InfinitePotential

I've been interested in this questions as long as I can remember. We are ourselves, we don't remember when we started being ourselves, and it seems that we could have just as easily been any other living entity. Possible explanations I've heard is that A is A, A could not be B. Matter can come together in such a way so as to create a perceiving being, and someone has to be that perceiving being. That seems reasonable on the surface, but when it comes to me being the perceiving being, it makes no sense that I'm this lump of matter rather than a different one. There is no mechanism or rule that makes me me rather than my dog. There is just a self aware lump of matter and somehow I got the lump of matter I got. And then we can go deeper like well what if we cut off your arm are you still you, etc. What makes you you? Ultimately I think the only answer is that like you said, you're not you. Similarly with "why/how is there something rather than nothing"? There isn't really something. Every perception, distinction, identification, thought etc etc is illusory and not ultimately true. Still, I'd like to know why it seems that I'm me rather than something else. This body constantly in awareness in the waking state, albeit slowly changing. Why not a different one, or multiple ones, or no body? But then, why did I dream that I was running from a half bear half human last night.

@nour-cha93 I've searched far and wide and obsessed over this topic (admittedly looking at it from an overall personal health point of view, not consciousness point of view), and the best dietary approach I've come across is the following: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/the-diet/ I would also stress the following excerpt from that page: "We highly recommend certain foods for their micronutrients. These include liver, kidney, egg yolks, seaweeds, shellfish, fermented vegetables, and bone broths."

Maybe life is a dream, and just like how in a dream one can become lucid and gain some control over what happens (and more and more control with practice), in life one can awaken and better control what happens. But just like in a dream you realize you are not the person in the dream, in life you realize you are not the person in your life. So it is not the dream character in control but the higher consciousness in control of the entire dream/life itself. Or maybe we're all just made up of tiny atom balls bouncing off each other and free will doesn't make sense in principle cause one would need to be able to bend the laws of physics to choose to do something contrary to what the rest of the universe would have one do.

Talk starts at 2:34:26 "Science is the faith that the future will behave like the past" Science only deals with patterns and regularities in nature. It can't get to the fundamental essence of things. It offers explanations and models and hypotheses for why things work the way they do, but these are forever subject to doubt and change. You can never know something with absolute certainty using science. Other cool stuff too... Time for me to read tSoSR!!

I don't think there can be a true "theory of everything"... I mean mathematics itself is inherently flawed. "Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve." -Max Planck But I definitely think sound/vibration is a really big deal. "If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration." -Nikola Tesla "Everything in life is vibration" -Albert Einstein "Om" -God -The Beach Boys

I've been planning on trying this soon, specifically "Kriya Supreme Fire" in one of the new books on the book list. Actually requires holding the breath on inhale for 90-120 seconds while focusing on one of like 3 different spots (crown, heart, navel) and performing 3 different bandhas. Supposed to give you massive kundalini gains. Can't find anything about it online but it sounds pretty sick, and I seem to get really present during even a brief breath hold. Oh also a bit unrelated, but the "complete yogi breath" (from The Science of Breath) is highly recommended.

Check out Rupert Spira's videos on this topic. Basically, you can be aware of thoughts feelings perceptions sights sounds subtle moods etc etc, but awareness itself is not any of these things. Divert your attention away from the objects of your awareness, and direct them instead towards the subject itself, Awareness or I. A mini exercise I love to do: ask yourself "Am I aware of X"... X can be a physical object in your field of vision, a feeling in your body, a sound, the thought "am I aware of X" itself... Actively check if you are indeed aware of those things. ("Am I aware of that lamp?" Check. "Yes, I am aware of that lamp." Try to move through several objects, taking full account of everything you could be aware of. (None of these things are that which you are seeking... Ultimate Reality, Self, God, etc.) Then, ask yourself simply "Am I aware?" Actively check if you are aware. Where does awareness go to check if it is aware? Nowhere. It rests as itself, awareness being it's very nature. It's like a flashlight that can shine lights on objects and illuminate them. But how can the flashlight shine light on itself? It can't. It can just stop being preoccupied with the objects it is lighting up, and instead rest as itself, and intuit what it is. Or perhaps a better analogy, the sun that shines light on objects, which is self illuminated by its very nature.

Imo, from experience and unreasonable amounts of research, the most effortless way to lose body fat is to go on a "ketogenic diet". Eat high fat, moderate protein, and very low carb. This mimics a lot of the effects of fasting... forcing your body to dip into its fat stores and use them for energy. Kills tf out of your appetite and also cleans tf out of your body. Plus you get to enjoy some euphoria and boundless energy. Combine this with a sensibly healthy overall lifestyle (stay active, relax and manage stress, get nature, get good sleep) and fat loss becomes reasonably effortless. Check out reddit.com/r/keto for more info. For optimal body composition, include some "carb up" days, where you deplete your glycogen stores through exercise then eat high carb, moderate/high protein, and low fat. Will get your muscles popping ;).... Totally optional and not necessary for fat loss. Good luck with whatever approach you take.

http://perfecthealthdiet.com/the-diet I would recommend the above diet. Replace pizza and bread (these are junk foods) with potatoes and rice. Get calories by eating as much fat as you'd like. Cooking fats, butter, fatty cuts of meat, nuts and chocolate, etc. Try to be more active. Exercise 2-3x per week unfortunately doesn't make up for an overall sedentary lifestyle. Something like below is ideal (I would replace "sprint" with with any sort of maximum effort physical activity... including sprints)

You could check out "Buteyko breathing". Read The Oxygen Advantage / look up videos. Basically breathe exclusively through your nose (it filters the air), softly, and train yourself to require less breathing.

I hear about and have practiced "letting go" a lot. It seems to me to be among the highest and most valuable practices for spiritual insights, well-being, and inner peace. I find myself wondering though, what exactly does it mean to let go? What are some other ways of putting it? For me, it's dropping all effort. Ultimate relaxation. Not clinging to or avoiding experience. Letting things be as they are. Any other descriptions? How does one 'let go'?

Ugh, I agree, see earlier about how every word implies duality. The mind does have legitimate viewpoints on morality however, imo. Hopefully. Not ultimately true but relatively true. Yeah took me a lot of courage to "admit" that. Lmao. It's so simple though it shouldn't matter, right? I have been on the path for oh about 3 years now. And have been intensely curious about the nature of reality all of my life. I'm not even gonna elaborate anymore than that but understand you have little to no clue about my experience and understanding. I realize ACIM is gonna help you find god, which is synonymous with awareness. Where'd that come from though. Why that rather than not that. Infinite potential that's why Also sorry but this line of reasoning makes literally no sense (quoted from you): Awareness doesn't have qualities. You said awareness is "aware" and "ever present". But notice these are qualities (distinctions) that the human mind made up to infer awareness. The actual truth is awareness is devoid of any qualities. It's not really "aware as such, is IS awareness. It's not really "ever present" either because ever present are just concepts again, aren't they? You can't have ever without never, and you can't have presence without absence. We just need some kind language to speak about the subject. So no, you're wrong, awareness does NOT have qualities. Basically you're saying "X doesn't have qualities.... Any qualities you say it has are distinctions, with opposites. So no, X doesn't have qualities".... WTF??? lmao . That's gotta be the worst of all logical fallacies. Again, you say You can't have ever without never, and you can't have presence without absence... Okay again I say, you can't have awareness without unawareness... What of that? Now, I WOULD agree that there is a truth out there which is not able to be expressed in language... no qualities. Seems like you're calling that Awareness. Semantics. I'm wondering if we can't even go another step further and say Awareness itself is Sourced by something even more free. Also you earlier accused me of parroting some new age buzzwords or whatever.... But you yourself said you're just going off of what the ancient texts are all pointing to (i.e. parroting). And I'm SURE you've read all those ancient texts and are not just parroting what you've heard someone say about them!

I can say precisely the same to you, although apparently you're enlightened. "I" actually do "have" "firsthand experience" with what I would think is a "glimpse" of "the void". The feeling that I was losing existence, and the universe / reality itself was disappearing. It's happened many times, however I always have a feeling of terror and snap out of it rather quickly. What is awareness but a concept? You can't have awareness without unawareness, no? I think "Ultimate Reality" is ineffable. No word suffices as a description. Words immediately imply duality. Absolutely nothing wrong with awareness. I love awareness and practice meditating on it frequently. I also practice letting go of everything, or ignoring everything, which would include awareness, sorry man. Okay so I'll keep meditating, living a healthy lifestyle, living morally, and pondering and contemplating and seeking ultimate truth, remaining open minded and skeptic and not-knowing. Enjoy your assuredness.

@Etagnwo rn and lately

@Etagnwo Most of your points are valid, besides some putting words in my mouth, and the moot points about Bentinho's personality. Additionally, trinfinityacademy.com is entirely free. I will take back "highest levels of enlightenment"... clearly you and @Anna1 have reached this ending and can be 100% certain there is no more to understand or realize.... was there a finish line? Also, awareness does have qualities -- it is aware, ever present, etc. It seems to my intuition that there would be "something" truly indescribable, beyond all concepts, unable to be spoken about. Perhaps a "Nothingness" or "Infinity", which transcends Awareness itself and sources it. Idk, could be wrong but it makes more sense to me that Ultimate Reality is "Pure Nothingness". Or maybe Ultimate Reality is awareness itself... lucky us! What do you make of deep sleep, or anesthesia. Are you still you during these times? Is there awareness? (Legitimately asking what you think). I do hope we can both agree that one (sorry not one, but awareness) can reach a ... "state" ... of Pure Consciousness, in which it just is, and is not aware of anything in particular. And all thoughts, sensory perceptions, sense of time, etc are gone and awareness is resting at its source.... It's often called The Void. What are your opinions of this?

Aw yeah, just started ACIM. The exercises are sick and so useful, it's tough not to skip ahead.

True nonduality involves no time, no past associations, no perception, no experience. At the highest levels of enlightenment (from what I've heard), one can choose to partake in the dance of duality / time and tie their shoes, seeing the shoes as they are Now, completely present... or one can rest as The Absolute, which is beyond experience and incapable of being described. Awareness is limited. It has to exist and be aware. Your ultimate nature is beyond description, cannot be experience, described, intuited, etc. You can only let go of all identification (even open empty presence awareness), and drop all effort entirely, and be it. There is more to enlightenment than realizing you are aware of your bodymind, and not the bodymind itself... Where did the awareness come from?

I'm right there with you Zoey in an extremely challenging and tough legal situation. Trade you prayers for prayers. "This too shall pass". "Expect the best, accept the worst" -InfinitePotential Good luck

I had a very similar experience, there was nothing, no illusion to hold onto, everything was seen to be purely illusory. It was much like a lucid dream. I judged it as very scary at the time, but looking back, had I let go even further, I'm sure it would have been infinitely more... agreeable.

That's a valid approach as well.

Even relatively thin people have orders of magnitude more body fat than they do glycogen in their body. It's perfectly safe for a reasonably thin person to engage in fasting. (Fasting does not equal starvation). In fact, if you feel like you're too thin and want to gain some weight, I've heard a long fast can help you better digest your food and assimilate nutrients, so that afterwards you can be at a healthier weight over time. (One way it does this is by killing off parasites in your body that steal your food ) I personally eat 1 or 2 meals, and 0 or 1 snacks most days, usually within an 8 hour window, often a much smaller window. Hunger comes in waves, and is largely driven by metabolism type. By metabolism type (not sure if that's a legitimate term), I mean are you a "sugar burner" or "fat burner". If sugar, once you run out of the 1,000-2,000 calories of glycogen stored within your body, you get hungry. Your body is not good at dipping into your fat stores for energy (this can even be the case for skinny people). If you still dont eat, your body will adapt and start burning fat for energy, of which it has plenty. This is why people who fast experience the most hunger in the first 1-3 days, then experience little hunger until "true hunger" returns and their body legitimately needs nutritients to perform its functions. Bottom line, fasting is extraordinarily healthy for you. We all do it every night when we sleep (besides meatheads who wake up to take a protein shake SMH!!!). I wouldn't say everyone should do it, but for your case... If you're not hungry I wouldn't eat.

Or, maybe Absolute Truth transcends existence and/or nonexistence altogether. To say it exists or to say it does not exist is not quite right. It is beyond all concepts including this one. Agreed that "you", @MarkusSweden can't experience it, but "You" The One can be it. You are it. Or, you're so infinitely powerful that you can seemingly not be it as well. How fun!

The present moment. So what? Are you saying there is nothing beyond the present moment, and experiencing? If so, you may need to go back and review yout own teachings, Bentinho Massaro ;)... https://www.trinfinityacademy.com/courses/infinity-awareness-wakes-up-to-the-absolute/lesson-3-what-is-beyond-experiencing/ https://www.trinfinityacademy.com/courses/infinity-awareness-wakes-up-to-the-absolute/lesson-1-infinity-is-originally-unaware-of-itself/ (Btw to anyone interested the trinfinity courses are some of the very best free teachings out there).