SOUL

Well @Revolutionary Think I don't see a purpose in life, I'm just being. Although, I also don't see my way as "right" so find your own way to what you seek if it brings contentment to do so.

@Revolutionary Think There's always more than one way to the top of the mountain, find your own way.

Where? Here and when.... now.

My, my, my, how mystical.

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To forget what is believed in the mind so all that remains is what is so be it.

Consciousness is infinite potential, awareness is manifest in us as it's genuine nature of infinite potential but becomes determined as a "personality" if we allow the infinite potential awareness in us to agree with a personality.

Physical reality exists as it does regardless of thoughts about it although thoughts are a part of the physical reality. Thoughts are merely a tool used by our brain to display information in our mind to give context to the experience we are having. How useful those tools are for the task varies greatly and if a person finds the ones they have to be useless they can seek to influence the tool kit the mind has. We have thoughts, we are not our thoughts, they are merely tools so don't be our thoughts, don't be a tool.

@Ramu I can understand the passion. I also can understand the frustration with reductionist.ideas from rationalists. It's a paradox in that just being in the now, allowing our consciousness to be filled with just being is something that a conditioned mind may understand in theory but cannot do....by just being, so simple, just being. So a seeker will go through lots of studying, practices and deep understandings just to prepared the mind by undoing the conditioning so...they can just be. Haha. Simple solution that often takes many complicated exercises just to be able to do the simple solution....just being here now. Too often people will get lost along the way in all the concepts, ideas and understandings, too easy to get consumed by this technique or that practice and see it all as the way to achieve "enlightenment" when simply it's..... just be here now. I also acknowledge in saying I am grateful and appreciate the graciousness of your words.

@Ramu You can believe any way you choose to from your own experience but the moment you project that belief onto others and tell them it's their way, too, it becomes dogma. That being said I'm not sure what I said that triggered you, it's straight forward enough, is compatible with what you said and don't know why you felt the need to come at me about your issue with it. Our consciousness gets 'dimmed' by the preoccupation with the temporal life, enlightenment is bringing back the illumination to our consciousness. Ultimately the more deeper enlightenment understandings are ones that may be something a person can aspire to but this thread was started by a self professed "newbie" so I was addressing it in a simplified way. I find that much of the more advanced enlightenment rhetoric can be kind of elitist sounding and very abstract so can be difficult for some to understand. Seems like that issue with "rationalists" is something you may seek to let go of, I didn't intend to trigger anyone.

@Barna Why don't you ask a dog, cat or bird you come across "why" they act to keep life if there is no meaning, I'm sure the answer would be enlightening. Hehe

I'm not one of the people who confuses "illusion" for "does not exist", things are what they are regardless of what we perceive them as. If you don't value living your life for whatever reason then you may not see any value in retaining the information to keep yourself alive and prospering. I'm not here to explain to you "why" you should, that's up to you to figure out. Sometimes self-inquiry can instead be over thinking it.

Who said anything about "bad"? I didn't. Pain is what it is, regardless of what it "means" to us.

@Barna Well, symbolism is us attaching 'meaning' to something, right? Things are what they are. Fire is fire and it has properties that can have uses, it can warm us on a cold night but it can also burn us. The symbology comes in when we apply attributes to fire that aren't naturally inherent of it, what it 'means' to us. So we are symbolizing fire as something other than the element's natural properties and effects. Duality is often expressed in symbolic terms but isn't limited to it. Symbolism can be expressed in dualism but isn't limited to it. Oh and how to manage it is to live life physically on the inherent properties of things even if we are pursuing a deeper perception of enlightenment. Even if we think it's an illusion, the bus will hurt if it hits us, jump!

What works for me is drumming...hand drumming. I found that bare hand slapping skin is a wonderful way to vent anger. It also has some awesome side effects for being a meditate tool as well as emanating beautiful sounds that some interpret positively.

All religions are the same? So the one that says people are going to hell to be tormented for eternity unless they believe a certain way is the same as your own ideas?

@Dodoster would you say the same thing about the ultimate truth of Christians? What about Muslims? Any of the religions? How about mine? Does my personal revelation subject you to it?

When someone says a personal revelation is a universal truth for everyone it is a limiting belief, they are limiting, in their own mind, what they think others can have revealed to them personally in their enlightenment. They are also limiting themselves to the belief, by clinging to a paradigm they believe in and not allowing their mind to continue enlightening..

With enlightenment there is much to personal experience and that is subjectively attained understanding. Too often people think that because they had a personal enlightenment experience of understanding that matches what their teacher, if they have one, or others have had it makes it more credible. Even if a million "enlightened" seekers agree with what I have found in my own enlightenment revelation it doesn't make it any more "universally true" than if not one other agrees. When someone says "it is all one", that's personal revelation, when someone says "it is all nothingness" it's personal revelation, when it's said "there is no self" this is more personal revelation. When they say, "this is the way it is for everyone" so assenting a universal truth for all from their own personal revelation it is exercising a paradigm of limiting belief.

What you are illustrating is the trap of the dualism mindset. To be able to create identity the ego constructs poles in the mind to orient itself. Which is why I laugh with an infinite laughter when people refer to nothingness, that's a mindset still trapped in dualism. I find that the same dualism mindset is revealed from the belief in the concept of true and false. Enlightenment is the process of illuminating, it begins in when we consciously make the effort to do so and can continue infinitely.

Awareness is aware of being aware.and in being aware of it's awareness the manifest exists so that the observer can observe itself. Which is why the enlightenment path is one where we are focusing our temporal observer on the infinite observer because through that we are realizing awareness is aware of being aware through the manifest to enlighten it.

Awareness is aware of being aware.

Life and existence manifests and we are now here consciously being in it.

Hope for the best but expect nothing. Although, we've had a alot of time to enlighten as a species so a realistic viewpoint is useful in navigating in life.

People tend to think of it as an absolute, either there is free will or there isn't. I recognize how there is both in my consciousness.