Nahm

@Strikr How do you feel right now?

@Violinpracticerdude The real adventure begins when you wake up and stop pretending you were born.

@Violinpracticerdude You ever watch a scary movie, and get scared, and then when the movie’s over, you’re not scared anymore, of course, because it was just a movie..? For me it was “The Strangers” lol, with the potatoe sack mask. No thank you sir. ? Reality is like the movie, it appears real and thinking that it is real sucks you in, and you don’t pay any mind to the screen itself. You could actually sit down and deconstruct this by uncovering all of the veils involved in you creating ‘your person’ which convinces itself that it is not God. You could do this without any tools, books, tablet, phones, other people, with no resources whatsoever. It’s what you’re already doing to have this experience, just backwards, in a sense. You’d be sitting there for a long time, and you’d face every possible fear, but you could do it. So consider that there are a lot of paradigms that you’d have to understand and see for yourself, backwards, or the exact opposite of your current perspective, not that they’re wrong, just that maya (your illusion) is dualistic, so one way of seeing a paradigm is always only half of what’s there to be seen. You can test this out by looking at your posts, isolating a “view” of yours, a perspective on a topic, then pretend you’re the attorney for the opposing side, and google, youtube, and research in general, the opposite view, and ‘your’ conscousness will ‘expand’, to include both.

@FredFred Cool. Also, I use earplugs too. Forgot to mention that. @Hellspeed?? And I sit in total blackness. Usually pantsless, lol, cause every pair of shorts and pants slides down the dang cushion. ?

@Toby I have recently expereinced being ‘conscious’ during sleep, three times, in the last month or so. Nothingness, Being, with a “center”, but without form or light, almost a sense of gravity to a center, which in words doesn’t make sense, but, that’s really it. Rather uneventful, but weird in the sense, it wasn’t a dream, or not a dream, it was like the same as just sitting somewhere with nothing goin on, and no outside or inside, similar but not the same as around the 40 minute mark in meditation. It is also different in how it is during sleep but not unique. When I “woke up” the following morning after the first time this happened, I just sat up and pondered about it. The oddity is that it was a new experience, but of the most common of experiences. New because it was during sleep I guess. Also, it was unique in the sense that when you awake and recall a dream, it’s as if it just happened, this, I couldn’t tell if it happened last night, the middle of the night, just before getting up, or the entire night. There wasn’t any thinking or context, so it’s like there was no data on it. I can’t honestly say this does, or doesn’t have anything to do with what you hold “enlightenment” to be. It was a new kind of experience in consciousness, like the trip experiences previously of love, light, peace, etc, but without even any of that.

I’ve seen and tried a lot of breath techniques and found the simplest to be most effective (specifically in terms of leaving thought); breathing from the stomach, keeping the focus on the expansion and retraction of the stomach (not the lungs) and not using the muscles, just being aware of the deeper and deeper relaxation. Relax specific muscles / areas head to toe, over and over, deeper and deeper. Notice all the way around the stomach / mid section, it takes a few minutes to fully let go and relax these muscles, and then the in breath relaxes the entire body, and the outbreath relaxes the entire body (each taking the relaxation deeper). You might notice the nuance of the out breathe easily relaxing the body, and the in breathe brings the slightest muscle tensing, after focusing on the stomach breathe for some time, the in breath will also begin to relax the entire body. This takes maybe 10 - 15 minutes (for complete body to have let go, and attention staying on stomach), and the body begins to disappear around the 20 minutes mark. Very important, notice the thoughts arising and attention trailing it, and simply return focus to the breath in the stomach. I tried the noticing the breath in other areas, like the throat, nose, etc, but found it was too much mental activity, to much concentration. The method I explained above is the best I’ve intuited for leaving the thought state, and becoming the emptiness / spaciousness. It’s also doubly effective, in that after some time, breathing from the stomach becomes a natural go to, or reflex (instead of the lungs, which contributes to over thinking) and eventually you’re breathing from your stomach 24/7, an important practice re samadhi. Also, we are not actually alive, nor do we die, and the greatest facet of illusion imo, is our own breath. If this practice is done correctly, at least 40 minutes every morning (and preferably again in the afternoon), and you are not breathing, but rather, aware of the body / stomach naturally breathing, the breath will slow to about 1% of typical breathing (again, don’t try to do this, it will happen naturally). During this 1% phase, if you will, there is little to no thought activity, but again, don’t try not to think, this thought reduction happens effortlessly along with the 1% breath. Hopefully some of this is helpful and or even understandable. It does appear a little crazy now that I’m typing it out. It’s done wonders for me though. Also, really important, straight spine, head tilted slightly forward, and body balanced (notice a tendency when letting go, for the body to lean ever so slightly left or right, even “1 degree” and adjust legs and feet to balance perfectly). When relaxing head to toe, feel the pull of gravity (connection of love) as all muscles / entire body sinks deeper and deeper. This is one meditation to try. No size fits all.

@Nic Your post was prefaced with becoming selfless. My apologies. ??

@Shroomdoctor Can’t go wrong with Will Smith and or Tony Robbins.

@UDT Your life thus far is the absolute perfect unfolding, into the rest of your life. If you are looking for distinctions, divisions, etc, you’ll miss it. If you are open minded, seeing with eyes of inclusivity, ‘whole’ picture, unifying all the skills you’ve developed, all the expereince you’ve gained - well, ya just can’t miss it then. The variable, might be,.....(sorry)....fear & self doubt, surfacing via the ‘you must pick’ trick.

How can a person you’re listening to show you he is your illusion? Who is giving more to help you wth this near impossible thing?

@DaveB Make tea. Start with 1g. Start ‘practicing’ letting go, and consciously breathe from your stomach 24/7.

Put how you feel, first.

@Shroomdoctor Have you tried simply waking up and putting on some earbuds and listening to this kind of stuff?

@Shroomdoctor Heck no. Nowadays I sleep in till 5.

@Shroomdoctor If it’s helpful...when I decided, I got up at 4am everyday and did 4 hours of exercise & practices, before doing anything else. A trip can be motivating, seeing what your day to day consciousness can be.

@Nic Turquoise, then nonduality. Physical stuff, achievement, and thinking is a shadow. Live in & give your light of unconditional love, compassion, and communicate the understanding of suffering. You’ll need to go through ALL of your own bullshit, so you can help others realize theirs. Otherwise, they’ll convince you circumstances are king, and also trigger “you”. The success you’re looking for is pure Joy.

@Shroomdoctor First it’s motivated, then discipline is love for self; this makes a foundation to living your vision. Having fun is key.

@Flammable Everything is not part of the I being dissolved. That “ I “ is thoughts about that “ I “. Hopefully that helps. Look through the lens of unification, unity, inclusiveness, for this. Someone might wake up out of the blue, another in a time of dire desperation, but most - practice. It’s the “this is it” at no-self that you gotta look out for. The ego is tricky af.

@Jack River ?????

@Shin ???❤️

@cetus56 +1 ?? Wild one, as full circles go.

@DrewNows It’s of course up to you, all roads lead to nonduality. Mine is one thing at the buffet. The buffet is all yours.

@Andre Quinonez What is the root? Who would you be without a God?

@Bob Saget You had me at Bob Saget. Thanks for sharing your story. 1g next time.