If you think reality is just a bunch of dead objects lying around, devoid of life...

[blankisomeone]

If you think that you’re wrong.

Think about it. You’re part of reality, right? Right. Get in touch with the fact that you’re part of reality. It’s not obvious for the scientific mind!!! Now realize: a part of reality (you) is capable of KNOWING ITSELF. A part of reality conscious of itself! Incredible incredible incredible. Miraculous

Now grab a pen.

Look at the pen. Now here’s where it gets tricky! The process of YOU knowing YOURSELF is the same as YOU KNOWING THE PEN. It’s not like one part of reality (you) is knowing the pen. It’s more like YOU AND THE PEN are both part of reality and the KNOWING PROCESS embraces both you and the pen! Reality is ALIVE, it KNOWS ITSELF, it’s capable of amazing things like KNOWING ITSELF. It’s not merely a clockwork machine devoid of life. The objects around you are not DEAD. Everything is vibrant with life.

YOU knowing THE PEN isn’t like there’s an arrow coming from you pointing to the pen! And, since the pen is dead it isn’t capable of knowing you back. No! That is just a MODEL reinforced by language when you say “I know the pen”, the subject-object structure of language reinforces the illusion! And I’m not saying the pen can know you back! I’m saying that YOU ARE THE ONLY THING DOING THE KNOWING OF EVERYTHING?? It’s not a knowing that comes from you to the pen!!

Reality gets much more interesting, vibrant, alive, miraculous, when you get in touch with that! I keep slipping in and out of that realization throughout the day. My scientific model of the world, the “everything is just dead stuff bouncing around, and I’m just this thing looking at stuff” paradigm is still strong; it’s quite a depressing way of looking at life. Good thing it’s just an illusion

[blankisomeone]

By the way, if you just read this and just add this to your mental repertoire of knowledge, that’s a quantitative growth

what happens when you understand this new way of looking at life is a qualitative change! Something deeper CHANGES in how you view reality

I understood this clearer than ever after looking at a pen for an hour? Boring as  FUCK

 

I’m on vacation now so I’ll spend the entirety of next week getting more and more in touch with that realization to hopefully really drive it home. It gives life to everything!

Edited December 31, 2020 by blankisomeone

[PepperBlossoms]

And then you may realize that non-duality is another belief system and can add that to your mental repertoire of knowledge too.

Edited December 31, 2020 by PepperBlossoms

[Lazertazer]

@PepperBlossoms nonduality is only a belief system if you take it on faith without directly experiencing the insight. Truth can only be accessed from a state of not-knowing.

[PepperBlossoms]

Just like beliefs, experiences are not good enough to say that something is absolutely true.

How can one be so sure that their experience is an accurate representation of reality beyond any possible doubt?

It doesn't matter how many non-duality experiences someone has or how many people have it, that does not necessarily mean that it is 100% no matter what how reality actually is.

I bashed religion so many times for thinking that it is more right than other religions and the thinking that it was the one and how the worshippers don't question their religion enough and then I realized that my thoughts/experiences about non-duality were no different and that I had turned it into one too and am embarrassed that I had fallen for it.

I think the biggest problem with non-dual teachers is that they get trapped in their own belief/experience and forget that life could possibly be some other way.

Our inputs are limited with our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin as well as the brain processing.  For all anyone knows, these sensors and processors could be tricking us and we could just be hooked up to a machine.

Sure use/experience/become non-duality, but note that it may not be the final answer to the understanding of all of everything.

[Lazertazer]

@PepperBlossoms The reductionism you use makes me doubt that you've really accessed any nondual state. Have you ever tried psychedelics?

When you're in a nondual state, it goes very meta. It's not about 'believing' or 'falling for it'. You become actuality, prior to the unconscious biases that filter and narrate our perception. A pure awareness not distorted by the ego.

Of course there are teachers whose ego will use "spirituality" or "non-duality" for selfish egoic reasons. Most of which have never even been in a nondual state. However an actual awakening is to see exactly how all dualities collapse and in this fashion deconstruct the mind, removing the biased filters on reality.

For example you say our in your comment that 'our inputs are limited with our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin as well as the brain processing'. This is a reductionist assumption. What about the stomach? Why is "brain processing" an intelligent process anyways? You would need to do a lengthy investigation to explore all the ways that statement is a belief. And if we're hooked up to a machine, why is there a machine? Is the machine hooked up to another higher-dimensional machine? Such thinking is mental masterbation because none of that matters when you're searching for real answers: Why can anything exist at all? Why is reality intelligent? Why is reality aware?

I agree that non-duality is not 'the final answer to the understanding of all of everything'. Another reductionist perspective though. It's not an answer, first off. You're not going to understand computer science by entering a nondual state. But it is possible to understand at a penetrating level the simultaneous infinitude and nothingness of reality.

[PepperBlossoms]

There's the non-duality perspective and the skepticism perspective.  Thanks.

I was talking to my boss about non-duality and he had asked if it was just another belief system and I was telling him that I had experienced it and then it got me thinking and then I realized I deluded myself and never made the connection and had stopped being a skeptic that there are many unknowns and new perspectives to take on - I had been writing blogs about non-duality and then realized that I was writing about it as if it is absolute instead of it being a perspective. 

I liked the creativity and enthusiasm that this kind of mindset allows for but I realized just how horribly unreliable I got at work and how lazy and irresponsible I became.  It's good for thinking and creating but not for careers where you really need to be making good progress in your projects everyday.  My work ethic went way, way down.

I'd be curious to see if all the people who do psycadellics on here can actually keep their work ethics at work up or if they become unreliable.  There's more the desire to do your own thing than there is to do what the project needs.  It's weird because it can help for making learning really interesting which is needed for careers but at the same time, it also makes it to where the tasks just don't get done.

[Lazertazer]

@PepperBlossoms I've done hundreds of psychedelics trips, and I am a well-paid and highly-productive software engineer. If psychedelics make your work ethic go down, maybe it is telling you to create a life that is more in line with a conscious, long-term purpose. Of course I can't be sure of this because I'm not you and don't know the details of your work, but for me personally, every trip reignites my passion. This could be in part because software engineering is already a highly creative pursuit, but I think everyone can benefit from bringing creativity and consciousness into their career.

[PepperBlossoms]

@Lazertazer

On 1/1/2021 at 10:21 AM, Lazertazer said:

 creativity and consciousness into their career.

Thank you so much for bringing up creativity!  Yes I love the creative parts and it is so inspiring - even if it is just creating these new scheduling things in excel for who is doing what project when to show availability or getting ideas and tasks jotted down in microsoft paint, or even sitting and imagining how to do the design or what steps to do in what order.

On 1/1/2021 at 10:21 AM, Lazertazer said:

 conscious, long-term purpose

Yeah this one is tough.  I'm currently a civil engineer which to one degree helps to repair damaged infrastructure and provides reliable water/sanitary/flood prevention/streets, but another - If our projects are underwater from rising sea level in 40-100 years, they are not long term.. but the skills that I am getting could be.  I have seen lots of animals killed such as dragon flies flying in to the shiny SUPER HOT asphalt that was just placed or frogs that are trapped in a sanitary sewer plant - I felt horrible - or seeing the contractor tear up TONS of trees.  To one degree - the planet tends to be always changing; but to another - the existing nature is beautiful and it is sad to see insects/animals/trees with habitat loss and death.

On 1/1/2021 at 10:21 AM, Lazertazer said:

 I am a well-paid and highly-productive software engineer

Awesome!  My brothers do that as well!  (Maybe you work with one of them!)

On 1/1/2021 at 10:21 AM, Lazertazer said:

I've done hundreds of psychedelics trips

Wow!  Good job!  

It is super cool/inspiring to notice things that were never noticed before which is my favorite part.

@blankisomeone I'm sorry - I feel like I ruined your thread..  I hope you are still on your excitement path and are enjoying your vacation.  Nice job with coming up with new insights and inspirations!

[Jonty]

@blankisomeone Brilliant. What a great insight. Thanks for sharing ?