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@Aakash i think i follow you sorta but there is a key distinction. When you say residing in enlightenment - or non-duality - choosing the path to say that all there is a non-duality..there are no who's..no i..it is only awareness. The problem with that is you are stil in duality when you choose that! Even to choose is dualistic. So remaining in that is still duality. Pure non-duality or non-dual state is eternal bliss - divine - formless ego death. You can't walk around and function like that because you are literally isness.. its no mind bliss and isness at that point. Some non-dual states if deep enough will burst into divine form / Truth realizations (such as the Absolute Truth about reality) But when you say you need to choose you are still in duality.

What is talent, but a projection upon magic? There was a question yesterday...”If I hit you in the head and you lose consciousness, how could you claim there is still consciousness?” The assumption at play is that what was witnessed was actually the loss of consciousness, derived from the assumption something other than consciousness was initially “there” to begin with. When all that was actually “known” was sensation (maya: “hand touching”), and thought (maya: “person, hand, bat, action”). Then remains the “seeing of” movement / change (maya: space, time, physicality, separation, vision, other)....leaving all that was known was the seeing - but the knowing of the seeing is not knowing a separate thing of “seeing” at all. There is no evidence nor direct experience of separation between knowing & seeing whatsoever, sans the re-addition of maya, as projection of other. “These” are but the very same knowing/knower/known/seer/seeing/seen. In this example there is what is directly experienced, and then the adding of uninspected meaning, creating an a priori assumption, that somehow within the movement is a separate individual which possesses consciousness and experiences the ‘loss of consciousness’, while the direct experience is : passing out, not passing out - or, knowing of maya, and knowing of maya - no actual experience of in between knowing and knowing, only a hindsight a priori assumption, a hindsight filling in of the blank, when there was, in actuality, no such blank directly experienced. In the same sense, do you directly experience sleeping for eight hours at night? The direct experience is ‘fall asleep wake up’, and further, we can not even claim that as direct experience but rather, consciousness - consciousness. The blank filled in, is a thought about a blank filled in, not the filling in of an actual blank. Consider, what is your maya of, ‘someone sleeping next to you’? And what is your maya of, you? That we routinely recreate phrases such as “making love” and “sleeping with her / him”, a priori... as pointers to bliss, is a heck of a pointer to actuality, or true nature of, non a priori self. The asking of that distinction can not actually be answered / satisfied by distinction, as still, only your distinction remains, (if that). Another way to express that might be I was not asking for reference to categories, but rather, what you hold as homeostasis. It is in maya, your distinction (if at all), and is your creation (if at all). If a producer made a movie about Shinzen, and the movie articulated and portrayed Shinzen’s life & talents to such an amazing & astounding high degree, truly such an engrossing film, that for a while, you forgot you were watching a movie, “experiencing” vicariously... would you say the producer of the movie was insanely clever in making such a convincing movie, or that you are experiencing your own cleverness, in believing there is a producer, a movie, a you, a Shinzen, and a me saying this? What is context, sans your distinctions / what is distinction, sans context ....And again then, what is homeostasis, un-categorically, without context / distinction? Actual? What is this “ego”, which has abilities, which possesses scope? Which possesses talent? Can you claim you’ve seen or actually experienced talent? Can a distinction such as talent be held and also be understood in actuality, as the holder is “itself” an a priori distinction, believing to be holding an actuality, but has rather an assessment, one’s own distinction. Is “the talent of another” not truly your own talent of illusion of other? Is there this & that perspective, or is there perhaps the beginning of the uprooting of perspective? Is talent not your maya to dispel? Is anything known to you about his skill of meditation? Or are you projecting an idea of yourself, via comparison, upon magic (“Shinzen”)?

Enlightenment is falling in love with everything. Surrender to love can feel like bliss. Love itself is not just a feeling, we feel it when we are conscious that we are it, or rather, that we are not and love IS.

You will be far happier than mdma but way less excited, instead, simply at peace, in joy, love and eternal bliss with self and all that is. The depth of the enlightened state is infinite, the mdma experience is a spec in comparison to the fundamental energy of creation itself awakening to itself.

I recently started experiencing ecstasy after work every day, especially when I work until before midnight and get back home on feet while listening to music. My usual day varies in degrees of happiness, my baseline state is peace, but I still experience suffering from time to time, which clearly shows that I'm not enlightened. To me, enlightenment is like you described, becoming permanently more happy than falling in love, that's pure bliss that I started experiencing lately, plus it's not addictive at all since it requires letting go, I mean it can't be activated when you try to, it will happen only by letting go of it.

Nope. Resistance is the source of suffering. Not desire. Desire whatever you desire and accept it, and you will be at bliss. Try to kill your desires while they're actually there, and suffer tremendously. Suffering stems from conflict, two things going against each other (mind/heart vs reality). When the mind/heart aligns itself with reality, there will be no suffering at all.

I think you should focus on your own wellbeing. Too much Enlightenment talk can become very depressing. Besides... Noone said you have to believe everything Leo says. Even he said that, if you havent experienced the Absolute then you dont know what he means by Infinite Torture or Infinite Bliss.

There’s no ego, nor ego’s point of view. You’re under the spell of materialism & psychology. You are you. Not “an ego”. These are thoughts you’re aware of. Direct experience is really king here. What you think is life, is a thought about, is consciousness, appearing as. There is only eternity. The meaninglessness point is proven to no one, no where. It’s up to you, it’s for you. There is a tremendous ‘meaning’, Truth, that is experience itself, in need of no reason, no justification, no causations to bliss. Life - Eternity. You created yourself and reality - this is the time to stop all that....if you choose to.

@Shaun As you know, the whole world is your love. Everyone is the recipient of your love. You are Love and bliss itself (nonduality).

Maslow's hierarchy of needs, spiral dynamics etc. Basically any self help model and principles that spirals upwards more and more towards progressively balanced, healthy values, decisions and worldviews. You reap what you sow. Keep on doing that, accumulate good karma and get your goodies. Do the opposite and you accumulate bad karma and you suffer more and more as your life spirals down in unconscious animalistic instincts. The advaitic sage Adi Shankara gave this analogy. 1) The ones with 'good' karma get a human life with a relatively healthy body-mind that can achieve it's goals and conquer circumstances 2) The ones with 'better' karma get born in great affluence, wealth and circumstance. In other words, being born with a golden spoon in mouth. They are set for life and almost all the worldly pleasures are available to them 3) The ones with the 'best' karma get born with a certain dispassion and inquisitive mind. They are like the 0.0001% who come across this message of nondual liberation and intellectually understands the significance of it. They are the most blessed ones who have the most chance to escape the wheel of samsara. But the downside is, the better karma, the quicker it burns out. So fasten your seatbelts folks! ''Blessed is he, the wearer of loincloth; having the earth as his bed and sky as his roof; he remains ever free, in absolute bliss without a single care of the world''

@Viking How’s meditation going? That will settle the mind. Your natural state is bliss.

I love myself as i love you. (You are me). So no reason to jump a bridge - but if death took me i would embrace because i have already died and it is pure bliss and Love. IQ doesn't mean anything unless you give it meaning.

Really interesting topic. The outcome of a psychedelic experience and any intense experiences in general is kind of unpredictable. Of course having a good setting, mindset and ability to surrender usually leads to expansive and liberating experiences, but because of the intensity of these experiences there's always the potential for some kind of trauma. Personally, my trips have usually involved moments of pure laughter and bliss and also moments of fear. However, these "bad" moments always led me to a deeper understanding of how my mind works, which after some integration always had a positive impact on my life. This makes me think that the attitude you have towards unpleasant experiences in general has a big effect on how they will impact your life. If you see them as lessons and give yourself time to integrate and re-ground yourself, I think "bad trips" can actually help you improve your life. However, I've never done big doses and my bad experiences may not have been as hellish as those other people have experienced. @Serotoninluv Your experience with cannabis is very similar to mine. I don't know if it's a substance that doesn't resonate well with my brain chemistry, if it's just showing me my anxieties and fear of letting go or if it's both. Probably both

Fundamentally/energetically is relative. How a particular mind-body fundamentally/energetically resonates with psychedelics is relative and involves many variables. For some mind-bodies in certain settings it can induce expansive liberation, in other mind-bodies it can induce trauma. @Shadowraix Same with me. Psychedelics resonated well with me and were an amazing growth tool. I assumed that’s just how it was. I now realize not everyone resonates like me. There are many forms of resonance and many variables. And it’s not because “they weren’t ready”, “not conscious enough” or “unwilling to surrender”. They just didn’t resonate with psyches like I did. . . I’m now more cautious how I discuss psyches with newbies. What I find equally fascinating is that the same mind-body can resonate differently at different times. I’ve had many different resonances with psyches ranging from pure live and bliss to a horror show. . . For a couple years, cannabis raised my conscious level allowing increased resonance and opening up dimensions in nature and yoga. Then the resonance suddenly changed and it started inducing contraction into personality, anxiety and paranoia. Life is so bizarre at times.

I get the feeling we're circling in words, conditions, thoughts, reflections... understanding with our limited human intellect. There is more truth in letting go of the ankerpoints, showing your natural state, elevating. This high state of vibration, of joy, bliss, natural intelligence. Getting delirious happy. I'm voting for a x min video of @Leo Gura looking at the camera, not saying anything and radiating the love ? I'm sure you sense more than all these words

Based on my readings and experience with people, Extraversion is a personality trait where people want the company of others. These are the people who are depressed when they say - I feel so lonely, I have no friends. They feel like people not liking them is the worst thing in the world. These are the people mad about not having a girlfriend by x age, wanting to look cool compared to their social circle. For me, frankly, I am not lying, these are completely foreign emotions to me and at the same time ridiciously illogical. I have never understood the phrase " I feel so lonely, I have no friends" . Also, having such cravings , from a spiritual/buddhist point of view, is lack of development, because that means you are attached to the appearance of this 'life dream' Introverts, do not have such impulses to talk to people ( cannot say for every introvert, but I don't have these, and I am an introvert, so this is what I think) I used to be friends with an extroverts. I didn't used to talk much , but my friends used to talk about all illogical shits- Who is dating whom, comparing people, criticizing people, spreading rumors about people. I used to be in relationship with a girl, and for no reason they would start talking about her and with no evidence or any logic at all would say things like she doesn't like you, she is dating other guy. They would love to criticize each other, trying to get reactions out of each other and me, for no reason. Then I did some studying about personality, and read that one of the traits of extraverts have more tendency to engage in confrontations , extraverts are more aggressive (again, a sign of low development, since high morality and control of aggression is associated with the prefrontal cortex of the brain (Medical physiology Guyton and all) like wise Peacefullness , Blissfulness in solitude is ofcourse associated with higher spiritual development). It's like it is an 'itch' for extraverts to perform all those drama. It is an impulse.They do not feel happy without doing all the shits that they do. If they are alone, they panic, they immediately try to mingle with 'the herd'. I have observed this 'neediness' in countless of occasion. Observing that, I can say that it is like an impulse within them, a panic response. And for most people, this is the case , based on my observations of many many people in the course of my life. And yea, there is something opposite also. There is also a psychology where such need is absolutely absent. There is just very deep , holy bliss in silence and solitude. And that evidence(best evidence for me) is me. I have deep, peaceful kind of silence within me that gives me peace when I am alone in tune with nature. I don't need the company of others, but I can entertain a butterfly if it comes flying and sits besides me and enjoys nature with me.

It depends. If death is instantaneous - there is no suffering. You will instantaneously be God consciousness, or the Godhead. This is pure bliss and love. If your finite form does not cease immediately there will be suffering until it does..which again afterwards results in the Godhead - pure bliss and love. So there is no reason to fear. Any suffering you could endure is finite as ultimately you are Infinite consciousness. But we are getting off topic as the discussion was if it should he encouraged.

For my own experience liberation isn't about consciousnesses or awareness, any clarity or expansion of those are an expression, a byproduct of liberation. What is my experience of liberation is the freedom from self suffering so this is the source of well being. Since my well being is ever present through just being present if my body is hungry I feed it, or not because I have no attachment to the feeling of hunger or satiation as the source of well being. I experience them and the body has many urges and impulses but my well being isn't dependent on them. So you may ask why do I do anything then? With well being, the joy and peace, that which is called bliss is ever present so if I do or don't do it still is. This way everything I do or not do is an expression of that well being and through this only what resonates with that well being will be what I do....or not do. Of course, sometimes the world requires me to act in ways that may not resonate with well being. If my well being was dependent on my actions then that bliss would be transitory and not really bliss at all. This is an indication of genuine liberation because if we experience it through all manner of circumstances, it's genuine. Regardless of what's 'real' or an 'illusion', which is just another mistaken perception of dualism, what is just is what is. If you're hungry then eat...or not, sometimes fasting is more satisfying than stuffing the belly. Genuine liberation isn't contingent on circumstances aligning in one way or another, it transcends circumstance.

@Inliytened1 You don't understand, you haven't locked out of the system as total as this yet. There is no winterknight. We are essentially talking to nobody. There is nothing we can say to him, that will make him change his mind because he is indeed completely enlightened. To him this conversation isn't even happening. any word used to describe him and his enlightenment. Will not do. Its like i said, it's the final stage of enlightenment. what happens is your meta-knowledge and your ideologies, problems etc.. get "saved" like a save point and that's it.. you'll just work like that the rest of your life. because your knowledge structure of enlightenment and who you are will not change. These are not debatable points for him. We are not even ignorant to him, because ignorant doesn't exist to him. it is as he says ultimate peace and ultimate bliss. Which is not even in his experience. its undescribable in words, even for us. its a state where its impossible to contemplate, so it's virtually impossible to change your position on any topics because they don't even exist in your experience. its a strange loop that can't be broken, once you enter. so its being locked out. Scary indeed , it gives me chills. However, i'm glad that you are here on this forum winterknight and i am glad that you are you and you are happy with your enlightenment. This is all i can ask for from one human being to a non-human being. The true self doesn't change, the duality version of that true self changes. This is the only thing i can infer. But you must lock out to know what the true self is. The difference between a bodivista and buddha nature. It doesn't matter consciousness will multiply infinitely, but the buddha nature won't. They are the same and they are different. But this is from a seperate self position. when you are completely enlightened, the whole illusion dispels. including the break down of non-duality/ duality.

You see that car on the road over there? Completely still. Imagine the following scenario: You are sitting on the platform and thinking thoughts about that car, and then out of nowhere, a thought pops up: "move forwards", and the car moves forwards. Another thought pops up: "move backwards", and the car moves backwards. Another thought pops up: "blow horns", and the car blows its horns. etc.... Imagine that being the case for so many times, like a million times, until you get addicted and forget that your thoughts have no effect on the car, then actually start to believe that you control the car with your thoughts. You will create stories for how you control the car, and make scientific research on the visual field and its relationship with thought, blah blah blah. Imagine that, out of the same nowhere, the car stopped going in accordance with your thoughts. You think: "move forwards", and the car moves backwards, burns up, or does not move at all. You will be disappointed and shocked at why it doesn't obey your thoughts anymore (a little hit to your ego). Now imagine that your own body, arms and legs and everything, stopped going in accordance with your thoughts. You would go crazy and literally die, because thoughts won't seem to be in control anymore (so who is in control?). You will realise that the little control you thought you had was all illusory, that you don't own free will, and that it had you all along. Now, does that mean that everything is random and out of order? No, of course not. It's all planned. The little illusion of control is planned in order to keep you alive (as an ego). Because if you (God) go against yourself (thought/ego), you will die as an ego, and remain as God. So, how do things happen? How is reality alive? By God's will, of course. God does not need to think. God is before thought. You see? You started out life in accordance to God's will, you were pure bliss, you didn't even know you existed. And later on, you started clinging to things being some certain way and not some other way, thus ego was born, and so here you are. Welcome back!

#1: My Belief in Otherness I usually keep this to myself. Still, eleven years ago, I heard a person say that alterity is the ultimate truth of love. That is my God-of-Otherness. May our relationships be like Their unknown relationships. #2: I saw a glorious secret, but I forget what it was! The proof of knowing that God-is-real but different-than-you-think eluded me as I tried to remember a glory I momentarily glimpsed. It reminded me of Anselm's argument, 'a being than which nothing greater can be conceived.' I tried to hang on to the proof, but all I could say was, "God is real, but it is not what you think." #3 My Vision of Strange Obedience The next secret of my life is that I once saw a vision in my imagination. I was looking at a person giving me some symbolic items, and I imagined seeing something on top of what I saw. I mean, my imagination pretended that I saw something else, and the imaginary memory replaced the real memory. In this vision, a man gave me something. He thought God wanted him to give it to me, even though the man could not understand why. I think, "God loves me." #4 My Secret Amnesia: About 4 years ago, I said to myself, "I will never be healed because of my [basically] sexless marriage." That experience of misaligned sex drives really hurt me. I thought it would change when we got married and then I did not leave her after we got married. Earlier today, I looked at my happy wife, my happy son, and my happy daughter--and I said, "I am very, very, very happy." As for about what to do with a sexless marriage--no answers over here! I definitely do not have sexuality figured out, by any means. My sexuality is full of guilt. But I will say this: I can barely remember good things during my times of suffering, and I can scarcely remember sorrow during my times of bliss. And I try to remember sorrow in happiness, and I try to remember good times during misery. Solon also says, "until [a lucky man] is dead, you had better refrain from calling him happy, and just call him fortunate." #5 My Dreams of Anti-Personality: Another secret of my life is that I had a series of dreams about an orange fleshy spider--that was terrifying. The spider felt eerily present even after I woke up. At the end of this series, I had a dream of being among cannibals. The outcome of this cannibal dream bifurcated. Well, nearly 499 years have passed years since Tenochtitlan and the genocide that ended government-imposed cannibalism in North America. By contrast with those psychological projections, I have another secret: I had a dream about a demon. The demon was like a floating ball or a small tornado of lightning. That demon might believe that God is one, but its awareness was more like an anti-personality. I was hugging my knees and rocking on my heels and bum a week later. #6 My Secret Role-Model: About 483 years ago, Martin Ocelotl got punished for healing broken bones and infected bodies. Ocelotl did not tell his secrets too soon. He bided his time. Ocelotl's glory, including vast riches and property, gradually emerged during his "humiliation." Don Carlos got so mad about the ordeal that he started ranting, "Eat, drink, and have sex with your neighbour's wife, for tomorrow we die: that is the orthodox doctrine that we received." So the Inquisition burnt Carlos, but they only whipped Ocelotl and gave him three years in a mine for doing what he thought was right.

First off that's great - it sounds - and correct me if I'm misinterpreting - that you experienced enlightenment or formlessness. Because yes a non-dual state is the death of the ego but consciousness as the Godhead. So there is the bliss of Being which bursts into divine form and realizations. So what do you mean go forward with death?

Beautiful. I have experienced a deep penetrating whiteness while on 5 MEO. A few times actually. Leaves you speachless and in pure bliss after "seeing" the face of god. (And being it, afterall) it most likely wasn't to the extent that you spoke about on your blog, but it was intense regardless

@Truth Addict Thank you! I'm meditating first thing in the morning for a half hour. Besides that I try to be aware throughout the day and am bringing in a lot more body awareness than before. Leading up to my awakening I noticed that I was getting very non-reactive and that my depressive moods were getting more and more infrequent. The awakening completely threw me through a loop. An experience of no self causes ego backlash at first. When I think of ego backlash I usually think of anger, a depressive and nihilist state but this ego backlash was more complicated and complex than just that especially when bliss states are mixed in, ugh! It took months for my mind to slow back down again. I'm getting back to that "state" (nonstate?) I was trying so hard for before the awakening. At the same time I'm careful not to let my mind and ego define that "state" like it did before and try to dictate what it should look like.

@Shin excellent! ?? Some of us like to see how many traps we can fall into...it is imperative we fall as many times as it takes to find our bliss