theleelajoker

Maybe. Maybe your point is just a symptom of the need to look for an explanation re your individual experience, labeling it as "truth" because it's to hard to just take things as they are and live without explanation in the mystery of life.

I don't know Daniel Schmidt well enough. Maybe it's true what you say, even if I didn't get the same impression as you got. But I sense lot of projection and I doubt you have seen his work? Thing is, I do believe there is constant communication going on, and I do believe that there's SOME resonances mechanism with "external reality". Maybe I experience reality that way because I want to see it that way, maybe it's a case of John C Lilly's "whatever you believe either is true or becomes true". Don't know, it's simply the way I experience life. Simple stuff I experienced like I say something now to person A, and a few minutes/ hours/ days later person B that was maybe 1000km away and never ever was in touch with person B picks up the exact context and words. That kind of resonance as one example. Leaving this side-topic aside, my personal biggest awaking jump came from simply being present. Just sitting and moving attention though my body, or watching breath, or just sitting. So for you it's will, for me it's being present, for others it might be substances, or jerking off at midnight. So what to take from it? Nothing. Nothing but personal experience. Many people project their experience into generalized "that's the way it's is". I think that's BS. I say no one knows how it works and just looks for a coherent story. Of course, might be that I do that too - just with my own generalized story of " you are wrong it can't be known" 🤣

It's a POV, yes. I'm not disputing that it's different - very different - for people. We're fully on the same side. It's the conclusions we draw from these observations where we disagree. I had a meditation teacher, his message was basically that you can't awaken as long as you try to awaken. It's in the line with "life gives you what's you want when you stop seeking." So doing all the methods you describe might me counterproductive. Daniel Schmidt (IWOW documentary) has a saying - awakening as an accident, you can't create the accident, but you can get more accident prone. So maybe there's influence, but no control? Not sure if I remember correctly, isn't the Buddhist POV that anyone can reach enlightenment? Or, maybe it has NOTHING to do with you, me, efforts and endowment - maybe it's just the appearance of cause and effect the use of techniques, and truly it's higher intelligence directing the awakenings in line with criteria that are unknowable or incomprehensible for us? Or maybe it's a system, where many things are interconnected and/or constant change? Maybe you could reach awaking degree X with 30, but X+5 with 50 years? And maybe X+10 with 70, but only if you spent a lot of time with people that have X+10 ....etc etc. I could go on for long time with different plausible POVs My point is: the idea of mono-cauasality, you have genetic endowment and that determines XYZ, simple does not resonate / convince me. And it bothers me to hear it pronounced as "truth" when I can't see convincing evidence or arguments. (Not meant personally, it's strictly about the idea). You can say it's an idea you think about, ok. Gotcha. But proclaiming truth goes too for IMO. I might be wrong though, and maybe you're right. Sure, that's possible. However, if my life would depend on it, I would pick quite a few different explanations before going along with yours. Hope my tone is better now!

I was a bit harsh, sorry for that. I had a long day and long night and am tired. The thing is, how you know that people are doing things right? What works for A, or for 60,70,80....% of people might not work (the same way) for someone else. You have assumptions, e.g. you knowing what's right. You can't really now that, can you? Also, consciousness is changing constantly, so what can we really know what's the right path? Maybe it's 100% individual? Who knows. I don't need to prove anything. I'm not saying "it's like that or this". I don't know, and I haven't seen convincing evidence that ANYONE knows or that it's even possible to know.

"It is extraordinarily rare to reach the highest states of consciousness — whether as stable baseline realizations or as insane peak states — unless one possesses exceptional, perhaps extreme, innate endowment" I question this. I don't see any criteria, any evidence, any arguments. You just say it's like this, but you present NO, ZERO indicator in how to measure this "genetic endowment". Do you have a machine at home where you put people into, then the machine spits out "person A has 6538.86 points of endowment, and person N has only 3492.54?" Even assuming that you have this machine, how does it work? And how can you know that this endowment is constant and not able to change? Everything is connected, interrelated, all is one consciousness and still you say there's an individual component in an individual that fixates the seemingly most interrelated thing that exists, consciousness itself? All is see is just a lot of speculation.

Your story reminds me of the one of a friend. He's a more or less "normal" guy, no superstitious believes, cult etc. I don't remember all details, but he also faced uncomfortable phenomena over a prolonged period, as far as I recall it was rather mental then somatic. In short, nothing from classical Western medicine approach and doctors helped, so someone send him to some guy practicing some kind of esoteric stuff. He told my friend something very similar about being possessed by a demon. My friend was sceptic back then, and he was also sceptic when he told me this story, but the guy did something, some ritual where my friend also needed to take responsibility for some actions (don't remember clearly) and it helped. Symptoms disappeared and did not come back. Doesn't help to explain how it works but felt like sharing when I read your story. The guy doing the ritual was not taoist but had Christian background, though.

Lol the second question surprised me 😂 But also, good question.

You are contradicting yourself. If I cringe about it or if have an existential crisis, that's just play of words. I watch the show, I participate in it, and I wonder if that is really the best it can do.i don't feel like it is right now.

I can follow your logic, and I see some validity in it. Definitely. The thing is, that I AM judging Maya. You're absolutely right. And I am questioning a) if that's really the way it needs to be b) of that's really the experience "it" - in form of us humans - wants to have. Because when I look around the world, I don't get the impression thats a) and b) is the case. Maybe I'm wrong? Maybe I'm biased? Yeah yeah sure. It's just my opinion. As I tried to make the point before, the way I look at the world reminds me of a series that got overboard with too much emotions, conflict, violence, tension etc. Or like a meal that got salted too much. Some is fine, but too much is simply too much.

That's one way of looking at it. Don't buy that though, the experiences of suffering for me were/ are real and if I look at others, same seems to apply for them. To be extreme: Don't think you would say the same thing when you bleed to death while your loved ones get raped in front of you

Good questions, and I don't know the final answers. I terms of war my first reflex is that the amount of suffering, death, rape, destruction can't really be worth whatever benefits arise. Thanks that you actually pick up the intention of my posts and constructively discuss it with me.

So if I stop judging things as "dramatic", then the war in Ukraine stops? If I just watch people dieing in the streets in front of me without movement in my mind, then they become healthy again? If I questions my role in the scene, then the woman asking me for help because she gets beaten at home suddenly lives peacefully with her husband? You mostly only assume scenarios where something happens to me - I lose my job, a friend dies, someone insults me etc - and then tell me "don't react then drama stops". Yes, that's part of it. But I'm taking about more then that. And I don't need more advice on how to not react and questioning my role in drama etc. Don't know where I fail to communicate that I'm not interested and did not ask for that kind of advice.

That's exactly the assumption I am questioning. Many people here tell me that I as an individual could stop drama. Instantly. So if I could do it, why not consciousness or Brahman or God or whatever you want to call it?

Why do you think the world is set up the way it is? Is it because it is choice, because it is the only possible way to exist, or some other reason?

Many replies that focus on what or how I should do. Ok, got that. Doing the best to practice my equanimity, and it's getting better. But with few exceptions, almost nobody picked up the question of the drama (conflicts, tensions, anger, violence, war, deseases, famine, climate change etc) in the world. No matter how great my equanimity, this drama won't go aways, will it? You might say consciousness ("it") has to learn how to live peacefully, how to integrate etc. But as of now, I just don't believe that. I rather believe it could stop it any moment but has other reasons to keep it up. Maybe I'm wrong, and I obviously don't know, but I simply don't believe that it's " just happening" and there's no other way. If you tell me that I could immediately stop if I only do XYZ, then it should also be able to do it on a global basis right?

When had a deep awakening, I got an advice that is very simple and yet powerful: "If I don't know where to start, I start with my body"

I remember something like that, too. Was also on mushroom, and quite a lot. Sitting on the floor in my bathroom, and first some crying and then laughing. Laughing about me, and my character, and about some friends and their character in this story of life. Yeah, it seems to me it's a joke. But also, it's not. It's the only thing I know and can experience right now. I guess it's about balancing both - the funny and the serious and embracing it both.

What I mean with story here, it's not only what I tell myself. It's real life examples that impact me no matter what I think of it. Some examples: You are kid. One of your parents dies, or they get divorced in an ugly conflict You are in in war zone You live in a totalitarian state People close to you become very sick, or mentally ill .... No matter what meaning or interpretation you give this event, these circumstances shape your life and it creates a story arc because your next years or decades are very likely coined by these experiences. Admittedly, I have been creating drama myself. But also, this was natural consequence of my past - drama was the only way I consciously experienced reality since I can remember my life. I question why that is so as it does not seem to do any good. Not to me, not to the people in my environment, and not if I look at the state of the world in general. To answer your question: I also don't know how much we can live without story / drama. But I'm trying my best because I really really am getting tired of this show...

Two points: Just about everyone close to me conflates pleasure and happiness. And equates peace to boredom. ---> yes, I think there's something to it. In every situation there are infinite options to act, right? And more often then not, the choice I observe is the one towards conflict, drama. Do you think people are mostly unable to recognise peace? --> it's not people I get you, similar for me. But can't really say that I the process I had is the process I would have chosen for myself. Would have been nice to have happier family life, happier childhood, happier relationships etc. In hindsight, I could have done with much less difficulties and challenges.

Yes! That's what I said above. I am definitely not there yet. But also, imagine all the events in my past, all the history that led to me having that conditioning that makes me react, all this never happened. Because it does seem to me that there is an element of choice in how things unfold. The way I perceive it, just not reality flowing uncontrolled. I can see the story line that has been created - by me, by it, for me personally and for everybody else - and I just wonder: Does it really need to be that dramatic? is this really how it's supposed to be? Is this really what "it" wants? Because a very large portion of people I know seems to suffer a lot, and if I look at my complete life up to now, I can't say that the majority of days in my life have been happy.

I am not sure I was able to adequately make my point. Some clarification: @Natasha Tori Maru "We fail from the start because we believe in separation." --> Agreed. But why do we believe that? Because we have been told so from out birth by almost all sources. Education system, parents, work, politics, media etc etc. Very few people, and with very little power, that are sending a different message. And it does not seem to be a "bug" or "mistake" to me --> Consciousness (I'll call it "it" for simplicity), wearing the mask of individual characters, decided that this is how the world is or should be seen. And it could change it any moment. But it doesn't, and it seems to me that this is the case bc of seeking drama / entertainment @LastThursday "people are addicted to stories" ---> yeah, but it's not people in the end. It's "it" pretending to be people.

I think I like that

Don't think (ahahaha) that all thoughts are bad. It's about detaching from them and deciding which is worth to follow with action. A "negative" thought "I am XYZ" is one thing, the other is to tell oneself "ok what am I gonna do about it?" Answer might be in some cases "doing nothing" or "just feel your feelings". But in others cases answer might be "go for sports" or "call a friend". It's about separation of assumption from assessment and action.

Are you joking? Just sit and be silent.

Yes it's very hard (impossible) to describe, so I'm with you on that. It's just happening. I agree re this "not calling experience my own". Has been quite humbling for me on many occasions. I don't know about the "center of experience" stuff. I still feel very much in my body. I still receive information with my senses which kinda makes me automatically the center of experiences. Don't really know how to put it...