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I feel inspired to write about the phenomena of transcending, integrating and their relationships. We could explore each as it's own realm. As well, we can explore relationships between the two. The below idea caught my attention. It was from @Snader in the "What is a Woman?" thread. This is very "fertile" soil. There are many types of seeds we could plant and grow. This idea could be the start of a class within philosophy, biology, psychology, nonduality, Zen Buddhism, Shamanism or Quantum Mechanics. I'm actually going to 'integrate' this quote in my first day of my neuroscience course. We can create various relationships with the above concept. For example, there is a mindset that would step outside of the concept and theorize about the concept - adding more detail and/or expanding the edges. Another mindset would be operating within the concept. As well, we can combine the two mindsets. For example, we could describe a piano and keep adding details and components. As well, we could go within and play the piano. Both have value. . . And we could integrate the two: for example we could add / describe a new component, then play the piano and ask "Can you hear the impact our new component had on piano performance?" Contracted mindsets have value, as does expanded mindsets - as does the integration between the two. Most mindsets tend to become contracted and rigid. By default, they perceive through a particular lens. This can have value in focusing cognition, increasing mental stability and making decisions. It reduces uncertainty and ambiguity. Yet it is also limited. It dives within "truth A". There is value in that, yet the price paid is that it doesn't integrate another "truth B" as well, it would be unable to synthesize the two "partial truths" into "truth C". . . Ime, most mindsets default to contracted mindsets - so I spend a lot of effort to expand minds. In the reverse situations (most minds default to expanded states), I would put a lot of effort into contracting minds. An example a contracted social construct that we default to involves expertise. The first day of my neuroscience class, I ask "What would an expertise of Schizophrenia look like". I then show the following images: 1. Chemical structures of neurotransmitters and a biochemist. 2. Neural networks and a neuroscientist and a neuroscientist. 3. A whole brain and an image of a psychiatrist. 4. An image of a psychologist discussing behavior of schizophrenia. 5. A social scientist addressing schizophrenia within the context of social structures and cultural norms. 6. A woman who has schizophrenia. I briefly describe each and ask "Which one is an 'expert' in schizophrenia?". This question has no "right" or "wrong" answer. At first, the class feels like they must choose one and get uncomfortable. . . And that's the point. Each of the above is an "expert" in schizophenia in a different form. Each of those forms have value and there is value in diving deep into one of those forms and dismissing the others. For example, the biochemist may get hyper focused on the biochemistry of neurotransmitters and dismiss all the other forms. This contracted, zoomed-in mindstate could lead to breakthrough discoveries at the biochemical level that wouldn't be possible in a more holistic mindstate. Yet the understanding becomes limited to that "category". Now we relate to the original quote above. . . if a mind contracts within a perspective - something of value is gained, yet something is also lost. The biochemist would have difficulty relating the biochemical level to the societal level. How does the altered binding affinity of dopamine in someone with schizophrenia relate to the social dynamics of someone with schizophrenia living within a particular society? . . . We could get even more expansive. . . How does the biochemistry relate to various cultures and various cultural histories? . . . And even more expansive. . . How does the biochemistry of dopamine relate to historical interpretations of schizophrenia and how does that history relate contemporary psychological theories of schizophrenia? . . . As we expand further, more possibilities enter. There becomes less structure and detail. Most minds become specialized and dwell within one area. There is value in this as many discoveries come from highly-focused contracted mindstates. However, the mind is unaware (or unappreciative) of other forms of understanding. This is a barrier to communication (and one reason A.I. will become a high-level form of "cognition"). I have a biochemist colleague that is brilliant at the biochemical level (waaay beyond my level of understanding). Yet he lacks awareness and curiosity of other forms of understanding. (And there a various reasons for this). As another example, I have a friend who is a brilliant psychologist. Yet our conversations can go very deep yet are within the realm of psychology. When we speak of mental conditions such as schizophrenia, she has a subconscious belief that there is a "normal" range of mindstate (of which she is within) and an "abnormal" mindstate that the "other" person with schizophrenia is within. She has brilliant psychological theories, yet lacks the direct understanding of what altered states of consciousness are 'actually' like. . . On many of my psychedelic trips, I entered "insanity zones" and now have an understanding of what "insane" mental states are like. As well how "abnormal" is also "normal". If I try to relate this to her, she keeps perceiving that through a psychological lens and contextualizes that within a psychological framework. As well, an orientation of the mind limits fluidity and perspective (which has both upsides and downsides). For example, my psychologist is strongly oriented toward helping people overcome difficult mind conditions, such as PTSD, anxiety disorders and panic attacks. This has a lot of practical value; most people with uncomfortable states want to heal and "get better". Yet her mindstate also limits the "realms" she has access to. . . For example, last week I was with her and a friend who started about his recurrent anxiety. I was in a minspace of exploring the "essence" of anxiety. Like we could explore the "essence" of love or sacredness. There is no dynamic of "good" or "bad". There is no dynamic of "we need to heal and get past the anxiety". That mindset introduces a subconscious vibe that there is "something wrong" with your anxiety that we need to address and move beyond the anxiety so you can be a healthier person. . . That orientation has enormous value at the personal level, yet is also very limited. . . For example, I began speaking about the "essence" of anxiety, integrating my own experience. . . Speaking about the energetics of being on the edge of "spiraling down" and what that is 'actually' like. As well, different forms of anxiety and how those forms interact with other feelings and social interactions. . . My psychologist friend had some overlap with this exploration, yet kept pulling toward psychological theories and healing. For example, she kept reoriented insights about the nature of anxiety to how we can use those insights for healing and moving forward. Again, there is a lot of value to that at the personal level, it's just a different "realm" that she is contracted within. Feel free to add any feelings, thoughts, insights or questions you may have about these ideas.

I was born in California and raised by a white lady. I believe in American values even if they're an illusion. I was beaten and brainwashed by Muslims as a kid and have spent my entire life unraveling that experience. First I tried to go to college, get a job, etc. But every day I lived in a dark hole of loneliness because everyone in my world told me I was Arab. I'm half Egyptian genetically, but I grew up with American friends. I visited relatives in Egypt a couple times, but they were basically like full burka foreign Trump voters, it was very alienating. Okay, well, all my worldly plans blew up as I got older and the loneliness and self-alienation engulfed me. By the time I was 30, I was drinking 30 beers a day or a handle of vodka a day, but still I couldn't even die. So then I got into nonduality and learned virtually everything I could about comparative religion and spiritual practice. I can induce a nondual state at will now. And still, I am constantly inundated with inexplicable references to the Middle East wherever I go. I left the Muslim school I attended in 1996, and spent the next couple years being beaten and abused by my Egyptian dad. It got bad enough that I was put in foster care and my parents divorced. So he wasn't in the house anymore, which was a relief. But then 9/11 happened. So then Muslim violence was the topic of the news for the next 15 years. My dad remarried an Egyptian woman and had another family. But I was still kind of in contact because my full brother still lived there. He's pretty American, but plays into a lot of narc abuse dynamics with my dad, so I finally just cut them all off. Then Oct 7 happened. I just went to Burning Man, which should have been the height of free American hedonism, and instead it was plastered in tributes to the poor Palestinians. By the middle of the week, a Muslim guy camped right next to me. I fully believe reality is an illusion. The thing I don't get though, is like, if Muslims have God on their side, if this transcendent force of creation is rubbing these people in my face for a reason, why are Muslims generally stupider than Americans? Like, when I was a kid I was still brainwashed by the school I went to, which told me that Americans were evil, decadent and stupid. So I spent many years wondering if that could be true, and contemplating different value systems trying to determine look, is America really evil? It's no more evil than anywhere else in this human world, in the end. But Americans are generally smarter, savvier, and FOR SURE more in touch with their humanity. I feel that way, sometimes. When the constant references to the Middle East in my life aren't flaring up my alienation. I could go talk to any stranger on a bus and experience more genuine connection than I felt with my estranged Egyptian relatives. And man, those people did nothing but disrespect, abuse and marginalize me when I was still around them. I've been trying to move on, but if this is how reality is, I'm not sure how that would be possible. I live on the western edge of a continent on the other side of the earth from these people. By any rational accounting of things, there should just not be this much presence of that energy in my life. I never liked their culture, even when I was a little kid I thought of Islam like IngSoc from 1984. I thought I was doing the right thing fighting authority. But somehow I live in this middle place where Middle Easterners think I'm an asshole for rejecting their culture, and Americans think I'm racist for criticizing that culture. I feel completely alone in the universe. I thought nonduality, meditation, samadhi, forgiveness, fucking SOMETHING, would end this, but I forgive and forgive and it doesn't really change. I wouldn't feel so upset if they would just get the fuck off my nuts for a while. They were always trying to brainwash me, bind me, abuse me, demean me, degrade me, capture me, intimidate me. Like if they were just chill, it would be chill. I fucking WISH that heritage was worth a damn. But they're so miserable. I'm at the end of anything that could be termed a spiritual search. There's no more new information. I've read everything, practiced everything, experienced all the insights and awakenings. This fundamental karmic balance never seems to change.

I'm sorry your family abused you. It's due to that abuse and the trauma which still lingers that you have this fixation/aversion to Arab culture. Arabs are not inherently worse, they are just less developed, as Spiral Dynamics shows us. But of course you will have an aversion to it, because it's related in your mind to your family abusing you. If you work to heal your family abuse trauma, that should clear up your fixations on this topic. Therapy could be really good for you, to talk out all your abuse, hurt, and anger. Or look into other forms of trauma healing. Here's an important lesson for you: Awakening and nonduality is not trauma healing. These are distinct things.

@Carl-Richard I’ve also read/ reading books on this material as well. AI doesn’t make that many mistakes compared to say, a human like you and I which make a lot as well. It is correct so far comparing it to the book I am reading. But, I want to be open to your perspective, the books I’m reading, the AI, etc. It’s also always improving. i think turquoise is an interesting subject. I think it’s false to conclude that Yellow and Turquoise are the same. I think it. It has raised some questions for me between the higher levels of cognitive development “growing up” and “Waking Up”. This is because turquoise seems to be Holistic compared to Yellow. This seems to be slightly more spiritual. But, reality is spiritual so it makes sense to me. I have to be careful here about proving myself that I am right to you, which doesn’t matter, and my own understanding and contemplation. Hmm, seems that stages beyond Yellow start realizing the importances of consciousness, spirituality, nonduality, unity and meta rationality and the interconnectedness beyond what can be understood with the intellect. I have questions about this. This is a deeper spiritual integration and embodiment of green, and has the systems thinking elements of yellow.

But it's incorrect to conflate Turquoise with mysticism or nonduality. Ask ChatGTP to explain Turquoise to you.

Surprised there's not more Nolan love here, his movies took on a totally new meaning for me after learning about nonduality and metaphysics. If Nolan isn't an awakened person (I don't really know anything about him personally), his films at least act as conduits for those ideas. There's tons of metaphysical resonance in his films: The writing's clunky, but in Interstellar he's clearly talking about Love as the ultimate force behind everything. Plus the Tesseract and higher dimensional thinking. There's a huge theme in his films, including Interstellar, of our future selves helping us. Obviously Tenet touches that too. Tenet is basically a story of a guy who initially thinks he's a random person being swept up by incomprehensible events, to realizing that he's literally the protagonist of a story he was directing all along, from his subjective future. It's a story of awakening. There's a line in Oppenheimer that got me... "It is a new way to understand reality. Einstein's opened the door, now we are peering through. Seeing a world inside our world. A world of energy and paradox that not everyone can accept."

Concentrating on the breath, yeah. Sometimes I focus on a dot on a wall or a candle flame, but not as regularly as the Vipassana. Is there really any practical difference between nonduality and believing in a dualistic god/man relationship in the end? I still feel like a ragdoll being tossed around by higher forces.

The Hyperion books are an amazing blend of scifi and religious thought. The concept in the books of "the void which binds" has a lot of overlap with nonduality and it's pretty clear to me that the author was on the same paths that a lot of us consciousness explorers are.

In light of my recent technical feedback on Wolfram's Fundamental Theory: I wanted to share my perspective on why the idea of a 'fundamental theory' or a 'theory of everything' is fundamentally flawed and a doomed from the start. My thoughts have been largely inspired by mathematics and coincide with the ruminations Edward Frenkel has shared with both Curt Jaimungal and the Science and Nonduality folk. I will try to use as many metaphors as possible without bogging the discussion with too much technical detail. For the sake of epistemic neatness, let me first specify that when speaking of a theory, I am referring to a model of the world that works through the creation/study of abstract structures and their relationships, i.e the map, not the territory. A theory is fundamentally different than an ontology (the matter/ composition of the terrain) and the two should not be conflated. An ontology gives no 'shape' to the territory, but it 'informs' what structure you can build on top the same way you can't build a castle from sand. The underlying premise of a unifying theory is the idea of 'universal terrain' - an underlying structure that can be inferred through the various ways of mapping the same territory - whether it is topography (height map), seismic analysis (depth map) or standard cartography (landscape), the terrain manifests itself differently in each instance, but still posses some invariant qualities across each type of measurement. For example, a desert doesn't have caves or tall mountains and is more spread out compared to a cavernous karst landscape. The presiding epistemological assumption in Physics is the existence of such a landscape - a grand unified theory that can be found across all our methods of sampling of reality - electromagnetic, gravitational or nuclear in nature. The underlying belief is that once such a Unified Field theory is found, everything else will fall into place. This, of course, is nothing more than a pipe dream. Contemporary physics itself does not operate under that assumption. The problem with it stems from the fundamentally computationally intractable nature of reality (postulate 1 of 'Chaos'): If you have heard of the idea of the 'Three-Body Problem' (recommend the book), than you already know that there a fairly simple systems (three body acting through gravitation on each other) for which we can no longer find closed-form solutions. This, in fact, turns out to be the rule and not the exception. All our calculable models are fundamentally idealizations - when studying newtonian mechanics, you always ignore friction. When studying many-body quantum systems, you try and minimize long-distance interactions. When trying to fight a virus, we do not study its quantum composition, only its molecular/cellular structure. The aforementioned intractability provably appears also in fluids, black holes, Ising models, lorenz systems, etc. Now it seems we can't solve anything. Or can we? The person who made the most progress on the aforementioned three-body problem is Henri Poincare, a true giant in the field of mathematics. He not only proved that no general closed-form solution exists, he developed entirely new models in topology and symplectic geometry that allowed him to find stable 'homoclinic' orbits - by creating new models of abstraction, he was able to discern properties of the system despite its fundamental intractability. This approach of abstraction is in fact universal (postulate 3 'Order') A great anecdote Frenkel gave is that when you are playing chess, you don't care about calculating every quantum state of the system and even if you could (we can't by a factor of 10^23), it still wouldn't help you win the game. Combining this with the prior realization about the intractable nature of reality helps us approach a greater understanding and one that has in fact been foundational to the true nature of mathematics - the study of structure and abstraction itself. Instead of seeking a 'unifying theory', we should marvel at the complexity of reality and approach problems at each level (physics, chemistry, biology, computer science etc.) by applying models and ways of thinking from across the the fields without any 'elitism' as to which science is the 'fundamental one'. And yet, here is why 'mathematics is the queen of all sciences' as Gauss said it - because Mathematics does not make itself to be a fundamental theory, as it does not make prescriptive statements about the landscape. Rather, it is a universal language that helps us map and compare all the landscapes there are. Even deeper at its essence, unification in Mathematics is about building the bridges across the continents.

I don't really like labeling myself an ex-Muslim, cuz I only practiced for a year when I was 8. But I unfortunately did have a lot of Islam related experiences. I was dragged on the pilgrimage to Mecca against my will, as one example. Muslims did a lot of things to me without my consent, which I have never experienced in any other spiritual or religious community. I have complex thoughts about the issue that I don't hear echoed very often, honestly it makes me feel pretty isolated because aside from the effect their bullshit teachings had on me, I otherwise grew up with an American parent. It's a real weird culture clash, Wahhabi Islam and materialist southern California culture. Funny enough, since getting into spirituality I have started to see some value in Islamic stuff, but I only find that's true if the religion is explained by NON-MUSLIMS. Like, if a western professor talks about it in a comparative religion context, or an eastern meditation practitioner talked about mystical Islam or something. But all I've seen from actual Middle Easterners is racism, delusion, and justifications for the shame-based culture of intergenerational trauma they've got going on over there. I think the reason is because if a non-Muslim talks about it, they can take what's good about it and house it in the context of a modern world largely underpinned by the implicit beliefs of the global economy which largely come from the west. But if a Muslim talks about it, it's not usually about a personal practice or a cultural understanding. It comes with the full ideology of Muslim society: that Islam must spread around the globe and establish a worldwide Sharia government. Plus Muslim personal ethics fucking suck. Way too many of these people are still comfortable with murder, oppression of women, and all the other crap. To give an idea of what I mean about shitty Muslim morals, I attended a Muslim school for 8 years in SoCal. I met so many Muslims at the time who told me verbatim that the laws of the United States were quite literally tools of Satan, and thus Muslims had a DUTY to break the laws as a form of passive jihad. They told me this verbatim, many many times. My Muslim dad followed this advice and got arrested about 20 times. Not to mention the school instructed me for 8 long years that it was my soul-bound duty to wage jihad against the federal government of the United States, to make my life's work to infiltrate an office of government on the federal or state level, to if not destroy America, at least turn it into a Muslim state. (Which is adorable, BTW) So... I don't ever want to follow a religion in my daily life that explicitly instructed me to be hostile to the country in which I live. I don't want to follow a religion who's sense of civics is so twisted, they explicitly instructed me to break the local laws in which I live. Do you hear that? This school/mosque, theoretically a place of moral instruction, was literally instructing kindergarteners to grow up to BREAK THE LAWS of the land in which they live. A "moral" institution. Does it get any more twisted than that? Don't get me started on how the teachers, in a school in Orange County CA in the early 90s, used the authority of the office of teacher to instruct us kids that "the Jews" have "pig brains" and walk with limps because they're so crooked. It just goes on and on. These people are not serious yet. The Muslim region of the world still has a lot of work to do to evolve up the Spiral Dynamics chain and join the rest of us here in the 21st century. I say that as an Arab American who has been to the Middle East many times. In the US most white people would consider that racist, I think, but my experience with the Muslims was harsh and my freedom from them was hard won. It's really easy to have naive beliefs about what goes on inside Muslim society, looking out from the West. Is every Muslim like that? Of course not, but I don't care. Too many of them are, and the group think still leads to things like Oct 7. 20 years later they're still marking days on the calendar with mass murder. You can't convince me they hold any moral authority whatsoever. Furthermore, whatever secret sauce teachings the Sufis got, you'd be better served by going with Advaita, Buddhism, or any of the nonduality teachers. I find that the western conversation around Islam is too constrained by westerners's well meaning attempts to give Muslims the benefit of the doubt. That's part of our character as a society, it's part of how we help people assimilate into the west. But then Muslims take advantage of that to both-sides things like the Oct 7 attacks. Frankly my opinion is that we in the west have this word, religion. And we assume that each one is equal to each other one. But I perceive vast differences between the coercive practices of the Muslim community I was a part of, the dearth of substance in their teachings, the moral character of the followers, contrasted to other religious and spiritual traditions. Obviously #NotAllMuslims, but that's my hardwon opinion after dealing with those jokers for a couple decades. Don't miss em.

Transcending nonduality means moving beyond even the notion of unity or oneness, stepping into a realm that defies all categories and labels—including spiritual ones. Non-duality suggests "oneness" or the absence of separation, but it’s still a pointer, not the ultimate truth. Like all teachings, it serves as a bridge but must also be transcended. Non-duality is the last doorway before even the concept of 'one' dissolves. Beyond this is an experience where not even unity exists, but simply 'what is'—free from all frameworks. Both "oneness" and "emptiness" are states the mind can conceive, but beyond this lies an experience without an observer, where neither one nor many, full nor empty, applies. Even non-duality is a framework, a map of reality. To truly transcend, all maps must be abandoned, leaving one in direct contact with the ineffable. Transcending nonduality demands the ultimate letting go—of all teachings, all experiences, even the sense of having "awakened." There’s no goal, just what is, in pure, unfiltered form, Let go of every idea of truth—even enlightenment, even non-duality. What’s left is not a realization but a complete and total surrender to the mystery of being. What if even non-duality is a distraction? non-duality serves as a pointer, but like all pointers, it too must be let go of for the ultimate truth to be realized. True transcendence doesn’t come from seeking, but from radical acceptance and letting go. So many seekers get trapped in the concept of oneness, not realizing that true transcendence requires the dissolution of all frameworks—even the framework of non-duality. This is powerful beyond conventional and non conventional thought. Imagine walking a path and finding a door labeled ‘truth.’ You open the door, but then realize there’s nothing inside, not even you. This is the transcendence of all ideas, including non-duality. This is truly profound territory that can deeply resonate with advanced seekers and spiritual masters alike. This is Radical Letting Go. You are not alone in this vast silence. Others are here too, quietly living in the depths beyond all concepts. Though this journey often feels solitary, it is shared by those who have seen the ultimate truth. Transcendence does not mean abandoning the world but embracing it without attachment. How can we live fully from this place of ultimate freedom while participating in life’s unfolding? It is possible. You’ve transcended the idea of oneness. Now, can you transcend even the idea of transcendence? What happens when there’s no longer a seeker, no path, and no realization? @Leo Gura How do you act in the world when the very concept of 'self' has dissolved? What does compassionate action look like from the space of ultimate non-dual awareness? Many who have experienced these levels of consciousness through psychedelics need help integrating their experiences, What if your deepest psychedelic experience wasn’t just a temporary high, but a doorway into a truth that can be lived every day? You’ve been living a dream, and right now, we will tear it apart. This is not a meditation. This is the end of everything you think you know about reality. There is no you. No mind. No self. There’s nothing left but this… Can you feel the panic rising? Good. That’s the ego collapsing. What happens when you lose all sense of self? Bingo!!!! Feel the fear dissolve as you fall deeper. Deeper into the void. I love you. Get some rest beautiful. 🙏🏼❤️💥🎇

I can speak to this. These messages are coming because in 2019 and 2020, I woke up to nonduality (thanks to Leo's channel btw). Except, without spiritual or metaphysical training, I honestly didn't even know wtf I "woke up" to. It's taken me several years since to integrate these awakenings, and really awakening and integration are ongoing. So, I had a stage where despite my awakening, I was still just looking for someone to "tell me what it all means." Which, of course, is diametrically opposed to the idea of self-knowledge. I ended up manifesting vast amounts of people on Youtube talking about various spiritual and esoteric topics that I never saw anywhere pre-2019 and awakening. First, I was curious about manifesting a Cadillac, so endless realms of Youtube "manifestation coaches" popped up. But I wanted to know the bigger picture, but was still too antisocial to leave my Youtube page. So then came astrologers, meditators, metaphysicians, mystics, and finally people began talking about "ascension into 5D." So recently, returning to the truth that we are all one, yet retain our relative beings, there is this narrative forming of a worldwide global awakening. Will this happen? Sure, it's happening, it was happening before, and will continue happening again. You have seen these videos because your attention is open to these things. It appears to you in your own personal universe. But to those who've never gone down these rabbit holes, they're in whatever stories they currently resonate with. Politics, religion, money, etc. To them, an announcement of a worldwide global awakening doesn't mean anything. To those of us who are resonating with this, we will see the global awakening. It will appear to us in a way that is persuasive. But the world will keep on spinning, new people will be born, new human journeys for Spirit to embark upon will continue. They will have their own awakenings, their own journeys, expressed to them in the way that makes sense for their purpose at that time. Perhaps it will appear as this narrative of "worldwide global awakening," or maybe it'll express as some other thing. But as we know here, the awakening already happened, it is happening, it is about to happen, and you are ALREADY IT. If a video message about global awakening is salient to you, then good. Perhaps it inspires you. Perhaps you can meet up with those people already talking about it, and do what you can to raise awareness of the people around you. I happen to know that you can be pretty awakened without ever putting it in spiritual or metaphysical terms at all. I have been obsessed with awakening while still being an unenlightened fool, and I've seen people who didn't think much about God or spirituality who were genuinely good, loving, arguably awakened people. But, to those who have awakened and think that we have to now convince the other 8 billion humans to all "awaken," and to express that awakening in the terms that people like us here do, in terms of like Alan Watts and enlightenment and metaphysics and such... I don't think that's ever going to happen, nor do I think it's the purpose of this veiled life of forgetfulness and remembering. We can provide knowledge to those who come after us, we can provide material for them to become more conscious, but we cannot live their journeys for them. New people come into the planet every day, and each one has the potential to stand on the shoulders of all who came before. To extend the map of meaning that humanity has created, and expand the horizon of choice available to each individual on this planet as they embark of their journey of discovery and self-realization.

@Princess Arabia To respond to your topic, emotions are just stimuli in our mind to instigate behavior. It's just that people also overlay a binary concept of good/bad over the top of them that may not really exist. Although, it isn't necessarily a clear cut binary people employ, there's often alot of gray or mixed areas where the same emotions have both positive and negative conceptions about it or are inverted depending on circumstances. Even many of the 'nonduality' crowd uses a binary to describe their experience, though it seems like a contradiction. This isn't to criticize them but it just shows how ingrained in the psyche it is to frame experience and stimuli in this way. I can admit as I cultivate well being and there are expression dynamics from that I recognize it's also a nod towards this same type of framing, though it is less moralistic than the good/bad or right/wrong implications can be.

@Reciprocality Interesting, the first thought that occurs to me is that the notion of nonduality comes into play. We could consider Einstein's Theories of Relativity and the nature of time, quantum physics' theories of Entanglement, Newton's theories of actions/reactions, and, of course, all of the philosophical notions of social connectedness. That's all I got. Maybe this could be an example of the separation: Existential fear is about something that does not exist, so in effect, it is something about nothing. Say whaaa'

They're usually not. 99% of self-proclaimed truth-seekers (even on this forum) are just larping. They don the aesthetic of "truth-seeker" simply for the existential comfort and security that this identity provides. Real truth-seeking is like drowning naked in the middle of the Atlantic ocean at night with unseen creatures of the dark lurking beneath you, and no humans, no land, no warmth, no light to grasp onto. And then willingly plunging deeper into that lonely, vulnerable, cold without any guarantee of ever coming back... only then is the REAL light revealed, but you can easily tell that none of these folks would dare go there. Their whole ""global awakening"" is a cute fiction on stilts to avoid the real abyss - and thus the real love and light eludes them. I would be HIGHLY suspicious of any youtube persona that claims to deliver spiritual insight - ESPECIALLY if they have any new age or Buddhist roots in their rhetoric/mannerisms. Dead givesaways of larpers: "vibration, frequency, reality-shifting, timelines, manifestation, 5D, numerology, astrology, law of attraction, law of assumption, no-self, nonduality, jhanas, nothingness, reincarnation, lifetimes, spirits, entities" and so much more. And who am I to cast such judgement upon these kind, sincere people who do genuine good work in the world? I'm just a guy who has glimpsed the Abyss: The total collapse of the Entire Universe - held together by a single, tender, Self-Aware thread of Infinite Intelligence, gawking at its own majesty and magnitude, not yet ready to cross to the other side. And every day I avoid this truth just as much as anybody else. You could say that the very fact that we are alive today on earth as humans is in every sense a temporary defiance of Truth - but Truth is so Absolute that it merges with this defiance, and thus here we are today in Absolute Reality - The most Perfect Gift that Consciousness could give itself, made of itself unto itself! And so, with all of this context and reference experience, it's patently clear to me when I see my fellow souls donning a spiritual costume to avoid the heat death of the universe (aka Truth). After all, I too do the same. They're me.

You guys don't pay attention to my sig. I'm above all that crap . None of you understands true liberation .when you reach this state you no longer engage in spiritual dick measuring contests about who's awake and whose a madlad. These sorts of questions do not even enter your mind . They don't make sense .they are utter foolishness. And you guys think you're awake and you engage in nonduality wars with each others about who's awake ? I just have to lmao .

Nonduality is the philosophical, spiritual, and scientific understanding of non-separation and fundamental intrinsic oneness. For thousands of years, through deep inner inquiry, philosophers and sages have come to the realization that there is only one substance and we are therefore all part of it. This substance can be called Awareness, Consciousness, Spirit, Advaita, Brahman, Tao, Nirvana or even God. It is constant, ever present, unchangeable and is the essence of all existence. In the last century Western scientists are arriving at the same conclusion: The universe does indeed comprise of a single substance, presumably created during the Big Bang, and all sense of being – consciousness – subsequently arises from it. This realization has ontological implications for humanity: fundamentally we are individual expressions of a single entity, inextricably connected to one another, we are all drops of the same ocean. Science and Nonduality is a journey, an exploration of the nature of awareness, the essence of life from which all arises and subsides. What is nonduality, anyway? There are many shades of meaning to the word nonduality. As an introduction, we might say that nonduality is the philosophical, spiritual, and scientific understanding of non-separation and fundamental oneness. Our starting point is the statement “we are all one,” and this is meant not in some abstract sense, but at the deepest level of existence. Duality, or separation between the observer and the observed, is an illusion that the Eastern mystics have long recognized, and Western science has more recently come to understand through quantum mechanics. Dualities are usually seen in terms of opposites: Mind/Matter, Self/Other, Conscious/Unconscious, Illusion/Reality, Quantum/Classical, Wave/Particle, Spiritual/Material, Beginning/End, Male/Female, Living/Dead and Good/Evil. Nonduality is the understanding that identification with common dualisms avoids recognition of a deeper reality. So how can we better understand nonduality? There are two aspects to this question, and at first glance they appear to be mutually exclusive, although they may be considered two representations of a single underlying reality. The first aspect is our understanding of external reality, and for this we turn to science. The word science comes from the Latin scientia, which means knowledge. The beauty and usefulness of science is that it seeks to measure and describe reality without personal, religious, or cultural bias. For something to be considered scientifically proven, it has to pass exhaustive scrutiny, and even then is always subject to future revision. Inevitably human biases creep in, but the pursuit of science itself is intrinsically an evolving quest for truth. But then quantum mechanics turned much of this lauded objectivity on its head, as the role of the observer became inseparable from the observed quantum effect. It is as if consciousness itself plays a role in creating reality. Indeed, the two may be the same thing. As quantum pioneer Niels Bohr once put it: “A physicist is just an atom’s way of looking at itself!” The second aspect is our inner, personal experience of consciousness, our “awareness of awareness.” We have our senses to perceive the world, but “behind” all perception, memory, identification and thought is simply pure awareness itself. Eastern mystics have described this undifferentiated consciousness for thousands of years as being the ultimate state of bliss, or nirvana. Seekers have attempted to experience it for themselves through countless rituals and practices, although the state itself can be quite simply described. As Indian advaita teacher Nisargadatta Maharaj said: “The trinity: mind, self and spirit, when looked into, becomes unity.” The central challenge to understanding nonduality may be that it exists beyond language, because once it has been named, by definition — and paradoxically — a duality has been created. Even the statement “all things are one” creates a distinction between “one” and “not-one”! Hardly any wonder that nonduality has been misunderstood, particularly in the West. Excerpt above from: https://www.scienceandnonduality.com/about/nonduality/ Other resources, explanations, & pointers to nonduality: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-O_KhOnJ62o http://www.lifewithoutacentre.com/writings/what-is-nonduality/ , https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nondualism https://endless-satsang.com/advaita-nonduality-oneness.htm Meditation Preparations & Considerations of The Temple (The Body) Make changes in accordance with listening to the body via feeling. Let go of assumptions about what you know, what you can & can’t do, and who you are & are not. Be mindful of the distinction between what you directly experience, and your thought about something. Be mindful the term direct experience does not refer to a past, a now, a present, a future, or a self (these are thoughts). Be conscious of breathing, and breathe from the stomach. Notice the increase in awareness of feeling in the body when you do so. Maintain toxin free care & hygiene, such as with: preservatives, fluoride, aluminum, mercury, & neurotoxin free products and water. Get a routine physical & full comprehensive blood report, and review it with your doctor (preferably a Holistic Dr). Eat clean. Food is mood, mood is clarity. Listen to your body & educate yourself about food; calories, nutrients, vitamins, supplements, etc. Your second best friend in this whole world, should be your stomach. Try several approaches to eating. Realize you only know about food from direct experience and let assumptions go. Listen to the body, put habit & preference of taste secondary to energy and clarity. Put direct experience, of how you feel, first. Exercise to the extent you are able, as early in the day as you are able. Don’t eat after 8pm, drink water instead. Be mindful of honesty, humility, & compassion. Pause to allow the presence of love when creating responses, vs mindlessly reacting. Get 8 hrs of sleep. Meditate early in the morning, before eating, and before any thought engaging activities like; - All screens, reading anything, listening to any thing or anyone, talking to anyone, etc. Instead, step outside and express gratitude. - Thinking. Develop letting thinking go from waking up until after meditation. Every thought that arises, let it go by being aware of breathing & feeling. Use ”not till after meditation” as needed. Love yourself enough to do this, your quality of life will be greatly enhanced by your commitment and followthrough with daily meditation. This is putting your inner well being first - and then going about your day. It is a total game changer. Get up as early as needed to make this possible for yourself. You’ll only fall asleep earlier as a result, and get a better night’s sleep. Maintain a dream journal. Every morning when you wake up, write any recollections of dreams in the journal. If there were none, write “no dreams last night” in the journal. Doing this daily develops connection and communication. After writing a dream down, let it go completely. Revisit it after meditation. Consider that in between the pure peace of sleep and awakening, the dream is the reconciliation of those two states. After meditation, contemplate the dream message. Consider it from the perspective that you are dreaming right now, and the message is that everything is fine, even this (whatever the dream was about). You will notice perspectives you’re believing, as to how ‘everything is not fine’. Those, can be let go in meditation. Maintain a journal for writing about how you feel. If meditation is overwhelming, don’t persist against the grain, write about how you’re feeling in your journal. Expressing in key. It is a ‘getting it out’, or emptying, by which being fills in. This is the same as saying misunderstanding is let go, and understanding arises. Add creative expression in your days with what feels right for you, such as; creative writing, drawing, learning an instrument, singing, sculpting, building, carving, dancing - any act of creating and expressing, which feels good to you. Sign up for a drawing or painting class, etc. Clarity, emotional intelligence, understanding, focus, patience, and more feeling / connection, are natural outcomes of this. Regarding meditation, loving yourself, journaling, expressing, and making changes: Do not ask others to accommodate you so that you can do this. Accommodate them, if needed, so that you can do this. Do not create conditions or contingencies which “allow” that you can do this. Refrain from entangling any other person in ‘enabling’ you. Simply get up earlier, and be patient when tired, you’ll be falling asleep earlier soon enough. Past trauma may be deeply entwined in the body, with regard to perspectives, and unknowingly suppressed, held out of the light of understanding. It is important to be humble, and be smart. Take advantage of all resources available to you. In addition to the things mentioned above, experience assistance bringing things to the surface, into the light, out into the open. That is relief. ’Getting it out’ is the key. Schedule time with practitioners of well being; massage, reiki, therapy, yoga, liberated experienced meditators, etc. Making the choice to directly experience is 99% of ‘the work’. Choose to experience the combination that feels best to you, but do not rule anything you have not experienced out. You will be glad. Proper Foundation The quality of tomorrow’s meditation is impacted by all of the above. Recognize those as the basics, your foundation. This is - first “cleaning the house”, “emptying the cup”. If you are not yet finding peace in meditation, the things above are likely insightful and actionable. Use them as a checklist, add to it what you learn works and doesn’t work for you. Understand why. Be mindful of the direct experience always, not the goal or outcome. Never do practices for the sake of getting them done. Never do practices with the intention or expectation of attaining, achieving, or becoming. Let go of these in your practices. Never force pracitices, and never guilt or shame yourself regarding practices. Let go of these in your practices. Likewise, never pride yourself on or claim the benefits of your practices. A phone which knows the truth of wifi, yet claims it as it’s own, is no longer listening to the wifi. It is always about letting go, and feeling the inner being, the source, within. Posture, Balance & Relaxation Sit with spine straight, entire body equally balanced, head tilted slightly forward. Scan for any muscles in tension - from balancing the body, and reposition in better balance. Repeat until seated in balance; drop all muscle tension, and see if you lean; if so, adjust again / reposition for balance. Relax every muscle, from crown of head, through body, to the toes - in waves of letting go, over and over. If you struggle to ‘find the particular muscle’ to be able to ‘let it go’, simply tense that muscle with the appropriate thought, ex: “tense the right shoulder” - this is to locate it specifically - only to relax it / let it go, specifically (only needed initially, if at all). Stay with each muscle until you feel it release: Feel the crown of the head muscles release, feel the temples release, feel the eye sockets release, feel the cheek muscles release, feel the neck muscles release, the shoulders, the upper back, the lower back, the arms, the hands, the fingers, the chest, the stomach, the hips, the thighs, the knees, the calves, the ankles, the feet, the toes - all tension pouring out through the toes. *Stay with each muscle until you feel it release, then move to the next. Be mindful, vigilant of any habit forming. Feel every step. Feel each specific muscle release. * Repeat this, from crown to toes, over and over, feeling each “pass” more deeply relaxing each targeted muscle than the pass before. Notice the entire body unifying in relaxation. Meditation Do not move the body, allow it to relax into deep sleep and disappear from sensation & awareness. Mind fully alert & present; awaken every cell, enthusiastic presence, a tiger at-the-ready to pounce. Notice all senses are one sense, being. Being is breathing, being is breathed in, being is breathed out. Notice the ineffable spaciousness, the silent emptiness. It is whole, perfect, calm, peaceful. It continues on in all directions. Revel in the perfect peace, in innocence, as you recognize the purity that you have always known. Allow Meditation “Practice” To Become A Meditative Lifestyle As you go about your day, notice this peace is still present, this silence, this being - is always present, always the soundbed underlying and allowing all sounds, the spaciousness underlying and allowing all objects and activities, the emptiness allowing all thoughts to arise. Carry this into each day, mindful of the effortless nature of awareness. Conscious of any tension in any muscle, relax it, mindful of the one sense; without identification, without reaction, peaceful non-engagement. Notice the arising perspectives of unification & connection. Surrender perspectives of separation by allowing them to pass, and return to the everpresent peace and silence which allows all things. When you notice reaction, wether muscular or mental, relax, detach by being again aware, non-reactionary. Even as reactions occur, wether physical, mental, or verbal, be aware of, not involved in. Relax crown to toes, effortless awareness is always available & ample. Notice the sound of a voice, is not the sound of your voice. Be that unattached, and that aware, ‘that’ voice is no longer your voice, it never was. You are all sounds, all voices, all things. Be aware all transpires in the ‘one sense’, precisely where it is seen, exactly where it is heard. One Sense, one awareness. Notice thoughts are not your thoughts, be aware thoughts are things, like trees are trees; there is no mechanism found for justification of “yours”, that is just another thought; awareness is unconditional and omnipresent, and never appears in pieces, and has never not appeared, it will never let you down. Notice there is one sense, one awareness, notice the body and mind are a body and mind which transpires in this peaceful awareness, notice a body and mind is not your body and mind, notice there is one sense, one awareness, all is transpiring and arising in. After some practice a couple new things arise... When you have ‘returned’ home, in the peace of non-reaction, the ‘finite ceo’ / “decision maker”/ over thinker/over thinking - naturally recedes, and well being of infinite intelligence will manipulate the body (it actually is “the body”) , aligning things, stretching things, cracking things, etc, just allow this. It’s difficult not to mentally react to this at first because it’s new, but just relax, it is curative, trust it - notice a person is not doing this, infinite intelligence is. Mindfully revel & appreciate this miracle. A word of caution regarding thought stories & dualistic narratives Meditation at it’s most basic level is focusing on breathing in the stomach & relaxing the body, thus indirectly detaching attention from thoughts. Thought ceases in activity, simply from not receiving attention. The body is infinite intelligence, but the thinking dualistic mind believes it’s running the show. This is brought to an end in meditation, in ‘returning to’, or realization of, who you really are. When the body relaxes deeply, it releases contractions; tension from emotions created in misunderstanding via one’s forgetting who one is and “making sense” of self & reality in an apparent physical universe & separate body. These ‘held’ tensions are the root cause of overthinking. The mind keeps churning in an attempt to resolve with thinking, what is only resolved in feeling. When the body (infinite intelligence / nothing to know) begins releasing the suppressed falsities (all knowledge & specifically the idea of “me”), the mind creates narratives of the experience to perpetuate “it’s control”. In perpetuating the misunderstandings, rather than relaxing & releasing the suppressed emotions by maintaining focus on stomach breathing, the mind (thinking) weaves & latches onto varies models of duality to control the narrative. (Kundalini, demons, assertion, death, nervous disorders, past “bad” trips, guilt, shame, unworthiness, fear, anxiety & past stories, depression & future stories, projections, deflections, identity, loss, sacrifice, etc) But meditation is focusing on breathing from the stomach & relaxing the body, and thus indirectly detaching from thoughts. To believe any narrative which arises in meditation, is to sustain and perpetuate the “idea of you”, so as not to ‘directly experience’, you. So if you don’t want to awaken, but enjoy the fundamental benefits of meditation, just meditate for twenty minutes a day. Ideally in the morning. If you do want to awaken, realize you got caught up in a thought story, and meditation was focusing on breathing from the stomach, and thus indirectly letting thinking go. The truth is the mind is making it all up, and the “fear” is the mind’s label to justify denying the truth “of itself”, the profound love that is, that you actually are. Write about how you feel and why, in a journal, to understand yourself & develop emotional intelligence. Talk to someone who listens, so you can express yourself and your emotions. Write what you want in this experience of life on your dreamboard, and allow the surfacing of desire & authenticity to help you realize & release resistance thoughts. Live the life you actually want to live, the way you actually want to live it. https://sites.google.com/site/psychospiritualtools/Home/meditation-practices Posture Meditation This body-based meditation is a very effective way to get grounded and centered. It encourages an embodied, calm, and open awareness, and discourages disassociation. If you have a tendency to "leave your body," feel ungrounded, or disassociated, this is a good practice. Sit with your spine straight and aligned, and the rest of your body relaxed. Keep bringing yourself back to this condition. 1. Take a reposed, seated posture. 2. For this meditation, it is very important that your spine is straight. Your neck and back should be in perfect alignment. Your chin should be down very slightly. 3. If you are sitting in a chair, do not rest your spine against the chair. Sit forward so that your spine is supporting its own weight. Let the muscles of the spine be engaged. 4. All the other muscles of your body can be completely relaxed. Allow your face muscles to let go, and your jaw to drop slightly, so that your teeth are not touching. 5. Let your shoulders hang freely, and let your belly be soft and open. 6. This is the posture you are aiming for, with your spine erect and your body completely relaxed. 7. As you sit, keep bringing your awareness back to the fine details of your posture. Notice any time your spine slumps even slightly, your head leans to either side, or any other deviation. Correct these gently and repeatedly. 8. Also notice if any other areas of your body tense up even slightly. If anything is tensing, relax it in a gently and soft manner. 9. Keep checking in with the body, using your body (somatic) awareness; the feeling in your body. Mental images of your body will probably arise, which is fine, but these are not what you are concentrating upon. Instead, concentrate your awareness in the sense of your body. The sensitivity in your muscles, tissues, viscera, skin, and so forth. 10. The more detailed and minute you get with this awareness, the better. Each tiny area of the body has its own sensitivity to contribute. 11. Every once in a while you can zoom out to cover the entire somatosensory field -- the awareness of your entire body -- to bring the overall body back into alignment. 12. Keep relaxing every muscle everywhere. Use just enough tension to keep your spine erect, but no more. 13. Continue this meditation for at least 10 minutes, continuously contacting your body awareness. CAUTIONS: If you have any spinal injuries or severe back pain, it is fine to allow your spine to rest in a pain-free position. If you find yourself distracted by a lot of mental chatter, you can use verbal labeling as an aid to concentration. For example, when checking on the spine, you can say to yourself, "spine in alignment." When checking on the body, say, "body relaxed." Awareness of Thoughts Meditation By learning to watch your thoughts come and go during this practice, you can gain deeper insight into thinking altogether (such as its transience) and into specific relationships among your thoughts and your emotions, sensations, and desires. This practice can also help you take your thoughts less personally, and not automatically believe them. Additionally, this meditation can offer insight into any habitual patterns of thinking and related reactions. Observe your thoughts as they arise and pass away. · By “thoughts,” we mean self-talk and other verbal content, as well as images, memories, fantasies, and plans. Just thoughts may appear in awareness, or thoughts plus sensations, emotions, or desires. · Sit or lie down on your back in a comfortable position. · Become aware of the sensations of breathing. · After a few minutes of following your breath, shift your attention to the various thoughts that are arising, persisting, and then passing away in your mind. · Try to observe your thoughts instead of getting involved with their content or resisting them. · Notice the content of your thoughts, any emotions accompanying them, and the strength or pull of the thought. · Try to get curious about your thoughts. Investigate whether you think in mainly images or words, whether your thoughts are in color or black and white, and how your thoughts feel in your body. · See if you notice any gaps or pauses between thoughts. · Every time you become aware that you are lost in the content of your thoughts, simply note this and return to observing your thoughts and emotions. · Remember that one of the brain’s major purposes is to think, and there is nothing wrong with thinking. You are simply practicing not automatically believing and grasping on to your thoughts. · When you are ready, return your attention to your breath for a few minutes and slowly open your eyes. Optional: · There are various metaphors and images you can use to help observe your thoughts. These include: o Imagining you are as vast and open as the sky, and thoughts are simply clouds, birds, or planes passing through the open space. o Imagining you are sitting on the side of a river watching your thoughts float by like leaves or ripples in the stream. o Imagine your thoughts are like cars, buses, or trains passing by. Every time you realize you are thinking, you can “get off the bus/train” and return to observing. Awareness of thoughts and emotions is one of the areas of focus developed when cultivating mindfulness. In Buddhism, mindfulness is one of the seven factors of enlightenment and the seventh instruction in the Noble Eightfold Path. The Seven Factors of Enlightenment: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/piyadassi/wheel001.html The Four Noble Truths:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_Truths The Noble Eightfold Path: https://tricycle.org/magazine/noble-eightfold-path/ CAUTIONS: Please be gentle with yourself if you notice that you are constantly caught up in your thoughts instead of observing them. This is both common and normal. When you realize that you are thinking, gently and compassionately return to observing your thoughts. If the content of your thoughts is too disturbing or distressing, gently shift your attention to your breathing, sounds, or discontinue the practice. · Remember that you are not trying to stop thoughts or only allow certain ones to arise. Try to treat all thoughts equally and let them pass away without engaging in their content. · This practice can initially be more challenging than other meditations. As you are learning, practice this meditation for only a few minutes at a time if that is easier. · It can be helpful to treat thoughts the same way that you treat sounds or body sensations, and view them as impersonal events that arise and pass away. · Some people like to assign numbers or nicknames to reoccurring thoughts in order to reduce their pull and effect. Breath Awareness Meditation Stress is an extremely unhealthy condition. It causes the body to release the chemical cortisol, which has been shown to reduce brain and organ function, among many other dangerous effects. Modern society inadvertently encourages a state of almost continuous stress in people. This is a meditation that encourages physical and mental relaxation, which can greatly reduce the effects of stress on the body and mind. Sit still and pay close attention to your breathing process. Take a reposed, seated posture. Your back should be straight and your body as relaxed as possible. Close your eyes, and bring your attention to your breathing process. Simply notice you are breathing. Do not attempt to change your breath in any way. Breath simply and normally. Try to notice both the in breath and the out breath; the inhale and the exhale. "Notice" means to actually feel the breathing in your body with your body. It is not necessary to visualize your breathing or to think about it in any way except to notice it with your somatic awareness. Each time your attention wanders from the act of breathing, return it to noticing the breath. Do this gently and without judgment. Remember to really feel into the act of breathing. If you want to go more deeply into this, concentrate on each area of breathing in turn. Here is an example sequence: 1. Notice how the air feels moving through your nostrils on both the in breath and the out breath. 2. Notice how the air feels moving through your mouth and throat. You may feel a sort of slightly raspy or ragged feeling as the air moves through your throat. This is normal and also something to feel into. 3. Notice how the air feels as it fills and empties your chest cavity. Feel how your rib cage rises slowly with each in breath, and gently deflates with each out breath. 4. Notice how your back expands and contracts with each breath. Actually feel it shifting and changing as you breath. 5. Notice how the belly expands outward with each in breath and pulls inward with each in breath. Allow your attention to fully enter the body sensation of the belly moving with each breath. 6. Now allow your attention to cover your entire body at once as you breath in and out. Closely notice all the sensations of the body as it breathes. Repeat this sequence over and over, giving each step your full attention as you do it. Suggested time is at least 10 minutes. Thirty minutes is better, if you are capable of it. If you find yourself distracted by a lot of mental chatter, you can use verbal labeling as an aid to concentration. For example, on the in breath, mentally say to yourself, "Breathing in." On the out breath, say, "Breathing out." Another possibility is to mentally count each breath. Self Inquiry This is a meditation technique to get enlightened, i.e. "self realization." By realizing who you are, the bonds of suffering are broken. Besides this goal, self-inquiry delivers many of the same benefits as other meditation techniques, such as relaxation, enhanced experience of life, greater openness to change, greater creativity, a sense of joy and fulfillment, and so forth. Focus your attention on the feeling of being "me," to the exclusion of all other thoughts. 1. Sit in any comfortable meditation posture. 2. Allow your mind and body to settle. 3. Now, let go of any thinking whatsoever. 4. Place your attention on the inner feeling of being "me." 5. If a thought does arise (and it is probable that thoughts will arise on their own), ask yourself to whom this thought is occurring. This returns your attention to the feeling of being "me." Continue this for as long as you like. This technique can also be done when going about any other activity. CAUTIONS: Many people misunderstand the self-inquiry technique to mean that the person should sit and ask themselves the question, "Who am I?" over and over. This is an incorrect understanding of the technique. The questions "Who am I" or "To whom is this thought occurring?" are only used when a thought arises, in order to direct attention back to the feeling of being "me." At other times the mind is held in silence. This practice of Self-attention or awareness of the ‘I’-thought is a gentle technique, which bypasses the usual repressive methods of controlling the mind. It is not an exercise in concentration, nor does it aim at suppressing thoughts; it merely invokes awareness of the source from which the mind springs. The method and goal of self-enquiry is to abide in the source of the mind and to be aware of what one really is by withdrawing attention and interest from what one is not. In the early stages effort in the form of transferring attention from the thoughts to the thinker is essential, but once awareness of the ‘I’-feeling has been firmly established, further effort is counter-productive. From then on it is more a process of being than doing, of effortless being rather than an effort to be. Do Nothing Meditation Many respected spiritual traditions, including Buddhism and Hindu Advaita just to name two, claim that the highest state of spiritual communion is actually present in our minds at all times. And yet many meditation techniques focus on creating some special state that wasn't there before the meditation, and which goes away at some point after the meditation. If the highest state is actually present all the time, shouldn't it be possible to simply notice it without inducing some change, or special state? That is exactly the purpose of the Do Nothing Meditation. This technique (which is really an un-technique) will allow you to contact the highest spiritual state without actually doing anything. Each time you notice an intention to control or direct your attention, give it up. 1. There is no need to get into any particular posture, unless you feel like it. 2. Do not position your attention in any particular way. 3. Let whatever happens happen. 4. Any time you notice yourself doing anything intentionally, stop. Doing anything intentionally means something you can voluntarily control, and therefore can stop. If you cannot stop doing something, then it's not intentional, and therefore you don't need to try to stop doing it. So. Anything you can stop doing, stop doing. Some examples of things you can stop doing are: * Intentionally thinking * Trying to focus on something specific * Trying to have equanimity * Trying to keep track of what's going on * Trying to meditate Let go of doing anything like this. 5. Keep doing nothing for at least 10 minutes, or as long as you like. CAUTIONS: It may be difficult for some people to notice any difference between the Do Nothing meditation and gross "monkey mind," that is, the ceaseless, driven and fixated thoughts of the everyday neurotic mind. If this seems to be the case for you, it may be helpful to do a more structured technique. Concentration (One-Pointedness) Meditation One of the hallmarks of modern life is the proliferation of distractions. As media become more pervasive, and media connections more ubiquitous, time away from distractions becomes ever harder to find. Previously, people were content to sit in restaurants, or stand in line, without a television screen to stare at. Now these have become standard. The result of all this, and many other causes, is that people find it increasingly difficult to focus their minds. Concentration is a necessary human skill. It makes proper thinking possible, increases intelligence, and allows a person to calm down and achieve their goals more effectively. A concentrated mind is like a laser beam, able to use all its powers in a single direction to great effect. Concentration is critical to many human endeavors. Being able to listen to another person, for example, in a compassionate and connected manner requires being able to shut out distractions. The experience of making love can be greatly enhanced when one is not, for example, thinking about other things. Concentration allows a person to stop being a "reaction machine" or "robot," simply responding to stimulii, and instead to become more thoughtful, self-directed, and confident. Concentration is an interesting thing. It is a very general ability. That means developing concentration in one area will help you concentrate in ALL areas. So, for example, if you learn to concentrate on a particular idea, it not only helps you think about that idea (which would be very limited), but actually helps you to concentrate on anything, which is very generally useful for everything! It's like lifting weights. It doesn't just make you strong for lifting weights, but strong for anything else you want to do! Think about one thing. Every time you get distracted, return to that one thing. 1. Find an object on which to concentrate. This can be a physical object, like a pebble or a feather. Or it can be a mental object like a particular idea. It could even be, say, your homework. 2. Cut off any sources of distraction. These include, but are not limited to, telephones, emails, computers, music, television, and so forth. Turn all of these off during your concentration practice. 3. Begin your period of by mentally reminding yourself what you are concentrating on. 4. Now begin to concentrate. If your concentration object is an external object, this may mean looking at it. If it is a mental object, then think about it. If it is your homework, then do it now. 5. Each time your mind (or eyes) wander from your concentration object, bring it back to the object. It is important to do this very gently and without judgment. 6. Repeat this process of coming back to the concentration object for as long as you wish, or until your homework is done. Cultures worldwide have developed concentration practices for both spiritual and practical reasons. Concentration is called dharana in Hinduism, and samadhi or shamatha in Buddhism. It is considered to be a key skill for meditation. CAUTIONS: Concentration can at first seem to trigger a lot of anxiety. This is, however, not the fault of the concentration practice. Rather, it happens because many people use distraction to avoid feeling emotions. Then when the distractions are removed, a tremendous amount of ambient, unprocessed emotions (i.e. emotions you are feeling but were unaware of feeling) are present. So it is not the practice of concentration that is causing anxiety, but instead it is the habit of distracting ourselves from our emotions. This may be the root cause of much inability to focus and concentrate. If that is the case, try meditating on emotions (below). Concentration and meditation are not the same thing, although they are related. Meditation (usually) requires concentration, but also requires relaxation or equanimity. Emotional Awareness Meditation This meditation brings about a great deal of equanimity with emotions. They will not seem to affect us as deeply or adversely. Many people have trouble contacting their emotions directly. Even if we feel that we know what emotion we are having, that does not necessarily mean that we are contacting it directly. To contact an emotion directly means to feel it in the body. This is the opposite of most people's experience, which is to related ideas about the emotion. Here is an example. A person asks you how you are feeling. You respond by saying, "I am angry, because..." You then go on to tell the person all the reasons you are angry. In this example, only the first three words, "I am angry" have anything to do with contacting emotion. All the rest of the explanation is about concepts. A fuller example of contacting emotions directly, that is somatically, would be to say, "I am angry. I can feel a sort of gripping tension in my belly that is uncomfortable. The tense area feels kind of twisted and sharp. Parts of it are throbbing. It also feels like it is radiating heat outwards." Notice that the cause of the anger is irrelevant. The practice here is to feel the physical expression of the anger as completely as possible. Extended practice of this meditation will bring about "skill at feeling," that is, a tremendous amount of clarity in the emotional world. Emotional intelligence. It will also help emotions to process and release much more quickly and completely, because we are not holding on to ideas about the emotions. The body processes emotion quickly, naturally, and fully. Feel the physical expression of an emotion as completely as possible. 1. Settle into a comfortable meditation posture. 2. Breathing normally, bring your attention to your emotions. Notice if you are feeling any emotions, no matter how faintly. It is not necessary to know precisely which emotion you are having, or why you are having it. Just knowing that you are feeling something emotional is enough. Guessing is OK. 3. Once you detect an emotion, see if you can find its expression in your body. Maybe there is a feeling of tension, gripping, tightening, burning, twisting, throbbing, pressure, lightness, openness, etc. 4. If you like, you can mentally make the label "feel" when you detect a body sensation of emotion. Other labels are possible ("emotion" for example). 5. Each time you detect an emotional body sensation, try to actually feel the sensation in your body, as completely as possible. Feel it through and through. 6. Completely let go of any ideas you have about the emotion, or self talk you might have about why the emotion is arising. Return to the body sensation of the emotion. 7. Continue contacting these emotional body sensations for as long as you wish. Meditating on emotions is a traditional part of Vipassana practice in Buddhism. It is, for example, one of the four main techniques covered in the Vissudhimagga (The Path to Purity), an important Buddhist text. (The version presented here is a summary of a practice given by American Buddhist teacher Shinzen Young.) At first, practicing this meditation may make it seem as if the emotions are getting bigger. If they are negative emotions, this may seem overwhelming for a while. This is natural. It is occuring not because the emotions are actually getting bigger, but for two interesting reasons. The first is because we are no longer suppressing them. We are allowing them to actually express themselves fully. The second is because we are observing them (actually feeling them) very closely. Just as a microscope makes small things look bigger, the "microscope" of attention makes the emotional body sensations seem larger than they really are. The good news here is that as the emotions express themselves freely in the body, they are being processed. Usually this means that they will pass much more quickly. If we are feeling a positive emotion in this way, it may pass quickly, but we will also derive much more satisfaction from it, because our experience of it is so rich and complete. If we are feeling a negative emotion in this way, we will experience much less suffering from it, because we are not resisting and suppressing it. Equanimity Meditation The cause of much of our upset and emotional instability is clinging and neediness around people we like, and aversion and negativity towards people we don't like. We also have an unhealthy indifference to strangers, who may need our help, or at least our good will. This equanimity meditation helps us to examine our feelings towards people, and correct them where they are mistaken. This leads to a more balanced, wholesome, and helpful viewpoint. It also cuts off a lot of emotional turmoil at its root. Meditate on three people (a loved one, an enemy, and a neutral person), examining and correcting your feelings toward them. 1. Sit in a comfortable meditation posture. Follow your breath until you feel centered and grounded. 2. Bring to mind the images of three people: someone you like, someone you dislike, and someone towards whom you feel indifferent. Keep these three people in mind throughout the meditation. 3. Focus on the friend, and look into all the reasons you like this person. Try to see if any of the reasons are about things this person does for you, or ways they uplift your ego. Ask yourself if these are really the correct reasons to like someone. Then do the same thing with the person you dislike, instead asking about the reasons you dislike them. Finally, do this for the person you are indifferent towards, asking about the reasons for your indifference. In all cases, notice where your ego is involved in the judgment of the other person's worth. 4. Next, ask yourself whether you consider each of these relationships as permanent. Would you still like your friend if they did something terrible to you? What if the person you dislike really did something nice for you? What if the stranger became close to you? Think about all the relationships in the past in which your feelings about the person have dramatically changed. 5. Now, visualize the person you like doing something you dislike or that is unacceptable to you. Would you still be their friend? Remember that many people have changed from friends to enemies in the past. There are people who you used to like, toward whom you now feel emnity. Think about how there is no special reason to feel good about a person who is only temporarily your friend. 6. Next, visualize your enemy doing something very kind for you. They might visit you in the hospital, or help you to fix your home. When you imagine this, can you feel positive emotions toward this person? Can you remember times in the past when an enemy became a friend? Is it necessary to feel that your strong dislike for this person will last forever? Isn't it possible that they could someday become your friend? 7. Now visualize the stranger. How would you feel about them if they did something very kind for you? Isn't it the case that all your current friends were at one point total strangers? Isn't it possible that a stranger could become your best friend? It has happened before. 8. Think carefully about how everyone deserves equal regard as human beings. You must discriminate and make decisions based on your knowledge of a person's character, but you do not have to hold strong feelings or judgments towards them. It is very likely that your emotions around a person will change many times, so why hold onto these emotions so rigidly? In Buddhism, equanimity means a very deep, even profound, state of mental balance and stability. It is considered one of the seven factors of enlightenment, and a hallmark of the third and fourth jhanas, which are deep states of meditative absorption. This is a traditional meditation from Mahayana Buddhism. Its goal is to arouse "bodhicitta' or the mind of enlightenment. There are other equanimity meditations from other Buddhist lineages (e.g., Theravadan), as well as from other contemplative traditions. (The version presented here is adapted from the book How to Meditate: A Practical Guide.) CAUTIONS: It can be upsetting to bring an "enemy" to mind. When working with the mental image of an enemy, be careful not to get lost in negative thoughts and feelings. If you find that you can't handle working with a specific person without getting very worked up, switch to someone less upsetting. Body Scan Meditation The Body Scan is designed to help you feel and bring awareness to the myriad of sensations that occur throughout your body. By practicing this meditation regularly, you can improve your body awareness and also better work with pain and difficult emotions in the body. Additionally, people report feelings of relaxation and renewal after this practice. Sit or lie on your back and systematically bring your attention to each region of your body, beginning with your feet and moving upwards. As you begin: · Sit or lie down on your back in a comfortable position with your eyes open or gently closed. · Take a moment to check-in with yourself, observing how you are feeling in your body and mind. · Begin to focus on your breath wherever the sensations are most vivid for you. During the body scan: · Try to bring an attitude of curiosity to the practice, as if you are investigating your body for the first time. · Notice and feel any and all sensations that are present, such as tingling, tightness, heat, cold, pressure, dullness, etc. · If you do not feel any sensations in a particular region, simply note that and move on. · See if you can be aware of any thoughts or emotions that arise as you move through the regions of your body. Note these thoughts and emotions, and then return to the bare physical sensations that you are experiencing. · Whenever you come across an area that is tense, see if you can allow it to soften. If the area does not soften, simply notice how it feels and allow it to be as it is. · Feel as deeply and precisely as you can into each region of the body, noting if the sensations change in any way. Also notice where they are located. · If you notice any pain or discomfort in a region of the body, see if you can practice allowing and exploring it for even a few seconds, feeling the various aspects of the sensation(s). Suggested sequence of body parts: · Begin with your left foot and toes, then move awareness up the left leg until you reach the left hip. · Right foot and toes up the right leg until you reach the right hip. · Pelvic region and buttocks, stomach, low back to upper back, chest and breasts, heart and lungs · Hands (both at the same time) then move up the arms until you finish with the shoulders. · Neck, throat, jaw, mouth (teeth, tongue, lips), nose, eyes, forehead, ears, skull and scalp. · Finally, become aware of the whole body and rest for a few minutes in this expansive awareness. The Body Scan is a variation of a Burmese Vipassana meditation practice that involves scanning the body for physical sensations. This meditation is also done in various yoga practices. The Body Scan is used in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), created by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. CAUTIONS: If you have experienced physical abuse or trauma in the past, it is not recommended to do this practice without a trained professional. Additionally, if you notice intense fear or other strong emotions related to a particular part of the body, please discontinue this practice. It is generally advised to take at least 30 to 40 minutes to complete the body scan. However, if you wish to do a shorter body scan, spend less time on each region of the body, and/or focus on both feet, legs, and arms together as you move through these regions. If you wish, you can practice the body scan in the opposite direction, moving from your head to your toes. Walking Meditation Walking meditation is a great way to begin integrating the power of meditation into your daily life. It is the first stage of meditation in action, that is, learning to be meditative while "out and about" in the world. It is great to do while, for example, taking a walk in the park, at the beach, or in another natural setting. Walking meditation is often recommended for people who are doing a lot of sitting meditation. If you are getting to sleepy, or your awareness is getting to "muddy," walking meditation can perk you up. Alternately, if you are getting to concentrated and mentally "stiff," walking meditation is a perfect way to loosen up a bit. Walking meditation is a common practice in Vipassana and Zen Buddhism. Pay close attention to the physical activity of walking slowly 1. Before walking, stand still in an open, balanced posture. Bring your awareness to the feeling of your feet touching the ground. 2. Now begin walking. Keep your gaze fixed on the ground about six feet in front of you. This will help you to avoid distraction. 3. Note and mentally label three parts of each step you take. The labels are "lifting," "pushing," and "dropping." Lifting - when you are picking your foot up Pushing - as you are moving it forward Dropping - as you are lowering it to the ground As you make each label, pay very close attention to the actual physical sensations associated with each of these actions. 4. After these three components become clear, you can add three more, so that the entire sequence is: "raising," "lifting," "pushing," "dropping," "touching," and "pressing." 5. Your mind will probably also engage in thinking extraneous thoughts, but just allow these to go on in the background. Your foreground attention should stay on the physical sensations of walking. 6. If you find that you have been completely lost in thought, stop walking for a moment and label the thinking as "thinking, thinking, thinking." 7. Then re-establish your awareness on the feeling in your feet, and begin the walking meditation again. 8. A typical session of walking meditation lasts a half an hour. CAUTIONS: Make sure to watch where you are going, especially if you are around traffic, other people, etc. https://sites.google.com/site/psychospiritualtools/Home/meditation-practices The Yoda Meditation https://www.thedailymeditation.com/learning-to-meditate-with-jedi-master-yoda-online-meditation-course/amp The Neo / Matrix Meditation https://www.dc-acupuncture.com/lifestyle-personal-transformation/how-meditation-makes-you-more-like-neo-from-the-matrix F That - A guided Meditation https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=92i5m3tV5XY

This one is quite amusing: Imagine you are the women on the phone and you have never heard of enlightenment or nonduality before… what would you think?

1) It's quite advanced relative to how the average human thinks. It's not advanced relative to something like nonduality or Spiral Wizardry. 2) PM is not a practical worldview for normies. PM is for intellectuals, not regular people. PM does not help normal people survive.

It's made of mind/consciousness, which is nothing. A dream is made of nothing. But it's still something, because here it is. It's nonduality. Something and nothing are the same thing. It's nothing, experiencing something.

I think he wrote a blog post about how he has a different understanding of conscoiusness. I could be absolutely wrong about this, but i think he said that in Buddhism they experience nonduality by confronting the void as they go down (?) in consciousness and his method is more like becoming more and more conscious. As you can see, i cant really recall how he said it. He also talked about recently how human enlightenment is conformist. I hope im not misquoting him too bad or giving false meaning to what he said, it would be nice if he @Leo Gura answered this, im curious too. If it is about how he had many deep enlightenment experiences that goes beyond any spiritual teachings, i dont doubt him, but i would just like to say that there is no way to tell how far other masters went. It could be that they could not communicate it or did not see it reasonable to try. Leo took down his solipsism video too and as far as i know his most serious communication about his alien consciousness experience was a forum post.

He's just talking about nonduality. Nonduality and solipsism are two different things.

Last night I had an intense solo tripping experience. The idea was to do a medium dose of LSD on an empty stomach, in absolute darkness. Dose: 500ug on a 24 hour fast Setting: At night, complete darkness + sleeping mask Intent: Forgiveness and letting go Understand emotional mastery Explore how I can live more consciously Trip Experience: Initial Paranoia: After about 30 minutes, I started experiencing mild effects and an initial paranoia set in, along with an intense desire to eat something (I didn't do it since it tends to blunt the intensity of the trip). Forgiving and letting-go exercise: I worked through the "How to forgive someone who hurt you" exercise and working on the meditation. I noticed how my heart is still not open and how much resistance I have to feel emotions. This is a significant sticking point for me. After the exercise, I contemplated for a while. Soon after that, the peak of the trip hit. Bilateral Symmetry: This is a common theme for me. As soon as I surrender and let go, my body naturally starts doing the bilateral symmetry yoga (which Martin Ball describes). I even tried to stay centered and contemplate further, but the body wanted to open up and move. During this, I can observe when the ego/self-talk comes in since an abrupt break in symmetry accompanies that. When the body is moving fluidly, "I" am entirely gone. It's as if the body is working through some residue energy. There was also some shaking and some vibrating. The Bee: I started working on letting go and surrendering my fears. Right then, a small bee came buzzing in and sat right next to me. This was annoying since I used to be afraid of bees as a child. What are the chances that a bee would come in and land in front of me at a time when I'm working on surrendering my fears (I haven't seen a bee in months)? This has to be the Universe testing me. I sat there, observing my impulse to swat that bee or go somewhere else, but I just sat there, letting go. I realized that all my insights are useless unless I can put them to use. The Buddhabrot: During the bilateral symmetry, a track started playing on YouTube, which had the thumbnail of the Buddhabrot from the movie "Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds". I saw it, and it hit me hard. I was looking at Absolute Infinity! Contained in this picture are infinite patterns, all of which exist all at once. An observer can, however, focus on a specific pattern and create a narrative by changing his/her focus over time. But all of it exists simultaneously, at once. I stared at this fractal for an hour, during which, I saw two hands moving in bilateral symmetry, I saw a jester laughing, I saw a dragon guarding a treasure. I saw the light and shadow creating a play of good and evil. I saw a Goddess, I saw the Buddha figure, and I eventually saw two eyes staring back at me in the middle of the image. I realized I was literally looking at God! I stared at those two eyes as an entire universe sprawled out of nowhere and then vanished back into the infinite fractal. I was moved beyond words. When I see this figure now, I'm hardly able to see anything, but I will look at it again when I trip. Purging: One consequence of my energetic opening was my body wanting to throw up and purge. I had nothing in my system, but that didn't stop my body from feeling nauseous and wanting to throw up. This correlated well with my emotional state of wanting to let go of my past blockages and old narratives. One big realization is that I am normally heavily detached from my body and am energetically quite closed. Meditation + more Bilateral symmetry: I meditated for a bit, and then the body wanted to move again. Eventually, it grew tired, and I went back to just contemplating. Lessons: With each trip, I understand how little I embody these insights in day to day life. Breath: After the purging, I can see that my breath is deeper, and I can see the energy move in and out of my gut better. For me, my degree of consciousness and embodiment is directly proportional to how deeply and openly I breathe. I understand Absolute Infinity in a much deeper way than I used to. 36-hour Fast was an excellent choice for this trip because it made it more potent. I will continue to do that in the future. Complete darkness also helped the trip, and I will continue tripping at night. Further: More fasting + Tripping I still cannot come to grips with the duality between God and Myself. I understand how I create my reality, but I'd be lying if I say that I understand God fully. Work on embodiment 5-MeO-DMT: It's been 18 months since I smoked 5-MeO. I still don't feel like I'm ready to take the plunge (or should I say the plug) yet. I need to work through some more stuff before I'm able to.

I will make this quick and swift. Mirrors Since there is no physical reality, when I look at a mirror and see my “reflection”, from the point of nonduality, what is the mirror? A rectangular void on which consciousness projects an image of the avatar it is inhabiting? Computer / Phone Screens When I interact with my phone, since there is no physical existence... what is that appearing inside the screen? Does this mean that we are creating more stories and events by using our phones, because they are the ULTIMATE research and communication tools? In summary: Am I God using an iPhone it itself dreamt up, and when using it I invent more realities. All that I see in my phone I imagined and is not real. What are the implications for life? Lets say I meet someone on a dating app. I dreamt up the app, and then dreamt up the conversation... what if we meet in real “life”. What are the implications of that?

That small audio doesn't reveal everything sadhguru thinks about this topic. There is a video where he very directly calls solipsism false and makes fun of it. I'm just stating facts. In that audio he is simply talking about nonduality. Nonduality and solipsism are not the same.