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Forum. n. a place, meeting, or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged. There are many types of forums on pretty much every subject available. They can be helpful... you may even make "friends" or learn a lot about a particular subject. But the subject matter of nearly every forum is relative, and I don't necessarily mean grounded in physicality. You can have philosophy forums about IDEAS. But the common thread of a forum is that it's centered around a construct of the human mind, whether it be cars, psychedelics, cooking, or abstract concepts. This sub-Forum, however, has a subject matter of an entirely new quality. This is a rare forum that is centered around consciousness, enlightenment, and nonduality, and these happen to be the absolute. THE nature of existence! METAphysics! Strange loops! So why is this important? Well, I have noticed some things by participating in the forum for a couple years or so. I've noticed that everything this forum claims to be about is not being served by the forum itself. It is NOT an aid to your development in these topics; in fact, it's a trap that only a few of you can see. This is not a fault of the people on the forum, but rather a fault of the forum system itself. A forum is limited by the dualistic medium of the English language, which cannot in any shape or form grasp the absolute. The purpose of a forum is to share information and help others to learn, but it's just a fact that you can't learn the absolute. The vehicle of "words" only communicates with respect to your body of experience. You can't communicate the color blue to a blind man any more than you can communicate consciousness and nonduality to a seeker. So what ends up happening is that many non-awake people get lost in the words on this forum, and create vortexes of meaning (traps) for other seekers. The delusion swirls around. The idea of coming to a forum to debate consciousness is absurd! And yet here we are, thinking we are growing by essentially mentally masturbating. You're talking with yourself, thinking you are "helping others see the light." You and I come here because we are like-minded, and maybe we don't have anyone else in our lives to talk about this stuff with. I get it. I honestly think the rest of the forum is pretty great. However, when it comes to nonduality itself, anything that can be said about it is already stepping in the wrong direction. Truly, that is the case. You know what would happen if a bunch of enlightened masters had a forum only for discussing the absolute? They would shut it down, knowing that all answers can only be found within. If the only thing to be said about consciousness and nonduality is to NOT get lost in thoughts, words, and concepts, then what the fuck is this sub-Forum here for? Trip reports? Again, more mental masturbation about something that can't be explained. Did anyone here gain a deeper understanding of their trip from someone else on this forum? I didn't think so. In this field, language can only be used as far as a tool to circle around on itself, and make the logical brain submit to the actual uselessness of language and thought in pursuing awakening. In a moment of implicit understanding, the "aha!," you will understand that this entire endeavor was a distraction. You wasted so much time on this forum, time you could have spent doing the work or finding real-life, like-minded friends and mystical experiences. The goal of this particular forum should be to render the forum useless. Of course this brings into question why it exists in the first place. Does anyone need this roundabout path? What if this sub-Forum was changed to a few pages of recourses instead, with a description of why an interactive forum on these topics only creates more delusion? What if we stopped debating consciousness and saved others and ourselves from further distraction? What if the forum evolved? For the record, I think the forums on life purpose, relationships, government, spiral Dynamics, etc. are great, as these are relative topics. This site must continue to be a high consciousness beacon of hope. But I think it's time to reconsider how we treat certain topics that transcend logic, reason, and even words themselves. If anyone can log in and be the pointer, then what message is that sending to newcomers and seekers?

what a great way to embrace the spiritual path of the divine feminine. Something that this forum is in dire need of. Art is God expressed in form. It is a path that gives tangibility to the ungraspable concepts of nonduality, to take shape in form and create actual tangible conscious effect. I am always overjoyed seeing this, because I also know what a great courage it takes to follow through on such instincts, in a world that's dominated by the masculine. Thank you for being a beacon of light! <3

@Zigzag Idiot Thank you! Interested to watch it. @SilentTears No, I do not think that there is anything wrong with self inquiry. I do believe that following intuition and using creative new ways to go about the same "practices"... maybe without even knowing that one is doing a practice at all, is more of the path of the creative type. For example some practices that people have to do may be ingrained in you or second nature and others may have to seek these out and intentionally "practice" them. It makes a lot of sense that both paths would resonate with you. The book had a lot of value in giving credit to a path that is not recognized by many in this work, however the goal of nonduality is integration. It's both paths, all paths, no paths. In the end there is no real self concept of one on a path or having traveled any path at all. Many teachers teach assuming that the path they traveled and the order in which they realized things is normal, and that their map can be copied and given to others as if spirituality is a linear progression, like with most practical things you can learn. This is why people who are likely to really look up to a teacher and want to be told what practices specifically to do are more likely to see the more intuitive creative path as foolish, distraction and a waste of time. No one outside of you can make that judgment and can allow other's judgments into their consideration. We were taught from an early age to follow the rules, do what we're told and play it safe. Even in spirituality, where we let ourselves be free, an authority or teacher can still take that role of a parent or teacher without us seeing this tendency. I think the main take away is to trust yourself, trust yourself to follow your heart and uncover the wisdom that is already there. Trust the practices that resonate with you. For me a lot of my journey has been moving back and forth between buckling down and getting serious and letting go, accepting and practicing self love. Meditation and being itself is where those things can't be called opposites anymore.

Shocked lol? I really think there is a lot we don't know about each other my friend ❤ I was starting to assume you labeled me as an Eckhart Tolle Fanboy/Neo Advaitist's. I don't follow any belief system or have any kind of identity or attachment to any kind of teaching/teacher whatsoever. I am free.. Nonduality is just apparently the best word to describe the experience that occurred here for no-one. Awakening or Enlightenment isn't something to be rated... that's simply another form of dualistic perception causing division in the whole.

Aspects will not make logical sense. The desire to have everything make sense in thought constructs is a contraction. These thought constructs can have practical value for the human and person, yet it is also a limitation if one restricts themself within that contraction. One thing I try to be aware of is the nature of my resistance. If someone told me I would awaken by drinking 4 Pumpkin Spice Lattes at Starbucks and then singing Taylor Swift’s “The Man” while urinating in the parking lot. . . there would be an intuitive sense that this was nonsense. I would probably start laughing. I certainly wouldn’t spend any time debating this silly method of awakening. Yet if I was with a Reiki Master that told me releasing energetic blocks could help release my chronic headaches, it is a very different dynamic. My mind may resist and think “That Reiki stuff is a bunch of woo-woo nonsense. There is no scientific proof for it”. Yet, I may get a sense that there is “something here” I don’t know about. This is a very different dynamic. I could dismiss it or ague against it, or I could get curious an explore. These are very different orientations. . . . To add in another layer, if I got the sense that trying Reiki would change or dissolve my sense of self - that throws a cog in the wheel. Now, all sorts of self-protective mechanisms will arise. Sometimes, it’s best for me to work through that resistance to grow and expand. As well, there are times in which there is an intuitive sense of “No, not now”. Or “This just isn’t right”. For example, one meditation teacher encouraged me to have extended sitting sessions and sit through the pain. Sitting through the pain would somehow help me transcend attachment/identification to the body and allow me to awaken. Sitting through the pain started harming my body and the only thing I was more awake to was the pain and harm to my body. There came a point, in which it just didn’t feel right. I then transitioned to another teacher with a different approach, yet the first teacher still had a lot I learned from. Rather than seeing this as an “either / or” path, you can see this as an integrative path. You don’t need to accept 100% of everything Leo says and you don’t need to reject 100% of what Leo says. Trust your resonance. Perhaps have several different teachers you resonate with. I listen to several different speakers that have different approaches and I resonate with each of them differently. If the stuff about 5-Meo isn’t resonating with you, put it aside. Perhaps other teachings from Leo will resonate. As well, connect with other spiritual beings you resonate with. I know spiritual beings involved in Yoga, Reiki, nonduality, meditation, nature etc.

You need to look at some data that has been collected by scientists. There are children who in the first years of their lives (until 7 or 8 years old) have memories of a past life and are able to describe with uncanny precision who that person was. Scientists have observed this and have in many cases found the person being described, making sure that the details given by the child were accurate enough. I don't remember the details, but was very much convinced of the veracity of the whole thing. What does this mean for nonduality? I don't know, the human mind can't understand infinity.

From the Nonduality perspective: You (God) are infinitely everything. All appearances and experiences are happening within your imagination. Anything happening is happening because you (God) imagined it. One perspective of infinite possibilities. So what you think happened happened because you thought of it.

What anyone says about time, parallel realities, etc, doesn't mean it's real, since every-"thing" phenomenal is an illusion. The relative world may exist, is experienced, but is ultimately unreal (illusion). All things are created by, made of, permeated throughout and within, the only thing in existence ...awareness/consciousness (nonduality) So, time is illusion, in the most fundamental sense. I don't think there's anything wrong with believing in time for practical purposes. We all do it, but psychological time is extremely damaging.

Tonight I met up with the Czech girl for a few beers, and at a certain point I was spewing nonduality to her. I could see how it was going over her head, but just kept going. And some of it was just bullshit that I wasn't even conscious of, was just mouthing off. I guess I needed to get it out of my system. Or maybe I was bored by the regular chit-chat...

Aha, nonduality teacher Roger Castillo had Ramesh Balsekar as his teacher, and the example of causation Roger gave going in two directions, A to B to C to D and also from D to C to B to A (as I mentioned earlier) Ramesh describes from about 29 minutes in the previous video. "Cause and effect is not a one-pointed arrow, it's a two-pointed arrow", Ramesh said. That's the same as in my models where cause and effect is both from past and future and also from the future to the past. Ramesh also said that it's impossible to know the will of God, and that's as I see it a direct consequence of the two-pointed arrow of causality. We know the past, or at least parts of it, but we actually don't know the actual future.

The idea that reality is an automatic process can feel awful when in ego consciousness, especially when there is suffering. And to the ego an automatic system means something mechanical and robotic almost. That's probably why spiritual teachers, spiritual traditions and religions seldom talk about reality as being automatic even if it's true. Some of the hardcore nonduality teachers, such as Ramesh Balsekar have said it using different words, like in the beginning of this video: Ramesh's teaching is similar to my model, except I haven't heard him mentioning that reality is also evolving into higher and higher complexity and harmony. And there are other minor differences, for example the notion of time. And the way I make the idea less mechanical is to include the higher possibilities in teachings such as ACIM, the Law of One and the Bible. So my practice is to unify the mechanical idea with reality as infinite intelligence and as always progressing towards larger and larger holons.

It was a great reminder, thank you. Whatever you believe the ego to be, that is a bundle of concepts and images you created to give meaning and form to the formless. While I believe it can be useful in some contexts, ultimately it isn't real. And probably in most contexts, it's more of a hindrance than an aid. It's possible to create an enemy out of thin air. Yes indeed. Even "practical" states of Awakening can make life difficult in many ways, such as hypersensitivity, overanalyzing, difficulty in relating with normal people, etc. I'm sure that will get better with time. I'm not "being" it at all times, but I have the knowledge in the back of my mind. I often bring it to the foreground, where I'm aware of the beauty and infinity of the present experience, and this knowing stems from direct experience. It is not a belief or dogma. I guess I'm about as awake as is practical. This is the answer I was after, thank you. I still have an issue calling myself or others "enlightened," but now I recognize I fit the description. At least this particular and relative description. Going back to the original quote of the thread from Kryon, I actually resonate with that more. It describes a further realization of nonduality, one that is impossible to actualize without being awake. It's like the union of "enlightenment" and unconditional Love and acceptance for all of Creation. I believe that to be a much more potent description, and something I feel necessary to work towards.

My sense is that any answer I give you will be misleading because you are trying to create grounded concepts. When I was immersed in intellectualizing, I found it helpful to relax the mind and just be. I might have a background question like "what is existence?" and then I would let it go. If I was genuine and reset the question, often times things would appear. I wouldn't even be thinking about it and some type of message or insight about existence would seemingly randomly appear. Or I might have a dream about existence. In addition to relaxing the mind, other things like doing yoga, listening to nonduality speakers, sensory deprivation tanks, lucid dreaming, shamanic breathing and psychedelics were helpful. All of this helped me step out of immersion into intellectualizing. Also, I think you seem to be open and curious - which are important traits, ime.

I understand. May seem like word salad, but I can not be in the moment, because nonduality. Nothing. It’s a conversation, like an episode of Friends. What do you figure is being searched for? I don’t experience that ‘either way’ factor really. I wouldn’t say I do care, no. Idk. That didn’t occur to me. How is it you feel I’m ‘fighting my self’? I apologize if I came across that way, it’s not what is experienced ‘at my end’. The intention of my replies was a pointing to what is prior, and to what is a priori, rather than to “counter” or “argue”. I honestly am experiencing an interesting conversation. I don’t feel any arguing or countering. Indeed. You’ve got to remember though, I don’t hold that belief to begin with. If I express that is not my experience, if I point to that there is prior to, am I “arguing” / “countering”...? Seems like all one...no? Neuroscience is not an entity which moves or accepts. Also, a theory is “of the two computers” as you might phrase it. Again, I’m pointing to that being a priori. That is also “of the two computers” / duality. Of course there is disagreement. If one has not “gone” prior to duality, one lives in arguing / debating / theory. The actuality of ‘their theories’, is your thought. Just like... “evolution”.

@Endangered-EGO Your notion of winning or losing debates is silly. Truth and consciousness are not things to be debated at all. Yes, Sam Harris is more developed than JP and of course Ben Shaprio. But Sam has plenty of Orange yet in him, and he is certainly not awake. But yes, he has a good deal of Yellow in him. But Yellow is not that high when we are talking about things like truth, consciousness, love, God, nonduality, spirituality, etc. Yellow is still childhood. Sam Harris is very moralistic and does not understand relativity. So he hasn't fully integrated Green.

@Nahm Thanks! It turned out to be a really good conversation. He said that he didn't like how nonduality and spiritual teachers use their own language to speak about this stuff, and how you have to learn it before you know what they are speaking about. My first mistake is that day in, day out I read and immerse myself in this stuff and discuss it with him very little. Then I expect him to just come along with me only when I want his help with something. I compared the language to our understanding of Christianity and the Bible when were kids, specifically terms such as the "Holy Spirit". Then I tried to explain how communion was really a powerful nondual pointer, which he didn't get, but then told me that he was taught several different things about communion in church, including that if your heart wasn't quite right and you still took it, that God would strike you dead. And then I remembered that his upbringing was far, far different from mine, and how fear and control were so front and center for him. Then I realized that I've been a selfish jerk overlooking and under appreciating a lot of things.

Balance that out with the opposite. Feel that great in the selflessness of it. Also keep in mind, you can’t want the flow state, and be in the flow state. It’s letting resistance go, and listening to the thought of future flow is resistant to presence now. And also, we’re all where we’re at with non-duality so to speak, but referring to individuals as separate, and or assigning anything to individuals, reinforces the belief one is themself separate. It’s healthy relative to hatred, but unhelpful relative to nonduality.

Had a long conversation about spirituality, psychedelics and awakening with my husband. I decided to read this above to him. He said nothing, so I asked what he thought. "Especially the part about the balance, it sounds like an infomercial ,"it slices, it dices!" He said some awfully judgmental things about psychedelics and made a comparison that particularity hurt. There were jokes, connection and good communication throughout. Towards the end the conversation went to Christianity, and eventually I realized I am a complete jerk, because I tried to tell him what communion means as a pointer to nonduality and he wasn't coming along with me. Then he told how it was described to him in various ways in church and that he was told that if your heart wasn't in the right place and you still took communion, that you'd be struck dead. And I realized and remembered the amount of fear instilled in him. He was dragged to church every single Sunday, to some of the most fundamentalist churches. I read my Bible on my own free will, with a few lose expectations and morality that was set in my family. To tie it to Leo's most recent video which I loved, you can't expect people to hold liberal "woke" values if they are living in a threatened environment. Yet this is exactly what I've done. I'm a selfish jerk. Spiritually, I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth in comparison. We've both made incredible spiritual progress over the course of our lives, and likely he's traversed more "ground" than I have. Partially because he got seduced by the daughter of Satan but whatever, God works in mysterious ways!

@billiesimon When a person is conditioned to perceive and identify to only one side of a duality, the awakening comes from realization of the other side of the duality (and then realization both sides are the same). For example, if someone believed waking life is "real" and dreams are "imagined". It would be most helpful to show them that waking life is "imagined". They already have the "real" part down - they don't need any help realizing waking life is "real". That would actually be counter-productive since it would re-enforce their attachment/identification to that side of the duality. For them, the awakening comes from realizing waking life is "imagined". On the flip side, the person is already aware that dreams are "imagined" - the awakening comes with seeing that dreams are also "real". With this awareness, the duality between "real vs imagined" can dissolve. 99.999% of humans are programmed that "sober" waking life is "real" and "altered" mindstates like dreams and psychedelics are "imagined". Very few people are programmed for the opposite orientation. Just look on this forum: how many people believe that psychedelic states are "real" and the sober state is "imagined"? I would say noone. The vast majority of people are questioning how "real" psychedelic states are. I've only met two people in my life with a nearly reverse orientation - and both are getting re-conditioned to believe waking life is "real". The first is my niece. She is a master dreamer and has created a dream reality that is more real than her waking life. While awake, this has caused all sorts of problems. She has various anxiety disorders and various psycho-somatic issues including recurring migraine headaches, nausea and vomiting. She has received years of therapy trying to get her grounded that waking life is "real". . . . The second person was a non-speaking autistic whose default state was nonduality. It took him 10+ years of practice and training to awaken to duality. . . Both cases are the opposite orientation of 99.999% of people. . . I've also met several people that are natural hybrids - the have an ability to "flip" back and forth, yet preferences one side. I think they would have an advantage in that they 90% of the way there starting off.

Ok, now I get it. It's just a duality to see imagination opposed to reality. In nonduality they are the same I guess.

How exactly does this work? Everything just happens? If you look at neo advaita teachers like Tony Parsons or Jim Newman, they are always radical about it, saying there is no one home, and thus there is no free will. So what about murderers, serial killers, pedophiles, serious drug addicts etc? They have no free will? They don't have a choice in killing someone or staying addicted to heroin? I don't understand how this works. Also addictions in general. Do you actually have no choice wether you are addicted and stay addicted to a subtance?

a few resources that helped - https://non-duality.rupertspira.com/read/treat_everyone_and_everything_as_they_truly_are_224 https://www.google.com/amp/s/nondualityamerica.wordpress.com/2014/01/12/nonduality-teachers-and-money/amp/ @GreenWoods also regarding your last post, why not do both maximise your own happiness and so called “others” who are literally your very own self’s happiness? I don’t see why it has to be one or the other. In fact, sharing and loving and helping others often leads to greater levels of happiness and abundance, so in fact doing both is actually beneficial. I don’t see an issue with someone wanting to live a comfortable life and help others simultaneously. You can never perfectly embody enlightenment 100%, if you look at modern teachers such as Rupert Spira, Adyashanti, Francis Lucille, all of these earn money be deservedly so. Are they not embodying their awakening as a result? an embodied awakening doesn’t have to mean you go feed the poor, you could work at Starbucks and live an embodied Self-Realized life Also, do you have a problem with teachers earning money?

In the sense, meaning arises in you. Whatever “absolute perspective”, “the human perspective”, “universe”, “reality”, “ego”, “personal you”, “right”....mean to you, is only what it means to you. Nonduality would imply there is not a you and a meaning. There is learning what a word means, like cup, and there is ‘learning’ it was never “a cup”, as “cup” was a word you learned.

Minecraft is more than just a game. Much more. It is an interactive allegory for the dream we call life. And it is so beautiful... While Minecraft is an endless game of infinite possibility (just like life), there is an "end" baked the game. Starting the game with absolutely nothing, over time you gather resources to craft increasingly powerful items. After many hours of play, if you know what you're doing, you can gather the resources to create a portal to "The End," a separate dimension from the "overworld" where you started. Upon traveling to The End for the first time, you spawn on a platform where you must fight a giant dragon. Notice that this is a reference to The Hero's Journey, where the dragon is a metaphor for the final boss. After you slay the dragon, you drop down into another portal back to the overworld to continue your infinite journey... but not until The End Poem plays back to you. And boy, this caught me by surprise. It's a deep and moving metaphysical poem about two unknown beings (presumed to be of a higher dimension, or gods) conversing. As the player, you realize that these two beings have been with you all the time, but only now are you aware of their presence and thoughts. Let's think about this for a moment. At the end of Minecraft, the most popular PC game of all time, is a metaphysical poem about dreams, love, nonduality, and the infinitude of the universe. All lining up with the work of actualized.org and eastern spirituality. Excuse me, but WHAT THE FUCK?!?! Only those on the path are open to considering and understanding the deep truths found within... Truly fascinating. Since "beating" the game yesterday, I've browsed the web for other people's reactions, and it shouldn't be a surprise to you that 95% of gamers hated the ending or totally misunderstood it. And even those that "got it" didn't REALLY get it. Doesn't the universe speak to us in the most amazing ways? Even if you've never played Minecraft, Please please please watch the ending. Trust me, it will speak to you and uplift you. P.S. I looked up who wrote the poem, and it wasn't Notch, the famous developer who created the game. He hired Julian Gough to write the ending, based off Julian's short story "iHole," which is a brilliant satire worth reading. I just ordered his latest book called "Connect," which appears to be a riveting work well ahead of its time. Once you read the End Poem, you'll know that Julian isn't your run-of-the-mill fiction writer. He can't be.

Nonduality teacher Roger Castillo who sometimes quotes from ACIM said that some people start to suffer directly when they wake up in the morning, regardless of the actual external circumstances. That has probably happened to all of us. That's the mind causing suffering by itself! That simple fact is suspicion enough to at least consider what ACIM says as a possible truth. Why would the mind torture itself? Eckhart Tolle has mentioned something similar about the ego mind. So a simple practice I will try is to observe my mind and how it creates suffering by itself.