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@ChimpBrain You make it sound like god is some sort of separated entity separated from everything else. That is NOT what god what god is. Be open radically open here. What god literally is is ABSOULUTE INFINITY!!. This absolute infinity is NOTHING and EVERYTHING at the same time paradoxically. God has no space, no time, no location, no meaning, no personality, nothing. It is completely neutral and it is YOU. You are god meaning you are the field of infinite nothingness that god is. This can only be experienced directly in present reality when your ego is gone. And this is what enlightenment is about; discovering your true existential nature aka god.

This is quite an interesting story you told here. Thanks for sharing. Yes, I do agree that we are living in the "Matrix" and to drop all beliefs. However, speaking from my own experience, this path also is a paradox. That's why they call it nothingness as well as everythingness. The opposites are true. It's just like saying there's no up or down in space. Since we're also talking about the everythingness, life is meant to be lived. Life has meaning. We are put here for a reason. Our spiritual paths are unique, and so on and so on. That's why the quote below really resonates with me. As we go along our paths, it does trigger 'ah-ha' moments.

"Le Grand Bleu" Not very popular movie but I am telling you this is something beautiful. It is not so much waw movie, but man it is about enlightenment in a way. It is about reaching everything and nothingness. Two divers going deep in the see. I thing it is based on true facts. When people are deep in the water they experience this no-gravity feeling and it is like merging with everything like floating in space and feels so good to them, they want to go 'home' to oneness. Ending is fantastic. Really recommend this one . Wonderful movie!

I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to say here so let's see how this goes. I'm seeing enlightenment in a bit of a different light as I woke this morning. I guess the big question that's always in the back of my head is "what exactly is enlightenment?" We as humans have evolved on this planet for millions of years. Our brains have the capacity to do many wonderful things like no other species on this planet. But along with that highly developed brain we also have a strong sense of self. We than ask ourselves "who am I". Where did I come from? What is my purpose? What happens to me when I die? Once these question are asked, the search for an answer begins. Religions try to answer all these age old questions by telling us there is a supreme being that creates, destroys, sees and judges all that is happing as an attempt to satisfy a question that most everyone has. So religion "fills in the blanks" so to speak. Any answer is better than no answer at all because people can than feel secure that the question is answered and they can rest their mind in that belief. So here is the question I woke with this morning. Is enlightenment a mental tool that is used, like a religion. But not to answer the big questions, but to just silence them because there are no answers and the questions are really the only cause for the search in the first place? I'm seeing humans as just another aspect of this universe. The same as any other living organism. But one that has evolved just enough to ask the deadly questions that there are no answers too. Than there is the next part of that process when we want to believe we have the answer that satisfies the question of 'What am I". Our brains come up with answers like -Infinity, the absolute, truth, nothingness, God, bliss ect, ect. We than feel the need to experience whatever "that" is. Like we want absolute proof of it. Aren't we creating another dream within a dream within that sense of self that comes with having a higher brain function? Isn't all this just the mind doing all this within itself? Every single bit of it? Is realizing this simple fact enlightenment? Is enlightenment just fix for a glitch in the operating system? A week or so ago, somebody replied to a post saying "Now that Leo has reached Infinity"___ _ _ _ _ . Something about that innocent little statement really made me re-evaluate everything that is happing. Who reached What? What drives this search in the first place? Is it all just an anomaly of higher brain function? What is really happing? *I would greatly appreciate anyone's input on all this. What do think?

It is often said that you can't die because you are not the body. BUT it's still fact that you won't FEEL anything after the body died right? Nobody can tell me that you felt something ever before you were born. So yeah.. nothingness never dies, but it isn't relevant to say that is cool, because after your body died your senses are gone and you need a medium to feel life right?

With "I" I mean nothingness / consciousness. And as nothingness I thought you need a body as a "medium" so to speak to experiencing life. I (the ego) just wanted to know what it feels like after the body died, not just the ego. If it is the same as before you were born then this "you can't die" is pointless to say because i as nothingness didn't feel anything before my birth, although you say there is consciousness. But yeah.. i try to have some direct experiences.

@Telepresent There are really only 2 meanings for "I": 1) "I" in the conventional sense that most people use, which is the ego. The identification with body/mind. Identification with a physical being. This entity does not exist whatsoever, although it appears to. 2) "I" in the nondual or spiritual sense which almost nobody understands because they've never experienced it. This is the True Self, pure consciousness, God, Absolute Infinity, or Nothingness. This none-thing is beyond existence and non-existence. And it's the only Truth. There's nothing else but it. And it has no properties whatsoever. It's what you actually are.

@dice Feelings will of course stop. They stop every night in deep sleep. The issue here is that you're identified with feelings. So you're attaching significance to no-feeling. Also, Nothingness is NOT anything you think it is. It's not nothing. It's consciousness. You have to experience it for yourself to appreciate the significance of this. It's the most extraordinary thing! When you're conscious of Nothingness, the notion of death seems silly. Until that point, it's very hard for the mind to even imagine how that could be possible. You need some direct enlightenment experiences to resolve this.

Leo, I've had a direct experience of levitation during a permanently consciousness/perspective changing LSD trip. I went to sleep while still tripping. I could see with my eyes closed. I literally ascended above the bed and all material reality fell into a void until I was floating in space, in nothingness. It sounds bizarre but it was one of the most peaceful moments of my life. I could have died and it wouldn't have mattered. At all. The event was real in my reality. I can still recall the moment in vivid detail as well as how it felt. That's the tip of the iceberg of what happened during the trip; however, this event alone makes me forever curious about assumed truths about reality. To get to the point, are you referring to being able to directly experience levitation?

The opposite statement: 'Everything I experience in both the internal and external world is a manifestation of what I am. It is what I am. I absolutely asked for all of it. Nothing in life was given to me. I took it all' Is just as true as yours. In fact from a Being/Truth/divine perspective it's more true, and your statement (that I'm not responsible for the live given to me) is pure egoic lies you tell yourself. Yes, from an ego-perspective you were born into this world, and you had absolutely nothing to do with it! Here the ego sees itself either as a mechanical fluke (atheists) or as a prisoner on probation (religion, the big Father in heaven is watching you!). Either perspective you take, you don't really feel you belong in this world. If you instead can allow yourself to see beyond yourself, and see that your true nature is Divine/God/infinite consciousness/Nothingness -- or to put in other words: that your true deep-down-within 'Self' is the same process that gave birth to who you think you are (the ego) -- then you can actually start to feel that your own existence is absolutely fundamental. You begin to feel that you belong here. You know what? There are thousands of vegan imitations of meat that has the same texture and tastes somewhat like meat. Just look for it. Yeah, 100% agree, in fact that's all we can be mindful of. All we can be mindful of is what we individually experience. Which leads me to: Again, there is nothing wrong with the death of one's illusionary self/ego/person/body/human/animal. It's so natural, yes. Also, there is nothing wrong with suffering either. Ultimately there's nothing wrong. Everything just is. Things can only be wrong from an ego-perspective. However, we must also realize that we do in fact live from an ego-perspective, and we have to cope with that. From an ego-perspective, suffering/pain will always be "not-wanted". No matter how enlightened you are, if I stick a knife into your chest, you will scream of pain. The screaming comes from ego/biological mechanisms, and it's disliked by the person. Since you, from your perspective don't want suffering for yourself - ask yourself - do you want to unnecessarily cause suffering upon other ego's than your own ego? If the answer is no, which I suppose it will be for most people with an atleast average type of awareness/consciousness, then that implies that you, your own ego, will naturally feel pain each time you see suffering in another being. Yes, when you eat your beef from the supermarket, you don't directly see any pain, but if you're just minimally interested in truth, you must be aware that because you bought that beef, you are actually directly contributing to the misery of other beings. And why inflict that pain upon yourself? Why are you doing it? Because it tastes well ... ? Be mindful of your own experience. Yes. If what you do externally doesn't align with how you feel internally, then that can only lead to some sort of pain, which will show in one way or another. If what you feel internally, is that you don't want to cause unnecessary suffering onto other ego's/conscious animals/humans, but you externally still buy the meat and eat it everyday -- and you deep within know, that you just supported an industry that causes pain to conscious animals -- then there is an obvious misalignment, and I can't see how that cannot lead to some sort of unhappiness. It's all about being mindful and aware, ultimately. If you're totally blind to how the meat/livestock-industry functions, either because: - you couldn't care less about where the food you eat comes from - you have mental problems/are mentally retarded, then fine, go eat your meat, it won't impact you in any conscious or unconscious way. Just look at young children. Give them meat, and they'll eat it. It tastes yummy. Show a young 3-5-year-old where the meat comes from, how the male-pigs gets castrated without pain-relief when they're born, how they're treated, how they have no space to live, how they're slaughtered, how they're suffering, how a female cow's calve is taken away from her within a few days etc. and I'm sure the kid will start to cry. It just comes from deep within us, that we dislike suffering. If you're aware of all these things, then how can you keep supporting what's going on? How? Why are you inflicting this pain upon yourself? But yeah, most people are brainwashed to infinity by the culture, society, capitalistic industries. The livestock industry does all it can to fabricate this image of happy animals living in peace on the farms. When you buy milk, surely there's a smiling cow on the bottle. And etc etc etc. Ultimately, I don't care if you - or anyone for that matter - eat meat or don't. I'm just a dude who likes to discuss human behaviour/consciousness on an internet-forum. I dislike many vegans' total attachment to their vegan-lifestyle, and how they furiously want to enforce it upon others. I care about myself only, just like - ultimately - everyone else does, even if they pretend/think they do not. Exactly :-) Find out.

@Exping Reincarnation is a fact, most of what Gura teaches is modern day Buddhism, which is spiritually corrupted. There is no black nothingness after death, you just go to the astral, wait however long, and then re-incarnate. That's why I don't follow his bullshit anymore. I was in it for conciousness, but this whole idea of destroying the ego then dissipating yourself is complete bull, and was funded by the Rothschild as they do not want anyone spiritually awake or aware. They want everyone completely spiritually dead, without conciousness, one is just a monkey. That's what they want, is a monkey that without rights, liberty, nationality or even race, a slave. That's why the media promotes multi-culturalism, as when you race mix, everybody destroys their ancestry and culture. Then, however many years down the road you race mix again, and again and again, until there is just one race, one currency, one government. All ruled by the friggin elites who are all kikes, to give you an idea of what they are planning, it is called Agenda 21. Agenda 21 is basically the enslavement of society, they want to kill off caucasians first, as they will rebel first, that's what BLM and the immigration crisis in europe is about. Then they will have everyone boxed into these small drone like units, where you work where you sleep, for 16 hours a day like a dog, then you eat and sleep and back to work for you are a slave. This documentary shows more about Agenda 21: It's at about 6:45 Where they show the little unit most people will be working in.

Oh yeah, my mistake I guess for labeling the topic ethics. The point of this thread was actually to discuss if it is possible for a person with very high 'consciousness' (say a person like Leo, who claim to have that) to each day go down the store and support the livestock industry by exchanging $$$ for some nice yummy delicious-tasting bacon, beef, chicken, you name it. (My mouth is watering, brb, going to fridge!) Back: And thus contributing to more baby-pigs and calves getting born out of nothingness into existence with only one purpose: the taste of their bodies' meat tastes good, the enjoyment of eating bacon, a nice burger, mhmhm. Basically getting born into slavery. Is it possible for a high-consciousness-being to support the livestock industry? Well. Are animals conscious beings? Yes. Is it in alignment with a pig's/cow's nature to stand compressed together in a stable their whole life?

Hi guys I wanted to write about an experience I had while listening to Leo's video 'Neti Neti method', since I'm not quite sure to understand what happened, and readers of what I'm about to describe might I've been meditating for a little more than a year now, testing with the do nothing technique, mindfulness and finally STS. For the past few weeks I've been watching some videos about enlightenment and it made me somehow more focused on the matter. Even though I had been practicing the Neti Neti method a some months ago (When Leo released the video), I stopped because I was living a life transition, entering college and thought that I wouldn't have time to keep doing meditation + enlightenment inquiry. I kept up with my daily meditation routine though, while increasing the time of the sessions. Then, a few days ago I had an insight about identity: while I was sitting and thinking of my own life story, I thought it literally was just a succession of images that were being 'scrolled' in my head. Then one idea just hit me: Is there any difference, if I tend to identify with anything in the first place, to identify with that succession of images or a simple feeling in my back for example? I came to the conclusion that no, there isn't. And I felt that realization kind of opened my mind somehow. This evening, I felt like going back to the Neti Neti video of Leo, and as the first words were spoken about 'you not being an experience at all' I got shivers all over my body. So I immediately focused on the video and started following the guided meditation. At the end of the video when the 'kicker' got in, I felt like having a micro glimpse of 'nothingness', I then had a feeling of spreading through space a little and all of my body tensed up like crazy: I was crying and breathing at a very fast pace at the same time. The tension in my hands is the thing that shocked me the most: They were all curled up, and I could hardly move my fingers. Then the tension melt down a few minutes later, and I feel quite relaxed right now, as I'm writing. That's it for the story, I hope I didn't wrought too much and that someone out there might have had a similar experience or knows about what I'm talking about Leo if you read this thank you for your video man It actually produced something in me, now is the time to know what exactly... haha cheers Damien

And here, I see just another time God taking the form of a suffering human being that persists in the illusion that the world isn't perfect as it is. That pain and suffering are really bad and need to be diminished. That the killing of innocent animals is any different from a wonderful flower growing in peace. It isn't. It's a fucking game and as long as you take any of it seriously, you'll fight for one side or the other. When you stop engaging in it seriously and just look curiously how it can be that there is such an amount of beauty on the one hand and such an amount of suffering on the other, you'll find out that God aka it / Tao / nothingness / ... needs and wants to express any limitation there could be because it is so infinite, peaceful and complete in its non-dualistic essence. Every dualistic game there is is just the counterpart of the non-dual bliss out of everything arises. See that, and you'll laugh yourself silly. Cheers (...and don't take my rant here to personally, I'm merely having fun with my very limited opinions - you are of course right that we humans are all to bad killing these innocent animals and eating their fucking delicious meat on 3 occasions in the day not giving a shit at all ... fuck I did it again )

But dont you think that if someone experiences enlightenment he basically taps into another dimension? In our 3d physical world this nothingness that everything is can not exist because physicality has boundries. That is the reason why in our physical world we can not even explain what it actually is it is only explainable in the same dimensional "area" which would only be possible to experience by people who can adapt their consciousness to that dimension and making it impossible to hand towards others in 3D. It makes us actually exist in 3D reality but not in this higher dimension. I hope what im trying to say is possible to grasp out of anothers perspective.

I totally agree here. The nothingness is the everythingness. It's not just about "there is no you," and "you don't exist," and end of story. Everythingness = infinite possibilities. Yes, I have to say this now. There are other types of enlightenment experiences than seeing infinity. For example, there has been reports of family members seeing their dead loved ones at the same moment. Check out parapsychology. That's the branch of psychology that studies all these things. Don't be surprised if you ever experience this in real life in a direct experience, and didn't believe it at first. Then, someone else also saw the "spirit" at the same time. Of course, there are other experiences. There are experiences that confirm your other experiences are "real" and you thought they were not. There are all kinds of experiences. Discover them, but don't get obsessed. These are great. All in all, just live life to the fullest. Develop a profound life purpose toward peace. These type of experiences give life meaning: life is profound! It's more than just work, work, work, and retire. ☺

@Nora You're not going to resolve the mind/body problem through language, reasoning, or logic from inside the materialist reductionist scientific paradigm. You can only resolve it by having a direct consciousness of the fact that all of reality is infinite consciousness. There is no body, there is no mind, and there is no world. All of those are thoughts. You have to work to become mindful of how this is so. It's not a matter of argument. It's a matter of awareness of what's actually happening when you say, "This is my body. This is my mind." When you say or think these things, you're not aware yet that these are just noises arise from nothingness.

Let me say it another time. You cannot reach enlightenment through anything. And I know exactly what thought you have right now: "Yeah... but you kinda can because meditation and self-inquiry makes you more aware and then someday this awareness will be enough to recognize that you are everything and nothing." So let me say it again. You cannot reach enlightenment through anything. Just that it gets in. Someone like Leo who seemingly does a lot of meditation and self-inquiry and focuses his whole life on this quest might not be faster then you doing 20 minutes of a breath meditation once a day. Why? Because the "speed of you recognizing your own nature" is bounded by when you will give the show called you. When will you be really earnest to yourself that you just don't know how you miraculously keep on living from moment to moment, how thoughts just come up, actions just come up, the flowers just grow and even your game of "I'm a free agent who is responsible" is kept up. This is a shoving away of shit you tell yourself and believe to the point where it becomes apparent. And this shoving away is being done by giving it up, not by keeping it up. By giving up the journey, by knowing that there is nothing you can do, by knowing that everything that you do is just another very nuanced game that you can get it with effort. So maybe the best meditation to reach enlightenment is to sit for 10 minutes, crying your eyes out and praying to God, nature, it nothingness that it makes you give it up. I sincerely think this might be better then anything else because this would at least foster the attitude you need to understand. Every other meditation technique is more about how can "I" be better, calmer, more focused, more relaxed. Well, that's mostly a joke. So, why am I being such an asshole here with you? Because it needs that. It's important that you get this down sometime so that you don't try years over years getting something that isn't there. Luckily, I got that early on (after about 1 year of my journey) when I studied Taoism and Zen. Maybe you wanna look that up. So, to end this rage: How do I meditate now for most of my journey? I sit down, sit for 60 minutes and get up. Whatever happens in these 60 minutes is completely accepted. And when it can't be accepted, that's accepted too. I mostly don't move because I practiced strong determination sitting for a long time (so apparently still do, but really don't care anymore). With this technique most other techniques will come up over time, like focusing on your breath, repeating a mantra, counting the breath etc. Just because you don't limit yourself. Right now I'm also using HoloSync with it, that boosts my integration process and especially my spiritual quest like nuts. It's ridiculously potent. But yeah, that's about it. You could name it: Giving up. Because I am giving up with every second to that that makes me. And by that, I become that. Cheers to you

Oh so thats the point. To just be in the present. Need to stop those pesky timetravels. No i dont get that. To truly be accepting of reality. How can one achive that by constantly trying to modify it. If i eat and think about something else. Isnt it more accepting of reality to just let it be that way? Becouse that is my experience. Thats whats going on. To me. It seems like putting in effort is the opposite of what im trying to achive. And just give up is right. And the only way to realy be all accepting. I feel like the point of meditation in reality is to get so frustrated and done with it that give up and fall down into nothingness and true acceptance. But its just another theory to try and get over. But thats what seems to happen. You get a grasp of what you think you should do. And with time you realize that it dosnt hold up. So you modify the concept of how to meditate. But that still dosnt hold up. Until its so frustrating you give up all concepts and just are.

Well, fuck it. This Internet limitation is just another rule 'I' set upon myself. I could continue without much emotional resistance, but who tells me that I should? Tiny extraordinary (enlightenment?) experience: Yeah, I finally had an extraordinary experience which my ego desired for a long time. The external circumstances: Yesterday in the morning I woke up at 4 am because I had to go to the bathroom. But I felt relatively awake and though that I could stay up and meditate for a long time as long as everybody else is sleeping in the house. So I meditated for like 3 hours straight (new record). I changed my posture quite a few times and did only the do nothing technique because my monkey mind was going crazy. It thought a lot about the future, university, life purpose... My subconscious mind came up with a few cool ideas. After the three hours I stopped, it felt like going on wouldn't really make a difference. So I started continuing the exercise from the video 'The Mechanics of Belief.' Time passed, I was working out, had lunch... My family was out of the house, so I had a few hours of quiet time to meditate. I firstly did 30 minutes of normal meditation, then switched to an hour of strong determination sitting. I started to do self inquiry and writing the questions and answers down. I was pretty concentrated, skeptical, taking noting from faith and got satisfying answers. I came to the conclusion that I am not all those concepts which society tells us that we are. I am this constant. I am everything except from experience. But I couldn't find this thing in direct experience. So I changed position. Now I was sitting in front of the window in the living room, looking on the grass, and kind of analyzing in which pattern the yellow flowers on the grass occur. Then somehow I was focusing my view on this one flower. Suddenly the environment around the flower got blurry. I was aware of this thing which I am, this thing behind of experience. Full of unconditional love for everything. The Ego became a little big weaker, but it was still there, I just became aware of it. At the same time the monkey mind was thinking something like "Oh my god, I am having an Enlightenment experience. Oh my god, it is finally happening to me." I continued sitting there for maybe half an hour. Full of love, full of energy, fully awake and everytime I was concentrated, I could get a sense of my true being. Then my parents came back and I had to open them the door. I wasn't annoyed about the fact that they came back and would make a lot of noise, just the ego. I kind of stayed in this loving state for most of the rest of the day, full of this energy although I only slept for 6-7 hours in the night. It felt like I was so full of energy that I couldn't even sleep. But somehow I managed to go to sleep. Too much love: So now its the day after this experience. I wouldn't call it an Enlightenment experience anymore, just extraordinary. There are way way way more powerful experiences possible. When I am mindful enough and concentrate, I still am able to become a little bit aware of my true being and to experience this huge amount of love. It feels like that I now finally grasped what true Enlightenment could possibly be like and what non-duality is really about. The true being/nothingness/god/infinity cannot be possibly explained through words. You can just say that it not is. I was just walking with my family at the beach and was often aware of my true being and relatively full of this love. And it kind of becomes too much. Too much love to handle for me. I firstly have to learn how to handle these amounts of love and adapt to it. Now I can imagine why its hard for Leo to handle the love when you take 5-Meo-DMT. Today I absolutely have no need for meditation. Today I already have examined a few of my ego identifications and so on. But I kind of am tired of doing all these huge amounts of inner work. I had so much progress in these 10 or so days and especially in the last 2 days. It is too much for me. I need a break, at least for today. I decided to use Internet again. I need a distraction from this inner work and love. I need to adapt to this first.

You know what...let me just add...if you're looking for the infinity (emptiness / nothingness / everythingness), we are not going to find it in the same ways. It's just like finding our life purpose - some are doctors, some farmers, some artists, some teachers. We mix our multiple talents together to make something unique out of it. Therefore, we also use different techniques and situations to find our own enlightenment - our own ways to meditate, contemplate, and do self-inquiry. I'm just surprised that karma is not emphasized here. Our life purpose counts toward enlightenment because karma counts. What goes around comes around (in subtle ways). There are no paradoxes in enlightenment - the everythingness is the nothingness. Everything includes literally everything including karma. Everythingness = we can't just search for the infinity "dogmatically." We are meant to live this life meaningfully, even though it's nothingness. We are meant to live in peace because enlightenment means peace...why? We usually like to move up in consciousness - our natural tendency. When we pass by a homeless person, we want to help out - at least most ppl do. Therefore, we see programs to get ppl off the streets. (I'm not saying that it's perfect.)

So my ex wrote to me asking "what's up".. and I was like - "Relatively or ultimately?" She said - "So you don't want to tell me..." - clearly not understanding something big is about to drop. Then I said - "Relatively, I am on my way home with the train. Looking forward to tea and meditation." "Ultimately, I am nothingness being aware of itself, so nothing is up!" BOOM POW WHATS UP SON? To which she replies: "Aham" Gosh, now I know why she's my ex.

All good! In the big picture sense you're right, what you do or say does not effect awareness in any way. It's like the characters on a screen in a movie, the characters constantly move around, act, etc. but the screen itself doesn't change because of it. We are that screen; awareness is unaffected by experiences. I guess my original intent was two fold: Pointing out that dispassion about self-inquiry and your understanding will be more liberating from the Jiva (the body-mind). We find liberation through the removal of ignorance, just because you are further along with that doesn't make you better or worse. I've done the same thing in the past, thinking that I was better than other people just because I knew more than them when it comes to self-inquiry. That doesn't bring freedom. We fool ourselves into thinking it does because we feel virtuous. But an object, such as virtue, does not affect you, the subject, awareness. There is no lasting happiness to be found there. It is in knowing who you are and what it means to be awareness that peace is found. Anyway, I'm starting to go off on a tangent so I'll stop there. One other side note though: I find the term "nothingness" to be a source of confusion. You are awareness. Awareness is not an object, so I guess we can call it nothingness since it is not tangible, but that's a pretty roundabout way of doing so.

Bro I watched this video this morning. It's far from what's happening here Didn't you read what OrdinaryAwareness say? The realization that you are awareness is nothing special. Although I would not say it this way, I would say yeah, it's pretty easy to be aware that you are aware. And since you can't find yourself, you're nothing (no ego) - so what do you want me to lie that nothingness is not aware of itself? Im just saying the truth, where is the spiritual ego Just following my experience here, but you are judging me based on your biased mind.

Good question... When you're talking about "there is no you," there are no paradoxes. It's just like saying there's no up or down in space. When you're talking about regular, everyday life, there are still no paradoxes. You could say, "Yes, I am in control because I'm following the the correct thoughts in my mind, so I could be efficient and productive throughout my day." Or, you could say, "No, I'm not in control because the thoughts in my mind are coming from nothingness. The nothingness is the one commanding me and I "choose" to follow the correct thoughts." Both answers are correct. To add to the first answer of yes I am in control: the nothingness & you are one. However, I think the real question is, how do we know we are one and the infinity is for real? We say to have a "direct experience" of it. Well, how do we know our direct experience of it is for real? Those with direct experiences of it has some explaining to do. We just can't have a little short passage about it. Practical life is what most of us could relate to. Just walk by a homeless person on the street. How do you feel? Most people would not want the person to be homeless. So, of course, as a result, you see programs to help people get out of it. That's one little hint of the infinity - that we are one - we want peace. We don't want suffering.