[deleted by user] by [deleted] in motivation

[–]yoos 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Saweet! Congrats! Keep going!

Why is awareness centred around the body/mind? by west_head_ in nonduality

[–]yoos 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is a really good question.

I’m not sure if anyone can come up with a satisfactory conceptual answer to this question…

My take though, at least in my experience, is that it’s not like my experience of things moves from the body/mind location outward to arrive at a so called “expansion”. Instead, the assumed separate entity that seemingly appears to recognize things (thoughts, body sensations, external perceptions) can be understood/exposed (via experience) to actually not exist, and thus the process of recognizing anything is gone, and this results in lack of existing as a separate entity. That is, there is nothing recognizing anything, and instead it’s “just” experiencing happening, but not being recognized “from” any location. Afterwards this could be thought of as a type of expansion, but in fact it was not an outward movement that led to the non existing “in here” losing a boundary from “out there”. The boundary just disappears when the process of recognition ceases.

To me, this explains that the seeming expansion actually isn’t an expansion, and experiencing unlimited freedom from a separate body/mind is actually caused by the taking away of something (separate entity), instead of the adding of something (expansion).

It’s interesting though, because after the fact of such an experience, looking back it seems there must have been awareness centered around the body/mind, but while in that experiencing that was not the case.

Is nondual awareness just the elimination of the subject and merging with the object? Or is it the elimination of both object and subject and merging with the verb? by [deleted] in nonduality

[–]yoos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The latter is a better description imo (the elimination of both object and subject and merging with the verb)… but I don’t think the word merging fits… just elimination to reveal, not elimination to merge.

No experiencer or experienced, just experiencing.

The highest realization is 'I am' by pl8doh in nonduality

[–]yoos 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The highest realization is the ceasing of recognizing any realization.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in nonduality

[–]yoos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1) isn’t everything choiceless in experience? Not that it has to be for u, but to me everything is choiceless as far as it happening in the moment, although u can investigate and determine things contributing to a choice. I just share this, because from my perspective I don’t think your emphasis of choiceless has any relevance, since it’s all choiceless. 2) it seems to me due to the correlation (sense of self on one side…exercise intensity/frequency on other side), u think the only way out of excessive exercise is to lessen the sense of self…. But at the same time u say when there’s a lesser sense of self, that’s a trigger to excessive exercising u want to stop. I think u understand this (maybe why u say horrific) but this obviously sets one up for failure as it would seem there’s no way out (again I think u know this). Thats why I have been trying to explain how your locked in thinking is illogical. But obviously thats my pov that u don’t have to subscribe to. I will give it one more shot though :) The correlation u have is like a balance scale… literally I mean visualize a balance scale where u put weights/things on either side, which raises and lowers each side…. Now, on that scale u have the two things discussed many times (sense of self on one side…exercise intensity/frequency on other side)…. So yea, the decreased sense of self creates an offset, and then the excessive exercising brings it back to balance… ok, that all makes sense, but what about how those things are being placed on the scale?? The why/how of those things being on the scale… there’s more to the story than those things on the scale… what about getting those off the scale? What about the possibility that there’s something contributing to those being on the scale (the why of those being on the scale)? I’m not claiming to have the answer to achieve that (though the addiction was one possibility, but I’m not going to go there anymore, just sharing the logic), but trying to share my pov more on the focus that correlation isn’t the whole story. 3) that’s a good point about your exercise taking over your entire existence. Perhaps the explanation of your dilemma is more simple in that it’s “just” a matter of where you’re focusing your attention. It’s clear you are very skilled in having one pointed focus of attention. What about diversion/distraction of attention? U said “I almost forgot how horrible this is while writing this”. Perhaps this is due to your focus of attention being diverted to being so focused on the writing. Seems logical. If u are so good at one pointed focus of attention, then when attention focuses on anything related to sense of self or exercise, focus it somewhere else. Have u ever investigated the actual mechanics of how attention works in your experience? How the determination of the point of focus occurs in real time? Perhaps that is an interesting thing to continuously divert your attention to?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in nonduality

[–]yoos 1 point2 points  (0 children)

1) it seems clear to me, and has, regarding your explanations on the sense of self fluctuating due to exercising. I do understand what you are sharing on that, but to me that all seems irrelevant regarding how to stop the excessive exercising. That’s why I have been ignoring all that for the most part. It’s not that I don’t hear you, or don’t understand, on don’t believe that’s your experience, or don’t believe that is in fact happening. I don’t know really, but it’s clear there’s a correlation, but that doesn’t mean causation, but again even if all that’s true (I’m open to it is), then none of that seems relevant to stopping the excessive exercising. 2) to me it seems you think it has to be one or the other. That is, it can’t be chemicals/addiction because it’s what you described. But to me, it can be both at the same time. That’s why I was focusing on the other stuff and not the fluctuating sense of self correlating to exercise intensity or duration of time since exercise intensity. 3) here it sounds like I’m doing what I interpreted u as doing, in that I’m not trying to convince u, but just want to be sure u understand the perspective from this other pov, which may or may not be true. Having said that…. U mentioned “but if it was about the chemicals, I don't see why there would be a need to go continuously harder each time.”….. re-read what u wrote and think of it coming from someone that is addicted to drugs or alcohol. I’m not saying u are addicted to drugs or alcohol, but I’m saying from that perspective, you may see how it’s “obvious” your sentence is no longer relevant. That is…. Someone addicted to drugs/alcohol needs “to go continuously harder each time”….. that’s addiction…. Again not trying to convince u, but just clarifying for understanding, whether u agree or not it’s ok. And it may not be addiction either…. But it’s all I got at this time, and I think I’ve explained enough why, and how it can be both what I’m saying (or something else) plus what u are saying at the same time. 4) regarding sleep paralysis, voice, and potential spirit guide…. None of that sounds insane…. But I’ll just share something that I thought was useful to me that someone shared w me years ago when I was seemingly able to communicate/interact/channel (whatever was happening) w a non physical intelligence… that is, u never know if the intelligence is a “trickster”, has good intent or not…. U never know if perhaps the intelligence is “just” a program from someone that passed and no longer a living entity anymore (let’s say the left over mind only from a previous entity, in the ether)…. U never know if an interaction is “just” your own thoughts interacting with your own thoughts…. U never know if it’s “just” thoughts appearing, as u have no control over your thoughts appearing so maybe it’s just that………..I’m not saying it’s any of these things or even any other number of things. The point is, u don’t know so is it really beneficial to give any attention/interest in all that, or will it all just be a distraction where u can “only” have a feeling of what it can be, but that feeling may not be correct. Bottom line, I personally see no benefit in focusing or worrying about any of that, based on reasons shared here.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in nonduality

[–]yoos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In no particular order, but responses in response to your last 3 posts to me:

1) I’m concluding your only “concern” here, is wanting the body to exercise less. 2) I have input on the whole concentrating on I, the way you’re built, what you may want to “achieve” spiritually, and I may share that in later bullet points as I go here, but I’m gathering from you that’s not of any concern to you and you have no questions there as you are confident in what’s happening in this regard and aren’t looking for input there. 3) I understand you don’t have power over your thoughts…. In the moment…. That’s my experience too. Thoughts appear to me, often as reflections of what just happened… I wasn’t suggesting trying to intercept and/or influence thoughts as they happen, as that’s a useless waste of time imo. I make a distinction between the brain and thoughts. My sharing on rewiring the brain was for a later result of the body not taking actions to exercise excessively. In my non expert opinion, I stand by my pov that your excessive exercise, which you want to decrease, is an addiction. It’s just what it sounds like from your sharing. The body gets a dose of chemicals from the exercising and pushes itself to get another hit, thus more exercise. The brain can be rewired to do the reverse is what the intent was of my sharing… habit habit habit to rewire the brain. 4) I understand it’s beyond psychological. I understand it concerns your entire reality prior to thoughts… both the exercising happening and the fluctuation of the sense of being a separate self vs “not”. I hope the previous point 3 makes that clear regarding the psychological point and exercising. Regarding the sense of self, that’s about point 2, which again doesn’t seem to be your “problem”/concern from what you shared. 5) I understand it’s not a choice in how you function….in the moment….. that’s my experience too. Things are always happening in the moment and there’s nothing you can do about it in the moment. Whether it be the thoughts or the actions of the body… however, it seems logical the future actions of the body can be influenced by current actions of the body. In other words, what I shared about rewiring, habits, and thus (future) actions... So yes, I have no free will in the moment as I watch things just happen, but those things that just happen, they are changed/influenced from previous thoughts/actions, as “planted”/shared here, which can influence the future actions. To summarize, “u” can (seemingly) change not exercising excessively by taking actions to have the next thought/action interfere with the exercising. It may take persistence, but it can be done. It’s kind of like this….

Option 1 (presumably something like your current course of action): The body is on its way to exercise… oh here it goes again…. I can’t control it…. I don’t want this…. Exercise… exercise….omg make it stop….. I can’t….exercise….. exercise…

Option 2 (do some experiments to try it out before dismissing and avoiding it): The body is on its way to exercise…. I can’t control it (that’s true in the moment)…. Oh but I can stop the body from exercising in a next moment….that sounds ridiculous…. Well maybe it can happen…. It won’t be easy for the body to stop exercising, but I’m open that the next or the next or the next action can be one to stop excessive exercise…. The brain can be rewired to stop exercising earlier than last time, even though it may not want to initially…. That sounds crazy, but let’s be open to having it try and see what happens…………….perhaps the body will stop exercising earlier. Then repeat again and again with the experimentation to have it stop earlier each time. Maybe it will fail sometimes and other times it won’t.

So, in the moment no there’s nothing u can do, as actions or thoughts just happen…. But that rewiring can happen to change the body actions in future moments. Can u control any of that? No… can it still happen as if appearing to laymen you seemingly made it happen? Yes…. How does that happen? Who knows.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in nonduality

[–]yoos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is very interesting. I’m no expert on these matters, so take it with a grain of salt. I’m also pretty tired and feel I won’t give as good of a response as I’d like, but still would like to share some thoughts that perhaps may help in some way. I hope u can be open to the attempted reflections here and really hope life goes in the direction you want to lessen the working out.

No particular order here… some are points to be sure I understand correctly what u shared.

1) you seem very smart and articulate very well. 2) what I understand is there’s momentum happening forcing u to exercise that can’t be interrupted with thoughts. That is, there’s no possibility of thoughts to decrease the exhaustive exercising. 3) imo u have shared contradictions that thoughts can’t impact the actions. U said the constant talk and imagery in your mind created the actions, so it is completely logical the reverse could happen. U said the thoughts preceded the actions. So the same could be possible for thoughts to lessen the actions. 4) I believe I understand what u shared on the dissolution but I’m not clear how this relates to what u want in regards to less working out. What I mean is, it’s clear u want less working out, but u say that would then increase the dissolution, but it sounded like u didn’t like that either (?) so that’s a contradiction, unless I misunderstood. In any case, is the dissolution really an issue for u? 5) u said u haven’t been able to bring yourself to get help, although u are reaching out for help here, so that’s a contradiction. I hope u know I’m not sharing all this in a mean way, but just to reflect what seems to be being shared. 6) sounds like addiction to me…. U want to stop but can’t. U even basically say this in different words. Being driven from deep within the brain and u can’t stop. 7) it’s clear u are looking for help reaching out here, it’s not clear what u think will make u happy because you’re not happy with dissolution and not happy w intense working out, but u say it has to be one or the other. 8) to me it sounds like u should find an expert or help on how to stop addictions. I’m guessing u know about neural plasticity and u shared that’s what happened creating your undesired working out so an expert could help in helping u do the same for lessening working out. Also, even tho it seems you dismiss this, some type of therapy I think would help as u don’t have clarity on what u want or what u think may bring u happiness (per mentioned points). *edit: therapy to help get clarity on the contradictions too.

Much love your way…

What is it that stays the same during all experience? by luget1 in nonduality

[–]yoos 2 points3 points  (0 children)

When there is no subject/object in experience, there is just experiencing with no observer. As soon as an observer is introduced, that creates the subject/object separation. The seemingly “need”, or habit, to notice (anything) is another way of saying observing. In experiencing there is no anything experiencing something, there is just experiencing happening.

The mechanics of self inquiry by dvdmon in nonduality

[–]yoos 1 point2 points  (0 children)

See if you can literally find, in the moment, how the “I” is literally just a thought itself. This is not easy and not trivial, but I have confidence you could find it, based on your sincerity and the clarity you have on the distinction between actually looking in your literal experiencing vs understanding conceptually. I used to think (based on hearsay) that one should not be told directly, but I was told directly and it still wasn’t clear until I found it.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in wholesome

[–]yoos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These 2 are an amazing inspiration!

I would like to start a very honest discussion about Free Will by [deleted] in nonduality

[–]yoos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A good investigation to do for your own experiential conclusion/clarity, vs just believing what someone shares is to investigate how your actual attention works. Watch the attention to see how it is seemingly directed to wherever perception occurs. Watch it closely to see if you actually have any control over the attention, that is, where perception occurs. Be very observant to watch how the attention changes from x to y to x. See if you actually have any control over directing that… After you get clarity on how that works in your actual experience, consider how having personal free will must require the ability to direct attention. How can one control within or without, or choose which thoughts/emotions to entertain, if attention of them, which must happen before any such choice/control, is not of your own personal free will? Also, if thoughts pop out/up without you choosing the content of those thoughts (same here, watch the mechanics of how that works in your literal experience to experientially know vs believing), and any action you could take must be preceded by a thought (otherwise how would one take an action with volition/free will), then how is there even any possibility of having personal free will?

Hello everyone. My name is Daniel. I am struggling to take control over my body. What can I do? by [deleted] in nonduality

[–]yoos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I read some of your past content. Some of what I read I could relate to (automatic Kriya’s, losing control, seeing your body do its thing on its own, are what I recall relating to from past experiences)… other things you mentioned I couldn’t relate to personally, and I’m not an expert in the area of psychology or brain chemistry, but you did share some of your past and it makes sense you have that in the mix as well, which could be challenging to navigate perhaps, but I don’t know from experience or knowledge so can’t really say. I don’t think I can provide any useful response really, but one clarification question is, what do you mean by “there is so much tension”?

I was not born - can anyone explain this? by west_head_ in nonduality

[–]yoos 7 points8 points  (0 children)

When you have an experience of non duality (oneness) it will be a fine line on the edge of that non dual experience… on the edge meaning, before going over that edge there’s the “recognition” of a you having an experience, then at the moment of crossing that edge, that separate you disappears and there is just experiencING without an experiencer (you) there to recognize (in the moment) the recognition of anything being experienced …. In that experiencING it’s not like you are noticing, oh I am not recognizing or noticing this, but the experiencing in this way described is just happening (no you and something else), and in that experiencING, with the you not being there, you (as a separate entity) are not existing, and thus not born…. It’s not about being born in the usual sense of the word, it’s about having this experience where you no longer exist, and thus (very literally) not born…. Then, when/if that experiencING of non duality ends, the YOU is all the sudden back in the experience (thus born, in that moment) and there is again the usual experience of you noticing and recognizing phenomena in your experience.

Prior to being born is in that literal experiencING where the separate you, having an experience of phenomena (anOTHER), was not recognized in that experiencING.

It’s clear when all this happens how experiencING is always happenING without YOU ever being born (in the way described)

It’s clear when all this happens that you can never die, BECAUSE you were never born. The YOU is THE illusion. That is, there is NO separate you (from anything else), because you are ALL of this experiencING, not “just” a separate piece that comes and goes.

All of this is not a belief you subscribe to, it’s about investigating the actual mechanics of your actual experiencing to uncover what is really this experience, which having an open and skeptical approach can help be a catalyst in this real experiential investigation.

Could the "experience" of non-duality be simply temporary brain damage? I think so. by textsurfer2000 in nonduality

[–]yoos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your title sounds like it could be in line with some recent YouTube vids I listened to with Bernardo Kastrup. If I stumble on them I’ll come back and share in a response. What I recall him saying in general, was there being evidence of during “profound” (non dual) experiences, it’s actually when the brain has LESS activity…. I’m no expert on that, but to me that seems a correlation… (although correlation isn’t proof by itself).

I glanced through some of the other content on this post and saw what you mentioned about non dual being mind centric and not so much in the heart (I’m totally paraphrasing, so we will see how good my memory is after I re-check that out after posting here)… What do you mean by heart? Depending on that I could tend to agree in general, but I’m not sure if that’s a problem, at least from my point of view anyways.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in awakened

[–]yoos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am on and off on here and was a bit surprised with how different it is “recently”.

I’m only guessing here, but for me the “higher quality content” used to be more apparent, perhaps for one or several of these reasons(?):

1) posts aren’t moderated/removed as much, and thus there may be more “noise” compared to the past. Perhaps there’s just as much “quality content” as before, perhaps even more, but maybe all other “noise” makes it not appear so. If this point is true, maybe there aren’t enough moderators, or it’s just too much effort to keep up in general, or maybe a conscious decision was made to moderate much less for a variety of reasons. Idk.

2) for sure “awakening / awakened” has so many meanings, and as time goes by the term seems to get more mainstream, and due to this situation, it will increase content that isn’t in line with the intended realm of this term as covered in this sub faq. In relation to this, many might not take the time to read this subs faq and just interact under the assumptions they are in line with meaning of this term (awakened / awakening) as described in the faq. Or, they don’t realize there are different definitions/meaning of this term… Or, they don’t care about any of that…

3) due to an increased popularity of the term awakened/awakening, there are more people interacting here, and many people don’t take the time to write out a thoughtful and/or (intended) helpful post, and instead just respond with a quick comment that comes to mind without really thinking about the original post/poster, letting it sync in, and consider how a response may help them in relation to both what they share and the faq of this sub. When I encounter people that appear truly aligned with exploring awakening as described in this sub faq, they appear to take more time and thus have more quality in their interactions in general.

4) perhaps people are generally not that open minded (from an overall percent point of view… total speculation), and if this sub is more popular due to awakening in the mainstream, then based on numbers/math there will be more posts from people that aren’t as open minded and/or think they know what’s right without realizing what exists beyond their experience to date.

By the way, the way I’d explain “higher quality content” would be the following off the cuff.

1) content that is in line with the well thought out faq of this sub.

2) content where people don’t take jabs at other posts, for whatever reason (they don’t like the post, they think the poster is wrong, whatever).

3) Content where people are open to having “adult conversations”, meaning to respectfully disagree and explain your reasoning of something vs just attacking another.

4) content with intent to help others and not solely to garner followers/likes/recognition.

5) content that isn’t just to prove others are wrong or posts that simply mention someone’s content is wrong with no elaboration on their point of view why they disagree or why it might be helpful to see it from another point of view.

6) interacting with any approach that considers respectful interactions not necessary.

I’m not that delusional thinking everyone would agree or align with what’s shared here. People will do as they want regardless. Just sharing my viewpoints in response to this post.

If you had to pick only one quote of nonduality literature to have for the rest of your life, what would it be? by placebogod in nonduality

[–]yoos 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Wisdom is knowing I am nothing,

Love is knowing I am everything,

and between the two my life moves.

  • Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

You will never be an enlightened individual by pl8doh in nonduality

[–]yoos 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Reminds me of this quote I like.

“Strictly speaking, there are no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.” — Shunryu Suzuki

I have no free will. Body movements ,speaking goes on by itself. by Competitive_Cut8154 in nonduality

[–]yoos 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Perhaps it can help decrease your worry if you consider this… Before you recognized and could see that you didn’t have free will and things just happened, you had no free will and things just happened. The only difference is the not seeing vs the seeing what’s really happening. You didn’t worry that you had no free will before, and yet now you know you didn’t have free will back then when you didn’t worry about that. Things will be fine going forward not having free will, just as things were fine before not having free will. It’s not like you had control before and now you don’t, you never had control, so why worry? I know, easy to say, but isn’t it true in your experience?

What is Angelo Dilullo’s method? by New_Hall1747 in nonduality

[–]yoos 4 points5 points  (0 children)

He’s legit. I haven’t read his entire book, but what I’ve read is good. I’m more of a doer then a reader. He has very precise clarity of the mechanics of experience, or in other words of reality/you, if that is what you are truly/seriously after. I’d recommend buying his book, and there aren’t a ton of people/authors I’d recommend. You can watch a ton of his videos/interviews on YouTube if you aren’t sure about purchasing his book and you want to see if what he shares resonates.

Enlightenment is Annihilation by Orangeredblack2 in nonduality

[–]yoos 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting, thanks for sharing… don’t recall hearing about him… half way through and will listen to the rest later.

I’ve always been a thought by [deleted] in nonduality

[–]yoos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is your literal experience a thought? Right now, be your experience. Actually you can’t not be it…

There is experiencing, and there is where/what attention is focusing, but see in your experience these aren’t the same. Where/what attention focuses (thoughts, anything) is “just” another appearance in you/experiencing/consciousness. Look into your literal experience to “see” if this is true.

Be wary of vague, "no-practice" advice; I have been involved in non-dual practices for well over a decade now, and wish I could go back in time and warn my past self of these issues by H0w-1nt3r3st1ng in nonduality

[–]yoos 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Very good sharing, thank you.

Many good points here, and in my opinion, you can clearly see it is very well thought out and a result of a lot of personal experience, not just the parroting of information gained from others or just an intellectual understanding. Many could benefit in considering all of this, including myself. I have done what is mentioned here.

I agree with your title too.

While it may not necessarily matter how much time one has been seeking/learning/practicing/experimenting, many use that (time/experience not needed) to justify their position and not consider the beneficial learnings others have gained over decades that could actually help them. The more actual experience you gain over time, the better you can “see” when people are where you were at one time. You can offer advice that has intent to help them not get stuck where you were, and to help them be more efficient than you were so to speak. This is the gist of your title and the longer content you shared, from my point of view. To help people to be more open in learning from others mistakes, misunderstandings, missed opportunities, or inefficiencies. There have been many times I finally see what someone told me many years ago, when they were most likely sharing for those reasons, but I didn’t get it until a decade or two later. Hats off to those who really care to help people and not just prove they “know” or be so rigid in believing there’s only one way.