Toby

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  1. Help Please!!

    Toby replied to Empty's topic in Mental Health, Serious Emotional Issues

    How does this work for you? Does this strategy work? Do you feel in touch with yourself, the moment and other people when being social?

  2. Help Please!!

    Toby replied to Empty's topic in Mental Health, Serious Emotional Issues

    What exactly is the situation? Can you be more specific? If you just say "social anxiety", everyone assumes they know what it looks like when in actuality it can mean so many different things to different people. And you might geht answers that doesn't even fit to your situation.
  3. Nirvana is when everything drops away imo. Even the "I am"-consciousness with all it's qualities and states, be it love, bliss, pure consciousness, emptiness, unity, oneness, god or anything like that. My search is not over to be honest, but I have had enough experiences to know that different states in the realm of "I am"-consciousness is not Nirvana, however divine, heavenly or blissful it might seem or how "that's it!" or euphoric you feel. But I might also be wrong. Maybe even very wrong.
  4. Ken Wilber describes it very good, eg in T.O.E., Integral Psychology or Integral Spirituality. Imo Enlightenment is not necessary like some progressive thing as it might seem with Graves/Wilber. You can even google for Ken Wilber's maps and you get a taste that the real transpersonal levels start in 3rd tier, after yellow/turquoise. As a map this stuff is really amazing. Edit: You can see it here in the first picture that Wilber uses 4 additional stages to Spiral Dynamics. https://integrallife.com/integral-post/overview-integral-theory
  5. His map of the stages is taken from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's 7 states (transcendental meditation) it seems like. I might take a look later.
  6. Eckhart Tolle read books of a mystic during his youth. He did some courses on psychology and philosophy in university. And he did visit several spiritual groups and did the ACIM before his initial awakening - as far as I know. And he also says that Krishnamurti and Ramana helped him immensely for deepening bis understanding and for teaching.
  7. You can say it like that. I guess there are people who woke up without a guru, I remembered 3-4 examples after I wrote it. But if you look at all the teachers out there, I cannot think of one who wasn't in contact with spiritual teachings or anything like that before they woke up.
  8. Highly unlikely - imo. It's easy to underestimate the grace of a true guru. I don't know of anyone who woke up without any support.
  9. Love says "I am everything". Wisdom says "I am nothing". Between the two, my life flows. This is a famous quote from Nisargadatta Maharaj and it shows two different aspects of reality. It doesn't matter what you "experience" first. Some people first awaken to love, some more to "emptiness". Papaji, the guru of Mooji, used - as far as I know - to say "the bird of truth needs two wings to fly. wisdom (jnana) and love (bhakti)". Inquiry (jnana) is only one approach.
  10. What about Leonard Cohen or George Harrison? Both famous. Both highly spiritual.
  11. Musicians that I consider awake or at least highly conscious: Jarrah, Steven Walters, Janin Devi, Deva Premal. There are many many examples.
  12. There are lot of artists that are "spiritual". For example former lead guitarist of RHCP is deeply into meditation, as are members of Incubus. Serj Tankian from SOAD, Billy Corgan, Rick Rubin, Alanis Morisette are all more or less friends with Ken Wilber. And Ross Robinson, the famous producer, is even the son of Byron Katie. And there are also famous spiritual musicians, for example Deva Premal & Miten.
  13. I have been at one retreat and one weekend with Adya. Other than that I've never been at a retreat with Isaac, but have been to a lot of his meetings.
  14. Adyashanti has one in UK also but it's probably full. Other than that I'd go looking for Rupert Spira's shedule. He lives in UK as far as I know. But except for Adya, there is not much sitting going on as far as I know.
  15. Isaac Shapiro near Munich or Netherlands. Or Adyashanti in Netherlands. Not Vipassana, but they are both the real deal.
  16. I guess UG Krishnamurti said something like "If you can choose between enlightenment and 1 million bucks. Choose the 1 million. At least it's good for something". Btw: Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie both woke up from severe psychological conditions. But they both were putting in some work. It did't happen only by itself.
  17. Affirmations are usually used to create certain states of consciousness or evoke certain states. Enlightenment is not about states of consciousness, because every state is impermanent. However, some traditions work with mantras, visualisations, contemplation of certain phrases that resonate with your true self and penetrate your ego-structure and give you tastes of essential qualities of your being although they in themself are not ultimate truth. At least that is as far as I understand it.
  18. Imo the investment in the dream or the story is what matters, not if the story is pleasant or unpleasant. And it doesn't matter how the characters in the story are. At least initially for waking up. But for embodiment it is quite helpful to be healthy on different levels imo. But there are no rules and no exclusivity.
  19. I have experience with EFT for almost 10 years. It might work on certain things, for others it's not that great. Especially if you try it yourself or with a therapist that isn't able to read "trauma signs". You can easily be fooled getting somewhere when all you do is dissoziating and spacing out instead reintegrating the energy. Edit: But it can be very helpful.

  20. Opening Of The Heart

    Toby replied to WelcometoReality's topic in Self-Actualization Journals

    You just look what kind of books/videos/audios you are attracted to and once you know the general direction you can ask people for recommendations or research some teachers and then you go to whom you resonate with. For example, if you are interested in Satsang/Advaita, I could give you a few names, depending in which city you live .

  21. Opening Of The Heart

    Toby replied to WelcometoReality's topic in Self-Actualization Journals

    Check out the audiobook "End of your world" by Adyashanti if you haven't already.
  22. What exactly do you want to meditate for?
  23. Take Eckhart Tolle as an example. In the System of the Enneagram (something a bit like the MBTI) he is a "selfpreservational 5", which is by default the most withdrawn type out of 27 types/subtypes. He is imo very free and at peace and he is able to at times show more extrovertet behaviour, but afterall he is still an introvert. So Awakening won't chance your personality necessarily.
  24. Some teachers also use "Am I?" for inquiry and say that Ramana's "Nan yar?" should really be translated that way. Good one. Sounds a bit like Rupert Spira. I guess he did a video on youtube how to inquire with that question.
  25. Youtube-Channel AwakenWithJP. I'm pretty sure he is awake as far as I can tell. Great comedy on there but also more serious advice.