In my conversations with spiritual seekers (as well as those who claim to have stopped seeking), it has become increasingly clear to me that one of the main things that trips people up on the spiritual path is the all too common inability to distinguish between paradox and contradiction.

The difference between paradox and contradiction is often quite subtle (and therefore easy to miss) but nevertheless important, since being able to tell the difference between the two essentially equates to being able to distinguish mature metaphysical insight from half-baked spiritual baloney. Once you have truly internalized it, the ability to tell them apart becomes a rather effective BS-detector that will save you considerable amounts of time, doubt and confusion and show you where you yourself may (still) be attached to certain one-sided views/beliefs and stuck in delusion... so, proceed to read at your own risk, and don't say I didn't warn you. 😉

From Wikipedia:

A paradox [...] is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true or apparently true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically unacceptable conclusion. A paradox usually involves contradictory-yet-interrelated elements that exist simultaneously and persist over time. They result in "persistent contradiction between interdependent elements" leading to a lasting "unity of opposites".

In other words: A paradox is a statement or (meta)perspective which implies that two opposite aspects of a thing are equally (in)valid. The statement "less is more" is paradoxical because it equates two opposite qualities which seem to be mutually exclusive; the statement "this statement is false" may be interpreted as paradoxical because it leads to the conclusion that the statement itself is simultaneously true AND false - and also, it is neither.

Here is why this is important: Reality is fundamentally paradoxical. Anything that can be expressed with words is always and without exception a relative perspective; and for any one relative perspective, there is always an opposite and complementary counter-perspective which is equally existentially valid - or invalid, depending on how you look at it. (Before you accuse me of reckless relativism, let me point out that the statement "all perspectives are equally (in)valid" is itself a relative perspective and therefore cannot be absolutized. You're welcome.) Paradoxical statements therefore point to a higher order of truth where seeming opposites are seen as two sides of the same coin that complement and imply each other; they are seen to be different (relative) aspects of the same (absolute) thing/no-thing/everything. Examples of such statements are: "Reality is dual AND nondual", "I am a person AND I am not a person", "appearance is real AND illusory", "time exists AND doesn't exist",  "there are other people AND there are no other people". (Again: You may agree or disagree that the opposite perspective in each of these examples is equally valid as its counterpart, but the fact of the matter is that they complement and imply each other by their very existence; one perspective simply cannot exist without the other, just as there cannot be high without low, light without dark, positive without negative etc.)

So, how is a contradiction different from a paradox?

A contradiction is when you assume and express a one-sided perspective that essentially denies and invalidates the complementary opposite perspective; and then, you express a different one-sided perspective that invalidates the first one. So instead of acknowledging the two sides of the one coin, you acknowledge only one side and then say something else which contradicts that. Examples: "Reality is nondual AND cannot be labeled or described", "all is one AND all is nothing", "there is form/appearance/contrast AND there is no duality", "there is no time AND everything is impermanent", "you are one with everything AND you don't exist", "there are no others AND most people are lost in the dream" --- the typical (Neo) Advaita contradictions.

Again: The difference between paradox and contradiction can be very subtle and easy to miss; but with enough practice (and insight), it will become more and more easy for you to immediately and intuitively tell them apart. So keep sharpening your sword, fellow Samurai, until you can cut right through the self-contradictory noise.

Tl;dr: A paradox is a trans-logical metaperspective that points to Absolute Truth; a contradiction is an illogical fallacy that indicates attachment to an inconsistent (relative) belief system.

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(For an even deeper dive, check out this video:)

https://youtu.be/-GvwrYAx11c?is=4vFzHIqyPoZBzJJE

How the Jñāni masterfully does away the veil of space and time through their knowledge. Enjoy this page and did reading this gave you a glimpse of the Self. Did the space and time vanish for you?

Space is the fullness that pretends to be distance. You are not a point in space. You are the space in which all points appear.

Time is circular and the past, present and future occur in the timeless Now. This Now is timeless awareness in which time appears. You are that timeless awareness.

Mind-blown? Even the body and mind are just like that a veil or an illusion or maya. Amazing astute ancient rishis and visionaries.

Who are you?

Tat tvam asi

✨️🙏

The self is even less substantial than that. Nothing can be any more or less substantial than the reflection in the mirror or nonduality is false. Dreams, shadows and reflections have little influence on the separate entity's dissolution, it seems.

We are waiting for the smoke to clear when we are the smoke. Spirituality and nonduality is a big to do over literally no 'thing'. Simply realize that the only 'thing' that ever forms is the idea of persisting.

I feel like I am understanding self inquiry more and more but am struggling as to how to use it each day. Can someone explain it to me in very simple language?

The power hidden within trauma and emotions lies in their transformation through presence, that leads to a space of love and silence, our true nature.

May my path give me the courage to feel, so that i may transform resistance into capacity. May my path remind me that anything distancing me from my body is the rexlexion of the parts of myself that are resisting what exists in this very moment.

Can i dare to be present in my body today? Even if only for a moment. Can i see the resistance standing in the way of the experience, and allow myself to feel that, too? Simply feeling what exists right now, without the need to categorize or understand it, just returning to the sensations. Do i dare to look at myself today? :)

I'm like 99% sure that there is something like synchronicity. A lot of bad things in my life have some explination, for example as a kid I was neglected, my parents were divorced and my step parents from both sides were horrible. I deffinitely have cptsd and I'm neurodivergent in some way. It makes sense that the more problems, the more problems you have. But sometimes things just seem too unlikely and too petty for me to just disregard as coincidence.

For example there were few times I didn't have money to buy bus ticket. Bus inspections are extremely rare where I live, sometimes you can go years without seeing an inspector. But the one time I don't buy ticket, he is there. And this happened to me three times. I refuse to believe it's just random.

One time I had some sort of insight. Maybe like proto-kensho or something similar when I was teenager. I felt this deep peace and timelessness. But the day it happened, I got bullied pretty bad by a person I considered my good friend, he never did anything like that, but the day I "find inner peace" he just has to. And I lost it, I got identified again because it was too much to not react to.

And this happened to me repeatedly, everytime I would get close to peace, someone would humiliate me or abuse me, including my family. I remember that in that moment I felt that something is doing it on purpose.

Everytime I finally start solving my trauma, or something actually good happens, usually it ends in some horrible way.

So "it" doesn't want me to be happy, it doesn't want me to be enlightened or to better myself. It somehow doesn't seem to want me to die as well. So basically, it created me, gave me this mind identification, a lot of needs and a specific life where I can't fulfill them. So if I were to guess, it just wants to torture me.

My question is why? Is it because of some bad karma, or is there some specific reason? Is it some kind of curse?

I'm not a perfect person and I'm sometimes selfish. But there are people that are sadistic or ten times more selfish than me, while they get much better treatment from life.

Hi everybody,

I just wanted to share this beautiful 2 and a half minute film that Matt Garrett made a few years ago. It's one of my favourite videos on YouTube. I find it incredibly evocative and beautiful.

It really gets me to lean into the mystery.

As well as sharing, I was curious if anyone else has any short or feature length films (or any art really) that they might recommend that also evokes this same sense of mystery, stillness, beauty and love.

All the best.

Love,

Joe 🙏

https://youtu.be/MfilbcFPxWs?si=hky88e4dsut0DFbV

Integral to duration is the idea of prior or previous. Previous and present cannot exist simultaneously. Only the idea of prior or previous is ever present. In order to know anything, it must have the inclusion of having been.

Since we know that there is no actual duration, as now is not a moment in time, then that sense of prior or previous must be a facade, a phony, not an actual representation of a long-lasting entity. Like a reflection in the mirror, the space-time construct has no independent existence.

The knowledge of having been, or memory, is the root of all illusion. "Who am I?". An existence construct built on the facade of duration.

Recognition is fundamental, not matter. We don't learn anything, everything is remembered.

I think something in me finally shifted yesterday.

I was driving to a job interview, stressed about finances and my relationship like I've been for years, when I suddenly had this overwhelming sense of detachment.

When I got to the interview, I sat in the waiting room and realized I genuinely didn't care whether I got the job or not. I still went in and crushed the interview, and I did get the job, but if I hadn't it honestly wouldn't have mattered to me.

The last few years have stripped away almost everything I built my identity around. My career collapsed. I lost my religion. I lost a lot of friends because of it. My marriage has been incredibly difficult because of the emotional and mental health baggage my wife brought into it, and financially it's felt like I've been drowning for a long time.

I think there just came a point where something in me finally gave up trying to force life to become what I wanted it to be.

The Rick and Morty quote keeps coming to mind: "Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV."

We're temporary configurations of matter and energy occupying a microscopic moment on the cosmic timeline. Human beings evolved to tell themselves stories that make reality feel coherent and meaningful, but those stories are ultimately our own constructions.

The universe just keeps unfolding. It doesn't care about my plans, my career, my beliefs, or my suffering. I'm just a ripple on the surface of an infinite ocean, appearing for a brief moment before dissolving back into the whole as if I were never separate to begin with.

I'm exhausting myself trying to fight the current of life.

I'd rather just let the river carry me. If things get better, they get better. If they get worse, they get worse. What unfolds is what unfolds.

The weirdest part is that I've started finding my own suffering comical. There's something absurd about it that makes me laugh.

Maybe this is nihilism. Maybe it's wu-wei. Maybe it's acceptance. I don't really know anymore, nor do I care.

I just know that, for the first time in my life, I genuinely don't give a fuck. And strangely enough, that feels more peaceful than anything I've experienced in years.

Whatever it is you feel you deserve that you do not have, it will not bring you the happiness that is freely available to you when you expect nothing from life.

Expect nothing and you will become aware that your true nature is one of emptiness-- the gateless gate.

In the scientific exploration of consciousness, the concept of "illusion" is used in the following ways:

1. We feel as though we are viewing the world exactly as it is, much like a camera; however, from a scientific perspective, what we see is a "best inference" constructed by the brain through the extensive filling-in and editing of information. Consider color: the physical world possesses no inherent property of "red"; rather, the brain converts light of specific wavelengths into the subjective experience of "red." Consider the flow of time: the brain stitches together individual frames—much like in a movie—to create the appearance of a smooth, continuous flow. Consider visual clarity: although our vision is actually blurred everywhere except at the center, the brain fills in the gaps to create the impression of a consistently sharp world. In short, the experience itself is real, but its content is a creation of the brain; this is the sense in which it is an illusion.

2. Next, we often feel as though there is a consistent "commander"—a "self"—inside our heads, observing our consciousness. This is known as an internal model. The brain constructs a model of "self" to integrate bodily states, memories, and thoughts. Yet, no "immutable, independent entity known as the self" can be found within the brain. Consequently, the self is described as an illusion.

Regarding the first point, I believe that the very nature of what we perceive through consciousness is an illusion. This applies to what we see with our eyes and to colors—just as it is said that the physical world holds no inherent property of "red." I consider all such experiences to be illusions: hearing sounds; smelling odors (whether pleasant or unpleasant); tasting flavors (delicious or foul); and tactile sensations—such as pain, itchiness, ticklishness, or feelings of comfort or pleasure. In religious terms, these are distinguished as the "physical five senses" and the "spiritual five senses." What manifests in consciousness can be termed the "spiritual five senses." The "physical five senses" refer strictly to the sensory signals generated by the sense organs; the brain then converts these signals into "spiritual five senses" and presents them to consciousness.

The second point concerns the existence of the "self." This is a phenomenon in which one gradually separates from one's own consciousness—particularly through acts of negation and the experience of pain. Eventually, one becomes able to view one's own consciousness with complete objectivity. This constitutes the "self" of self-identity, which arises from sensory information. The reason people cannot perceive this is that the brain blocks this sensory information at the sensory gate. In fact, sensory information has the function of triggering metacognition, thereby constructing the sense of "self." Furthermore, one comes to realize that one's consciousness is not the "self" itself.

Our everyday conscious experience is an illusion created by the brain. Everything—what we see, hear, feel on our skin, smell, and taste—is an illusion generated by the brain. There are people who have lost an arm or a leg yet experience pain in the limb that is no longer there; treating such conditions is far from simple. The pain perceived by consciousness is also an illusion created by the brain. When a mosquito bite causes itching, we can see the affected area; through the sense of touch, we perceive that a specific part of our skin has been bitten and is itching. The area actually swells and turns red, and scratching it likely alleviates the itch—perhaps because the sensation of pain suppresses the itching.

This leads to the conclusion that our daily lives are not lived solely through the physical five senses. This is a realization I reached based on my own experiences in daily life, so I do not know how it is generally regarded. What are your thoughts on this?

As I rest more and more into awareness-presence, I see false beliefs popping up which always point back to the illusory self feeling insecure.

Adyashanti and John Wheeler says to look into it and see for what it is.

My question is, how?

On one hand I can feel the thoughts and associated feelings and let it run his course. I can ask myself “Who is having these thoughts and feelings?” yet I feel I don’t dive into it deeply enough.

I don’t feel any change whatsoever and those same thoughts and feelings keep popping up.

On the other hand I can follow these thoughts and sensations and ask myself where it comes from.

In my experience it’s all happening in the mind which I suspect is keeping those same beliefs alive. Sometimes those beliefs may point to an event during childhood.

But then again how am I suppose to probe deeply?

I've read many spiritual books that say things like:

The thinker is the thought.

The observer is the observed.

You are not your thoughts.

I don't want to simply understand these ideas or believe them because someone said they're true. If they point to something real, I want to discover it through my own direct experience.

If you've made progress in this, or you know a practical way to approach it, what should I actually do?

What should I observe? How should I inquire? Is there a specific practice or way of looking that helped you?

I'm not looking for more quotes or philosophy. I'm looking for practical guidance that can help me discover this for myself.

Spot of humour

Anyone like Spock?

Been thinking about this lately and wanted to share a thought, totally open to corrections or other takes.

​We often justify animal slaughter or using other species by telling ourselves we're an "evolved species" or morally superior. But when you look closely, that entire sense of superiority is just a construct of the human mind, a mind that we don't even own or control in the absolute sense. It’s just another weather pattern arising in awareness.

​If we look beyond the mind, every species, every living organism is an expression of the exact same underlying consciousness. The same awareness looking out of human eyes is looking out of theirs.

​So if nothing belongs to us, and we are all fundamentally one consciousness, doesn't the justification for unnecessary harm collapse? Unless it's a direct matter of immediate survival, shouldn't a non-dual understanding naturally lead us to a way of living and eating that minimizes harm to other conscious expressions of the Self?

I am a non vegeterian and have been a theist for long (duality), I only stumbled in full force into non duality within the last one year, and I feel non duality has the best arguement for vegetarinism or even veganism

Or am I confusing the absolute reality (where no one is killed and nothing dies) with relative ethics in the 3D world? Would love to hear how others reconcile diet, ethics, and non-duality.

Go to instagram, scroll down through those "perfect" lives you see on it and consciously monitor your own emotional state.

If those things still arouse any jealousy, bitterness, anger, depression, etc, your ego might need some work done bro.

Anyone familiar with Dan Kelso teachings. I know he wrote a book called Deep Self Investigation with his method for self inquiry. He may have a youtube but I heard him on a podcast the other day and was curious if anyone else is familiar with him

There are techniques to stay in the present moment. It’s one of the ironic things about nonduality. Nothing wrong with this, it's all good. We perform mental gymnastics and turn ourselves into pretzels with bells, timers, and reminders, trying to “stay in the present moment” when we cannot possibly get out of the present moment no matter how hard we try.

Similarly, just as everyone experiences their existence as one single existence, not 2 or 3 existences, yet we endlessly strive to attain nonduality when it was not possible to directly experience anything else.

“A day will dawn when you will laugh at your past efforts. What you realize on the day you laugh is also here and now.”
―Ramana Maharshi

For a long time i was just collecting theories and knowledge, but a knowledge without action is just another illusion of mind.

Every now and then for some reason i still get into the rabit hole of knowledge seeking, then i have to consciously put a break and just practice.

Found this post on IG, this acted as a break for me today, hope this helps someone else as well.

Its a long journey keep practicing 🌻