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This is currently the idea I'm trying to embrace. I can understand it intellectually, but subconsciously I'm not quite there. My ego still tried to hold on to the idea I'm a separate, unique entity. From a physics standpoint, the universe started as a single point: something so incredibly tiny (sub atomic level) and something so dense, we can't even fathom it as humans. That tiny, single point contained every bit of matter, energy, and force that is in the universe today, and then rapidly expanded with the Big Bang. Every bit of particles that make up you, me, and the entire universe were allotted to that single point, meaning we all began from the same exact point in history, we're all connected, and we continue to expand. I envision the expansion of the universe like a blooming flower, pictured here (only if this flower started from nothingness). Is the very end of a petal not part of the same organic being that the center of the flower is? It is, and just like you may see another person as physically distant from you, you're still part of the same organic being. Here are a couple of inspiring quotes that relate to this idea. “A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” ~Albert Einstein “You are not IN the universe, you ARE the universe, an intrinsic part of it. Ultimately you are not a person, but a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself. What an amazing miracle.” ~Eckhart Tolle

Those are some words I like to read from time to time in orde to get motivated towards change and enlightenment. And I wanted to share them with you. Tell me which piece of wisdom you like most? Rule 1 How we see God is a direct reflection of how we see ourselves. If God brings to mind mostly fear and blame, it means there is too much fear and blame welled inside us. If we see God as full of love and compassion, so are we. Rule 2 The path to the Truth is a labour of the heart, not of the head. Make your heart your primary guide! Not your mind. Meet, challenge and ultimately prevail over your nafs with your heart. Knowing your ego will lead you to the knowledge of God. Rule 3 You can study God through everything and everyone in the universe, because God is not confined in a mosque, synagogue or church. But if you are still in need of knowing where exactly His abode is, there is only one place to look for him: in the heart of a true lover. Rule 4 Intellect and love are made of different materials. Intellect ties people in knots and risks nothing, but love dissolves all tangles and risks everything. Intellect is always cautious and advices, ‘Beware too much ecstasy’, whereas love says, ‘Oh, never mind! Take the plunge!’ Intellect does not easily break down, whereas love can effortlessly reduce itself to rubble. But treasures are hidden among ruins. A broken heart hides treasures. Rule 5 Most of problems of the world stem from linguistic mistakes and simple misunderstanding. Don’t ever take words at face value. When you step into the zone of love, language, as we know it becomes obsolete. That which cannot be put into words can only be grasped through silence. Rule 6 Loneliness and solitude are two different things. When you are lonely, it is easy to delude yourself into believing that you are on the right path. Solitude is better for us, as it means being alone without feeling lonely. But eventually it is the best to find a person who will be your mirror. Remember only in another person’s heart can you truly see yourself and the presence of God within you. Rule 7 Whatever happens in your life, no matter how troubling things might seem, do not enter the neighbourhood of despair. Even when all doors remain closed, God will open up a new path only for you. Be thankful! It is easy to be thankful when all is well. A Sufi is thankful not only for what he has been given but also for all that he has been denied. Rule 8 Patience does not mean to passively endure. It means to look at the end of a process. What does patience mean? It means to look at the thorn and see the rose, to look at the night and see the dawn. Impatience means to be shortsighted as to not be able to see the outcome. The lovers of God never run out of patience, for they know that time is needed for the crescent moon to become full. Rule 9 East, west, south, or north makes little difference. No matter what your destination, just be sure to make every journey a journey within. If you travel within, you’ll travel the whole wide world and beyond. Rule 10 The midwife knows that when there is no pain, the way for the baby cannot be opened and the mother cannot give birth. Likewise, for a new self to be born, hardship is necessary. Just as clay needs to go through intense heat to become strong, Love can only be perfected in pain. Rule 11 The quest for love changes user. There is no seeker among those who search for love who has not matured on the way. The moment you start looking for love, you start to change within and without. Rule 12 There are more fake gurus and false teachers in this world than the number of stars in the visible universe. Don’t confuse power-driven, self-centered people with true mentors. A genuine spiritual master will not direct your attention to himself or herself and will not expect absolute obedience or utter admiration from you, but instead will help you to appreciate and admire your inner self. True mentors are as transparent as glass. They let the light of God pass through them. Rule 13 Try not to resist the changes, which come your way. Instead let life live through you. And do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come? Rule 14 God is busy with the completion of your work, both outwardly and inwardly. He is fully occupied with you. Every human being is a work in progress that is slowly but inexorably moving toward perfection. We are each an unfinished work of art both waiting and striving to be completed. God deals with each of us separately because humanity is fine art of skilled penmanship where every single dot is equally important for the entire picture. Rule 15 It’s easy to love a perfect God, unblemished and infallible that He is. What is far more difficult is to love fellow human being with all their imperfections and defects. Remember, one can only know what one is capable of loving. There is no wisdom without love. Unless we learn to love God’s creation, we can neither truly love nor truly know God. Rule 16 Real faith is the one inside. The rest simply washes off. There is only one type of dirt that cannot be cleansed with pure water, and that is the stain of hatred and bigotry contaminating the soul. You can purify your body through abstinence and fasting, but only love will purify your heart. Rule 17 The whole universe is contained within a single human being-you. Everything that you see around, including the things that you might not be fond of and even the people you despise or abhor, is present within you in varying degrees. Therefore, do not look for Sheitan outside yourself either. The devil is not an extraordinary force that attacks from without. It is an ordinary voice within. If you set to know yourself fully, facing with honesty and hardness. Rule 18 If you want to change the ways others treat you, you should first change the way you treat yourself, fully and sincerely, there is no way you can be loved. Once you achieve that stage, however, be thankful for every thorn that others might throw at you. It is a sign that you will soon be showered in roses. Rule 19 Fret not where the road will take you. Instead concentrate on the first step. That is the hardest part and that is what you are responsible for. Once you take that step let everything do what it naturally does and the rest will follow. Don’t go with the flow. Be the flow. Rule 20 We were all created in His image, and yet we were each created different and unique. No two people are alike. No hearts beat to the same rhythm. If God had wanted everyone to be the same, He would have made it so. Therefore, disrespecting differences and imposing your thoughts on others is an amount to disrespecting God’s holy scheme. Rule 21 When a true lover of God goes into a tavern, the tavern becomes his chamber of prayer, but when a wine bibber goes into the same chamber, it becomes his tavern. In everything we do, it is our hearts that make the difference, not our outer appearance. Sufis do not judge other people on how they look or who they are. When a Sufi stares at someone, he keeps both eyes closed instead opens a third eye – the eye that sees the inner realm. Rule 22 Life is a temporary loan and this world is nothing but a sketchy imitation of Reality. Only children would mistake a toy for the real thing. And yet human beings either become infatuated with the toy or disrespectfully break it and throw it aside. In this life stay away from all kinds of extremities, for they will destroy your inner balance. Sufis do not go to extremes. A Sufi always remains mild and moderate. Rule 23 The human being has a unique place among God’s creation. “I breathed into him of My Spirit,” God says. Each and every one of us without exception is designed to be God’s delegate on earth. Ask yourself, just how often do you behave like a delegate, if you ever do so? Remember, it fells upon each of us to discover the divine spirit inside and live by it. Rule 24 Hell is in the here and now. So is heaven. Quit worrying about hell or dreaming about heaven, as they are both present inside this very moment. Every time we fall in love, we ascend to heaven. Every time we hate, envy or fight someone we tumble straight into the fires of hell. Rule 25 Each and every reader comprehends the Holy Qur’an on a different level of tandem with the depth of his understanding. There are four levels of insight. The first level is the outer meaning and it is the one that the majority of the people are content with. Next is the Batin – the inner level. Third, there is the inner of the inner. And the fourth level is so deep it cannot be put into words and is therefore bound to remain indescribable. Rule 26 The universe is one being. Everything and everyone is interconnected through an invisible web of stories. Whether we are aware of it or not, we are all in a silent conversation. Do no harm. Practice compassion. And do not gossip behind anyone’s back – not even a seemingly innocent remark! The words that come out of our mouths do not vanish but are perpetually stored in infinite space and they will come back to us in due time. One man’s pain will hurt us all. One man’s joy will make everyone smile. Rule 27 Whatever you speak, good or evil, will somehow come back to you. Therefore, if there is someone who harbours ill thoughts about you, saying similarly bad things about him will only make matters worse. You will be locked in a vicious circle of malevolent energy. Instead for forty days and nights say and think nice things about that person. Everything will be different at the end of 40 days, because you will be different inside. Rule 28 The past is an interpretation. The future is on illusion. The world does not more through time as if it were a straight line, proceeding from the past to the future. Instead time moves through and within us, in endless spirals. Eternity does not mean infinite time, but simply timelessness. If you want to experience eternal illumination, put the past and the future out of your mind and remain within the present moment. Rule 29 Destiny doesn’t mean that your life has been strictly predetermined. Therefore, to live everything to the fate and to not actively contribute to the music of the universe is a sign of sheer ignorance. The music of the universe is all pervading and it is composed on 40 different levels. Your destiny is the level where you play your tune. You might not change your instrument but how well to play is entirely in your hands. Rule 30 The true Sufi is such that even when he is unjustly accused, attacked and condemned from all sides, he patiently endures, uttering not a sing bad word about any of his critics. A Sufi never apportions blame. How can there be opponents or rivals or even “others” when there is no “self” in the first place? How can there be anyone to blame when there is only One? Rule 31 If you want to strengthen your faith, you will need to soften inside. For your faith to be rock solid, your heart needs to be as soft as a feather. Through an illness, accident, loss or fright, one way or another, we are all faced with incidents that teach us how to become less selfish and judgmental and more compassionate and generous. Yet some of us learn the lesson and manage to become milder, while some others end up becoming even harsher than before… Rule 32 Nothing should stand between you and God. No imams, priests, rabbits or any other custodians of moral or religious leadership. Not spiritual masters and not even your faith. Believe in your values and your rules, but never lord them over others. If you keep breaking other people’s hearts, whatever religious duty you perform is no good. Stay away from all sorts of idolatry, for they will blur your vision. Let God and only God be your guide. Learn the Truth, my friend, but be careful not to make a fetish out of your truths. Rule 33 While everyone in this world strives to get somewhere and become someone, only to leave it all behind after death, you aim for the supreme stage of nothingness. Live this life as light and empty as the number zero. We are no different from a pot. It is not the decorations outside but the emptiness inside that holds us straight. Just like that, it is not what we aspire to achieve but the consciousness of nothingness that keeps us going. Rule 34 Submission does not mean being weak or passive. It leads to neither fatalism nor capitulation. Just the opposite. True power resides in submission a power that comes within. Those who submit to the divine essence of life will live in unperturbed tranquillity and peace even the whole wide world goes through turbulence after turbulence. Rule 35 In this world, it is not similarities or regularities that take us a step forward, but blunt opposites. And all the opposites in the universe are present within each and every one of us. Therefore the believer needs to meet the unbeliever residing within. And the nonbeliever should get to know the silent faithful in him. Until the day one reaches the stage of Insane-I Kamil, the perfect human being, faith is a gradual process and one that necessitates its seeming opposite: disbelief. Rule 36 This world is erected upon the principle of reciprocity. Neither a drop of kindness nor a speck of evil will remain unreciprocated. For not the plots, deceptions, or tricks of other people. If somebody is setting a trap, remember, so is God. He is the biggest plotter. Not even a leaf stirs outside God’s knowledge. Simply and fully believe in that. Whatever God does, He does it beautifully. Rule 37 God is a meticulous dock maker. So precise is His order that everything on earth happens in its own time. Neither a minute late nor a minute early. And for everyone without exception, the clock works accurately. For each there is a time to love and a time to die. Rule 38 It is never too late to ask yourself, “Am I ready to change the life I am living? Am I ready to change within?” Even if a single day in your life is the same as the day before, it surely is a pity. At every moment and with each new breath, one should be renewed and renewed again. There is only one-way to be born into a new life: to die before death. Rule 39 While the part change, the whole always remains the same. For every thief who departs this world, a new one is born. And every descent person who passes away is replaced by a new one. In this way not only does nothing remain the same but also nothing ever really changes. For every Sufi who dies, another is born somewhere. Rule 40 A life without love is of no account. Don’t ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, Eastern or Western. Divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! The universe turns differently when fire loves water.

@Nexeternity I understand I'm not my "thinking" or conceptualizing mind as I stated earlier. Not all the time anyway. I know I can't "think my way to enlightenment". Even the thought of what enlightenment is automatically turns it into an illusion or concept of mind. That would be trying to bring enlightenment down to this lowly level of the" known". That's not going to happen any time soon. "If it can be spoken of, that ain't it", as the old saying go's. On rare occasions I have experience what I am as pure empty awareness, no self, no likes, no dislikes, no love, no hate, no emotions. no attachment, no knowing of any kind what so ever. True bliss and liberation from the egoic mind. There was nothing for the ego to cling to, good, bad or indifferent. But that was just tastes and not a permanent state. This is where my original question lies. Leo reminded of something in a statement he made in another post very recently. I think it points to the answers I seek. There is absolute nothingness, the "infinite singularity" that is pure, empty awareness. Maybe I could say, at best I have witnessed that from a distance. But if i became that, that would cause the final shards of self to utterly burn to ash and all remnants of self would than vanish without a trace. Total and final liberation from self. I did feel that when the experiences happened. But it's always fleeting within time. So here is where I'm at now to sum it all up. I must become that and not just experience it. I can see the difference in that now! Thanks brother, all of this really helped piece everything together for me in all different ways! This should all come together nicely at some point. Maybe I can get myself off this see-saw ride to enlightenment once and for all by not just focusing on awareness but to utterly become it in every way. * I wrote this the other day and forget never hit the send button. Well here it is now. I just read your latest statement above. Don't worry about it. Yea there is always plenty of work to be done. I been at it on and off for 30 yrs. and there is still plenty to be done! It's a life long journey. I 'm thinking lately I should maybe put a little boost into my experience. Something that may kick it up a notch. Maybe experiment a little.

@Philip This is pure stupidity what you're trying to pursue. Even if you do get what you're after with this mind-to-computer unification business, it will still pale in comparison to getting the realizations you can have about reality by pursuing consciousness work. The realizations you can have from it are so mind-blowing that it will make you question just what on Earth you're trying to pursue in life. The core problem with what you're advocating is that it's solely based on ego desire. Question those! Question your ego's DESIRES and question your EGO! QUESTION YOURSELF! Because if you don't, you basically have no chance in grasping, let alone seeing the significance of the following insights: In reality, there is only one being. There are no other people, there are no trees, there is no sky, there is no you, just one being that has existed for eternity. It is impossible for awareness to not be present. Your life has been lived an infinite amount of times and you have lived everyone else's lives an infinite amount of times and will continue to do so for eternity. Existential nothingness is synonymous with existential infinity. So many others that I haven't discovered yet. These are not just petty beliefs, if you can just have true comprehension of what these words mean then this whole discussion would become pointless to you. Heck, even I haven't even truly grasped anything that I'm saying. I'm barely a year into my enlightenment journey. Right now, all I have is intellectualizing and beliefs that I've gathered from different spirituality sources. Why am I confident enough to speak as if what I'm saying is truth? Because I've taken it seriously enough in the past months to at least have glimpses and "clicks" in my mind that reveal secrets to existence that have pretty much shattered the normal way "I" Iook at the reality. Another problem here is that you're underestimating how deep enlightenment is and you don't really recognize how the simplest truths don't necessarily take simple methods to grasp. For example, when I first discovered my true existential self one night (see my actualization journal), I found the realization to be so STUPIDLY SIMPLE that I couldn't help but laugh at the fact that it took me MONTHS of meditation to discover. How much more for all the other realizations that I'm trying to aim for? If I'm not taking this work as seriously as I am now, it would take me decades before I get to see the really deep stuff or possibly not even at all? How much more for you, though? You're chasing something completely freaking petty by comparison. The problem is that I can't explain to you in words just how petty and meaningless it is. You would have to have a complete mind-shift to be able to see it. You may retort that science and technology would make it far easier to reach these kind of insights but personally, I just don't trust that scientists, who themselves do not really grasp spirituality yet, would create breakthrough technology that would help people become enlightened, at least not at its current state, that's just my personal belief. I recognize that I have extreme ignorance when it comes to science because I don't bother to follow this stuff but I'm going with Leo when he says that science is still lagging far behind.

Study nonduality and study Islam. Have an enlightenment experience or two. It's obvious. The Sufi's have a great description of Enlightenment/Nothingness: fana al fana (the passing away of the passing away.) In the case of the Bible, it was written by followers who were clearly never enlightenment. Jesus did not write the Bible. The Bible is also contaminated by many political agendas. But even so, you can still find many references to enlightenment in the Bible if you understand what enlightenment is. Spiritual books are not written for modern scientific materialist rationalist minds. Your rationalist mindset is in many ways a modern disease. Modern humans have lost the ability to interpret symbols and metaphors, which is what all spiritual teachings are. They are not meant to be scientific because you CANNOT scientifically model Truth or God or any other deep spiritual insights. Be careful about imposing your own modern-era mindsets and biases onto cultures and peoples of 2000 years ago. They were in many ways far more advanced that we are. They were much more open to direct consciousness, whereas our heads are filled with "scientific" beliefs and models, none of which are absolutely true, and leave the mind closed to direct consciousness. Just because YOU want the Bible to say, "THIS IS ENLIGHTENMENT" doesn't mean it should. If a painting of Jesus with a halo around his head isn't glaringly obvious to you, then you really have a lot of research to do. The laws are actually not cruel but merciful, relative to the time of human history we are talking about. In those days, you could get you head chopped off on a whim. Religion actually established humane rules by which to structure civilization. Of course, in 2016, some of those laws look outdated.

it is empty nothing or just simply nothing,? the impossibility to have the notion of Nothingness, I think it's important to not get lost with more Ideas.

@LadyfaceLou Well, there is no self controlling thoughts so you have 0 control over what thoughts appear. They simply show up out of nothingness and return to it. But you can become aware of thoughts and learn to observe to realize their illusory nature. They will then no longer be a problem to you. And getting to this point takes serious work. So you have to work to get there. I reccomend that you do daily meditation for 20 minutes every day or more if you desperately want to not get affected by these thoughts and take away their power; learn to love the process... Give meditation time to take effect and do it for the rest of your life...

Arguments don't mean anything at all when it comes to understanding consciousness. Really take consciousness work very seriously and do that for several months and you really understand just how meaningless it is to try to explain something as deep as consciousness and existence with words/models. What you really need is deep understanding. And you can't have deep understanding of truth without doing the raw practical work required. Even an enlightenment newbie will know that one. Uploading our consciousness into a system that would make us immortal is a complete joke! Complete delusion. It only takes a few months of exploring your own consciousness to know that it's complete bunk. As if consciousness is an actual physical phenomenon that is present in some sort of physical material world. As if consciousness is somehow located inside the skull of a human being that can be transferred into a different vessel. That's not the case at all. The only real problem here is that we're living in an age where the majority does not understand existence, consciousness, nothingness, truth etc. If you think that this A.I. utopia crap actually matters, you're way off.

@Samuel Garcia You will NEVER understand it with the mind. NEVER! It's utterly speechless. It's beyond anything you can imagine. Imagine actual aliens showed up at your house tonight, abducted you, and flew you to another galaxy. Well... that's peanuts compared to what we're talking about here. Aliens would seem normal by comparison. At least you can imagine aliens. Stop listening to scholars. They have no clue what reality is. A million scholars working for a million years would still not know. That's how radical this stuff is. I don't know how enlightened Muhammad was. My guess is, he had some deep mystical experiences but not full proper enlightenment. Which would explain the Quran. The universe is an idea in your mind. There is no such thing. The ultimate conscious being is Nothingness. Something can ONLY come out of Nothing. Nothing is NOT an experience. It's Nothing!

Day 5 - 7 These past few days have been a true journey towards my self actualisation journey and personal goals. I attended a programme called Superpower by entrepreneur and speaker Eric Ho, who’s big on the spiritual side as well as speaking from a place of real sincerity. There is so much to take from these three days that it’s hard to summarise but below area some really condensed topics which I found interesting: The 33% rule: Spend 33% of your time with people at a similar level to yourself. Spend another 33% with people with results you are look in for and learn from them. Spend another 33% with individuals not quite at your level whom you can contribute towards/teach. Fear Fear does not go away. Feel the fear and do it anywhere. A lot of fears come from social conditioning. Anything you fear comes from what someone else has feared. Money Jar Analogy Say you are earning £1000 a month. 50% of this should go to your standard living expenses. 10% should go to savings. 10% towards investment (making money) 10% towards play (enjoying life), 10% towards education (growth) 10 Giving (giving is receiving/karma). Sales and Business “Sales is everything”. Selling is serving. Selling is the transition to giving. Business is just exchanging value for money. Business is only about solution. All about finding a solution to a problem. Always be solution focused. Meditation Meditation is nothingness – it is purely witnessing Purpose: “What’s the purpose there is no purpose. The purpose is being” He repeated the phrase ‘You don’t know what you don’t know’ and it is so true when you start seeing things from different viewpoints and perspectives. Over the three days I found some fantastic networking opportunity with individuals involved in property and other interesting industries which I intend to meet in the near future. I have developed a lot more self acceptance of myself and of circumstances. ‘Let go, its ok. It will all be fine’. Eric mentions when you have a little voice disagreeing with something simply observe it and say "thankyou for sharing". The importance of flow was emphasised as well, be like water. ‘Master the form and flow with the formless’ was one of the key messages also. There had been a lot to take from the 3 days and haven’t really been to events like as these but see tremendous value in them and will look into attending things similar. I hope these 3 days are notnot something that I am left buzzing from just the weekend, but I am able to translate for the near future and maintain in my self actualisation journey as well as towards goals. It has been a strong foot in the right direction as well as meeting like minded individuals on the way.

But scholars of the Quran who have studied the history and written extensively on the Quran and they don't say Islam is based upon spiritual enlightenment -- and they dedicate their lives to interpreting the Quran. Why believe in what you are claiming? Seeing religion thorough the scope of enlightenment perhaps is a confirmation bias. And what about how the universe was created? How did humans get where they are today? Are you saying that there is no ultimate conscious being. How can something come out of nothing? In your 'All of Religion Explained in One Video' you said you have to experience Nothingness. But isn't that experience something in itself?

Monday, 16/08/02 - 4h Meditation Retreat Day 2 Meditation: I twice tried to apply the Neti Neti Method myself. It kind of worked but kind of it didn't. The monkey mind often interrupts me and I forget about what I wanted to do. Then I have to start all over again and never truly reach the state where I can glance at Nothingness itself. I watched the Radical Open-mindedness video and did the meditation there too. The rest of the day I was much more open-minded, although I would consider myself a pretty open-minded person normally. I was much more open to the content I consumed. Life Purpose Work: I read a few chapters in my book "A little history of philosophy". Some chapters I like, some I am absolutely not interested in, e.g. when the author talks about much to logical concepts. When I was taking a walk in the rain I came up with the idea that my domain of mastery could be consciousness. I was really sceptical about consciousness being a domain of mastery. But now that makes sense to me because it is related to Enlightenment as well as discovering new wisdom. Things I am grateful for: coconut oil all the high quality food I am allowed to eat my best friend Ways I could have made today better: reading "The War of Art" spending less time on the internet

@electroBeam Thoughts simply arise out of and dissolve into nothingness and there is no you in there at all to control thoughts. This means that you have 0 control over your thoughts during meditation. So why waste so much time controlling thoughts? What I think you should spend time doing is SETTING THE HABIT. Make sure that you meditate every day and fucking do it! Also, try not to manipulate the meditation. This means that you should let go of control and just let the meditation do its thing. Do not worry about what happens even if your monkey mind goes crazy! That is great, actually. Your worst days are your best days

This picture kind of reminds me of the Ego. It thinks it's this big, strong, gracious bull but it's actually just a string of thoughts in nothingness. I have this as a desktop background to remind my ego

Monday, 16/08/01 - 4h Meditation Retreat Day 1 Yesterday I spontaneously decided that I will make this week a 4h Meditation Retreat. This means that I will meditate from Monday to Friday each day at least 4 hours. Meditation: I meditated in the morning 1h and right before lunch another hour. This way really relaxing like yesterday. I once got into a state where I looked at the light switch and just saw the visual sensation of it, nothing else. Then I meditated right after lunch for almost two hours. First I did 35 minutes, switched positions and started the guided Neti Neti meditation by Leo. This took about 50 minutes and at the end I got a little little sense of my true nature, of nothingness. I wanted to stop the mp3 on my handy, so I had to move and open my eyes. I lost the sense of nothingness and meditated for another 20 minutes. Life Purpose Work: I started writing a little bit about happiness. I felt a lot of resistance and stopped after one hour. I am asking myself whether this is really my life purpose, writing blog post like stuff about some philosophical/spiritual topic. It probably is something like this. The problem though at the moment is that I do not have a lot of wisdom. I need to investigate a lot of time in research and personal spiritual growth before I am able to share something. Who would want to read something by a 17 year old inexperienced one? Maybe I should first do a lot of research, study and spiritual development first. This means a lot of meditation, reading books, hearing spiritual teachings on YouTube and going out of my comfort zone like hard intense exercise. I consider becoming a none after finishing school. Personal Development Work: Nothing really. I could have read a little bit, but I rather wanted to think about my meditation experiences and life. Things I am grateful for: the time to meditate a lot nothingness music Ways I could have made today better: longer meditations to feel and surrender with the pain in my legs

Well what do you think will happen when you're dead? You think love, gratitude, humor will exist? They will be gone forever. Just like when you go sleep each night, the entire world disappears. And it's not depressing at all. It's peaceful. Absolute peace. It's only depressing when seeing through the filter of ego. The problem is you've been avoiding contemplating death. You're distracting yourself. You're not facing it. And the truth is that it's coming. It will happen before you know it. So you might as well face up to it. But also, whatever genuine gratitude or love is currently in you, is not of the ego. It is of the Nothingness that you really are. Ego only limits it. Notice how you killed off the love and gratitude you were feeling at the breakfast table by activating ego. The ego got lost in thought stories and so the love was replaced with fear, confusion, and depression. When ego is seen-through, gratitude and love are the default states until the body dies. The real question is: How can unenlightened people laugh, love and be grateful? And the answer is: They can't! Not really. Because they have to spend every waking minute of their life worrying about protecting the ego from death.

I appreciate that you have that view, but we see things differently it seems. Vibing in my experience is communication and the inter-play of natural forces. Sharing your orientation and substance in the world as presence and authentic self-expression, which inter-relates and influences the world around you as the world in turn influences you. Vibration, frequency, presence, these are all general terms for the sum of all we exude and share as an experience. Anyways, Truth is way more nuanced and multi-dynamic than most people realize and is often times just a misused word for belief. In my view Truth requires differentiation for greater understanding. There are structural truths, contextual truths, and then belief and interpretation, which depends upon what a person has internalized and the chemistry of previously stored internalizations as they interact with new potential beliefs. So with that said, I imagine that this Truth you are speaking off relates to beliefs of one-ness and no-identity and enlightenment stuff. I don't ascribe to those beliefs and interpretations of reality. In my view, people who do accept and internalize such beliefs lack capability with Connective Tension or the ability to modulate the degree of attachment and consequent fusion with natural energies like "the void" or nothingness for instance. They react to the stresses of life by seeking to swing the pendulum towards detachment and nothingness, rather than calming down and not being seduced by it's influence and realizing that we can actually gain capability with the pendulum itself (in my view Buddha was a victim of this). I'm not trying persuade you or anything, just share a different experience, arrived at through many years of careful cultivation of perceptional abilities. I guess if I had to simply state the difference in view, it would be that where some people want to be completely one with nothingness and have no identity and everything as the same, I see the universe as being connected, but distinct and nuanced. Everything is different from me, but there are connective forces with different chemistries that connect me with everything and the contrast of those connections determine the shape/structure, orientation, solidity, permeability, and confluence of influence within my world. Such a view has brought me incredible success in life and is both internally and externally validated in every facet of the universe. So... really to me oneness is moving backwards and a limitation for further growth. It's a corruption of principles via the pressure to conform to the influence of unbalanced simplicity. Or in other words, tunnel vision and being one-dimensional.

My pleasure. Stay with it and enjoy the work. There is nothing more meaningful you could be doing. If you've been asking the question: Who am I? You might now want to move onto the question: What am I? If you now know Who you are, what is that who? Look deeply into the matter. Nothing you see, hear, feel, or think is What you are. Become the Nothingness & infinity that you are.

@Joe Schmoe Imagine for a moment that you are the number Zero. Zero is ground-zero reality: undifferentiated, untethered, just itself, not even an "it". Just the fabric of reality, eternal and unchanging. Synonyms for Zero: the void, Self, Brahman, Infinity, Truth, Pure awareness, nothingness, no-thing. Zero is sad because it can't be aware of itself. It is totally void of sentience and objects. So what does it do? It creates the finite illusions of One and Two. Zero inhabits One, the human I-perspective. This is where things get tricky. Zero wants to spice things up, so it inhabits many "One's" and tricks itself into believing in the illusion of Two. Another common word for Two is Maya. Two is the illusion of duality, particularly that there is a "perceiver" and there is the "perceived," as opposed to the One perspective which is just "perceiving." In that way, Zero can ride along in the One perspective and dream as Two: that it is a separate entity called a "self" or "ego." Two inevitably obstructs Zero due to identification. So enlightenment is like hide-and-seek. It's the realization and cultivation of your Zero nature. By creating the illusion of finiteness with One and Two, Zero can then use finiteness as a reference point to become aware of itself. Have you ever heard the teachers say that enlightenment is "Awareness being aware of itself?" Without One and Two, Zero can't be aware of anything (e.g. deep sleep). With One and Two, Zero can be aware of One and Two and itself. The path to enlightenment mainly consists of seeing through the illusion of Two. Seeing through your illusions is synonymous with disidentification, and it's often quite painful. But that's another topic. Many people see enlightenment as a good thing, some see it as a bad thing. Fundamentally, it's neutral. If it happens, it happens. Hope that clears things up a bit. If you're more confused, that may be a good thing. Cheers!

As Jed Mckenna said truth realization is a booby prize. Do you really want to lose yourself and find out that you do not exist, and that no one have ever existed? Is there a possibility that you will not want to interact with people once you become enlightened? Maybe you will want to completely isolate yourself from other people? Do you really want to experience void and nothingness? Will you still be able to enjoy the activities you once enjoyed? Didn´t Jed Mckenna say that many people that become enlightened isolate themselves and keep their mouth shut about the whole thing? That they become lazy because there is no desire to become anything at all or to improve yourself. "I think the bubble is a magnificent amusement park, and leaving it is a damn silly thing to do, unless you absolutely must" - Jed Mckenna Steven Norquist said that if you have a good life in the "dream stat" with wife and kids etc, then it is stupid to become enlightened because you might become completely detached from them. What´s your guys thoughts on this? Have any other teachers talked about this? I´m still a novice on the topic

Thanks, I appreciate it. I looked up Samadhi and this definition most resonates with my view and abilities (from wiki) "Shankman: an abiding in which mind becomes very still but does not merge with the object of attention, and is thus able to observe and gain insight into the changing flow of experience." I call this "thinking (or moving) in parallel" and I'm pretty much in that state all the time, gradually changing to hold more and more contrasts in parallel. Choosing which thoughts I fuse/merge with and the degree of immersion. This parallelity is also referred to as capacitance with electromagnetic fields. So it is externally in nature, so to is it internally within us humans. If you notice there is a space/void/nothingness in between the two plates held in parallel and that is what people on here refer to as the void (in my view and experience). A lot of times people on here meditate and attach/fuse to that void and then pedestalize it as "true awareness" but for me, it's not "really" empty, it's the space where I feel fields of energy or tension that arise from two or more things. For me, the void is dangerous to fully fuse with, because it will shroud out human emotions, but I've long learned how to keep both balanced and running in parallel synergy at the same time. That synergy held in parallel is what affords me the ability to bridge and combine and counter-balance things like pride and humility or pleasure and pain. If you want to experience what I mean viscerally, get a magnet and a piece of metal and hold them close together, but not so close that they're touching and feel the pull and tension of the attractive forces struggling within your hold to "snap together" (I feel a similar pull and restraint at all times in conjunction with my "electric cloud" void feeling and of course normal thoughts and emotions). This is analogous to what happens within a fraction of a second with things that come into our focus and have an attractive or repulsive charge. We come in range, it pings our awareness , and if the charge is intense enough it shifts our attention towards it, and if that charge reaches past a certain threshold we immerse within it and start creating narrative chains of thought around it. If you ever notice how some thoughts arise and then flow past and some you latch onto and delve into, you'll have at least a starting point for differentiating the degrees of fusion and immersion. But when you have worked with things like me, you can restrain the momentum of that attractive/repulsive movement, shifting the degree of fusion and degree of immersion, holding that space, allowing you to see deeper and wider and calmer while still connected. This allows you to catch the subtle details of interaction and grow and learn, rather than fall into circular behaviors, because the emotional charge is too strong and it creates the same reaction over and over again (like people who always get caught up in heated political debates about the same stuff. It's the emotional charge, attaching and shifting them over and over again. Which is also why things like "click-bait" get people time and time again). Anyways, how I've trained myself to do such things is a long explanation that I'm writing a book about, but if you still have interest I'll try and write something for you to think about and try.

That's exactly right. For those who are serious, it can happen much sooner. But for most people, it will take a LONG time. Who the hell is going to concentrate for 60 minutes a daily for a year? 0.0000001% of people. There are various kinds of Samadhi possible. You can even have a Samadhi without any object. A Samadhi of awareness or nothingness.

You guys are totally underestimating enlightenment! You should be more interested in becoming of aware of the fact that "right side of the brain" is a thought inside nothingness. When you say "brain", you say it as thought it really exists. Might want to question that assumption. Where was the brain before you were born? Did it exist? No? Then what possible significance could it have to you or to truth? All this brain-talk is shallow, shallow, shallow. You need to look 1000 miles under the surface.

Nothingness

Really with the bruce lee quote? You're not pointing at the moon, you are pulling things out of imagination land that isn't grounded in reality whatsoever and choosing to believe them. You have heard or read second-hand that consciousness is this magical nothingness, rather than working with reality and burdening your limitations of awareness, and devoting yourself to expanding them. You're big picture is built off the interpretations of un-grounded experience by people who have spent little to no time at all developing their actual senses and is doing very little in the way of changing your physical reality. Why would I entertain that, when I have so much experience and understanding backed up by the real world that shows me differently? People make up magical stories about attachment and non-attachment filled with pedestalization and aggrandizement. I work with the actual physical forces in real life that propel attraction/attachment and repulsion/non-attachment, and gain a whole new set of feelings and sensations that I've carried with me everyday for years now. People question subjectivity and objectivity, but I see and work with the foundation that bridges them both together in real time, via a staggering number of combinations of patterned motion. People talk about how we are limited by our mind, but I have uncovered and work with structures deeper than my mind, which contrast with it and affect my reality. People talk about having a limitless awareness, yet they are completely unaware of nuance and detail and all the staggering amount of inter-related movements that make up just a single second of change within the limited scope of the human body. And that's not even counting potentiality. How many potentialities can you hold in your head? I've been able to see and act on 8 within a fraction of a second. Are you fast enough to feel a thought attach to you and in that fraction of a second before immersion, choose 8 different potentialities in relation to it? I doubt you have even the foggiest idea of what I'm talking about, because neither you or anyone else on here has spent the years training to pick up on the all the things going on within such a small window of time. How can you hope to properly describe consciousness if you're too slow and dull to see even a thimble full of all the different patterns going on with your very own perceptional system? God you people are arrogant in your delusions. Thinking some two-bit, shallow ass belief about consciousness magically solves everything. Not even realizing or addressing the motivations pushing you to assume such beliefs. The patterns and principles I talk about are inherent all over the world and have been here before humans and any programming of oneness. The same principles I use to balance effect and affect are the same ones found with electrical capacitance and the shifting tides on both the sun and in the ocean. But hey, if you want to believe un-grounded stuff, that's cool. But, don't push it like it's the one ultimate truth, when it's just another iteration of religiosity, requiring blind faith. You talk about capability, but If it was this amazing thing, people who have it, should be able to tell you about the foundational elements of learning. They should be able to learn anything they choose, slow down their perception of time as they choose, they should understand how actual physical reality works, seduction, music, biology, emotional realities, etc. None of these people who believe in this stuff are any more capable for it. But, the stuff I talk about changes me everyday. It evolves me. For me, enlightenment, non-duality, and nothingness, is a pale substitute for actually developing all of who I am. But that's me, everybody has their own journey of evolution to undertake. My road bears fruit with every step.