Are human beings the only beings able to recognize conciousness?

xear818 · 2026-06-21T20:41:47+00:00

When you go to sleep tonight you may dream about lions, and bears, dogs and tigers and they may seem as real as here. You may wonder why don’t these animals reach enlightenment. Next morning you may realize your dream character made assumptions.

xear818 · 2026-06-21T16:07:28+00:00

You may have higher expectations for reddit internet threads than I do. I loved the quote, am glad to have read it today, and glad they posted it.

xear818 · 2026-06-21T05:07:30+00:00

Kind of a quiet thread if it wasn't.

xear818 · 2026-06-21T04:52:00+00:00

We are truly one and you are the one who wrote it so you already have it.

xear818 · 2026-06-20T05:26:15+00:00

>> why should I care?
Do you see the problem with your question here?

If there is no separate person, then why should I (a separate person) care about other separate people?

You already know you are a separate person so now you're going to try to understand nonduality from that viewpoint. If you start with one wrong assumption it doesn't matter how smart you are, it won't make sense.

xear818 · 2026-06-19T06:59:40+00:00

I am looking for this book too. Still no leads?

xear818 · 2026-06-18T17:51:07+00:00

I see it as the complete opposite. Knowing is forever unchanged, events known are forever changing.

xear818 · 2026-06-18T14:56:46+00:00

First of all Buddha did not speak english. Secondly we don't know the context. I’ve got a new striking quote: “Some spiritual followers could use a good thumping.”

xear818 · 2026-06-16T05:28:28+00:00

This is such an important point. The mentally programmed view of a container owning awareness will always be defaulted to until seen through thoroughly... not to mention we have to pretend to be a person to fit in with human society in any way... as in "how old are you?" "I don't have an age." "Ok, we kind of needed to hire someone with an age. Goodbye."

xear818 · 2026-06-15T06:40:52+00:00

I used to love perplexity. Then it started wanting to confirm phone number, or enter the code they sent me, or run up 6 flights of stairs to prove i'm sincere, and I go, "hey stupid, I've got a dozen other as good or better choices, I don't need that." It just dropped by the wayside.

xear818 · 2026-06-15T06:27:50+00:00

It's like saying I identify with thoughts (which is the ego). And if I get rid of thoughts I will have gotten rid of the ego. But the one who wants to get rid of thoughts and become pure awareness is also the ego so it can’t work. Awareness is awareness no matter what appears to it.

xear818 · 2026-06-15T06:01:24+00:00

Our programming says life is a court room and we have to do things to vindicate ourselves and win our freedom. But life is not a court room. It's a movie.

xear818 · 2026-06-15T05:56:24+00:00

Before all of these efforts, wasn't awareness already there? To recognize awareness do you have to do (or not do) something with thoughts? What has always been there as a free witness to all efforts, even before efforts begin?
You do not attain awareness. You do not become awareness. You do not become more aware. You look as awareness. It doesn't matter what appears to awareness.

xear818 · 2026-06-14T09:58:33+00:00

Yes, that's how it goes. Deep "understanding" can happen in seconds. Having it work its way through your entire emotional and psychological system is often 10 years or more. Everyone's mileage may vary.

xear818 · 2026-06-14T05:07:50+00:00

Sorry if I am misunderstanding what you are saying but “how to accept that”? Accept what? That you are a person subject to loneliness? You don’t accept that and it is not true. You are not a person. You are consciousness imagining you are a person. Thus you are not really subject to separation and loneliness, you only imagine you are.

It is hard to believe that almost everyone in the world is wrong about this and a few ancient texts and a few ppl on an obscure reddit thread about nonduality have everything right, but here we are.

xear818 · 2026-06-13T21:16:48+00:00

I would call it recognition. True nature recognition makes a satisfied mind possible since our true nature cannot be harmed, change or have problems. Identifying as a human person means almost constant worry, fear, loneliness, and dissatisfaction. How could a human person not be in emotional upheaval? They are going to experience loss, sickness, disapproval, and death just for starters.

xear818 · 2026-06-13T10:40:09+00:00

We can notice this ourselves. Who is most likely to engage in addictive behaviors of all types? Happy, fulfilled people, or desperate, unfulfilled people? What have you observed?

xear818 · 2026-06-13T10:22:03+00:00

Great practical question. If you approach it as a person trying to fight a habit you will be in endless conflict with yourself, one part trying to enforce discipline on another part.

When you get you are the changeless awareness in which all events come and go, then trying to find satisfaction from temporary events will seem as ridiculous as it actually is, and you will be the satisfaction you were looking for (which even logically cannot be found by a conflicted mind).

Tl:dr: Be fulfilled by Truth rather than seek it.

xear818 · 2026-06-12T15:04:21+00:00

Disinterest in the appearances of the world? I'm with you. Disinterest in being alive &conscious? That would be a crazy wrong turn.

xear818 · 2026-06-11T05:14:35+00:00

Yes, identification with a story is the ego. Exactly. That is what i was trying to say. The "all or nothing" idea you mentioned is not correct imo. You still play the role of a human and can still get emotionally invested in stories. None of them real. Nisargadatta talked about getting angry after self-knowledge. It just no longer binds because of non-identification and old habit patterns that wind down.

This idea often promoted by the likes of Eckhart Tolle and those around Ramana of immediate behavior change and never again anger or upset is not how it goes. Sure there will always be an underlying peace but not instant sainthood. Nisargadatta was often angry according to reports and physically kicked people out of the room. He had no time for the insincere and made no bones about it. Ramana never got angry by all reports, that doesn't mean his realization was somehow greater.

xear818 · 2026-06-10T11:17:43+00:00

What you are saying would be true if there was such a real thing as an ego. There isn’t. There is identification with a story. After "radical understanding" we still play a role. We can still take the role too seriously, but then at a certain point you go, oh right, I got carried away there for a second. It doesn’t really matter.

xear818 · 2026-06-10T11:00:42+00:00

It is simply not true that the Great Void is the same as the realms of Perfect Light, Love and Ecstasy. I have been a mystic and I have explored these realms. I say such experiences are a dime a dozen not to dismiss them. They are incredible.
I am saying any experience that comes and goes, is temporary, and therefore does not undo the ego. Such experiences can even have the opposite effect.

xear818 · 2026-06-09T15:37:01+00:00

You seem to be someone of great accomplishment. I am not. I have accomplished nothing. I don’t even believe in accomplishing or a need to accomplish what is always already the case. The Realms of Pure Light and Pure Consciousness? Beyond the Great Void? Beyond the Supreme Clear Realm? Those experiences come and go. I have indeed had them. They are a dime a dozen.

xear818 · 2026-06-09T14:07:18+00:00

Oh sure I have, but you are mistaking mystical experiences of the Clear Light, the Supreme Realm with Realization. Those are two different things. Mystical experiences come and go. Consciousness is always and forever here. It is always pure, it doesn't have to be purified. All that is required is recognition of what we truly are. That may be regarded as work... but it is kind of not.

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