SOUL

I eat, poop and sleep, not necessarily in that order but other than that nothing in my life is routine.

It seems you have lumped in law of attraction with visualization but in concept these are two different ideas.

@aurum I agree with what he said about it being a false dichotomy. Another option is that the personal development you envision for yourself is completely divergent from the spiritual work you are doing so you may have to give extra consideration towards what those goals are setting for yourself. It could be they are ones that were given to you by others and those types of worldly expectations may not be a fulfillment of the work that reflects the life you seek to live.

There are people in this world who have such extreme mental conditions that they require professional help. All those people who are professionals paid a lot of money to get accredited as such and the last thing they want is potential customers not choosing to spend $300 an hour for years for them to be told by the professionals what to do and prescribed drugs that would need to be overcome to get the healing the more mild cases these typically entail. If they were only left with only the extreme cases they couldn't afford to be professionals so they expand their customer base by scaring mild cases into thinking they're more extreme than they really are and that's the professionals are the only ones who can help them. Although, there is quite a bit of regurgitated and repackaged pseudo psychology that people passed around as being more effective than it really is. The heart of the matter is regardless of whether you're seeking help from professionals or exploring ways to help yourself the individual needs to take it upon themselves to do the work of healing. Too often most people whether they're going to professionals or purchasing self-help programs are simply seeking someone else to tell them what to do and want a quick fix instead of doing real self work and soul-searching.

@Ether Are you not understanding that it is your reasoning that is preventing you from being it presently. It's a redundancy paradox of you not being aware of it is why you don't have the awareness of being it right now.

I am living it. Chop wood, carry water before, chop wood, carry water after. Reached what? The enlightenment path isn't a path to enlightenment, it's a path with enlightenment. Every moment on this path is walking awake to being present now with the whole being, with the whole consciousness, with the whole universe. It seems one thing preventing you from being fully awakened is your idea that you haven't reached it or that it's a future happening when it's really a present happening, it only ever happens in the present. The ego has gripped onto this idea to keep it's identity as the 'seeker', it's infused itself to the consciousness work in such a way that it prevents you from realizing it presently. Resolving this within your consciousness will open you up to being awake in the present with everything, every breath, every step, every emotion and thought, even every mundane aspect of life will awaken. It's right now, there's no reaching that needs to be done to be it. So live it.

Actually, we all are aware of being present now to some degree but the first word in that description is the challenge. Are we doing it infinitely or mostly or partially or barely? This is how the consciousness work can influence our experience of awareness in being present. Although, the challenging nature of the work doesn't change the simplistic nature of the task.

I prefer the short explanation: Infinitely aware of being present now.

It appeared in your op as if you were associating emotions with 'fake' action and that would be an inaccurate representation of life. Our actions typically have both 'real' and 'fake' motivations, inspirations and imaginations often simultaneously within the very same source of them. Since many in the mystical community would say all of life is an illusory experience wouldn't that imply all we do isn't 'real' anyway? What I'm just trying to convey is that painting things into black and white terms is just more dualism theology so I would suggest a more holistic approach if one wants to be authentic.

Emotion plays an integral part of life with love, passion, fear, pain and desire giving a sensory basis for our experience as animate beings.

The issue I see is people have their preferred paradigm perspective and they want to filter everything through it in calling their own preferred paradigm perspective 'reality' and 'truth' but the others are 'illusion' and 'false'.

Why don't you ask it? I did.... and we laughed and laughed..... it's an inside joke.

I like his approach, very down to earth and genuine, but his ideas are pretty much the typical rhetoric found in 'non-dual' belief paradigm. Though, he sure does work that 'selfing' angle pretty hard...hah

Yea, it seems pretty much that you are seeking fulfillment through accomplishment which in itself isn't a negative thing but it can lead to the cycle of feeding desire, it's an craving that won't be satiated. Once you can orient consciousness to contentment in just being you will have a fulfillment that transcends accomplishment so they will be added to an unwavering peace and can be fully enjoyed.

There is no truth with a capital 'T', this is just a misuse of the word truth to satisfy the ego's desire to 'know' the answer to the 'big questions' which is really no different than it's desire to 'know' the answers to all the little questions, too.... the ones of the little 't' truths. So one can have a fulfilling life without seeking it.

@beastmode I don't ascribe to any 'ism' so I am not an 'ist' of any kind. Besides, skepticism is very much a belief paradigm itself, ironically, even in it's trusting in doubt as a useful tool.. A belief is just the mind's way of trusting it's own perception even if that belief is that one doesn't trust their perceptions. It really is impossible to rid the mind of 'belief' otherwise we'd not even be able to navigate this world enough to survive in it, 'belief' is a psychological requirement for any action that isn't an involuntary one that happens without us being aware of it. So, what one may strive for if 'belief' is viewed as some sort of negative, which itself is another belief, would be to take the Occam's razor approach to it. That is to hold the the smallest leap of belief or number of beliefs needed to just be.

If one's psychology is crap even if they 'attract' supreme awesomeness, they will see it as crap and ultimately turn it from the awesomeness it is into the crap they see it as through their subsequent interaction with it being influenced by the crappy perspective.

The concept behind the law of attraction has been changed or misunderstood by people from it's initial form and may be contributing to your issue with it. It didn't start as attracting what one wants or already is and it isn't attracting what one needs or is meant to as is also portrayed as. It's initial form was by having positive or negative thoughts one attracts positive or negative experiences. So instead of this being a "magical" dynamic that people also have twisted it into, it is a mystical one, it's more a cognitive bias. If one is thinking in positive thoughts then the positive in the experiences will be highlighted in perception. This doesn't mean there won't be any contrary traits to what the perception of them but since the mindset doesn't acknowledge them it doesn't fill the perspective one has of the experience. Also if the perception is oriented a certain way the interactions one has with the circumstances and individuals in these experiences will be influenced by the behaviors in light of the perception. Such as if you are friendly and smile with others people are more likely to be friendly and smile back but even if they aren't the positive thinker won't have a negative perception of the exchange, they will have a positive one, a sort of confirmation bias. This mindset will have an accumulative effect on one's life experiences and it will appear as if there is an "attraction" of the like 'charge' so to speak. Did this make it any clearer?

We cannot really "kill the ego", what I have found from the endless regurgitation of guru speak is what really happens is the ego just acts like it 'commits suicide' or dissolves itself and then hides from the awareness in the subconscious mind behind all the trappings of the "enlightened non-dual" rhetoric calling it "truth". After chasing that mythical dragon in hopes to slay it for years I have chosen another path that has brought lasting peace and fulfillment to my life experience. There are no tricks or tips, no practices or beliefs, no ideas or concepts, no truth or right that I can teach about this path other than to say, just be it in the moment. Whatever you seek for your being.... just be it. Then what is all this other stuff in our mind, body, emotion and spirit that tries to interfere with what we seek to be? Some will say it is that ego that needs to be killed. Well, the ego can be killed as readily as the past can be changed or erased so if one is trying to kill the ego they are simply letting the past distract them from the present. In this very moment, in every moment just be what one seeks for one's own being and the ego will take care of itself.

Why kill your ego?

....because joyful people are already enjoying life.

@Capethaz Yes, it's very apparent you aren't satisfied from the way you lashed out at people here in admonishing them. Your post was expressing much contradiction, first you tell people to stop with the "bullshit" theories and then say "start debate".... so which is it? Stop or start? Then you are critical of what you assume others want, how is it you know what everyone wants? I would venture a guess from what you yourself want but didn't get any "happiness" from so project that out onto others. While I agree not basing our own happiness... or peace... on external circumstances is a healthy recipe for actually being at peace if you aren't "there" yet how is it that you can confirm this actually works? Peace isn't "there", it's 'here'..... at every moment, just be it. "Practice" is the word we use for actually doing what it is we are speaking about so when we practice what we preach we are living what we teach. Although practice also refers to training in a particular skill, we are repeatedly doing something to gain a proficiency in that skill and in this instance we are practicing peace so we become 'experts' in being at peace. You tell us when we are at peace we won't care about who is right.... after you have already told us our theories are "bullshit" so it seems you think you know which is right and care enough to say ours aren't. You tell us we should listen are learn yet you say we should stop sharing the "bullshit" theories, so if everyone stops then who is there to listen to? I don't mean to be critical of you but i only point out these contradictions as possible reasons why you don't have this peace yourself, they create inner tension which results in a turmoil that disrupts the peace. Then take your advice to listen to someone who has a healthy measure of peace in their life and let go of it, just let go of that tension in you. We all have our theories and we are sharing them, we each 'graze' on each others theories, yes debate as you said. From that feeding on the ideas and concepts of others growing in places like this some of it nourishes us, some of it empowers us and some of it is bullshit that we get rid of but even the bullshit enriches the soil of our garden so has some value to our work and path.

Release unhappiness and not seek to be happy, the middle path is always at hand.

Anyone else see the irony in a "rant" about peace? It doesn't really seem like you have this "peace" you speak of yourself otherwise you wouldn't be so disturbed by what people write in a forum on the internet. Take a deep breath, let go of expectations and desire so you may attain an inner peace and cease to suffer what others are doing. Besides, how do you know what everyone is seeking?

Cease being addicted or there will be just another vice to replace it. I find that many who profess to live an awakened life are really just addicted to the pursuit of enlightenment so all they did was change it from one thing to another, not cease it. Some might say well, what's wrong with that? Isn't "enlightenment" good? Except that if the pursuit brings the same angst, anxiety and yearning as every other vice and not bring inner peace it won't produce the results sought. A poignant analogy would be to say that an addicted mindset pursuit of enlightenment is like taking drugs to get sober.