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If there is only Your True Infinite Being, what is there not to love? There is no other. The only "thing" not loving is the self-contraction called ego or separate-self-Gestalt. That self-contraction hindering the flow of love can be switched off a lot by 10g dried shrooms, quite sufficiently to give a foretaste (I know, but wait and see...) to what happens when the flood-gates of the self-contraction become disassembled structurally, or thrown into the mixer. Then, the River can flow unconstricted by the self-contraction called ego, or separate-self. Which kills any remaining separate-self-contraction even further. https://beezone.com/1main_shelf/self_contraction_04_05_06.html separate self= self-contraction= ego (large parts of it) = separation= fear = not nondual = not awakened = not love psychedelic = temporary off-switch of that self-contraction. Ok, Water by the River admits that this is not really a new discovery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccidānanda Some guys had that insight already 2 millenia ago already, so it appears Water by the River is dishing out old wine in new bottles. But it seems, eternal unchanging Being implies handing out old wine in new bottles every generation... Selling River = love by the River

Please excuse my sloppy answer. It is just when one assumes that no Ego-elements/separate-self-elements are remaining in the psychedelic state... That is a bit, um, Contrast it with this here: Adi Da was quite problematic in other ways , but here you can get a feeling of what no filters/lenses/clouds looks like. And that is a nondual/infinite/mere appearance/awakened state up the hilt, making the true state of "things" absoltely obvious, the realization of Absolute Reality/True Being/Infinite Consciousness a no-brainer. Concerning the last subtle ego/separate-self-clouds/lenses/filters: One just doesn't see them, since there is way to little time in the psychedelic states to transcend these filters/lenses, and normally way to little training in transcending these filters/lenses/clouds done before. One looks THROUGH THEM, and doesn't even notice they are there. And then interprets the infinite nondual experience through them. And what is missing for Enlightenment is the impersonal part: No filters/lenses/clouds left. If you would understand/see these (very subtle) filters in these states, you could sustain the enlightened/awakened/boundless/nondual state AFTER the psychedelic has lost its effect. The infinite and "godly" states of consciousness are nothing but a big trap that parade "in front" of your Real Eternal Being. And btw., "classic" full Enlightenment is infinite, nondual and boundless, and mere appearance/imagined. And impersonal. And the "godly", ET or "whatever" states in that case parade "in" it, "in front" of it. And its YOU by the way. Just the True You. Not the god-state+reamaining filters/lenses. When filters/lenses/clouds/ego are switched off, isn't it logical that Awakening/boundless/nondual/mere apperance states just continues (or is no longer covered by duality), making the eternal always here "suchness" of True being available all the time. Just throw the frog in the mixer and see what remains. What remains is eternal. The rest is just illusion, parading in front of your eternal Being. Ranging from rat to crocodile to human to God to ET. And ET is better for sexy marketing and probably more fun than throwing the frog in the mixer, I assume. It is just if you throw the frog in the mixer, the imagined crocodiles tend to stay away, because, um, they intuit they would follow the frog into the mixer. Selling Water by the River

No its the beautiful work of God. The goal of God for this illusion is to keep you in the illusion. God is good at what he does. The reason is so it can completely lose itself. It is the sole purpose of the dream - or any dream. This is a feature and not a bug. If everyone awakened so easily there couldn't be reality.

I think animals are awakened. What's their IQ?

@Razard86 because of our childhood and environment conditioning? Or also other reasons you think? Or umbrella term 'survival'. So awakened species doesn't wanna survive?

Such a species hasn't and will not exist. Perhaps an awakened species which feeds on sunlight or stones could exist. On planet Earth, survival has always been dirty and cruel. But that can change for the better when AI and robotics become advanced enough.

In the Book Conversations with God book 4 there was outlined 16 differences between awakened beings and non awakened humans. This can give a look at how awakened beings view morality. The 16 differences 1. An awakened species sees the Unity of All Life and lives into it. Humans in an unawakened state often deny it or ignore it. 2. An awakened species tells the truth, always. Humans in an unawakened state too often lie, to themselves as well as others. 3. An awakened species says one thing and will do what they say. Humans in an unawakened state often say one thing and do another. 4. An awakened species, having seen and acknowledged what is so, will always do what works. Humans in an unawakened state often do the opposite. 5. An awakened species does not embrace a principle in its civilization that correlates with the concepts that humans refer to as “justice” and “punishment.” 6. An awakened species does not embrace a principle in its civilization that correlates with the concept that humans refer to as “insufficiency”. 7. An awakened species does not embrace a principle in its civilization that correlates with the concept that humans refer to as “ownership.” 8. An awakened species shares everything with everyone all the time. Humans in an unawakened state often do not, only sharing with others in limited circumstances. 9. An awakened species creates a balance between technology and cosmology; between machines and nature. Humans in an unawakened state often do not. 10. An awakened species would never under any circumstances terminate the current physical expression of another sentient being unless asked directly by that other being to do so. Humans in an unawakened state often kill other humans without that other human requesting them to. 11. An awakened species would never do anything that could potentially damage or harm the physical environment that supports the members of the species when they are physicalized. Humans in an unawakened state often do so. 12. An awakened species never poisons itself. Humans in an unawakened state often do so. 13. An awakened species never competes. Humans in an unawakened state are often in competition with each other. 14. An awakened species is clear that it needs nothing. Humans in an unawakened state often create a need-based experience. 15. An awakened species experiences and expresses unconditional love for everyone. Humans in an unawakened state often cannot imagine even a Deity who does this, much less do they do it themselves. 16. An awakened species has harnessed the power of metaphysics. Humans in an unawakened state often largely ignore it.

In the Conversations with God Book 4 there is a section that talks about the 16 characteristics of Highly Evolved Beings. Here is a link that talks about it. Scroll down to the bottom to see them. https://www.countdown2contact.org/awakened-species/

I would much rather Leo make a video on the traps of Buddhism/Spirituality than the traps of atheism. I see religion/spiritual new age bs as a deeper problem. So many people on here are Buddhist rats who think they are already awakened. I think atheism is rather easy to deconstruct. All you have to do is open your mind to the possibility that the source of your intelligence doesn’t come from you but from the Universe itself. Some traps of Buddhism that I think should be discussed are: 1. Meditation being over-idealized - there should be more emphasis on contemplation than meditation. Meditation will shut your mind off but contemplation will make you more intelligent and aware. 2. Too much attachment to Buddha and Buddhist teachings (isn’t it a contradiction to be attached to Buddhist teachings and the Buddha if the teachings are all about non-attachment?) 3. Group-think.

Right, it's really about strategic positioning because anyone will fall into a trap and be easily lured when they are very, very, very desperate. Like if you're broke and you have no money, yeah, you're going to be lured into all sorts of shady business deals. And if you're in this position where you haven't been socializing, you've been playing video games your whole life, living in your mother's basement, yeah, now you're in such a desperate position for sex that you're going to be tempted and lured in by all sorts of shady sexual schemes and offers. So, it is about positioning yourself strategically such that you're not in these kind of compromised positions. Then, of course, you can't avoid all of them, but you do the best you can. See, as you get trapped, you get more desperate, and as you get desperate, your options get worse, trapping you in even more. And it's sort of this negative vicious cycle. This can be sort of a cycle of addiction, like maybe you were abused as a child and you got traumatized, so that's already made you kind of desperate, emotionally vulnerable and so forth. And that makes you, of course, now, because you don't have a healthy emotional state, now that makes you susceptible now to intoxicants and drugs, and you start with a bit of alcohol, then you move on to weed, then you move on to cocaine, then you move on to heroin, you see? And this gradually makes you more and more and more desperate over time. And then, you know, when you're at the bottom of that spiral, you're so desperate that it seems like you have no way out. And in that case, what you need to do is you need to ask for help. You need to look for help from other people who are, you know, who can, who are in a good place in life such that they have abundant resources that they could help you because you're at the point where you've tapped yourself out. So, be careful about those kind of compromising situations that you can put yourself in. Traps are a mirror of our desires and fears. We fall into traps because they tap into something we crave or wish to avoid. Here's a quote that I'll read to you from an AI that I got from an AI. The Claw 3 AI says, "Traps are a mirror that reflect back to us our own psychological and emotional landscape." I thought that was a especially eloquent beautiful way of summarizing this whole thing. Here are some exercises that you can do that will help you to get a better handle on traps and to avoid traps. The first exercise is write down a list of 10 traps you've fallen into in your life in the past and then ask yourself what led you to fall into each trap. What did you learn from each trap? And importantly, in what way were these traps ultimately a gift? Don't forget that traps are not just purely negative things unless they're catastrophic, but even some of the catastrophic traps honestly can also ultimately be converted into gifts, and your ability to do that, your mental resourcefulness to do that is a very powerful skill. And maybe that deserves an episode all on its own, how to reframe this kind of negative stuff. In fact, I need to do an episode on reframing. That's powerful. And here's another exercise for you. Write down a list of five traps that other people who you know have fallen into. Friends, family members, romantic partners. And then ask yourself what led them to fall into these traps and how will you avoid falling into those traps? And then, here's an extra powerful question which is, what traps am I specifically susceptible to? What traps does my unique personality and life situation expose me to? Because you see, we're all quite different. We have different consciousnesses, different levels of development, different genetics, different personality types, different strengths and weaknesses. And that of course influences what kind of things we will be lured in by and susceptible to. So, you have to not just know about traps in general but specifically what kind of traps you're vulnerable to. Some people are much more vulnerable to alcoholism than others, genetically. You have to know that about yourself. If that's true for you, maybe some people can just go out and drink every night, and they're not vulnerable. But you're vulnerable, so you can't do that. However, you may have other advantages that those people don't have. Here are some meta-traps, very high level traps: Thinking that you're immune to a particular trap. For example, telling yourself, "Well, I would never join a cult; I could never join a cult because I'm too intelligent." Of course, that makes you more vulnerable to joining a cult if you believe that. Thinking that you've escaped a trap. Sometimes there's a trap within a trap within a trap. You might think, "Well, I've already escaped this trap, Leo, so it's not a big deal." But you don't realize that there's a deeper, more advanced version of that trap that you still haven't escaped. Watch out for that one. Especially true when you're getting into advanced spiritual stuff. You might think you've awakened to the max. But then, what you'll realize is that there's something beyond that. It's easy to overlook because you might think, "Well, I've escaped the ego; I've already awoken. So, what more could there be?" This kind of trap, in general, thinking that you're immune to self-deception, will be a trap. Criticizing, judging, and ridiculing others too much for falling into traps is a trap. Because the more you judge and criticize others, the harder it becomes for you to admit when you fall into traps yourself. Denying that you've fallen into a trap when you have is a big trap. If you can't even admit you've fallen into it, like if you can't even admit that you're doing some of the things listed above that are problematic, half the challenge is just admitting that you're doing some of these things honestly. Because you're going to be in denial about it, which is a trap. These traps can snowball and work together against you. Sometimes, you're not just dealing with one trap; you're dealing with multiple traps. For example, you're in denial that you're an addict, maybe using psychedelics but have turned it into an addiction now, and you're doing spiritual bypassing with psychedelics. If you ridicule others for falling into traps and you think they're stupid for doing that, automatically, that means you're going to think you're stupid for falling into traps. And you don't want to think you're stupid, so you're not going to want to admit that you fall into some of these traps. Sometimes, you can look like a real fool falling into one of these traps, like joining a cult. You might think you were just joining some sort of mild, good-mannered spiritual community, but it turned out to be a cult, and you were really fooled by that. But you don't want to admit that because you've been ridiculing others who joined cults. Another meta-trap is worrying about avoiding all the traps and getting paranoid about it, which will make you very risk-averse, get you stuck in your head, make you very indecisive, and then maybe you won't even take action because you are too afraid to fail and make a mistake, and you think that everything is a catastrophic trap, which isn't true. Getting paranoid about traps is itself a trap.

Right, it's really about strategic positioning because anyone will fall into a trap and be easily lured when they are very, very, very desperate. Like if you're broke and you have no money, yeah, you're going to be lured into all sorts of shady business deals. And if you're in this position where you haven't been socializing, you've been playing video games your whole life, living in your mother's basement, yeah, now you're in such a desperate position for sex that you're going to be tempted and lured in by all sorts of shady sexual schemes and offers. So, it is about positioning yourself strategically such that you're not in these kind of compromised positions. Then, of course, you can't avoid all of them, but you do the best you can. See, as you get trapped, you get more desperate, and as you get desperate, your options get worse, trapping you in even more. And it's sort of this negative vicious cycle. This can be sort of a cycle of addiction, like maybe you were abused as a child and you got traumatized, so that's already made you kind of desperate, emotionally vulnerable and so forth. And that makes you, of course, now, because you don't have a healthy emotional state, now that makes you susceptible now to intoxicants and drugs, and you start with a bit of alcohol, then you move on to weed, then you move on to cocaine, then you move on to heroin, you see? And this gradually makes you more and more and more desperate over time. And then, you know, when you're at the bottom of that spiral, you're so desperate that it seems like you have no way out. And in that case, what you need to do is you need to ask for help. You need to look for help from other people who are, you know, who can, who are in a good place in life such that they have abundant resources that they could help you because you're at the point where you've tapped yourself out. So, be careful about those kind of compromising situations that you can put yourself in. Traps are a mirror of our desires and fears. We fall into traps because they tap into something we crave or wish to avoid. Here's a quote that I'll read to you from an AI that I got from an AI. The Claw 3 AI says, "Traps are a mirror that reflect back to us our own psychological and emotional landscape." I thought that was a especially eloquent beautiful way of summarizing this whole thing. Here are some exercises that you can do that will help you to get a better handle on traps and to avoid traps. The first exercise is write down a list of 10 traps you've fallen into in your life in the past and then ask yourself what led you to fall into each trap. What did you learn from each trap? And importantly, in what way were these traps ultimately a gift? Don't forget that traps are not just purely negative things unless they're catastrophic, but even some of the catastrophic traps honestly can also ultimately be converted into gifts, and your ability to do that, your mental resourcefulness to do that is a very powerful skill. And maybe that deserves an episode all on its own, how to reframe this kind of negative stuff. In fact, I need to do an episode on reframing. That's powerful. And here's another exercise for you. Write down a list of five traps that other people who you know have fallen into. Friends, family members, romantic partners. And then ask yourself what led them to fall into these traps and how will you avoid falling into those traps? And then, here's an extra powerful question which is, what traps am I specifically susceptible to? What traps does my unique personality and life situation expose me to? Because you see, we're all quite different. We have different consciousnesses, different levels of development, different genetics, different personality types, different strengths and weaknesses. And that of course influences what kind of things we will be lured in by and susceptible to. So, you have to not just know about traps in general but specifically what kind of traps you're vulnerable to. Some people are much more vulnerable to alcoholism than others, genetically. You have to know that about yourself. If that's true for you, maybe some people can just go out and drink every night, and they're not vulnerable. But you're vulnerable, so you can't do that. However, you may have other advantages that those people don't have. Here are some meta-traps, very high level traps: Thinking that you're immune to a particular trap. For example, telling yourself, "Well, I would never join a cult; I could never join a cult because I'm too intelligent." Of course, that makes you more vulnerable to joining a cult if you believe that. Thinking that you've escaped a trap. Sometimes there's a trap within a trap within a trap. You might think, "Well, I've already escaped this trap, Leo, so it's not a big deal." But you don't realize that there's a deeper, more advanced version of that trap that you still haven't escaped. Watch out for that one. Especially true when you're getting into advanced spiritual stuff. You might think you've awakened to the max. But then, what you'll realize is that there's something beyond that. It's easy to overlook because you might think, "Well, I've escaped the ego; I've already awoken. So, what more could there be?" This kind of trap, in general, thinking that you're immune to self-deception, will be a trap. Criticizing, judging, and ridiculing others too much for falling into traps is a trap. Because the more you judge and criticize others, the harder it becomes for you to admit when you fall into traps yourself. Denying that you've fallen into a trap when you have is a big trap. If you can't even admit you've fallen into it, like if you can't even admit that you're doing some of the things listed above that are problematic, half the challenge is just admitting that you're doing some of these things honestly. Because you're going to be in denial about it, which is a trap. These traps can snowball and work together against you. Sometimes, you're not just dealing with one trap; you're dealing with multiple traps. For example, you're in denial that you're an addict, maybe using psychedelics but have turned it into an addiction now, and you're doing spiritual bypassing with psychedelics. If you ridicule others for falling into traps and you think they're stupid for doing that, automatically, that means you're going to think you're stupid for falling into traps. And you don't want to think you're stupid, so you're not going to want to admit that you fall into some of these traps. Sometimes, you can look like a real fool falling into one of these traps, like joining a cult. You might think you were just joining some sort of mild, good-mannered spiritual community, but it turned out to be a cult, and you were really fooled by that. But you don't want to admit that because you've been ridiculing others who joined cults. Another meta-trap is worrying about avoiding all the traps and getting paranoid about it, which will make you very risk-averse, get you stuck in your head, make you very indecisive, and then maybe you won't even take action because you are too afraid to fail and make a mistake, and you think that everything is a catastrophic trap, which isn't true. Getting paranoid about traps is itself a trap.

@gettoefl So I understand that materialism isn't true but then what would materialism feel like is what I am curious about. I agree that no self is the truth of our nature (I haven't yet awakened to it yet, but putting in the work) but then what would being a mind and body feel like?

Here Adam talks about some of the final stages he went thru, Experiencing Original Nature (Sing in Daoism) and he talks about Dissolving and then coming back to Form, he uses the analogy of becoming the Ocean and then becoming Ice, and going back and forth but the common element is Water, learning to discern that between the shifting btwn the two states you are always Water, Water meaning the Brahman, Atman, Dao, Infinite Universe of formlessness, God or whatever label you want to use..He also discusses the mistake of making the experience a Noun by announcing or thinking "I am Enlightened or I have Arrived/Awakened", since this is about Infinity and such there is no End to it and by thinking/identifying that there is, you stop the process... He also talks about how the paths differ, Shamanism path of using drugs, or Mystic path of using doing/non doing practices, and if You don't want to go all the way how just 15-50min a day of steady practice can get You stress free and full of Well Beingness...Very Wise Man and path!!

This is advice I wrote on another thread but didn't fit there quite nicely and therefore I hope someone here might benefit from it. Good luck:) Also continue the thread with input that could help soon to have awakened people. ________________________________________ Try to live in the moment more, Here is what you need to do: Realize you are not your thoughts and imagination, you can think, you can imagine, but you cannot be your thoughts or your imagination. You are also not your body, one second you are aware of a bodily sensation next you are not. So you are not your mind nor your body, all you are is what you create. If you don't create you sleep, and in sleep you experience death every night. Your mind is all over the place and should not be blindly trusted, you believe so many things about yourself which are not true. Your body is easier to work with. So this is what you need to do: First you distance yourself from being your mind, you don't try to stop thinking or imagening, you let it happen but distance or rather redirect your awareness to your body. You also should not focus your awareness in an intense manner, if you loose energy after a while you are definitely doing something wrong, loosen the grip. Now you should know that all your thoughts and emotions actually manifests themselves in your body. One day you may realise emotions are just jucier thoughts, thoughts are very subtle, that's why emotions are the easiest to feel in the body. If you have done and achieved these steps you should be aware of that which is called creation. Now how you create can be done in many ways. When you try to control creation, you are just limiting your potential, life can manifest itself in infinite ways but you choose to try to control it. See if you can let go of controlling the actions of your mind and the sensations in your body then life will manifest itself in the way it wants to. Let your mind do whatever it wants to, it will keep/make itself joyfull, or whatever feeling you actually desire. Moving your body is what we call action, it takes and doesn't create energy to this this. That is why awakened masters don't have a discriminate mind but the action we perform is done in a discriminate manner. So you wondered what to do with your life, see you just do whatever the hell you want to do. As long as you can handle the consequence of that action in a joyfull manner. If you have one day in the future with my earlier advise awakened then you can be joyfull by yourself. So why do any action on this world, why not become enlightened? Sitting in ecstasy untill you leave this life. Because you open your eyes and see a man suffering in front of you, isn't it natural that you such a joyfull being will naturally do whatever you can to help him achieve wonderfulness. You wouldn't have to think about it, ohh I am going to do what is needed in the world, I am going to make this universe amazing, no no that is what we call the ego. You just look and you feel feel an urge to do something, you will then do whatever you can. This is what a guru is. He doesn't think his way through life, he lives his way through life. Have you ever considered yourself lazy? Then you are just not doing what you actually want to do, so I am telling you to do what you want to do. Ofcourse survival and making enough income has to be taken care of so do that but don't make to much out of it. Also if you live the way I described you flow with excistance, when hunger comes you eat, when low energy is the case you rest... Energy is the third part of existence, there is the body, the mind and energy. Energy determines the extent that you are alive. This is why action should be done in the direction with least resistance. So your work should be something that you can manage without draining yourself too much. ________________________________________ This might be a little too much for you excuse me for that. Telling you to awaken, know enlightenment and the ways of creation the action of sacrificing some of the enlightenments ecstasy to instead do what is needed in the world around your life. Still for me this story is beautiful, gurus are so beautiful, when I recently heard osho had been posioned in a horrific manner before death, I cried. Jesus and Buddha, people tried to assassinate those who knew life to its fullest, the outmost evolved human beings, who did so much for the world. And are still alive in peoples teachings today, beautiful.

So there is the dream state (the illusory world we all experience right now) and there is the REAL reality, god, or truth, which is hidden from our senses. Being awakened means you are directly conscious of that REAL reality, as far as some teachers suggest. If so, can you be 100% certain, than at the moment you die, that REAL reality will continue exactly as you are directly conscious of right now? In other words, are you experiencing death simultaneously with the dream?

I believe I awakened not too long ago and it changed everything. Though I with reasons choose willingly to take one last journey into great ego for a couple of weeks. First it was easy to sit down with ecstasy anytime after awakening but now I sense how my entire being wants to go out and help the world. Like a guru does, though I try to sit down in ecstasy I feel joy but my consciousness telles me to go off and do certain things. Even though my self awareness I can't really tell if this is because of my time in ego or because of my advancement. I wonder if this is how gurus are motivated to do their work. That it is not only an intellectual choice but your entire being chose it fully and completely. Meditating into ecstasy to and go deeper into enlightenment didn't seem difficult before, but now there's a feeling of that I am here for a bigger meaning, to serve the world. Then when I am ready I will one day go deep into ecstasy and leave this body at the time of enlightenment. My mind wants to believe that I should be able to just be in ecstasy alone by myself, but following what I think to remember the same procedure of letting go of all ego/suffering. My being wants to move and do things, is this normal for awakened people? I would gladly appreciate any knowledge you might have on this? So the main question is, what drives awakened people to do what they do in the sense that, Is it an intellectual choice or is there more to it as I might be experiencing?

I think this guy explains it very well... I take the liberty of copy pasting this message that I think it goes well with the discussion in here... it's from Reddit from the Non Duality forum: Non Duality - There is Nothing but the ONE MIND - Drop ALL Dogma and Find Freedom! Discussion So I don't plan to make many more posts about anything like this because I finally saw it and I get it at long last. There is nothing left for me to learn, I don't mean this arrogantly. I just mean I get it! I am no longer interested in dogma or meditations or anything else. I have been in Void like states for the past week or so now. I am only writing this to help anyone who may of been lost like I was. Yes it was mind blowing too. It made me realize that the more I looked outside and the more I gained knowledge, the more lost I had become. I now get what Non duality is and what it isn't. It is not about ego deaths, awareness, observers or being observed. Even cliche terms like Enlightenment and Awakening do not touch upon it. It is none of those things and to use terms like these are to create dualities where there are none and to fall into extreme ignorance. All of these terms and concepts are the real illusions we must overcome. If I say today that I awakened. It means that tomorrow I can fall asleep again. I am now in some battle of being awakened vs being asleep. I am the One Mind that is the SOURCE OF ALL THINGS! My mind is the source of being awakened and being asleep. To say I am awakened or enlightened is to stay highly ignorant and to create a duality where there are none. There is no ego to kill, to say I have an ego is to say there is an entity that exists apart from the One Mind. Anything I call an ego, is just a concept within the One Mind. The idea of an ego is another fantasy concept made up and imagined to be some kind of obstacle to be got rid of i.e - it is Complete nonsense. If you believe an ego exists, then you believe in something having some level of independent existence. There is nothing to be achieved, attained, gained or realized. These are all dualities again. Again, you are creating obstacles where there are none. Any of these terms hint that we must seek outside of ourselves to find the One mind, there is only the One mind. We simply need to see the Nature of our own mind, which is the One Universal Mind. Non duality is the realization that everything is merely a creation of the ONE MIND and we all share that ONE Mind. There is nothing else to get your head around or understand. That is Non duality in a nutshell. There is no Real or Illusion either, to say something is real or to say something is an illusion is to create a duality. To say something exists and something does not exist is another duality. Everything is just the One Universal Mind. Remove all your concepts, dogma, rituals and belief systems and simply See this and you then you will partake in the Void. The state where you no longer feel separate or independent, you know you are everything and everything is you. The place where you see that everything is just emptiness and nothingness, all attachment having vanished into thin air. The Void is the place where you truly FEEL FREE! It is not enlightenment or awakening it is FREEDOM from all concepts and belief systems. You simply know that All is just a creation within the ONE Mind. Your mind being the ONE Mind that creates all and is the Only Reality and Original Source of all things. A quote from Huang Po to finish - 'All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists. This Mind, which IS without beginning, is unborn (Unborn not in the sense of eternity, for this allows contrast with its opposite; but unborn in the sense that it belongs to no categories admitting of alteration or antithesis). and indestructible. It is not green nor yellow, and has neither form nor appearance. It does not belong to the categories of things which exist or do not exist nor can it be thought of in terms of new or old. It is neither long nor short, big nor small, for it transcends all limits, measures, names, traces, and comparisons. It IS that which you see before you-- begin to reason about it and you at once fall into error. It is like the boundless void which cannot be fathomed or measured. The One Mind alone is the Buddha, and there is no distinction between the Buddha and sentient things, but that sentient beings are attached to forms and so seek externally for Buddhahood. By their very seeking they lose it, for that is using the Buddha to seek for the Buddha and using mind to grasp Mind.'

Do yous ever think about like, whats really going on here. On one half, you have this very consistent, very stable life where its predictable. You wake, and do whatever it is you do each day. Then you're tired, tired of that non sense, and you go to imagination land, subsequent images of things that shouldnt make sense are (for all intensive purposes) a reality. And the same way you were 'tired', whatever that means you start to question aspects of this 37-layer-deep dream, or something happens that signifies the next moment of you 'coming to'... And in that now awakened, and responsive last save-state, you do it over again. Like, what is that. Thats not an arbitrary thing, that has to be like a machine of some kind that doesnt exist without one half strolling along w/ consistency, and the other half where things get all strewn about without the recognition of self identity/or anything self-related. But at the same time it exists... just like... perpetually... why... like, can we find out.... like when you were born as a clean slate, what was that?...

I used to watch Jim a while back, few years back then I stopped. No particular reason as I like to spread my wings. Tony, I've only seen one or two of his videos, but I'm not a fan. Anna yes, I love her and have been watching her for a while. I watched a lot of stuff. Now after my confusion crises seemed to happen and I accidentally stumbled across Emerson non-duality and started watching him a lot, something happened as described in my "Oh My God, this is it" thread and ever since then a lot of the contraction seems to apparently fell away from the body allowing for more clarity, even though that's still only apparent since there's no one that gains more clarity. It's more of a losing. Then i've been watching a lot of Jim lately. The funny thing is I was already familiar with Jim but it was never as clear as it seems to be happening now. A lot of the stuff he says seems so obvious now and has broken away a lot of the confusion that seemed to be happening. It's the only message that totally resonates with something inside the body and is loosening the contraction a bit. No one is doing it, it's just seeming to happen. It's not a doing but more of an undoing, if you may. Everything now is less tension and the seeking energy is dieing. There's still remnants of an individual here and I'm not claiming to be awakened or anything like that. I'm not even saying there's not a me or that there's a me, it's just what seems to arise in the talking but is not being claimed as a me doing it. Its hard to speak without saying I or me but it doesn't matter.

Enlightenment entails no duties or responsibilities. It is not an ideal that demands a particular kind of behavior. If you think it has turned you into a pure saint and requires you to live an austere and holy life and behave with perfect love, you have enlightenment sickness. Enlightenment cannot be equated with sainthood, because behavior depends on the nature of the instrument (body&mind) through which awareness functions, not on the self. For example, electricity flowing through a light bulb produces light. Functioning through a stereo, it produces sound. Operating through a heater, it causes heat. If only sattvic samskaras (peaceful habits) remain, saintly behavior will manifest, but rajas (egoism) and tamas (ignorance) can never be completely eliminated. If self knowledge came after a long period of diligent spiritual practice under the tutelage of a pure teacher, you will probably not catch enlightenment sickness. You would have lived in such a simple way that you were already happy before you discovered who you are, and there will be virtually no change in your inner life. You would have associated with enough truly enlightened people to understand that enlightenment is nothing special. But if you were not blessed with a sattvic disposition and excellent karma and you struggled long and hard, you will probably be so eager to make the most of your enlightenment that you will not take time to tidy up the last bits of ignorance. If you formulate your enlightenment as a grand happening and turn it into a big story, you have the enlightenment disease. In reality, you should be happy to keep your mouth shut because you did not get something you did not have all along. Awareness is your nature. By making a fuss about it, you are only calling attention to a long stay in ignorance, not to a special accomplishment. If you hear yourself telling others that you are awakened or enlightened or “cooked,” you have enlightenment sickness. Awakening is not enlightenment, because the self never slept. You are the fire that cooks, not the cooked food. Awakening means that some kind of insight or mystical experience happened, which you define as enlightenment. Enlightenment cancels the ego, so there is no one left to claim he or she is presently awakened. Or if the ego survived, it knows that the self—not it—is enlightened. At best you can say, “I am not enlightened, nor am I unenlightened,” because both enlightenment and endarkenment are simply ideas to you, awareness. Here are two examples of the specious logic of someone who has allowed the ego to co-opt his or her enlightenment: 1) “Consciousness is non-dual. This means that everything is the same as everything else. Therefore, the moral distinctions operating in the creation have no meaning. That is why I do what I want without regard for anyone or anything.” 2) “Reality is non-dual, therefore nothing ever happened. Therefore I do not exist. If I do not exist—I’m so not here!—my dualistic orientation does not exist. So if you see me acting like a self-centered jerk, it is a projection of your ignorance.” Or see what Sri Sureshvara in the 9th century said in the text Panchadasi: “One who says he is awareness yet refuses to discipline the senses is a shit-eating dog. Oh, enlightened one, before you got enlightened you suffered from the pain of your own mental imperfections, but now you suffer the censure of the world. How glorious is your knowledge? Knower of Truth, do not sink to the level of a pig in a sty! Free yourself from the defects arising from your Rajasic and Tamasic tendencies and be worshiped by the world like a god.” If you appreciate the comment of the thirteenth Zen master Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen, “Next to good manners enlightenment is the most important thing in the world,” you are a great soul. If not, not.

Oh yeah....explain it. Because I predict you will deny the existence of something. And what I am telling you, that means you have not fully awakened. Even Tony Parsons won't deny the existence of something. He will just say its an apparent something. The only thing he denies is the existence of God. And that is because he is not conscious that he is God. Or why we use the term God to begin with. Then you got James123 or whatever his name is denying the existence of God and denying creation even though evidence for all of that is all around us. You and many others are not aware of what's going on. Reality is a mind game of identity. Since everything is ONE, to maintain an identity of seperation you have to DENY some aspect of Reality. So the only way to discover ONENESS is you have to break out of your identity and that involves first denying the identity. But then to grow your awareness you have to rebuild your identity and ACCEPT everything. To ACCEPT everything is to exclude NOTHING. So what does this mean? It means you must aim to understand ALL perspectives. If you understand all perspectives....then nothing is denied. I know why you speak as you do, I know why James speaks as he does, but you do not know why I speak as I do. As such you have a particular bias you are trapped in. You deny something, but you ACT as if something exists. How do we know? Because you are on the forums typing and responding. This means you are LYING to yourself, you have created a belief system that denies your reality. This is called Gaslighting. You are gaslighting yourself which is what happens when you create a belief system. How do we know its a belief system? Because in your direct experience....you are typing, and that means there IS SOMETHING. SOMETHING IS NOTHING!!!! Depending on which conscious state you are in, it will be felt as more Something or more Nothing. It's BOTH. The moment you lean either way....you are lost. The teachings are meant to exaggerate because you are very attached in an exaggerated way. But the funny thing is, they just cause some people sometimes to just become exaggerated on Nothing out of fear of ever falling into delusion again. You need to have the courage to connect and feel for something again. You only lost motivation because you disconnected yourself from all that is. You need to go back to embracing all that is and reconnect to it as Nothing and then you will discover IT IS SOMETHING. And..that...is LOVE.

Hi Sugarcoat, If self knowledge came after a long period of diligent spiritual practice under the tutelage of a pure teacher, you will probably not catch enlightenment sickness. You would have lived in such a simple way that you were already happy before you discovered who you are, and there will be virtually no change in your inner life. You would have associated with enough truly enlightened people to understand that enlightenment is nothing special. But if you were not blessed with a sattvic disposition and excellent karma and you struggled long and hard, you will probably be so eager to make the most of your enlightenment that you will not take time to tidy up the last bits of ignorance. If you formulate your enlightenment as a grand happening and turn it into a big story, you have the enlightenment disease. In reality, you should be happy to keep your mouth shut because you did not get something you did not have all along. Awareness is your nature. By making a fuss about it, you are only calling attention to a long stay in ignorance, not to a special accomplishment. If you hear yourself telling others that you are awakened or enlightened or “cooked,” you have enlightenment sickness. Awakening is not enlightenment, because the self never slept. You are the fire that cooks, not the cooked food. Awakening means that some kind of insight or mystical experience happened, which you define as enlightenment. Enlightenment cancels the ego, so there is no one left to claim he or she is presently awakened. Or if the ego survived, it knows that the self—not it—is enlightened. At best you can say, “I am not enlightened, nor am I unenlightened,” because both enlightenment and endarkenment are simply ideas to you, awareness. Here are two examples of the specious logic of someone who has allowed the ego to co-opt his or her enlightenment: 1) “Consciousness is non-dual. This means that everything is the same as everything else. Therefore, the moral distinctions operating in the creation have no meaning. That is why I do what I want without regard for anyone or anything.” 2) “Reality is non-dual, therefore nothing ever happened. Therefore I do not exist. If I do not exist—I’m so not here!—my dualistic orientation does not exist. So if you see me acting like a self-centered jerk, it is a projection of your ignorance.” Or see what Sri Sureshvara in the 9th century said in the text Panchadasi: “One who says he is awareness yet refuses to discipline the senses is a shit-eating dog. Oh, enlightened one, before you got enlightened you suffered from the pain of your own mental imperfections, but now you suffer the censure of the world. How glorious is your knowledge? Knower of Truth, do not sink to the level of a pig in a sty! Free yourself from the defects arising from your Rajasic and Tamasic tendencies and be worshiped by the world like a god.”

Something just came to me that I would like to share. In life (the "mundane" stuff) we're just performing tasks. Going to work feeding the kids, buying the car, the house, even entertainment, buying clothes, everything. We're performing these tasks for survival, for maintenance of the body, for ways and means to feel secure, a sense of freedom, to feel loved, a sense of peace joy and gratitude. All the good stuff - you know the deal. When you've Awakened to your true nature, and I mean really know who and what you are, you may feel unmotivated to continue doing those "tasks" because you've recognized that they don't fulfill you. During your Awakening those feelings were magnified and now nothing comes close. You were only doing those things and were motivated to do them because of the feelings they generated within you. Even the job you didn't like was still giving you a sense of purpose and maybe a sense of productivity and worth. Now, you're unmotivated to do the mundane things because you don't have a reason to anymore. You wanted to feel secure but now you're already feeling secure, you wanted to feel loved, but now you're already feeling loved, you wanted to feel the freedom that working these mundane jobs provided, but now you don't crave that feeling anymore from Awakening to your true nature. Either that or those feelings want to push through more intensely but you're unmotivated to do mundane things to let them flow through. I don't really have the solution for this lack of motivation, and I do believe it's partially for the reasons stated above, for which I could be wrong, and could only apply to some and not all; but If it applies, maybe this is the time to really focus on your passions or the things that you enjoy the most because you did incarnate in this body for a reason, and that is to experience what it's like to be human from the perspective of Source (did I say that right - or is it the other way around), and maybe your Awakening is a message to you to really start living and to make yourself available for all the joys and pleasures that comes with this recognition instead of not allowing Source to flow through you in the unique way it wants which only you can do. Your lack of motivation could be the body being used to the adrenaline of "fake" fulfillment and the mind is telling it that it is already fulfilled and now it doesn't want to move to fit into the new paradigm of being already fulfilled because it is conditioned to do mundane tasks. The body and mind are not aligned, or maybe it's the mind and body that's not aligned with the heart. Not sure, but something isn't aligned.

Yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahamudra "literally means "great seal" or "great imprint" and refers to the fact that "all phenomena inevitably are stamped by the fact of wisdom and emptiness inseparable". Aka mere empty "imagined" appearances, not existing "out there" but within the Infinite vastness of True Being/Universal Consciousness as mere appearance in this nondual field, not as external objects "out there", aka duality. There is a lot of cultural lingo in Buddhism, especially Tibetan Buddhism, that I didn't understand in the beginning, like why they called it Great Seal. Or Emptiness. Or dependend origination. Or Middle Way. Or No Self. Proto-Mahamudra was imported from India around the 10 century, so the term comes probably from India and is used there also. Daniel Brown once said Mahamudra (for example in his book Pointing out the Great Way) is best for Awakening, and then adding Dzogchen-Methods (the books he translated later, kind of a collection of best of Tibetan Buddhism selected by 33rd Menri Trizin. Mahamudra as explained in Pointing out the Great Way = a nearly mathematical step by step method towards Awakening (Nondual Infinite Field at least temporarily seen by impersonal Awareness itself, but some very subtle processes/filters/lenses still clouding full realization). Before that comes Nonduality (or One Taste), or a separate-self (or ET) merging in Unity with the Infinite Field (of earthly or alien form). Dzogchen = Great Perfection, or the path that completes path to Enlightenment. Or fully ripened Awakened Awareness/Awakening, no clusters of separate-self arisings not transcended/seen through/still clouding Impersonal Infinite Being/Awareness. In my perspective the by far most sophisticated and fastest meditation methods (Mahamudra+Dzogchen) on the planet. Nearly all other methods/systems/techniques/traditions are found within these methods one way or the other, but not the other way round. Selling the Great Seal by the River

Right, I can confirm this is not the degree it awakened for me. But I've heard of it happening in books, videos, forums, etc. I remember reading a post from at least one other member on this forum who also described it. I'm sure it feels like a curse now, but I sincerely hope it becomes a blessing for you later.