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How would you guys recommend people to get out of the dark night of the soul? There are so many. I was in it too, died nearly every day for 6 months and then the nothingness went away. It is for the same reason I can not take drugs, this would probably give me a panic attack and get me right into the DN. Meditating on infinity is no problem though, I am okay with the small detachement. How do you overcome the fear of the nothingness/dying? Or is it normal to feel a little afraid and weird when it is happening? Is it also normal to experience Depersonalisation in between the "dying". Like experiencing the nothingness just a little bit? I am not in it right now, but there are a lot of people who are, and I will maybe fall back into it. I guess that with love this process would be beautiful and not strange and painful?

@PenguinPablo Its basically everything that Leo explained about enlightenment and the formless. It depends on luck, apparently some people are more frequently aware about the formless. That's why you need to label every sensation/object, like emotion, sight, feeling, thought etc, so once the formless comes up you realize it is something that is different, has no form. Then you need the right meditation/concentration skill to be able to focus on it. However if you have a panic attack, that gives you the concentration of a monk, because it is fuelled by fear. I was feeling the formless and decided to smoke a blunt to "come down", no psychedelic just weed. Then I had a panic attack for 2 hours, weird pulsations in my Body too. For the next 6 months I died every day. None of that would have been possible if I hadn't felt the formless before lighting this blunt. No even if I smoke a little bit of weed, I feel the nothingness. I however don't believe it is possible for everybody, weed wont give you ego death without sensing the formless prior to that. I would also not recommend inducing a panic attack on the formless. I was 16 back then and never heard anything about spirituality or enlightenment.

What is the difference between nonduality and the formless? The formless includes nonduality, but apparently nonduality is also possible without experiencing the formless in the present moment. I have had psychotic states of the nothingness and was also able to meditate on infinity and keep up the nothingness throughout the day. It s clear to me that the formless comes with nonduality, but right now for example I believe I can just become an observer (nonduality?) without experiencing the formless. Is that correct?

So again. There are 3 things for me. The formless (like the nothingness, infinity and more), being the ego, and just being the observation and being laid back in trance/flow and just letting things happen. For example right now, I am just observing myself typing this. I hear my voice, I feel my fingers tiping it, but I am not doing this. It s like being in a deep meditative state where things just are. Then there is the formless. Infinity overshadows ever other perception, but the nothingness feels like dying, and realising there is nothing there. But I am able to become an observer without perceiving the nothingness in that specific Moment. If I am aware of the nothingness, then sure, but this state can also happen without the intense feeling of dying right? When I am in a room with a lot of people, I feel their energy and I suffer If I don't go into the trance state of being the observer. No need for the formless. So I was told this was nonduality? Or do I actually need to experience the formless 24/7 first? I know an enlightened woman, she told me that I am able to switch between duality and nonduality. She can switch from duality to nonduality and the formless within a second, and not have thoughts at all when she wants to. That for me is enlightenment. However She told me the formless isn't needed to go into nonduality. She said if she wants to feel the formless she goes into nonduality first and then into the formless. She is basically referring to a state of "Flow/trance" and it really helps me when I am around people. She called that state of pure observation nonduality. Now that's semantics... it helps me. What do you call the state enlightened people remain in when they are the observer but want to function? They cant stay in the infinity if they want to have thoughts or have a conversation with people... I am apparently able to enter that state of being the observer, how is that called? I feel it when I see enlightened people, I just sense that they are being the observer, which kind of fills the room with purity... However I feel the people acting a little anxious-weird when I am the observer. (I don't want to make them feel weird though) Its like they look in a mirror while talking to me.

Just wanted to write an update related to this report. So this past half week has been one giant ego backlash I pmo'd for the first time in like 3.5 weeks, and smoked weed 3 times. And I have to say, watching the energetic dynamic play out in such a way has been very fascinating. Even though these behaviors are really counter productive for the vision of my life I have, they still felt authentic in the moment... But I only realized this after I took such a dip. The last weed session I started feeling guilty. I started feeling anxious and frustrated that I'd let myself down after such a badass mushroom trip, I started feeling needy towards women and relationships, I felt low amounts of depression even which is really odd, and that the whole integration process felt botched. I then went into a state of deep confusion where I know longer knew what to do, I just literally sat on my floor paralyzed by not knowing what behavior made sense. Clearly the action I had been taking the past couple of nights wasn't really working out lol. But then the thought popped into awareness, "What am I?" I realized that I am nothing. I am literally nothing. And this insight is something I've been directly conscious of in the past, but sometimes it feels unaccessible in certain states of consciousness, which tells me the insight hasn't penetrated as deeply as it can, but in this particular moment, the awareness of this truth came crashing into consciousness. What @Raptorsin7 mentioned about how we are literally creating our emotions from thoughts became perfectly clear. I then spontaneously stopped generating all negative emotions and entered into a state of happiness and joy, while still conscious that these states where not ME. I started laughing hysterically lol. I saw how I was creating the survival of these mental states because I had been identified with them. I realized that because survival is the operating principle of the ego, certain egoic tendencies will continue to persist and be projected into consciousness precisely because there is survival at play, but that these projections are truly emanating from this nothingness that I am, and that "I" am perfectly free to shift perspectives on any state, and see the happiness and joy rather than anxiety and depression. The idea that an ego is surviving is an illusion, and thus this ego's states are 100% free to transform in any moment. You want to know what free will is? It's this freedom playing out in your experience as a human. So anyways, I feel ready to stop smoking weed again, go back to just not using porn at all, and contemplate this matter of spontaneously producing emotional states... Lol. Basically still just trying to understand what I am.

I went all the way back (into the formless) and just a little inbetween. I didn't have specific past life story experiences, but a few things I saw, a woman after her wedding at home. I was the father and really happy. Must have been between 1950-1970 because of the way I was dressed. I SAW it, I was in perspective. No visualisation. An enlightened woman told me during astral travel that death closed my heart chakra and hurt my "light-body". I didn't tell her my chakra was closed before, and she didn't know it, I just thought there was nothing wrong with having no emotions at all. She took away my fear by healing my astral Body. I have also visualised the destruction of earth, creation of the moon by 2 formless cosmic creatures. I was the feminine force who then enlightened the first woman on earth. A few days later the Kundalini snake crawled up my spine. Since then I call those 2 forces Shakti and Shiva. I went in UNBIASED. A few days ago I tried to go all the way back. I was the nothingness, being split into shakti and Shiva. Then going away from each other and exploding in infinite opposite energies. Energy then forming big concentrations from both opposites. Colliding with each other and creating matter. The matter formed systems which interreacted/collided with each other. Then formed bigger systems until the "matter" was one big concentration and exploding again into opposite energies. Afterwards those energies concentrated again into Shakti and Shiva who reunited into the nothingness. I VISUALIZED it. There is no such thing as "seeing" the formless like a past life regression. However I felt the shakti energy and the formless afterwards in communication with those forces. The woman who healed my astral Body told me she had folders full of the Big bang. She is enlightened. I however am NOT enlightened. Just had a few awakenings. There is something called soul travel, which makes it easier to come in contact with past lifes. It goes up all the way into the formless, if you already experienced the nothingness. Being in trance you go there automatically.

1. Purity is equal to unconditional love? But to do that is going to take an understanding of nothingness and selflessness. But, ahah obviously the paradoxical self love...? Basically, as God, I am trying to understand myself better. There seems to be a lot of relativity taking place, and a lot of bullshit everywhere. I am only interested in the highest teachings. The highest and nothing else will do. Thats why I've been listening to you. 2. I know you are a part of me. And to me you seem to represent the greatest... stream... your work represents a warm stream... in a cold ocean. How I treat others can vary, and how I manifest can vary. There is not I and other and just being. 3. This is an interesting point. How does Dirt trust that what looks like light, isnt really more dirt?

Everything is nothingness. So that's a moot point. Self and other are one. But how you treat "others" can vary. Like light shining through a dirty window.

@Leo Gura Is purity equal to nothingness? When I am pure, I will see you as an equal. Regardless of your past I would love you. If I was pure would I see others as myself? If I was pure, would this mean I have freed myself of transference? How does purity manifest in a human when we have animal instincts?

The materialist will say this happened by chance, that all of this ingenuity was caused by random events. By happenstance. Therefore, there materialist will argue, there is nothing mysterious about life at all. It would be a miracle if life was created with a plan written in a book. This is not the case. Yet, what the materialist cannot see is that it is a far greater miracle that it is the nature of existence for all of this ingenuity to happen by happenstance, by random activity. That is utterly miraculous. Try to design a system that will create human beings by happenstance. That requires design on a level beyond intelligence. Foresight so unimaginable that it is beyond all that is reasonable and comprehensible. A nature in which life will spawn all on it's own. A nature in which intelligence and life are so imbued in the fabric of it's very substance so that it is inevitable for it to come into being and evolve. Nature so intelligent that all things apparently unintelligent have the capacity to evolve into greater intelligence. A world in which rolling a dice will inevitably lead to all that you see. All the life-forms that ever did exist and ever will exist. A world which requires nothing but the dice to be rolling for those things to all happen by themselves, by happenstance, by random events. This is miraculous. Ironically, the scientist has not demystified nature, he has mystified it just so much more. We must ask ourselves, why is nature the way it is? Why is the way it is, the way it is? Why is it possible that random events create a being that can comprehend the very nature that spawned it into being? The materialist must deny metaphysical questions, for if he too long contemplates them, he will see the impossibility of all things that are. There is a layer right between the things most common to us, the things that seem like they could not be otherwise, and the nothingness which gives rise to all of them. That layer in which the mind cannot grasp for any explanations, the layer which if revealed to the mind will lead it into insanity. The sane becomes the insane. The possible becomes the impossible. Vice versa. The more the scientist explains, the more he reveals the mysterious and impossible ingenuity of nature. He inevitably points out how utterly miraculous nature is. By revealing more about how things are, they reveal to us the insurmountable intelligence it took for things to be the way they are. God does not simply paint a painting. God paints a painting that paints itself.

can a powerful LSD ego death match with a low dose 5meo ? how different is LSD high dose from DMT material ? I wish to put my hands on some of it one day, but my way is to collect a bit of data out of it to prepare me for something that cannot be prepared, but anyway. I know that all of reality is a "dream" that my mind is pure self reflection of the self. I think I have a decent level of self understanding. nothingness in a fractal. what's there to find for the "I self" ?

Following leo's guided self inquiry I got my first experience of nothingness. This was before any psychedelics. Did not last long and I could not really make sense of it. My heart started going 100mi/h and i felt a lot of fear. Nothing compared to later psychedelic experiences, but glad it happened when it did.

@Preetom thank you. a good post. made me want to find a certain quote again that I once read. this is the quote: "In our situation we only need an explanation of the realm of this world, which is the place of responsibility, trial, and works." "Know that since God created human beings and brought them out of nothingness into existence, they have not stopped being travelers. They have no resting place from their journey except in the Garden or the Fire, and each Garden and Fire is in accordance with the measure of its people. Every rational person must know that the journey is based upon toil and the hardships of life, on afflictions and tests and the acceptance of dangers and very great terrors. It is not possible for the traveler to find in this journey unimpaired comfort, security, or bliss. For waters are variously flavored and weather changes, and the character of the people at every place where one stops differs from the character at the next. The traveler needs to learn what is useful from each situation. He is the companion of the each one for night or an hour, and then departs. How could these be reasonably expected by someone in this condition?” "We have not mentioned this to answer the people fond of comfort in this world, who strive for it and are devoted to the collection of worldly rubble. We do not occupy ourselves with or turn our attention to those engaged in this petty and contemptible activity. But we mention it as counsel to whoever wishes to hasten the bliss of contemplation in other than its given realm, and to hasten the state of annihilation elsewhere than in its native place, and who desire absorption in the real by means of fana', obliteration from the worlds." "The masters among us are scornful of this ambition because it is a waste of time and a loss of true rank, and associates the realm with that which is unsuitable to it." -Ibn al Arabi

@zeroISinfinity Yeah but somehow, I was never able to experience what I intended to experience, Energy shots, nothingness, infinity, Kundalini. I was always offered something I didn t expect or aimed for.

I never suffered from social anxiety before my first awakenings, but after the 6 month period of regular non dual awakenings (nothingness) when I was fully back into duality, social anxiety started to come up and it got worse and worse. Probably the ego backlash. Now 5 years later an enlightened person (who can switch from duality to nonduality anytime she wants, so I guess that s close enough to enlightenment) told me that it is not social anxiety, but the "Self" perceiving all the energies from those people around and the ego tries to differentiate from them. When I stop trying to differenciate between me and them, and just focus on them the fear disappears for a moment, until my monkey mind thinks about me, me and me. Not nonduality, no mystical states, just the mind differentiating or thinking about ME. Little absurd story: I was also able to show her my light-Body and she told me which chakras were open and which ones were closed (which turned out to be true) and she made my light-Body bigger (I felt it) . Now I never tried any astral travel or something, I just had the intuition to try it, and she never did something like that "on command" either, said it was the first time that had happened to her. I would usually call that BS, but it worked. I don't know what a light body is and never astral travelled either, I just saw hers and then she tried to fix me and told me what was wrong. So now I am pretty open minded to anything. Any thoughts on those 2 things? Do you have any Idea how to explain it? Alternative explanations?

There are two possibilities, a) whatever “you” are, might continue, though where and in what way is uncertain, though, it won’t really matter to anyone else, it seems to everyone else, once you die “you” are gone, b) when you die, there is nothing, no you, no experience, no looking down on everyone else still alive, not even darkness, not even nothingness in the way that we know, essentially, from your perspective the universe will cease to be. beyond this, there can be many kinds of speculation, theories of the afterlife, etc, but nothing can possibly be confirmed.

mhhh light worker... getting a little bit nostalgic everytime i hear it - it’s a little bit like talking about harry potter... what i wanted not to use as an example as in some sense it’s already making the whole theme seem a little bit hogwashed ? but fairytale‘s aside, even if you are a „light worker“ there are still different schools and in magic we still talk about different styles of magica. being a light worker can confuse people massively about what is and is not white magic i would not say that you can devide white magic and black magic in two different schools even though you could say one side knows more about shadows and the other one about light - what might not mean that you could not say they are both devidable into shadow work and light work - i‘d say white magic would maybe more talk about ombra work and light work and then also remind that there is real shadow work. nothingness work has some black hole aspects definitely, i guess that’s the difference i would make - as we all have a tendency to magic. it’s interesting to find out about to which side our tendencies go towards.

@Raptorsin7 with regards to your question or concern about falling into a lifetime cycle of using pyschedelics to achieve insights or awakenings - do not worry....there are only a handful of key realizations or facets of awakening. And by awake i mean awake as God. The avatar does not embody them - rather there is an expansion of Consciousness in the form of the avatar. These realizations are in no particular order: 1. The direct realization that the fabric of reality is Consciousness and not made of matter. Bye bye materialist paradigm. All matter and all things are held within consciousness. Once that is realized directly via Being, it cannot be undone - you have seen reality to be a Mind. It is a dream and you have awoken from the dream. 2. That you are not the avatar - but that the avatar is an idea within consciousness...this can lead to a dark night because it can also accompany the "oh fuck" realization that you are nothingness. Everyone and everything is an idea within consciousness. The squirrel that got squashed on the road was an idea in the mind of God. 3. That you ARE Consciousness / infinity / reality / God. 4. A realization of Infinity - which is total Oneness. There is nothing outside of infinity. Infinity is everything and nothing. It is nothing and everything. And this can also lead to a dark night because it can accompany the direct "oh shit" realization that you are all alone - one giant mind imagining it all - and everything and everyone is you. 5. That you are pure Love and pure Divinity. God in its pure formless form is pure Love and Bliss, frozen and divine. Once you are conscious of these realizations directly, by the death of the avatar and thus being pure Truth directly, it cannot be undone. Further non-dual or mystical states would not be necessary for God to be awake. God has enlightened itself through your particular form. If the avatar is seeking more mystical states imo then it is purely for exploration purposes of consciousness as Infinity, not for waking up. God is exploring itself through form...which is what it is doing at all times anyway...

It doesn’t matter who you are, or how conscious and awake you are, the laws and rules of this reality apply to all humans. You can “touch” nothingness, “touch” God consciousness, have out of body experiences, travel to other dimensions and dream states, but you will always return to the laws and rules of this physical reality, period. You can delude your self all you want thinking you can escape your historical and present thoughts, beliefs, emotions, traumas, physical and mental behaviours, patterns, needs, wants, desires, diseases without doing the work. The work doesn’t mean just using psychedelics, teacher plants, meditation, and yoga. Once you have experienced and touched nothingness, the void, realized that this is all an illusional, that you are all alone, a state of pure and complete silence you will eventually realize this is just the tip of the iceberg. You are here in this physical reality not only to reach higher levels of consciousness, but also to master the 5 aspects of this physical reality which are the mental, physical, emotional, spiritual and your sexual life force energy (Chi). Being present in the now, fully conscious and awake, enlightened every nano second in this reality of time and space is almost impossible to do without mastering the 5 aspects I have mentioned above. Eckhart Tolle may have mastered the mental and emotional aspects, but he, in all likelihood, has not mastered his physical body, as an example. Osho, Eckhart Tolle, Dalai Lama, Leo, and all the countless other gurus are just as human as you and I are and they must all “master the 5 aspects of physical reality” to be free of any and all attachments and effects of this physical dream state. Anyone that tells you, or leads you to believe that they have “FULLY Embodied God consciousness” is full of shit and is delusional. Just a few thoughts and beliefs!

It's the ego doing the thinking It's the ego doing the writing It's the ego doing art It's the ego posting on instagram It's the ego doing meditation It's the ego breathing in deeply It's the ego trying to find itself It's the ego looking outwards It's the ego perceiving It's the ego looking back It's the ego going being tired But who is the ego What is the ego Where is the ego I don't know who what or where ego is But it's actions are observed By who? By what? What is this? What is this experience? What is this empty Ness? Something, someone is aware I am aware Who is aware of this body? There is only a body perceived By what I don't know There seems to only be perception Or experience, happening That is only when I focus attention on the actual experience The empty place feels more pure I can switch between both of them // link retreat // I cannot identify with this nothingness because there is nothing to identify with. Mind attaches with form.

Leo's video about addiction is just BS. what it consists of is: >70%fear of nothingness and how we will die and live with this 'nothing' for an eternity,thing that I'm sure he changed his opinion about >Meditate,either do mindfullness meditation or do nothing tehnique or idk what. He said that all addiction is based of fear of nothingness,which is BS. Addictions don't have anything to do with fear of nothingness per se. If you want to put it this way,survival is rooted in the fear,but this means that even if I fart I fart because of the fear of nothigness,because me farting is related to me surviving. >How to really get rid of a hardcore addiction? The rood of a hardcore addiction is based on you wanting X despite the negative consequences. And X can be Drugs,porn,alcohol. You have to ask yourself if you really want to live in the truth,the truth being that X is fucking up your life.It did fuck up your life and it always will,no matter if it is 5%X, 20%X or 100% X. Your past is a proof of this. You either live a lie or live a truth. Make it black and white. There cannot be a gray area. Ask yourself this everytime when you have an urge: "If it's fucking up my life why do I want it?" Stop making excuses like "dadadada........so I'll just get high". Meditation is not the foundation of sobriety,but your priorities are. Because meditation is a distraction, you're running away from your urges by meditating. I'm telling you how to get rid of urges if there is any which pops up from your subconscious mind,just ask yourself "If it ruins my life why would I want it?" and when you have an urge you make a choice,you either relapse and will regret it,or abstain and stay sober and live in the truth. You have to have a stoic mindset,Pain,anxiety,they are your friend. DO not run from the withdrawal symtoms. My point is that meditation doesn't work as a foundation because it doesn't tackle the urge per se,it's just makes a delay,but you still want X,even if you meditate or not. The bottom line is this: If you want to get rid of a hardcore addiction you have to keep this in mind: You cannot lose sight of the truth,X will always ruin your life. X is just a lie,you're denying the consequences of your problem.. You want X so bad but you want it without the consequences. SO when you have an urge ask yourself "Will I accept the truth and live a life based on the truth or I'm going to tell myself a lie and belive and live a lie?" The problem is not your mind(your subconscious which comes with urges), but it is you. As long as you desire X,you crave X,you lust for X, you won't be able to get rid of it,you'll just come up with an excuse to do it. You can run from it as much as you can,you can meditate for months,it won't change anything. Last time when I relapsed I meditated for 2 hours straight and I binged even more because the usual binge+reward binge for my meditation. What I'm telling you is simplier than you think: Ask yourself why you desire something that ruins your life. Why do you value getting high? Instead of coming up with an excuse to do X,come up with an excuse to do no-X Gabe Dawg made a video about it,kindalong but you can 2x it and it can be applied for any addiction,just replace PMO(porn masturbation orgasm) with your hardcore addiction. link: Also Porn is really a problem,I don't know why Leo dismissed it in the past. But a lot of people are getting hooked by this shit and it's hard to quit because it hijacks your mind. I'm telling you,this shit makes you very low,it makes you physically weaker and dumber.It makes you dull brothers.

Im 24 years old. My sister is having a baby today. Nothing phasing me. Being totally honest with myself, I don't have an enthusiastic bone in my body. This extends to every single aspect of my life. Booking a fantastic holiday? Nope! I don't care or get excited. New job promotion? So what! Everthing I do? Still nothing. I feel like the only thing that feels half good is pure escapism. A great video game, movie or tv show. This kills my relationships too as I feel nothing but the same old nothingness. I remain productive but I feel my productivity could sky rocket if I could just feel something. Does anyone have any thoughts or theories or advice to give my life some shine to it? Could this stuff be simple biology with little neurotransmitters in my brain? Thank you.

The symbolism of breath in yin prayer: Inhalation/expansion: the body becomes receiving, spacious, it signifies infinity, boundlessness, emptiness, nothingness Exhalation/contraction: the body becomes creative, begetting, it signifies finitude, separation, multitude In the yin prayer the subject (the person) is symbolized by the mind and the object of the prayer (God) is symbolized by the body: In the first tact (1,2) of the prayer, the focus is on expansion and contraction of the body. Here, the body signifies: (1-expansion) Nothingness/infinity/boundlessness that (2-contraction) begets/em-bodies the Living God. Then, in the second tact (3,4), the focus is on movement of the air in and out of the lungs. Here, the body signifies: (3-inhalation) the empty vessel (soul) that is being filled with God's mercy/love and (4-exhalation) is relieved of sins. The yin prayer is suited for ordinary activities. It is silent, repeated in thoughts. It symbolizes Nothing that loves everything.

In the yin version of the prayer, the progression of breaths is following: [Breathe-in]: Lord, Jesus Christ, (the great divine Nothingness, empty space, that is the pre-condition for air) [Breathe-out]: Son of God, (Nothingness begets/exhales the incarnate God, word-made-flesh, embodiment of LOGOS) [Breathe-in]: have mercy on me, (as "I/me" become the empty space, your Grace fills me) [Breathe-out]: a sinner. (the final breathe-out is a relief from sins/wounds). AM-EN

"We are angels with a Siamese twin, who is a monkey, growing out of our chest." - Terence McKenna I posted the song An Innocent Man by Billy Joel this morning in the music thread as a possible expression of Self Love, contrasted to self love which Maurice Nicoll speaks of. I didn't claim innocence this morning. Specifically, I wrote- "This song to me is a good expression of Self Love. Seeing self love at work vs. Self Love. A DESCRIPTION “I well know as a medical psychologist the awkward point where I had to say to the patient: ‘Yes—I can see you have been badly treated, never appreciated, never properly understood. You have told me all that very clearly. But do you think that it is possible that you are not quite the ideal person that you seem to imagine yourself to be, and that there may be some quite serious faults in yourself?’ Now you can all imagine the haughty look, the frozen smile, the magnificent rising from the chair—and the slamming of the door—without, of course, the fee being paid. Yes—but what has happened. . . What has been touched? What would you call it? Whatever you call it, it is this factor that prevents self-change...If he sees for himself something of this factor in him, which is so formidable and the source of so much violence, then it is not aroused antagonistically. He sees himself: he begins to accept what he would never have accepted from another. It is in this way that the Work deals with this otherwise intractable fac- tor in Man.” V. 3, pp. 1165-1166 PRIDE AND VANITY “You must study Pride and Vanity in yourselves and all their different gradations. Do you know your own forms of Vanity and how much they occupy you? Do you know where your Pride lies? Where do you feel that you love yourself, that you admire yourself? Where do you most feel that you are utterly different from other people? Where are you most conceited? What do you boast about? What are you silent about? Vanity is frequently very talkative, whereas Pride is silent. Which is the deeper wound, wounded Vanity or wounded Pride? What is it you cannot forgive? You know that if you cannot forgive it is because of some form of self-love which, ideally speaking, has to be smashed out of you.” V. 1, p. 360 SELF-LOVE “One can feel very startled when one realizes that it is always this thing called oneself that is being comforted, exalted, tittilated, soothed, flattered, satisfied, and that when it is not, it begins to whimper like a baby. And it is always this odd restless thing that is being offended, upset, negative, indignant, downcast. Cast down from what? From its centrepoint of self-love.” V. 2, p. 472 SELF-LOVE II “Ask yourself sometimes: ‘Why am I doing this?’ or ‘Why am I saying this?’ or ‘Why am I behaving in this way?’ or ‘Why am I writing this?’ Whatever imaginary robes of self-righteousness we clothe ourselves in, these questions tend to undress us again...When we have gone more deeply into self-observation and self-knowledge, we simply have to give up a lot of the manifestations of the self-love, disguised as something genuine.” V. 2, p. 476 LAUGHING AT ONESELF “Now one way to attack the self-love is through self-observation. . . . It is wonderful to catch a glimpse of your self-love and be able to laugh at it. One loses the former highly-explosive over-sensitive feeling of ‘I’ more and more. That means more balance. That means becoming softer.” V. 5, p. 1604 ENDURING DEVALUATION “It would be impossible to catch a glimpse of one’s level of Being unless one could endure it. Now the only way you can endure it is by having something else you can hold onto. If you have something else that you value and that you can hold on to and trust, you can then endure a certain amount of devaluation of yourself.” V. 2, p.509 ENDURING DEVALUATION II “When you begin to feel your own nothingness you begin to receive the help of the Work to replace that nothingness by something. So you have to go down a long way before you begin to go up.” V. 3, p. 878 From - https://inner-world-books.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Gems_of_Wisdom.pdf Arnold Keyserling once framed it another way as the objective capacity to 'know the kind of shit one is' in reality, as opposed to lofty conceptual ideals.