SOUL

Don't dismiss the work you have already done because external work is also inner work just as inner work is also outer work. As an example, if we are learning a new skill, at first it's uncomfortable and unnatural to us. Although, as we do this new skill it becomes ingrained in our psyche and eventually we can perform it reflexively and unconsciously. We have internally wired ourselves to behave externally according to the pattern we set for ourselves through habituation. Faith is a powerful tool in our personal work, it's an inner tool that creates a fulfilled experience in life because it is also exercised externally through words and deeds but it seems you may have been neglecting to have faith in your work. Find that faith force that resides in your willful intention and exercise it in doing your personal work, both inner and outer, all of it. Doubting yourself rarely, if ever, leads to fulfillment. If I would give any direction in searching it would be to not do any deep digging at all, let it come to your attention on it's own, if it doesn't, is it really there? Of course if it is relevant to your lack of fulfillment the ego will bring it to mind because it wants the attention on it. When it does get brought to attention, then examine it. What are the accompanying thoughts, feelings, images, the memories and inner dialog that are present with it? Our mind will tell us what's relevant and then we can do our work on those things that are connected to the lack of fulfillment in our experience instead of needlessly trying to fix things that may not even be broken, so to speak, leading to much fruitless work that may just end of frustrating us with the issue still unresolved. We don't need to dig just for the sake of doing it! Just observe the ego working in the mind doing what it does, it will bring all these unsatisfactory thoughts, feelings and ideas to attention(awareness). What I found is that it's usually just one or two motives that are the root of the unrest that feeds much of the misery regardless of how many varieties of manifestation in us that it appears to take form as. Once you become aware of those one or two keys to the unrest you can work on those and you will likely find that much of it all will be resolved through it, plus some things you aren't even aware being related to it. One of the effective methods I used is to detach from the root causes, the ego will do everything it can to get you to care about it, to invest your whole being into endorsing what it values in identifying. Simply unplugging the cord to it robs it of it's power. Replacing the power source with the love, peace and joy in faith will completely change your work since it likely is being powered through fearful thoughts and emotions right now. This will transform the work you have been doing into much more effective efforts in bringing well being to the whole experience in a fulfilling way. Peace.

I can agree it seems like so many will place hoops and obstacles in the way, in many degrees and levels of them, so it appears it's all one huge series of things one 'gotta do' before we can 'git it dun'. That's what transcending is all about though, 'being it' all the while regardless of what comes along, even if we are still plagued by 'undesirable(coughtrashcough)circumstances' you may be thinking you have to wait out. Actually, consciously transcending is 'being it' all the while, especially because of those things you may think you are waiting out. Will it change? Yes, it will change..... will it change into a way you seek?... maybe, maybe not, that depends on our inner work... but even if life becomes a less appreciated state of existence we can still 'be' the thing you think you are waiting the trash out to finally be. That's the point of transcending it, we see through awareness the absolute potential in the fulfilled state even though the mind, by way of the sensory fed brain, experiences the ebb and flow of existence filled with the trash... and the treasure. The only influence we have is in the present moment to be whatever we intend to be in that moment and the moment-um of that fill each unfolding moment...um. Of course letting go of expectations, another facet of the mind's paradigm, that once transcended allows us to be at peace with the outcome regardless of what it brings. So transcend the trappings and observe it all with the peace of being in awareness of the absolute potential fulfilled, that is enlightenment! Be it now! It's that simple even if the mind doesn't want to believe it and tries to convince there needs to be a complicated process to wait out.

I beat my ego in chess every time because I know all it's moves.

Perfect can mean 'without flaws' but it also can mean 'complete'. The logical part of our mind fixates on the 'without flaws' meaning but it may be that some are attempting to express a completeness when they use the word perfect. So when some say the universe is perfect it baffles the logical mind when they see the misery and suffering in the world and question it being perfect by interpreting it as without flaws. Another example of words falling short for expressing.

It's spiritualist rhetoric that is illustrating a contrast in differing mindsets of being awake in awareness or asleep to awareness. Some people take it more literally in understanding, some more metaphorically, find whatever interpretation works for you and be at peace with it. If there are other meanings you gain through your own inner work then let those understandings illuminate your own life but be conscious that spiritual work is subjective so they may be specified to your own experience and not universal.

Is it any surprise the mind is under the ideological delusion that removing ideological delusion is the way to spiritual awakening? Spiritual awakening isn't just transcending the "false" in our mind, it's transcending all of it, including the "truth" in our mind. What confounds the mind about spiritual awakening is that it's not a process of the mind, it's transcending the processes of the mind.

@LifeandDeath I hear people say that about awareness, too. Although, my feeble human mind can be aware of it being aware even with the load of manifest ego conscious of itself so absolute consciousness is infinitely much more aware and we have the ability to tap that through our own awareness.

@LifeandDeath Our consciousness in it's most illuminated state is aware that it is awareness which manifests in the mind as our self conscious of itself. As we awaken our awareness to being aware our ego awakens to itself being an awakened awareness.... monkey see monkey do.... hehe Duality is just a paradigm of the mind, one that it uses to 2d "model" reality but awakening is like a quantum collapse in our consciousness so entangles infinite potential.

Well, we can be aware of our non-dual nature, that's what awakening is and enlightenment is us being aware of living in that nature, which the mind may never be able to understand.

As interesting and enticing all the information out there is to explore it is helpful to recognize it is the ego that can get preoccupied with all the ideas, concepts, methods, techniques and explanations of spirituality as a means of justifying itself. There is no real deep enlightenment work, it's uncomplicated, the depth and complication can come in trying to get the mind to get out of the way of enlightenment, which is simple in nature. When we are mindful of the present moment that is all enlightenment is, no ideas and concepts, no methods or techniques, it's simply being present in the moment. Obviously the mind will wander or it will constantly being trying to quantify and identify the experience so it can "remember" it.for reference. This is what distracts us from being present and interrupts the enlightenment experience so will interfere with the momentum, for a lack of a better word. in our consciousness. This is why people have amazingly powerful enlightenment experiences on psychedelics because it chemically inhibits the mind from disrupting the experience in our consciousness. The key to bringing this to every day life is to cultivate our mind to inhibit it's own natural tendencies to interrupt the enlightenment experience by identifying and labeling everything. All the information we will be exposed to in spiritual circles is actually more fodder for distraction, keep it simple, just do the simple task of staying present and all the understanding gained from it will be spontaneous revelations that is relevant to your own path. Reading the stories of everybody's experience doesn't replace our own and much of the information we may learn from those other's stories is virtually useless. Get back to living your life with what you got going on and if you want to expand your spiritual presence just stick to being present in the moment, there's not much more to enlightenment than that anyway. It's kind of disappointing for the information seeking mind to remove it's fixation from the process but no amount of philosophical understanding will culminate in an enlightenment experience, it's the simple exercise of being present. Those "amplified" experiences of enlightenment we can have and see from well known speakers will happen in us when we bring every aspect of our consciousness in unity of being present I'm speaking to you from experience, not theory learned from other people's stories. Peace.

Thinking and believing one knows the truth is a delusion.

The way you are thinking and feeling about it is understandable. People close to you in real life, they are more likely to hear things they don't agree with and still be respectful with you. On the internet the electronic separation and relative anonymity allows people to be less respectful with others and it seems they have less ability to stomach a differing opinion gracefully. In this technological environment the attacks some will launch are vicious and the escalating outrage over insignificant words is the norm. So it's understandable if someone would want to avoid attracting the ire of people who find words so intolerable they cannot restrain themselves. Some people thrive in this climate, they enjoy the hostility, welcome the attention even if it's negative and seek out the controversial topics to empower themselves in self aggrandizement by it. Although, it seems you are more empathetic of others and don't wish to instigate harsh feelings from just words so self censor. Nobody else can decide for you what you can bear or what topics are suitable for you to express yourself on. Find your peace and joy in doing whatever it is you choose to do.

Yes, it is. The majority of issues people are dealing with are our unconscious mind habituation, it seems to bubble up in uncontrollable ways. Although, we actually have the ability to alter our unconscious programming through subliminal influences. It really is unconscious mechanisms but since it eventually rises up to our conscious mind I refer to it as subconscious work, that subtle grey area between the conscious and unconscious. Use the senses like smell, sound, taste and the others to give subliminal prompts towards new patterns, the monkey mind is a simple creature as I said. Such as, spend some meditative time using intentionally directed thoughts supported by a unique smell, an essence oil or some fragrance scent that you don't ever come across normally. Visualize yourself experiencing the triggers but with the intended new associations while you are simultaneously smelling this scent. Place this scent on something you will keep with you, a woven bracelet to wear on the arm or cotton ball in a pocket, whatever works for you. Whenever you incidentally get a whiff of this scent through the day intentionally reinforce the new associations with that visualization. When you become aware of the trigger being hit use the scent to stimulate the new patterns instead of the old by intentionally reinforcing some more. It likely won't work seamlessly right away but eventually the old habit will be replaced with the new and the unconscious mind will retain the new association with the trigger. Then the training wheels of the scent won't be needed anymore. If you create healthy productive associations with the trigger it will cycle in healthy productive ways unconsciously while intentionally it can be strengthened in the present moment of it happening. Of course you can use tea or chewing gum or whatever it is that works for you but it must be an uncommon sensory stimuli so you can allow for it to be reinforced without going "numb" to the sensory input by overexposure. Monkey mind is easy to train with repetitive reinforcement.

Identify the triggers that bring on the initial impulses and work on disconnecting the mental and emotional response associations by intentionally supplanting them with preferred associations. It's not just enough to work on stopping the cycling but redirecting the process into a new pattern so the cycle won't be the same old pattern. The unconscious mind is a simple creature so just work with it using it's primal sensory means and the fruit pf you effort will blossom forth from it. This is really more about monkey mechanic work than it is advanced engineering design.

I'm present 100% of the time..... now, how much of that am I aware of being present? Hmmmmm.... increasing amounts.

I am just beeing in the present moment. Buzzed....

It's a self fulfilling expectation when someone who views things with dualism mindset will only recognize what others are doing as part of that dualism they see regardless of what it really is. What is evident when a dualism mindset is expressed as good and evil is that it's difficult to not find oneself dividing up everything into two piles attributing good to one of them and the other gets called evil. This goes on with every matter the mind sets itself upon until one comes across differing opinions, so they decide their own is considered "good" and the one that isn't like their own is called "evil". Religions are built on this, politics are defined this way, all ideology is framed as such when the mind only views things in a dualism. Through this means it often is used to justify behavior though it may be abusive towards others because they view their own way as right and good but that other with the different ways are evil and wrong. They don't see their behavior for what it is because in their mind their own way has been anointed as good. It may not rise to such dramatic characterizations in every instance but the fruit of dualism mindset can even be found when someone will portray other's differing ways in a negative light. Positive and negative is a more polite way of exercising the dualism in someone's mind but it still is that way of interpreting things. Healing is healing.... hurting is hurting and no effect is no effect, do we need to use overarching absolutist labels of good and evil to distinguish them from each other? Does this mean dualism is evil? Is it wrong? A dualism mindset will likely interpret my words in such ways but to one who doesn't have it recognizes it is what it is, it's dualism.

A cheetah catches prey, then along comes some lion who runs off the cheetah and steals it away... is it called evil or natural?. Someone buys a sandwich, then along I come and run them off, steals the sandwich... is it called evil or natural? In the "story" of the garden of Eden they were supposedly in a certain original state but "fell" from it when they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I don't believe in mythical tales from religious books but I can't help to notice the message in this one, it's quite revealing. Abuse is what it is but if we don't label it "evil" does it cease to be abuse? The label doesn't change what it is. What about working on certain days or ways? Or eating certain foods? Or identifying as self? Does the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil feed your mind's views?

@Salaam So you mischaracterize what I said about not owning things that were given to us and not of our own choosing into something that it's not.. Making explicitly negative misrepresentations about a way different from your own but you are offended by supposed "name calling"? As someone who suffered many forms of abuse as a child, none of that which happened to me was mine and me not owning it or any of the thoughts and pain that plagued my young life from it allowed me to transcend it to be at peace, joyful and free. I am not responsible for the abuse of my childhood and have no obligation to take responsibility for the thoughts and pain from it, I release them, they aren't me or mine. I choose this present moment, the now to be what I am and what I intend for my experience, not let things I didn't choose be me or mine. I was not calling your way wrong or trying to disprove it but how you react to a differing way is evidence of intolerance. It seems your methods are failing you if you cannot handle a different view without casting aspersions, my presence in this thread may be exactly what it needs.

People with strongly held opinions often believe in them as being "right, good and true" using it to create self identity in separating themselves from what they think is "wrong, bad and false" so oppose it. In someone who is working to remove self identifying dualism from the mind those that believe strongly in their own ideas see just another "wrong, bad and false" to be against. There is no way reach those who want and gain self value from the separation with appeals from what they are in opposition to.

Good and Evil Perfect and Imperfect Truth and False.... in the spiritual sense. These are black and white dualism absolutes projected onto existence.that really is comprised of a rainbow spectrum. Just another belief system imposed by the mind on everything.

Well, when you falsely characterize another's way while citing a word like disassociation that is used for a psychosis by mental health professionals then project your own emotions on them because they offer an alternative view to your own is the type of thing that is found with self righteous bigotry thinking that only their own way is the right, good and true way to live and others are wrong, bad and false, that's not a leader or caretaker of the world. This is what's ails the world, not heals it and you may be too identified with your beliefs to see through your illusion.

Don't worry about nice guys and assholes stuff, be genuine and fulfilled with who you are. This will attract a person that embodies the same spirit.

Anger? Haha... why are you projecting emotions onto me? All I did was provide an alternative way when you said there was an "only way", I didn't mean to offend you by it. Although the way you responded to it and characterized my alternative didn't show much respect towards someone being that way. Is that how "authentic leaders and caretakers of this world" react when confronted with a differing view?