Natasha

Rupert's teachings are full of golden nuggets, one just has to pay attention and be open to receive them.

@Joseph Maynor Eckhart Tolle has given us some of the best ego transcendence accounts that lead him to awakening. He was in a state of intense anxiety and was even thinking about ending his life. One night as he was laying in bed dwelling again on how miserable his life was, he uttered in dispair, "I cannot live with myself any longer". "Who is the 'I' and who is the 'myself' that 'I' can't live with?" he started to ponder. The turmoil of anxiety and fear suddenly lifted and he went to sleep with unusual sense of relief and peace. The following morning, as he woke up, everything in the room seemed so fresh and new. He got up , stepped outside - the busy street, the noise, traffic, hurried people - even all that seemed peaceful. Eckhart knew something of significance had happened in him. Later, as he was researching and inquiring, he learned about the ego and how people mistakenly identify with it causing them pain and suffering. If you haven't yet, check out his books The Power of Now and A New Earth where he talks in detail about this. Also YT has his talks, intervews, and guided meditations.

@John I hope this will help put things in perspective

@Joseph Maynor I've found stretches of no-thinking to be most relaxing, peaceful, and positive

Thus, raising levels of awareness is the most effective part of 'seeking' to bring one to self-realization.

@Joseph Maynor Ego death - the end of identification with body-mind/personal story of 'me' (fully occurs at physical 'death') Ego transcendence - realizing you're not the body-mind, observing the construct while not identifying with it Enlightenment - embodyment of your true nature (a.k.a awareness, the Absolute, God, etc)

@Joseph Maynor Good question, and I think Rupert Spira has the answer. Also, check out his other vids on mind, consciousness, and awareness. This is one of my favorite teachings of his:

@Joseph Maynor Since God (the Absolute) manifests itself through the object reality (the Relative), you could say that everything/existence is God 'communicating'. Conscious knowing is mere recognizing what is, not conceptulizing it. What God 'communicates' is pure Beingness, nutrality. We (the minds) assign labels/judgements to everything, not God.

It's one thing to use thought processes as a tool, it's another thing to identify with them. I think Leo is the former, not the latter.

Yes, facing our fears and feeling unpleasant emotions fully is how we begin to heal. When we dismiss/suppress them, they keep to resurface over and over reeking havoc in our psyche and disturbing our peace. And this is madness 'cos none of that stuff is even real. Check out Eckhart Tolle's talks on 'pain body' and how the ego feeds off it, powerful stuff.

Spiritual Traps discussed in this video: The Enlightenment Trance, Imitation and Concept, Beliefs and Stories, Non-Duality, Mind and No-Mind, Inclusion and Exclusion, Spiritual Fascism, Avoidance of Stopping, Silent Awareness: The Resolution. What have been your spiritual traps?

@AlwaysBeNice Yes, that's why shadow-work is so important. I repeat it again and again on these forums. It takes time and effort to root out the conditioning/programming that hold us back.

@Joseph Maynor Emerald has given a pretty good definition in her post above. I'll just add that we all have monkey-mind to one degree or another, and that it sources from the collective ego-mind. Sometimes we don't even know where our thoughts come from, they seem to just appear and as suddenly disappear and almost always revolve around either the past or the future, which are not reality. Mindfulness practice and meditation bring mind back to the present moment, here and now. Observe your thoughts, don't absorb them. Here's a funny monkey-mind stand-up for you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-wSEtbnpnI

@Joseph Maynor Ego is a false sense of self (body-mind). Monkey-mind is thought content that 'feeds' the ego-mind in a manner that does not align with reality. A.k.a 'hamster-in-a-wheel', 'squirrel-on-steroids', or 'mental masturbation'. Daily meditation and mindfulness practice are good ways to quiet/tame monkey-mind.

Same here. Perhaps our survival mechanism is the one to blame

@Preetom Practicing gratitude and Being helps me to avoid the meaninglessness trap. I also used to be in the 'ego death' trap, now learning to integrate the ego instead of trying to eradicate it. Got to be aware of those traps, so we're not so easily caught into them in the first place.

Cool! @Emerald and @Brody live in Florida too. We'll all have to get together sometimes

@Joseph Maynor I would tell them, "It's all an illusion and death does not exist. Now what is this thing you're holding to my head?" lol. There are a lot of good communicators, depends on what point in your journey you're at the moment. I like straight-shooters (pun not intended :) likeTony Parsons, Lisa Cairns, and of course Leo, among some others.

@S33K3R I agree. Spiritual ego bumping over a concept(s) is futile indeed. The best way, I found, is to simply do your work, and those with eyes to see and ears to hear, will respond.

And when she grows older and 'nice' are no more, what do you do with her then? Make sure she's got some brains too. As Judge Judy says, "Beauty fades, dumb is forever"

Yes, victim mentality goes out of the window as one grows spiritually. No one to blame, not even oneself.

@Brody I live in Melbourne, FL USA and I've been doing this work for about 2 yrs now. I see you're new to the forum, so welcome! Feel free to jump right in

@Toby Yes, unconditional love/truth includes all the 'good', the 'bad', and the 'ugly'. And the rapist would be as much of the embodiment of it as a saint would. Morality is a product of the ego - what hurts us is labeled 'bad', what gives us pleasure is 'good'. This is how duality stuff works. But I'm with you on the fact that we want reality to be our way. Dual reality, however, will never be our way, it's impossible. A character in a movie does not dictate a screen-writer how to write a script.

@Jani I agree. EQ (emotional intelligence) is as or even more important than IQ.

@Toby Abusers do not see their actions/motives as abuse, they are simply driven by low conscious impulses. I studied psychology and if you listen to a psychopath's side of the story, you'll notice how their motives to hurt others are always justified and always tied up to victim mentality. When a person is relatively healthy psychologically before an awakening, their perspective just gets enhanced by all the good and wholesome emotions they've cultivated during the course of their life prior to the shift... like for example, yours and mine and folks on the forum, was. On the other hand, when a person who has been severly traumatized in their developmental years and the only way they know to love is through trauma bonding, their awakening may not cure that wounded place. It might take them a long time to even recognise the fact they had a wound in the first place. And those self-realized who recourse from hurting others can sometimes turn that victim mindset onto themselves, thus a monk burning himself in fire. Those people had masters or even were masters themselves, yet they never worked out own self-loathing/ effectively cultivated unconditional (self)love/compassion. That's why they're stuck at the Blue stage of psychological development. Watching Leo's new vid on Why People Seem Crazy... good insights there too.