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Perhaps just meditate and figure out what you want. Nonduality is the story that cuts through all the other ones. It may resonate. Head in tiger’s mouth, if you are there, you wait for it to either bite off your head/ego, or not.

You can predict he will win but how do you get that hes turquoise? These are turquoise values taken from the mega thread as a reminder - Consciousness Elevating mankind’s consciousness Truth Deep metaphysical insight Wisdom, the wisdom of nature Mysticism, spirituality, nonduality God, divinity Holism, integration, synthesis vs analysis Integrating all religions & science Left & right brain synthesis Honesty, transparency, authenticity Being vs knowing, doing, having Simplicity, flowing with nature Minimalist sustainable living Collaborative synergy Human wellness Healing at all levels: physical, emotional, spiritual Exploring altered states of consciousness Intuition Channeling: direct downloads from infinite intelligence Supernatural creativity Spiritual purification Awakening, transcendence, liberation Unconditional love, compassion for all Emotional mastery Presence, mindfulness Paradox Esoteric teachings Gratitude Unity Deeper & deeper levels of interconnectedness Selfless living Sacrifice self for greater consciousness Meditation, yoga, contemplation, self-inquiry Not-knowing Humility Spontaneity, playfulness, self-amusement The really big picture

Love is nonduality, pretty simple if you ask me.

I live up north where seasons are really dramatically different and the days get really short in the winter. I used to absolutely hate Fall. I'm more open minded now. In my experience, there is a VERY different energy about Fall, that can be very dark, depressing and even scary if you misinterpret it. If you embrace it rather than avoid it, understanding nonduality, ( no light without dark, blah blah), it goes much better. I heard someone say recently that spring is about beauty and fall is about wisdom and that really resonated. It's a time for going inward, rest, stillness and letting go of stuff.

Well said. Suffering happens when we resist reality. We complain about what is, and we want what is not. It's like the Chinese finger trap. The more you fight to escape, the tighter the trap becomes. The secret to freedom is to embrace the trap by pushing your fingers into it. Only then does it release its hold. Some people spend their entire lives suffering by resisting what happens to them, when they might have enjoyed beauty and peace through acceptance. Nonduality = Reality = Integrity = Clarity = Wholeness = Peace

I've discovered that going through 'the path' has left me with some side effects or 'junk' which was necessary at the beginning but isn't anymore. The sort of stuff I'm talking about is judgements and negative emotions of those who oppose nonduality as a possibility. For example those normies who judge Leo's videos of science as just him being a deluded guru. Or when some authority medical board says that natural medicines are a hoax or healing is a hoax. A strong negative emotion arises and a bit of anger occurs whenever I see such comments being made. Although I have a desire to understand them, have compassion for them, see things from their point of view, accept them, love them and be in harmony with them. What are some ways of apply that?

I'm mad at you for making such silly claims about nonduality

I’m cool with people creating constructs of “awakening” and saying psychedelics won’t help in achieving that goal. For example, if we define awakening as learning to speak a foreign language fluently, psychedelic use probably won’t help. A better method would be to live within the foreign culture for 3-4 years such that you have to speak the language 24/7. Yet if someone makes rapid progress using psychedelics and is speaking the foreign language fluently in 1 year, it’s silly to say their fluency doesn’t count because they didn’t do it the old fashioned way. Yet if someone tried to use psychedelics to learn the language and was babbling nonsense, then it’s fair to say psychedelics didn’t help. . . And this is based on their own standards. We could create various constructs of “awakening”. We could create constructs of “awakening” that would be extremely difficult to realize without psychedelics. Yet if someone did it sober, my hat is off to him. There are some things spiritualists like Deepak Chopra say and I’m like “Dang, how did he realize that without psychedelics? That’s impressive”. Yet some people are spiritually gifted. I wasn’t one of those people. This is why direct experience is so important. Ten years ago, I was confused by Zen koans, sutras, Rupert Spira, Buddhist dharma talks, nonduality, neo-advaita etc. I didn’t get it and couldn’t speak that language. Now I get it and can have conversations in that language. It’s silly to me for someone to ask what percentage of that understanding came from sober meditation, time in nature, listening to nonduality speakers, psychedelic trips, Kriss yoga, vinyasa yoga, journaling, sensory deprivation tanks etc. And if the percentage of insights that came from psychedelics is over a certain threshold, it means the person who speaks the language isn’t really speaking the language? What percentage would this be? If 27% of my understanding came from psychedelic trips, is that too much? What is I did yoga on a micro-dose of LSD? Does that count as a “yoga-induced insight” or a “psychedelic-inducted insight”? And it’s all inter-connected. Some insights might be seeded during a psychedelic trip, yet appear as a “catchable” insight the next day while walking in nature. Does that count as a psychedelic insight or a sober nature insight? Creating two categories of “sober” or “psychedelic” is overly simplistic. Those that do cannot see how it’s all inter-related.

@r0ckyreed Ime, using psychedelics as an escape, shortcut or developing dependency can be problematic at a personal level. For example, when I first started using psychedelics, it was like they elevated me to higher states of consciousness and gave me super powers. This wasn’t simply a subjective experience. I had been on a 100% substance-free spiritual journey for 20+ years. People at my sangha had no idea I started using psychedelics - within months, high level practitioners and monks were asking me :”Wow, what happened to you?” Your practice has taken off”. I literally made many years of spiritual progress in weeks - and not by my standards - by the standards of high level teachers and monks. The dynamics completely changed. It was like I had become fluent in the language and was at the same level they were. You seem to suggest that psychedelics are mystical, yet not the “real thing” in terms of sober constructs of enlightenment. That has not been my experience at all. And again, not simply by my subjective constructs of enlightenment - by the enlightenment constructs of life-long spiritual practitioners that teach at spiritual centers and lead spiritual retreats. Reducing psychedelics as simply mystical experiences is similar to those that call psychedelics “altered states of consciousness” or “illusions” - and not the “real” thing. There is some truth to this, yet it’s also contracted. It’s along the lines of Ram Dass’s perspective. The high level practitioners and teachers at my spiritual sangha were telling me that “I got it”. As I spoke about transcendence, ego, nonduality - they nodded their heads “yes”. Yet a funny thing happened when I told them psychedelics helped reveal these insights. All of a sudden, I no longer “got it”. All of a sudden, I was speaking about psychedelic-induced illusions that weren’t true enlightenment. All of a sudden, they stopped nodding their heads “yes” when I spoke and started shaking their heads “no” when I spoke.

What does nonduality point to, in relation to the word consciousness?

Desire is an important part of the personal stage. From a nonduality perspective it's recognized that desire is redundant. For desire to work there has to be a separate ego wanting something outside of itself. In noduality there is no separation so for the Self to want something it can only want the Self, because there is only one reality. In this way, desire becomes redundant. And that's a useful observation because otherwise there can be confusion about whether to accept desire or try to remove desire. At the transpersonal stage the illusion of the separate ego has been recognized. And therefore also the false duality of desire becomes apparent.

This thread is a blessing to me after having done Ibogaine and Bufo Alvarious combo treatment about 18 months ago. The DP DR when I got home was so terrifying that I immediately and gratefully returned to all the drugs I sought entheogen experiences to free myself from. After doing the Ibogaine/Bufo I found that smoking pot was now the MOST intense experience I had ever had - and it still is. It was meditation that finally led me back to some semblance of sanity - that, and abstinence from what I call 'Fools Gold' drugs like stimulants (anything from coffee to kratom, adderall, cocaine and alcohol). Entheogens saved my life for sure - by dissolving it. My 'blue pill' problems became paddy cake childs play compared to losing my sense of 'I'. Things definitely got worse before they got better but I never could have found Samadhi on my own. An addicts ego function is incredibly complex. With the brilliant teachings of Joe Dispenza's scientific approach along with Deepak Chopra's multidisciplinary education and some other contributors to the Youtube station called Science and Nonduality (SAND) I am slowly proceeding through my dark tunnel by a thin lead line of what I can only call some sort of 'faith'. In what, I still have no idea but I've found that the surest and most immediate rescue from DP DR is calling upon my own SELF (even though I don't know where or what that sense of self is). It's the only thing I trust and it comforts me without fail when I sincerely call upon it. Now, I only rarely use entheogenic substances with very deep respect and regard for set and setting, and with a healthy sense of resistance - the way you might simultaneously look forward to and dread an intense psychotherapy session that digs deep into your trauma . In a way, these chemicals are 'Gods' to me and they are jealous and demanding ones. I believe their lessons are self limiting and if you don't respond to their revelations and suggestions (they absolutely WILL answer your questions) they will treat you with as much disregard as you do them - In short, don't play with them like a game unless you want to be made into one. The key is finding the eye of the storm in every situation while holding the tension of the opposites, equally experiencing the agony and the ecstasy at the same time. You can't use your intellect to do this and moving in and out of it is the balanced nature of being a manifested 'vector' of consciousness. We are some fractal form of the particle/wave function on a grand scale. Being and not being at the same time is where I find acceptance and surrender and most precious to me - the state of senseless wonder. If what you are experiencing can be described you can be certain that it isn't real. Let that be ok.

Very interested in how you manage to handle this. Instagram is generally a low-conscious platform. It sort of belies your true goal. Your audience on Instagram will consist mostly of deceived individuals, belief system devotees, wannabe seekers. The problem is, you can teach very little over a social media platform. 1:1 meetings have their spell, but spirituality itself cannot be taught; the basics can, the language can, but how feels the wetness of water cannot. On one hand, your ultimate goal is to teach deep spirituality to serious seekers. On the other hand, you are picking between entrepreneurs and yoga practitioners, none of which are serious seekers. The prophecy self-fulfills: When one becomes a serious seeker, honestly, very few gurus are deemed valuable, and even less on social media. Do you honestly think a serious seeker would spend their time on these networks? Probably not. Here's the catch 101. The more serious you are about spirituality, the less teachers you require. This undermines the whole matter of teaching 'deep spirituality' to serious seekers, for the serious ones are not really in need of assistance anymore (there are definitely exceptions in this approach). To avoid misconception, my definition of 'a serious seeker' is someone who has a serious first-hand grasp of nonduality & has no trouble exploring the rabbit hole on their own. I do not view blind guru worshipers & content consumers as serious seekers. When you are serious about pursuing truth, it becomes your beacon. You recognize the importance of it. A valiant purpose. Just do not expect them to be serious seekers in that case. Their excuses & complexes will be perceived in their eyes as 'still more serious and important to hold onto'.

In practice humans must be drawing maps to survive. You can stop drawing maps if you enter a state of total nonduality and not-knowing. Being = Absolute Truth No. Like I told you, paradox is necessary here. It is not a mistake. Absolute Truth != relative truth Absolute Truth = relative truth Both are the case, depending on perspective. The glass is both half-full and half-empty at the same time.

You're welcome but yeah, that one came from someone else too. I think maybe a Sia song, I dunno. I owe my original understanding of nonduality to a tree. Oh wait. Giving credit or blame to nouns. Right. Don't do that.

People gravitate towards teachers who emanate what they want. In our society we worship emotional equanimity and mistake focus and equanimity for enlightenment. Focus and being scatter brained are not what they seem, when you go deep into nonduality. They are opposites only to the mind, going beyond the mind does not mean having a focused mind. It is not transcending mind. It means going backwards and through mind, including mind. The reason you see more male teachers and more successful teachers are male is because people misunderstand and project what they want from enlightenment onto it. There are also a lot of reasons that women are programmed to want to help and do their work for free without seeking any recognition. A master is not a master until you see him as such. "Master" is a projection of the mind, also coincidently, has strong connotations of being male. Ah, duality is a bitch. Or master. Whatever.

Haha! They will certainly not be openminded to nonduality or mysticism or the things I teach. You have been spoiled rotten here. University will feel like prison compared to Actualized.org With that said, if you must go to university, you'll certainly be happier studying psychology and philosophy vs economics. And a psychology degree can be useful if you want to be a therapist or something like that in the future. You can learn valuable things within academic psychology. But your mind will not be jailbroken there, nor will you find the Truth there.

Nonduality teachings are very valuable in terms of transpersonal development. The idea that the ego is a separate entity is what needs to be transcended. Nonduality teacher Paul Hedderman learned the phrase "You can't use the Buddha to seek the Buddha". That's a pretty clever pointer because if we are the Buddha in our nondual nature and at the same time are spiritual seekers seeking Buddhahood, that's a contradiction. Here is Paul's most recent video:

Is akasha the same as consciousness? No, akasha is the content in consciousness. But isn't that duality? My idea is that it's a trinity with 1) the unmanifested, 2) consciousness and 3) the manifested. Almost like the Holy Trinity in Christianity. And in Christianity the Holy Trinity is one unit, nonduality! When the trinity comes together it produces time. And the "when" is now, there is only now. Is akasha space? Yes! And space is not empty but is made of vacuum energy which in turn is the substance of all material things.

This thread is a careful dance between solipsism, madness and non-duality. Here god argues with it's different parts over whether anything exists and what we should do about it. Do you really think universal consciousness is limited to one being? Oh what a waste of potential. And to the thread author, everything exists as experience and experiencer(duality of imagination) Collapse the whole thing and you get consciousness, self aware and alone. But it's behind all appearances,form and time. We are all literally one mind, each of it's parts separated by thought and imagination alone. The complicated nature of this can lead to explanations such as reality is magic etc. Well yes it is, how come imagination feels so real. Anyway the point of nonduality is to spread love and kindness, here using the cerebral drives people to madness, ideas like solipsism etc. I say it once i say it again if this was the truth, why would spirituality be so wide spread? Spiritual teachers like Leo, should be warning people against it. Oooh be careful don't want solipsim to bite your ass! Its silly really, this is what happens when you try to imagine your ego is god. We all exist as thoughts within god's mind. How is that for a twist? Or multiple personalities of it, or masks, but everyone is made from the same stuff consciousness. So fundamentally you are all life. This should be good news, celebrated, not this madness.

Because Truth is EVERYTHING, including non-abidance and disunity. Sure, but I'm not hung up on it like some folks are. I don't discount nonduality just because it lasts 5 minutes. 5 minutes of nonduality is just as true and valid as 50 years of it. Because actually it's Eternal.

This topic is mainly for people who already became enlightened or had at least advanced awakenings. I will try to describe what I feel. I made a trip 2 weeks ago where I lived a brief enlightenment experience. In this trip I discovered amongst other things that I can become enlightened even right now, if I want it. I set the intention that I want to get enlightened, because this would help me both in generating a much more meaningful vision/lp (service to others) and both living without pain, self-deceptions, limiting believes, needyness and such. I want to feel myself complete and do a completely new fresh start. Three-four days ago I started then feeling myself almost totally despersonalized. I don't recognize my hands and my body anymore and I have a high state of presence and almost 0 monkey mind. I don't feel love, compassion and such, just blank "apathy", calmness, placidity, neutrality. Everything that's not staring the void/doing nothing/being present is felt to me as a distraction. I have to force myself to eat, work and to do the rest of stuff that's necessary. The apathy and the loss of motivation is not due to depression or such. I don't feel myself depressed at all, but super present, mindless and tranquil. I am doing hours and hours of meditation and self inquiry each day just like that. I am having lucid dreams (both while awake and asleep) and I am living giant enlightenment/nonduality related synchronicites with my best friend (who is also in this forum). I had the last lucid dream this night, where I was totally aware that was a lucid dream. I had all the feelings I have in this world (uditory, tactile etc.). I even pinched my arm in the dream to prove it and said that I would tell my best friend about that dream, as soon as I woked up. I am catching glimpses here and there of nonduality (e. g. everything is in 2d, the perceptor is "glued in" to reality, there are no internal or external worlds, there is only a sense of self made out by a mental construct which encompasses all memories, information, perceptions etc., infinity, what I am and so on). I myself am generating profound nonduality insights about the nature of reality, energy, ego mind and such. I can reach super crazy deep states of relaxation in few minutes, where I almost don't need to breath. I can stop monkey mind in few seconds just by staring at it. Still, I cannot break through and I don't know what's happening. Even if I understood conceptually through sheer direct experience what I am and what it's all about, there is no shift happening. I am feeling myself a bit frustrated. I don't know how to move forward. I am feeling myself a bit demotivated, but I am still persisting. Still, I feel I am near a major breakthrough and I feel I already have the key in my hands, but I cannot insert it in the lock and open the door. Here are my questions: Maybe I don't really want enlightenment and this is all mind trickery or such? What's happening to me and why? Why am I so depersonalized and I cannot move forward? What should I do? Thank you in advance!

I don’t think there is really such a thing as a Mormon nondualist. By identifying with a certain belief system and religion already embodies duality. Nonduality is about transcending religion to see it as parts of a whole. This is one of the problems with Hindus and Buddhists that I see. A true Buddhist does not identify as a Buddhist because any attachment leads to suffering. All identities, beliefs, ideologies, politics, and religion are imagination inside the Dream of Life. Any worldview is duality. Notice this.

@Nahm if we’re throwing psychedelics out of the equation (which I don’t think we should), the fastest way would be meditation for most people although it was a manic episode from my bipolar disorder paired with psychedelics, intense spiritual study, meditation, associating with spiritual people, etc. for me. Every discipline followed to its end ends in nondualism, but ultimately nondualism is far too simplistic of a concept. There are dualities, but at the same time nonduality is true.

@BipolarGrowth how do you get on with other Mormons when you talk to them about nonduality? If you do mention it that is, or do you keep it secret? (The secret at the source of all religion!)