Posts by silverwolf98

I feel like it's getting harder and harder to just sit back and enjoy a product without feeling like you need to know every single thing happening behind the curtain. Once you start caring about how the sausage is made, the magic kind of dies, doesn't it? Do you guys actually find it easy to just ignore the drama and focus on the performance?

hollowpuma762 said:Spot on.

And let’s not forget how you constantly troll this board with ignorant nonsense—just pure products of brainwashing, one-track minds, and neurotic little power trips.
Now this guy thinks he’s some enlightened rebel against "spirituality" just because he didn't have the same psychedelic breakthroughs while sitting in a lotus position. It’s not about character, it's just ego.

And I couldn't agree more. That claim is statistically and scientifically irrefutable, especially when you look at the whole Beljkić situation. Ever since he was forced to step down from his moderator seat, he's suddenly become a world-class psychiatrist overnight. Now, he spends his time tossing out "objective" diagnoses and insults at almost everyone on this forum, unless, of course, they happen to be sucking up to him.
Meanwhile, over on the more science-focused boards, you won't find three sane people there, other than those who think their ability to skim Wikipedia makes them experts.

Could you be a bit more specific with that question?
If we start getting too granular with this hypothetical scenario, we’re just spinning our wheels. At the end of the day, everything being imagined is nothing more than a premise. So, what are we actually doing here? Is this just pure curiosity about someone else's assumptions—yours or mine—or is there something else entirely at play?

WTF happened to this subforum? 🤣 It’s become nothing but a collection of pseudo-intellectuals, self-proclaimed psychiatrists, and armchair scientists 🤣—now even adding a hierarchy of "high" and "low" class posters to the mix 🤣 🤣 🤣 The whole place is just absolutely suffocating under a mountain of copy-pasted "wisdom." 🤣 Give me a break. 🤣

Ryan Wilson2 said:In that case, why not just wait for the current to sweep you away—for life itself to take hold?

Who knows? Perhaps that is the actual way to find meaning.
Maybe you don't need to hunt for a path at all; maybe you just need to wait for the flood. 🧐

But what exactly am I waiting for?
In your view, where would that water—that flood, or whatever we call it—actually carry me, given who I am and where I currently stand?
What's there to wait for?
Some other circumstance, some different state of being, some new knowledge or wealth? But those things are constantly shifting anyway.

Do you actually have a concept of something one should be waiting for or achieving that isn't present right now?
And please, let's not talk about hitting a multi-million dollar jackpot. Why? Because why not! 🙂, though I suppose that's not really the spirit of this conversation.

Have you ever wondered, purely out of curiosity or just for the hell of it, if you might be chasing after something that doesn't even exist?
Or perhaps, what if the thing you're looking for is already right here, but you can't see it because you're too busy staring at your own idea of something that isn't real?

I find myself wrestling with a single, nagging question: what is my true self? Or am I just caught in a futile, predetermined struggle—a blind trek toward nothingness? It’s this endless cycle where one asks, fights, searches, tries to grasp, strives, fears, spasms, withers, rejoices, worries, gives birth, and ultimately dies... all for the sake of something that doesn't actually exist.

But what if there isn't actually a path to follow, or some predefined road you're supposed to trek down?

casualtiger2 said:What does it even mean to "see and read yourself"?


Jiddu Krishnamurti
The anti-guru guru—a guy who spent his entire life trying to use philosophy (basically, using thought) to show people how dangerous thoughts, divisions, and illusions can be, not to mention our social conditioning.
Whether he actually pulled it off is anyone's guess.

"I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or coerce people along a particular path. ... This is no magnificent deed, because I do not want followers, and I mean this. The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth. I am not concerned whether you pay attention to what I say or not. I want to do a certain thing in the world and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies."

PS
Seems like Sylvia Plath had a pretty tragic life, huh?

The Cyclops effect. It’s that singular, overwhelming focus where everything else just blurs out of existence, leaving you staring straight into the eye of the storm.

You can spend your life pouring over the Buddha, some self-proclaimed master, an avatar, or endless scientific papers—or even worse, just sitting there playing the part of the wise, enlightened sage in your own head because you think you’ve already mastered it all. Just more noise and spikes.
It’s all just badaves if you don't actually look inward and read your own soul. Only then can you truly tell yourself where you stand—whether you're stuck in a mess, living in bliss, or actually experiencing freedom... whatever version of reality you've been dreaming up.

I’m still sitting here, grappling with this strange, two-hour paradox of an experience.
It felt like looking at the world through two lenses at once—simultaneously connected yet completely detached. On one hand, there was my physical self, my psyche, rooted deeply in my everyday 🙂 "standard" persona. But then, there was this other perception: a sort of blank slate where that persona didn't exist, allowing me to view the external world—and even my own way of interacting with it—through entirely "different" eyes.
Disorienting, certainly, but fascinating.
Fascinating? Well, I suppose that depends on which perspective you're leaning into. 🤣
Maybe nothing can truly be altered, except for our ability to see things differently, and perhaps that shift is its own kind of "change."
These paradoxes are a strange business, aren't they? 🤣

Jacob Cooper5 said:Let’s be real—there isn't a single successful guru out there who doesn't have someone else ready to jump out from the shadows and claim they're the exact opposite of whatever that guru is peddling.

Exactly. At the end of the day, they're just human beings, just like you and me.

swiftdrifter4 said:Well, kensho is a Buddhist term, after all.😁
Drake, exactly.
Anyone trying to chase that feeling is essentially chasing a ghost—it's unreachable.😁
Is there actually a distinction between kensho and samadhi, or are we just looking at different labels for the same experience?

I haven't the slightest clue. Some folks claim the latter is a permanent shift.🙂
Then again, maybe they're all just pleasant, fleeting glimpses—moments where consciousness decides to play games with itself. It almost feels like a cosmic joke.

swiftdrifter4 said:It only happened once... basically, I completely lost any sense of subjectivity. Consciousness wasn't "mine" anymore—not tied to an ego or anything. There was no distinction between myself and the outside world, if you catch my drift. I think you do.😁
The weird part? It happened right in front of my mirror. I could see my physical reflection perfectly fine, but there was zero identification with it. No connection at all.😁
If I'm not mistaken, I think yoga practitioners would call that samadhi.

Actually, I think people used to call that *kensho*.
So, consciousness wasn't "his" because there was no "him" in that moment, or something along those lines? But then again, who actually goes out looking to achieve a state like that?
It’s a bit of a labyrinth, isn't it? 🙂

swiftdrifter4 said:I think we first need to draw a line between the mind and consciousness, because they aren't the same thing at all. You can try to quiet the mind as much as you want—using mantras, breathing, whatever—but eventually, it’ll revert to its old ways because that's its nature. The monkey mind exists for a reason. The function of the mind is survival, not grasping at the istina or mystical experiences. And naturally, the mind is wired to seek pleasure and flee from discomfort. Desire and aversion are just two sides of the same coin—movement. Consciousness, however, doesn't need to be silenced because it isn't in motion. It’s always there, acting as the calm, unchanging backdrop to all mental activity. Its very nature is simply "to be."🙂
The nature (essence) of the mind is "to do."
The nature (essence) of consciousness is "to be."

Since you’ve been practicing "Inquiry," have you actually "succeeded" in feeling consciousness without that nagging sense of being separate from it?

Joseph Bailey41 said:Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar. ☕

Sometimes...

Joseph Bailey41 said:Typo there. They should have written "gives up."😬

Maybe there’s actually something to Freudianism after all?! Are you kidding me?

Or maybe not even that—maybe a mountain is just a mountain. Perhaps we're really looking at some kind of Jungian sexual frustration. 😬

Joseph Bailey41 said:Have you tried mantras? You don't even have to say them out loud; sometimes just listening to them on YouTube helps. When you give your mind something repetitive to latch onto, it eventually settles down and goes quiet. 😁

What exactly is it that "stops and settles"?

Isn't meditation essentially just carving out a dedicated space and a specific slice of time for the practitioner?