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20 years balls deep in nonduality plus having family background supporting this, and yet this guy hasn't been able to crack the nut? I feel pity.. Nonduality is a very defined philosophy with defined methodology. If you wanted to be a swimmer but you instead jogged for 20 years and then wonder how come you can't make it as a swimmer, then I hate to break it to you that you need to see your own error instead of bashing against swimming. The instruction says unbroken self-inquiry/witnessing is necessary to break free the prison of the mind. Am I doing that? No? Then why the fuck am I complaining? Is it the fault of the method or fault of myself who isn't following the instruction?

@Wisebaxter There might be a few people in your dreams at night, but when you wake up, there’s only one. This too, is a “dream”. (Just using the quotes because there’s not a word for the actuality, or rather, if I say a word to you, or you to me, then the point to be communicated is already falsified. The word nonduality is possibly the best pointer) Don’t start thinking about this though, as that’ll only take you further from ‘seeing’ what I’m saying. The usual suspects are the way (practices, psychedelics, retreats, etc). Thinking is the opposite ‘direction’. However, that silence you’re “in” - same over here (still an analogy though).

@Serotoninluv Have you come across Sapolsky? His course is definitely yellow. ... wait, you actually teach meditation and nonduality to biology students? (respect)

@thehero @Azote As Leo mentioned in his video, it's challenging to navigate life when one has evolved to the high end of their community. For me, that means evolving into Yellow/Turquoise in a Orange/Green community. I'm at a small college and I've run out of colleagues at my level of development. It's just me now. There is no one here to discuss developing at Yellow/Turquoise. Everyone wants to be hyper analytical (philosophy and science), human expression (communication and art departments) or how to increase diversity and equality on campus. All Orange and Green stuff. There is noone here talking about how to incorporate Yellow/Turquoise modes of thinking / being into the curriculum (except for some shallow talk about "integrating" course material interdisciplinary). Very few college professors in the world are at this level. My whole life, there have been Orange and Green professors pulling me up the spiral. No I don't see any. I don't see any books or videos about how to become an effective Yellow/Turquoise college teacher. Not much on how to create a Yellow/Turquoise course and classroom environment. This semester I am developing / teaching a course on consciousness. I'm all alone. As I try to pull my colleagues up, some colleagues try to pull me back down. As Leo said in his video, they are like crabs in a bucket trying to pull me down. I meditate with my students in class. I teach nonduality. I integrate science and metaphysics. A few of my colleagues are intrigued. A few of my colleagues are like "wtf, pull that crab down!" Overall, it is a mixed experience. At times disappointment, frustration and uncertainty. Other times, it is exciting, empowering and magnificent.

You can't make him understand anything untill you fix the relationship. Right now you're debating who's smarter. He or you. And there's conflict and heated arguments. In such atmosphere he will never going to admit that you were right even if you are. That would mean he lost and you won. He will be avoiding that in so many ways. It's just pointless bittering and arguing. First if have to become friends with your dad. Only then he will be willing to be open to your ideas. You have to create a joyful atmosphere, a very comfortable, joyful, loving atmosphere. Only when people are happy, they loosen up. They become more open to new things. When heated debates are happening and when you both are on each other's throat..it's like a fight. Who's right and who's wrong. Both want to be right no matter what. And how do you win? By never admiting defeat. That's why those conversations you have are producing zero effect, only anger and frustration. Anyways.... I'd give him Inner Engineering book. That book simply has no flaws. It's made in such a way that you can't even argue with it. It just so so logical. And book itself is very light and funny with many jokes, it's very easy to read. Unlike other nondual books that use very complicated language. It's a huge advantage that the book is always funny because only then people's minds opens up to new ideas. It's easy to read,.it's very engaging and there's unbeatable logic in it that if your father reads it there's no escape for him. Edit: also he puts all the wisdom in funny stories that captures readers attention. It's not just dry informacion or philosophy. That's a big reason why this book is so good for beginners to nonduality. Sadhguru made this book exacly for this purpose. Exacly for your father you can say. To take even most religious unthinking or whatever mindset and direct them to nonduality.

All of this is relative and contingent. That's YOUR point of view. Don't expect others to agree with that, and don't expect that to be some eternal, objective truth. Right and wrong are constructs of your ego-mind. If you stop thinking a thing is wrong, it will stop being wrong. People will use force regardless of what you believe is right or wrong. People do whatever they want, period. That is always the case. You are free to do whatever you are physically capable of doing. All shoulds are delusion. There are no shoulds in the universe. Whatever is the case, is what is. The ultimate goal for most people is not happiness but survival. Which is why most people are not happy. Your beliefs are mostly dualistic. The opposite of nonduality. It would be wise to question and deconstruct them.

There can be seeking energy to remove thoughts and enter what a mind thinks emptiness should look like. If a mind is very busy, there just isn't any space, it's like trying to meditate in a rock concert. I found it really helpful to relax my mind any way possible - yoga, listening to nonduality, running for 20min. etc. Once the mind is relaxed, thoughts will likely float by. See if you can be an observer to them and just let them go. We aren't bothered by an occasional bird chirp floating by, why be bothered by an occasional thought floating by? Trying to repress thoughts just makes it worse. For me, the imagery that "thoughts arise from the emptiness" was a key to progress. It is beautiful imagery and I think someone can go really far with that image. Eventually, there was awareness that thoughts and emptiness are one. That formless is form. I'm currently embodying this realization and it's taken a lot of work. IME, if the "thoughts arise from emptiness" resonates with you go for it. It is a huge step toward the Truth. With that imagery, one can sit in the emptiness and allow thoughts to arise and dissolve. This can do wonders to dissolve attachment and identification to thoughts. An exploration of the emptiness from which everything arises can lead to so many flavors of mystical experiences and insights. There can be words, images and intuition, but it isn't analysis or traditional thinking. For example, if I inquire "What is thought?" and start thinking "Well, a thought arises in the mind. A thought is associated with neurons. There are neurotransmitters that stimulate thoughts. . . " Leo did a great video on self inquiry which helped me a lot.

I'd like to write a psychological thriller called "Escape From Nonduality". (spoiler alert: there is no escape).

“Are my beliefs stage-orange hogwash, or in line with non duality?” “Im looking for the opinion of someone who is advanced in non dualism and spirituality and has the authority to judge this.” Beliefs aren’t ‘in’, and questions for others don’t arise ‘in’, nonduality. You are quite literally God. The rest of the post is basically ideologies. (Lovely ones though) SD’s is descriptive, not actuality, non-dually speaking. Observation is not ‘in’ nonduality. Values without yes, within, no. There’s no self & society anymore, only Being. And of course, all of that is ‘in’ nonduality.

Logic is within nonduality (as is everything). From a Tier1 perspective, nonduality appears to be beyond logic.

This sounds like some Ayn Rand Orange-level stuff with some Green sprinkled in. From a logical perspective, it is not even in the same ballpark as nonduality.

Awesome...Being! I’d say yes, you are on the right track. Since nonduality, no dreams, so in hindsight they appear to be attempts to autobalance upon ‘waking’, mostly to do with identity (s) at play.

@zambize Awesome & thanks. Also, my post was about Nonduality & words, is like psychedelics & words. How can a person who’s experienced finite understand infinitude. “Oneness” doesn’t really communicate Infinite, and “infinite” can never communicate the you of nonduality. Sounds like you are doing well on the path man. Godspeed??❤️

@Dan Arnautu What did you mean then, “You can go sit in a cave otherwise and forget all about them“ ? Seems like you might mean - ‘you can go sit in nonduality, this is about duality’. But duality isn’t resolved in duality. Are the colors of SD’s not the back and forth of self realization, then recontextualization relatively with others (society), self, others, self, others, etc (duality (knowing society) / nonduality (knowing self)? If assessment is kept to only relative, it could literally go round and round forever, or stay at the first step.

@Nahm You totally missed the point of the question, and totally the point of today's video. We know the assessment is relative, we know the models are conceptual constructions that collapse in nonduality. Yet the concepts are still useful in the relative domain. You can go sit in a cave otherwise and forget all about them. But for those of us who are trying to understand the dynamics of the ego and the collective, these are useful. Don't throw the raft until you get to the other side... so they say. Much love though.

@FoxFoxFox I agree but I don’t know if i would consider this enlightenment. Because simply understanding the illusions of our experience doesn’t get you enlightened. For example i do understand the nature of reality to a quite good degree but i would in no way consider myself enlightened because there are still some sticking points where i am stuck and are perventing me to fully embody nonduality. Enlightenment in my opinion is a complete transformation of your self and your experience.

@zambize There exist some things which cannot be gotten at with words. So how do you go about talking about such things to people who have not experienced them? Here we are. If we didn't call it nonduality what would be call it? How would we let you know this thing exists? Maybe we should call it "chicken" from now on and see if that solves the problem. There is no way to get around the fact that incommunicable things exist. You can try for a million years and you will never solve this problem. Because an unspeakable thing cannot be spoken, by definition.

Weak pointers on nonduality.

@Sahil Pandit Gotchu. Honestly if you want, I've got a bunch of other stuff I don't post because it's not as well organized and linear, you can PM me your email and I can just share em with you on Google Drive (docx) Avoiding Dysfunction Relationships_ Red Flags.docx (docx) Derrida, Deconstruction, Post-Modernism & Nonduality.docx (docx) How to Become Enlightened - Step by Step.docx (docx) Leo's Nootrpoics.docx (docx) Mindfulness Meditation.docx (docx) Shamanic Breathing Technique.docx (docx) What Women Want in a Man.docx (dox) 65 Core Principles of Living the Good Life.docx (docx.)The Grand Model of Psychological Evolution.docx (docx) 10 Important Things You Don't Know You Want.docx

I'm trying to improve my teaching skills on "meeting people with where they are at". At times it seems creating a model that assumes rationality can be a helpful teaching tool. In the SD model: imagine an Orange-level person with attachment / identification that they are a "rational thinker" - they see everything outside of their rational framework as being irrational. If we allow that and call the Blue Stage "irrational", Orange "rational" and Yellow "post-rational", it can introduce to them a level of thinking/being beyond their delusional sense of rationalism. Once they open up and explore this possibility, they may get direct experience with a "post-rational" being (flow states, intuition, a glimpse of nonduality). This could loosen their attachment / identification to rational thinking. Then with more exploration, these three categories collapse. Or, do you think it's more effective to "cut straight to the chase" with an Orange level "rationalist"?

All of us on Actualized understand nonduality to some extent. The idea that If one puts enough effort and jail-break their mind, they can see that there is no difference between them and a lamp. Thats one Truth or Secret not known to the everyday Human. Very . Very few fully realised it. Some of us like here at actualized are aware of it even if we didn’t fully realise it. What other truth's or secret's are out there which requires effort and mind "jail-breaking' to realise ? Thats basically the question but here are more details and a vague example if you like. Example: A low-grade example of another secret out there (either true or not) is the 'Law of Attraction' as written in the book and documentary called the "The Secret". The author claims that people like Henry Ford knew that visualizing great things for them for longer periods of time with conviction will eventually make it a reality. One could call this a simple mind trick or a genuine secret which makes the universe to provide for things you desire. There are 'secrets' around post-enlightenment and immortality out there but that's serious conspiracy territory. They are the best examples of 'secrets' I can think of. More details around my thinking : My pet dog knows how to drag things around with her teeth. However, the other day her pillow was pushed against the wall so half is now against the wall. The half left on the floor is not enough space for her to sleep on so I observed her walking multiple times around to find an optimal way to fit on the half-pillow. It didn’t occur to her that all she needs to do is drag the slightly away from the wall! Its like she didn’t have access to this level of thinking even if its obvious to me. We also observe dogs are unable to bring a long stick through a door because they don't realize a head-tilt is all it takes. My son had a similar level of intelligence when he was 8 months old, but like an App getting updates, I observed him unlocking these abilities every week surpassing the knowledge or intelligence of a dog. So clearly there are levels of intelligence which a child unlocks from birth. A dog stops updating at some point where Humans I think get this till 10 years old or end-of-puberty and perhaps have less frequent natural upgrades as an adult. Everything in adult seems not as the natural unlocking of intelligence but our improvement based on experiences. I think there are other updates or realizations one can have which are not part of the natural growing-up updates. The analogy is if a video game has 10 levels we naturally unlock 6 levels but 4 levels will unlock only with effort or secret knowledge. Enlightenment, Law-of-Attractions are examples of these secret levels. Are there other insights or realizations one could have to gain a better understanding of the world or to take advantage of it? Are there at least conspiracies that claim some brilliant men from the past either realized these or aware of such secrets?

This is the part I don’t get. On what? And I know there can’t really be a set answer to that which is what’s driving me up the wall. The only thing I really wanted to master - running - I don’t really care that much about anymore. I don’t care about racing, competing, coaching other runners just to become more successful athletes (which is all the athletes I would coach would want anyways). My passion I care about and love to learn about now is nonduality and all the things that go along with it (psychology, psychedelics, reality, happiness, wisdom, philosophy, etc.) but I don’t want to be just another one of those guys that copies Leo or do the whole YouTube self help game. I don’t really know what I specifically want to master and I don’t feel like I can because I don’t have the money. It’s like that video: Where the changes you intuit you need to make require such a RADICAL realignment and you have no idea how and even what it will be. Its hard to have hope in anything when you don’t know what you want to have hope in. My life has no direction and I don’t know what direction I want it to really have because I don’t know who I am in terms of my passions, motivations, etc. anymore. I wake up everyday now and it’s almost the worst part of my day because I wake up knowing there’s nothing for anymore. I’m always touched whenever I read say The Hero’s Journey by Campbell and listen to: because it’s like “YES! THATS EXACTLY WHAT MY LIFE IS SUPPOSED TO BE & WHAT I WANT IT TO BE! RIGHT THERE!” In yet, when the video ends, I look in the mirror and I’m reminded of just how depressed I am and feel like I can’t because it feels like I don’t have the psychological resources and even psychological cognition. I can barely read a book without my concentration going all over the place and getting distracted by everything. Realizing how poor I am with money, how I have no skills to earn enough to just to go on my adventure and then come back. I’m trying so hard emotionally to try and have some sort of positive outlook and hope and try to put that into coming up with some sort of vision but I can’t. I try so hard to let go of negative thoughts in the life purpose course but when it comes to the exercise there’s just like this screaming voice of “I DONT KNOW!” In yet, when I try to calm down the only thing I feel is the voice or feeling pressing in my head about how I need to do something.

@winterknight Is it necessary to sink mind into Self through the 'who am I' ? Or by following the I-thought to its soruce? Gary Weber in his book suggests trying out different questions and finding the one that works for you. “Who am I?”, “Where am I?”, “When am I?”, “What is doing this asana?”, “What hears?”, “What feels these sensations?”, etc 'Who am i' often has a strong intellectual component for me and it distracts away from the work I am doing and i find myself looking at nonduality videos in no time. Sometimes what seems to work for me is going to the '(non)experience of being aware of being aware', as Rupert Spira puts it. Or as i mentioned earlier, 'what is constant in the background' and 'what is this Now' also work sometimes. These questions do not follow the I-thought as such so i wonder whether the I-though remains in the background and sinking of the mind is a mere illusion.

Not that its that big of a deal, because if you truely are where you describe it can be pretty perfect, nothing needs to change. However in the pursuit of truth and who and what you are. The place your referring to as ultimate is only 1 vantage point of all the infinities views, it is not itself the ultimate. I dont think its possible to have a view that is simultaneously experiencing the infinity of all views from their vantage point at all times with all knowledge and all past and all destiny included. This is what I referee to as Gods view and its unreachable and unknowable. Self understanding of this I believe can free you as the "i" and into understanding i-I and letting go of pointing to a state/location/idea of god/infinity/awareness/nonduality and into a continuous recognition that God is never not the case.

I wrote this quite a while back on one of the Dharma Overground forums in response to one of the thoughtful contributors to the thread and someone recently quoted my post and left a nice comment last month. Formal meditation is a temporary expedient. Initially, its purpose is to create a habit of overarching, then subtle observation of mind at all times. There is a reason for this, but it is provisional, and I don't do that. Formal meditation is not "good", per se. Unless it is serving the purpose of consciously cultivated temporary expediency, its relevance to the self which thinks good or bad, right or wrong and before or after in terms of self and other is a significant error in which effective authentic self-refinement is obstructed. Since the initial "high" produced by the kind of "artificial meditation" practiced by some beginners habituated to identification by their "achievements" in contemplative arts wears off anyway and is essentially ineffective, for the most part, in dealing face to face with ordinary situations to any great extent, it is best to do whatever is necessary to hit the ground running, so to speak, in terms of turning the light around in order to effect seeing reality, as is, cold turkey— and wean oneself of self-reifying identity issues with practice done in private, as soon as reasonably possible. I'm not saying one shouldn't pursue "just sitting" in private meditation venues— the point is that formal meditation is a TEMPORARY expedient. The point of effective self-refinement is to see reality, as is, without any filters perpetuated by the psychological apparatus of the being that is going to die by activating the inherent potential of nonpsychological awareness. Seeing the essence of complete reality is seeing reality with the Dharma eye of nonpsychological awareness— it's your own mind right now. What is reality? Unity of absolute and relative is the working definition of reality. Nondual nature is your nature. Consequently, Nirvana and Karmic evolution are not only equal, they are identical. This is the basis of the saying "sameness within difference", though there are several aspects in terms of dealing with the conceptual device relative to the various provisional teachings within buddhism. Arriving at nonduality in terms of everyday ordinary affairs is essential to buddhist practice. Actually, it is the working definition of enlightening being. Enlightening being is the function of awareness. Awareness is your nature. Awareness, your own mind right now, is not created. Seeing reality is activating the mind without dwelling on anything. The only reason this is possible is because your own mind right now is unborn. Mind is one, undifferentiated, selfless, void of identity. It's you. People aren't just already enlightened— they're enlightened mind incarnate. I need to remind people that it's not the person …but it's not somewhere or something else either. Real 24/7 meditation practice is seeing through phenomena without denying their characteristics. Taoist alchemy calls this refining the medicines. Buddhism calls this using the sickness to cure the disease. It's not about meditation, after all. You can take all the provisional entry-level teachings and use them as applications of the real in the midst of the false in broad daylight unbeknownst to anyone. This is having the gumption to move beyond the zero-point of the intent of all provisional teachings and thereby gain entry into the inconceivable. It's about using the world to refine the self; using conditions to arrive at essential nature. This cannot be accomplished by quiet sitting alone. That's because, reality is already Mind— your mind, right now. Perhaps you are not ready to hear this. Reality is relative to your mind in terms of the degree of one's clarified enlightening potential. As long as your mind is habituated to the view of its separate nature, you will not see essence in everyday affairs. After a long process of self-refinement carried out correctly and effectively in everyday ordiary situations, the self-reifying mental habits that perpetuate the illusion of the separate self-identity as ultimately existent will die off, bit by bit, and that much of your primordial potential will be activted as the selfless function of awareness. Actually using this is selfless adaption; activating the subtle operation of spiritual transformations in the midst of worldly situations. Nonduality realized all the time is seeing the physical, psychological, psychic, emotional, causal matrix of karmic evolution (Creation) as void of self— because that's what it is (no different than you, that is, void of self). Going along with this, just as it is, knowing it as utter illusion— how could you possibly bring yourself to act on behalf of situations arising from this insane chaos, good, bad or indifferent? Acceptance of conditions is "going along— not denying characteristics". Not acting on conditions is "seeing through phenomena". The sense of nonattachment to outcomes aids in adapting to the inevitable where unavoidable— the ups and downs look just like reality: therefore "perfection is easy for those with no preferences." Soon enough, you may come to the working strategy that this entire malestrom of karmic momentum is just your perception of it. Otherwise, it just doesn't make ANY sense …to leave it up to the world, and fortunately, you don't have to. YOU take total responsibility for your sensory perception and mental postures. It doesn't require doing— just meeting and accepting conditions for what they are— illusion. If you can come to the temporary working realization that phenomena is what reality looks like without having the slightest shred of belief it its ultimate nature, then it might be possible to endeavor to work at adapting to conditions as they present themselves out of a sense of inevitability without clinging to good or bad outcomes. It's not a thing. There is no moral implication in terms of selflessness— it's impersonal. That's mind. This is actually an entry to the buddha's teaching of Suchness and thus carrying out the activation of enlightening potential and partaking of the Great Vehicle of Tathagatas. This is penetrating reality, in fact. Right in front of your nose is this nondual reality 24/7. As such, it is so whether you are aware of it or not. In terms of the point of meditation in the first place, and the fact of reality, it is Mind alone. The lesser vehicle of personal liberation is a temporary expedient as well …why is this? It's another lie to trick you into the path, that's all. That Suchness is reality is nominally due to the fact that it is neither absolute nor conditional. Both Nirvana and Creation are the same illusion. One is your mind before creation and the other is after. Clinging to one or the other is delusion. Neither absolute stillness nor karmic momentum is the essence of reality unified, present and naturally so, without ever entering creation, which is your nature already. Even those who experience sudden enlightenment must learn to realize this truth by APPLYING it in the midst of situations seamlessly according to its potential. You can begin to see this if you can dismiss your dependent relationships on circumstantial interpretations. Reality doesn't look any different than delusion when your relationships to circumstances are not dependent on outcomes, good or bad. Perpetual unity with reality is just subtly activated nonpsychological awareness of the essential underlying nature of impersonal circumstantial process as your own potential void of attributabilty in terms of an absolute personal identity. When you act based on karmic dependence, you change inherent selfless enlightening potential into karmic debt. Ouch! ed note: add to the 2nd line, 3rd paragraph; add "of" in first line of 15th paragraph