SOUL

An infinite number that can be rounded to 0.

Why do you divide life into these two halves? Focusing on two parts of our experience, the material and the spiritual, while positioning them as opposites is merely a duality mindset perspective. Those parts are included in the whole of our life experience and there are unified qualities that neither of those two alone possess in and of themselves. So seeking to be a "whole master"...hehe.... is transcending all other parts of the consciousness experience, the egoic and the enlightened, it all, as well as the mind's duality paradigm altogether. Then all of the things that comprise those two you mention appear in a transformed context of this unified perspective.

It's interesting how people interpret my intentionally open ended comment and it seems there are some who seem to act as if a materialist boogeymen is under the bed waiting to dash their mystical dreams or maybe I'm misinterpreting other's comments. Although if the mind were open enough my comment can be interpreted in any number of ways. It is also interesting you view "everyday life" as cementing a zombified stupor of unconsciousness.... you are aware that you create this for yourself by thinking it so, aren't you? This is a belief based paradigm constructed from a duality mindset... you are welcome to free yourself from it's influence and effect at any time. For my own experience I find the ripples of awakened consciousness in every facet of life no matter how tediously everyday it may be....but alas everyone can do what they will with their own experiences.

@Pierre Or a hug but yeah savoring life for the fulfilling delicacies of experience it is can often be neglected and even resisted by those that want to deny it.

@Pierre Well I prefer not to label it with another ism, it's really about accepting what is as it is. if I were to call it something it's more of an isness but why call it anything.

Overthrow the ego, an awareness coup.... off with our heads! Aho!

Exactly, I'm working on it, it's a process but eventually I will get it down to 0%....

These are all interesting thoughts to entertain in the mind but don't allow it to distract you so step into traffic, then you will quickly learn what "matters".

@Ether Why do you want? So you are of the opinion that you "got" some "true information" that people aren't "paying attention" to..... Interesting theory..... I went to a healer and told them I have this uneasiness in my spirit when I think, they told me don't think that way and to take two breaths, call them in the morning.

@Nadosa All of these @Shin @Serotoninluv @ADD @Alexo45 have given a refraction of the reflections in awareness that passes through the mind in the moment like the rainbow is the refraction of white light that reflects off the water it passes through. Trying to "disbelieve" something empowers the belief through the assumption that it is believed to begin with. It's peering into the past and trying to unring a bell when in the present moment it is to just be, leave the sound to vibrate itself into silence and not believe that sound into nothingness. The idea of disbelieving is another belief the mind uses as a "truth", every "aha" is yet another "truth" the mind thinks it's sees and is one of the many ideas and concepts it constructs the paradigm of it's personal religion that it bows to in the church of it's own dogma. Our self conscious, the ego, refracts our experience to believe Our awareness, the will, reflects our experience to be live. Oh yes, it's getting deeper and deeper, too deep, yet in fact it is shallow, very shallow. So shallow that it really is only a mirage of water that the mind thinks it sees in sands and after expending all that energy to seek it out to realize it is the illusion that refracts the light and is merely the reflection in the mind....so drink it up, the water of life flowing by in the sands of time.

.....so should he be called Madguru then?

@outlandish The practice I mentioned that you are doing is being critical of people suggesting they know who is or isn't "enlightened" and then go on to suggest you know who is or isn't "enlightened". It's quite easy to feign "enlightenment" because there are dogmatic concepts, beliefs and mannerisms associated with it so that if someone professes them according to those dogmas it would appear they are to the others who believe those concepts of "enlightenment". The more comfortable someone is with conversing in those concepts and beliefs paradigms in the mannerisms associated with it the more "enlightened" they appear to be to those that believe those things. Let go of the desire to discern if someone is "enlightened" or not, does it really matter who is or isn't? Does it matter if you know who is or isn't? What if I told you there is no such thing as "enlightenment" in the way it is often portrayed but that most everyone who self examines and self illuminates is experiencing degrees of a process that is "enlightenment"? Just be content to work on your own inner life and not preoccupy yourself with who is or isn't "enlightened" or what is or isn't characteristics of "enlightenment" that can be discerned in others by observing them.

@outlandish You are the one who started a thread chastising people who are speculating or suggesting they know whether someone is "enlightened" or not and you even are critical of the topic itself by calling it bullshit while mockingly refer to some trophy you made up in your own head you think others are certifying themselves with in recognition...... then you tell people they aren't and never will be. That they are falling into a trap, an ego trip and that it's hubris so are doing the very same thing. You go on to compare people and contend that we cannot be like them, so in your mind through your reasoning and you plainly show in this thread you are polishing the Dalai Lama's "enlightenment trophy" so doing the very thing you are bashing others for what you say they are doing. Now I'm not trying to be critical of or to bash you but I'm simply pointing out the behavior and how it is an indication of the inconsistency in your mindset and the distress in your inner being because if wasn't so you wouldn't be lashing out at others in this way. So which is it? You can't have it both ways, you are denouncing this practice you seem to think it some egregious act but you also practice it yourself while denouncing others for doing the same. I hope you don't get offended by me saying this but you are being quite hypocritical.

"It's bullshit, no you're not" is the lullaby that the asleep sing to the awake in hopes they fall asleep with them.

Why do people who believe they don't have free will choose to tell others they don't have it either? I guess they have no choice and are subject to the unconscious mind's impulses. Attempting to stop the mind from thinking is like attempting to stop the heart from beating. Why? It's what it naturally does. Although, I would liken the exercise of awakened contemplation to conscious breathing, we can intentionally cease for a short time but eventually we pass out from the lack of oxygen to our brain and the body resumes breathing when we aren't actively preventing it from doing so. In a similar way we can try to not think but when we aren't looking the unconscious mind springs forth with impulses in many forms. Since we cannot see the unconscious mind doing it's thing it is only once it rises to the conscious mind that we notice it. So our work is to be aware of the machinations of the mind and observe them, not try to stop it from doing what it naturally does. By being aware of what stirs in the mind we can cease to be influenced by the mind's unconscious impulses which are past experience and choose to be present in the experience of what is happening now. By being attentive to the present moment we are creating the pattern of being present in our unconscious mind to recall at another time. So at that other time will we reminisce about being present in a past time? Will we just remember us being present in a past moment or will we be present in the moment we have to be in now? It's our choice....or is it?

@Nahm What I describe is simple, it's just being present in acceptance and is available to anyone in the moment. What you describe is a years long process of practices, drugs, denying and extreme experiences with different types of truth and beliefs before it is available. It's so obvious.....haha

@Nahm Allowing the ego to preoccupy awareness with the comparing of ideas and concepts in the mind is where something like truth comes from. I am being present accepting what is as it is, awareness in the moment doesn't have any need for the paradigm construction of truth in the mind to just be. When we remove the stories and allow the self conscious' natural ability to recognize and process ever changing information for successful navigation in our environment as an organic being is as close to what really could be called "truth" without labeling it as anything.

"Truth" is just another construct of the mind, it's a concept that the ego builds a paradigm around to orient it's self identity and it creates dogmatic ideas in the process. Releasing the desire to seek the truth is one of the most freeing exercises one can do for awakening from the conditioning that transpires in the mind, just accept things as they are without trying to 'truthify' every experience.

My experience of fulfillment in life increased when I disassociated the contentment I feel in life with life itself, not attaching it to things or work or anything. That way my fulfillment wasn't contingent on my life's circumstances appealing to hopes or expectations so when things didn't go my way I still had a sense of fulfillment that couldn't be disrupted by it.

You notice that, too, huh... it's either extremely vague or extremely complicated mumbo jumbo and quite often it's both at once. Not just here, it's everywhere in the spirituality and self work communities.

To enjoy the trip, don't let the mumbo jumbo of self appointed and anointed gurus and wannabes distract from the simplicity of it.

Infinite now, infinite potential and infinite void are never touched or stained by what appears within it just like with infinite awareness it is never touched or stained by what is appears within consciousness.

Often what gets lost in the search for the 'not knowing' experience is the yearning for knowing that the mind has, this craving that is hard wired into the very nature of our consciousness. The 'not knowing' experience is less about whether we know something or anything or not, it's more about ceasing the mind's desire for knowing, the primal impulse that is the impetus for the mind to conceptualize through identification. How can we possibly eliminate something that is an involuntary function of our biological existence, the monkey mechanics of our brain? By finding the pure awareness of our consciousness. This is the part, for a lack of a better word, of our consciousness that isn't enslaved to the manifest mind and in exercising this part of our consciousness we can experience, again for a lack of a better word, not just 'not knowing' but also the absence of this craving to know. With this experience comes the inner peace that infinitely satisfies in a way that no amount of knowledge could fill the mind.

The experience in awareness of unity manifests in a mechanism of the self by a personal experience that the ego interprets as possessive.

Because enlightenment experiences aren't replicable.....it's the mind that wants to "replicate" a set of circumstances in hopes of regaining the past experience although enlightenment is experienced in each moment as each moment unfolds whatever the circumstances.