InfinitePotential

I'm not boasting, if you feel I am then maybe you are projecting. I shared something from a book if you don't like it then don't use it and move on, or post something constructive rather than just making fun of it and being hurtful. Perhaps the topic would have been better suited to just be a discussion of how to go about feeling these different emotions and achieving these different states of consciousnesses than discussing where we feel we are at in our lives right now. This is not a description of Truth or Consciousness (capital C). I agree that that cannot be communicated. It can be likened to "raising your vibration" or "raising your frequency". You can having loving feelings, shameful feelings, be accepting of reality or angry at reality. And to have "better" feelings (don't you want to feel better?), you "let go" of these negative feelings (and indeed let go entirely), and you will feel these more positive feelings. At least, that's the method proposed in Hawkins' books. WTH is everyone's beef with this?

Would it help if we used colors instead of numbers a la Spiral Dynamics OMG people, lovingly frustrated af with y'all rn y'all just sunk my consciousness level to 150 but I'm taking the perspective that this is a great opportunity to be unconditionally loving (consciousness level 540, deal with it), so thank you. <3

Objectively, yes. But for most it doesn't seem that way. A highly shameful or angry person is much less likely to "get enlightened" than a highly loving person (apparently with some exceptions like Eckhart Tolle's severe depression leading to enlightenment). Yes, the Self isn't in any of the state's but the self seems to be. Two truths. And guilt feels bad, acceptance feels good, for example. No, was obviously a joke. But apparently everyone on this forum is! good for y'all

Agreed af, so there are varying degrees to which we identify with our limited self vs our "true self" (you could arbitrarily assign yourself a value 0-1000 as to how much you identify with either or). I think we're using "consciousness" in two different ways. Yes there is one Absolute, or Pure Consciousness. But on the other side of the coin there is the relative, perceiving and feeling state... And in this relative state, I would like to feel as good as possible. Which it turns out, I believe, to mean acting selflessly and with all these "higher" consciousness values. No we're not walking around with a number 0-1000 printed on our souls, but we all have different baseline emotional states, that's science and firsthand experience (well we can't be sure what others are feeling). Anyways I'm not too tied to this concept just thought y'all might enjoy discussing where you're at on this imaginary ~spectrum of consciousness~.

I like to sound knowledgeable! And right, everyone comes from different backgrounds and has different problems, I whole-heartedly agree. I.e. people definitely have "different levels of consciousness", at least in that some people tend to be optimistic, some pessimistic, some loving, some hating, etc. Take away the numbers if you wish but I'd wager Mother Theresa's baseline emotional state is more "Love" or "Joy", whereas Trump's is "Pride" and Kanye West's is "Enlightened". No need to play the game if you don't want to though!

Sooo you're at 50, aka a HATER.... Kidding... It's certainly NOT meant to make you feel good about yourself. I mean, the lower parts of the scale are quite the opposite. It's an attempt at objectively measuring the quality of one's consciousness (using an arbitrarily numbered scale). Some will likely overestimate their consciousness (perhaps i did), some will likely underestimate (perhaps i did). I think it gives a lot of insight as to how you experience life, and is an accurate ranking of emotional states from least pleasant to most pleasant. What do you think this chart is lying about?

Anyone who is skeptical of this whole self-deception business should realize we all do it most every night when we dream... We have the most ludicrous dreams where our minds create the most bizarre scenarios that we take completely for granted and treat as normal and real when dreaming. For example, we might start talking out of our butts in a dream and find that to be perfectly normal and unremarkable like we're Ace Ventura Pet Detective or something. So the mechanism is clearly there for the mind to deceive itself into believing things are there that aren't, and that reality is a certain way that it isn't (or is it?). Makes you wonder if there's not things we constantly take for granted and treat as normal and unremarkable in the waking state, such as the entirety of existence and being itself.... Like wtf are these colors all around us? Oh but it's perfectly normal that we're meat bags stuck to a rock moving however many miles a second around a giant ball of fire nothing unusual about that. Oh and I'm currently existing rn don't really remember when that started or know how it happened but here I am, nbd.

"Self" is a concept. Both to say "there is a self" and "there is not a self" is not quite right.

But this one spiritual book I read said that it's very important to read spiritual books

Hadn't heard of turpentine until this post so can't advise you there. But if you're curious for parasitic cleanse purposes... nothing beats a dry fast in cleaning tf out of your body. But be sure after your fast to reintroduce some worms into your body because some parasites can actually be beneficial and necessary:

Me rn

Ketogenic diet is probably the best tool for fat loss out there. No carbohydrates means no glycogen to use as fuel. The body is forced to use fat as fuel, and since even relatively lean people have orders of magnitude more fat than glycogen in their body, this lowers your appetite drastically and makes you feel euphoric af with boundless energy. Also, you'll get many of the same benefits as strict fasting (your body will clean itself tf up). If that's your goal I highly recommend trying it until you're at your desired weight. Afterwards, if you wish to, you can optionally add some healthy whole food carbohydrates (rice, tubers, fruits), especially to support exercise. Carbs have their benefits too.

"When I let go, I just am."

Good questions. You're assuming your mind is limited to what you hold conscious. I like Bernardo Kastrup's take on this matter... he feels that the word "unconscious" is a misnomer. Instead, certain aspects of reality are merely obfuscated from your conscious awareness. (His books and videos are highly recommended). Just like, even though when you look up during a sunny day at the blue sky and don't see any stars, they're still there. The light from the sun is just obfuscating your awareness of them... you're too focused on the light from the sun to see them. Similarly, when you're listening intently to your date at a restaurant, you can't hear all of the other conversations which are clearly in your earshot. Similarly for medications for someone who is seemingly unconscious, or objects in dark rooms. https://www.scienceandnonduality.com/the-true-nature-of-the-unconscious/

Love Hoffman's take on reality. Brief summary: We have evolved to see reality in such a way that we survive, not in such a way to see truth. (As we all know, if we saw reality as it really is, it would kill us / Mu). We have representations for external objects that are not what they intrinsically look like, but instead the way we've evolved to perceive them in order to survive. Just like a recycle bin on your desktop isn't really a trash can, a car doesn't really look like how we perceive it to (really it's pure Nothingness I mean Mu). Yet still, if you get run over by a car or drag an important file to the recycle bin... you're gonna have a bad time (but not really). Reality is made up solely of "conscious agents". The way they interact determines our shared perceptions of reality, and indeed all of our physical laws. Theory is still a work in progress but I think there's a lot of truth to it.

Wtf. Take a swig of raw sauerkraut juice instead worms are people too man

Let go. Drop all effort, relax entirely. Quit identifying with any aspect of your experience. Observe your experience disspasionately, non judgementally, not thinking about it. Add nothing to your experience.

Second this... I'm just 1/4 of the way through but this is my new before sleep book and loving it.

People don't appreciate the placebo effect it's like "oh probably just the placebo effect" but the fact that your beliefs can heal your body is profound af and should be a cause of celebration. A meditation practice will enhance every last one of your placebo effects. Your beliefs create reality anyways so really it's all just one big placebo/nocebo effect

If you, like me, were like wth is Leo going on about with this MU talk... What tf is he s̶m̶o̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ butt-plugging, (I want some!!!), well I recently came across some talk of MU in Gödel, Escher, Bach (see section "Mumon on MU")... So clearly MU is shorthand (or is it longhand?) for this ineffable truth of Nothingness we're always going on about here. And perhaps the "drinking a hot iron ball which you can neither swallow nor spit out" is what he was going through in Hawaii, and what happens when you surrender your life to Truth. Apparently the method for realizing it is to stop all thoughts, forget all teachings, and focus only on MU. Anyways, thought I'd share this sick excerpt on Enlightenment. Remember to always do what's right and have a good time.

Just wanted to say, in af on brazilian jiu jitsu... Amazing for self defense, confidence, intense workout... even humbling yourself. Putting yourself in and learning to deal with life or death or extreme injury situations in a safe environment--so valuable. Definitely want to include some boxing too but not too interested in sparring, although I guess that's the best way to learn. Plus maybe less brain cells = less filtered consciousness... I think that's how it works

See post below by @Faceless So from my understanding (not that one could possess a understanding but sorry I don't speak nondual), it's all about dropping tf out of any and all effort. In doing so, you become (or rather, realize you always were) your authentic, selfless self.

If you really want to dry fast, ease into it. We all dry fast when we sleep. There's a huge difference between a several day dry fast and an overnight one. For particularly toxic individuals, something like the protocol in Quantum Eating would be a great option (a 14-16 hour dry fast most days). However even this can be challenging, so best to listen to your body and not strain yourself too much. And if you're currently eating a poor diet, would highly recommend switching to a whole foods based diet before trying any sort of prolonged fast. It sounds like you have an unhealthy relationship with food. For some, fasting can exacerbate that. Something like the "whole 30 challenge" would be an excellent way to change your relationship with food and learn to treat food more as a means of nourishment and less as a source of escape. Over time you can learn to derive great pleasure from nourishing your body properly. Good luck!

"Ignore everything". I often liken awareness to a flashlight, shining light on objects (thoughts feelings perceptions, beliefs, filters, moods etc etc), I try to sort of "turn off" the flashlight. Not shine it on any particular object. Try to trace it back to its source... which of course is without qualities of any kind, for if it had a perceivable quality it would be an object you're shining your flashlight on. This seems particularly effective after some time doing labeling meditation, moving my awareness to and from various objects to sort of a get a feel for the "muscles" involved. Or perhaps just anything that gets me really present. I also love to ask "am I aware?" and actively check if I am. It helps a lot in appreciating that here and now, there is experience... something that is constantly overlooked.