SOUL

The story isn't the stumbling block, the attachment to the story is the obstacle to being present now. Don't replace one story for another story and think anything has changed if there is attachment to the new story because presence is still being limited by the identification to a story. The story of 'I am nothing' is no different than the story of 'I am something' if one is attached to the story. The story of the separate identity is no more of a hindrance to being than the story of no self because being transcends all stories even if the mind creates another story about it. Yes, 'no story' is another story about the story but all stories are empty of any power in us when our being isn't disturbed by the stories and awareness isn't distracted by the stories so awakening isn't limited by them and our consciousness transcends them.

Let's go Brandon!!! ....and I mean that in the genuine encouragement of you way not the other way being bandied about lately...

@PurpleTree Well, let me continue on with the sports metaphor yet the creative arts, martial arts and athletics share this same type of dynamic along with the inner arts. It doesn't really matter one's abilities, agility and attributes as long as we work with whatever skill set we do possess to the effect sought in us because the game is really just an inner match up of one on one with ourselves. There is going to be a natural limitation on how much specific guidance one random person can give another even if some general themes can be found in common. Each one of us has to be it for it to be, nobody can do it for us so be it or it's not.

After many years of playing basketball I still suck at it as bad as I did before so basketball is a scam and basketball coaches are scammers.

@Raptorsin7 Each one of us has a unique path in life and our perceptions are often influenced by our experiences so how we express the journey will not be the same. Me explaining my experience that may or may not have any similarity to anyone else is really an insignificant exercise and can distract others so more descriptions may not clarify anything. The work we do differs, the time we spend differs and if we do spend any time on doing any work differs. Again I will just point out that we can experience in being the 'fulfillment of the path' at any and every moment along the way while we do or don't do whatever it is we do or don't do for however long it does or doesn't take,

Although, God is all things and everything is nothing while ego that isn't really a thing is thinking about all of it which is an illusion...

Oh look... another mystical dick measuring contest so I say this in the most spiritual way possible, there is no dick because what you think you have is really just infinite absolute nothingness.

@Raptorsin7 Will answers to those questions satisfy the desires of the meddling mind? Complete understanding isn't a requirement for liberation. The body suffers and stopping the body's suffering isn't needed for liberation. Liberation is the cessation of SELF suffering. I can't even get one person to stop obsessing over getting answers to questions so why would you think any one person can change the issues and suffering of humanity?

The mind never allows us to be liberated, it even fixates on 'bliss' or 'love' or 'freedom' as something to attain and creates questions that need answers, explanations that need to be understood, reasons that need to be met and methods needed to be done. The mind loves the quest, it craves the story, it desires the distraction but it will never allow liberation to be realized because then we recognize the mind is what is keeping us from it. As long as one wants the process and the self justification the mind is addicted to instead of liberation from self suffering then that is what one will have. What's in the title of the thread? Give up the search...it's not a search because there's nothing lost. It's a journey and we can experience the destination of that journey along the way, the fulfillment is in every step of the path through experiencing the whole journey as one.

@Raptorsin7 I said nothing about divine....and we all have a story. Our flesh embodies being so it can experience harm and scar, the mind remembers the harms and scars then presents them to our awareness for agreement... for belief. Which you say you have been doing all the practice of recognizing 'aware being' stuff, well use that 'aware being' stuff to be aware of the healing. So when the mind/body experience generates the trauma the healing is already present. The body/mind may continue to generate the trauma for as long as the body exists yet the 'aware being' still can have the holistic healing of well being. So in essence, even if we trip over the hoop instead of jump through it and land on our face we can still experience the well being of liberation while doing it. It's not like life stops hurting, harm and scar still happens but the self suffering ceases. When healing is the primary focus of aware being the story the mind creates isn't an obstacle for well being. The only limitation to our experience of liberation are what we imagine are there. That video is saying endorse the dualism of the emotional and mental roller coaster. My message is that well being can exist regardless of how you view the happenings of our manifest existence and how one handles it all. Liberation isn't found in our views and or dues.

So now you experience the bliss of liberation? Congrats, the cessation of self suffering is really the point of all of the 'work' we think is done. If not.... then you have to wonder if it's the 'work' that is the obstacle to liberation. The mind loves all sorts of practices and methods it accomplishes to establish progress to itself, to justify the process but it will always place another task we need to accomplish to keep us on the treadmill of it's 'work'. Many of those practices and methods can be helpful in training the mind to do something it may not do on it's own but the experience of being doesn't require the mind to be... it's being. So we can experience being 'happy' even while the mind may do the work it thinks is accomplishing something. If your present experience is the bliss of liberation this would be obvious to you and maybe it is, don't let me be an obstacle to it. Just be it.

I can understand why it seems like it should be pretty complicated because if it was simple everyone would be 'happy'. I too have an active mind, one that is always turning over rocks to see what they are and what's under them. The mind wants to search for a reason, to make a plan, to do the things to attain this ever elusive 'happiness'. We get sick of the people who point to the obvious, we want the elaborate dance of inner debate that will get us the trophy. Nobody wants to hear that it's simple.... the search for happiness ends when we finally realize it's as simple as being happy.... just be it. The only thing that prevents us from being happy is all the things that the mind finds to keep us from being it. So just be happy no matter all that the mind finds to deny happiness in it's search for happiness.

Seems like it would be obvious

Life

Dualism being taught as profound? hm

It sounds familiar... I think someone said something about it thousands of years ago.... hmmmm

My greatest contribution to this thread would be to suggest subtraction.... clear your mind of all this clutter. The ego loves to view all this conceptualizing as 'serious inquiry' when it truly is nothing more than distracting from being... just being.

It's amusing to think that any of you are actually real people who exist in the world with this nonsense you are distracting yourself with so apparently you have very vivid imaginations and the distinction between reality and delusion is indistinguishable for some.

Do you ever get tired of all this fretting and fussing over pretty much nothing? The analyzing and intellectualizing with all the thinking and contention about what exactly? What value is all of it for? Take a breathe and just be...

I've met a few drainbows...

To say something which has an appearance does not exist because that appearance can be perceived other than the way it appears is like saying a rainbow isn't a rainbow because it isn't really the colors splashed across the sky as it appears it is. It potentially can be a rainbow of colors in the sky as well as being light refracted through water in an atmosphere as well as being layers of vibrations as well as being something perceived in the imagination of layers of vibrations as well as things I can't even describe all at once. All the words and concepts we use are trying to capture a story of experience so we can communicate to another we imagine is there the perception of awareness in being but are lacking for what we use them. The personified sense of self in our psychological mind thinking it knows 'what is' is what it does to cope with not knowing anything at all so we tell our self a story....tell me again what you know... I'm curious.... really, I love a good story.

Quite often the sense of self's personified manifestations take on an adversarial or toxic relationship within us and for those that do inner work it can become a kind of 'holy war' in how they try to eradicate this perception of separation. The word illusion is tossed around so regularly yet it seems like how one defines this word can establish the dynamic within our consciousness and it's constituent manifestations. If we define illusion as 'does not exist' it can set up a conflict between the sense of self that is the naturally occurring experience of out physical life and our awareness which can transcend the sense of separate self. If we instead define the word illusion 'not as appears' it allows for us to recognize the sense of self for what it is without setting up an adversarial dynamic within our consciousness. We can recognize that both the sense of separate self in it's naturally occurring form and the transcending of it in absolute sense of being can and does coexist. We can expand our awareness to include both of them in a harmonious relationship. Our absolute sense of well being will not be disturbed by the manifesting of the physical sense of separate self, the absolute well being will fill our whole conscious experience including the sense of separate self instead of the sense of separate self disrupting the absolute well being so cause self suffering. This is why it seems like so many seekers who define illusion as 'does not exist' will struggle for so long and rarely liberate from self suffering. They have created and perpetuated an adversarial dynamic within their consciousness and as long as they are alive with the physical body manifesting the sense of separate self this dynamic can persist. Yet if we define illusion as 'not as appears' we can see through the manifestations of self for what they are and still the absolute well being fills our consciousness, our whole being. We can then celebrate life, the joy, love, laugh, dance, mourn, cry, hurt and all it involves yet the transcendent absolute well being flourishes. So while some may say it's only a matter of semantics in the difference between the two definitions I suggest it creates how one perceives in awareness what dynamic unfolds in our consciousness and inner life.

@Loba As amazing as the visions and insights we can attain in awakening are these really the point of the inner work we do? The self seeks to adorn it's identity with those visions and insights from the experiences of awakening as someone would fill their home with baubles and trinkets from the trips they have taken. In liberation we realize freedom from self suffering so if these do not fulfill liberation then they are a distraction from it.

@Loba Even though we may chart our own path free from the influence of others it still may be that we become attached to our own stories and they can become anchors that stop our growth. If we have an epiphany or inspiring revelation this can create an deep connection to it in us and quite often the appreciation for it will grow into a clinging to it. Now it's understandable that we might cherish these insights and experiences since it has personal significance in our spiritual evolution although it is helpful to remind ourselves it still is an evolution. If we are continuing to transform our inner life eventually we will have to leave those behind as well. Quite often we may continue to circle back to them in hopes to rekindle that sensation of awe in awakening yet this can generate the attachment to them. There is nothing wrong or bad about them but they are like landmarks on a journey, if we keep returning to them we aren't really going to get anywhere because we are walking in circles.

Are you attached to these questions? Are you attached to getting answers? Are you attached to the answers you get? Are you attached to knowing and understanding so ask the questions seeking answers? You don't need to reply.... I'm not attached to the questions, getting the answers, the answers or knowing it.