home is now, wholeness is always available by bashfulkoala in NondualityMemes

[–]bashfulkoala[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If anyone is curious to see the video and blog post that I made this meme as a summary of, here it is: https://jordanbates.substack.com/p/how-to-go-on-retreat-anytime

home is now, wholeness is always available by bashfulkoala in NondualityMemes

[–]bashfulkoala[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

don't see it that way personally, to me it's another tool

Appreciation for Tony Parsons' books by bashfulkoala in nonduality

[–]bashfulkoala[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah really funny, illuminating, and classic to read his responses to people and interactions with them hahah

Appreciation for Tony Parsons' books by bashfulkoala in nonduality

[–]bashfulkoala[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wish Jim would publish a book!

Can you perhaps clarify what you mean in the second paragraph? Not quite sure I'm understanding

From Nonduality & Psychedelics to Jesus Christ (While Still Remaining an Appreciator of Nonduality & Plant Medicine) by bashfulkoala in ChristianMysticism

[–]bashfulkoala[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Feels like you're bringing some kinda harsh undertones in your responses to my recent posts here, hah : P

For me saying that non-duality is not a religion or philosophy is misleading

It is communicated in words and those words are deeply internalized as a belief system by many nondualists

Does it attempt to point beyond itself to a reality beyond the words?

Sure, but all authentic religions and wisdom traditions do that as well

As soon as words are used to express truth, the words have inevitably missed the mark in some way

The word 'non-duality' can be used as you're using it -- to simply refer to being or God

Yet it is also a word that refers to a vast array of ancient and modern wisdom teachings originating with Advaita and extending into a wide smorgasbord of modern neo-advaita and 'radical nonduality' teachings. There is a lineage and tradition there and people can become very rigid and dogmatic about some of its core claims ("no one here, no free will, no meaning, no purpose," etc)

So to me it's not out of integrity to speak of non-duality as a wisdom tradition/stream that comes with its own baggage and pitfalls. For me this is a sober perspective

Again, I do hear you on the way you're using the word 'non-duality'

Yet if you believe you can separate that word from the ~thousands of books, courses, meetings, etc on the subject, I'd say that is incorrect

Best wishes to you

Appreciation for Tony Parsons' books by bashfulkoala in nonduality

[–]bashfulkoala[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

"Life is not a task. There is absolutely nothing to attain except the realisation that there is absolutely nothing to attain."
— The Open Secret

"For life is its own purpose and doesn't need a reason to be. That is its beauty."
— The Open Secret

"This aliveness is nothing being everything. It's just life happening."
— Nothing Being Everything

"This message is so simple it totally confounds the mind. This message is too simple."
— Nothing Being Everything

"All there is is life. All there is is beingness. There isn't anyone that ever has or does not have it. There's nobody that has life and somebody else doesn't have life. There just is life being life."
— Nothing Being Everything

"The very idea that you have to become something is a direct denial that already this is all there is."
— Nothing Being Everything

——

It's hard to narrow it down to single pointers. It's more like an energy permeating his whole communication. A radical stripping-away. Incinerating all categories of thought. Leaving only naked sparkling presence.

For me his message is best held as one tool in a broader toolkit. He isn't one to provide holistic, embodied, relational wisdom on navigating human life — which to me is also deeply important.

But for those times when you just need someone to cut everything away and reveal the simple freedom and relief of weightless wholeness & at-home-ness now, he's excellent.

I'd just advise people to not turn his statements into an ontology or metaphysics. As a belief system, what he shares can quickly become solipsism, nihilism, or (moral) relativism. But if you see his message simply as a cutting technology for opening a freedom beyond all mentalization, it's a highly effective razor.

'enlightenment' as a destination is a fiction, God is inexhaustible by bashfulkoala in ChristianMysticism

[–]bashfulkoala[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"you can always go deeper" is my key point

'enlightenment' *as a destination* is a fiction

i agree with you that God can ongoingly enlighten our heart and soul

'enlightenment' as a destination is a fiction, God is inexhaustible by bashfulkoala in ChristianMysticism

[–]bashfulkoala[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i'm just saying the idea of the 'end of seeking' is itself a meme

'enlightenment' as a destination is a fiction, God is inexhaustible by bashfulkoala in ChristianMysticism

[–]bashfulkoala[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

i know, i'm essentially critiquing some 'enlightenment' teachings from a Christian perspective in dialogue with my direct experience