SOUL

To harm or hurt, which essentially is the inspiration behind concept of evil, has gray areas that are subjectively assessed.

When pooping outside don't dig the hole in the same spot twice.

@rrodriguez11 To put it simply, typically people are referring to the awareness part of consciousness that can observe the rest of the consciousness do it's thing. There is the subconscious, ego, thoughts as well as the emotional impulses and physical senses all of which comprise what is often called the self. Awareness, which is commonly viewed as distinct and an eternal aspect of consciousness can observe the self and all it's machinations happening. That is generally what is meant by self observation in spirituality.

Woah awesome

Y'all blissininnies

Yea, when I was a kid I called it happy but eventually I grew to understand it as being at peace.

Seeing someone as an authority is a widespread issue within the enlightenment and spirituality community and it even extends to speakers assuming a role of an authority even if they deny they are. It also includes the ideas and concepts that often get canonized as "truth", not just a personal truth but a universal truth that is said applies to everyone. I rarely go into the details about specific ones to dispute because I prefer to not to be contentious on subjective matters and that's what most of spirituality is, it's a personal experience with subjective revelations. It wouldn't surprise me that there are many who create a stumbling block for themselves from other people's ideas because it may not be reflective of their own experience.

Buddhism has dogma., if it doesn't why would anyone question if a teaching fits. There is even a significant amount of dogma with the ideas about illusion, beliefs, the mind, the self, ego and what or what doesn't exist or is real. Don't think so? Present a contrary view to the accepted one on any of those and see what happens. There are people who engage in spirituality just so they can learn a way to enjoy their life and have little interest in adhering to the belief system of 'nothingism'. Spirituality is subjective and there isn't a right way to do it any more than what works for the individual to accomplish what they seek.

Sound is an amazing tool for inner work.

No amount of intention, thinking or believing I am a unicorn will allow me to be a unicorn. There are dynamics and variables that influence everything so being aware of how these affect our life can allow us to work more effectively to achieve what we seek.

Being open to infinite possibility isn't the same as believing something is possible or not.. One is an indeterminate mindset, the other is a mindset that has been determined by taking a position. It's a nuanced understanding that is to stay open in being at peace with not knowing while the mind is always trying to decide it knows.

People keep trying to place things in and on the void, I guess that's what the mind will try to do, think it can know something that isn't knowable, The whole undefined and non-delineated everything-less that appears as if it's no-thing is still something so not the void. The "one" of all existence is not part of the void, neither is consciousness, everything didn't come from it and nothing goes to it. The void is absolute and infinite in it's absence of anything and everything. Meditate on that.

Not any more or less than it is to pleasure.

@Emerald I'm not going to go back and look but I think the person said the video was about childhood abuse or trauma. That is a particularly sensitive subject and I could see that topic could disturb someone. I'm not going to watch it all but the first couple of minutes leads me to think that may not be the one he was speaking about.

Hmmm.... projecting on to absolute infinity a temporary circumstance. I choose not to do such things and wouldn't recommend it to anybody.

Trillions of words are spoken if not more on the subject of spirituality and not one of them is useful in being. The words can be of use in explaining how to get the mind out of the way of being but they just as easily wind up placing more mind in the way of being.

@zazed Just being aware of being aware may be a very simple paradigm to be in the mind but that is still a type of orientation of consciousness, a paradigm. It could be said that it is exercising the least amount of mind meddling in the process of just being by avoiding the typical trappings associated with the mind. Some may call it the most natural way to orient our consciousness, some may say it's the "true" way or it's "real" but all of those is just adding mind meddling. If we are just being, it doesn't need an opinion of it how it relates to other ways for us to just be it.

Every person in every situation is a unique instance of it's own and examining the nature of the circumstances will help reveal the answer to that question.

The ego constructs a paradigm in the mind from ideas and concepts that appeals to it in which those ideals it values most it believes in although this issue can arise when it assumes it's valuable to everyone. Even the ideal I have about just being aware of being aware in the moment appeals and brings contentment to me, it's my mind's paradigm. With every spiritual speaker from Tolle to Hedderman to the Buddha, all of them has a paradigm of the mind they believe in. It can be robust and complicate or effortless and simple, it's not good or bad by nature, it's just the way the mind works. In spirituality "true" and "truth" aren't the same thing as it is in logic or science, this is where the confusion comes in. Spiritually "true" isn't factually accurate or logically reasonable, it's being loyal or adhering to a standard, so it's being true to our spiritual ideals. Truth is proven by us staying true to our spiritual ideals, if we say they are one thing but do another, it's isn't a spiritual truth, it's just an idea we don't do even if we try to call it our truth. Since spirituality and the ideals derived from it are subjective, what accounts for spiritual truth is different for every single one of us. There is no universal spiritual truth, big T little t, that's just rhetoric, spiritual truth is as individual as each one of us in our experience. When we act in accordance with our spiritual ideals we are being spiritually true and living our spiritual truth.

@Dodoster You can't describe the void no matter how many words you try to use and emptiness is just another concept in your mind. The void, I heard it's the spot to be but nobody and nothing has ever been there. bah

That isn't a question. Just be..... since we cannot be anything other than being. So the fulfillment of our potential as aware beings is being aware of being aware. The simple life.

@hinawashi We only fight wars we create so I made peace with it and don't make an enemy out of myself. Now there's no conflict.

Yes, being is a temporary effect only present in the now. Heh

@hinawashi ....are you at peace with this state of being?