SOUL

Hello, my name is SOUL, I'm a thinkaholic and I haven't used thoughts in .000000000000000000001 nano seconds.... do I get a chip yet?

It's not "made of pain" in my experience, it's not really made of anything other than what I make of it.

It just depends on the type of growth and transformation someone is seeking but there is definitely some common aspects shared by them.

The mind is just doing what it does...same with the ego, so don't be 'minding' what those will be doing, they can't be anything other than what they are. The mind just covers things with concepts and labels, that's what it does and the ego will try to convince you to endorse those concepts and labels the mind conjures up since that what it does. In those moments that the ego goes about cajoling and manipulating you in an attempt to have you believing the concepts and labels the mind builds just stay at peace. Instead of agree with it's machinations continue to affirm the perception you have in awakening awareness, let the peace of that awakened perception be the guide for consciousness. The mind and ego will do what they do though sometimes it may seem too unbearable to endure the constant undermining but continue to affirm the awakened perspective without trying to fight them. Fighting them isn't affirming from peace, let them dance around with their natural behaviors and peacefully observe without endorsing it the best you can. Eventually the mind will retain the impressions given it from the awakened perception and will reflect that in it's paradigm so the ego will in turn go about getting you to endorse those concepts and labels of an awakened mind. In this way our awareness will guide the whole of our consciousness into liberation.

It may be no problem at all, yet sure, it can be a problem but what problem it is and to whom cannot be addressed so simply. What about it? Are you suggesting someone cannot do this and be authentic at the same time? I guess it depends on what someone is "acting" like. Are you asking about how to deal with those fears or how to not be fake, a sell out or lose authenticity? Or maybe you mean how to allay the fears so one can be fake without fear, I'm sure there are some people who would prefer this take on it. From the perspective of accepting what is as it is, if someone is behaving a certain way that's what they are acting as, there is no we aren't what we are acting as. What it seems you really are asking is it acceptable for someone to act/behave in opposition to their personal ideals. As an example let's say I am a vegetarian but to further my interpersonal strategy I eat meat with other people, am I really a vegetarian? Or am I someone who has ideas/beliefs about eating meat that I choose not to adhere to? So it's about how strongly do I hold ideals and does betraying them effect me? Are we? Read my last question in the previous response. It depends on how strongly the ideals are held and the effect of betraying them are subjectively assessed. Some people can betray their ideals without any affect at all, why they would even hold ideals they can so easily betray is another question altogether but yes there are some people who will believe one thing and do the opposite quite easily without any self imposed emotional or mental retribution. Some may view it as betraying their very genuine essence and the effect in their consciousness from this realization can be catastrophic. It depends on what you seek to accomplish and what is most important to you. Really two different points to be made. Yes, being authentic is sustainable. Wise? It depends on what someone is seeking to accomplish and what motives they acting on behalf of. That all depends on if the role is in opposition to what personal ideals are held and what affect of betraying ideals has. Nobody can decide for anyone else what the answer to this is. If someone is portraying themselves to others as holding and acting on certain ideals that they then go and betray this isn't being authentic. If someone intentionally portrays themselves as holding and acting on certain ideals while betraying them for gain this isn't just inauthentic, it's deceptive. I hope this helped.

Are you asking if happiness and fulfillment are universal pursuits or are you asking if these same things universally make humans happy and fulfilled? The answer to both is not easily stated because there are layers of stimuli and response conditioning at work in each of us but are expressed in so many divergent ways that it can be difficult to understand how they are related. We 'like' happiness and fulfillment because they feel good to us, whatever it is that brings this good feeling may be different to each of us but it's the good feeling that is the only thing that could be assumed to be a universal trait because of the biological stimulus response in us. Although, I wonder if there are there people who don't seek out this good feeling? Are there people who don't get a good feeling from happiness and fulfillment? Are there people who get some manner of satisfaction out something other than a good feeling and/or happiness and fulfillment? It's often said that hinging happiness and fulfillment on external circumstances is problematic and it's better to use the internal to do it. Although I find that even using internal circumstances to leverage happiness and fulfillment can be just as problematic since we aren't always "feeling it" naturally so to speak. If we happen to be feeling disharmonious for whatever reasons that may be how can we change it to have this other happy fulfilled feeling instead? This is the reason I have inner peace, to be at peace with whatever emotional, mental and physical state I happen to be in at the moment. Being at peace with whatever I am experiencing allows me to not be influenced by any of the circumstances but also allows me to influence how I perceive them. This peaceful perception resides in my most inner being providing a well being even when the good feelings appear absent.

Well, there is no elaborating, it's even less words Just be here now.

There sure is a short cut and it has nothing to do with being ready for physical death.

Well, consciousness is a broadly applied term that has multiple elements to it and the part of consciousness that people generally are referring to when they speak of awakening is the element of it called awareness. Awareness itself doesn't increase or decrease levels in being awareness just as water doesn't increase or decrease in it's level of being water, they are inherently what they are. The "level" you speak of is in us being conscious of our own awareness which can wax or wane depending in how we direct our attention, which is the mind's manifestation of awareness, and on what we use our attention. If we direct our attention onto our awareness it has a profoundly different effect in our mind than if we direct our attention to other elements of consciousness such as the self or ego. Cannabis has beneficial influences on my consciousness but everyone has their own circumstances so your experience may vary.

The ideas and concepts are ingredients and spices as we cook up the paradigms of our minds. Some just choose to use cook books.

It's like learning any skill, it's something that at first is done as a conscious exercise that eventually becomes a subconsciously reflexive happening. What is that skill we are cultivating? Being aware in the present moment.

Seems like you are overthinking it and that doesn't equate to mindfulness so leave all those ideas and techniques to themselves. Awaken to our awareness at the seat of consciousness being diffused and open but if our mind's attention is caught by something let it be what it is and accept it as it is.

When someone experiences awakening the personal revelations that come with it can often become things they perceive as universal hallmarks and indicators of what accompanies enlightenment but this is what leads to dogma.

@Maxx Both 'we are everything' and 'nobody exists' are concepts derived from value judgements made in the mind that form paradigms that are believed in. When we attune our awareness to being present in the moment there is no use for any of that so to teach it is just as useless and can even be worse than useless, it can be another distraction that becomes a dogma. The belief that there is no individual or self is just as much of a belief as the one that there is, these are just poles of opposition in another duality that mind uses to define and identify. In absolute presence there is no judging or conceptualizing about what's real or an illusion, there's just an acceptance of what is in the now and the stillness is the peace of being.

The reason why that bothers you is because you see through the duality nonsense of nothingness-somethingness and emptiness-fullness recognizing it for the flawed mind concept it really is. Not letting the constant repetition of this dogmatic rhetoric from spiritualists distract us from just being present without labeling and conceptualizing can be challenging for sure. @Annetta

The hooks of habits get caught in the loops of our mind so are the velcro of conditioning.

Where did you get the idea transcending current reality? It's about transcending the mind's paradigm and accepting reality as it is.

The first rule of absolute infinity is you can't talk about absolute infinity.

@Nahm Well, since with uncertainty we cannot know everything through observation it allows me to free my mind from being fixated on knowing everything which instead feeds my mind into acceptance of things as they are even if I don't know what that is.... an ultimate acceptance. Also, with the indeterminate it relates in the way I choose to view life and it's circumstances determines the influence they have in my psyche.

@Nahm I have seen you cite the uncertainty principle in relation to choice a few times on this forum and it seems you are conflating two different quantum phenomena. Superposition is often said to suggest choice through the indeterminate nature as the very basis of physics through observation. Uncertainty principle is a different phenomena where complementary variables of an electron cannot be known even through observation. So superposition implies variability and determination through observation although the uncertainty principle explicitly shows us that observation cannot bring complete knowledge. Both of these are a thorn in the side of reductionists and materialists that want to ignore consciousness role in determining through observation while simultaneously also clinging to the false notion that through observation we can ultimately be able to know everything.

@Mastral My first reply expressed that we can do both in enjoying the things we do in life as well as finding fulfillment in just being regardless of what comes in life. It is very common to have the mind distract us with intricate and complicated methods and techniques by convincing us that those are more important than the simple appreciation in just being. So it's okay to let the mind distract itself with the materialistic pursuits and methodologies since that what it does but it is up to us to also keep focused on the fulfillment that comes from the appreciation in being present. This is how we can keep a balanced exprience of both enlightenment in being fulfilled with the present moment as well as a realistic grounded appreciation of what we do in life.

I feel like George Costanza when the carpet cleaning cult didn't try to recruit him......