Forestluv

That’s a good point. Yet is not this statement itself relative? Can A and -A always be valid teachings depending on the seeker? That would suggest all teachings have relative validity. Such that the teaching: a triflet of pogard is shoglin to mestan - has validity (as does it’s opposite) depending on the seeker. I think most would consider that teaching to be nonsense. Yet, I suppose if one person considered it valid, then it becomes valid.

Yes, as are all words and concepts. The terms “closer” and “distant” are concessions to the dualism inherent in language. I’m more interested in which might be a better relative pointer than the words themselves as being true. In the absolute, are not all statements both true and false (or neither true nor false)? In the relative, do not all statements have partial truth?

This seems like a dance between subjective perception / meaning of “what is” and an objective “what really is”. If so, what is “really is”? Can what “really is” be determined?

Is it fair to say there is awareness of existence? Or is it closer to the truth to say nothing exists to be aware of?

You mention the pointer dispels ignorance and what remains is Self. Yet is not the ignorance “within” Self? Is not ignorance Self? What would be the distinction between ignorance and Self?

@Mikael89 It’s fine to disagree. Let’s just keep it civil and avoid inflamatory language.

Perhaps it may be more important to become aware of attachment and identification to one’s thoughts, rather than stopping one’s thoughts. This may help a mind to relax.

@Marinador It can lead to flow states of consciousness, especially when someone is skilled at the sport and there is a moderate amount of risk involved.

@TheWokestMan I would be cautious about tripping in the 115-345ug range weekly. The tolerance reset is about 12 days. As well, the “magic” generally declines with weekly tripping in that range. It’s just not sustainable. Perhaps consider doing micro/mini dose 3X monthly and a strong dose 1X monthly and work to integrate with contemplation and kriya yoga. This may help raise your baseline conscious level.

I don’t think it’s about being pro or anti-psychedelic. A mature holistic view based on extensive research and experience will integrate pros and cons and understand the relativity of those pros and cons. As well, a holistic view would integrate psychedelics into a well-rounded spiritual life that also includes practices such as yoga, contemplation, therapy, meditation, retreats etc. Again, depending on the person and their stage of spiritual maturity. I agree with you that psychedelics are often counter-productive with people that are spiritually immature. The OP stated positive changes to his mind and body. Statements like “ if anything at this point your psychedelics trips are burning out your nervous system. As opposed to anything positive.” are based on assumption. While I see risks in weekly psychedelic consumption and generally consider it unwise and unsustainable, studies have shown psychedelics to be among the least harmful substances. As well, research published in the highest level scientific journals have shown psychedelics to improve neural functioning by stimulating neurite growth, synaptic strength and neural plasticity. In contrast, psychedelics can also be ineffective, misleading and counter-productive. Especially for young users that are spiritually immature. When misused, psychedelics can be damaging. Yet, psychedelics are not inherently harmful - it is context dependent. As well, I would be cautious about assumming psychedelics as the sole causative agent of personal problems that may arise after its use. It’s more complicated than that. There are many input variables that need to be considered.

@Arhattobe Of course psychedelics can be misused and will not aid all seekers. Yet, the same could be said of any tool. It seems like you are projecting a slice of truth as generalized truth. This is a story your mind has made up about psychedelics. I’m not saying what you write about psychedelics is “wrong”. Yet, I think it’s a relatively narrow black-white perspective that is not open to the bigger picture.

This sounds vague and assumptive to me. What is your direct experience with psychedelics?

That’s true in a relative context. That is relative love, which can be beautiful. That relative, conditional love can expand. What if that parent’s love for their child expanded to include their entire family? And then expanded to include all abused children. And then suffering refugees, then suffering animals, then people with psychoses, then suffering criminals, then all of humanity. What if that love expanded to include the entire universe?

The breath came before the intellect. It’s nice to give the intellect a rest and let the breath take over.

@bejapuskas In terms of thinking lines, rational/logical thought (orange) is followed by cultural relativism (green) and full relativism (yellow). It could also be described as a transition from egocentric/ethnocentric to worldcentric to integrative. As well, Green includes a lot of human connection and emotions/feelings. Green isn’t a walking analytical head typical of Orange. Green is able to experience empathy, intuition, love, vulnerability and mutual support at a deeper level than Orange.

Sometimes I play Tibetan singing bowls and just drift away. Usually consciousness drifts in and out of “me”. I’ve never gone 35-40 in a no-self state though. Do you think binural beats were helpful in inducing that state? Is it a mind state you would like to return to?

@Charlotte Was there any awareness present? Sometimes when my self dissolves, there is no concept of time and no “experiencer”, just experience. When the self “returns” it seems like absent time because “he” wasn’t there.

I lived in Eugene for five years. It's pretty much Green cultural immersion. The Emerald Valley. . .

@graded24 Just out of curiosity, would you say that this centeredless awareness resided in the mind-body? Or that the awareness was beyond mind-body. For example, the awareness was the entire room. I’ve recently had some experiences in which awareness was outside of, yet included, the mind-body. Not quite astral projection, because the awareness wasn’t centered at a point. It was nowhere and everywhere in the room.

@Nahm ? ? ?

@SoonHei Ime, the concepts are important as a foundation for direct experience. Without a conceptual framework, the mind may dismiss mystical experiences as “woo woo”. My concern with concepts is attachment and identification with concepts. The concepts themselves are simply more ISness. Yes, I’d say ISness is more fundamental than AMness because the mind is more likely to identify with AMness. It’s easier to personalize AMness. For example, it’s easy for the mind to think “I am this”. Yet resistant to “The rock am this”.

@SQAAD I would be mindful of creating an “enlightenment story”. This can create expectations and a sense of something to be acheived. I.e. an assumption that some type of event happens to a person. Perhaps shift the original question and contemplate “Is what is permanent or not?”.

@SoonHei Within the constructs of time and progress, I’d say there were several insights planted in my mind-body that coalesced. During a spiritual retreat in Peru, the “I AM” was revealed through direct experience during a ceremony. At the end of the ceremony, the shaman spoke of the “I AM” and there was a rudimentary embodiment. This was a radically different state of being, and as I wandered around South America for the next three months, consciousness flowed into, and out, of the I AM. One helpful thing the shaman said was to be mindful whenever we add something on to the I AM. “I am a kind person”, “I am depressed”, “I am a teacher”, “I am American” etc. Sometimes this has practical use when interacting with people, yet awareness arose of the identification to what is being attached to the I Am. I’d be sitting in a collectivo for hours and realize I was immersed in identifying with “I am. . . this or that”. This conditining kept popping up and for months I kept “returning” to the I AM state of mind. For me, this was just a simple recognition and letting go of the add-ons to the “I AM”. After about a year of this de-conditioning, a sense of grounding and peace within the I AM arose. It became fairly easy to relax into it. Then, I watched a Rupert Spira video in which he used an analogy of an observer watching a movie. This observer he spoke of connected to the I AM direct experience within me. Then he said that this was an intermediate stage. I thought “wth, there is another stage? No way”. Yet when he spoke of the collapse between observer and object during the next stage, there was a sense of truth there that hadn’t been embodied in my mind-body, One day I was walking in the woods simply “I AM-ing” with nature. Spira’s movie analogy arose in the mind and a conscious state of awareness of the “nature movie” that I AM was observing. Then a thought/image/sense arose that the real movie was about an “I AM” character in a movie theater watching a movie. This was a radical recontextualization that lasted a couple minutes. Then, it spiraled into a movie of a movie of a movie. . . on and on into an insanity zone - it was beyond what the mind could comprehend. It expanded into infinity and disappeared. No observer. No movie. Just ISness. Sometimes that “place” just arises. Other times, a thought process or concentration practice may reveal “it”. Once this was revealed, there was a shift in the source of seeking energy. The seeking energy to find answers and figure it out dissolved. The desire to travel to monasteries and ashrams dissolved. Reading texts telling the reader what “it” is lost it’s appeal. A new energy arose seeking exploration and to return to the direct experience of ISness. Speakers that spoke of the experience and essence of this Am-ness and ISness resonated with me. It is temtpting to create a “place” of this ISness within the mind. Yet it cannot be located or found as a place within a timeline, because it is always present here and now. All thoughts, actions, places, things are ISness. Once there was a clear “seeing” of this, the game was exposed as a game and the “I” cannot unsee that. Yet, various states of relative consciousness arise. Thoughts, emotions and mind states appear and disappear within the timeline, yet “underling” these appearances/disappearances is an unchanging ISness. This is all just an story within an illusory timeline. Yet, it is also a story that arises as ISness in this eternal moment. The I AM is not identified with this story - that would be an “add-on”. There is no “I” to take ownership of the story. There is no experiencer that experienced the story. It would be more truthful to say the story arises within what IS, similar to how a story sung by a bird arises within what IS.

@SoonHei ♥️ ?

This seems like maturing awareness of an observer. A nonjudgemental awareness that simply observes. In the observing awareness of “I AM”, it is so tempting to add stuff on to the I AM. “I am awareness”, “I am an observer of thought” etc. This is subtle movement toward dual constructs. Movement toward nondual might be to drop the “I” in “I AM” and just be “AM”. Sit in the stillness of “AM-ness”. One experience that helped collapse the observer was the realization of observing the oberver. And not in intellectual theorizing. Rather, the awarenesd and experience of observing the observer. Then, awareness of observing the observer of the observer. This then spiraled into infinite observers observing an observer and the whole concept collapsed. “I Am” collapsed into “Am” which collapse into “IS”, which collapsed into nothing.