SOUL

To be fair, your avi is jokerfied....hehe

solipsism belief says it's all projection...

So, according to this idea of solipsism people who don't exist are upset that someone who doesn't exist took down something that doesn't exist about something that doesn't exist? Hm It's much simpler to just be....but I guess minds gotta monkey around, though.

Practices are pointers but implied in the pointer is that there is something to be pointing at that's separate. The mind/ego uses them to keep us separate from what already is. It's like all the stories we use to explain, the number of distractions the mind/ego creates is endless. We can keep going round and round about wondering if this or that works or not but that's emblematic of the struggle the mind/ego uses to justify itself. Once you're done struggling you may just 'surrender', just cease efforting to make something that already is, it's the realization of being awareness.

Please don't think I'm being critical or dismissive when I say this but right there in the response is doing practices and seeking states. The mind/ego is very sly in how it uses the appeal of activity and conditions to keep us jumping through hoops and fire walled away from something as an appearance of separation from a goal or something to attain. You have been on this forum a long time with many posts....eventually you will get tired of the game the mind/ego is using to keep the monkey dancing for peanuts and if so you may stop playing along and dancing to appease it. Or you may continue on for even longer trying to find the right mix of activity and conditions to attain an apparent elusive goal that in reality is always present. I'll also say don't be frustrated with yourself and disturbed by not 'getting it', this is another trick of the mind/ego is creating a distraction from being awareness. Just be at peace with things as they are even if the mind/ego is generating all this activity and stimuli in attempt to grab the attention to justify it's identity. Eventually it will become natural to stay present no matter the conditions of the mind or body.

Yea, the mind/ego is always searching for activities to do, conditions to be met, understanding to attain, goals to achieve and on and on as if we don't already have awareness to abide in. Being awareness just is which you have already expressed how you have experience of it but it's only the mind/ego that is distracting you from it and then giving you circumstances to seek to get 'back' to it when in reality it's always present 'now'. I'm not sure what anyone can say that will have you stop searching for what you already have, even the explanations of it may be serving as a distraction.

@Raptorsin7 It's just simply the mind/ego is using the activity of surrender/letting go as an obstacle to being present even to the extent of doing an activity of not doing to distract from being.

Anytime

Somebody has to say it...you're welcome.

Millions of posts and millions of hours spent online collectively telling each other you don't exist is absolute internet spirituality nonsense.

@Raptorsin7 I noticed something in the initial post of the thread then it was revisited in your response to a reply so I would ask you to read the thread again since it's only a few posts deep and tell me if you notice it as well. Did you notice it? The quote you posted wasn't all that explicit about it but it surely revealed the challenging nature of your point of the thread. How difficult it is to not do.....not doing.... anything. We actually screw up not doing anything.... by doing it... and doing... something. The quote mentions spiritual practice with a goal, the doing of something to attain something. That goal? Simplicity of awareness... and the recommended? To surrender...the letting go of the activity of the mind is a credible recommendation that many espouse. Except that the ego will use this as another thing to do to get something. Surrendering, the letting go of the activity is another activity with a goal that is desired because it is an unmet condition for what is being sought. You see how sneaky the mind can be? You even say it yourself in your response to the other reply, "it seems like I can't surrender even though I think I'm doing the same thing as when the surrender comes easy". See? You say 'doing the same thing', an activity to create desired conditions to attain something you perceive you don't have. We don't have to do any activity of 'surrender' to attain awareness because awareness is as you suggest, effortless, it just is. Even if there is activity of the mind that may serve as a distraction from the simplicity of awareness doesn't require us to do an activity of surrender to be present in awareness. We just can BE present in awareness, it's always being presence and there is no activity that allows for it to be there, it always is. So don't let the ego use the activity of surrender to attain some condition that it acts like you don't have to distract from being present in awareness.

The very definition of belief is 'trust that it is true' so whether it's Christianity or any other religious doctrine for someone to believe it is them actually trusting it is the truth. Even the 'truth' on this forum that people believe is them trusting it is true. Their direct experience, their awareness of it, their perception of it, their understanding of it...it's just them trusting it is the 'truth'.

Professing to know what happens to another after death is arrogant as well so does this mean they get their own measure 100 fold for eternity, too? Be aware of what one believes is real because it very well may be real even if it is naught but just an illusion.....

@Someone here The unconscious mind will generate anxiety and worry because it feels threatened by something and it rises to our conscious mind to alert us of this threat which disturbs our peace of mind. One of the things that threatens the mind is anything that threatens identity and sense of self. The very work of detaching from and transcending identity so expanding awareness beyond just the sense of self threatens the mind's natural inclination to preserve identity and sense of self. When your mind generates anxiety and worry then you should celebrate because your work to detach from and transcend identity is bearing fruit so the mind is trying to attract your attention back to your sense of self. It wants you to believe those feelings are valid to justify it's sense of self. It doesn't require deep analysis to find out the source of the anxiety and worry because that's just another way the mind uses to validate the feelings and justify identity. Yes, some may benefit from self analysis but be aware that it can become a fixation and creates more attachment. There may be some challenges to endure along the way yet eventually the unconscious and conscious mind will find a harmony in just being present and we experience 'peace of mind'.

If I am asked to believe his teaching that one creates their own reality of having this power to externally effect things to happen in the manifest and we all do. Then I have to wonder why is he creating the earth's cataclysm? The content is obvious what it is. People are addicted to the imagination of telling the story, an apocalyptic tale of epic endings in all the different flavors of expression. It's not much different than what happens even here with the mind of telling stories. Here the story goes that the epic ending is absolute infinity. We are all god, nothingness is the only thing that exists and everything else is a dream. The end.

@ing your own self to argue about spirituality is about the most internet mysticism thing I ever seen...

I'm not constructing or deconstructing anything, I'm looking at what is. Dualism is a perception of the mind, it's not a thing other than in the mind. It is the human mind that lumps emotions, sentiments and concepts into two 'oppositional' groups. You said non-dual, I didn't because I'm aware that dualism is in the mind so once I transcended dualism in my mind's perception I realized it's not really anything so don't use it to understand my perspective. It's you who is perceiving dualism in the two concepts but are assuming it is my perception and you apparently cannot perceive something other than it. Maybe I can give you some insight to the perspective of the mind that doesn't perceive things in a dualism. When I said 'unhelpful' you probably are seeing that as one side of a dualism with 'helpful' on the other side as if they are opposites. In my mind helpful is an effect, a helping effect but unhelpful is no effect, it's neutral. Along the spectrum of the 'helping' dynamic is hindrance, it's blocking help, we don't perceive it as neutral because it keeps us from help. Now can you see how once the perception of dualism and pairing up things in oppositional poles is transcended it creates more clarity so things can be viewed as they are for what they are. Another issue with dualism perspective is that the oppositional mindset manifests conflict in the mind between the perceived two sides. As well as an exclusivity perception, it's one or the other, it's a challenge to perceive things as a whole or both, it creates division.... the separation. I thought about which word I would use for that pretty long and I chose 'unhelpful' because in my perspective it is neutral not the opposite of helpful, it's the absence of help, not working against help though it appears to be blocking help. If I did have an assumption it would be that people seek to resolve the oppositional perspective and be free from a conflicted mind. Of course dualism would be considered 'helpful' if one wanted to create the oppositional conflicted mind. To bolster the sense of separation and justify identity dualism would be 'helpful' yet this would also create the oppositional and conflicted mind. All we have to do is look at society around us to find the evidence of this, it doesn't take much contemplation to recognize it. This isn't a matter of truth or valid, those concepts are from the perception of dualism and why they came to your mind since you are so keen of fostering the dualism. Yea, I probably shouldn't assume what people really want.

Wow... this kind of turned into a dog pile on Leo. C'mova here brotha and give yourself a big hug....

@Scholar Maybe I should have been more clear and less snarky about how I felt your response was empty of a point since you didn't really say anything. What part of that bolded quote did you think I was making an assumption? That it's unhelpful? That emotions, sentiments and concepts aren't a dualism? Or maybe it is just an assumption of yours that they are a dualism and it's helpful to view them that way so see me saying they aren't and it isn't is seen as an assumption by you?

I have a meditation for this issue... sit quietly and observe the screen of your computer, take notice of the 'X' in the corner of the tab of your internet browser for this website and click the 'X'. Feel better? No? Keep doing it until you do. Your welcome.

You assume it's an assumption.

If you are talking about your own experience why are you projecting it onto others? It's you who cannot stop paying attention to the ego, it's you who are the ego, it's you that tried it for years, it's you who is frustrated and for you it does not work. Although, if you cannot strop paying attention to the ego and you believe you are the ego it explains why you 'tried' those things for years, were frustrated and it didn't work. Yes, my experience is different and I wouldn't suggest it if I didn't have success with it. If you continue to pay attention to it and believe you are the ego then I would say that wasn't what I am suggesting. Even the common forum perspective on this is we aren't the ego, it's an illusion, is very different than than so it appears your experience differs from even that. If that works for you then so be it. Though, I suspect you are still dealing with your ego since you are still saying you are the ego.

If you cannot do something it is your limiting beliefs that make it so and has no influence over what someone else can or can't do. Also all the rest of the typical forum rhetoric has been addressed by me and if you didn't even read the post you cut up to quote me let alone any of the other stuff I already covered it all with I'm not sure repeating myself will help. Did you read this part when you cut it away? "The story will be 'let go' of...by not taking hold of it." To be clear any attention one gives the ego is exactly what it desires...attention...and that justifies it's identity. As many have testified on this forum about the ego it is also going to hide in the shadows undoubtedly being empowered through someone searching for it to 'dissolve'. I'm not sure the wack-a-mole method of trying to 'dissolve the ego' is the most effective. So, this is why I suggest depriving it of what empowers it, attention. Treat the ego like the story it creates.... by doing nothing. I do not react in any way to all the mind creates to capture our attention in generating identity. That's the simple straight forward approach I use with success, no complicated or intricate techniques or methods. Don't feed the beast...and keep on not doing anything, just be. Although, I understand that some people think they need more stuff to do and if it works for them then so be it. I'm not going to criticize what works for them but I always suggest the simple approach first... do nothing and keep doing nothing, eventually the beast starves to death.

Emotions and other sentiments aren't divided in dualism, they are independent of each other but can also combine at the same time on things. Plenty of people have love and fear simultaneously about partners or children and such. Your point about choosing gratitude is a good one but it's unhelpful to see emotions, sentiments and concepts as an either one or the other dualism paradigm since they aren't really that way in how they get expressed in us.

It's ok to appreciate the story, to enjoy the story but being attached to the story, identifying with the story and using it as justification is what leads to self suffering. Watch it like a movie.... you can watch a movie and really enjoy it without being attached to it, right? Like that. Oh and many therapists have no clue what to do with the nondual idea, instead frame it as cognitive behavioral therapy(CBT) and they will have a better understanding to work with you.