Joseph Maynor

I'm ready! Ready for the voyage!

That's what I'm gonna do now then. Cool. Thank you!

@Shanmugam Understood. Thanks for the clarification. I realize words are elusive without contextual details. Especially with enlightenment concepts which are already little models parroting the Truth at best.

I get this, but I want some more elaboration from you. The distinction between awareness and things aware of is false. The Self is Truth. Atman (Self) = Brahman (Truth). The Truth is embedded in awareness, so all of reality is like the Self's body. So the container and the stuff contained is a false distinction. Similar to the false inner and outer distinction. All of Reality is one flow. I'm doing inquiry on this right now. So, this is not just philosophizing.

@TJ Reeves The issue is spiritual bypassing. Emerald does a great video on this. I have been guilty of spiritual bypassing too. It's a manifestation of the spiritual ego. And the spiritual ego is still the ego. The person who is truly enlightened has nothing else to seek. They've gotten off the teet, so to speak. Intellectual masturbation is an addiction and a manifestation of ego. And a huge trap. Enlightenment is about being, not thinking. It is about embodiment. People who turn enlightenment into another truth or ideology are still stuck in Stage Orange or Stage Green, not Stage Yellow yet. "If you're so enlightened then you should have no problem making more friends naturally simply by going about your day." Yeah, when you're enlightened your social insecurities and fears should end and you should be acting out, out, out like an extrovert rather than being stuck in your head.

I keep hearing here and there that the stoic approach to spirituality is wrong in certain ways. Let's discuss this! This is not a basic question, it is a deeper question.

Read Leo's blog post on The Origin of Worship. https://www.actualized.org/insights/the-origin-of-worship

I don't know that the world is illusory. Reality is very real. I was hung up on the idea that reality is illusory myself until recently. No, reality is real. The perceptual field is real. There is just no you perceiving it. You are it. What is illusory is the conceptual augmentation of reality.

All of reality is your body. Watch this video.

@John Iverson Do nothing

I think I'm getting to this place now.

Some people describe post-enlightenment as feeling like God. This gets tricky because our normal concept of God is very egoic. So, whatever these people are talking about would have to be explained in more detail to have any useful sense.

@Leo Gura I'm interested in Kundalini Yoga and Chakra work. That is really resonating with me.

You are the awareness that contains visual content that the ego conceptualizes as the body. But think deeper about the body. What is the body stripped of all concept? What is the body to awareness?

@Leo Gura I can see how it can take some time to get used to it and to explore it. It's a radically different way of looking at and living in reality. It's like being reborn as the watcher. Maybe it's a re-incarnation. Who's to say that enlightenment is not a death and re-birth. It's definitely a transformation. How that transformation is conceptualized versus how it happened in reality are two different things. I get the feeling that most of you believe what happened is that beliefs were changed. Thoughts were simply held differently. The ego was forced to eat itself. It could no longer stand on a rational foundation, it's own standard, so it gave up the ghost! When you live by the sword you may die by the sword too.

After enlightenment, doesn't the ego stop seeking almost by definition? The spiritual ego is still the ego, no? What more do you need to find? The Self hides nothing. http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/who_am_I.pdf

You should stop wondering if you should do it and just watch yourself. You have no control over it. Egoic control is illusory. The ego fights for control over something it has no control over. Awareness alone is curative. This is super advanced advice though so it might do you more harm right now than good. This video might help you.

No reading No audiobooks No discussing personal development No discussing enlightenment No philosophizing No judgments No theorizing No shadow work No self-therapy No arguing Practicing the principle of not-knowing This is what I'm thinking of doing from August 2017 (next month) through January 2018, 6 months. What do you think? I think this is the ride I need to go on. I'll do it just to see what happens. This is gonna be a trip because I've always been such a conceptual dude. Not reading for me feels really weird after a week or so. I'll still keep up to date with all of you through my self-actualization journal during that time. But I feel like if I don't take a deep-dive and do this, I'll never really find out about this stuff fully. I don't think you can half-ass this stuff. Our world is too conceptual -- we live it and breathe it all the time. It's like pretending you got off the junk-food but you're still eating bagels all the time thinking you're much healthier now.

@Dodo I know. I watched that video. It is basically a description of what it's like to be enlightened. Here it is, watch it. This video is awesome. I outlined each of the items on a piece of paper.

I watched Leo's video on authenticity. But, from a practical standpoint, I still don't understand what it means to live authentically. If my highest self is nothingness, what the hell does it mean to act authentically? There is no authentic self. That's an illusion. Honestly, I do not understand this concept. I understand living virtuously, but there is no authentic core to you. That's all ego. Personality is all ego, all illusion. Maybe we should be resisting the notion of authentic self. It solidifies us into thinking that the egoic self is the true self. Please watch these two videos back to back and then comment.

@Not a shaolin monk If you increase your awareness to a high enough level "you" will stop planning. There is no "you" that plans. Watch planning happen instead. The Self is aware of planning but does not plan. But feed your mind the right knowledge so it can use it. So it is good to learn about strategizing and planning. But "you" do not strategize or plan. That's an illusion. It's almost like knowledge is food for the subconscious mind, but it is never acted on consciously. So, you do want to learn about planning and strategizing to have those options there, but "you" do not strategize or plan. It just happens, there is no "doer". There is only an observer. The Self watches all this happen like sipping a cocktail on a beach just people watching, in total openness, acceptance, and bliss. There is nothing to do. Watch this video. It made a huge impact on me. And watch this one.

@Prabhaker I'm starting to believe this. But there's an egoic fear that crops up saying -- maybe you need to know something more! But what more could you learn by thinking? The Self transcends thinking. Theory building appears to stand at cross-purposes to "knowledge" of the Self. Once you see the Self, what more could you really gain by theorizing?

I understand this science dogma myself. I was a philosophy major and a very rational person up until recently. The thing is that with enlightenment you gotta advance to more of a post-rationalist paradigm. You gotta build a beautiful raft, but once you get across the river, you gotta leave it behind rather than carry it with you. Science is useful, it just doesn't operate at the level of absolute truth. Watch these two videos.

I don't do a lot of drugs and have been making huge progress lately. I've done psychedelics in the past, so I can draw from that. Maybe for the most advanced work psychedelics can be useful. But you can make huge progress with enlightenment without drugs. What you need to do is change some paradigms. So it is a belief issue. A theoretical issue ironically. The irony is there because after learning the theory and seeing the Truth, you gotta dump the theory. I can tell you this though -- alcohol destroys consciousness. Booze is the enemy for mindfulness. I don't drink anymore, but now I think this is why booze destroys lives and causes a lot of social problems. Booze and ego go together like ham and eggs.

@Truth. I think I understand it, but it's tricky to put into words. You do have a deep sense of your highest values. But what if those traits are simply egoic? How can I really have traits in reality? Traits are all thought-stories. Sure, maybe you have some deep traits embedded in there, but none of those traits exist in Truth. Reality lacks traits. Traits are beliefs, thoughts, all egoic. What you are is the observer, and the observer lacks authenticity because it is not a thing. Maybe if a person did enough shadow-work they could scrub themselves of all vestiges of authenticity. Just a hypothesis.