Perhaps this might interest you!
https://www.amazon.com/Science-Sages-Scientists-Encountering-Consciousness/dp/1937902048
I think you might benefit from reading a little bit about The Unborn Mind. Bankei Zen is a short and easy read, you'd only have to go a few pages in to get the whole idea and likely not need to read further.
z-lib.org has digital copies for free.
There is a fantastic book that tries to do just that: The Idea of the World by Bernardo Kastrup. He goes over various disciplines, from philosophy to physics to neuroscience in order to collect evidence. I find his line of reasoning extremely compelling.
There is no greater Teacher as Him in my honest opinion. His Teachings changed my life for the better. Thanks for sharing this OP.
If some of you guys like His teachings, or want to get to know more about it, I recommend the book "Be As You Are, The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi."
I also have a few apps from Dailypedia installed on my phone that sends me a quote about his teachings once a day. Can not recommend them enough. For those who are interested I've found a link to one of them "Ramana Maharishi Daily" and the other one is called "Who Am I" but sadly enough I can't find a link to it on my laptop.
PS: I'm not affiliated with any those apps in anyway, just think some of you may enjoy them and they are "free" if you don't mind the permissions. I apologize if it's against the rules.
Is is method Multidimensional Medicine developed by russian scientist Ludmila Puchko. Unfortunately, not translated to other languages.
I can really recommend this book for this topic. It's a question of the mindset you bring into the conversation. Sometimes pragmatic reasons require all kind of non-dialogue-mindsets, but if you really want to have a proper dialogue, at least you (and ideally both sides) need to engage into the subtle game of discovering new insights together that is beautifully described in this book.
The book itself was written based on the dialogues between David Bohm and J. Krishnamurti.
It's all really confusing which is why a teacher who can answer questions/provide some guidance is beneficial in most cases. Would recommend joining a Satsang and start asking questions. One option among many: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=guru.gyanmarg.gyanmargguru
I know you said excluding the gospel of Thomas, but I just started reading a commentary on the gospel of Thomas this week titled "The Hidden Gospel of Thomas: Commentaries on the Non-Dual Sayings of Jesus" and I can't recommend it enough! The author makes a strong point that Thomas can only be understood through a non-dual lens and does an amazing job tying together various saying's meanings and connecting them together in ways that make total sense but are not inherently obvious without deep study of the text (which the author has basically dedicated his life to doing).
Outside of that I know the Gospel of Mary is also typically pinned as gnostic. I have yet to read it.
I also find Rheomode invented by David Bohm similarly interesting along with his entire view on Dialogue.
You may be interested in the work of Douglas Hofstadter who describes the sense of "I," and reality in general, as "a strange loop." Essentially reality is infinitely self-referential and is nothing but a series of self-referring loops. Hofstadter is a materialist but his thinking on the topic is really interesting.
I Am a Strange Loop https://www.amazon.com/I-Am-Strange-Loop-audiobook/dp/B07HJCBXD8/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=i+am+a+strange+loop&qid=1653754770&sprefix=I+am+a+str%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-1
You might try the Zen record from China before 1300: https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Teaching-Huang-Po-Transmission/dp/0802150926
https://www.reddit.com//r/zen/wiki/getstarted
I don't recommend any modern stuff from the Zen tradition, incidentally; the Japanese transmission (which Western Zen has a basis on) seems corrupted (like corrupted data, not political corruption), in all honesty. Zen has extra bite; if you reach for any method, the Zen master has a smack for you.
Fuelless Fire: a Guide to Happiness. by my Teacher Anurag Jain.
Self-inquiry is about understanding the nature of suffering within oneself and its ending without resorting to any belief/authority. It seeks to understand what is world, mind, body, thought, action, experience, and death are. While most people do not find the need for this, some people do: at some point in their life. Based on their Karma, self-inquiry becomes one and the only important thing in the world to uncover the Truth: the Unborn Wholeness called Self, Brahman, Tao, Awareness or Emptiness in different traditions. Sooner or later, the amount of time one devotes to it becomes substantial. Moreover, as self-inquiry keeps exposing the falsities in which the mind is embroiled, one sees the utter futility of all organizations and institutions to solve anything psychologically. In 2017 I decided to devote all my time and energy to further self-inquiry through this book and NEEV Centre for Self Inquiry.
I would like to recommend Mysteries At Treasure River. A SciFi Mystery Novel written from the 1st person perspective to preserve their memories of the incidents that took place last few days of the writers life.
<strong>https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1YY79CP</strong>
I highly recommend my teacher's book, Fuelless Fire: a Guide to Happiness. Paperback (eBook also available)
I agree! There's a great book on the dangers of the various ways of bypassing and how to avoid them.
> An example of this would be replying to me saying “there is no depth or anywhere to go, only the self is true and therefore there is no you to experience it, let alone go deeper into it”
Indeed. It's all over this place. The key thing is that the recognition of the falsehood of a mental construct automatically leads to the cessation of upholding it. That's why striving for awareness is so fruitful. Not that there's anyone to strive or anything to be "done" other than to see clearly that it is the very act of thinking that we know anything that has us suffering.
Look to Inner Child Healing
The issue is the conditioned inner voice of the thinking mind that is constantly judging and doubting and shaming your Self. Through inner child healing learn to transform the inner voice so that it Unconditionally Loves and Believes in your Self.
The critical and judgemental inner-voice/thinking-mind keeps us in a state of duality - we stand in opposition and are opposed to our Self.
But an inner voice that unconditionally loves and believes in our Self, unifies us out of duality and into Oneness with our Self
Also consider the bookC-PTSD from Surviving to Thriving
🙏💜🙏
Yeah study after study has shown that for people who were traumatized and who's nervous system is not regulated it only results in psychotic experiences.
There are various different perspectives on this in non-dual traditions. In classical Advaita there is illusion and it's basically unexplainable. Later the Tantric Tradition, especially the Kashmir Shaivists came along and basically said that there is no illusion, there is only partial knowledge. A slice of a process unfolding in time. To me this is a very convincing view. Check out this fantastic book for all the details: https://www.amazon.de/Recognition-Sutras-Illuminating-000-year-old-masterpiece/dp/098976138X
I recommend this person and it’s free. It’s not for the faint of heart. https://zoom.us/j/2280155449?pwd=eDFlSnQ2ZTFEamFOSyt2d2U1QWxMdz09
Check if this helps. If not, ignore.
Satsang: Advaita by Sarvi
Hello Everyone. Hope all is well!
There will be a satsang tomorrow Sunday 28 with Sarvi at 10 AM CST / 8 AM PST / 8:30 PM IST
To know more about Sarvi"s nobduality teachings: https://www.reddit.com/r/AdvaitaBySarvi/comments/e725cn/there_is_only_happening/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
https://zoom.us/j/9942847865?pwd=Q0JibjVBYXEwY0pNL3BJeUF6N0hyUT09
This is not a job for nonduality, it's a job for psychoanalysis (the deepest, most powerful kind of psychotherapy). Here's how to find an analyst.
I think speech is a form of connecting with the manifest world. Why else are we here, on reddit, right? It's vital. I'm not sure how to put it, but in my opinion it's an important part of the path to connect.
I think there's basically two modes of being awake. Awake without much connection or regard to mental formations around you. This is reflected by the Theravada branch of Buddhism. It's just about waking up, thank you, goodbye. Of course there's nothing wrong with that. It seems to me like a good part of this board is all about this approach.
But then there is the Mahayana and especially the Vajrayana branch of Buddhism. The path of the Bodhisattva in Mahayana, and its continuations on the Sacred Path of the Warrior in Vajrayana is all about connecting heaven and earth, Brahman and Atman, True Nature and Samsara, uniting them. A path of fierce compassion, because this doesn't stop with you, personally. "You" were an illusion all along.
This path is all about intimate connection to what is. About being fully intervowen into and absorbed by the web of life. Isolation is the source of hallucination and delusion. Sanity is in connection. Speech is an act of manifestation and it's only in manifestation that connection can happen.
It's in this sense that I consider speaking and writing important. It doesn't really matter if you write a diary, talk to people in real life or in the internet and so on. Thoughts I never express are a vague, latent, potential background hum on the surface of consciousness. The act of manifestation is an act of participation, is an act of connection and co-creation that has to happen in brilliant detail. It's the only way and sense in which thought is not meaningless. And the only picture in which everything makes sense.
See, this stuff up there... I never expressed it. But this is pretty much exactly how I see it. It wasn't really there before.
I like Bernardo Kastrup's way of putting it: We're all alters of the same universal mind, just like there may be multiple dissociated personalities in a single human. Another person is what another alter looks like from across the the dissociative boundary that separates us. There is no fundamental difference between the communication between e.g. your work-self and your family-self on the one and two different people in the other hand. It's just the degree and nature of dissociation. Communication is all about creating coherence in dispersion of mind.
Yes, good memory.
It's just something you're interested in, you have an open mind and what's more fascinating than the way reality actually is :) For a while I felt it was best to leave this sub as open to free speech as possible due to the nature of such a difficult concept but I admit I probably left it too open. We've started to make a few changes though that hopefully will make the point that this sub will now contribute to leading people into solipsism. Honestly, this sub needs more people like you tbh :) But seriously, I think taking a break from 1 kind of specific topic is the best thing to do. I regularly stop paying attention to anything nonduality every so often and basically not engage at all besides cleaning up the moderator queue because I worry about being overly fixated on one thing. Philosophy, cognition and psychology are massive topics. Epistemology in general is another rabbit hole I enjoy. Check this out... It's interactive and lays out the epistemology of the West in a timeline that I think really helps. Catch u round ;)
Good stuff. James Fadiman refers to this as your “symphony of selves.”
Your Symphony of Selves: Discover and Understand More of Who We Are https://www.amazon.com/dp/1644110261/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_V2EF9307M21ZV9NWD442
There's a book that's pretty fascinating in terms of how dreams connect with spiritual practice. It's called Dream Yoga: Illuminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep. I read it last year and found it...well, illuminating!
I've found that this translation to be very helpful, Patanjali Yoga Sutras: A Translation in the Light of Vedanta Scripture.
Most of the poetic beauty of the original texts is usually lost in translation, so just like for the famous Taoist texts the challenge is to find a translation that speaks to you, without losing to much of its original meaning. For what it's worth I really enjoyed this translation of the "The Way of the Bodhisattva" by Shantideva.
Their style takes some time to get used to but their dialogues are so good, so ego-free, so full of open-mindedness on both sides that David Bohm wrote a book about what makes a good dialog. As opposed to a discussion, a controversy or any other form of verbal interaction.
If you're interested in diving into nondual philosophy and you're already familiar in broad terms with eastern philosophies, I can recommend David R Loy's Nonduality (https://www.amazon.com/Nonduality-Buddhism-David-R-Loy/dp/1614295247)
It's a bit of a heavy read but very powerful.
If you want a lighter read I can recommend Journey From Many To One(https://www.amazon.com/Journey-Many-Essentials-Advaita-Vedanta/dp/1884852122)
Focused on Advaita Vedanta but it's a good starting place for nonduality, though it's incomplete imo.
I also want to learn programming and have terrible ADHD. I can't give you a perfect solution (tell me if you find one) but:
Meditation is awesome. I like using guided sessions from lots of sources (youtube has hundreds of free ones).
A very good introduction to meditating, the audiobook is great for walks/car drives. https://www.amazon.com/Headspace-Guide-Meditation-Mindfulness-Minutes/dp/1250104904
Your mind getting distracted while meditating is 100% okay. Just note the distraction and return to the breath.
Hope some of that is useful! Where do you meditate, if you don't mind me asking? Do you have a comfortable setup?
The Kashmiri Shaivism book I think is written from a perspective that it should be adequately understood by a new reader. As for buddhism, there are honestly hundreds of adequate entry-points. If you're more philosophically inclined, I would recommend this, otherwise works by Bhikkhu Bodhi, the Dalai Lama, or Thich Nhat Hanh, in decreasing order of "difficulty" for a new approaching westerner. It's hard to say, though, since everyone is different.
Listen to Rupert Spira - The Light of Pure Knowing
There might be places to find the audio files online... but you can buy them here
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0992972604/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_hEQbGbR7AXS9Y
This is a great one to begin with, it is essentially a compilation of all of the essential teachings of trika. Composed in collaboration with swami lakshmanjoo, it is a transcription of swamiji's talks on various topics which he deemed essential to trika. It was composed out of the hope that all beings may benefit from its teachings.
I highly, highly recommend Claire Weekes. It isn't hyperbole to say that her instructions prevented my life from being ruined by similarly torturous thoughts. Start with Hope and Help for your Nerves.
There are “mystical” traditions within each major religion, as well as orthodox ones. They emphasize contemplative practice, experiential awareness, and nonduality, expressed in numerous ways within their own language and framework. Christianity is no different. The orthodox warn that anything other than their specific beliefs is heresy, while the mystics immediately recognize the universality.
There's a good documentary on this called With One Voice: https://www.amazon.com/One-Voice-Hameed-Ali-Almaas/dp/B00B99RW2A
Cynthis Borgeault is a teacher of this in the Christian tradition: https://www.garrisoninstitute.org/blog/cynthia-bourgeault-christian-nonduality/
“Christianity is one way of putting words together and Hinduism is another. The real is behind and beyond words, incommunicable, directly experienced, explosive in its effect on the mind.” —Nisargadatta
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.liberationunleashed.eq&hl=en_IE
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This App mate, trust me. It's all about no self from a very ordinary standpoint. Give it a go and delete if you don't like it, nothing to lose.
I've been reading this book by Adyashanti as I too have been going through post-awakening or whatever, and he makes some interesting points. It sort of sounds to me like you're describing a mystical experience, whereas Adyashanti sort of argues compellingly that awakening isn't that. Might be what you're looking for: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591797799/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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I've actually tried to stay away from Neo Advaita. This video here on Amazon Prime Video does a good job of explaining it near the end. Traditional Advaita Vedanta developed in a sort of peer review system, where thoughts and ideas were rigorously debated, causing the ideas with less merit to get ruled out. In modern times, some individuals were able to take traditional Advaita Vedanta and expand on it without the peer review. This is where we get Neo Vedanta and Neo Advaita. They are not necessarily bad; but they also have not been as rigorously scrutinized. You very quickly start getting the thoughts and opinions of an individual rather than the fundamentals of the tradition that have remained constant for hundreds of years.
Awesome! Thanks so much. Is this the book?
By the way, got a sponsor and am working the steps properly. So glad I made this thread and for you and others posts here!
Ramana never wrote anything, like Jesus, we only have "talks" recorded with him.
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I asked my friend, who has translated some of Maharaj's Marathi writings, that exact question last week and I think he said Aham....
I felt like that kid (woman?) was just going along saying "yeah" and "right" while the whole time was thinking "I have no idea what's going on" haha
anyways, I agree with the holographic idea of the universe, this book was a great read https://www.amazon.com/Holographic-Universe-Revolutionary-Theory-Reality/dp/0062014102/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1472664291&sr=8-2&keywords=holographic+principle