Think in dimensions of Indras Net. Just because "your" perspective is "switched off" in cessation/deep sleep doesn't shut off all other perspectives. Understanding one single perspective ("yours") is enough to understand the structure of all perspectives/beings/nodes in Indras Net as Universal/Infinite Mind. Indras Net (which is also True You, but lets take the separte perspective) "continues" happily even if your perspective goes cessation/infinite/blank.
    3. Who said it ever started? That is already a lot of Duality smuggled in.

    The past is imagined in its Totality right here and now. Its all a big illusion, including the past. True You is here right now, imagining all of it, fooling itself with such questions as you have (sorry to say, but you are close to the endgame boss, so I hope you forgive me). Get "rid" of the questions, let them dissolve in your infinite Nondual Being as mere movements of thought-arisings, and rest in your being in a non-conceptual way (Nonmeditation-Yoga). And sometimes softly ask yourself "who hears these words right now", but without effort and grasping. I have written extensively about Nonmeditation-Yoga (Mahamudra) somewhere else. Then the Big Bang can happen, Infinite Reality understanding itself.
    4. Only Formlessness/emptiness/Infinity would be an asymetry. God has infinite potential of manifestation that apparently is being explored right here & now by "you" and "me" and "everyone else". To use a human metaphor: It is the nature of the Infinite to explore its potential, going from each creation cycle to the next. There have been many descriptions when coming out of cesstion/Nirvikalpha this original impulse for creation can be experienced. Not IN cessation (since there is nothing/pure infinity), but coming out of it.
    And, since its en vogue, lets close with ET:
     
    After so much Selling Water by the River, here the much more precise summary: The old pond, A frog jumps in: Plop! - Basho

  23. Daily Practice of Fluid
    There is only Me vs There is No self - are different sides of Subject/Object Duality
    It is different to see that reality is a bottomless hole than to be a bottomless hole. the second is total liberation. For me the game right now is to achieve that for a moment each day, and it is not something that is achieved easily, it is a kind of mental sport. something like floating in a viscous fluid that moves and having to put several pieces in perfect balance, then that's a key and the door opens. Done, you are the unlimited, eureka, completely free. but then the movement makes some pieces move, they fall and you're out. sometimes I throw them intentionally, because it's too strange to have nothing to hold on to, it's enough with some minutes of freedom, I miss the jail, that means that the self is still there. but then you want freedom again. This work takes effort, but in a given moment has to be done

  24. Subject/Object Duality
    There is only Me vs There is No self - are different sides of Subject/Object Duality
    When we perceive the world from the ego lense then the ego is a subject and the world is an object. 

    When we transcend the ego depending on the technique, words, tradition, our conditioning we are either left with the feeling of 
    1. I am Consciousness, and Everything is Consciousness, so I am Everything - everything becomes a subject and there are no objects left.
    2. There is no Self, there is only reality happening. So everything becomes an object and subject disappears. 

    So the whole discussion really just comes down to acknowledging both sides and dropping them both and being left in pure _____. 

  25. Monstrously Alive
    Sorry, but yes, Death is the End.
    Exactly, be enlightened doesn't mean that you know anything. If fact I'd say that "know" must be removed. Same than understand. Is to open now to what is, and realize that it's what you are. Simply that. then you can remove the circumstance from what you are, all the meaning, and discard it as a mental illusion, and be left with the bottomless present that is. totally empty of any content, without meaning, sense, purpose, cause, finality. It's only now, bottomless.
    but there is also something else. There is a strange, powerful, living revelation. If you penetrate into the bottomless now and open yourself to it, the force of what lives opens in you, it is like a source of unlimited energy, of creation. intelligence of a power that blinds, that destroys your mind and disintegrates all your structures to manifest its magnitude and its absolute reality. It is the cosmos that lives, monstrously alive. Is that an illusion? I don't think so, seems absolutely real, is the infinite manifestation, as absolute than the empty being. what do you think? Deceived?