UnbornTao

Because it is what's true. What else?

This seems to apply to any model, in the sense that none are true in and of themselves, but some can be useful. As a simplistic analogy: We can categorize every variety of apple and create an intricate model of their distinctive traits, yet this effort doesn’t provide access to what the object is, nor does it change our fundamental relationship to it. More concepts are added to the experience, which is further from the presence of it, if getting closer to it is our goal. Besides, we tend to confuse proficiency in the workings of the model with an experience of the things that are being referred to, which is much easier to do than experiencing things for yourself.

Sounds like a sensible decision.

Sounds obvious, but falsehood or lying may be the antithesis of truth, or illusion perhaps. A big picture point: One problem here is trying to fit reality into a model, overlooking what anything is for itself. This blinds us to the presence of things.

Asking good questions can help.

Alrighty.

You keep dodging the question. Try, that's what communication is about. It is there to represent an experience. Again, intellectual understanding is a different matter than coming from experience.

Communicate what you became conscious of, if anything. You being in the exact same "place" as the thing realized, its nature.

OK, call things by their name. Stories are stories. You misunderstood the part regarding intellect. It points to an insidious and prevalent dynamic of conflating belief, conclusion, state, drug-induced or not, with direct consciousness.

What is being conveyed? What is the purpose of the storytelling and the rhetoric? If it is thought of as a direct encounter with the nature of something, such encounter doesn't produce that kind of communication. It is something else, likely a conflation.

It seems to me like you confused a drug-induced state and your stories about it with a direct consciousness of the nature of something. I'm not saying there's isn't any wisdom there, but it is clearly coming from intellect. What would you say did you become conscious of?

Perhaps. Also, people like to talk and call anything "awakening." You can tell, by paying close attention, whether they're being authentic or not based on the expression used since it gives clues as to where their minds are coming from.

It could also not be a direct experience, so the deception might start there.

Survival is your life. Yet we tend to view it negatively -- something beneath us or external to us, perhaps an activity we choose to engage in when our "lower self" wins the battle. But the question is: How could your experience not be based on survival? It is designed for exactly that. Can it be transcended to a degree? Yes, and that requires comprehending what it is.

OK. And setting the storytelling aside, is there some real insight there? If so, what is it?

It seems you've believed your way into a disempowering state. Stop taking that crap seriously -- this the solution. Nowhere is there a realization of anything; it is but a conclusion you've adopted and convinced yourself of. Consciousness is freeing and leads to greater openness and bliss, so take this into account.

Thanks!

No sourcing. That drug is extremely dangerous; stay away from it.

Why would you imagine what the experience of other animals is like as an attempt to invalidate the investigation in the first place without having even looked into yours? An insight is an apprehension of an objective, "true" fact or reality, as with the Archimedes example. You can speculate and be skeptic all you want -- you still likely experience something that you call "thought" and "feeling." What's required is looking into them. If you don't consider that it is possible to find out what things are, then there's no reason to investigate or contemplate, and we're stuck not knowing what anything is. But notice that you still experience having thoughts and feelings and live with them as realities, taking your experience of them at face value.

Because you live as having thoughts and feelings. What are those? An insight can be trusted.

You can, and contemplation is needed. Hence the questioning.

What are you doing in your meditation sessions?

Can you notice others' intent before they act?

What is feeling? Is a thought sourcing feeling?

Most likely nobody knows, and speculating won't change that a bit, even though adopting some comforting notion may relieve us of this anxiety. Beyond that, you can contemplate what life is, but becoming conscious of that requires serious work and commitment. An answer is irrelevant. I might as well respond with "banana", and ultimately that would be equally useful to you than an elaborate and convincing answer. It would leave you with a rumor, an idea, at best a possibility; believing it wouldn't change the condition. You can use it to more powerfully investigate what life is.