What is non duality?

Originally Posted by Greenslade

I wouldn't say it overpowers the Ahamkara's sense of "I am" and it's certainly not mundane, because without a sense of I am you simply wouldn't be able to experience anything at all.

Perhaps a better way to describe it is 100% identification with Witness. It didn't obliterate Ahamkara's sense of self however that sense of self was just like any other object of Awareness. I was Awareness and everything was name and form within Awareness including body, mind, thoughts, memories, emotions, etc... I wasn't moving through the world. The world was moving through and within Me.

This is where language is wholly inadequate for the task of explanation and the best I can describe it is the analogy of a lucid dream but even that falls woefully short.

Anyway the world has never been the same since though it's just nowhere near as intense as those several weeks.

I suppose if I hadn't been meditating and diving into consciousness studies for a good decade and just beginning to explore Advaita the experience might have made me think I was losing my mind. LOL!

[Matty]

Originally Posted by Greenslade

And I don't understand this?

You haven't understood anything I have said yet, at least you're able to admit it now.
Throwing out words that is apparently also not understood.
*Deleted* As well as I tried several times to include that what I say is not an form of attack on you. If all you want to do is sound smart then thats cool to, no judgement here. To each his own

*Deleted*

Since you missed it several times already.
No one has to agree with anyone. The point of this discussion is to learn and add on to what we have found so far. Most people call it a mature conversation
My apologies, if pointing out some of your contradiction's in some of your previous statement's. Caused such a strife in you, wasn't my attempt to do so.
It's just difficult to carry a conversation that way, in a productive manner.

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

Perhaps a better way to describe it is 100% identification with Witness. It didn't obliterate Ahamkara's sense of self however that sense of self was just like any other object of Awareness. I was Awareness and everything was name and form within Awareness including body, mind, thoughts, memories, emotions, etc... I wasn't moving through the world. The world was moving through and within Me.

"When we lose our minds we come to our senses."
Alan Watts

To keep it short there's a kind of 'middle ground' somewhere 'above' the ego but 'below' the self where we become more conscious of the unconscious. Jung calls it 'individuation' but it wouldn't surprise me if there's an Advaita Vedanta equivalent. One of the roles the ego provides is a bit of 'solid ground' from which to have a perspective, if there is no 'here' then you feel much like you're losing your mind and really, if you're going to delve into the science of it the world does move through and within you. From the perspective of the ego you move through the world but the perspective of the self is that the world does indeed move through you.

So no, if you didn't go totally gaga then your Ahamkara/ego would still have been 'present' but your Ahamkara/ego is a part of your self. The self resolves the paradox/Duality between the Ahamkara/ego - the ego is the centre of the filed of consciousness - and the unconscious, and when that happens consciousness is no longer polarised towards the conscious.

By the way, here's what they don't tell you in the brochures so be careful of what you wish for. The Spiritual Masters who have successfully 'surpassed' their egos have to be spoon fed and their daipers changed. I guess the irony is that they're so far past their egos that they don't have a sense of I am to experience the ultimate Spirituality.

Originally Posted by Matty

You haven't understood anything I have said yet, at least you're able to admit it now.
Throwing out words that is apparently also not understood.

If you take that as an admission then I guess there's nothing more to say, is there?

Originally Posted by Ewwerrin

Trust me, when you will experience bliss, there is zero doubt, as to what it is you are truely experiencing. You wont be like "hmmm, am I experiencing bliss?

Absolutely,truly,fantasticly,etceteraly expressed.

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

Yes, but...The brain is the organ of experience, however there are major nerve plexus throughout the body, one being near the heart and another near the stomach (there are others too).

UNLIMITED/BLISS/I AM.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Viswa

Absolutely,truly,fantasticly,etceteraly expressed.
UNLIMITED/BLISS/I AM.

Yes! They were great posts! :)

[HITESH SHAH]

Originally Posted by Greenslade

By the way, here's what they don't tell you in the brochures so be careful of what you wish for. The Spiritual Masters who have successfully 'surpassed' their egos have to be spoon fed and their daipers changed. I guess the irony is that they're so far past their egos that they don't have a sense of I am to experience the ultimate Spirituality.

It is true that situation can be like what you described if one's ego is suppressed artificially and person becomes dormant. But TRUE spirituality is about being active and sublimate one's ego and not killing / suppressing it .It may also be true that some supposedly spiritual person may have such status. But with that the problem is in person's ignorance and not the spirituality per se.

[Ewwerrin]

Originally Posted by Greenslade

If you take that as an admission then I guess there's nothing more to say, is there?

There's nothing wrong with anything you're saying, you just use different words to refer to similar things and even deeper/different ways. And there can be a bit of a lost in translation so to speak.

You have a very sharp mind. And you speak of very deep intelligence. I feel I am able to understand you much better, and am able to communicate with you much better, if I ask a question. Because your definitions and how you use them are extremely profoundly precise, and well thought out.

There is a high frequency and low resistance, in your intelligence.

You use every word so precisely. For example, "The ego is your sense of I am, so whatever you think you are, that's your ego. It's everything after I am....."

It is so easy to misinterpret this to think that you basically believe that the infinite ever expanding I AM is an ego. When what you are saying, I assume, is that limitting that to a definition or label, is what is of the ego.
It is simply not common to receive such a profound deeply well thought out answer. That is so deeply well defined and honed to such precision of clarity and observation.

And your ability to distinguish between true self and ego are extremely profoundly precise by the way. But it requires a getting used to of how you speak and how you use the words you do, and what you mean by, when you say what you mean. Because you don't speak like common people.

Most people when asked about the ego are like "STOP CARING ABOUT YOURSELF AND CARE MORE ABOUT MEEE! ME ME ME!!"

That's common folk for ya. haha.
And then I come across a person like you and I'm like "What? ...This person is so high on life, they use the I AM and ego in the same sentence..."

Anyway I just wanted to say, I appreciate all of your sharing.

[Ewwerrin]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

...(Edit: talking about bliss)
...In the context of non-duality it's supreme stillness full and complete in and of itself.
...
...

Woulden't you say that "supreme stillness and full and complete in and of itself", is just a path towards bliss?

Originally Posted by Ewwerrin

Woulden't you say that "supreme stillness and full and complete in and of itself", is just a path towards bliss?

It's like this. Ananda, sometimes translated as bliss, is the substrate. It's the limitless and unchanging. At the deepest core you are Ananda (and Sat and Chit).

At the surface level, the level of duality and embodied being, you experience a shallow and limited reflection or expression as emotions. They are transient, limited. They come and go and not only positive emotions but negative too.

Below the surface of emotional flux is the limitless and unchanging Ananda. It's always there and accessible regardless of embodied being and emotion.

It's the real vs. the apparent.