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Go Back   Spiritual Forums > Spirituality & Beliefs > Non Duality

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  #41  
Old 29-06-2021, 11:55 AM
Still_Waters Still_Waters is offline
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QUOTE 25 EXCERPT:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Greenslade
You should try Aum Mane Padme Hum, which translates to "All hail to the jewel of the lotus" or the innermost heart.

When I was in Lhasa, Tibet, for seven days in the 1980s, I was impressed with the spiritual intensity of the Tibetan people. Whenever, they were not occupied with business (at the market) or other things, they would take out the prayer beads and start intensely chanting "Om Mane Padme Hum". Lhasa in the 1980s was the most spiritually uplifting place I have ever visited with the Khumba Mela in Haridwar, India, being second as far as the general population is concerned.
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  #42  
Old 29-06-2021, 11:57 AM
Still_Waters Still_Waters is offline
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QUOTE 39 EXCERPT:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greenslade
There seems to come a point when there is no-thing to identify with - no Witness, no I and no 'focal point'. It's difficult to put into words but usually people perceive themselves as a 'single point' but the awareness of this is being like a cloud or a field of consciousness.
Well said ... and I agree that "it's difficult to put in words" ... but you just did it quite well.
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  #43  
Old 29-06-2021, 12:45 PM
JustASimpleGuy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Greenslade
There seems to come a point when there is no-thing to identify with - no Witness, no I and no 'focal point'. It's difficult to put into words but usually people perceive themselves as a 'single point' but the awareness of this is being like a cloud or a field of consciousness.
"Witness" is just a hook to hang one's hat on for the purpose of discussion. It could be replaced with Consciousness, Turiya, SatChitAnanda, Atman, Brahman, Cloud, Field of Consciousness, Unified Field or if one subscribes to Buddhism "Space" and these too are things as are all words. Non-local is a more accurate but clunky way to phrase it. We are using words to describe a "knowing" beyond words.

The important aspect is Realization and even more important is realizing that non-local substrate is ever-present even when not formally engaged in practices like meditation or Vedantic Self-inquiry and That Thou Art.
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  #44  
Old 29-06-2021, 12:55 PM
JustASimpleGuy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Still_Waters
When one goes into depth on various subjects, one recognizes the fact that "only one way" is a myth as in the Vedanta saying attributed to Ramakrishna ... One Truth, Many Paths.
I came to recognition of that "Space" via Buddhist meditation with an assist from consciousness studies and later fleshed out my understanding via Advaita. From my perspective two practices from different traditions point to the exact same end and I would phrase that end as liberation from the limitations of individuated being. And no, it's not complete for me but a work in progress.
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  #45  
Old 29-06-2021, 01:02 PM
Miss Hepburn Miss Hepburn is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy
"Witness" is just a hook to hang one's hat on for the purpose of discussion. It could be replaced with Consciousness, Turiya, SatChitAnanda, Atman, Brahman, Cloud, Field of Consciousness, Unified Field or if one subscribes to Buddhism "Space" and these too are things as are all words.
How about Pure Awareness. Nothingness, the Void.
(That was my experience) -ONE Witness -that's for sure ---and n-o-t-h-i-n-g else. Absolutely nothing....nothing.
I left that place understanding completely (mouth dropped) 'why' this 'Being of pure awareness', this Mind (?)---created everything...

Such Aloneness was ..well...that which could not be imagined by many.
Soooo...we have all of Maya---all that we see here...and on 'other planes' -
the non-physical as they are called...all created by this Divine Mind, this Divine Spirit ---wow, it's hard to talk about!!!
Oh, and while 'there' I came to that "I was that Mind" ...it was me, I was that Pure Awareness of Nothing...
a Sea of Nothing all around/ 360....the Only One, the One...
Whoa...
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Prepare yourself for the coming astral journey of death by daily riding in the balloon of God-perception.
Through delusion you are perceiving yourself as a bundle of flesh and bones, which at best is a nest of troubles.
Meditate unceasingly, that you may quickly behold yourself as the Infinite Essence, free from every form of misery. ~Paramahansa's Guru's Guru
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  #46  
Old 29-06-2021, 02:23 PM
JustASimpleGuy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn
How about Pure Awareness. Nothingness, the Void.

Or Emptiness or no-self (i.e. small self, ego-self, Ahamkara).

For me one experience is that of deep do-nothing meditation and I suppose the best way to describe that is of being "no thing". It's those particularly fruitful sittings that seemingly end just as they begin, however the timer informs me a good chunk of time has passed. It's akin to deep dreamless sleep but the "knowing" is much more obvious as there's a clear delineation at both ends of the sitting. Everything we associate with mind drops out but "Something" is present and it's not a thing and it's not nothing.

Then there's fully awake reality. That presence is still there all the time but we're usually absorbed in mind, however it's still accessible and "knowable" on some level.

Then there's the experience I had where it was front-and-center and for several weeks. It was obviously and undeniably "knowable" and mind was like a candle to Its Sun. I can say "Earth, Mood, Sun and stars revolved inside me" or "I was everything and everything was Me".

The first experience isn't mind-blowing because mind isn't present. It's the last experience that staggers the mind. LOL! That same presence is right there in the middle experience too and it can be Realized because it is Self-revealing all the time by the very fact we are conscious and experiencing. By the way Advaita would describe the first experience as not an absence of experience but an experience of absence (of mind!).

All of those experiences are pointing at It.
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  #47  
Old 01-07-2021, 05:43 AM
Greenslade
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Still_Waters
QUOTE 25 EXCERPT:



When I was in Lhasa, Tibet, for seven days in the 1980s, I was impressed with the spiritual intensity of the Tibetan people. Whenever, they were not occupied with business (at the market) or other things, they would take out the prayer beads and start intensely chanting "Om Mane Padme Hum". Lhasa in the 1980s was the most spiritually uplifting place I have ever visited with the Khumba Mela in Haridwar, India, being second as far as the general population is concerned.
Never been quite lucky enough to visit places like that but I am a huge fan of stone circles and the like. I find the earth energies so powerful sometimes that it can feel like being on something very illegal, and often there's a glimpse of a different reality.
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  #48  
Old 01-07-2021, 05:44 AM
Greenslade
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Still_Waters
QUOTE 39 EXCERPT: Well said ... and I agree that "it's difficult to put in words" ... but you just did it quite well.
Thank you.
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  #49  
Old 01-07-2021, 06:19 AM
Greenslade
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy
"Witness" is just a hook to hang one's hat on for the purpose of discussion.
Many years ago a wise man said to me, "Change the word, change the paradigm" and I've been careful ever since. Words and consciousness go around in a merry dance. Even more so this past year or so, guess I'm a little protective still. One of the reasons I wouldn't use 'Witness' in this context is because the Witnessed is the one who Witnesses and for me it's back to the ego by any other name. It's not a criticism but just what works for me. I don't have an issue with the ego and I quite like mine, but sometimes a dictionary is needed that goes into different territory.

I'm not keen on phrases like "I Am That" or "That Thou Art" because sometimes it can open up the doors for creating and projecting a false self-image, just like the term 'Spiritual Being'.

For me the "Knowing beyond words" is Gnosis, which is a kind if 'levelled up' deep understanding. What I was talking about wasn't knowing but more of a state of existence or being. And maybe I am being picky but it helps me understand. I know how easy it is for the mind to create a reality and have realisations within that reality.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy
From my perspective two practices from different traditions point to the exact same end and I would phrase that end as liberation from the limitations of individuated being.
"The individuation is an autonomous process of accomplishing of the individual wholeness experienced as a psychological completeness. In Jung's terms, the individuation means the realization of the Self, which is the conjunction of the conscious and the unconscious. In the practical accomplishment of this goal, the interpretation of the dreams plays a dominant role because dreams are the expression of the unconscious , both of the personal and of the collective one."
Carl Jung

Personal Spirituality is the "What?" and psychology is the "How?" The consensus of opinion seems to be that Atman is the self, and Jung described the self as "The God inside."
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