Joseph Maynor

Being does have a kind of indirect control through awareness. Awareness can improve your movie. That's the relation. Awareness alone is curative. Awareness is a feature of Being. So, you can improve your movie by heightening your awareness. But, still, you have no control over the result. The dream has to auto-correct, you don't have any control over that. But you can see the problems: notice them. That is part of Being, and that you can "control". You're the watcher. A good watcher sees all the shit. The more shit you see, the more your movie cleans up its act. It's a weird cause/effect relation that seems to transcend free-will. Free-will assumes there's a self, so there is no free-will because there's no self. Although there is no self and thus no free-will, awareness still can cleanse your dream and steer it from a nightmare to a fantasy or somewhere in between. So, Being doesn't have direct control, more like an indirect control. Being has indirect control by its noticing capability. Awareness alone is curative. Being is non-symbolic, pure, transparent, empty awareness in the present moment. You are Being. Videos on point:

It's funny that we're arguing over the answer here. There's a paradox in there too. One of the things I realized is that when you shack-up with the mind you get fleas. Being just is. All rationalizations are thought-stories. You are non-symbolic, pure, empty, awareness, in the present moment. And that is Being. Of course this is just a monkey-mind description. You have to see what this monkey-speak is pointing you to. Where in this do you find people or things? You are no-thing. I take this literally. Well, what it's pointing to that is.

Mind includes thoughts. I'm trying to determine if mind is a constant bystander of Being. What about when you dream? Is the mind there too? What about during your ego-death trips? Can Being ever totally break free from the mind?

@dorg Well said. I agree.

Keep meditating. Try to let the mind take a nap when you meditate. Don't force it to, but don't be thinking when you're meditating either. Just do do nothing meditation for 30 minutes. Get in touch with the body. Let the mind do what it wants, but don't encourage it. Just appreciate Being in the present moment. Notice everything you are aware of -- sounds, images, thoughts, emotions, touch, taste. Notice that thoughts are real as sensations, but the images, ideas, visualizations, are taken by the mind to be real when they are not real. There is a giant illusion going on with thoughts. But then thoughts do exist as sensations. Thoughts are both True and false. This is a very nice area to do inquiry work!

I've been catching up on some sleep today and dreaming a lot. One of the insights I had is that dreaming is no different than being awake. When I dream I am Being just as much as when I am wake. I don't have any control in either.

Realize they don't exist and you have no control. You're just the watcher. A watcher of a dream who has taken the simulation too literally due to the devil mind.

@Max_V From my perspective -- Being perspective -- there's never any gaps.

I'm inclined to think the only thing I'm sure about is Being in the present moment. Other things existing, including other people is a thought-story. So, I guess I do gravitate to a kind of solipsism, although that would be a thought-story too. Being just is.

Thank you Leo for your contributions to the Good in our world. You are a great role model and teacher to me, and I'm sure others would say the same if asked how they feel.

Everything non-symbolic about other people is something perceived in Being, and therefore part of God, part of you. Symbols exist, but how they comment on or represent what is True is illusory. Truth = Being. So, the phenomenological aspects of anything sensed in Being is you, is God. No-thing properly exists. Saying things exist is just a mental symbol being clung to as Truth. You are watching a movie play itself out, and the key error is identifying with aspects of it as anything other than Being. That's all mind stuff. The mind is a tricky bastard. The phenomenological aspects of everything is you. Even thoughts are you, they just need to keep their opinions to themselves. Thoughts are very vocal about Truth.

There is no you. There is no control. All there is is Being in the present moment.

All there is is Being the Truth. Other entities are just thought-stories. You are watching a dream. The only part of the dream that's real is the non-symbolic awareness in the moment.

@Nardo Don't forget that you do exist as pure, transparent, empty awareness, or Being. I resonate with a lot of what you said.

I'm a bad dream that wants to become a better dream, and maybe one day a good dream.

@TimStr I'm not sure you can experience true ego-death by meditation alone. You need something to really get up under the Ego like a psychedelic. Meditation does a lot of things, but I'm not sure it can trigger a true ego-death experience.

It doesn't make sense to say that a person is enlightened or not. Being doesn't talk, it just takes notice. It's seems kinda silly to say that something that is illusory is enlightened or not. Right?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_death

I think Leo described it like this, which is very cool -- Pure, transparent, empty awareness. So, I am pure, transparent, empty awareness. Being that is Being. Of course, these words can only serve to point. So, let's fix this right now -- ready! Ok. I am kinda sorta like pure, transparent, empty awareness. There! Fixed. This video gets at your question:

Yes. But I have gone without it too. Your life gets a lot cleaner, healthier, and happier almost at a direct proportion to the extent that you can stay away from news, and other distracting forms of culture. Happiness = 1/Shit It's a reciprocal relationship. So, the lower the Shit variable, the higher the Happiness variable will be. The higher the Happiness variable, the lower the Shit variable will be. We all know what Shit is. It doesn't need a definition. It just needs to be stayed away from. Our problem is not that we lack a definition of Shit; our problem is actually stopping to cling to it. Be aware of how Shit robs you of peace, happiness, joy, carefreeness, calm, stillness, tranquility, creativity, etc. Once you fully become aware of this, you will naturally release from Shit. Great vid that gets at the bigger issue: Another vid on point:

That's a good question. Does anyone have any control though? Or is the control just another perception in awareness. Video on point:

Maybe it's a good thing. Maybe it's a bad thing. Watch this video: