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The Gospel of Thomas is an incredible resource for those who take the nondual path. Many of these sayings are spot on and provide profound insight into his teachings and the religion that spawned around his teachings, how they have become distorted, and how they can possibly be reintroduced. Back in 2017 there was a user on the Actualized forum who wrote a dissection on the various sayings of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of Thomas.

An issue I've been grappling with for a long time is the bliss vs truth dilemma in spirituality. A lot of people who practice spirituality do it to achieve a happier state, whether they frame it as escaping suffering, having peace of mind, or experiencing divine bliss. But spirituality should be truth-seeking, and when truth is your goal it doesn't matter if you feel blissful, sad, energetic, or slightly despondent. You are searching for what is actually the case, asking what is reality really. When spiritual teachers like Sadhguru say, "Would you rather be blissful or sad? Blissful, yes... isn't it?" and then people inevitably say yes, I can't help but see this as a spiritual deception. To an actual truth seeker, it isn't enough to just pick blissfulness over negativity. Blissfulness, based on our typical drive for experiencing positive emotions, seems better, but does it actually lead to truth? Maybe, maybe not. You can't make that assumption! And I see spiritual people doing this all the time. Then there's an even deeper issue, which is what truth seeking really is. It only takes a little consciousness to see that everything we do is motivated by desire for one thing or another that always circles back to the self, sometimes directly and sometimes more indirectly. If you haven't grasped this notion, contemplate it, and you will see that it's true, similar to how everything in the universe can always be traced back to oneness- nonduality 101. So even searching for truth is just a desire that's ultimately arbitrary and only for the purpose of your own fulfilment. The problem with just going for bliss is that in choosing that path and not knowing whether it leads to truth or not, you're essentially giving into the relativity of your experience and just going with what feels right thinking that everything is relative. And if you are going for bliss, you don't have a guarantee that it will lead to truth- it may be the opposite. So then the spiritual seeker (which is my situation right now) is in a dilemma of wanting to pursue truth but not knowing whether it exists or is just based on desire. Hopefully it was clear what I'm trying to get at. This is an existential quagmire about truth, bliss. and relativity. I'd appreciate any insights people have, especially @Leo Gura as a truth-seeker.

I reject this whole nonduality frame. Serious Consciousness is beyond all that. If you wanna keep swimming around in circles at this plane of consciousness, go ahead. I will not argue with you further.

Because he obviously has a very deep and exceptional level of consciousness. But as I have said, there are many degrees and even different kinds of awakening. I gave him a privileged position back before I had my own intense awakenings in which I realized the limitations in his teachings. It took me 200+ awakenings to deconstruct all the elaborate illusions of nonduality, Buddhism, and self-inquiry. That was when I was saying crazy sounding-shit and people were calling me out as arrogant and delusional. After which point I stopped pushing my views on matters since it becomes counter-productive. Well, I am still saying that there is even deeper consciousness than that. It took me something like 200+ awakenings to break free of all human spirituality and gain total soverienty over my own mind. Until that is achieved the mind will be bogged down by very sneaky human spiritual constructs.

It's is kinda shocking that he didn't understand this sooner. If he listened to me and took some "frog juice" he would have realized it, and stuff even beyond that which is still missing from his teachings. As I said, self-inquiry and contemplation will not be enough to fully awaken. That's the real lesson here. I have underscored this trap that nonduality people commonly make, where they identify Truth/Absolute as formlessness while marginalizing form. And Ralston is still missing that Truth = Love.

most people think that professionals and high level people have some extremely complex understanding of some area of reality...which can often be true, but also...high level masters in any area of life will tell you that the case is often far, far simpler than you actually make it in your mind. Think about nonduality for example, esteemed to be the highest and most powerful and greatest teaching...and yet what it actually teaches is the most basic, simplest thing imaginable: that one thing exists. notice the common ground simplicity and profundity share at times. in practical, every day life, dont try to be more skilled than you are. you do better to admit that you know nothing and start at level 1 again but correctly and just learn the basics. dont overcomplicate it, as this is often the source of confusion. I took leos entire life purpose course just to realise that what i wanted to do was starring me in the face since i was a teenager. be mindful that things that are blindingly obvious, can sometimes be missed on account of the fact that they are the only thing there (theres nothing to contrast them against) like this image...somewhere in this image there is a wall, study the image carefully until you have a breakthrough and see the wall:

Working with 5meo takes time, like at least 10-20 times to see the glimpse of nonduality and integrating it. You are good, meditation is good prior 5meo, it helps one to not freak out much Personally I started with 5meo alone, nasal And i continued to explore it on my own in rectal, it's been 81 times now

I have not been active in the forum for quite some time, but just wanted to drop by and share my experience. For +12 years I have been searching for SOMETHING missing, something not quite clicking, and explanation into why I find life so difficult and full of suffering. I made a huge bet into nonduality and was 100% convinced all my problems can be boiled down to ego related integration issues and lack of seeing clearly in metaphysical terms. I even achieved a few incredible transcendent experiences along the way, but they of course were short lived and ultimately did not help me. Eventually through taking time of and travelling for 6 months in nepal and india, giving me time to reflect and really look into my experience and connect the dots I realised: I’m a high masking/low support needs AuDHD (mix of autism and adhd) I wont do an exhaustive explanation on the aspects of what my life has looked like in the past, but I can tell you that EVERYTHING makes sense now. I really have so few questions left to ask. Only thing left is to try my best o align my life according to my fixation/special interest (electronic music and sound design) and thats pretty much it, my life is done. I will eventually get back to nonduality seeiously again (because of course there is an infinity yet unrealised) but right now embrasing my fixation gives me way more joy than the metaphysical. Its quite overwhelming (and sad at the same time, as I must embrace that my life will forever will be quite difficult in day to day basis). But im not looking for a fix/medicine anymore, there never was an illness or really a problem or fault, its just me. The amount of relief is incredible, i feel like bursting to tears all the time. The more i research the more seamless and fully explanatory everything is. Holy FUCK folks! All the best guis, good luck out there <3

Insights seemingly appear almost everyday. Most are not very important. And about beliefs and such. Or trying to untangle from beliefs. I mean on psychedelics "experienced" so much weird stuff (mostly visions) jesus, hindu, space, hell, god, enlightenment etc. stuff but it’s hard to grasp so i don’t know how important it is. Getting addicted to nonduality talks it resonated that there’s no one and no free will/doer. But i also don’t know if that’s important. If there’s no one how can anything be important? Important to whom? How can anything be more important than anything else if let’s say all is kind of one.

I can't seem to shake the idea that others don't exist. After watching Leo's "Guided Exercise for Realizing You Are God", I had a moment in which I felt that everyone I knew was a projection, but soon after I found myself asking "But how could they not exist." Every time I saw another person, I questioned whether they were just a part of my imagination or if they are actually having a conscious experience. For example, anyone that replies to this thread could say "others don't exist", maybe evening having the thought that the person who wrote this was a projection of their own imagination, but I on the other side of this thread know that I in fact am not a projection because I am aware as I write this and have consciousness. Perhaps the higher the degree of consciousness, the closer to Nonduality someone gets? Even then, if there are other autonomous units of consciousness, regardless of the degree to which they are conscious, how is it possible that they don't exist altogether? I'm aware that my ego will fill in what I have conceptually striped away and that the more real I believe the Self to be the more real others will be, but then how do I practically experience ongoing Nonduality . I truly do enjoy the concept of nonduality but I'm having some trouble putting it in to practice. Any insights?

@Carl-Richard it's a waste of time arguing with Razard86. He just can't be wrong . Can there be two infinities? In math classes in high-school..did you study that infinity +infinity =infinity ? And infinity × infinity = infinity ? What is oneness ? What is nonduality ? What does it mean to say reality is made of the same substance? Is the thing that is aware of this present moment within me different from the thing that is present within you ?

https://www.netflix.com/title/80013552?s=a&trkid=13747225&t=cp Here is the link to watch the movie. Moon is in Pisces ♓ (so it's time for some existentially woke shit) The Tale of Princess Kaguya by Studio Ghibli is the most profound and stunning metaphor for nonduality, and the existential sadness (and joy) for living through Earthly lifetimes. I had a full on existential awakening at the end of this movie and cried violently in front of my girlfriend for 20 minutes straight. I highly recommend watching closely. The ending is one of the most mind-blowing and beautiful endings of any movie. The entire movie is a masterpiece that will endure throughout human history as one of the most beautiful pieces of art ever made. The crown jewel of Japan's Walt Disney, Hayao Miyazaki. Also, the nature imagery and unique art style is stunning. He captures the innocence and purity of nature (and also of humans).

There's also the opposite effect, thrashing around like an animal in the cage of your mind when you realize that's the only thing there is. Being 'somewhere' isn't quite the end of nonduality, more like a dissociative hole.

This is a really spot on, precise and non-bullshit viewpoint on nonduality and mindfulness. Bottom line: people either tend to get stuck in neo-advaita, which results in endless mental masturbation and self-delusion or they get stuck in meditation/mindfulness practises and get nowhere for years or even decades. Here's the article: In the context of American spiritual practice nondual traditions and mindfulness traditions appear to be in sharp contrast. Nonduality is often associated with the “doing nothing” schools of meditation, and mindfulness meditation is often very effortful. Mindfulness meditation masters in the States commonly refuse to even discuss enlightenment, whereas nondual teachers never stop talking about how we’re already enlightened. At the extremes, these two traditions can become very critical of each other. Some nondualists think that mindfulness meditators are caught in the trap of working hard to get somewhere, and end up just building a meditator ego to replace their everyday ego. Some mindfulness practitioners think that nondualists are just playing a recursive word game (“Who is playing a word game?”) and narcissistically kidding themselves about how enlightened they are, while complacently denying their own foibles. It’s a shame that these two wisdom traditions—especially in their American expressions—are antagonistic to each other. Really they just represent the two ends of a spectrum of theories about the same idea—the idea of how to awaken to real freedom. It’s a shame, because in my opinion most nondualists (especially neo-advaitins) could use a little more of the mindfulness attitude, and most mindfulness practitioners could use a little more of nondual outlook. Working together they could, like peanut butter and chocolate, form something much more excellent than either on their own. Something we might call Nondual Mindfulness, or Practical Advaita. Does Advaita Preclude Practices? Nonduality or advaita (which includes most of Madhyamika Buddhist and Hindu Tantra philosophy, too) holds that we are already completely, perfectly enlightened. Many traditional schools of nondualism stress, however, that we need to do some practice to reveal this true nature to ourselves. We have blinders on, and cannot see our own enlightenment, and a practice (which there are many types of) will remove the blinders and allow our inherent liberation to naturally shine forth. It’s like the practice blows the clouds away and suddenly we can see the sun and sky, which were already and always there. But, due to accidents of history, American nonduality, or what is called “neo-advaita,” took the more radical viewpoint that no practices are necessary to uncover our deepest wisdom. In this viewpoint, practices are actually counter-productive because they are emphasizing the untrue concept that the ego needs to do something to get enlightened. That practice is needed to find awakening. In the neo-advaita view, the more you struggle to be free, the more you ignore your own complete freedom that is already there. The more you fight, the more you emphasize the (unreal) existence of the fighter, thus causing you to become more lost. And that’s why neo-advaita is so inimical to any meditation technique at all, including mindfulness. Mindfulness practice, to a neo-advaitin, is just a lot of effort to convince yourself that you’re not already free. A big waste of time that leaves you worse off—even more mired in delusion—than you were before. The trouble with this viewpoint is that it’s more of a philosophy than a practical application. You can think you’re free and let go of all ideas of non-freedom all you want, but at the end of the day, you may still not feel very free. For people suffering from real world problems like stress, anxiety, depression, drug addiction, relationship breakup, and a thousand other human catastrophes, being told “not to hold on to those stories and just feel your inherent freedom” can feel like an impossibly cynical mindfuck. It can make you feel inadequate or stupid, and doesn’t really help. Just like the New Age catch-22 of telling cancer victims that it’s their own fault, and that they just need to believe they are healed in order to effect a real cure (thanks a lot!), neo-advaitin sometimes people in situations of extreme suffering that it’s all their own fault — and not infrequently this oh-so-helpful message is imparted with an air of superiority and smugness. On a deeper note, if you do begin to do the (non-practice) that neo-advaita prescribes, namely to realize that your thoughts and feelings are not your thoughts and feelings, it can lead to dissociation. Constantly denying your own body and mind has a cost, and some on the nondual path find themselves stuck in the trap of meaninglessness for many years, not realizing that they have been mired in identification with this self who “doesn’t care.” The advaita view, while philosophically powerful, was not traditionally taught with no practices to go with it. For example in Soto Zen—which like most Buddhism philosophically agrees about the inherent awakening in each person, called the Buddha Nature—people are encouraged to do a practice called “just sitting” (shikantaza). Just sitting is just sitting, a practice that is not a practice. Traditionally a monk or nun would do such a non-practice, however, for tens of thousands of hours in their lifetime. For a non-practice, that is an awful lot of practice, and it has a predictably powerful awakening effect. Even the grand master of advaita, Ramana Maharshi, gave his students practices. While talking about how we are already enlightened, he taught people to meditate, chant mantras, do breathwork, and other effortful practices. If you read the detailed histories of his top students (you can do so in the books by David Godman, a series called The Power of the Presence) who were very highly respected, realized persons, he gave all but one of them such practices to do. And they practiced them with all their hearts, sometimes for decades. Ramana, in other words, understood the difference between the philosophy of advaita and its practice. (Ironically, it was someone who met Ramana only once, named H. W. L. Poonja, who gave rise to the American school of radical non-practicing advaita. This was the one student he didn’t give any practices to.) Except in rare cases, it is necessary for a person to do meditation practices to remove their ignorance of their own awakening. Afterwards, from their enlightened perspective, they may see how ridiculous it all was, but they never would have seen that without having done these “ridiculous” practices. Mindfulness has a lot to offer a nondual practitioner. For one thing, the practice of self-inquiry is a kind of mindfulness practice. Investigating the nature of the Self, asking yourself, “Who am I” and looking for the answer to that question can all be considered a kind of “mindfulness of the Self.” Most mindfulness practice as it is taught in America focuses on body sensations, but there is no reason that a practitioner cannot use the same kind of focus on the sense of self and deconstructing that sense of self into its components. In more advanced mindfulness practice, this is exactly the point. Does Mindfulness Practice Actually BLOCK Awakening? But advaita also has something very useful to contribute to mindfulness, because the advaita critique of mindfulness is legitimate and important. Again, it’s the idea that mindfulness strengthens the sense of being somebody (you, the meditator) doing something (practicing meditation) – a sense which, in the long run, is still an ego. Because mindfulness teachers very often talk about the practice as “becoming a witness of experience,” they are actually creating a safe haven for the ego, which can keep the person from realizing their fundamental awakening. You only have to spend time around some of the more long-term mindfulness communities to see the result of this misstep in action. There are a large number of practitioners who have been diligently doing their mindfulness meditation for decades, and who seem to be stuck in a particular place. They have gotten an edge or a handle on life. They’re pretty good at coping with difficulties, and they are much less caught up in the madness of their egos than the average person on the street. All of which is excellent. But beyond this, they are in a cul-de-sac. Nothing has changed in their practice for years or even decades. They seem somewhat flat or depressed. They may even refuse to acknowledge that real awakening exists, and consider enlightenment to be a dirty word. (Talk about missing the point.) The diagnosis is clear: they have fallen into the “Observer Trap.” The prognosis is good, if they can learn how to meditate on the sense of self involved in doing the meditation itself and then deconstruct that. By turning the meditator itself into the object of meditation, they can experience the dissolution of the meditator ego, and touch real awakening. It’s really that simple, but you will find few mindfulness teachers who are aware of this solution, or even of the problem itself. Although I don’t like to promote steps-and-stages models of awakening (they’re always too reductive), I believe that mindfulness could be described as a two-step process. First, you become the witness of experience. Second, you realize that you are not that witness. Virtually all of mindfulness in America only teaches you step one. Again, even step one is a big improvement over having no steps at all. However, if you are stuck in your practice, and you want to experience some of the deeper levels of awakening, then taking the second step is crucial. There are several ways to take this step. The standard nondual method is to simply sit with no agenda. Notice that this is not “not meditating,” it’s meditating with no technique. (The difference is crucial.) Another advaita technique that is applicable is self-inquiry practice, in which you look for the person who is meditating. The method that fits best with mindfulness practice is slightly more effortful, however. It involves patiently deconstructing the sense of the meditating self. Noticing the thoughts of the meditator (“This is going well today.” “Am I doing this right?” etc.) and the feelings of the meditator (happy that it’s going well, frustrated that it’s not, etc.). You can read a more in-depth description of the practice here. Get Clear: Nonduality and Mindfulness Thus the outlook of mindfulness can contribute something useful to advaita, and the outlook of advaita can contribute something useful to mindfulness. In the end, all of these distinctions only matter if they help you to make progress in your practice to reveal your true awakening. Nondualist—ask yourself if you’re just kidding yourself about how much freedom you actually feel each day. There are ways to go deeper without getting trapped in grasping, striving, and comparison, and those ways involve dedicated practice. Mindfulness-folks—ask yourself whether you’ve been stuck in basically the same place in your practice for a long time. There are ways to go deeper which involve deconstructing your practice itself. In both cases it will probably include a lot of discomfort at pushing yourself out of a comfortable resting place you’ve found to camp out in. The peace, joy, and freedom you will find will be worth all the effort. Source: https://deconstructingyourself.com/nonduality-and-mindfulness.html

The Awareness, of being always aware of the nonduality at all times, that cannot be manifested or brought about directly, it has to be the residual result or consequence of setting up the "playing field" per say, you set the atmosphere up in your own system so that Awareness is naturally arising, for eg if You truly Realize we are all one, individual Bodies and Minds yes, but that is not what we are, in what we are we are all One, if that is truly realized then Awareness comes naturally..Once that is in place, no War is possible...

Why does practically no one care about the intersection between physics and spirituality? Leo, of course, has a very well prepared answer to this. The answer is that the modern scientific establishment, which is a giant mass of self validating authority, cannot move beyond its materialist paradigm and start to consider the importance of the observer as part of the physical systems they are studying. (Someone correct me if I didn't get this right). The trouble for me is that even given this explanation, there are no "wackos", no "fringe" or "pseudo" scientist, no internet conspiracy theorists, NO ONE who have both a deep understanding of spirituality and physics, and also have a humble respect for truth and epistemology. Of course, you have to exert zero effort to find someone who claims to be studying, or has found some theory of everything which ties together biology, consciousness, the standard model, GR, and God into one self consistent theory with a nice little bow on top. Whenever I find someone with this type of claim though, the theory will be either utter speculation (neither based on direct experience nor experimental observations), supper narrow in scope (for example, a mathematical framework to tie together QFT and GR), or a leap from some physical phenomenon to consciousness with absolutely no logic or critical thinking in between (for example, Roger Penrose positing that consciousness arises from quantum effects in the brain. Anyone who has perused spirituality deeply will know that this is definitely wrong, because consciousness does not arise from physical phenomena but instead is responsible for those phenomena. Penrose is about as academic establishment scientist as you can get though). So like, can we please find one person who for example: 1. Knows that they are god, and all of reality is part of their mind. In other words they have discovered absolute truth. 2. Understands the mathematics and logic behind physical theories like general relativity and quantum field theory. 3. Seeks to use their understanding of these two fields to build a cohesive model of the universe. Starting from the one absolute truth and from there deriving all the relative truths that we know and love today. I mean, this is definitely a big ask, but at the same time you would expect to see a couple people working on this. In reality though, there are NONE. I think someone might be able to to point out a couple contenders for people trying to work on this, such as Christopher Lanigan or maybe Joseph Campbell. But their theories are unsatisfactory to me. So I'm going to try to be as clear as possible as to what I'm looking for: I want an explanation of everything, nothing less. I want someone to be able to take the unopinionated ground truth of all of reality, which is nonduality, god, consciousness itself, or whatever you want to call it. I want the theory to start from 0. From nothing. From the point of total nothingness and ending in the exact nature of the reality which we see before our eyes today. A theory like this would be totally logical and be based on subjective experience of absolute truth at the most basic level. From this point, I want to be able to describe the nature of our conscious experience, and the objective reality which we seem to be experiencing living in. I want U(1)xSU(2)xSU(3) symmetry to be explained, and I want every physical phenomenon in the whole universe to be able to be explained. I don't really see anyone who has a really good understanding of the foundations of physics right now and at the same time has a really good understand of consciousness and absolute truth. Personally, I have what I would consider a surface level understanding of both of these things. I'm working on it myself, but I don't see anyone else who I would consider to be like me. I have spent some time at a Buddhist monastery so far, and I have bachelors in mathematics and physics, but I have waaay more work to do before I really even know the exact questions to ask. Anyway, all the theoretical physicists today are materialists and if they are talking about consciousness it's because they want to be trendy, but really they have no idea what they are talking about once they get away from physics. All mystics I know of who know about direct experience of absolute truth seem to not really care about physics, or have a very lazy understanding of it. So yeah this was just a rant let me know what you think.

I really like the back and forth of whether or not he loves "war" when he claims to want peace. Peace would require consciously knowing "every individual is only a version of you", and as we all know, fully consciously being aware of nonduality at all times is not exactly easy. Therefore, even if you do claim to want peace, it really will always be a surface level understanding of it. Being in duality will always technically mean being in love of war since others are separate from you, whether or not you like it.

I remember Leo talking about how meditation and nonduality is not awakening. But I am wondering if this is one of the 10% of the false teachings? I mean think about it, what is the alternative? Just scrolling on TikTok and YouTube!!? That will never get you awake. Or is the alternative to plug DMT every day? That's not realistic either. What I have come to conclusion of is that meditation is all about increasing your awareness to the actuality of reality. You can take all the DMT you want, but if you aren't grounded in the actuality of the present moment, no amount of psychedelics will awaken you. There are plenty of people who take psychedelics more than me and maybe more than Leo but who are not awake. I think maybe Leo made a nuanced point in that no method is the awakening in the same way that the map is not the territory. Meditation is not awakening. Psychedelics is not a awakening. Contemplation is not awakening. Because all of these are activities and is not the same as state. It is confusing doing with being. Awakening is a state of BEING in which certain things that you can DO may bring about that state of BEING/REALIZATION. But the activities of meditation and psychedelics are not realization/being themselves. I think this may be the point he was making. I don't think Leo is discouraging people from meditating, but rather he is challenging people who are engaging in meditation filled with human Buddhist ideological nonsense. I get it. Chanting the Hare Krishna mantra over and over again probably won't get you to awakening. Awakening is too profound for such a simple dumb method like chanting Hare Krishna (no offense). There can be many deluded methods of meditation and psychedelics (i.e., such as chanting a religious mantra). But there can be more profound ways of meditation that can bring about mystical experiences and maybe even enlightenment. But the effectiveness of such a method would vary across different individuals. I am convinced though that there is no awakening/enlightenment without serious contemplation. You can quiet your mind, but if you don't know how to use your mind to think in nuanced ways, to avoid bias, then how could you be awake? How can you be awake if you would still vote for Trump and hold a lot of deluded stuff in your mind? So my point is that the method is not awakening, but this does not mean to stop meditating. It means to examine closely what you are doing and to make sure that you are meditating in ways that actually transform your consciousness. There may be limits on what meditation can do for some people, but what is the alternative? We just gonna scroll on social media!? No! We still engage in meditation and contemplation, but we aim to improve at it little by little. Meditation may not lead to the deepest levels of reality, but it is a practice that will transform your life for the better if done correctly. Meditation is a better alternative than chasing after money, fame, sex even if it doesn't ultimately lead to the highest levels. But that is still a big question mark of whether meditation can lead to the deepest levels or not. I think it all depends on how effective you are. You cannot be effective if your mind still clings to Buddhist, Spiritual nondual beliefs/ideology. If one thing Buddhism teaches you, it is that clinging is the root of all ignorance/suffering. Buddhism taken to the extreme deconstructs itself.

This shit had me DYING. For those of you who haven't seen it, you've got to watch it.

I don't know why, but I started to understand Nonduality way before watching Leo's videos or any other videos about it, I didn't even know that term back then. But during my later teens to early 20s, I just started to see that you can't seem to put things into strict categories, but they are on a spectrum. Like in chemistry, Metal and nonmetal. I saw that there isn't a strict boundary, but instead the elements gradually go from metal to nonmetal from left to right. Or with mental illnesses, no one has either just Depression or not, or ADHD or not, or OCD or not, or Autism or not (not really a mental illness). I just started to see how everything bleeds into each other. Then at about 21 I started using drugs (not just psychedelics, so I'll keep it short), not for Nonduality, but just because I was curious. But I surprisingly got insights from them, stimulants often made me contemplate things, where at some point I came to the conclusion that wishing or imagining for something to be different makes no sense, because everything just is the was it is, and it can't be any other was. During my dissociative drug abuse I became completely aware that I have no free will as this ego, I'm (my ego self) is just a part of the whole universe, which happens in a continious flow. You can't blame anyone including yourself, it completely destroyed the boundary between what I'm responsible for and what others are responsible for. It went so far that I just became completely aware all language, distinctions, basically our whole systeme in which we operate is a complete illusion, it completely breaks down when you investigate it deep enough, I'm aware that the words I'm typing here are also just nonsense which can only work within dualities. But this just made me feel very helpless, since I knew our whole thought systemes and languages are complete illusions, but we still have to use them. I couldn't say anymore what is my fault and what are other peoples faults. Doing something "good" didn't make sense anymore because that's also an illusion. However, I had a lot of puzzle pieces already, and finding Leo's videos about Nonduality helped me piece many of them together, like that there is an Absolute. love + hate = Love, good + bad = Good, free will + determinism = Will. But some things I still don't understand, besides deconstructing my ego to persue enlightenment, what should I do with that? How should I do good when everything is ultimately Good? I don't wanna use nonduality as an excuse to do "evil" things, but no matter what I will do, even if I go on the streets and shoot up Heroin, it is ultimately Good, since it's gods Will for the purpose to maximize Love. So this still makes me confused, and I don't know what to do about that. Thank you for reading this, I'd love to hear your opinions or suggestions.

Its not duality, but its also not solipsism. Its nonduality. Its only duality if you still take awareness for an object, if you are awareness on intellectual level. Awareness is merged with all, no separation, no duality. A way I like to put it, awareness is nothing but is real, objects are something, but illusory. Something that is illusory really is nothing, in another aggregate form, if you think about it. Ice is water.

@Da77en It does not depend on what response you are getting on a specific topic such as Non-duality, Reality, or Truth but how much deeper you want to go into it. It will require work from you and whoever comes on this forum to search for it. Lately, nonduality has become a buzz word & everybody has their own POV. 99% of this view expressed anywhere on the internet is still a trap within the minds of people who are expressing it. How passionate are you about knowing the truth, and what are you bringing to the plate to know it? Otherwise, it will not take time for you to become a parrot as well. (99%, I have mentioned above.) For me, the eagerness when I have faced this question is to keep my life on the front line and be ready to die (if required) to know the reality. Even if you take the most powerful psychedelic on earth and are not ready to integrate the learning, deconstruct your mind, etc. You will end up with the majority facing mental issues triggered by it. Some rules to go forward (you can add your own) : - For a specific topic on this forum go to Google and search for a specific topic for example - site:https://www.actualized.org/forum/ "awareness". You can do this with any specific site. This will cut down your search to a minimum number you put. Now go and see the old topics on this forum or other sites. You will find some very good explanations on the topic you are searching for. Here is the link to get into a basic search on YT. There are many videos on the same topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzhbYoSZix4 - If you have started a topic and say for example 4 people have replied to it. Most probably out of 4. Only 1 or 2 people replies which resonate with you. You have to engage with them (elaborate on your query etc). It's ok if you are not engaging with 100 which doesn't answer your query. Other than this my POV here (Which may not be of yours or others) : You never arrive on this search. It keeps showing you new levels of understanding, and experience. The only thing you have to do is to keep yourself humble and surrender to it. Also, this journey is not for everybody (This is my POV) because it may land you with a nervous breakdown or mental illness. It is so direct that no thoughts or complex wording can define it. If you didn't find an answer here go somewhere else and search it. Never ever get discouraged because you are a unique POV out of approximately 8 billion Humans POV right now on Earth and an infinite alien POV out there.

The most Genius ones for me in no particular order: Leo Gura, Angelo DiLulo, Bentinho Massaro, Josh ("So awake" yt channel), Suzanne Chang (Suzanne Nonduality), Roger Thisdell

Those are more experientially-oriented terms while "philosophical" ones are more difficult to relate to. As an example, "me" and "I" were probably one of the first words you learned, while many people haven't even heard of nonduality, which is a term abstracted out from experience. (?) A spiritual term can be intellectually apprehended, yet highly abstract ones might in some ways preclude personal discovery. Abstraction is convenient for the mind because nothing or very little gets confronted within your self-experience--just notions being discussed, refuted, agreed upon, etc. In the context of enlightenment work is where this negation or mindset, if you will, comes in--I wasn't very clear about that from the beginning. About understanding and communication, it depends on what you are up to, but it is obviously needed and valuable. We would have to start by clarifying for ourselves what is being communicated and for what purpose.

Well, this sounds interesting...