Forestluv

I don’t know anymore ?‍♂️ Take anything I write with a grain of salt ?

@Mu_ Nice costume and video. I like the part about direct experience around 5min.

Yes, it is very easy for the self to attach to "spiritual" ideas. Such attachments lead to beliefs - which are "bullshit". Yet, it is also very easy for the self to avoid, dismiss and reject ideas - which is also "bullshit". There is a sweet spot in which one is aware of many ideas and perspectives without attachment or repulsion. I've found this to be important for direct experience. Without conceptual knowledge, I am likely to disregard direct mystical experiences as "woo woo".

Well said. This is the rationale of awakened teachers that use this approach. I've found that relaxing my personality via yoga, exercise, meditation, journaling etc. allows for a better space for the dissolution of the personality and heightened awareness. I think the key is: when the personality is relaxed, are you working toward reinforcing it, or transcending it? I like how Lisa Cairns explains it. . . after her nondual awakenings became abiding, she tried to teach people to awaken in one big shot. She found that students became confused, rebellious, depressed and suffered. About 2 years ago, her strategy evolved. She now teaches about 50% personal healing/improvement and 50% nonduality. She says this is much more effective in helping people to wake up.

The transcended perspective of a self is very different than the self's perspective of a self. Personalities appear within my mind-body consciousness - especially when I am around other people. How can I interact with other personalities without a personality? Yet, personalities also appear in my dreams while I am sleeping. How can the dream personality interact with other dream personalities without it's own personality? One realization is that none of the personalities are "real". Of course there will be dream characters after one has awakened - one just realizes they aren't real. There is nothing wrong with trying to create better dreams - I do it myself. It can be fun and interesting. Just like dancing and watching movies can be fun and interesting. Yet, trying to create a better dream character can also be a distraction from realizing it is only a dream character.

Nice work. I've had a similar experiences in a sensory deprivation tank. I kept letting go of more and more. Then, I eventually let go of letting go and was in a womb prior to birth. Everything I learned and knew after birth was erased. Then a "voice" appeared and said: "Ask". . . . So, I asked "What is genuine?". Then, I was shown genuine in a way I couldn't have imagined. Awakened beings, such as Adyashanti, have also spoken of this "downloading" of insights. To a rationalist, this is crazy irrational "whoo whoo" stuff. Yet it is a real mystical experience to one who has transcended the self. I would just be mindful if the self tries to take ownership of the insights.

Sure, from the perspective of a transcended self that can hold paradoxical views simultaneously. My impression of the video is that this is a from a perspective of the self. It is a self that wants to stay relevant and avoid awakening. It's not a bad thing. One must develop a self to transcend a self - or there would be nothing to transcend. One might as well develop a healthy self.

If you realize good and evil is a construct of the mind and don't exist - what's the problem? It's like realizing Foenst and Acotri don't exist. At that point, who cares if someone said we are part Foenst and part Acotri? Neither exist, so it becomes irrelevant - a non-issue.

All beliefs are limiting. Ideas themselves are benign. It is our attachment and identification to ideas that creates beliefs - which then creates separation and suffering. Even insightful, profound ideas like this one

Because it is the truth of your entire experience of life. What could possibly be more important?

It is more common for awakened teachers to gradually deconstruct the self as they lead a being toward awakening. It's like gradually killing a personality with love over time - rather than trying to kill it with one shot. . . It's like using a ratio of 55% self killing and 45% self improvement. Over time, the self will gradually dissolve and eventually die. Lisa Cairns has become the most talented teacher of this method I have seen.

You are speaking as if there is an actual "you". There is no "you" to reprogram a subconscious. This is a trick of the self. It is a long road to fully awaken to the fallacy of a self. Yes, the personality appears within consciousness. Especially when other people are around. It boils down to whether one wants to develop/improve a self or awaken to the truth of the self. I'm not saying either is "better". The video promotes personal development, which is totally cool. Yet, I don't think it's helpful toward awakening to truth. Just like cooking a delicious Indian meal is cool, yet it's not very helpful toward awakening to truth.

This is great stuff for personal development - to improve one's life. Yet the height of self-actualization is not personal development. It is the death of the self. The video perpetuates the idea of a self-propelled free will. This is fine for personal development, yet a hindrance to awakening. I want to deconstruct the subconscious, not reprogram it. I don't want to replace one set of lies with another set of lies. That said, there is still a personality that appears in "my" reality. Of course, that personality wants to feel happy and avoid pain. Yet, the last thing I want to do is pretend it's real and create some new form of reprogrammed self that I will need to deconstruct.

If you dare, venture to the null void. All distinctions will dissolve into absolute nothingness. As you return, distinctions will gradually appear. The conceptualizing about distinctions in this thread may seem basic, yet the level distinction for these concepts is extraordinarily high. So are the distinctions required to create a sense of self. There is a mind-boggling amount of distinctions in the human mind that have appeared over millions of years of evolution. If there was a 2hr. movie that began at the null void and gradually allowed distinctions to appear - the level of conceptualization occurring here wouldn't appear until after 1.5hr. into the movie. There is so much occurring before all this conceptualization. Yet, I would guess that the vast majority of viewers would get bored with this and want to fast forward to the ending.

@How to be wise Sounds like some great personal development and insights coming through. Nice work!

This seems like great stuff for personal development - yet I wouldn't recommend it for self actualization, because it perpetuates the myth of a self that is in control.

To me, this sounds like you are reaching the "observer + object" stage or the "I am" stage. I would focus on loosening the identification/attachment with these feelings and thoughts. Keep returning to the observer - just the "I am" without adding anything extra to "I am". For me, I was eventually able to get more space between the "I am" and the object.

True freedom

Yes, Yes and Yes

And the boundaries between experience, knowledge and beliefs also breaks doen.

@Bryan Lettner That line of thinking is within the oneness. It is a view from a self within it’s “nest”.

I *almost* did that. I got sooo close!

IME, I had to first see the distinctions, then see the inter-relatedness, then integrate, then finally transcend to one holistic language. Fun stuff

Exactly, that illustrates the point - that these are integrated spiritual languages.

There are many different perspectives on SD. One paradox is that freedom is always now and a also a gradual process/progression.