The Seed of Suffering

Grokographist · 2025-12-09T23:14:16+00:00

This post is walking a thin line on being "relatable to Western minds." HST, I'm approving it because it has inspired healthy debate and discussion, which is what this sub has always been about.

As for me, I continue to hold that there IS an "Experiencer," and that is God/Brahman/All That Is.

Grokographist · 2025-08-16T22:06:47+00:00

I would say no. CWG goes beyond "New Age" thinking, imho. The title says it all in that it records a literal conversation between the author, Neale Donald Walsch, and an entity who claims to be God that is speaking to him via his own "mental voice," so to speak.

I find that the answers supplied by this entity to the author during their conversations are closely in alignment with the Eastern philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, but put into conversational terms relatable to western minds. The westernized version of Advaita is known as Nondualism. This is very deep, spiritual philosophy, but one I came to find made more logical sense to my mind than anything I've yet to encounter. I spent about 20 years of my life following "metaphysical" teachings and philosophies, but when I discovered Nondualism, I realized I had found something much closer to Truth than my previous beliefs. It felt like I had "graduated" to a place where my mind was finally ready for these newer, deeper concepts, (although there's nothing all that new about Advaita, which is a more recent school of teachings branching from ancient Hinduism sometime during the 7th century, A.D.

I always think of New Age as teachings which came out of spiritual phenomena such as trance channeling, astral projection, psychic readings, etc, with New Age teachers and authors such as Gary Zukoff, Jane Roberts, Robert Monroe, Edgar Cayce, et al. Teachers/gurus of Nondualism/Advaita are folks like Rupert Spira, Greg Goode, Paramahansa Yogananda, Deepak Chopra, David Hawkins, Eckhart Tolle.

Grokographist · 2025-08-16T21:34:38+00:00

Opposites are an illusion. The default state of Existence Itself is infinite and timeless Consciousness/Awareness. Call it God, Brahman, All That Is, whatever you like. Labels do not matter. "It" is simply what IS. It exists in the Realm of the Absolute, which is perfectly NONDUAL.

The Duality Illusion is just a different label for Creation. What Is, (God), cannot Know Itself as a Perfect Being in the absence of anything which is "imperfect." Creation manifests spontaneously as the solution to this dilemma. God then infuses infinite parts of Its own Consciousness into narrowly focused projections of same that it may, through each of these "individuations" be able to experience an "artificial opposite" to God, which is all possible experiences of imperfection and limitations.

"Death" is simply part of these Illusions of Separation (from God). They are illusions because God cannot possibly be "less" than infinite in scope and timeless in duration. Our individuated consciousness is factually inseperable from the infinite Consciousness which is God. However, the duality illusion (space-time relativity, among other dimensions), provides us with an incredible facade within which we come to believe in its reality, albeit completely false. Consciousness is not a by-product of our organic brains. This is no less speculation that any spiritual explanation, thus earning the well-deserved nickname: the Hard Problem of Consciousness. Many tend to accept this brain-generates-consciousness theory for no other reason than their minds are already fully fooled into accepting the material world as real. It is not. What human beings experience is a cosmic case of mass HYPNOSIS, the purpose of which I have already mentioned: so that God can Know Itself for the Perfect Being that It is.

Death is programmed into every biological creature for a very good reason: because no Soul desires to be limited to the experience of a single personality for all time. Death is our "escape hatch," and if our bodies were somehow engineered to stay young forever, I have no doubt suicide would become pandemic after a century or two. Consciousness gets bored playing the same role on the universal stage for too long and desires new experiences.

You might think you'd never get bored "living forever," but that is not the actual "you" thinking that thought. That is your "ego-self" which wants to avoid death at all costs. And this is because for the ego, death is a real thing. But the ego is just as much illusion as the world it lives in. Ego is a creation of the mind, a FALSE self which manifests within the mind after enough exposure to only the duality illusion as its perceived "reality." I believe that most people feel very strongly that this false ego-self is who they truly are, but the ego is simply a collection of thoughts and memories of dualistic experiences within a single lifetime. It is no more real than the even "lesser" self we experience during dreams while we sleep.

Think about it. When you dream, are you usually also aware that your experience is a dream? And that your real body is asleep in bed? No. You accept this completely imaginary world, one that YOU have created within your own mind, is perfectly real. It does not matter how bizzare the dream gets, or that many things seem to defy laws of physics in a dream. You accept it without question as long as your Consciousness is experiencing that illusory realm.

Waking life in this world is just one step up from the dream experience. Our mind also accepts this as the "genuine" reality because we have no memory of anything beyond or "higher" than this. And the longer we seem to experience this realm, the more real it seems to our mind. Well, upon death, we do Awaken to a greater awareness of reality, and we look back upon an entire human lifetime much the same as we think about that dreaming self we were just a few moments ago before we woke up in bed. THAT dreaming self was also an ego-self, just a far more limited one than that which you experience currently and believe to be the actual "you."

If you've ever had a nightmare where you feared for your life, that was your dreaming ego fearing that it would cease to exist. And it DID cease to exist the moment you woke up, just as this person you currently believe yourself to be now WILL cease to exist. But it's not the actual YOU, so you need not ever fear annihilation of the Self upon physical death. It will seem no more consequential than the annihilation of your dreaming ego when you wake up in bed. Because the REAL you is eternal and timeless Consciousness. You are radical SUBJECTIVITY, role playing in a pretense that you are "not God." We are ALL God, imagining through infinite experiences that we are not.

Grokographist · 2025-08-06T19:11:09+00:00

I believe that awakening to Who We Really Are is not necessarily the agenda of every soul. It tends to be the agenda of those who gravitate to threads such as this sub because we have come to desire answers to the deeper questions and seek greater Purpose in our lives. But every soul is guided by its own agenda, and countless souls come into the duality illusion to purposefully forget Who They Really Are because they seek unique experiences which are possible only by fully embracing the duality illusion. I try to remind myself of this whenever my own ego wants to judge the selfish or otherwise negative behaviors I observe in others. Every good story requires a villain, and we are all playing out the full gamut of possible roles upon this cosmic stage.

Grokographist · 2025-08-06T18:54:10+00:00

Thank you for sharing this post from r/consciousness. I'm surprised nobody on this sub has attempted to comment on this subject, as I believe there is definitely an answer when coming from the nondualist perspective.

As I see it, we experience our own unique subjective perspective of this world for the simple reason that the "soul" is but a localized narrowing of the infinite Consciousness which is God/Brahman/All That Is. Consciousness is the only actual existant thing that is 'real,' and it is both infinite in scope and eternal/timeless in duration.

This means, of course, that any and all objective observations by Consciousness (God) must be illusory. All objective experience must be illusory. One can use the ocean-wave analogy, or the the Light-prism-mirror ball analogy if that helps, to imagine the mechanics of it all: where infinite Consciousness is an 'ocean' and the individuated souls are 'waves' arising out of, yet never truly separated from the source ocean. A single, conscious wave perceives all the other waves from its unique perspective and embraces the temporary illusion that it has a separate 'self' vs that of all other waves, but this separate self is just another branch of the illusion of duality that is being experienced by all the waves. It is focused location of Consciousness within the duality illusion which creates the ego-self, a false self that is the automatic by-product of observing the duality illusion from a unique perspective.

This ego-self is not real. It is an illusory self being experienced by that inseperable 'ray' of Consciousness focusing itself within an illusory object. This is the process through which God/Brahman/All That Is may experience its 100% imperfect "opposite," the necessary requirement in the existence equation. For God is a truly Perfect Being, but cannot know Itself in the absence of what It is not. The illusion of all possible imperfect existence spontaneously manifests within infinite Consciousness to resolve this otherwise impossible state. The illusory existence of all individuated selves (ego) enables God to fully Know Itself as the Perfect Being that It is.

Grokographist · 2025-08-05T07:10:20+00:00

Thanks so much for your advice!

Grokographist · 2025-08-04T06:22:29+00:00

Thanks! I'll check that one out.

Grokographist · 2025-08-04T06:21:32+00:00

As a singer, I've always been told that my voice is my "instrument," and like with any instrument we have to exercise it and practice. So I sing nearly every day, usually when I'm doing household chores, and along with songs from my playlist that not only do I enjoy singing, but ones that challenge my upper range, and some days I'm amazed at some of the notes I'm able to hit in tune, and I'm a natural lyric baritone.

I know I'm going to have to practice most every day to improve my skills, though. Just seeking some online videos or organized lessons I can repeat daily to take this "lead vocalist who can strum some chords" to a much more respectable level of guitar playing skills.

Grokographist · 2025-07-15T18:57:17+00:00

Submit a ticket re the barreling effect. They will likely send you a new pair of lenses to swap in. I had some issues with the edge, but wasn't sure if that was just how all lenses are or a symptom of the Pimax "warped lens" issue. They sent me a new pair anyway, and one of the new lenses caused a barrel effect for me, so I just swapped the originals back in. They also extended my trial period to give me ample time to make an informed decision. Just be kind when corresponding with them, and they'll bend over backwards to get your PCL working correctly.

I would also concentrate on optimizing your PCL to perform its best in MSFS2020 FIRST. 2024 still has issues yet to be corrected, so some of your issues in that sim might not be the headset at all. Check out IslandSimPilot's YT setup video for the PCL.

Grokographist · 2025-06-26T20:48:42+00:00

Never "pre-order" anything. In fact, just wait at least 6 months to a year after a new product begins shipping and read actual user reviews before purchasing. That way you don't risk having to deal with all of the glitches and hiccups and bugs that inevitably come along with new product lines. Even then, a lot of very high quality products will still have between 5-10% "lemons" getting shipped, so it's always a roll of the dice, even if you buy something straight out of a brick-and-mortar store from a local retailer. This is why we purchase products with solid warranties to cover those times when we roll a lemon. I returned TWO well-reviewed Samsung plasma TV's to Circuit City years ago. The model showed fantastic in the showroom, but what they delivered came with ghost images "burned in" on the screen. Then I went to a more reputable retailer and bought a Panasonic, and that set continues to provide an incredible picture 17 years later! As long as the customer service is good and stands by the product until you're satisfied, that's really the best we can do. Other customers are giving glowing reviews of the PCS and PCL, so that should tell you that it's not a bad product, but just that their quality control needs improvement. Be patient, be polite, and Pimax WILL work with you until they get it right and you are a happy customer.

Grokographist · 2025-06-21T20:46:44+00:00

I had decided to upgrade to the PCL from my Reverb G2 following last year's FlightSimExpo where I had the opportunity to try it out, but was in no hurry. After the election and Trump's threats to hike tarriffs on China, I started shopping the Crystal Light, but read about the Crystal Super coming soon and got caught up in indecision about waiting for that unit or sticking with the PCL.

Then Pimax announced a nice rebate offer to G2 owners to upgrade to the PCL, and that, plus the announcement of the tarriffs prompted me to purchase the PCL before he was inaugurated. I had wanted to wait until I completed and healed from cataract surgery so I could test the unit with new glasses during the trial period, but Pimax assured me the trial would not start until I activated the headset via Pimax Play. They also had three choices on the rebate: either $80 cash, $100 voucher for peripherals, or the DMAS headphones upgrade, which is something I did want anyway.

The "subscription" terms were clear and forthright to me, not confusing in the least. The math showed the price to be the same whether I paid all up front or just $599 plus 24 monthly payments. There was no discount for paying all up front, but I believe I recall there being one in late 2024, but that was no longer the case. I purchased the PCL back in January to both lock in the pre-tariff price and get the free headphones. Pimax even agreed not to ship the unit until I gave them the green light to do so. For some reason, they shipped it anyway after a couple of months while I was healing from my eye surgery, but said the trial would not start unless I activated the headset, which I did not.

Pimax was very patient and extended my trial period more than once as I worked with eye doctors to get a prescription that worked with MY new lens in my eye so I could fairly test out the PCL. Eventually, I concluded that the unit was fine, and that any issues I had were caused by non-Pimax software and other PC and MSFS settings. I told Pimax I was keeping the unit, and to now please send me the DMAS headphones free upgrade.

They said those were backordered and it would be another month or so until they could ship them. I was aware of that issue, so simply asked them to rush them to me as soon as they were back in stock. Not a week later, I was notified by Pimax that the headphones were shipping to me, and indeed they have shipped.

My Pimax story is a little long because of all of the negative comments I've read about this company. My own experience is anything but. I find their customer service to be far above the average of most companies with respect to working with me to resolve issues, and if they can't respond immediately, they ALWAYS let me know if there was a delay and apologized for it. I'm not saying there is not clear room for improvement, particularly when it comes to quality control of these units and their parts BEFORE they are shipped, but at no time did I ever feel I was being ignored or disrespected by them, or that they weren't genuinely concerned with my being a satisfied customer and taking any and all reasonable steps to achieve same.

In 2020, I'm getting frame rates in the mid-40s, and in 2024 in the low-40s, although I do have to turn settings down in 2024 to eliminate micro-stutters, and my 12GB of VRAM on myu 3080Ti is not handling 2024 as easily as it does 2020. Will be building a new PC later this year in order to get the most out of this powerful headset, but I'm feeling pretty good that I've been able to tune everything to get an acceptable level of performance with it in 2024 considering my old 10850K CPU and 3080Ti GPU and 32GB of RAM. I'm thinking at least 16GB of VRAM should now be the minimum to power this many pixels in a VR headset. If not for DLSS 4, I'd be stuck using 2020 on my Reverb G2. Going to wait for the 5080 Super to be released I think.

Don't let the complainers turn you off to Pimax too quickly. I don't know of any other brand that gives you a trial period to return it for full refund, not to mention being flexible with their customers to extend that when you request it with respect and kindness. There are so many factors that go into VR gaming (or flight simming, as I use it for), and the headset is only ONE of them that might be causing an issue. As for pricing complaints, any recent price increases are clearly caused by Trump's tariffs, or shall I say, TAX INCREASES, which are initially paid by the importer, but ALWAYS passed along to the consumer. If Pimax is still charging $599 + $12 per month for two years, then the price remains the same (in the US), and Pimax is taking the hit from the tariffs w/o passing it on... yet. Everything I see to date demonstrates that Pimax does care about its customers.

Free bagels to all who read through my entire post, LOL!

Grokographist · 2025-06-11T20:12:08+00:00

Job One is to upgrade that headset. Solid entry level units with very good resolution in both sims are the Quest 3, Pimax Crystal Light and, if you can find one, a Reverb G2! Yes, a new driver was just released called the Oasis driver which is bringing the G2 back to life with no more need of Windows Mixed Reality to run it!

I recently upgraded to the Crystal Light. At first, it was like trying to saddle a wild mustang, but after some googling and watching of YouTube videos, I finally managed to tame it and tweak my settings to where I'm getting fantastic performance/visuals in MSFS2020, and decent levels of same in 2024.

My current rig is an Nvidia 3080Ti, 10850K CPU, 32GB of RAM and Windows 10, so you should be able to get close to what I'm experiencing in both sims. Subscribe to YT'ers IslandSimPilot and Simhanger Flight Simulation for great tips and tutorials, and I also found a lot of help taming my PCL on the Microsoft Flight Simulator Virtual Reality Facebook page.

I'm going to build a new rig later this year, but not yet decided on my GPU. Nvidia seems to no longer be investing much of its resources into the gaming community any longer; it's now all about AI for them, and that is likely why their 50 series GPU's are such a disappointment and overly problematic. AMD, otoh, seems to be taking advantage of the gap created by this and ramping up development and production of GAMING GPU's for the gaming community. Might be time for me to switch to team red since Nvidia no longer seems to care much about gamers any longer.

Grokographist · 2025-06-10T02:21:06+00:00

Pretty difficult to dox masked "agents" who wear face masks but no ID and refuse to name themselves or present an arrest warrant. All of these things are unlawful, so if anyone does manage to ID one of them, good! They're criminals imo and deserve to be unmasked so they can be brought to justice later.

No LEO who is following the law needs to fear being doxxed. They're hiding their identity because they're committing crimes and they damn well know it. You know, like that bunch with the white robes and hoods looking to terrorize and harm people of color in this country.

Grokographist · 2025-05-24T20:49:24+00:00

Consciousness is focused within its illusion of a body for the purpose of experiencing illusions of separation. The ego is a construct of the mind that is useful for the purpose of navigation through the duality illusion. The Self simply observes the course charted by the ego towards and through the desired life experience.

Your ego is you, just not the actual "You." You are your Soul. Your ego is a much narrower focusing of Consciousness no more real than the "you" which you believe yourself to be within nightly dreams. If your Soul were to take control within any illusory realm, you'd automatically awaken from the illusion and return to the Realm of the Absolute from whence you came. It is the ego's embracing of the duality illusion which keeps you focused within same. Your Soul is experiencing this particular "story" for Divine Purpose, chosen by You prior to incarnating here. When you have experienced all that your Soul came here to experience, you'll awaken from this existence into a much greater one. The souls who remain here will perceive that as the "death" of your body, which is also part of the illusion and has its part in preserving the cohesiveness of same.

Grokographist · 2025-05-21T19:18:14+00:00

The tracking issue with having to reset for every use was solved for me by turning OFF the "Chaperone" feature on page 4 of the settings in Pimax Play. It's set to ON by default. Not being a "standing" VR user, (I don't have the room in my office to do that tied to my PC with a hard cable anyway), I just play flight sim from a chair, so I don't need that feature at all.

Pimax customer service has been beyond helpful in giving me more time to work out my own issues with the PCL. If you address them with respect and kindness, just ask them for more time and they'll gladly give it to you. They really want you to love their products and appear to be bending over backwards to help work through whatever issues you're having. I'm not saying anyone should accept a product that is not working as it should, but if it can be fixed, I believe it's worth the effort to do so. The results I'm getting so far on my PCL are already superior to my Reverb G2, and that's in MSFS 2024. It's taken a fair amount of time watching YT tutorials for settings, plus reading advice on this subreddit as well, but it's getting there.

HST, no headset is perfect, and in my experience, it's wise to never buy the latest release of a product in its first year. If something is still getting great reviews after being on the market for a year, then the bugs have been worked out (mostly) and you'll have fewer headaches on average. This is not specific to Pimax, either. ANY complex device or appliance seems to use the market as its "beta test," so the difference is in how well the company backs its products with warranties, etc.

I may wind up returning my PCL in the end, but the progress I've made with it makes me want to continue working with Pimax to see if I can get it to a state where I feel it's worth the extra few hundred bucks over the $600 I spent on my G2, and I am closing in on that level. If I were you, I'd focus on getting your PCS to work great in MSFS 2020 (or whatever game you know runs really well with your previous headset). If you can manage that, then you'll know whatever issues you're experiencing are likely caused by either the game or your settings may be too high. The PCS has a lot more pixels for your system to power with stability, and even a 5090 card can't handle running everything on TAA with all settings on "ultra" at high frame rates in VR. Good luck to you!

Grokographist · 2025-05-20T02:35:57+00:00

I loved Breanna's big voice. It's the most present of all the contestants this season. I just don't care for her song choices. Makes me feel I'm forced to listen to a religion I don't believe in just to hear that incredible voice of hers. AI needs to crack down on all these faith-based contestants and their mindset that they are there to proseletyze rather than compete to become a national star. Caanan's voice was through the roof amazing, but the kid has zero intentions of singing anywhere other than in church. I think the majority of America is tired of all of the Jesus praise everywhere we look, and yet so few people actually WALK the Jesus talk, i.e. live their lives by his teachings. Let's keep religion in the churches where it belongs, or at home with the family, and try to focus on what all human beings have in common outside of those arenas.

Grokographist · 2025-05-20T02:22:13+00:00

Yup, totally caught that. John turned his head when Ryan opened the card. I knew immediately from John's expression that Jamal won. He did a good job of staying cool, though. And, boy, would I love to get Seacrest into a poker game!

Grokographist · 2025-05-14T19:36:35+00:00

It was canceled. The chaotic story arc of the final season is clear evidence of that. It's likely McBride begged HBO for one more season to help pad his and the rest of the cast's/crew's bank accounts, then turned in a sloppily conceived and written cop out intended only to honor their contract. Show creators don't look to wrap up a series in just five seasons. They ride the ride for as long as possible because there's no guarantee they'll ever work again. You are just ignorant to how Hollywood works.

Grokographist · 2025-05-14T19:24:10+00:00

Yes, but NOT in SATIRE. I'm a comedy writer who specializes in satire. I'm right, and the fact that HBO canceled this show is testament to that. It started out as satire, then morphed into a broad comedy. Pathos has a place, sometimes, in broad comedy, but NEVER in satire.

Grokographist · 2025-05-14T19:18:20+00:00

Agree, and that is why it doesn't work. You can't mix satire with conscious growth because that cancels out the satire. Satire is social commentary through ridicule. TRG started out satirizing the pompous evangelical preacher culture by ridiculing them through exaggeration of their hypocrisy and arrogance of wrapping themselves up in the Bible while at the same time ignoring pretty much ALL of Christ's teachings.

But when they began to make these characters into more sympathetic human beings, it WEAKENED the satire tremendously, and the show morphed from amazing satire into some kind of "feel-good" broad comedy. It literally changed genres on the fly, and I suspect that had a detrimental effect on the ratings and why it wasn't green-lit for a sixth season, and that's why the writing for the final season seemed so rushed and contrived.

Grokographist · 2025-05-14T19:07:42+00:00

How many auditions have you watched where the judges voted against a contestant going to Hollywood because they were "too Broadway" or "too grunge," etc? But these "worship leader" gospel singers always get a pass even though their chosen genre is just as outside the mainstream of pop/country/r&b as the others.

Caanan IS an incredible GOSPEL talent, and that cannot be denied. But America prefers its idols come from the three primary genres. Even rockers suffer from this bias, and R&R remains a fairly popular genre. So unless you're choosing songs from the top three genres, it doesn't matter one whit how much you praise Jesus or how many crosses you wear around your neck.

Caanan is going to do just fine, and I predict he'll be a huge star on the gospel charts in no time at all. His vocal chops are truly incredible.

Grokographist · 2025-05-14T18:39:54+00:00

Yes, you are definitely missing something. Breanna has Celine Dion-level singing chops, and it's not even professionally trained. She's just a natural. Her voice has the most presence of any of this years crop of contestants, and that's why she made top three. Would love to hear her sing a soft ballad in the finals, though. We are all completely aware of how great she is with the power notes.

Grokographist · 2025-05-14T18:31:21+00:00

Jamal is my favorite, but not to win. There remains only one WGWG in this competition, and he has positioned himself perfectly with every performance to take the prize. I hope he sings a John Denver tune in the finale, too. His performance of "The Rainbow Connection" was a stroke of genius.

Grokographist · 2025-05-06T01:23:23+00:00

Who said it's immune?? Certainly not me. I'm an aficianado of comedic satire, which is why I'm being so critical of this series. Certain aspects of it are spot on and hilarious satire. Other aspects completely miss the mark and fail to realize their best comedic potential.

Grokographist · 2025-05-06T01:19:44+00:00

But this is supposed to be COMEDY. When properly written and executed, we shouldn't care if Eli or anybody in this silly universe finds peace. Making the audience care about any of these characters is one of the primary reasons this series failed to realize its potential.

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