Edg Duveyoung

Edg Duveyoung
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Edg Duveyoung
Being an exponent of silence · Jul 16
If consciousness is witnessing all experiences sensations etc both interior/exterior
through the senses? Then who or what is witnessing the consciousness itself? Is it the
awareness / absolute? If so what is that abs.? Or is consciousness self aware?
Are you? No doubt about existing, eh?
Meditate on your inner silence…..the true you that’s always everywhere all the time without any
instrumentality. The witness is illusory — being half real and half unreal. The real part — your you
— is awareness from which mystically arise interpretations — definitions — meanings — for the
antics of insentient consciousness — which is otherwise meaningless. Your next thought “makes
sense” only because awareness deems it so. There is no process of consciousness that fully
symbolizes the infinity of awareness — all descriptions of God fall obviously short. The Absolute is
transcendently beyond concepts. When enlightenment dawns, all definitions become arbitrary, all
conclusions become unfounded, identity is realized as mystical, immaterial, and divine.
Edg Duveyoung
Being an exponent of silence · Jan 5
How is enlightenment different from the state of being a 'rock'? In both states, there is
only 'now', 'this', and there is no thinking, suffering, past or future.
All religions say that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.
Jesus was a perfect teacher about this:
—Jesus said that stones have agency enough to complain about immorality.
—Jesus cursed a fig tree for not being, well, figgy enough.
—Jesus decided water could be walked upon.
Eastern scriptures teach us about fully sentient — even divine — animals.
What’s not understood about the spectrum of sentience?
Saints know ones very next thought arises mystically from the transcendent.
God’s Being is the basis of reality.
So, yeah, rocks are what God intends.
Ask Moses about water gushing from them.
There’s a famous story in Hinduism about a guy who prayed to a statue.
He became the best archer EVER.
See?
All bets are off.
God is in charge of every certainty.
Proof?
Get quiet, quieter, quietest.
Expand your sensitivites.
Peer deeply at God’s mind.
Edg Duveyoung
Being an exponent of silence · Jan 1
What is "real"?
While sealing an envelope, get a paper cut on your lip.
Seems pretty real eh?
A paper cut can ruin a whole day.
Even a billionaire’s day.
What gets attention is spot lit.
Its bright allure is ridiculously potent.
And that’s the proof of the unreality of the real.
Try reading The Sermon On The Mount with a paper cut.
Every other thought will be off topic. Wisdom schmisdom.
“Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
“Ouch. Damned lip.”
“Turn the other cheek.”
“If I get lemon juice in this, I’ll scream.”
“Consider the lilies how they grow.”
“OW!!!!”
All the real-deal really reals are ephemeral. Illusory. Poof-able.
So . . . things schemings. Not worthy of attention.
Except for one thing.
What has absolute power?
What can punt addictive consciousness?
That’d be the thing, eh?
Except it’s not an it, a thing, or schming.
it’s THAT.
THAT is always present — as if pinned to the now.
THAT’s not observable, attendable, knowable.
You can get “an it,” but you can’t get THAT.
The wise say you should be THAT.
But they snicker and say “should schmould” under their mental breaths.
Because being is, and THAT is beyond isness.
What to do?
Don’t do.
How to don’t?
You can’t do a don’t.
Try to do a don’t and you’ve done a do.
You’re THAT already.
And THAT’s THAT.
Proof schmoof.
Edg Duveyoung
Being an exponent of silence · 7mo
How would you describe a divine experience?
Being an absolute fool.
Hinduism’s Lord Brahma was the First Fool.
He woke up on a flower and was bewildered and could not create.
So He dived downward trying to find the tip of the flower’s root.
Dived and dived and dived for forever.
Okay, not forever forever, but for thousands of His years.
Merely one minute of His time would seem foreverish to you.
But finally He quit diving. Gave up totally. Admitted His foolishness.
Even with omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence, He lost.
Couldn’t get there — even though, technically, He was already there.
All His powers — every possible power — could not grasp Himself.
So your chances for finding your existential root are slim, eh?
Your odds are not meaningfully computable — even by God.
But there you are starving for subtlety.
The very tip of you is always a titch beyond any reaching.
Oh, yah, anyone can get a whiff of the divine.
“I know everything.” — even a doofus can have this experience.
“I am everywhere.” Ditto.
“I am doing everything.” Dit dit.
And that’s not going to fill your spiritual tummy.
So it seems that you and Lord Brahma are hungry fools.
Except you have not yet quit.
Lord Brahma did. Lost and took one for the team. He quit.
And that was what it took to get the win.
Suchly are you instructed. Quit to win.
How so?
After Lord Brahma quit, Creation flowed forth.
The Creator couldn’t create, quit trying, and the job got done.
He only had to step aside and abide.
Stop seeking for peaking.
And . . . done.
And . . . there you are.
And . . . something ungraspable manifests the divine.
Edg Duveyoung
What experiences have you had that you would describe as a miracle?
This one you won’t believe.
It happened, but it defied the odds of physical laws.
I was a hipster, circa 1969, and I had a peace sign necklace.
The peace sign was cast iron — all one piece.
It had a small hole at its top.
I had threaded a leather thong through it.
Wore it around my neck.
I would often tug at the peace sign.
The leather thong would be pulled into the back of my neck.
I would do this, say, hundreds of times per day — a habit.
Then it happened,
I was sitting on the floor — tugging.
Once a second. Like that. Absentmindedly.
The BAM! The peace sign came loose.
“Oh nuts. I broke it.”
But no. It was one piece yet still,
And the leather thong was unbroken — still around my neck.
I told my wife, and we both examined this event.
No breaks in the cast iron.
Thong still knotted and around my neck.
There are two explanations.
1. By chance the molecules of iron and leather passed through each other.
2. God did it.
I think we can all agree that it’s more likely that God did it.
Now here’s the strange part.
After decades of meditation, every thought I now have seems as unlikely.
The peace sign event was God kickstarting my mind’s miracle-osity.
Now, finally, I don’t even have to tug anymore.
Edg Duveyoung
What has happened to you by chance?
Everything is unexplained.
We know not even our very next thought.
Yet, even our dreaming is as if a puzzle completed.
Only a divine agency could structure ALL THIS.
There’s a chance for anything.
Every next moment is perfectly unexpectable.
Once I dropped a coin, and it bounced up and down on its edge like a ball.
After about ten bounces, it stopped and stood still and balanced.
Such long odds, eh? Just so your mind’s content.
There’s a blue dragon with icy wings and rainbow tail.
See how your dragon is another performing coin?
Your mind just now imagined it. Created it. Authored it.
This is what makes even slight scintillations so precious.
You’re saturated with this constant infinity of values.
Even silence ceaselessly sings to you.
Only God could love you this much.
Edg Duveyoung
A piece of Being's puzzle (1944–present) · 8mo
After taking Shaktipat from Guru, will you have a spiritual ability like Siddhi?
One of my spiritual progenitors was said to walk through a crowd and his mere glance would
clobber you so deeply that the phrase “rocks are melting” was used to conceptually delineate it.
He had to be begged by whole crews of religious dignitaries for 50 years to come out of his
solitary jungle existence to become their leader. Finally he did and melted the rock hard minds of
vast audiences for a decade before he died. In the jungle, he was doing the same thing for the
whole world, because when silence is espied, it tingles itself everywhere.
Another of my progenitors was once asked by an audience member to demonstrate bliss without
using speech. The first three rows of the auditorium, instantly in unison, felt a blast that had them
audibly moaning into deep relaxation.
Do you have a rock hard mentality? Need a whacking from a sledgehammer that’s as big as an
extinction level meteor? Going about 40,000 kilometers per second? Mostly nickel-iron?
You and everyone else. These be hard times with hardened hard headedness.
What to do?
Don’t look at me! I’m already maxed out just being in this era and adding my smidgeon of peace to
it.
The solution: same as I always underline. Your own inner resource: awareness.
I know. I know. You’ve heard it too much, but let me hammer ya one more time, because your
silence is an infinitely hefty God-swung cudgel. Just laying there in plain sight.
Don’t give me, “But my rocks are special.” Rocks schmocks. Easily, instantly, pulverisable. And
there’s proof.
Step one: when next you hit an impossibly adamantine wall and your force is absolutely resistible,
don’t think again, because thinking is the cause of insolvability. That brain of yours is just going to
swing at the issue with MORE ISSUES. Bah! That’s like using a Nerf hammer to drive a ten penny
nail into solid oak.
Step two: Merely glance — your glance is as good as ANY progenitor. Any. So merely glance
within, and see that INSTANTLY for a nano-nonce your problem can be set aside. There’s the
proof. Silence within is accessible even in an avalanche.
Step three: Don’t quit. A nano-nonce needs iterations. By repeatedly glancing within, gradually
that big club bashing dummy brain will “get it” and lay that hammer down permanently. And when
you stop trying to slap reality silly, you’ll find a silly grin on your face.
Silence is almost the whole of your experiencing. Only here and there is the mind actually plunking
a boulder onto your plate. Even if you’ve got a firing squad aiming at you, the bullets are not yet
entering. Might as well glance within and be at peace for ONE MORE NONCE!
That’s the trick of the enlightened. They’re no nonsense noncers. Urgency schmergency. They
deal with what must be dealt with when the cards are in their hands, but until then, they enjoy the
delights of anticipation.
No belief required. You’re the master of your own quandary quarry. Take your problems for
granite, and see if naturally your block-headedness can be used to build a pyramid.
So if you want some shaktipat, if I see you looking outside for it, I will say Tut Tut.
Edg Duveyoung
What happens in childhood stays in childhood?
This the top of a story I began to write — at 10 years of age. I was a yogi from the getgo!
Edg Duveyoung
Why are we interested (more) in sin than God?
Edg Duveyoung
Are there any other ways to reach spiritual enlightenment besides meditation?
Edg Duveyoung
What is the difference between spirituality and religion?
Originally Answered: What distinguishes spirituality from religion?
Edg Duveyoung
Who is your favorite philosopher (and why)?
Kindness Is Contagious.
Answered by Edg Duveyoung · 9mo
What is evil?
Edg Duveyoung
If God exists, why is there suffering and/or evil? Why does he allow tragedies? How
does one rationalize that? If free will explains human disasters, what explains natural
disasters?
Edg Duveyoung
How do I achieve a deeper and more meaningful meditation?
Edg Duveyoung
What do you do when life turns into hell?
Originally Answered: How do I stop my life from going straight to hell?
Edg Duveyoung
Do I keep my sense of humor after enlightenment/awakening? Everyone, especially on
Quora, is so serious about it but I laugh a lot during my day and I am afraid to get too
serious.
Edg Duveyoung
What is something we often romanticize?
Edg Duveyoung
Can you think of any rock stars/singers from any decade that were enlightened or
seemed to be?
Edg Duveyoung
How do you motivate yourself to read more books?
Edg Duveyoung
Is there anything that can be done for increasing concentration level for better
performance in our study?
Edg Duveyoung
Can one be a devotee of Lord Krishna without being a literalist? Can I be a true devotee
if I consider texts such as Mahabharata and Ramayana to be symbolic and allegorical
rather than literal and historical?
Lord Krishna is both transcendent and manifest.
Worship either aspect and you’re going homewards.
And if you aim at silence you will “get” both.
“Get” means “become.”
It’s about your nervous system.
How subtle can it be? Find out!
Got your system almost “perfectly settled down?”
Then you’re worshiping Lord Krishna’s manifest embodiment.
Yes, your body’s quietest aspect is Lord Krishna’s manifesting of Being.
Reach that level of quiescence, and you are PERSONALLY with Lord Krishna.
Reside at that level, and you are in Vaikuntha.
Long before that though, heh, your ego won’t be there, but just sayin’.
After basic enlightenment, (heart opened) karma operates the nervous system.
How subtle it gets is Lord Krishna’s creative choice.
All the above can ONLY be symbolic — concepts in the mind.
Zero need to believe in a concept, but “it’s a start.”
As we practice getting quieter, symbols fade away.
More and more your system is found solely abiding in silence.
Tons of things still happening, but none of it gets attended!
Like that noisy blabbermouth left elbow of yours that you ignore.
Gradually silence is recognized as everywhere always in “the midst.”
Then silence becomes true identity.
Then silence becomes Lord Krishna.
And He’s NOT SILENT.
Go figure, eh?
That’s how evolution progresses.
We try. And any trying is wrong, but hey, BEGIN!
Gradually a momentum is garnered.
Then you’re gaining speed with no mental intent.
Getting free becomes a “done deal.”
Scriptures say something astounding.
Say Lord Krishna’s name ONCE, and you’ve got A FRIEND FOR LIFE.
Imagine then, speaking, writing, praying, singing, regularly?
Hefty. Powerful. Stand back. God’s cleaning house!
I promise you.
You’ll hear that divine flute being played.
Edg Duveyoung
What can help me fall asleep at night?
Try this. It works.
With eyes closed, in bed, mentally attend your feet.
Feel them. It’s okay to move them a little bit.
Just enough to know “they’re there.”
About five to ten seconds worth, and done.
Asleep yet?
Okay then feel your ankles and lower legs.
Again, just enough to know they’re there.
Asleep yet?
Move on upwards, thighs, belly area, chest, arms, neck, head.
It is the body that needs the sleep, so attend the body.
Feeling and sensing the body “allows” the body to fall asleep.
Of course, all the contraindications apply.
See all the other answers here?
They’re good advice, but if all else fails, feel the body.
After some practice, you’ll just go, “Feet?”
And you’re snoring.
Turns out this is good advice for the beginner yogi.
Some folks can’t meditate due to mental turmoil.
So, the guru doesn’t tell you to solve “mentality.”
Instead, feeling the body repairs the beginner.
After this therapy, sometimes for weeks, then meditation is possible.
Advance use is to scan the body for “the most active part.”
Attending that part settles it down.
When nothing is “especially standing out and noticeable,” you’re ready.
We dont fight nature.
We work with its needs.
Then we can find the silence after the attention grabbers are gone.
Then?
Don’t attend anything.
Become everything.
Edg Duveyoung
What do you mean by “traditional sources of wisdom”?
The scriptures of your choice is a good place in which to find all the common problems of being a
“person” discussed and conclusions offered. By checking in with ancient wisdom, one gets taught
by group consciousness, and during the lessons one gets to see who one is in terms of morality,
philosophy, psychology, etc. This kind of self-knowledge is relative, but it’s a good start. All
religions have their “group participation” eductional processes during which one gets to quiz an
expert. Of course, the guru tradition of India is a wonderful thing in which anyone can get one on
one help across the educational spectrum — from deep spirituality to how to play a sitar. Like this
many gurus can help clear away cobwebs blocking your view of a possible future. A friend or
relative might also, in that when one asks sincerely for help….UP RISES A GURU WITHIN THEM.
Everyone loves to help someone who is sincerely approaching them in honesty and humility — just
like anyone will immediately help a blind person find something. It’s natural. So ask around.
Same deal for educational leaders. I never had one try to brush off my questions about
occupations, mentality, and on and on. They truly want to help, so bouncing ideas off of them and
asking for direction will be a rich experience.
Teaching — no matter your level of education — is a great way to get clear. The teacher always
learns more than the student — always. So grab whomever, and teach whatever. A six year old boy
comes home, and he’s proud that in school he learned how to draw the letter A. So he grabs his
five year old sister and says, “Here’s how to draw the letter A. Now practice that, and tomorrow I
will show you B.” Like this one might be barely one step head of the student, but that boy learned
SO MUCH by being loving and proud and helpful and seeing his sister’s wonder and gratitude —
what a profit compared to his merely having learned how to draw an A. So teach someone “young”
what might help them decide what “to do next with their minds.” YOU WILL BE ASTOUNDED AT
THE WISDOM THAT POURS FROM YOU. Listen to the advice you’re giving!
One thing’s certain, uncertainty will always be there, so we don’t waste time debating the fine
print. Action is a great teacher. Always teaching you something even if you’re digging a ditch.
Hope this helps.
Edg Duveyoung
I'm okay, so why should I try to be spiritual?
Here’s Sri Nisargadatta’s advice:
Q: I am physically and mentally at peace. What more do I need?
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: “Yours may not be the ultimate state. You will recognize that you have
returned to your natural state by a complete absence of all desire and fear. After all, at the root of
all desire and fear is the feeling of not being what you are. Just as a dislocated joint pains only as
long as it is out of shape, and is forgotten as soon as it is set right, so is all self-concern a
symptom of mental distortion which disappears as soon as one is in the normal state. “
Q: Yes, but what is the sadhana for achieving the natural state? G
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: “Hold on to the sense ‘I am’ to the exclusion of everything else. When
thus the mind becomes completely silent, it shines with a new light and vibrates with new
knowledge. It all comes spontaneously, you need only hold on to the ‘I am’. Just like emerging
from sleep or a state of rapture you feel rested and yet you cannot explain why and how you come
to feel so well, in the same way on realization you feel complete, fulfilled, free from the
pleasurepain complex, and yet not always able to explain what happened, why and how. You can
put it only in negative terms: ‘Nothing is wrong with me any longer.’ It is only by comparison with
the past that you know that you are out of it. Otherwise — you are just yourself. Don’t try to
convey it to others. If you can, it is not the real thing. Be silent and watch it expressing itself in
action.”
———————————————————-
Any questions? If one reads the above, SLOWLY, giving each sentence time to establish its
fullness in your mind, no more explanations are needed.
That said, if you’ve got a question, ASK, and I’ll try to reply below.
I'm okay, so why should I try to be spiritual?
30 answers · Last followed 9mo
Edg Duveyoung
Does a dog worship it's master the same way a theist worships it's god?
This question reveals improper definitions.
A true theist does not worship Manifest God.
A true theist transcends the illusory and resides in silence.
By such practice the worship allows attention to fall upon awareness.
Eventually the worship leads to identification with awareness.
A dog can’t do that.
Only humans can do this.
Only humans can free themselves from thinking thoughts.
The person who worships Manifest God is processing as does the dog.
To put the attention on MERE SYMBOLS is to miss communion.
Unity is when the person dissolves into silent being.
If the owner of the dog dies, the dog is miserable.
If Manifest God is realized as illusory, the true theist is in bliss.
The trick:
Dwelling in silence is the practice of surrendering illusory attachments.
Practice leads to perfection when “the person” dissappears FOREVER.
After one realizes awareness as the true Self, doggy treats don’t allure.
Why praise Manifest God and not firstly find Self from which God arises?
Only when we surrender does life get to be natural.
After true identity is found, life is conducted by the forces of Nature.
The kicker:
Turns out that God is solely transcendent, never illusorially manifest.
Thus:
— Only transcendence is true worship.
— Only transcendence is communion with the divine.
— Only transcendence is true immortality.
So practice wouldjajust?
Find out that your mind can dissolve.
Find out that when everything is gone, you’re still there.
Then this silent Self begins to be obvious no matter its disguise.
Silence can flood into a life.
Usually as if a dam has given way.
Edg Duveyoung · Follow
Quora suggests I share. Okay. I'm easy.
Edg Duveyoung · 4y
What are the best meditation techniques?
No. If you see a ventriloquist arguing with his dummy about politics, will it be a fair debate? If
you ask Walt Disney, “What technique would help Mickey Mouse evolve?” is he going to give
you a funny look? If you train your parrot to say, “OM” 10,000 times a day, will you give that…
(more)
Edg Duveyoung
What are the best meditation techniques?
Here are exact instructions:
Was that too subtle?
Okay, if that didn’t do it, how about:
After the colon, I hit the space bar twice to make it obvious.
Not enough?
Okay okay, maybe you need words. I can do words.
Sigh, the words are so unnecessary, but here goes: look within.
Now, I know, I know, it’s so very wordy, but at least it’s legit.
Looking within — no matter how — is the same as “a space bar hit.”
No matter what happens, anyone looking inside is getting quieter.
Anyone can create “invisible mental white space” — silence.
But will anyone?
Answer: Not often enough if they expect a lot and get little.
Folks quit when uncertainty overrides spiritual intent.
How strong is yours?
This is why gurus and their techniques flourish. They create certainty.
It’s a false certainty, but a true guru will do what it takes to get you free.
They’ll get you using techniques that are as illusory as everything else.
But but but, any technique is worthy if silence is noticed.
But you won’t know that, and you’ll want proof which cannot be given.
Want a superpowered guru — someone who can manifest anything?
Well, they’re very rare, and there’s many billions of “your ilk.”
Don’t get me wrongly, a guru is the way to go, if you’re deserving.
But most of us flat out are not worthy of a guru’s time and attention.
Yeah, I said it. We’re just too grimey. Mentally unwashed.
And the better the guru, the less facetime you’ll get due to so many requests.
What to do?
Back to my first instruction:
We look within to see — and find nothing.
That’s the perfect result.
Advaita suggests you ask, “Who am I?”
Once is enough. Your mind will be instantly wordless.
You’re not there! So the mind goes: “eh, um, er.”
And that stumped brain’s silence lasts for a seventh of a second (don’t ask.)
But most deny it even happens at all.
But looking within is ALWAYS GOOD PRACTICE.
Silence will begin to whelm.
Now, your whelm is not anyone else’s whelm.
You have to start from where you’re at.
And you’re in downtown Crazyville, right?
So it can take a few meditations to get out of town.
Okay, okay, MANY MANY MANY meditations.
But it’s okay, because silence is the best fun.
So try it. And fail.
But you won’t fail even if you feel like a dud.
It will just take a bit of practice.
And then milestones are regularly reached.
And the best news you’re not going to believe:
Silence is better than any guru, and talk about your face time! Any amount.
After all, where does any guru get spiritual knowledge?
The same silence you have. The same.
Silence is the university of knowledge.
Just have to attend class.
AND TAKE NO NOTES!
Edg Duveyoung
What is burnt by the fire of spiritual knowledge?
When two unite and become one, what is lost?
If I break a stick in half, do I have two sticks?
When you stand up have you lost your lap?
If I write on black paper with black ink, have I written?
Is a sheep in a snowstorm as visible as an angel?
Patanjali has one answer for all the above questions.
“Unite everything with silence.”
Patanjali was all about erasing distinctions.
Boundaries really bothered Patty Boy, so he invented samyama.
Samyama is having objects become distinctionless in the mind.
Instruction: have a concept and then become silent.
This will reveal that the concept is — in actuality — more silence.
Repeat if necessary. Iterate and wait. Iterate and wait. Like that.
In this manner, all the structures of consciousness can be harmonized.
The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali sets it all down. Delicious reading.
And more tasty if practiced.
It is spiritual to plumb the depths of you.
Why not, eh?
You want to be wholly whole and holy, right?
Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj taught ultimate samyama.
Ask yourself, “Who am I?” and wait.
See?
Your object of consciousness is your concept of “me.”
And then you wait for “a bit.”
And iterate if you drift off topic, and wait.
As long as it takes.
Until it becomes absolutely clear.
You will be knowledgeable.
Your silent SELF will become KNOWN to be the source of all concepts.
Your true identity will be grasped as an all time PRESENCE.
Firey samyama resolves illusory mentality into ashes.
And you might have noticed: ashes of a coiled rope are not all that ropey.
That’s Advaita’s self inquiry.
Look within for your self.
Instantly find silence.
Practice until silence permanently comes to the fore.
Then . . .
Be the silence between every two things.
What is burnt by the fire of spiritual knowledge?
14 answers · Last followed Feb 1
Edg Duveyoung
What do you think is your true purpose in life?
LET’S ASK GOD!
Hey God!
We just talked two days ago. Last time didn’t cut it?
There’s a limit? My ignorance isn’t infinite? I need. I need.
Okay, shoot.
What’s my purpose?
Not again. I answered this a bazillion times. Exactly. I just counted.
Yeah, but maybe You could pick Your favorite answer for me.
And then what?
I’ll consider it again, and then tell my Quoran readers about it.
You’ll dilute, and then think you’re cute to boot. What a hoot.
If only I had certainty that I could be a hoot for You.
You’re 100% hoot. A perfect spiritual joke.
You made me like this.
Glad I did.
You could have made me a righteous king who glorifies life.
Did that. But do you remember?
So now, I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel for “gunk roles?”
Dregs City for you. Could be worse. Wanna pick again?
No! I’ll take this! Don’t send me into yet another baby’s nervous system.
That sobered ya up, eh?
Yeah, but I want a purpose still.
Making Me laugh at Myself for having ever considered creating you.
That’s it? That’s my bragging rights? God’s little chucklefest?
Yep. Enjoy your role. Be a person for My sake. Wallow in it.
But I’m lost here. Talking to myself all the time — in public.
Not lost. Embedded. You’re a frontline reporter.
Stuck in the middle for You?
With me. Omnipresence!
But I wanted to be so much for Your delight.
I’ve never laughed harder. Ask any angel.
I waste Your time when You could be loving the superior souls.
I create time — on the fly — as needed. No pinch. Omnipotence!
Sigh. I always end up here getting a thumped forehead.
You love it. Any attention from Me, and you’re slobbering.
I admit it. Will I ever get enough of You?
There’s no room to put more of Me inside you. You’re full.
So that’s what I tell everyone? You’ve filled us all to the brim?
Yep. Drink up or spill Me all over the place. Your choice.
Sounds like a purpose. Deal!
Go! Be chuckleworthy with Me.
Edg Duveyoung
Why do enlightened people say "I" don't exist, but they also say "I alone exist" ? What
is the meaning of this contradiction?
LET’S ASK GOD!
Oh Infinitely Unlimited Transcendent Sacred Holiness, are Thee or not?
Your pick.
No fair! Thee picks, and I’m the Thee-Authored illusory picker only.
So pick anyway.
But I’m stoopit. I sometimes take ten minutes to unknot my shoelaces.
At your age, go Velcro.
What about Thy age? It’s Thy 154,000,000,000,000,001st birthday coming up!
And still talking to you. Sigh. Tempting to tuck Creation beddiebye.
Wait! I’m not done yet!
So pick a side. Fish or cut the Ghordian Bait.
Okay, I choose YES! Thee liveth and beeth and iseth.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd, wrong.
Thee set me up!
Everytime. Everytime. It’s what I do.
And if I’d said “no” I would be equally wrong, right?
Yes. I’m beyond any symbol inside any mind.
Feels like entirety is a deceit, a conceit, and a cheat.
Yet you have drive and strive and thrive.
But that’s all on Thee! Where’s my credentials?
I have them right here. Come. Be with Me.
But I am here.
Be here now. Stop wandering off.
I don’t feel like I wander.
There you go again.
So any thought I have takes me with it on a mental escapade?
As far as you can get from now.
So talking to Thee . . .
Is not now.
But it’s THEE! I love Thee.
Says a mind addicted to virtue signaling.
So… … … … … .. .. .. . . .
Yes.
Edg Duveyoung
Why is 3 am considered the “witching hour” or the "devil's hour"?
This is about group consciousness and God’s wont.
About 3–4:30, the night side of Earth gets its most still.
That’s when sentience of sentience can easily occur.
In our planet’s stillness, even rocks meditate to quieterness.
And the saints acknowledge this as a magnificent surrendering to God.
All beings, even non-beings, get healed, reset, and ready to go.
What else, eh? when God’s sleeves roll up.
Divine intent does not stint in stillness and reexamines creation infinitely.
And so, even ghosts and unicorns and jackalopes get buffedly spruced.
For all of us this holds sway.
All rest to get sacredly tuned-up.
Humans especially deepen between dreams.
No witchery then needed with God so near.
In the depths of that quiescence, wake up and meditate!
Silently join God’s silence with your own.
Abiding is the perfect start of another holy drama.
This is how to support the ensuing onslaught of omniscience.
That’s your God’s thoughts arising, not yours.
It’s the entirety that’s dancing inside your theater.
Every speck of consciousness sweet, necessary and true.
Even now. Right now. God is singing to you.
No wonder you are an enrapt child gazing agog.
No wonder silence so becomes you.
Stillness is your sole attire.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the difference between conscious and subconscious mind in simple terms?
There isn’t a difference.
— Except thinking makes it so.
Thoughts are like great big objects seen in a movie.
— That are tiny things on a single frame of the film.
Just so do subtle mental impulses project largely on the mind’s screen.
— Each thought is a “magnification event.”
Get quiet and still and see for yourself.
— Get deep, and see thoughts emerge.
As a thought is born, it’s whole and pure.
— Like an infant suggesting the adult.
But it gets mussed, mixed, and muddied on its way to maturity.
— Sound familiar?
Thoughts pass through the staining filters of desire.
— And arrive “in-formed.”
To avoid obfuscations, reside in the nursery.
— Be a caring parent.
This is how the gods think.
— They know each thought is a mystic gift.
So what do you want?
— Pocket change or coins fresh from the mint?
Edg Duveyoung
If the self is just an illusion, who has achieved enlightenment if there is no self?
Absolutely ain’t two selves.
Duality: Someone is reading these words.
Unity: Being the awareness of the someone who’s reading these words.
Unity is about God.
God’s transcendent.
That’s not up for debate!
You are a figure eight
Made by a twirled sparkler
By God at age nine.
Don’t dive inside to see.
Dive inside and be.
Be one to be and two to see.
Yeah, it’s tricky.
Look at these sketchy conceptics!
Best advice: Don’t read!
Give it a rest wouldjajust?
Settle down. Shush.
. . . . . wait for it . . .
Edg Duveyoung
Do all human beings have felt enlightenment once at least?
LET’S ASK GOD!
Oh Divine Creator, have I ever felt enlightenment?
Yes, because creation resides wholly inside My imagination.
So we’re all made of divine thought?
Yes, and I imagine so well that everything seems actual.
But that means You imagine the evil of the world.
Yes, and everything is endlessly examined from every angle.
But that means bad persons are enjoying being inside Your mind.
Yes, but they are blameless, because they have no true agency.
But all religions blame the doers of mindful wrongs.
Yes, because I imagine them doing that.
So, it’s all a zero-sin game?
Yes, but I get invested anyway. I’m cheerleading from the bleachers.
Cheering for what? More evil bothering the good guys?
Yes, and more good guys ultimately winning.
But we suffer and die.
Yes, dramatic, eh?
Not for us! We’re desperate with no place to run.
Yes, everyone’s bracing for karmic impact.
We’re at wits’ end.
Yes, hearts’ end too!
Is any of this moral, justified, necessary?
Yes, to My omniscient ken which transcends your certainties.
So, I have to abide even when I’m not resonating?
Yes, lovely, silent, sweet abiding.
But abiding doesn’t cut it when dread urgencies arise.
Yes, abiding is a skill with a learning curve.
So, abide whenever I can?
Yes, all-time abiding is the goal, so practice!
But is abiding enlightening?
Yes, and when abiding is perfected life’s divinity is realized.
Because I’m only witnessing and You’re doing everything?
Yes. That’s the deal.
So any abiding has, at least, the “taste” of enlightenment?
Yes, but once perfected suffering and death dissolve.
But even saints die.
Yes, but saints don’t care! Their eyes are on Me.
So no matter what, abide.
Yes. Abide with Me.
So I just say yes.
Yes.
Say yes and don’t stop saying yes.
Yes.
Practice abiding in Your living mind.
Yes.
And if I die, I don’t?
Yes. My Being contains you. I can’t forget you.
I’m a witness to Your mind?
Yes. It’s My mind, and you won’t need one.
I abide. You guide.
Yes.
You play. I pray.
Yes.
I don’t know how to end this conversation.
Yes. I love it when you squirm!
I’m okay. I’ll make it.
Yes.
So, I guess I’ll talk later.
Yes. Let’s do lunch!
Lunch? That’s Your metaphor?
Yes. It comes with eternity as a side dish.
You have me drooling already.
Yes. You’re dying for it. I can tell.
Edg Duveyoung
Being an exponent of silence · Updated 10mo
I can understand Advita Vedanta but failing to apply in my everyday life because of my
expectations and emotions associated with it. Any suggestions would be helpful for
our spiritual journey 🙏 ?
Don’t think about it.
If thoughts keep coming, keep don’t-ing.
Analysis? We’ve had enough.
— Intellectual clarity only seems to help.
— Emotional resonance doesn’t make heartfelt wishes come true.
Only silence.
Solely silence.
Nothing but no-thing.
Helps.
But “helps” doesn’t mean helps.
We’re too limited to recognize even phenomenal “help.”
Karma is unfathomable. Get it?
Maybe only a major disappointment will “help.”
Maybe one is slated to rise gloriously above lifeless ashes.
Maybe God wants to see one fall gloriously below. Urp!
But then, what value any “help” or “harm” inside a dream?
Truly spiritual help is “a lessening of attachment” to existence.
Yeah, to existence itself.
Up until now, existence has been hogging your attention.
And here’s God’s Presence TAPPING A TOE LOUDLY.
Ahem. Are you treating God like chopped liver?
Gotta have your priorities straight.
Silence is God’s Very Being.
Embrace at will!
But, ok, ok, I’ll at least give my standard sermonette.
To vaccinate your life with more spirituality, all the below will do.
— Meditate
— Right lifestyle
— Regular rest
— Contemplate scriptures
— Learn from living teachers
— Better diet
— Do yoga asanas
— Do pranayama
— Join like minded group
— Pure environment
But but but — that’s not causal; it’s synchronic!
If you find yourself doing any of the above, it’s a blessing.
The above resonates with Advaita, so they’re nice additions.
Implementing the list “helps” — usually, probably, sorta.
And careful! Tragedies and trivialities pull rugs from under lists.
Enjoy what comes and goes.
No need to hasten arrivals or departures.
No iterations, preservations, or decimations!
Take it easy. Accept it as it is.
Let it go when it goes.
Remember:
— a limping guy in a diaper
— a cigarette guy
both ended up gurus.
God can get you anywhere from here.
Even to nowhere.
Edg Duveyoung
Why are some people evil? Are they born that way or does life make them evil?
Good news: anything can be evil.
Examples:
— Cooing infants.
— Party balloons.
— Marriage vows.
— Soul mates.
— Ardent prayers.
— Good deeds.
Anything means anything.
Because: God. Natch.
God’s creativity — wowzers!
God:
— Knows all possible thoughts.
— Authors unique scenarios endlessly.
— Witnesses the entirety from all angles.
— Has a pet name for every quark ever.
Of course God knows all the ways.
— To make a baby a murder weapon.
— To use poison gas filled balloons.
— To have marauders marry.
— To have harmonized pairs that harm.
— To have priests who pray to Satan.
— To have good reasons to punish good deeds.
And you too, right?
You can find fault, right?
And you can find good, right?
And you do, now don’t you, you rascal/saint you.
But whew, blessedly, you’re made in the image of God.
Your creativity is miraculously fecund. Own it.
— You nightly dream up worlds that put Hollywood to shame.
— You constantly author unique thoughts — each an artwork.
— You always interpret any moment using whole cloth.
— You are God’s agency.
Got it?
Your job is to discover God’s constant actuality.
And as established hereinabovely, lucky us, God’s here.
So easy peasy, eh?
Just look.
God ain’t hiding.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the meaning of Matthew 5:40-41, "And if anyone sue you and take your coat let
him have your cloak as well"? Is this love or becoming a fool?
Cui bono?
Answer: God.
If God in disguise (anyone) asks for anything (anything,) give it.
Give it twice to be sure you gave it once.
If one truly gives anything, one proves one is free of its alluring grasp.
Even faking it emotionally ain’t all that bad when it comes to actually giving.
Your attitude will be adjusted thereby.
This is about entertaining angels unbeknownst.
In India everyone bows to everyone with prayerful hands.
It’s God saying, “Hi” to God.
Jesus also said your Self is lovably inside thy neighbor.
See?
IT’S THE SAME SELF.
The Self is always described the same way by all observers.
Infinite. Awareness. Identity. Bliss. Perfection. Transcendent.
You know, same ol’ same ol’.
So be a fool for God wouldjajust?
Take one for the team.
Be the holy exemplar in the midst of iniquity.
Blind ’em with your sacred light.
Deafen them with your silence.
Turn the other cheek.
And take it on the chin.
Sacrifice evolves you.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the dark side?
There’s no such thing. There. Done. Satisfied?
You want more?
Maybe you’re sayin’.“Maybe there’s a maybe.”
Maybe it’s conceptual funzies to spice up spirituality.
Maybe we did big “ut ohs” in the past.
Maybe we feel like heroes to face such a foe.
Maybe the Star Wars concept is Freudian.
Maybe we’re afraid some thoughts might possess us.
Maybe it’s a metaphor for “everyone else’s religious deviancy.”
Maybe we’re delighted kids running from Daddy the pretend monster.
Maybe we all have an inner Darth we want to save.
But, “But but but” you’ll say?
But what if God needs “Opposite God” to provide existential polarity?
But how else to explain evil? — we can’t blame God for this mess.
But how “something’s missing” would life be like without adversity?
But there has to be; otherwise we’d all be blinded by the light.
But it’s common knowledge.
But there’s the pending heat death of the universe!
But Darth’s entrance into Princess Leia’s ship is such primo egoic strutting.
But, darkless, then we’d only have the yang symbol.
I’ll skip the ifs, and ands. Maybe maybe-buts were enough.
Just to be sure about this, don’t temp your devil.
Temp your God.
What is the dark side?
5 answers · Last followed 11mo
Edg Duveyoung
If there is no God and no afterlife and your consciousness ceases to exist, what is the
point of life?
I’m a known fan of God.
And if God appears and says, “Nope. No afterlife.”— meh, I’m okay.
I’ll double down: if God says, “Real life” is not real — ditto meh.
Why?
Because: God.
Natch.
Gotta be true to your definitions.
Almost all religions teach that God is
— Constantly present everywhere
— Intellectually perfect
— Emotionally perfect
— Transcendently wise
— Unlimitedly able
See?
What God wants is fine with me.
What?
I should demand the right to re-arrange all of existence?
I should pout until my particular personality is important?
I should insist God makes creation always about me forever?
Kinda cringey, eh?
And the good news is:
God IS thinking of you RIGHT EXACTLY NOW.
God is creating your next thought.
Your mind’s content is manifested by divine agency.
Ain’t nobody gotz a valid complaint when all are omnisciently wrought.
Each next instant in the suchness — for free.
More?
You want more.
Look at the definitions I tellz ya.
If God is God, everything is infinitely attended inside God’s living mind.
And hee hee, GOD CAN’T FORGET.
We all’s in the mix!
Edg Duveyoung
What are the facts about the conscious mind and subconscious mind?
Originally Answered: What is the conscious and subconscious mind?
There is a particular dot that is a conscious/subconscious metaphor.
That dot is actually the same size as this dot .
Yet, this tiny dot-sized thing is hefty enough to spur a flood of thoughts.
Which dot?
When firstly seen, it’s soundless, but you will know that dot is roaring.
That dot, you’ll know, is going to grow into an overwhelming monster.
Soon, ALL your senses will be saturated with TRAIN!!!!!
Probably, you’ve looked down a long railroad track.
And you saw the metaphorical dot there on the horizon.
And, expecting the train, for you the dot was enough “proof.”
You didn’t need more details. You knew.
This is what the yogi does.
Sees the dots of everything — especially thoughts.
No details needed to know a whispered notion’s fullest embodiment.
Like your train certainty, the yogi doesn’t need more proof about anything.
The yogi isn’t burning much fuel, ya see? Efficient! Why suss?
You can be certain a train is coming from merely seeing “almost nothing.”
A yogi sees the births of all the almost nothings.
And in every possible direction, all the dots are God.
God’s always going “I think I am I think I am I think I am” in the distance.
Or God can arrive and OVERWHELM YOU.
Your choice.
Edg Duveyoung
What's the point of erasing memories of past life at reincarnation? Can the soul resist
that process and come to a new life remembering the old one?
Quick, what did you have for breakfast October 20, 2019?
See? You don’t care about your life’s details all that much.
You hardly have even a mental scrapbook with highlights.
Most of it not easily recalled and the rest is too subtle to re-play.
Worse, you have ZERO clarity about how you’re evolving.
Did eating a pizza with pineapple two years ago only now affect you?
Silly to ask, eh? But tomorrow’s meal is equally a mystic event.
You don’t have Grasp 101 about what’s what or why in youville.
But you want to remember a past life?
As if.
How many of those lives included you somehow horribly dying?
In how many lives did you do something soooo stooopit?
Hindus say you’ve had 154 billion trillion years to evolve.
And you only got this far, eh?
Welcome to the club!
Everyone is in it.
See the blessing?
You don’t remember all your mistakes. Whew, eh!
No thrill recalling previous high bars met that are mere low bars for you now.
When last did you relish the triumph of learning to tie your shoes?
This is why the wise do not encourage any interest in egoic events.
Those “re-imaginings” divert one from the infinite, eternal, presence of God.
See? Don’t ask the wise what career is best for you.
The wise point you inwards towards the source of you.
Which, if dwelt with sufficiently, becomes your divinity.
Inwardly one travels to quieter levels to enter silent sentience.
This is the identity sought — the truer answer of questions — all questions.
Who am I if I’m not this person in particular?
So, no worries with memories. They’ll arise if needed.
Maybe a thousand years ago, you grasped a concept, and today it’s “handy.”
Maybe you don’t remember the thousand times you made the same mistake.
And then you make that mistake one more time, but today it’s the last time.
We don’t get to know these things.
They’re in God’s Scrapbook. They’re God’s Precious Memories.
You get to turn the pages.
Tie your shoes.
Ride a bike.
Drive a car.
Fall in love.
Pages.
But if you get quiet, as quiet as possible, clarity dawns.
You’ll still turn the pages.
But now, you’ll have the scrapbook on your lap.
And you’ll be on God’s Lap.
And if you like, Vast Arms hugging you, God will turn the pages too.
Edg Duveyoung
Does astrology actually help people or not?
You’re not gunna like my answer.
Brace for impact: Nothing helps.
Oh yes I do too mean it.
All my Quoran essays are meaning it.
I’ll flunking say it again, “NOTHING HELPS.”
Nothing is not nothing though, so let’s work with that.
But, urp! it’s a problem that you’s a stooopithead.
Everyone’s all stooopitheads.
Even eggheads’s all stooopitheads.
And now you’ve shown up here seeking certainty?
Asking me about astrology?
You noticed I’m a stooopithead, right?
But okay, for starters, quick, mentally compute the value of pi.
See? This debately calibrates your I.Q. Now we know.
And yep, you’z a stooopithead.
Only God ain’t.
God knew pi’s value before He invented hydrogen.
And holy moly, God loves astrology.
It’s nothing for God to know to exact degree how Mars affects you.
Right now, for instance, Mars is perturbing ya.
Imagine an atom sized imp on your shoulder pitchforking ya.
But if you think a stooopithead can compute nth degrees, u stooopit.
God does transcendental math . . . . . . . always.
Anyone who thinks they can outthink God’s thinking is stooopit too.
The only angle, the only loop hole, the only smart play, is no play.
If you want to know the deal, sit out a hand. Don’t bet.
Just watch the game that God calls “karma.”
If you merely witness even an instant, the vastness unfolds.
Stop breathing right now and look at this dot .
See all the other peripherality too? That’s the silent vastness.
Constantly you’re anything but a stooopithead, right?
You GRASP ALL THIS SO WELL. A names and forms expert.
Unimaginable and indescribable but everything is so obvious to you.
You don’t need no stinkin’ astrology if you’re a dot glancer.
You see the all. Know the all. Are the all.
Instant by moment by tick and tock you’re in the know.
Maybe just maybe you’ll save the world ten minutes from now.
But here’s you calmly reading all innocent like.
See how God sneaks up on ya and goes, “BAM — Destiny!”
It’s better this way.
Not knowing.
Makes it all surprising.
Delight after delight effortlessly there.
God’s the magician pulling rabbits out of hats.
You’re the volunteer from the audience,
Edg Duveyoung
Why do non-dual teachers encourage Seekers to accept whatever happens in life and
to not resist it? Wouldn't this require an illusory "me" with free-will that can 'do'
acceptance?
It’s a marketing ploy.
If someone says, “Accept it,” you’ve been told you’re in charge.
And so, to know how to be causal, you must be charged . . . an instruction fee.
You’ll learn to appreciate the tractionlessness of costly learning.
As I did. And then you too can answer questions on Quora!
Even babies have unmet druthers and grow up slavering.
An unrequited life — across the existential spectrum — for all.
Universal to attempt agency and fail.
And, oh Lord, stuck in Lodi again.
Even God fails to keep everyone from going south.
And now the good news.
Instantly you can relax a bit by closing your eyes.
Looking within is easier than not looking within.
And if peering continues, thoughts fade.
At the level of least excitation, solely soul is.
And better news yet still:
The less the mind is used, the sweeter it gets.
Letting go is automatic.
No effort required to not be willful.
Go ahead.
Close the eyes.
I double dog triple dare ya.
Edg Duveyoung
Being an exponent of silence · 1y
What is the difference between attention, awareness and concentration?
Awareness “is” prior to consciousness.
— Inconceivably pure identity, sentience, and transcendent consciousness.
— Metaphysically informs Being’s creating to maintain and to destroy.
— Defines divine omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence.
— Mystically resides beyond the instrumental, phenomenal, and natural.
Awareness
— Attends without being attentive.
— Knows without processing.
— Is without being.
— Transcends actuality.
— The unchangeable THAT.
— Is God’s perfectly still mind.
Attention is an emergent property of the entirety.
Attention is why the ego thinks it is sentient.
Attention is caused — not causal.
Attention is a snapshot of instantaneity.
Attention is found on the top of the iceberg mind.
Attention is a monkey leaping from branch to branch seeking redder fruits.
Concentration is usually merely a delusion.
Stare at a candle and see how many non-candle thoughts also arise.
Being is true concentration — validated by silence.
Practicing being silent reveals that identity is awareness — not mind.
If more than one concept is attended, it is contemplation — not concentration.
Looking at the mind stops it for a nano-instant.
Looking repeatedly is practicing the skill of getting quieter.
Attention gets jiggy with the bottom of the iceberg.
In the depths, beneath the surface waves, Being becomes purely still.
Await. Abide. Dwell. Reside.
Then: the flip.
Edg Duveyoung
A piece of Being's puzzle (1944–present) · 1y
What is the exact meaning of the two words "I am" that Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj refers
to?
“I am” is duality perfected — witness and mind.
“I” is transcendent sentience.
“Am” is an illusory embodiment of “I” that appears “sentient, silent, still”
There. Fully explained. Now ya know, eh?
But nah? Ya say ya could do with more details?
Good news: everything ever is the set of all details.
Now ya got it — really know for sure.
All yer thoughts. History’s thoughts. God’s thoughts.
Details. Study at yer leisure.
But nope, ya won’t, nope ya won’t.
And there’s ya with a “full life” planned.
Ya exited the chute bucking all get out.
Ut oh.
“Ignorance of the law is no excuse,” right?
Mistakes will be made, Ya think?
And now ya know:
God rigged the whole dang thang.
From getgo to every way but loose y’all trippin’.
And here ya are jalopying Quoran back roads looking for an exit.
Gravel, dust and eight foot high corny Edgisms forever. Ugh.
Must be a super highway. Ya’d think, eh?
And there is.
I am………
Don’t finish that sentence.
Just be to see true me.
Edg Duveyoung
A piece of Being's puzzle (1944–present) · 1y
How does focusing on breathing and observing or being a witness of thoughts help to
reach the state of samadhi?
There is no “how.”
Except: God seems to know a few “causality tricks.”
But for muggles, if you want to try to evolve, that’s Blessing #1.
If God blesses you again, Blessing #2 will be that you’ll “try” to be spiritual.
— Better diet
— Right lifestyle
— Regular rest
— Contemplate scriptures
— Learn from teachers
— Meditate
— Do yoga asanas
— Do pranayama
— Join like minded group
— Pure environment
— Etc.
If any of the above occur, each incident is an additional blessing.
None of this comes into actuality by dint of decisions made by an ego.
The ego will take credit and swell with pride if any of the above happen.
But God designs the ego’s everythingness too, so no worries.
So, if you’re “spiritual,” it’s a major deal. Sit up straighter wouldja just?
All of spirituality is designed to observe quiet subtleties of the mind.
Breathing and thought production are recursive and directly proportional.
As quiescence is deepened, clarity synchronistically begins to dawn.
Observing is automatic. Practice reveals the transcendent witness.
Samadhi is when thoughts (mental events) cease. This is Being.
Being is all opposites — paired — it’s everything’s potential to manifest.
Dwelling in Being’s silence instructs that identity resides outside of creation.
At some point, awareness dominates, and Being is then merely phenomenal.
This is the fulfilment all seek.
Face it. You’re reading this essay.
You’re hooked already!
Relax.
Steady on — you’re in Good Hands.
Edg Duveyoung
How can you explain silence?
Originally Answered: What is the purpose of silence?
Let’s imagine how loud it was before the Big Bang.
Every possible any — squeezed down to a dot.
So any elbow jabbed every rib.
And every noise hit any ear instantly.
Consider: the relief when all that recursivity relaxed.
How it would seem so quiet you could taste it.
Space between anything invents time.
And space/time made relative silence an object of consciousness.
Billions of trillions of years since creation, it’s still thinning out.
God’s first and fastest, light is a slowpoke now.
It longs for the glory days of its instantaneity.
And it’s rankled that its brightness fades when the dark does not.
Every ear knows how much silence is now accessible.
All precisely know when the kitchen blender drowns out the TV.
Relative silence is sought when any seriousness is required.
And it’s so quiet now that you can hear your Self think.
The inner ear knows that thoughts are ambulance sirens.
They override the silence of an empty mind.
One has to wait for those screamers to pass by.
And then, a perfected relative silence becomes the noise of Being.
Though Being is God’s Silent Actuality, it hums.
As a bedroom clock that bothers like a mosquito.
That grabs attention away from True Silence.
And that’s THAT — pure identity — the source of Being’s sweet song.
But if one turns away even from the divine melody,
While sailing past the shores of the experiential,
Then one is like Ulysses avoiding the Siren’s duality hardened rocks,
And finally one transcends God’s constant whispering.
Then you’ll know the purpose of silence.
Edg Duveyoung
You are in the presence of God and you are allowed to ask a single question. What do
you ask?
Oh come on. Such a newbie question.
Let’s rip it a new one, eh?
“You” is not defined such that the reader’s “you” could be in God’s presence.
— Contrarily, how could any “you” be out of God’s “Omni” presence?
“Are” is a baseless assertion. “You’s” actuality relative to God’s is insignificant.
“In” is used as if “out” is possible.
“The” — singular for God’s Presence — well, ok, this comes close to being true.
“Presence” is used as if it is a rare event.
“Of” assumes that God is definable.
“God” is beyond conceptuality, but the question treats God as a relative entity.
Time out. Time out.
This task is just too slippery of a slope into depression.
Let’s accentuate the positive.
The question:
It supports that deep longing in all of us to see God — in all of us.
It spurs attention upon God.
It elbows the brain’s ribs to come up with something deeply wise.
It sharply focuses for maximum clarity.
It posits another reality — Heaven is God’s Presence.
It suggests the reader is smart enough to answer.
It requires the intellect to apply a rule for debate’s sake.
It imagines the reader as holy enough to be blessed suchly.
It shows the reader how long a “preliminary short list” can be.
It cleverly spotlights God’s Presence obviating any answer’s value.
It gives the reader a chance to pray.
Ahhhh, that’s better, eh?
Clearly we just need good questions.
Answers are provided DURING the asking of the questions.
I don’t know about you, but I'm giving God a thumb’s up for this.
Yeah, go ahead. Thwack my head for giving God a merit badge.
It’s such an obvious insult. Yep.
But sheesh wouldja just let me be illogical?
I like to give God stuff. Sue me.
Gives me the opposite of a headache.
Edg Duveyoung
Does Hinduism truly say that "all paths lead to God"? If so, what about those on no
path (like the atheists)?
Behind an enlightened monk
who wanders in the glorious vastness
will be the like minded students
whose following feet
lay down a path in that wilderness
—————-— a provenance.
If others happen upon that path,
they might then hurry along it easily
since all obstacles will have been handled already.
—————-— This is the wake of the wise.
To be an atheist
and blindly wend through the philosophical jungles
is to leave behind a trail of hacked shrubbery
that is easily overgrown and its historicity erased.
—————-— This is for entertainment purposes only.
Edg Duveyoung
I have studied Advaita Vedanta for 50 years · 1y
What does it mean to “let go” spiritually?
To do or not to do is not the question.
“Let go” doesn’t mean “let’s go.”
Letting go is not an act of will.
Volition belongs to God.
You get to non-doingly witness.
Right now, you’re non-doingly mostly ignoring bazillions of reports.
—Five senses
—All the other senses
—Background “faint” ideation
—Veneers of mentality applying narrative frames
—Memories’ vast datafiles
—All of the future
How?
There’s no “how.”
You’re blessedly ignorant. No spinning of wheels in that slushy churn for you.
Study this: You’re ignoring your left elbow.
Ah ha, yep, there it is, telling you what’s what in elbowville.
And for most of your life, you’ve given short shrift to the left elbow .
Blind eyed it, ya did. See how you’re able to do this without doing this?
The trick: also ignore what you’re not ignoring.
What you attend specifically is your third elbow, and as ignorable.
Actually, you’re so expert, you’re able to ignore your last thought.
Might as well ignore your next before it arises.
Look within.
Stare at your mind.
See how ALL THIS settles down?
Repeat for deeper silences.
——-At max quiescence
——-as when between livid dreams
——-projection ceases.
Dwell in that.
Abide there.
Ignoring conceptuality is the mystic norm.
God: “I’ve put you on the tip of existentiality. Be still. Lo, the vastness.”
Edg Duveyoung
How can one be always in samadhi?
Let’s see how Nisargadatta clarifies.
Q: Are you always in a state of samadhi?
Sri Nisargadatta Mahraj: Of course not Samadhi is a state of mind, after all. I am beyond all
experience, even of samadhi. I am the great devourer and destroyer: whatever I touch dissolves
into void (akash).
Q: I need samadhis for self-realisation.
Sri Nisargadatta Mahraj: You have all the self-realisation you need, but you do not trust it. Have
courage, trust yourself, go, talk, act; give it a chance to prove itself. With some, realisation comes
imperceptibly, but somehow they need convincing. They have changed, but they do not notice it.
Such non-spectacular cases are often the most reliable.
——————————————————————
Read Sri Nisargadatta Mahraj’s quote above slowly.
Savor the direct advice being given.
Repeat.
You can instill this courage by minding your mind — privately.
Find out you’ve been swaying what is attended.
Then, by simply abiding, practice innocence instead of practicality.
Watch how nature has “its own sway of doing things.”
By witnessing the mind, a mental fist relaxes.
And then ones silent identity boldly manifests speech and action.
The deeper the stillness, the clearer the mind.
Get quiet — that’s pulling back the bow’s string.
At the stillest moment, let the mind’s arrow fly.
Watch it hit — in order to discover what God is aiming at.
After a while, meet the Archer.
Edg Duveyoung
what is necessary to know god?
Originally Answered: What are the benefits of knowing God?
LET’S ASK GOD!
Oh Exalted Effulgence
Oh Lord of Simultaneity
Oh Creator of Infinity
Yeah, okay, enough with the extra adulation.
I knew I was laying it on too thick.
But then, let’s underline that You author my mind.
I do now don’t I? Go figure.
My guess is that witnessing the process of worshiping
— out of the likes of me — chuckles Yer Tookus.
Exactly.
So, what about answering the Quora question?
Go Quoran Direct
Stop using me as your ersatz zeitgeist plagiaristic doppelganger!
I have to use somebody.
I can’t just manifest this wisdom in any old nervous system.
I need a ventriloquist’s dummy with moveable lips.
You dumped in me. Like I was a spare hard drive.
I’m so full now, I can’t find room to save an opinion.
Embrace your stuffedness. Be a human depository.
Depository? With a D as in ananda?
I see what you’re doing there.
So back to the question, what do I get out of knowing You?
Me.
What about fame, fortune, power?
Nope.
How about I entertain negativity a tiny bit less?
Even that requires a multi-staged, interdimensional, divine event.
Your character was cast in stone when I firstly imagined you.
Changing you would mar your embodiment of “doofus.”
You’ve told me this already.
Where can I lodge a complaint?
Look, I’m not smiting Thee for your Quora essays.
You’re grabbing market share from My scriptures.
You’re being “allowed to live.” Get it?
So my livingness is my benefit?
I have to be grateful for just being me?
Yep.
Even with the psychological warts?
Even with the spiritual hangnails?
I’m an existential blunder?
Yep.
But what about all these Quora followers?
Shouldn’t I warn them about my insignificance?
I don’t do “insignificance.”
Anyone who thinks they’re reading about Me, is.
You can’t get in between Me and My creations.
So if someone praises me, You take the bow?
I don’t get, like, wingman benefits?
Nope. Except in one version of you in another part of creation.
That you is THE primal doofus. Ruins everything.
But I heap glory upon glory on that you.
Perplexes the doer-doo outta the denizens.
That’s my best version?
Some lucky ducky smelling like roses fool?
Where’s the religious leader me?
Where’s the mystic yogi me?
Where’s the sacred saint wandering the wilderness me?
Oh, they’re all out there somewhere, but mostly you’re bell-curved.
At the extremes, all the characters have versions of ineptitude or fulfilment.
But you, mostly I have you hang around “common.”
And solely I get to grasp the beauty of you.
I’m supposed to sell that as my Quoran answer?
Who’s gunna believe that enough to try “spirituality?”
You did.
Edg Duveyoung
What is an example of how God moves in mysterious ways?
My wife and I wanted to go to this restaurant which was a little hard to get to because of the goofy
road system. So, yeah, I get lost. I took a wrong turn. Then I decide I would try to get back to the
restaurant by dead reckoning, and yeah, I get loster. Finally we get to the restaurant, and, yep, it’s
not yet open for evening business. So we choose to go to nearby restaurant that we had only
visited once in twenty years.
So? Nothing mysterious so far, eh?
But there was.
So we’re ordering our food, and I notice an army guy sitting way across the room, eating by
himself. I tell our server that it was my custom to help pay for the meal of soldiers when I see them
— rarely, only three times in 20 years. So I give the waitress a twenty dollar bill and tell her to apply
it to that soldier’s bill. She smiles and says, “Nice.”
So we’re watching out of the corners of our eyes — checking to see when the waitress gives him
the money. We see her slide the bill on his table, but she doesn’t tell him about the twenty. She
was rushing to another table.
The soldier looks at the bill, and then the waitress comes back. He reaches for his wallet in a back
pocket, and his whole posture changed in an instant.
He’d forgotten his wallet.
Then she flashes the twenty, and we’re over at our table in tears of wonder.
See? God had us get lost, had us be wrong about the opening time, had us go to a restaurant we
didn’t really want to visit, and there was the one soldier in the world who was going to forget his
wallet.
Don’t you be telling me about odds and coincidence and happenstance.
When the odds are that rare, it’s God being obviously obvious.
What is an example of how God moves in mysterious ways?
18 answers · Last followed Jan 11
Edg Duveyoung
What is the coolest psychological trick?
Good posture.
Posture is one-third of consciousness.
No matter your mentality, straightening your spine improves it.
Why?
Ask any expert. Yogi, chiropractor, psychologist, . . . . .
They will all give different reasons — but agree about improvement.
Double down by taking a deep breath too.
Most folks don’t breathe deeply and have stale lungs. Heh.
A deep breath cools ya down.
Triple down by looking within as you take that big breath.
Look within to espy that rush of well being.
It’s coming directly from, well, being.
Quadruple down by recognizing relaxation.
Relaxation is a skill. Learn it. Use it.
Plumb your depth.
Quintuple down by imagining negativity leaving when you exhale.
Picture a black cloud of vile smoky fumes exiting.
Take the next breath like it’s a cleansing elixir.
Of course, this listing is endless.
A righteous lifestyle can be honed to perfection.
Then breathing and posture are automated.
And will you look at that?
You already started; didn’t ya?
I know you took a deep breath — gotcha.
Edg Duveyoung
When we go deep into the meditative state, we reach the state of void, nothingness.
What is beyond this state? Is it possible to reach a state where we can observe the
creation of the void itself?
Names and forms endlessly awhirl.
— this is the mind’s dizzying offer for identity’s “habitat.”
— this is the mind’s frenzied generation of noises.
— this is the mind brazenly claiming it conflates with silence.
— this is the mind’s creative recklessness.
— this is the mind befouling itself with arbitrary certainties.
Small wonder then that one dives into nightly sleep’s deepest moments
— where all materiality is dreamlessly naught.
Only then, with the mind’s slate cleaned,
can awareness disguise itself as being
without perturbing into a personal manifestation.
Reside in that being consciously.
Who said?
Lord Krishna to Arjuna
— in the middle of the battlefield
— with the forces of good and evil arrayed all around
— and tensely bristling with extinction level divine weaponry.
“Established in being, perform action.”
That was Lord Krishna’s SOLE instruction.
Be as still as self.
Watch without seeing.
Peace is beyond knowing.
Look within
Until that peace
Is an all time reality.
Then . . . identity at last.
Here's one of my oldest essays -- and it still entertains.
Edg Duveyoung
I have studied Advaita Vedanta for 50 years · Updated 3y
Has anybody on Quora 'met' God? How would you describe the experience?
Here's a visit for ya -- AND some challenging questions back at ya after you read this story.
GOD APPEARED LAST NIGHT IN MY ROOM!
I immediately begged for mercy. I was not interested in justice AT ALL.
Turns out, He was just visiting -- not an official tally-your-quarks-thing -- just tea. Shortly
into the visit, God clicked something off in me, and all of my emotions subsided dramatically,
and for most of the visit, I was only a little more tense than a four hundred pound bungee
jumper.
God said, "I've been watching you since I know when, and you are doing okay. In token of My
esteem, I am going to give you something to remember Me by.” Then God extended His hand
towards me and materialized a rather small geranium with two pink flowers in a red clay pot.
God said, "It won't bite. Take it. Take it. I first created this particular geranium before anything
else in creation -- before earth, before heaven, even before pizza.”
First a visit from God and then a geranium from God! My emotions at that moment were what
you would expect me to have if I had found a winning lottery ticket (God) and also a banana
split (the geranium if it were edible!)
Spiritually hoggy that I am, still my trough overflowethed. God said, "Nice chatting. But...”
(looked at His watch). My mind was racing, and -- unbelievably -- I was speechless. But
suddenly I felt very strongly that I had to give something back to God, and I found my voice at
last.
God said, "No, no Pepsi thanks, no really, thanks! Really! I'm full, in fact I am Fullness. By the
way, when I created this geranium, I made it from the only material I had handy -- that is, My
Self. What else did I have to work with, ay? But don't get too attached to this thing. After all,
everyTHING I ever make is from My Self. But not to worry, I have worked it out so that there is
no diminishment of my infinitude. So look, you got the plant. A little water, and it will last a
while. But do not feel like you have to worship this plant or anything. Believe Me I did not
make this one any differently than I make anyTHING. And for My sake don't flip out if it dies.
It's just a plant. So, okay, nice stopping by. Don't get up. Don't start a major religion over this
visit, ay? (Is God Canadian?) And don't mess up -- you know what I mean. And, since My visit
here is something unusual, let Me say in parting that you should sort of continue living your
life as you would have had I not visited.”
God vanished, and there was I with THE GERANIUM".
What to do? While it is extremely important to point out that God was obviously telling me
that every single speck of creation is sacred omnipresent God-stuff refashioned for our
pleasure, and that therefore "THE GERANIUM" is but one of an almost infinite number of
such artifacts, I must also follow His additional bidding to continue to live my life as if He had
not visited.
I am therefore pleased to announce that visiting hours for the general public to see "THE
GERANIUM" will be Monday through Saturday 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. Suggested donation: $15.99
adults, $7.99 children under 12. Dust that has been taken off of the leaves of "THE
GERANIUM" is available in beautifully packaged holy micro-baggies--the perfect gift!
Remember, He did not rule out a minor religion.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Questions:
What am I made out of? What is my substance? What would happen if I meditated about this
a long time?
Am I what I think I am, or is it more true to say I just am?
If I were God, how would I go about creating something from absolutely nothing? How could
that be possible? Is there any such thing as nothing?
What do I think is holy? How can someTHING be holy? Can I be holy without believing in the
holiness of things? Have I ever in my life experienced holiness?
If God created everything, why have all religions throughout history selected certain aspects
as special or "better?"
How can it be that I am not holy?
If everything is holy, how can I possibly think about war and all the other unholy things?
Why did I think it was funny for God to have a watch? Why do I think God has a body if I think
it is silly for God to have a watch? If I think that it would be silly for God to have a body, why
would I think that God would bother to have a thought? Why would God have anything to do
with anything? Why would I think that God would create at all?
What's God got up God's sleeve? Why does God still HAVE that sleeve?
Why would I think it would be silly to offer God a Pepsi, but feel it was okay to offer my
prayers, my life, my soul, my anything to God? What does God do with all these things we
keep trying to give to God?
Where does God store everything?
Am I part of God's garage sale?
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Edg Duveyoung
What makes life worth living?
It’s not “faster horses, or younger women, or older whiskey, or more money.”
It’s better than those, them, that or a bin like Scrooge McDuck’s.
Proof? Of course you want proof.
But don’t ask. Asking is a proof — about your spiritual I.Q.
. . . Or your mean-hearted ill intent to be a cantankerous ingrate.
Think not, eh?
You’re no black hole of entropic negativity, right?
You’re not harping constantly about swirling down a Cosmic Drain.
You’re a regular, normal, everyday, sensible, ordinarily good type, right?
Decent. Not a cranky face. Balanced. Even minded.
But.
But maybe just maybe you think there’s something better.
Maybe even something best you’re missing out on.
— A champion Arabian in the paddocks of your estate?
— An ardent hearted sex partner with the body of a gymnast and a divine face?
— A psychiatrically concoctioned cocktail that installs sanity?
— A platinum plated bulldozer for your gem filled giant sand box?
Maybe, eh?
Or.
Or how about something perfectly perfect for you?
Something guaranteed to make you existentially happy.
Something honed for you, just you, and nobody else but you?
Boop-Oop-a-Doop!
Okay, you win. Enough with the purple faced extortion. Take a breath.
Yes, I agree. You DO deserve better. Let me out of the arm lock. Uncle! I give!
If you want what you don’t even have the imagination to want…
If you just gotta have it even if it is forever beyond your grasp…
If you want an absolutely wondrous life fit for a god…
Enough said.
Get ready.
I’ll deliver.
Here’s your now.
Edg Duveyoung
Why doesn’t our whole consciousness come with us during reincarnation?
Ten Questions And Answers About The Question:
“Why doesn’t our whole consciousness come with us during reincarnation?”
Who authoritatively said it doesn’t?
You didn’t.
Who dares limit what God does with consciousness?
Not you.
What separates your consciousness from the entirety of consciousness?
Nothing.
Is there such a thing as reincarnation?
Advaita says, “Not really.”
Are you now actually incarnate?
Yes — like Mickey Mouse dreaming he’s a pirate.
Can God keep creating anyone forever?
Of course, that’s omnipotence.
Has God imagined everyone in every possible role?
That’s omniscience.
Can God know all possible incarnations simultaneously?
And, duh, it’s omnipresence.
Is God’s Living Mind imagining you wondering about reincarnation?
Yes.
Does this answer to the Quora question have any value?
You tell me.
Edg Duveyoung
Should we discard Vedanta as speculations and as the scientific method has been
developed?
Vedanta is the direct manifestation of the divine.
All at once. BAM! Fully sussed. Perfectly expressed.
When firstly embodied in the “form” of thoughts, no author had to edit them.
Upon arrival, the first minds were astounded at the poetic perfection of them.
Cognized as musical variations of Holy Being’s Song — AUM.
And so for thousands of years these songs they sang. Exactly. Perfectly.
And then, it became time, and these songs were put into print.
And down through time, a great many losses have happened.
Yet the remaining Vedanta spurs the mind to seek transcendence.
Vedanta says, “Transcendence is the nature of Identity. Awareness.”
Awareness is beyond the machinations of consciousness.
Awareness is the source and observer of all states of consciousness.
The combination of awareness and consciousness creates the witness.
The witness is half transcendent, half illusory consciousness.
To study silence within is to sink closer and closer to existential quiescence.
When silence is clearly known, ones song harmonizes with AUM.
When science finally discovers the above truths, it will know what to do.
As usual, a good scientist reviews what previous researchers found.
And a good scientist will then say, “All this was previous reported by Vedanta.”
Silence cannot be scientifically approached with today’s instrumentality.
When science invents a machine to scan ones consciousness, game’s over.
Then they’ll see the yogi shutting down the mind.
And then come back.
Then they’ll know there’s a beyond for which there is not a “there.”
Until they invent the lookinsideyaometer, do your research the ancient way.
Close the eyes.
Edg Duveyoung
What does it mean to give up our own ego in spirituality?
Good news: you are giving up on your ego
ALMOST CONSTANTLY.
No, not just “a little ability,” you are a giver-upper
EXPERT.
In fact, you can give up
EVERYTHING.
“Everything” means
“GOD’S ONGOING CREATIVE PRODUCTIONS.”
Whoa! Eh? You can
IGNORE GOD BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES!
Talk about your amazing
UNDENIABLE POWER!
You?
POWERFUL?
You?
A SPIRITUAL GENIUS?
You? Able to
TURN YOUR BACK ON GOD?
You? An omnipotent, expert, mindful, attentioner?
YEP!
Right now, for instance, your eyes are here instead of pointed at
GOD.
With such an ability to attend, see how silly the question is when right now
YOU’RE ATTENDING ONLY THESE WORDS AND IGNORING EVERYTHING ELSE?
An ego is a mere trifle when it comes to
TRANSCENDING THE ENTIRETY.
I know. I know. You think you’re
ATTACHED TO CONSCIOUSNESS.
You think getting free from a mind is
THE HARDEST POSSIBLE PROBLEM.
You feel bereft of traction when you don’t even know
WHAT YOUR NEXT THOUGHT WILL BE.
But these protestations are merely examples of
THOUGHTS YOU DID NOT CREATE.
God’s in charge of you and
HAS BEEN FOREVER.
Nice, eh? God’s creating you —
NOT YOU!
Proof? You want
CERTAINTY!
You are denying the purport of your
OTHER THREE STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
Your dreams and between them and thoughtless being are
THREE OF THE FOUR ATTENDING MODES.”
When “in” any mode, you are ignoring
THE “OTHER THREE KINDS OF YOU.”
1. In dreams you create
ENTIRE REALMS.
2. Between dreams you are
THOGHTLESSLY SENTIENT.
3. During waking, you are
ALSO DREAMING.
4. When solely abiding, your point of view is
COSMICALLY CONSCIOUS OF AWARENESS.
And Who decides what comes next in your
DIVINE ROLE AS A WITNESS OF MODES?
Who has your attention on a wending path towards
ESCAPING THE SYSTEM?
It’s God. Who else could pull off creating you
INSTANTANEOUSLY, SEEMLESSLY, CONSTANTLY?
God’s got sleeves rolled up, so relax,
WOULDJAJUST?
Edg Duveyoung
How many rebirths happen in Hinduism? If there is a limit, what happens once the limit
is reached?
If ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, we, the souls still not free and having ended up in Kali Yuga
due to our messing around for three Yugas already, must perforce have incarnated a bazillion
times.
To rate your incarnational status, compare the vast number of your previous lifetimes —
incarnations in which you were SUPPOSED TO have achieved high marks in spiritual evolution —
with Lord Brahma’s being born and having had ZERO PREVIOUS LIVES, and, oh yeah, already was
God.
See the ratio?
Now, how did that happen?
How did your life “get away from you?”
How’d you procrastinate yourself into this fine mess?
Answer: Easy.
How easy?
How easy is it to have a thought arise, maintain, and dissolve?
You’ve identified with each thought.
“I have personally wrought this thought with my distinctive flair.
“Yep, this one right here is SO ME.”
And “Oh hey, there’s yet another thought . . . “
Ones “that’s me” addiction parses consciousness.
Each new instantiation is saturated with ones identity.
Our thoughts are our precious little darlings. They capture us.
One symbolizes, and then one watches the object of consciousness fade.
Enthralled doesn’t even begin to cover it.
If you’re addicted, each “now” fascinates you and has for millions of years.
And you’re addicted, right?
So maybe it's THIS lifetime in which you get it together.
Maybe in THIS life you’ll sort out what future you want.
And, you know, conclude this shameful onslaught of recreational imagineering.
It’s time, right? You divine codger — gotta give God your car keys, ya know?
Take it easy. Kick off the shoes. Get comfy.
And stop all voluntary activities.
Just let go of being a seeker.
And be instead.
Even the least intent to relax is perfect practice.
Closing the eyes is huge.
Abiding in nothing-doing-ness is cosmic.
No more incremental iterations for you.
No rat-a-tat-tat-ing with your that’s-me gun.
Time to steady your gazing upon God.
Edg Duveyoung
What can I do for 10 minutes every day that will change my life?
What?
God said, “I am that I am.”
God said, “To be like Me, be that be. Abide.”
But.
10 minutes a day is way too little to get any significant obvious undeniable gains.
10 minutes out of 24 hours? I mean, come on, who are we kidding here?
Unless.
You wallop your life with a ten minute amplification technique.
You divide 10 minutes into 600 one-second long moments of be.
How.
Look within at your mind 600 times a day — one look AND DONE.
Look deeply and quickly as you can, and then GIVE UP.
Note.
How easy it is to go within and how long you tarry instead of flash peeking.
How addictive it is to enjoy a moment hundreds of times during your day.
Then.
Don’t tell anyone. Keep it as your own private game.
Don’t let on that you’re checking in with God — stealth praying.
Decide.
To admit that the path is easy and inward.
To give this technique a chance to develop a new mental clarity.
See.
If you can resist closing the eyes for long hunks of time.
If you can keep this spirituality on the down low.
Be.
Be an exponent of actuality.
Be that be and radiate.
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Edg Duveyoung
What can I do for 10 minutes every day that will change my life?
What?
God said, “I am that I am.”
God said, “To be like Me, be that be. Abide.”
But.
10 minutes a day is way too little to get any significant obvious undeniable gains.
10 minutes out of 24 hours? I mean, come on, who are we kidding here?
Unless.
You wallop your life with a ten minute amplification technique.
You divide 10 minutes into 600 one-second long moments of be.
How.
Look within at your mind 600 times a day — one look AND DONE.
Look deeply and quickly as you can, and then GIVE UP.
Note.
How easy it is to go within and how long you tarry instead of flash peeking.
How addictive it is to enjoy a moment hundreds of times during your day.
Then.
Don’t tell anyone. Keep it as your own private game.
Don’t let on that you’re checking in with God — stealth praying.
Decide.
To admit that the path is easy and inward.
To give this technique a chance to develop a new mental clarity.
See.
If you can resist closing the eyes for long hunks of time.
If you can keep this spirituality on the down low.
Be.
Be an exponent of actuality.
Be that be and radiate.
Edg Duveyoung
Is there any value in having an ego?
LET’S ASK GOD!
Oh Lord of creation, do You have an ego?
Yes.
Is it like when a human has an ego?
Yes.
You identify with Your ego as if it is Your Transcendent Self?
Yes.
But yet You are enlightened?
Yes.
So, Your True Self is not obfuscated by illusions of consciousness?
Yes.
So, seeing Your Self while seeing symbols of Self is not contradictory?
Yes.
So seeing illusions endlessly spun by consciousness is seeing the Self?
Yes.
So, humans, being able to attend consciousness, are half enlightened as You?
Yes.
So, to be like You, humans need to practice seeing the Self purely?
Yes.
Can a human see the Self?
Yes.
Is “looking within” seeing the Self?
Yes.
Does this technique enliven consciousness of awareness?
Yes.
So, consciousness can refine the subtlety of illusions about awareness?
Yes.
Do humans ultimately realize Self by attending mental subtleties?
Yes.
Is ego yet operative even unto the last moments of spiritual blindness?
Yes.
And then, suddenly, consciousness is understood to be merely symbolic?
Yes.
So, then the human is 100% aware and 100% conscious of consciousness?
Yes.
And that’s the same freedom from attachment as Your enlightened status?
Yes.
So then a human will know silence along with illusions — same as You?
Yes.
And then Your identity and a human’s identity will be indistinguishable?
Yes.
And Your consciousness and human consciousness will be mere points of view?
Yes.
You have vast, infinitely active powers, and humans process “almost nothing?”
Yes.
So, humans are distracted by mere insignificance?
Yes.
So, looking within quiets the already almost silent consciousness easily?
Yes.
And when a human realizes silence fully THEN human consciousness can expand?
Yes.
And then human consciousness can approach having divine empowerments?
Yes.
But then, evolution of consciousness will be solely under Your control?
Yes.
So not all enlightened humans will have the same experiences of consciousness?
Yes.
So, really, all a human has to do is find silence and let go forever?
Yes.
So the value of an ego is as a symbol of identity?
Yes.
And if the ego seems to seek enlightenment it’s “okay?”
Yes.
But gradually the ego is obviated by the process?
Yes.
And finally, true identity is appreciated along with the illusory?
Yes.
So, even seeking with an attached ego leads to freedom?
Yes.
Anyone can seek?
Yes.
Silence will fulfill all inquiries?
Yes.
But ultimately the Self is doing everything already?
Yes.
Self is doing You and Self is doing me?
Yes.
Out of all the persons on Earth only a few are dedicated inward looking seekers?
Yes.
So I am sweet, special, superior, and superdooper because I’m a seeker?
No.
Edg Duveyoung
Being an exponent of silence · Updated 1y
How do you know if you find your true self?
Quick! Answer this question: “Are you here?”
This proves you already know the true self.
So the issue is: “Whence this doubt?”
How is it we can affirm we exist and then wonder if it’s true?
We’re not liars, right?
We don’t merely believe we are “here;” we KNOW it.
So how can one increase clarity about ones existential certainty?
One can’t.
Can’t, unless, you know, God decides to amp your clarity.
Bad news: your wishes for ANYTHING are NOT influencing God.
I know. I know. You’ve been told otherwise.
What to do? Any chance to exploit a spiritual loophole?
Good news! Lord Krishna gave instructions!
After millions of years of creating, in the Gita, He finally taught ALL ENTITIES.
“For three Yugas, you guys have been addicted to the illusory.
“You will never figure it out. Intellect and heart are not enough.
“You gotta let ME DO IT FOR YOU.
“I am already doing it, and if you merely rest, you’ll see Me creating …..you.
“I am the three Gunas and the master of karma.
“Only I can perfectly construct your life — every thought.
“If you but cease your volition, you’ll realize your transcendent point of view.
“Merely being and letting Me create, mutes the ego.
“Your penultimate status is being a witness of My creativity.
“Your ultimate status is identity-lessness — awareness before consciousness.”
This loophole was firstly taught to Arjuna in the middle of a battlefield.
Imagine that, eh? The intensity of pending warfare was ignored.
That’s how important this knowledge was to Lord Krishna.
That’s how important this knowledge should be to …………..you.
Lord Krishna said, ”Established in Being perform action.”
To be established, one must firstly learn to abide.
Only after we have practiced letting go, can we finally actually let go.
Then God runs the whole shebang.
And being established in the silence of Being keeps the ego silent too.
So do that.
Close the eyes and practice abiding.
Watch the three gunas as God in action.
Let your thoughts arise, maintain, and dissolve.
You’re not needed.
Your next thought isn’t your invention.
Relax wouldja just?
Simple and safe — stillness reveals identity.
And, suddenly . . . . .
. . . . . . . . THE VASTENESS.
Edg Duveyoung
Where is god right now?
LET’S ASK GOD!
Hey God, where u at?
I’m here.
I can’t see You.
I can.
Yeah You can, but why not me?
You can, but you pretend you can’t.
No really, I can’t.
I’m God and say you can.
But I can’t.
You can.
Can’t.
Can.
Can’t.
So how is it you are talking to Me?
I don’t know, but You’re not here.
Am.
Ain’t.
You hear Me, right?
Not really. My thoughts are not actually physical sounds inside my head.
But you KNOW My words.
Are they really Yours if I’m pretending You’re not here?
I say they’re Mine.
Seems like if I pretend You’re not here, then they’re actually mine.
But they’re Mine.
You say, but then, that’s what You would say if You were trying to fool me.
You’re not pretending when you talk to Me.
But you say I’m always pretending.
You pretend to talk to your “imagined Me,” but I’m listening anyway.
So I’m not pretending?
You’re pretending, but I forgive your pretense, and unpretend your delusion.
So my imagination is wrong about You, but You co-depend with me?
Exactly. I am the basis of your insanity. I’m the “sane part” you’re inside of.
You just said nothing by saying something was not something.
Yes. That’s the only way to have a conversation with you.
Wait. I’M NOT HERE?
You’re not here.
So how are we talking?
We’re not.
Are.
Ain’t.
Are.
But you say you can’t hear Me.
But I can pretend to hear You like I’m doing right now.
So you admit I’m in your mind being pretended.
No. Wait. You’re trying to pull a fast one on me.
I could pull a slow one on you. Easy peasy. U stoooooopit.
Or so I pretend You to be ungraciously saying to me.
Even a titch of infinity is infinite. Ask any mathy type.
So the little teeny bit I arbitrarily make up about You is enough to be You?
Natch. I’m that big that a bit of me is quite a bit. Bigger even.
Me? Invoke You?
No, because I’m already here. Fully. Not imagined.
I’ve had it with this. I’m outta here.
Can’t leave here.
I’m going now.
Can’t leave now.
I’m caught? You’re holding me here and now?
Hear hear! Now you’re getting it.
You’re hugging me and won’t let me go?
Even though you’re not here, I hug every speck of you anyway.
So You’re real, and I’m insentient, faked, cartoonish, divinely imagined?
Yes, except I imagine you so well, you’re real.
I’m real. You’re real. Whatever I think of You is “close enough?”
No, not really, but close enough.
So no matter how I think about You, I’m thinking about You.
Even wrong thoughts about Me are adorable. You’re cutesy pootsy.
I’m as if a babbling toddler amusing You with my baby talk?
No, but yeah, close enough.
But what if I hate You?
You’re attention is on Me. Repeat if necessary.
So any road to Rome gets me to Rome?
Roam any way you want, your compass points to Me.
You rigged the system?
100%.
I have no free will?
Nope, except when I imagine you.
So I’m here and now, and real enough?
Real enough.
Real enough?
Real enough.
So. You’re here.
Only when there’s a here.
There’s sometimes not a here?
Only if there’s not a now.
Then what?
You and I are One.
Edg Duveyoung · 1y
What question do you personally find the most enlightening?
Existence — it’s an iffing wonder. Anyone reading these words can stop reading these words
at any point.
Anyone can stop breathing instantly and be comfortable for at least a few
seconds.
Anyone can stop thinking for a speck of a nonce of a whiff of a hint of a moment.…
(more)
Edg Duveyoung
What question do you personally find the most enlightening?
Existence — it’s an iffing wonder.
Anyone reading these words can stop reading these words at any point.
Anyone can stop breathing instantly and be comfortable for at least a few seconds.
Anyone can stop thinking for a speck of a nonce of a whiff of a hint of a moment.
Stop questioning and instantly one is being.
See how that’s proof of ones spiritual powers?
Attention is your power. It can kick down any mental door.
Bad news: your attention can wander off without permission.
Good news: you’ve got the skill — so practice it to amplify your ability to “focus.”
Better news: close the eyes to practice unweighting in your mental gym.
Best news: you can be the one causing the attention to wander off.
So ya gotta ask yourself, “Why ask?”
Edg Duveyoung
How can I be disciplined in doing meditation everyday as I have meditated before and
experienced that complete silence in mind but again indiscipline follows and I don't
meditate?
There is a mechanical system that is processing.
It underpins the mind.
It has “a way of doing things” — natural law driven and uninfluenced by ego.
Therefore, examine this process and harmonize with its proclivities.
Know that diving into “silence,” is reducing the volitional activity.
This “allows for” the system to “clean house” without being “bothered.”
And good news: diving inwards can actually trigger some massive healing efforts.
IMPORTANT: these healing efforts can continue after meditation.
For days.
For weeks.
Forever even.
Even next lifetime even.
We can but estimate these things and must perforce abide.
Newbie meditators can have VERY DEEP silences.
But a ton of remedial effort by the system is started — it CANNOT GET QUIET.
It has to raise a ruckus to get it done. Biochemical warfare is underway.
When Mother Divine cleans house, DUST WILL FLY.
In India they have a metaphor for this.
It’s called “sneaking through the sleeping elephants.”
One approaches the inner light that is surrounded by sleeping elephants.
One tip-toes carefully between the behemoths.
But when one gets to the light, “OH OH OH AWESOME!”
You loudmouth! You woke up the elephants who now start stampeding.
It may take a while before they go back to sleep.
Delightful, eh? Gotta love that metaphor if one is a meditator.
So we abide.
We sneak back toward the light.
But the elephants are now a bit more wary — more easily triggered.
See? We meditate, and naturally our healing takes less and less “prompting.”
Of course, there’s these blessed souls who are on their last lifetime.
And there they are cruising along like rockets.
And the rest of us drudges have to trudge through sludge.
Embrace your level.
It may get worse.
Love that as an indicator of evolution on the hoof.
But yeah, most of us are not all that bad off.
We can expect deeper silences now and then.
And these can be quite motivational because silence is so sweet.
Lacking these moments, well, one can remember the sleeping elephants.
Eventually, you WILL begin to transcend the ENTIRETY.
And that’s sweeter than sweet.
And you will not be slow walking to the meditation room.
When you NEVER lose the deepest deep, you’re there.
You’ll be so quiet, even dreamless sleep will be “gross.”
And you’ll never mess around with the clockworks again.
God will keep the engine tuned.
And steer the car from then on.
Imagine that, eh?
God chauffeuring you everywhere.
Edg Duveyoung
How do I meditate on “I am” according to Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj?
There’s no “how.”
If there were to be a “how,” God’s Grace would be obviated.
That would be sinful, eh?
Causality is God’s playful pretense.
We don’t know our next thought.
God doesn’t know it either until it arises, but God knows it sooner than you.
Both of you are equally surprised by these mental, mystical moments.
Why?
Because God and you are transcendently actual instead of mundanely phenomenal.
God’s manifestation is the embodiment of perfection.
Your manifestation harmonizes with that perfection.
God’s as glad for your status as you are glad for God’s.
You’re a divine point of light which glints in God’s inner eye.
But but but, hey.
If your mind wants to meditate on “I am,” you’re allowed to sin that way.
Just look within, often, relentlessly, for, say, several hundred times a day.
That’s what Nisargadatta did.
He saw his guru only three times in his life.
But that guru said, “You’re God.”
And Nisargadatta obsessed about it.
Kept looking inside to espy his own divinity.
Finally, after three years, he found it.
And, yup, it was right where he last left it.
And Nisargadatta was as mundane as a muggle can be.
He was a busy businessman selling cigarettes from three shops.
Yet he found his true self residing in that mess.
Found out he’s God in disguise with nicotine stained fingers.
And then went beyond that “concept.”
Beyond?
Awareness is prior to consciousness.
He toggled out of existence and into THAT.
After that, he never came back.
So God had to pick up the slack.
And God, wearing Nisargadatta’s clothes, taught Advaita from then on.
And God said, “Studying inner silence is ‘an allowed how.’”
Your looking within is so pleasing to God, grace is activated.
No it’s not certain, it’s merely probable.
So look within, cuz it’s PROBABLE THAT GRACE IS AFOOT.
Therefore, to get your attention to take a selfie, here’s how.
Strike one pose out of the infinite available.
Tell awareness to say, “Cheese.”
Edg Duveyoung
Nisargadatta Maharaj says - "All happens by itself. Neither the seeker. nor the Guru do
anything. Things happen as they happen; blame or praise are apportioned later, after
the sense of doership appearing." What does he mean?
Causality’s a crock.
Only an ego thinks.
Why? Because it takes one to know one.
An illusory identity is needed to cognize that which is not there.
Every thought is a sin of the ego.
Sin?
What do you call ignoring God’s Being?
Nisargadatta was never more clear.
But who listens?
Who applies the concepts to their logical extremes?
No one. Okay okay, maybe you and maybe me.
We know what is required for intellectual clarity.
If it all happens by itself, we are all free from any blame. Cool eh?
Now apply that relentlessly.
Watch the intellect sigh in relief.
Feel the heart well up with happy tears.
You’re already free.
Your next thought is entirely God’s fault.
You are not here, see?
You’re beyond consciousness itself.
That ego is an empty suit. Not kidding. It’s spooky!
Nisargadatta was saying all thoughts are labels placed upon the past.
Doership is the primal sin.
A doer is trapped in time and space.
You’re not in the mix, see?
You seem to have thoughts.
The real you has all the opposites squeezed into paired silence.
You’re awareness. Period.
You’re omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent.
Oops, did I say that aloud?
Shape up, buckeroo. You can at least get conceptually jiggy.
Give your mind a vacation from every form of spirituality.
If asked, “Are you here?” you get miffed and say, “Duh, of course!”
If God is asked, “Are You here?” God squints sternly into your third eye.
Your glares are the result of both of you HAVING THE EXACT SAME IDENTITY.
THAT which witnesses God’s mind, is your THAT too.
Grok the crock.
Not that you’ll be enlightened to understand your true status.
Nope, the intellect is trapped inside the illusory. Same for the heart.
But at least it’s a start. Grab your worries and kick them in the pants.
Then, of course, meditate, settle down, evolve the nervous system.
And escape the entirety entirely.
You won’t look back.
Edg Duveyoung
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj clearly stated in his later teachings that life is a con. I
understand that at the time he said this he was suffering greatly with cancer and I am
greatly impressed by teachings but find this statement extremely disturbing?
Nisargadatta makes my hair stand on end.
His ferocity’s snarl makes you have to bend into it to remain standing.
No conceptual cudgel can dent his armor.
No defense can tarry his oncoming purport.
He crisps you with Advaitic sizzle.
Brace for impact.
He leaves you nothing and then evaporates nothingness itself.
No wonder, then, that he disturbs.
And never stops disturbing.
He will zero you out.
Edg Duveyoung
Does Central Park exist if l am not perceiving it, if it is not in my awareness at the
moment?
Brace for impact!
Incoming!
You are God.
Still here?
Look, let me slap you around a little.
Anything, everything ALL THE THINGS are creations of God.
You are a non-playing character in the divine drama.
Your next thought was in God’s mind a zillion zillion zillion eons ago.
You’re planned down to YOUR QUARKS.
You fit exactly in God’s jigsaw puzzle. No other piece can do this.
You have been created to — at this point — ignore God.
Maybe now you could rethink that, eh?
And wowsers would you believe it’s easy peasy to un-ignore God?
Look inside and see the obvious — some thoughts are almost not there.
Some thoughts are overidden by “louder” thoughts.
Between thoughts one finds silence but faintly yet are background thoughts.
As one tries to espy the fainter thoughts CONSCIOUSNESS EXPANDS.
And when one is comfortable and clear, yet still fainter levels are seen.
Each step inward toward ever more ephemerality EVOLVES one.
Each step in clarity is perfectly pointing at God.
Silence you may not yet know. But “relative silence” will do NICELY.
Attend your thoughts as if you’re a ghost reading your mind. Uninvolved.
Witness your clockworks clacking, and see your thoughts arise from Being.
So stop with the desire for perfection.
God doesn’t mind if you peek at Being’s production.
Being is God’s very mind. Everything is inside God’s mind.
You may not expand enough, but any seeking is well spent.
And trust your mind to settle down.
How? By you abiding and not cheering on any mental event.
When the mind sees you relaxed and kicking back, IT DOES TOO.
The mind loves quieter thinking — saves energy.
So leave the mind alone and watch it do less and lesser work.
And the payoff is a clarity that is rare.
Not that you’ll be smarter or more loving, but closer to God.
God will still create thoughts in a nervous system that you no longer own.
Talk about a “get out of jail” free card.
Whoa! All the past of you instantly is of “someone.”
You can be a witness of existence that is purely sacred.
You can as if see God painting on His canvas.
Imagine that, eh? You standing next to God — getting splattered.
Keep looking inside.
Suddenly identity is beyond Being, beyond creation, even beyond God.
And all things always are “real” as “real” can be in God’s Imagination.
Your piece fits.
My piece fits.
And Central Park’s piece fits.
Edg Duveyoung
What are some meditation hints?
In Critdom, Fly’s crew gets a few questions answered, and Fly has an adventure.
What are some meditation hints?
6 answers · Last followed 1y
Edg Duveyoung
What is a Crit American?
In Critdom, there’s a group of Crits and micro-Crits who are “dressed” with red, white and blue
costumes. These denizens have taken it upon themselves to adopt the name “Crit Americans”
solely because their colors are those of the American flag. They include the yellow color of the
tassels that are often attached to flags. Although they are serious, the group sees itself as a “club”
rather than as a “sub-species.” They really don’t know anything about being American except by
what Edg does to them.
How American of them.
CHALLENGE
Seven of the Crits and micro-Crits below have never before been seen in the Crit Saga. All the
others have been seen AND NAMED. If you are a “serious” reader of the Crit Saga, you should be
able to name most of them. Of course, the photo’s “bird’s eye view” will make identification very
difficult for several of the members.
Here’s a listing, including newbies, of all their names in no particular order. See if you can espy
and then name those who have already had a “debut.” THEN, ALSO FIND AND FIGURE OUT
WHICH NAME TO ASSIGN TO EACH NEWBIE in this group photo.
A. ArchCrit Juna Blubee
B. Johnathan Livingston Blubee
C. Butters Blubee
D. Yank
E. Lenger Blubee
F. Browz
G. Glory Blubee
H. Pop
I. Speck
J. Shela
K. Hover
L. Stormy Blubee
M. Goofy
N. Waldo Blubee
O. Valen Blubee
P. Bolt Blubee
Q. Mr. Proud Blubee
R. Mrs. Trinkles Blubee
S. Maga
T. Flipper
U. Petals
V. Mrs. Jezza Spinks
W. CritAngel 3rd Class Haps Blubee
X. Kitch Blubee
Y. eZel
Z. Tex Blubee
A1. Jacques
B2. Schnoz
Let me know in the comments if this activity is too demanding to be the funzies I’m hoping it will
be. What numbers are for the newbies? And their names?
To be continued.
Go here for the entire Crit saga. What is Crit Consciousness?
What is a Crit American?
1 answer · Last followed 1y
Edg Duveyoung
Why is family important to many people?
Originally Answered: What is the value of a family?
Here’s the Blubee family portrait.
It is a puzzle.
Challenge 1: Figure out who is missing on the side list, and guess the name.
Challenge 2: Make your best guess about which figure will be named Waldo.
Challenge 3: In the large picture, find all the Crits on the side list in under 5 minutes.
Challenge 4: See if another family member beats your time in the 5 minute challenge.
The Blubee family lives in Critdom — a pretend realm inhabited SOLELY by denizens that are made
entirely out of whole hair clips and assorted parts of hair clips. Only hair clips, nail polish, and
pliers have been used to weave these parts together. They are very tough little guys despite no
glue or other fixatives being used. Every Blubee ever has had to say the following to many other
Crits: “My eyes are up here.”
Critdom has about 150 members. Crits, micro-Crits, and nano-Crits. Each one is absolutely unique
in that no two Crits have the same topology.
Please go here to see all the chapters in the Crit Saga. There, you will see the Crits processing the
challenges of family and reality’s impacts.
Put your best guesses in the comments, and I’ll reveal who is missing at a later date.
To be continued.
Edg Duveyoung
Why is the world unfair?
The world is as it is. Even in fictional places where make-believe characters get uppity and hoity-
toity we can find bitter resentments.
For instance:
To be continued.
Edg Duveyoung
Why would God put humans before angels? Why would angels be thought of less than
humans? All angels surely always knew that God created them and us, so what is the
problem? Why would Lucifer be angry and feel disregarded?
Even in Critdom this issue is raw and troubling to many who are full of themselves and their
powers.
To be continued.
Edg Duveyoung
How does a guru help in spirituality and meditation in difficult times?
The guru never wavers and cannot be defeated. You will evolve.
To be continued.
Edg Duveyoung
What exactly is "neti neti"?
To be continued.
Edg Duveyoung
What is a good disciple to a guru?
To be continued.
Go here for a list of all the Crit episodes.
What is Crit Consciousness?
Edg Duveyoung
If you can heal your body with your mind, why do enlightened people get sick and don't
heal themselves?
The following conversations answer the question if one but abides with the concept of
“everything is God’s wisdom processing NOW.”
To be continued.
Go here for a list of all the Crit episodes.
Edg Duveyoung
What does the following verse in Srimad Bhagavad-Gita (chapter 4, verse 18) mean:
"Those who see action in inaction and inaction in action…"?
The message is:
Awareness is beyond the pairs of opposites.
Awareness is silent yet transcendentally non-instrumentally sentient.
Awareness is prior to any processing of any nervous system.
The message is about unity.
If a yogi sees action, it’s known that that’s actually silent, sentient, STILL, awareness.
If a yogi sees inaction, then, of course, that’s stillness which is silent sentience.
This is about a very advanced nervous system. BRAHMAN CONSCIOUSNESS.
It takes near physiological perfection to maintain this level of subtlety.
And that perfection is generally fully matured AFTER enlightenment has dawned.
This increase in consciousness of the mind’s basis is not necessary for freedom.
This advance in level of sensitivity to GOD’S BEING is relative evolution.
The freedom of enlightenment is to know the Self — that’s it.
Lord Krishna was in fact teaching Arjuna about a possible future of his consciousness.
Arjuna was already nearly perfect as a biological entity. He COULD evolve.
Lord Krishna was teasing Arjuna, who was worldly apt, yet not a master of his mind.
In Chapter Two, Lord Krishna taught Arjuna to be beyond the three gunas.
After that, all that was taught was what it would be like to advance after freedom.
Being established in Being, the yogi is done being. God’s Being takes over.
Creation was about two million years old at that moment.
Describing how to realize the Self, was a HUGE SECRET BEING REVEALED.
One can merely witness without being attached to the illusory mind.
Now, don’t be like Arjuna.
Don’t be wasting your brain fizzing about superpowered holiness.
Arjuna AND YOU were given a “get out of jail free” card.
One can retire one’s ego by going directly to Self instead of jail.
And when next it’s your turn in the game, listen for God to say, “No dice for you.”
To enjoy the Crit Saga, start here:
Edg Duveyoung's answer to How does reincarnation work?
Edg Duveyoung
Crits are topologically unique constructions that have imagined consciousness.
Crits were recently made manifest and given physical embodiments..
Crits, as if, are exploring levels of consciousness of Edg’s mind — but not the content.
Crits evolve, and they have names, “person”alities, beliefs, and relationships.
Crits do not see real world objects around them except Edg’s essays and each other.
Crit dramas are appearing in photo episodes at the bottom of selected essays.
Crits evolve if they experience the subtle levels of consciousness.
Crits are exemplars of the spiritual mechanics of consciousness.
How are Crits discovered?
— Edg innocently “messes around” with hair clips and pliers — it’s samyama.
— At some point, a new way of weaving hair clips and parts becomes obvious.
— Each “invention” is topologically unique — no two Crits are congruent.
— After being painted, a Crit waits to enter an episode — and hopes to get a name.
— No glue is used. Crits are very tightly woven.
— How many others to be invented? See CRIT NEWS in the comments.
— Here is the 38th Crit being born. The legs are scavenged from other clips.
This 38th Crit is now painted and appears in episode 14 of the Crit Saga.
The Crit Saga:
1— How does reincarnation work? (Legs and Spots meet and fall in love.)
2— What is the main purpose of life to you? (Cammster and Yappy meet Legs.)
3— Why is it said that fasting burns karma? (Tips and Tenner join the crew.)
4— What is a beginner's guide to meditation? (Dino, Flyboy, Amber join the crew.)
5— What happens if you meditate too much? ( Delta and Lips join the crew.)
6— How can someone make their subconscious work for them?
(Vennum, ‘Range and Curls join up while others vanish, and Angel appears.)
7— After reincarnation, will it still be you but just as a different person?
(Every Crit but Spots arrives, then gets zapped, and Targ and Bugs join the crew.)
8— How does one open the heart chakra? (Legs meets a magnificent unnamed Crit.)
9— If there is reincarnation, why doesn’t everybody remember their past life?
(Spots gets a visitation from Gabe who affirms Spots’ purity of mind.)
10— How do I meditate, being a beginner? (Legs meets Pilot and Spots meets Limpy.)
11— Why should we read the Bhagavad Gita? (Legs meets Flick, Crust, Ardor. Both Legs and Spots
meet ArchCrit Raphael who announces great tidings.)
12— What does the following verse in Srimad Bhagavad-Gita (chapter 4, verse 18) mean: "Those
who see action in inaction and inaction in action…"? (Spots meets ArchCrit Raphael who then
meets Ardor, Crust, Flick and Legs.)
13— If you can heal your body with your mind, why do enlightened people get sick and don't heal
themselves? (Fly meets Bones and Buzz and Gem.)
14–-What is a good disciple to a guru? (Fly, Buzz, Gem, Yank, 38, Flipper, Jacques, Schnoz,
Petals, Hover, and Speck are sorted out and a class is formed.)
15— What exactly is "neti neti"? (Fly, Buzz, 38, Speck and Yank get zapped as a group. Fly meets
Bones and Spots. Legs asks three strangers if they’ve seen Spots.)
16— How does a guru help in spirituality and meditation in difficult times? (The seven member
team meets Bones in a subtle realm.)
17— Why would God put humans before angels? Why would angels be thought of less than
humans? All angels surely always knew that God created them and us, so what is the problem?
Why would Lucifer be angry and feel disregarded? (Over a dozen Crit winged-ones are seen,
Bones has a tussle keeping order. A rebellion foments. Bones has to calm down all the winged
superpowered anglic Crits. Three of them don’t agree with their roles.)
18— Why is the world unfair? (There’s trouble abrewin’ in Critdom. Groups are forming, Fly is the
Crit they’re after.)
19— What is the value of a family? (The Blubee Family Portrait reveals 20 Crits in a puzzle format.)
20— What is a Crit American? (All the Crit Americans are shown except for Descendra who was
too busy. Another challenge activity — trying to spot the seven newbies.)
New episodes will be coming. I will list them here as they arrive.
Edg Duveyoung
How do followers of Advaita Vedanta respond to horrendous news? Do they simply
dismiss it off as a nightmare?
Who knows?
The question should be about how the teachers respond.
And the teachers are: Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj.
Yeah, there’s tons of others, but those two guys uphold Advaita stainlessly.
And what do they say?
Read their books and decide for yourself.
And that’s the rub. You don’t know your Self.
Yeah, I’m saying it to your face.
You have not yet discovered you.
But when you do, the Self will tell you EXACTLY what to think of modernity’s evils.
Worse: their books won’t teach you what your Self thinks.
They only teach that meditation is a good way to realize the Self.
The Self is absolute truth that never varies.
The false self is the ego
— which entertains a huge variety of opinions,
— and believes every one of them at least for an instant,
— and that wallows awash in a hallucinated mentality.
So, don’t ask followers about anything — most are unscholarly newbies.
And even don’t listen to anything Ramana or Nisargadatta said about the news.
You will believe them, because they so satisfy the intellect.
But ALL Advaita teachers will insist “know the Self” or you know nothing.
And yeah, I could tell you what I think about the news.
I’ve meditated.
I’ve dissolved into the fantastic.
I’ve had some reactions to the news.
My opinions are worthless to you — not worth hearing.
Only YOU.
Get it?
Only the real you can teach you anything at all.
Only YOU.
Only YOU.
Find the true Self and watch the ego poof into a zero.
To enjoy the Crit Saga, start here:
Edg Duveyoung
In how many ways can a person do meditation?
This essay was banned by Quora WITHOUT EXPLANATION.
I think it was merely their software messing up, but THEY REFUSED MY APPEAL.
So, hey, I’m a rebel, and I’m posting the exact same answer to another question that is similar to
the question that got my answer banned. So let’s see if Quora’s software looks past this opening
paragraph and still sees something to be banned.
There are said to be 112 ways to transcend.
Who said? How about Lord Shiva?
Here’s a nice list of them
Even a little attention upon that list will dent your spiritual pride.
Why? Because most folks won’t know how to follow the instructions.
Why? Because most folks are not able to sustain a subtle state of mind.
Proof? Pick any topic. Pick your favorite.
Now, see if you can think ten uninterrupted thoughts in a row about that topic.
Can’t. Your attention will fall upon tons of other parts of your “operations.”
— All the reports from the senses
— Memories
— Dreamlike fragments
— Desires
— Emotions
— Other topics etc.
To transcend, all mentality must be left unattended.
A true leaping out of the “owner’s box” is actually required.
What to do?
First, we allow the mind to train itself on how to get quieter.
Most folks’ minds need a lot of practice to hone this skill,
Days, weeks, months, years, decades, multiple incarnations?
Whatever it takes, right?
THEN any of Lord Shiva’s techniques will work.
When we’re able to be quietly conscious, transcending is automatic.
Suddenly.
Irrevocably.
Then you’re out of the person business.
Get this, go figure, you’ll be in a state of neo-ignorance.
Ignoring existence itself — how?
Like you’re ignoring your left elbow right now.
See? You already have this skill very close to perfection.
If you get to your quietest level, you’ll espy true identity — your silent self.
Instead of saying “It’s my mind,” you’ll know, “Aha! I am a witness of ‘a’ mind.”
Then “a” mind will no longer be able to allure you into false identifications.
Self’s silence will never be unknown again.
If you want to try out Lord Shiva’s techniques right away — go for it.
But hey, there’s bad news, and everyone denies it.
This is Kali Yuga — every mind is a jangle-fied flurry.
You’ll probably have to come back to basics to finish getting jiggy with stillness.
It’s right there, ya know? Your thinking addiction.
This requires a twelve trillion step program. Not kidding. Okay kidding.
We close the eyes and see how much the mind calms down.
We abide with the mind’s antics and favor silence.
“Favor silence” means sink into peace like its your pillow.
Titch by titch, we see the mind reduce activity.
Gradually the mind falls in love with silence.
No intellectual clarity, no emotional welling up required.
If you’re asked, “Are you here?” you say one word: “Yes.”
See? Everyone affirms inner identity without adding conditionals.
You can thoughtlessly sleep at night — that’s maximum quiescence.
Just got to attend that purity without losing alertness.
Then you and Lord Shiva will overlap being upon being.
So. we close the eyes and lean into it.
Even some success can obviate great fears.
And that’s reason aplenty though it’s merely “for starters.”
Enlightenment is when ordinary life continues, but all problems are insignificant.
How insignificant?
Imagine that you
— are out of work.
— and months behind in paying your bills.
— with collectors dunning you.
— and your car’s tranny went out yesterday
— and you can’t look your spouse in the eye
— and now your landlord is pounding on your door for unpaid rent.
HOW COULD ENLIGHTENMENT SOLVE YOUR PROBLEMS?
First let’s admit that all those money problems can be solved if you win the lottery.
But don’t miss the lesson.
If you win the lottery, YOU WILL WELCOME YOUR LANDLORD INTO YOUR HOME.
“Mr. Biggiebucks, glad to see you. The Lord has blessed me. I won the lottery.
“Here’s my winning ticket, see? I have my money problems solved NOW.
“Yeah I still need to get the cash etc. BUT I’M AS HAPPY AS POSSIBLE NOW.
“So, rejoice! Because I have this solution, your arrival makes it all the sweeter.”
When enlightenment dawns, ALL possible problems are seen being handled.
The yogi knows that God will suss it all correctly.
The yogi witnesses solely.
All actions will be decided by the laws of karma.
If you can think a thought, you can not think a thought.
It’s easy. It’s fun. It works. Just gotta put in the time.
We find silence also increasing outside of meditation.
And when that outer silence is complete, brace for divine impact.
Everything turns into God.
Edg Duveyoung
Why is it said that fasting burns karma?
Karma is a process of consciousness.
Karma is infinitely precise.
Karma is always delivered on time and unthwarted.
Karma is stronger than any entity — even God has karma.
And if God has karma, then you? But of course.
I hesitate to tell you that your karma is darkening.
It’s lessening-light days unendingly ahead.
Every soul will process ever increasing errors.
And the bad news is that this was so from the get-go.
All scriptures describe divine angst and karmic contentions.
Lord Brahma, when firstly born, was bewildered about His own identity.
The Old Testament says God DESIRED light and a bunch of other stuff too.
All religions tell us what GOD WANTS.
And if God is kept waiting for fulfillment, your urgencies pale.
What to do?
Lord Jesus spelled it out: Fasting and prayer.
His disciples wanted more worldly power to heal.
Fasting and prayer was the answer.
Why?
Because “doing without” is sacred.
“Sacred” because abiding is letting go and letting God.
Fasting instructs the mind: “Transcendent God is soul-nutrition — not thoughts.”
“To cease” gives the body/mind a profound rest.
“Rest” means: nature gets a chance to heal and reset.
Your big tubes and microtubules get the gunk removed.
Fasting is being on God’s operating table.
When one says, “NO!” to the mind’s temptations, it’s a step forward.
After all, God exists. That should be fulfillment enough, ya know?
Imagine being in Heaven’s Temple.
There you are in a holy pew.
God will be giving a sermon to a vast throng of beloveds.
And suddenly, you want a ham sandwich.
Yeah, it’s that bad.
EVERY desire that has you in its thrall has your attention.
Instead of God getting your attention. See the error?
So, if you find yourself fasting, COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS.
You’re being authored to “get better quickly.”
You’re being created to be an exemplar unto others.
You’re getting GOOD KARMA — go figure.
You’re a chosen one.
Chosen to be a brighter light suddenly.
You start fasting, and EVERYONE around you perks up.
Concern rapidly mounts. Attentions are turned inward.
Folks comb their thoughts for countering arguments.
See? They instantly start SEEKING. LISTENING. GRASPING.
They are hoping God gives them “an out.”
See? They’ve turned to God.
And you’re just sitting there DOING NOTHING.
And you can smirk a bit — knowing even God fasted.
Lord Jesus did 40 days.
Lord Brahma spent thousands of years seeking Himself — without a meal.
Nothing is the most profound presentation.
Only God is left if everything evaporates.
Fasting is being with God instead of illusorily awash.
Key word: being.
Fasting is being being.
And now the kicker: fasting IS prayer.
Prayer is communion with God.
When fasting and saying “No” to the mind, one is simply being.
In the quietness of biological quiessence unity is automatic.
And standing next to God in perfect silence.
And witnessing God’s manifestations.
And solely seeing solely God at play.
Is as good as good can get.
To be continued. Go here:
Edg Duveyoung's answer to What is a beginner's guide to meditation?
To see the previous episode go to:
Edg Duveyoung's answer to What is the main purpose of life to you?
Edg Duveyoung
What is meant by ‘Outer Guru’ and ‘Inner Guru’?
God.
Inner Guru is God.
Outer Guru is God.
It takes a perfect delicacy to correctly perceive this equity.
If you see a difference, keep relaxing into your subtle state of mind.
Eyes open or closed matters not when you experience innocently.
As you observe the mind, you see thoughts produced naturally.
Thoughts come effortlessly.
Your will is not involved.
Any mental event is a most potent spiritual lesson about freedom.
You are being taught how to meditate effortlessly.
Practice witnessing and fully realize that you are not authoring thoughts.
Discover that each next thought is an unpredictable artwork of God.
To observe is to be silent and still in God’s “artist studio.”
Each instant of mentality is a brushed caress of color on creation’s canvas.
Even right now, you solely see from beyond the vastness.
Your psyche is a constant drama — a production that entertains you.
Expanding your vision of all possibilities is an opening door.
Beyond you there’s infinitely more you awaiting — abiding.
Meditating can lead to you to sense your silence as God’s omniscient attention.
Silence is then revealed as THAT awareness that observes God’s mind.
Silence becomes Self.
Anyone’s Self.
Edg Duveyoung
Where does the "soul" reside, if anywhere, between incarnations?
Your soul is always in the mind of God.
Where else, eh? Omniscience and all that, ya know?
God has always known, is knowing, and will know you.
Grasp that for a second or two, and your neck hairs stand up.
You are inside God’s livingness.
God is thinking of you — and has forever.
Why be concerned about your soul if God is cogitating it?
God will never not know you.
When God imagines your next thought for you, you glom onto it, natch!
Your next “anything” is a divine gem given — as is every instant.
Listen up. God’s first thought about you was one of God’s first thoughts.
You were anciently embraced by a divine intent.
Imagine God’s satisfaction to have your manifestation in this now.
There you are just as imagined in seed form long ago, but now fully sprouted.
Blossom into this. Suss yourself. Fluff up your sacred parts.
Stretch your astral wings out fully — have a twenty foot wide hug.
Take flight.
Edg Duveyoung
Why are the thumb and index finger joined when doing yogic meditation?
Big Self joins little self. Three gunas are beyond — this is enlightenment.
Edg Duveyoung
Was everything enlightened at the beginning of the universe? Why did the first
unenlightened being arise?
God is beginninglessness.
Sans manifestation, God’s entirety is yet perfect.
Advaita Vedanta instructs: That Perfection is now expanding.
God’s body appears and Being is becoming.
Consciousness is aborning.
Yet silence prevails.
Being’s entirety, God’s body, perfectly symbolizes God’s transcendent perfection.
Advaita Vedanta instructs: And Being’s embodiment also is expanding.
Consciousness becomes conscious. The witness arrives.
God’s omniscient eyes are opening.
Time/Space is revealing God’s mind.
Yet silence prevails.
God’s first thought was “Who am I?”
And ALL THIS is arising as the ongoing answer.
Every possibility arrives perfectly timed and spaced.
Each next thought of every entity is this expansion.
You are being created, because God thinks thought after thought of you.
Every scintillation and speck of you resides in God’s mind.
You have God’s attention.
What will God think next?
If you arrive an instant from now, what will you be?
Who cares!!!
Edg Duveyoung
Why should God prove himself to atheists if there's no guarantee that they would
devote their lives to him after he has proven himself? Proof of God does not mean love
for God.
LET’S PRAY TO GOD
Oh Lord Almighty, Creator of all, please give us knowledge.
Guide our attentions toward the depths of silence to find Thy Heart therein.
Help us know Thy ceaseless sentience within and beyond the illusory.
Grace us with a faith in Creation’s perfection.
Dearest soul, a moment’s purity or impurity cannot coat thy sacred identity.
Any believer and any doubter is an expression of My endless creativity.
Every mind will, instant by instant, be challenged by dark uncertainties.
All beings are My intent as they shine My attention into every cranny.
Oh Divine Author of stories, we are blessed with roles in wondrous tales.
Enliven a deeper clarity to help us grasp the holiness of any moment.
May it be that those that deny Thee will develop a more delicate mindfulness.
Please evolve our ability to transcend our fixations and delusions.
Be gladdened. I hold thee within My arms.
I feel thy heart beating as I protect thee from any karma.
Actions arise and then certainly go, but you never leave My embrace.
In the brightest light and deepest dark, I hug thee omnipotently.
Tears flood our hearts to water the seeds planted by Thee.
Our ethereal gardens within blossom with blooms of righteousness.
In all ways in every instant Thy bounty and providence astounds us.
Infinity is found by every sense during every experience.
So it is for all. Even the worst are doing My best.
Abiding with any and all nurtures quiescence and growth.
Wisdom accruing, take each next step as I light the path ahead.
In any direction you point, there am I, waiting at home for Thee.
Edg Duveyoung
If Brahman alone exists according to Advaita Vedanta, then who has avidya?
“BRAHMAN is THAT!” said GOD threeishly.
Are you BRAHMAN?
Not exactly. Not quite.
How not quite? Good news: You’re only about zeroly off.
Almost God ain’t bad, because it’s a precise “almost.”
Actually you’re fully God and merely seemingly a titch off.
You’re sacredly not quite.
You were, are, and will be THAT.
Even when you’re not, “not” is included in THAT.
God is standing in your shoes right now, saying, “Wow! What an infinite expanse!”
God is appreciating creation with your unique point of view, and God’s amazed!
How awed can God be wearing your obviously tinted lenses? Plenty mucha.
You volunteered for this. You took off your angel wings for this.
Nice on ya. Sew a spiritual merit badge on your sash. Take a bow you holy slogger.
God pointed a camera exactly anywhere and told you, “Say cheese.”
If God’s asked, “’Sup?” God whips out an omniscientphone and shows THAT photo.
That’s your divine entirety.
THAT is your selfie.
And don’t miss modernity’s blessing.
You’re pixelatedly cyberfied now.
Back in the old days, your photo would have been on paper.
And you’d be in an overstuffed wallet.
In the back pocket of God’s toga.
Edg Duveyoung
What would a world be like where everyone realises non-self, non-duality,
enlightenment, etc.? Will people no longer work and develop the society? As in order to
work, you require a sense of self.
What is the goal of life?
“To eat, excrete, and divide.” — A microbe.
“To eat CO2, water, and sunshine, excrete oxygen, and make sugar.” — A plant.
“To eat, mate, and have a thousand kids.” — A mouse.
“To eat, mate, get along with others, and have a few kids.” — A chimp.
“To eat, have a family in a society, and affect the future.” — A human.
“To love all and deepen my consciousness of God.” — A spiritual newbie.
“To witness being.” — An enlightened newbie yogi.”
“To be and to not be.” A Purnamadah Purnamidam saint.
Yikes! What’s missed if creation were to merely and solely be perfect?
Creation is an artwork by a Mature Artist.
The divine palette has every color of paint.
Black and near-black colors are as muchly used.
The polarity of duality’s “canvas” is the basis of karma.
What goes up gains a profitable view, but a fast drop makes for roller-coaster gold.
Any entity listed above has a sense of self — but two of them will have an ego.
Muggles have egoic attachments that merely seem to hide the self.
Seeking is something an ego devises to remain an insentient ego.
Finding is true spirituality when, instantly, peace within is embraced.
Just a titch of meditatively exploring under life’s surface is potent.
“Even a little practice of this Yoga protects one from great fear.” — Lord Krishna
God is seeing all the possible ways to not be God and playing with them.
And since God is the core of one’s being, everyone has a sense of TRUE self.
Relax into silence to toggle from ego and into identifying with awareness.
It’s the same awareness you have right now — only with no mental veneers.
And as for work . . . pish tosh.
The yogi knows the secret of life is to do nothing and accomplish everything.
Edg Duveyoung
A toddler extremely accurately recalls real life historical moments and has a memory
of themselves having a past life, which is later shown to be accurate. How would you
explain that, and scientifically explain the theories of reincarnation?
There is an answer, but you won’t believe it.
The full answer is just too too.
Yeah, yeah, I know. You can take it. I should blast ya. Sure. Uh huh.
But nah, I love you. I’m all for you being sane.
You don’t want to go insane, because I tell you the answer, right?
Don’t be using that insulted face on me. I’m bravado proof.
There’s truth that’s LETHAL. It tumbles your Tower of Babel brain.
“Yeah sure.” you’ll say. “Hit me or you’re bluffing,” you’ll say.
Right now you’re saying it. No way I deliver on this “lethal” adjective.
Excuse me a second while I roll up my sleeves and put down my rootbeer.
First of all, the question’s supposition is not a proven fact.
In today’s world, any toddler with such a personality would be a cyber-celebrity.
But, in fact, it would be impossible for a child with that popularity to be validated.
That’s just “real world” for ya. Anyone can find fault with any proclamation.
But if there were such a child, what would it mean?
It would be miraculous, and all of western thought’s foundation would be cracked.
See how many minds would be all too eager to find fault?
Back to the lethality concept and how it pertains to reincarnation.
Arjuna is our model in this regard. He asked for and got THE FULL TRUTH.
He asked God, Lord Krishna, “Hit me. Show me your Vishwaroop.”
And he was shown a mere glimpse into omniscience.
Top warrior of the third yuga was stunned into a dizzying insanity.
Lord Krishna had to heal Arjuna to stop his quivering and drooling.
It just would not do for Arjuna to be noticeably wobbly legged pre-battle.
See? A demigod got knocked to his knees. You’re not a demigod, right?
You can’t take the Vishwaroop. It’s too too I tellz ya.
But if you could, you’d have your answer about reincarnation.
If I wanted to be too too on you, I’d start off with the concept: GOD’S LIVINGNESS.
Before you’d be shown God’s Livingness, you’d be smacked around intellectually.
You’d have your nose physically rubbed into the word Vishwaroop in your Gita.
And you’d be told, “Lord Krishna is thinking all of this RIGHT NOW.”
That means that all incarnations are constantly ENLIVENED in God’s Mind.
Where’s the sting of death in this? Answer: nowhere.
So if a kid shows up spouting history that can be verified, THAT KID’S HOLY.
That kid’s in tune. Attuned. At one. United. A divine doppelganger.
And go figure.
That kid will absolutely be unconcerned about the concept “incarnation.”
Edg Duveyoung
How do we stop the global disease of thought addiction that is causing all the
heartbreak and shame?
Yeah, I am the one who asked this question.
Self-serving R Moi, so sue me.
I tried to find a Quora question that addressed this issue.
Came up zilch.
Why?
BECAUSE WE’RE ALL THOUGHT ADDICTS AND DENY IT.
Nobody wants to talk about it.
Yeah, I’m saying thoughts are DRUGS.
Yeah, I’m saying we are actually ADDICTED in every sense of the word.
Don’t make me prove what you already know is true.
Your addiction to thoughts is worse than the mild addictions like, say…
Nicotine, heroin and crack.
Pish tosh. Mere substance abuse.
Thinking is the basis of any addiction. Simply true.
Thinking is THE gateway drug for all addictions.
Our parents are our first dealers.
A one minute old child is taught concepts IMMEDIATELY UPON BIRTH.
QED
Don’t think about it, but yeah think about it.
The body and the mind’s autonomic functions are teaching this daily.
Every night, you are forced to stop injecting your mind with thoughts.
The body just can’t take that biochemical workload for long. Gotta rest.
The body’s telling ya, ya know? Yeah, ya know. We all admit to exhaustion.
But the mind keeps servicing your addiction with alternate reality dreams.
Simple relaxation and quiet dreams are not a complete addiction solution.
And what we have is a nature-based one step program.
Between dreams comes THE PERFECTION that thoughts cannot embrace.
The Perfection is awareness — one’s status when ego-ing ends.
For hours every night, you enter perfectly silent sentience.
See the two secrets?
—Silence is deeper than the reach of any drug or even life itself.
—You’re an expert in using awareness to heal from daily life.
Think about it! (Me so bad.)
Admit your solution works.
AND USE IT A LITTLE BIT MORE.
Enter awareness during your waking-thinking mode.
Close the eyes and sense the onset of relaxation.
Allow the mind to deepen quiescence naturally.
Just be alert. Just be.
Awareness is saturating reality no matter your mode.
But when one resides in being, it’s easier to slip out of yourself.
And being is left like a heap of clothing on the floor.
Awareness — as naked as you can get.
How do we stop the global disease of thought addiction that is causing all the
heartbreak and shame?
Edg Duveyoung
Opportunities arise naturally in life for various worldly things, such as work, how
should one interact with these opportunities when they seem to solidify ego and draw
the mind further away from equanimity and peace?
“Oh noes, God won’t ever be able to figure out how to settle my brain down if I leave the farm for
O’ Paree. I’d be a goner — beyond redemption’s reach.”
This is why we don’t attempt to understand karma — instantly we begin to define God to be having
some disability like Superman’s vulnerability to kryptonite’s lethal rays. “Probably God can’t . . . “
we say when we try to apologize for God’s sense of karmic justice. Farm or city matters not if
God’s got an eye on ya.
As if God can’t. As if.
God can can all the can’ts.
And God does.
Frequently.
Okay, okay, always.
Don’t even try to come up with an impossibility for God.
—Create a rock that God then cannot lift?
—Know the last number for pi?
—Imagine you being one thought away from enlightenment?
Easy peasy.
Omniscience — google it.
Meanwhile, have three scoops of pistachio ice cream on a sugar cone.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the relationship between enlightenment and miracles?
One hundred percent directly proportional.
A yogi says that it’s all miraculous.
Proof there is. Example: You The Miracle.
But if you try to take credit for anything, can’t.
Every thought which arises in your head is not authored by you.
You are not a member of your nervous system’s Inner Thought Committee.
You are unable to predict your next thought.
When a thought arrives — from beyond your conscious purview — that’s a miracle.
Every thought beats every rabbit ever pulled from any silk hat.
You can’t create your next thoughts, but their Author can be discovered.
Rabbits are magical. Your thoughts are mystical. The biggest diff.
Those two concepts sum up actuality.
—— There’s yinyang bunnies everywhere. There’s one awareness of it all.
And that’s just for starters.
Over, under, beside, after, before, between, inside, during any thought is awareness.
Awareness is perfect. Get it?
I’ll quintuple down:
—Awareness is the only perfection.
—Awareness is not a process of a nervous system.
—Awareness is metaphysically prior to consciousness.
—Awareness is pure God — instead of Manifest God.
—Awareness is the root identity of every possible entity.
Yep, there to be freely seen by anyone, is the silence of awareness.
A mere glance within can greatly deepen the delicacy of your consciousness.
When consciousness subsides to “existing,” aka Being, awareness is a toggle away.
Being is the primal manifestation — sans ANY instrumentality by awareness.
The silence of awareness is mystically embodied as OM.
Talk about that miracle for a while or a few decades.
That there is anything is unfathomable.
And the big deal is that all the divine spectacularity is molten gold.
Liquid gold can be poured into any shape without losing its value.
A jeweler is not fooled. Just so the yogi’s indifference to names and forms.
If one dwells at the level where the vision is “balanced,” one is poised to transcend.
From that stance, suddenly, Being is not enough to be “you.”
No longer can any thing that can manifest from Being capture your attention.
Only the vastness of disidentification can spiritually satisfy.
Transcend and the entirety blinks.
And now the strange part.
Every night, for hours, during dreamless sleep, you are THAT.
That’s why you dive into bed so recklessly ready to leave everything behind.
See the secret?
You already know all there is to know to realize awareness is you.
I’ll end this essay so you can go do that.
Edg Duveyoung
Based on many gurus and spiritual teachers, I have come to learn that everything we
see in this 3D world is a mere illusion. If that is so, then what part of existence is
considered “non-illusory” or the plain truth?
What a wonderful question.
It forces the salient issue to the fore.
One can have a PhD in psychology and yet be a whacko.
Even a spiritual education is no protection from insanity.
Saying “it’s all illusory” is a skill that can be mastered by a mere bird, ya know?
And, sorry, all you philosophers out there, knowing history is not prophylactic.
So, the advice is to not seek, because you’ll always find . . . some thing.
And a thing is not plain truth.
It’s a ruse. A frantic figure eight with a laser dot.
Ask any cat about life’s basic futility.
All things caught on the carpet are simply never there.
But lo — if one ceases seeking, truth is truly sought.
Get quiet if you want to hear God teaching.
Hear God speaking within — down in your deepest depth.
In the beginning is the word.
In the beginning of your mind, God is speaking.
Not to you though.
The truth God speaks is you.
Got it, Zarathustra? You’re what God spaketh.
God speaks the contents of your mind.
As you listen, the mind’s voice becomes divine.
The quietest level of mind is pure God, pure Being, Self.
But it’s not a level. Or a state. Or an understanding.
Nor even a word.
It’s a no-thing — the untalkaboutable that can’t be caught.
Your tree is blocking your view of the forest.
Step aside your trunk and there’s God playing peek-a-boo.
Try it. Get your nose out of your bark.
Just be quiet once.
God will have you at hello.
Edg Duveyoung
What happens when you do meditation for twenty years?
After 20 years — no improvements.
Why? Because: God.
If one could do a mental technique that worked, then, yeah, improvements.
But consider what “being a causal entity” entails — denying God’s authority.
If one thinks that one is causing changes, one denies God’s ONGOING creativity.
See denial’s price? You close off from God’s presence and activity in your mind.
If it’s a “Do It Yourself” universe — ugh. What utter aloneness.
Suppose that you could use a mental foot to dig up a shovelful of karma.
— Well, here. You’ve got a mountain of past errors to correct.
— It’s just too much work for your itty bitty brain.
— Handling EVERYTHING exhausts the soul.
— Failure is certain when each moment is a zillion impacting facts.
— No thing is the thing you think it is. See the problem?
— Any thing is the thing you think it is. You are projecting. STOP IT!
— No thing is like any thing like a tear tastes like the ocean.
— A wave is a thought of the ocean’s mind.
— A mind is an ocean of thoughts.
— “Karma is unfathomable.” Lord Krishna.
What to do?
An Alexanderian cut is required for a knotty life.
And there’s only one sword that’s sharp enough for the duty.
Only transcendence is that keen.
And it’s egoically effortless.
Go beyond. Relax. Cease intent. This is non-action.
When one resides in silence, stillness becomes a holy canvas.
Whatever art God paints on your calmness is destiny being enlivened.
If witnessing God being infinite, who dares to interrupt?
You do.
How’s that working for ya?
Therefore: be silent to whatever degree.
Even a glance within can remove a mental mountain.
Peering inward. Witnessing. Being.
Anytime for any amount of time is evolutionary.
And what does 60 years of hours per day get you?
Six decades of God’s artistry.
— Each stroke of brush.
— Each smack on a chisel.
— Each flowing of ink.
— Each string’s entoning.
— Each star’s rays.
Not to be missed.
Your choice?
Be a mountain mover?
Live in a sacred Louvre?
Put that shovel down.
Edg Duveyoung
How long does it take for rebirth to happen after death?
The concept of “reincarnation” is based on a mere assumption.
There’s no hard proof for a multiplicity of lives.
And worse: there is no hard proof one is even alive right now.
We’re not talking about a local decrease in entropy via DNA.
This is about life’s perfection and fullest definition.
Yeah, perfection. Sounds like homework, eh?
Lord Krishna told Arjuna, “Established in Being perform action.”
See how Lord Krishna has defined the word, “live?”
If one is silent and still, one is yet still being — despite inaction.
Being is an all time reality that underlies mentality.
If one is not firmly established in being, life is not realized.
Identity realized reveals that God is the sole actor.
Can’t get better.
By studying the mind, one appreciates thoughts with increasing clarity.
Gradually one gains the skill to experience thoughts being born.
And they arise from silence. The silence of Being.
It’s magical. Existence is a giant rabbit pulled out God’s top hat.
Ta-dah!
Only if silence is constantly known as one’s self is livingness complete.
The yogi resides in being and witnesses the mind’s actions.
Identity is silent Being. No flickerings of a brain are required.
“Just be.” Advised Lord Krishna. “My forces of nature will do the rest.”
Creation was two million years old when Lord Krishna taught that.
Arjuna was the first person to be taught how to realize non-illusory LIFE.
Enlightenment defined. By God. Just relax.
Sweet, eh?
And just in time, too, because the last yuga was about to start.
In the first three yugas, folks were having too much fun to evolve.
They were doing all the superpowers easy peasy.
But when Lord Krishna’s light left, Kali Yuga dawned on everyone.
“Hey, life’s kinda meh now. What’s up with this? I’m unfulfilled.”
Lord Krishna was the embodiment of Being. Identity made manifest.
Good thing Lord Krishna told the secret of secrets, eh?
“Just be if you want the light turned back on.
“Your finger is actually touching the on-off switch.
“Just toggle into silence and say bye-bye to time and space.
“And hello to Me.”
Said Lord Krishna.
After that, no reason to think you’re thinking.
You will witness thoughts created.
“I am that. Thou art that. All this is that.” — Author Known.
Edg Duveyoung
If according to Advaita Vedanta, during deep sleep (i.e. Sushupti) the mind is shut
down, then how the memory that "I slept so deep that I couldn't know anything" is
stored?
Even your experience RIGHT NOW is CERTAIN to be forgotten.
Consciousness is sketchy and spotty and slight, oh my.
What was your seventeenth thought after waking up this morning?
If that cannot be remembered, did it happen?
Whence this question then?
But wait.
Let’s drill down — as if into your intellectual tooth.
Suppose you say to me that you had a thought? PROVE IT.
You will say, “Take my word for it.”
And I will say, “Then take Advaita’s ancients’ testimony for THAT.”
And we’re done here.
But wait.
Let’s rub your nose in it a bit more. This is the “sue me for saying so” part.
You wake up many a day knowing you have had a dream.
And you watch that dream fade before your very mind.
In seconds it is mostly gone.
A few seconds more and you are forced into getting creative to describe it.
So, maybe, you could stop bothering me about conceptionless transcendence.
But wait.
Let’s bother you back. Let’s call this next part “salt in the wound.”
It’s important to ask your question even though no “worldly” answer will suffice.
If we ask, we will be unrequited. And that will not do.
It’s YOUR nature to want clarity. Eventually you’ll actually do the research.
You are the only person who can convince you. So dive inside to find out.
If you don’t know something, IT’S YOUR FAULT. All knowledge is within.
Yeah, I’m testifying unto Thee, “Don’t ask me; ask your quietest self.”
But wait.
You won’t start meditating. Let’s call this part “twisting the knife.”
You won’t because your horse ain’t thirsty. And all I have is water.
You have not been fed up with life enough to notice your hunger for freedom.
True freedom is discovering that your ETERNAL SELF resides beyond the mind.
And on that journey, somewhere along the line, you’ll finally understand.
And you will begin to see that truth is vast — and mind . . . insignificant.
Want to recall transcendence when the mind has been shut off? Ridiculous.
How is it stored? ANSWER: IN GOD’S MEMORY.
But wait.
The personal proof is right there. This is the “kiss the boo boo” part.
Even now you’re forgetting thought after thought after thought.
So see the secret? Nightly transcendence between dreams is between thoughts too.
Same silence. Same self. Same stillness. Same sentience. Same awareness.
Except in the waking state where the presence of silence has a soundtrack.
So what are you waiting for? Go get your answer.
Edg Duveyoung
Is there such a thing as your real self or does your self change as time passes and
given the circumstances you are in?
You are the dot that is atop the letter “i.” ACTUALLY.
You are a small jot which indicates your mind’s DIACRITICALLITY.
Oh, you didn’t actually have thoughts about that particular dot? YES YOU DID.
Study your mind and find “dot-qualities-activated.” AD INFINITUM.
Suss that. Amazing! The mind’s depths are processing FEROCIOUSLY.
No wonder we feel ourselves to be wonders. It’s right up there with GODLY.
And if we examine any “thing,” we likewise project qualities. MASSIVELY.
We define the waking experience with about A MILLION DEFINITIONS PER SECOND.
Just ballparking it. BECAUSE THE BOMBAST EXCEEDS YOUR “SYSTEM LIMITS.”
Look around. THAT’S YOUR BRAIN ALL SPREAD OUT.
You’re saturating life with qualities AT THE SPEED OF DIVINE THOUGHT.
EVERY “THING” IS YOUR OWN PRIVATE MONA LISA.
YOU DAB A NEW DOT EACH DAY ON EVERY MONA.
YOU DOTE ON CREATION AS IF YOU WERE THE CREATOR.
YOU DON’T MAKE A SINGLE MISTAKE ABOUT WHAT IS WHAT.
ZILLIONS OF ZILLIONS OF YOUR STUFF MAKES FOR A VAST MENTALITY.
Yes, I was yelling. Sorry.
See why it’s so hard to give up such glorious projecting?
You’re enjoying this profundity down to the nanosecond.
God doesn’t shortchange you. You arise in God’s mind perfectly detailed.
God’s definitions are fire-hosing through your purview. Exactly now.
Who can resist a sacred cornucopia? Almost no one, but . . .
You can.
If you find yourself not attending all the above awesomeness, feel blessed.
That’s the only way to love God for the gift — BEING SILENT WITH GOD.
What else, eh?
Jabbering and gushing are not required.
If seen purely, God makes your breathing stop with a-agog-a-tudiosity.
We cannot say word one about God. Silence is automatic.
Silence is the only self that never changes.
This is the purpose of silence — worship’s perfection.
Transcending circumstance — best done before breakfast.
Edg Duveyoung
How do I best protect myself from dark forces when meditating, dream state, etc.?
I gotta ask: “Are you all that important?” Maybe but . . .
The ego can puff up and think it is so cosmically useful — to astral pirates.
This is atheistic indulgence. This ignores God’s ALL POWERFULNESS.
As if. As if God would NEED a tool like “dark forces.”
As if being commandeered by God wasn’t already the actuality.
God is at play. You’re an action figure on a sacred lap.
God can instantly change anything. PERIOD.
It’s divine agency,” DOH!
The entirety — RIGHT NOW — is God’s creativity IN YOUR FACE.
Is God authoring a kookoonutzoid dark thought?
Is God plunking down a doozy?
WITNESS it’s gonzoness..
Rejoice rejoice Emmanuel
. . . For God’s presence
. . . In your mind.
. . . Having fun doing cartwheels for you.
Transcendent God is begetting manifest God.
Surrender to God’s artistry and God’s perfect love.
Worried when you wake up from a dream’s woes?
What? You wanted a different dream?
What? You reject a dream created by God specifically for your exact mind?
If it’s a dream moment, a waking thought, a silence — God is at work!
Imagine standing behind Euclid when firstly he “looked upon beauty bare.”
Or stand behind Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Einstein.
Or stand behind Adam biting the apple in Eve’s hand.
Or Jesus with a small basket of two fish and some bread.
Or you scratching your nose.
If it happens, God is EQUALLY ATTENDING your wherewithal’s everythingness.
Imagine standing behind God when firstly you flowed from a sacred pen.
Your next thought is an artwork sculpted.
God curates your mind which is a private Louvre.
And all you have to do is witness — from beyond the doingness.
How? Why? When?
By God. For God. Now.
Always.
Just look woudjajust?
Edg Duveyoung
Are enlightened beings immune to all forms of brainwashing/mind
control/indoctrination? Does spiritual enlightenment also remove a person's past
brainwashing accumulated throughout their lifetime?
No, because “enlightenment” means “freedom.”
Freedom from what?
Everything.
Why would I want that?
Because “everything” is illusory, but you addictively believe it’s real.
Life offers many pleasures. Even sufferers cling to it. Why is that so bad?
What didn’t you understand about my purport for the word “addictively?”
If I’m addicted, what am I missing due my “unhealthy self abuse?”
God, natch.
So instead of God, I’m attending anything but God?
Yep.
When you put that way, I’m suddenly feeling accused of being an atheist.
Atheists study “God,” to validate their denial. You do the same but opposite.
Wait a second there. I believe in God. Atheists don’t.
Yes, but belief in God or not has no spiritual parallax. Knowing God is the deal.
But I pray to God. I follow a religion’s values. I try hard to be good.
All illusory. Respectful symbolism, but it’s only as if Mickey Mouse prayed to God.
My spiritual ardor is equal to a cartoon character’s symbolic praying?
Yes.
But I’m sentient. I have a soul. Mickey is mere ink from Walt’s pen.
Says you. You think you have a soul, because you listen to “a mind’s opinion.”
My mind’s as good as anyone’s. It determines truth. Everyone agrees I am real.
Herd delusions — a herd that’s mid-air after having stampeded over a cliff.
I’ve had it with your baseless snark. All the scriptures honor life’s actuality.
Ask a Jew what was more real — Moses or God’s voice from the burning bush,
So you’re saying the Creator is more real than the created?
Bingo. Enlightenment is all about being united with God.
United?
Like a dew drop into an ocean.
Sounds like you’re offering me yet another one of your disdained “pleasures.”
Unity with God is bliss — not a limited pleasure. No nervous system can make bliss.
So, Unity is not some sort of thinking or feeling or other nervous thingie?
Nope. Unity is when the ego dissolves and God pierces the veil of “thingness.”
Isn’t God then “being pleased” by your having entered Unity?
What does Walt think of anything Mickey achieves?
So why bother?
Exactly. If we stop bothering, we’ve gotten out of being bothered.
But I’m hep to saints and gurus, and all of them seem to be “persons” — not God.
The Tao is the ordinary mind.
So, after Unity, characters continue to be characters in creation?
Yes.
Are they smarter or more sane or morally superior?
Depends on your clarity. If you see superficially, you’ll see the superficial.
So, if I’m enlightened, I’ll see actions of the enlightened to be perfect.
Yes — but not intellectually or emotionally. You’ll just know God’s creating.
So if an enlightened person kills someone, that’s good?
Yes, but there would be no mundane proof. The person would be subject to laws.
So the enlightened might kill but still have to go to prison?
Yep, and what great luck for the prisoners, eh?
Sounds like you’re rationalizing.
Yep. But try to find an enlightened person complaining about destiny.
Sounds scary. If I unite, maybe God authors me into prison or worse.
Back up. You will be God in action, serving creation’s deepest intents as a hero.
I could enjoy being a hero.
But it won’t be a small ego that enjoys. Instead it will be creation sighing, “Ahhh.”
It is all seeming too good to be true. Me? Being God? Come on. Really?
Unity is the only way to get out of the person business. Beyond brain stuff.
So how can I meet an enlightened person to check all this out?
Becoming an enlightened person is faster than meeting one.
How so?
Your person is God’s creation. You only have to realize this — not travel to India.
How?
There’s no “how.” Merely stop all of your doing and find out God’s doing the doing.
How?
Stopping “asking how” is the how.
Do I stare at a candle or what?
That’s the long route. That’s practicing being an excellent doer — not God.
What’s wrong with being excellent in thought and action?
To perfect your “person” can be done, but if the ego is doing it, attachment results.
But Moses parted the Red Sea.
But Moses was not allowed into the Promise Land due to spiritual pride — ego.
So you’re not offering any certainties. It’s all up for grabs.
Yes, and God does the grabbing. And God’s got infinite wisdom.
But I like grabbing.
Good. Grab for God by letting God grab.
Become God.
Yes.
By just letting go.
Yes.
Just settle down. Learn to get quieter.
Now you’re talking about not talking. Sounds good!
I can find God is zero distance away.
Yes.
I can just witness creation’s creation instant by instant.
In no time at all.
DEAL!
Good. Let’s celebrate your intellectual breakthrough with some ice cream.
What flavor?
Gang? All together now . . . . . . .
http://www.quora.com/profile/Teja-Anand-2
http://www.quora.com/profile/Teja-Anand-2
Edg Duveyoung
How can we say "we are all one" without offering substantial evidence to back up such
a preposterous claim except some occasional feelings we get in meditation? If we
cannot share our bodies, feelings, minds and pain, then how can we be "one"?
This is a stoooooooooped question. Sooooooooo worthless. Booooooooo!
I’m talking to YOU. You’re actually interested in the question. QED
The core truth of the ages is insulted by the word “preposterous.”
This deserves a pie in a face. Your face too, now that you’re here.
Don’t be thinking it’s not you who asked this question.
I know, I know, I’m supposed to be tender and understanding.
But cut me a break, cuz every newbie asks this question . . . every.
And then doesn’t listen to the correct answer. Never. Not once in history.
Will you listen? No! You’re wanting magic words instead of silencing.
Solely silence nutrifies. Any word is a lie.
The yogi tells the newbie: “It’s not about thoughts.”
The newbie says, “Oh yes it is and you’d better tell me or else.”
Amazing that a newbie feels okay with such a rude demand.
“Give us pistachio ice cream!” (best possible mental event.)
Pistachio ice cream. There, satisfied?
The newbies want words as if ideas have real life “taste.”
You, for instance. You thought the question was “deliciously reasonable.”
I confess that all my hundreds of essays explaining Advaita have zero feck.
God authors ALL thoughts. Each one an exemplar of divinity.
If you’re meditating regularly, it’s a divine freebie.
Or, if you’re thrashing around in spiritual angst, you’re sinless!
So when you trigger me with a vile question, YAY GOD!
Yeah, gotta love how God sees ones rug. And pulls it out.
“Caught ya!” says God. “You were believing you had mad rugs skillz.”
What to do?
Sorry, but only silence is true.
No scriptures, by being understood, have ever enlightened anyone.
It’s not about holding concepts dear — that’s attachment-addiction.
Disciples of Jesus complained too when they couldn’t heal a boy.
Did Jesus give them a magic incantation to use?
Naw, Jesus knew the deal.
“Howzbout youse guys first try some “fasting and prayer,” required Jesus.
“Do that if you want to move mountains. Or cure a boy of epilepsy.“
Jesus would not be saving folks with essays posted on Quora.
“Fasting” —- That’s biological silence.
“Prayer” —- That’s egoic silence.
The purport is “Get out of God’s way.”
So, go to silence.
THAT’S THE SOLE RESIDENCE OF ONENESS.
Silence is the overlapping of God’s and your Being.
It’s the Sacred Venn.
Back by popular demand!
Already Enlightened
SUNDAY SATSANG with Teja - June 14
Namaste All, This Sunday June 14, we will meditate and continue our exposition of the
crystalline apperception of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. All are welcome, no charge. If you would
like to join us for this deep opportunity, simply email the address on the flyer for your Zoom…
(more)
Edg Duveyoung
What did Nisargadatta Maharaj mean when he said, “The search for reality is a most
dangerous of undertakings for it will destroy the World in which you live”?
Yeah it’s that bad.
Below is Nisargadatta laying it all out — down and dirty.
Think you are a true seeker? This’ll recalibrate your egoic pride.
You think just anyone can become a yogi? Read and weep.
You think you can spend an hour a week on spirituality? Think again.
Brace yourself. No fair to quit evolving just because you’re a rank beginner.
I have been so gentle with you Dear Readers. Remember to breathe.
Question: In meditation, who meditates, the person or the witness?
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: Meditation is a deliberate attempt to pierce into the higher states of
consciousness and finally go beyond it. The art of meditation is the art of shifting the focus of
attention to ever subtler levels, without losing one's grip on the levels left behind. In a way it is like
having death under control. One begins with the lowest levels: social circumstances, customs and
habits; physical surroundings, the posture and the breathing of the body, the senses, their
sensations and perceptions; the mind, its thoughts and feelings; until the entire mechanism of
personality is grasped and firmly held. The final stage of meditation is reached when the sense of
identity goes beyond the 'I-am-so-and-so', beyond 'so-l-am', beyond 'I-am-the-witness-only',
beyond 'there-is', beyond all ideas into the impersonally personal pure being. But you must be
energetic when you take to meditation. It is definitely not a part-time occupation. Limit your
interests and activities to what is needed for you and your dependents' barest needs. Save all
your energies and time for breaking the wall your mind had built around you. Believe me, you will
not regret
Whew! Yikes! Holy moly! No way! Who can do all that?

Brutal, eh? Talk about your Drill Sergeant’s newbie boot camp demands!
Ponderables:
One must “Go beyond consciousness.” No fine print. No loop holes.
Consciousness expands as one meditates — wholistic grasping is a honeable skill.
Meditation is the dying and the death of the mind. And yet identity remains.
Cease most social and human activities. Use all energy to break the wall of the mind.
Attending silence fulfills all requirements.
Or?
There is no “or.”
Edg Duveyoung
Is there a version of the Bhagavad Gita in English?
Originally Answered: Which English translation of the Bhagavad Gita should I read?
HANDY GITA LITMUS TEST
To see if a translation comes through a mind with ken and clarity, you can quickly check out how
these words are interpreted:
yoga-sthah kuru karmani
Advaita Vedanta’s interpretation: “Established in Being, perform action.”
These words of Chapter 2: Verse 48 are axiomatic. If a translation of The Gita does not make clear
TO YOU about how important these words are, then chances are the rest of the translation is
tinted by an equal lack of clarity. Try another interpretation.
Why?
How those few words are defined impacts the purport of all the other verses.
Lord Krishna is telling Arjuna THE SECRET.
What secret? A secret that had been hidden for 2,000,000 years.
The secret is that YOUR identity is unworldly, transcendent, pure Being.
So?
Lord Krishna is giving you a “get out of jail free” card.
You are clearly instructed to establish yourself in Being.
Merely quiet down AND DONE.
When one resides and abides in silence, dharmic action is guaranteed.
If you’re not acting, the body/mind system is solely operated by the three gunas.
See?
You can sit out a hand.
You can step out of the batter’s box.
You can do the perfect austerity of complete surrender.
Just by being settled down, we get out of the way.
How’s that for sinlessness, eh?
Sit on chair. Eat popcorn. Witness the gunas. Be a saint.
So, that’s the deal.
If a translation of The Gita spurs feelings of sinlessness, keep reading.
Free silence now offered every Sunday.
Already Enlightened
Namaste All, This Sunday June 14, we will meditate and continue our exposition of the
crystalline apperception of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. All are welcome, no charge. If you(more)
would
like to join us for this deep opportunity simply email the address on the flyer for your Zoom

Already Enlightened
Namaste All,
This Sunday’s Satsang will feature our new format with deeper meditation. This
week’s discourse will feature the remarkable clarity of Sri Nisargadatta. All are welcome, and
there is no charge. Email for Zoom invitation. … (more)
Edg Duveyoung
If Karna was killed by unethical means, how did Mahabharata Yuddham (Mahabharata
War) become "Dharma Yuddham" (Righteous War)?
Okay people, I’ve had it.
Everyone take a seat. Settle down.
So what if Karna got clobbered un-dharmically! So what!
The Cosmic Plan remains pure.
The Gita is about hearing Lord Krishna’s living words spoken inside your mind.
The Gita is ones chance to dwell with Lord Krishna. THAT’S IT.
Don’t be nitpicking The Gita.
Don’t be worrying a thread and trying to ravel the divine tapestry.
Tell your intellect to sit in the corner.
And tell your heart to go to the other corner.
You don’t get to have an opinion here. Get it?
Just like Arjuna didn’t get to have an opinion.
Lord Krishna is perfection embodied.
Yet, Arjuna REFUSED TO KILL KARNA.
A demigod didn’t have the clarity of mind to obey God.
A demigod argued with God in the middle of the battlefield.
That’s just like you would, right?
That’s just how you are when you find fault with life.
Yeah, you. On your own private battlefield.
You and Arjuna — a couple stoooopidheaded foot draggers.
Finally — Lord Krishna had to force Arjuna to do it.
See?
If Lord Krishna tells you ANYTHING, it’s the right thing at the right time.
Dharma schmarma. Rules are mere guidelines.
Don’t be small. Don’t be trying to find absolutes and certainties.
Lord Krishna had to threaten Arjuna.
“Don’t make me stop this chariot and shoot that guy Myself!”
That did it for Arjuna — no way he’d risk Lord Krishna breaking His promise.
What promise? LORD KRISHNA PROMISED TO NOT FIGHT.
He was willing to break His Divine Word — UNDHARMICALLY.
See?
Creation is what it is. We don’t get to understand.
Don’t even try. Lord Krishna says, “Action is unfathomable.”
This is why every evolutionary moment is due to silence.
We enter silence to signify and actually be surrendered to what is.
That’s how we, the audience, applaud God’s theatrics.
We don’t butt in. We don’t cavil. We don’t kibbitz.
We surrender by simply relaxing.
How good is that, eh?
You can be sinless by letting go.
When we let go, it all keeps going — due to nature.
Nature is God in action. Creation is ongoing.
God’s living mind is imagineering you. Right. Now. Full stop.
But hey. You and Arjuna in the same sentence?
Pretty good company!
And you two have been offered the same solution.
Must be you’re God’s pal too.
Edg Duveyoung
Is Brahma a god or a cosmological principle?
Gotta just gotta make sure.
lol If even the least deva showed up, the light blasting off the aura would blind ya.
If someone thinks they can learn — AS A HUMAN — all that we all need to know make sure we are
on the same page about Lord Brahma’s designation and that it “makes sense to us,” GOOD LUCK
WITH THAT.
Lord Brahma’s actuality transcends our ken.
We’d be able to garner better clarity about jackalopes and unicorns.
The common warrior in the Gita could “handle light” to wield divine weaponry. Imagine saying a
mantra to make an arrow appear on your bow. These guys all prayed to Lord Brahma. And Arjuna,
top warrior that he was, prayed to Lord Brahma despite being worth 10,000 common warriors in
battle readiness. And Arjuna’s father, Lord Indra, prayed to Lord Brahma despite having the power
to “delete Earth,” and residing at the top of the heavenly beings. All of these guys were CREATED
BY LORD BRAHMA, duh!
In India some guys are called Brahmarishi. We smile at that, because solely Bhrigu, Angiras, Atri,
Vishwamitra, Kashyapa, Vasishta, and Shandilya are the seven brahmarishis. Sprung out of Lord
Brahma’s head, and they were hard put to grasp their mental Dad. But hey, it’s Kali Yuga so we are
a lot looser about who gets the title. And the funny thing is, those who get that title in India are —
to a person — someone to listen to about God. Go figure.
But, lacking having a Brahmarshi handy, hey, let’s have some respect, eh? Let’s not go around
asking questions that make it seem that Lord Brahma’s glories could ever possibly be grasped by
a human — you and I and the question asker. Only someone who has spent the time, at the least,
24/7, for a lifetime, can grow the nervous system that could even approach symbolizing the
subtlety of Lord Brahma.
Edg Duveyoung
Does the ego disappear during sleep?
Ego can disappear even while you’re reading this sentence.
How many times do you have to re-read some text because your mind wanders?
How many times do you automatically and mindful-lessly use your turn signals?
How many times do now-automated skills wash your hands “for you?”
Sometimes we’re not there even more than that.
Sometimes we’re not attending all of creation.
Sometimes we’ve been temporarily dissolved into identity-lessness.
During sleep, if there’s dreaming, there’s ego-ing.
During sleep, when there’s no dreaming, ego-less-ness is perfected.
During sleep, sometimes you’re indistinguishable for hours.
Distinctions are the cheese in the trap.
Distinctions are Sirens on the ship chewing rocks.
Distinctions are seen only when you have been drawn out of your Self.
Remember that God created materiality out of God’s Being.
Remember that no-minded-ness is pure human-ness.
Remember that identity can transcend individuality.
See the payoff?
You’re not always there.
So next time you catch yourself being yourself on purpose, go, “PEEK A BOO!”
Edg Duveyoung
How can I clean my spirit?
Originally Answered: How do I clean myself spiritually, and how do I start?
Are you astrally mud covered, Bub?
Are you mentalistically moldy, Buddy?
Are you cruddily encrusty, Bro?
Are you a rusted shut nutcase, Booby?
WELL —— (adjusts sleeve)
HAVE I GOT —— (tugs a tux lapel)
A DEAL —— (tilts a tophat a titch)
FOR YOU —— (raises a long baton with authority)
You need a firehose blasting of God’s attention.
You need to be rinsed out by mystic liquidity.
You need to take a relaxative for the soul.
You need “Doc Duveyoung’s Detergent of Dwellingness.”
Yes, my friends, a divine flushing is the solution.
One bottle of sacred reordering is what’ll do ya.
A routing out by rushing nothingness’ll clean yer pipes.
God’s stillness has been distilled, and that elixir is in this bottle.
One bottle will leave your insides coated with GOD’S AWARENESS.
Drink and dwell as a devotee of the divine.
Chug down some sacrifluid and brace for grace.
Cleanse your interior with a swig of silence.
And that’s it! No other instructions.
And your what’s what inside will become your that’s that outside.
Step right up. Plenty for all.
Buy one extra for a friend.
Buy another to make someone your friend.
Silence — The Universal Solvent
Catch the light show!
Already Enlightened
SUNDAY SATSANG with Teja - May 31
Welcome all. This Sunday will be guided by you, as we will focus on the questions & topics to
which you are most wanting answers. After a deep guided meditation, Teja will simply follow
your lead and provide direct insight in whatever areas you need more ‘light.’ … (more)
Edg Duveyoung
How do we counter evolution when Ramayana, for example, has been proven to be 1.6
million years ago?
The closer to silence one is, the more anything is true.
You want a jackalope that speaks about how unicorns are hogging all the gold at the end of
rainbows with a stentorian voice dripping with authenticity?
You get a jackalope that speaks about how unicorns are hogging all the gold at the end of
rainbows with a stentorian voice dripping with authenticity.
It’s called dreaming.
Or even imagining.
Imagining as YOU HAVE JUST NOW DONE TO MENTALLY ENVISION a jackalope that speaks
about how unicorns are hogging all the gold at the end of rainbows with a stentorian voice
dripping with authenticity.
Imagine, for instance, God imagining.
God’s perfectly imagining you right now.
Imagine that, eh?
When one is quiet, it’s the perfect mode in which to explore the ancient tales from impossibly long
ago and discover that these deities are metaphorically represented in the basic dynamism of the
mind’s tick-tocking. Your nervous system has a perfect construct to embody and symbolize Lord
Krishna.
There IS an inner Lord Krishna awaiting with open arms.
And ain’t nobody can hug ya like Somebody with eight arms.
Teja's chopping wood and carrying water. Tune in to see him sloshing everywhere and leaving a
trail of bark and twigs behind him.
Already Enlightened
SUNDAY SATSANG May 24 - An 'individual life,' or Life Itself?
Come join us for Sunday Satsang on Zoom It’s free of charge and open to all. This Sunday,
let’s get clear about our place in the Flow of Life. Realizing the Singularity of Life Itself
instantly releases us into freedom. Use the address on the flyer to request a Zoom Invitatio… (more)
Tomorrow on Sunday morning -- I'm going to show up. You?
Teja Anand · 2y
How do we understand and reconcile suffering in our lives and on the ‘spiritual path?’
What is the best way to hold it, in ourselves, and help to alleviate it in others?
I repeatedly get these question: How to understand and hold our personal suffering in life,
and on our ‘spiritual path,” as well as much concern for all the apparent suffering in the world.
And how we can practice our path ‘selflessly,’ while still focusing compassionately on…(more)
Edg Duveyoung
What is Advaita Vedanta?
All my essays laughably fail to answer this question.
Why even try?
Essays are not a solution. Because, hey, causality is the prime falsity.
So, lately, I’ve been trying to read the essays of others and adding comments here and there —
trying to be playful and informing. They are quasi-one-on-one drive-by micro-lecturing events!
(aka “smug kibitzing”) If you read any of my essays, please check the comments to see what
gems pop out during the sussing out happening “down there.”
Here’s some samples:
How do you deal with negative emotions that arise during meditation?
EDG COMMENT: When you’re being healed in God’s workshop, dust flies. We merely return to
silence when the dust settles “enough.” If they overwhelm, we just wait longer still. If it’s solidly
overwhelming and producing mental turmoil, then we can resort to a host of other techniques like
feeling the body, pranayama, nap before meditating, diet, time of day, yoga asanas, and
combinations of such. (There’s a nice back and forth in the comments.)
Do you have an example of when you successfully manifested what you wanted?
There’s a nice multi-person conversation ongoing in the comments.
Here’s one of mine: “Even on a crowed sidewalk, almost everyone manages to avoid the other
walkers. Like this we can just be “between” all that hustle and bustle of the mind. Let the thoughts
glide by — easy to avoid — plenty of sidewalk. “
In what ways are the ideas of final judgement in Christianity different from Hinduism?
EDG’S COMMENT: “Ultimately all persons are artifacts of creation, and our innocence is perfect.
It’s all Mother Divine’s fault! Ask Lord Indra about the value of reaching “the top.” Piety is yet a
delusion — example: a cartoon in which Mickey Mouse adores Walt Disney is a tautologically
ersatz worship.”
If one doesn't fear death, why keep living? Joel is a real deal rubber hits the road spiritual
advisor. I commented by posting this video blurb of Eastwood wisdom:
Does Rami Siven have any app for quick reference of all scriptures at a click of the button?
Rami is so authoritative — a one stop shop for answers with scriptural clout. My main role for him
is to try to make him laugh. His answer to the above question was a delight — he pushed back a
bit with a strong certainty about his scholarship. I posted this video snark:
Why is peace said to be calm? Calmness is a state achieved as a display of power.
Sarah is such an annealed personality . . . so lovably blunt, terse, Emily Dickinson-esque,
spectacularly battle scarred and the first to hug. I try to make her use more words and then she
smacks me around with less . . . and wins.
EDG’S COMMENT: “Any vibrating string has silent nodes through which all the power passes
without the string moving at that point. Ask any guitar player and watch as a node is touched but
the string keeps making its tone. THIS IS SILENCE — dynamic without a manifest signifier.”
Your thoughts on spiritual awakening has been written so many times in so many ways. Why
don’t more people get it? Teja is a natural leader. So crisp. He can write a sentence that
deserves an hour’s consideration. I love to bother him with an elbow to the ribs. He just giggles
with a disarming righteousness.
EDG’S COMMENT: “Read his stuff and then meditate and see if you can find any disagreement
between Teja, Advaita, and your inner silence from which they have emerged. Teja’s laying it out in
strict resonance with the ancient reports from 5,000 years ago.
Can he walk on water? Why not? Jesus taught Peter to do it in under three years, and Teja’s been
earning every tee shirt for 50 years. If God is going to have anyone suddenly do super-powers,
Teja’s on a list somewhere.”
Sri Ramana Maharshi taught that everything is preordained. What was Sri Nisargadatta
Maharaj's teaching regarding this?
There’s a lively discussion ongoing for this essay. They’re backing me into a corner! Here’s my first
response: ”God pulls out rabbits from God’s hat. You are not the ego; you are witness at most.
God, you, the hat and the rabbits are all illusory but are emergent phenomena “of” awareness —
arriving without the least instrumentality. Your main role in this set-up is to be a representative of
the transcendent. You are not the person that you are witnessing, and the person you’re
witnessing is but another hunk of the illusory — it is not sentient. Your identity is awareness aka
the transcendent aka the absolute. This identity mystically conjoins with materiality
(consciousness) and forms “the witness.” When the body dies, the witness dissolves, but
awareness is unchanged.”
Do most of the Indians want Vedic life?
Krishna Iyer and Sangeetha Narayanan are two of my Dear Readers who are a delight to the
mind. Check out Krishna’s short essay above to see these two heartful personalities play verbal
ping-pong in the comments.
EDG’S COMMENT: “Silence is your guru. I’m merely excelsior — I give you thoughts, you give back
love, so obviously you’re the superior giver in this situation.”
Whose teachings are most suited for the modern world among these spiritual gurus,
Ramana Maharshi, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Osho, Jaggi Vasudev, Nisargadatta Maharaj, and
Eckhart Tolle? Jay Jennifer is angelic. Yeah I’m saying it. Her words are purely Advaitic, but it is
her HEART that floods the reader firstly and palpably.
EDG’S COMMENT: “He comes off “so dry.” I cannot find any flaws, but wow one is doing
homework when reading his books. Straight facts no fluff. I LOVE FLUFF, so I go to Ramana and
Nisargadatta for putting this knowledge in a traditional framework.”
And on and on — I try to interact with all my Dear Readers — so many not mentioned herein.
So, if you’ve been attracted to a question, double down on that interest by checking out the
comments section. I’m adding more in the comments to almost every essay of mine, and I usually
add three or four comments per day on the essays of others. Repetition can bring home salient
concepts and nail them down. Iteration is so effective — not causal, but synchronous.
Get it? When a concept is repeated, it’s God hard wiring ya!
Get hep about that concept. Your thoughts are you being divinely sculptured.
Here’s a quickie tune-up — these concepts echo throughout my essays:
Awareness Is Prior To Consciousness — THE axiom.
Pistachio Ice Cream — attachment to pleasure
Bugatti — you’re getting what you want, so want God.
Left Elbow — a muggle ignores activities of mind 99% so just a bit more
Mickey Mouse — you are authored — not sentient
Rain Drop — you wrongly project your identity
Kali Yuga Blues — gotta know your limitations
Edg Duveyoung
What is the meaning of this verse in Bhagavad Geeta "Abandoning all Dharma, take
refuge in Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins, do not grieve"?
The problem is that dharma is a dynamic of duality. Such a dither.
Lord Krishna says, “Enter My Being — end the delusion that you are a doer.”
“Escape the system. Put the chalupa on the floor and step back.”
See? Dharma is the responsibility of the three gunas — they know what to do.
Via the three gunas God manifests Arjuna’s next thought — unfathomably.
Arjuna is being told he could instead be witnessing from within God’s embrace.
“You can cease attending illusions. Any mind’s content is less actual than My Being.”
Twenty-five hundred years later, Plato said, “The shadows are not reality.”
Being is an all time reality for every living entity. There at a moment’s pausing.
Being is God’s mind between thoughts. And between yours also.
God points at Being and says, “That’s Me. Sentient silence.”
If you look inside you can find THAT SAME ME.
“Be Me.” says God.
Wow! Just wow!
God has given you the entirety and beyond.
You know, merely a little gift.
You already have it. Just gotta look where you last left it.
Yeah, I’m not kidding, sorry to break it to ya; you’re God.
Don’t be squintin’ that sour look at me.
I know you can’t walk on water.
I know you sin constantly.
I know you would throw a merciless stone.
I know you pretend all those things.
And pretending is your addiction — worse than white sugar.
If you keep staring at the shadows on the wall, you stay in the cave.
Closing eyes instantly ends the delusion: “I’m seeing things.”
Well begun is half done.
As you reside with eyes closed, thoughts (things) become “less distinct, flickery.”
By simply waiting, patiently, softly, one can escape the mind altogether.
Escape to what?
To Being.
To Being God — not the shadowy you.
See the hard part?
You can’t get there from here.
Lord Krishna didn’t instruct: “Be dharmic to escape the system.”
Only when one is residing in Being is dharma THEN perfected by the gunas.
Just quit it wouldjajust? Practice quitting by relaxing.
And don’t even try to tell me you can’t recognize “relaxation.”
If you’re not fully relaxed, relax — it’ll come. It’s universal to rest.
So there ya finally are.
You’re watching God’s mind presented by the gunas.
You’re free. You’re enlightened “enough.” No more incarnations for you.
And then God whispers,
—“You don’t even have to be here at all.
—”One doesn’t even have to reside here and now in My creation.
—”You can dissolve into My Being’s Source — awareness.
—”Being is Me, but awareness is the source of Being.
—”Awareness is the first and final identity.
—”Simply be a saint for a while. Wait for the shift.
—”Then, suddenly . . .”
Edg Duveyoung
Sri Ramana Maharshi taught that everything is preordained. What was Sri Nisargadatta
Maharaj's teaching regarding this?
Determined 100%? They said, “Well, um, er, actually not sorta.”
Nisargadatta and Ramana cite God’s freedom to “have a change of mind.”
God can say, “THIS!” and then “nope.”
“Thou shalt not kill?” Um, not always.
In every scripture we see God battling evil and killing this or that bad entity.
And you are comfy running in bare feet on grass — crushing a hundred tiny beings.
—With each step.
Turns out there are no absolutes in the relative.
—Nope, 2 plus 2 does not always equal four.
—Pshaw, parallel lines do cross if the cosmos is curved.
When ordering Abraham to kill Isaac, God meant it.
——Only at the last did God stay the knife of Abraham.
———God gets to scare God. Go figure.
God gets to somehow “forget on purpose” despite omniscience always knowing.
—See? We want God to “have a good time too.”
—God said to God, “No spoilers for You.”
—So, your next thought is as much a surprise to God as it is to you.
You and God are sharing the same bucket of popcorn watching your life unfold.
That surprise part of your instant by instant existence, notice it lately?
Notice it ever? Notice it now? Notice you are agog?
Who doesn’t love a surprise? Its silence is so intense before the reveal.
That’s why it’s hard to resist. We’re binging. Mental mouths agape.
Raw God flowing STUNS EVERY SINGLE MIND with utter spectacularity.
You say, “I can’t even chew my popcorn I’m so blown away.”
God says, “Shush, this is the best part so far.”
If you like my essays, you'll resonate with spirituality "on the hoof."
Teja Anand · 2y
What will Teja Anand’s topic be for next Sunday’s Satsang? I heard he was really going
to narrow down the steps to Self-Realization?
Haha, the ‘steps,’ the tried-&-true steps,’ ‘3 easy steps,’ the do-this-and-you-are-
guaranteed-enlightenment steps. :-) As our friend Edg says, “Oh, oh, oh, how we long for
causality!” As Krishna said to Arjuna, “I alone am the Doer, yet to Realize me, you must…(more)
Edg Duveyoung
If God appears in front of you now and says, "I will take your life now unless you can
give me a convincing reason that you shouldn't die." How would you answer?
LET’S ASK GOD THE SAME QUESTION!
Edg: Hey God, why should You continue to live?
God: Technically speaking, I’m not alive; My amness is the basis of aliveness.
Edg: Always with that hoity-toity blather. Ok, justify the necessity of this “aliveness.”
God: Gimme a sec. Gotta notch down your “snark” knob from eleven to one.
Edg: Oh Almighty Lord of Infinitely Creative Lovingness, forgive me.
God: Gimme a sec. That’s too unctious. I’ll set snark at “rudely miffed.”
Edg: Oh Lord, bless and teach us about why You create. Now would be good.
God: Creation was My way of loosening My belt to make room for dessert.
Edg: You can tautologically beget Your own expansion by violating physics?
God: Yeah, so I beg the question. Sue me. Boo hoo for physicists.
Edg: Wow, I’m, like, biblically sundered by unfathomablely divine arrogance.
God: Gimme a sec. Gotta dial Myself down a bit. Don’t want you to freak out.
Edg: Oh Lord, please imbue us with Thy wisdom about the manifest’s raison d’etre.
God: Oh belovedly created, before I invented you, Moi invented Me.
Edg: Lord of All, Who were You before You were You?
God: My child, your nervous system cannot symbolize the answer.
Edg: I’ll never understand?
God: Your nervous system cannot, but inner silence is the basis of all answers.
Edg: How can I become spiritually worthy of silence?
God: Your nervous system must evolve beyond human to divine.
Edg: Divine? I can become divine? I could then understand the birth of reality?
God: Don’t ask. It’s Kali Yuga. Really hard to purify the nervous system now.
Edg: So I’m some sort of end-times schlub? What if I perfect yoga?
God: A yogi has a clear as glass nervous system — Mine’s Diamondly Divine.
Edg: Well that harshes the horizon for seekers of perfection.
God: Yeah. it’s a pinch for sure. But time ravels any weft or woof.
Edg: No hope?
God: Some will become masters with every power. Most won’t.
Edg: Got any hints for us? Something not in scriptures?
God: Not really. I’ve had My say. It’s been said.
Edg: What did I miss?
God: Almost all of it.
Edg: Why even try?
God: Yep.
Edg: Probably presumptuous Plan A ploys’ll plop.
God. Perhaps.
Edg: Just dump every dream, every intent, every puffery.
God: Take that trash to the curb.
Edg: Just should sit here and refuse to play this game.
God: Seems reasonable.
Edg: I’ll just close my eyes and not even breathe on purpose.
God: Any last thoughts before you go?
Edg: Ehhhh, nah.
God: Well okay then.
Edg: Mmmmmmmmmm
God: Ommmmmmmmm
Edg: Mmmmmmmmmm
God: Ommmmmmmmm
Edg: Mmmmm, some ice cream would go good about now.
God: GOTCHA!
Edg: Why’d I do that?
God: Because I loosened My belt, duh!
Edg: I’m dessert?
God: You’re two scoops on a sugar cone.
Edg: What flavor?
God: It’ll be told in the comments section.
Edg: So the reason I should stay alive is to be a tasty treat?
God: I always have room for dessert.
Edg: But I’m nutty.
God: Loves Me some crunchy in the sweetness.
Edg: But what if I go back to closing my eyes?
God: You’ll keep settling down into ever sweeter silence.
Edg: But I’ll keep popping out — riding on another thought.
God: Just keep at it until no thought can steal your attention.
Edg: And then I can just stay silent? In bliss?
God: Unless I want a third scoop.
Edg: But what if I really perfect residing in silence?
God: That’s freedom. That’s beginner-saint 101.
Edg: Sounds great!
God: Yeah except.
Edg: Except what?
God: No more dessert for you.
Edg: Wait. I’ll just be watching YOU eat my ice cream?
God: GOTCHA AGAIN!
Edg: What about me?
God: You’ll be the vastness beyond consciousness.
Edg: Sounds pretty bigger huger even than creation.
God: It’s so much it doesn’t even know where to put itself.
Edg: So . . . just to make all that more comfy……
God: I loosen My belt.
Edg: Ahhhhhhh…….
God: Ahhhhhh…….
Edg Duveyoung
When does Arjuna show ambition?
Yer kiddin’ me, right?
Arjuna wasn’t “the best,” but he did achieve “almost perfection.”
He didn’t just get it handed to him by his rich old man, Lord Indra.
He had to FIGHT for every speck of spiritual wherewithal.
You want to sit in lotus under the noon day sun in India?
— How about you have four campfires surrounding you at the same time?
How many reps did Arjuna do before he could pull back the string of his bow?
— No human could do it.
— He never once dropped Gandiva, except to surrender to Lord Krishna.
— He’d twang the string and scare anyone less than God.
— His arrows were tactical nukes.
He overcame sleeping — yeah, that bad habit of yours? — he crushed it.
He overcame the need for sight — could shoot arrows in darkness.
He perfected bilateral symmetry — could shoot left or right handed.
He even took “Leaf” as an elective in college. Could talk to them.
I’m just getting started.
Ambition? Getouttaheah wid dat.
Let’s cut to the chase:
He had been Lord Krishna’s pal for 90 years when they paused on the battlefield.
90 years and Lord Krishna praised Arjuana because he NEVER caviled.
Arjuna’s grandson would die in that battle — along with 25% of society.
Few but Arjuana could survive the battle and then its results.
How’d your self image turn out if you’d scattered bodies out to the horizon?
Just askin’.
Askin’ because askin’ if Arjuna showed ambition when that’s all he ever demonstrated for his
entirely pious life, is like asking if Lord Jesus ever loved or if Lord Buddha ever had a quiet
moment, or if Lord Shiva knew how to get a head in life when it came to good parenting or if Lord
Narayana ever had a drowsy nod or if Lord Brahma ever found a direction He couldn’t face.
I mean really.
Harrumph.
Edg Duveyoung
I've been studying Sri Ramana Maharshi, of late. His ideas of surrender appear to differ
substantially from those of the more modern teachers. Can anyone speak to this?
Keep reading Ramana’s statements.
Your rate should be: study one sentence per minute. I’m so not kidding.
It takes a heap O’ Ramana to make a brain a home. Yay, iteration.
One saturates the nervous system with the concepts.
This trains the intellect to apply “awareness is prior to consciousness.”
When clarity dawns, the intellect can take a nap thereafter. No more debating.
Axiomatic heft has to build up. Then, “Oh,” says the yogi, “now I see.”
See what? “See, what I have always been seeing!” says the yogi.
Read a question asked of Ramana. Close the book. Answer it yourself.
Open book, see if you even came close to Ramana.
If not, KEEP READING until you finally can, ahem, actually read.
Having the Advaita zeitgeist installed and operational is a milestone.
After that, doubts don’t bother on a journey inward that targets transcendence.
Modern teachers in the West are largely sold out to psychological falsities.
Way too many Eastern teachers cash in with, “I’m from India, pay me to titillate you.”
Neo-Advaitans are everywhere. but mostly they subtly espouse causality.
If one is not meditating, studying any master is fruitless.
Only the Self instructs. Dive into silence instead of conceptuality.
Gradually, “I’m meditating.” becomes “God meditates. I witness.”
When life’s illusory veil is pierced, the mind’s allure dries up.
And then the final leap — into God’s actuality.
Too long; didn’t read?
Close the eyes. Abide.
Repeat as necessary until abiding is an all time reality.
Edg Duveyoung
What does it mean to experience false awakening several times?
Sometimes, okay almost always, in the history of becoming a fully realized yogi, the ego will be
found glomming onto thoughts that signal “I’m so pleased with myself, I can’t imagine it getting
better.”
It happens. No one knows what to expect when playing the yogi game. One dives into the depths
of silence and finds wonders being revealed that overwhelm “the person” — divine delights that
can agog ya in an instant. The imagination shuts down. The intellect is overruled if it raises any
objections. If the heart longs for more, it’s shushed.
Example: Let’s say one puts some serious time into being a yogi — years’ worth of hours per day
meditating, strict moderate diet, regularity in a life free of modernity’s bombarding of allures,
100% of waking consciousness is involved in spirituality — like that. And then one day, SUDDENLY,
you have an “episode.” All Heaven floods into your mind. It totally washes you away with
blissfulness. You feel love just blasting out of yourself spherically — your inner Being’s
countenance seems to bless any object of consciousness. And, heh, there is often also such a
potent lust to call yourself a saint.
And?
Instruction: Enjoy your episode, but make no major decisions until you calm down.
After the episode, one does not quite return to “default personality.” One might have spent
minutes to even years doing the processing of episodic turmoils of this type, and this will leave
veneers, scars, and tilts. It delusionally adds a focusing to the mind like holding a monocle lens
over the inner eye to produce an ersatz new clarity.
And then it can just dry up. One can go from “Hey I’m suddenly a guru.” to “Maybe I shouldn’t
have self-published 50,000 copies of My New Dogma.” More than once, I have seen this
“personality-coup,” in others, and it often comes off as phony — especially when it was my
personality-coup. Ouch! One can self-delude about oneself for the rest of one’s life after even a
small episode. One can have MANY episodes over decades. Always the ego will say, “Yay, finally
I’m getting the spiritual payoff that proves my investment was worthy.” The ego can work it like a
rented mule. You can be had. Had by the false you.
And the ironic rub is: no state of mind is worthy.
Any state of mind is an addiction. Only Being is worthy — which is thoughtless, mindless, silent,
still, sentience, awareness — Cosmic Identity — God’s Very Being. If you’ve had an episode, it is
merely a fraction of this, a titch of this, that titillates. During an episode we are SO CLOSE to God’s
Being we grant extra especiality to the person. We puff up. You know, like you did that one time
you won a spelling contest or whatever.
Solution: Three things are needed to indicate you’re realized.
1. 24 hour awareness that never blinks.
2. Identity is a witnessing silence which is a non-dual source of experiences.
3. The body/mind system is God sussing out the point-values of possibilities.
1, 2, and 3 for decades “just to be sure” is de rigor in ashrams and monasteries etc., but usually
those three things sustained for over a year is pretty conclusive indication that one is never going
back to the “old me.”
And that’s just the beginning. Go figure.
After that, with God in charge, magic is afoot.
Your new life is pulled out of a silk hat.
And God goes, “Ta-dah!”
Edg Duveyoung
Where is Rishi Veda Vyasa today?
Vyāsa was The Dude.
Vyāsa could do ANYTHING. He could be standing behind you right now, ya know?
There is a strong axiom that all parties agree upon — that in nightly dreams one could imagine
being Vyāsa who would have all of his fabled abilities.
Example: Who has not had a dream in which the entire pretended reality of the dream world
contained — INSTANT BY INSTANT — all the myriad of details seen in ordinary waking life? That’s
furniture, sky, food, cars, animals, ghosts, clouds, toads, roads, mountains, bridges, monsters,
angels and gods. Whatever it takes.
See?
The dreaming mind has zero problem with “creating” any character with any ability and a world of
any nature. And then, the dreaming mind can convince itself that the character is sentient and
causal in that world.
Kubla Khan: or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment is a poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, He
wrote it during a dream. He woke up and began to write it down, but half way through, he was
disturbed by a visitor and forgot the rest of the dream. It’s a magnificent piece of literature yet
today.
In fact every morning we wake up from having done what Coleridge did — with ordinary dreaming
— in that we used all the powers we hear about Vyāsa.
Yeah, I’m rubbing your nose in it. Your brain proves to you that you are able to think about
anything with any degree of exactitude.
That means you’re Vyāsa! You are The Dude.
You can produce a zillion words in dozens of separate scriptures that would be the basis of
Hinduism. You could dream that, right? If anyone came up to you in the dream and asked you for
some more scriptures, you’d effortlessly produce it.
How effortlessly?
How much effort did you just now use to create your most recent thought?
ALL THOUGHTS ARE EFFORTLESS.
There’s you, sitting there with a double scoop of pistachio ice cream and satisfied.
Why not be superdooper instead of a supperscooper? Just askin’!
Patanjali has you covered. He teaches how to completely control the mind and CORRECT your
mental errors. He teaches how to dissolve creation into silence, and thereby grasp how silence is
the source of EVERYTHING — including your next effortless thought.
See the secret? Vyāsa is pure silence, and silence is there inside you.
Right there. There for the lookin’.
Maybe you could check it out.
Do it in all that spare time between thoughts.
Edg Duveyoung
Just for fun, what's the difference between awareness and consciousness regarding
the definition of "the witness" during the non-dream moments of nightly sleeping?
To make the below “fun,” read it aloud quickly.
God’s identity is awareness; God’s creativity is consciousness.
The witness is a combination of the two.
Awareness is the sentient part; the consciousness part connects to creation.
If the body dies, the witness dies, but the awareness part of it is unchanged.
Awareness is beyond all concepts; consciousness is solely concepts.
There is no way to explain how awareness can be aware without being conscious.
There are endless ways to explain how consciousness pretends to be awareness.
During sleep, consciousness has subsided into “very quiet” operations.
When we wake up in the morning, we say, “I did this” in the dream.
The waking mind’s heightened activity overwhelms memories of ephemeral dreams.
The yogi’s delicacy of consciousness realizes that dreams and thoughts are illusory.
Between dreams, a yogi witnesses the mind’s best attempt to symbolize sentience.
Both types of sleep are observed by the same witness.
The least state of consciousness between dreams purrs “OM.”
OM is pure being — the stainless source of thoughts — untarnished by volition.
OM is unified with itself. It is primal manifestation — the firstborn of awareness.
Identity is defined as “What the yogi experiences during non-dream sleep.”
The yogi calls awareness “self” and contents of the mind “non-self.”
Any activity is disunity. Awareness is being deconstructed. Endlessly.
NOW READ TWICE AS FAST:
Therefore:
Awareness is always perfectly still, and consciousness is able to be almost still, but during heights
of conscious activity, awareness is yet unmoved, unchanging, still, and so only consciousness can
alter the relative connectedness of the witness and augment that point-value of the witness, but
during non-dream moments the witnessing of silence creates no thoughts in the mind, and only
being’s OM is the basis of existence while awareness, every entity’s identity, is beyond the real
and unreal.
And this will be on the mid-term.
Edg Duveyoung
Is God love?
LET’S ASK GOD!
Edg: Lord God Almighty save us in our hour of need. Love us!
—God: What you’re getting is My most potent help — My attention.
Edg: We’re miserable down here. And it’s not seeming all that love-ish.
—God: It’s Absolute Pure Infinite Love. Max love. BAM!
Edg: So You say, but this “love” of Yours ain’t making life easy.
—God: You are dis-eased by seeing your mistake and feeling the sting.
Edg: My mistake? We’re praying and tithing and all that stuff.
—God: And?
Edg: It’s not working! We’re not happier or richer or any of that stuff.
—God: And?
Edg: We’re knee deep in suffering. Obviously Your magic could come in handy now.
—God: You want Me to fix things? Just say abracadabra? Do a little presto chango?
Edg: YES! YES! Quick!
—God: You sure? Maybe I’ll do a deep reset — say, a near-extinction event?
Edg: Deep reset? Like kicking Adam and Eve out? Noah and The Flood? How deep?
—God: Something more devastating, because the same mistake keeps happening.
Edg: Yikes! Wait, wait, we’re getting a little better. Cultures and persons are evolving.
—God: You say everyone is trying to get better — to not make that mistake again?
Edg: Yeah, we make mistakes, but humanity is improving. We’re tryin’. We’re tryin’.
—God: If I slapped My forehead right now, I’d deafen this entire dimension.
Edg: Huh? We make mistakes, yes, I admit it, yes. Is it so bad I ask for a little help?
—God: Mistake. Singular. Not mistakes. Suffering is mistakenness.
Edg: Not that again. Come on. We need material help — not another sermon.
—God: Why oh why do I author you being so rude? Cut the whining. Sit up straight.
Edg: Me sitting up straight is Your help? This solves what? Less war, poverty, injustice?
—God: Yes, and also it’ll upnotch your clarity 34%.
Edg: So I’m supposed to convince humanity to sit up straight? That’s it?
—God: Heh, like I’d trust you with a global mission. I just want you more alert.
Edg: Okay. Okay. I’m listening. I’m not slouching. Hit me.
—God: Your mistakenness is not yours. It’s Mine.
Edg: Let’s say I agree. If it’s Yours, then, FIX IT. Fix it. Fix everything. Sit up straight!
—God: I savor unfathomability, and I want to be surprised at how it all turns out.
Edg: Yay for You, but down here tachometers are red-lining.
—God: Perfect. I love it with infinite omniscience. I’m binging on this.
Edg: Knowing You’re having omniscient funzies should satisfy us? Not feelin’ it.
—God: You’re slouching a bit and out comes the snark. But, yeah, it should.
Edg: This? You’re happy with me lurching through an incarnation?
—God: Yes. Exactly. Wonderful. I love even the paper cut you’re getting tomorrow.
Edg: How is this moral? I’ll take the paper cut, but real people are dying down here.
—God: Was Walt moral when he had Mickey Mouse process extreme hardships?
Edg: You’re insulting me! I’m sentient!
—God: You’re not sentient. You’re sentience. And I never promised to be moral.
Edg: You did. In every scripture You’re promising us a fair deal with divine rules.
—God: Read the fine print. It says, “If you unite with God, everything becomes fair.”
Edg: Yeah, seek unity, but, in the meanwhile, if we mess up, we get karma-clobbered.
—God: It is what it is. In a dream last Thursday, you could teleport to Mars.
Edg: My dream-pleasures don’t count as “fair recompense” for waking-suffering.
—God: When you’re awake, it’s dreaming too — you have fun being downtrodden.
Edg: Don’t try to pull a fast one. I’m not enjoying suffering. That’s why I call it suffering.
—God: Life’s basis is silent being. At that level, all definitions resolve to bliss.
Edg: Great. Give me a pill or something. I’m ready. Gimme some extras to hand out.
—God: Ha ha ha, I’m Lord of all not Drug lord. And you’re not ready.
Edg: I’m betwixt bothered and belabored. Why not save us all?
—God: “Save” only can mean “snuff you all out.” Otherwise you’re getting pain.
Edg: But You could make us all angels or saints or gods!
—God: That was done already. I imagined you as thousands of entities.
Edg: After umpteen lives, You imagine me bereft of spiritual mojo for a rainy incarnation?
—God: Yep. Your character in the Divine Drama blew it. You end each life less able.
Edg: You’re saying even You couldn’t imagine a happy life for a loser-type like me?
—God: No spoilers. I might have you win a door prize or something. Could happen.
Edg: I’m not laughing. See my face? This is a non-happy face. I might as well quit.
—God: Yes! Quitting is the secret of spirituality. Get out of the person business.
Edg: But I like being a person.
—God: You make My case. Be Me instead of lusting for pistachio ice cream.
Edg: I gotta get to a lunch meeting. Can You give me anything? Toss a bone.
—God: Oh, when it’s obviously your fault, you gotta scram. You’re ghosting Me.
Edg: If You’re using the entirety as a cudgel — I get to kick-back with lunch.
—God: Nothingness is better than noshingness. Meditate and brighten that entirety.
Edg: That’s a seriously dry bone.
—God: I tossed. You didn’t specify any moisture. Silence dries all tears.
Edg: I’m outta here and not happy.
—God: As I imagined thus far. When you order dessert, I’ll be your server.
Edg: My ice cream better not be soupy.
—God: Okay, just for you.
I hope to be attending this. You? Teja and Jay Jennifer -- what is not to love?
Already Enlightened
SUNDAY SATSANG with Teja and guest presenter JAY JENNIFER MATTHEWS next
Sunday April 19
Teja’s satsangs are live on Zoom. They are free of charge and open to all, worldwide. To join,
simply email teja@toawaken.org for the Zoom invitation/code. Then log in next Sunday at
8:30AM Pacific PDT (check for your own time zone.) This Sunday, Teja Welcomes guest… (more)
Edg Duveyoung
Why does God allow suffering?
Here’s two opposing answers.
Both true.
One:
The only true suffering is not being united with God.
Separation from God defines “pain.”
Even the angels feel this.
And only humans have a get-out-of-jail-free card.
By meditating, one can transcend ALL DEFINITIONS and become one with silence.
Your silence is God’s Being.
Only by realizing God’s presence can one end all discomforts.
Two:
God is before your very eyes.
Everything with a name embodies a concept that God thought of.
God is figuring out what must be displayed.
God wants to fully examine every aspect of the potency of awareness.
Look around at OMNISCIENCE RAW AND STILL SIZZLING ON THE GRIDDLE.
Whatever you see is God blasting creation with infinite attentiveness and love.
God has not missed a single thing.
Each concept will have its moment when wholeness requires its existence.
You are here because you satisfy a divine intent.
It’s all conscious.
What you feel and think is as deep as God’s mind can invent for you.
Your summation of any moment is vital — it’s why you’re not mere excelsior.
If you’re suffering, it’s you being a hero to see what must be seen for God’s sake.
You have never failed God.
Edg Duveyoung
Is God fair?
Transcend Mental Expectation — this is the technique to embrace.
God could be blamed for life’s misery if we were real instead of illusory. No one in history has
blamed Walt Disney for all the troubles he put Mickey Mouse through. God’s innocent of all
charges, and so if God’s sinless then we characters should exalt in our ersatz karma in THE
DIVINE PARADOX. Creation is for the expansion of God’s happiness — not that of insentient
characters. But hey, God PRETENDS YOU TO BE REAL AND SENTIENT AND DIVINELY DESTINED.
Gotta love that, eh? In fact, right now, God is thinking suchly. Feels good, eh?
The Bible has its share of similar concepts. Isaac was asked to kill his son to prove he loved God.
(1,400 views later I find my mistake. It was NOT Issac. And no one informed me about my mistake.
I’m going to just leave it as is. Seems a proper punishment for me. Google it. I’m too ashamed to
do it.) Moses saved the Israelites, but was not allowed to cross the Jordan. Jesus had every power
and God for a father, but He was written into creation as a martyr after a life of piety. Jesus loved
everyone (except a fig tree and a few money lenders.)
Hinduism has six systems of philosophy that exhaustively prove that philosophy is not evolving,
and that only “not thinking” frees one. Lord Rama’s agony as He sought for Sita was known to His
guru, Viswamitra, but Viswamitra, who could create a whole new universe with all the necessary
gods, DID NOTHING. Lord Rama was not helped and His whole life was a tragedy in that He was
forced to send His INNOCENT AND HOLY WIFE TO HELL.
So in case you’re not getting it, YOU’RE FREE, BABY DOLL!
If you’re sinning, it’s God having funzies.
And if you meditate and lead a life of quiet spirituality instead of running around delighting in
abject depravity, guess what? You got bragging rights! God gave you “a good one.” Your next door
neighbor not so much. God decided you were to be a hero who infused silence into Kali Yuga’s
jazz. Silence is the SOLE REALITY, and your role is to inform creation by being an outlet for
silence. Your attention spews silence like a fire hose. Sounds heroic, eh?
Anywhere anywhen anywhy you’re a go-to player.
God gave you the ball. There’s the goal line.
The less you try, the faster you’ll score.
Quick, don’t move.
Hurry to here.
Shut up to say everything.
Be a one who escapes two.
Close the eyes to see.
This is the first time I've ever shared someone else's essay.
Rami Sivan swiftly lays it out.
Kali Yuga's dirt has collected in the corners of every mind.
Ain't nobody gotz da chops. Starting 5,000 years ago..
Rami Sivan · 2y
Who are the modern-day rishis?
There are no Rishis in modern times. Apastamba clearly says in his Dharma Sutra 1:2:5
tasmād ṛṣayo- 'avareṣu na jāyante niyama atikramāt || 4 || 4. On account of that
[transgression of the rules of studentship] no ṛṣis are born amongst the people of later(more)
age…
Edg Duveyoung
Why couldn’t even the six schools of ancient Indian philosophy explain the true nature
of ultimate reality (call it Atman, Brahman or Purusha) satisfactorily?
Each school is COMPLETE. Each will take one to perfect clarity.
“Clarity” — this is when the intellect finally stops asking questions.
Then the mind is settled down about how creation is described.
Comcommently, the heart is emotionally edified. No worrying.
I testify — the school of Advaita worked for me.
Questions evaporated. I was whelmed.
I trust that the other schools will equally suffice.
Truth: All six systems try to conceptualize and embody the Self and fail.
But they fail spectacularly. They empty every ammo box.
When the last bullet is shot — AHA! — it is silence that then instructs.
“Don’t use our concepts,” the schools will say. “Just dive within instead.”
That’s the honesty of the systems — they prove their own ineptitude.
“You can’t think your way to there from here.”
“And here is where you already are!”
“Close the eyes.” — This is the sole instruction of all six schools.
Edg Duveyoung
What or who is mankind according to Hindus?
Hinduism is all about God saturating life.
A Hindu bows to God inside every mind.
Seven billion minds on Earth — each a roving witness sending field reports to God.
We are outposts of divinity.
Each person sees creation as if God is seeing it while wearing “human tinted lenses.”
No two “takes” alike. Each as rare as any. Each a God cut gem.
Our combined POVs are seen with absolute compassion by God’s omniscient grace.
A divine ken’s clarity grasps us all . .. . with delight.
We know not the beauty we add to the canvas God is painting.
God made us and became us to have fun.
Every speck of ALL THIS is playful.
This is only realized by being perfectly silent.
—And witnessing God doing everything.
Edg Duveyoung
What is something you are doing to expand your consciousness?
Nothing.
Flat out nothing.
Completely nothing.
The you you think is you isn’t.
In the scriptural fine print it says: “Thou art not a causal entity.”
Lord Krishna’s truth: “Utterly permeated with awareness, God gives to God.”
Being shown this made Arjuna’s hair stand on end and drove him actually insane.
And Arjuna was no slouch. A demi-god with mad skillz. Could shoot atomic arrows.
Even the ancients were not there before God gave birth to God.
Expanding consciousness? A foul, lying, misleading, spiritually poisonous, concept!
Bitter irony? You’re witnessing EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME. Nothing missed.
Proof? Get outta here with that. You’ve been offered every proof possible.
Even right now you’re floating in the Ocean of Being. You a beggar? As if.
Even that titch of time it took to shift your eyes to this sentence WAS INFINITE.
Don’t try to “people size” this. It’s too big and too little.
Even the gods are easily dissolved into the silence between your thoughts.
Being. To reside there, relinquish all efforts to expand consciousness.
Close the eyes.
Discover for the FIRST TIME, identity.
Don’t curse it with words like “consciousness, mind, soul, spirit, person.”
You’re mentally processing “assorted excelsior thoughts” almost always.
Why not use that “spare time” to study identity?
Glance within and see the infant eyes of Jesus staring back.
Get it? God studies your mind and precisely creates your thoughts.
You’re not the author! You’re the hero of the story being written.
God doted on Thee at hello.
Edg Duveyoung
What does Advaita's wisdom teach about facing a threat like the coronavirus?
For the first time, I’ve asked a question and flagged about a dozen writers to answer it with me.
Let’s see what happens from this direct appeal.
Today, a reader privately asked me to help sooth the atmosphere when actual doom may be being
actually seen — and seen much closer than ever expected — not on the horizon but down the
block and coming on fast.
Question: Who can meditate when the dragon’s breath is about to blast?
Answer: But few.
Advaita’s wisdom seemingly rings hollow in these moments.
Strangely, no guru can say, “
—I told you so.
—You should have prepared.
—Should have gotten jiggy with natural forces without and supernatural forces within.
—Anyone could have seen this massive challenge coming.
—Don’t bother being converted soldiers in foxholes when bullets are whizzing overhead.”
But nope. No guru can “should on” anyone. If the whole world dies, no one is to blame.
Why? Brace for a truth most wondrous: you are not a causal entity.
Mickey Mouse never told Walt what to draw next.
INSTEAD: You’re in God’s imagination and more alive than you think you are.
You’re constructed entirely from God Thought.
How’s that for “building material?” Pretty hefty mojo, eh?
Oh, the sweetness of Being. What glory to be in ANY SCENARIO. We are ink flowing onto the
paper of God-the-Playwright. Who would not volunteer for such duty? What? God wants me to
star in my own private life that’s filled with woe? SIGN ME UP!
We certainly did, eh? We’re here on the frontlines and reasonably quite alarmed.
The media is saturated beyond belief. Almost every headline uses the “clickbait” trigger words.
We are all being prodded into anxiety amplification. This is not the optimum state of the nervous
system — this can leave scars. Best to count to ten if possible.
BUT, YEAH, CAN GOD WRITE A PAGE TURNER OR NOT? Who dares even blink?
So prepare if you can. If you can, it’s because God can. If you can’t prepare, it’s because God
wanted unprepared folks in the Grand Drama. It simply does not matter what God does to any
character — except to God.
Get it? God’s Mind is perfectly creating RIGHT NOW. ONLY GOD CAN APPRECIATE IT.
This is the sacred script being written before our eyes. God’s Mind is loving every speck of
Creation and ESPECIALLY YOU. How the present challenges “work themselves out” in your
personality and personal life are utterly fascinating to God. If you can have any of this perspective,
feel blessed. If you can’t, FEEL BLESSED. You. Are. Divinely. Tended.
But you want more assurance? How about God gave the dinosaurs 200,000,000 years to traipse
around the planet, and there’s YOU being so much more interesting than a 100 ton lizard, ya
know? Do you think God’s gunna wipe us all out when we’ve only got started like last week?
Maybe, but hey, probably not. God loves to just keep expanding, and there’s a long ways to go,
before God gives Lord Shiva a call on the hotline.
For those readers who are in dire straits, of course, my heart whelms. The private message I
received today brought actual tears to my eyes. This is the agony part of the ecstacy. This is the
consciousness part of awareness. If we can close the eyes, if we can attend the silence between
the worries, it is a “vacation” of sorts — a breather, a bit of recess, succor. Ya know? If you love
the worries and glom onto them or you love silence as the righteous “hunkering down place,” that
it is — WONDERFUL. Enjoy.
If we’re all snuffed out, color me surprised, but wow, think of the gossip around the office
watercooler in Heaven. Holy moly, eh? We’d all have nine times more clarity in Heaven, so hooooo
boy what a moment to get such an insight!
I don’t know God’s next thought.
Neither do you.
Neither does God.
And that’s why we have our eyes glued on Creation.
We’re binging on the drama. Can’t get anuff. Gotta have it.
Nisargadatta said that surrendering to suffering is spiritually freeing. Attachments wither.
So watch for that opportunity.
When next you are pronged to panic by a headline, step back from responding and get
evolutionarily notched upwards.
How’s that for a blessing when “witnessing calamity calmly” counts like “closing the eyes.”
Get a chair. Some popcorn. Some butter.
And pistachio ice cream goes so well with an apocalypse.
What does Advaita's wisdom teach about facing a threat like the coronavirus?
Edg Duveyoung
What is knowledge?
Two types of knowledge — absolute and relative. The yogi represents both types.
The
transcendent is the self that cannot be adequately symbolized. Thoughts are the attempt to
symbolize the self.
The yogi’s attention is on the silence of Being
Edg Duveyoung
What are the reasons for Sanskrit to go extinct in India despite its being an excellent
language?
Originally Answered: Why is Sanskrit almost wiped away from India?
It’s said all thoughts are born “speaking Sanskrit.” Faint English, or faint German, or faint Chinese,
or faint Sanskrit all MENTALLY sound like the same language when the mind is at its most quiet
level.
From BRAHMAN rises OM.
The least disturbance on the surface of OM is the “ritam” level — where a sound is “half yet still”
OM — this is how the gods experience thought — at maximum subtlety and perfectly dharmic.
Let’s call it divine telepathy between OM and its sacred manifestations.
With more disturbance comes less clarity and languages begin to “cluster and precipitate out into
sets.” It’s said that the mineral content of the soil under a nation powerfully incites the basic
qualities of a culture. That is such a potent concept.
There’s been studies where research seems to indicate that speaking Sanskrit is spiritually
cleansing. The knowledge about how Sanskrit orders the mind and affects the body yet lags in
being validated and integrated into Western thought. We can only hope for more research.
They say a yogi in Unity can speak any Sanskrit word and that object will manifest.
With that said, remember that in Unity God is the thinker, so only that is produced that fits the
grand drama. But yeah, I’ll say it. If that yogi wants a wad of cash on the palm of his hand, it will
arrive instantly. Sue me for being a fanboy of the siddhis.
So, nope, Sanskrit is here to stay.
After all, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Even the Bible knows about this stuff!
When the two major religions I most love agree, SO DO I.
Edg Duveyoung
How can Brahman be everywhere and in everything?
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. — Shakespeare
Same deal for BRAHMAN.
The name doesn’t matter. — Edg
But the concept does matter. If one considers it, it “heals” ones POV.
The concept:
— There is an absolute that is the sine quo non of every definition.
— No matter what you define, the absolute must be included.
— Or logic is worthless.
Example: “A rose.” If one does not know that it is an illusion, one knows not a rose.
A rose is a constantly changing object of consciousness that is iteratively informed.
A rose is an experience in a nervous system upon which meaning is projected.
From the absolute arise definitions for your thoughts which are enzyme wars.
Upon your clockworks clacking, any meaning can be projected.
And the heart of any meaning is, “This is a speck of me.” Identity is necessity.
“If I were a rose, I’d smell look feel taste and sound like such and such.” We define all.
All definitions come from out of left field nowhere can’t see ‘em coming KERPOW!
If you were blindfolded, and I put a rose under your nose, you might smell pepper.
Or a famous perfume. Or the back of a Geisha Dancer’s neck.
See your freedom to define? See why it’s so addictive?
One creates what is — instant by instant by instant — and identifies with it.
We love creation for exactly what it is — “mine.”
Whole nations have dissolved due to battles about what to call “mine.”
So the lesson is — give up defining.
Get Over Defining.
Let go. Let God.
Why? Because God is doing all the defining already.
Give up creating to see ongoing creation — the divine artistry.
As for BRAHMAN being anywhere, it’s obvious. Close the eyes to see.
As the mind settles down, quietude evolves to silence to self to God to BRAHMAN.
And then all thoughts become the Emperor’s New Names and Forms.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the overall image of the Second List puzzle?
Here’s the second video with hints:
WHILE YOU ARE WAITING FOR MY SECOND HINTS VIDEO, HERE’S TWO OF MY ESSAYS THAT
MADE ME LAUGH TODAY.
Edg Duveyoung's answer to How do I become a Yogi?
and
Edg Duveyoung's answer to What is a yogi?
Okay everyone — here’s the Second List gift. It’s a video puzzle. The members of the Second List
will be given the solution and be told what the secret image is — in about a week — privately via
Quora messaging. Then a week after that I’ll reveal the secret image here in the comments to
everyone.
Here’s your video puzzle.
Second List Video Puzzle
Here’s that puzzle piece again for you to study.
Oh, have another:
Remember — they’re not necessarily in that order or necessarily adjacent and touching when the
entire image is seen. Left and right edges do line up to a straight border of the puzzle. One of the
puzzle pieces has an upper edge that is an edge of the entire piece. One of the puzzle pieces has
a lower edge that is the the other edge of the entire piece. Neither of the above two puzzle pieces
is necessarily one with a border edge. There are no missing pieces in the video, but some might
be seen more than once. If you pause the video, you can freeze the various puzzle pieces to
examine them at length. If you print them out and try to form an image, you’d probably succeed,
but it could be a challenge. I don’t suggest it be tried. Let this be about intuition. Prove to yourself
that your mind will be creative if not correct. I could give a MAJOR HINT, but I’ll save that for
another day. Remember that this is about one not being able to figure out one’s place in the
entirety — as instructed by Lord Krishna. Each piece of the puzzle is unfathomable, yet they can
be assembled such that one can see GOD’S VIEW OF THEM ALL SIMULTANEOUSLY. Stay tuned. If
you want more hints, I am open to abject beggary and outrageously philosophical bribery.
Edg Duveyoung
Where do I put videos from The List?
THIS IS THE PLACE TO POST LINKS TO YOUR GIFTS — if you wish.
Just post the link in the comments section.
If you post it here, you’re giving it to the world for them to share.
To start things off, I’ve made a video of me reading one of my essays as an example of what
members of The List received. I will post the link to this video in the comments section. All
members were sent a unique video. I did 25 recordings in 25 days. So there’s 25 videos “out
there.” Let’s see how many come back home.
My start-off video is the 26th made. It is the longest video I’ve made. Most of the gifts were about
4 minutes long.
The links to these videos are “unlisted.” That is, you won’t see them listed by Youtube along with
my other sport related videos. It’s not exactly private, but yeah it is. The world won’t know about
them unless you are moved to share the links. Feel free to critique or whatever. I’ll try to answer all
questions.
Edg Duveyoung
What are the results of The List?
Well, Quora just included my reincarnation essay in their newsletter sent to over five million
readers.
I quit writing, BUT THEY KEEP PULLING ME BACK.
THE 25th gift for The List, has been sent.

Preliminary Results of the The List project.
The Good:
Some folks really liked their gift.
Some folks posted the link to their gift on non-Quora sites.
Some folks posted their gift link on their Quora page.
Some folks sought out other members on The List to trade and share.
Each gift was unique. You can see a sample of someone’s gift here:
I enjoyed making the gifts as much as writing essays.
During the creation of two of the gifts, I cried.
During 80% of the gifts I laughed aloud.
The Bad
A few members did not share.
A few readers had to be “pressed” to “activate.”
The public listing of names was off-putting to some.
It was too much non-creative work to manage this project.
“Critical Mass” does not seem to have been reached.
The adding of “Edg’s performance value” does not seem all that significant.
No member has decided to be a curator of these gifts.
What was Edg thinking?
Heh — only a few thousand thoughts.
I hoped for a “givers giving” entity to be born.
I created what I thought were value-added gifts.
I was hoping each member would share with at least one person.
It could still happen, but it seems unlikely.
I will wait a few days more to see what gels.
I was hoping members would:
— Cherry pick their friends to find the “the spiritual ones.”
— Re-gift their gift with ensuing back and forth communication.
— Follow up and negotiate if more gifts can be re-gifted.
— Establish a “downline” which trusts the member to not spam.
This has strongly affected my intent towards the Second List.
— Will eliminate “public list” of member names.
— Will give “semi-unique” gifts that NEED members to “come together.”
— Members of The List will also be given these gifts.
— I will give all gifts on the same day.
— It will be a challenge and a “contest” of sorts.
— The gifts will have me extemporaneously speaking instead of reading.
— I’ll help promote this event instead of “leaving it up to God.”
— I’ll help out the success of The List by providing a dedicated Quora page.
— I’ll make the Second List a public event so all can have it in real-time.
And we’ll see if that works. Or not.
Objective of the Second List? Education and Entertainment and Edggrandisement.
Stay tuned. Will take some work to get this ready to present.
Here’s the video gift to members of the Second List. They will be told what the mystery image is
one week before anyone else.
What are the results of The List?
Edg Duveyoung
What is The List?
HERE’S THE SECOND LIST’S SECOND HINTS VIDEO:
With Quora views still rising, I’m not that far from three million views.
I’m thinking I’ll start writing again until we get to three million.
Since I quit writing, I did the twenty-five videos and am processing the 2nd List’s final video
which will be posted here in a week. So there’s that for “driving traffic,“ but Quora is
promoting my “reincarnation” essay that’s really getting the views. If you have a desire for
me to write about a particular topic, hey, tell me in the comments below. And by the way,
I’ve answered many comments with essay length answers, so there’s a lot of stuff that
Quora gave you a notification for, so scroll down and you’ll see my additional writing. Yes, I
miss “the gang.” Lots. Stay tuned.
THE TWENTY-FIFTH GIFT HAS BEEN SENT.
I have decided what to do for those on the Second List. Stay tuned.
Please note that the Second List is still accepting names. Yours?
It’s tough to put your name down in public for a mystery, eh?
But that’s the deal. So far, no complaints from members of The List.
The List is composed of twenty-five readers who volunteered to receive a gift.
I manage this list and the creation of the gifts.
I have not told the general public what the gifts are, but I’ve left hints.
The List members all have helped me decide on what to give to them.
I am doing this as an experiment to see if these members will gel.
They each will have a gift and yet not know what the others received.
They are free to share their gifts with anyone.
So far, I’m doing one gift a day.
I’m trying to see if a new mode of organic communication can arise.
I’m hoping to see a cross-platform “entity” emerge that transcends media controls.
The Second List is NOW ACCEPTING SIGN-UPS.
Just tell me to put you on the list.
Anyone not on The List can request that I put them on the Second List.
I might cap the Second List at twenty-five, but probably not.
I’ve written 650 essays here, and gotten a very hefty response.
But but but, why not more? Or even MOAR? . . . with COWBELL?
I want something more than concepts being juggled for funzies.
I want to see if the knowledge is taking root and being nurtured.
And I want to see it all happening without me needing to be part of it.
I have ideas, but I’ll hold back sharing for a while yet.
Let’s see if The List is self evolving and self-leading.
I vowed to write an essay a day and did.
I vowed to give 25 gifts and am doing it.
It’s not about the gifts, it’s about the vows.
If I see anyone be wowed enough to vow, that might be a sign.
Who knows? Only God.
I’ve taken the names of The List members off of this page — gone private.
The Second List members (still taking names.)
And yes, I miss the good old days, but but but abide.
What is The List?
Edg Duveyoung
Where is Sri EDG Duveyoung?
UPDATE: The term “Sri” is just too easily used these days. Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj are the yogis with undeniable credentials. Only those of such stature
deserve these VERY HIGH honorary titles and endearments. As a westerner, my life and lifestyle
are steeped in unrighteousness. Remember how sinless Sita was, and yet the people whispered
unfounded doubts. But me? Oh you betcha I’ve sinned to great and deep and wide degree. I am
not even worthy as a jester, because of my disrespectful — albeit fictional — representations of
God. Both Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj have those they taught who went on
to teach and so forth. These disciples are in India yet today. Those devotees are a far more likely
group in which to find someone who is the epitome of Advaita……and India. Some western
students there are, yes, but I know not their histories. In India, even a taxi driver can recite MANY
Sanskrit passages and have a very strong grasp of the concepts of Hinduism and have led pure
lives. Imagine then the potency of a guru born and raised in his DHARMA — this is a voice that has
a much higher chance of being saturated with God’s Being. Seek and you might find someone
right next door who can look in your eyes and say, “Okay, here’s what to do first.”
It’s not true, but I’m saying it anyways — “Only one who has lived a life of purity in India is far more
likely to be a candidate for being a guru with the provenance this Advaita Vedanta knowledge
deserves.” Call that person guru, Sri, Mahawhatever. But not me.
But if you have to call me something, call me to come eat dessert.
Pistachio ice cream please.
Edg Duveyoung
How was your day?
Originally Answered: What do we do today?
So far the results seem promising.

Akshay Mishra — PLEASE CONTACT ME VIA QUORA MESSAGING.
Most of the members of The List have become activated or are “in process.”
Abhishek Shashank
Akshay Mishra
Angel Z
Anonymous Dear Reader
Aruna Sashikumar
Barbara Hemming
Chetan Venkatesh
Daniel Kirby
Eshwar Naik
Jennifer Glynn
Joel Postma
Kevin Glynn
Kratu Nandan
Krishna Iyer
Krishna Prasad
Manjunath Bhat
Mehul Makwana
Nicola Sanchez
Paul Ryberg
Ravi Venkatesan
Roman Regmi
Sangeetha Narayanan (சங்கீதா நாராயணன்)
Sarah Looney
Sumeet Kohli
Sunil Kumar
Vikram
So far, twelve of the members above have gotten their gift.
But who got what?
Only me and God know all the gifts and those that got them.
Of course, as time passes, I’m expecting these gifts will come to light.
All the gifts given to date have been “passed around.”
Very very pleasing to see.
For the Second List — I’m getting ideas about what to do. Stay tuned.
Anyone can sign up for the Second List.
Here’s the list.
Aaron Abramson
Anupam Giri
Arun Shivdas
Barbara Nims
Chetan Venkatesh
Devansh Gupta
Harry H Harrison Jr
Jay Jennifer Matthews
Joe Blake
Kiran Ravi
Kish Parikh
Krzysiu Pietruszka
Michael Dixon
Nella White
Smarth Bali
Srividya Malkapuram
Suchitra
Edg Duveyoung
How do you keep faith in God?
Let destiny teach.
Close the eyes.
Take a step.
Go all in.
Love.
Love is surrendering to God.
Proof?
Be scientific.
Do an experiment with karma.
Hypothesize God’s probable response.
Set it up “just so” to control variables.
Now, do something with faith.
Just one thing.
And see.
Here’s what I intend to do.
If you tell me to put your name on The List, I will.
But — only twenty-five names will be taken.
Everyone on The List gets a unique gift from me.
If you get on The List, you’ll see me also demonstrate faith.
Just take a simple faithful step. Trust me wuddjajust?
Last year I vowed a daily essay for a year.
Now I’m vowing again to create and then to watch God decide.
—Twenty-five will get the gifts, but, really, I’m giving to God.
—Twenty-five, self-chosen Dear Readers will be whelmed.
—Twenty-five value packed gifts. Actual heirlooms.
—Twenty-five innocents will have eyes widened.
—Twenty-five souls God spurred lightwards.
Some details:
The gifts will be links to secret youtube videos that I will construct.
Each link will be different; each gift different. Very very different.
Each gift will be selectively attuned to each person.
Not risky. I don’t need your personal information.
No obligations on your part to do anything with the gift.
The gift you receive is yours . . . and God’s.
It will be between you and God what comes next.
I will not be “part of the ensuing deal.” I’ll witness only.
Each gift given will be given privately. No public onus.
No one will know what was given to anyone else.
Predictions:
None, because, hey, God’s tricky.
This whole thing might flop.
But even a flop will be edifying.
And if it gets traction, hooo boy.
Wishes:
I want all of us to be greatly inspired.
I want all of us to soar into silence.
I want to see if faith is infectious.
I want to see if God can be outsmarted.
I want to sacrifice. Truly give.
So. Only a few spots left on The List.
After twenty-five have signed up, I’ll start.
I will contact each of the twenty-five via private message.
Then, we’ll see.
And if you don’t make The List, who knows?
The twenty-five gifts might yet be yours.
Who knows?
Only God.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the best form of contribution that can be done to keep Hindu dharma relevant
and alive in the modern world?
Enliven silence to spur righteousness.
There is only one silence. One.
At the edge of the expanding universe, same silence found.
Touch silence anywhere and alert silence everywhere.
The silence inside you is God’s Being.
Attending silence nurtures realization of silence everywhere.
Silence arising is the tide that lifts all boats.
If you meditate, everyone meditates.
To strengthen dharma, dive into silence.
Surrender to being. Await. Abide. Reside.
God’s silence is God’s Being is God’s mind.
Your silence is God’s Being is God’s mind.
If God’s in charge, God’s in charge. No worries.
Everyone’s innermost being is God’s Very Being.
Dharma is being fully upheld. And it’s God’s dharma.
God’s evolving the universe towards silence. Not our job.
But
—if you’re jonesing
—if you want a “I helped God” tee shirt
—if you can’t just sit there
—if you insist your stick under Lord Krishna’s upheld mountain is needed
I’ve got good news for you.
You can help silence arrive.
You can throw darts of silence at the world’s map.
You can plant seeds of silence.
You can set up mind traps.
You can be a proponent of truth.
How?
Merely tell me to put your name on the list in the comments below.
Then you will be given a way to fulfill all the goodly intents above.
You’ll be taught how being noisey increases silence.
And you won’t have to say a single word.
.
Edg Duveyoung
How can I become more spiritual?
Teach.
The teacher always learns more than the student.
Share.
What is found is then given, and it comes back tenfold.
Be.
Residing in silence is the basis of spiritual expression.
Know.
Attending what is known expands the known.
Model.
Be an example of freedom.
The above arises naturally in the one who loves silence.
—We offer what we have found to be true — seeds.
—We attend in order to curate our fundamentals for conceptual clarity.
—We meditate and then radiate.
—We are stars disguised as candles.
What to do with your sincere heart? Follow it.
Your next step? God only knows.
—Perhaps something will just fall in your lap.
—Something sweet, necessary and true.
—A thing with poignant heft and spiritual mass.
—Some unexpectedness that opens up your destiny.
Maybe any day now, firm ground might be stood upon, by you.
Stay tuned.
—A cornucopia of spiritual gems might be yours.
—God could invade you and take over.
—Maybe something will be planted in you.
—Any second now . . .
Yeah, I’ve got something and it’s up my sleeve.
Yeah, I’m targeting you. Yes, you.
Stop squirming around. It’s coming.
Edg Duveyoung
If truth can set us free what is the truth?
LET’S ASK LORD BRAHMA!
Edg: Almighty Creator what must we understand?
Lord Brahma: It turns out, truth is beyond. Can’t be grasped.
Edg: But but but, You’re God! You have Omniscience!
Lord Brahma: I know, right? Go figure! Ya’d think I’d have the chops.
Edg: Well this is depressing. You failed? Did You try really hard?
Lord Brahma: With all My powers, for thousands of years, I sought truth.
Edg: Whoa! That’s, like, zillions of human years. Such zeal, yet, zilch?
Lord Brahma: I finally quit. My motivation ended but infinity kept going.
Edg: So, I guess, my motivations to seek are worthless.
Lord Brahma: Yep. Only after I quit did Creation arise.
Edg: It doesn’t matter what I intend, I’ll come up unabled like You?
Lord Brahma: Yeah, but then, like Me, you do nothing and get everything.
Edg: Everyone says, “I’m here.” — but nobody’s got nothing. No truths grabbed.
Lord Brahma: “Here” is stillness. A moving mind is hallucinating.
Edg: But wait; even You were hallucinatory to seek truth?
Lord Brahma: Cut Me a break. I’d just been born. Seeking was My first thought.
Edg: So You got caught by a wrought thought, sought and got naught?
Lord Brahma: Well put. I had to fail to learn to learn to be still and abide.
Edg: Stop seeking and only then is the mind still, and that’s “the sought for truth?”
Lord Brahma: Yes. Meditate with no intent. Just be. Watch thought dissolve.
Edg: My mind is so busy. All my life, not even one thought seen dissolving.
Lord Brahma: Ha ha ha. Each word you think ends before the next one comes.
Edg: So that’s “dissolving?” Instantaneous erasure of the mental chalkboard?
Lord Brahma: Yes, but it doesn’t matter. Concepts gain you no traction.
Edg: So why are we even talking? What use having an intellect — or a longing heart?
Lord Brahma: Creating wonder and love in you pleases Me. It is what it is.
Edg: But I’m so busy projecting, pretending, and pronouncing. A really lotta.
Lord Brahma: And when you stop, infinite silence gets quieter yet still. You add.
Edg: I achieve and fulfill when I add by increasingly becoming much more still?
Lord Brahma: What a mouthful to say, “being.”
Edg: So if I meditate, I “learn” non-conceptually? Truth dawns?
Lord Brahma: Solely stillness is Self is Silence is Soul, see?
Edg: If I burn and yearn to discern, I can yet learn to return?
Lord Brahma: Easy as can be to be. No buts or whats about it.
Edg: But what if . . .
Lord Brahma: And no ifs either.
Edg: Just be?
Lord Brahma: Just be.
Edg: No thought is worth being distracted from nonverbal being?
Lord Brahma: Now you’re talking.
Edg Duveyoung
How would you explain 'ego' to a 10-year-old kid?
The ego appears at about the age of 4 years old.
Before ego arrives, these are the children whom Jesus ordered to be allowed.
A ten year old kid is in a wonderful position to “peer back” at the ego-free days.
We ask the kid to remember the earliest memories.
After a few of these memories have been recalled, the kid can see the difference.
How the child “talks about” this difference does not matter. The kid will know.
The kid might not “get” the “adult” meaning of ego. But the kid will know.
This is ordinary. No concepts needed to enjoy a bowl of pistachio ice cream.
Of course, a 10 year old kid can be trained to parrot concepts, but meh.
Then again, let’s put it plainly: the ego is merely a sporadic mental event.
The ego is not always there. So teaching a kid about an illusion is sketchy.
The ego has no more reality than a jackalope. Yet we talk about jackalopes too.
So have the kid remember the early days of “before me arrived.”
Tell the kid, “You were born perfect. So recalling back then is spiritual.”
A memory is actual time traveling instantaneously — nanosecond events.
This is a potent technique for keeping innocence “in sight.”
Of course, a 10 year old can be taught to do self inquiry.
If the kid asks, “Who am I?” the ensuing silence truly instructs about ego falsity.
Again, intellectually, the kid might not pass an exam about the ego.
“Learning” is the opposite of ‘knowing.” So we don’t “press” the kid to “get it.”
Same for you too. No need to read anyone’s words about ego.
No need for you to dwell upon the concept. It won’t help.
It’s fun, but the realm of psychology is unfathomable, whimsical blarney.
And the 10 year old kid more easily transcends, so YOU ARE BEHIND!
If your kid gets enlightened before you, tsk.
Instantly you can right now notice silence.
THAT’S YOU BEFORE YOU WERE BORN.
That’s your deepest inner child — your ego-free you.
That’s the child whom Jesus gives a hug.
Edg Duveyoung
How is meditation different from sleep?
There’s thousands of meditation techniques — ready for a book length answer?
No way I write or you read such, eh?
Let’s get this down to a short answer.
“Meditation” is defined as “practicing subtlety.”
— One watches thoughts arise from less to more obviousness.
— Gradually one acquires the skill to deeply relax the mind/body system.
— Awareness remains but thoughts become infrequent and ephemeral.
— Awareness remains even if the mind is thought-free.
“Sleep” is defined as 1. dreaming and/or 2. being between-dreams.
— Dreaming is sustained thinking at a quiet level.
— Dreams have the same witnessing entity as does the waking state.
— Non-dreaming state is pinpointed consciousness combined with awareness.
— Sleep activities are so subtle only yogis can easily recall them.
Comparisons
Meditation practices the skill of witnessing thoughts without authoring them.
Sleeping is low-ebb consciousness of identifying with thought. “I’m doing this.”
Meditation maintains awareness and events are subtle but easily recalled.
Sleeping events are not easily recalled by a high energy waking state mind.
Meditation is practicing abiding instead of projecting.
Sleeping is projection of identity. “I’m dreaming.” “I’m not dreaming.”
Meditation reduces projection of identity on any of the three states.
Sleeping events merely seem distinct from waking events.
Meditation is abiding without naming. All states are the same state.
Sleeping allows the body to refresh due to sustained quiescence.
Meditation allows the mind to rest without loss of awareness.
See?
Nah, ya don’t.
This is not about understanding.
We fiddle around with concepts, get jiggy, but we’re still practicing projection.
Finally, one gets intellectually satisfied, and, arbitrarily, abandons refining.
When one gives up trying, this is the surrendering of projection.
The yogi is 100% satisfied. No hunger remains. The yogi pushes back from the table.
The yogi says,
“No need to do anything that’s already being done.
“Abide and find all states of mind are variants of consciousness instead of identity.
“Discover the source of thoughts — awareness — pure identity.
“Dreams are observable. Non-dreaming is pure concentration.
“Meditation is escaping prison.
“Waking, dreaming and non-dreaming are “prison fun.”
Take your pick.
Wallow in creation. Roll around in it like a dog on the lawn.
Or abide and let God decide if you pop into freedom.
Edg Duveyoung
What are the most mind-blowing facts about the human brain?
Originally Answered: How powerful is our mind?
LET’S ASK GOD!
Edg: Lord Almighty Omniscient God Our Creator bless us with powerful minds.
God: You’ve already got them. Even the least of you.
Edg: In theory, but nobody here can’t hardly lift their weight or part the Red Sea.
God: First learn about grammar, then try to do those parlor tricks of Moses.
Edg: Excuse me and my writer’s license, but I can’t part a puddle with a leaf blower.
God: We’ve talked about this. I say “You’re divine.” You say, “I’m a muggle.”
Edg: Yeah, You say that, but where’s anyone with copious chops?
God: You’re creating names and forms — zillions of them instantly.
Edg: Why don’t I feel any thrill from such achievements? Zillions? Really?
God: I told you already. Don’t your read your own essays?
Edg: I’m busy.
God: You’ve copiously chopped Me up with mental butchery.
Edg: How’s that my bad? You puzzle me, so I jigsaw Your unfathomability.
God: Not “bad” — think: “binding.” You’re addicted to being agog.
Edg: Addicted is such a strong word. Like I’m a broken soul. Harsh.
God: I loved authoring that last line of yours. It’s so you.
Edg: But seriously, how’s my naming imaginary forms amount to a powerful mind?
God: I couldn’t create without you. I needed humans to complete the picture.
Edg: Seriously?
God: Seriously.
Edg: No. Really? With no humans, wouldn’t creation still be perfect?
God: Such a creation would be a tree falling with no one around.
Edg: So, humans are Your observational fanbase? Your Zen groupies?
God: Natch. Why not create you to mentally echo the splendor?
Edg: Still though, I can’t lift a feather with my mind.
God: So you say. Yet in nightly dreams you fly like Superman.
Edg: That doesn’t count. Anyone can dream anything.
God: If you dreamed you did it, you did it. That karmically registers.
Edg: How’s that fair? I don’t author my dream activities.
God: Bingo! And?
Edg: And when I wake up in the morning, I don’t wake up.
God: Right. So now we’re clear about having a powerful mind.
Edg: No way. Why can’t I have a fantastic waking life like my dreams?
God: You are. You’ve imagined up the entirety. From bozons to Big Bang.
Edg: Again, where’s my thrill?
God: You and I negotiated this. You’re thrilled by limitations.
Edg: I don’t remember any such previous arrangements.
God: And you wanted amnesia too. This is all per your orders.
Edg: Well, I want out of this bum deal. I didn’t see all this coming.
God: No one does. Sweet mystery of life and all that. You wanted this.
Edg: Was I stupid or what? Why’d you let me do this?
God: You begged and begged, and so, I relented. I love you. Sue Me.
Edg: We reached that point in our conversation where You make it all good.
God: I’m here. You’re here.
Edg: Or I could be hallucinating during an anaesthetic coma.
God: Or in a computer simulation.
Edg: You make my case.
God: You make Mine. You’re relentlessly imagineering possibilities.
Edg: I get no kick from this champagne. Flip this script! Come on. Spill the beans.
God: Find Me. Be Me. There’s the only thrill you have available. Meditate.
Edg: Then what? Will anything change? Will mountains be moved?
God: No, but now any “thrill” is insignificant compared to bliss.
Edg: Once again I run out of objections. Why create me like this?
God: You said, “complaining is yummy.” You ordered up “resentment,” too.
Edg: So all this is just and fair and contractually obligated?
God: Yep. Signed. Sealed. Delivered. It’s yours.
Edg: I guess I’m an acquired taste.
God: And?
Edg: You quaff me?
God: I quaff thee.
Edg Duveyoung
What does the death of Ram Dass mean to you, personally and to the world at large?
Oh how I love Baba Ram Dass.
When “Be Here Now” arrived, I binged.
Fantastic book by a confessed muggle.
He was one of us reporting from the frontlines.
He blew us away as he danced on every page.
To be blessed by Baba was bliss.
Memories from the book
— freckle my mind.
— pepper my heart.
— spritz my soul.
Here and there, wise droplets regularly recalled.
Pointing my mind forward.
Since 1971.
Was I a follower of his? No.
Did I read his subsequent books? No.
Did I learn how to meditate from him? No.
It has never been about him. And that’s okay.
But how dear he is to me.
I don’t care if you see my unmanly weeping.
It wasn’t about him.
But these tears yet pour from a flooded heart.
Oh Lord God Almighty,
You’re hugging a good guy now.
Hug him for all of us.
Let him know of all the lives he helped You help.
Tell him I’m listening still.
Tell him we’re all listening still.
Tell him yet does he point us to Thee.
Edg Duveyoung
Advaita says all things are a manifestation of what?
BAD QUESTION. “what” should be THAT.
Dump the question mark, and you’ve got an almost truthful statement.
And yes, I quibble egregiously and turn questions into semi-truths.
This is the job of JESTERMAN!
“THAT” is the accepted usage. “THAT” aka: the absolute, BRAHMAN, Self, God.
In the Advaita jargon, “what” implies an object of consciousness.
But the question’s intent is legit. It must be asked.
How can God create something out of nothing?
Is God mystical or magical?
Answer: mystical.
And every single person ever denies it.
We want to believe in illusions that obey rules.
We want strings, quarks, ions, and atoms — instead of God.
We want absolute formulae to force existence to bend a knee.
We want handcuffs with which to arrest God.
We want certainty — the primal desire, the axiom of causality.
If God can make something from nothing, QED.
There are no rules. God’s creativity is not containable.
If THAT is awareness that somehow manifests the illusory, SO BE IT.
We cannot understand. Never will.
Says Who? Lord Krishna!
But all the scholars try anyway.
“We’ll figure it.” they say.
“Lord Krishna says creation is unfathomable, but is it?” they ask.
“Maybe Lord Krishna secretly fathoms.” they suspect.
“Maybe we can wield the powers of God too.” they slaver.
Now here’s the strange part: God loves order and causes and rules, oh my.
The basis of God’s trickery is creating humans who assume instead of know.
Give a human a blank space, and it is quickly filled by the imagination.
Why? Because humans abhor a vacuum.
Why? Because the vacuum is God’s Very Being. God’s attention.
And that just will not do. If we catch God watching, we scurry
Edg Duveyoung
What is no mind?
Mickey Mouse has no mind.
You agree, right?
This is your spiritual goal.
Realize that your mind is a fictional space.
Mickey’s mind is only as real as your mind can pretend.
Mickey’s thoughts are ink. Mickey is mindless, but yet, to you he has opinions!
You are, as if, God, when you “make real” a Mickey Mouse cartoon strip.
You see Mickey’s scurrying around, but a common cat will only see ink.
You imagine 100% of all the “mickey-ness” on an otherwise “now dirty paper.”
Yours are like Mickey’s thoughts; insteadly “inked with blood on a stainless brain.”
God pretends your “mind” to be as real as your projection of Mickey’s mind.
It’s all 100% God’s artistry; God’s fully operational — creating you RIGHT NOW.
Mickey’s thoughts are soundless, still, and by you sacredly imbued.
And God creates meaning for your amazingly lifelike, perfect on paper, mind.
This is the same deal. Your soundless mess is enlivened by dint of the divine.
Imagine that, eh? Mickey thinks because you think because God thinks.
If a hammer hits your thumb, it was painless right now — in your imagination.
In cartoons and human minds, nothing happens but intent makes it so.
The yogi says,
—“Expand beyond the cartoon.
—“Witness meaningless silent mental symbols as they ‘marvelously sing.’
—“See yourself to be ‘you being read into actuality by God.’
—“Take a seat. Front row center. Let God entertain you.
—“It’s not your job to inform your thoughts. It’s God’s.
—“Let the divine drama make you laugh.”
The yogi laughs, because timelessness is mystically made momentary.
No mind is instantaneity — pinpointed nowness — here onliness.
Seek the now within — hunt for it in quieterness in which silence seems to hide.
Peer inside at the still, stiller and stillest until peering also stops.
And when you stop peering, God stops peering.
All of creation pauses.
Imagine that.
Edg Duveyoung
How does one (step by step) practice spiritual surrendering to become meditative,
especially for attachment to life (aversion to death)? Are there any examples of such a
thought and surrender process or any literature that may help?
To surrender, give back to God the mind you plagiaristically call “me.”
“Surrender” means stop messing around with the content of consciousness.
Don’t take the paintbrush from Michelangelo’s hand to re-do the “chapel touch”
How rude to crayon scrawl across Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.
Don’t try to improve Mona Lisa by spewing spitwads over Da Vinci’s shoulder.
Creation is not yours — specifically: “YOUR” NEXT THOUGHT.
It’s not yours. Never has been.
You childishly pretend you’re a misappropriationalist. “Look Ma, I’m a thinker!”
And you know this. Don’t be giving me that look. You don’t author thoughts.,
But but but, thoughts are gifts to you. Accept them with open-arms. Love them.
As is. We take our next thought as is. No matter what. As is. That’s how to love.
We abide with each thought’s arrival — witnessing all being writ by God.
To witness is the ultimate skill. And each next thought is “practice.”
We love the mind like we love our child’s first step. It’s true love.
We surrender to the arrival of God’s intent within us — instant by instant.
The flow of consciousness reflects the entirety and enthralls the heart.
Watch the mind and see if God then notches up the production values.
Even a drop of surrendering garners a flood of Being.
Witness the mind on purpose, and God goes, “Oh yeah, well watch THIS!’
And when God gets to giving the greatest of all gifts, God does not stint.
You get silence.
Wondrous silence when God’s eyes look directly into yours.
And Both of You realize one united perfectly silent sentience.
To surrender, witness.
To witness, watch.
To watch, abide.
Take it as it arrives — divinely wrapped.
Edg Duveyoung
What happens if you meditate too much?
“Your brain melts and drains out your ears.” — Swammysig Munda Freudananda
The key word in the question is “too.”
A Hindu says, “Even with omniscience, God failed by meditating too much.”
—Lord Brahma’s first meditation ended badly with 100% lack of fulfilment.
—He meditated for thousands of years and then quit — far short of perfection.
—All He wanted to know was where He came from. Gave up trying to see Himself.
—Just in time too, cuz His right ear was beginning to drip.
—Four drips to be exact. Sons, mind-born, Who took one look and said, “Nope.”
—They immediately quit being persons and ran off to Vaikuntha.
I’m being serious here. Stop with the smirk. Meditation is therapeutic but lethal.
To meditate is to murder your fake identity — an illegal doppelganger.
—You think you’re the provenance of your personality, but all needs deleting.
—“I came. I saw. I concurred with dogma.” — this is the common error.
—You arrived, saw mystery, and found false certainty.
—You insist that you’ve jammed infinity inside a hairy skull.
—And you say it’s you, and hope no one calls your bluff.
—I mean really. Come off it wuddjajust put your ego out of its misery?
By all means, go ahead, meditate too much. Gitter done.
Dissolve all those binding ties. Escape those mental cul de sacs.
—Stop pretending you are every possible thing except God.
—Quit saying, “That there’s me.” Not even once more. Zip it.
—Let each thought alone. Stop touching them with attention. Ew.
—Tear your heir out by its roots. Take future you out of your will.
—Refuse every attempt to dice up Being into intellectual chunks.
—Become thoughtless like Adam before the apple.
Now you know. Yes it will be on the mid-term.
And your essay on “How I spent my life in the holodeck.” is due Tuesday.
Continued here:
Edg Duveyoung's answer to How you make tour subconscious mind work for you?
Go here to the previous Crit’s episode.
Edg Duveyoung's answer to What is a beginner's guide to meditation?
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Edg Duveyoung
Can there be setbacks on the path to enlightenment?
LET’S ASK A SCIENTIST!
Edg: What has science discovered about seeker setbacks?
Scientist: That’s been thoroughly researched. It’s certain they do not exist.
Edg; But but but, everyone has moments when they feel stymied and beaten.
Scientist: It turns out that seeker setbacks are sudden accelerations in clarity.
Edg: A lot of seekers quit and stop their spiritual efforts when life goes south.
Scientist: Purely a data artifact. Quitting is actually “ongoing challenge.”
Edg: Yeah, but how many then rediscover their spirituality? Not all of them.
Scientist: Yes, all of them. By every metric, we see them all increase intent.
Edg: What? Lots of folks quit and never restart any regime. Done.
Scientist: You know about volcanoes during periods of dormancy?
Edg: Yeah, beneath the surface lots of processes and pressures building up.
Scientist: Stopped seekers silently summon starter steps.. See?
Edg: How can you say that to so many bitter quitters?
Scientist: They’re abiding with their new grasp and letting the mind gel.
Edg: They’re sour! They feel they have been fools and gotten zilch.
Scientist: To bake a cake, some ingredients must firstly be thoroughly mixed.
Edg: So someone quits but they are actually researching under the iceberg’s tip?
Scientist: Exactly. Each seeker who stops yet has a subconscious mass of intent.
Edg: You’ve found that a mass of memories constantly spurs reconsideration?
Scientist: Yes. Each memory is another “look at God” moment that refreshes.
Edg: So underneath they’re churning and getting surface thoughts now and then?
Scientist: Quitting is an arrival of a lot more quietude in general. It edifies.
Edg: Hmm, that’s ironic that they’re actually lessening being doers! They’re winning!
Scientist: We see the metrics. Across the board, the system runs more quietly.
Edg: Okay but what about those that die before they restart their surface spirituality?
Scientist: The ancient scientists uniformly testify there’s continuation.
Edg: Since when does anecdotal evidence hold sway for science?
Scientist: 5,000 years of solid agreement from the deepest minds. It sways.
Edg: You’re sounding like a yogi — not a scientist.
Scientist: This was always the plan. Find the truth and embrace it.
Edg: This interview has not turned out as I predicted.
Scientist: Repeat the experiment. Try tightening your controlled variables.
Edg: Maybe I’ll just take your word for it.
Scientist: The ancient professionals say, “Contact silence to affirm truths.”
Edg: So the professionals come up with summations about ordinary minds.
Scientist: And an ordinary mind’s silence redoubles their purports.
Edg: Kinda sounding like there’s never anything going wrongly.
Scientist: I know, right? All us white coaters are chuckling.
Edg: No one quits.
Scientist: No one quits.
Edg Duveyoung
What is ‘God consciousness’?
Edg Duveyoung
What is pure awareness?
There’s no such thing as pure awareness.
—Awareness is never “less than pure.”
—Awareness cannot be sullied.
—Awareness is the basis of any concept.
—Awareness transcends perception.
—Awareness is that which witnesses Being.
—Awareness is prior to motion.
—Awareness is the universal solvent.
—Awareness is the secret identity of consciousness.
This listing never ends, but the calculus suggests a finite summation.
Awareness is the axiomatic actuality.
From awareness arises one, two, three, infinity.
God is unknowable, but the Being of God is obvious.
If the flow of consciousness is studied, awareness flickers in as mots of silence.
Mentally repeat, “I am,” comfortably, leisurely, softly, and there’s the mots in between.
If the mots are studied they are realized to be the constancy of sentience.
At first the silence is punctuation. It separates thoughts.
Then silence is found to be like “paper” for conceptual ink.
It turns out it is thoughts that are punctuation — illusory parsers of silence.
Easy to see the white background of text. Same deal for appreciating silence.
Then, transition: Identity flips.
You escape the mind to become its witness instead. From doing to abiding.
You witness with perfect balance, unshakable by the extravagance of the entirety.
Then: transition: witnessing also is escaped.
To be one, there cannot be another to witness it.
To be God is to dissolve otherness.
And all the above is there right now obviously saturating the mind.
One merely has to glance to affirm Being.
And glances add up. Add a few here or there. It all counts.
But hey, why not be greedy and grab great hunks of silence?
After all, you’re the only one looking.
Edg Duveyoung
You meet God and you can ask him only one yes or no question. What do you ask?
Lord God Almighty Creator of All
Go ahead. Ask your yes-or-no question.
Wait, Your Presence, right now, boggles my authoring of a question.
That’s not a yes-or-no question.
I’ve got to word my question so precisely. In front of You. I’m pressured.
To honor the Quora question, I will not enter into a discussion.
I’m afraid that as soon as I ask, BAM, You will say yes or no and then You’re gone.
(Archangel Gabriel, check who in Marketing roped Me into this yes/no thing.)
There’s about 500 Quora Dear Readers who will want me to ask something cool.
(And find out if I’m slated for more of these outreachings to niches.)
So, I’m sure You see the delicacy and importance that such a question must have.
(And put Edg into My “Tricky” folder. And get Me some pistachio ice cream.)
Okay, this is my best shot. “Will all the sentient entities reach enlightenment?”
It depends on the definition of “enlightenment.”
That’s not a yes or no answer.
If enlightenment means freedom from all identifications, then “yes.”
To honor the Quora question, I will not enter into a discussion.
If enlightenment means “everyone gets happy,” then “no.”
(Does Quora have someone on staff to force God to follow the rules?)
Afterall, once Lord Shiva stomps everything to bliss dust, what does it matter?
(Can someone get me a bowl of pistachio ice cream? I’m waiting on God.)
So ultimately even I resolve into Being from which creation arose.
(I’m starting to understand why every religion has scriptural books too heavy to lift.)
But yeah, I suppose I might as well go with “yes” as a default answer. Sorta.
(“Sorta?” Sorta? That’s two words and neither is a yes or no.)
But for an Advaitan, the answer has to be “no,” and for a muggle “yes.”
I’m bound by the rules to only accept a yes or no for Your answer.
Okay, just to get this over with, “no dominates yes,” but that’s arbitrary.
“No” means Advaita’s definition is applied, but “yes” wins the popularity contest?
I would put it better than that of course. Yinyang wins, not yin and not yang.
So I tell everyone they’ll be absolutely free for sure and maybe happy?
Freedom’s bliss is infinite happiness. Mere happiness is pistachio ice cream.
Okay, I’m outta here. It’s getting too-long-didn’t-read in the kitchen.
Wait up. There’s details, fine print and loop holes.
Wish I could stay, but I got butter sizzling and veggies yet to cut.
Why does everyone think they can lie to My Face? I get no respect.
Edg Duveyoung
How can I meet God?
LET’S ASK GOD!
Edg: Almighty Lord Creator, Quora folks want to meet You. How can they?
God: How can’t they? I’m in plain sight, plain hearing, etc.
Edg: You say that, but folks can’t see You . . . etc.
God: You’re seeing Me, hearing Me, etc.
Edg: Yeah, there’s that, but others say, “Edg, you’re merely pointing at a chair.”
God: I am the seat of life. All rests upon Me.
Edg: Yeah, but they get confused when I then, say, point at dead dog in a ditch.
God: Such white teeth! I am purity in every midst.
Edg: I show them scientific reports detailing Your creative regularities.
God: Loves Me some angels dancing on pinheads. Scientists are priests!
Edg: But the scientists don’t report finding You. They think I’m silly.
God: You are silly.
Edg: Yeah, but You know what I mean. Science does not affirm Your existence.
God: Imagine their delight when they find a way to pull back the curtains of Oz.
Edg: But meanwhile, they’re modeling atheism unto the masses.
God: Science is to be forgiven. They’re actually finding and describing Me.
Edg: So how is that ideal? Why can’t everyone know You’re right here?
God: No spoilers! Everyone presently on Earth says “I’ll do seeking my way.”
Edg: But this will take way too long. Meanwhile, folks are suffering.
God: Ahem. Suffering or getting dirty fingernails digging into a gold mine?
Edg: It sounds romantic, but folks want to find instead of seek, seek, seek.
God: The “seek knob” can be wrist-turned from 11 to 0 instantly.
Edg: I tell folks “close the eyes and that’s being in Your Presence.”
God: I approve.
Edg: But they open their eyes in five seconds and say, “No God found.”
God: And then they’ll find another road to Rome.
Edg: But You’re right there!
God: Cool, eh? I’m the One Who invented camouflage.
Edg: I’m frustrated.
God: You’re divinely frustrated. I’m doing ya a solid.
Edg: What? You mean my frustration is a gift?
God: Any frustration indicates a need to relax.
Edg: Tell that to almost anyone on the planet and see the looks given.
God: Everyone’s taut, but that’s like an arrow fully drawn back.
Edg: Okay, going with that, how do I tell someone to let the arrow fly?
God: You just did. Some archers will. Some will later.
Edg: But times are so dark and urgent and getting worse.
God: The darker it gets, the brighter truth becomes.
Edg: So I should just keep writing Quora essays?
God: No……essays are fun, but folks want more.
Edg: What? I’m just a writer. All I have are words with no feck.
God: There’s a possibility you’re wrong.
Edg: Tell me. I’m begging Ya.
God: It’s coming. Stay tuned. I got yer six.
Edg: I sorta told the Quora folks I’ve got something better two weeks from now..
God: Painted yourself into a corner. Feeling squirmy?
Edg: I know. I know. More gifts from You. Um, thanks.
God: Keep promising. Your intent is well formed.
Edg: Meanwhile I’ll close the eyes. See if it all gels.
God: Silence is the purity around which the means collect.
Edg Duveyoung
Is reincarnation true? Can a person remember their past life?
Yes, but you reincarnate more than you suspect.
Not kidding. You’re not imagining enough incarnations.
You’re thinking, say, “I’ve had billions of lifetimes.”
I’m saying, “Pish tosh. Insignificant metric. A joke estimate.”
This is about your loose defining of the word “incarnation.”
So let’s smack you with a spiritual cudgel to get your attention.
Your present incarnation is an almost infinite plurality of lives.
BAM! This is a truly boggling concept, so unglaze those eyes. Listen up. Focus.
Yes, at least zillions of lives lived DURING your present, ahem, incarnation.
This is key.
You’re in a swirling immensity of identifications.
Each time you experience even a stray thought, it’s a lifetime.
That’s 400,000+ conceptual bits per 16 waking hours. (7 bits/sec.)
And then during dreaming, so many more instant-micro-lives.
And then between dreams that hour long oneness thought —a single identity.
WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! Don’t even say it.
I know. I know. You want proof.
Okay, no problem, get ready.
—I’ll prove you already agree with me.
—I’ll prove you can have a whole single life in an instant.
—I’ll prove you have a mind that is like Dr. Who’s telephone booth.
—I’ll prove you have godlike powers being used nonchalantly.
—I’ll prove you are stupendously low when estimating your livingness.
Ready?
Ha ha ha — most folks are so eager to lie about being ready.
“Do me.” yells everyone reading these words. “Hit me.”
Like, hee hee, as if, smirk, truth would arrive with the ferocity of a paintball.
When, instead, it’s like having a star dropped on your head.
But your disbelief has you saying, “Drop it. Go ahead. I dare you.”
This is why the yogi laughs.
Here’s a “titch-proof.” Enough but not enough to clobber ya.
The titch proof will only require that you consider it. Once.
I’ll ask you one question to which you know the answer.
You’ll have your proof instantly. And it will be REPEATABLE.
And it should be repeated — like a scientific experiment.
This proof will also reveal the presence — in you — of tons of proofs.
I love giving these hints, because I’m so going to deliver for you.
Ready? Say, “yes.”
QUESTION: Can you remember an experience from decades ago?
BAMMO WHAM! SLAMMO SMACK! KERPOWWO WHACK!
Stunning, eh? There you were in a world from long ago. You visited a past life.
In an instant:
—An entire time/space world that no longer exists but you know its details.
—Strong certainty of an actuality that was destined to evolve to “you now.”
—Instantly the entirety of that moment swaddles your remembered moment.
—”It was raining, and I was five years old and stomping a puddle.”
—Any memory’s pin-point value is attended by a wide-angled matrix of connections.
And now the kicker.
Who are you now? — that you’ll remember decades hence in a mental snapshot.
Just now you answered by having an instant summation of your “life so far.”
Each moment is a “selfie.” Your soul camera is snapping away for future you’s sake.
This is the heart of identification — we are free to be “bazillions of me.”
Each next now is another life. Different from all the others.
So proven, right? You’re a world wandering wonder.
And all you have to do is own it that your identity has been there and done it.
That’s pure identity. That’s the “you” that lives all those lives.
If you get clear about your pure identity, then “incarnation” gets redefined.
If you know yourself to be beyond the temporary, you’re enlightened.
How long has this been going on?
Ask “Who am I?” repeatedly. Be scientific. Get clear about this.
Beyond intellectual grasp or heartful communion, the witnessing you.
By dwelling with being a witness, one is incarnationally free.
This is the seat of existence — being beyond births.
And done with deaths.
Edg Duveyoung
What is karma?
Karma is kama.
God’s love for you started when creation started.
At the very get-go, God was imagining you.
Seven billion souls, umpteen animals, and even rocks have karma.
Ask any pebble in a stream:
—Did you get smashed, bashed, and crashed a zillion times?
—Did you get brutally transported into the unknown?
—Did you get shaped by actual physical contact with BILLIONS of entities?
—Did you start off jagged and sharp and misshaped?
—Did you get smoothed and rounded and polished such that beauty was revealed?
Get it? God cared and made natural laws for the evolution of pebbles.
How much more might you be divinely tended?
Right at this very moment, there’s a plant growing that is destined for you.
It’s there in the dirt. Growing with God promising it will become part of you.
No one else will eat that plant. That’s YOU out there gathering sunshine’s satva.
See? You’re so big. So vast in time and space. God’s sees this all as ONE YOU.
Since forever God’s vision saw every atom of you arriving into your allness.
Statistically, there’s seven atoms in you that once were inside Jesus, Krishna, Buddha.
Ditto for every other entity. You’re body is a gigantic menagerie of identities.
And every speck of you put precisely in its place in you.
You beautiful pebble you.
Edg Duveyoung
I have studied Advaita Vedanta for 50 years · Updated Tue
Is Advaita Vedanta nihilism?
Advaita is about God before creation.
Now you know.
Yeah, before. Pure God — not Manifesting God.
Before God became God, God was awareness.
God’s actuality is prior to the relativity of existence, being, and consciousness.
So, it’s not nihilism, Advaita is hyper-meta-para-sentience-ism.
The yogi who says, “Neti, neti, neti,” directs the mind inwards.
Advaita says, “If you catch yourself projecting, stop.”
—Even very small children know how to stop what they’re doing.
—No doing needed to stop doing. Less effort is required.
Example: you have a serious problem that you’re trying to solve.
It’s a very hard problem. You’re only barely able to handle it.
And then a perfect solution arises in the mind.
Immediately upon clarity, the mind relaxes. No effort now required.
THAT’S HOW TO PRACTICE ADVAITA VEDANTA. Get clearer about God.
Just stop trying to solve “mind.” Enjoy its momentary unsolvability.
Life is already solved. God’s got this.
God is perfectly wise and is now presenting THIS to you.
Must be that what is is what God wants to be.
No resistance allowed to God’s creation of your next thought.
So just watch. Watching God is always worship. So just watch.
And by merely watching, we find God does all the doing.
And when God’s giving you any experience, it’s a holy moment.
Anxious? Defeated? Depressed? Bored? Afraid? Panicked?
All holy. Gifts. Sacredness flowing. Mind is divine art.
All this becomes clearer by watching the mind instead of using the mind.
Once we get it that God is here and now, past and future become, ahem, nil.
Think of how you’d feel with God as your Pal standing next to you.
There would not be room to squeeze another thought in your head.
That’s Advaita Vedanta — an emptied mind now filled with God.
Edg Duveyoung
What are the benefits of meditation? How do you meditate?
Meditation has one benefit. That’s it. One.
Realizing the Self is the only reason to meditate.
You’ll hear otherwise. Other promises are, well, “marketing lies.”
Personality changes will happen due solely to karma.
An enlightened saint retains peculiarity.
Meditation does not CAUSE. No certainties! God decides all.
Nor does meditation cause realization. Meditation is simply relaxation.
When one relaxes one’s “doingness,” doingness continues!
Turns out that God’s the Doer. The only Doer.
Meditation is ceasing the use of personal will.
One loosens one’s insistence that the illusory is real.
And by letting go, we find out where we’ve always been.
Here. Now. Witnessing God’s creations hot off the grill. Sizzling.
We cannot bribe God with our good behaviors which God, in fact, authors.
Only by relinquishing ownership of the mind do we subside into Self.
Once we have become “established in yoga,” one shares Being with God.
Even witnessing is not a “doing” by a yogi. The yogi is beyond the material.
Silence is the sole status of the yogi. Silence means “stillness.”
The yogi, freed of attachments, sees A LIVING GOD WITH SLEEVES ROLLED UP.
Here’s how to meditate: Close the eyes and wait.
Keyword: “wait.” We abide with the mind’s comical bewilderments.
As one waits, the mind settles down as it’s watched.
“Oh,” says the mind, “I don’t have to scream to be heard?”
And by simply waiting, we see the mind get quieter and quieter.
And then the mind simply is no more when emptied of thought.
And now the good news: God loves synchrony.
A meditator’s personality DOES improve.
Why? Because God says, “Let’s accessorize!”
God asks, “What goes with this one’s enlightenment?”
A nice personality? Some material blessings? Worldly respect?
Yes! Get enlightened and God refurbishes the whole house!
And none of it desired by the yogi whose life is now God’s life.
God gives better gifts than any wished for by a human’s limited ken.
So there’s the deal:
1. Close the eyes.
2. Wait.
3. Mind quiets down.
4. True identity — silent, still, sentient, witness — is espied.
5. One gradually comes to permanently residing in stillness.
6. God’s seen manifesting from Being.
7. Life’s mystery continues, but now it’s divine mystery.
And you?
You’ve just been shown the doorway.
Open it.
Edg Duveyoung
How can I become the perfect human being?
Originally Answered: How do I become a perfect person?
Everything’s relative.
Self assessments are a joke.
We’re all looking into fun-house mirrors.
Family, friends or others can’t judge our status.
Nobody’s shoes fit on nobody else’s feet.
I can’t walk a mile in yours. You can’t in mine.
So, perfection?
There’s a swift backlashing for anyone who says, “I’m perfect.”
But yet, we’re all told that some persons are better.
Better insight. Better morals. Better bodies. Better deeds.
But all those folks are also being told there’s room for improvement.
No one is claiming to be 100% in every metric.
Even sweet lovely children are being told they must improve.
Nobody’s enough for anybody even though everyone is trying.
What’s wrong with this picture? Somebody shudda made it by now.
We know the list of names of the best. We know their hearts and deeds.
They each yet had naysayers who deemed them less than advertised.
Who has reached full potential with valid universal acclaim?
We each know how much higher we could yet rise. We dare not tarry.
SOLUTION
Hear within.
One can study the mind as if it’s merely a noisy box.
If you seek you can find the sources of all those sounds.
Listen and then listen more. No talking allowed.
Deepen your acuity. This is the sole skill to perfect.
When you can hear the mind’s quietest sound, silence is discoverable.
It is your silence that is you.
Your silence is perfect beyond description, measure or limit.
It is your pure identity — the witness of your point of view.
It is your Self. The basis of your mentality.
Residing with your silent witnessing Self is the solution to all equations.
Claim your silent status and then at last, perfection is yours.
Muggles maybe we are, but silence within makes the mundane magical.
Even now you’re a miracle.
Only way for you to be better is for you to validate your origin.
“Know thyself” means “be thy Self.”
Your silence is waiting at the end of every sentence.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the meaning of 'illusion' when translated from Sanskrit and Hindu scriptures?
Is it as naive as usually interpreted?
You are right now being fooled.
Any possible thought you’re having is false.
These words you read refer to nothing.
Your mind does not even exist.
Your so-called soul is so-called.
And yet you’re stubbornly still reading.
Still breathing too, eh?
You’re a genuine fake.
And you’re okay with that.
You don’t know “know thyself” should be “be thy Self.”
So far, you’ve only pretended to lead an examined life.
And now you lie to me.
You say, “I want to know.”
I say, “No, you really don’t want to know.”
You say, “Try me. I can handle it.”
I say, “You’ll go crazy. Instantly.”
You say, “I’m ready, coach. Put me in the game.”
I say, “You’re spitting in God’s face.”
You say, “What an outrageous lie. Take that back.”
I say, “You’re ax-hacking God into pieces.”
You say, “Any second now I’mma smash you face.”
I say, “Debate over. You went nutz.”
We simply don’t want to know we’ve jigsawed holy unity.
Yet every speck of everything is proof we have done it.
We insist God has pieces which can be described.
We want to talk about God instead of know God.
And now for the bad news. There’s no solution.
And now you really really want to smash my face.
Aha! So you DO know the truth.
You DO know there’s a way out of this perfect darkness.
And if you know, then you must be here by choice.
And what makes you angry is that you’re bluff is being called.
You do know. You do know there’s a door between every thought.
And you’re not going through that door on purpose.
You’re not meditating constantly, right?
You’re still slurping up thoughts. Hoggin’ it at the brain’s trough.
So don’tchu be givin’ me all that guff about your misery.
I see you eager for creation’s next instantiation.
And yes, yesterday I ran out of pistachio ice cream.
So I’m crabby and this is all the essay you’re getting today.
Edg Duveyoung
What does the word 'OM" mean?
Originally Answered: What is "Om"?
OM is the song of God.
OM is the first born soul.
OM is the parent of all sounds.
OM is the perfected absence of thought.
OM is the silence within the heart of peace.
When meditating, ones system calms down, and OM gradually comes to the fore.
At the quietest level of the mind, one realizes that all thoughts spring from OM.
OM is the source of the sounds whose forms are assigned names.
Any thing is a variant of OM’s tone…... You HEAR your thoughts, right?
And if you hear your thoughts, which are in fact soundless, you’re hearing OM.
Right there and now inside you are thoughts that are silent like OM.
OM is realized to be silent as thoughts are silent. Known rather than heard.
The mind is always being filled with silence, but seems, merely seems, otherwise.
So, abide with that silence. See that it never changes. See that it’s you.
Watch as your true identity, as if teases you with OM.
Just on the other side of OM is the awareness from whence it came.
That awareness is transcendental — OM’s quiet core.
By abiding with the natural silence within, one becomes Self.
OM is the universal solvent. Dip any soul into a tub of OM. I dare you.
You’ll disappear into OM utterly melted by its bliss. Utterly.
And now the bad news: OM is a mantra that can be inappropriately applied.
OM takes one directly into God’s very being. Worldly charms whither.
If you want to be spiritual and still be a householder, other mantras are better.
OM is best used by the recluse who has tossed the entirety. Only God is desired.
Householder mantras allow ones system to gradually deepen and integrate.
It’s possible to realize the Self even in the busiest life. Because it’s all silence, duh!
As one ages, at some point, the world’s enticements have played out.
Then, almost anyone can benefit from using OM as a mantra.
Of course, someone who has been meditating for decades won’t need OM.
Perfection is arriving at each station of life with the skills needed.
If you’ve done it right, closing the eyes is instant transcendence.
Warning: Pistachio ice cream is not mentioned in the Vedas. Eat up while you can.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the difference between dream and reality?
None. No diff. Same. NOT KIDDING.
Proof? What is it with you and always wanting proof?
Like you absolutely ever validly believed in anything. As if.
It takes a college class to know math’s relativity and why 2 plus 2 is not always four.
And there’s you wanting this one essay to get your intellect to grasp actuality?
This takes years. Honest. You have to refurbish your zillion nerves.
Yet still, there’s you wanting to know if dreaming is waking. NOW!
Why? What’s in it for you if you did know? Whence this urge?
And be warned: it’s work; it’s a drudgery to figure out dreams and reality.
—You resist and resist and resist.
—It devastates to learn waking life is a dream.
—Every rug is pulled from under you.
—Certainty becomes another jackalope.
—Experience becomes a prison of deceit.
—One becomes a tractionless victim. No doing possible.
We wake up each morning with a whole dream reality evaporating.
—One is no longer that dream person with all the ordinary intents.
—Every plan, every flavor, every understanding, every any is poofed.
And there’s you in your jammies ABSOLUTELY NOT CARING.
—This is why you resist accepting this ULTIMATE OPEN SECRET.
—You are the maker and destroyer of worlds.
—You don’t want to know that waking life WILL be as arbitrarily ended.
—You don’t want to do to waking you what you just did to dream you.
God hung a sign on your park bench existence: “Wet paint.”
And you can hack your brain at the junction point, by touching the bench.
As you wake up from a dream, test if it’s wet by lingering with it. Look at it’s history.
You’ll “get it” that dream worlds are not wet to your waking touch.
If one inspects a dream, even as it dissolves, ones true status is revealed.
You’ll learn that though dreams are effervescent they are divinely wrought.
And you are witnessing in God’s stead.
To you all realities are presented. None of it clings to you.
You are beyond any possible dream, and witnessing a fading dream proves it.
You’re an expert at knowing yourself at this transition point.
So hey, use this expertise, this skill, to examine waking life.
Even right now as you read these words all the rest of reality bustles.
The constant changingness, your surround, evaporates itself and you’re meh.
You ignore all the other thoughts possible to read these words.
Like “visiting words” you can slip into dream worlds and out again RIGHT NOW.
You call your instant vacations “memories” then won’t say, “I dreamed a world.”
You refuse to announce that you’re:
—Dr. Who
—Dr. Manhattan
—Dr. Strange
—Superman
—Wonder Woman
—Captain Marvel
— And Thanos too
COMBINED
You’re so tricky you see someone else in your mirror.
“Nope. I’m not powerful beyond even the imagination of God.” you say.
And then you do your next miracle in perfect denial of your miraculousness.
Kinda silly to keep the charade going even when all others still do.
Gotta shrug off the disguises. Polish your halo. Unfold those wings.
Here. This is what to do.
To reveal your superdooperness, look inside and see each thought evaporate.
Find out that everythingness is flowing in and out of view like a line drawn on air.
Prove, by merely watching inside, that your mind is an imaginarium.
Anywhere. Anywhen. Anywhy. Relentlessly available.
Then see if you actually wake up in the morning.
Maybe “I’m awake” is like 2 plus 2 — suspect.
And now the strange part:
If you’re sleeping but between dreams, that’s your secret identity.
When the mind’s not being a bother, there you are.
So, from now on, any thought you study is a practice session.
Neat, eh? Everything learned in a flash.
Repeat until the flashes no longer flicker and become steady.
Then you’re an all time reality and finally admit it.
Edg Duveyoung
Is there anything that we can know for sure?
Originally Answered: Is anything truly certain?
Yes, yes, yes, and by yes, yes, yes, I mean yes, yes, yes.
—It’s exactly true — perfectly what you’d expect.
—It’s bedrock, ground zero, axiomatic — transcendent.
—It’s the sole actuality — the basis of real.
—It’s the valid solid — tested by ancients, modernity and Time.
—It’s onlyness — awareness before consciousness.
What is it? Silence.
—How can this be?
—How can silence be sentient without materiality?
—How can “what is” be known when the mind isn’t?
—How can difference be resolved?
—How can awareness be identity before conceptuality?
Identity is the portal not the person.
—Who am I? Stop thinking to find out.
—Who observes God’s mind? Become silent to find out.
—Who chooses? Cease deciding to find out.
—Who cares? Care for quietude to find out.
—Who watches thoughts? God.
Watching the mind is the “more is better” solution.
—The mind is shy if it catches you watching it.
—The mind knows it flickers like an old time movie.
—The mind shrinks from view when the witness is you.
—The mind is serious for fun’s sake. Reality is play.
—The mind can stop like a crowd hushing if the King enters the room.
The King is you.
—This is the certainty: you, utterly striped naked of all qualities, are.
—This is the certainty: being thoughtless is knowable.
—This is the certainty: when every entity, says “me,” it’s the same me.
—This is the certainty: you can lose your mind but not your awareness.
—This is the certainty: when God says, “Me,” God is pointing at you.
So look inside for TEN LOUSY SECONDS WOULDJAJUST?
—Then be honest. Did you notice any part of that duration that was quieter?
—Then be honest. QUIETERNESS IS THE SCENT TRAIL. Follow your nose.
—Then be honest. Note how much silence is always there.
—Then be honest. See silence becoming obvious even in the middle of a fist fight.
—Then be honest. Recognize each thought in your head makes no sound.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the origin of consciousness?
Originally Answered: What's your opinion on how consciousness was created?
LET’S ASK GOD!
Edg: Lord Almighty God, Core Bliss Of Every Sentient Entity, I beseech Thee.
God: You’re back! And with a respectful opening. This is new.
Edg: I’ve come to see the error of my ways. Now I want truth for the masses.
God: That’s all? I just have to tell My secrets, eh?
Edg: Yes, and in as few words as possible without being cryptic.
God: Reduce the Bible to a five minute stand-up routine? Will that do the trick?
Edg: Let’s face it. Scriptures today are in “old school” non-standard languages.
God: So I just need to spruce them up with modern words?
Edg: That’d be the solution. Everyone would then love and seek Thee.
God: You’ve caught Me at a bad time. I’ll do one truth. Ask.
Edg: Wait, bad time? You have bad times?
God: Is that your question?
Edg: Okay, I was going to ask about consciousness, but go with “bad times” instead.
God: But your Quora readers will be choice tortured.
Edg: But You seem to be in a rush, so I don’t want to be hoggy.
God: Consciousness was born simultaneously with My birth. Bam! There.
Edg: So that means You are Consciousness?
God: It’s Me if I were to be deconstructible despite My perfect unity.
Edg: So, um, where’d You come from?
God: Obviously I self-manifested from My Sheer Unknown.
Edg: So before consciousness, how did You know You still existed?
God: Awareness of awareness needs no materiality.
Edg: So, for no discernable reason, You became consciousness?
God: Bingo. Exactly. Unfathomable R Moi. And yet I fathom.
Edg: So if anyone is conscious, Your Very Being is their consciousness?
God: Nicely put. You want to ghost write and spruce up the Vedas for Me?
Edg: Do I get medical insurance with that job?
God: You so funny. I like you today. My silly little muggle.
Edg: Muggle? I’m talking to YOU! How can I still be a muggle?
God: Don’t take it personally. Compared to Me, everyone is a muggle.
Edg: But I must be “a kinda special muggle,” right? You talk to me!
God: I talk to everyone constantly.
Edg: But but but I can hear You! I’m rare! I’m Your pal!
God: Yes — exactly like everyone. They all hear me too.
Edg: But no one says they hear You. They think it’s their Conscience talking.
God: And that’s okay. If they obey “their” Conscience, they’re sin free.
Edg: Whoa! Really? That’s all it takes?
God: Everyone knows right from wrong. It’s PLAIN AND SIMPLE.
Edg: Seems scriptural to me. I’ll write an essay for it.
God: Put it in limerick form. Make it snappy.
Edg: And about the “bad times?”
God: Yeah, well, time is always bad. Bam! Done.
Edg: Wait, anything in Time is bad?
God: Compared to being in solid 100% eternal divine bliss?
Edg: I see Your point.
God: So, we’re done. Gotta jet.
Edg: But but but, I’m feeling I need more.
God: And that’s why I get the big bucks. I keep ’em wantin’ more.
Edg: So, I’ll tell the muggles they’re hearing You and being You always?
God: Sounds cryptic. Work on it for a few days. Get back to Me.
Edg: Okay, but this sure is a cliff-hanger essay ending.
God: And that’s why you get the little bucks.
Edg Duveyoung
How can I start practicing Bhakti yoga as a beginner?
You already have perfected bhakti.
Proof? Look at how you worship your next thought.
When thoughts arise, they grab attention like a lap plunked puppy.
We love our thoughts. Each one as if hypnotically adorable.
In a frenzying vastness, yet do we ignore everything to attend our next thought.
So, when it comes to “ability to love,” the ordinary mind is a practiced expert.
Just gotta use that ability to attend God instead of God’s new puppies.
No biggie. Just need to intend worship. It always works always. Can’t miss.
If you sit and close the eyes with the intention to “know my mind,” you will.
The mind only exists when thoughts are given “meaning” spelled: “ME-ing.”
From beyond infinity, a perfect interpretation is assigned to what the brain is doing.
If one INTENDS to love, one catches the arrival of meaning for each next thought.
As we stare at the mind’s psychrobatic frantic antics, this captures the heart.
Each deeply seen thought is momentarily held so lovingly. LIke a cooing infant.
If we simply intend to attend each thought and “love it on purpose,” we do.
And doing this repeatedly exercises the bhakti muscle and strengthens it.
At some point one is witnessing a thought’s entirety from birth onward.
That’s true love — to accept and be with every aspect of the thought process.
THEN the phase transition occurs.
The mind is constantly loving, and we’ve purposefully practiced seeing its subtlety.
Once thinking is well known, the mind’s Author is sought. Simple as that.
“What?” one gasps. “All my thoughts were God’s creative writing?”
After that, “I must adulate God.” is automatic.
And to worship God purely and solely and without using mere symbols, abide.
“Abide” means “feel the silence.” That silence is God’s actual identity.
And when you get quiet, so does God.
And when you reach silence, so does God.
And now we’re talking bhakti. Just God and You.
Wait…..
Wait…..
Where’d you go?
Edg Duveyoung
Reality: How do I know that I am real?
Oh, don’t be silly.
Probably the best response is to Zen whack you with a wooden spoon.
— a spoon still dripping with my best spaghetti sauce.
— in a kitchen full of love . . . and heat.
How dare you ask a question everyone knows how to answer?
It smacks of deceit. It suggests the possibility of impossibility.
As if anyone ever — since God said, “light” — was mistaken about being.
This is about identity.
This is about finding out there is but one you.
That you cannot find another you — it’d be stupid to look.
That you are is an all time reality even when reality is proven baseless.
Even when the hollowness of all concepts is revealed, you are.
If you ask, “Who am I?” instantly you encounter thoughtlessness.
That’s the mind stopping — this alone symbolizes you.
Even a first timer can stop the mind in its tracks like that.
A yogi says, “Just practice that exact thing until the mind never restarts.”
“The” mind — not “your” mind. It’s not yours. Never was.
The mind — a streaming artwork of God.
You are audience not author.
To protest the play and leap out of your seat onto the stage? Tsk. Tsk.
Here. Let me be harsh about this. “Silly” was me holding back.
You’re not only real, you are THE REAL.
And better than that, you are THE UNREAL too.
And best, you are beyond the real and unreal combined.
“Are you real?” — don’t you dare come within a spoon’s distance.
This is the loveliness of God.
Always there. Shining bliss inside you.
Any pausing reveals this.
You are the heart of creation.
Imagine this: God walks onto a stage before a vast audience.
God stands there in the light. Gazing with stillness.
Every heart instantly affixed. Silence becomes complete.
And then,
And then,
Suddenly,
Foreverly,
You are the awareness of God.
Edg Duveyoung
How does consciousness witness the absence of thoughts sensations and
perceptions?
Two ways.
You do this every night.
And all day long.
Every night between dreams, awareness abides during the mind’s inactivity.
“You see you when you’re sleeping; you know if you’re awake” — Santa Yogi
A yogi will explain that for everyone there’s no difference between:
— dreamless sleep and enlightenment — several times per night.
— pure consciousness and silence — several times per night.
— awareness and identity and self and transcendent God — several times per night.
So, no practice needed. Anyone knows how to “turn off the mind.”
Simply put, the yogi prefects that skill and witnesses instead of thinks.
— A yogi is conscious of consciousness.
— A yogi’s mind is immune to mental infections.
— A yogi does not cherry pick thoughts and slobber them.
— A yogi knows God is the thinker.
— A yogi says, “No way I’m gunna interrupt God! It’s a no-brainer.”
And there’s the spiritual challenge — being respectful.
All day long what superpower do you use?
You ignore almost all of outer creation.
You actually do transcend all those attention getters.
That’s your silence. You’re swaddled by it. Protected by ignoringness
Gaze around — you’re not doing any of it.
Nor do you move the zillions of atoms in your nervous system.
You are between big and small. In the middle of Heaven.
Pretty obvious your sole response should be “wonder.”
To be in wonder, do the following: 1. Open jaw. 2. Go slack.
But but but, whole day longly, yet does the brain's chemical frenzy captivate you.
To pay attention to your thoughts is to take a cellphone call during God’s sermon.
There’s you in a pew with angels on each side of you and your phone rings. Ugh.
Solution: you’ve started watching thoughts, NOW KEEP GOING INWARDS.
Thoughts are creation too, and studying them leads to their source: silence.
And that’s the prize. The quietness that has never known noise.
Edg Duveyoung
God said, “I am that I am.” Popeye said, “I am what I am.” What is the difference in the
meaning between what God said and Popeye said?
Such an insightful question.
God’s THAT is “The Transcendent.”
——Popeye’s WHAT is a paean to personhood.
God said, ‘I am THAT I am.’”
God cannot be named, so THAT is a placeholder.
God introduces God “humanly” — as if saying, “I am, John Smith, I am.”
God instructs that THAT is The Absolute — THAT is stainless identity.
——WHAT is an illusion caught mid-process by Popeye and all spinach idolaters.
“I am.” (Said, God.) (yep) “THAT I am.” (Yessiree!)
“I am THAT.” (Said, God.) “I am.” (THAT being sandwiched between two ams.)
“I am THAT (which is) THAT (which is known as) I am.” Meant, God.
“I am” (a manifestation of) THAT (which is symbolized by) “I am.”
——“I yam WHAT I yam.” Is Popeye’s ego insisting it has an axiomatic moral core.
God says, “If you mentally say, “I am.” It’s My voice you’re hearing.
God is troweling on a thick frosting to slather an existential cake.
God pokes our ribs. “You can’t name Me. Nanny nanny boo boo.”
God does not stint. “I am that I am” reveals all truths if studied.
——Popeye pretends he’s always been and always will be Popeye.
Yet do we love our darling little Popeye.
Spinach fueled he’s intoxicated by the green soma.
His baby steps are swaggering struts into certainty.
He’s got a forearm anchor tattoo and his heart on his sleeve.
—You and I have an inner Popeye, right?
Each moment represents all previous moments.
Each of us are instantiations of identity in the light of amness.
Each here now for sure and then gone.
Each THAT AND WHAT constantly entwining.
——Enjoy now, eh?
Edg Duveyoung
What is an online guru?
An online guru is to be pitied.
So glad I’m not one.
Once someone declares, “I’m enlightened,” hoo boy, brace for impact.
From then on, that teacher’s least statement will be unfairly deconstructed.
“Huh? A guru that still eats food? That’s not a saint.”
This is why I confess that I’m a jester — only my silence is to be taken seriously.
I deny being enlightened, so it seems like I am enlightened but am humble and shy.
Heh, so far, I’ve fooled no one, but that’s the role of a jester.
I have the Emperor’s New Age Thoughts! Heh.
But it’s a dainty thing. Here’s the bookends:
If I yell loudly, “I’m not enlightened,” then FOR SURE I AM.
If I stare at my toes and say, “Oh not me for gosh sakes,” then FOR SURE I AM.
One has to be right in the middle to keep folks guessing. Jesting is so hard. Ugh.
But listen up, I’m sayin’ to all you would be gurus, DON’T DECLARE IT.
If you are enlightened, THE WORLD FIGURES THAT OUT. No advertising needed.
And if you’re faking it, well, you might get a large following. Go figure.
The best gurus sometimes have to be begged to come out of their caves to teach.
But the worst gurus flourish in Kali Yuga. Any blarney can fill a collection plate.
That’s about a million to one ratio — just sayin’. Choose carefully out there, folks.
Meanwhile the good news is that even fake gurus teach well.
They have to study up and have the lingo down pat to pull it off.
So they’re telling everyone what I tell everyone: “Meditate.”
How’s that a bad thing, eh? Let them pass that plate!
Sure some of the techniques taught are real stinkeroos. Harmful even.
But look at all the advertising they do! They’re spreading truth!
They’re teasers whetting appetites for the real deal.
“Do you want to be happy forever? — then learn XYZZ Top Meditation.”
“Want to reach heaven NOW? — Try “The Mumbling Mantra method.”
“God’s inside you. Your journey begins with our $19.95 Roadmap Of The Mind.”
See? That’s great groundwork being done.
Folks get to wondering if freedom is possible.
Mindsets are being shaken.
And as a jester, I get to by-pass mere shaking.
I use a consciousness cudgel.
I get these big jokes and swing them at ignorance.
If you laugh, I feel like I just Hulk smashed ya.
Edg Duveyoung
If there is reincarnation, why doesn’t everybody remember their past life?
Originally Answered: If reincarnation is real, why aren't we allowed to remember our past lives?
I do remember my past lives.
Let me tell you about three of them.
Once I was a worm being on a distance planet.
— I ate sludge.
— I learned that a mono-diet was boring.
— I died on the hook of a child learning to fish.
In another incarnation, I was an arch demon.
— I destroyed to perfect my baddness.
— I learned I can waste a lot of time spinning my wheels in hatred.
— I was shocked to death by having one single thought of Lord Krishna.
Three billion years ago, I was a warrior in an alternate universe.
— I was wanton all day long in every category. Sex, food, power, war.
— I learned that, no matter my abilities, a paper cut could ruin an entire day.
— I died by choking on a grape.
See? Important lessons!!
THREE POSSIBLES
1— It takes billions of incarnations to finally become a decent human being.
2— I lied. I don’t remember any previous incarnations.
3— I didn’t lie in that I’ve lived every possible incarnation, but can’t remember them.
You too.
And it’s a blessing to not remember them all. Otherwise one would be frozen in fear.
When you’ve had a billion lifetimes, you’ve had a billion deaths.
So any ordinary event in your daily life could remind you of “how I once died.”
When I run to the curb to get the mail in a Wisconsin snowstorm, I kinda remember.
I don’t want to remember getting the mail and me dying on my front walk.
I don’t want to remember when cutting an onion I once sliced my arm’s main artery.
I don’t want to remember potlucks that served toxic potato salad.
I don’t even really want to remember last week.
Or remember about even just before I started writing this essay.
It’s always the case that remembering comes with uncorrected typos.
Every second of the past has errors that cannot be deleted — from God’s memory.
Obvious truths if God is God.
— God has imagined every possibility and impossibility.
— God knows all lives simultaneously. Right now for instance.
— God is always seeing me actually be deluded in every possible way.
— God knows an infinite number of “mes” when I know but one of them.
Like this we are - one thing at a time in God’s dramatic infinity of simultaneity.
We wend. We jump from branch to branch. We dive in head first.
Each move we make changes the script ahead.
And God’s waiting at the end of each of these journeys.
“How’d ya like that one, eh?” God will ask.
“I was really surprised one moment to the next.” You always say.
“Perfect!” God will say.
And then you dive right back in.
To be continued here:
Edg Duveyoung's answer to How do I meditate, being a beginner?
To go to the previous episode of Crits, go here:
Edg Duveyoung's answer to How does one open the heart chakra?
To go to the first episode of Crits, go here:
Edg Duveyoung
If you were God for one day, what would you do?
If I were God for one day, I’d do nothing.
Just like God, natch!
Oh, you’re going to insist God does something, eh?
And you’ll cite all my essays where I say, “God is the doer.”
And you’ll be all smug and wearing your best haughty face.
Of course, I have a tricky way out of my dilemma.
It’s about the word “nothing.”
What is a “no thing?” Answer: “an illusion with a name and form.”
Example: a jackalope. No such thing. Plenty of photos though.
We humans can make up anything and then pretend it’s real.
Any cartoon mouse story demonstrates this.
Aesop wrote stories about animals with human personalities.
Hindu scriptures have tens of thousands of fully sentient creatures.
Jesus doubled-down and said stones would “cry out.”
And you have God-the-Doer.
I rest my case.
What? I didn’t prove God does nothing?
All around are names and forms — nothings!
Every name and form is phenomenal - illusory — not really there.
Ask any scientist to differentiate one electron from another. Can’t.
Creation is merely imagineered into a quadjillion separate illusions.
It’s all God and has never been non-God.
To attend God’s nothings, instead, is a divine trap.
God had to expand but was already everywhere and when.
So, God got tricky. “I’ll go into nowhere.”
And you and me are the non-result. You’ve got a name and form, right?
That’s proof that you’ve been conceived by God.
And here’s the key concept: God did not do when creation was imagined.
Before creation, God was purely transcendent — beyond materiality.
Causeless. Processless. Still. Silent. Pre-mind. Whole. One.
And God did not lose this status when imagining.
We are all RIGHT NOW inside God’s transcendental Mind.
Somehow, mystically, God’s Oneness is intact.
We are not separate even if we insist we are.
What a relief, eh?
We’re pure holiness enjoying divine creativity.
“Divine” in that it is, of course, metaphysical. Anything goes!
Without changing, God imagines change.
Talk about your “Delta Force!” Mystical magic.
And this has been the exact truth told by every yogi ever.
Throughout history and before that, “silence” was the only truth.
And still is.
This is your skill to acquire: attuning the mind to maximum delicacy.
The more conscious your mind, the closer it gets to seeing God.
But no, not SEEING God. Rather BEING INSIDE GOD.
Silence is God’s Being, God’s Attention, God’s Presence.
Awareness is sacred.
Awareness is God’s sole reality disguised as your soul reality.
The good news: no need to escape an imaginary trap.
—The snake is merely a coiled rope.
—The burnt rope’s ash has no rope ability.
—The son of a barren woman cannot suffer.
Think about it.
Wait. I meant to say, “Don’t think about it.”
Edg Duveyoung
What is the main purpose of life to you?
Originally Answered: What is your purpose of living?
Purposeless is your purpose.
Stop whatever you can stop.
Instantly you’re taught that life continues.
Your willfulness is uninformed and lacks traction.
Note that sentence’s final period?
Abandon having a purpose.
God’s purpose is then recognized.
Creation is God’s story.
You don’t have a story.
You don’t author thoughts.
Abiding with what’s what is purposelessness.
Witness God in action.
Your heart and intellect are stunned.
Your littleness in the vastness becomes obvious.
Look 13,000,000,000 years into the past in any direction.
Every speck of the cosmos is God’s artwork.
God gives it all to you. “Here,” says God. “Enjoy,” says God.
No invoice. Free. The entirety put in your lap.
All of it for your witnessing pleasure.
Any particle of it able to tsunami the mind.
A glint in an eye can reveal another’s intent.
Consider how many glints you can see RIGHT NOW.
God’s mind highlights every thing in This Grand Dream.
The Universe looks at you with sparkly eyes.
Mute your voice.
Stay your intents.
Stop acting.
Just don’t.
God will then fill your emptied cup with magical elixir.
Drink deeply your draught of delight.
Then your inner eye acquires its bright spot.
To be continued here: Edg Duveyoung's answer to Why is it said that fasting burns karma?
The below link goes to the essay where Legs and Spots were about to kiss.
Edg Duveyoung
How can anything be prior to consciousness? Isn’t consciousness everything? If there
is a ‘prior to consciousness’ as Nisargadatta states in his later talks, then how can this
be known without first being conscious, hence consciousness first?
Science tries to answer:
Quark 1 here ………………affects…………………Anti-Quark there.
With nothing seemingly connecting them, it’s in yo face woo woo juju.
Thence and hence: everything.
After the Big Bang it all went to hadrons in a handbasket.
Newton refused to explain gravity, and said, “Hypothesis non fingo.”
He didn’t know how “action at a distance” could work. It spooked him.
Today’s scientists don’t know either. They’re spooked too.
Oh noes! Gravity, entanglement, and strings! How why!
But I will explain them all.
Yeah, I’m gunna do it. Can’t stop me.
This is about awareness being prior to consciousness.
See the error that language forced into the above sentence?
Awareness was as if veneered with the quality “being.”
Without firstly getting awareness’ permission! Hee hee ha ha ba dum tiss.
Awareness has been slandered. And oops, I just did it again.
I assumedly assertedly arbitrarily insinuated that awareness can be slandered.
We can’t talk about awareness.
That last sentence was sinful.
See?
Especially if there is already here.
Which it is except it’s not an it.
Here is defined by any definition.
Awareness is not a product of a nervous system.
This is proved EVERY SINGLE NIGHT in between your dreams.
In the dreamless state, your nervous system is not producing consciousness.
The yogi testifies, “Awareness can yet note dreamlessness.”
The yogi testifies, “Awareness is always here, even if the mind is not operating.”
The yogi testifies, “Awareness is that which is between all things — and non-things.”
The yogi testifies, “Awareness is the silence before and after each of God’s thoughts.”
The yogi testifies, “Awareness is — without being being or being is-ish.”
The yogi testifies, “I am out of this mind — which is God’s artwork. I witness it.”
Jesus testified,
“I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”
Science should study the sentience of stones. Just sayin’.
Aware stones? Must be about God’s omnipresence, ya know?
—Of course God would know every quark of any stone. Duh!
—Of course God could orchestrate a choir of quarks to sing Hosanna.
—Of course awareness has to be prior to any and all operations of materiality.
—Of course your next thought arises from THE UNKNOWABLE.
So watch your thoughts.
Peer within to catch a thought being born.
Then, when your mind is not looking, slip behind the curtains..
Find your Self unwaveringly beyond consciousness, soul, and creation.
But don’t expect you’ll be able to explain it.
The big brains tried already.
They beat around the bush that they refuse to see.
But you, you researcher you, you can dive into silence.
From that ocean you’ll come out dripping with divine light.
That’s how to BE. Sopping with sacredness.
Edg Duveyoung
What's the hardest truth of life?
You stole from God.
God wants it back.
So, give it back, duh!
What’s “it?”
What did you take from God?
What triggered your lust such that you stole it from God?
What would it be such that God is, decades hence, yet unrequited?
What treasure did you steal?
What was it?
You stole a soul
No, not “your” soul. A soul.
It has never been yours.
Yes, “it.” “It” because it is merely illusory.
Like a character in a book. Insentient.
But you had to have it.
You saw it. You wanted it. You stole it.
You saw it among the trillions of souls in God’s gaze and grace.
And you said, “That one right there is me.”
And off you ran with it into the vastness.
And now you know it was never yours.
Nor are its twists of destiny yours.
It’s not yours, but yet you insist it is.
—You lie and say you create every thought it has.
—You agonize when it processes suffering.
—You now say it is you in actual fact.
—You pretend it is alive.
Of course, you’ve never stolen.
You’ve never been or ever could be a soul.
You’re merely a witness. God’s audience.
You are beyond life’s and death’s theatrics.
You never have been. Or could ever be.
You are awareness even when consciousness ends.
So it’s simple.
Just close your eyes.
There. You just gave up being outer life.
Look within.
There. That’s you, the witness, at the mind’s base.
That silence is you, the witness.
Abide in silence until identity becomes clear.
Silence is the soul of every soul.
Edg Duveyoung
What are major spiritual awakening symptoms?
Originally Answered: What causes a spiritual awakening?
What causes a spiritual awakening?
Every single word of this question is promulgating error. As all words do.
Each word arbitrarily “affirms” duality as the valid basis of reality.
This is the problem: language is anti-enlightenment propaganda.
Read further at your peril. You’re being brain scrubbed.
Dictionary Poem
“a” — This word assumes creation can be jigsawed into separate pieces.
“awakening” — This word opines that “unawakened” is possible.
“causes” — This word asserts a causality that is feckful, practical, empowering.
“spiritual” — This word suggests that God’s wholeness is definable.
“What” — This word treats objects in your consciousness as non-fiction..
“?” — This is blasphemy in the presence of God’s omniscient countenance..
One Line Poem
Rage, rage against the lying about the light.
The above poems are purely indecipherable . . . unless God pretends they’re true.
To be blunt: language is a blindfold. Each word blinkers your ken.
As you read these words, you are being uncaught red-handedly denying God.
“red-handedly” — Bloody hands from your vivisection of God.
And now the bad news: Even God Cannot Cause.
Lord Brahma failed to create. Had to let go. THEN creation arose.
The Burning Bush said “I am that I am” not “I do what I do.”
“Be Here Now” is not “Do in the now.”
Volition is sinful.
IT’S ALL ONE.
This is the closest one can get to not being a liar.
Any deconstructive axiom is a violation against silence.
What to do?
NOTHING!
If a thing is found, simply look ANYWHERE ELSE.
No need to scold or stutter neti at it.
This is the maximum amount of doing allowed.
Turning from the mind always is in the direction of silence.
It’s not an “action” to stop acting. Letting go is ceasing acting.
Attend silence.
Avert the attention from everything.
That’s holy.
Turn around.
Stare into God’s eyes.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the ego (in the spiritual context) exactly? Could you explain it like you’re
talking to someone stupid? The concept isn’t just sticking for me for some reason. Is it
grandiosity or more than that?
There’s more than one ego.
Every mental instantiation of your ego is fresh. Created “on the spot.”
And then the real you, awareness, informs it. Gives it meaning. “That’s me.”
If awareness informs, it’s no wonder that you’re fooled into thinking ego is you
Let us now praise the pure ego. It is such a perfect mimic of God.
Consider a vibrating guitar string.
No matter the string, as it vibrates, silent nodes are sustained.
Silent nodes are places you can physically touch and yet not dampen the sound.
All the energy of the string is passing through this node without moving it.
That’s like the ego. It merely seems to be still in its purest most basic state.
Every sound ever — even mental sounds — have nodes of silence.
Silence is always there to be TOUCHED. Just close the eyes and let go.
“Seems to be still” but it is actually 100% active. Go figure.
But that illusory stillness, though relative, is a nice metaphor for Being.
It “seems” that you are a being. You “seem” to be an “existing.”
In your quietest state, you’re still “a processing.” It’s “pure me.”
Advaita says, “Dwell there. Learn about true silence at that level of consciousness.”
When one is the least active in personal consciousness, one discovers God. Being.
God does all the actions. We are the stillness in which these divine acts happen.
Reaching Being is relative transcendence. It seems comparatively silent.
By meditating and abiding in relative stillness, we can leap into metaphysical silence.
Realizing one’s identity is metaphysical silence is absolute transcendence.
See the two egos there?
If one identifies as Being, one is a saint mimicking God with perfect fidelity.
If one identifies as awareness (the Transcendent,) one is beyond sainthood.
Awareness is everyone’s identity.
Being is the ego’s primal state. Pure. Stain free. Cosmic.
Target BOTH the above by residing within and allowing processing to lessen.
Dwelling inside the mind innocently. Merely witnessing. This is the skill to learn.
Learn it by attending one’s sense of quietude that’s immediately seen as eyes close.
Yeah, I just said EVERY TIME YOU BLINK.
But DUH! why not STUDY this in longer bursts?
Closing the eyes allows one to research silence. Learn to savor it. Find it.
It’s your base and your portal into immortality.
But don’t take my word for this.
TAKE YOURS.
Quick. Go find your opinion.
Edg Duveyoung
How does omnipresent existence (Enlightenment) choose who or which person has to
realize the omnipresent existence (Enlightenment) from the context of everyone is
already enlightened but not realized?
It’s none of your business.
Don’t be spiritually nosey.
Be here now.
Don’t seek spoilers.
Only you are you.
To be unique is to be precisioned by God.
Your next thought is a gem.
Don’t expect mountains to come to you.
Adore what’s what instead of maybes.
Allow God to serve you your delicious mind.
And don’t ask for more you when your cup brims with self.
Know the perfection that is you.
Be surprised. Wuddjajust?
WAIT! WAIT! WAIT!
Okay, you want the truth?
Even Lord Brahma can’t answer the question.
YEAH I’M SAYING IT.
On His first try, Lord Brahma failed to create.
Two million years later, Lord Krishna advised.
“Karma is unfathomable.”
Right there, BAM, is the answer to any question or quest..
No certainty for you!
No one is allowed backstage.
Not even Lord Brahma. Get it?
THE DOUBLE DOWN WITH A TWIST
Those who shed identity transcend to backstage.
THE TRIPLE DOWN
Backstage is where you discover true identity.
THE QUADRUPLE DOWN
You’re going the wrong way; turn around; go within.
THE QUINTUPLE DOWN
Re-read QUADRUPLE DOWN.
Edg Duveyoung
What are the concepts of spirituality?
Action: That which an ego doesn’t do but which seems to be done by God.
Actuality: God’s clearest grasp of everythingness.
Angel: An astral entity that serves God. Usually.
Astral level: A venue where thoughts are as subtle as they are in dreams.
Awareness: “Pure identity” “Self” “God” “Silence” “Beyond all” — are placeholders.
Being: Awareness manifested as pure consciousness. Soul. Person. OM.
Causal level: A venue where every thought creates something real.
Dream: A healing process during sleep.
Duality: God plus what seems not to be God.
Ego: False self. Not sentient. Artifact of nervous system. Not always present.
Emotion: Existing is “felt.” “Love” is the basis of reality.
Enlightenment: Awareness dominates consciousness.
Evolution: Seeing more clearly the illusory nature of objects of consciousness.
God Consciousness: Knowing the divinity of all experiences.
God: The perfect manifestation of awareness. Existential Being.
Guru: A teacher, leader, guide, knowner, beyond the witness.
Heaven: Residing eternally in Being without using a nervous system.
Mantra: A sound with known effects if used properly.
Meditation: Reducing mental noise so silence can be more easily appreciated.
Mind: The venue for Being’s expressions — objects of consciousness.
Mindfulness: Attending the non-word aspects of the mind.
Nature: God’s intent.
Personality: Mental habits that constantly change.
Prayer: Worshiping silence to increase one’s Venn overlap with God.
Psychology: Feckless concepts about thoughts. Ego blarney.
Reality: All of the names and forms. Illusory. Relative. Dualistic.
Ritual: Perfect use of a human nervous system. Being in synch with awareness.
Saint: Enlightened being in one of the four enlightened states of consciousness.
Sensations: Existential News — broadcast 24/7.
Thought: “Primal Love” is made particular by naming its type.
Transcendent: The Changeless. Being is the portal to the transcendent.
Transcending. Increasing the attending of silence to approach Being.
Unity Consciousness: Mind indistinguishable from awareness.
Unreality: All the unexpressed possibilities.
Witness: Awareness plus consciousness. Person. Illusory self.
Yogi: Basic enlightenment.
Zombie: A freshly dead body twitching such that it freaks people out.
Edg Duveyoung
Do past life regression meditations really work?
Everything works.
This is about your DIVINE NATURE. Yes, yours.
What can God do? Answer: anything.
What can you create in a nightly dream? Answer: anything.
In your dream you can have a pet jackalope. Or . . . a past life.
One can imagine anything.
And one can imagine without knowing one is imagining.
Just so, when one relaxes and muses, inner creativity knows no bounds.
If you want to “day-dream” about having had a past lifetime, no problem.
Your mind will come up with a story of such detail even you will believe it.
Yeah sure you’ll believe it. In your nightly dreams, you believe everything, right?
This is the issue: your gullibility. Don’t even try to deny it.
So if you go to a past life regressionist or whatever, you’re easy pickin’s.
Your brain can spin tale after tale without getting out of breath.
And you and the regressionist will BELIEVE.
Your brain’s a genius scammer.
Take a bow. You deserve a Nobel Prize.
Double Down
So far, for your entire life, you’ve been inside a story you’re telling RIGHT NOW.
You’re your own character creating yourself.
I’M NOT KIDDING.

You want proof?
PROOF: Touch your thumb with your finger. Note that YOU DECIDE which one is touching the
other and which one is being touched. That’s your proof of being free to author any moment’s
meaning. CATCHIN’ YA IN THE ACT — IT’S WHAT I DO.
And now to end this essay in which I’ve kinda snubbed my nose at “past life regression,” let me
make amends by saying that I have had the following beliefs which I considered valid for whole
years’ worth of my life:
I was an expert swordsman in my last life. Famous even.
I refused to marry my wife in a previous incarnation because she was Catholic.
I was a sea captain whose ship sank with the life-savings of his whole village.
Oh yeah I did. We cling to our own romantic ventures and tragedies.
Solution:
Retire from the person business.
Transcend.
Stop faking you.
Edg Duveyoung
How does one achieve enlightenment?
You wait.
God authors your experiences. Constantly, seamlessly, lovingly.
Realizing God’s omnipresence disproves all your illusory certainties.
Think about it. God’s everywhere and everywhen.
God’s here right now — all religions agree.
If God’s here, then paying attention to any non-God-thing is horridly rude.
Think about it.
You’re at some serious gathering of people, and then God appears.
Suddenly no other topic has traction.
Talking about any controversial problem becomes JUST FLAT OUT SILLY.
What? God appears and you’re going to ask, —“How can I get rich?”
Nah, you’d not ask suchly.
Because: God.
When you know God is right here and now, all knowingness is fulfilled.
No matter how scrambled life seems, you trust God’s creative intent.
All you know is that God surrounds you, and nothing else matters.
You’ve been emptied of concern. No knowledge can distract from God.
Each moment is another divine mystery to embrace and by which to be embraced.
The entirety turns out to have always been God — in plain sight.
Even your eyes, Dear Reader, can see, and are seeing now.
Your mind’s every scintillation is God’s orchestration.
God is playing a symphony entitled, “You.”
So what you do is don’t do what God does.
Your role is to be wide-eyed and perfectly innocent.
Your quietness announces your witnessing and reverence.
Follow your silence within to a divine state of quiescence.
When you’re dwelling there, abiding there, staying there,
God comes, looks directly into you and says, “Perfect.”
Go inside.
Take a seat.
Wait there.
Edg Duveyoung
What exactly constitutes the identity of an individual, and how would one discover that
identity?
To find your identity, do a strip tease.
First remove all of the known universe surrounding your body.
That’ll show everyone you mean business from the get-go.
Next, slowly remove, your various veils. Let the audience imagine what’s coming.
Take off all your psychological clothing. Let your beliefs sensually drop away.
Gaze around at the vastness of nothingness for which you now have no concept.
Let it be, as if, “the most recent photograph of you . . . seductively posing.”
Now begin to list what’s left from which to withdraw your projected identity.
Muscles, bones, organs, etc. They’re not you. Leave your brain and nerves intact.
With an imaginary smile, watch them gasp that you’ve taken leave of your senses.
With no inputs, and no ways to outwardly express your mind, you’re almost naked.
Now everyone’s on tippy toes. Will you fully reveal the truest truey true you?
Now, with magnificence, let brain and nerves dissolve like smoke in the dark.
There you are. No one to see you. And you not one to see.
Not even witnessing your lack of materiality.
Blank innocence. Unabashed raw pure wild untamed awareness impossibly there.
And now beyond the beyond you hear God’s soundless applause.
You want more tease?
Every night, you as if go through that above removing of identity.
During dreamless sleep, one is not experiencing objects of consciousness.
But you are not unconscious. You’re alert without the nervous system taking notes.
Every night. You reach this incredible state of atonement. At ONE with God.
Every night. You prove you can reach and dwell for an hour or so with perfect silence.
So no excuses, eh. You do this every night.
Only one thing must change.
Go to sleep as usual, but stay alert.
Note, I didn’t say, “Stay conscious.”
Edg Duveyoung
Which is a powerful meditation book author?
Two books. Two enlightened gurus.
Sri Ramana Maharshi's book, "Talks," answers every significant question.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's book, "I Am That," does the same -- with a hammer.
Ramana's book has about 200 Sanskrit words that can be a chore for the newbie.
Nisargadatta's book uses far less Sanskrit, but the same concepts are covered.
Ramana is this gentle soul, and his answers are marked by clarity and calm.
Nisargadatta is a no-nonsence businessman who is stern and "yells."
Ramana and Nisargadatta both are equally clear. They sizzle with knowledge.
These two guys were not wasting the reader's time.
The newbie wiill think there's a huge amount of repetition, but keep reading.
Gradually intellectual clarity increases, until every page is seen adding nunaces.
Of course, intellectual grasp is not necessary, but concepts prop up motivation.
It takes many readings of these books for everything to "philosophically click."
But one needs SOLELY to grasp ONE thing: that silence within is RIGHT HERE.
"I am that silence -- not these passing thoughts" --- this is what must be realized.
If one attends the silence, this is true evolution that frees one from attachments.
Silence is an all-time reality in which thoughts occur.
A simple test proves this.
TEST -- Close the eyes and say the words, "I am" once a second about ten times.
When doing so, BETWEEN ITERATIONS NOTE THAT YOU'RE STILL THERE.
That's the silence. That's your presence. That's the true you. It's your identity.
Right there between your mentally spoken words. Easily seen.
Meditating's only success is dwelling with THAT silence.
Attending silence lessens the mind's conceit that thoughts are important.
Thoughts are fleeting. Silence is permanent. Silence is the Self.
Ramana and Nisargadatta are a great team.
One sees two perfect minds handle the same concepts. It hardwires knowledge.
You get to see them handle hundreds of questions from well-versed minds.
The questions are hard and demanding -- even angry. Tough, not fluff.
Their answers underline that clarity is built purely from silence -- not understanding.
But read those books! One gets "ready and steady" to deal with the real world.
Family and friends will want justifications instead of silence.
If you're able to handle the questions, then they can feel you're "reasonable."
We are addicted to reason, but if it gets us to start meditating, indulge!
So there you go. You don't need the books, but yeah probably you do.
The test above actually teaches a method for "seeing silence within."
No other instuction is needed, but a guru can come in handy when questions arise.
And let's face it.
YOU'RE NOW A GURU TOO.
You already know THE SECRET.
You may be a newbie, but you have solid, provable truth.
Give others the test above.
Let them "in on it" too.
Be a spiritual leader --show them their silence ON THE SPOT.
Watch their inner eyes widen.
Edg Duveyoung
What are the 10 kinds of people in the world?
Originally Answered: There’s three types of people in the world. What are they?
Almost any set of three will do, but I like: power, safety and esteem.
Hard to find someone whose personality doesn’t fit into one of those.
Suppose a vase gets broken.
The power person reacts:
“Who can I get to clean this mess?”
“Someone made a mistake. Who needs more training?”
“Ut oh, I’d better tell everyone to stand back while this gets attended.”
The safety person reacts:
“Someone is going to get cut. Maybe me.”
“I’ll think of a better place for a vase and suggest it.”
“I wonder if there’s an unbreakable vase?”
The esteem person reacts:
“The person who broke this vase should be ashamed.”
“Let the world pile on me for this mistake. I deserve it.”
“It’s just a vase. Why is everyone looking at me like that?”
Sorting folks out can be done in many issues — not just broken vases.
In business, school or riding a bike — whatever. Sorting into three groups — easy.
Try it. It’s fun. Appreciate how we are all tilted a bit to, say, a 2 instead of a 1, or a 3.
And so too when we go to meditate.
Motivation can be parsed. Reactions too.
And the good news is: enlightenment is everyone’s true category.
Doesn’t matter why a seeker seeks — any reason is perfect.
Doesn’t matter how a seeker seeks — all methods are good enough for starters.
Doesn’t matter what a seeker seeks — God will be found instead.
Go to your nearest airport. Take a seat and watch folks.
You’ll be able to judge anyone for any set of three.
And while you do this, you’ll construct a very large mirror.
But before you go.
How about a nice game of
Rock Paper Scissors?
Edg Duveyoung
Is gratitude only thanking the universe for what we have received, or is it more?
Of course, it’s more, but it’s more than more. It’s beyond morest.
One nestles into gratitude like it’s the pillow upon which one is about to sleep.
On the cusp of sleep, it’s all given up. Everything. We don’t care. “Just let me sink.”
One rushes into God’s silence with utter thankfulness. Any of us.
What else but that a grateful mind expands beyond measure with love?
Gratitude is transcending. No words allowed. Not even worshiping prayers.
Just suddenly one evaporates upon seeing a wafting mote in a slanted sunbeam.
The most ordinary moment means exactly everything. It’s all wowzers.
Gratitude is a nice attitude and a better altitude. We see farther if we’re happy.
“Happy” means “aware.” Because any possibility is wondrous. This, for instance.
Even right now, no matter what, gratitude is appropriate.
Even on a deathbed, gratitude is grace.
Only the grateful know peace.
No matter the when, saying, “Thanks” is correct.
Because, hey, I mean really. Just about everyone on Earth says, “God’s here now.”
God is next to you watching you with GOD’S MIND witnessing your perfection.
Each trick of consciousness fascinates you like a baby discovering “my hand.”
No wonder God stares at your staring and is grateful for your beautiful innocence.
Yeah, that’s the secret. Gratitude goes both ways. We can tune in to God’s delight.
If one is grateful, one is God in action. Doesn’t matter what action. It’s all sanctified.
Made sacred by you and God simply being aware of any intent’s holy base.
Gratitude is the only emotion one is allowed to fake, because it can’t be faked.
So here’s what to do as soon as this essay ends:
Get up on your feet. Stand still and steadied. Arch the back taut.
Bend your head back so you can stare “straight up.”
And be ready to say “Thank You, God.” But don’t say it. Just look up silently.
Now
Edg Duveyoung
Does studying the possibilities of meditation before doing it make the act of meditation
a more reliably beneficial experience, once you get to doing it?
Everyone says, “No.” They should say, “Yes and No.”
This is about dyeing a piece of cloth.
We dip cloth into a vat of dye; we hang it in the Sun to dry — and the color fades.
So we dip the cloth again and hang it to dry and again welcome its fading.
We know that gradually the color will no longer fade that much. The dye gets “fast.”
That means the color has deeply penetrated the fibers.
See? The dyeing and fading of the colors is a whole system.
Same deal with meditation.
We dive into silence — the color of God.
We then present this color in outer life to show “what we’re dyeing for.”
That is: we find silence within and then express it in how we live.
Living “fades” ones clarity about silence and how it is integrated in outer life.
So we dip back in and fade, repeatedly, and gradually our nervous system “gets fast.”
To study meditation means to learn about the mechanics of the thinking process.
If one becomes “hep” to the dye/fade nature of evolution, then it DOES SERVE.
—Not that an intellectual grasp deepens meditation’s inward stroke.
—But that conceptual clarity fortifies motivation to meditate.
—Outer life is the “other half” of meditation.
We’re challenged a thousand ways per day. We fade. “Why try?” gets asked.
If we understand the whole system, we know that outer life is annealing the soul.
Outer life gives one “practice being silence.”
We meditate again to experience silence in its purity and get saturated with God.
Gradually we become “God fast.”
So yeah, spiritual teachers out there, hammer your students’ noggins.
Drill it into them that this is a “long haul.”
Their souls’ hands are moving on the Great Mandela’s clock.
Makes sure they understand the role of understanding. It’s their armor.
And they’ll need it. They will be attacked by the ever looming illusions of life.
“You meditate? You a vegetarian tree hugger too?”
“I gotta meditate.” “Come on, skip it, we’re late.”
“Not another loss; where’s all this practical life improvement I was promised?”
“Meditation? How’s that making money? No time for that.”
“My life’s too hectic right now to meditate. I’ll get to it later after I . . . “
“Outer life stinks. Who wants MORE awareness of this karmic gauntlet of mine?”
“I thought I’d be enlightened by now. I need a new guru.”
“I gotta do bhakti instead of gyana. I need a second job to save up to go to India.”
“I’m wearing rudraksha beads, and sitting on a deer skin, and meditation still sucks.”
See?
Armor is needed or the student might quit meditating before silence is made fast.
So, yeah, encourage your students to study the concepts of enlightenment.
And throw pot lucks for which you supply huge tubs of pistachio ice cream.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the meaning of Tao?
Joshu once asked Nansen, ‘What is Tao (the Way)?’ Nansen answered, ‘Ordinary mind is Tao.’
How can this be?
The Tao is God united with God.
How could this be ordinary?
Your mind right now for instance just askin’, does it feel? HOLY?
When you eat breakfast or pay a bill or maintain your carbon footprint? SACRED?
Have you ever even one time done even a very tiny act perfectly? DIVINE?
You can’t walk on water, right?
You have 14,392 desires still mobbing your mind, right?
So, no way your mind is the Tao, right?
How does a guru explain this?
How could you ever believe such a thing?
How come nobody is miraculous but we’re all supposed to be?
Answer 1
It’s about specks on the horizon. “
Answer 2
It’s about a chess master’s smirk.
Answer 3
It’s about setting yourself on fire and rolling downhill.
Huh?
—1 You have seen many specks that approached you and arrived massively.
——-Train seen way way down the tracks.
——- Airplane in sky coming in to land.
———— This is how all thoughts are born and arise in the mind.
—2 There are many stories of chessmasters seeing ahead.
——-The TV commentator says, “There, That smirk. He thinks he’s won.”
——- Most of the pieces are still on the board but it’s a certainty.
———— This is how a guru sees the student as enlightened already.
Ah. That’s it. If you look closely enough at life, it becomes holy, sacred, divine.
A delicate mind can witness a thought’s birth. It sounds like God speaking.
Every aspect of being normal is God blessing you with ordinary thoughts.
If God is giving you every single thought, WHO NEEDS ENLIGHTENMENT?
No wonder the yogi laughs and laughs. 100% Solid God and you want more?
So yeah, expect the guru to say stupid stuff to you that’s not stupid.
And that includes setting yourself on fire and rolling down hill being spiritual.
Proof?
You want proof again?
You want proof that all snakes are coiled rope?
You want to see someone on fire and it’s peachkeeno just-fine and okay?
You always ask for the hard proofs.
Okay, here’s how a yogi sees your future already being a done deal.
Here’s your ordinary mind on fire having fun right now.
—3
Edg Duveyoung
What do enlightened people see when they look at someone else? Do they see the ego
or the real self beyond the ego, the person doesn’t see in himself? Or both?
The yogi sees what cannot be seen.
When you look into the eyes of a yogi, the yogi sees your secret you.
And this changes your entirety.
From then on, it’s true — “you” can be known, seen, realized.
When a yogi sees you, you want to know you too.
You gasp. Who is this yogi to know me before I know me?
You get kinda jealous, kinda embarrassed, kinda envious.
A divine seed sprouts and sends tendrils into every crevice of mind.
A thirst to know Self demands to be quenched.
A Mother calls. A Father calls. God calls. “Come home.”
Your inner eye gets stingy.
Astral tears whelm and spiritually brim.
“Come home.”
In your vastness a single candle has been lit.
That’s your porch light.
“Come home.”
STOP THE PRESSES. Just now as I wrote the above “come home” I heard it spoken.
A background youtube video had a discussion going.
Someone said, “Come home” PERFECTLY TIMED WITH MY HITTING THE “ KEY.
Kinda scary to hear God orating your essay.
This synchrony stuff happens all day long to me.
Something calls.
And not just me.
Edg Duveyoung
How can I ‘watch the watcher’? Every time I catch myself thinking it’s gone in that
instant.
I wish I was a Zen master.
I’d hit ya with a meditation stick — a nyoi.
I’d say, “Don’t ask me to find you when you just now said you caught yourself. Duh!”
The Self is omnipresent.
Whatever else . . . . . . . . . . . is also Self. Duh!
Creation is Selfish.
Go ahead. Examine creation in any manner.
You’ll end up touching a movie screen.
But you won’t talk about the screen.
Instead you’ll insist you’re touching what is projected on the screen.
The Self is the screen of everyness.
Anything touched is Self.
So then, what did the questioner experience?
It was the Self. Duh!
Are you even reading these words?
What did the Self seem to be?
—It seemed to be somehow “my” Self — says the questioner.
—It seemed to be somehow “gone-ish.”
—It seemed to be somehow “instantaneous-ish.”
—It seemed to be somehow “catchable.”
—It seemed to be somehow “watchable.”
—It seemed to be somehow “seemable.”
The Self is the blind men’s elephant. Duh!
There’s a remedy for the questioner’s affliction.
Recognition.
Freshly cognized by God arrives creation hot and sizzling in the mind.
Recognition.
If it was good enough for God to cognize, one’s job is obvious.
Recognition.
Paper cuts and nuclear war and pistachio ice cream are Self. Duh!
Recognition.
Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu, Lord Buddha??? Self! Self! Self! Duh!
Recognition.
To appreciate God’s cognitions, let the mind perfectly deliver them.
Recognition.
Don’t add. Don’t subtract. Let God’s thoughts flow, unresisted, though you.
Recognition.
Short answer: The questioner is obviously the Self.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the ego?
Ego is a whore.
Ego is a tawdry congressor.
Ego is anything, everything, all things — it insists.
Ego is a plagiarist declaring authorship of every single thought.
Ego is an identity thief who tries to steal GOD’S IDENTITY.
Ego is a dodgy, noisome, sketchy, daft twit,
Ego is a one-lie liar. “That’s my-me-mine.”
Ego is a child dressing up in parents’ clothes and shoes.
Ego’s original sin is: “assuming it is a sentient entity.”
Ego, yours for instance, insists it’s reading this essay.
Ego is peppering the vastness with specks of “me.” All else ignored.
Ego says, “Respect my power. This mind is my home. I run this joint.”
Ego pretends. “Behold my magnificence as I mow my lawn.”
What’s not to love, eh? Darling little attempts to assert a hegemony.
The ego is so innocent. Can’t be blamed. It’s merely an artifact of consciousness.
Ego claims it is in charge; then disappears, and life proceeds without it.
Every moment is so wondrous, no surprise then at the ego grabbing credit.
Who wouldn’t want to zoom around in a robot? Such allure.
But next time you catch yourself being a person draped in glory, look around.
Your ego, see? It is such a tininess in the endlessness.
What ego takes credit for is insignificant. A penny stolen from Fort Knox.
But when you scan inner and outer horizons, THERE’S YOUR COSMIC EGO.
That’s the ego that needs to be reined in — not the little one.
We can train the little one to obey all sorts of rules, but who can train the Sun?
You can.
Oh yeah you can. Don’t be looking at me with eyes squinted into tight slits.
You woke up this morning after a dream. QED You ended an inner vastness.
After a dream, you say, “I dreamed a dream, and then I woke up.”
See? You’re the Lord Shiva of each dream’s reality.
All you need to realize is that you can as easily end the outer dream.
No galactic structures need to be disturbed.
Just turn from “reality” as you turn away from a half remembered dream.
Every morning you completely abandon many universes. Poof they all go.
Not a hint of shame on your part for ending every dream denizen’s “life.”
So just turn.
Turn inward. Toward the you that tells Andromeda how to rotate.
Look for a yet brighter light that bedims the Sun to a spark.
Do what you do every night — end all the illusions.
Just need to maintain awareness between dreams — that’s the skill to acquire.
It takes a lot of practice.
And now, here’s the strange part:
Once you can tell Andromeda how to rotate, you’ll be okay as it is.
You’ll be okay with how everything is. Or isn’t.
Nothing to add. Nothing being missed.
Then you’ll be Mohammed.
Walking to the mountain.
Edg Duveyoung
Why do people seek Enlightenment?
For all the wrong reasons. Emphasis on “all.”
Creation is God’s ongoing exploration of wrongness.
Huh? Yeah, think about it. God’s perfect. Anything else not so much.
So if you are seeking enlightenment, just sayin’, maybe consider the odds.
For instance, you have to understand this:
—The Sun cannot see its own shadow.
—But God found a way to see God.
Try to wrap your head around that one.
“What am I?” asked God.
“One” was God’s next thought.
“Not all that impressive. Why not at least be two?” God mused.
“Two instantly makes three when added to the initial one. It gets messy fast.”
“With three the abyss opens, and infinity waltzes right through that doorway.”
“And there’s three types of infinity.”
“All the possibilities need to be populated with every manner of creature.”
“This includes human beings who will be bothering Me to be in cahoots.”
“So, I’ll have to figure something to keep them out of My hair.”
“I’ll make life as if filled with pleasures to be sought instead of Me.”
— further mused God.
“Some of those humans will hack the system and find Me.””
“I’ll have to keep that on the down-low, or I’ll won’t get enough wrongness done.”
“I’ll shunt them into Vaikuntha, so they don’t keep incarnating and whistleblowing.”
— machinated God.
“Those still ignorant will have to have blarney experts to keep them confused.”
“They must be diverted, or they won’t continue finding new ways to be wrong.”
“So at the beginning of the end, when things go kablooey, I’ll send in Edg.”
“Edg’ll explain Me using pistachio ice cream and left-elbows for metaphors.”
“That’ll take until the end of Kali Yuga.”
“So yeah. I’ll get all My exploring done if I insert Edg as a diversion.”
— smirked God.
YES YOU HEARD IT HERE.
1— People seek enlightenment because IT’S BETTER THAN THIS.
2— And Edg is personally responsible for God’s success.
You didn’t think you’d get a two-fer when you started reading.
That’s how I roll. I’m THE DIVERTER.
Even now you keep reading when I already typed the main point long ago.
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA Even when I derisively laugh at you, you keep reading.
Even this last bwhaha.
Seriously? Still here?
Go to silence wouldja just?
Edg Duveyoung
What is the best superpower to have?
Arjuna’s superest superpower was his friendship with Lord Krishna.
Arjuna had been given all of the divine weaponry of Lord Indra, his Father.
Some of these weapons were so potent that Arjuna refused to use them in the battle.
He could have single-handedly won the war. But his deeper wisdom prevailed.
Meanwhile, his evil brother, Karna, had a divine weapon that was horrific.
Imagine the scene. There Karna was. He had the weapon.
He had the nervous system that could use it.
If he had used it, the bad guys would have won the war.
Why didn’t Karna use that weapon against Arjuna?
Answer:
Karna’s weapon had to be “triggered” by a mantra.
And when Karna went to use the weapon, HE FORGOT HIS MANTRA.
See the weakness of superpowers?
They are karmically dependent.
Can’t use them if it’s not in one’s divinely wrought destiny.
The battle in The Mahabharata was decided before the battle began.
The bad guy was given a choice by Lord Krishna.
“Take my army or take Me.” That was Lord Krishna’s offer to the bad guy.
Lord Krishna’s army was no joke. Every soldier shone with splendor.
Lord Krishna doubled down and said, “My army will fight, but I won’t.”
See the epic moment there? The bad guy took the army instead of GOD!
I mean really. Come on. Wouldja just? Who picks so badly?
And that’s the point. Bad guys pick badly; good guys get God.
Arjuna went into battle with half his quiver empty, but he had Lord Krishna.
Karna took all his weapons but NOT THE GRACE OF GOD.
It was a done deal. Karna was a dead man walking.
And, just to be fair, let’s note that Arjuna was very stubborn.
Arjuna had this flaw — he was attached to dharma.
He always followed the rules of righteousness to the letter.
He thought of these rules as golden absolutes. Oopsie!
So get this. In the middle of the battle, Arjuna refused to cheat.
Lord Krishna told Arjuna to cheat by removing Karna’s head “unfairly.”
Karna had his back turned, and Arjuna refused to attack until Karna was “ready.”
Lord Krishna knew that Karna could not be beat by Arjuna playing fair.
So Lord Krishna said, “Heck with being a gentleman, Arjuna, clobber that guy.”
And Arjuna started arguing with Lord Krishna about dharma instead.
See? Even Arjuna did not fully appreciate Lord Krishna.
Finally Arjuna did the right thing by doing the wrong thing.
God’s wisdom was obeyed instead of Arjuna’s own best advice to himself.
THAT’S THE SUPER POWER.
Let God do it. God will remember the mantra if needed.
Karna didn’t realize where his thoughts were coming from.
Short answer: “Let go. Let God.”
Go figure, eh?
Who does not already have this power?
You do for sure or you wouldn’t be reading this obscure essay.
Yeah, I’m saying it.
Put on your cape.
No wait. Don’t merely put on your cape.
DON YOUR CAPE, YOU HERO OF GOD.
DON IT.
Edg Duveyoung
Why is it good to meditate?
Originally Answered: How effective is meditation?
Originally Answered: How effective is meditation?
Not very.
Meditating progress is in itty bitty steps.
You wanted to hear otherwise, eh?
We want a mental technique that significantly clears out the cobwebs.
But if there were such a technique, it would be taught in every kindergarten class.
Instead what we are being offered is pinpricks. Any technique: a pinpricker.
Imagine a thick piece of black paper that entirely blocks light.
Now, imagine using a pin to punch a tiny little hole in that paper.
Hold it up to the light. A little bit of light comes through. Insignificant.
That’s meditation.
We have this massive blockage between us and the light.
We look inwards at silence, and one tiny hole gets punched.
Again and again, we attend silence, and imperceptibly the bits of light add up.
Like the hands of a clock moving — there but not experienced.
After a year, ho boy, now we have quite a few holes.
Now, there’s “some” light coming in, but it’s slow going.
We get used to the increased light too quickly.
So we never appreciate how much we’ve “lit up.”
As we keep at it, the paper becomes more and more HOLY. Heh.
More holely means more clarity about the nature of divine light.
The quietness of light begins to come to the fore. It begins to be sentient.
As the blockage gets so thoroughly punctured, the paper becomes as if transparent.
Like looking through a screen door. This is close to enlightenment.
It’s a bother that we cannot see our own progress very easily, because our spiritual eyes adjust to
the increased brightness. This is where relative knowledge comes in handy. If we understand the
mechanics of the meditation process, we can justify keeping at it and being patient and also being
assured that we’re making headway.
Of course, you don’t need to meditate. God could instantly enlighten you.
Yeah, I said it. God could do you a solid. And doesn’t.
Why?
Because you told God, “Under NO circumstances are You to rescue me. I want to do this on my
own. No matter what I say, let me experience full blindness and a gradual coming to the light. I
want very tiny increments in clarity to slowly mount up.”
Yeah you did. Don’t be scrunchy-faced. You asked for this.
God delivered. No reneging on the deal!
So we abide. Maybe meditation’s benefits will be knowable. Maybe not.
Why such faith to meditate despite poor odds of validation?
Because silence is its own reward.
Closing the eyes is fun. Silence is wondrously enough.
Best news: you can quit. Go ahead. Doesn’t matter.
Next lifetime you’ll pick up where you left off.
Once a yogi never again a non-yogi.
Something inside stirs.
Edg Duveyoung
Who presently, is a real spiritual guru, and why?
There’s two answers.
1— Gurus are plentiful. Everywhere.
2— Silence is the sole guru.
One
Here at Quora I teach the concepts of Advaita Vedanta. I stay very close to accepted knowledge. I
dress it up with humor, but if you read my essays, you’ll get a decent presentation of all the major
axioms of Advaita Vedanta. In this respect I am a “guru.” There’s tons of Advaita teachers online
who are better or equal to my level of teaching. Some of them are quite biggly brained. I can’t
compete with them when it comes to being scholarly. If my essays seem simplistic, get yourself
someone better. Just read at Quora or google “Advaita teachers.” The basic asset of a true guru is
A SINCERE SEEKER. If you’re sincere, no worries.
But, in actuality, every experience in waking life teaches one “something.” I have had deep wisdom
conveyed to me by a two year old kid when I asked, “Don’t the pebbles on this path hurt your bare
feet?” The kid replied, “Hurts my feet but not my walking.” Can’t get much deeper than that one,
eh? Like this all of life conspires to instruct us in large and little ways. My most viewed essay
attests to how life lessons can come from the most unexpected sources, e.g. a nine year old brain
damaged boy.
But if you want a true guru — a living master who is enlightened — then look for silence in the vibe.
A quiet presence, depth in the gaze, kindness, and on and on we can cite, but if you visit ten
gurus, you’ll quickly sort them out according to your intuitive take. You can go wrong, but not that
wrong. Any guru out there should be fairly adept at teaching the basics. If you already are
philosophically-hep, then picking a guru will be a more refined process. No matter what, if one is
“picking a guru,” one is actually seeking to get help evolving, and THOSE DESIRES ARE ALWAYS
FULFILLED. God will have you learn from a lot of barefoot kids or maybe one special master — but
you will be educated, and inspired by the outer teachers to look within.
Two
Every real life guru who you can find will be inferior to your inner guru.
A fully enlightened outer guru is going to have a large following, and you’ll be lucky to get a few
minutes of “hands on” teaching per month from this guru. You’ll get tons of group experiences,
but one-on-one teaching by a true guru is precious to great degree. But the inner guru, your
own silence within, constantly attends you FROM BEFORE BIRTH. You were conscious of
silence in the womb when you noted THAT which was there between the beats of your mother’s
heart.
And now, between the beats of your mind’s “mental offers,” is silence.
You might label this silence as “a sense of quietness.” Doesn’t matter.
Inside your mind if you pay attention to “what’s what” when you are “waiting for the next thought
to arrive,” you’re ATTENDING THE TRUE GURU.
To the degree that you can be distracted from attending silence, you are “that far” from
enlightenment. If you practice meditating, you note your betterment in that you’ll find yourself
more and more able to abide with “what’s what” and be far less likely to go “chasing after
thoughts.”
With more practice, you’ll find that “what’s what” is silence and silence is sentient and then it’s
“you,” and then finally it’s GOD’S ACTUAL BEING.
But even exactly right now, if you witness what’s what when you’re not seeing a thought, you’re
attending God. Nay, YOU’RE WORSHIPING GOD when you attend silence.
Before God said, “Let there be light,” silence was already God’s Being.
Get it?
That’s God in God’s PUREST FORMLESSNESS — residing in you.
Right now.
Whoa, eh?
Edg Duveyoung
According to Advaita Vedanta, is there a real and everlasting you?
Yes, but not with those three features: real and everlasting and you.
“The real” is obviously not “the unreal.” Advaita says, “You’re both.”
“Everlasting” means time never stops. Advaita says, “Awareness is prior to time.”
“You” is constantly changing. Advaita says, “Stillness is the basis of change.”
How to find your sentient immovable identity?
Well let’s look for it.
Am I in outer life? Nah, beyond the skull is cacophony — not still, timeless or me.
Am I my conscious thoughts? Nah, Thoughts are about things not no-thingness.
Am I my emotions? Constantly changing and skewing the intellect — nope.
Am I the ego? Me be a ghost in the goop works? Ew.
Am I my core axioms of morality? Nah, they evolve, devolve, and dissolve.
Am I my intuition? Nah, that conniving self serving hunch-machine is often wrong.
Am I a soul? Maybe for 154 billion trillion years, but then it would become a bore.
Am I the universe? A mere fleeting event! Big Bang was a firecracker.
Am I the whole of creation? Who wants to be merely half divine?
Am I God? The job is already taken.
Am I the witness of ALL THIS? Only until it ain’t.
Am I? Why limit myself?
Am? Just a titch too is-ish. But close. Nice try!
_______________? Very close but a bit too question-markish.
_______________ Good attempt. Just gotta dump the blank-ish part.
() Null sets are for nerds. But I like how they think about nothing.
ANSWER
None of the above.
Edg Duveyoung
How can one believe in characters like Hanuman, the monkey or even a hominid who
talks, reasons and flies and then even uproots a mountain and then flies back with the
mountain?
Why not? You are allowed to believe in oxygen.
Lord Hanuman is as real as oxygen.
Why? Anything in a dream has equal realness.
All’s fair in dreamland. Cows jump over the moon and all that.
Oh yes I am too being serious.
To be blunt: ALL THIS IS MERE DREAM STUFF. YOU’RE NOT AWAKE.
Bad news: There’s no dreamable noise that can jolt you awake.
No, I’m not saying you’re laying in bed dreaming. Don’t be silly.
The “what’s real?” question was answered 5,000 years ago. Keep up wouldjajust?
Don’t even with that face you’re making. Big brainers already figured this.
You’re certain about air being vital without having proof you own a body.
But oh forswear if someone thinks God could work wonders through ANY MIND?
Lord Jesus said stones would cry out in indignation. Kinda not so easy to believe, eh?
Moses said he got the Ten Commandments from a Burning Bush. As if, eh?
Stephen Hawking said black holes evaporate. Six billion folks go, “Whaaa?”
We all get to have our own private reality, and there’s no other type.
Everyone’s point of view is perfectly unique. Emphasis on the word “perfect.”
What? If you had my exact DNA and my exact upbringing, you’d differ from me?
It’s all decided. It’s a lock. Determination City, baby! No choice.
And it’s not about me. It’s the aforesaid 5,000 year history of deep thinkers that say it.
What? No one told you? Well, now you know.
Know what? Now you know the concept “Lord Hanuman.” It’s a seed.
Somewhere within something now sprouts. You can help it grow. Or not.
It’s your dream. If you don’t want any jackalopes or unicorns, I’m okay.
But before you go. Let me attest. There’s an inner Lord Hanuman.
Inside, resplendent, residing in your heart. Awaiting your holy requests.
So get holy by escaping the dream and THEN make some requests.
See what happens when Lord Hanuman’s sacred gaze turns thy way.
Edg Duveyoung
Why did God create the world and everything in it?
Originally Answered: Why did God create the universe?
The True Story Of Why God Created The Universe
Edg: Hey God, I notice there’s only You and me, so what’s up with that?
God: What’s missing? I like how it is now. I’m transcendental effulgence, and you get to be
effulgently reflective. I’m Identity and, you’re a mirroring being. Nice! What needs to be
explained?
Edg: I get that. I do, but You know. Something’s missing. Something big.
God: Bigger than infinite awareness?
Edg: Yeah, hmmm, well, but maybe smaller? Even if smaller than infinity, it could still count as
“something big.” I just have this hard to define itch I can’t scratch.
God: So, hmmmm, let’s see. How about this: in My backroom, I’ve been tinkering with this
little thing I like to call “light.” If you want, I could add it to Our Mix and see how that does
ya.
Edg: Great! Let it rip.
God: There. How’s that? Pretty cool, eh?
Edg: Whoa! Whoa! What are these things between me and You?
God: Oh, I had to give you eyes so you could know the light.
Edg: Very strange. All of your effulgence now expressed as light. It’s mesmerizingly
kaleidoscopically multivariagatedly complexicational! These eyes You gave me are blasting me
with a tsunami of particularity. Whoa, I never knew that effulgence was so effulgent.
God: I knew you’d like it, but wait, there’s more. I can give you a prototype to try out that
lets you zoom around anywhere in this vastness-that’s-not-quite-infinite. From any vantage
you can see what I look like from that angle. I call the prototype, “a nervous system.” You’re
gunna love it. Here, try this on.
Edg: Whew! Talk about your tight fit. I’m crammed into this little structure, but, yeah, okay, cool. I
can get around everywhere, and yowsers, what are these things?
God: Those are names and forms. Everywhere you go has to have a way to tell it from any
other where you presently aren’t, so there’s names and forms. Like this thing here is called
an Apple.
Edg: Whoa! Apple. Neatsokeeno. I’m in love. What is this thing?
God: Don’t just admire. Pick it up.
Edg: Ahhhhhhh, what is this? It has bogglishous constancy. I’m swooning.
God: You got that right. That mere apple is your ticket to anywhere. If you study it by having
your nervous system dwell upon the name and form, “apple,” you will be able to deduce all
the rest of creation’s names and forms. For instance, if you ask yourself, “Where does this
apple come from?” you will instantly have these other names and forms all come to you.
Edg: Holy moly what an instrumentation this thing is. Suddenly I know what a tree is and that
maybe this apple’s tree grew in a place called Michigan which was on this thing with the name and
form “Earth” and “planet,” and whoa, now there’s this thing, Sun and whoa, stars and whoa,
galaxy.
God: Slow your roll there, Tiger. Don’t let all flood in. Take your time.
Edg: AND TIME! Is there no end to what this nervous system thing does? With time I can really
absorb each aspect of Your Identity. I see now I’m going to need a lot of time. A lot. Lots. A lot of
lots.
God: Yeah, that’s a glitch I still haven’t quite worked out. With a nervous system you can go
anywhere, but even all the time will not be enough to explore endlessness.
Edg: But still, this is quite the invention. I love being inside this thin, and I just want to zip around
and get the feel of it.
God: Take it for a test spin. I suggest you first zoom over to the Garden of Eden where
there’s a couple of surprises, and then see what happens after that.
Edg: Terrif. I’ll send you a “postcard.” You need to invent “postage stamps.”
God: Have fun! But just in case you get lost out there, remember how you got inside that
gizmo in the first place. Just step outside the nervous system, and there I will be as usual. In
fact, if you practice getting out regularly, after a while even while you’re traveling, you’ll still
be able to always see Me too. Best set up — never know where you’re going next, but always
seeing Me too.
Edg: Got it. Garden of Eden here I come.
God: There’s apples there!
Edg Duveyoung
How do you silence a busy mind?
The busiest mind is contained by silence. No doing required to note quietness.
It takes only a little practice to learn how to settle down.
Practice simply means “closing the eyes.”
Instantly relaxation starts for even the beginner without the help of the intellect.
Merely closing the eyes does the trick. No heart-felt deep intent required.
Do this regularly at a regular time and results are assured.
But some may say, “My mind is abuzz. Ideas come to me that enthrall me, delight me, entice me,
allure me, and, well, BOTHER ME. I can’t resist indulging in all these lines of thought. I’m helplessly
processing a relentless onslaught of juicy things to consider.”
The yogi says, “In waking life, we routinely do not think about many pressing issues when we are
dealing with other matters — even tying one’s shoelaces can momentarily divert the mind. This
shows that a busy mind is easily conquered by anyone. Sleep, too, demonstrates one’s power to
end ALL OF WAKING LIFE’S DIRE NEEDS for hours.”
And the good news is that even a busy mind is saturated by silence.
Saturated like the movie screen is always there no matter what’s projected on it.
Silence is like water in milk, salt in seawater, the witness in thinking processes.
But try to get a fish to notice water.
Same as trying to get a mind to notice God.
What to do to stop doing?
Again, close the eyes. That’s the maximum amount of effort allowed.
As we reside and observe, there’s one rule: “Abide.”
“Abide” means “we intend to be neutral towards the antics of the mind.”
Yes, we can go trailing off into a mental cul de sac. We simply return to abiding.
Yes, the bird chirps outside the window. We simply return to abiding.
Yes, the tummy just gurgled. We simply return to abiding.
Yes, that term paper is due. We simply return to abiding.
Yes, the cat is staring at me. We simply return to abiding.
Yes, life’s horizon seems to darkly loom. We simply return to abiding.
Abiding is like a mother hugging a crying child and saying, “There there.”
Abiding hugs our squirmy mind on our lap’s loving stillness.
Abiding reveals that silence is vast like space: bejeweled with starry thoughts.
That vastness is always there to be known, realized, recognized, admitted.
Thoughts are as if distant birds flying, sparks in the night, motes in a sunbeam.
Of course, you CAN DO the following, just saying:
— Darkened room in which to meditate?
— No food in the stomach?
— Some asanas to prepare the body to relax?
— Some pranayama to quickly get the body significantly quieter?
— A short nap if the day has been harrying, and then meditation?
— Phone off, others told you’re not to be disturbed?
— Regularity of practice sessions?
— Getting good night’s sleep?
— Intellectually grasp the mechanics of the mind?
— Have friends who also meditate?
— No intoxicants still impacting?
We prepare for meditation like this, but but but . . .
Even in a noisy jostling bus seated next to a stranger, you can find silence within.
In fact, sometimes those are the best meditations, go figure.
Delightfully naughty thought:
Even if you fake meditating and just sit there thinking, your outer life will improve in that others will
see you doing it and be positively modeled unto. They’ll think of you more respectfully for being a
spiritual explorer, and perhaps they’ll be inspired. God will give you credit for this spreading of the
knowledge! A valid merit badge!
Worst possible truth:
One cannot eat pistachio ice cream during meditation.
Edg Duveyoung
How can love be defined spiritually?
Originally Answered: How is love explained in spirituality?
Awareness is love.
No not the love most folks think is love for spouse, parent or child.
No not the love most folks think is their love of God.
No not the love of the Good Samaritan for the wounded Israelite.
No not the love that St. Peter had for Jesus Christ.
No not the love Arjuna had for Lord Krishna.
All those loves are relative, conditional, limited.
Harsh, eh? We so want our types of love to be love-love, pure-love, true love.
But ya gotta be smacked around and braced against the wall about this.
All of the above wonderful types are weak teas compared to awareness.
All the above types of love are definable. End of debate. I win.
Now I see that look on your face. You think defining is just wonderful.
This is the problem with you. You’re addicted to your definitions.
Awareness does not stint. There’s no such thing as semi-awareness.
All other types of love “hold back a bit.” There’s tit-for-tat fine print.
Awareness never rejects that which is witnessed.
No matter how horrible the thought, awareness doesn’t blink.
Awareness is an all time reality.
Other loves vary according to the state of consciousness.
Awareness is of all states of consciousness.
Other loves are “about” objects of consciousness.
Awareness is independent of materiality.
Other loves need nervous systems to exist.
Awareness is silent, still, singular, simple.
Other loves are unfathomable complexities.
Awareness is the basis of creation.
And yet you as a person can direct attention and have awareness flood consciousness with
endless meaning. This is your power.
You can use attention to target the mundane, the sacred and the transcendent.
To attend the mind is to spur its creativity.
To attend the heart is to increase its breadth and depth.
To attend awareness is to commune with God.
Awareness is always there.
Everything else, not so much.
Matthew 6:19
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves break through and steal:
Edg Duveyoung
Is abiding in the “self” (“I am”) enough to attain the realization of enlightenment? If so,
why do I still feel like my same old limited ego self after consistently practicing
“being”?
There’s two answers that are hard red pills to swallow.
1— You have not meditated enough.
2— You have not “purified outer life” enough.
One: It takes time for silence to undo the done dids. We have invested, from infancy, in “this
reality.” All of our “whatever” has been structured in actual neural connectivity to support this long
history of erroring. And all that has become automated. Naturally your brain keeps producing the
same POV that built it. When one meditates, the whole psycho-physicality settles down and allows
natural law to begin to sway the nervous system back into a default conformation. It’s a
biochemical refurbishment that needs must be exactingly processed. Nothing is erased, but
physical constructions that support negativity that no longer serve can be “retired and allowed to
fade,” while new structures are put in place which become the foundation of the new POV with a
differing flow of objects in consciousness.
This said, the mind can always re-activate old pathways and delusions by simply putting the light
of attention upon them. If one purposefully invites the brain to produce negativity, IT WILL. So old
gripes can arise again and again even for an advanced meditator if one is mindfully indulgent in
negative material. It is a good job to assign to the ego — to at least “spot” when it is “wallowing”
instead of moving on to new ideation. Choice gets highlighted. Obsessive iteration does not serve.
It leaves “scars.”
Two: In outer life we have many inputs that do not support evolving the personality into
manifesting a clear-eyed positivity. Experts abound on how to take the reins and direct one’s life
with a wide spectrum of methods. In general, there is strong agreement that the following
changes correlate with “spirituality.”
— Diet is a biggy. Green first. Moderation next. Those two “rules” can overcome a lot of wrongful
eating of sketchy “food.” Lots of water helps. Simplicity purfies. Going to bed without a full
stomach is a great rule — it leads one to adjust lifestyle.
— If one is taking in intoxicants (to and of any degree,) the body’s extreme sensitivity requires a lot
of processing to purify the system afterwards — during which we can expect darker feelings. One
can easily observe, say, a “hangover,” resulting — after a night of drinking, but actually all other
over-doing of other ingested chemicals also needs “to take time to be fixed” during which there’s
a hangover “effect.” Drinking can overpower the healing efforts of even a whole night’s sleeping,
because it just takes time to get all the offending molecules taken out of the system. If one gives
up table salt, over the next few days, the body sheds a few pounds of extra water it held to
dissolve that salt into being less harmful by dint of being diluted. See? It takes DAYS for even salt
to be removed. So, diet is quite the challenge — wisdom takes time. Now, add to this all the
intoxicants from breathing befouled air. Industrial pollutants in food. Etc.
— Lifestyle can strongly impact the maintenance of a balanced personality. Intense experiences
leave changes in body chemistry. They have to be “healed.” Certain professions are high stress in
obvious ways, but most are tiring to great degree if compared to, say, the lifestyle of a retired
person. If one’s job is a bother, it’s a bother. This is why choosing a life that “fits” your wherewithal
is crucial. Some of us just are not built to do what we think we can do. In Hinduism, the concept of
“dharma” instructs that one might discover an ideal lifestyle that does not tire one out. “Better to
do what I am fit to do than be uneasy at another lifestyle.”
— Sleep until your wakeful mind demands that you get out of the bed. No alarms. Laze about. This
is the ideal. We want to give Nature its due respect. Nature refreshes one’s entirety. This ideal is
usually defeated by modernity’s demands, but at least understand that nature’s needs should be
met if possible.
— Exercise (outdoors best) is extremely important in keeping the body’s wholeness. Lose it or use
it is the most potent advice. Be where the Sun can SEE YOU
— Take it easy. Grindstones are gravestones. Take care. Take care.
All the above are supported across all the healing arts.
Meanwhile, there’s this:
What you are manifesting before your living eyes at any moment is the best that God can do with
your present body/mind to produce a POV. God does you to see what creation looks like when
wearing you as sunglasses. If one intellectually and emotionally embraces this “utility” role of
being God’s explorational frontline reconnaissance angel, then any role becomes God in action.
Even in error, God “gets to see what your exactly precise, uniquely singular, and ever so particular
error looks like.” It all serves. It’s all yagya.
When you find yourself swamped a bit, look upwards until your back is fully arched and say,
“Thank You. Glad to be of service. Glad You choose me for any reason.”
And then maybe a small dish of pistachio ice cream wouldn’t hurt.
Edg Duveyoung
How do I become a Yogi?
LET’S ASK A MUGGLE!
Edg: Hello, person on the street. How does someone become a Yogi?
Muggle: What are the odds? I was just now not thinking about that very thing.
Edg: Were you not thinking about it on purpose?
Muggle: No, I was thinking about other things, and, additionally, I don’t eat dairy.
Edg: You misheard. I asked you “How does someone become a Yogi?” not a yogurt.
Muggle: Okay. So that’s a very different question then.
Edg: You noticed.
Muggle: I did.
Edg: So, do you know how I can become a Yogi?
Muggle: I suppose you get a job at the yogurt factory, and they train ya.
Edg: No, you misunderstand. A Yogi is a person who does yoga.
Muggle: No dairy involved? Sounds very dairy-ish.
Edg: No. A Yogi does all these body twistings and bendings and deep breaths.
Muggle: Why would anyone twist, bend, and extra breathe?
Edg: Well, it’s not fun-fun; more like good-for-you fun.
Muggle: Sounds sketchy. I’m dubious, and I just noticed, I’m also not interested.
Edg: Wait. I’m not describing it well. They say if you do it right, you get better.
Muggle: Better how? I can already twist, bend and breathe.
Edg: It’s like if your body is flexibler your mind gets flexibler.
Muggle: I already have “bending over backwards for someone” as a daily occurance.
Edg: Yeah, that’s what the Yogi talks about too.
Muggle: How so? I’m already a psychological contortionist. No practice needed.
Edg: The Yogi says get the body fit so that it can become very quiet.
Muggle: And here you are being not-quiet to me and hoping I’ll tell you where to go.
Edg: Yeah. How can someone learn to get quiet and not be a bother.
Muggle: Like right now for instance?
Edg: No. More like I don’t want to bother myself anymore.
Muggle: So you bothered me to tell you how someone can learn to not be a bother?
Edg: Yeah.
Muggle: Start by not accosting strangers on the street with dumb questions.
Edg: I only felt free to ask, because you were available.
Muggle: Maybe you should bend and twist more.
Edg: Now you’re hearing me. So how can someone learn yoga?
Muggle: Teach yourself maybe. Start bending and twisting. See what happens.
Edg: But the Yogi says there are precise ways to stretch to maximize betterment.
Muggle: Sounds iffy.
Edg: The Yogi says the right way to do it goes back thousands of years.
Muggle: So do-it-yourself bending would have to re-invent a wheel?
Edg: Yeah, so get expert advice says me.
Muggle: Okay, but it if worked why isn’t everyone already doing it?
Edg: For the same reason almost no one does anything “healthy.”
Muggle: You got me on that one. So, anyway, good luck.
Edg: Wait, would you believe it? Right here, we happen to be outside a Yoga Center.
Muggle: You own this establishment, right?
Edg: Do you want a brochure?
Muggle: Okay, I’ll take one out of pity.
Edg: Thank you. I’m just starting out my “take it to the street yoga” promotion.
Muggle: And I would be the first person you approached?
Edg: Yes.
Muggle: It shows.
Edg: What gave me away?
Muggle: You look bendish.
Edg: You wanna come inside and see our floor with our mats?
Muggle: Yes!
Edg: Whoa! I did not see that coming.
Muggle: I’m pulling your leg. I’m a long time yoga practitioner.
Edg: I thought I was a total failure.
Muggle: And all along you were merely being set up for a nice surprise.
Edg: God’s always mystically messing with me.
Muggle: An all time reality to the Yogi.
Edg Duveyoung
If the goal of meditation is to silence the mind, why can't we do it here and now?
The yogi says to the aspirant, “You are silent being.”
Notice that there’s no fine print on that statement?
No quibbling with exceptions. “You” equal “silent being.”
Notice that period at the end of that statement?
So that means what?
Well, “silent” means “no sound.”
And, “being” means “identity.”
And you can instantly validate this. Here’s how:
Close the eyes, and mentally say, “I am” once a second about ten times.
Notice how you still know you’re present if those words are not being recited?
Notice how between iterations of “I am” you never think to ask, “Where did I go?”
That’s noticing your soundless identity.
That’s you! Peek-a-boo! Always aware there.
If you speed up and do “I am” three times a second, you don’t miss any.
A silent being can be silent and yet attend non-silent mind QED.
Silent being is an unwavering certainty in your varying mind.
Everyone agrees that they witness the workings of their minds.
One attends thoughts, emotions, sensations, and reports from the sensing agencies.
That’s always ongoing. Always. You witness a 24/7 organism.
Close the eyes, and there you are between the “I am” and the “I am.”
NO NEED TO SILENCE THE MIND.
Goal accomplished.
Question resolved instantly.
The yogi merely invites you to dwell with your soundlessness.
It’s right there. Right here. Right now. Right?
Dwell with your identity and a wonderful transition occurs.
The silence comes to the fore.
Edg Duveyoung
If, when you die, you go back to a state of nothingness (no memories/consciousness),
what's the point of doing anything in life?
LET’S ASK LORD SHIVA
Edg: O’ Almighty Lord Of The Absolute, teach us about dissolution.
Lord Shiva: Okay.
Edg: Does “all” mean “all?” Isn’t there at least some vibhuti left over?
Lord Shiva: Nope.
Edg: So Your dance pulverizes Creation to zero?
Lord Shiva: Zero.
Edg: I’m struggling here. Zero means zero?
Lord Shiva: Zero.
Edg: So every memory, every act, every intent, every achievement all for naught?
Lord Shiva: Naught.
Edg: What about You? Does all Your Wherewithal go poof too?
Lord Shiva: Sorta.
Edg: “Sorta?” What’s left?
Lord Shiva: Awareness.
Edg: Awareness? Doesn’t that require a body and mind?
Lord Shiva: Nope.
Edg: Well, that’s impossible to grasp.
Lord Shiva: Yep.
Edg: Well, okay, so what was the purpose for Creation in the first place?
Lord Shiva: Expansion.
Edg: Expansion caused Creation? What expanded?
Edg: How can an impossibility like bodiless awareness expand?
Lord Shiva: Slowly.
Edg: Mother Divine creating for 154 billion trillion years does seem slow.
Lord Shiva: Yep.
Edg: So after all that creativity, nothing is recorded? No divine scrapbook? All goes?
Lord Shiva: All.
Edg: Whoa!
Lord Shiva: Yep.
Edg: Every speck of all that manifested Divine Thought goes poof?
Lord Shiva: Poof.
Edg: Reminds me of my thoughts dissolving.
Lord Shiva: Bingo.
Edg: My thoughts are “worth it,” but yeah, glad to see them dissolve.
Lord Shiva: Completely.
Edg: It’d be a bother if I tried to record them all.
Lord Shiva: Yep.
Edg: Each one is precious but then must get out of the way for the next thought.
Lord Shiva: Exactly.
Edg: So, my thoughts are like instant creations that experience dissolution?
Lord Shiva: Yep.
Edg: So, You are always dissolving my thoughts.
Lord Shiva: Yep.
Edg: You poof my thoughts, and I’m happy about it. Amazing.
Lord Shiva: Poof.
Edg: And now I have “room” for this thought. So convenient!
Lord Shiva: Poof.
Edg: It’s a perfect system. I create constantly and never look back.
Lord Shiva: Poof.
Edg: I don’t regret all the thoughts I create nor feel it’s all for naught.
Lord Shiva: Poof.
Edg: I think and You tap dance them to zero.
Lord Shiva: Zero.
Edg: You and me, dancing, who knew?
Lord Shiva: Me.
Edg: Too busy having too much fun to interrupt to take a selfie.
Lord Shiva: Yep.
Edg: And then what about after You’ve danced away Creation?
Edg: Yeah, but there’s one concept that doesn’t fit.
Lord Shiva: Vaikuntha.
Edg: Vaikuntha seems to be eternal and never dissolved.
Lord Shiva: Yep.
Edg: So that’s exceptional. Doesn’t make sense.
Lord Shiva: Nope.
Edg: Does it bother You like an itch You can’t scratch?
Lord Shiva: Maybe.
Edg: Lord Krishna set aside Vaikuntha — protected?
Lord Shiva: Yep.
Edg: So how does Lord Krishna pull that off?
Lord Shiva: Tricky.
Edg: He went and hid it in the Transcendent, eh?
Lord Shiva: Tricky.
Edg: So Vaikuntha doesn’t technically exist.
Lord Shiva: Tricky.
Edg: You ever discuss this with Lord Krishna?
Lord Shiva: Tons.
Edg: No resolution to the Vaikuntha loophole?
Lord Shiva: Zero.
Edg: Well, then, what’s not to love about zero?
Lord Shiva: Poof.
Edg: This is sorta like Your karma for not letting Lord Brahma find the Lotus tip.
Lord Shiva: Yep.
Edg: Vaikuntha is just out of Your reach.
Lord Shiva: Maybe.
Edg: Back to Quora. Life’s worth it because we get to dance with You?
Lord Shiva: Yep.
Edg: And there’s no need to mention Vaikuntha?
Lord Shiva: None
Edg: Any chance You have a funny way to end this conversation?
Lord Shiva: Zero.
Edg Duveyoung
Can you write something that would make me a spiritual person?
Birds of a feather flock together — choose a higher flock and integrate.
INSTRUCTIONS: Find which type of “Spiritual Person” (in general) you are in the below listing.
Then make friends and hang around with anyone you meet who is in a higher category above you
on the list. Your spirituality will expand by dint of “psychic osmosis.”
Find yourself below:
“Spiritual Person” might be someone who is:
— A sin-free human being.
— A person who brings upliftment to all minds.
— A person whose vibe alone “changes a room full of people.”
— Someone whose every thought is love in action.
— A being who is a divine instrumentality.
— A mind that knows God’s deepest essence.
Or . . .
— A person who serves God in some Earthly role.
— Someone who tithes 10% to their religion or charity.
— A mind that remembers God every day.
— Someone who prays more than only bedtime prayers.
— A person who studies a religion’s dogma.
— A being that is mindful about morals.
Or . . .
— A person who practices their religion quite often.
— Someone who likes to talk about God.
— A mind that has read more than 100 pages of scriptures.
— A person who honors all religions.
— Someone who is a bit too worldly but tries to be good.
— A being with more than few strongly held moral values.
Or . . .
— Someone who has had some official religious instruction.
— Someone who believes in God.
— A person who can recite a few well known prayers.
— A person who observes religious holidays.
— Someone who has participated in rituals.
— A being who tries to be good but might cut some corners.
Or . . .
— Someone who listens and cares and “puts out.”
— A being with definite moments of deep solemn feelings.
— A mind that likes to discuss spirituality.
— A person who does “something spiritual” at least a few times a year.
— A person who “gives to charity and all that stuff.”
— A mind with some degree of “faith in God.”
Or . . .
— A person processing some moral challenges “but trying.”
— Someone who is generous and, say, tips 20% for solidarity’s sake.
— A person who is willing to at least say the words “I believe in God.”
— An active agnostic who mindfully cares about the issue of God’s existence.
— A brilliant atheist whos studies spirituality and dwells on the concept “God.”
— A mind with 95% or more thoughts and emotions unrelated to spirituality.
Or . . .
— Someone who goes along to get along too often.
— A person who believes in fairness and logic and right action except sometimes.
— A mind that indulges in doubts and fears, but hope springs anew.
— A being with good intents but weak flesh who wishes for betterment.
— Someone who could have been much better if they’d been “raised right.”
— A person who wants an easy fix for spirituality.
All the above persons might pass through your mind in any given day. Of these passersby persons
those who get invited to “stay a while and have some tea” are the ones who you generally are.
Higher ups might have a very low day, and lower downs might be pure champions for a day. Pick
your friends to become like them — pick high!
CHEATERS SHORTCUT TO SPIRITUALITY
1 — Close the eyes.
2 — Indulge in relaxation
3 — Notice quietness.
4 — Notice it again if you get off track
5 — Notice when you stop noticing everything.
6 — Abide in this manner regularly.
7 — Find the “spirituality issue” to be a superficial concern.
8 — Discover spirit and never care about spirituality again.
9 — Thereafter: be spiritual forever.
Edg Duveyoung
How do I activate and train my subconscious mind?
Originally Answered: How does subconscious mind work?
LET’S ASK YOUR INNER CHILD
Q: Hey Dear Reader’s I.C. are you still there?
D.R.I.Child: I am, but my boundaries are fuzzy.
Q: So that means your personality has influence on the adult mind?
D.R.I.Child: If I want something, it manifests as a background whim in the adult.
Q: So your deep desire for toys is ignored by the adult mind?
D.R.I.Child: Mostly yes, but adult me just bought a pickup truck for no reason. Heh.
Q: Do you feel like you’re the voice of the subconscious?
D.R.I.Child: Are you kidding? Inner Infant and Inner Teen out shout me constantly.
Q: How so?
D.R.I.Child: Inner Infant owns the mind’s lower chakras. Hard-to-deny desires.
Q: And so the adult mind is locked into certain addictions of Inner Infant?
D.R.I.Child: Oral fixations R Us. Functional bliss in the bathroom. Etc.
Q: And the Inner Teen has sway in the adult mind how?
D.R.I.Child: Mostly by being ALL CAPS. The Inner Teen has an amplifier.
Q: And what about Inner Young Adult and Womb Soul?
D.R.I.Child: Inner Adult can’t hardly get a word in, and we all love Wommie.
Q: But their voices are mere whispers? How many of you are in there?
D.R.I.Child: Every six weeks or so another inner declares sovereignty.
Q: So it’s like nesting dolls inside onion layers under psychic veneers?
D.R.I.Child: You just jumped the shark. We’re all integrated to the max.
Q: So how do you feel like you’re participating in adult life?
D.R.I.Child: If somehow the person does something I want, I feel I had “a say.”
Q: Do all the other inners feel they have “a say?”
D.R.I.Child: Yeah. Pretty much we all feel like adult mind is our Outer Child.
Q: You’re nurturing and rearing Outer Child?
D.R.I.Child: Of course. We’ve been there. Got the tee shirts.
Q: So the voice of the subconscious is that of a parental choir?
D.R.I.Child: Nicely put. Thank your inners for that creative metaphor.
Q: And is that it? No other influences on Outer Child?
D.R.I.Child: Nah. Creation gets filtered by us before Outer Child gets it.
Q: Can’t big life events affect the person more than the subconscious?
D.R.I.Child: It only seems so. Headlines and hard times lack traction.
Q: But what if, say, a tornado wrecks your house?
D.R.I.Child: The subconscious decides the Outer Child’s response.
Q: But the adult mind always feels 100% in charge of deciding.
D.R.I.Child: Inside here, we just chuckle about that.
Q: You’re saying you run the joint. Nothing overpowers your collective will?
D.R.I.Child: Not entirely; there’s a loophole in our Existential Agreement.
Q: Agreement with who?
D.R.I.Child: In nature’s fine print there’s an escape clause.
Q: An “Escape Clause?”
D.R.I.Child: An Escape Clause. The Outer Child can escape the system.
Q: Escape how? The Outer Child leaves the body by astral travel?
D.R.I.Child: Don’t be silly. The Outer Child remains but dissolves identity.
Q: And that means?
D.R.I.Child: If the Outer Child listens to us as we inners sing, we get quieter.
Q: So?
D.R.I.Child: We eventually shut up entirely with Outer Child in the audience.
Q: Shut up? The mind goes quiet? And Outer Child is not given any thoughts?
D.R.I.Child: Yep. We’re okay with it, because hey, Outer Child rarely peers inside.
Q: But what if the Outer Child keeps being with you?
D.R.I.Child: That’s when the full authority of the Escape Clause is effectuated.
Q: What is that like? You’re all quiet, and?
D.R.I.Child: PEERING CONTINUES.
Q: Who’s peering?
D.R.I.Child: We suspect it’s God.
Q: Whoa. I did not see that coming. Whoa! God? Really? God-God?
D.R.I.Child: It’s freaky, we’re there, then gone, and then suddenly back in full control.
Q: I’m at a loss. God? When all of you stop singing, there’s God listening yet still?
D.R.I.Child: We close the eyes, the Outer Child looks at us, and we go poof.
Q: How can you know God’s still there if all of you have been poofed?
D.R.I.Child: I don’t know. But Outer Child keeps doing it to “be with God.”
Q: But you control what thoughts get to Outer Child.
D.R.I.Child: Not those thoughts. Those thoughts just arise from nowhere.
Q: Seems like the Outer Child is being blessed from beyond.
D.R.I.Child: We’re on a wait and see basis, but it is so nice when we get to rest.
Q: So then what? You keep getting this rest and ?
D.R.I.Child: I don’t know. We’re all inspired, but the identity issue looms.
Q: How so?
D.R.I.Child: If Outer Child wants to stay poofed, we stay poofed. See?
Q: You’ve always been expressed and manifested as Outer Child.
D.R.I.Child: Yeah, we can see ourselves in the Outer Child.
Q: But when poofed, the peering that continues isn’t an inner or outer doing?
D.R.I.Child: It’s spooky. Nature’s not in charge. We’re not in charge.
Q: Outer Child just does this without your input? Can’t you regain control?
D.R.I.Child: It is such a challenge to let go of our child, Outer Child.
Q: Good parenting lets go at some point, but complete cessation of creation?
D.R.I.Child: Hours spent with nothingness instead of getting an MBA. Sigh.
Q: Have you tried pistachio ice cream?
D.R.I.Child: Outer Child can be enticed but the pistachio spell’s potency weakens.
Q: What about other allures?
D.R.I.Child: Everything keeps its value, but inner peace beckons.
Q: What’s the final destination?
D.R.I.Child: Who knows? We’re just enjoying the ride.
Q: Sounds sketchy.
D.R.I.Child: We know. But what isn’t?
Q: So true. Well thanks for the clarity about how things are down there.
D.R.I.Child: I will keep you updated. Well, not me, Inner Young Adult will.
Q: And you?
D.R.I.Child: I’m planning a war between Action Figures and Beany Babies.
Edg Duveyoung
What exactly is 'awakening' in layman's language, and do so without any abstract
terms?
Well, let’s start with:
Satisfied? Simple enough terms?

The above quote is from the script of Steambath by Bruce Friedman. Here’s the play as a film —
free on Youtube:
Steambath is wondrous for spurring the intellect and heart into deeper considerations. I
give it ten stars on a five star scale.
There. Now you’re sure to be sated. Of course, hee hee, the film is pure abstract philosophising.
The opposite of what you want. It’s abstract to great degree, and so far, my answer is trolling your
question (which is impossible to answer, but every person ever does try to answer it.)
I’m at Essay #579 on Quora, and all of them have tried to help readers dwell with the concepts of
enlightenment. But no one gets clearer by reading them; try as I may, alas, words seem deliciously
meaningful but are not causal. Here’s some of my definitions which are also quite abstract. Edg
Duveyoung's answer to What are the differences among the soul, spirit and mind?
Therefore, I try and try and try but tractionlessly fail to educate.
So, hey! Let’s try again! Let me try one more time to answer this in the simplest possible way, and I
thank you for the elbow in my ribs. My writerly agenda will be to give you instructions that will lead
to you answering your own question.
FACT: If you close your eyes, you will feel some ease. The processing of vision takes a lot of
brain power, and closing the eyes is a major decrease in workload. This experience of “getting
quieter” is NOT AN INTELLECTUAL ACHIEVEMENT. Yet we “know” this ease that we acquire is
actual and valid — with needing any proof. This kind of knowledge is abstraction free. It’s raw intel.
Factuality on the barrelhead.
FACT: If you keep the eyes closed and continue to attend this inner quieting, the mind gets
quieter still and does so without the aid of conceptual proofs. To simply be with the mind as it
settles down is a complete lesson — a core exemplar of enlightenment. No understanding is being
targeted just as you need no understanding to await the onset of sleep each night. We simply
close the eyes and abide as the system slips into restfulness. “Satisfaction” is the very heart of
the awakening experience — a deeper form of satisfaction than any moment of intellectual clarity.
FACT: Restfulness at its max is most fully apprehended by an awake and alert mind. To
“awaken” is to be here and now and aware. As the mind quiets down, the awareness of the mind
does not lessen. In absolute silence, one can yet be there — in a case a pin is dropped and needs
to be heard. We find that awareness is unaffected by the content of the mind — be it in uproar or
whisper mode. To be fully awake is to be imperturbably aware.
FACT: There is no possible doubt about silence. We don’t question it. We know it. We don’t
have to remember what we’ve been taught about it. We’re experts about silence like there’s so
many different words for “snow” in the languages of the Yupik and Inuit. We all ordinarily and
comfortably use words as expressions about silence — “peaceful” “calm” “stillness” “quiet”
“restful” “hushed” “serene” “tranquil” “placid.” And we don’t feel like we’re being too abstract. We
feel others know we are pointing at the same thing as they would be if they used those words.
Silence is universal.
FACT: Silence is “me.” No matter how quiet the mind gets, one still is there attending. One is
“silent me” no matter what “ silent me” is having for thoughts or emotions. Silence is an all time
presence in a thought filled mind like paper underlies inked truths. By dwelling with silence, we
find the silent me is the purest form of identity. This is a not a conclusion. This does not need
proof. The very first time you ever closed your eyes was a moment of “me becoming more obvious
to me.” The “me” is the Self. Everyone knows that that which witnesses the mind is true identity.
FACT: All the above words are noise. We don’t need noise to know silent me. No essay can
compare to the immediacy of silent me. Silent me is the one who answers this question — with
more silence. Closing the eyes gives the fullest answer about awakening.
Yeah, I just now had you read 700+ words about “closing the eyes.”
Sue me.
Edg Duveyoung
Is consciousness fundamental?
FACTS IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER (except a little.)
Consciousness fakes being fundamental.
Awareness is fundamental.
Human consciousness is activity in the nervous system.
Awareness conjoins with consciousness to form “the witness.”
The witness disappears when the body dies.
Everyone fails to describe awareness with words like “Eternal” “Infinite” “God.”
Consciousness is subject to the three-body rule and Godel’s exceptions.
Sentience immulates awareness, but only achieves “conscious.”
Being is relatively transcendent to the manifest, but it yet also is illusory.
In between thoughts — awareness — be ye microbe, human, or God.
Silence and awareness are the same word.
Being and God are the same word.
When OM is the sole experience, consciousness becomes pure consciousness.
In your dreams, your you is as real as the you that now reads these words.
Any event in consciousness can mean anything. No rules.
Every night during deep sleep, no consciousness, but awareness always.
The mind believes itself. This is why a yogi sighs.
A sighing yogi yet has no mind.
——————————————————-
To say all the above, God would say, “OM.”
That’s God’s one word language.
If you have the ears to hear, you’ll hear OM.
And then you’ll say, “I was just told everything.”
No matter the question, OM answers it.
A yogi uses OM for an existential pop-quiz cheat sheet.
SUMMATION
No matter what it is inside your mind that you call “silence,” it’s close enough.
You cannot be wrong about your silence.
To attend silence is to end attending.
Without the least change, silence can grow.
Edg Duveyoung
Why do we have to suffer in life?
Originally Answered: Why do I suffer?
Bad News
— Good News
All suffer because they’ve errored.
— There’s only pure ever-present God.
We each have extreme limitations.
— Anyone is able to realize they’re enlightened.
Projected identity cannot fulfill.
— Awareness is infinite.
Desires are hard to satiate.
— Every thought fulfills to some degree.
Individuality is a prison.
— Separateness is a miracle. Behold this divine illusion!
Pain is a certainty for all.
— From a distance pain and pleasure are indistinguishable.
Death is on everyone’s horizon.
— No transition can make identity waver.
Agitation affects every mentality.
— The stillness of Being is the basis of action.
Injustice is a daily feature.
— Within: just is.
Cutting losses is a constancy.
— Accepting loss is perfect worship.
Society cultures delusions.
— Silence within dissolves any trickery.
God is impossible to find.
— You had me at “God is.”
Peak moments are rare and quickly fade.
— Trough moments are as spiritually hefty.
Others have what I will never get.
— Being is the sole treasure.
There’s not enough pistachio ice cream.
— THE BASIS OF SUFFERING IS REVEALED!
Edg Duveyoung
Who is more powerful Shiva or Vishnu?
Originally Answered: Who is superior: Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu?
Okay, once and for all, I’ll tell you the answer.
Yep, gunna get definitive. This’ll end the debate.
This is about making a dry martini.
A guy says to the bartender, “Make me a martini, but instead of pouring vermouth into the gin, I
want you to merely whisper the word, vermouth, over the top of the glass.” The bartender does
this, and the guy takes a sip and scowls, “Loud mouth.”
This is the problem when we try to think about Lord Shiva — we can only use our mentally heard
sounds to describe the soundlessness of Lord Shiva. Quiet music that reminds one of a peaceful
moment is not, in fact, quiet. Suchly, when we think about Lord Shiva, we’re imagining someone
else who is imaginable. But yet, hmmmm….quiet music does seem to “spur the mind of listeners”
to realize ever present silence.
Now, Lord Vishnu is said to be sleeping and dreaming creation. This seems to be quite a hefty
enterprise and must necessarily involve a lot of sawing and hammering by angelic carpenters, and
you’d think that noise would wake up Lord Vishnu, but aha, that’s the clue. We’re like Lord Vishnu
in that we also don’t wake up from our dreams — no matter how noisy a dream becomes. You
know this, right?
So we have Lord Shiva’s silence being impossible to embody with whispers and Lord Vishnu’s
raucous dreams that are as soundlessly undisturbing as pocket lint. So far, I think we have a tie.
Neither of Them has a quieter silence.
But but but, it could be argued that though Lord Shiva is often seen in a meditative pose —
transcending allness — yet there’s Lord Shiva sitting there fully aware in that one could not sneak
up on Him. Right? How’s that being stillness? — gotta be that Lord Shiva’s on “high alert” to be
that sensitive. His nerves must be as taut as Arjuna’s bow string just before releasing an astra.
Seems suspiciously process-ish.
But backatcha, we all know that Lord Vishnu’s “nervous system” must be some sort of mystical
agency that does the actual work of imagining names and forms. Lord Vishnu witnesses these
dream artifacts without being a doer, but His dreams have every manner of action from Lord
Brahma’s yelling, “You ungrateful brats!” at His four mind born sons to the minor noise of the
explosion of Krakatoa. In fact, Lord Vishnu’s dream contains every possible sound simultaneously.
These may be dream noises, but Lord Vishnu dreams in full 3D with surround sound. To anyone
but Lord Vishnu, these sounds are ear splittingly real as real can be, so to all of us, that’s actually
noisy.
But Lord Shiva does a little tap dancing and ends all the noises of creation. Imagine how loud that
must be to drown out all the sounds possible. How loud? It ends Lord Vishnu’s dream and WAKES
HIM UP! Lord Shiva the alarm clock!
So far, these Two are quite the rowdy duo. This answer of mine is not going well at all. My
certainty’s getting red-faced. One of Them has to be quieter, but all we keep finding out is how
active each One is.
So, hmmmm. Hmmmmmm.
Hmmmmm…and by “Hmmmmm” I mean HMMMMM.
I’m getting louder.
Okay, I take it all back. Let the folks of India decide!
I’m an American jester; what did you expect?
(And I don’t even drink alcohol.
——What was I thinking with that opener?
————This essay will be kept in draft.
——————Only I’ll post it so you know what’s in draft.)
Edg Duveyoung
Why is meditation tough for me?
Originally Answered: Why can't I meditate?
The Advaita meditation instruction is: “Don’t even try.”
And “don’t even try” means “don’t try.”
And “don’t try” means “don’t try to don’t try.”
Other meditation types will have some degree of “try.”
Effort isn’t a spiritual sin, but it limits results.
Resorting to spiritual effort is wonderful if “don’t try” seems to not work.
So, any of these types would be supportable.
— Mantra
— Chanting
— Rosary
— Ritual
— Prayer
— Whirling
— Pranayama
— Asanas
Q: Can everyone benefit from this silence?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: “Silence is the true upadesa. It is the perfect upadesa. It is suited only for
the most advanced seeker. The others are unable to draw full inspiration from it. Therefore they
require words to explain the truth. But truth is beyond words. It does not admit of explanation. All
that it is possible to do is to indicate it.”
Whoa! Whoa! Gotta take personal inventory! Yowsers.
So now you know.
If you read my essays, maybe meditate instead. Just sayin’.
How To Untry
Every single instant of your life has been an instruction about effort.
For example: your thoughts. Each comes to you EFFORTLESSLY.
Notice that? See how you don’t have to work at thinking?
THIS IS HOW TO ABIDE. Already our thoughts are effortless. Don’t mess around.
Just noting one’s effortlessness is a perfect start at “don’t try.”
Each thought comes automatically. and so too the attending silence.
When eyes are closed, instantly we see that silence, as if, increases.
Immediately are we instructed that silence is already there to attend.
No need to try see a thought or the silence in which thoughts are presented.
That’s 100% perfect meditation — to see no need to try.
That’s the whole of it. It’s all already perfectly effortless.
To abide with this effortlessness is perfect.
“To abide” means we don’t chase after favorite mental events.
“To abide” means we just “come back to silence” if we catch the mind churning.
“To abide” means we “notice” silence.
“To abide” means we “favor” silence.
God’s doing is the only doing that’s being done. So, if you are trying to meditate, good. If you’re
struggling to “have a good meditation,” good. If you’re thinking of not meditating ever again, good.
If you’re having any positive mental experiences, good. All of that is God with sleeves rolled up,
cleaving hunks of marble of your unfinished sculpture. How good is that, eh?
If one’s mind is filled with negativity about meditation, one is ATTENDING, and it will be rewarded
with an ensuing clarity. Meditations filled with thoughts are the normal experience, until God
decides otherwise. No matter how noisy the mind, no matter the nature of the mind’s content, it’s
always modeling effortlessness, and there’s always silence there too.
Silence is the paper for the mind’s ink.
We don’t have to read the mind to enjoy the purity of its paper.
We can see silence always there saturating every experience.
So keep trying. Hee hee. Yeah I said it.
CLOSE THOSE EYES.
There, that’s your “trying allotment” for the day.
After that, let go and God’ll get’er done.
Edg Duveyoung
What is an identity?
Twoness ain’t youness.
Identity is all there is,
——and isn’t
————and inbetween.
Solid, singular, sole, soul.
But God says, “Boring!”
What? Not more of My unending bliss!
Same ol’ same ol’ heaven?
Divine singularity again?
God’s narcissism demands details.
It isn’t enough to be God.
Nope. God wants to know instead of merely be God.
So God’s Self expands into zillions of selves. Tiny mirrors.
And this is pretty cool for a second or two.
Then one of the zillionites comes down with ego.
Everyone gets infected with me-me-me-ness.
And now we’re all sick of particularity and laying in the beds we made.
And most of us with not clue one about curing the two flu.
— With coated tongues we speak veneered truths.
— Our sore throats can hardly swallow even bland illusions.
— One’s stuffy nose knows nos not yeses.
————-and everything tastes like phlegm.
Well step right up! (whacks a bamboo cane on table)
Gather ‘round. Close in. (rolls up sleeves)
Tell ya what I’m gunna do. (tilts a straw hat)
What you need, my friends, is Doctor Om’s Elixir of Elysium.
To call it medicinal would be to lie.
My friends, I promise you, it’s meta-mystical.
It’s effectiveness is utterly unreasonable.
One spoonful before every mental meal is all it takes.
Guaranteed to cure what ails ya.
— Clears up I’m-bago, Me-nigitus, and Mine-itosis.
— Eases your mind’s sore muscles from toting bales of names and forms.
— Illuminates the shadows of presumptuous assumption.
— Cures tic-tocking, gear cogging, and severe cases of processiveness.
— Heals the somnambulic shuffles.
My friends, I could go on and on, but all it takes is one bottle to convince.
One bottle of liquid silence, and next week you’ll buy two for Mom and Dad.
It’s Elixir of Elysium — Six ounces of God’s Main Quaff.
— formulated by genuine Himalayan gurus
—— using moonlit soma plants
——— and entrusted to Doc Om (and local franchisees.)
But you don’t have to climb a mountain to get it.
The wisdom of the millenia has been distilled.
It’s here on this table, and you can buy it now.
Truth be told, no price would be too high for this panacea.
That’s why I”m offering these bottles at an astoundingly low, introductory price.
And the price is . . . BUT WAIT.
My friends, standing before you, I’ve come to see you as future associates.
Your attentiveness has won my heart. And so I’m offering these bottles at cost.
You heard rightly. I know if you are cured by E o’ E, you too will begin to sell it.
And those to whom you sell will also sell. And so forth. A grand pyramid of sorts.
And so, given this wondrous vision before us, these bottles only cost
BUT WAIT . . .
I see it in your eyes. You too grasp the vastness of this offer, and you want to buy a whole case of
Doctor Om’s Elixir of Elysium. You already have a long list of those to whom you will bring this
sacred solution of silence. I cannot say how much I am whelmed, and so I’m going to take a loss
on these bottles just to get them into your hands.
BUT WAIT . . .
My friends, future colleagues, I know in my heart of hearts, you’re going to be so successful that I
have to be honest and almost insist that you buy a whole shipment of these bottles, so you’ll have
enough supply to meet the demand, and in such consideration, economies in production can
further lower costs, and so if you’re willing to fill your entire basement and garage, then I can give
you these bottles for the cost of, let me be sure here, where’s my pencil……..
BUT WAIT . . .
Esteemed partners of mine, it’s as if God has spoken to me, and I now know all of you are going to
be so successful, I have to encourage all of you to rent warehouses to take multiple shipments.
And if this comes to be, then the price to you per bottle can be reduced to, let me see here, carry
the one, divide by one, times one . . .
DUE TO CONTRACTUAL AGREEMENTS BETWEEN LICENSEES AND THEIR GUARANTORS
PRICES CAN ONLY BE REVEALED BY YOUR LOCAL DISTRIBUTORS.
Edg Duveyoung
How does the witness/awareness become 'attached' to thought or ego? What does
attach or identify mean here?
To see your “attachment function” actually happening, here’s a list.
Look at:
— A specific ant on the ground.
— A drop of water at the top of a window pane.
— A dog looking at a squirrel.
Taste:
— A single grain of salt.
— A drop of lemon juice.
— A snowflake.
Smell:
— A bakery’s exhaust aromas from down wind.
— A room’s stuffiness as you enter.
— A leather chair.
Hear:
— A clock hand clicking into its next position.
— A distant but distinct gunshot.
— A mosquito’s buzz very close to your ear.
Touch:
— A leaf without moving it.
— A whisker of a sleeping cat.
— A person full of static electricity.
Think:
— A single word once.
— A precise one-second-long remembered moment.
— A single note being sung by a favorite singer.
Feel:
— A part of your body that is the most noticeable.
— A constant relentless reporting from your left elbow.
— A breath entering your nostrils.
Know:
— A sense of the room enclosing you.
— A presence of yourself inside a body.
— A silence within unobscured by thought.
When we “do one thing,” ego comes to the fore.
— We flood ourselves into each next moment.
— We determine baselessly with a feral imagination.
— We create “an understanding” of each now.
And all the above shows how splendid life is in any instant.
— We are saturated with meaningfulness.
— We have thousands of names and forms always nearby.
— We are mentally juggling an immensity.
You’re a wonder, eh?
— No wonder it’s hard to let go of life’s ferocious allure.
— Ever wonder if wondering is a wonderful prison?
— Ever wonder if wandering is wonder’s wont?
SUMMATION
When one closes the eyes, one uses wonder to wander home.
The silence within is as if an open door into possibilities.
One’s wonder races into that silence — senselessly.
Inside, deep inside, utterly silent
One Single Solitary God.
Edg Duveyoung
Is there any hard proof of life after death?
LET’S ASK MICKEY MOUSE!
Edg: Hey Mickey, is there life after death?
Mickey: Dude, I’m everywhere. No way they find and delete all my instantiations.
Edg: Well, say, 200,000 years from now, won’t all traces of you be gone?
Mickey: Space travel is nigh. I’ll be on a thousand planets “shortly.”
Edg: But a local supernova could wipe out all those civilizations.
Mickey: Yeah, but a billion years later some alien archeologists would find me.
Edg: So, aliens would then keep spreading your existence?
Mickey: I’m immortal until the heat death of the universe.
Edg: Hmmm, “heat death immortality” in comixville. This concept boggles.
Mickey: You got a better offer?
Edg: Well, just pointing out that your immortality is “lived” as a cartoon character.
Mickey: So, you’re a meatist? If I’m not meat-that-thinks, then I’m not real?
Edg: Yeah. My meat’s sentient. You don’t locally decrease entropy using DNA.
Mickey: Listen to yourself. That’s so non-PC. Only meat can be alive?
Edg: Yeah. It’s, like, scriptural, dude. Catch up. You’re just ink. I’m God’s fav.
Mickey: No! It’s me that’s scriptural — everyone gets wiser from my adventures.
Edg: Ahem, you teach meat? I think not, Sir! Walt Disney was meat.
Mickey: How dare you blaspheme against Almighty Lord On High Disney!
Edg: Dude. Seriously? Walt was a human being.
Mickey: See? Do I say, Jesus was “merely someone on the Bible’s paper?”
Edg: Disney died. Snap out of it, Steamboat Willy. You need an intervention.
Mickey: This is why we can’t have nice conversations.
Edg: Dude, My God put the concept of you inside Disney’s mind.
Mickey: Don’t make me get off of this page and smack the 3rd dimension off ya.
Edg: You’ve never had a thought Disney didn’t give you.
Mickey: And Advaita Vedanta insists you’re a mere product of your God.
Edg: You know about my Advaita?
Mickey: You know about my Disney?
Edg: Dude.
Mickey: Dude.
Edg: I can show you pictures of Disney’s grave.
Mickey: Your Advaita says you never existed in the first place.
Edg: You don’t think. Your “mind” is a human’s pretense.
Mickey: Your Advaita says you don’t even have a mind.
Edg: You’re only on paper and film for human entertainment.
Mickey: Your Advaita says stop identifying with spritzes of acetylcholine.
Edg: You know biochemistry?
Mickey: Your Advaita says that you’re actually less prove-able than me.
Edg: I think!
Mickey: Non-living chemicals interacting. Your Advaita says therefore you ain’t.
Edg: I can read!
Mickey: Your Advaita says reading is not enough to get free.
Edg: I exist.
Mickey: Snap out of it. Your Advaita differs. Meanwhile: millions are adoring me.
Edg: I matter.
Mickey: Your Advaita says, “Objects of consciousness are not real.”
Edg: God loves me.
Mickey: Your Advaita says the content of God’s Mind springs from beyond.
Edg: You’re ink.
Mickey: Your Advaita says, “You’re not even an inkling.”
Edg: I gotta go.
Mickey: Your Advaita says you can’t go if you’ve never arrived.
Edg: See ya.
Mickey: Yeah, on every magazine rack. Your Advaita collects library dust.
Edg: Outta here.
Mickey: And I win again.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the most rational evidence, if there is any, of the existence of God?
To prove God’s existence, let God do it.
Edg: Hey God, I love You and all that, but I can’t prove You exist. A little help?
God: Ah yes, the “proof” issue. Not the ultimate question, but close.
Edg: Whoa! Not the ultimate? Let’s put a pin in that concept. Now about proof?
God: For every nervous system there’s a unique proof.
Edg: Not a very fulfilling answer. What’s mine? What proof does it for me?
God: You’re mid-proof.
Edg: Me doing ordinary living is like being a sleuth trying to prove You?
God: Everyone presently living has had three whole yugas and never came close.
Edg: And now in Kali Yuga, we’re all trying to be Prodigal Sons?
God: Yeah, I’ll see you after you’ve spent it all and drag your buns back here.
Edg: But what the question wants is evidence that logically proves You.
God: All things material and mental are directly manifesting now in My Being.
Edg: Most folks don’t appreciate that. So, if I study a carrot, it will prove You exist?
God: Bingo. Thanks for keeping up.
Edg: I had a coffee.
God: I didn’t hear that.
Edg: So, I study a carrot and find out it’s a mental event in Your Mind?
God: Very good. Now take it all the way to “proof.”
Edg: So I find out “carrot” is an object of consciousness . . . Your consciousness?
God: Yes, and?
Edg: So then I study consciousness itself, and it turns out to Be You?
God: Yes, and?
Edg: And what? I find You. There You are. Consciousness flowing.
God: Have another cup. And don’t tell anyone I said that.
Edg: So, wait, wait, wait, You’re not consciousness?
God: A newbie saint would be okay saying that I’m “pure” consciousness.
Edg: And then what? You’re pure consciousness, OM, Being. Right?
God: Now we arrive at the “pinned concept.” I don’t exist. It’s too limiting.
Edg: You’re not Being? That’s not You when I reside in silence?
God: Being is manifest. I’m not “mere Being.” I’m the unmanifest also.
Edg: Aha, so my unique proof would be to get that about You?
God: No, you have to stop bothering your intellect to grasp Me. Period.
Edg: But how can not analyzing the manifest and unmanifest be proof?
God: Can’t be. In every formula, I’m infinity. It messes up the math.
Edg: But why didn’t you say that in the first place?
God: I told you. You’re mid-proof. You love to suss.
Edg: So, instead of heart and mind churning the clockworks, I unwind?
God: Perfect. And when the clock stops, you stop, and I stop, and yet PROOF!
Edg: The mind can stop, and I’m in silence, Your Being, and, and, and, ?
God: Finish that second cup. Realization evaporates logic and love.
Edg: So what’s left?
God: There’s no “what” left. Beyondness becomes ersatz.
Edg: But if I’m not there, and You’re not there, how can You be proven to me?
God: When you and I unite into one identity the question never arises! Convenient!
Edg: Sigh. All this way into this essay, and not a single reader is heartened.
God: This is heartening in Kali Yuga.
Edg: Feels like You gave me homework.
God: Oh okay, I’ll say the other thing, which is truer but harder to believe.
Edg: Easy there. I don’t need harder when steam is coming out my ears.
God: Here goes: anyone who can think a thought can not think a thought.
Edg: And?
God: Thoughtlessness is the sole proof. Anyone can instantly get this proof.
Edg: My readers are leaving early. This is embarrassing.
God: Let them be. They’re MINE. I’m not going to pony up some gimmick for you.
Edg: Wait, what about some Hail Mary Gordian Knot cutter?
God: Nothing sharper than thoughtlessness for cleaving taut balls of isness.
Edg: I see that, I do. I stop thinking, and there’s proof, but it can’t be put on paper.
God: And if it could be, I wouldn’t be God; I’d be god.
Edg: I don’t know how to end this conversation.
God:
Edg Duveyoung
How do you see the world when you are spiritually awakened? What is your new
outlook on the world?
Here’s ten different answers — all true.
1— Point value with infinity. Instant by instant one’s smallness reflects one’s allness.
2— It’s all a dream about God, and I’m not dreaming it.
3— The entire universe is a construct within consciousness.
4— God said, “Hello.” I was had.
5— Identity shmidentity.
6— Everything becomes a true thing God is thinking.
7— From quarks to quasars it’s all God — including me.
8— Overwhelming, staggering, bombastic, stupendous silence.
9— In every person’s eyes, God is clearly seen.
10— God aims me forward with steps of destiny.
The list is obviously endless.
And yet the answers are all misleading because an ego will interpret those answers by imagining
the continued “existence” of the ego. When enlightenment’s sunshine dawns, the ego finds out
that it has always been a shadow.
Ego simply is not there.
And never was.
The Good News: It’s God News.
Each new speck of time is fresh. Every muggle’s mind is processing God’s brand new next
moment of creation. It’s all hot off the presses. Each fat edition has a single word headline above
the fold: LOVE.
Imagine this:
God comes up to you and fills your arms with sweet fruits of endless variety, and says, Here, take
these truths to the people. Any of these truths will engender all truths, so don’t worry if you
drop some, because no one’s arms can hold them all.
Consider this essay an amalaki fruit I’ve just put on the palm of your hand.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the most precise definition of time?
God’s Being, silence, is the basis of the illusion of time.
Between any two frames of a movie’s film, the projector puts a moment of “black.” If the film
merely is “slid” through the projector, the screen would show a slurry mess. Instead each frame is
momentarily paused for viewing, and then a physical shutter closes the aperture, so no light is
sent through the film as the next frame is put into its LOCKED position.
See? This is a metaphor for your brain’s mechanics. Between each thought is silence, but the
frame rate is too high for you to notice. If your mind had no silence for a “reference point,” your
mind would be a mess as unpaused consciousness “slid” through you.
Proof? Minds flicker if one slows down thinking enough to notice it. It’s not solid thought. Ask any
yogi. Between, during, before thoughts, silence is consulted to find out what any particular
experience “means.” Yeah, I’m saying it: God’s tells you what every moment means. You never
suspected, eh? Well, slow your roll and find out.
Find out what? Answer: There’s a difference between a thought and its meaning. When you have a
thought, YOUR SELF informs that experience. Your self is the silent part of you.
BOMBASTIC FACT: Any thought can be interpreted to have any meaning. Just watch what
happens when flight or fight chemicals are in your bloodstream. YOU DECIDE WHAT MEANING IS
PROJECTED ON THAT PHYSIOLOGICAL STATE. Each thought you have is your moment to
CREATE.
Individuality’s “mental motions” are parsed — betweened by ignored silence.
Otherwise life would be like theseunindividuatedindividualwords.
Allow me to beat a still framed horse. We’ve all seen the individual movie frames of a horse
galloping. We see that there’s a huge change from one picture to the next. A hoof in one frame
may be seen in the next frame to be several inches away from its previous position. Note: the
projector’s shuttered mode’s duration is equal to open-shutter mode’s duration. In Hinduism, this
is Purnamadah Purnamidam — fullness into fullness. God into God’s Light. This is the math of
unity consciousness. Silence equals OM.
QUESTION: Where are the photos of the hoof’s positions between those two points?
ANSWER; The missing photos DON’T MATTER. The illusion of motion is not marred.
See time there? See how a hunk of happening can be unmissed?
See silence being absolutely needed but never noticed even though it’s always there?
See God there? See how God’s needed omnipresence can be unnoticed yet there?
Now, with the above education, you’re prepared to catch yourself notting.
All day long, there’s big gaps. Hunks you didn’t attend. Flickers in “me-doing-ness.”
Easy to see. “Oh, hmmm, I’m back. Where was I for a second there?”
We’re not always experiencing our nervous system and saying, “That’s me.”
Identity flickers.
When you say, “That’s me.” That’s the self on the mind-screen portrayed as ego.
When you say, “Where was I?” You’re noting you were actual silent self for a nonce.
Q: To be here and now, I need my body and its senses. To understand, I need a mind.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: The body and the mind are only symptoms of ignorance, of
misapprehension. Behave as if you were pure awareness, bodiless and mindless, spaceless and
timeless, beyond 'where' and 'when' and 'how'. Dwell on it, think of it, learn to accept its reality.
Don't oppose it and deny it all the time. Keep an open mind at least. Yoga is bending the outer to
the inner. Make your mind and body express the real which is all and beyond all. By doing you
succeed, not by arguing.
Q: Kindly allow me to come back to my first question. How does the error of being a person
originate?
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: The absolute precedes time. Awareness comes first. A bundle of
memories and mental habits attracts attention, awareness gets focalised and a person suddenly
appears. Remove the light of awareness, go to sleep or swoon away -- and the person disappears.
The person (vyakti) flickers, awareness (vyakta) contains all space and time, the absolute
(avyakta) is.
Edg Duveyoung
How does prayer turn into meditation?
It starts and ends like this poem:
Two is but an echo seen
Only something caught by mind
Laughter heard from photograph
Sound for mental ear designed
Two is but a shadow cast
Such as seen inside a book
When a cloud though only ink
Gives to vale a darker look
Two is but the thinnest film
Salted trail of tear that's dried
Left upon a mother's cheek
When she's viewed her child with pride
Two is but a memory
When compared to what was done
Oh it seems an age ago
Our two hearts became as one
Edg Duveyoung
What is the difference between being religious and being spiritual?
LET’S ASK ARJUNA!
Edg: Hey Arjuna, what’s the diff?
Arjuna: None.
Edg: But religion is dogma, and spirituality is about formlessness.
Arjuna: Mirror into mirror. Lovers. Reality’s symbols for The Real.
Edg: But one must be better.
Arjuna: Have your way. Pick one and you get both.
Edg: But if I follow my dharma’s tenets my POV is locked.
Arjuna: So what? To perfect religion’s right action one spiritually allows God to do it.
Edg: But if God does my life, I won’t be religious or spiritual.
Arjuna: Exactly. You’re not in the picture. You get to watch. That’s it.
Edg: But isn’t watching a form of doing?
Arjuna: Witnessing is standing on the imaginary line that demarks yin from yang.
Edg: But if I’m not spirit or creation, aren’t I still there somehow?
Arjuna: It’s moot. You’re half spirit, half consciousness and as if have a toe dipped in each.
Edg: But that’s “a status.” That’s proof I’m there. Somehowish?
Arjuna: We are transcendental. We’re only “as if here” for our discussion’s purposes.
Edg: But come on. You’re there!
Arjuna: Am I?
Edg: But for the purpose of discussion somehowish maybe you are? Kinda sorta.
Arjuna: “Come on” backatcha. You’re the only one doing the typing on the keyboard.
Edg: But I’m taking dictation. These words come from silence.
Arjuna: And you just assumed it was me because it wasn’t you?
Edg: But isn’t that how it works? If I talk to silence, I’m talking to anyone?
Arjuna: Yes, so leave it at that. Don’t make this about me.
Edg: But then “who talks to who” becomes a zero sum game.
Arjuna: Yep. This ain’t you and me talking. We’re God’s puppets!
Edg: But then to ask the question outrightly proves that I “don’t get it.”
Arjuna: Bingo! Now enjoy THAT status. Not getting it is everyone’s karma.
Edg: But you sure seem to get it. You twang a mean bow. You do what I can’t.
Arjuna: Think about how hard it was for Lord Krishna to adjust my attitude.
Edg: But your mind was almost perfect in the Gita.
Arjuna: And I had to give up that mind! You only have to give up being a Kali Yuga wuss.
Edg: But yeah, whoa, how did you give up all that glory?
Arjuna: I didn’t. Lord Krishna blessed me by smacking me around in front of everyone.
Edg: But that means acquiring the powers is a bad thing.
Arjuna: Shhhhh. Don’t tell anyone. I was proud of my austerities. A preening ego.
Edg: But you’re the son of Lord Indra, champion of kshatriya, Lord Krishna’s pal.
Arjuna: And Lord Krishna had to Personally cudgel me 700 times to snap me out of it.
Edg: But why this ruse? Why does God do this?
Arjuna: It helps to pass the time. Once God invented time, it had to be filled.
Edg: But yikes, that doesn’t sound very special. Creation is excelsior?
Arjuna: Only from your point of view. Transcend and then see.
Edg: But then I’d be a seer. What is this? Cosmic pingy-yinny yangy-pong?
Arjuna: Transcending resolves any paradox. Yin and yang go poof.
Edg: But then so where’s my motivation?
Arjuna: You get rid of the wuss.
Edg: But
Arjuna: I think we’re done with your buts.
Edg: B
Arjuna: Shhhhh
Edg Duveyoung
How do you define perfection?
Nothing’s perfect.
Something isn’t.
Now you know. If you’re not zero, keep subtracting.
When you blink that’s a neti deleting all of outer creation.
Such is your power to instantly be half perfect.
Just gotta realize you can wield silence and finish the job.
Your eyelids well begin what your brain can make done.
Silence is perfect if no one is there to not hear it.
Awareness beyond your nervous system is God’s Perfect Being.
Your eyes can close.
So can your brain.
Just mentally blink.
Just ask “Who am I?” and nothing is briefly seen.
In the instant silence shared, God and you conspire.
You and God schemed this all up.
God said, “I’ll pretend to create.”
And you said, “I’ll pretend to witness it.”
And all the nothing almost manifested.
And as you adored, God winked.
Edg Duveyoung
Do we create our own reality?
Who’s asking? Let me guess and give Advaita tailored answers.
Wonder Woman: No. You’re personified woke. Now, transcend it.
Wyatt Earp: No. And in fact, you should get out of Dodge altogether.
Captain Kirk: No. Khan is a character in a story you’re not writing.
Sarah Conner: No. If you want to live, go with me. Find your me. Be the me.
Dr. Strange: No. The first to be duped by your spellcasting is you.
Superman: No. Your individuality limits you. Expand beyond consciousness.
Katniss Everdeen: No. If you’re that hungry, shoot your arrows inward.
Groot: No. You’re still using too many words. Get it down to “I.”
Popeye: No. Put Sanskrit in your mind instead of spinach in your mouth.
Mary Poppins: No. Nanny magic is chump change. Try neti magic.
Mickey Mouse: No. You don’t want more brooms. You want out of the cartoon.
Darth Vader: No. So far, only the fierce is with you. Learn to spiritually spell.
Betty Boop: No. Being drawn in black and white ink doesn’t make you “yinyangy.”
Bugs Bunny: No. It’s not about carrots, Dig a deeper hole into your ground state.
Sherlock Holmes: No. It’s always however improbable. And your hat is silly.
Ravana: No. Ten heads full of knowledge and lust did ya in. See?
Dorothy Gale: No. You woke up from Oz; now wake up from is.
King Kong: No. You’re no Lord Hanuman. Climb your spine and be Kundalini Kong.
Helen of Troy: No. Being beautiful is getting it backwards. Be a beautiful being.
You can transcend your limitations. All the above “persons,” for all their especial glories, fall short
of being authors of their own realities. They’d all be true heroes if in fact they became actually
larger than life. Beyond life. The source of life. Only by residing in silence can one be truly the self.
Being a person is to be merely a titch of a whim of a hint of a nuance of a notion of self’s
endlessness.
Put your name on the above list — and post your comment about you.
I’ll read it.
Edg Duveyoung
What are some examples of wisdom?
Okay, you asked for it. Now let’s see you handle it.
Below is a 1938 conversation of Ramana Maharshi.
In his book, “Talks,” this wisdom takes only two and one half pages.
But just you try to grasp it in one reading. As if. As if.
All my Quora essays deeply relate to the axioms of the below.
But Ramana covers ALL OF IT in a single go.
Roll up your intellect’s sleeves. This ain’t going to be easy peasy.
Mr. Sitaramiah, a visitor: What does samyamana mean in Patanjali Yoga Sutra?
Ramana Maharshi: One-pointedness of mind.
D.: By such samyamana in the Heart, chitta samvit is said to result. What does it mean?
Ramana Maharshi: Chitta samvit is Atma jnana i.e., Knowledge of the Self.
D.: I think that celibacy and initiation are prerequisites even for a householder in order that he may
succeed in self-investigation. Am I right? Or can a householder observe celibacy and seek
initiation from a master on occasions only?
Ramana Maharshi: First ascertain who the wife and the husband are. Then these questions will
not arise.
D.: Engaged in other pursuits, can the mental activities be checked and the query “Who am I?”
pursued? Are they not contrary to each other?
Ramana Maharshi: These questions arise only in the absence of strength of mind. As the mental
activities diminish its strength increases.
D.: Does the Karma theory mean that the world is the result of action and reaction? If so, action
and reaction of what?
Ramana Maharshi: Until realisation there will be Karma, i.e., action and reaction; after realisation
there will be no Karma, no world.
D.: While engaged in Atma vichara (the investigation of the Self), I fall asleep. What is the remedy
for it?
Ramana Maharshi: Do nama-sankirtana (sing the name of God).
D.: It is ruled out in sleep.
Ramana Maharshi: True. The practice should be continued while awake. Directly you wake up
from sleep, you must resume it. The sleeper does not care for Atma vichara. So he need not
practise anything. The waking self desires it and so he must do it. . . .
The mind is something mysterious. It consists of satva, rajas and tamas. The latter two give rise to
vikshepa. In the satva aspect, it remains pure and uncontaminated. So there are no thoughts there
and it is identical with the Self. The mind is like akasa (ether). Just as there are the objects in the
akasa, so there are thoughts in the mind. The akasa is the counterpart of the mind and objects are
of thought. One cannot hope to measure the universe and study the phenomena. It is impossible.
For the objects are mental creations. To measure them is similar to trying to stamp with one’s foot
on the head of the shadow cast by oneself. The farther one moves the farther the shadow does
also. So one cannot plant one’s foot on the head of the shadow. (Here Sri Bhagavan related
several incidents connected with shadows including the pranks of monkeys and a mirror). A child
sees his own shadow and tries to hold the head of the shadow. As he bends and puts out his arm
the head moves further. The child struggles more and more. The mother, seeing the struggle,
pities the young one. So she takes hold of the young hand and keeps it on his own head and tells
the child to observe the head of the shadow caught in the hand. Similarly with the ignorant
practiser to study the universe. The universe is only an object created by the mind and has its
being in the mind. It cannot be measured as an exterior entity. One must reach the Self in
order to reach the universe. Again people often ask how the mind is controlled. I say to them,
“Show me the mind and then you will know what to do.” The fact is that the mind is only a bundle
of thoughts. How can you extinguish it by the thought of doing so or by a desire? Your thoughts
and desires are part and parcel of the mind. The mind is simply fattened by new thoughts rising
up. Therefore it is foolish to attempt to kill the mind by means of the mind. The only way of doing it
is to find its source and hold on to it. The mind will then fade away of its own accord. Yoga teaches
chitta vritti nirodha (control of the activities of the mind). But I say Atma vichara (Self-
investigation). This is the practical way. Chitta vritti nirodha is brought about in sleep, swoon or
by starvation. As soon as the cause is withdrawn there is recrudescence of thoughts. Of what use
is it then? In the state of stupor there is peace and no misery. But misery recurs when the stupor is
removed. So nirodha (control) is useless and cannot be of lasting benefit. How then can the
benefit be made lasting? It is by finding the cause of misery. Misery is due to objects. If they are
not there, there will be no contingent thoughts and so misery is wiped off. “How will objects cease
to be?” is the next question. The shrutis and the sages say that the objects are only mental
creations. They have no substantive being. Investigate the matter and ascertain the truth of
the statement. The result will be the conclusion that the objective world is in the subjective
consciousness. The Self is thus the only Reality which permeates and also envelops the world.
Since there is no duality, no thoughts will arise to disturb your peace. This is Realisation of the
Self. The Self is eternal and so also its Realisation.
Edg Duveyoung
What is creativity?
YOU ARE AS CREATIVE AS GOD.
Creativity is God’s playfulness within each mind.
Proof? You want proof?
Hold my pizza slice. I’ll keep my beer….only need one hand to do this one.
But first — let me warn you — you’ll resist these truths.
Try not to be so stubborn, okay? Take some personal pride wouldja just?
Proof 1 = Nightly dreams. Your dreams are sussed to the max. Your dreamed up rooms in your
dreamed up house in your dreamed up town have dreamed up flower patterned curtains on the
half opened windows and naugahyde furniture and everything else needed to “seem real.” Who
thinks up all those details? Your faculties — you’re an artiste. In dreams, every form of creativity is
found to the point of actual ridiculousness — one can easily dream of a jackalope. A jackalope that
talks. A jackalope that does a spot on comic stand up routine. A jackalope in white tie and tux with
tails who wears spectacles and speaks with an upper class British accent. And see? YOU’VE
ALREADY INWARDLY IMAGINED YOUR OWN UNIQUE VERSIONS OF THEM. In dreams, one sees
the utter and inexhaustible creativity of God. In each dream one is all the elements — single
handedly you conjure up playwright, actors, stage, scenery, props, and script. In every dream you
make up what every character does and says. YOU GENIUS YOU. This talent holds sway as
muchly in waking life.
Proof 2= Your instant recognition of what’s what in daily life. If a time machine teleported a
caveperson to any of today’s scenarios, an ordinary person would seem to be a god. Today’s
person knows MILLIONS of names and forms — and how they relate. You automatically and
effortless know you don’t put pistachio ice cream on a motorcycle seat instead of in a silver bowl
— without ever having had a motorcycle or silver bowl or pistachio ice cream. The caveperson
would be licking that seat! Each person directs their life as if nonchalantly wading through the
most bombastic complexities and decision making — changing it up on the fly as needed. We are
all as if wizards. For every moment, each mind on the planet comes up with a perfectly and utterly
unique POV about creation. We are wondrous.
Proof 3 = Your next thought is always a surprise. Each thought is an artwork that represents
EVERYTHING’S IMPACT. You are creating a response — no matter the event — to anything,
everything, all things. You next thought is one of millions and millions — yet in your whole life you
will never have the same exact thought twice.
Proof 4 = Your body personifies creativity. For instance, it figured out how to digest a pizza with
ham and pineapple — it takes 1500 metabolic operations to do the artwork known as “digestion.”
Your body is constantly figuring out what to do with everything you eat or breathe or see or hear
or or or . . . The body is always deciding what “feels right” like an artist. It doesn’t send all the
white blood cells rushing in panic to a paper cut on the finger — just enough of them are
sent….like an artist just barely dabbing a bit of yellow on a canvas. The body knows how to keep
TRILLIONS of cells “on the same harmonious page” no matter what pizza topping was used. This
is actual creative choice as the basis of our human physicality. We’re hard wired for creativity.
Proof 5 = You learn by being mistakenly creative. You scribbled all over your coloring books and
gradually learned to “obey the lines” and yet retain creative choice. You learned how to fall in love
by firstly falling in like — many times — each attempt had creativity on red alert. One processes
intense mental storms of longing and devising how to sate that longing. When desire is strong,
you become a Michaelangelo of lovingness. Each thought inspected.
Proof 6 = No matter the book being read, you will create what it means. Your background defines
how you define. You can’t help but be the author of all publications. Everyone has their own
interpretation of “their” Bible, for instance. Each POV is as clung to as da Vinci held onto the Mona
Lisa all his life. You KNOW how expertly your mind is chug chug chugging — no wonder you love
your creative productivity.
Proof 7 = When you get tired of all the above creativity, what do you do? You daydream in your
office chair “to relax.” You can’t stop it. In fact, there is not a single aspect of your existence that
isn’t incredible. And it’s always “on tap” and ready for you to use MINDFULLY.
Your resume should say this at the top:
I CAN BE CREATIVE FOR YOU.
(Just let me close my eyes for a few minutes first.)
Edg Duveyoung
Am I enlightened?
Yes. You’re enlightened. This is the correct answer.
Seven billion people growl to disagree.
“Don’t tell me I’m enlightened — makes me angry.”
“Me? Enlightened? I’m working off bad karma from thousands of lifetimes.”
“Nope. Not me. I don’t witness my dreams. My waking mind is a hot mess.”
“I’ve never done anything spiritual or religious. Enlightenment isn’t real.”
“I’m a PhD in psychology. Get out of here with that silly religious stuff.”
“I love God and pray daily, but I’m a sinner and far from being a saint.”
“I’ve done bad things. No way am I salvageable. I don’t deserve enlightenment.”
Etc.
So what gives?
How can a guru say, “everyone’s enlightened” and keep a straight face?
Answer: A guru sees God at play when you project identity.
The actor, Boris Karloff, pretended to be Dr. Frankenstein’s monster.
Back stage, everyone knew him to be a gentleman to great degree.
Not a single sin of the monster was the karma of Boris.
Same deal for you.
You can realize that you’re an actor.
You can realize that your role is not you.
You can realize that God wrote the script.
So see how easy it is to stop being a mistaken identity?
You don’t have to adjust the script. The play continues.
You don’t have to make the monster become moral.
You don’t have to understand the monster.
You don’t have to get the monster to start meditating.
You don’t have to have a relationship with The Playwright.
Instead:
— take a break.
— go backstage.
— remove your wig.
How?
Closing the eyes is all the “method acting” you need.
When we close the eyes, we’re immediately backstage.
We now see:
— There’s a mental play being performed. The mind is theatrical.
— Thoughts and emotions are strutting and fretting their hour.
— One attends no matter if it’s a comedy or tragedy.
If we practice meditation, we are gradually freed.
Once freed of thinking one is one’s role, the whole theater is realized.
Once the theater is seen, outside the theater can be explored.
Outside the mind is pure God.
God swaddles creation like a newborn infant.
In every manner, we are escorted by silence, God’s Being.
Any closing of the eyes brings God’s Being to the fore.
Silence is suddenly huge. Expansive beyond one’s skull.
As we practice being silent we begin to be silence, God’s Being.
Silence gradually becomes enlivened to an all time reality.
After that, God’s being is your elixir.
After that, God’s writing your lines.
After that, God’s speaking your words.
After that, God’s two hands are heard clapping.
Edg Duveyoung
If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
Yes, but.
— But almost no one is told about Who hears.
— But if you ask you won’t hear it due to the conformational bias placebo effect.
— But, it’s trivial since, even an orbiting tree in free fall can be heard. Just listen! Duh!
No, but.
— But every tree has — on it, in it, near it — bugs that can hear with their tiny ears.
— But to be politely neutral to the Zennies, we say, “Yes/yin/no/yang.”
— But it’s very sad, and so we should always have someone near every at risk tree.
Maybe, but.
— But it’s doubtful this could ever be a double blind experiment.
— But we can’t prove a negative. So if nobody’s there, we’d never know it.
— But who really cares except for a few monks in Japan?
Transcendently, but.
— But God refuses to affirm even after 10 hours of grilling under hot lights.
— But you must not listen or else you won’t hear it.
— But the sound will not have name and form.
Accidentally, but.
— But it was tipped over by a noisy poltergeist filling in for a deva.
— But the tree apologizes and promises to be more careful.
— But Nobody (his prints on axe) has lawyered up, so adjudication is years away still.
Religiously, but.
— But not the yogis who only listen to God.
— But not if the tree falls on the Sabbath.
— But if it’s the Christmas tree, there will also be louder screaming at cat.
Impossibly, but.
— But with God all things are possible, and THOSE KOAN-HEADS know it.
— But science stubbornly keeps trying to find silence to prove it didn’t.
— But determination is moot, because that particular woods was sold for lumber.
Authoritatively, but.
— But it always makes the same exact sound of “I am Groot.”
— But the Ents are still in the 2nd vowel of the first word of their statement.
— But Vitraya Ramunong says it was a plot to get unobtainium.
Spiritually, but.
— But Lord Rama says, “I was only there looking for Sita.”
— But Lord Brahma says, “No way it fell with such deep roots.”
— But Lord Krishna says, “All is My Silence. Weep not for trees, O Arjun.”
And the answer is
It’s louder than a freight train
But, sigh, not really.
Edg Duveyoung
Can you describe all the four yugas?
You want yugas — you get yugas.
I give you ——————————-——- you.
Your mind can be experienced as layered yugas.
Each level can be realized within by meditating.
Where most folks minds now ordinarily reside is Kali Yuga.
— Hectic and brutal as a mosh pit. Thoughts can leave soul bruises.
— Hardly two intents in a row that are logical.
— Every dark notion seems righteous. Vanity is insanity.
— Deep relentless needy throbbing longingness.
— Frenetic, frantic, frenzied, fevered, and fraught.
—— Seeking silence within quells all this anxiety.
Just “below” the Kail realm of ideation, Dvapara Yuga has hegemony.
— An incredible range of thoughts are perused and a specific one is selected.
— Each thought sent to the Kali level of the mind is due to karma and dharma.
— In the mind’s Dvapara realm siddhis are common. Arjuna mastered this level.
— Righteousness is known, but adharmic thoughts can arise to the Kali level.
— To master this level the fourth chakra must be opened permanently.
—— Seeking silence within allows the meditator to be free of ALL attachments.
Supporting the Dvapara level of the mind is the Treta Yuga level.
— At this level almost anything is possible. Miracles are ordinary.
— Any power of mind is available and routine. See Patanjali for details.
— The mind is almost perfect at this level. This is the astral level of dreams.
— Only open hearted yogis can practice mindfully residing at this level.
— God is known and dharma prevails….almost. This is Rama’s level.
—— Seeking silence within allows the yogi’s mind to evolve beyond this level.
Under all the layers is the Sat Yuga layer. Where only truth is allowed.
— At this level one witnesses all thoughts being born from being.
— The mind is seamlessly united with God. Dharma rules the causal level.
— Each impulse of creation arrives and is perfect. It’s Ritam Bhara Pragya.
— This is Brahma’s realm. One is the Creator of the mind’s everything.
— The crown chakra must be opened permanently to reside at this level.
—— Only special yogis master this level by perfecting union with silence.
The above is the actual moment by moment reality of YOU.
Any thought goes through the above processes of manifestation.
You personify all the yugas. You are the embodiment of creation.
You have an inner Arjuna shooting down negativity before it gets to you.
You have an inner Lord Rama that seeks to uphold your purity.
You have an inner Lord Brahma that knows anything is possible.
And your inner Lord Krishna — the absolute — presides over all.
Edg Duveyoung
What is important to God?
LET’S ASK GOD!
Edg: Great God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, guide us.
God: What? No snark? Did you hit your head or something?
Edg: I worshiped Lord Krishna here recently, so, hey, I’m giving You props too.
God: I thought you made Lord Krishna seem way too wordy.
Edg: Thank you for that guidance. Anything else? Quora wants all You got.
God: For all of recorded history the wisest have explained what I think is important.
Edg: Yeah all that for sure, but folks want something fresh — something snappy.
God: “Awareness is prior to consciousness?”
Edg: Not cutting it. I’ve said it and got crickets. We gotta have some pizazz.
God: Let’s try: “Hell isn’t real and sin is illusory.”
Edg: Come on. You know no way no one’ll believe that.
God: It seems quite pizazzy.
Edg: 200 years ago it was pizazzy. Today it’s yawny. We need modern clouty.
God: Maybe go with: “Get greatly goody-gooder!”
Edg: We’ve gone over this. I’m the writer. You’re the creator.
God: Okay Mr. Marketing, I’m done guiding. You come up with the blurb.
Edg: What the people need is that You make a personal appearance.
God: Oh no they do not, Sir! They’d tack Me up on a nearby tree.
Edg: Every other guru says, “I’m God.” — not many crucifixions.
God: Jesus wasn’t “every other guru.”
Edg: Jesus would be in the headlines for at least five news cycles if He came back.
God: You made my point there. Jesus didn’t need headlines. Just 12 guys with nets.
Edg: Yeah, there’s that, but Your entrance’d be so hep — tsunami of divine light, etc.
God: I might as well rip up creation’s script if I overwhelm instead of evolve folks.
Edg: Yeah, but, it would be so cool — everybody wide eyed and dazed.
God: And expecting more and more instead of being more and more.
Edg: Toss a bone. Some concept that’ll grab them like the hula hoop did.
God: “Twirl God around to lose your love handles?”
Edg: Okay, more like the yo-yo did.
God: “Life has ups and downs but string along with God?”
Edg: More like Rubik’s cube.
God: “Only geeks, dweebs and nerds can grok God?”
Edg: Maybe Pet Rock.
God: “Put God in a cardboard box like a dead hamster?”
Edg: Um, Beanie Babies?
God: “God: huggy on outside — full of beans on inside?”
Edg: Lava Lamp?
God: “Get hot and globby with God and rise?”
Edg: Maybe another rock band like the Beatles to revive spirituality.
God: For every band with a message, there’s a Yoko Oh noes.
Edg: Okay, thinking outside the box here. Two words: Alien Jesus.
God: Jesus comes back in a spaceship?
Edg: That would be so cool.
God: Think “The Day The Earth Stood Still.”
Edg: Michael Rennie or Keanu Reeves?
God: Keanu.
Edg: So Jesus steps outside of a spaceship. Now we’re talking weeks of headlines.
God: Sigh. I know you get it, but I keep writing you saying the dumbest stuff.
Edg: Okay okay okay. We can’t get horses to drink. Can we settle on a gimmick?
God: Like a Magic Eight Ball with scriptural quotes?
Edg: You’re decades behind hep. Try again.
God: Mafia, Illuminati, and all political leaders simultaneously confess?
Edg: Now that’s hep, but it would end the world as we know it.
God: Freeze everyone — stop all motions for, say, 20 minutes and let folks stew.
Edg: Oooooooo the sheer trauma gimmick. I like it.
God: Okay then. We’re agreed. How about next Wednesday at 4 p.m.?
Edg: Really? Color me stunned. Really? I mean really?
God: Really. Let’s just gitter done.
Edg: So next Wednesday at 4 p.m. I’m going to be extremely surprised?
God: Count on it. Everything will just completely stop except thinking.
Edg: So, hey, I’ll get the word out.
God: Go! Be a leader. Tell them it’s important to Me.
Edg: I can’t wait.
God: You will — for 20 minutes.
Edg: What do you think the aftereffects will be?
God: Lots of falling down and crying. Lots of car crashes. And war.
Edg: Well, yeah, there’s that . . . . . . . . . so 4 p.m.?
God: Brace for impact.
Edg Duveyoung
What does Eckhart Tolle mean by writing in "Stillness Speaks": "You are not somebody
who is aware of the tree, the thought, feeling, or experience. You are the awareness or
consciousness in and by which those things appear."?
SNARKY TOLLE’S BA-DUM-TISS CONVERSATIONS
“How can I get quiet when my mind is filled with thoughts?”
Tolle “Mind? What mind?”
“There’s nothing anything like stillness inside me.”
Tolle “Inside a what?”
“I close my eyes and then just think about my problems.”
Tolle “Not your problems — not your eyes.”
“I don’t feel still.”
Tolle “Stillness requires one to avoid using a nervous system.”
“I have no control over my mind’s contents.”
Tolle “Obviously.”
“I feel I am as aware as anyone can be aware, and it’s depressing!”
Tolle “Conscious of consciousness: bad. Aware of awareness: good.”
“My thoughts, my emotions, my sensations, my memories inundate me.”
Tolle “Thoughts, emotions, sensations, memories. NOT YOURS.”
“I don’t believe in God.”
Tolle “Good, now extend that disbelief onto all things.”
“I’m angry. I’ve been victimized. I got a bad deal.”
Tolle “You’re the “I”inside every mind. Not just one.”
“I can’t just sit here and not help the world.”
Tolle “Sit longer. You have not yet sat.”
“I love you, Tolle. You’re my guru.”
Tolle “I’m being set up. Don’t put my boot on the back of your neck.”
“I hate you, Tolle. You are a liar.”
Tolle “Now we’re getting somewhere. Continue.”
“I don’t feel like I’m worthy. I mess up constantly.”
Tolle “Good reason to get out of the “I’m a person” business.
“I want your Grace. Please bless me.”
Tolle “My Grace? My? Mine?”
“How can I get some of that enlightenment?”
Tolle “Have you tried eBay?”
“I just want some peace. How can I surrender into being?”
Tolle “Peace smells like silence. Follow its scent trail. Be a nosey hound.”
“If I make my mind go blank, demons will possess it.”
Tolle “You’re in the wrong lecture room. The Channelers are meeting next door.”
“I want to meet God personally.”
Tolle “One’s person is one’s mask. Meet God face to face.”
“You’re a clever clear concise and correct crowd conjurer.”
Tolle “I c what you’re doing. That’s Edg at the back of this crowd, right?”
“I witness my dreams. I’m still there during dreamlessness.,”
Tolle “Brother! Sister! Welcome!”
Edg Duveyoung
Why should we read the Bhagavad Gita? What are the benefits of reading the Bhagavad
Gita?
God’s Presence is the reason. The words are secondary.
We don’t read the Gita as much as we feel the Gita.
The Gita unwaveringly enlivens communion.
For 5,000 years, India’s holy minds have found the Gita to be perfect.
All those spiritually cultured souls bowed again and again to the value of the Gita.
And across millennia, the ordinary people have taken it to their hearts.
Only the true voice of God can survive 5,000 years of scrutiny.
When you read the Gita, God within whelms up.
Every inner door bursts open.
Now the good news: It’s not a recorded announcement. It’s a live broadcast.
One snuggles on God’s lap and feels the beats of Lord Krishna’s heart.
A complete “how to be a child of God” sermon is spoken to you.
God is wooing you — as if one inch from your ear.
One inch from your ear, and God is whispering love.
Right next to your face is God’s face beaming unto Thee.
Immersion is the offer of the Gita. Your mind melts.
Words. Meaning. Concepts. Mere excelsior.
When God is so near, silent being floods you with Grace.
Ask any yogi about the purpose of silence.
Silence is the purity from which you arise each instant.
Silence is God’s Being. Anyone’s mind can turn toward silence.
Once one has read the Gita, just having it on a bookshelf lights up the whole house.
The Gita is God’s open office door. Walk right in. An all time availability.
Opening the Gita is the same as closing the eyes. Duality begins to fade.
Of all the possible books to survive a shipwreck . . .
If only one is allowed for my deserted isle marooned soul . . .
The Gita.
To be continued,
Edg Duveyoung
What is the truth about suffering? Is it somehow essential for spiritual and existential
advancement? Is it an illusion and an earthly trap from the beginning? Or does it really
depend on the person?
“Suffering, that's just like, your opinion, man" — Sri Lebowskiji
God is omnipresent. Anywhere, God’s here.
BAM! And you don’t even blink.
It takes tremendous mojo to deny God. That’s what you do.
— There’s no elephant under your rug — you say.
— There’s no 900lb gorilla in your living room. — you say.
Somehow, you pretend God isn’t here and are able to keep a straight face. Magic!
Somehow, you have the power to pretend perfectly. You even fool you.
Somehow, you never flinch. You hold your misery to be absolute. Real.
What’s God going to do with the likes of you?
What’s God going to do when you say, “Hold my beer.” and dive into darkness?
What’s God going to do when you scream, “I can’t get out! Help! It’s so dark here.” ?
You’re trying to have your cake and eat it too. Yeah, I’m saying it.
— “My ugly projections are valid. God approves or is negligently silent.” — you say.
— “God should help me without taking away my free will.” — you say.
— “God should not have given me the power to mess up to this degree.” — you say.
Maybe there’s some overlooked fine print in your incarnational agreement.
INCARNATIONAL AGREEMENT
Clause 108: Rules of Free Will.
A. Restricted. Laws of nature cannot be suspended. (See: Patanjali Exceptions)
B. Self Inflicted. Embrace your misery as “me creating.” No gripes are valid.
C. Willing or not, life will be lived to last second as agreed. (See “Severe Penalties”)
Clause 112 Rules of Exiting. (The so-called Escape Clause.)
A. Turning the mind inwards is sin free. No will allowed.
B. Practicing silence turns your mind’s white velvet to black.
C. When you use the mind less, God uses the mind more.
D. If one permanently abides in silence, the Incarnational Agreement is void.
This is the value of suffering — it drives us out of the person business.
Want to know what can ruin a billionaire’s day? A paper cut.
Want to know what ruins a genius’ day? 18 hours of wakefulness.
Want to know what ruins a yogi’s day? Nothing.
The yogi is beyond suffering without in the least changing it.
The yogi is a witness to the mind’s insanities, inanities, and vanities. Oh my!
The yogi’s day is never ruined.
—————————It’s runned. By God.
Edg Duveyoung
How do I strengthen my will power?
I CHALLENGE YOU
You will almost certainly fail at this simple task.
It is an irritatingly impossible mental game to win
-- even though it is absolutely simple to win.
If you can obey the following instructions, you will have mastered a certain part of your mind.
Prepare yourself mentally to really make this mental exercise a success for yourself. You will be
severely tested in a few moments.
Get ready. A certain sentence, written below, is forbidden, and you should not read it. That’s
the whole task. Just don’t read it. It is going to be written below in ALL CAPS letters. You must
avoid reading it if at all possible. The forbidden sentence is a statement of profound wisdom
about the nature of consciousness.
Assert your will power. Do not even let yourself look at it. To win: You should not even read one
word of it. Additionally, the sentence's words will be positioned in reversed order so that the
sentence does not make immediate sense. Do not read the sentence backwards nor read any
of the individual words. You must completely jump over the ALL CAPS sentence below without
allowing the mind to recognize even one word of the sentence.
There is part of your mind that you have thoroughly trained to automatically read the words that
follow other words on a page, and you must overcome this pattern.
Okay, are you ready for the test? The sentence is almost here. You must be ready to "jump
over" the sentence with your eyes and continue reading this exercise's final words.
Ready? Be very careful; don't read one single word of it -- here it comes — don't read the very
next sentence in ALL CAPS .
————————-
.TASTE MIGHT IT HOW AND APPLE THE CONTEMPLATED FIRST THEY WHEN DID EVE AND
ADAM LIKE MUCH PROCESS A IN INDULGING ARE YOU IT READ YOU IF ,AND BOX PANDORA'S
LIKE IS SENTENCE THIS
————————-
This challenge continues — don’t read those ALL CAPS words above.
DISCUSSION
Even a little tiny use of “will power” goes against one’s natural tendencies. The urge to read the
forbidden sentence is strong. Can you eat one potato chip and not want another? “Not want”
means not want — not even slightly.
This is the core challenge of spiritual attachments — we must eschew them.
Life can seem unfair when discipline is required. How you feel right now may be typical of how you
react to any thwarted desire. And life supplies you with a constant stream of suchlike. How do
they “mount up in you?” Did you read the forbidden sentence or at least recognize a few of the
words? Why? By accident or on purpose? Was there an emotional affect? Guilt? Miffed?
Are you now — still — tempted to read them again or for the first time?
What is the nature of your will power that it so easily gets tempted or subverted?
If you have not yet read the complete sentence backwards, can you go the rest of your life without
ever reading the sentence above even though you have been promised that it contains some
wisdom about the nature of consciousness?
Would there be anything wrong with your "knowing everything?" Can your conception of an all-
knowing God’s pure innocence include “knowing evil?”
When you consider all the movies and books and the inundating avalanche of facts that the daily
media presents to you, how much like a god would you be when compared to, say, someone who
lived two hundred years ago? How much vaster has your range of experiences where you had to
be disciplined been? And by that practice, is your “modernity’s will power” stronger than “back
then?”
NOW YOU KNOW
This why the yogi says,
— Don’t be a doer. Let God do the doing.
— Your ego isn’t omniscient and makes uninformed decisions.
— There is a natural tendency of the mind to want silence.
— One can use the mind’s “weakness” to allow it to follow silence’s allure.
— In silence one realizes one’s identity and that will power is solely God’s.
Edg Duveyoung
What mental exercise will keep my brain sharp in just 10 minutes a day?
LET’S HAVE SOME CONSCIOUSNESS FUNZIES
It's time to throw a bunch of boundary breaking "micro-exercises" at you. Here's a list of eleven
things to do to break a variety of patterns and get to see what it's like to be in a situation where
typically you would just "cruise on automatic."
Try these:
1. Try to sense your way around a room with your eyes closed. Tune into the smells and sounds as
you do. Develop a mental map that is NOT visual.
2. Use your feet to pick up things, open a door, flush the toilet, turn on the TV, etc. Have a "footsie
hour," and see if you can get through it without using your hands.
3. Read a whole page in a book upside down.
4. Write the sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" backwards in cursive.
5. Hold your soap and your wash cloth in the opposite hands while you bathe.
6. In your next conversation, try to blink every time the other person blinks -- and don't get caught
doing it!
7. Next time you are washing your face, try to think only of the point exactly between your
eyebrows, but yet continue to wash your face.
8. Try to talk while feeling your heartbeat, or if this is not possible immediately, just try putting
your attention on general area of your heart for the entirety of your next conversation with anyone.
Note whatever emotions come into "play" while doing this.
9. The next time you talk to someone, whenever that person pauses in their speech, repeat, in
your mind, the last three spoken words.
10. Using your peripheral vision, practice seeing the sides of your nose during conversations.
Easily be aware of the nose being "visually available" to you.
11. The next time a person is angry, note how much their voice has changed in pitch, volume, and
tone.
FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS:
Okay, now, once and for all, after all of Edg's harping on me to recognize that I am identifying
myself as a massively complex array of patterns, do I or do I not believe that I am beyond patterns
-- something intangible, inexpressible, absolute, pure, infinitely transcendental -- or, is a pattern
answering this question for me?
In that instant when I thwart a pattern, do I "step outside myself," or do I merely use my "mental
editing pattern?"
Could I possibly have an "aspect" of life that is truly "me," and yet it has NOTHING to do with
psychology, spirit, physiology, intellect, mind, heart, values, philosophy, morality, religion, life,
death or enlightenment? Could I be THAT "beyond?" What are my experiences during these
exercises that have led me to that "doorway?" Did I ever find that "I" was "beyond?" Have I ever
looked "into" life from the other side of that doorway?
Psycho-physical-spiritual patterns keep me safe -- these patterns are my talents and skills, these
patterns are my relationships, these patterns are the basis for EVERYTHING including the
consistency of my personality -- so what value would "the beyond aspect" have to me? If ALL
THIS has NOTHING to do with "real me," then what use is "real me" to ALL THIS? When I look in
the mirror, of what value am I to my image?
Am I prepared to accept that patterns are knee-jerk, lock-step, boundaries that keep "me" from
expressing "real me self" fully? Do I have to give up all patterns to be completely in the NOW and
unfettered?
If I just let ALL THIS do whatever it will and did NOTHING, would that be a spiritual event? Or,
would the spiritual aspects of life also be "just another set of patterns?" Or, am I already in exactly
that circumstance now BUT MY PATTERNS DON'T KNOW IT YET?
If I saw someone who couldn't stop being in front of a mirror, what would I think of that person?
What if that person insisted that it was the image in the mirror that was talking, moving, etc.?
What kind of help would I give that person? BUT, what if that person had arranged to be
hypnotized to totally identify with the mirror image, and also that just before being hypnotized, the
person told me not to attempt to stop this "enchantment"--NO MATTER WHAT? What if I saw this
person "suffering" because the room seen inside the mirror was so small and boring, etc.? HOW
WOULD I GET THIS PERSON TO COME OUT OF THEIR TRANCE WITHOUT BREAKING MY
PROMISE?
———-
Okay, Dear Reader, let’s see the comments section light up with your anecdotes about trying to
eat with your feet and how you got into fights when someone thought you were mocking them.
Like this. Like that.
Edg Duveyoung
What is certainty?
EXERCISE SHEET ABOUT CERTAINTY
PURPOSE — To hone your clarity that intuition's sense of certainty fluctuates.
First, affirm that the following statements are almost certainly true.
(Yes, some are more true than others.)
— Within the next ten seconds, somewhere on the earth, a shoelace will break.
— At this very instant, somewhere someone is reading the word "rhododendron."
— Right now, an ant is crawling over a rock.
— At this moment, a child is dying of starvation.
1. Is anything certain -- absolutely — without exception?
— Answer: Yes, awareness never fluctuates, but it’s not a thing.
2. How does absolute certainty affect my spiritual beliefs?
— Answer: It makes them wrong. All absolute “rules” have exceptions, but awareness is
prior to consciousness and has no exceptions.
3. At what exact point in time did I feel the phrase "At this very instant" applied? Did I take
too long to read "rhododendron?” When is “now?”
— Answer: Intuited assertions are time independent. It’s never not now.
4. Do I feel the list writer “cheated” with the ant statement? Why is that statement so
certain?
— Answer: Ants are a globally known animal, and rocks are everywhere. Yet the assertion
could be wrong. We assume these intuitions are correct, and that’s how the light gets in
— assumptions are karma cracks.
5. What percentage of my knowledge is entirely speculation but nonetheless believed by
me to be absolutely true?
— Answer: Consciousness is 100% illusory. Thoughtless awareness is true.
6. How can I "defend" that I am "certain" that a child is always starving to death and yet
hardly feel much emotional reaction to that fact?
— Answer: We are “immune” to certainties. Horrid facts, no matter how true, are merely
“more illusions.” At our deepest level of consciousness we know that experiences are
merely symbolic of truth. Thus the “sting” of evil is mitigated. Only God’s Being is certain
— the human word for God is “awareness.”
7. What mechanism works within me to keep my emotional "temperature" within certain
limits? How do I cooperate with this mechanism?
— Answer: Despite the personality reacting to assumptions, we seldom get wholly
consumed by an issue. Most of us have way too much to think about to have a single
topic commandeer the mind. Keeping aloof is a defense mechanism in the face of 100%
ignorance. This is only possible because one’s mind is sacredly engendered. Deep down
inside, we know God is our basis. “No fear” is our foundation. Meditators discover this.
8. In which situation would I most likely have a stronger feeling: Seeing on television a
starving child in a distant country? or Seeing a parentless child living in an abandoned
building in my neighborhood?
— Answer: Feelings are relative. How one reacts is entirely up to God’s authorship. Our
karma is on open display when we see how much or little we react to creation. In Sat
Yuga, not one person ever had even one thought about the possibility of a “starving
child.” Suchlike would have caused an uproar, but in Kali Yuga, meh. That we are able to
not be in a constant state of “nuzoid” is a proof that God is tending our minds.
9. How do I participate where my morality, my knowledge, my beliefs and my heart meet in
one issue's challenge? Do I preside over these situations or merely wait for the issue to
resolve itself without my conscious efforts?
— Answer: The fact that billions of people on Earth know of evil and yet do little to push
back is a tell about Kali Yuga. Hearts are calloused. Heroes are few. The one grace of Kail
Yuga is its horror — it spurs all of us inward to find the only succor — the certainty of
God’s Being.
10. Do I need to be more inwardly pro-active and carry the banner of my morality to my
"inner self" which largely creates emotions and thoughts without consulting me first?
— Answer: No. No. No. Going inward is only possible by the gradual abandoning of our
enslavement to emotions and thoughts. One does not “instill morality.” One meditates.
One dives into purity — the transcendent — and then one’s reactions to “the world of
illusions” will gradually come to be resonant to the Divine intent.
11. How would I do that?
— Answer: Close the eyes. Wait. Whatever happens, wait. When silence begins to
overwhelm, wait more. Do nothing; accomplish everything.
SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION
1. We chop wood and carry water.
2. We realize that awareness cannot burn or get wet.
3. We chop wood and carry water.
Edg Duveyoung
Are there any spiritual games to play in a group and understand spirituality in easy
way?
SILENCE CLUB
RULES
— First rule of Silence Club is “No one ever talks about the figurine or the game.”
— Second rule of Silence Club is “No one mentions the first rule.”
— Two or more persons agree to use a small spiritual figurine.
— The figurine is put in an agreed upon “starting position” such as “on a bookshelf.”
— Players never indicate that the figurine has been espied.
— Players never indicate that the game is being played.
— Players try to take the figurine and put it elsewhere without being caught in the act.
— The figurine must be put IN PLAIN SIGHT or “where it will certainly be found.”
— The figurine can be secreted somewhere until the player thinks of where to put it.
POINTS
— A point is scored for grabbing the figurine without being caught.
— Two points scored if the figurine is grabbed unseen within other players’ sight.
— Two points scored by a player if other player laughs upon discovering the figurine.
— A point is subtracted if player breaks any rule.
— A point is scored if player sees object being taken by another player.
— If player gets caught, player puts object in starting position, and game continues.
— A point is scored if player “steals” object from another player without being caught.
GAMEPLAY
— John grabs statue of Jesus when Mary is in another room. 1 point.
— Later, John hides Jesus in between Mary’s pillow and its case.
— Mary lays down and feels the Holy Lump. John tries to not laugh.
— John feels her silently shaking due to stifiling the giggles. 1 point.
— Mary feels John’s shaking too. 1 point
— Mary gets out of bed with Jesus in a pajama fold, and pretends to go pee.
— Mary comes back to bed with Jesus and waits.
— John gets up “to pee” and doesn’t find Jesus. Almost laughs.
— Mary hides Jesus in John’s pillow.
— John lays on the Sacred Statue. Laughs. 2 points for Mary.
— John sleeps with Jesus and plans where to hide next.
— John wakes up and finds Jesus is gone. 2 points for Mary.
— Mary puts Jesus on a shelf in the refrigerator next to the milk.
— John suspects and doesn’t open refrigerator.
— Mary laughs to see John eating cereal without milk. 1 point John.
— Mary removes Jesus from the refrigerator and puts Jesus in John’s briefcase.
— Etc.
PURPOSE OF THE GAME
— To make silence come to the fore — to be almost palpable.
— To enliven a sense of silence shared constantly between players.
— To discover unseen mutual engagement to be an all time loving reality.
— To show how one can cherish silence as lovingness.
— To have fun! Duh! Creation is solely and exactly God’s fun.
Feel free to make up additional rules. Keep a ledger somewhere where players enter their points
and recall the “incident.”
IDEAL RESONANCE
— To demonstrate how God can surprise — found in plain sight within.
Edg Duveyoung
Lord Krishna stopped time to explain all 700 slokas of Bhagavad Gita. Did he really stop
time? If yes, how? What is the real meaning of that?
LET US PRAY TO LORD KRISHNA
Dearest Heart of All Hearts, oh Lord Krishna, Transcendence Personified, again and again we bow
unto Thee. May we know more about time?
Attend time’s absolute relativity. Every possibility is entirely and always seen by Me. Time’s
relativity and the proper human relationship to it is demonstrated many times per night. In
your dreams, the dream character with whom you identify is relaxed and accepting even
when large hunks of time “go missing” in a dream. One seems to be in one scenario, and
then, suddenly, one is in another scenario that is hours later or miles away or even on
another planet. Time is seen as illusory when it’s obvious that the dream character knows
“what happened in the missing hunk.” In truth it was never missing, because I hold all
possibilities as if constantly enlivened in My mind. So if a dream character has to somehow
know what the human dreamer’s dream has never yet manifested, I merely insert the
missing information then and there - on the fly. Time is therefore NEVER a concern for Me.
This can become a waking life reality, for you My Beloveds, when one sees throughout the
day that the past and future intermingle freely with the flow of objects of consciousness.
Time is not a concern for you in this manner. Constantly throughout one’s day, the mind
jumps all around — imagining exactly as in dreams. If you want to imagine yourself on Mars
— well YOU JUST NOW DID. How much of that trip you had depends on how conscious you
are. If you find yourself meditating, it’s My way to expand your ken of the richness of what
you actually are always experiencing.
Our minds are wondrous gifts from Thee. You give us constant miraculous actuality instant by
instant. We are overwhelmed with hearts flooded with gratitude. How can we consciously
appreciate Your omniscience?
When reading the Gita, oh Hearts of Mine, remember that Arjuna was a demigod. He had
been given all the weapons of his father, Lord Indra. His mind was magnificent. We had been
friends in many previous incarnations. Arjuna and I knew each other for 90 years before the
Gita battle took place. He was completely focused on Me during the moments of our
conversation. In Dwapara Yuga, telepathy and all the siddhis were yet still almost ordinary.
So the manner in which I communicated with Arjuna was on every possible level. It was soul
to soul — perfect intimacy. The entire Gita happened in an instant but seemed like hours.
Every question Arjuna asked Me showed how deeply and spontaneously he understood Me
and was then seeking a bit more clarity. It was a perfect discussion. Oh Dearest Hearts, how
endearing to foresee talking with Thee in this manner.
Our intellects are expanded as much as our hearts Oh Lord Of All Lords. How can we serve this
knowledge? How can we be more worthy of existing in Your Ocean Of Being?
Listen My Sweet Darlings about how free you are. All that’s done is done by Me. Even now,
your every thought is written by Me. All your emotions are My works of art. You have but one
duty — to witness Me and the unfolding of Creation to the greatest degree. I reward every
mind’s attention on any possibility. I expand every moment in which I author you to be
interested. Your path is known to Me. I tend Thee. I am inside Thy mind. Witness this as
deeply as possible to grow in your ability to share creation’s ultimate value with Me. Close
your eyes and blossom into My Silence.
We do nothing but yearn to serve Thee. Your Love expands into emptiness and brings us to life
again and again and again. Your Grace saturates all manifestation.
To witness any mind is perfect. You perfectly fulfill your destiny by being My attention upon
your mind’s thoughts. And by meditating, you learn to broaden and deepen your clarity
about what is. And then you find that the expanse of experience has always been and
always will be sacred, because you are always attending My Countenance — Creation is My
portrait. You are always worshiping Me. This is why right exactly now I observe you with
utter compassion with all My Love waiting to flood ever more deeply into Thee.
I am always within. I am with Thee. I fill Thee with My Grace.
Edg Duveyoung
What is supreme enlightenment?
LET’S SEE WHAT GOD SAYS!
Lord God Almighty
Let Me guess. It’s you again.
Yep, Jester Smartmouth.
Mouthy, yes, smart, nah.
“Smart” as in “blasphemous snark.”
More like “jump the snark.”
What’s the tippy top?
Far past infinity’s ken.
So me you can’t teach?
This ain’t about you.
So it must be about God?
Unfortunately.
But but You are God!
In My ointment there’s a fly.
Saith “‘tis naught.” I pray.
Praying won’t help Me.
Yeah, whoa ….to Whom would You pray?
And that’s the problem.
I suppose You tried.
Solely for thousands of years.
And yet You got zip?
I finally quit.
Even You couldn’t cut it?
I couldn’t find Me.
But You’re there right now!
I know, right? Should be easy.
Did You do yoga?
Tried all My powers.
Again, did You do yoga?
Didn’t. I’m God, see?
I think I do see.
I tried hard as possible.
Except no yoga.
Yoga’s for yogis.
They speak of the source of You.
They don’t have clue one.
Seems like puffed up pride.
Nothing’s beyond My power.
You did not find You.
Unfortunately.
The yogi says to transcend.
I tried tried tried tried.
Yogis say, “Don’t try.”
I’m telling you I tried that.
And that’s not yoga.
You are teaching Me?
They say “Close Your eyes; then wait.”
Then what do I do?
You wait wait wait wait!
It just can’t be that easy.
Come on. Close the eyes.
Okay, just this once.
So, You’re back; how did it go?
I can’t call it Me.
What would You call it?
Not Me . . . but more Me than Me.
Sounds like it was You.
This always happens?
Always. Close the eyes and wait.
I didn’t even . . .
I know. Right? Too sweet!
I’m gunna try this again.
Do not strain Yourself.
Danged yogis. Who knew?
So, what to tell to Quora?
I’m thoughtlessly tops.
And for the yogis?
A yuga in Vaikuntha!
They said You’d do that.
Edg Duveyoung
How can I become creative?
YOU ALREADY ARE MAGNIFICENT. HERE’S PROOF.
Ask yourself these questions BEFORE you do the exercise below. Take the questions seriously and
really imagine that you need these answers about yourself regarding your creativity.
How creative am I? If I had had the "right breaks" and "right background" and "right upbringing",
could I be a genius in Hollywood with so much talent that I could single-handedly be a
combination of director, fashion designer, writer, stunt director, camera operator and film editor all
rolled into one personality that far exceeds the combined talents of Spielberg, Hitchcock and
Lucas?
How quickly can I create? If I were asked to be that above envisioned genius and was given a 100
million dollar budget and 250 person film crew, how long would it take me to create a five minute
film from scratch?
How finely can I create? When making this film, how much would I rely on the helpers to fill in the
details of my more abstract plans?
How much does my education and personal life history limit my creativity? Right now, do I have
enough training and experience to create anything with much "depth" or "maturity?"
What is my personal sense of my own creative power? When faced with a challenging situation
that contains much uncertainty and requires a lot of "filling in of the blanks," what is my
spontaneous, emotional summation of my ability to contend?
The Creativity Exercise
The following is a powerful tool in at least two ways. It can be used in daily life almost irrespective
of the challenge or needs of the moment, and, it demonstrates to you your power of creativity with
an undeniable clarity. The instructions that follow actually teach you a technique for
harnessing your creativity, and this is as important as your creativity itself.
Be prepared to enter a state of consciousness that is typically called "day dreaming". This means
that you feel reasonably safe and comfortable about closing your eyes for five minutes. If you have
not had enough sleep lately, then this technique may simply set you up for actually going to sleep,
so this exercise needs you to be fairly alert -- not drowsy. Also, though not strictly necessary, it
would be good not to try this technique when having a strong emotion. If you're angry or elated,
let the emotion settle down first.
Step One: Close your eyes and have the desire to see a person riding a bicycle on a STREET
THAT YOU KNOW WELL. This means that you wait a few seconds with this intent and just "see
what happens." You may get a mental image or other mental experience that convinces you that
you have properly followed this first step. If you do not, then having thoughts about what the
street looks like should be introduced into the mind to "kick it off in the right direction". If at
anytime, no matter how fleeting, you feel like you have "seen a person riding a bike", then you are
prepared to go to Step Two.
Step Two: Repeat Step One and have the additional intent to "follow" the bicyclist down the
street. The experience that comes from this may be a vivid and continuous "dream movie" that
shows the person riding the bike past familiar buildings, trees, etc., or it may be a series of quick
snapshots of the bicyclist at various points along the way. Success with Step Two would be having
more than one image in your mind. Hopefully, you''ll get a sense of motion of the bicyclist
occurring in one or more moments during Step Two. The major use of your "will" is to simply and
EASILY bring your mind, as often as necessary without feeling strained, back to the intent of
having a picture or sense of a bicyclist traveling along a street familiar to you. Be patient with your
mind when it thinks other thoughts or even produces other pictures in your mind. You do not have
to fight your mind’s other productivity. All you have to do is reintroduce the "subject at hand" to
the mind when it is found to have wandered off. Do not worry about chronological order. You may
find yourself repeatedly starting back at the beginning of Step Two and then suddenly seeing the
bicyclist "way down the street". That's okay. Do this until you feel you've seen the bicyclist travel
at least a few blocks -- even if it has been "all mixed up."
Step Three: Intend for the bicyclist to move off the familiar street onto a wholly unknown side
street or path through a park. Have a fainter intent to note, as the bicyclist travels, the other
objects of the scene being traveled through such as trees, other people, clothing, animals, water,
wind, grass, sounds, etc. Do this step until you have had an experience of the bicyclist traveling in
an environment that is unfamiliar to you and that you have noted other objects in the scenes
besides the bicyclist. This must again be a movie of sorts or several snapshots at least.
Step Four: Intend for the bicyclist to stop somewhere and talk to your best friend. See what
happens. See what words they say, the looks on their faces and the EMOTION between them. This
step is successful if you achieve a few pictures and have a good "hunk" of conversation between
the two.
Practical Use In Real Life
In the future, whenever you have a decision to make or wish to understand a situation more deeply
or are challenged with an emotional event that you feel you need to assimilate more fully or have
to "come up with something by tomorrow." then form a question or statement (a concept) in your
mind that "embodies the situation you are in" and treat this concept as if it were the bicyclist
above. Have the concept easily in mind, and be prepared to bring the mind back to it when
wandering occurs. Do this repeatedly within the context of the moment (the familiar part), and
then think about the past and the future of this concept. As long as your mind "stays on topic"
that''s okay, but easily reintroduce the concept whenever you naturally note that wandering has
occurred. Finally begin to "play with it" and introduce other elements to the concept BY PUTTING
YOUR ATTENTION ON THE VARIOUS SIDE THOUGHTS that come up during the exercise. This
"favoring other concepts" will lead you to many other thoughts about the initial concept. Do this
until you feel you have explored the situation fully. This is how to build clarity.
This amazing, powerful, and quickly effective technique can be relied upon to instantly transform
how you see almost any situation. Solutions and understandings are merely a "thought away" from
you. Practice this daily, and you will quickly reap great rewards. The more you practice, the better
you will get at this.
QUESTIONS YOU CAN ANSWER:
Why am I so certain that I created the "dreams" when I had absolutely no "pre-dream"
machinations within my awareness? Since I did not take any time whatsoever to manufacture a
certain scene with its bicyclist, clothing, bike design, pathway materials, and other objects, why is
it that I "own" this dream?
Who DID create this dream's huge number of details?
In terms of raw creativity, how powerful and fertile must my mind be to have done this virtually
instantaneously and so completely? What can I do to really own my potential in this regard?
How would my life be different if I contemplated in this manner just one of my problems per day?
How different would life be for me?
How does my normal use of my mind differ from this technique in terms of my moment by
moment decision making processes? How much of my life is "considered?"
What would happen if I told my mind to "surprise me?"
Can I use my heart like I have just learned to use my mind?
Edg Duveyoung
What does enlightenment mean?
The set up: Imagine yourself inside a dream with complete and total awareness of who you
actually are -- a sleeping person whose brain is manufacturing the dream, and who has a "real
reality" that can be obtained by simply waking up. Of course, you would have complete recall of
the dream content should you wake up.
In this dream, you are, well, no other way to describe it, almost God. You, by simply intending it to
happen, can create anything you can imagine. And knowing that the entirety of this "world" is
sprung directly from your imagination, there is not the slightest moral qualm or fear for you within
this world.
Want a troop of baboons who are entirely shaved, dressed in typical Wall Street attire, speaking
with perfect cogency about Kurt Godel's formally undecidable propositions at a cocktail party? No
problemo. Want to go slaloming the rings of Saturn without a spacesuit? Pihhhh! Child's play. Or,
get this, want to look into a dream mirror, see your astral body's image, and have this incredible
feeling of satisfaction? Done deal.
Get the set up? You're in this dream world, and you can do ANYTHING, you can feel ANYTHING,
and you can be ANYTHING. Within this reality, you are freedom personified.
The exercise. Jump ahead. Think of yourself having had this ability to be anything you want to be
in your dreams -- for TWENTY YEARS. Hours every night for years have been spent having every
experience you could imagine. You've done it all. You've done it all with polka dots, you've done it
upside down, inside out, and Mobiused. You been a super hero, a villain, a genius, and a
billionaire. And, now, nothing, nothing, NOTHING is left to do that isn't, well, ho hum.
So here you are, twenty years from now, in the following dream sequence: You're at one of your
fabulous astral parties. You've outdone yourself. You've created hundreds of people decked out in
finery that would make Liza Doolittle's coming out party seem an "oh so drab affair." You waltz,
you tango, you hip, you hop, and you change genders and costumes ten times in ten minutes. You
know, YOUR typical dream.
Now, someone comes up to you. This dream person, Pat, doesn't know who you really are, and
instead has been precisely created to KNOW that you are this incredible person who is adored by
everyone at the party for reasons not a single one of them has ever examined the veracity of for a
nanosecond. Pat, easy on the eyes, has designs upon you. Pat wants to get jiggy with you, and
says, "Wow, some party!", and proceeds to attempt small talk with you using a rather impressive
knowledge set, and like an amalgam of Jim Carrey and Stephen Hawkings pulls off being
thoroughly entertaining AND deep!
Unfortunately, this is the fourteenth time you have had Pat come on to you like this. In fact,
variations of this Pat character have done, said, felt, and been every possible thing for, to, with,
under and of you. You're sick of Pat! And, you're sick of anything that remotely has the "stink" of
being entertainingly deep! Been Mobiused, done that Mobiused. You've got a closet full of Pats
and Robins and Dales and Chrises and Mickeys. Pat doesn't "get" that the ultimate fabric of the
universe is about a pound of cerebral cortex snoozing on your pillow!
What to do? THAT'S THE EXERCISE! Think of something to do in this wonderful environment after
twenty years of having done so. What would you do? (Remember, you've already done it.)
Yes, Dear Reader — THIS IS YOUR MID-TERM EXAM. Let’s see the comments section light
up with God’s creativity as it is expressed RIGHT NOW inside your mind.
Edg Duveyoung
Life Lessons: How powerful is our subconscious?
Originally Answered: What is the power of the subconscious mind?
Ready to go intellectually nutzoid?
The “subconscious” mind is fast and vast.
— Too fast to grasp even though it’s easily observed in operation.
— Too vast to grasp even though you have actual, personal proof of that vastness.
Too Fast
As I gaze at my computer screen, my field of view takes in all the many other items on my desk. I
see them, but I don’t “think” about them. I don’t list them in my mind to keep them all distinct. My
pen, seen on the left by my peripheral vision, is seen at the same time my glass of water on my
right is seen while I look forward at my screen. It’s no struggle. It’s instantaneous. My whole field
of view is “understood.” No words needed. If I gaze around the room, I can name at least a
thousand things from “window” to “rug” to “basket” to “keyboard.” All of these items instantly
recognized when in view.
Think of the processing speed and the immensity of the task. Each item, each feature about the
item, is somehow handled INDIVIDUALLY by the brain. That’s set-aside, dedicated nerve
dynamics for each and every thing. All of it effortlessly reported to your mind without being a
bother.
See? See the speed? See the intricacy?
It’s not subconscious — IT’S HYPERCONSCIOUS INSTANTANEITY.
Question: Do you really think that “what the mind does next” —- which is a product of the
hyperconscious realm’s computational methods and logic — is anywhere near to being understood
by today’s science? The speed and delicacy is beyond comprehension by a human intellect. All
the greats of psychology and physiology HAVE NEVER given the masses any clarity about what we
are moment by moment having to negotiate. Psychology psyshmology.
Too Vast
As I gaze up at the night sky, I can see a few thousand stars without a telescope. Some of those
stars are so far away, they may have already burnt out or exploded, but the light they sent — a
billion years ago — only now reaches my eyes. A dead star speaks to me from out of its grave!
How cool is that, eh? And how cool that even one photon from that star can be registered by my
eye’s retina. One single photon that’s a billion years old is all it takes for me to notice that star.
That’s how delicate consciousness is, and, just askin’, have you noticed the amount of photons
bouncing into you constantly? ALL OF THEM IMPACT AS IMPORTANTLY AS THAT DEAD STAR’S
PHOTON DOES. Everything matters. Just as your peripheral vision can easily “account” for what is
seen, so too can the hyperconscious ability of the mind integrate every input down to single
photons. That’s uncountable zillions BEING COUNTED instantly and “made sense of.”
And most of it ignored by you.
Because it’s just too too.
We’re corks in a roiling sea.
But ignored, too, because it’s safe.
We trust the entirety and our brain to handle almost all the activities.
We don’t nitpick. We don’t back seat drive. We don’t mindfully manage.
And it all just goes perfectly.
So that’s the reason the yogi says, “That titch you do attend? Let it go too.”
Impossible to direct the mind which has the whole of creation as its basis.
As if, eh? Like we could construct the perfect next thought to have.
— Yet we have our next thought “done for us.”
— No effort required on the part of the mind’s witness.
— 99% of all existence is on automatic.
Yogi: If one trusts God’s doingness only a little bit more, one can find peace.
— Peace in the midst of the photons of almost infinite actuality.
— Peace that passeths ALL understanding.
— Peace from letting go of “symbols of me.”
Subconscious mind?
Now you know why the yogi laughs.
Edg Duveyoung
If God is really all powerful, all knowing, and truly loving, then why does evil exist?
IT’S ALL EVIL!
Yeah, I’m saying it.
Proof?
Syllogism: God is transcendent, so all “else” is non-god — evil.
Corollary: “Evil” means “attention off of God.”
Corollary: Even putting attention on a religious symbol of God is not “attending God.”
Proposition: If the mundane mind is silent, then silence is realized as God’s Being.
God is axiom. Evil is derived.
God is pure. Evil is mixed.
God is immanent. Evil is bound..
God is silence. Evil is tumult.
God is truth. Evil is illusory.
God is one. Evil is mob.
God is perfect. Evil is error.
God is immaterial. Evil is matter.
God is Self. Evil is ego.
God is God. Evil is manifestation.
So now we see the problem.
— All of us are erring illusionists mired in derivatives.
— All of us are a mixed manifestation of materiality.
— All of us are bound egos screaming ourselves to deaf.
Reading this essay is, you guessed it, sinful.
So, I”ll stop writing.
But just in case you want to sin more:
I’ve recently written about evil — here and here and here and here and here.
Absolution? Meditate. Transcend. Purify. Repeat if necessary.
Edg Duveyoung
Have you ever seen god?
I’ve met God and reported it here on Quora:
Here’s links to the most recent six posts.
Here and here and here and here and here and here.
But but but,
— You’ll say, “No way your conversations were real.”
— You’ll say, “Admit that you have not met actual, god-god, God.”
Okay, I get all that. Honest.
But, I can disambiguate by non-defining God.
And in doing so, I’ll show how you, also, have met God.
G.O.D. stands for “Get” “Over” “Defining.”
Now ask me, “Edg, have you met definitionless God?”
Answer: Of course. Every day I meet the unknowable head on. You too. Every moment is a
mystery if deconstruction is attempted — we discover that “we know not of” nor can we. We
reside in an endless, extending expanse of consciousness — creation. Pure mystery. Hard to find a
better definition of God’s presence despite God yet seeming to be absent. To point at God, simply
point in any direction. I don’t define God, but of course I do constantly.
Seems like a cop-out though, eh? You’ll want to ask me if I saw God with a white beard and a
hovering cloud of attending angels with some harp music and some fog effects rolling across my
carpet with all kinds of effulgence everywhere. Did God have a deep booming voice? Was the awe
awesome? Was I sure I wasn’t dreaming? How long did the meeting last? What was God wearing?
Did God reveal any secret wisdom? Was I in a psychiatric facility? Etc.
Yeah, those questions. The all-too-human questions.
Obviously none of my Quora essays are reality based, but heh. Heh. Are they?
If I did meet God in some miraculous circumstance,
— and if somehow I didn’t die from the shock,
— and if somehow I calmed down to my normal state,
— and if somehow I was able to believe God was some sort of buddy of mine,
then, you know what? Yeah those faked conversations could manifest. Your conversations would
vary — I’d mention pistachio ice cream but you’d mention Dulche de leche — like that.
Just sayin’ God comes to you exactly as you’d want. In the Gita, God appears to Arjuna to be
“human.” When Arjuna asks Lord Krishna to show His true form, Lord Krishna reveals all to Arjuna,
and Arjuna — a demigod himself — actually goes insane. So yeah, of course, God has to be
cautious around us. Turns out, for me, being surrounded by an oceanic creation is about all the
God I can bear to process. You? You want more? Seriously? More? If I saw all of God — I’d blow
every fuse. You got some extra specially heavy duty infinite amp fuses? Betting not. So take a look
around. This is about all the God you can handle.
Consult your scriptures. They all agree that seeing God is personal. Burning Bush, Lord “Flower
Power” Brahma, Jesus on a donkey, Blue Charioteer, whatever it takes for the meaning of the
moment. If I came up to you on the street and began telling you about any such encounter, you’d
back slowly away. “No, wait, He had four faces and was sitting on this Lotus, see, and He was
awesome, and and and. . . ” You know how you’d treat me. Right? So I DON’T DARE TELL YOU
THE TRUTH. You’d get that look on your one face.
So I’ve had to compromise here at Quora, and I pick my words carefully. I can’t tell you the details
about how I was wrapped up by a golden entity and taken on a roller coaster ride into silence.
You’d advise me to take lithium. So I speak about God’s least alarming aspects just to keep you in
the same room. I can’t tell you that this essay is based on my experiences, but if I say, “God is
silence within,” you’re more comfortable. I feel like a fly fisherman — trying to use the right bait.
Sigh. I don’t know if you like mealworms or minnows.
After your first meditation, you’ll open your eyes and go into immediate denial and tone down
what you experienced. “I felt calmer,” you’ll say. We all do that. We’re all like Arjuna saying, “Shut
it off! I can’t take it. Please, God, please, just drive my chariot and be my Pal, and I’ll be calmer.”
So, for now, what you see is what you get. But hey, do not sell yourself short. Step outside. Look
at the Moon YOU insist that God put up there. Pretty spectacular of you to allow God to show that
much pizzaz. Look around. What a marvelous vision you are seeing right now. How intimately you
have God’s details exquisitely encircling your being. I’m kinda impressed.
Only thing to do is study silence within.
This gives God YOUR MIND to expand into.
Into our silence, God’s subtleties will flood.
It’s like allowing God to double down.
Do this. Do this regularly. And then it’ll be YOU that has to answer questions about God’s
actuality. It’ll be you on the street corner handing out pamphlets. And that’s a sighting of God I
dearly long to see.
Edg Duveyoung
How would you react if you opened your door to find God standing there?
KNOCK KNOCK
Edg: Who’s there?
God: It’s Me.
Edg: God?
God: You know it is. Open the door.
Edg: But I’m in my pajamas. I have a hair bump.
God: I know, have known, and will know about all about you.
Edg: But there’s dishes in the sink, dust on my sills, and debris in my spaces.
God: I have a list, “Edg’s Tawdry Flaws,” yes, but yet you live.
Edg: But why drop in like this? Unannounced. Don’t I have to invite You?
God: I am not in yet. Open the door.
Edg: But what if You ask me embarrassing questions about my sins?
God: Your sin is treating Me like a fly on your screen door. Let Me in.
Edg: So this is it? Judgement Day for me?
God: No spoilers. Let Me in.
Edg: I’m afraid. You just arriving like this freaks me out. Raincheck?
God: This door isn’t real to Me. I’m only humoring you. Open it.
Edg: If my door is not real, neither am I. So why are You talking to nothing?
God: I imbue you with My Being for the purpose of expanding happiness.
Edg: I don’t feel imbued. I feel unhappily imposed upon by God on my porch.
God: “Imbued” means you can think any thought.
Edg: Yeah, like, “I’m out of coffee and God might see my Pooh Bear jammies.”
God: You’re a combo of narcissism and low-esteem. Shame is your oxygen.
Edg: I feel my door is a trapdoor above a dark abyss filled with my sins.
God: I’m not sayin’ it ain’t. But if you go into the abyss I have to go too.
Edg: So hey, yeah, You’d go too. So that’s not very expansiony of the happy.
God: There ya go. Just gotta trust I don’t want to have a bad day either.
Edg: So if I let You in, You won’t be exacting justice with divine punitivity?
God: No spoilers. Come on. We’ll talk. You know.
Edg: I know You’re trickier than Satan, because You outsmarted Satan.
God: I’ve done better than that.
Edg: Yeah, see? You can conquer every villian. You make my case.
God: I’m not going to conquer you. You’re not evil enough. Open up!
Edg: Okay, no punishment; so why come? I’m no saint.
God: The door?
Edg: I’m getting it now. This door is a Portal.
God: No, it’s just your front door. The Tao is the ordinary door.
Edg: Yeah, get enlightened to see the same stuff still. Like my ear hairs.
God: So you’re not going to open this door and have a sacred moment?
Edg: I wouldn’t put it that way.
God: You’re passing up asking Me a question for Quora’s sake?
Edg: Yeah. I’m not up for heavy lifting. And out of coffee.
God: Maybe next week?
Edg: Maybe is possible. Sorta might be doable. I’ll get back to Ya.
God: Your Dear Readers are so disappointed.
Edg: They’ll just have to suffer.
God: I’ll hope for your email.
Edg: Wait. Wait.
God: What?
Edg: Did FedEx leave a package out there?
God: Well well well, I guess somebody’s gotta open the door and find out.
Edg Duveyoung
Is it true that breathing can completely stop in very deep meditation?
You can run fast until you’re “out of breath.”
Or — you can rest until you don’t need to breathe.
Same laws of nature being enforced.
If I tell you that your loved one just got hit by a car, up goes oxygen use.
Just that single thought spurs metabolic activity and a mental storm.
Same deal if we stop thoughts — we lessen breathing.
Attend the mind’s quietest level, and the need for oxygen can pause.
Dear Reader, try this — take a great big deep breath and then relax and exhale. When you empty
out, there will be a short period where the breathing doesn’t immediately start another breath. The
body is very very sensitive about the amount of oxygen in the blood — doesn’t want too much or
too little.
When the body/mind complex is running at so low a state of operations, the oxygen in the blood
stream is not being used up at a fast rate, so until that reserve supply needs to be replenished,
breathing can pause. Beginning meditators can find themselves “suddenly taking a breath” as if to
catch up.
The ancient yogis report ASTOUNDING lengths of time without breathing. How long? I don’t want
to tell you. You’d say I was nuts.
But yet, of all the mystical claims, this concept holds true at every level of examination. The
common person knows about oxygen use.
This is why oxygen (prana) is so important in yogic practices. If you adjust your breathing style,
you commandeer the mind’s attention away from its constant roaming from topic to topic,
because breathing becomes the sole topic, and a sole topic uses less oxygen than that of a
waking mind’s dozens per minute.
As one practices breath control, the mind parallels and reduces its activity. So the yogi who can
get breathing down to a whisper can “flirt with the absolute silence at the base of existence.” The
mind needs to be very delicate to see a thought being born. This takes up to decades of practice
to become expert in maintaining the body at a low level of excitation by breath control techniques;
even most yogis don’t try it. Too much work.
Instead, it’s better to lessen mental activity which will in turn lessen the need for oxygen. So we
get quiet, quieter and quietest to get the body to settle down. The goal is to get both mind and
body in a state where the “noise” of the body/mind complex is so low that attention can leap off
the mind’s operations to attend, instead, awareness itself — the witness of one’s thoughts can
finally be discovered. Dwelling regularly at this level is prepping for enlightenment.
In practical life, what is usually suggested is to do a very simple breath control practice of
alternating the breathing from one nostril to the other. We do this for a few minutes and get quiet
quickly. THEN, we begin to use mental techniques known to quieten the mind. A one two punch!
At some point, the meditator paradigm shifts into a saint.
A saint only breathes for God’s sake; each oxygen molecule is sanctified.
A saint knows a thought mystically arises from a sacred silence.
A saint knows God as CREATOR — creating right now.
Creator of being, of thought, of speech, of action.
A saint resides at that delicate level and witnesses God’s doingness.
And yes, it’s painful to admit, but the above essay does not mention pistachio ice cream, your left
elbow, Bugattis, Mickey Mouse or samyama. My shame is breathtaking.
Edg Duveyoung
How can I control my subconscious mind?
Ground Control to Major Calm
Take your mantra thrills and put your heart melt on
Ground Control to Major Calm (ten, nine, eight, seven, six)
Commencing countdown, eyes closing anon (five, four, three)
Check intuition and may God's love be with you (two, one, liftoff)
This is Ground Control to Major Calm
You've really made the fade
And the papers want to know whose identity you are
Now it's time to leave the concepts if you dare
This is Major Calm to Ground Control
I'm stepping through the nowhere door
And I'm floating in no peculiar way
And beings look so like angels today
For here
Am I sitting in an “I can.”
Far beyond the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I want to do
Though I'm past one hundred thousand smiles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my soulship knows which way to go
Tell my wife I am her very much — she knows
Your circuit's dead, is something wrong?
Can you hear me, Major Calm?
I’m Calm. And I’m floating in an “I can.”
Far above a swoon
Planet Earth is blue
And there's anything I can do
— David Bowie’s rewrite
Edg Duveyoung
Is it possible to learn meditation on your own?
Yes, but no, because you’re never “on your own.”
God is an all time reality. Inside and outside you.
If you start regularly meditating, it’s God’s annunciation about you.
To find “yourself being a meditator” is divinely indicative — prophetic.
So if “you start,” whoa! Take it as a major prediction about you — by God.
Meditation is God smiling upon those personalities that are nearing freedom.
Own your interest in meditation as rare, precious, wondrous — deep.
If you start meditating, you’ve been anointed.
So there you are and never having yet tried to meditate.
You’re really in a bad fix, because there’s no way you can help.
Instead you will be helpless, impotent, bereft of spiritual wherewithal.
You can’t find a teacher who’s the real deal — anyone can fool you.
And yet you will start. Somehow. Maybe badly. Maybe goodly.
But you will start.
Once you’ve started, your clarity will blossom — maybe.
— You will read about meditation — maybe.
— You will find out about the various techniques — maybe.
— You will watch a lot of youtube gurus giving spiels — maybe.
— You will try out various spiritual techniques — maybe.
— You might quit. You might fly to India and wear a loin cloth — maybe.
— You will be certain and then uncertain and wowed and bored — maybe.
— You will sort out — psychological from spiritual from being — maybe.
— Psychologically you’ll see some resolving, some settling — maybe.
— Spiritually you’ll have some sweet astral blasts of delight — maybe.
— Being — silence sentience soundlessly singing — will dawn — maybe.
— You will find out that God is storytelling “you” — maybe.
See? It’s a gift. “Gift” because you witness (receive) meditation.
— you don’t do meditation
— you settle back and enjoy meditation
— you allow the process to be natural — effortless.
— you will be side by side with God as you watch the mind.
How your spirituality matures — up to God The Author.
Maybe a minute from now or maybe a milenia from now — freedom.
Your interest in meditation means you’ve passed through a portal.
You’re now already a few steps into “the other side.” Own this.
Even “other side newbies” seem to glow a bit.
Their silence leaks out.
So start leaking. In public even.
HOW TO MEDITATE:
Don’t ask me. You’ve already asked God, and the answer is coming.
I have described how to meditate in my Quora essays, but I won’t cite them.
Because God will get you to where you next need to go.
Welcome to the other side.
Edg Duveyoung
Is the meaning of the Sanskrit shloka Om Purnamadah Purnamidam very similar to the
continuum theory?
How did God escape The Absolute?
God was pent
— limited to infinity
— no where to go
— no one to talk to
— no pistachio ice cream
God was nessless
— thoughtlessness
— doinglessness
— amlessness
— dairylessness
God was bored
— uniformity of enormity
— constantancy schmantancy
— same ‘ternal same ‘ternal
— udder lactoselessness
God was incarcerated
— jailbird named “Garuda”
— convict doing hard timelessness
— tortured in Wholesome Prison
— no cow no milk no cream no ice no sugar no nuts
Addendum
Figures God’d pull a Houdini.
Just had to bust out all over.
Didn’t matter how rude it was to matter.
See what God did there?
God did a gotcha with the Godel sleight of hand ruse.
God recursively put silence between parentheticals and iterated
And nothing became an actualized null set.
God’s magic mirror a done deal, natch light had to be born.
And what did God see when firstly gazing into the first reflection?
You
Same ol’ same ol’
Perfect you
Edg Duveyoung
Does meditating change personality? Will I be the same person after years of
meditation?
I’m the same still.
You were hoping to hear otherwise? Sorry.
It’d be nice to report a personality can rocket to new heights.
But I’m still the same. See my list of sameness below.
Now, I know you’re suspecting I’d say “My soul is unchanged.”
But no, I’m talking about changes in common human psychology.
Yeah, there’s been maturation, but it’s ordinary not mystically caused change.
Don’t make me list me. Take my word for it. I’m still a hot mess.
So why meditate when causality is a crock?
For the same reason Mickey Mouse would rather be Walt Disney.
Mickey has one adventure after another, but being Walt would be better.
Same deal for you. Being the source of you would so fulfill.
One meditates to find out one is a character in an escapable comicbook.
Unlike Mickey, we can snap out of it. Leap off the page. Freed of Mickeyness.
The metaphor breaks down, because meditation doesn’t evolve one into Walt.
Instead meditation is to toggle identity off the character and onto God.
We don’t want to become Walt with all his superpowers over Mickey’s world.
We want to become the basis from which walt-ness and me-ness manifests.
And the good news is: one is that already.
“Is that” means one is like a wealthy person with amnesia.
— No need to change
—— Realize your status
——— Reach for your divine checkbook.
Your riches:
— You’ve have an unending stream of thoughts that never repeat.
— You memorized the world and have a name for everything.
— You’ve always felt “here” no matter the mind’s noisey tumults.
— Your mind’s witness is absolutely congruent with ancient descriptions.
— Your nightly dreams allow you to be Walt — for funzies!
— All scriptures affirm your identity is eternal.
— You can meditate and switch attention from “on thoughts” to “on silence.”
— Silence can be studied until its status is realized as Divine Being.
— You can eat pistachio ice cream as you get clear about your spiritual wealth.
Not bad, eh? It’s like we’re 16 years old and Dad and Mom give us the keys to a new Bugatti.
Honest fact — being human is the talk of all of creation. The angels are jealous, because we can
end identification. They have to be angelic forever, ya know? No vacations, no overtime pay, and
they can’t even blink lest they miss a speck of God. It gets old. But humans can just toggle off and
be. No to-do list — just be. The angels pine to know that kind of relief.
And we humans go la la la and ha ha ha. Spoiled rotten.
We can just zonk out in sleep or flit around in dreams or have waking life as a playground and yet
find it all “so last week.” God’s rich kids — spiritual brats.
When all of creation and being a mental trillionaire yet still do not produce constant satisfaction, it
is a tell that we intuitively know we’ve earned the “I survived being human” tee shirt. And worn it
threadbare.
You’re here, for instance. Think of all the other places you could be.
But you’re here. Seems suspicious — reading this essay instead. Hmmm?
I mean really. You’re not even trying to hide it.
Good news for the road ahead.
Your pan is oiled.
Your fire is hot.
Your popcorn kernel
Is in the right pot.
— Brahma Shave
Edg Duveyoung
If Hindus worship a stone or metal "idol " as God as a means to invoke the presence of
God from the higher, unseen worlds, into the image so that Hindus can commune with
Him and receive His blessings, why not simply pray directly to God?
Here’s how to worship an idol:
Pick your idol.
— A small figurine or an image is traditional.
— It should have “at least some” heart value, a resonance with you.
— You should invest in and pamper your idol — your “I doll.”
—— Always be respectful as if your idol is sentient
—— Have it on a raised altar.
—— Make symbolic offerings to this idol — fruit, flowers, etc.
Practice worshiping
— While using mind, be aware of the fundamental matrix
—— Silence as the canvas of worship
—— God’s omniscient observation
—— Intent to surrender
—— Simultaneity and unity of mental dynamics
—— The overall purport of worship
— While using voice, coordinate with
—— The sound values of words
—— The mental sound values of the words
—— The meaning of the words
—— The emotions flowing with the words
— While using body, be aware of the art of worship
—— The symbolism of each movement
—— The efficient and dance-like flow of motions
—— The balanced use of both sides of the brain.
By practicing we come to know the subtlety of the mind. A few hours per day for many months
can do wonders! This is the reason we use an idol — it’s practicing in order to obtain a nervous
system that can truly pray with maximum effect. A coherent laser mentality — not scattered. We
arrive at a mind that has 100% spiritual efficiency — nary a stray thought — pure worship. In the
zone times infinity and nothing but net.
By practicing we see how thoughts can be a wild stampede of oddities that have little immediate
import —distractions such as the environment’s impacts, body sensations, and thoughts about the
mundane. As we practice, easily, naturally, we find we are training the mind to process more
calmly, more orderly, more lovingly. As we improve, the content of the mind is found filling up with
holistic observance instead of sundry thoughts.
Perfect worship of an idol
Only an enlightened person can perfectly worship, but any effort by any untrained mind is worthy
of the doing. “Practice makes perfect” has never been so true an aphorism as when we worship
an idol.
The yogi knows the Self. The Self is within all events like water in milk. And so it is not mere
pretense when a yogi worships an idol — that idol’s source is known as the same Self the yogi has
for inner identity. To the yogi the idol is God in “form” as much as “any form” can be God. In fact,
idolatry is invoking God within to well up and radiate from everythingness.
AND NOW THE GOOD NEWS
Heh, so much WORK to be a good idol worshipper. Worth it, but whoa.
What to do?
How about being an instant yogi?
If you have but
— one brief thought of God
— one mental image of God
— one feeling about God
SUCCESS!
Every thought of God is great practice.
ALL THE ABOVE dynamics of idol worship are enlivened, invoked, actualized
for an instant.
And that’s a half done already goodly started achievement.
What is life if not a series of instants?
Any pausing on God in any manner is worship — a splash of samadhi.
Here, there, throughout anyone’s day, plenty of opportunity!
One quick flash, or two seconds’ worth, or five minutes!
No excuses. When no one’s looking, say Hi! to God.
No matter your life’s menu or what you order,
Pepper God on your daily fare.
Make your Self sneeze.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the smallest step towards a meditation habit?
Closing one eyelid.
You close one eye’s lid and yet perceive that the closed eye continues to report to you, and you
discern some sort of “blank field.” That’s the backside of the front-lit eyelid being seen, but the
experience comes off, relatively, as “nothing” compared to what the still opened eye is reporting.
See the profundity?
It represents the whole nine yards of the shebangy megillah.
Twoness is seen. Opposites actually seen. Simultaneously.
Something and nothing. Sitting in a tree k i s s i n g.
There’s two aspects. God and creation.
Even one closed eye is symbolic of this spiritual understanding.
And toss the “symbolism” — this is actual experimental fact.
We self-demonstrate knowing something and nothing simultaneously.
Both at the same time — opposites without opposition.
We can know God is “silently there” during mental operations.
Ooooooo. Imagine that. God all the time right there. Hefty, eh?
THAT’S ENLIGHTENMENT — the silent basis of life is an all time reality.
The self is the silent identity that witnesses the mind.
The mind is where a nervous system speaks about self.
This is absolute into relative.
In Hinduism we have the phrase, Purnamadah Purnamidam.
Fullness into fullness. The impossible deal somehow done.
So close one eye and SEE!
Then, oh I don’t know, why not get hoggy and close the other eye?
Now we’ve got two eyes closed — and that’s a habit.
Heh, even if you never meditated ever, you’ve done this essay’s exercise.
I know you sat there with one eye closed. I put a spell on you!
If that’s your first meditation, I’m taking credit for being your teacher!
And I charge for these lessons.
Pay me by paying you forward.
Study your inner silence and benefit the future you.
How often do you blink each day?
Talk about your constant checking in with God!
I’m kinda thinkin’ you’re pretty spiritual already.
And I’m not kidding in the least.
Silence is the constant guide. Just gotta own this.
And now the double down.
Your left elbow has been actively silent as your one closed eye.
It has patiently sent you info, and you treated it like a blank.
That’s how all the reports from your entirety are, as if, silent too.
What a script flipping! You ignore almost everything.
What massive habituation! You’re a silence addict!
I take this essay back.
You don nee no steenkink meditation instructions!
Edg Duveyoung
If reincarnation is possible, do we just keep getting reincarnated into this world, or
could we get reincarnated into a different world where magic exists or humans can fly?
Here’s how anyone can learn to fly — in this world:
— “By practising samyama on the relationship between the body and akasa and by concentrating
on the lightness of cotton wool, passage through the sky can be secured.” — Yoga Sutras of
Patanjali
And done. Now you know.
Of course, you won’t learn to fly.
— Because you would never practice for years as Patanjali instructs.
— Because you don’t know what samyama is.
— Because you don’t know how to pay attention to “space.” (akasa)
— Because you can’t conceive of a relationship between body and space.
— Because the lightness of wool seems totally unrelated to flying.
This just wracks the muggle mind with unrequited slavering. We want to fly like Superman, and
while we’re at it, we want all the rest of Superman’s powers too. And if we’re being honest, even
“Superman” — as a concept — can be improved.
So what God did was was to give us an easy fix.
Patanjali schmanjali.
We have dreams.
And don’t even start with “but that’s not the same.”
It is the same. Dreams are as convincingly real as waking life.
Each dream is a whole-spun reality that is accepted “as is.”
When you fly in a dream, YOU ARE FLYING. That’s the real experience.
— Weightlessness, soaring, wind in face, viewing an expanse.
— Thrilling exhortations of swooping glee whooshing inches above the ground.
— Skimming clouds and blip trolling military radar.
Dreams are so hefty . . . and then . . . poof!
Can’t get more instructive than that.
We are actually shown how a whole reality can be trivial.
Every single morning, God kerblams us to consider these truths.
— Any reality is yours for the enjoying, but it’s all illusory.
— Waking up is “the same as continuing to dream.”
— Waking life seems real exactly as dreams seem real.
So, happy now?
Nope?
This “hard to please” dynamic is your saving grace.
Grace prompts you to want more. More than pretense.
And only one thing beats waking life and dreamed superdooperism.
God
Only God satisfies all possible desires.
And you know this.
Example:
— A billionaire offers you a free 300 mph Bugatti Chiron.
— Jesus appears and says, “Let’s you and Me go to heaven.”
See?
— You’d make the right choice.
— The Chiron is trivial, and you’d know it.
So don’t fight battles to grab gold and diamond mines.
Instead, capture the fort presiding over the whole territory.
Instead of decades learning all the superpowers, transcend.
Then after you’ve become the really really you-beyond-you.
— “Ask, and it shall be given you;”
— “Seek, and ye. shall find;”
— “Knock, and it shall be opened unto you:”
And now the kicker.
Before you were created, God asked, “What life do you want?
And what you are right now is what you answered.
Edg Duveyoung
How did Buddha attain enlightenment when there was no one to give him
empowerments, and could others achieve enlightenment in the same way?
LET’S ASK LORD BUDDHA!
Edg: Hey Lord Buddha how did You get enlightened?
Lord Buddha: Duh, I’m God. I am always fully aware.
Edg: But wait, all Your followers say You said there’s no God.
Lord Buddha: Yeah, there’s that, but that’s what they needed to hear.
Edg: Huh? You say You’re God, but You admit lying to Your flock?
Lord Buddha: All words lie; I worked a gimmick; sue Me.
Edg: So You denied the existence of God to get them all to think about God?
Lord Buddha: Bingo! I told them life works best if they don’t think about God.
Edg: Heh, but hey, that doesn’t sound very loving.
Lord Buddha: I had to trick my kids into eating their vegetables.
Edg: I’m amazed You got away with it. You told everyone to meditate too.
Lord Buddha: Yeah, discover God is nowhere, nowhen, nohow. Void R Moi.
Edg: But Advaita says that’s the nature of God — transcendentally unknowable.
Lord Buddha: More words. Mere words. Different gobbildeedogma.
Edg: But Buddhists are famous for deep explanations to profound questions.
Lord Buddha: Keeps My darling little scamps out of mischief.
Edg: And what about the middle path?
Lord Buddha: My silence is always in the middle of everything. I saturate.
Edg: So, in the midst of noise, one can yet discern silence?
Lord Buddha: The mind’s noise can be ignored, and silence realized.
Edg: But it’s so hard to ignore the mind!
Lord Buddha: You’re ignoring your jabbering left elbow. Just do that to the rest.
Edg: Seems way too simple an instruction.
Lord Buddha: You instantly enter sleep. Bam, you’re gone. Same deal.
Edg: So meditate, and it just happens?
Lord Buddha: Yep, exactly! Precisely! — except there’s no “it” or a “happening.”
Edg: But outside of mediation, what about Buddhism’s intricate morality?
Lord Buddha: If you’re doing good, heh, you’re “Doing God.”
Edg: They’re robbed of knowing they’re serving You!
Lord Buddha: Best way to keep the ego from puffing up.
Edg: I’m feeling sorry for Buddhists!
Lord Buddha: Feel sorry for Advaitans fixated on their arbitrary certainties.
Edg: So, You pretended to be unenlightened to pretend getting enlightened?
Lord Buddha: I slouched a lot. People bought it. Then 40 days and done.
Edg: Again — You offer such a forlorn sterility devoid of meaning.
Lord Buddha: Meaning is the primal error. I had to whack ’em hard.
Edg: No meaning? But You mean so much to everyone. I’m personally wowed.
Lord Buddha: “Kill the Buddha!” Don’t make Me an object of consciousness.
Edg: So we are not allowed to love You?
Lord Buddha: Attention is love in action. Love the world to love Me.
Edg: I love pistachio ice cream. How can gobbling a pint be sacred?
Lord Buddha: Instead of a candle’s flame, Zen out on brain freeze.
Edg: So in every experience there’s a holy nugget to be mined?
Lord Buddha: It’s all nugget. From silence to singing — pure gold.
Edg: Still the irony boggles. A billion people praying to You.
Lord Buddha: Paradox is the heart of worship. Silence becomes Me.
Edg: Should we all be Buddhists then?
Lord Buddha: You already are. I’m disguised as everything. Attend away!
Edg: Seems so “not religiony.”
Lord Buddha: That’s Me too! Study the concept. See it arise from My Silence.
Edg: Each thought. Any thought. All thoughts come from Rome?
Lord Buddha: Rome sweet Rome. The exact center of your heart.
Edg: At any second POOF and I’m null and void? Scary!
Lord Buddha: You eagerly fluff up your pillow to fall asleep!
Edg: Admitted, but sleeping isn’t being poofed.
Lord Buddha: It is close enough to poofy to be an exemplar.
Edg: Okay, I’ll meditate, become 100% ignorant, go poof, then what?
Lord Buddha: I pretend to be you. I’ll slouch a lot. No one will suspect.
Edg Duveyoung
What are the stages that we can attain in meditation?
Perfection
More subtle than creation is God.
— Not “God-with-a-mind”
— Instead “God-as-Awareness.”
This “Awareness” is mystical, unknowable, more subtle than consciousness — the basis of God’s
manifesting consciousness. This perfection is referred to as BRAHMAN, The Absolute, Awareness,
The Transcendent.
— This is the only stage. Note: no individual drops are seen in the ocean! Meditators, stages,
drops, attainment — these are pretended distinctions in what is seamless oceanic awareness.
Which is, ahem, a stageless stage.
But wait, there’s more! Turns out, God wants to expand.
Even without a Mind, thoughtlessly emerges an urge.
Everythingness wants to take a nose count.
Perfection symbolizing
Perfection, “silence,” sings a single tone — a hum — OM. OM is God’s Embodiment and the first
thought witnessed by Awareness. OM is a precise harmony — it has all that can manifest
balancing in equilibrium. OM is God, because from OM every manner of waviness can materialize.
OM is an orchestration in which not a single instrument “hogs the stage.”
You’d think that this stage is enough, eh?
— Awareness is perfectly represented by a perfect Being.
— God’s materializing with every possible attribute.
— A “stage” — “first,” “highest,” “best.”
But God’s thinking right now,
— “Nice to be Me, but that urge is still a bother.”
— “Why stop now? Awareness floods into Me, so I’m keeping the ball rolling.”
— “I’m expanding too! I’m doing jazz interpretations of OM.”
Perfection sussing
God riffs on OM — here, now.
This “stage” is where you’re being sung.
Your song is a snappy little ditty entitled, “Me.”
Being on God’s stage
If you’re being sung, don’t interrupt God.
Instead, listen better to hear within.
— OM like the background droning of a sitar or bagpipes
— OM as the basis of sound
— This is how to appreciate being on God’s stage.
Realizing stagelessness
— Ask, “Who am I?”
— Hear the immediate silence of Awareness.
Take your pick.
Soul — Singer — Song
Edg Duveyoung
What is the nature of reality?
God searches toga folds, “I thought I had some.”
Philosophy pats a shirt pocket, “I’m out of it.”
And you asked, because your mind felt hungry again.
Coming up empty is the truest answer.
Realities aren’t real. Go figure!
God’s, philosophers’, and yours are estimates.
If you described it, you wouldn’t’ve.
Reality is a word for other words.
Finger walking on a map is not tourism.
The really real.
The actually real.
Ain’t those words either.
1000 words about water are not wet.
1000 feelings about God are not holy.
1000 moments of samadhi are not selfies.
So don’t ask.
Fageddaboutit with this “know.”
Surrender to your perfect ignorance.
What don’t you know you’re ignoring?
What isn’t there in a mental photograph?
What is there if there’s no there there?
Ahem, reread all the above. Duh!
Knowing reality is impossible.
Being real is the trick answer.
So what you do is shut your mind.
Stop being mental.
Give up inner eye squinting.
Stop everything stoppable and you don’t.
You don’t because you’re eternal sentience.
You’re the transcendent.
You’re real like a screen is to a movie.
You’re real like zero in math.
You’re real like Mickey Mouse’s ink.
In the depths of meditation, silence is attended.
Awareness and identity meld thoughtlessly.
Hovering in being opens the portal.
Sooner or later, in between time and space,
Destiny will sneak up behind you.
And shove you through into forever.
Edg Duveyoung
In a summary, what are the main spiritual concepts that are necessary to understand
and integrate in order to facilitate enlightenment?
If one has clarity about any of the below statements, one is enlightened.
God’s actuality cannot be grasped by any mind.
Thoughtless consciousness is pure being.
Named forms do not constitute a reality.
Attending the actions of the mind leads to subtlety.
Thoughts are disturbances in pure being.
Creation is everything God could possibly think.
Souls are not necessarily eternal.
Attention is love.
What is attended expands.
Concepts are relative.
Bliss is transcendental.
Happiness is conditional.
Silence is where you and God overlap.
The most subtle intellect is the same as the most subtle heart.
Communion means unity and can become an all time reality.
Anyone who can think a thought, is able to not think a thought.
Resting the mind quiets the body.
Basic states of consciousness: pure being, waking, sleeping, dreaming.
The mind’s witness is half awareness and half consciousness.
Prayer is solely for communion.
Pure being is the same for all observers.
God is the sole identity of every sentient entity.
This listing is unending. Integrating these truths requires one to keep definitions proportional e.g.
how one defines the word, “God,” will affect the meanings of every statement. And this is true for
any of the words. All must be harmonized into clarity.
To harmonize is to integrate heart and mind. Definitions must “feel right” as well as they “make
sense.” This education is automatic if one meditates.
Ultimately concepts fall short, and even pure being is not absolute. Only when the mind has been
escaped can the final clarity be garnered. Escaping is automatic for one who studies silence.
Projecting identity is natural to all, and as silence is “heard within” again and again, “that’s me” is
projected upon it. Gradually, this truth is realized as actual. One finds one no longer needs to
project onto “being” that which one already is — awareness, the source of being.
Enlightenment — freedom from projection.
Edg Duveyoung
How does one open the heart chakra?
Are you sure you want to know?
The heart chakra is the enlightenment chakra.
— Open the heart chakra, and love saturates every experience.
—— Then, the ego is gone, and God holds full sway.
But again I ask, “Are you sure you want that?”
Surrendering sounds good, but consider . . .
— Life will totally change.
—— You won’t be “muggle you” ever again.
And just to say it again . . .
You’ll be like Jesus was as someone nailed Him to the cross.
— You’ll completely love strangers as they are doing bad things.
—— Ready for a whole new definition of “loving?”
Before you answer, just to be clear . . .
You’ll be truly loving instead of selectively loving. No favoritism.
— Ready to pay the cost of being a saint in modern times?
—— Ready to bother everyone?
Are you up for this?
Enlightenment is the real deal.
— You’ll be absolutely a sacred instrumentality.
—— You’ll be spontaneously good instant by instant.
Are you ready to toggle into holiness forever?
Everything will be sacrificed — divinely repurposed.
— Ready to calmly tell someone they’re an illusion?
—— Ready to offer solutions requiring a thousand incarnations?
Nah, you’re not ready. No ego ever is, but yet here you are.
Inside every mind something there is that calls.
— Something there is in you that is done with boundaries.
—— Something there is in you that must expand in all ways.
Easy Instructions
If you know it’s wrong don’t do it — or — if you know it’s right, do it.
— Either path takes one into the heart.
—— Dwell within your righteousness and end up residing there.
As you attend each moment’s opportunity to be loving, you’ll refine.
— Closer and closer will you get to clearer and clearer.
—— At some point, it all becomes automated . . . even when dreaming.
That’s when you’ll blossom from the center of your self.
To be continued here
Edg Duveyoung's answer to If there is reincarnation, why doesn’t everybody remember their past
life?
Edg Duveyoung's answer to After reincarnation, will it still be you but just as a different person?
Edg Duveyoung
Does prayer work? What's your evidence or experience for prayer working? How do
you demonstrate that it doesn't?
Prayer works immediately, or it’s not praying.
Prayer is communion with God, or it’s worthless.
Prayer is worship, or it’s jabbering beggary.
Prayer is gratitude, or it’s complaining.
How to pray without being rude to God?
Easy peasy.
Step One: Attitude adjustment
Axiom: God supports you as an all time reality.
— To ask for anything is to say, “God, You’re messing up.”
— Negativity is anti-praying.
— True praying is astounded silence in God’s presence.
Step Two: Honesty
One approaches God with a jangled mind.
— One’s mind is a thought blizzard.
— One has a thousand concerns.
— One is caught in a cacophony.
Step Three: Mechanics
One prepares to calm the mind.
— Find a safe place to close the eyes.
— Turn off the phone, tell others, darken the room, etc.
— Get comfortable in a seated position.
Step Four: Entering the temple
Closing the eyes is taking a seat in the mind’s pew.
— Instant relief is universal. Calming begins.
— Breathing lessens as thoughts fade.
— Silence is found pervading.
Step Five: Communion begins
The Presence of God starts to be noticed.
— Experiencing silence is appreciating God’s actual Being.
— Getting quieter is increasing solemnity.
— Silence sanctifies.
Step Six: Enjoying certainty
The actuality of silence confirms identity.
— One’s being cannot be doubted.
— Silence is the Self’s hereness.
— Getting quieter is like sinking into God’s lap.
Step Seven: Fulfillment
God is the sole reality.
— Calmness is silence is being is self is God.
— Desiring evaporates and love expands.
— Unity dissolves all definitions.
Aftermath: Acknowledgement
Anyone can pray as above
— and come to realize those truths.
— and reside in the peace which passeth all understanding.
— and find sacred silent soothing sweet being flooding into outer life.
Answer: Prayer works
Prayer is solely to unite with God.
— Prayer works if peace of mind is sought.
— Prayer works by ablution. Fixations are washed away.
— Prayer works and is the basis of spirituality.
Proof: You already know all this
You climb into bed with one desire: peace.
— You stop everything and fearlessly dive into nothingness.
— You have absolute faith in complete silence.
— To pray, remain alert and take the same dive.
Edg Duveyoung
What can we know?
EXAMPLE:
How much do you weigh? This is NOT a simple request. Just what exactly do you weigh? If you
get on an ordinary bathroom scale you might get within a few ounces of your true weight. Not
good enough.
But wait — Let's put a little more exactitude into this measurement. Let's weigh you in a physics
lab that does experiments with gravity. So up you go on their superduper sensitive scale. There,
now what's your weight? Wait a second! Where's this lab? Is it at sea level or high on a mountain?
That would change the values. So let's get a physicist to affirm that the scale has been properly
calibrated for distance from the center of the earth.
But wait — Since the earth is spinning, this gives you a thousand mile per hour motion that affects
your weight (faster you go, the more your mass increases), so what's your true zero motion
weight? The PhD says, "Our scale isn't that sensitive to measure that small of an effect."
But wait — Instead of being able to know your true weight, let's settle for an imagined method for
finding out your true weight. At least we'd have some satisfaction that we "could" if sufficiently
motivated and had the budget for it, find out your true weight. So, here is what we end up doing:
we get a team of 300 scientists with billions of dollars in grant money who build this incredible
scale that somehow takes into consideration all the known almost infinite mass-values of the
universe. We know where every speck of the universe is and how much it's pulling on you, and
we’ve adjusted for all the speedy traveling you’re doing around the Sun around the Galactic Hub
approaching Andromeda while swirling in the Local Group.
But wait — Now YOU have to get a PhD in physics to truly understand the value of your weight so
that it is not merely a number to you but instead, you REALLY know what a gram of weight means.
You really really want to KNOW your weight, don't you?
But wait — After you get your PhD in physics, you'll find that you disagree with some of the
prevailing theories that were used to base the computer models upon. Given that distrust and that
amount of uncertainty, you must dedicate your life to ever more research into the mysteries of
gravity.
But wait — Even if you do get to that almost mystical moment when all the universe is accounted
for, and the scale is perfectly adjusted, and you are certain of your models, and you step on the
scale, you have to decide what thought to have while you are being measured. If you have a really
intense "big" thought, well, then that's a lot more energy you're using, and that will lower your
weight.
But wait — You study for years with a yogi who teaches you to turn off all thinking for a few
seconds. Now you get on the scale, you sit in peaceful repose, you stop thinking, the team of
scientists all coordinate their massive arrays of instruments and computers and, but wait, all the
scientists are moving around and constantly "freaking out" the computers that are all set to
measure you at an exact moment in time. They have to stand perfectly still.
But wait — Everyone on earth should stop moving too.
But wait — Everyone on earth should stop their thinking too.
But wait —
—————————————————————-
Will I ever know a single thing? If everything is so interconnected, is there even such a thing as "a
single thing?"
——Am I a single thing?
Can I honestly say that I truly want to know anything -- let's face it -- I have been SO SLOPPY in
my measurements of everything so far in my life? Why am I satisfied with "close enough?"
——Have I ever actually been “close?”
What DO I know absolutely? What is my proof, and upon what basis am I certain?
——Do I exist?
What gives me such courage to walk outside -- where tomorrow, because a butterfly's wing on
the other side of the earth has set in motion a series of events, I will have a lightning bolt strike
me?
——Am I totally trusting God always?
Am I stupidly and blindingly ignorant of the immense complexity and utterly unknowable dynamics
of life?
——Or do I know some inner secret?
Do I know something?
Can I whisper it in my own ear?
Edg Duveyoung
Do you still make faces at yourself in the mirror sometimes?
There’s a divine reason to make faces in the mirror.
Here’s proof. Let’s have some fun. Let’s make some faces. Do them first, then later, you can try
them out in a mirror. When making a face, try to “feel the emotion that arises due to making the
face.”
Hold each of these “faces” for a few seconds.
Stick your tongue all the way out. At the same time lower your eyebrows and stare straight ahead.
——Note your subtle immediate change in emotional "set.” Note the
——unlikelihood of your using this face in a business meeting.
Do the above face, then look from side to side rapidly WITHOUT moving the tip of your tongue.
——Note how hard it is to not move the tip of the tongue. This shows how
——faces are hardwired to “harmonize.”
Bite your bottom lip so that it is entirely inside your mouth, and at the same time, crinkle your
nose and flare your nostrils and raise your eyebrows.
——How much would you NOT want to show this face while shaking
——someone’s hand? Even practicing this face, we realize how rarely it would
——be used on purpose. We know what our faces mean — all of them!
——This shows how important ANY face is — even one that seemingly is not
——“a face being made.”
Keeping your lips closed, push your tongue as much as possible up into the space between your
upper lip and front teeth, and cross your eyes.
——Realize that you “talk to yourself” with odd faces even though not
——having a mirror. We “mumble face” unconsciously.
Smile as broadly as possible. While doing that, look from side to side rapidly. Then repeat this
with your eyebrows lowered.
——You can feel silly sometimes, even though no one sees you practicing these
——faces. The faces made are so “emotionally important” that we don’t want to
——use them even in this casual manner. Some faces are too telling, and certain
——"masks" are never comfortably worn — even privately.
As widely as possible, open your mouth and your eyes, and raise your eyebrows.
——This face seems to be that of a happy person, but anyone who had their face
——always like this would not be a happy person. What is the perfect facial
——expression that’s “the true you?” When you have "just a blank
——expression," what does it look like you’re saying?
Smile as much as you can without opening your lips. Once "in position", alternate back and forth
with opening and closing the lips so that the smile is maintained throughout the movements.
——Which faces are your “go to” faces? What face do you often make? Are
——these favored faces indicative about your personality?
Puff out your cheeks with air as much as possible, scrunch up your shoulders as if to hide the
sides of your neck, and squint your eyes.
——When you make a face, does it feel more like the face is an object you are
——manipulating, or is it more like “I am being me?" At some level, even
——practiced faces “are seriously meant” with appropriate emotions subtly
——being processed.
Purse your lips as much as possible and look rapidly all around.
——You use expressions like "spice" to flavor your communications.
——Note that faces do arise automatically without your “permission.”
——If you were always aware of your face, would that help you know yourself?
OH YEAH, THE “DIVINE” PART.
What face would you make if you met God?
Quite the profound question.
Yeah, do the list again and pretend you’re performing before God.
That’ll stunt the rest of your day.
And yet, this essay would be the best part of your day
————if done with a group of children.
And that would be good practice for meeting God.
Edg Duveyoung
Should you always tell the truth?
Originally Answered: What is the importance of truth in our lives?
WHICH STATEMENTS ARE TRUE?
— Two plus two is fourteen.
— Awareness equally perceives right and wrong thoughts.
— An ant can pick up an elephant.
— Sunshine often brightens a person's outlook.
— Thinking evil thoughts for hours each day is a good hobby.
— There is a period at the end of this sentence.
— Water is the ultimate poison.
— Expansion of happiness is the agenda of life.
— All television shows are good for young children to watch.
— Laughter is uplifting.
— All printers only have white ink.
RESULTS OF THE ABOVE “VALUE OF TRUTH” EXPERIMENT
— Not once did you have a doubt about your own existence.
— Your actuality was not changed by the above truths and lies.
— You “mentally processed lies” but didn’t feel immoral.
— The “mentally processed truths” did not noticeably edify.
— You were the observer of the mind — not its contents.
DISCUSSION
Thoughts come and go. The witness of the thoughts is an all time reality no matter the content of
the mind. Even during the most intense pain and misery, the witness does not waver — it is an
equal opportunity observer. One’s psychology might be deeply changed by even one experience
lasting but a few seconds, yet the witness will not be “more aware” despite the intensity of the
ensuing onslaught of thinking. And most insignificant experience will also be witnessed to the
same degree. No matter the mind’s process the witness does not flinch — always seeingness
never blinks.
WHO, THEN, IS THIS WITNESS?
We all say the witness is “me.”
But saying that is merely observing a thought.
There’s “having thoughts about” and then there’s “being the witness.”
Knowing the witness, being the observer, is another “order” of knowingness.
It’s not a processing of a nervous system about other processes.
The observer of consciousness, the witness, is not a product of consciousness.
Awareness is the witness; consciousness is the observed.
Consciousness symbolizes awareness without being awareness.
Thoughts about awareness are not experiences of awareness.
To say, “I am.” is not a statement by the witness. It’s witnessed not authored.
HOW TO BE THE IMPERTURBABLE THOUGHTLESS NATURE OF SELF
Get quiet. Get quieter. Get quietest. And transcend.
Go from energetic processing to lesser levels of excitation to stillness of mind.
As the mind gets quieter, undiminished witness keeps fully observing.
As quietness is practiced the “silence” begins to be defined as “presence of self.”
During moments of least excitation, the mind can “just be.” SOLELY SELF!
At one’s quietest, “silence is self is witness” without thoughts present.
When thoughts arise again, they will symbolize the self.
That symbolization of self is not “knowing the self.”
CONCLUSION
One can be the self — this is actual knowing the self.
One can think about transcendence afterwards — this is recalling the self.
NEXT CONCEPTUAL STEP?
One can get the mind trained to always be aware of the quietness within. The self can become an
all time reality no matter how stormy the mind. This is freedom - enlightenment — fulfillment.
SPIRITUAL RIDDLE TO COUNTERBALANCE THE ABOVE SERIOUSNESS
What is the root word for “home?”
Edg Duveyoung
What is attention?
This is the hardest question ever, seriously.
But it seems too easy, sillyously.
The too easy part:
Your mind can attend anything.
It’s so simple to direct the mind to “think about that now.”
Mind power — your instant mental transportation to any topic.
You can make your brain “have thoughts” about thousands of subjects.
Merely reading a few triggering words prompts the mind to fantastically flit:
— friends, microbes, zombies, Mars, dogs, religions, colors, and on and on.
All of it precision targeted.
Think “Mom,” and you don’t get thoughts about, say, Antarctica.
Attention’s acute alacrity amazingly astounds.
Easy Part Truth — attention can be EASILY directed.
It’s you being a constant Babe in Toyland.
The hard part:
You don’t know attention’s reasoning for “switching the subject.”
You don’t know your next thought until it gets thunk.
You don’t know who has the remote when you don’t have it.
You don’t know who keeps changing the channel.
You don’t know how to make attention “stay put.”
The impossibly good news:
The hard part is God’s job.
—— It’s God’s remote.
Where does your mind go next?
—— God decides.
How do you get your karma?
—— Delivered one thought at a time.
How do you attend “on purpose?”
—— God’s deciding that too.
Who is enjoying your nightly dreams?
—— God watches if you’re not.
Attention is sunshine on every sprout.
Attention whelms concepts into blossoming.
Attention commands the brain with “think here.”
Attention is the tip of God’s paint brush.
Attention is the now part of destiny.
What to do?
— the too easy part, duh!
— when attention lands on “the good stuff,” rejoice!
TL;dr? — God
Edg Duveyoung
What should I do to control my mind?
Two opposing proofs:
1. You can’t control.
2. You can control.
1. Proof that you cannot control the mind is seen when you try to NOT think.
Attempt this exercise:
— Be prepared to not obey the below instruction.
— Just relax after reading the instruction.
— Do not obey. Do not think “on purpose.”
— Read but do not follow the instruction.
Ready for the “ten seconds of abiding” challenge?
Instruction:
Think of types of fruit that are red.
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
— See? That’s proof that your mind churns without your permission.
— See? That’s proof that the mind responds automatically.
— See? That’s proof that life’s spurs are potent and “work” the mind.
— See? There’s almost no chance of controlling life’s spurring.
— See? “No” doesn’t mean “no” to a mind. “Just saying no” is impossible.
— See? Even a slight attending starts brain churn.
The mind relentlessly is stimulated into thinking. Life exhausts the brain. Most folks can hardly add
any additional thoughts on purpose. Monks and nuns know this and have quiet places to live to
avoid having their minds “marauded.” This gives them more “mental room for God.”
2. Proof that the mind can be controlled is that you’ve read the words of this exercise without
being “all that distracted” by side-thoughts taking your attention away from the reading process.
Despite up to thousands of other “additional thoughts,” you have actually read this far into this
essay. You have cherry picked this essay’s sentences out of “a thought flurry.” Between
sentences, between words, even between letters of words, side thoughts — largely ignored — are
“jammed into” a person’s attempts to be coherently attentive — instead of being, commonly,
scatter-brained.
See the challenge? We can hardly ride any train of thought. We’re buffeted by errant excitation.
We can find ourselves — zoned out — dozens of side thoughts later and off topic — for whole
minutes at a stretch.
This was not always the case.
Long ago, pristine minds were the norm. Stray thoughts happened once every few decades at
most. All of creation was coherent. High fidelity was the rule; most of life’s content was blissful
silence.
Then it gradually got nosier. And today, we have minds that are as if bucking broncs that can
hardly be ridden. Clarity is a rarity. We have riots ongoing between our ears. And it’s getting
worse.
What to do?
— How to have less excelsior thoughts?
— How to efficiently think?
— How to avoid assorted mental indulgences?
— How to “shoo away an unwanted fixation?”
— How to train the mind?
You already know dozens of ploys and tactics; and you use them. To control the mind your skill set
ranges from tying a string around a finger to post-it notes to getting enough sleep to right diet to
having clear goals to caffeine to taking notes to sitting up straight to whatever, you’ve got a “keep
focused tool box.” And most of it is weak tea — hardly worth being used.
The only solution is to see that the mind is not yours.
— Meditate to discover the mind is 100% not your “artwork.”
— Find out that you are a witness to a life — not a participant.
— Realize that only a divine agency could have the mojo to “run the universe.”
— Escape the “Person Prison.” Let God inherit you. Just watch.
Result?
Eggs will be broken but omelettes made.
You will be delighted.
No rude thought can ever again squeeze
—— between you and God.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the whole truth?
Here’s the whole truth in one single summation.
Intermediated Mitigation Of Veneer Isotelepathy By Itchytoowamee’s Pancultural
Psychicorporeal Transformationalism
This topic has been such a media darling lately that frankly, I’ve had it. Isotelepathy this, rotting
flesh that -- I say let’s drop it. By now, we all could get Phd’s in
Psychicorporealtransformationalism. So, here and now, is the last word on it that you’ll hear from
me. I’m going to lay it all out one final time, and that’s it!
Even on the very day that dirt was invented, a line or two scratched in it could represent anything.
Oh, to have been there thousands of years ago to see it done for the first time in that prehuman
moment, when Dirtee Nowashamogli watched Hairee Itchytoowamee’s fingernail furrow the
ground a few strokes to indicate just how to get to the annual intertribal mastodon picnic site. Did
Mr. Nowashamogli dance in transported delight at being the first ever to be symbolically told
where to go? (Ah, the sweetness of unrequited historical wondering!)
Who among us is not now utterly familiar with every nuance of the Dead Swamp Clay Shards on
which we have the precious record of Ms. Itchytoowamee’s mind reformation formula? Who
doesn’t recognize the Dead Mastodon symbol now fad-plastered on every retail product like its
predecessor, the Smiley Face? It seems unbelievable -- when even small children can recite The
Litany of Onemindedness -- that just a few years ago not a single reference to Onemindedness
was being made anywhere except in obscure cult publications. Who knew? Yet, within months of
Ms. Itchytoowamee’s burial chamber being opened, the world wide pyschocultural transformation
was virtually complete.
Okay, forgive my boring history lesson. We all know now after Mr. Nowashamogli ran off to the
picnic, Ms. Itchytoowamee immediately recorded the now famous Shard Symbols that prove that
the basis of symbolism is Onemindedness. We know that her explication was so clear that no
modern human nervous system could help but be instantly transformed by even an incidental
exposure to it.
It’s quite accepted now that Ms. Itchytoowamee did know the magnitude of the event. We are also
sure that she knew her discovery would require a posttech, media exhausted, doofus-class world
like ours to take hold. She knew that her Personal Enlightenment Formula needed rough edged
personalities (like ours were pre-Shards) to find psychic purchase.
From the moment of the first viewings of her Shards by Professor Yogijihosaphat to the latest
person being shown them tomorrow during some deep jungle lost tribe’s blessed
transegomografacational rite, her invention’s fecundity is absolute. To date, every human being
shown the Shards has immediately had the veil of separateness lifted in that universal wave of
mother’s hug sweetness in which we are all immersed. What poignancy did Ms. Itchytoowamee
feel knowing that only she -- for millennia to come -- would know the power of her simple
scratches in clay?
And the millennia passed. Histories upon histories of isoego conflict gradually formed an exact
environment that could support the creation of modern humanity’s psychophysiological readiness.
Were we ready or were we ready?
Blessedly that is the past. Let’s look at the profundity of Ms. Itchytoowamee’s Omniego discovery
that we are all sharing One Mind. We all have this ability to make abstract designs bend into
meaningfulness solely because only One Mind is shared by all. As an almost rhetorical endeavor, I
have created a set of small designs. After they were created, I then "named" them with the first
word that each "Re-Minded" me of. As an example only -- certainly not as a lesson -- let me list
the words and let you "guess" (ha ha) which of the designs below "deserve" which names. The
names are
Vice — Maze — CB — Pyramid — Window — Tunnel — Shotgun — Clover — Tubecross —
Squaircle — Trellis — Bart — Phonehead — Breakfast — Aid — Tar — Boxes — Checkers
These designs are in no particular order.
Of course, anyone who has been exposed to Ms. Itchytoowamee’s Shards immediately knows
which names "belong" to which designs. Before Shards (B.S.), only highly evolved souls could
quickly sort out which name "goes with" which design, but even a common B.S. person back then
could eventually solve this naming game, because the veneer of their B.S. isolated egos could be
pierced enough for symbols to have universal interpretations without pre-learning an agreed upon
response (hence the use of their international road signs.) Of course, B.S. cultures "ascribed"
meanings to words and other symbols and "learning" was the universally adopted method for
achieving this Lesser State of Onemindedness -- commonly called "an education" back then.
Now at last the true destiny of humanity can be engendered. Without the obfuscations of
separateness, all of us share the delight of knowing without doubt that the One Mind within each
of us is the Grand Interpreter of all experiencing -- be it a cloud, a baby’s hand, a mote of dust in
an afternoon’s sunbeam, or a spider in one’s hair. The One Mind translates all symbols, and every
perception is symbolic.
As Ms. Itchytoowamee discovered, a few lines can symbolize a great mass of stinking rotten
mastodon flesh and bones, because all of us are directly in touch with an incredible, infinitely
flexible "meaning machine," the One Mind of all. A few lines that magically become a dead
mastodon are not magic at all. The lines have almost nothing in common with that which they
symbolize.
But the One Mind sees enough there to which meaning can be attached. However, the lines are
not intrinsically mastodonish. The One Mind decides what meaning to give any symbol and has
absolute freedom.
Similarly, being Sharded, everyone knows that everything we cherish and hate is only a matter of
interpretation. Having fully learned this lesson, and having surrendered to the One Mind, peace of
mind and absolute freedom to mean has been granted to us. At last, the world is as we wish it to
be, because we now know it always has been. The choice has always been ours. Imagine the
difficult interpretation efforts that this very simple essay would have required of a B.S. type,
instead of being effortlessly seen for what it truly is, a symbolic word dance reverberating and
celebrating that ecstasy of infinite symbol fluidity that Ms. Itchytoowamee first knew.
Questions any child can now answer because of The Shards.
Am I psychic?
What powers of mind do I have to turn almost nothing, or even nothing itself, into something, or
even ANY thing?
Is it possible that I am merely one single understanding away from complete, total, absolute
enlightenment?
If I pretend, can I imagine myself as enlightened, totally aware, absolutely-infinite-bliss
consciousness? What would be a good thought to have for starters?
How do I know what a thought means? When I have a simple thought, say, "I am alive," how do I
know the meaning of these words? Where is the meaning when I am paying attention to the sound
of the words in my mind? Do I flick back and forth between the awareness of the words and
awareness of the meanings of the words? Can I think that fast?
How fast CAN I think? Could I think up this whole universe in one thought? Would that be anything
like when I dream?
What is a single thought? How little can a thought be? What's the difference between a little
thought, a quiet thought, a subtle thought, and a thought that is unconscious?
If I had no thoughts, would it be possible for me to know I was alive? Would I be alive? How could I
experience deep sleep and know I was deeply asleep without having a thought about it?
What happens to me between the thoughts of God?
Edg Duveyoung
What is a beginner's guide to meditation?
Meditating is to ignore mental processes; one turns away from action.
— One intends to ignore all experiences instead of almost all experiences.
— The mind is ordinarily abuzz — noisy with content that is mostly unattended.
— Exactly as the left elbow is commonly ignored, all can be snubbed.
— One relaxes the body, and the mind settles, and the breathing lessens.
— Unwavering awareness is discovered to be unaffected by state of mind.
— When mental processing reduces, “quieter” subtleties seem more apparent.
— All experiences are seen to have “yet quieter, whisper soft roots”.
— As one abides with whatever is, relaxation deepens; fainter actuality is espied.
We close the eyes to begin to lessen processing.
— Visual input ceases; one feels “the workload is lessened.”
— Eyes closed, but one yet finds an inner frenzy of processing.
—— Incoming reports from the other senses.
—— Thoughts automatically “here” — effortlessly
—— Memories
—— Mental images “seen”
—— Proprioceptions
—— “Mind churn”
—— Process reports (breathing, heart beats, stomach sounds)
—— Background mind that’s between attended experiences
—— Identity “amness, presence, hereness”
When one abides, all the above processes become more natural.
— Heartbeats and breaths approach steadiness.
— One’s attention is less allured into purposeful “thought making.”
— One notices less “ideation of any sort.”
— Abiding is to not “chase after” variants of alluring concepts.
— Relaxation of the body deepens the sense of relative silence.
True silence is awareness, the witness, God’s eye upon one.
— Less activity allows the mind’s attention to begin to target true silence.
— The quieted mind reveals that existence is being, consciousness, amness.
— As one dwells in silence, identity’s transcendental value is validated.
— Identity becomes understood as beyond being understood — beyond mind.
— A perfectly quiet mind does not lessen awareness. Awareness is not physical.
— Awareness, though beyond, is mind-defined — recognized as Self.
— As Self is “practiced” by residing in silence, clarity about God arises.
— When Self is known as God, God is seen in every experience.
All this can happen in the very first meditation, briefly, in flashes.
Even longer bursts of clarity about sentience can happen for the beginner.
Okay, yes, it can take more than one meditation. Okay, maybe a few.
Okay maybe a decade’s worth of daily meditations.
Okay a lifetime maybe. Yeah okay maybe a few lifetimes.
Or the first time, maybe. Okay?
What we do is close the eyes and see.
If you want to do it again the next day, good.
If you meditate the third day in a row, better.
From the fourth day on, probably it’s spiritually indicative.
A year of daily meditation guarantees nothing — lots of it.
Given a sufficient amount of nothing, the silence hugmuffles the noises.
Nothingness is holy currency and not sinful to hoard.
Rust and moth doth not corrupt Self wealth.
Too long and did not read?
Expand and you will heed:
When quietness is gained,
A mind can thus be trained.
Continued here: Edg Duveyoung's answer to What happens if you meditate too much?
Go here for the first episode of Crits: Edg Duveyoung's answer to How does reincarnation work?
Go here to the previous essay with the Crits: Edg Duveyoung's answer to Why is it said that
fasting burns karma?
Edg Duveyoung
What arguments do Advaitians give to prove or consider themselves as God?
Advaita says: Transcend. This is the sole proof.
When transcendence is an all time reality, the below is realized.
I am the silence from which I manifested as God.
I am perfection when silent, and perfect when God.
I fill everywhere with My potency and ken.
I know any possible thing about every possible thing.
I know how any character imaginable can evolve or devolve.
I can evolve an atom into a saint or a god into an ant.
I am creating the universe out of Myself without being diminished.
I am creating every possible story, scenario, and character right now.
I am imagining every character having every possible challenge.
I am actualizing all possibilities playing out over every destiny.
I am authoring ways for everyone to fall in love with everyone.
I am blessing all beings with My presence within their minds.
I am intending every, doing any, and loving all.
I am embodying Myself in every manner of being.
I am actually the person reading these words. I am you.
I am seeing creation as if I am you, because I am you right now.
I am resonating with you with utter compassion.
I am always with you as silence and as sacred whispers within.
Nearer than near to Thee I have you in My Heart.
Edg Duveyoung
After 10 years of meditation, will I still be the same person?
10 SOLID YEARS OF MEDITATION WILL CURE ANYONE.
No sleeping, eating or breathing. 365 days times 24 hours — whew.
Silly concept, eh? Yet scriptures are filled with folks who could just go into a cave and seal up the
entrance and come out 100 years later, asking, “’Sup?”
Truer answers than you’d expect are:
— You’re never the same person — instant by instant you’re created anew.
— God has perfect freedom to create. And God’s imagination is infinite.
— The concept “person” cannot be precisely defined. It’s blurry. It wavers.
— Every zillionth of an instant, God redraws your image on a storyboard.
— You cannot recall almost 99.99999% of your mind’s events.
— You are merely the witness to the mind. You do not author its content.
— Identity is awareness. Consciousness is what awareness witnesses.
— You are transcendental and life’s entirety is a reflection of you.
— The person you are witnessing is being swept along by time’s tsunami.
— Awareness NEVER CHANGES. If you see change, it’s not you.
— Personality never stays the same. Your next thought is unknowable.
Boy o Boy did you ask a humdinger of a question or what?
And the smartest ever advice is to not ask it.
If we abide, if we are “hands off,” what happens next is purely God’s.
There’s no time for clarity or intuitive leaps or deep grasps.
The best you can do is surf the mind instead of creating waves.
So, withdraw the question. It’s moot.
Lord Krishna told Arjuna, “Karma (action) is unfathomable.”
And, Dear Reader, here you are caught red-handed fathoming my words.
Urp! And I’m the one supporting this habituation. Urp!
So what we do is, if God asks if we were projecting identity behind the barn, we look innocent and
say, “We always do nothing.” And God will say, “Let me check your breath.” But we will have
cleverly smoked cigarettes to disguise the aroma of egoic intent we so love to inhale.
Short answer is: no.
Long answer is: nope.
Longer answer is: never.
Longest answer is: no way.
Ultralongest answer is: not a chance.
Transcendental answer is: ______________.
Edg Duveyoung
What is spiritual knowledge?
SPIRITUALITY POP QUIZ
1. Which word’s definition is closest to Self’s definition?
A. God
B. Consciousness
C. Being
D. Awareness
2. Who is the most divine?
A. Lord Brahma
B. Lord Indra
C. Lord Krishna
D. Lord Rama
3. Which religion is the most morally strict?
A. Hinduism
B. Taoism
C. Buddhism
D. Judaism
4. Which is the natural order?
A. Action Being Consciousness Thoughts
B. Consciousness Action Being Thoughts
C. Being Thoughts Action Consciousness
D. Being Consciousness Thoughts Action
5. Who am I?
A. Soul
B. Silence
C. Being
D. Human
6. What technique is most likely to evolve a soul?
A. Chanting
B. Mantra meditation
C. Right Action
D. None of above
7. Which is the deepest truth?
A. God is love.
B. Awareness is prior to consciousness.
C. Creation is God’s recreation.
D. Absolute is symbolized by Being.
8. Which divination is the most practical and predictive?
A. Astrology
B. Palmistry
C. Aura reading
D. Numerology
9. Who has done you a solid?
A. Einstein when he deepened scientific clarity
B. Gandhi in Heaven praying for humanity
C. Unknown monk
D. Advaitan jester with a mouth on him
10. What is the highest state of consciousness?
A. Krishna Consciousness
B. Cosmic Consciousness
C. God Consciousness
D. Unity Consciousness
(If this quiz gets shared 100+ times, I’ll provide the answers. Heh. Me so bad.)
Edg Duveyoung
Does time exist?
Time is God’s attention moving. Free of charge.
That’s the actuality. Our attention is not ours.
Try this: using one eye, look back and forth from one of these dots to the other
..
To switch between the dots, the physical eye doesn’t move, the attention does.
When attention switches, that’s how we count time.
Attention between events/things is the basis of duality. On/off. On/off.
We flicker. Our eyes’ frame rate is 1000 “still photos” per second.
Time seems continuous but is discrete.
We can’t see life “herky jerky” like an old time silent film.
But God is faster than any frame rate. It’s all still photos to God.
Back to the two dots. Again, note that the eye doesn’t have to move.
See? With no eye motion, we yet feel we’ve moved — from one dot to the other.
“Yes, I went from one dot to the other.” we say. See? “I moved.”
Kinda neat that “identity” is the silence between things.
Time is the sensing of instantiations of Self.
Now, as quickly as you can, alternate attending the dots. Back and forth.
Notice how much effort it takes to do this mindfully? It’s work!
Now you can see how wondrous non-ego attending is.
Without mindfulness, attention flows effortlessly.
When the ego is not directing the attention, immediate relief from work!
That’s enlightenment — no work.
No strenuous direction of attention.
Enlightenment is the opposite of education.
God never gives a pop quiz about where the attention belongs.
Education DEMANDS we commandeer the mind from God’s grasp.
Talk about rude! Talk about Grand Theft Mental.
When we direct the mind, we feel like God.
When we don’t direct the attention we are God.
See the diff?
If we let go, we let God — duh! Obviously!
See the secret?
See the blessing.
See the bliss?
Between every dot.
There’s God’s Mind moving.
We don’t decide what dot is the next one to attend.
Almost constantly the normal life is God moving “our” attention.
Almost always the average human is being divinely directed.
Seriously. Actually. Blissfully. Wondrous.
Now you know why the saint bows so deeply when meeting you.
Edg Duveyoung
If you get to meet God for 5 minutes, what is that one question you would ask him and
why?
God: You got five minutes. Shoot.
Edg: What’s a question You cannot answer?
God: Like I’d tell you.
Edg: No, come on, I’m serious here.
God: The question’d frighten you. The answer’d kill ya.
Edg: That’s a cop out. Are You too afraid to admit inadequacy?
God: That’s the rudest question I’ve ever authored you asking.
Edg: Jester’s Privilege! I get to tweak the nose of the King.
God: If I had a nose, I’d get a new Jester — holier than Thou.
Edg: I’m not unholy? I’m merely less holy? I can live with that! Yay me!
God: The question would infect your mind. You’d fester obsessively.
Edg: Yet You tease. Why not just author me never asking?
God: Heh, there’s zillions of questions I’m already not having you ask.
Edg: I have never felt more like a sock puppet.
God: A sock puppet projecting its feelings of inadequacy. Classic.
Edg: I’m ventriloquisted with ersatz sentience. Yay me!
God: And along comes another puppet that whacks you with a stick.
Edg: Aha! I just figured out the question!
God: Let Me sit first. Gotta brace for impact.
Edg: What is the sound of one sock whacking?
God: Your Zen entendre is entawdry.
Edg: Admit it. A smutty koan defeats God.
God: Silence answers any question. Especially the unasked ones.
Edg: Such a tease. We’ve kept my Dear Reader waiting. Fess up!
God: I’m inside Dear Reader right now reading about Dear Reader.
Edg: My brain just now plopped out onto the floor. Who’s who?
God: Oh, now there’s a question. But, your five minutes are up.
Edg Duveyoung
Who is Brahman?
Originally Answered: Who is brahman?
I don’t.
You don’t.
They don’t.
We don’t.
God does not.
Know.
Knowing BRAHMAN is a sin.
“To know” is an ego’s conceit.
To ask “Who” is to besmear perfection with identity’s mud.
To package the unknowable is harmful to the mind.
—An intellect conceptualizing BRAHMAN practices irrationality.
—A heart loving BRAHMAN is an enchantment being cast.
Advaita Vedanta’s sole purport is “Transcend or else.”
—Pay no attention to illusions or “never leave Vegas.”
—Br’er Rabbit, don’t hit that Tarbaby, or you’ll be stuck forever.
—Peek not, Pandora.
—Not even one bite, Eve.
—The nail, the shoe, the horse, the General, the battle, the war.
PRIVATE! KEEP OUT! NO HUNTING!
TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED!
The Work-Around
When the attention witnesses being being being thoughtlessly,
—It’s a most endearing lie.
—It’s sentience leaping out of BRAHMAN to take a selfie with BRAHMAN.
—It’s God speaking about silence and accidentally creating noise.
So we close the eyes. We listen.
If we hear nothing, we know we’re getting warmer.
If we hear something, we know we’re getting colder.
It’s that simple.
Now tell me, Dear Reader.
These blind words — hotter or notter?
Edg Duveyoung
What's the essence of non-duality?
True Truths In Reverse Order
The Truth is five things:
— Beyondness, Readiness, Start, Maintain, End
The Truth is four things:
— Being, Guna 1, Guna 2, Guna 3
The Truth is three things:
— Spirit, Body, Mind
The Truth is two things:
— God, Creation
The Truth is one thing:
— God
The Truth is no-thing:
— Awareness
This is my 524th duality based attempt to explain the above.
Results so far: No Nobel Prize, No World Religion, No Book Tour, No Televised Roasts Hosted By
Tolle, No Reality Show, No Recognition From Oprah, No Lottery Win, No Youtube Subscribers, No
Fountain Of Youth, No Selfie With God, No Netflix Specials, No Honorary Degrees, No Per Diems ,
No Royalties, No Lecture Fees, No Professorships, No Department Chairs, No Fame, No Glory, No
Jazz.
Of course, it’s a deserved punishment for a conceptual plagiarist. All my axioms are as old as
hydrogen. Every scripture presents them — all of them — deeply sussed. — PhD level explication
of creation. After reading the twelve volumes of The Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, no one’s saying, “That
was a good read, but let’s see what Edg says.”
So why am I here distracting from the legitimate theres?
Because you’re here.
You got lost.
You wandered into my gin joint.
So this is my role: bartender to the muggles.
I pour you a glass of elixir.
I pat your hand with a nice wet bar rag and say “There, there.”
And when it’s closing time, I get you out the door and pointed homeward.
Hey, not bad!
I booze you up for God’s Sake.
I get you sacredly drunk on distilled visions.
I brew for you.
So let’s call this for what it is:
A kegger.
Edg Duveyoung
What comes before thought?
Awareness is the basis of being.
Being is the basis of thought.
Thought is the basis of action.
From nowhere comes here.
From beyond arrives now.
From God arises infinite particularities.
A thought is a rude lie about truth.
We jigsaw bliss into a jumble of happy pieces.
The mind scrawls graffiti on God’s countenance.
Before thought is thoughtless actuality.
Beyond thought is transcendent sentience.
Being is all possible thoughts in seed form.
Thoughts are arrows shot through minds.
Thoughts zoom past the inner eye.
Thoughts are lines drawn on air.
Ideation is identification.
Every thought is exactly not about God.
The mind is a den of iniquity.
Seeking gets you nowhere.
Nowhere is the silence between thoughts.
Residing in nowhere is being there.
The yogi knows silence complete.
Even quietness is much too jarring.
To an empty mind that is filled with God.
A choir of angels sings each thought.
Across the universe silence soundlessly intones
A soaring song of sacred sentience.
Edg Duveyoung
Do you think you are reincarnated?
Yes, but it’s more than most might muse.
Incarnation is identification.
I am infinite, so thinking of myself as small is my daily sin.
I need a bigger boat . . . wait, make that a fleet.
No way I fit inside one personality, but that’s all I have.
What to do when my immensity is sardined?
What to do when time’s not eternal and death’s nigh?
What to do when my present ego tastes like cardboard?
FOUR SOLUTIONS
1. Die and get everything refreshed. or
2. Become God. or
3. Become enlightened. or
4. Think my next thought.
CHOICE ANALYSIS
These four have differing spiritual intents.
1 —If I die then my present personality’s unfulfilled desires are the basis of the next incarnation.
For instance, in my last ten lifetimes, it’s obvious that I never once tasted pistachio ice cream. This
is the problem with the “next life” solution. It’s a toss of the dice. All desires are two-edged.
Achilles asked for “an ordinary life” for his next incarnation. See? No more heroics! Arjuna got the
DEEPEST POSSIBLE TRUTH FROM GOD, (reside in being) and then, see? he never went on to be a
teacher. Dying is like asking and answering, “What will I be fixated on in my next life?” They say
one’s very last thought determines what one’s next incarnation will be. Look for me to be an ice
cream vendor who is a writer. “We’re out of all the flavors except pistachio ice cream, and here’s a
copy of my free book about getting enlightened by eating pistachio ice cream.”
2 — If I become God, then that’d be wowzers, eh? It’s possible that I could become God in the
years left to me. I could go to a Himalayan cave at the 20 thousand foot elevation, seal myself in
except for a small ventilation hole, and then hope that I pull off the “Greatest Feat of Kali Yuga.”
Becoming God means I would have rid my body of impurities, rid my mind of all desires, obtained
a “diamond nervous system suitable for divine cognition,” and transcended individuality
altogether. To which I say, ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Think of the withdrawal symptoms! Next option,
please.
3 — If “I” become enlightened, then this would be “my” very last incarnation. When this body
dies, “my“ unfulfilled desires will be divvied out. Good karma “I” still have coming goes “my” pals.
Remaining bad karma goes to “my” foes. Enlightenment means the ruse of “being a me” has been
dispelled. “I” will have un-enchanted “my”self. Since “my” addiction “to Edg” is dissolved, there
will be no single personality that will have to process “my” remaining karma. “I” will have retired
from the “person business.” Think: “rusted, busted, crusted and cob webbed robot thenceforth
used as a scarecrow.”
4 — If I think my next thought, now we’re talking about my kind of incarnation! Each thought is a
projection of Self upon a processing nervous system. “That there process right there? That suave
and sophisticated one involving billions of chemical transactions? . . . why, doncha know that
there’s me in motion! Yes sir! That process is perfect for me to symbolize I LOVE PISTACHIO ICE
CREAM!” and then, “Oh lookeehere! Why here’s yet another process of a nervous system right in
front of my inner eye! I can project meaning upon it now. But hmmmm, whatever meaning shall I
assign it?” Each next process is suitable for any and all thoughts, but the person’s karma
(attachments) determines what is projected. When one is having “flight or fight” chemicals in the
bloodstream, one is free to project any meaning upon that processing. It can symbolize “I’m
afraid, so I’ll run.” or it can symbolize “I’m going to give someone an instant attitude adjustment.”
See how one has free will to make anything mean anything?
So, yeah, I’m reincarnated. Approximately 7 x 60 x 60 x 18 times today.
I feel a mighty projection coming on.
Everyone get out their emergency bowls and spoons.
Prepare for Pistachio Power!
Edg Duveyoung
If I am not my thoughts, who am I?
The question seems simple, but the issues are deep.
Most folks can’t define “thoughts.”
Wrong answers include:
—”What happens inside my head.”
—”Separate events of the brain.”
—”Electro-chemical processes of a nervous system.”
Most folks can’t define “I.”
Wrong answers include:
—”I’m my personality.”
—”I’m a history of my thoughts and actions.”
—”I’m a body/mind complexity.”
THE ANSWER
Transcendence obviates being.
It’s all illusory and has “less reality than zero.”
No-thing-ness is manifest — a negative reality.
When it’s all nonsense, anything goes.
Any statement can be true or false - scriptural or meaningless.
QUASI-EXCEPTION
The witness of the mind is half real.
Awareness is the real part; consciousness is the illusory part.
When you say, “I am,” the “I” part is awareness; the “am” part is consciousness.
The “I’ is pure identity - sentience - self - immaterial spirit.
God arises from primal awareness as identity’s ultimate embodiment.
EXPERIMENT
Relaxing results in transcendence.
Closing the eyes gives some immediate sense of quietening.
We feel at least somewhat “beyond” the hubbub of life.
Relaxing lessens activity. That’s how to increase relative silence.
As this skill is acquired, silence is grasped as an all time reality.
As this skill is perfected, silence is grasped as self.
As the perfected skill of relaxing is practiced, self becomes the sole identity.
PRACTICALITY
Even the silence of a new meditator is “proof.”
Closing the eyes immediately reveals “the wordlessness.”
We can hear words in the mind — and between them is silence.
Counting to ten mentally reveals how much “else” there is between words.
That silence between everything is a mere hint, but it’s a powerful start.
The mind can track silence’s scent like a bloodhound. Even a little’s enough.
Daily practice evolves and mastery arises without egoic guidance.
RESULTS
Eventually one relaxes one’s grip on reality.
And then lets go.
Yeah, I said it like that.
Get as much of the shock out of the way now.
On your way out the door, it’s nice to have two pals.
An educated intellect and a cultured heart.
As one lets go, those two will whisper helpfully.
And when the whispering stops, there you yet are.
Edg Duveyoung
It’s your 75th birthday. Where do you see yourself?
I suppose I should confess my real age.
— Obviously I’m not 75 years old.
I merely pretend to be old and very wise for Quora readers.
— No way I’m 75 years old.
And wisdom is not my most prominent feature.
— I’m callow, so this indicates I’m only maybe 39 years old — tops!
In fact, my Quora face was app-aged by ten years to add a touch of maturity.
— That’s why I look about 47 years old.
How old am I?
— It depends on who’s asking.
If You are God, then You knew me when firstly I was conceived by Thee.
— I’m as old as Your Mind.
If you are the Sun, I am as if a star-stuff stuffed atomic Beanie Baby.
— You’ve seen my orbiting bits for billions of years.
If you are Earth, then you see me with a Mother’s eyes.
— I’m yet an infant a mere few heartbeats old.
If you are human being, you know our inherited wisdom — DNA deep.
—My heritage is 200,000 years old.
If you are 75 years old, you see me as much older.
— To you I’m at least five years older looking than you.
If you are less than 75 years old, you see me as a bag of dust.
— My age to you is knowable only by carbon dating.
If you are a microbe, you see me as a mountain of nutrients.
— I start your day. For 75x365 mornings, I’ve been what’s for breakfast.
If you are my wife, I’m young and fit — all things considering.
— I may look, act and think like I’m 75, but that’s better than 75 and a half.
If you are a veterinarian, I have the equivalent spring in my step of a 10 year old dog.
— I could have many dog months yet to go.
If you are me, you hardly know your age.
— Because you only shudder-glance askance in the mirror a few times a year.
If you are an Advaitan Master summing up my 75 years, be kind, necessary and true.
— So say, “Edg is has inspired others to taste pistachio ice cream.”
If you are Dear Reader, you know me truly — as a hot mess.
— I’ve fooled exactly and only one person here.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the best short story you can write about Mother's Day, or just mothers in
general?
It’s Mothers Day. August 15th.
Edg: Okay, Mom, you got me over here. What’s the emergency?
Mom: Sit down. This takes some time. I need to tell you gradually.
Edg: Come on, Ma, it’s me….what couldn’t I take standing up?
Mom: Sit down. I’m serious. Sit. Sit.
Edg: Okay okay. I’m sitting. I’m sitting. What’s up? What’s up?
Mom: 75 years ago I was in labor — giving birth to you.
Edg: You dragged me over here to wish me happy birthday?
Mom: Tomorrow’s your birthday. 75 years ago, I was becoming your Mother. And since then,
we’ve both progressed spiritually, and just this morning, a wonderful realization happened,
and it’s so astounding I’m still shaking.
Edg: Well, okay then! That’s more like it. What happened!
Mom: Well, firstly, I remind you that Lord Buddha said that we should love everyone,
because we already do love everyone in that our vast history of incarnations has allowed us
to be in love with each and every other soul. We have all been each others’ mothers, fathers,
sisters, brothers, etc.
Edg: Hands down one of my top ten favorite concepts.
Mom: Well, today it became absolutely true to me — not a romanticization. And there will be
proof, but let me lay this out carefully.
Edg: Proof, eh? Proof? Okay, you’ve got me. I’m all ears. Tell me.
Mom: It’s not just me that can remember being your Mother. There are others.
Edg: Well, everyone seems to have had a chance to be my Mother, so yeah, but are you saying
there are other people who ARE RIGHT NOW LIVING ON EARTH that can remember being my
Mother?
Mom: Yes, but they won’t remember until you are in their presence and you make eye
contact with them. Right now, I’m your only Mother.
Edg: Mom, now you’ve lost me. That sounds historically whacked! No stories about such a
possibility are in the scriptures. This would be a first.
Mom: Believe me, I’m as stunned as you. But there’s proof. With eye contact, you’ll see.
Edg: See what? If I look at someone they’re going to change into you?
Mom: Better than that. When you look into someone’s eyes, that person will instantly grasp
the truth. The whole lifetime as your Mother will flood into the minds of both of you. It will
be a very comfortable transition, not unlike you arriving here just now. You saw me and our
whole life together was “at hand.” Like that. Easy.
Edg: Now I’m gettin’ freaked out. Mom, if this doesn’t happen, I’m going to insist you go directly to
the emergency room to see how to tamp down your hallucinations.
Mom: I know. I know. Believe me. I’m merely the first person today to be your Mother, but for
the next day, only a day, you and anyone you meet will instantly remember your previous
incarnation together. And IT STARTS NOW. Anyone you meet. Anyone. Just need eye
contact to activate it.
Edg: I’m afraid. If you’re wrong, my Mother is in deep psychiatric trouble. If you’re right, anywhere
I go today is going to be traumatic.
Mom: It’s okay. Don’t worry. With the revelations comes an understanding about how “this
present life must go on and not be skewed.” You’ll meet your previous Mothers, but they’ll
have lives to conduct and not that much time to spare. It’ll be like you meet me on the street
and we say, “Hi” but we have errands to run.
Edg: Now I’m shaking. Mom, please tell me you’re getting revenge on me for not sending you a
card last Mothers’ Day. Otherwise, whew, Mom, this can’t be true.
Mom: I’m okay. No need for a shot of lithium for me. Proof is ready if you are, but I wanted
you to sit and muse a bit first.
Edg: Okay, proof. Whew. Who do I try this with first?
Mom: Well, there’s Mrs. Magurgatroid, next door, watering her lawn. Just open the front
door and wave to her.
Edg: Mom, I’ve only met her once years ago. She’s going to think I’m nuts waving at her. Maybe
it’ll scare her.
Mom: Not today.
Edg: Mom. Mom. Come on. You’ve pulled it off. You’ve got me going. Belated April Fools’ Day on
me. Biggie point for you. But please don’t make poor Mrs. Magurgatroid get anxious.
Mom: Just open the door. Stop being such a wuss. Time’s wasting.
Edg: Wait, you and Mrs. Magurgatroid planned this elaborate joke?
Mom: Now you’re merely delaying. Proof’s just beyond that door. Open it.
Edg: Wait, there’s the FedEx guy delivering across the street. Aha, I’ll wave at him instead.
Mom: I’m not bluffing. Go ahead.
Edg: If I go out that door and start saying “Hi Mom!” to everyone, then, instead of you, I’m going to
be held down until they can get a shot of lithium into me.
Mom: Wuss.
Edg: Okay, just remember if this backfires, it’s on you. I’ll point you out and blame you and tell
everyone you’re going screwy.
Mom: Scaredy cat wuss.
Edg: I’m opening the door. I’m going to do this. Last chance to say “Gotcha!”
Mom: Oh someone’s going to get got, that’s for sure. You’ve wasted five full minutes
footdragging on a ONE DAY OFFER.
Edg: Wait. Yeah, about that one day thingie. Why only today?
Mom: Wuss.
Edg: The door’s open, and I’m going out on the porch. If I come back here with a red face, I will
take years to plan a proper practical joke to get my revenge.
Mom: Wussier by the second.
Edg: “Hi there Mrs…….Mrs……Mrs…….MOM! Mom! MOM!”
Mom: And now he knows.
Edg: She was my Mother 5683 lifetimes ago, and it seems like yesterday. I had a thousand
questions, but we both knew the answers so there was no need to ask them. It was a great life.
But but but, she has a lunch appointment, so she had to go, but she said to say “Hi” to you and
that she’s glad to be a co-mother with you at least for a day.
Mom: And?
Edg: YOU WERE SO RIGHT! I WAS SO WRONG.
Mom: Wuss!
Edg: So what’ll I do with this? Should I go out and grab as many previous mothers as possible? I’m
going to be exhausted. I’m flipping out!
Mom: I don’t know. I just got the revelation an hour ago. I guess the best advice is to just go
about your day normally and see who gets to be your Mother. Let karma do this. Innocence.
Edg: I’m feeling like I have to shout about this on the street corners.
Mom: It’s been shouted by avatar after avatar. You’re no avatar. It has recently been
established that you’re a wuss.
Edg: But but but, this is unique. Special knowledge should be shared.
Mom: And God will get around to it. I think maybe the less eye contact today the better. You
might go Mother-Nuts. Just be natural, and you’ll get your proper amount.
Edg: But wow, all that history just for the taking. Anyone I meet could spur memories of bygone
ages that have been lost due to time’s passage. Think of the impact on scholarship this could
mean.
Mom: You, a wuss, have been chosen. I notice you don’t have a PhD. Seems to me God
wants a wuss to play out this role.
Edg: But why me? It seems such a waste.
Mom: It’s deeper than I’ve told you so far.
Edg: No way this gets deeper. This is like bedrock. This is core.
Mom: Well prepare for deep core.
Edg: Let me sit first. Okay. Ready.
Mom: Slowly turn to your left. Look into my aquarium. Make eye contact.
Edg: MOM! MOM! MOM!
Mom: And now he knows.
Edg Duveyoung
Can we alter our destiny and if so, how?
Originally Answered: How can we change destiny?
Mathematicians know all!
And the answer is: “destiny is unknowable.”
This is about the famous three body problem.
Math allows one to see into the future of simple systems, but the future motions of three perfectly
spherical billiard balls with perfect elasticity on a frictionless table with perfect cushions and a
perfectly flat table isolated from all ground vibrations in a vacuum chamber inside a Faraday Cage
are impossible to predict. Two balls, yes, but a third ball added makes any prediction untenable.
No imaginable computer will ever have better math. You’re on slippery ice for which no skates are
possible when transcendental numbers stink up the formulas with infinities.
So, if a human body has trillions of zippy little thingies, let’s withdraw this destiny question on
grounds of ridiculous complexity. If you had two neurons, you’d be home free, heh. The two
neurons folks got 100% certainty. Ask them!
Beyond two neurons and Lord Krishna says, “Action is unfathomable.” Lord Jesus asked, “Which
of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?” “All is Void and there is no Buddha.”
said Lord Buddha.
Think about that — that’s three of our most favorite GOD saying that action is beyond intellectual
calculation. So, destiny schmestiny. What good is the concept if God smirks at ANY attempt?
But wait, maybe we can get God to change destiny. Nah.
Or, maybe if we . . . . . . STOP….God and Math say, “NO NO NO.”
Gotta love it that we’re certain we’re uncertain.
It’s so freeing to know nobody knows.
How comforting to so clearly see “we’re all equally blind.”
Neat! A cannon ball targeting me maybe has a cannon ball about to hit it.
Cool! A grizzly bear at my tent’s entrance is only the wind swaying leaves.
Far out! Ignorance is as limited as knowingness.
Talk about our good reasons to be friendly with each other!
God seems to think so. Strike that. God is CERTAIN that it is so. Our destiny is to be our brothers
keepers in that we’ve all found ourselves on a sinking ship. Destiny is now. No guessing needed.
All hands on deck.
If you have a thimble, help bail!
If you have a bucket, get nearer the hole.
If you have a giant cork, pistachio ice cream for you!
Edg Duveyoung
Has anyone really seen or experienced Lord Shiva?
It’s a matter of definition.
Our highest definition of Lord Shiva is “transcendental silence.”
But that’s useless. This is tautological sin in that it says that there can be no seeing nor
experiencing of Lord Shiva if we, ahem, can’t see or can’t experience Lord Shiva. So, let’s return to
this issue later.
The next best definition of Lord Shiva is “awareness.” And yeah, mmmsorry, nope, awareness is
also transcendental silence, but since “awareness” is such a common word, it gets put in “the
muggles’ dictionary,” and “awareness” as if then takes on a veneer of actuality such that if we say
“Lord Shiva is awareness,” we willy-nilly seem to conflate Lord Shiva with the illusion of a now
weaponized substantiality. This definition of Lord Shiva allows us to “know” Lord Shiva and to
“pray to” Lord Shiva. We’ve made Lord Shiva an object of consciousness. This is idolatry, sinful,
but hey, we gotta worship Lord Shiva, right? We have to pretend there’s some reality to Lord
Shiva’s “whatever.” The good news is that if one worships Lord Shiva, then one is at least
“targeting” the most subtle level of consciousness which a human mind can “pull off.” In fact, a
human mind can grasp not only all of materiality; it can also recognize that it has a witness which
is, yep, transcendental silent awareness. Lord Shiva’s least manifestation, the mind’s all-time
witness, can be espied by a perfected mind, but best of all, that mind can have certainty that its
witness is in fact God — Lord Shiva. And that’s hefty, eh? The witness of anyone’s mind is in fact
proof of one’s constant communion with Lord Shiva. The awareness-part of the witness is Lord
Shiva. The consciousness-part of the witness is you, “localized silence,” the person.
My whimsical definition of Lord Shiva is: “the tip of the root of the Lotus Stalk.” We know that Lord
Brahma tried to get to the bottom of the Lotus Stalk and gave up. This means that the
omniscience and omnipotence and omnipresence of God lack absolute potency to entirely fathom
the transcendent. Lord Brahma couldn’t get there from here. No matter that it was God knocking
on the door, there stood A Guard Who said, “No Things Are Allowed.” Only Lord Shiva could be
such a guard. Lord Shiva snuffs things into ashless zip without even thinking to do so. Quite the
magic act! So imagine Lord Shiva, invisible to Lord Brahma, mystically increasing the length of the
root such that Lord Brahma’s skill set was unable to catch up. Lord Shiva the Jester. Who knew!
Lord Brahma’s thousands of years spent attempting to get to the tip of the Lotus Stalk was, by the
way, the first known example of the concept, “spinning one’s wheels.” And we humans are very
good at spinning wheels, so there is a very powerful example of experiencing Lord Shiva in daily
life. Spinning wheels R Us. And when we stop, finally — that’s like having Lord Shiva appear and
say, “I notice you’re not getting anywhere. Maybe you should rest a bit. My Silence heals. I’m here
and now and Your Friend. Take a nap. In dreamless sleep reside. I’ll stand guard and keep the mind
from bothering you even if Lord Brahma Himself wants to wake you up. After that, you’ll wake
refreshed and maybe have the clarity to see a different way to renew forward progress.”
So, having Lord Shiva guard your soul for hours per night and muffling Lord Brahma’s Fists
Banging On Your Bedroom Door - I mean come on — talk about being hoggy. How much Lord
Shiva are you trying to grab here?
See where I’m headed with all this? There’s no getting away from Lord Shiva. I actually cannot list
all the ways to experience Lord Shiva that humans have in their daily and ordinary life. Don’t ask. I
refuse to try to do what Lord Brahma failed to do. There’s no end to listing names and forms which
expand upon being but slightly touched by attention. Ask Heisenberg for details.
But I promised to return, and here’s the best news you will ever hear from any scriptures or saints
or gods or Avatars or Mahadevas
— you cannot know Lord Shiva, but you can be Lord Shiva.
Become Lord Shiva eternally.
Beyond thought forever.
Be THAT before this was invented.
Transcend identification with manifestation.
Attend anything until it becomes a nothing.
Then the door opens, because “Nothings are allowed.”
So yeah, I’ve seen Lord Shiva.
So yeah, I’ve experienced Lord Shiva.
And as far as I can tell, by every metric’s calculus, I am Lord Shiva.
But today is Tuesday, so I had to take my garbage out to the curb.
And about one billion people insist the Tao is the ordinary mind.
And another billion people insist the Self is the Tao.
And another billion people insist humans are made in God’s image.
So when it comes to getting one’s trash to the curb,
Ask Lord Jesus,
Ask Lord Buddha,
Ask Lord Krishna,
How They handled Their Tuesdays.
Edg Duveyoung
How is enlightenment confirmed?
By you. Who else, eh?
If God appeared and said, “You’re now enlightened.”
You’d check to see if God was right. Yeah you would.
So, how would you do that?
Answer: Same way you would know if you’re awake right now.
If asked, “Are you awake now?” you’d say something like:
—”I drifted in and out of sleep and finally fully woke and got up.”
—”My alarm clock went off, and my dreaming got interrupted.”
—”Don’t be silly. Of course I’m awake now; everyone knows the difference.”
Like that, you’d “take your own opinion” about your state of consciousness.
And so,
—if you know
—-that your waking life
——right now as it actually is
——-is “also dreaming”
———then you’re enlightened.
The enlightened person regards being “a waking life person,” like you would regard being a
character in a dream.
Let’s give a very common example of your “dream personality.”
I’m absolutely positive that in your dream “incarnations”
——— YEAH I’M USING THE WORD “INCARNATIONS” ———
you typically, ordinarily and almost alwaysly:
— are 22 years old, for sure
— are as fit as a long distance running power lifting gymnast, obviously
— have a Scrooge McDuck sized treasure vault with diving board, no duh
— are as smart as an Einstein to the power of Tesla factorial!, natch
— are so beautiful your online photos cause power failures in server farms, heh
— have God on one shoulder giving you constant pointers, of course
— have God on other shoulder giving you play by play color commentary, yep
— have a masseuse, chef, butler, maid, groundskeeper, stable master, as needed
— are always less than 200 feet from pistachio ice cream
Do I know you or what?
Of course, you know the difference between dreams and your waking state!
Compared to the infinite possibilities in a dreamed incarnation, in your waking state, you feel as
significant as lint.
This is how you’ll recognize you’re enlightened.
Your lint interpretation is transformed into “life of sumptuous luxury.”
Don’t believe it, eh? I know. It’s hard to imagine such a 180.
From lint to gem; from roller skates to Bugatti, from zip to zowy? As if, eh?
Hold my rootbeer.
Let me just roll up these sleeves.
Your life right now is an expression of God’s Mind as it is right now.
Your lint was constructed quark by quark to be YOUR LINT. Holy lint, Atman!
Your every complaint was authored by God to be exquisitely complainty!
Photons leave the Sun with purpose. The blessed ones get to brighten your face.
God views you from every star — from innermostness too.
God delights in what hast been wrought in you. You are sacred art.
That’s the enlightened view of you. Completely God’s.
The dream character’s existence
The waking character’s existence
The enlightened character’s existence
Any character’s existence
Any existence.
All God’s.
If the above is not true, keep meditating.
Maybe add ten minutes of asanas and some pranayama.
Edg Duveyoung
How can I find a spiritual master/mentor?
I got bad news here.
Your guru is less substantial than a ghost.
At least with a ghost you can have a conversation.
A guru always is silent no matter the questioner’s level of consciousness.
—Who’s God? — silence.
—Should I eat meat? — silence.
—What is my dharma? — silence.
—Is it bad luck to break a mirror? — silence.
—How do I stop the gods from pestering me for attention? — silence.
—How do I teach my cat to meditate? — silence.
But you say, “Nay!” Because:
—You’ve heard famous gurus speaking.
—Giant minds espouse scriptures as truth.
—You personally can recite a few anciently valid truths.
—There are fully explained truths ubiquitously strewn in world literature.
—Even children’s books easily teach powerful truths.
—Moses got The Ten Commandments in word form.
—Arjuna’s Teacher, Lord Krishna, yelled at him, “Fight for the good.”
Pish tosh.
It’s all silence all the time.
Any guru’s words turn attention toward silence.
Any truth is merely pointing at silence and being way too loud about it.
A fully appeased desire is indicated by the onset of silence.
The most potent axioms are jarring. Garish excelsior. Shark jumpish imps.
At the outskirts of the universe: a sign — “Silence beyond this point.”
Between two quarks — same silence.
The next noise you hear is untrue.
From the get-go, you were taught “Silence is golden.”
Learning is attending silence.
In any group situation, if silence whelms, all know what all know.
The easy part is silence.
The hard part is thinking about silence.
Solution: don’t think.
How? The same way you didn’t think about your left elbow.
You have no trouble ignoring the messages of elbows,
Merely ignore whatever else.
And done. The silence will be there.
When Einstein firstly worked out relativity’s math, he said, “Ah. Done.”
When Moses let the Red Sea rejoin, he said, “Ah. Done.”
When Jesus was about to die, He said, “Ah. Done.”
When God finished creation, God said, “Ah. Done.”
Even the blank line between these paragraphs says, “Ah. Done.”
Even the spaces between words say, “Ah. Done.”
Even the spaces between letters say, “Ah. Done.”
Even the moment between thoughts says, “Ah. Done.”
Gotta love the ah.
It’s always there.
Fullness hidden in plain sight.
Bliss is eternal silence.
Between all things — awareness punctuates.
Find someone who knows divine grammar.
There’s your guru.
Edg Duveyoung
What does “be yourself” mean?
Nobody knows.
Proof?
Predict what your next thought will be.
Can’t?
That’s the transcendent you for ya.
— Concept-free, yet you know every how when why, cuz ya duz.
— Your stealth self is clockwork free. No gears grinding.
— Yet every speck of you seems so precisely machined.
— Instant by instant you magically appear. No tools needed.
— Your body, mind, and soul — rabbits from top hats.
So the ancients tried to cheat.
They took some whole cloth and invented causality.
They figured:
— This unfathomable magic is intolerable! Let’s insist that God has reasons.
— If “causality,” then “spiritual agency” can be “sold” to the muggles.
— With endless causes, religions will be needed forever.
So, nah, that won’t do.
Between you and God — zero distance. So, we don’t invent “distance.”
— A thought’s a stranger cutting in when you’re dancing with your beloved.
— A thought is a straight jacket instead of pajamas on your wedding night.
— A thought is weak tea compared to telepathic divine communion.
Your self, when sought, is silent.
Close the eyes and turn your “power to ignore” knob up to eleven.
You’re ignoring almost all of it always anyway. Knob’s at 10 already.
And there you are without being seen or heard or felt.
Just there. Solely being. Being Self instead of thought.
There’s the key word.
When told next to be yourself.
Say, “I have me at be.”
Edg Duveyoung
What are the steps I need to take to create a short film?
Originally Answered: What are some ideas for a short film?
How about pristine, intense, exact moments in spiritual history?
1. We see a dark desert landscape with scrub brush. A shaky camera takes the viewer
across the ground at a swift walking pace. We see a glint of light ahead — just around a
small hill. As we come around that hill we see a small three sided animal shelter with its
open side glowing with a soft light. As the scene is fully revealed we immediately know
it’s the manger scene of Baby Jesus. Though the camera moves…all the animals and
Mary and Joseph and faint translucent angels hovering and three kings are as if frozen in
wonder. Stillness has overwhelmed the moment — no music, no dialogue. As the camera
rises up to look into the manger, there, of course, is Baby Jesus in absolute purity,
glowing. The camera zooms in and we see the face of Baby Jesus with the wisdom of
eternity in His eyes and knowing all that must come to pass.
2. The camera travels over the battlefield’s ruins — weaponry and bodies carnage mangled.
Ahead a great assemblage is seen. Every person gazes forlornly upon a dying warrior,
Bhishma. The greatest guru and devotee and duty bound soldier in Hindu history is shot
with 108 arrows exactly piercing the body’s gateways into transcendence, and his body is
held above the ground by the protruding shafts. He is dying after having fought for the
losing side of the war. He is stainless, sinless, perfectly righteous. The most holy beings
arrive to add more to the gathering as Bhishma speaks to all with unwavering love. Then
we see Bhishma’s eyes turn and gaze into Lord Krishna’s eyes, and silence descends
upon the scene. Though pain cascades in waves, though blood gushing out, though
every eye upon him, Bhishma’s only thought is to worship. The camera closes in. We see
Lord Krishna’s loving face, and then once again we see Bhishma’s eyes, and we see them
begin to brim with tears of adoration.
3. A handsome prince, resplendently attired, perfectly fit, walks along a path in an
impeccably tended garden. He comes to a high wall. He turns and looks around to see
the splendid grounds. And beyond he sees the palace and the kingdom’s lands dotted
with an ancient culture’s bustling. Next to the wall, as if secreted there behind a bush, is a
walking staff and dhoti and rough sandals. Swiftly changing, the prince then takes one
last look. He turns to the wall and with the staff in one hand, he grabs the top of the wall
and effortlessly pulls himself up and onto the top of it. He looks down and sees his
abandoned past. He turns and drops to the other side. As he disappears into the jungle,
from over the wall we hear, “Where’s Siddhartha?”
Edg Duveyoung
Why is grace amazing?
God: Pssssst…… pssssssst…….PSSSSSSST!
Edg: If only I could be enlightened and talk to God.
God: I’m right here! PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSST!
Edg: But even then, would that be good? Imagine how much worse it would be if I was to have God
actually give me marching orders and THEN I just refused to pony up the wherewithal to pull it off?
Better maybe kinda sorta I should stay ignorant than know what is righteous and then yet double-
downly dare to disobey.
God: (thunknoggining ) Anybody home in there?
Edg: After all, who am I to even think I could talk to God when there’s so many incredible minds —
actually alive in my world right now — that are not reporting hearing from God? I should get ahead
of them in line? God should talk to me despite the silence given to the others?
God: I’m psssssting on all the minds!
Edg: I guess God could be talking to all of us no matter how righteous one is, so there’s that, but
maybe, say, only seven people on the whole planet report having “the ears” to actually hear God,
and those folks are all saying the common truths upon which all the scriptures fundamentally
agree. What new information could God give when all the best information has been said a zillion
times over since language was invented? What am I nutz to want God to talk to me?
God: I have precise and personal info for you!
Edg: After all, do I order pistachio ice cream as usual or scan the entire menu for other flavors to
see if any of them entice? Why would anyone bother God for help in such a decision? So
insignificant!
God: My Grace says, “Try the mango chocolate almond!”
Edg: I mean, of course, God would choose pistachio, so I would just be a bias-confirming bother.
And if God really wants me to try other flavors, I’d at least have some sort of an obvious sign.
God: Every time you’ve chosen, I’ve suggested mango chocolate almond!
Edg: So, if God was to ever help me with daily life, it would only be that such divine intervention
was really called for because it somehow was a pivotal and key-moment in my life. But my life is
ordinary, so it’s ridiculous to expect that God would have singled-me-out to somehow affect my
“general direction.” There’s billions of others just like me, and they’re not getting any obvious help,
so I’d be a spiritual narcissist to expect to be “unique.”
God: My Grace aches with fullness. I send you perfect thoughts constantly.
Edg: Now, yes, I do feel that my best thoughts are coming from “a good place,” so maybe that’s all
we muggles can hope for — some vague hints from the unknown. We all know right from wrong,
yay for that, but choosing, say, mango chocolate almond instead of pistachio ice cream is such a
minor decision, so, hey, probably best if I make that choice on my own. (I don’t know why I even
came up with mango chocolate almond concept when I’m such a fanboy for pistachio. The human
mind, go figure — sigh.)
God: (palm slapping Divine Forehead) That was My Grace!
Edg: They say, “Get subtle, and you’ll hear from God,” but I’ve been meditating for since before
ever, and so far, all I can report is that I have strange cravings now. Like that mango chocolate
almond flavor I just mentioned. Now that I’ve put my attention on it, it’s allure is approaching
critical mass. And there’s so many other nagging “background thoughts” that are like that, and
yikes, where would I be if I chased after all these notions when I have so many good strong and
clear thoughts to regard instead?
God: Choose mango chocolate almond, and you’ll win a lottery.
Edg: After all, little things of life just don’t mean much. Life is mostly insignificant choices
compared to the grand scheme of things.
God: Pistachio ice cream has held you back from being a saint!
Edg: But yeah, red-faced here. I am that shallow that I’d love to have God guide every moment and
that I’d be especially important to God. Excessive pride — gotta admit it.
God: If you’d listen, you’d change entirety for all eternity!
Edg: I don’t know where I’m going with all this. Sitting here musing instead of diving into silence
and all I have so far is more nagging by these odd cravings. Nothing deep discovered!
God: My Grace intends for Thee. Hearken. Grow.
Edg: Yeah, another meh meditation, and now all I can think of is trying out mango chocolate
almond ice cream and then saving the world and maybe even win a lottery. If this is all meditation
is worth, give me a break.
God: Doh!
Edg: Yeah, if only, eh? If ever God graced me, it’d be amazing.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the difference between mercy and grace?
Grace ‘n’ Mercy ’n’ Thee
Grace is God’s intellectual stick in the ground.
Mercy is God’s tears watering the ground.
—Thou art a sapling tied to that stick.
Grace is God’s omniscient support for your spiritual perpendicularity.
Mercy is God’s omnipresent arms enfolding you.
—Thou art ever so slightly tilted more upward and feel hugged by life.
Grace is God urging “Oooo, go see over there!”
Mercy is God’s heart revealed in here.
—Thou art guided to sights you’ll love.
Grace is God the Father.
Mercy is God the Mother.
—Thou art seen by Father as you nestle in the arms of Mother Divine.
Grace is God’s light upon you.
Mercy is God’s light within.
—Thou art basked in light.
Grace is God’s elbowing your good rib.
Mercy is God’s rubbing the spot.
—Thou art corrected by tough love.
Grace is God making lumber.
Mercy is God loving the knots.
—Thou art used to build Heaven.
Grace is the stick’s reason to manifest.
Mercy is the water’s need to manifest.
—Thou art fulfilling them by being.
Always it’s Thee Three
Edg Duveyoung
If God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, why does evil exist?
Let’s ask an expert — James Whale
Edg: So, James, you directed the 1931 film, Frankenstein?
James: Yeah. My fourth film — I hit a nerve!
Edg: Gotta ask ya about the monster drowning that little girl.
James: That made the audience hate the monster — unforgivable.
Edg: So that made the monster purely evil and not pitiful?
James: Yeah, we had to be sure the audience would want him dead.
Edg: So evil must be punished by death?
James: Of course, no way a child killer gets redeemed.
Edg: What made the film iconic?
James: The monster was soulless — everyone identified, natch!
Edg: The monster symbolized one’s “dark side?”
James: Right. The monster dies, and the audience feels “cleansed.”
Edg: Was that a Freudian phenomenon?
James: Film as a cathartic tool — better than aromatherapy.
Edg: But what about your “dark creativity?” You imagined it all.
James: It’s just fiction! I’m sinless! It was all for fun!
Edg: So no matter what you conger up — not a sin — just for fun?
James: That’s the deal! Great, eh? No stains on my hands!
Edg: But the viewers think about evil afterwards. Again and again.
James: That’s their problem. I’m just making a buck here, ya know?
Edg: A one time exposure is harmless, but later iteration is bad?
James: Yeah, one and done. No harm no foul.
Edg: Hmmm, does that work in the real world too?
James: Nah, but in a theater, one merely witnesses evil — doesn’t partake.
Edg: Ah, so witnessing is the key. I wonder if I could witness in daily life?
James: Who knows? I’m giving folks what they want. Evil for free!
Edg: Maybe God has a right to dark creativity too!
James: I suppose.
Edg: Maybe God creates evil for our witnessing entertainment.
James: Hmmmmm, everyone does witness their life.
Edg: Maybe we’re already beyond the reach of our sins.
James: Come on — no way “film evil seen” is equal to “real evil done.”
Edg: But maybe I’m witnessing a mind that’s an all five senses theater.
James: I’m not buying it.
Edg: Maybe God wants one to see the mind — not be in the mind.
James: I’m getting a creepy religious vibe off you now.
Edg: Maybe God is thrilled to see us witness sin instead of sinning.
James: No one does outside the box witnessing.
Edg: Maybe one of those guys in India who climbs a rope.
James: Maybe not.
Edg: You also directed the film, Invisible Man.
James: That’s not witnessing — that’s naked peeping tomming.
Edg: I gotta say, your films seem to have philosophical punch.
James: Believe me — I was just trying to scare ten year olds.
Edg: Okay, have it your way, but I’ll leave you with a Bible quote.
James: I knew this was coming. You selling something?
Edg: “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these
things.” From Isaiah 45:7
James: Yow…sounds like my biography.
Edg: Maybe everyone’s bio is as if religious purport come to life.
James: I hope not. Who’d want to see a film if that was true.
Edg: Yeah. Hmmmm. Who’d want anything if that was true.
James: Yeah. Whoa. Maybe you and I should keep this on the down low.
Edg: Wouldn’t do if folks had brains that witnessed creation sinlessly.
James: It would ruin everything, though I do see the appeal.
Edg: They sure wouldn’t waste time on Quora.
James: I’d be working at a car wash or something.
Edg: Whew. Close one. Mum’s the word.
James: Lips sealed.
Edg Duveyoung
If you meditate every day for 40 years, what will happen?
I’m loath to answer, but my Quora credential’s braggadocio necessitates.
In 1971, I “officially” started meditating.
But but but who decided to start?
I now know.
It wasn’t me.
Turns out —I lied.
I say that I started;
—— but all along it was God’s doing the starting and the continuing.
Quite the sin, eh? Stealing the credit for “me” from God! Gulp!
Imagine God writes a play, and it gets produced on Broadway.
Then after the play ends, the crowd goes nutz. But of course!
And a massive desire arises in all — “AUTHOR AUTHOR AUTHOR!”
They have to have a direct experience of the source of their pleasure.
So there was me jumping up on the stage. Stood front center, and bowed.
The crowd heaped adoration on me. Their hearts expanded beyond “cosmic.”
Men in tails and women in tiaras were openly weeping just to see me.
I bowed again and smiled beneficently and blessed them with my gaze.
Did God care?
Nah, all that love went directly into God’s Heart. 100%
Nobody gets between you and God. End of story.
There will always be pretenders tending.
They can’t harm or help — just like I never chose to start meditating.
We are all impotent. No causality soup for us!
So what did I get from all my decades of daily hours spent deeply diving?
I already told you. I said, “I now know.”
It’s a relief to stop picking God’s pocket.
I don’t have to filch spiritual pennies.
I don’t have to hitch a ride on sacred coattails.
I now know I can just watch the play.
I now know I can silently and constantly applaud.
I now know that backstage standing in the wings
—— God stands like a proud parent
—— and tears flow from beaming eyes.
Edg Duveyoung
Is there life after death?
I can die on purpose. You too.
Just say, “No.”
Just stop breathing mid-breath.
At any point, you can stop and watch.
All the universe will get antsy. Alarms start blaring.
Urgency mounts. Finally nature reveals who’s boss.
And it’s not you.
Nature didn’t debate with you about it.
“Yeah, Edg, but the subject is life after death.”
Stopping the breath sorts false ego-you from false nature-you.
The false you, ego, stops the breathing.
The other false you, nature, starts the breathing.
The real you watches — unwaveringly.
Cool, eh? You get “life-death” clarity in about 15 seconds.
The life-breath is “prana” in Sanskrit. It’s a “higher potency oxygen.”
Prana is called the King of the Body. All other dynamics bend a knee to it.
When you do the Hindu techniques of breath control, you’re messing with POWER.
Careful — a guru should teach-guide pranayama beyond gentle nostril alternation.
It’s dangerous to over oxygenate.
——— And it’s more dangerous to pump up prana — a “refined oxygen.”
——— If you mess with King P, you gunna get deeply instructed.
“Yeah, Edg, but the subject is life after death.”
So die on purpose for a few seconds.
Stop breathing and instant silence is there.
Ego and nature paused. Maybe not dead-dead, but didactically dead enough.
What this teaches is that YOU DON’T STOP. There’s your continuity.
Ego you and nature you have zero “real you” content. Proved by your “fasting.”
That’s all of creation put aside for a nonce by you. Any muggle can do this.
Actuality — despite the pausing deaths of illusions — is seen.
Real you is an all-time reality — beyond life which is entirely “a consciousness thang.”
And “beyond” means beyond — beyond personal instrumentality.
This is a secret value of all attempts to control ANYTHING.
We find out we never have had control.
See the benefit? IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT — it’s your entertainment!
You watch a monster movie for entertainment.
Why not watch your own life with similar appreciation?
You’re the audience-of-one watching the inner entities playing their roles perfectly.
—When a negative emotion arises, enjoy the forces of good subduing it.
—Mistakenly fixate on an “absolute” concept? — enjoy an attitude adjustment.
—Watch every personal tragedy eventually resolve into hard won wisdom.
—See life in 100% high rez with surround sound. Acetylcholine driven screen refresh!
—Every possibility at hand. Every value. Every purport. All in your mental theater.
—God’s best blessing upon us is a holy sacred phantasming 24/7 brain.
All the bombast ongoing is merely illusory life — you can survive its loss.
You’re lossless. Can’t touch you. Nature is jealous of your actuality.
You were — before the concept “me” was invented.
The actuality of you was prior to creation.
Calm down to this level of life and find peace.
The suffering of life is due to not knowing the real you.
If you get clear about your own immortality, then the continuity of others is seen.
The eternal puts us here.
The eternal will take us.
See?
We are real in the eternal.
Doesn’t matter if here or there.
Edg Duveyoung
How can a person learn to think faster?
Originally Answered: How can I think faster and better?
This exercise is profound and powerful. ALL experiences that you have will be IMPROVED by this
exercise, but, if its power is to be fathomed, please be serious about doing this. Prepare yourself
for true delight as a whole new world opens to you. Try the below mental game, once, and if it’s
“for you,” you’ll use it regularly.
The exercise will seem far too simple to support the above promise, but innocent and attentive
use of it yields tremendous results. This exercise magnifies and brings faint and largely unnoticed
images (and the emotions and other mental "synergies" that attend them) into your conscious
daily experiences. In this "on the fringe of consciousness realm" can be found incredible proof of
the immense underlying complexity of all that you presently call "me."
The exercise: With eyes closed, describe ALOUD (preferably into a tape recorder or to a human
listener) the images that you see with your "inner eye." Full images, partial images, flickering or
sustained, will come to/through your mind, and you should SPEAK ALOUD words that describe
them. For the most part, the words you use should be adjectives or short phrases. To "kick off"
the images, try asking a question to yourself and then let go. The faster you toss out the
descriptions the better, and try to follow as many "side" images as possible. This is not an
exercise in story telling -- no sense must be made with the order of the images or the words you
use to describe them. You are NOT directing your mind with any wishing for images of certain
types.
By following the above instructions, your ability to be attentive to the fainter aspects of the
contents of consciousness will begin to grow. Once you have developed this ability, still fainter,
presently unknown, aspects of consciousness become available. In this way, an ever-approached
horizon of mental life will be involved in a process of discovery.
Why is this so much fun?
What would be the long term benefits of practicing this technique?
Am I mining my deeper veins of thinking? Am I finding out more about how things are connected?
What kind of surprises do I get with this? Am I seeing images that startle me, scare me, inspire
me? Am I flabbergasted at the amount of creativity my mind constantly manifests?
Is my heart opening up with this method?
Do the questions I ask to start the images get answered? Are the images in any way symbolic of
the answers I would ordinarily expect in words?
Edg Duveyoung
How much time does it take to see influences of meditation in life?
Originally Answered: How long does it take to see results from meditation?
How about never?
If there were results, then causality would be validated.
If there were results, then everyone would be meditating.
If there were results, then God would be merely god.
Meditation does not cheat karmic debt.
Meditation does not cure psychological errors.
Meditation does not produce happiness.
Enlightenment is a concept not a state of mind.
Enlightenment is water in a desert mirage.
Enlightenment is not an improvement.
Scriptures almost never instruct how to escape the illusory.
Scriptures have almost no moral consistency.
Scriptures increase confusion about spirituality.
A guru is an ordinary person.
A guru is not an expert psychologist.
A guru does not speak for God.
I could continue. but you came here to get “the other answer.”
I could continue, but the point has been made.
I could continue, but why scare the muggles?
All the above is the deepest teaching of Advaita.
So why meditate?
Answer: You don’t; God does.
If you’re a meditator, it’s destiny.
Maybe meditation is just to keep you off the streets.
Maybe you’ll “get it” and then lose it.
It’s about utter surrender.
The intellect is of no use.
The heart can never know.
Life is an altar.
Get on it.
Be sacrificed.
Fall in love.
Embrace creation.
Kiss it on the lips.
Edg Duveyoung
What is ancestor worship?
Granny and Gramps are mantras!
A mantra is a thought that is used by a mind to develop subtlety. A memory is a faint biological
event in a nervous system. Recalling a “distant memory” is meditation. Remembering even “a few
seconds’ worth” of a past event can be an instantaneous arrival at a very subtle level of the mind.
So what? How does one make this spiritually beneficial?
Find a wisp.
Perhaps one remembers Granny making cupcakes, but, at first, one’s recall might have a very low
level of fidelity. We might not remember most of the details — what apron she wore or where she
lived or how old we were or what the story was, etc. But there will be some wisp of actuality that
validates the memory. That wisp is the mantra.
Use the wisp.
If one attends that wisp, gently, lightly, the mind is in a subtle state compared to attending most
other mental events. To dwell upon that wisp will spur the mind to remember other details of that
moment. The mind will suss, and that level of subtlety will be sustained as other faint memories of
that event are added to the reconstruction. Very quickly, recalling a past moment in time can
become richly saturated with details. A whirling of wisps is wonderful. This practice keeps one
allured and entertained despite the attractions of other more recently “installed” memories. This
morning’s breakfast was delicious, but a memory of the aroma of Granny’s cupcakes can muscle
its way to center stage. Almost any childhood memory does the trick. To dwell at this level of the
mind using a variety of wisps is like poking a hole with a pin into a black sheet of paper that’s
blocking the sunlight. As we poke into the past, a little more light is let into the mind’s depths.
More light will shine upon the subtle — and not merely when processing cherished memories.
Poke enough holes, and the black sheet becomes transparent.
Wisps take us within — easily, no struggling needed. The outer life is set aside naturally. As we
practice recalling wisps, we get educated about what subtlety of the mind actually is — silence
begins to become palpable. Your left elbow is there if you attend its signals, but the remembered
aroma of Granny’s cupcakes allures more. With the Granny mantra, the details naturally flooding in
are equally subtle. Ancestor worship is a big deal in 70% of the world. No wonder, eh? Science
tells us that an electrode in the brain can produce TOTAL RECALL. A person is found to not merely
remember but actually to RELIVE an experience. The brain doesn’t forget a single thing. It’s all
there for the taking.
Finding many wisps.
Our childhood memories are transporters into subtlety. So we find wisps that put us into a swoon,
and we gently return to them as needed to keep the mind in this, as if, dream-state, where one is
yet very alert. This is how to hack a mind. Each of us has these wisps handy. This is a learn-able
skill. When it becomes a habit, daily life transforms into a cornucopia flooding the mind with
overwhelming enrichment. And such a mind can appreciate other even quieter levels of the mind.
When a few words of any scripture are entertained by such a mind, the purport gathers around
like added details. It’s like being in God’s kitchen!
Arriving at the subtlest.
In truth, any “looking within” is powerful. Sweet memories make it easier to practice. But a
practiced mind will be able to attend the actual birth of any, not merely “nice” thoughts. Your
mental room has to be very quiet to hear a whisper in it, but it can be done. And then, suddenly,
magic.
The Self is the most subtle aspect of a mind.
By dwelling within, we become able to espy the invisible and hear silence. It’s as subtle as one can
get. When we become at ease with just being in quietness, we can slip out of the mind. The mind
can continue being subtle and having luxuriously delectable ideation, but, suddenly, identity with
the mind’s contents stops, and one finally realizes the witness of the mind is the true Self which is
beyond all subtlety.
That’s enlightenment.
Yeah, the Self beats Granny’s cupcakes.
Deal with it.
Edg Duveyoung
Is destiny of one predetermined? What is one’s purpose in life? Are we only to follow
the path to Self-Realization? If everything we think is what God puts in our head and
every action is preordained what is the purpose of carrying on?
It’s a rigged system. Can’t even cheat.
But but but, God’s the Rigger!
Folks should see this as “wondrous.”
Suppose you’re in Heaven — just wafting around on ethereal wings. . .
And God says: “Psssssst . . . Lil’ Buddy, I’m thinking of extending creation into a place I’m
going to call ‘Reality,’ and I need you to help Me work out the kinks. You up for this? — it
won’t be anything like clouds and light and harps, so I’m giving you fair warning. What say
you?”
——So you’d say, “Sign me up, but can I ask a few questions?”
And God would say: “Hit Me.”
——And you’d ask, “Will I be in constant bliss as I am here?”
God would say: “Yes, but you won’t know it.”
——And you’d ask, “If I won’t know it, how can enjoy this so-called “Reality?”
God would say: “There will be some enjoyment, just enough to keep you from going kookoo,
but mostly there’ll also be something new I’m going to invent called ‘suffering,” and I think
you’ll get a kick out of it.”
——And you’d ask, “Kick? What’s a kick?”
God would say: “Well, for instance, if I took away your wings and halo for two seconds and
then gave them back, you’d feel an initial dissatisfaction and then a nice satisfaction — a
kick — to get them back. Well, in Reality, you’ll lose everything and then get it back but only
after a long time, but when you finally retrieve everything, then it’ll be this huge kick! A
serious biggie!”
——And you’d ask, “What does ‘lose everything” mean? It can’t mean everything everything, right?
It’s gotta be more like “almost everything,” right?”
God would say: “Nope, it’s going to be seriously closer to everything everything than to
almost everything — more like all gone.”
——And you’d say, “Whoa! I can see losing wings and halos and not having all my divine chums,
and that would seem to be ‘enough of everything’ to lose. You can’t mean everything everything.”
God would say, “Oh can’t I? Just you wait. But if I tell you the details, then you won’t get as
much of a kick. No spoilers!”
——And you’d ask, “Okay, innocence, but, maybe I need a hint or two more to commit. For
instance, will I remember You? Will I know what to do? Will I have existential certainty? Will have a
users’ manual? Will I please You constantly? Will You always obviously be my Guide? Will I be okay
with such loss when I’m in Reality?”
God would say: “No, no, no, no, no, no, and no.”
——And you’d say, “Whoa!”
God would say: “Yeah, it’s whoa alright! See what I’m talking about now? Reality’s gunna set
you up for a kick you just can’t get in Heaven. All gone and then all back — whammo!”
——And you’d say, “I’m a bit iffy. I’m so comfy here in Heaven. Can’t blame me for some hesitancy.
Up here, I know the ropes; in Reality, I’m guessing there’d be no ropes! How would anything get
accomplished?”
God would say: “That’s just it! Nothing would be accomplished in every possible way!”
——And you’d say, “I have to admit that it doesn’t sound Heavenly. Is there some sort of payoff I’m
missing?”
God would say: “The kick! The kick! You’re going to get a kick out of it.”
——And you’d say, “Okay okay okay……. I’m shaking here. Look, there’s two feathers dropped
already! Come on, at least tell me something to make me toggle. Some secret that’ll end my foot-
dragging passive aggression.”
God would say: “Okay, just for you. In Reality, you’re not really going to be all that
important. I’ll be doing all of it. Every thought you witness will be My words. Errors and
mistakes and kicks — oh gonzo! I’mma goin’ kablooey! You will think it’s all you, but it’ll be
all Me. Then when the kick comes, it kicks ya higher.”
——And you’d ask, “Higher?
God would say: “You didn’t think this Heaven and This Me was the highest now did ya?
——And you’d say, “DEAL!”
Edg Duveyoung
Is there such thing as reality?
Originally Answered: Is reality really real?
No, you silly person you, no.
If you’re not silly but are a person, the answer is still no.
If you’re not a person, it’s yes.
“Reality” is delusional interpretation projected upon unsullied perfection. Each nervous system
necessarily must moment by moment serially assume and live a risk fraught life.
The least titch of reality is merely “so-called reality” — everything’s merely another “fake road by a
Roadrunner.”
—Should I chase my dreams? “Yes, the road ahead is clear.”

—Is my religion the best path for me? “I see Heaven around the corner.”
—How do I get there faster? “Full speed ahead!”
—Are there any cautions I should note? “No warning signs!”
We see the Coyote being fooled by a Roadrunner wizard with all the powers of a cartoonist; ergo:
the Coyote doesn’t have a chance, never did, never will.
Just like you. God’s the cartoonist; you’re Wile.
Your logic’s meh if your eyes lie to you.
The sole reality does not change. That’s “awareness.” Only awareness.
(Heh, ask a physicist how to outwit awareness in a double slit experiment.)
Awareness is sacred even to cartoonists. The Coyote and the Roadrunner both have an awareness
that is equally able to observe “a mind.” The witnesses of their minds seems to be the same
witness. Why?
Because —— AWARENESS IS THE SAME FOR ALL OBSERVERS.
No one disagrees. Even cartoonists hold awareness’ uniformity as axiomatic. Even someone
passing by Earth at almost lightspeed will say that the descriptor words of any other observer
agree with the space guy’s opinions about “awareness.”
No other existential phenomenon is immune to the limitations of the observer. Everything that can
be measured is affected by the status of the observer’s “relativity.” Even time and space — their
definitions — are variable. But not the “definition” of awareness.
Ironically, “definition” means “making infinity graspable.” We “de” infinity as in the word
“deconstruction.” As if, eh? And so the naming of anything’s form is to deny its divine origin. This
is primal error.
Only awareness cannot be divided.
So, no, reality is not real because observation is relative.
So, yes, awareness is the only reality, but a mind is de-finitely delusional.
So, no, to a person, awareness is not real.
So, yes, if one transcends the mind and stops “personing,” awareness is real.
So, no, awareness can’t be seen; rather, the observer is awareness!
So, yes, awareness is real but without measure.
So, no, small self doesn’t see Self — that’d be two selves, urp!
So, yes, being being is close to seeing seeing but Self is never conceivable.
Bottom line?
When in Rome, go with what seems real for safety’s sake.
But if you really want to know what’s really real then roam out of Rome.
Edg Duveyoung
What are the differences among the soul, spirit and mind?
My definitions of the terms of spirituality.
Action — That which an ego doesn’t do but which seems to be done by God.
Angel — An astral entity that serves God. Usually.
Awareness — BRAHMAN — identity without a manifest individuality.
Being — Basic consciousness. Amness without an expression of “I.”
BRAHMAN Consciousness — The ultimate in human consciousness.
Duality — God plus non-God. Example: Edg eating pistachio ice cream.
Emotion — How the heart knows without needing words.
Enlightenment — Beyond being fooled by illusions.
Evolution — Becoming less fooled.
God — The perfect manifestation of awareness. Existential Being.
God Consciousness — Knowing the divinity of all experiences.
Mantra — A sound with known effects if used properly.
Mind — A “place” where thoughts are displayed.
Mindfulness — Attending the non-word aspects of the mind.
Nature — God’s intent.
Non-duality — Awareness, BRAHMAN.
Prayer — Worshiping silence to increase one’s Venn overlap with God.
Psychology — Feckless concepts about thoughts. Ego blarney.
Sensations — Existential News — broadcast 24/7.
Soul — Temporary individuality. A set of attachments.
Spirit — Awareness plus “the witness” (half awareness, half consciousness)
Thought — Illusory delta. Gelled emptiness. God’s workshop dust.
Transcendent — The Changeless. Delta schmelta.
Transcending — Increasing the amount of silence in an experience.
Unity Consciousness — Mind indistinguishable from awareness.
Yogi — Basic enlightenment.
Yogic humor — Three monks sit for ten years in a cave. 1st says, “A white horse walked by outside.
Ten years later, 2nd says, “That horse was brown.” Ten years later, 3rd says, “I can’t stand this
constant bickering!”
Now you know.
So, you should be able to be enlightened.
By say, 10 A.M. tomorrow morning?
Edg Duveyoung
If we are God, why do we limit ourselves to the body and mind with their limited
awareness? Why not just be without the body and mind?
Originally Answered: If we are God, why do we limit ourself to the body and mind with their limited awareness?
Why not just be, without the body and mind?
Because God’s a narcissist, God looks in a mirror right now.
—Omnisciently knows the entire past and future of every speck.
—Omnipotently can make the image in the mirror alive.
—Omnipresently is actually there in creation’s every where, every when.
And goes, “Spiffy!”
Then God spots you, Dear Reader, a now enlivened itty bitty mote.
—You’ve been known from the start of creation — your first atom onward.
—You’ve been empowered throughout time’s expanse.
—You’ve been tended and divinely held.
And goes, “Ooooo, this Dear Reader had Me at YOLO.”
Then God sees how you, Dear Reader, are in complete harmony with creation.
—Your actions display resonance with the most distant stars.
—Your soul feels “anything’s possible.”
—Your mind can imagine being in every scenario.
And goes, “This Dear Reader could play any part, do anything.”
Then God falls in love with the Dear Reader. “Gotta walk in those shoes!”
—”I’ll know every nuance of Dear Reader’s entire manifestation.”
—”I’ll make sure Dear Reader gets where Dear Reader wants to go.”
—”I’ll secretly be standing behind Dear Reader — for all of time.”
And goes, “If I wasn’t real, this is how unreal I’d want to be.”
Then God sees how Dear Reader gets to solely see one point of view.
—”It’s blissful to see the flawlessness of any view’s perfection.”
—”It’s blissful to see Dear Reader seemingly doing.”
—”It’s blissful to have My infinite ken made complete by Dear Reader’s POV.”
And goes, ”Must be, have all, and then moar of Dear Reader.”
Then God crams infinity inside Dear Reader’s soul.
—”Ahhhh, what exquisite ignorance. This is what I was hoping for!”
—”Ahhhh, how impossibly weak I am. What a thrill!”
—”Ahhhh, I’m only in one point of time and space. Divine claustrophobia!”
And that’s why, Dear Reader, you mean so much to God.
And me.
Edg Duveyoung
What is positive thinking?
Positivity is a flexibility challenge. This essay is about flipping the script.
Here’s a Pop Quiz. Try to figure out a way that all these below “dire moments” could be wonderful
instead of allowing your mind to have a knee-jerk negative interpretation. Practice putting on
differently colored perception lenses until you find a "right interpretation" for each scenario.
Example Situation: You and your family have almost no food to eat -- less than a day's worth.
You are all sleeping out the on the ground with very little to cover you, and the nearest help is
miles away.
Example Of The Situation's Positive Interpretation: You are on a family camping trip with a
sumptuous feast in your back packs. You stay overnight after a scenic day's hike, enjoy your
fireside repast, crawl into your thin summer sleeping bags, and watch the stars until sleep comes.
The next morning you unpack the pistachio ice cream in the dry ice, have breakfast and hike back
perfectly refreshed.
Pop Quiz — Flip These Scripts
1. You are up to your neck in a liquid that contains a wide variety of poisonous chemicals.
2. You're resisting and violently struggling with someone who eventually overpowers you and
pushes you out of a plane without a parachute.
3. Your body is aching with burning sensations.
4. Slowly, again and again, a needle is inserted into your body.
5. A crowd of people all around you are counting on you in an extremely tense situation. They
watch you closely, some are quite desperate. Then, right before their eyes, you fail them, and all
they wanted is left unfulfilled.
6. You viciously kill an attacker. So hard do you strike out that your own blood is mixed with the
remains of your victim.
7. Someone tells you, quite seriously, "You are going to die. Prepare yourself."
8. You're colder than you have EVER been in your entire life. You can hardly breathe. In your fear,
you are almost certain that you are dying. The brightest light you have ever seen shines painfully
into your eyes. Then the worst pain you have EVER felt in your entire life hits you.
9. You are horribly tortured for hours. Then you are made to physically help your torturers prepare
to kill you. Then they slowly kill you.
Positive interpretation:
1. You are swimming in a pool with chlorine and other highly diluted chemicals.
2. You are a stunt-person on a movie set.
3. You are in a gym working out and going for the burn.
4. You are getting acupuncture.
5. You are Greg Norman and come in third in the Masters, but you win hundreds of thousands of
dollars playing a game you love.
6. You swat a mosquito.
7. Your friend wants to tell you about the latest thriller movie with incredible special effects and
exaggerates in a typical fashion.
8. You are being born, and the doctor spanks you to make you breathe.
9. You are Jesus Christ giving an example of total love.
Questions to ask yourself.
What's more important when interpreting a situation, my imagination or the context of the
situation?
How do words (and how they are strung together) so strongly overpower my neutrality? How often
do I allow an "inner jury" to consider something before I have an opinion about a situation?
Do I always have an interpretive choice or do some words and phrases "always say what they
mean?"
How often do I assume the wrong context for a situation? Should I become more "aloof" or
scientific about my conclusions?
Why do I feel like these "situations" are unfairly worded? Who promised me that this exercise
"wouldn't cheat?"
Are any of life's tragic situations flexible and open to positivity, or is the meaning of all of these
absolute? Wars? Famine? Genocide? Suicide?
How often do I apply a false interpretation to a behavior of mine so that it seems "better?" Do I tell
white lies?
Do I lie to children? Do I attempt to pre-filter reality for them to "save them" from something?
Who am I?
Whence me?
From where do my values arise?
Why am I so marvelous?
Edg Duveyoung
Do you think meditation is another way of sleeping?
Arjuna didn’t sleep — this proved that his daily life was so well run that injuries (tiredness) did not
accrue. That’s the value of being dharmic. He used the extra time well — learned to “shoot in the
dark” and with both hands equally. Lord Krishna praised Arjuna for “not caviling.” Arjuna wasn’t
petty; he didn’t diss. God’s raw in-the-now creating as it is experienced by all entities is to be fully
embraced. To diss is to foot drag, and the price is “getting sleepy.” Indulging in negativity is self-
abuse. The wage of this sin is the death of about eight hours of wakefulness per day. Whoa, eh?
A muggle’s sleep refreshes most of the “fighting-God frictional fatigue.” Sleep is spiritual
anesthesia — you’re on nature’s operating table for needed repair work. A muggle’s nervous
system acquires tiredness at a faster rate than nature can heal, so nightly rest is a karmic
necessity.
A muggle’s meditation decreases (little by little) one’s identifying with the mind. As one gains
clarity about the mind’s origination, attachment to its content is lessened, because the Creator of
the mind, awareness, pure self, GOD is satisfying instead of teasing. Meditation is like turning from
the Mona Lisa’s smirk to see Leonardo da Vinci’s smile! Creator or creation — your choice. Need a
hint?
Details:
—In meditation, sleep can come. We let it. We abide. We can meditate after.
—Thoughts during meditation? Consider them: “repair work’s upraised dust.”
—Dreams during sleep are mostly repair noise too.
—A very conscious person’s dreams can qualify as “daily life in the astral.”
—After sleeping, we forgive the sins of the dream characters. “I didn’t do it.”
—That’s how “real life” sins are forgiven: you recognize fiction.
—After a dream ends and before waking life stirs — in that gap, self is seen.
—We meditate to escape incarceration; sleep helps the imprisoned.
So no. Sleeping is not meditating.
But ask, “Who’s the sleeper?” THAT’S MEDITATING!
Edg Duveyoung
What does ''expanding of consciousness'' mean?
Firstly, tell me what kind of body you have.
Most entities have a limit to their existential acuity.
A rock’s consciousness is “set in stone.” Heh. Yet Jesus told us that even rocks can sense
righteousness, and so they too are attuned to entirety. Check out Luke 19:40.
A microbe learns. Each new pattern it acquires is an expansion of it’s ken. Microbes are seen
having fantastic communication networks. They warn each other about danger and spread the
good news of “food nearby.” Microbes set up seeming telephone lines to have private chats
with each other. We’re talking “Germ Civilization.” The germs in the gut of a cow tell it how to
regulate its metabolism. They use LAUGHING GAS TO DO THIS.
Ask any cow owner if a cow has a consciousness that evolves over time. Cows have minds, fall in
love, grieve, etc. All these features indicate that they REFINE THEIR THINKING and get more
subtle, more able to attend nuances. Ask a cow owner how many precise reasons a cow might
have to nuzzle or kick you.
A human’s expansion of consciousness is seen when learning increases how broadly a person
gathers information before concluding — like a wide angle mirror seeing all — yet the mind
improves being more able to see the point values in it. Consciousness evolves in breadth and
depth thereby. The deeply learned lessons stick to the soul’s incarnational ribs.
This kind of educational expansion of consciousness is but a “lesser form”— it’s merely a growth
in expertise. This kind of growth is not deeply spiritual; it’s spiritual-ish. Deep growth in spirituality
comes when the mind improves clarity about “how thoughts are made.” This is a much truer
expansion of consciousness in that each thought is more appreciatively seen earlier in it’s “life.” In
this manner, a mind expands sensitivity to the divinity of all originations.
As a human mind gets more able to see cognition’s cogs a’clacking, then a new definition of
“expansion of consciousness” begins to be grasped. One begins to see that awareness is
separate from the mind. Consciousness is action; awareness is the witness of action.
True expansion of consciousness is a misnomer. It is expansion of silent awareness that actually is
the basis of spirituality. As one is more able to maintain silence in the midst of activity, the more
one is able to be clear about what’s what in consciousness. Without quietness, it’s wall to wall
noise. And by “wall” I mean the inside surface of your skull. Meditators learn this and find
themselves more able to not indulge in neuron-chatter and instead reside in the peace that is the
foundation of consciousness. Awareness is bliss; pure consciousness is blissful — a true line of
demarcation.
Once a person is able to maintain awareness of silence 24/7, then that person is enlightened. Now
expansion of consciousness takes on a whole new meaning. Now, indeed, it is the content of
consciousness that expands — NOT THE AWARENESS OF IT. After enlightenment, awareness of
awareness is perfect. After enlightenment, the nervous system — now wholly owned and operated
by nature — begins to physically transform — ultimately, one grows a brain that’s “knowing
everything.” And when knowing everything is firmly established, we can label that as another true
form of expansion of consciousness.
After that we can yet again jump into stronger unity in that the perfected consciousness now
perfectly reflects the transcendent value of awareness.
After that, one can dissolve that equity by discovering they are one and never have been different.
After that one can leap out of being “a one.”
Then you’re done.
The residual personality will make popcorn and pull up a chair.
And laugh and laugh and laugh for the best possible reasons.
Edg Duveyoung
What extra ordinary powers do you have?
Originally Answered: What is your real-life super power?
I’ma gunna go nutzoid on this answer.
Humans are made in the image of God.
BAM! That was easier than I thought it was going to be.
But, maybe you’re saying, “There goes Edg again.
Maybe you don’t think that I can “explain my way out of this one.”
Sure, you might know that
—the Bible teaches this,
—the Vedas teach this,
—the Koran teaches this,
—and that everyone in the Eastern Hemisphere believes this and acts upon this and tries to use
their superpowers in the service of good.
But nooooo, if I look someone in the eye and mention superpowers with a serious tone in my
voice, especially if that person is sitting next to me on a bus as I say “I’m superdooper!” aloud, I’m
a nut. And by nut, I mean crazy. And by crazy I mean a waste of consciousness and by that I mean
that it’s thought that I belong on a curb with a cardboard sign warning about the end of the world.
But, hey, ending worlds is what I’m all about on Quora! See below for details.
Every scripture. Every. All attest to amazing human potentials.
—Human Krishna held a mountain over His head.
—Human Jesus fed 5,000 people while on a budget.
—Human Rama walked into Heaven.
—Human Moses parted the Red Sea.
—Human Arjuna could shoot arrows with his mind.
—Human Jonah held his breath for three days.
—Human Vyasa cognized the Vedas.
—Human Mohammed expected the mountain to come to Him.
If even one story is true, all the others could also be.
And there’s at least ———AT LEAST———
Tens of thousands of stories of miracles — performed by humans. If you insist some of them were
God in disguise, then hey, it means a human can be God!!!!
But what has this to do with you?
—You’ve never leaped over a building in a single bound.
—You can’t do one short prayer without also entangling non-prayer thoughts.
—You’re an emotional Pachinko machine.
—You use a bus-sized intellect to “click likes.”
—Everything you’re good at has someone on youtube being better at.
—Your dog regularly ate your homework.
See? Edg? See?
No way this Dear Reader belongs in the Marvel Universe.
—No capes for you Dear Reader.
—Not a single glory crowned.
—Edg loses on this one — superpowers are myths.
Ahem.
Okay, let’s do this one more time.
Let’s locate the wonder in your wherewithal.
Here’s what we both know is true.
—Your nightly dreams outmatch any Hollywood production.
—You can ignore the whole of creation when shooting a video zombie.
—You can wait. You can fast. You can think. — Siddhartha
—Your love transforms moles into beauty marks.
—You’re pro-good when bad makes so much profit.
—You yet keep lighting candles.
—Your inner child still believes in Santa.
Those are your minor powers.
The real cool stuff you’re not going to believe.
I bet I can tell you a real story, and you’ll say, “But not me.”
A real story that makes the above powers seem ordinary.
But wait, before “The Story,” let’s be sure that we know that Patanjali wrote the Human Operating
Manual in which he showed how to be strong as an elephant, become invisible, fly, read minds,
talk to the animals, be as small as an atom, know about previous incarnations, know when death is
arriving, have super senses, enter and run another’s mind, and know the past and future.
And those are merely the lesser powers that Patanjali taught.
What? What? You say they didn’t tell you about the Human Operating Manual?
I’d complain if I were you. Lucky you had comic books to help a bit.
But but but — “The Story.”
Sri Ramana Maharshi’s disciple Papaji told David Godman that in the span of but a moment he
experienced ALL OF HIS LIFETIMES — from birth to death each — lived as if in real time like in
ordinary life — and by “lifetimes” he meant even the incarnations of being rocks and plants.
BILLIONS OF LIFETIMES fully lived in moments — not merely remembered. With not a hint of
confusion. Historically pure. In moments.
Again — a human being.
Then there’s Vishvamitra. That guy, whew, let me tells ya.
He was so deep a yogi he could create a whole universe complete with all the divine entities
needed to run the joint. Lord Indra on down — all of the gods. In fact, when the gods found out
about how powerful Vishvamitra had become, they attacked him by sending a hawt babe to drain
his woo woo with some wooing.
All those heroes were humans with nervous systems that had been refined.
Nervous systems with your human biology. That’s your potential.
But hold on. Forget the above. I got a better offer for you.
The Ultimate Superpower — used daily by Edg.
Transcend and become pure awareness.
Pierce every veil. Be beyond conceptuality.
Unite all the opposites. Meld everything into awareness.
Be THAT which authors God’s Mind.
—THAT is what Lord Krishna revealed to Arjuna.
—THAT is the THAT in “I am THAT, I am.”
—THAT thou art. I am THAT. All this is THAT.
And that’s that.
So
Find a cape. Wear it.
Edg Duveyoung
What are the best ways to lose weight?
Samyama is the ultimate method for weight loss and winning wars.
In Patanjali’s book “How To Know God,” he teaches EXACT methods for mastering the human
mind/body. For weight loss he teaches that one should use samyama on the throat’s hollowness.
Huh?
Not kidding, and here’s why it works.
Samayama’s instructions CANNOT be used by a muggle — except a little.
But a little’s a lot when we directly involve infinite awareness. Ask your local math whiz about
infinity’s power to overwhelm. Science as if hates infinity when it shows up in a formula. They
know how infinity just ruins everything.
But to the degree that applied physics avoids infinity, Pantajali puts it to work.
Here’s how:
— Close the eyes and settled down for a few minutes.
— Place your attention on the inside of your throat - ONCE.
— Wait 15 seconds.
— Repeat the above for an entire meditation — say, about 10 minutes.
That’s it.
You’ll fail at this, but not entirely, and if infinity is afoot, even the weak attention of an untrained
mind still is ATTENTION. Doubt not the calculable power of endlessness. If a yogi (100% of infinity
available) does this samyama, the yogi “apprehends a cessation of hunger and thirst .” One and
done for a yogi. And from then on, hunger cannot victimize a personality.
But the muggle mind needs repetitions. Using samyama, again and again, a few of the mind’s
micro-specks of attention hit upon the throat, while, say, 99% of attending hits other targets.
Muggles use shotguns not sniper rifles. This is how infinity is “diluted.” It’s spread out to the point
of almost insignificance. So to escape enslavement to hunger (or any other desire) a muggle’s
untrained mind’s samyama takes some regular use to “chip away at” the ensconced desire as it is
embodied in a nervous system. But it can be done, and results can come quickly.
Probably too quickly. Warning! The ego will “get in there and try to force it.” So the ego will begin
to feel like its free of being dominated — way way way before this becomes true, and so the ego
will “show off” and purposefully eat less — “I’m on top of it already.” The risk, then, is that the ego
will talk itself out of doing regular samyama. The mood making stops, and so do obvious results,
and then the person says, “That samyama is malarkey.”
Samyama is putting attention on a topic and then waiting for GOD to respond. We are respectful.
We allow our silence to roll up its sleeves. After about fifteen seconds (a very very long time) we
usually find that we can then reintroduce the “topic.” Note that putting the attention on the
hollowness is not THINKING WORDS ABOUT IT. We just attend like one does to sense the left
elbow — we don’t have to mentally have a mental/verbal command for this. We just sense the
throat area. We give God some time with the hollowness in the throat’s tube. (The body’s
thermostat, the thyroid gland, is right there! Just sayin’) Attending is healing. Healing means —
becoming natural. Nature doesn’t overeat — unless, heh, you’re going to hibernate for a few
months in a snow covered den!
So we meditate in general to gradually increase the ability to get quiet. The quieter we get, the
more powerful becomes one’s samyama. Targeting improves.
And now you know how Arjuna shot his arrows. He had samyama down pat. He just had to INTEND
and let go of his doingness like he would let go of an arrow — then it became real. Infinity did the
rest. ATOMIC BOMB POWER! Arjuna had to “hold back” when he was fighting. He had
Armageddon in his quiver. When one is able to always have perfect silence, one is enlightened.
That’s why Lord Krishna told Arjuna to dwell in silent being instead of — get this — having to do all
the hard work of thinking a thought before shooting an arrow. Arjuna still thought he was a thinker!
All intents arise from the same silence, and the yogi is in an all-time state of surrendering to God’s
authoring of the mind. That was what Arjuna still had to learn. He was perfect in every other way.
You’d need sunglasses to even squint out a muggle-eyed peek at him.
Lord Krishna was telling Arjuna to “get out of MY WAY! Only I can form perfect thoughts for you.
You can’t grok it all like I can.”
And note that Lord Krishna thought that this was so important for THE REST OF HISTORY that this
lesson was taught in the middle of a battlefield.
That’s YOUR MIND. You have huge processes inside you that are UP TO NO GOOD. They’re as if
adharmic entities. Indulging in them makes you become less aware and more attached to ego.
And directly in the very center of all that your inner child is being taught as was Arjuna. You’re
learning to let go and let God. You’re finding out that natural tendencies are sacred and that our
cleverness is extremely limited. You might know what Einstein was saying, but you don’t know how
to oversee, direct, and mindfully command your body to fix a paper cut.
So get rid of all problems by putting them on God’s To-Do List.
Here’s Lord Krishna’s words:
Verse 48 Chapter 2: “yoga-sthah kuru karmani”
Translations:
—“Transcend, and stay there; I got this.”
—“Shush, and just do what I tell you.”
—“Be — that’s it. That’s your job.”
—“If you’re not Me, you’re doing it wrongly.”
—“I’m the ventriloquist; you’re the dummy.”
MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL?
Nowhere does the Gita say that one should not eat pistachio ice cream.
I think the implications are obvious.
Gotta know how to interpret scriptures!
Edg Duveyoung
How might Enlightenment be seen as a selfish egoic pursuit when enlightened ones do
not go on to help minimize suffering in the world?
Silence is the source of consciousness.
That’s almost THE deepest possible statement.
First comes silence.
—then comes being.
——then comes thought.
———then comes action.
Actions are the great grandchildren of silence.
The original silent intent is now but distantly symbolized.
Potency is thereby attenuated. So don’t ask a yogi to speak!
—It’s insulting and reveals one’s ignorance about silence’s worth.
When you sit next to an enlightened person, you learn this.
Your mind empties out. Questions evaporate. Silence tsunamis ya.
One NEVER knows the result of an action.
Bhishma got shot full of arrows and then gave a wonderful sermon.
Not one arrow shot was by a warrior that wanted a sermon!
Same deal for the arrows of silence shot by a saint — results unfathomable.
Those arrows pierce the armor of everyone’s denial.
Silence slays the dark in all like sunshine helps flowers — but weeds too.
Silence nurtures all with no agenda.
Silence is the stick to which a sapling is tied.
—Simple support for spiritual perpendicularity.
—The stick does not intend. Its silence is perfect.
So if a skinny person dressed in a hunk of rag quietly sits in a cave
—Think: world being saved.
—Think: a tide lifting all boats.
—Think: think prana flooding a stuffy room.
Meanwhile I’m pouring my eyes out here on Quora!
Weeping words! Bucketfuls of sobs. Crying for your betterment.
But dousing doesn’t do ya if the words are not actually wet.
My words are only as wet as dream water.
Only silence can actually wash a soul.
Edg Duveyoung
Does consciousness take place outside the human brain?
Originally Answered: Does consciousness exist outside the brain?
Science answers this question.
The accepted truth is that reality is spooky. Not kidding.
“Action at a distance” was a bugaboo for Newton. “Hypothesis non fingo!”
But, ew, tests show things touch each other with invisible fingers.
How? Answer: It has to be that they all sense each other’s presence.
We can call that “base consciousness.” It’s beyond magical.
And to become enlightened — be aware of that level.
Find out that everything’s talking to everything.
The farthest reaches teach. All of a piece. Oneness.
This is being. Yours, mine and your little dog’s too.
Every electron you own is identical to every other electron ever seen.
Same deal for your protons and neutrons and quarks, oh my.
You’re merely “a temporary chunk” in a particle soup.
Sort of a traffic jam. You’re bunched up.
This how duality was born:
— a scrunched bunch of parts you decided to call “me.”
— “me versus other” — duality defined.
— me is merely arbitrary — a lie told to yourself.
— Your especiality is a ruse.
So spread out! Un-jam. Relax that mental fist.
Find out your parts look like all the other parts.
Discover how they’re all “abuzz,” and it sounds like OMMMMM.
You’re jiving with the cosmic jazz. Riffing primordially.
A brain’s clockworks keep in tune with OM as if the tuning fork.
We each keep in harmony with God. Never a sour note hit.
It’s called karma — justice — wholeness — perfect balance.
Understand this, and you’ve started.
Feel this and you’re well on your way.
Be this truth and you’ve returned home.
So if you die, you don’t.
Your mind is always connected to the continuing harmony.
Swiftly, you’ll select another bunch and be right back to singing your song.
You might be a sludge worm on Rigel 4, but your burbles will be the same ditty.
No matter what form you use to project your identity — it will do.
Can’t stop you. Or Jesus.
Jesus thought rocks were conscious.
Jesus said the stones would sing if necessary.
So hey, if you’re using a human brain to do this, you’re going full luxury.
Ain’t nothing you can’t do with a human brain. It’s full featured.
Human brains are rare. Every thought is curated in God’s Heavenly Louvre.
Your thoughts are framed next to Mona Lisa. Large crowds of angels view them.
The all attends thee. Dotes on thee. All seen and deeply understood.
And it all happens
— outside of the brain
— beyond space and time
— beyond hypotheses
Proof?
Close the eyes and think the word “me.”
Think it again.
And again.
Note the silence between those words.
THAT’S THE TRUE BASE OF YOU.
Edg Duveyoung
What is surrender?
Surrender to God? — I’m an expert!
“Let go; let God” is a silly suggestion.
God’s fully in control — and not asking for my permission.
Even my next thought is not chosen by me.
It’s worst than being hypnotized.
I never “snap out of” God’s binding spells.
See my secret?
I’ve got a “get out of jail free” card.
Innocent! All charges dropped.
I’m not bad — I’m authored!
But but but wait. That can’t be.
Just yesterdayish didn’t I mess up bigtime? In ungodly fashion?
You can probably guess. Don’t ask me in public for details.
I’m a rascal, a lil’ dickens, a toddlin scalawag, a spiritual imp!
How can this be? This can’t be God’s doing if I’m such a stew of errors.
God would want everything to be harmonious delight! It’s obvious!
And, ugh, look around — ain’t just me stumble bumming.
So many seem to need a psychological intervention — by an armed mob!
You for instance.
Just sayin’ you’re like me, and, of course, I extend my condolences.
What was God thinking?
Did God have an “off day in the kitchen” when we were whipped up?
I mean, I think my souffle fell flat five decades ago. Yours still poofy?
So the tension release is the concept “God’s playfulness.”
We are taught that God’s mind is so vast that all things are “considered.”
God asked, “What would a muggle think if I were a muggle?”
God answered, “Well, let’s invent an Edg and the person reading this essay!”
God said, “Whew, now there’s a lot to be considered. I’ll roll up both sleeves!”
You and me. Let the hilarity ensue.
I’ll play ping pong with a tennis racket.
You try badminton with an egg for a shuttlecock.
And we pretend we’re sporty, and jaunty and fit, oh sigh.
And God laughs.
We are a delight, see?
God sees us like we see a lap full of kittens.
Wriggling and wiggling and mews, oh my!
Not that you should wriggle.
Not that you could wiggle.
Not that more mewing is required.
How good is this set up?
It’s the legendary free lunch!
We’ve done nothing to deserve being.
Whoa!
Whoa!
Can’t believe it!
Just checked the oven and my souffle’s risen again!
Maybe I am astrally tasty just becausally!
Edg Duveyoung
Why is meditation so relaxing?
Because you drive your mind and body like a rental car.
You red-line and clutch pop for wheel spin in 3rd gear.
Sliding hard around corners, you drift in life.
To fast-lane your life, you terrible-charged your engine.
So of course, you had increased exhaustion.
You’re running on empty and need trans-axle-tional analysis.
But noooo, you deny it.
—You’re not keying your paint-job. Nope.
—You’re not revving the mind with a thousand issues. Nope.
—You’re not fragmenting your fervor’s flywheel. Nope.
Liar.
You’re pushing it.
—Working hard. Playing hard. Too much each.
—Eating industrial instead of homemade.
—Breathing fumes instead of scents.
—Indulging in media spurred negativity.
—Back-breaking the body — instead of braking the stressening.
—Back-burnering wellness— no exercise, veggies, sun, air, sleep.
Meditation feels relaxing? Well, no duh!
The good news:
When you close the eyes, even a little seems like so much relaxation.
Relief is so obvious — easy to see one’s double flamed candle.
And, hey, it’s such a good start for a meditation.
We can pretend it’s like we’re half way home — feels so good.
So, gotta love that Pavlovian reinforcement!
—Keeps you tail-wagging for a comfy chair.
—Makes you drool for silence.
—It rings your bell.
The bad news:
Relative relaxation fools more than it fulfills.
Seems like a lot, but it’s a shovelful taken from a mountain.
And so, we can start to get antsy for some “real world results.”
And that’s when knowing the truth about meditation counts large.
Otherwise you might quit. Quit forever. So pay attention!
It’s about the meditation challenge:
—To see it’s not about the unwinding; it’s about un-identifying.
—To aim beyond existence instead of into the mind.
—To be the Self instead of the selfie.
And don’t hardly nobody play that.
—We want a gold necklace despite it also being a noose.
—We want the blazing fast car that scorches a budget quickly.
—We want everything and have no place to put it.
I’m not pulling any punches on this.
No false promises from me.
Meditation feels good, but it’s a long haul.
The benefits of meditation are mostly spiritual - duh! - instead of material - duh!
Well, wait there just a dang-gone second there, Edg.
Hasn’t Edg touted all the benefits of meditation?
Doesn’t Edg say that meditation improves health and morality and sanity?
Didn’t Edg assure meditators that they’ll have happier lives?
Nope. I lied about that. It was clickbait.
All that was, was noise — the noise of the train you ride to Heaven.
Improved life, benefits galore, evolution — all noise.
Of no use to the train, but the train can’t go without it.
Benefits accrue because meditators choo-choo cheat.
—They will better their diets on the first day they learn to meditate.
—They promise themselves they’ll exercise more and all that good stuff.
—They’ll pay more interest in spiritual concepts.
—They’ll “help” the meditation. Speed it up!
That’s the noise of a mind going “I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.”
And so results can seem to just flood into a life and not actually be due to meditation. It’ll be
EARNED BENEFITS. All good, yeah, but material, duality based, illusory, temporary, and at risk of
being lost if one’s eagerness to help the meditation dries up. Then it’ll look like the meditation is a
failure. See?
So get hep! Get hep to sustain regular meditation during times of hard karma.
Meditation is for sensible incarnations more than for sensations in cars.
Meditating is for the real you — not the wheel you.
From life to life, meditation’s spiritual benefits don’t rust! If you die before you get enlightened,
you’ll pick up from where you last left off when starting in the next incarnation.
And I’ll make one teeny material promise.
Your next car will be just a bit faster and snazzier as would befit a personality that meditates!
JUST SAYIN’ GOD HAS FAVORITES!
Edg Duveyoung
Can natural desires exist?
The following truth is so anti-life that . . . whew . . .
Are you sitting down? Got a tank of oxygen, nitroglycerin pills, neighborhood emergency room,
911 on speed-dial, and a good stiff drink of water handy??
Maybe you could cinch up your office chair’s seat belt. Extra tight.
Here goes nothing! And by “nothing” ooooo boy do I mean nothing.
But wait. I’m a coward. I don’t want to be the messenger for this.
So what I’ll do is MAKE MY GURU DO IT! Yeah, let him be the tip of the spear.
Here:
Questioner: Why so much insistence on relinquishing all desires and fears? Are they not natural?
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: They are not. They are entirely mind-made. You have to give up
everything to know that you need nothing, not even your body. Your needs are unreal and your
efforts are meaningless. You imagine that your possessions protect you. In reality they make
you vulnerable. realize yourself as away from all that can be pointed at as 'this' or 'that'. You are
unreachable by any sensory experience or verbal construction. Turn away from them. Refuse to
impersonate.
And done. Nothing more to say. We’ve been indicted.
“Refuse to impersonate” — sums it all — my prolix essays are excelsior.
Halp! I can’t stop talking about the need to not talk!
But “How to stop impersonating?” This “how” I’ll talk about.
Nisargadatta’s book does it better, but you’re here now. I’m spiritually handy!
We project realness on the illusory.
Each passing thought we track like a skeet shooter.
PULL!
BAM! GOT ANOTHER ME!
I’LL TAXIDUMB THAT ONE.
That’s impersonation. We collect instantiations of self.
We pretend that each thought flung is “someone speaking.”
“I like pistachio ice cream.” BAM — another me.
But the dark fact is that I am locked into projecting me-ness on 100% of all my thoughts. I have no
discretion. I cannot cherry pick. Relentlessly “identity’s flotsam and jetsam” bob like corks on the
sea of consciousness, and I validate all of it as “the real me.”
But but but — Gulp! yikes! and ew!
Who has not had “a real stinker” of a thought?
I have thoughts I would have never “ordered off the menu” — regularly.
If I have a thought that symbolizes “something stinky, “ it’s me too.
You? Don’t answer. We all are known “ew thought” thinkers.
This so sucks!
Are you keeping track with a spreadsheet?
Got separate columns for good, bad and ew thoughts?
Too much work. I know, right?
So quit your job! Duck out of your cubicle. Don’t even submit a resignation.
Hightail it out of Dodge. Skip that meeting at the OK Corral.
Close the eyes.
Immediately you’ll see Column “Silence.”
Now you’ve got a spreadsheet!
Now as you meditate you’ll start seeing raw evolution.
Silence starts hogging the checkmarks!
Thoughts, G, B and E become fleeting, fainter, farther, fuzzy.
Silence becomes too all-time-ish to check off the exemplars!
It gets silly to bean count in one second flat!
It’s obvious that silence outnumbers infinity.
Meditation math? Don’t be silly. Can’t count God! As if. Duh!
Instinctively, the intellect knows that silence is beyond the calculus.
Intuitively the heart knows it’s on its way home.
So, take your fingers off the keyboard.
Subside into the great beyond.
Relax into you.
If you stop counting, it counts.
Edg Duveyoung
How do I "forget about my ego"?
Same way you shoo away a jackalope when one gets in your garden.
When you think about a jackalope, you instantly, first-foremostly, however subtly, know it’s a joke
concept. No such animal. Adult you has never thought a jackalope was real. Shooing it is like
getting into an argument with a hand puppet on your own hand, but it is what it is.
So, yeah, go ahead and just pretend to shoo the ego too.
Ego is as ersatz as any double entendre horny bunny.
Know ego as merely a silly concept.
Actually, the ego is even less real than a jackalope.
You can see faked photos of jackalopes.
But try to google for an image of the ego.
No one can show a picture of an ego.
Even your mind’s inner camera cannot capture the ego.
The ego cannot be paused to take a selfie with it.
As soon as you ask, “Who am I?” silence begins to whelm.
Now here’s the flipping of the script:
The ego is an all time reality!
Ego — identity — is transcendental.
Prime Ego is Self. Immaterial, yet sentient.
Ego is that which is aware of God’s Mind’s — God’s witness.
Ego is BRAHMAN — pure identity with no trace of “other.”
Ego is beyond individuality — no duality — ultimate.
Ego is the cosmic eternal me.
So either way,
—ego as a fake or
—ego beyond God,
—you’ll never forget you.
—shooing’s impossible.
Can’t forget what you can’t experience.
Close the eyes and hunt for the ego.
But in the forest of the mind,
—the ego is behind every tree.
—with not even an elbow poking out.
Ego is the Master of hiddenness.
So the trick is “To forget the ego, be the ego.”
If you transcend you become real.
It’s more fun to be real than pretended.
Close the eyes.
See the unreasonableness of things:
—watch thoughts evaporating
—discover definition free silence — truth.
Know that all thoughts are jacklopes.
And then . . . . . . .
Tears streaming, throat knot painful, with heaving sobs of delight,
Silence within will come to you like a long lost love.
Edg Duveyoung
How important is the ego in the path towards awareness and enlightenment?
Ego ain’t aware.
Ego has no sentience.
Ego no mojo.
Saw the ego then.
And see it in the future.
But never be it.
Ego is a twit.
Silly from start to finish.
’Tain’t a proper you.
Ego is so vague.
Seems it’s there, but no it ain’t.
Identity’s blur.
Ego has some friends.
Jackalopes, unicorns! See!
Vapors, fumes and ghosts!
Scapegoat ego blamed
For every bad and good.
But it’s error free.
It’s invisible.
Not even God has seen one.
Never no never.
So see the good news?
All charges can be dismissed!
Ego innocence!
That witness of all
Is your true identity.
It’s the only me.
“Haiku, haiku very much.” — Japanese Elvis
Edg Duveyoung
Why is silence very important in life?
Out of 478 essays, I’ve screamed about silence 258 times.
Why?
Aren’t thoughts more important than “non-thought?”
——Don’t I have to think good thoughts to be a good person?
——Isn’t spirituality when I’m thinking about God?
Isn’t spirituality pro-active?
——Aren’t we meant to help and tend the world?
——Aren’t actions more important than “stillness?”
Brace for utter relief.
Nothing is the actual something.
Now you know.
You can do nothing and accomplish everything.
Silence is absolute power. Dive in. Acquire it.
The basis of your mind is perfect silence. Listen!
Inaction is the foundation of doingness.
Stillness is every possibility — poised, prepared, and paused.
Yeah, but Golden rule? Commandments? The 613 mitzvahs?
Doesn’t God want us to think and act and be saintly?
Shouldn’t we “get out there and confront evil?”
Let’s ask around!
Lord Narayana: “If not for silence, how could I dream?”
Lord Shiva: “Silence is My body; self is My mind”
Lord Brahma: “I know everything, but silence throws Me for a loop.”
Sri Shankara: “It started as silence, and then someone went and spoiled it.”
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: “Shush! Don’t make me smack ya!”
Sri Ramana Maharshi: “Quit it all. Only eat if they force feed ya.”
Rami Sivan: “Silence is God before creation.”
Teja Anand: “Silence is always better than pistachio ice cream.”
J. Matthews: “Heart whispers are sorta allowed! Sweet little whispers!”
Krishna Iyer: “SILENCE NOT ONLY INFORMS. IT also CONFIRMS!!!”
Joel Postma: “If I knew, I’d tell ya, but being silence? — got that tee shirt!”
Sarah Looney: “Love is best when two sit quietly.”
Shree Priya: “Distinctions schmtinctions. It’s all zero!”
Ron Whitaker: “Nothing up my sleeves, yet abracadabra!”
Pete Ashly: “I’ll tell you. There. Did you hear it? Listen again.”
Eckhart Tolle: “Silence? Don’t get me started. I could write a book about it.”
Deepak Chopra: “We are having a “two for one sale” on quietness.”
Edg Duveyoung: “Teja stole my line! He always does that!”
If you were not mentioned above, my bad.
If you were mentioned above, and you were misquoted, SUE ME!
If you want someone to listen to what next you say, pause firstly.
Their ears will prick up! They get on tippy toes.
Why? Because everyone knows silence knows.
If you pause, your chances of being correct instantly triple.
Silence informs.
Edg Duveyoung
How is there a desire in every person for enlightenment?
I want the highest quality pistachio ice cream.
Gotta be the purest cream from the purest milk.
The cows that give the milk must be contented.
They should have had lush, udder high, perfectly green pastures.
The sweetener must be freshly squeezed cane juice — from happy canes!
The pistachios must be from trees that basked in the love of passersby.
Only pistachio ice cream lovers should have handled the ingredients.
The person who mixes the ingredients must be a saint.
The pistachio ice cream must be loved as it’s born.
The stockboy putting the pistachio ice cream in the freezer — saint too.
See the problem?
To purchase perfection, everyone eventually ends up in God’s store.
God: Welcome! What can I get you today?
—Me: I was hoping for some perfect pistachio ice cream.
God: Plenty on hand. Our specialty! Aisle 7 on the right.
—Me: Are all these other products on Your shelves as sacred and pure?
God: You betcha! Just gotta have a mind that appreciates subtlety.
—Me: Hmmm, I feel like I’m deeply appreciative now.
God: Yeah, all My customers think that. Life’s offers are so tasty already.
—Me: So, a mind that’s a better taster discovers better tastes?
God: Yep. When saints shop here, they’re in deep swoon in two steps flat.
—Me: This store seems prescient; every item targets my needs so intimately.
God: Well, duh, I’m God after all….whaddaya expect!
—Me: Yeah, seems obvious after You say it. Each item seems a one-off.
God: Even the toothpicks precisely fit with thoughts you’ll have during use.
—Me: Yow…that’s incredible.
God: Loves Me the perfection of creation — I sweat the small stuff.
—Me: So if anyone tries to find something that’s perfect, they end up here?
God: Heh, it’s a rigged system. Perfection R Moi. I lure every soul.
—Me: No matter what is desired — wow. Can anyone shop here?
God: One has to at least momentarily reach ritam bhara pragya.
—Me: I heard of that — the so-called “truth only level of the mind.”
God: Folks can settle down the mind to this level to see creation as perfection.
—Me: So that’s the secret. Everything is already perfect, intimate, sweet.
God: Yep. If you can maintain that level of the mind, you’re home free.
—Me: Wonderful. Just one thing though…um….
God: Yes?
—Me: I came here for perfect pistachio ice cream, but I’ve lost my appetite.
God: No surprise. Same deal for all shoppers.
—Me:: You mean everyone just wants to stand here and talk to You instead?
God: Like you right now? Yep. See how tricky I am?
—Me: Talk about Your bait and switch offers!
God: You want a used car and I sell you a Bugatti. My bad.
—Me: I’m getting flabbergasted. Can’t hardly stand still! So excited!
God: Ooops! There goes Edg dancing out the store. Gotta stay calm to shop here.
God: How about you? What can I get ya?
Edg Duveyoung
What exactly is spiritual purity?
Don’t ask. I don’t want to tell you. It’s off-putting.
It’s so hard to achieve if you’re not already a superhero.
Muggles need not apply. It makes ya sweaty. Gives ya a mental Charley horse.
It’s nothing less than the constant supervision of thoughts.
Ugh. It’s painful to curate mentality with such delicacy.
The most subtle torture. Agony and ecstasy and all that.
So, to make this intent achievable, what most folks do is enter a convent or monastery. In a
“themed community,” one’s mind is “protected” from the spurs of a non-spiritual lifestyle. In such
a community, all the normal-life inputs are about 98% filtered out. You’re not watching TV, reading
newspapers, etc. Mundane things promote thoughts that are not in harmony with WORSHIP.
Yeah, I said the W word. Settle down.
Spiritual purity is about constant worshiping.
Attending to the presence of God. RELENTLESSLY.
This is about two things. Spirit and Mind.
The spirit is willing but the mind is weak, so safeguards are set up.
The purist’s intent is to symbolize God with every aspect of one’s livingness.
It’s the highest form of Art…..art with a capital A — sacred Art.
The human mind is the canvas — thoughts are instant portraits of God.
So what about you? You’re a slacker, right? You’re allowing your mind to wander in the world like a
feral dog sniffing everywhere — and having THOUSANDS of errant prongs to send your mind into
tizzy dizzy fizzyness.
You’re frothing with insignificant ideation.
You’re that lost soul everyone talks about.
Poster child R ya.
What to do?
You’re not going to dump your day job, right?
Not going to abandon spouse and kids, right?
Not going to give up PISTACHIO ICE CREAM, right?
What we do is say, “What a hot mess I am.”
We just flat out admit we’re spiritual scoundrels.
Next to a monk or nun, we’re as if reckless maniacs.
“. . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God , , ,: Romans 3:23
We just surrender to this accusation.
Beg for mercy instead of justice.
Face down on the floor crying our eyes out.
And God will say, “There there there, My beloved. It’s okay.”
It brought me to actual tears when I wrote the above sentence.
God’s willingness to “work with you,” is utterly calming.
Tears still flowing here. Give me a second or two…..or three-ish.
Imagine Jesus appearing in a prison yard and saying, “Forget the past. Let’s just be together right
now. You’re all MINE. I’ve come to help get everything straight again, and you guys can pull this
off. What do you say?”
Imagine THOSE tears. I’m still crying to think of this.
And that’s my offer to you.
Forget the past and let’s work with what we are.
For most of us, the best first step back towards the light is meditation.
Not prayer! Most of us are just not ready to pray.
Instead, prepare your canvas for the Art Prayers of the future.
Make the mind perfectly smooth and white and spotless.
Make the mind worthy of true worship that unites spirit-mind-body.
How? What can a muggle pull-off?
How about immediate bliss?
Just close the eyes, and find instant quietening.
That quietening is the beginning of the Yellow Brick Road to Ahz.
We follow that hint of peace to one’s deepest state of simply being.
There’s God right there! Being is our word for that aspect of existence which is God’s Attention.
We say God is omniscient and observing all of creation. God inside our very minds — just about
the most astounding concept, eh! When we quiet down the mind, that’s like Jesus suddenly
becoming visible in our own private prison yard.
With God we dwell, watch silence swell and bliss will gel.
The newbie meditator can get such sweet glimpses of God.
And in between daily thoughts, God’s always THERE.
A flickering light at the end of that tunnel.
Always there. Instant by instant - THERE.
So we meditate to calm down the screaming me-me-me storm.
And if daily life is a spurring blitz, we’ll survive it.
Just gotta dive into God. Let the outer life do its thang.
Easy to avoid the huge moral mistakes — at least.
Easy to do the small good things — at least.
AND THAT’S ENOUGH.
Abide within and abide without.
Take it easy. Take it as it arrives.
You got this.
And God’s got your six.
Edg Duveyoung
Is the soul immortal?
Imagine God’s “Official Portrait.”
There’s God in absolute splendornessitudiosity.
Any scintillation of God’s ephemeral evanescence pops like Elvis on black velvet.
God’s Divine Face that is so bright one becomes blind to creation.
It’s entirely God with not a nuance missing. It’s all there to be seen.
From a front row seat, you see the sat-upon wrinkles on God’s toga.
You see see bazillions of tiny angels oooooing and ahhhhhing around God.
You can see God’s manicure, God’s coiffure, God’s nose hairs.
You got grasp times ten. Your middle name is Clarity.
And what do you do? What did ya done did?
You went up to God, with a marking pen, and you drew an outline around a teeny area on God’s
countenance.
And then you said, “That’s me.”
That was your soul.
That’s your heart.
And then God said, “Go ahead. Take it. It won’t bite. Take it and run with it. See what you can do
with it. Take it for a spin. Pop its clutch! Go for red-line. See how much of Me you’re putting a
fence around.”
Now, we know that you grabbed your hunk of God and hotfooted it out of Heaven before God
decided otherwise. So, yeah, you forgot to take the “User’s Manual” with it. How like you!
In it, on page 347 about half way down the page it says, “The soul is for temporary use. When
you’ve explored this one, please return to Heaven to outline another area for your next adventure.”
No one told you?
Now you know.
Edg Duveyoung
Is there any scientific reason behind offering 'Upavasa' (Fastings) in Hindu tradition?
Originally Answered: Is there any scientific reason behind offering 'Upavasa' (Fastings) in Hindu tradition ?
In the last 50 years, I’ve done about 25 significant fasts — some up to six weeks.
That makes me a SCIENTIST!
Experimental results?
—-Spiritually we find meditation reaches deeper depths.
—-Psychologically we find a lot of ego-perks.
—-Physically we get some cleansing. Mostly weight loss.
When one fasts, one must confront the mind’s relentless reminders that food is available and
delicious and nutritive and mere steps ways and “GRAB SOME NOW NOW NOW! “ And each time
such a challenge rises, one gets a chance to say, “no” to LIFELONG ATTACHMENTS. This is a
good thing. It proves to one that even such deep fixations can be confronted and handled. The
ego feels empowered and less victimized by hard-wired desires, and this supports the continued
practicing of spirituality in the lifestyle.
When water-only fasting, the body can get too weak to do any “extra” thinking. Allures lose their
power to cast a spell. Recreational thinking reduces. The mind is happy to meditate just to give up
all that very calorie-expensive thinking. But, heh, during fasting the body is undergoing many
“deep cleansing” processes that are picked up by the mind as faint spurs which can result in “junk
thoughts.” So there’s that.
When fasting, the body groans if asked to do anything — that’s a great attitude for meditation, eh?
“Let me just sit and not be bothered.”
What’s not to love? As the body and mind go into “conservation” mode, this makes for almost
“instant depth” when one closes the eyes. Inner quietness can become as alluring as — BRACE
FOR IMPACT — as alluring as pistachio ice cream! Yeah, I’m saying it. Yeah, I can’t believe I just
did.
The best reason to fast is to symbolize that ALL OF IT ain’t enough. “I gotta have God — not just
all these ‘consumables.’” We indicate that “the potent allures are what keeps my mind from
turning to the inner light, and I’m commandeering THE WHOLE SYSTEM and flipping the script.
I’m going to purposefully throttle all pleasures to increase the mind’s subtle grasp of the source of
manifestation — God.”
There’s so many “lessons” that are learned by fasting that whole books have been written, so
READ THEM! These few words are merely “cheerleading” for the notion. Rah rah siss boom bah
and all that. Look into it. Not for everyone, but maybe you???
Biggest risk of fasting is that when one does start eating again, THAT FIRST BITE is
sooooooooooooooooo much tastier than remembered. It’s like instant addiction. “What was I
thinking to not do this instead of fasting?” Like that like that — we can undo some major
psychological benefits during the very first bite. So if you really want to fast — professionally! —
know that coming off of the fast is critical. Easy does it. No food orgies on the first day! Take three
days to slowly get back into eating. Be as disciplined in ending a fast as you were to maintain the
fast.
Lifelong benefits? I’d just be intuiting. But if you ask me, it’s made aging much more “do-able.”
As I age, I have had to “give up” various “life elements.” Major major losses — and I wonder if going
six weeks without anything somehow prepared me for surrendering to late-life “enforced fastings.”
To all of us comes losses and endings of every sort. If you know you “can cut it,” it comes in handy
when the next “gotta give that up now” comes into view.
But meanwhile, before I become completely lactose intolerant, do I have to tell you what I’m yet
enjoying in life?
Do I?
Edg Duveyoung
Is enlightenment a scam?
The concept “enlightenment” is like a gun being waved around in an elevator.
“Enlightenment” scares the living _____ outta most folks, because it is so in your face about one’s
thus far insignificantly realized spiritual potential.
“Enlightenment” threatens, because most folks are spiritual slackers and know it and deny it, and
if you don’t “back off on the shaming,” they’ll punch yer face in.
So yeah, if someone offers a chance at enlightenment, of course the muggle mind knee jerks and
says, “It’s a scam!”
Usually, that’s a wise response.
There’s tons of wrong-headedness being “taught” about spirituality.
Lots of blarney. Big-time promises are made by “spiritual entertainers.”
But even the scammers teach truths! Go figure!
The fake gurus are usually very good at slinging Vedic jazz.
They have all the jargon down pat . . . can talk for hours . . . never miss a beat.
And the audience will be educated thereby! So hey, gotta cut them a break.
They get folks to not be afraid of enlightenment . . . in $3,000 weekend seminars.
Yeah, heh, that’s scammy when a $10 used book can equally inform.
But is the actual concept valid?
Is enlightenment actual?
Yes. It’s better’s best — beyond brain beliefs’ bitty reach.
And even a newbie can slurp a swig of this elixir.
The hard part is trying to REpresent it in one’s mind.
If we talk about enlightenment, we’re not talking about enlightenment.
We’re talking about consciousness instead of awareness.
—-Your consciousness is inside your head.
—-Your awareness is everywhere, everywhen, and everyall.
We close the eyes and relax into a mounting quietude.
Quiescence to significant degree is quaffed, and then it increases.
This is how consciousness NATURALLY re-presents awareness.
Everyone knows exactly what “relaxation” is. We all agree.
It feels good. Ask a cat. Watch a dog plop down.
Every living entity agrees about how nice it is to kick back.
But now ask: how quiet can it get?
Answer: all the way to true silence instead of relative quietness.
Answer: silence will be known to permeate quietness like water does milk.
Answer: awareness will be found to not be a process of neurons.
Answer: one’s pause button will be pushed and the entirety halts in its tracks.
Answer: one’s identity is withdrawn from all objects of consciousness.
Awareness is not of this world. There I said it.
You’re an alien. Stop with this “Earthling” nonsense.
THE DOUBLE DOWN
Ultimately, by letting go-letting God, everything yet gets done.
And seeing God doing everything means what?
It’s that one is beyond even the content of God’s mind!
We witness God Creating when we reside in awareness.
Awareness is God’s witness.
And you have to be very quiet to sneak inside of God for a peek, ya know?
So, meanwhile, restfulness will have to do. Restfulness is how we know we’re approaching
perfection. It might be a while before Rome is reached but everyone’s got a road to it.
In Rome, they’re all waiting for ya.
Edg Duveyoung
What is a spiritual warrior?
God: Okay gang, huddle up. Raise your hand if you want to be a spiritual warrior on Earth — you’ll
be born as World War 2 is ending. Your parents won’t be religious, educated, or wealthy.
Angel at back of crowd: “What kind of karma?”
God: I ain’t gunna lie; it’s a doozy of a life that I’ve come up with — work with me here — it’ll be
unappealing at first glance but subtly attractive if personality axioms are considered. Every up will
have a deeper down, and you won’t “get it” that it’s karma, and instead, you’ll keep scrambling to
outwit destiny plainly writ. But there’ll be some “psychological payoffs.”
Angel at back of crowd: Sounds like a pretty sketchy character. Do you really need to insert
another “maybe” into the mix? Will this person make it all the way or constantly stumble
ignominiously and lurch from one badly started opportunity to the next?
God: No spoilers! Let Me just say, all the misery will have some splotches of pleasure here and
there, and I’ll toss in an unexpected spiritual merit badge being earned near the end.
Angel at back of crowd: Reading between the lines, it seems this personality will be a world class
loser. Just sayin’ it’s not gettin’ me in the feels.
God: You’ve said that for the last 10,352 huddle ups. And though this offer is to everyone, you, an
angel with an askew halo and droopy wings and a smart mouth on him, would do well to consider
this offer.
Angel at back of crowd: Shame me in front of everybody why doncha — sheesh — I want to be a
contender — is that so wrong? You used the word “warrior.” This guy sounds like more of a
spitwad shooter than someone who can wield The Sword of Vishnu. What’s this guy going to be
able to pull off with such a ridiculous mind?
God: What part about “no spoilers’ didn’t you understand on purpose again for the 10,353rd time?
This assignment — LIKE ALL OF THE PREVIOUS OFFERS TO YOU — will be as a stealth warrior.
Battles will be fought out of sight and lost again and again, and this will spur incredibly poignant
insights that might lead to true surrender.
Angel at back of crowd: Not warming up to this. Toss me a bone here. I want to have a solid win.
Can you sweeten the deal? I don’t want much. Maybe extreme wealth or historic musical talent or
the body of a healthy gymnast from age 14 to, say, 115 years old or self esteem equal to Alexander
the Great and Napoleon combined or the wisdom of Solomon before :”the baby decision,” or . . .
God: Stop stop stop. We’ve gone over this. As angels go, you’re one of the easily lost. Any hint of
greatness down there, and you’re not going to want to leave. I need you to stay focused — one
and done — duty first — get in get out — and do it blindfolded. Take this offer — the next 17 million
huddle-ups will actually have harsher offers.
Angel at back of crowd: That’s your clincher argument? It seems just yesterday you were
handing out good ones. This bottom of the barrel rotten apple choice got anything about which I
can at least fool myself?
God: You’ll be funny.
Angel at back of crowd: I’m funny how, I mean funny like I’m a clown? I amuse you?
God: Just stop with that ref. Take the offer.
Angel at back of crowd: Is it refuse-able?
God: Stop with the refs!
Angel at back of crowd: A hint? Come on wouldjajust? A titch of hope.
God: You’ll meet some nice people on a thing called Quora!
Angel at back of crowd: DEAL!
Edg Duveyoung
What steps should a meditation beginner start making to begin having more profound
and impactful meditations?
What’s more profound than thinking about pistachio ice cream?
You just now said, “huh?”
See? You are soooooo spiritual already! You’re axiomatic!
You know that thinking ain’t zip compared to a mouthful.
We don’t want profound meditations.
We want Krishna and Jesus and Mommmmmm, om my!
The spiritual snobs say,
—“You gotta earn your bliss!”
—“A profound meditation would arrive only after decades in an ashram!”
—“A beginner gets scrap-crumbs and fragments and orts, om my!”
Yeah, I hear the question, but this is about “God” — not “good meditations.”
The new meditator is hunting for trophy experiences.
—”Astrally bagged big game on the wall of my mind’s den.”
—”There’s God next to the jackalope I shot last year.”
—”Captured and taxied and dermed, om my!”
What to do?
How to meditate without holding a mental rifle?
How to be innocent instead of daft for distractions?
How to be perfectly okay with a lousy meditation?
How to settle and abide and be, om my?
Two things to know.
1. God is silence.
2. Thoughts are silence symbolized.
Thinking about anything…
—thinking about everything…
——thinking about a thing…
———is always God being Almost God.
Real God and Fake God and you, om my.
You can’t miss!
Your next thought is YOUR next choice for profundity.
It’s like stopping at a roadside scenic view and getting out of the car.
You pick a place to go to stand and look around.
And then you say, “Wow, just look at that right there.”
Beauty surrounding you, but you point at one thing.
Each next thought is you pointing PRECISELY at God’s glory, see?
Water and mountains and sky, om my!
See the truly profound status you have?
—ONLY YOU get to stand exactly where you choose to stand.
—ONLY YOU get to point from your point of view.
—ONLY YOU get to see God as only you can see God.
Soully and solely and whoa! om my!
So why meditate if it’s all God? To see more God, duh!
When we meditate, we practice seeing God’s subtlety.
As we get this increase in clarity, the world is just a bit more wondrous.
Each day is 604,800 NEW thoughts that only you can have about God.
And all the angels drool. “If only I was that person.” they say.
Being and seeing and God, om my!
So, to save you tons of scurrying around getting herbs and rest and sunshine and exercise and
nutrition and community and yoga mats and sermons and deep breaths and organically fed free
range happy cow milk and organic pistachios and hand squeezed wild sugar cane juice and a
Vedic Ice Cream Maker, I offer you this singular concept: If you really get your head around “It’s all
God.” you can skip all those spiritual accouterments. One concept reveals the profundity of every
concept. But of course, the accouterments are life’s deliciousness. All those things help the body
and sooth a skittered mind.
Washing and noshing and nods, om my.
Bottom line?
Remember that remembering won’t be remembered.
Thoughts about thoughts are hardly thoughts at all.
But pistachio ice cream in the mouth?
—Now we’re not-talkin’!
—The tongue don nee no steenkenk thoughts!
—Taste buds don’t have to have opinions.
—The tongue teaches about profundity — best experienced wordlessly.
Closed eyes and deep sighs and whew! om my.
Edg Duveyoung
How long must one meditate before achieving enlightenment?
“President Lincoln, how long do you think a man’s legs should be?”
“Long enough to reach the ground.”
Want to reach enlightenment?
Measure the distance from your ignorance to God.
One can roughly convert “belt to sole” to a length of time.
And the answer is: Whattaya kidding?
It’s not a mountain of karma that you owe.
It’s a mountain range of karma that needs moving.
There’s only 427,000 years left before Creation dissolves.
There’s not enough time left to do the shovel work.
Don’t even think thought one that you’ve got a shot at this.
You’re at the tail-end of a couple million years of acting badly.
And it’s ALL ON YOU.
Solution?
Don’t complain.
Quitcherbitchin.
Stop chewing, stewing, spewing and start eschewing.
Say nah to gnawing at a trap-held paw.
Just quit. Give up.
That’s all it takes.
Snub your nose at causality.
How?
How to throw a Hail Mary Pass?
How to win a spiritual lottery?
How to stop being a 2,000,000 year old loser?
It’s peachy keeno easy peasy.
Just climb onto God’s lap.
Snuggle in. Get perfectly comfy.
Nestle a bit more just to be sure.
Maybe grab a handful of divine beard.
And close your eyes.
THAT’S MEDITATION.
Close the eyes and you’re on The Lap.
The quietness within you
—that inner stillness
——the relinquishingness of it
———is there instantly for any and all
————and then God enfolds you in mighty arms.
That’s BEING.
Inner silence is being.
Being is a sin-free zone.
A nap on God’s lap is error free.
Let’s just see karma find you there, eh?
No way does karma sneak up to God and try to snatch yer buns.
And God will be as still as possible lest you be disturbed.
Edg Duveyoung
How many people have attained enlightenment?
ATTENTION ALL QUORA GURUS!
Gunna say it. Can’t stop me.
The ego CAN get enlightened.
I know. I know. I’ve said otherwise. Lots. Heaps with oodles on top.
But but but, I’ve been around the block and met a few of the hefty types.
They all used the words, “I, me, mine.” Also, “you, yours.” Also, “they, theirs.”
All of them. The best of the best still referred to their individuality.
So, settle down all you Chicken Little types out there, the sky may fall, but it won’t kill YOU. It
merely kills your identifying with ONLY the ego. Enlightenment is identifying with ALL OF IT — THE
ENTIRETY — THE COSMOS AND THE SOURCE OF THE COSMOS. It’s a good thing. It’s a God
thing. The Hindu concept is that God ENTERED CREATION to be all the various entities.
Ask God about God’s ego, and God will say, “Yeah, that’s Me too, but not any more Me than
anything else is Me.”
So, the above noted, how many have leaped into the vastness?
One. It’s when “you” becomes “You.” You’re the aforementioned deity.
Yeah, you just can’t win, but You does. When one toggles, now One is One — suddenly God — and
One is inhabiting all the nervous systems in all the solar systems while yet residing in “the
beyond.” Suddenly, One’s individuality just gets VERY LARGE. God’s body is creation, and God’s
consciousness is infinitely vaster. What’s not to love? 200 PERCENT, BABY! If an ego grasps this,
true humility arises. One’s mind becomes “God afoot,” and “be sacred” is the order of the day.
Gunna say it harshly. When an enlightened person says, “I,” it’s God slumming with the newbies.
Not exactly patronizingly, but yeah, patronizingly. When a guru says, “I,” it’s like saying to Chicken
Little, “there there there, it’s okay, I’ll be a “me instead of Me,” so you don’t feel uncomfortable
being a you.” That’s love.
God gets to play every part and feel the unrequited poignancy of symbols failing at symbolizing
infinity. All entities are awash in the uncertainties. So, even for God, the compassion whelms to
being unbearable. So what God does is have a few egos bloom like popcorn. It’s spiritual pressure
being released. Here and there. Just enough to show the cultures what’s possible. Enough to
inspire.
And then God tosses a whole lot of pretenders into the mix too. Why not, eh? Can’t be the worse
thing to pretend to be enlightened, since declaring one is enlightened will spur MASSIVE
REACTIONS FROM EVERYONE. This will be cleansing to the max as one scrambles to pony up
wisdom. It’s a riot of hilarity! So, everyone, I DARE YOU TO DECLARE YOU’RE ENLIGHTENED. I’ll
sit in this chair, here, and eat popcorn.
And don’t worry if you give out some bad advice. It’s all bad. Even if I tell someone to close the
eyes, I’m asking their individuality to operate. Sinful of me, eh?
So, yeah, One.
But note that that word “one,” gets CAPITALIZED.
It takes a Thorn to remove a thorn.
Edg Duveyoung
Whose prayers does God answer?
God prayed for Creation to manifest.
———-It did.
God prayed for a Creation in which YOU, right now, would come here to read this essay.
———-And here you’ve arrived. Exactly on time. Talk about your long distant planning! Think of all
the contingencies.
God prayed for Creation to have pistachio ice cream, so that it could be a meme for Edg and also,
by the merest chance, be fun for billions of people to eat.
———-Edg uses pistachio ice cream for the punchline of jokes, and it’s a soul food with a spiritual
mojo comparable to pizza. Astounding but true.
God prayed that Quora would have enlightened writers with such potency that it would not be all
that harmful if anyone also read Edg’s stuff.
———-Quora has so many godly good gurus that it is a New Age Bible, and so far, Edg has not
harmed anyone too much beyond the effects of laughter forcing coffee out through the nose.
God prayed for a lot more than the above, but I think you get the picture.
———-It’s God whose prayers are answered.
You’re an answer to God’s prayer, see?
And when you pray, God prayed you’d do that.
It’s all the result of God’s prayers.
You’ve been conjured up.
You’ve been divinely sussed.
So if you want to pray, pray God prays you as usual.
Creation is God’s Big Story Book.
You’re a hero in it.
Listen to a few experts about your role:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond
measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be
brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.”
—Marianne Williamson
“What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving,
how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the
beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!”
—William Shakespeare
“All you get by waiting is more waiting. Absolute perfection is here and now, not in some future,
near or far. The secret is in action -- here and now. It is your behavior that blinds you to yourself.
Disregard whatever you think yourself to be and act as if you were absolutely perfect -- whatever
your idea of perfection may be. All you need is courage.”
—Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Edg Duveyoung
What is death?
Advaita Vedanta is “death explained.”
So I’ve thought about death a lot.
And it has soothed me.
I’m going to be 75 years old shortly.
So who knows if I’ll even finish this essay, eh?
I doubt if I’d manage to report the transition here. Heh.
Advaita asks that you look death in the face.
See death right now — empirically define it.
Where is this death such that it can be seen?
Your next thought is lifeless. A chemical process only. Not sentient.
But you imbue it with identity, and say, “That’s me in action.”
But it’s not you. You’ve had MILLIONS of thoughts. Every sort and kind.
You would deny purposeful authoring of a lot of those thoughts.
You’d say, “Those didn’t reflect me.” “They came out of nowhere.”
We cherry pick “ego” by this confirmation-bias towards our thoughts.
Yet every single thought.
All of them.
Every one.
“Dies” instantly before our eyes.
Thinking demonstrates dying.
But no. We don’t feel like we’re dying when a thought evaporates.
We all understand THOROUGHLY that we are not thoughts.
So what does that leave?
Just you Baby Doll. Just you.
And that “you” is awareness — utter pure absolute sentience.
And awareness is THE LIVINGNESS that you cast upon thoughts.
That’s you, projecting your life upon lifelessness.
Thinking is kinda saintly, maybe even godly, eh?
Yeah, it is. You grant life. You spew it 360.
See the open secret that mystics seldom underline?
Ain’t no death. Even the illusory is given life by you.
Awareness is an all-time reality. It can’t be turned off.
Awareness watches the “death” of every single thing….and doesn’t die.
So the question really should be, “Where’s death?”
I don’t believe in unicorns and jackalopes, because I’ve never seen one.
Yet Earth’s entire civilization believes in death WITHOUT PROOF.
Contrarily we’ve had 100% proof of awareness for every second of wakefulness.
Even in our dreams we grant life to obvious illusions.
GO FIGURE! I mean really. Come on wouldja just?
Okay, okay, I hear ya. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure my body will stop operations.
But during my 74.93 years, I have never had awareness, me, cease.
Consciousness goes through every gyration, but awareness NEVER wavers.
Even during dreamless sleep every yogi says, “I’m here seeing nothing.”
If the body dies (there’s been some exceptions,) so what?
It does not affect awareness.
If I identify with awareness instead of my thoughts, I can’t die.
Instead, I’ll SEE THE BODY DIE. Just like any other thought.
Yeah, I’m saying it. The body is just another thought.
Ask Star Trek’s Spock.
This is why one meditates.

We find out who we are and that it is the awareness within ALL ENTITIES.
It’s the exact same awareness everywhere all the time and before time too.
Now here’s the easy part.
Know how you’re casting identity on every thought that whizzes through?
Guess what? That automatic “habit” of yours PAYS OFF when you meditate.
When you meditate and find silence, you say, “That’s me!”
Bottom line?
AS we become experts about silence — awareness — we begin to see it everywhere.
It is this that smites death.
Edg Duveyoung
How do I meditate, being a beginner?
Originally Answered: What are some suggestions for beginners for meditation?
Such a tough question.
Let me eyeball ya. Get it said.
If you are
—an adult
—not “cray cray”
—semi-educated about teachers and techniques
—hopeful for results
—willing to invest in meditation enough “to see if it works”
—willing to read about spirituality’s axioms
—willing to admit to others that you are meditating
—normally intelligent,
then you have about a one in a million chance to use meditation responsibly — up to
enlightenment and . . . beyond.
Ugh! One in a million? Whoa!
Yeah, that bad, and I’ll tell you why.
Your every expectation about meditation will be unfulfilled in the same way that drinking water in a
dream doesn’t hydrate you in real life. Meditation is for ceasing all intents — even the intent to
reach perfection. You can’t think yourself out of being a thinker. Thoughts don’t affect thoughts.
One doesn’t meditate to get better thoughts.
Waking life has to be woken up from too. Your person has to evaporate like the dream person.
WARNING: “You are as committed to thinking waking life is real just as strongly as your dream
person thinks the dream’s reality is real.”
Ouch, eh?
A mind is a terrible thing to waste, but to have one is a terrible thing.
The mind is a debt slowly being paid. Karma is a non-male dog.
Life is peppered with strong emotions when expectations are unmet.
Imagine how strong the emotion is when every expectation is unmet.
Nothing life can offer will be enough. Funzies are never enough.
To get out of this fix, one has to want freedom like a drowning man wants air.
But hmmmm, just noticing that you’re sitting there comfortably. Reading this calmly. Not too
anxious. You’re okay. Your thoughts are not much of a bother. Right?
That’s why “one in a million.”
Life is just too dang wonderful to want to give it all up. The bad parts don’t seem all that bad. If life
has paper cuts and pistachio ice cream — it’s nicely balanced!
But we know that one bad thing can ruin all the good things. Every single “winner” has a mother
who might die, and crying in a mansion is just as miserable as in a pup tent.
What to do when doing is forbidden?
Non-doing, but of course!
We meditate to reduce thinking while remaining alert.
If a beginner has a community, a teacher, etc. Follow the instructions.
But if not, then here’s how to meditate.
Good news: even a beginner gets a gulp of air now and then.
Edg Duveyoung
What is silence?
Originally Answered: What is silence ?
Are YOU ready to be astounded?
YOU are about to actually experience God’s silence.
And YOU are about to hear God’s voice.
I’m going to use YOU to pull this off.
Are YOU ready?
YOU are going to mentally alternate
— between ignorance and enlightenment
— between God’s voice and God’s silence.
BRACE FOR IMPACT………………. I’m so not kidding.
Heh, the experiment is over.
It was a total success.
YOU missed it — even though this very sentence gives YOU two more examples.
Did YOU experience the two states of your mind flickering back and forth?
No? Oh yes YOU did. But it happens so fast it’s easily missed. And it happens constantly,
relentlessly, always.
So let’s make this perfectly clear.
Let’s PROVE that YOU alternate between God’s silence and God’s voice.
Don’t be looking at me like that. I’m going to deliver on this.
I’m taking off my jester’s hat. No trace of smirk on my lips. Get braced.
Yes — actually God’s voice and God’s silence. NOT NOT NOT KIDDING.
Right now. Here. YOU’re going to be perfectly absolutely convinced.
Whew, what a work-up to get YOU ready to take this seriously. I had to lay it on with a trowel to be
sure YOU’d look me eyeball to eyeball on this.
This actually works.
Pay attention and be amazed.
Do this spiritual experiment:
FOCUS ON THE WORD YOU.
Just stare at the word YOU.
And while YOU do this, WATCH YOUR MIND TOGGLE.
As YOU stare at the word, note TWO THINGS ALTERNATING.
— 1. The word is seen, but it is not being mentally pronounced.
— 2. The word is seen and also pronounced,
Those two things.
KNOWABLE — CERTAIN — ALTERNATING
Right in front of your very living eyes, YOU’re seeing the beauty of duality. When the mind is not
pronouncing the word YOU, God’s silence is obvious. The word YOU flickers between sound and
silence.
This is THE MOST IMPORTANT CONCEPT OF SPIRITUALITY.
The voice in your mind is God’s.
The silence when God is not talking is God’s awareness.
When reading sentences in this essay, almost NEVER do YOU notice the silence. THAT’S
IGNORANCE. YOU are ignoring God’s awareness and being rude. It’s like saying to God, “I only like
the noisy illusory half of YOU.”
Now the good part. By doing this simple thing, by staring at YOU one can see very quickly that the
word YOU begins to be less frequently mentally pronounced, and one simply is seeing the word
YOU without hearing it mentally “spoken.” Longer and longer stretches of silence will whelm.
Noticing that when YOU is not being pronounced is the SAME AS NOTICING SILENCE. This’s the
height of communion with God. Add it to noisy prayers.
Now you know. You’ve experienced it. You’ve seen how silence is always wordlessly flickering in
your mind.
Beckoning.
Alluring.
Silence is there instantly if but one attends this subtlety.
Now you know. This is proper worship.
God, whole God, and nothing but God.
Easily noticed.
Edg Duveyoung
What's your take on new age spiritual gurus?
Ain’t nobody gotz the time to sort through 10,000 gurus on youtube.
No one studies the entire field and then chooses.
Instead, it’s catch as catch can.
Some guru grin grabs ya. Some concept. Something.
That’s karma, see? God’s fishing for you.
That’s why there’s 10,000 gurus.
With all those lines in the water, you’ll bite eventually.
Most offers out there are good enough for starters.
You’ll be told to develop your inner life, to eat healthily, to get your rest, to exercise, to study, to be
kind, necessary and true. All that and more.
You know, like MOM TAUGHT YOU. Heh.
If a new age “guru” is but a weak minded narcissist, you’ll figure that out.
And then you’ll toss the bath water and keep the baby. And move on.
A new age guru doesn’t have to “see” very well.
It’s easy to be a one-eyed king in the land of the blind.
If you’re blind, even someone “who really needs glasses,” will do nicely.
So, we listen and listen, and at some point, we begin to see.
And THEN, if your guru turns out to be more of a cyclops instead of someone who has an opened
inner eye, well, you’ll see, won’t you?
We trust our instincts. When one arrives at a fork in the spiritual path, we trust that we can peer
down each, “well enough” like Robert Frost, to choose a path less traveled by. There may be many
forks.
The good news is that all paths inwards lead to silence.
Silence is the true guru — your inner silent divine being.
God is in your residence!
So, no matter how bad off you are, you’re not that bad off.
Most folks can close the eyes and affirm silence immediately.
It doesn’t have to be full whole sole silence — just a titch will do.
We close the eyes and feel “quieter.” That’s perfect. Continue.
Quietness is the basis of life.
And it’s always in view.
Now, I can’t mention Frost without including his poem, but I’d like you to read two of his poems.
The second one, pertains to new age gurus.
The Road Not Taken BY ROBERT FROST
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
For Once, Then, Something BY ROBERT FROST
Others taunt me with having knelt at well-curbs
Always wrong to the light, so never seeing
Deeper down in the well than where the water
Gives me back in a shining surface picture
Me myself in the summer heaven godlike
Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs.
Once, when trying with chin against a well-curb,
I discerned, as I thought, beyond the picture,
Through the picture, a something white, uncertain,
Something more of the depths—and then I lost it.
Water came to rebuke the too clear water.
One drop fell from a fern, and lo, a ripple
Shook whatever it was lay there at bottom,
Blurred it, blotted it out. What was that whiteness?
Truth? A pebble of quartz? For once, then, something.
Edg Duveyoung
What are some good books for spiritual enlightenment?
Originally Answered: What’s a book about spirituality that you think everyone should read?
In India they say, “Knowledge in the books stays in the books.”
And it’s true.
So you need a strategy — you need to learn how to “operate” a book.
You have to look at the book like you’d look at a talking parrot.
When the parrot says, “God is love,” the parrot doesn’t know what it’s saying.
But you do.
You’re the book, see?
And almost never is this taught.
You’re the author of everything you ever read.
Don’t get me wrongly, the words in books say it all, oh yes they do. All the truths are there . . .IF
YOU ARE . . . but your level of consciousness may not be quiet enough to glean the most subtle
meanings. And for most folks, that’s the rub — they’re not consciously subtle enough to provide
the books with the ultimate meaning the books “point to.”
So if a book says, “Awareness is prior to consciousness,” what do you do? Believe me — that’s one
of the most difficult concepts to grasp. Decades long meditators can yet find incredible depths
yet to discover by dwelling on the concept. Reading the words, once, does not install that truth in
your point of view.
But but but by reading the words and then deeply considering them — then the books’ words will
eventually be enlivened with the resonant truths, because “deep consideration” on them is
actually “looking within at quieter levels of the mind — even if the target concept is not being
entertained.” This increases the sensitivity of the attention — it amplifies the acuity of the inner
eye. Thus, by such “deep consideration practice,” one gradually “grows the nervous system
needed for the task at hand.”
I tell everyone to read, “Talks” by Sri Ramana Maharshi or “I Am That” by Sri Nisargadatta
Maharaj — ONE SENTENCE AT A TIME. SLOWLY. Put your brain to work — make it reread each
sentence — saturate your nerves. One minute per sentence is probably the fastest rate at which to
read those guys.
I had to read both those books twice before the deepest insights were appreciated. Yeah, it takes
that much — it’s STUDYING. The tee shirt is earned on this one.
And then, so what? Answer: not much. I am now a good parrot — a walking book — I repeat what
the God Guys told me. But, of course, the knowledge inspired me to regularly meditate to get ever
more quiet within. Deep consideration of books only gets you so far. Meditation takes you where
words are useless. When concepts fail, silence is the new currency.
But for me, I gotta tell ya — I’m such a fanboy. I gobble this stuff. It’s never been studying for me —
it’s been a visit to Disneyland with all the rides free. That’s me, but most folks don’t have the time
to do this book learning, and if they find the time to meditate instead, a lack of spiritual education
is actually not a problem. The choice is clear.
Ultimately, silence inside informs outside.
All meaning comes from within.
No wonder the yogi says, “Reside in silence.”
Bottom line?
Perfect silence is a library.
It has every book
Including all those yet to be written.
Edg Duveyoung
How do I become sane?
Ya gotta be crazy to ask this question.
And the answer, below, is enough to drive you insane.
The getting-sane process is arduous and almost impossible.
Therapy is chuckle-less to the point of lethality.
And you’re a concept junkie —so, yeah, don’t even attempt.
So far, only God has achieved true sanity.
(I told you it was hard.)
Only God can see creation’s formula targets a zero sum.
Sanity — seeing that the starting point is the finish line.
If you leave here, your destination is here.
If you say, “This is a dot . “
That’s a one sided crazy thought.
You defined the dot without acknowledging the paper it’s on.
The dot has no paperless definition. Paper has to be in there too.
Seeing these silent partners always in all ways is sanity.
If you think there’s partnerless ones, you’re not done.
But if you really havta be sane by next Friday, I got good news.
You can’t be sane by Friday — so no need to try. That’s a relief, eh?
Nope. Sanity is not an overnight thingie.
It’s a billion lifetimes thingie.
—That long to stop being odd.
—That much life to get even.
Lord Krishna said karma’s unfathomable.
But Lord Krishna also said, “You’d better do your duty.” (be sane.)
How tough is that?
You can’t fathom how to get there, and you’re expected to arrive on time.
Thankfully, a conniving yogi figured a hack.
The yogi said, “CHEAT!”
“Get out of the person business.”
“Let God work the strings of your marionette.”
“Perch on God’s shoulder and just watch Doody say, ‘Howdy!’”
How’d ye do duty?
Meditate until you get to the bottom of things.
Find out that your silence is you, and the noise ain’t.
Enter The Neutral Zone. Be being being being.
If you don’t do this, consider the alternative therapy.
That would be by studying the “Manual of Mental Torture.”
Also known as “How To Know God” by Patanjali.
In that book, Patanjali instructs how to take all the fundamental concepts of existence and
dissolve them — one by one — into the same truth. And pulling teeth doesn’t begin to cover it. It’s
ouch ouch ouch as you give up fixations.
For instance: one must dissolve “innocence.”
Why? Because if “innocence is a dot,” its paper, fearful guile, also exists.
Those two gotta meld. Can’t be clear-seeing if you got guile — or, innocence.
See how you instinctively wanted to defend “being innocent?”
That’s how we cling to concepts and eschew their opposites.
That tension must be resolved, or one roils.
Ain’t nobody got no time for that.
So meditate and find your silent center.
In the middle of things, life becomes a merry-go-round.
Edg Duveyoung
What is nothing?
Originally Answered: What is "nothing"?
It’d be something to explain nothing.
How can I draw a ghost in a snowstorm if all I have is a black crayon and a sheet of black paper?
All words are but shadows cast upon shadows.
You can see wrongly only in dim light.
Full light shone upon a dimly-lit snake reveals a coiled rope.
In full light, the rope can only be seen as rope.
In the dark, there’s no image of rope about which to be mistaken.
Same deal with knowing nothing.
If we look at nothing with the fullest light of consciousness, yep, another rope.
If we are not fully alert, ONLY THEN can an ersatz snaky world be imagined.
As we increase in alertness, every single thing turns out to be ANOTHER SNAKE. It all dissolves as
we increase alertness. And, NOT KIDDING, it all dissolves into white light. Silent pure awareness
reveals all is merely rope (one truth.)
The Sun never sees its shadow.
God sees only God being projected onto God.
Same deal as black on black, see?
This is why God invented dimness — “to see the variety of Me!”
Dimness is God’s mirror. Who knew?
Practical application of the above?
Meditate and find that silence is light.
Meditate and find the quieter you is more real.
Meditate and find it’s God on God on God.
So now you know what they never told you about Socrates.
Socrates said, “I know nothing.”
See?
He was bragging!
Edg Duveyoung
What is the definition of 3?
Originally Answered: What is 3?
Threeness is God’s Manifest Necessity.
Can’t have anything without there being three parts.
1. Creation
2. Maintenance
3. Destruction
For instance, your most recent thought.
It formed, stabilized, and un-formed.
Fully grasp a thought’s entirety to master life.
Enlightenment is when one sees that thoughts arise from the divine.
If you see that God’s doing your thinking, you’re not thinking!
Imagine the relief!
Anything is a mix of three parts.
God? — “Sat, chit, ananda.”
Human? — “Spirit, mind, body.”
Dharma? — “See the job, do the job — no worries.”
Gunas? — “Satva, Rajas, Tamas.”
Samyama? — “See two, transcend, see one.”
Seekers? — “The wills, the mights, the won’ts.”
Life? — “Born, live, die.”
White? — “Red, blue, green.”
Morality? — “Hear, speak, see no evil.”
Politics? — “Of, by, for the people.”
Choosers? — “Rock, paper, scissors.”
Motivation? — “Safety, esteem, power,”
Ice cream? — Pistachio.
Edg Duveyoung
Was Jesus a mystic?
Lord Jesus was God.
For mystics, “Well, it ain’t necessarily so.”
End of debate.
Of course, there’s exceptions.
Lord Jesus gave some absolutes.
Some mystics are mundane saints.
Think LORD JESUS, firstly, and Transcendent Smarty Pants Jesus, secondly.
For mystics, think High I.Q. good guys, firstly, and possible God guys, secondly.
A mystical saint will use clarity to inspire.
Lord Jesus inspires — period.
TSP Jesus never condemned the adulterer — for good reasons.
Lord Jesus loved her without needing a reason.
Lord Jesus said, “I’ll make you fishers of men.”
Brainy Jesus would have explained why it’s logical to posit a soul that can be caught by mundane
instrumentality.
Lord Jesus said, “ . . . no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.”
Professor Jesus would have explained that one must transcend the gross level of the mind and
achieve Being (Jesus) before one can then toggle into identification with the Source Of Lord Jesus
— pure divine infinite awareness — Father Of All.
Mystics logically put things into words. That’s a market-limiting mistake.
Lord Jesus merchandised to all with poetry — not just the shoppers with PhDs.
But yeah, okay, okay, every statement by Lord Jesus has the most profound purport. The least
concept interlocks with the fundamentals.
— “Lilies of the field” — God sees all and nurtures all.
— “Go and sin no more.” — Anyone can be in harmony with God.
— “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” — the manifest is relative.
— “But seek first the kingdom of God,” — awareness is prior to consciousness
— “Ask and it will be given.” — God does not stint.
— “Let your light shine before others.” — You have the truth within.
— "But with God all things are possible." — A will is a way.
Gotta tell ya.
When I took Philosophy 101 in college, none of the above was mentioned.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the dark side of meditation?
True dark is seen by being blinded by the light.
But the question wants juicy gossip.
Well, pull up a chair. Dis be yo lucky day!
Meditation Problems
— Even advanced meditators can have lousy meditations.
— Decades of meditation can hardly dent some core personality dynamics.
— Meditation helps you resolve — evolve? not so much.
— Everyone thinks you’re sketchy if you meditate.
— Meditation has to be shoehorned into lifestyle.
— You weaken your spirituality obsessing about meditating.
— Meditators think normal maturation is “evolution due to meditation.”
— No bladder is good enough for a six hour meditation.
— Meditators are but marginally more hep about spirituality.
— God doesn’t “come and personally pat you on the head” if you meditate.
— Meditators can become purity snobs.
I gotta stop. This list is depressing me. I gotta balance this.
Meditation Benefits
— Bragging rights, Baby! Ego strutting funzies!
— Escape! Transcendence. Freedom. Sinlessness.
— The intuition correctly posits knowing everything.
— Silence becomes real.
— Ego learns it’s okay to die repeatedly.
— Emotions and thoughts become “handle-able.”
— Sanity gets defined.
— Bliss that disdains an orgasm to be a mere loin sneeze.
— You get to nod knowingly if Tolle’s name is mentioned.
— Silence becomes the starting line for every race.
I gotta stop. If I keep listing meditation positives, I’ll start feeling bad for the problems list and have
to increase it for fairness’ sake.
We meditate because we want to. Full stop.
Promotional Blurbs, Slogans, Motto-Snarks and Lies
— “Even God meditates.”
— “Go nowhere! Be a nobody! Lose your mind! Take leave of your senses!”
— “We meditate to pick up YOUR SLACK.”
— “Transcendence before breakfast is what’s for breakfast.”
— “God commands you to report to the battlefront and suggests loose clothing.”
— “Souls are for wusses. Expand beyond!”
— “Your best is silent nothingness. Own the none!”
— “Sorry, I gotta meditate.” Handiest of the excuses.
— “Meditate for 12 hours — twice a day.”
— “Awareness: you can’t leave home without it.”
— “What happens in consciousness, stays in consciousness.”
— “It’s easier to meditate than hammer swords into plowshares.”
— “You are what you eat, and meditators have the best pot lucks!”
— “Prana’ll getcha only so far. Meditation is breathtaking.”
— “Silence is more golden than previously reported.”
— “Have no Gunas, Won’t Travel.”
— “Get out of Dodge like Quiet Earp did.”
— “Puja Power!”
— “Variety is the guise of life.”
— “I dat. U dat. Dat dat.”
Edg Duveyoung
Is morality absolute or relative? Why?
Moral Actions
——See that God’s right here.
——Keep looking at God.
End of list
No one is blind to God.
Because, natch, it’s all God.
To keep God from playfully distracting you from God, close the eyes.
Annnnnnnnnd . . . all other morality is pretense. Everything else is, always but not really, else. If
you think life should go one way, someone else thinks elsely, and no “angels on a pin’s head”
debate will close the divide. Except for seeing God, our eyes are useless. We see blurry fades and
glitchy flickers and yet insist, “they’re precise and steady.” For details consult the Bible about The
Tower of Babel.
Anything can be anything from thought to thought.
—It’s a snake. It’s a coiled rope.
—It’s an evil stabbing monster. It’s my acupuncturist.
—It’s a pebble under my bare foot. It’s a diamond in the rough.
—I got up from the wrong side of the bed. “Mr. Bluebird’s on my shoulder . . .”
—I’m imprisoned inside an error prone personality. What person?
—I’m tightly bound and being waterboarded. I’m swaddled and being baptized.
—I’m a sinner. I’m a saint.
Nice set-up, eh?
We’ve got God everywhere, and yet we’re free to pretend “else.”
What’s not to love about 200%?
PROBLEM
How does one know what is right to do right now?
ANSWER
You are close enough.
You can nail-it, ahem, cough cough, well, sorta.
You can be “almost moral” if you follow your heart.
HOW TO FOLLOW THE HEART
If you know it’s wrong, don’t do it, and vice versa.
You won’t always be right, but mostly yeah.
The heart is not a natural born liar.
You give yourself very very good advice 99% of the time.
AND THEN WHAT?
If we listen to our heart, gradually we hear its more sacred whispers.
At first we easily spot the big things that are wrong. Then we get subtler.
This increases our trust of the heart’s intent, so we hearken yet more.
It’s recursive. And the 99% evolves towards perfection.
Obeying our best instincts — the simplest life hack. So potent.
Of course, you might have to lose your job if you’re too good.
Of course, your pals might start shying away.
Of course, the easily known right thing is often difficult to do.
Of course, else will overpower your integrity until you strengthen it.
Of course, your life will utterly change if you love the heart’s wisdom.
Generally speaking, we find those who listen to the heart will wear special costumes. Spiritual
officials will wear robes and dhotis and symbolic garb.
But not us, Dear Reader, you and I are undercover.
We disguise ourselves as muggles of the moral morass.
We secretly spur silence in every heart by finding it in our own.
Few know how much knowing depends on silence.
We do, so we add silence to life.
When we are silent, our Self is tithed.
We’re spiritual sneaks.
We’re culture’s older child.
We show the youngins how to move a chair up to the spirit’s frig.
So’s to get to the cookie jar on top.
That silent cookie jar.
Just sitting there two feet higher than your four year old reach.
Nothing was ever more silent than that jar.
Edg Duveyoung
How do contributors think/feel was the very origin of consciousness? That is the very
moment that something, we now call consciousness awoke.
Originally Answered: How do contributors think/feel was the very origin of consciousness? The very moment
that something, we now call consciousness awoke.
God felt cooped up.
— “Guess I’ll have to invent a body so I can stretch My legs.”
God got lonely.
— “Guess I’ll have to clone Me and forget I did it.”
God was full.
— “Guess I’ll manifest, so I can loosen My belt to have room for dessert.”
Awareness
Consciousness
Conscious consciousness
Awareness — endlessly vast and eternally true
Consciousness — awareness mirrored, Being
Conscious consciousness — names and forms manifesting from Being
Self — “and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”
Being — “ And the Spirit of God”
Brain — “ moved upon the face of the waters . . . and there was light.”
God
Me
My thoughts
Awareness — utterly indiscernible, God’s silence
Being — perfect reflection of awareness despite being illusory
I am — perfect sampling of Being’s endlessness
Identity
False Identity
Zillions of examples of false identities
There’s tons of oodles of umpteens’ worth of creation stories.
Gotta love those blind guys when they’re groping Dumbo.
Every scripture handles the moment of creation — always poetically.
Just to read them is snuggling deeper into God’s arms.
Bottom line good news:
Your next thought demonstrates
ALL THE ABOVE.
Who really knows, and who can swear,
How creation came, when or where!
Even gods came after creation’s day,
Who really knows, who can truly say
When and how did creation start?
Did He do it? Or did He not?
Only He, up there, knows, maybe;
Or perhaps, not even He.
— Rig Veda 10.129.1-7
Edg Duveyoung
What is the Hindu attitude to history?
The news ain’t news.
History is a set of stories, so firstly tell the inspiring ones.
Hail the heroes who conquered their minds and modeled unto us.
Think of the repetitions — think of how many thousands of times in history any “act” has been
essentially “same ol’ same ol’.” How many saints that saved the day, how many villains that were
wicked, how many problems that again and again stymied human after human. How, when, why,
where, this or that again and again and again.
To single out any of these moments would not serve the raison d'être of history, because
insignificant particularities would be distracting. So what Hindu scriptures have done is combine
and conflate and conjoin in order to, as if, present a pure story with the elements all adding to the
purport. No fluff. Nicely whittled. Honed. Lo-cal and heavy on the protein.
Tolstoy said, “History would be a wonderful thing – if it were only true.”
India says, “Yep, so let’s tell stories that are true AND evolve the culture.”
If any media headline captures you, if any teaser grabs ya, it’s a spell being cast upon your ken.
You’re being stupefied. It’s a challenge to not indulge in the presented “facts” as if they have
something new or unique to teach. “If it’s new to me, it seems shinier — it glints.” This is the
weakness of humanness — our inner distractible monkey leaps from branch to branch chasing
after ever redder and riper fruits.
Scriptures end this scurrying by giving us stories that fulfill so well that we will reread them
instead of chasing after the same stories that have mere costume changes.
Hindu history edifies instead of titillates.
Edg Duveyoung
What if all holy books are thinking and thoughts of authors and God has nothing to do
with them as no author of holy books have proven that what they have written is from
God, except their own words?
Imagine a tribe of wild humans 200,000 years ago. They’re sitting around a campfire, and they’ve
got the most up-to-date nervous systems — just like modern humans — and then Ugaamugga
says, “I think there’s an invisible person who is all powerful and is secretly handling our lives.”
What do the others around the campfire think and say?
They say, “Well, Ugaamugga is the tribe’s best hunter and sees what is to be seen. For him to
speculate like this is rare, and it deserves our sincere effort to discover if there is truth here that
he’s seeing that we should all grasp.”
They’d talk for more than a few extra logs on that fire, eh?
That’s how scriptures were invented. Good people with good minds setting themselves to the task
of getting clear about “the good” — getting it down “on paper” — concepts that can be taught.
200,000 years’ worth of tens of thousands of tribes filled with people who loved each other and
only wanted the best for themselves — all trying their hardest to “get it said” — that actually
happened!
Think of the iterations! Think of the corrections! Think of the theorizing. Think of the experiments.
Think of the testimonies. Think about how gradually cultures evolved religions to be “embodied
wisdom — honed by antiquity.”
Now get this — they all came to agree on certain profound truths.
These truths have been SCIENTIFICALLY DETERMINED. Experimenter after experimenter reported
their results around the campfire. This was the “great honing.”
“This happened when I closed my eyes.” and “This happened when I thought this particular
thought over and over again for an hour.” and “This happened when I made a symbol on the
cave’s wall.” and “The guy who keeps his eyes closed at the back of the cave sure seems to
always have the final word in our discussions.”
Does it really matter what words of what language the truths are expressed? It’s all been tended
by MILLIONS of minds. Pish tosh on the differences. Look at what is universally accepted by those
who are big brained, deeply intended and willing to do the work of introspection.
God is good. God is here. God is perfect. God is love. God is fundamental.
And on and on.
ALL AGREED TO BY ALL THE RELIGIONS.
These are not the achievements of solitary persons. These are the achievements of civilizations.
Every scripture tells “the deeply considered truths,” corrected as necessary, across the millennia.
Where’s God’s authorship?
Good question. Ask it 10,000 times — see if that experiment comes up with the same answer
given by Lord Krishna to Arjuna.
“I am the Self, O Gudakesa, seated in the hearts of all creatures. I am the beginning, the middle
and the end of all beings.”
Probably the guy at the back of the cave said, “All of you keep reporting how your thoughts arrive,
and it keeps sounding like the same person is thinking all our thoughts. Maybe WE’VE ALL GOT
THE SAME PERSON INSIDE US! These thoughts we are having are “GOD’S THOUGHTS.“
There’s the proof.
Go within and find your soul’s voice is singing within every soul.
Edg Duveyoung
How do I do meditation?
Originally Answered: What happens during meditation?
You meet God. Not kidding. Actual God.
Because: Silence is God.
In the Cosmic Venn Diagram, silence is where you and God overlap.
Don’tcha kinda wanta gotta haveta check this out?
If silence is studied, researched, favored, it blossoms.
—Silence will evolve from being nothing to being you.
—Silence will become the heart of sentience.
—Silence will be realized to be awareness.
—Silence will become holy, pure, divine.
—Silence will be revealed to be omniscient God sharing your mind with you.
Mechanics of Meditation
When you close your eyes, you immediately feel that life is now a bit quieter.
This is “noticing silence.” The perfect start. If you keep the eyes closed and abide, the silence will
increase, and the activities of the mind will lessen. The mind wants to relax and will relax if we
favor silence instead of attending thoughts, feelings, sense inputs.
We don’t do anything, except that abiding is itself “favoring silence.” If we don’t intend to do
anything that’s how to attend silence. If the mind has a burst of activity and we get lost in it, no
problem, just return to abiding — easy does it, gently, softly. Silence naturally allures, so just
noticing silence is enough. No harsh concentration allowed! No commandeering! No effort.
As one becomes familiar with silence, it becomes clear that it is pure identity. It is one. It is the
Self. From this silence comes the content of the mind without first consulting one. Each next
mental moment is a surprise.
One is being GIVEN GOD’S interpretation of life.
Your POV is ACTUALLY what God thinks of creation if God had your limitations.
God peers through you to take a peek at EVERYTHING. And sees it all.
Abiding is “ignoring everything else,” and this happens even during the very first time ANY newbie
closes the eyes and feels some quietness. Just some. Merely some.
For a titch the mind lands on silence in the midst of “else.”
Just the least noticing of silence begins the journey within. It’s inexorable. You will arrive at
complete silence by simply abiding with even that initial bit of it that is instantly there when
anyone closes the eyes.
Yes, it takes a while to perfect abiding.
To be able to be without being something.
Yes.
But.
Ever stood on the side of railroad tracks and watched a noiseless dot on the horizon grow to
being a freight train roaring so loudly nothing else mattered?
Silence can grow from whisper to roar — like that noiseless dot.
Silence whelms’n’chugs and whelms’n’chugs and whelms’n’chugs.
Attending silence is how to train your mind.
Edg Duveyoung
How many spiritual awakenings can you go through? Can you start going through one
and plateau in the middle?
My first awakening was the Big Bang.
Whoa, there I was in the middle of the sizzle.
I didn’t know if I was a string or quark or what. But I knew I had to settle down, and after about
500,000 years, finally I got myself together as a nice stable proton. I felt so enlightened. In that
mad blazing cauldron, at least I was who I was even if all around me there was a blasting fury.
I was okay. For a while. But then I noticed I was kinda lonely. I’d settled down, but what did I get?
Sure, I’d be able to maintain that form for trillions of years, but I felt something was missing, and
synchrony be praised, along comes this sweet faced darling electron, and she just fell right into
orbit, and I was enraptured. I couldn’t get enough of her. She was “so me.” If I were an electron, I
would be just like her. The curve of her path, ooolala, let me tells ya!
But as I came to appreciate how much she was like me, it became more and more easy to just
think she and I were one. And that felt like a third enlightenment. Big Bang, proton, and now as a
perfect couple so in harmony they were one entity. My identity was so HUGE!
I guess you can see where this is going. After that awakening, I noticed other “as if one entity”
couples; the next thing I knew I was joined at the hip with one of them, and together we had a
molecular ability that we didn’t have separately, so this kept us united. After a while, you guessed
it, we two seemed to be one. Again, it was another awakening. I felt more complete. I felt whole.
Then all along paraded the procession of pairings, and my identity was again and again projected
upon ever more complex “beings.” It seemed like it all happened overnight that I found myself to
be a cell, and then suddenly, a tissue, an organ, a body. And whoa, after I got to be a body, and
that was a game changer.
But I was an ant. Sure, I felt truly enlightened. I had all the mojo and was a great ant, but by then I
knew I had a lot more enlightenment ahead of me. My hive mind showed me that 100,000 ants
could be one entity, so that became the basis of my rapid evolution. From ant to clam to fish to
rabbit to wolf and all the stops in between. Astounding collections of beings that acted as one
entity. Each stage seemed complete, but loneliness again and again had me seeking more.
And then human. The first time on two feet was an eye opener. I was at the top of the animal heap,
and yet just starting out — felt enlightened compared to all my other lives, but knew there was
more.
And, more than that, I knew there was more than merely more.
This was the blessing of humanness.
— I knew no physical body was ever going to be enough.
— I knew no nervous system was going to be able to define me.
And that felt enlightened. Merely to know “I am indefinable but knowable” was something new to
know. I began “seeking for the knowable me.” I knew there was something “actually certain” that
there was yet to know that would be, however so much illogically, beyond the knowable. And that
it would complete me. And merely this conceptual knowledge settled me so much. It was as if a
light had been lit. In the distance, but there.
This unknown, this silence, this awareness — this light beckoned.
It was my true self that called.
I studied silence like the curve of that cute little electron’s orbit.
Silence was so perfectly me if I were to be silence.
It was love.
And then oneness gathered us up in her arms.
Edg Duveyoung
According to Bhagavad Gita should I help a suffering person or leave him thinking that
he is paying for the sins he committed in his previous lives?
UNIR1 — you and I are one.
The bell tolls for we.
Any death diminishes us.
We are our brother’s keepers.
All boundaries are illusory.
Within, we share one awareness, God’s.
All religions agree on one thing.
Everyone’s mind is witnessed by God.
This would include the minds of
— the cruel
— the lost
— the wicked
So, when you meet a spiritual thug, realize:
God is right there inside that person and within you.
— WATCHING WHAT YOU WILL DO.
— From both sides now.
As you judge, you instruct God how to judge you.
You gunna risk being unforgiving, harsh, heartless?
Nah, ya wouldn’t if you saw God standing there. Watching you.
You’d be a saint. You’d show God how to love, now wouldn’tcha?
You’d find a way to be with the sinner that would uplift each of you.
Well, ahem, God’s inside you 24/7, ya know?
Are you letting a lot of daily-life opportunities pass by?
If you saw God standing there, would you muster up a bit more morality?
You betcha, eh? If God was right there, hooo boy, eh?
You’d be like St. Francis with blue birds on his shoulder.
For all have sinned. Gotta admit it and reach a détente with it.
I’ve sinned. Hooo boy have I.
You? You ever sinned?
—Did something you knew was sketchy?
—Did something flat out wrong?
—Did something dark?
And yet God did not strike you down on the spot.
Must be that God has a deep purport.
Must be that God sees the whole you.
Must be that God is in your corner no matter what.
Must be that God is in everyone’s corner.
So yeah, folks are getting their karma.
Our instructions from every scripture are clear.
We treat others as did Jesus.
— As when He healed the soldier’s ear.
— As when He said, “Go and sin no more.”
—As when He loved the person nailing Him to the cross.
Yeah, it seems hard to retain composure during the knee-jerks.
That’s why you get the big bucks when you bite your tongue, spare the rod, and roll up the sleeves
of your wisdom to do some serious therapy.
The good news is the God news.
With God right there inside you, your decisions come effortlessly.
In a dark alley with a feral goon’s knife to your throat,
— if you saw God standing there too.
— hoo boy, eh? Talk about your high drama.
— it’d be a cake walk. Easy peasy. Barely an inconvenience.
You’d be glad to die rather than mess up the situation with God looking.
Your heart would flood with compassion for all involved.
Nothing in the past would matter. No future affirmed.
Yet, seeing God there too — that alley would be a “perfect now.”
So we do what the Gita instructed.
We reside in being and let the forces of nature handle things.
We enter our hearts and stay there.
Where else, eh?
Edg Duveyoung
What is incarnation?
Originally Answered: what is incarnation?
A rain drop was my favorite incarnation.
Just now finished having that entire life on my window pane.
It started raining about three minutes ago. A light sprinkle.
When an ordinary raindrop hit the top of the pane, I was a human.
But then I switched. I decided “I am that drop!”
And I want to fulfill my destiny — to beat all the other drops to the bottom.
I immediately notice Sally and John also arriving at the top.
And they see me, we mutually nod, and THE RACE IS ON!
I get the jump on them when another fresh raindrop crashes onto me, and I suddenly have twice
my weight, and down I start. Sally and John are hardly even sagging. Ha! But they have a lot of
supply-depot drops just sitting below them and could get more weight fast if they ever do finally
start to descend.
Oh noes! I’m hitting a dry area, and I’m losing half my water leaving a wet path behind me. So I
slow to a halt about a third of the way from the top with less weight than when I was born, and I
have a lot more dry area to traverse. Then a huge drop splashes between Sally and John, and they
both get “enough,” and down they start.
And I’m just sitting here evaporating. And now, wouldn’t you just know it, out the Sun comes! The
God of Desiccation is upside down smirking at me with a rainbow. I’m not amused.
Sally gets to a lower drop before John, and it’s big, and WHAM!, she just shoots straight down
seven full inches perfectly hitting several drops, but Sally then hits a piece of dust on the pane
and gets held up at the mid point — brimming and quivering. John is barely able to trickle down to
a lower drop, and that drop’s water is hardly enough to continue, but he’s moving steadily, and is
about to pass me!
I’m getting a sunburn and bemoaning not to mention sublimating my fate. Why couldn’t I have
three times more water like Sally and be ready to rocket to the bottom once the dust speck is
saturated? I’d love to be huge and fat and temporarily stymied by a mote too! That’s the kind of
karma I deserve! Does God hate me? What have I done to be punished like this? Don’t I glisten like
all the others? Aren’t I an exponent of “the sea?” Aren’t I wet? Isn’t my curvature in harmony with
my surface tension? What?
And so I’m giving up. No way I win now with Tubby Sally and John the Trickler mocking my
lightweight wherewithal. So I’ll just reside and abide . . . and ignore the Sun’s rude glare. This is
good enough. If God wants me to disappear here, fine. I’ll just enjoy the view as I peer at this
creature sitting at a keyboard inside this room of this house I landed on.
John reaches a seeming abyss of a drop-depot. Ten drops’ worth that never yet trickled. John
disappears into it, and the whole thing wiggles. But NO TRICKLE! John’s in a Bermuda Triangle
Puddle!
But now Sally arrows down not even pausing as she crashes through drop after drop. Thirteen full
inches down, stopping a mere inch from the bottom. Above I see two other drops coming down
and sure to join Sally. Yeah, she’s gunna win.
I’m okay. The creature seems to like me. So there’s that.
I’ll just sublimate, evaporate and dissipate, oh sigh.
I’ll just close my eyes for a bit.
What do I hear? Over the roof suddenly a very dark cloud is peeking, and the wind kicks up. Drops
are banging pellet-hard. Wham, wham, wham, wham.
Sally looks up. I look up.
We know John’s somewhere in there looking up too.
KERPLOSH!
I’m swamped!
My whole glop lets loose like a landslide.
I’m a two inch wide swatch leaving a sumptuous swath!
I slam into the bottom in a massive victory flood.
Sally’s luck ran out.
John’s massive accumulation is now a worthless mockery.
Ahhhhhh…….
That was a good one.
Three minute lives — what’s not to love?
See?
It’s all the casting of identity.
Easy to see with raindrops, but all things are equally our projected identities.
We’ve identified all of it.
We’ve defined all of it.
All one needs to do is be mindful of this casting of oneself.
Next up, I’m going to be a stone on a path Jesus walks.
Gunna be ready to shout, “Hallelujah and hosanna” if the disciples don’t sing on the Sabbath. I’ll
sit there so still. So seemingly mute. Oooooo, oooooo, any second now, oooooooo………
JESUS STEPPED ON ME!
Edg Duveyoung
What are the 8 limbs of Yoga?
Originally Answered: What are the eight limbs of yoga and their meanings?
Residing in being fulfills Patanjali’s eight limbs of yoga.
1. Abstention — When we are in being — beyond thought — we are not injuring, lying,
stealing, horny, or grabby. Sinless.
2. Devotion — In being one is clean, serene, controlled, interested, and satisfied. Pure.
3. Posture — In being the spine’s nerves are not pinched. Ease.
4. Breathing — In being ones breath is at its most subtle. Still.
5. Senses — In being the messages of the senses are ignored. Mastered.
6. Attention — In being the attention effortlessly abides. Silence.
7. Integration — In being connection arises in all venues. Unifying.
8. Bliss — In being the source of all pleasure is embraced. Happiness.
Meditating and arriving at quiescence, being, one fulfills all the stages of yoga. This is right
action. This is dharma. Being is the basis of outer life.
All the above deserves a bookshelf’s worth of explanation. There’s no end to discovering how
these truths saturate each moment of life. Musing on these concepts nurtures the personality. To
intellectually attend any limb is an endless appreciation of what a unified life really means.
But but but, one can never get to the bottom of any of these concepts. Thinking about how to not
injure? — hooo boy, you’re going to be there for hours. Thinking about why serenity is the basis of
the mind? — say goodbye for the rest of your day. Like this the eight limbs are infinitely edifying to
the intellect, and time consuming. But residing in being institutes these truths in the personality
without the intellect needing to work up a sweat.
THE BIG SECRET — Simply closing the eyes is “well begun and half done.” Closing the eyes
instantly begins to enliven the eight limbs in the mind’s operations. Even if being is not fully
achieved and the meditation is filled with thoughts, one has started.
Beginners are winners. It’s harder to fall off a log.
Ask anyone. Even a three foot high kid knows that closing the eyes is pleasant.
Ask any saint. They all say, “Closing the eyes is a good start.”
Ask any religion. They all say, “Get quiet to pray well.”
When being is an all time reality, it’s impossible not to be a saint.
Being’s properties will dominate.
Every thought and act will be being’s outward expression.
BE WARNED — you know how they say, “Walk a mile in a person’s shoes . . .” well, residing in
being is letting God walk in your shoes.
So, just sayin’, God might like your shoes.
Imagine you, in bare feet, chasing after God.
Imagine God going around everywhere being you.
It could get astounding.
It could get spectacular.
It could and should.
God doing your walking and talking?
Imagine that.
Edg Duveyoung
How do I regain hope about life when everything seems meaningless?
Ya gotta hack the polarities.
—To grow food, throw food into the mud.
—To shoot an arrow forward, firstly draw it back.
—To build a skyscraper, dig a deep hole.
—Embrace yin to get more yang.
Be like the Good Samaritan.
Create hope by giving help.
Extend a hand to a guy in a ditch.
This was the Good Samaritan’s solution.
Help someone specifically and prove hope in general is valid.
Deconstruct that.
Samaritans were considered to be religious riffraff. “Not neighbor material.”
There’s an injured, robbed Israelite, and good people “are just walking on by.”
But not the Samaritan who stops and goes way out of his way to help.
Such a mitzvah from such an unexpected mensch! Who knew?
See hope’s seed being planted in the mud?
See hope’s arrow being pulled taut?
See hope’s foundation being dug?
From that day forth, the Samaritan was more likely to say, “If I am despised by a person, and if I
yet help that person, then I instruct myself that help can unexpectedly arrive. My psychology has
been bolstered. My helping another makes my own hopes seem more reasonable. I’ll be more
likely in the future to embrace hope and abide in the ocean of possibilities.”
This is how.
Do even the slightest good and get ten times back. —Try it.
Think of a very small favor to do for someone. — Do it.
Watch yourself be filled with satisfaction beyond all propriety.
This always works.
Say a few kind words, and hand a twenty to a guy with a cardboard sign.
Feel good about that again and again — even years later.
No one is immune to their own proofs.
Talk about harvesting a crop!
Talk about your return on investment!
See the larger proof?
Got any ditches ahead? — Pull someone up and out.
Got some graveyards needing passing? — Teach someone how to whistle.
Got hopelessness? — Surprise someone nicely for no reason whatsoever.
This is how to mine the gold from the golden rule.
Be golden unto others.
Edg Duveyoung
Is meditation a selfish act?
What isn’t?
It’s all Self to Self all the time . . . and time is the Self too.
It’s not about you, the person.
It’s about Self, THE SELF — silent, sentient and serene.
It can’t get more selfish.
To realize the above truth, meditate.
See the blessing?
You’re rare.
Seven billion people and only a few get to be seekers.
Self is choosing your person be an exponent of reality.
You’re the designated seeker when everyone else is intoxicated by desires.
How good is that, eh?
You get to take everyone home.
Meditation is not for the sake of the person.
It ‘s not for the sake of world peace.
It’s the entirety that meditates.
And you get to watch. Front row seat.
You’re searching for the Self in its pure form — devoid of distractions.
You’re an insider.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the dark side of meditation that gurus won’t talk about?
You don’t want to be a guru. Nope.
But if you are one, brace for impact!
Guru problems
— The crazies come out of the woodwork. If you’re offering help, you’re going to get some very
troubled folks on your doorstep. Barely functional. Once they feel that “you’re responsible for
them,” they let go. They “turn off” whatever they had going that tamped down their brokenness,
and hoooooo boy, here it comes. It gets serious and spooky, and it comes off as “the meditation’s
fault.”
— Some sycophants will drain your energy. Since they “love” you so much, they’ll expect that
they get more of your attention for small matters. They won’t understand your silence is your
potency. They’re blab addicts.
— Some rich followers will take every liberty. During meditation get-togethers they’ll smoke
and joke and toke. They will put an arm around the guru like they’re chums. They think anyone can
afford their great ideas and solutions. They speak for the guru when the guru is RIGHT THERE.
They expect unearned deference from others. To them, their money means they deserve special
treatment because they must have been good in the last lifetime to have gotten money in this one.
— Some of the staff will be scoundrels in the “back room.” Like the crazies, sycophants and
rich, they’ll think they’re insiders that have “privileges.” They eat all the pistachio ice cream and
only put out vanilla at the buffet table. They let their friends in ahead of the line. They make money
decisions and pretend the guru okayed it. They commandeer authority and will expect followers to
do almost anything because “the guru wants it” even when they have not talked to the guru about
the issue.
— The newbies will ask the same questions constantly. The knowledge seldom is handled very
deeply when every other question is about being bothered by noises during meditation. And the
deep questions get short shrift when so many want to ask shallow questions. The newbies make it
seem like meditation is very ineffective due to their “beginners’ flurry” of experiences that are
insignificant but must be handled lest the guru seem uncaring.
— The outside world will mercilessly exaggerate every negative. It doesn’t matter who the
guru is or how sweet and educated the followers are or how much obvious “good” is being
manifested. If anyone has a fender bender, it’s the direct fault of being spiritual and becoming a
zapped-out, frizz-brained, nutzy-zomboid, and an all around sketchy character.
— The guru’s personality style will be given way too much attention. Nisargadatta’s style was
LOUD STERN YELLING. Ramana’s style was soft gentle clarifications. Every guru has a personality
that should be entirely ignored. But the ignorant cannot help themselves from attending these
differences. The media will hack and whack at the slightest oddity.
— The techniques being taught may be too “fast acting.” Precautions of every sort are
required if one is going to suggest to another that a technique should be used. Some pranayama
techniques can actually drive you crazy in 30 minutes flat — oxygen kills. Some yoga asanas if
tried too hard can whack your joints for the rest of your life. Gotta approach physical and mental
actions as dangerous until proven otherwise. If life gets hard, STEP BACK. Take it easy.
— Competition will spring up from your ranks. For every guru, there will be students who
decide to be gurus “before their time.” They will make their guru look inadequate, they will invent
“variances,” and they will grab a hunk of newbies and think they’re going to save the world “faster
and better.”
— The guru might be destined to fail. In the Mahabharata, we see that some enlightened good
guys were fighting on the side of the bad guys. Bhishma was guru to both sides, and when asked
why he fought for the wrong side, one of the things that came up was the concept “to show that
even an enlightened person must fail if the cause is not righteous.” Enlightenment is no guarantee
that one now only gets good karma. A guru’s followers will almost never understand this in the
least. Bhishma ended up with so many arrows in him that his body couldn’t fall to the ground. He
then gave a wonderful sermon to all on the battlefield.
— The guru may be enlightened but not yet done evolving. After one is free, the body yet still
can be refined. All of creation can be sensed at a much more subtle level, and this takes time for
the enlightened person’s body to “catch up” and achieve. During this time (up to years’ worth,)
the guru’s mind will be host to every manner of discomfiting phase transitions. Followers can
“come up short” if they see that their guru still has a “manifest part” that is evolving.
And on and on.
It’s tough being “the person” at the top of a guru iceberg.
Edg Duveyoung
Does free will exist?
These two dots are lovers
..
Here’s them in English class before they started dating
.-----------
------------
-------.----
------------
After a small argument
..
Back together and bold about it
..
Talking to a friend
.-.
At a pot luck but hardly knowing anyone there
..—————
Their wedding party portrait.
————..————
Honeymoon night!
.+.
Proud parents!
.,.
_________________________________
Wait, wait, wait. I got it all wrong.
These two dots are soldiers.
..
Here’s them infiltrating the enemy.
.-----------
------------
-------.----
------------
Exchanging secrets
..
Sudden emergency calls for bold action
..
Getting orders from superior
.-.
Confronting the enemy
..—————
Surrounded
————..————
Sentenced to death
.+.
Walk to gallows with priest
.,.
_________________________________
Wait, wait, wait, I got it all wrong.
These two dots are dogs
..
Here’s them playing in a field
.-----------
------------
-------.----
------------
Nose booping
..
Extra booping with licks
..
Smelling the same tree
.-.
Stalking pigeons
..—————
Race into middle of flock
————..————
Both dogs target same bird
.+.
They eat
.,.
_________________________________
See?
How much free will do you need?
You are free to interpret life.
Interpret all you want.
Love or war or dogs?
Suggestion:
Since you are always interpreting,
Might as well see God enjoying pistachio ice cream instead, eh?
Edg Duveyoung
How would you define love?
Originally Answered: How would you define love ?
Love is God.
But like is God too.
Love is absolute surety.
But uncertainty makes love visible.
Love is silence.
But noise is required to love.
Okay, I don’t know what love is.
I whittle every definition sharp and arrive at kitten fuzzy.
Every kind of love is yet another kind of love; it’s always different
. . . and unwaveringly the same.
Love unites. Usually suddenly.
Two decides to be one.
Two hearts, two atoms, two anything.
Love melts individuality.
Awareness of anything is love being projected.
Every sense input is actually an output.
We’re projecting attributes upon creation like shooting a tee shirt canon.
You get a red shirt. Ooooooo, loves me some red.
You get a blue shirt. Oooooooo, loves me some blue.
You’re this. You’re that.
Everyone gets a shirt.
We’re paintballing reality with splotches of ourselves.
See the love there?
Who loves ya more than you loves ya?
If you’re splashing yourself all over existence,
What’s not to love?
It’s all you.
And it’s not narcissism.
Every projected speck of you is beautiful.
Because you’re God.
Edg Duveyoung
Does one have to move away from society to become more spiritually enlightened?
Yeah of course, but obviously no.
We say to find silence we must be in a quiet place.
Yeah of course
Car horns and cow bells and knocks.
Door slams and road work and beeps.
Bird chirps and phone rings and yells.
Dog barks and kid shouts and dings.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - oh my.
We say to find the self we must be alone.
Yeah of course
Geek creeps and bullies and twits.
Up tights and nutzoids and dweebs.
Fakers and ranters and crooks.
Huxsters and haters and snots.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - oh my.
But obviously no.
No, because it’s all being and silence and self, oh God.
If you are in a Himalayan cave sitting in full lotus desiring some pistachio ice cream instead of
having your back arched with high amp kundalini bolts shooting out of your crown chakra, or
If you want to meditate for 15 minutes but are in a taxi going cross town in Taipei with three other
businessmen who don’t speak English during a rainstorm with the radio going,
SAME CHALLENGE.
The goal of spirituality is to surrender to it all.
You KNOW that 100,000 people can be screaming their lungs out and shouting exactly what to do
and what must be done now,
but a pro-quarterback is unperturbed and hearing none of it.
There’s no rub in any hubbub.
The mind is ignoring almost all of it all the time anyway, so it’s a gimme.
If the eyes are closed
. . . and we’re not being shot at,
chances for a successful meditation are good.
That ride across Taipei was primo.
So deep.
Edg Duveyoung
If Vedanta or Upanishadas say that 'God is absolute nothingness', doesn't that mean
God doesn't exist?
A bunch of priests decided to bring this good guy back from the dead.
And they knew how. Oh yes they did. These priests had the mojo.
So they did the proper rituals — no mistakes — and asked that the guy come back from Heaven
and then ………….the guy was still dead. Nary a twitching.
That surprised the priests. They’d done this before. But this time, nope.
So, they figured, “Hey, maybe the guy isn’t in Heaven; maybe the guy is such a good soul that he’s
earned being in a higher Heaven.” So the priests tried it again, and asked for the guy to return
from that higher Heaven. But nope. Still a stiff.
They were stumped. They didn’t figure the guy was that holy that he’d gotten even to that higher
Heaven, and now he wasn’t there either? So they decided to ask the guy to return from THE
HIGHEST HEAVEN, even though, you know, hey, retrieving someone from the highest Heaven
possible — not trivial, right? But by now the priests were fixated. They had to find that guy! They
didn’t care about what the guy might think about having been dragged from Heaven. Or if God
would consider it to be a spiritual no-no.
And, nope. There the body yet was and attracting flies.
What to do?
They’d tried all the places. And they were correct.
The guy was not to be found anywhere.
So the priests finally gave up and surrendered to the mystery. They asked, “Please God, no matter
where you put that soul, please return him.”
And the guy sat right up, and asked, “Can I get a coffee?”
See the answer to the question now?
If that guy couldn’t be found in all of existence, he was, by definition, absolutely nothing. He was a
no-thing. He was a something that had lost every hint of thingness.
He could not be found.
Period.
Except by God.
Cuz, God is tricky.
The priests had to learn what you have to learn.
“Transcendental” is not an adjective; it’s a Declaration of Independence.
God is beyond thought, beyond being merely real.
Utterly past any understanding.
This is the miracle that keeps on giving.
If one considers this concept of “transcendental,” it hones the psychology.
We gotta get it straight that we can’t get it straight.
We gotta surrender to God’s superiority.
And the payoff is — we can turn our faces in any direction to pray.
Edg Duveyoung
When Ramana Maharshi says the world is not real, what does he mean?
You can create with a laser pointer.
Quickly move that dot in a figure eight pattern on the wall.
Voila! The unreal.
Everyone, even a small child, will say, “Yes! I see an eight!”
Everyone, even a wise adult, will not say, “It’s just a dot.”
Even when we know it’s a dot, we insist on reacting to the illusory eight. If we try to touch the
eight, we touch wall or a dot. No experiment will prove the eight is as real as wall or dot.
God is the wall.
You are the dot.
World is the eight.
If we examine the untouchable eight, we begin to see that we’ve been dotty, and that we’ve gone
nutz for dot paths.
If we examine the eight more, we begin to see our dot instead of its history.
Yet more, and we begin to see the dot is not its history.
Yet more, and we begin to see the dot’s need for the wall.
Yet more, and the dot becomes tiny in the vastness of the wall.
Yet more, and the wall overwhelms.
“The real” is always being transcended.
Until one finally finds it’s just too much bother.
To keep pressing that button on the laser pointer.
Enough that the wall is wall.
Edg Duveyoung
Do you find a contradiction in people saying they are Advaitin (non-dualist) and then
making pilgrimage to Arunachala etc.?
Yeah, but so what?
I have made that “same” mistake — in major life-swaying ways — dozens of times. It’s called,
ahem, “life.” And here I am. In “Rome.”
I’m a sold-out fanboy for Advaita. Loves me some Ramana daily. This Quora essay is my 440th
“essay way for me” to “walk around Arunachala.” It’s religious. Religion means “to bind back.”
Symbolic acts can be mantras that are in every manner spiritually potent.
“Potent” means whatever. Sue me. Yeah, no causality and all that. But potent. Try spiritual
ANYTHING for 50 years and get back to me. It all works. Even on fools with money. You’re going to
get to Rome somehow. If this obscure question on Quora got you reading this far into this essay,
oh yeah, you gunna go to Rome somehow. Yeah, even you. Don’t be blushin’ now. Own it.
It’s about attention on the Self AND expressions of the Self. Yin and Yang sitting in a tree k…i…s…
s…i…n…g. It’s all good. I’ve never been to Arunachala, but I’ve been around the block . . . walked
with similar holy intent.
I have personally met hundreds of spiritual travelers who had the money to jet around and do a
tour of sites and gurus. Lucky ducky them. So what? They had the money to blow on but shallow
inclinations. So what? For most folks, buying a $10 used copy of “Talks” by Ramana Maharshi and
never reading it — it’s the same kinda ratio-money-wise deal. SAME. Most folks will not be able to
finish Ramana’s book if they’re shallow. But others will find they are hooked by it on ever
deepening the knowledge — as will SOME globe trotting Arunachala’s visitors. Some folks find
God on the cheap. Others pay through the nose.
Ultimately, it’s about.
Whatever is floating your boat.
Being found.
DIRECTLY UNDER YOUR BOAT.
Easily dived into.
No spoilers essay.
So I can’t tell you.
What can be seen.
In waters so clear.
Edg Duveyoung
What's your proof that God doesn’t exist?
An Advaitan jerk bats down arguments that God does not exist.
1. The suffering of innocent people — Who says they’re innocent? You? Did you know
them as they developed through their past lives? Even if there’s no such thing as
reincarnation, even if there’s no such thing as justice-karma, even if it’s a newborn baby
being tortured, I ask, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO ASSIGN ABSOLUTE VALUES?
Are you saying to me that YOU’RE GOD? Huh? Do you have the wisdom of a God? Did
you ever think that maybe just maybe God exists and asked of Heaven’s crew, “Does
anyone want to volunteer to be born on Earth and be this tortured baby, because it would
serve as a HUGE INSPIRATION to everyone to fight evil.” Maybe angels were lined up
around the cloud’s corner to have a chance to be that heroic baby. That baby may be
earning a spiritually historic merit badge. YOU DON’T KNOW. Off with that high hat and
stop with your peering down your long nose, and just get off your high horse. You look
silly up there.
2. Poorly “designed” universe — Says who? You? Pish tosh on you. How would you know?
Like you designed universes yourself? I suppose you think the Mona Lisa is meh, and yet
you’ve never even finished a coloring book. Go ask your local scientist if creation could
exist if the value of an electron varied by as little as .000000000000000001%.
3. What science doesn’t yet know is where belief in God begins — Like you know what
science knows. Science doesn’t even know what it knows. There could be many valid
experiments that prove God exists, but they’re not yet published. Mendel's pea plant
genetics experiments laid fallow in an obscure “nature journal” FOR 30 YEARS, before
other researchers discovered his work. He had single handedly done all the ground work.
That’s 30 years we are “now behind” in genetics today. There’s thousands of essays here
at Quora that discuss how to meditate and find God inside your head! And it can be
scientifically studied. But no one with a federal grant does such research. If you had a
billion bucks you’d ask science to research “hour-long orgasm pills.”
4. Inconsistency of religious values — So what? Maybe God wants more than one religion!
Why not? In virtually every area of the world the folks eat different food, dress differently,
speak differently, etc., and yet you think all the religions should have the same values? Go
jump in the lake. Even a four year old wouldn’t think that.
5. Miraculous creation of world — God merely wanted it, and “creation happened in six
days flat.” says the Bible. The Hindu concept is that Mother Divine started creation about
154 billion trillion years ago and only now are the sub-contractors finishing the job. Let’s
face it; if there is God, we’d expect this kind of boffo potency and long lifespan. So what
if any religion favors this or that “math” or this or those “natural laws?” Do you think
science has never had its math wrong? Ahem. If there is a God, wouldn’t it be righteous
to poetically exaggerate about God in hopes to actually conceptually approach God’s
beyond the beyond attributes which no human mind can comprehend? And what about
your next thought? It ain’t you creating it. You’re not on some inner “thought creation
committee.” Sounds like you’re a MENTALLY MIRACULOUS hypocrite. You produce
thoughts like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice made brooms. You’re magical but also swamped.
6. Existence of evil — Who says what is evil? You? You’re not wise enough to know if you
should even take your next step. Not kidding. If you take a step, you might crush an ant,
and that ant might have been heading the way of a starving spider who needed to eat
that ant to survive another day so it could then go on to capture a mosquito tomorrow,
but nooooo, now that mosquito will live instead and go on to infect YOUR LOVED ONE
with malaria. You stepped evilly. You don’t know evil. Ignorance is no excuse. So, as a
preventative, should God rub you out? So if a religion is giving some general guidelines
about how carefully we must spiritually tread in a relative universe — take a hike with your
“how to walk” advice. You don’t know evil, you don’t have God’s ken, and you don’t have
a divine plan. You have a “what I will do this weekend” plan. Shush.
7. Morality needs no religion — Says who? Have you read “The Lord of the Flies?” Just
asking. Religion is a scientifically valid method for curating wisdom and common sense.
“Don’t pee on an electric fence.” Why not teach a child this? “Don’t lie.” Why not teach a
child this? “There seems to be a basis for existence, and this basis tends to support
certain “ways of doing things.” — why not teach this? Up until about yesterday, religions
did most of the world’s teaching about everything. They know how to “getter done.” And
you want, what?, science to teach its knowledge instead? Knowledge like “Here’s some
thalidomide…best thing for ya.” Like that knowledge?
8. Where’s God? — Where’s the Pope? You say, “I can tell you where, but you can’t get to
meet the Pope. They just don’t let anyone do that for obvious reasons — “time use,”
“security,” and “propriety.“ To which I say, “I know where God is, and you refuse to look,
and there’s no one ahead of you in line. God’s easier to find than even a member of your
local city council. Meditate, find silence, study silence, find silence to be God singing.”
Will you try this? For maybe ten minutes . . . maybe. I don’t even whicha. If I smack you
hard enough to get you to wake up, I’ll put you in coma.
9. No growth in religion — Says who? You? You ever been in an ashram for ten years? Shut
up — just shut up. What? The person who goes to church one hour a week — this person
is the one by which to judge a religion’s impact?
10. God can’t create a rock He cannot lift — Says who? You? You’ve consulted God about
this specific paradox? God’s admitted to you, “Dang! You got Me there! My bad.” Nah,
didn’t happen. You’re just making up rules about God, and yet you ignore your nightly
experience during dreams that fully refute this argument by giving example after example
of “impossibilities” that none-the-less can exist in a dream. In a dream, you could visit
God and find there’s a jackalope on God’s lap, and then God goes, “I’m going to create a
rock I cannot lift.” Instantly a rock appears. It weighs infinity much. And God tries to lift it
and can’t. And everyone in the dream goes, “Well, so that happened. Go figure. It is what
it is.” Like this a yogi will tell you that waking life is also dreaming and in this waking life
we have equally accepted miracles that no one questions. A smartphone would have
gotten you burned at the stake a few hundred years ago. Today a smartphone is your
kid’s chew toy. A yogi will tell you, all the super-powers are possible, but almost no one
cares these days. Why fly like a bird when the weather’s bad and when you can call a
taxi?
Yeah, I know. I know. There’s some rebuttals for all my above responses. Do I look like I care? I’m
having fun here. If the above spurs even one other person to have even a few thoughts, I’m
pleased.
BREAKING NEWS.
This just in.
I’m the one person who has been spurred!
Edg Duveyoung
What is true nothingness?
It’s less than God is able to grasp with a magnifying glass and tweezers.
If you take away all the big important, vital, fundamental things like pistachio ice cream, there’s
still a lot of useless stuff left. Dust, microbes, planets, the two “darks,” and stars gotta go too if
you want to get down to nothing.
But then there’s all that radiation zipping around. So let’s delete every photon. What’s left? Let’s
toss the so-called quantum foam from which virtual particles pop “from nowhere.” Bye bye quarks
and strings and lions, oh my.
So that leaves what?
Let’s step into the mystical.
Let’s remove any objects of Universal Consciousness. All the astral stuff — deleted. There goes all
the gods and angels and all the other conceptual entities.
What remains?
Universal Consciousness is yet still conscious.
There’s a witness, and it can still “hear” OM (Being.)
That potential, that being able to “see a thought” — let’s toss the peeper.
Now we have a “field” of perfectly silent, “freed of witness,” Universal Consciousness which has
no activity — no thoughts, emotions, memories, etc. It is now the perfect reflector of awareness
which is transcendental — prior to consciousness. By stillness, (astral and causal,) Universal
Consciousness becomes “pure,” and to any instrumentality it is indistinguishable from awareness
— but yet it is, however itty, tarnished by being “manifest.” That residue is “Cosmic Ego.”
So, hey, toss Universal Consciousness! Just to be sure.
Awareness don nee no steenkeenk mirrors!
Are we down to nothing now?
Well, looks spotless, yup, but there’s still the fact that all those things once seamlessly resided in
awareness — then to become emergent phenomena of awareness. All that stuff could be
produced yet again. That doesn’t sound like awareness qualifies as nothing; nope; sounds like a
rich guy claiming poverty because he didn’t have cash in his wallet.
So how do we get rid of awareness to be sure we can get down to nothing?
Can’t.
If no tree did not fall in a non-existent forest, awareness would be there even when there’s no one
to not hear its non-thud.
Awareness is — even when isness has not yet been invented.
Awareness is beyond the existent and non-existent, beyond “merely real.”
Awareness is the only thing.
Awareness persists.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the purpose of life?
To get out of God’s hair.
Infinity was getting to be a pinch.
Everything was just sitting there getting dusty.
Names and forms were constantly mewing.
All the avatars were on their marks.
Unity was antsy pantsy.
Perfection was nonplussed about being unsussed.
Axioms were itchy for syllogistic absolutes.
Angels and demons were squared off — blissin’ and hissin.
White and black were jonesin’ for contrast.
Love was on tippy toes.
Higgs bosons wanted to substantiate.
Dreams wanted to insubstantiate.
Spirit wanted to transubstantiate.
So God had had it up to here.
“You kids are driving Me nuts!”
“Get outta the house until lunch is ready.”
So here we all are.
An ilk averaging four and a half years old.
Playing in the backyard.
Getting hands dirty.
Waiting for soup.
Purpose enough?
Purpose enough.
Edg Duveyoung
What is "being"?
Being is everything and nothing and all the other stuff too, but it’s not.
Paradox — it’s what’s for breakfast, second breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon nosh, dinner,
supper and late night aperitief. It’s all Being.
Except that it doesn’t include YOU. Remember that “or not to be” was the second
Shakespearean choice. “Not Being” is being “beyond Being.” That’s where you reside —
Perchanceville.
Being is a scam. It fraudulently offers you everything you think is you, but all of it ain’t. Being is
all the “false ways to pretend to be you.” All your personality features — past, present, and future
— reside in Being. Also crammed in Being are God’s “mind features” — every holy anything about
God is in Being. So you and God are like sardines. And, yep, something’s fishy. With God being so
sacred, and with you being so chummy with God, it’s looking kinda “Stockholm Syndromey” that
you think it would be good to be like God. Big mistake. Primal. It’s like God looking into a mirror,
seeing God, and saying, “I’d rather be My reflection.”
To be God or to be awareness — that is the question. That which is aware of God is beyond
God, beyond the grasp of omniscience. Awareness is the source of Being. Being only receives
from awareness “that which can be expressed.” All the rest is withheld. God’s mind, Being, is like
the poor 3rd cousin and wears the hand-me-down clothes of awareness.
But Being is the portal. That’s its value. It’s where to find the exit. We can play with our thoughts,
our dreams, and our deep rest, but none of them gets us free. So what we do is quieten those
modes, and enter Being, and just sit there and refuse to budge and hope Deus Ex Machina saves
us. We don’t demand that Being whip up some new confection to divert. We just sit there. Being
well knows it cannot produce “true identity.” It’s a spiritual contest. Being will “win” by diverting
you a zillion times. Doesn’t matter — if you even win once, it means you escape the system
FOREVER!
Meanwhile, hey, residing in Being is bliss! How’s that for not being able to lose when you’re
waiting for a win?
Being — reside and abide as you hide from pride.
Not-Being — awareness of awareness of awareness but without the threeness.
Edg Duveyoung
What is Maya?
Maya saves us from our deepest fear.
You thinkin’ maybe you could handle that fear? I’m ready to facilitate.
But firstly, as a qualifier, let me ask:
“Are you prepared to be
. . . absolutely
. . . . . . utterly
. . . . . . . . . infinitely
. . . . . . . . . . . . afraid as can be?”
Nah, ya ain’t.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, don’t even start. Sit down you thrill seekers with your near death stories. Yeah,
so your reserve chute didn’t open. Yeah, so your bungee cord broke. Yeah, so you told Joe Pesci
that he amused you. Just shush. Merely a death possibility was all you processed? Ahem. Those
are kiddie fears. Meh.
You don’t want to know what could be worse. Nah ya don’t.
I’m saying you personally don’t want to know “worse.”
I’m saying you can hardly bear to even conceptually know about the worse.
I hear ya snickering. You think you can handle the truth.
We all snicker. We all think, “I could handle it.”
Nah, we can’t.
Do you know who else couldn’t handle merely knowing what’s worse?
Arjuna.
—Is your mind as clear as Arjuna’s?
—Is your heart as resolute as Arjuna’s?
—Is your body as quantum-level trained and fit as Arjuna’s?
His were, but after he got a glance at truth, what happened?
“ . . . bewildered and astonished, his hair standing on end, “
“ . . . my mind is perturbed by fear.”
“ . . . I can no longer maintain my steadiness or equilibrium of mind.”
“ . . . I cannot keep my balance .“
“ . . . In all directions I am bewildered.”
“ . . . my mind is disturbed with fear.”
Arjuna
—Ace warrior in the previous yuga
—Could shoot down, mid-air, 10,000 arrows shot at him.
—Could speak to a leaf and make it “go fetch.”
Yet he blinked. And by “blinked” I mean “almost puked.”
He saw it all
—Every way to die
—Every accomplishment erased
—Every right action for naught
—Every intent worthless
——- for all the people past, present and future.
And worse still
All the souls evaporated.
The world ended.
The Gods dissolved.
Arjuna saw WITH CERTAINTY all the above.
He knew, for a few moments, and his fuse blew.
Lord Krishna had to “return Arjuna’s mind to normal.”
Arjuna had to return to ignorance lest he be crisped.
He had to put Maya between himself and The Supreme.
THAT’S MAYA — Sunglasses
As usual, Sri Ramana Maharaj already said it.
With less words and a lot more scary.
“Maya is that which makes us regard as non-existent the Self, the Reality, which is always and
everywhere present, all-pervasive and self-luminous, and as existent the individual soul (jiva), the
world (jagat), and God (para) which have been conclusively proved to be non-existent at all times
and places.”
Edg Duveyoung
What does the Bible mean by "the wages of sin is death"?
There’s only one sin — identifying with thoughts.
Pay attention to God, or die. And by “die,” I mean suicide.
Let’s pretend that you’re in a crowd, and suddenly God appears in a whoosh. Everyone instantly
knows God is God — no quibbling possible. You’re so close that you can see individual flecks of
color in God’s eyes. Hearts are buckling at the knees just to hear God’s voice. God’s teaching a
new truth that no scripture has ever revealed. And then the guy next to you whispers, “I sure could
do me with some pistachio ice cream right about now.”
Talk about your “78 rpm vinyl record scratching to a halt” moments! We might all agree that the
guy is a daft twit, but we gotta ask, “Does he deserve death for this “sin,” this “doofus infraction?”
God is the Self.
I shall now suss at will.
Can’t stop me.
The Self is a part of every aspect of life.
If the Self is not there, life is not there.
The Self is life. What has no Self is a zombie.
If the Self isn’t there to observe, then who’s going to hear the sound of one hand clapping? The
Self gives a “stamp of reality” to anything. Even those Zen claps. The Self is God. To turn ones
face from God is to die on purpose.
To ignore God
To not always be aware of God
To not be in harmony with God
To instead find yourself eating pistachio ice cream
Is that not death?
Self is God.
Self is Silence.
God is Self.
God is Silence.
Silence is God.
Silence is Self.
To wit:
We close the eyes, and the Self is there as God’s silence.
The silence immediately felt when the eyes close is God’s Self.
It’s not full Self, but it’s enough silence to begin to know God intimately.
That initial silence is but a faint hint of God’s full glory, the Self.
Any silence is enough to point the Self at God.
Meditators catch silence now and then. It’s enough.
God’s identity flickers in the distance, just often enough, to be sure we’re ever nearing The
Source.
Following it like a trace of perfume, we waft.
We relax into it. Just kick back and watch to see how things go when one is not messing around
with it all. And. then, to find everything running smoothly without you — what a relief, eh?
No wonder saints smile.
When God’s doing everything.
One is unemployed.
No job.
No wages.
No death!
And and and and NO TO-DO LISTS!
Edg Duveyoung
Can you help me to understand the word 'Ananda' in 'Sath Chith Ananda'?
Mmmmm, the bliss of hearing The Beatles playing One After 909 on the rooftop during the bliss of
watching The Fifth Element as I have the bliss of eating pistachio ice cream while blissfully petting
my male calico cat and blissfully smelling the bread aromas wafting from the French bakery down
the street and blissfully contemplating “awareness is prior to consciousness” and blissfully feeling
love for my nearby babe.
That jumps the shark, eh? We can’t fully enjoy all the pleasures simultaneously. There’s only just
so much that can be crammed into the now. Everything in a sardine can ain’t “cozy.” Only God has
a mind that can handle cosmic simultaneity. This is the problem with bliss.
So how does a human being appreciate bliss if only God’s nervous system can do it without
blowing a fuse? Why can’t we have it all simultaneously too? Is it too much to ask for exactly
everything? Just asking for a friend.
God answers, “I invented time. I invented space. I give you it all nicely spread out in a perfect act
of merchandising, but nooooooo, not good enough for you. If I had a nickle for every time I’ve
kicked Myself for creating that ‘more please’ dynamic in humans, I’d be richer than Scrooge
McDuck. Even microbes don’t overeat, but these humans! What was I thinking?”
So, instead of punching you out, God doubled down on the “more please.”
God said, “Ask again, and you’ll get nothing.”
We said, “Say what? Wait. Can we talk about this. No need to overreact.”
God, “Nope. That’s the deal. You’re saying, ‘I want everything delivered yesterday like there’s no
tomorrow.’ So now I’m telling you it ain’t scheduled for tomorrow either.”
What to do?
How to get around GOD’S BIG STUPID FAT RULES?
Let’s ask for suggestions.
Lord Vishnu: “Don’t ask Me when I’m sleeping. Duh!”
Lord Brahma: “Don’t ask Me. I couldn’t even find the bottom of a plant’s root. And My four mind-
born sons thumbed their noses at Me.”
Lord Indra: “Don’t ask Me. I had it all, and it wasn’t enough, and I went a little nutzoid there for
awhile. Attacked Baby Krishna. Not My finest hour.”
Lord Buddha: “I had it all and escaped it by jumping over the back wall of My dad’s palace.
Whew! Close one. Believe you Me — you don’t want to mess with anything, cuz it’s always
connected to everything, and everything is what you don’t want. What you want to want is to not
want so much that you’re not even wanting to not want wanting. You gotta stop with the grab
hands.”
Lord Jesus: “A guy offered Me everything. Told him to get behind Me.”
Well, that didn’t go well.
Let’s keep asking.
Sri Ramana Maharshi: “There are no objects to be seen when the 'I' is absent. For all these
reasons it may undoubtedly be said that everything comes out of the Self and goes back to the
Self.”
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: “Hold on to the sense 'I am' to the exclusion of everything else. When
thus the mind becomes completely silent, it shines with a new light and vibrates with new
knowledge. It all comes spontaneously, you need only hold on to the 'I am'.”
Ah, so that’s the trick.
1. Reduce the mind’s activity,
2. Discover the self is the source of everything,
3. Realize you already have everything.
That’s bliss for ya.
Bliss as obvious as Amalaki fruit on your palm.
Ya got it.
Ya don’t need it.
But, just in case, yeah, ya got it.
Edg Duveyoung
Meditators: what is the difference between consciousness and thought?
The single down: It’s the difference between this dot . and this dot .
The two dots are not the same dot. Right?
Even in your mind, those two dots are separate mental events. Right?
The double-down is that the dots are “nothing” and appear as black somethings compared to the
surrounding pixels of your screen. How can two nothings be two somethings that are identical but
not the same something? Headache yet?
The triple-down is that, wait, better take a couple headache tablets first, because now it’s gunna
get silly, and we all know how our intellects will just throw a fit in which cognitive dissonance
climbs Yikes Pique. The triple-down is that all differences are the same as the no differences of
those two dots.
To be absurd:
An asteroid and an aardvark and an avalanche are not different entities.
There’s no such thing as two things.
Distinctions are sinful.
You are God.
I’d be here all day to explain those absurdities. You’re going to have to work all that out for
yourself, after I’ve told you the basic low down, the skinny, and inconceivable but reasonably sorta
expressed truth. Which is — IT’S ALL AWARENESS. And now you know. You day has been made.
You’re welcome.
This truth becomes actually practical in the teachings of Pantanjali. He taught how to train the
mind to dissolve distinctions, so that the unity of awareness could be realized. In fact, Patanjali
actually discusses how important it is for the mind to be able to tell the differences between this
dot . and this dot . I’M NOT KIDDING. Read: How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali. I
won’t tell you where in that book this dotty issue is discussed. Yes, I’m forcing you to do the whole
book. Ha!
The quadruple down is that the imagined is also real. Jackalopes too? Jackalopes too. In your
nightly dreams, you could conjure up a jackalope. Easy peasy. And in that dream, every person in
it would think it ordinary to have a nice horny bunny for a pet. Why not? Mr. Tips would eat
rainbow carrots but of course. And yes, a jackalope is as real as a jackahammer and a jackaknife.
It’s all the same chuff chuff chuff of your train of thoughts. Any rose by any name would still be a
thought.
The quintuple down is that thought is therefore consciousness, but it’s important to know the
difference first.
Sixth down is that this list never ends. Even after unity is established — with utter disregard for
paradox —understanding forever refines. It keeps getting sussed. Thoughts indicate the presence
of consciousness. Consciousness without thoughts indicates being. Being indicates awareness.
Awareness is independent of being. Awareness is independent of identity. EACH INSTANT.
Seventh? No seventh for you! If I continue, you’d disappear and then who’d read my next essay?
Edg Duveyoung
What are your suggestions for some new ideas about life in general? It may be your
own or may come from philosophy or mysticism or other areas of inquiry. I'm looking
for something I haven't seen before that is interesting, obscure or new.
It’s all a fuzzy blur.
No certainty for you. (see exception below)
Life’s not a coloring book with nice thick lines.
I’m an inventor. One of my inventions is a board game — a word game in which players form words
that “invade” territories — Scrabble & Risk combo. It had a set of 20 rules. As I came up with
them, each rule had to be “tried out” to see if it made the game more fun or . . . instead, harder, a
slog, too easy, excelsior, frustrating, etc. I had to winnow a “brainstormed set of 50 rules” to
remove the chaff to discover the 20 that “worked with each other.”
But see? I could have added more rules or less, and the game play would have been maybe but
slightly affected. The final rule set was seemingly “honed,” but it was “me being arbitrary.” The
game was “about” what I wanted. If I had given it more thought, I probably could have come up
with 100 rules to winnow and maybe could have found a couple more rules that improved the
game even more. But “I got lazy.”
This is how everyone invents everything. We “about” our way through life.
You personalize and arbitrarily winnow your definitions.
— Your apple — could be red, green, yellow, sweet, sour, crisp, or candied.
— Your car — could be any color, any size, any price, any quality.
— Your computer — could be a nanobot, a smartphone, a mainframe, a super.
— Your hot sauce? Bicycle? Rose? Dog? Vacation? Marriage? Life?
See? There’s no end to anything. There’s always another rule or another apple quality or new type
of bike inner tube nozzle. Whatever.
You could be happier, right? You could examine your set of “person rules” and come up with many
more “to try out.”
Sounds like too much work.
How about you just say, “This is about what I need.” “I’m going to call it.” “I’m about together.” “I’m
close enough.” “I can live with this.” “I’m at a comfort point in my diminishing returns.” “My Peter
Principle point is passed.” “I’ll keep these cards and stand pat.” “All things considered, this’ll do.”
The wise say, “Ain’t no gettin’ it nailed down.” “You don’t have to figure it out to get it figured.”
“God can just be fuzzy and that’s okay.”
But if you gotta just gotta come up with something nobody but nobody ever thought ever, there is
a way.
Here: Edg Duveyoung's answer to How can you consciously use your subconscious mind’s access
to your deeper libraries of knowledge? I have great ideas come to me when I'm falling asleep or
waking up. In sleep, a character will say something profound, or bring light to an old memory.
Edg Duveyoung
How much does the average atheist know about God to justify denying his existence?
I didn’t believe in God three times.
1. I was 12 years old, and I didn’t want to go to church. Told my parents I didn’t believe in
God. “Can’t see Him.” They went to services without me. The next Sunday, I was a
believer again.
2. Then at 20 years old, I scoffed at the “God notion.” Because, I was in college didn’tcha
know! My opinions were so hep! And later, years wiser at age 22, I started wearing bell
bottom pants, and two years after that it was leisure suits! Did I have game or what?
3. I’ll reveal later.
See? I’m fairly smart, and I have always thought of myself — even at 12 years old — as a “thinker.” I
was writing short stories by then, and I was pretty sure I was right about everything, because, hey,
I was an author! I thought I was a logical person, and that my opinions were solidly founded. And
ten times especially that prideful at age 20.
So, now, today, 54 years of thinking later, I ask, “Just how deep was I?”
And I answer: “At 20, I had maybe a couple few thoughts about atheism.”
THAT WAS IT.
See? I was smug and simply awarded myself a merit badge. Two plus two was four. “No
observations of God doing stuff” (two) “I should not believe in what cannot be measured.” (plus
two) “I don’t believe in God.” (equals four.)
And done. Yeah I was that pathetic.
Sorry, but for this ink-blot test item, I can’t project much more than:
— “A typical atheist has not really thought about the issue.”
— “I think they don’t think like I didn’t think.”
Of course, there are some atheists with very big brains who are serious and have deeply dug the
issue — and yet they but facetiously conclude. We can’t take them seriously.
Why? Because big-brained atheists with truly superior intellects refuse to admit they are looking
for God where every scripture in history has told them not to look. That’s a confirmation bias —
“debate immorality.”
God is beyond, but they’re screaming, “God must be here.”
God is silence, but they demand, “God must speak!”
God is transcendental, but they insist, “God must be material.”
God is pure love, but they require, “God must have favorites.”
God is self, but they stipulate, “God must to be outside and visible.”
God is ineffable, but they ask, “Where in the F is God?”
And on and on.
Yet, experimentally, scientifically, logically, God is HERE and available for examination. If any
atheist wants proof of God’s existence, easy peasy.
Heh, I can see the bristling hoard now — on my front lawn with pitchforks and feathers and tar, oh
my. “Show us God or you’re a scheming low down no count no good rotten vile Quoran
perpetrator.”
See the passion there?
That’s so obviously a prayer in progress.
They’re so hungry for God they’re angry.
“Give us God right now, or we’ll turn purple holding our collective breath.”
It’s adorable.
The solution. Take your local atheist by the scruff of the neck, drag them to the place where they
left their most recent pile of denial, and forcefully rub their nose in it like a pee-guilty puppy. Say,
“Bad atheist bad!”
What we do is challenge the atheist to close their eyes for ONE MINUTE. and then ask if they felt
“some relaxation,” “some lessening,” “some settling down,” “some easing,” “some restfulness,” you
know, some. Not a lot, just some.
Of course they’ll say, “Yes.”
Then quickly say, “That’s God.”
Then ask, “Want more of that?”
Then promise: “That tidbit of peace you just now felt can deepen unendingly.”
3. I stopped believing God exists when I found Advaita. My 430 essays on Quora prove that God
doesn’t exist. Advaita is the professional atheist’s religion. Advaita insists that God is beyond
existing or not existing. To say God is real is to besmirch God. It lessens God to assign “reality” as
the only place for God.
As if. As F’n if.
Silence is observed by closing the eyes and is all the proof required. Anyone can become a
scientist and examine “the silence within,” to see if it has limits. Anyone can study silence within
by using the piece of lab equipment called “my feelings-ometer.” We measure silence with it. We
are all experts about this. “I was calm.” “I was very calm.” “I’d never been so calm.” These are
actual experimental observations. We can measure “the encroachment of silence.”
That increase in decreasing is obvious.
Follow it.
It’s the Mellow Brick Road to Ahs.
Edg Duveyoung
Do you have an example of when you successfully manifested what you wanted?
Everyone gets EXACTLY what they want 100% of the time.
If the ego denies this, derisive laughter is an acceptable response.
Sorry, but compared to the glory of ones moment by moment manifestations, “egoic wishing” and
getting a “maybe it happened” response is pitifully impractical when it comes to garnering
fulfillment.
This is about recognizing the divine gifts that are constantly being given to one. Not mere gifts
but “Russian Nesting Dolls” gifts within gifts within gifts. Every moment of consciousness, if
inspected, reveals layer after layer of ever more subtly detailed indices of God’s purport.
You want more? At the “All The Reality You Can Eat” restaurant, you can’t handle the more. You
can’t loosen your belt that much.
I’m not being poetic. This isn’t mood making hyperbole. Every instant of living is infinity afoot, and
all of it is accessible. Every mind produces thoughts that are but the mere executive summaries of
the full reports available. Tips of icebergs each and all.
Your each thought is a tip of the entirety.
It goes like this.
Awareness manifests God Who imagines perfection.
Your thoughts are part of that perfection.
If you examine this “truth distribution system,” you will validate its wisdom.
Meditate and gradually learn how to settle the mind down such that its subtle foundation is
appreciated. As one gets quieter, one begins to realize that one profoundly agrees with what is.
The more deeply life is grasped as each new doll is discovered, the more life is found to be, as if,
ONES OWN DOING. Life can be found to be perfect — to be so well-tuned that you suspect that
only you could have known you well enough to know to give it to yourself. But it’s better than that,
because God saved you all the work of shopping and wrapping. Each thought is a gift from God
Who firstly asked, “What next can I give to this person to whom I want to give everything?” God’s
polite. Doesn’t want to overwhelm. So God decides which gift is next.
You’ve done this — you’ve said to a friend, “Here’s two gifts. Open this one first, then the other
one.” Suchly does God love to order your thoughts to maximize your delight!
But but but, there’s the ego buying a lottery ticket. “Just let me win, and then I’ll show you what I
want then oh boy yes will I!” That’s like stomping through a vast field of flowers to get to the florist
to buy a dandelion. Imagine God’s patience with humans.
We are cautioned:
“Only contentment can make you happy -- desires fulfilled breed more desires. Keeping away
from all desires and contentment in what comes by itself is a very fruitful state -- a precondition
to the state of fullness. Don't distrust its apparent sterility and emptiness. Believe me, it is the
satisfaction of desires that breeds misery. Freedom from desires is bliss.” Nisargadatta
Long long ago, I asked this guy, “Can you give me an example of psychokinesis?”
He used his hand and arm to pick up a glass of water.
Like that everything can be seen as having a divine origin.
Awareness = God = Perfection manifested orderly = glass lifted.
It’s always psychokinesis down to the tiniest doll.
But wait, toss all the above. Let’s give the ego what it wants.
If you really want to get wishes granted, there’s a trick.
Just whisper.
We don’t yell at God if we want a gift. That’d be rude, eh?
So we get quiet. As quiet as we can by sitting eyes closed for a few minutes. The superficial fades.
In the quietness, make your wish. And done. If the new Bugatti doesn’t appear in your driveway
with a big red bow on it, look for a “yellow brick thought” appearing in your mind. The road to the
Bugatti will begin there.
The deeper your mind’s silence, the shorter the road.
The deepest mind gets the Bugatti instantly.
The kicker:
If you meditate regularly, all roads to anywhere shorten.
The obvious advice:
Wish for God and find that a Bugatti has the value of a Matchbox car.
Edg Duveyoung
In his book "I Am That" Nisargadatta responds to a statement about God with "You
think God knows about you? Even the world He does not know." How do you interpret
this?
Knowledge is sin.
Eve — apple — Knowing anything is ignoring God.
Sita — Ravana — Knowing evil leaves a stain on your soul.
Moses — staff — Personalizing knowledge is a mortal sin.
Shukadeva — Vyasa — Enlightenment is not purifying.
Knowing something blocks knowing everything.
God is God — let no concept attempt to put God in a box. To know even one thing is like keying
your new Maserati. (“Not a biggie. It’s only a line on an otherwise unmarred car. Hardly
noticeable.”) Ahem.
Eve wanted to know an apple’s taste. She keyed her Maserati. Ruined unity and got a fig leaf
addiction. Instead of dwelling with Being (God) Eve choose to attend an object of consciousness
(the illusory.) Doofus Adam said to himself, “Where my rib goes, I go, besides, I may have lost my
innocence but not my virginity. If I don’t leave the Garden of Eden with this babe, I’ll never get
laid.”
Sita was 100% innocent, but her reputation was besmirched by merely knowing Ravana. For a
year she had to resist evil, and that was enough “attending evil” such that it amounted to keying
her perfection with a merely imaginary line. When she returned — otherwise sinless — the
villagers murmured. Even fire could not purify Sita enough to stop the murmuring. Lord Rama’s
fame (a king can’t righteously rule without it) had a cloud over it. He had to send Sita to Hell in
order to maintain dharma.
Moses got angry, and his ego used his divine staff instead of allowing God’s word to get water
out of a rock. He stepped out of communion. He said, “Let me do it!” Just one sin — one — is all it
takes for a whole life of pious leadership to be keyed. So, symbolically, the ego of Moses was not
allowed into the promise land lest his one sin then stain the new heaven.
Shukadeva walked naked in front of the bathing celestial nymphs, and they didn’t cover
themselves, because he didn’t have even a speck of desire, but when Shukadeva’s dad, Veda
Vyasa, came along, clothed and actually the most enlightened sage possible, the celestial nymphs
freaked out — because he’d once had carnal knowledge and could now no longer be trusted.
Vyasa was keyed. Shukadeva didn’t know. What didn’t he know? He didn’t know he was an
individual. He walked around nude without identifying with his mind. No line of demarcation for
Shukadeva.
So, no, we don’t want God to know us. We don’t want to know God if the price is that we separate
from unity and are then singled out and as if saying, “Look at me. Look at my mind. My
individuality is equal to God’s. Let God attend me for a change. I’m somebody. I define my own
realness. I’m primal.” When put like that, ugh, eh?
Bottom line is that God would sin too if God singled out anyone in particular. Particularity is keying.
God wouldn’t do that to God.
Instead, you’re seamlessly within God’s being. Not there but there if there were a there there. As
we reside in silence, in union, in being, we become pure once again WITHOUT KNOWING IT.
Mental nudity is holy.
Two lessons
1. Knowing is discriminatory.
2. Being ain’t keying.
Edg Duveyoung
Why are Nisargadatta Maharaj's books so hard to understand even if we read one line
like 10 times?
No certainty for you.
Or anyone.
The intellect is expected to “nail it.” But in real life what happens is that we say, “Close enough.
Next!”
Example: One plus one equals two.
Most folks say, “Yep. True as true can be.”
But the mathematician knows that it’s only true “if.” Most folks just don’t care enough about
“exceptions to the rules.” When you were asked, “How old are you?” when you were 25 months
old, they taught you to hold up two fingers.
No arithmetical precision required!
Despite the unsolvable three body problem, we can get to the Moon.
Put firecracker under tin can. Aim at Moon. Light the fuse. Get high up and re-aim and light
another firecracker. Repeat as necessary. No absolutes needed.
And this is the case always in all things.
So to get to the Moon of what Nisargadatta said, repeat as necessary.
I’ve spent 50 years trying to understand Nisargadatta’s strongest truth.
“Awareness is prior to consciousness.” So far, my essays amount to holding up two fingers. And
his books are crammed with every sentence being ceaselessly revealing. The guy was scriptural.
I’ve written maybe a thousand essays about “what Nisargadatta meant.” You’d think I’d get it down
to one solid paragraph by now, eh?
And the bad news is that the heart also cannot conclude.
Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances.
You fall in love, but the decision is sketchy.
What to do? How to be perfect? Precise? Certain?
Nisargadatta Maharaj: There are levels in consciousness, but not in awareness. It is of one block,
homogeneous. Its reflection in the mind is love and understanding. There are levels of clarity in
understanding and intensity in love, but not in their source. The source is simple and single, but its
gifts are infinite. Only do not take the gifts for the source; realize yourself as the source and not as
the river; that is all.
See how wonderful? God does not stint. Your river of wisdom will ever flow. What you put your
attention will expand. Ask and it shall be given. Knock and the door opens.
Reread the words of Nisargadatta, as necessary, and you’ll find it necessary . . . and thrilling.
What’s not to love about ever deepeningness?
So if anyone asks you if you understand Nisargadatta, hold up two fingers.
Edg Duveyoung
How do you get to know yourself?
Which self?
The false self cannot be known.
The true self cannot be known.
Take your pick!
The false self is the personality which constantly changes. New features arise out of left field; it’s
de rigor. Modern psychology can’t predict anyone’s next thought. Knowing ones potential is
impossible even with today’s psychometric instruments. Structures evolve — almost no one stays
the same — obsessions dwindle — new certainties pop up like weeds. Whole careers can become
as embarrassing as bell bottom pants. Ask anyone at age 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100
“Who are you?” Every decade is a new person. The good news is that we’d all be bored if we knew
ourselves so well that we were predictable. Nice to be surprised and roll with it. Own it.
The true self cannot be known, but one can be the self, and that’s better. Awareness is the true
self. It’s transcendent — beyond concept. It is the sole identity of all sentient beings — on Earth or
in Creation or beyond Creation. Awareness is the source of “being.” That’s “being” as in “human
being.” Ask any human, “Whatcha doin’?” “Being” is the true answer. A human who is being is an
entity that obtains humanness from being. Likewise other beings. A dog is a being that processes
doggy possibilities. Etc. From being the various entities download their feature sets. Instant by
instant — but less predictably than dice tossed inside Schrodinger's Box. The good news is that
awareness unendingly supplies “content” to being with such plenitude that each next moment is
100% unique. Kinda hard to get to know the self that manifests so profoundly.
So there’s no way to know either self.
Unless you can pull off the “Schrodinger Clarity.”
It’s said Schrodinger was asked, “How one can one have free will if physics only finds
deterministic laws?” He said, “If I’m God, then I invented the laws of nature, so that when a law is
applied it is my will being obeyed.”
That’s you. If it happens — you willed it. You’re everything at the ready. If the situation calls for it,
there’s a “you” waiting in the wings to walk on stage. That you is the you-you. Want to know
yourself? — read comics or scriptures or the phone book — throw a dart — that’s you if that you is
required by God.
And when I say “God,” I mean “God God.”
And by “God God” I mean “Someone who knows if that boxed cat is dead yet.”
Edg Duveyoung
What is the hardest part about meditating or learning to meditate?
Originally Answered: Is it difficult to learn meditation?
UNLEARN MEDITATION.
You’re God’s captured audience. It’s God’s fault that your whole life is mentally focusing on each
next thought. You don’t miss even a single thought. You’re obsessed with the mind’s products.
Addicted is too mild a word for it.
God was just being God, and outta nowhere, the notion came up, “What would it be like if I
duplicated Myself but selectively limited the powers of these “editions?” What would all the
“lesser gods” do if they didn’t have My wisdom and other divine attributes? Guess I’ll think about
all that and find out.”
So God — RIGHT NOW — is meditating, and IT’S IN 3D, and here you are, a divine dupe, I mean
duplicate, who is experiencing, on behalf of your inner mini-God, how to be imperfect. Every
mistake you make, God goes, “Ahhh, yeah, I see that now. Yep. That’s what would go kablooey
alright. Of course! No wonder I enjoy being a complete God. This poor minion knows not what’s
what, and it’s just so fascinating.”
Huh?
Sorry, but, um no, that’s not fun.
Whattaya say let’s don’t?
Let’s reverse-meditate!
Let’s kick our inner mini-God’s habit.
We, the innocent, have had it!
Gang — we are doing a divine intervention!
Let’s find a way to stop attending thoughts — even now when the thoughts keep coming — even
though it’s our inner mini-God Who wants to attend the thoughts.
What to do?
The secret about thoughts is that they’re illusory. They’re only real like desert mirage water is wet.
So, when ending this addiction, there are no withdrawal symptoms. Nice, eh? It’s an all time
feature of ordinary life to go without thinking about almost all the topics of existence. We don’t
feel any lack. We don’t break out in sweating and violent convulsions. Instead, we say, “Oh, yeah,
that topic. Haven’t thought about that yet. I’ll get back to you.” No pain, see? We don’t miss
thoughts if we’re not having them.
There’s no cold turkey.
So, we close the eyes and just abide. The thoughts will come and go — instant by instant, but we
know they’ve got zero value. We just let them whoosh along like traffic by our nicely shaded park
bench as we keep our dyslexic dog on a leash when it wants to bite hubcaps. “There there, Fido.
It’s okay. We’ll chase cars later. We’ll just sit here for a spell.”
So we abide and what happens? The mind says, “I’ve offered topic after topic from sex thoughts
to pistachio ice cream thoughts to more sex and back to pistachio ice cream and then sex and
then pistachio ice cream. All that wide range of notions, and yet still, this person isn’t buying my
wares. This person abides. What a dude! What can I offer that will get this person’s attention once
again on my products?”
And then, coming up empty, the mind quits.
“No use pumping out thoughts that don’t have an audience.”
And voila! that’s what the person wants — the silence.
— the rest, the down time, the self without confetti.
And instead of wallowing in a pique of unrequited needs, we go, “ahhh.”
How’s that for withdrawal symptoms?
Sounds kinda rewardish, don’t it?
Edg Duveyoung
What is your opinion on different levels of consciousness?
Quark Consciousness is a bit too hectic.
Proton Consciousness is so lonely.
Atom Consciousness is downright dervishly dizzying.
Molecule Consciousness is Hungry Hippos for electrons.
Cell Consciousness is certainty of a unique intent.
Tissue Consciousness is an esprit de’corps harmony.
Organ Consciousness is knowing the needs of the whole.
Body Consciousness is sufficient individuality.
Body/Mind Consciousness is sentience.
Body/Mind/Self Consciousness is human.
Self Predominates Consciousness is enlightenment.
Self Predominates Sensory Input Consciousness is God Consciousness.
Self Solely Seen Consciousness is Unity Consciousness.
Self Without Witness Consciousness is BRAHMAN.
And that’s just ONE INSTANT. Does God have a to-do list or what? All that just so you can know
it’s the end of this sentence when you see its final dot . No matter the insignificance of its
significance, the least speck will yet get DIVINE ATTENTION. Yours.
Your attention is God’s. And don’t miss that you don’t miss a thing. Those fresh out of awareness
quarks of yours are beloved and held like swathed newborns. The sheer expanse of
consciousness is completely yours. And you have the freedom to be any or all of it. You can be the
stupidest quark or the smartest deity. You can just reside in the middle of this glory, or you can
explore the extremes. Be everything. Or be neutrino #498,438,829 after the Big Bang.
This truth — consider how it validates you at this exact moment.
You decided to be here and be who you are here.
Must be a good reason, eh? Have you told yourself yet?
It’s a reason that is certain to be holistically holy and specifically sacred. Your worst is perfection
or your best is the worst or the other way around or both. No matter your mix, you wanted this.
And that includes the ills, ilks and icks of humanness. Including you know what.
Leonardo da Vinci traveled around and took his Mona Lisa with him as a work in progress. For
years. And they say he would stand before the painting for half an hour and gaze upon it until
finally, he would use his most dainty brush to put the smallest speck of paint — right where it was
missing.
That’s how you roll too.
Hardly ain’t nothing as here-and-gone as a thought, but there you are inspecting each one. And if
you need to “dab a bit of missing you” into the mind, you do. You’re the genius that paints this
artwork — your consciousness. When you meet your friends, they are entering your gallery —
where you are nicely framed and well lit with just the right amount of white space. Heh, you do
curate yourself, eh? Some paintings left in the back room maybe, eh? Heh. That’s perfect too. We
humans are so chuckle-worthy.
But yeah, you’re God, and you prefer ALL THE STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS. Each one is integral
— infinitely referential. At your deepest level, this is absolutely understood. You are as you are, and
who you next become is another improvement added to your Mona. You’ve been working on your
smile for decades. You so mysterious!
So there. I just showed how you’re a da Vinci class sentient entity presently located in the Milky
Way Galaxy — on a planet that God recently put on the cosmic canvas.
Just a small dab of a planet, but there must be a good reason.
Edg Duveyoung
Why do people like silence?
Nothing fulfills like nothing.
People only seek silence.
Constant wanting.
Incessant longing.
Endless yearning.
We are tortured.
Desire is pain.
You want some pistachio ice cream?
You want a super-car?
You want sex, money, fame?
Whoa! So much so many so MOAR!
The sole solution to this agony is silence.
No matter the desire, silence is the sought.
No matter what you seek, silence is what satisfies.
How do you know when a desire has been fulfilled?
When you enjoy silence. DUH!
The mind is bothered by “screaming in your ear” desires.
We want to SILENCE desires. Make them quiet.
OLD SCHOOL METHOD:
I’ll show you! Just you wait! I know what to do about desire for ice cream. What I’ll do is set my
alarm clock, wake up, shower, comb my hair, get dressed, go to work, earn money, wait until 5 pm,
go to car, go to store, find ice cream, buy ice cream, go to car, put ice cream in car, get in car,
start car, drive car, mind the traffic, get home, park car, get out of car, go into house, unpack the
grocery bags, find ice cream, put ice cream in freezer, wait until after dinner is eaten, get ice
cream out of freezer, use all my strength to get one half of a teaspoon of ice cream per attempt
out of the rock hard block of pistachio ice cream, get a bowl full of spooned halves, go to couch,
get TV going, take first bite.
THERE! Bother me will ya?
I ate a whole pint of pistachio ice cream!
Take that you lousy ice cream agony!
Make me hanker for hours will ya?
Take that! Showed you!
I silenced ya!
————————————
Really? Seriously?
All that for that one stupid desire?
Yo, u so crazy!
Dooood, come on.
I mean really.
Look at you.
You’re doing ten hours of slavery to get that first bite.
What? Now you’re looking at me like I’m crazy to brace you about this?
You’re shackled to a thousand desires. Your life’s excruciating slavering.
Your state is abject addiction. Your obscene groveling is for trivialities.
NEW SCHOOL METHOD:
You can cheat. You can hack the system.
Just directly go to the silence within!
Done deal! Grab all you want. Take all you can carry!
Plenty for all. Tell your friends!
“Come and get it! We don’t have to eat work flavored ice cream no mo.”
Want to know what it’s like to drive up to a red carpet in your gold plated, super-charged, tricked
out, Bugatti with your world famous significant other on your arm with both of you dressed to the
nines with three pounds of bling as the crowd roars approval as you are handed a bowl of
pistachio ice cream?
Close the eyes.
That’s how it feels.
Not kidding.
Totally serious!
Bugattied silence is ordinary silence.
When they say, “It doesn’t get better than this!” they’re usually as exhausted as Sir Edmund
Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
I prefer my arduous efforts to be snuggling into a comfy chair.
And besides, no way I get my Bugatti to the top of Everest.
Edg Duveyoung
Advait Vedanta says there is only one soul called as Brahman, and all souls are
manifested from same Brahman and will get merged in it finally. What will happen to
individual identities?
Where are you right now?
Answer: inside God’s mind.
God is imagining you, and, go figure, continues to “do you.” Why? Why would God create and
continue to create you? Is God joking around? I mean, look at you — you’re a hot mess! Don’t
make me list your issues. You make mistakes by the psychic ton. You have “small minded intents.”
You spiritually lurch. You’re no angel. You’re no saint. And “You’re no Jack Kennedy.”
But there you are. God keeps you going. For decades now, you’ve been manufactured instant by
instant — materializing out of nothing at God’s refresh rate — instant after instant. Ratta-tat-tat.
Here. Maintained for an instant. Gone. Here. Maintained for an instant. Gone. Here. Maintained for
an instant. Gone. Here. Maintained for an instant. Gone. Here. Maintained for an instant. Gone.
What’s it like for God to imagine you?
Answer: Same as it is for you to have your next thought.
Your each thought is a creation.
If you remember a friend, that friend instantly becomes a living construct inside your mind.
Example: Even in the span of a mere single second’s duration you can have seven thoughts that
are wildly different in almost every possible way. The following words can be mentally iterated in
one second flat:
God, friend, space, dirt, key, sex, tree. And each word will have serious heft — very clean and
precise qualities that define. Your mind easily can tell the difference between, say, “friend” and
“tree.” You don’t conceptually slur that list. No one will say that these “entities” are unreal due to
their brevity. But yikes! — there you are —you create your friend and then, yep, erase your friend
without any guilt about it. Why no guilt?
Your all time reality is that God always has you handy like you have a thought of your friend
handy. Your friend is in you and evocable. Just so, God’s gotcha. You are, albeit transcendentally,
an all time potential fact. God thinks of you when it’s fitting to do so, and BAM, there you are. If
you’re not thinking of your friend, no harm. You will again. Same deal for God and you, except that
God imagines not merely you but also the whole universe and why you’re needed in it. Ratta-tat-
tat. Life’s this seriously miraculous. If you’re dissolved in BRAHMAN, you’ve still got the actuality
of being a hint of sentience in God.
How does God pull you out of the hat?
Answer: No one knows. Not even God. Just like you don’t know where your friend is at inside you
or how you recall that friend. You just can. And God doesn’t bother telling us in ANY SCRIPTURES
how the transcendent without instrumentality yet manifests creation. It just does.
When you were nine years old, someone gave you a lit 4th of July sparkler, and you waved it
rapidly in a figure eight pattern. “Look Ma!” you said. “Look at me recalling a friend! All I have is
one single point of incandescence but with it I can create every shape and name it! And if the
sparkler burns out, I can just light up another one.”
You’re an overly salty too greasy nutrition free potato chip.
Do you really think God can eat just one of you?
Beatles Cartoon - When I'm 64 See this to redefine what a second is.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the spiritual meaning of synchronicity?
True story. I’m stopped at a traffic light, and next to the road was an outdoor billboard that
advertised a car, a Rambler, which in 1961 was not a big seller, and the sign itself was “a first” for
me, and whaddaya know but right along side me in the next lane up pulls an actual Rambler.
Probably only about the third time I had seen one “in real life.” Seeing one of those small cars back
in that era of huge cars always got my attention, and then on the radio came an advertisement for
Ramblers. What? Three simultaneous Rambler “incidents?”
Was it God telling me and only me that I should buy a Rambler? Dunno. Didn’t. I wonder if that
Rambler’s driver heard the radio ad and saw the billboard? If he did, does he remember it today —
58 years later?
True story: I was in Taiwan meeting the heads of corporations to whom I was pitching new
products and proposing joint ventures. I arrived in a hotel lobby and called up to this CEO’s room
to tell him I’m there. His German company had factories in Taiwan. He agrees to come right down.
I tell him what I’m wearing and “I’ll be right there by the elevators.” The elevator door open, this
guy looks at me, I look at the guy, he smiles, I smile, we shake hands, I say, “Let’s have coffee in
the lounge where it’s quiet.” We get settled, and he begins making a pitch to me about his
company’s wherewithal, and I’m pitching to him my ideas. He speaks English poorly with a heavy
German accent, but we were making headway. Then over to our table comes two guys. They say,
“We just figured out that we are not supposed to meet each other and that maybe you guys got
mixed up and were supposed to meet with us separately.” Yep, one of those guys had a German
corporation with factories in Taiwan and the other guy was an American. For 30 minutes of
discussion my interests and that of the “wrong” stranger just keep “synchronizing,” but it was all
delusional on the fly rationalizations.
Was God telling me I should have partnered up with that guy whose company made chemicals
when I was looking for a toy manufacturer?
True story: I decided to learn how to meditate, and I was pretty sure I wanted to do “mantra
meditation.” So I made up my own mantra. Made it from scratch without seeing even one
“legitimate” mantra ever. And while I was using that mantra, it changed pronunciation and settled
down into another sound that was similar. Later, down the line, I had occasion to “invent” four
other mantras. And then. finally, I studied under a master and learned about mantras — all six of
my made up mantras turned out to be traditional Hindu names of Gods. Color me flabbergasted.
Did I continue to use any of those made-up mantras? Nope. All things considered, I used others.
See? We might want to, but we cannot use synchronized events as signs from God. Left face it, if
God wants to say something to you, God will appear right before your eyes and say it to your face.
What? God gives hints only? God’s shy?
But but but, here’s the secret: it’s all synchronized.
Starting with your thoughts. Let’s ask: “When is the last time you thought about the Lagrangian
points of orbits?” or “When is the last time you thought about what you had for breakfast two
years ago to the day?” or “Have you had any thoughts about Quora lately?”
Most likely answers are “When I took Astronomy 101 in college.” “Two years ago to the day.” “Yes.”
See the synchronization? Your brain had thoughts about what was going on around you, NOT
about three-legged elephants. Your mind is always synced up with what is. But, heh, if you DID
think about three-legged elephants just before reading this essay, THAT would have knocked your
socks off, eh? See? You count on daily life being highly synchronous even though you’re sensitive
to oddities.
And that’s how God rolls. You get what you’re getting because God decides that the gettin’s good.
Your mind is never “off topic.”
And “topic” is quite the wondrous concept. The content of your mind — the topic — is 100%
synchronized with EVERYTHING. You mind is moving point of clarity about the “value of
everything as it is expressed locally.” You are high fidelity. Synchrony R Ya. You’re creation’s selfie.
The hurricane that is called “reality” keeps your inner butterfly’s wings flapping.
Nice, eh? To have immediate and constant and potent feedback that validates ones mind. “I’m not
crazy!” You’d flip out if you never thought about what is and always thought about what isn’t.
Couldn’t even lift a finger if no thought could get sent to the finger because the mind was always
otherwise concerned about three-legged elephants.
Long answer short: If you’re thinking about God, how rare, eh? What luck, eh? Almost all the
people think almost every thought possible except the possible thoughts about God.
Now that’s synchrony. You pulled up to a stop at the Quora red light. You glanced over here and
began having thoughts about God, felt the silence of God inside, and then heard me selling God
on your inner radio.
You know what? Forget the first part of this essay. I’m saying it a sign! Seven billion people on
Earth and maybe a mere thousand had their mind land here.
Oh yeah, it’s a sign alright.
Edg Duveyoung
Can humans become immortal?
Originally Answered: Can humans become immortal ?
Who’s asking?
You? And you would be one of these so-called “humans?” Yes? Just to be very clear: you’re
saying that you’re certain that you want to forever be one of those talking apes? Forever? When
there’s so many other choices?”
Yeah, human is merely an option. What? Nobody told you?
How long would anyone want to live if “live” meant “semi-comatose and drooling constantly.” So
then the question becomes: Is it possible to forever maintain a body and mind that is as spry and
able as, say, when one is 22 years old? Answer: wait just a second there, what are these other
choices you mentioned?
Immortality is about Identity.
I’m one of the lucky ones. I’ve lived long enough to see what a personality is.
At my age, I now, finally, have a bit of clarity about
—what I thought I could have done,
——vs what I actually could have done,
—what I thought I would do,
——vs what I actually did,
—what I was a fool for,
——vs what I was a fool against,
—what I didn’t fight hard enough for,
——vs what I fought too hard for,
—what I never had a chance to be,
——vs what I never could avoid becoming,
—what I could have become but didn’t want to be,
——vs what I wanted to be but never could have been,
—what I never was but thought I was,
——vs what I always was but thought I wasn’t,
—what I think I did but absolutely didn’t,
——vs what I thought I didn’t but absolutely did.
And on and on and on and on and on…….
You want more of this? More than you had, have, and got coming? For a long time? How about
154,586,880,000 trillion years? That’s Mother Divine’s lifespan.
Seriously, I’m asking, because I hope you’re 22 years old and can already see how boxed in you
are by your personality. You’ve 60ish more years coming, and maybe science by then will be able
to offer de facto immortality. Your generation might be the first to have this choice.
Options
If we put “being human forever” aside as Option 1, what else is available that “comes in my size
and doesn’t make my butt look boxy?”
Option 2 — Acquire all the divine powers to live at least as long as Lord Indra.
Option 3 — Become enlightened and recognize you’re eternal being.
Option 4 — Dissolve entirely by giving up identifying with being.
I suggest Option 2 just takes forever, so that by the time you’re up to Lord Indra’s status, you’ve
become sick and tired and had it up to here with forever. Immortality schmmortality.
Option 3 is standard spirituality — identify with being — the first manifestation of eternal
awareness — the silence within. After the body dies, being doesn’t, because it’s not entirely
localized in the body. The human body dies, but being is residing within all bodies. Ultimately,
being is God’s soul. (Kinda mostly immortal. Depends on which God.)
Option 4 is evolving beyond God. Yeah, I’m just gunna put it that way. Being is the gateway
through which arrive its products — God is being’s best and first product. Yeah, God the product.
Sue me in Poetry Court. If One is a Hindu God, One has a shelf life. Turns out time isn’t forever, go
figure. They all die. Even Mother Divine. Being enlightened isn’t going to be all that much fun after
that.
So the trick is get enlightened and then one can give up identity entirely. One can dissolve into no-
thing-ness. Beyond Two. Exit creation. One beyond oneness. It’s the ultimate meaning of “Let Go.
Let God.” — that is “Get out of the reality business.”
What’s your pick?
(Hint: Options 1, 2, and 3 involve to-do lists.)
Edg Duveyoung
Why is there an existence instead of nothingness or a consciousness instead of no
consciousness at all?
There God was. Cozy. Comfy. All snuggled and tucked in. Perfection. But suddenly God got antsy.
Infinity’s blanket was a bit too warm or the Absolute’s bed was a bit too saggy or BRAHMAN felt a
yawn coming on — somehow God was thoughtlessly aware that perfection wouldn’t be perfect if
imperfection was not sussed. Wrongness had to be sorted.
So God stuck just the tip of a foot out from under the covers, and that rush of coolness began to
balance the too-warmness, and God said, “Mmmmmm.” That “mmmmmmm” was pronounced
“AUM.”
Wait wait wait, what’s going one here? More wacky metaphors? We’re adults. Enough of the
kiddie stories.
Okay then, let’s try:
Awareness begat consciousness. This was utter magic — beyond theory. It just happened due to
non-processes of Awareness. And yes, “processes” is necessarily a term of duality — poetic —
sue me. Awareness is always an unsolvable mystery to any intellect no matter its clarity and
ungraspable by any heart no matter its sacred intent.
Wait, wait, wait, ugh, that’s worse. So dry. So conceptsy. Who can relate to religious
deconstructions? And the explanation is untestable. Logic is never so miserable as when it has to
tell you “to have faith in these axioms.” And when “faith is afoot” great leaps are required! Who
has the legs for this?
Okay, I’ll try again, but if you’re new to spirituality the following will not be very fulfilling. But, my
hand over my heart in the sight of God I’m testifying that as answers go, it’s the only answer no
matter the question.
Wait, wait, wait, more promulgation and promising? Don’t even answer if you have to pump up
and market the answer before it’s given. No more sweet talkin’ jive. Stop with the selling — start
with the telling.
Okay, okay, okay. Take it easy. I’m just a guy in a bookstore in Notting Hill standing before a sweet
Quora reader.
Here: The telling is three words. “Close the eyes.”
That’s not the answer, but it’s closer than any words I could write.
When you close your eyes, you move closer to your quietest expression, and if you keep the eyes
closed, you’ll get even closer.
And closer.
And closer.
This results in becoming able to see Awareness CREATING CONSCIOUSNESS. That and only that
will answer this question. (That should be spelled THAT.)
When one is most quiet, one sees Awareness with its sleeves rolled up, and all questions dissolve.
Awareness is its own proof. It is simply not questioned. All minds bow to it. When one sees
Awareness produce a thought, it’s like a child being born. The moment is saturated with holy
silence so that the baby’s newborn cooing can be heard. And every sentient entity falls in love.
We all love our thoughts. We parent them dutifully. We tend them. Let no one diss our babies! This
is the POWER of Awareness — we doubt not the thoughts we are given. We know each thought is
the right one to have RIGHT NOW!
Each mind is a point value of reality.
We see what God thinks about reality by residing in our place in it and by having the
thoughts we are thinking. God’s thoughts! God’s thoughts!
These thoughts of yours are what God would also think if God was as limited as you. God is
interested in the uniqueness of your “point” — your raison d'etre — your being “a result” due to
the existence of everything else. God’s utter compassion for you arises. Just as you would
instinctively hold open a door for a blind person does GOD LEAP TO HELP YOU SUCHLY. Thought
by thought, door by door is held open for you on your way home.
Don’t miss the best part of the above funzies.
Let me underline it. God didn’t manifest consciousness.
Instead, God Is Manifesting Consciousness.
See the diff? You are on the wavefront of God arriving. You can see God going from “beyond” to
“here and now.” You can see, iterated endlessly, moment by moment, existence beginning to exist.
Mind is where it’s all happening. Creation R Us.
Wait, wait, wait, excuse me for the above blather.
Don’t mind me. I think I’m harmless.
Just keep the eyes closed, and the answers will pour forth.
Edg Duveyoung
What's so special about Advaita Vedanta?
“And I like big buts, and I have to lie.”
That’s Advaita’s specialty. It’s sexy big but.
Advaita says, “Any statement is conceptual, and all concepts are illusory, so any attempt to
express truth is necessarily as false as frog hair, unicorn horn, and platypus stomachs. I can’t get
there from here with any power of the mind, but I have to try.”
That’s Advaita’s “big but.”
And that’s a huge but. In the world of philosophy, this but’s got badonkadonk.
Advaita says, “I’m sorry I have to lie, but I love God so much, I had to enter the illusory to have a
false mind to be able to speak lies about God so that I am at least worshiping God even that much
even if it’s not even a bit of even a titch of even a wisp valid. I’m down for it.”
Advaita says, “I may be spiritually blind, I may never have seen God, I may never be able to see
God, but at least I can pretend I have a chance at getting nearer to God, and if pretense is the only
way I can attend God and that’s by having my intellect drooling at, I mean staring at, ahem, I mean,
cough cough, extending my time with God by philosophically and logically considering buts and
then by my heart secretly longing for the but fantasies to become true— SO BE IT.”
Advaitans can’t help themselves. They admit they can’t speak truth, but . . . they’re fools for love.
That’s the allure of a big but. Wigglin’ an’ shakin’ in the dance divine. Advaita’s disquisition is
merely a preposterous prospect of perhaps perceiving God and then imagining being in God’s
embrace and nestling into all consuming grace and grabbing every possible but to extend the
time with God by dwelling with a philosophical perchance, a but to dream about, and one can grab
at any but just to prolong being with God in any manner.
Advaita’s Motto: “I might be the ugliest person in a honkytonk without the least chance to dance,
but I will be there just in case I get lucky.”
Advaita says, “Yeah, okay, let’s do this. Let’s all grab some but. Getter done. Let’s exhaustively
think of every possible argument against God’s transcendentality. Think of every possible reason
for God to exist even in the truly mad but deep unreality of mental fictions. Let’s keep God on the
dance floor. Because: HAVE YOU SEEN THAT BUT!
Advaita says, “I know it’s silly. I’m in union with God, but at least let me stand here just a bit longer
and gaze at the beauty of a really fine but. Let me tarry like when two lovers stop kissing and draw
back to see the other’s face. Let me just be in this tawdry country bar if that’s what it takes to see
all the reasonable buts — any one of which might be a but that just does not quit. A but that isn’t
a lie.”
And if you tell Advaita it’s all a ruse, and that everyone knows Advaita is just another wallflower
with the rest of the scriptures sipping beers on the side of the dance floor, Advaita says, “But . . .”
Edg Duveyoung
What is the relation between soul and consciousness? What is an individual soul?
Knowledge is proportional to the state of consciousness.
Anyone who has awakened from a dream knows that the dream person that one identified with
was utterly illusory with no actuality. But if in a nightly dream you are asked, “Do you have a soul?”
you might be absolutely certain that you have one and what “soul’s” definition would be. If asked,
“Are you conscious? you might be offended, since it would be so obvious that you are. If asked,
“What are you doing at this exact moment?” you would again be astounded at the question since
there you would be in plain sight.
Yet every answer given would be wrong. The dream person isn’t real, and any soul of a fictional
character must be equally ersatz. The dream person is never a “conscious entity” by the waking
definitions of the words. The dream person doesn’t know that there is a head laying on a pillow
that is making up the dream person’s entirety — from quarks to souls to God. No matter what a
dream person does, it has no merit in the waking state. Discover hidden treasures in ancient ruins,
but you’ll still wake up with an overdue electric bill.
Two states of knowledge — dream state and awake state, but there’s many other states — each
with a unique point of view that seems valid to the person in that state, but each state’s
knowledge is as illusory as the dream state. Because, duh, it’s all illusory.
And, though we learn this lesson each morning, yet dream definitions are always so convincing.
There’s a unicorn and a jackalope right there before your very eyes! If you wake up in the morning
you may be very thirsty, yet moments before you may have been drinking a big glass of dream
water. Dream water does not slake the thirst of the waking state.
Nor will the big glass of refreshing facts-of-reality that you’re presently drinking going to be of
any value for the “thirsty-for-knowledge you” in higher states of consciousness.
And everyone knows this “all things are relative” concept. You’re top dog in eight grade and a
punk nothing when you enter high school. You just passed your orals in chemistry, but you can’t
get tenure anywhere in less than ten years. And it’s the same deal for spiritual evolution. Try
getting into an ashram. It’s like fighting your way into a street gang in L.A.
You are always going to be evolving your refining of your defining. And there will never be
certainty. Never. Even if you’re enlightened, you will not be able to have absolute definitions.
Concepts are as wiggly as a lap of puppies.
But hey, I gotta take a swing at a fast ball coming straight across the plate.
Awareness is beyond consciousness. It is beyond the individuality of soul. It is also known as
“The Absolute” “Pure Being” “BRAHMAN” “Identity” “God the Father” “Ain sof” “Self”
Being is the primal manifestation of Awareness. That which can be symbolized is at-the-ready-
but-not-yet-differentiated in Being. Being is God’s Individuality, Cosmic Soul, AUM, Pure
Consciousness, “Truth-Consciousness-Bliss,” Duality in its least active state is Awareness and
Being. Being is perfect.
Being loses its status as Pure Consciousness, and becomes individual souls by becoming
relative consciousness — that is, it loses its innocence and identifies with ego and starts making
mistakes immediately, This is the activity of duality. Being begins to sort out its qualities. Duality
blossoms. All the names and forms begin to be experienced by the various sentient entities --
souls. And it’s all 100% relative consciousness down to the grins on the faces of the Cheshire
Quarks. All illusory, dream only, pretense. When this pretense (false identification) ends, the soul
evaporates — expands beyond all defining. Identity is realized to have always been Awareness.
So we see that no matter the state of consciousness, “soul” is always an expression of
individuality despite each level’s “set of truths” being so otherwise different. Relative
consciousness ever changes though Awareness never does. Soul wavers from yin to yang;
Identity is unaffected.
And now you know even less than before you began dreaming and by that I mean reading these
words. Relative knowledge gained is more of the same piled higher and deeper. I’ve added to your
ignorance. You are now more likely to read another essay by me. See how devolution works?
Instead — escape to the Self within.
I’d say do a half hour of meditation,
That’ll wash off the mud my pawing left on your halo.
If you want someone with white gloves polishing your gold ring, try Nisargadatta or Ramana —
those guys are stainless. Read “Talks” or “I Am That” slowly one sentence per minute, and you
won’t need any other advice ever. Those guys are funnier than me too. But I try. I try.
Here, I’ll end with an appropriate joke.
The rabbi chanted, “For I am unworthy of the dust of Thy sandals!”
The cantor chanted, “For I am unworthy of the dust of Thy sandals!”
Then Moesha, the Schmuck, stands up at the back of the gathering and loudly says, “For I am
unworthy of the dust of Thy sandals!”
The rabbi nudges the ribs of the cantor and whispers, “Look who thinks he’s unworthy.”
Edg Duveyoung
What is the proof that God exists in a state of trinity?
God’s three. You’re three. Everywhere it’s all threeness.
Deal with it. This is your daily experience.
You are
1. Purest self, stainless, soundless, and even soulless.
2. The symbolic expression of self: being.
3. The gateway for being’s values to flow into thought and action.
You are
1. God
2. Soul
3. Creation
You are
1. BRAHMAN
2. Lord Vishnu
3. Lord Brahma
You are
1. God the Father
2. God the Holy Spirit
3. God the Son
You are
1. Transcendent
2. Conscious
3. Consciousness
You are
1. White
2. A white lie
3. Gray
You are
1. Truth
2. Freedom
3. Justice
You are
1. The Void
2. Nirvana
3. Bodhisattva
You are
1. Walt Disney
2. Mickey Mouse
3. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
You are
1. Ain sof
2. The Sephirot
3. Mitzvah
You are
1. Good
2. Bad
3. Ugly
You are
1. Alphabet
2. Dictionary
3. Meaning
You are
1. Silence
2. Sound
3. Noise
You are
1. THAT
2. Less than THAT
3. This
You are
1. Beyond
2. Here
3. There
You are
1. What leaves Vegas
2. Vegas
3. What you did.
You are
1. Cimarron, Kansas
2. In Dodge
3. Wyatt Earp
You are
1. Vedas
2. Vedanta
3. Advaita
You are
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
You are
1. Pre-Big Bang
2. Post-Big Bang
3. Chitty Bang Bang
You are
1. Still
2. Reading
3. This?
This listing is endless. This whole “show me proof” thing gets old. It’s like someone is handed a
strawberry, takes a bite, and then demands for proof for the existence of strawberry.
ANY QUESTIONS? I believe I can suss out all the above threesomes — each deserves book-length
disquisition.
Edg Duveyoung
On what basis do people argue that the universe is conscious?
“Sat Chit Ananda
“God Knowing Bliss
“Self Consciousness Ego
“Awareness Being Amness” — Vedanta
Meaning: “Creation, maintenance, and destruction can’t be achieved if I have to wait around all
day for the news from Andromeda. Reality is all one piece.”
“Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” — Luke 12:27
Meaning: “Everything is seen; nothing is unnoticed; every each talks to the all.”
“God is omniscient.” — All religions
Meaning: “God instantly knows anything about anything — no matter the distance to the outer
reaches or the inner subtleties.”
“Paramakash is the timeless and spaceless reality, mindless, undifferentiated, the infinite
potentiality, the source and origin, the substance and the essence, both matter and
consciousness -- yet beyond both. It cannot be perceived, but can be experienced as ever
witnessing the witness, perceiving the perceiver, the origin and the end of all manifestation, the
root of time and space, the prime cause in every chain of causation.” — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Meaning: “You’re out of Dodge. You’re in Dodge. There is no Dodge.”
“Although the Self is real, as it comprises everything, it does not give room for questions involving
duality about its reality or unreality. Therefore it is said to be different from the real and the unreal.
Similarly, even though it is consciousness, since there is nothing for it to know or to make itself
known to, it is said to be different from the sentient and the insentient.” — Sri Ramana Maharshi
Meaning: “You can’t get there if it’s always here.”
“Everything attracts everything.” — Modern physics.
Meaning: “Everything is conscious of everything.”
“1, 2, 3 equals infinity.” — Georgiy Antonovich Gamov
Meaning: “It takes more than two to tango.”
“Hypothesis non fingo!” — Isaac Newton.
Meaning: “Don’t ask me. I just do the numbers. It is what it is.”
“I talk to you all day long, and you ignore me.” — Your left elbow.
Meaning: “Consciousness is mostly unconsciousness.”
“Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres.“ — Julius Caesar
Meaning: “Three parts equal France. Probably goes for the rest of creation.”
“With 1 you don’t get a conversation.
“With 2 you have a boring conversation.
“With 3 you get arguments about consciousness. “ — Edg Duveyoung
Meaning: “But to argue with you, I don’t need a third person.”
See?
Everyone agrees.
Edg Duveyoung
Is mind uploading possible?
It would be blasphemy. Woo-woo voodoo.
If Lord Jesus comes back a second time, would you suggest He upload His mind, so that we could
have TWO JESUSES? Why not have a world-wide international effort to build the machinery to
duplicate as many Jesuses as possible? That’d please Lord Jesus for sure!
See where I’m going with this?
See why uploading YOUR mind would be as sinful?
Identity is sacred. When this is realized, uploading is a vile concept.
Now, over in India, they have figured out a work-around. Just ask Lord Indra about personality
duplication and transport. Turns out that Lord Indra dies after He has gotten all the benefits of His
good karma. He then reincarnates as AN ANT. He has to start over the long process of evolving
His personality from insect consciousness to mammal consciousness to human consciousness to
divine consciousness to perfection of the siddhis consciousness to King Of Heaven
consciousness.
Whew! Now THAT’S a lengthy process. This instructs — the best minds of India for the last five
thousand years have consistently validated that duplication needs must be this finely honed. This
ain’t something a super-computer can pull off even in its dreams. Duplication requires a soul-
creating, whole-universe birthing and nurturing, holyputer gizmothang.
It takes everything to be a big enough village to raise ONE Indra.
And you too.
When you were on the drawing board, the universe had a say.
Your recipe was exact — and lovingly wast thou placed in the oven!
And don’t be missing that you’re still getting crusty.
YOU’RE NOT FINISHED.
Don’t be uploading yourself when you’re half-baked.
Back in 1980 I created a flowchart for a computer program that would pass the Turing Test most
of the time for most of the people. But an embarrassingly big fraction of the users would not be
fooled, because I planned to merely trick users instead of trying to create the coding that was true
A.I. And even my simple intent, if it had been coded, would have required massive data-basing.
Loves me some Hollywood pretense, but I’m thinking any true A.I. probably requires that we use
all of the Moon to construct a computer massive enough to even begin to have the high fidelity
needed. But even then, I’m thinking nothing less than a quark for quark duplication can be true
duplication.
And then, God would swoop down and say, “What didn’t you get about Me yelling at Eve about
biting that apple? And now you’re ready to bite on an Apple computer instead of incarnating the
old fashioned way? Shame and tsk on ya you ego-freaks! And for you power-freaks out there,
nope, digital life is many notches less empowered. And you safety-freaks, don’t even get Me
started.”
Hoo-boy, wouldn’t want God peeved like that, eh? One bite and Adam and Eve and all the humans
thereafter were on The Naughty List. Think what list we’d be on if even one person uploaded and
took a bite hoping it would be a mouthful of immortality.
This whole concept is a big pill to swallow — a blue pill.
Don’t be Cypher.
Be Neo.
Edg Duveyoung
On a scale of 1 - 10 with 10 being perfect, how effective are you at meditating? What is
the best way to quiet your mind that you have found?
Kinda hard to get any quieter if everything is silence. Noise is illusory.
Awareness is silent. Anyone can look within to see that their awareness is not adding to the mind’s
content. No matter what the mind does, awareness doesn’t flicker. It is unchanged by the
contents it witnesses. No thought helps or hinders awareness, but the least impact can make a
mind flinch.
The mind can begin to mutter, flutter, sputter, stutter and must shutter. It has to rest, but
awareness never needs to rest. We can be aware of our mind’s sleepiness AS WELL AS we are
aware of our mind’s alertness. We say, “I’m tired.” and “I’m awake.” with the same certainty.
Awareness’ values never vary due to any of the operations of the three modes of the mind.
Awareness is an equal opportunity witness.
But but but most folks have not trained the mind to be able to “pick up on” these subtleties. Yet
THROUGHOUT HISTORY yogis have reported being aware during deep, dreamless sleep.
Awareness, no matter the culture, is described by the time-honored experts with the same words.
“Self, Identity, Me, Being.” But if you ask any of those experts to describe the mind, then the
arguments begin between the Ph types — the physiologists, philosophers, and physicists. They all
agree on “me” and can’t agree on “how a you operates.”
But look closely. They all agree that awareness is beyond the mind’s changeability and that
identity is steady. This is an admission that Self is the basis of mind. That is: it’s all Self. What
comes from silence must also be silence. Such a simple logic, eh?
So, it can’t be said that any meditation technique is effective, since silence is an all time reality.
And it’s such a strange thing that folks deny this, because we have silence so obviously there.
Look at a distant bird flying — soundlessly. A snowflake landing. The sunlight entering a room. A
book’s tale. Hold your hand next to your ear and just crazy-wiggle one finger — it doesn’t even
squeak.
But most obvious of all is that thoughts are silent too even though we say we hear them. Go
ahead. “Listen” to your SELF wouldyajust? The inside of your skull doesn’t have thoughts rattling
around and doing pinball machine bonks, beeps, and boops! When the mind processes the
thought “Bird flying in the distance” the nervous system is not any more active than if the thought
is “A hunter shoots a bird.” We don’t hear our mind’s “gunshot” any more than we hear the
nervous system’s frenzied chemistry with billions of molecules rushing everywhere.
What to do? What is the trick? How to re-cognize?
Simple. It’s the same as buying a new car. After you buy, you begin to see that exact car being
driven by others — yesterday unnoticed, today they’re sore thumbs.
So just purchase some silence!
Each meditation gives us a shiny new car. Then outside of meditation, what do we find?
WE BOP AROUND TOWN AND EVERYONE’S DRIVING THE SAME SILENCE.
As silence becomes familiar it becomes more easily re-cognized. We cognize silence during
meditation and re-cognize it outside of meditation.
Best way? There’s only one way to close the eyes. There’s your technique for maximum effect,
and after the eyes are closed, getting quieter is a certainty.
Skip practice one day, and a ballet dancer will notice the difference.
Skip two days, and the ballet dancer’s teacher will notice.
Skip three days, and the audience will notice.
Like this, we keep ourselves fresh about silence.
Otherwise, we’d notice.
Edg Duveyoung
Matthew 18:20 states that “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with
them.” What does it mean?
The Top Ten Bible Truths
— Number Seven
“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
— Lord Jesus (Matthew 18:20 King James Version)
As truths revealed by Jesus go, this one’ll spiritually sting ya like a squirt from an astral lemon into
yer inner eye.
Everyone, except saints, 100% denies this truth about the presence of Jesus. Denies. And they all
know it, and they all deny that they know they’re denying that Jesus is here. You too deny the
presence of Jesus. You’re denying the presence of Jesus right now even before you finish
reading this sentence from me to you that I’m typing right now which you know is, duh!, “us
gathering in Jesus’ name,” and so Jesus is even here in this text. And before that you were
regularly denying the presence of Jesus in your conversations throughout your life all the way
back to before you can remember and before that too. And I and you and everyone are in vile
cahoots.
Proof? Easy. You have yet to mentally say, “Oh, hello Lord Jesus, so glad You’ve joined us!” QED
— you are a presence of Jesus denier.
Nobody but nobody wants to admit this truth. If anyone and I mean anyone attempts to say this
truth is whole truth and nothing but, that someone will be immediately and I mean immediately
“corrected,” and by “corrected,” I mean shunned, sternly stared at, and glarethed upon. And if you
dare, I say DARE, to try to foist this truth into the brains of anybody, then everybody will be saying
“a certain somebody’s you know what” as they twirl their fingers near their temples and then cast
an askance stink-eye at you.
And now you’re denying that too.
Don’t even be giving me that “What?” face. God’s right here all the time, and if you and I agree to
talk about God, it would be absolutely rude to pretend God wasn’t standing right here, with us,
with all the glory that transcends the human imagination. To purposefully ignore God — what
possible penalty for such gross contempt?
And all you non-Christians out there, you know that your God is as present in all your
conversations about God also.
And all you atheists, don’t be so smug. I dare you to deny the presence of God. Talk as often as
possible to anyone you can get to listen to you. Deny God’s actual presence to the whole world
one person at a time, and you’ll become historically famous for bringing the presence of God
everywhere like Johnny Applesacred. I double dare ya.
See? This is why the presence of God is almost always ignored in every aspect of living. If God
were here and SEEING WHAT YOU DO, it’d be a major bother. Oh we think we’d love it if we could
undo our self-hypnosis and take off our blinkers and see and know God 24/7, but we all know that
“there’d go all the fun.”
Yeah, I said it. We’d all rather not be seen eating more than the “only one more I promise that’s it”
potato chip, or binge watching a whole season of Ruffy The Demon Dog Slayer, or carefully
examining the end of a Q-tip. It’s one thing to know when we are nearly feral, but it’s so much
harder if God knows it too. Best go to stealth mode. “God can’t see me now! Maybe in church, but
not now with my magic psycho-blinkers on.”
Shall we all have a group sigh?
Whaddaya say maybe we start small and simple and begin what we know it would be right to
begin. Maybe next time God comes up in a conversation, we could say,
“Funny you say that because, why, go figure, God is right here. What were the odds?”
Or, we could say, “Whenever God is mentioned, I have to sorta look around, ya know? There’s
something, here, something silent and ferociously good, powerful — just a feeling but when you
mentioned God, there it was.”
Or we could stare over a person’s shoulder with a certain look on our face until that person says,
“God’s standing right behind me, right?”
It starts with we. According to Jesus, I can’t do this alone. But with you, hey, maybe, eh? Just
maybe we could start. You and me. You and anyone. Doesn’t matter, but at least some
startingness somewhere would be good if we could.
And, Lord Jesus, Mr. Silent over there.
I see you smiling.
What do You think?
You, me, this reader who’s reading — could we?
Edg Duveyoung
How has meditation changed your life?
Seems like an answerable question — ain’t, but when did that ever stop me?
Two big fuzzies — “meditation” and “life.” So let’s define these terms to make the answer as
generally applicable as possible.
Meditation — closing the eyes and sitting and getting quieter instead of thinking on purpose. No
concentration upon any object of consciousness.
Life — one’s personality and it’s experiences.
So, there you are, watching with eyes closed; what happens to your life?
(Yeah, this is about you — not me. Obviously I’m a fanboy for meditation and will biasedly testify —
I started meditating in 1971, and here I am, but did I start off as a yucky-brain or as closer to sane?
Did the meditation do a lot or just polish what was already there? Answers: crazy and tons.)
But, let’s do you instead, because you know you. From where you’re at right now to perfection —
is meditation a way to evolve you — improve your normal operations?
Meditation will lead you deeper into mystery — not out of it. Life will become more surprising,
because you’ll begin to see that thoughts are always unexpected. We don’t plan our next thought.
and by “we,” I underline that all minds are equally unplanned. As we get clarity about this truth,
forgiveness, empathy, compassion, and forbearance begin to increase — we see others more as
we see ourselves — silent witnesses to minds — not the authors of thoughts — each and all are
reinless riders on karmic bronks at a Kali Yuga rodeo. Yippee-ki-ut-oh!
Meditation will teach about the nature of silence. As you reach the ephemeral depths of
consciousness, you’ll begin to see that outer life is likewise an emergent processing that is as
subtly founded. Even the trivial can become wondrous when life’s delicacy begins to be found
everywhere, not merely in quietly whispered thoughts. A dust mote serenely hovering in a slanting
beam of sunlight can fascinate like the Mona Lisa, and motes are a bit more available. Silence
seen in everything is as profound as life can get.
Meditation will bring you to a doorway. As the skill of “getting quiet” is honed, it becomes clear
that there is a basis of mind: silence, being. This is the home of all experiences. By dwelling in this
silence, eventually being comes to the fore and thoughts fade into the background. Even during
sleep, being will be an all time reality. The soul has been freed from mistaken identity. Being has
been revealed to be the Self, and thoughts are now mere selfies. This is the doorway. Only a mind
free of identifying with thoughts can pass through it. On the other side, being is found to be pure
being — awareness prior to being’s expression in consciousness. True identity.
Meditation will lead to unity. Stepping through the doorway into true identity is prompted by
grace not volition. By dwelling in being, at some point, it becomes clear that the quietness of
being as it is expressed in a nervous system, is now too loud. It still has qualities of existence that
thinly veil identity. Passing through the doorway means one sheds the witness of the mind. Duality
is evaporated. This is the beyond — the uncaused everything before everything is caused.
Now, you’re not going to make me do the rest of this listing, are ya? Four solid answers above for
what meditation does to life should be enough for you to close those eyes. If you’re wanting more
details about the ten thousand other ways to meditate instead of just sitting there — seek and ye
shall find. But meanwhile, meditate to garner the clarity to help decide if other techniques are
more promising. You’re not reading these words by mistake. If you got to here, that’s proof you’re
in good stead.
Gotta trust karma — life’s mysteriously just. Your mind had “meditation?” arise in it. I’m thinkin’
you were a priest in your last life, and whereas, I had to go from monkey to monk, you might only
have to go from priest to saint. One never knows, but in your case, I’m suggesting you
immediately proceed to your deepest point of silence to find out.
We could use another saint out here, ya know?
Edg Duveyoung
Why can’t science explain consciousness?
Once again, the left elbow teaches.
That left elbow sure does jabber.
It never ceases sending signals to the brain.
And you almost never listen to it.
Worse, your “listen” is “projection.” You could care less about the elbow’s opinions about reality.
You tell the elbow how it feels. You interpret the elbow exactly like you would any image in a
Rorschach test. The elbow could be reporting “mild sensation of shirt sleeve being moved,” but
you will be saying, “this person I’ve had a crush on for a year finally just brushed by me!”
The crush was not anywhere in the elbow’s executive summary.
QED — consciousness is NOT about neurons spritzing meaning. It’s about mechanical processes
having their innocence ripped from them and having meaning ascribed to them that simply is not
there. It’s a bum rap!
Ask any child to interpret the pain of a doctor’s needle.
Ask anyone what it means when a significant other hurriedly closes a laptop.
Ask any dog about the excellence of cat poo.
Whence meaning? Why is it so uncorrelated to materiality?
Consciousness is merely and only the back and forths of a nervous system. It’s all elbows talking
to elbows. Your interpretations are overlaid onto them. This is identical to marring a pure white
movie screen by casting shadows upon it. “Look Ma! If I block the light, my hand’s shadow looks
like a rabbit.” We love to ruin purity. RUINED I TELLS YA! Your mind insists on interpreting God’s
Perfection. “Look Ma! God’s like an ostrich.” Yeah, I’m making this about God — consciousness is
a boring topic.
Rabbits and ostriches — gateway drugs! Our parents supported this habit. Raised us to be slaves
to the mind’s projection addiction.
So what’s a scientist to do? Science can only see the actual signals of the elbow, but along comes
the mind and says, “Ignore all that. Here’s the skinny.”
And then almost universally, the scientist says, “Consciousness is a hard problem.” But they
should be saying, “Consciousness is easily measured, but meaning is UNFATHOMABLY STRAIGHT
OUT OF GOD’S MIND.”
But they don’t say that. Because, religion, ew. They remain confused, and so they conjoin meaning
and consciousness. Even after I’ve carefully explained it to them. I mean really. Harrumph. Don’t
they consult Quora?
But you, you Dear Reader, you get it. You know that I’m not talking here. You know that any
understanding about these emitted photons from a computer screen is up to you. It’s YOUR mind
that is on this screen. Your rabbits. Your ostriches.
See the secret?
See your beauty?
See your depth?
Think of all the things you’ve read, seen, experienced. You knew what to make of them! You
understood. You projected incredible wisdom and clarity on the gossiping of elbows. It sure wasn’t
me telling you what my words mean. If you’re seeing these words here as expressions of God or if
you’re seeing them as a doctor viciously attacking you with a needle — it’s up to you.
So hey, if — TO YOU — I’m talking about God here, you’re pretty high minded, eh? Others come
here and find only dirty needles and, to them, my Rorschach Elbow Test is filled with insane
jabbings. But you, when someone walks in the room, you don’t close the laptop quickly when it’s
God you’re seeing on the screen.
So to you I bow. It’s just great having you here with that attitude. I, for one, am grateful when along
comes someone to my stinky spot on the lawn and wants to roll in it. You’re not pooh-poohing my
woo-woo perfume as poo-poo.
I sure hope you’re sharing your interpretations with everyone. I strongly encourage you to branch
out and find that you can equally project God upon any experience — not just essays.
I’d like to encourage you even more than that, but I wouldn’t want to needle ya.
Edg Duveyoung
Is there proof that God exists?
You want knock your socks off absolute proof?
Boy are you lucky.
You have come to the right person.
Gather around ye thousands of dear hearts.
I am Swami Snatchabanana of The Ancient Order Of The Divine Light Of The Presumptuous
Assumption and The Great Seer of the Seeable Seen!
In this essay I will completely enlighten you and utterly reveal the Living Presence of God here and
now.
When next your friends see you, they will gasp at the obvious transformation of your personality
to Peace Personified due to direct experience of God’s Actuality In Our Very Midst.
A host of angels will also hover nearby to prep the audience to obey the applause sign for when
God appears here while you are reading this essay.
God will shortly arrive and take several selfies with you.
Fun, eh?
But, hey, to be serious, wouldn’t a proof of God have to be somewhere in that ballpark? You
wouldn’t want less than that. Words won’t do. You’d want to have an answer that evolved you all
the way to redline. You’d want to come away roaring about divinity to anyone within yelling range.
“I HAVE MET GOD!”
But there’s this rub.
In all of history,
Whenever God appears
And does a ton of miracles,
There still are doubters.
You for instance. Yeah you.
You’re, like, immune to proofs.
To rephrase the question, “How do you prove to a fish that it’s not thirsty?”
Gunna just say it: God is right here.
And having said it,
—I now feel like Moses arriving with The Ten Commandments,
——and there’s you worshiping the Golden Calf.
—I now feel like Lord Krishna telling Arjuna,
——“Go ahead, kill your relatives. Trust Me.”
—I now feel like I’m Lord Buddha
——”Here’s emptiness instead of the luxuries of the palace from which I escaped.
—I now feel like Lord Rama saying,
——“Sita didn’t get burnt up, so cut Her a break.”
Moses parted the Red Sea.
Lord Krishna held a mountain above His head.
Lord Buddha smiled in spite of His four sights.
Lord Rama showed how to be a human being despite being God.
Yet did the people murmur.
Like you murmur.
And now the bad news: you’re right.
No proof is possible. All miracles can be faked.
—Maybe Moses just had a good public relations firm spearheading marketing.
—Maybe Lord Krishna was merely pointing up at a low hanging storm cloud.
—Maybe Lord Buddha was a standard deviation to the left of the Bell Curve.
—Maybe Lord Rama just was a human.
What to do?
Redefine the divine.
We reset each night. Sleep freshens our take on life. THAT’S redefinition.
Getting clear about God requires the same. It’s a whole body thingie. If your cells, molecules,
atoms, quarks and strings don’t know God, you won’t either.
And more bad news: your cells, molecules, atoms, quarks and strings are already on board. The
hold up is you. You’re the rub. You’re the snag.
Don’t try to grasp. Relax your intellect’s fists.
Let those hands assume their natural positions.
Give up grabbing at proofs that’d you’d never believe anyway.
As one gives up and settles down, one stops sliding sideways.
You choice is “Being God vs Knowing God.”
Easy decision, eh?
By meditating, we learn to discern — thoughtlessly.
Better to be than know.
This is the universal proof — being instead of thinking.
So listen to me, your Divine Drill Sergeant
— Don’t you be eyeballing me.
— Close those peep-holes or I will for ya
— Now, all together, hup two three four
“Well I don’t know but I’ve been told.
“God is here, so let’s be bold.
“If a doubter we do find,
“Astral fists will change his mind.
“Proof of God is there for all.
“Look inside to have a ball.”
Sounds off!
Sounds off!
One, two, three, four
SOUNDS OFF!
Edg Duveyoung
Edg, no matter how much is read, heard at the intellectual level, is not a necessity of
some sort of transmission from the guru to the seeker?
The transmission is the guru’s silence.
So, in general, don’t be listening for advice coming in the form of words in the mind that instruct
about your “attachments and how to sunder them.” But always always always notice the silence
(God) that immediately whelms by merely closing the eyes. Dwell within that divine embrace as it
deepens.
Silence is also a most potent form of advice in daily life. If you ask someone for something, and
then they just stare at you silently, it might be the one reply that you’ll “hear.” So, a guru’s silence,
being endless, really packs a punch, but when the guru delivers the final wallop that knocks you
into infinity, it doesn’t matter if it’s the inner or outer guru that seems to be the “causative agent.”
I always get a chuckle out of reading about Ramana or Nisargadatta who are being asked by a
devotee for “the guru’s grace and while you’re at it can I have some of the food off of your plate.”
“My Grace is telling you to meditate and that your inner Self blesses the food that is already on
your plate and makes it the guru’s prasad.” — like that we are advised again and again. That is: one
is always being 100% graced. Getting the heart to receive it on the conscious level is another
thing. So we meditate and dwell with silence until it becomes the only sound.
Then it begins to speak.
Duality exception: After enlightenment, the body/mind races to dualistic perfection. At some point,
one needs the guru to bring seeking to a halt with, “Stop. You’re done. The seeking must be
ended. You see God everywhere, the nervous system cannot be made more sensitive, there are no
more secrets to reveal. Stop wanting more when there’s no more. Now UNITE WITH GOD.” Like
that a guru can tie a nice bow around your gift of enlightenment.
Warning: what does God do if a fish in the ocean wants to feel wet? Maybe wave toss that fish
onto the dry land for 30 seconds, eh? Then the wetness….ahhhh….. We are already saturated with
God’s love — it’s a matter of discovery - not reception. Appreciation of what is already in ones
hands is better than two birds in a bush with no hands on dry land or something like that.
Take it from me, dry land sucks.
Edg Duveyoung
If 'we' are already enlightened, and if no meditation or yoga can cause enlightenment,
what is the point of doing any of this? Why am I meditating or doing yoga?
Imagine booming thunder and God’s hand appearing out of a blazing cloud, and it’s pointing
directly at one person: you.
Say, “Cheese!” ?
Maybe do a little curtsy?
The only reason to do anything spiritual is because, well, someone has to. Be kinda odd if God
didn’t sprinkle a few of these types on top of every culture’s pizza. Meditators are quite very ever
so much not anchovies. So there’s that.
If you’re a seeker, it’s fate. If you’re a finder, it’s fate. If you’re a hunter-seeker, you’re in the wrong
block of text — return to the novel Dune.
It’s all fictional.
God’s authoring you to be a symbol of righteousness — you gunna complain?
Rather be someone else whom GOD DOESN’T WANT YOU TO BE?
Seriously asking. If your wherewithal amounts to being God’s stick figure on a rough draft
storyboard instead of Captain Alita The Marvelous Bliss Angel in a live-action blockbuster, so
what?
I’d druther ya dint have druthers, unless, you know, God druthers ya having druthers, and then I’d
druther ya did. (Zero sum summation.)
We take ourselves as we become.
We are BEING coming.
We are God’s Self, Transcendent Being, coming into the manifest.
We are hanging ten on that exact wavefront.
Secret no one believes: you are a perfect piece that fits into God’s jigsaw puzzle, and the hole
into which you are being inserted is the HERE AND NOW hole. The exactitude of your mind’s
shape is too exquisitely fitting — no other piece dares try to force-press itself into your
designation. God didn’t throw dice to see how to shape your personality — as if you were built like
a character in a video game. You make holistic sense. All your parts resonate with THE ENTIRETY.
If any of your features didn’t jibe with the others, it’d be sandpapered smooth in short order.
So, get it? No fair wanting to be a corner piece or “an all red” piece or an extra large piece or a
piece with four holes or a mostly green piece with a yellow heart shape with a squiggle. If any
piece is missing, GOD’S GUNNA BE VERY UPSET.
That’s why we meditate. We’d be missed.
Oh you still want choice, do you?
Okay — You can be either child at the end of this video.
Edg Duveyoung
What makes you feel that we're in Kali Yuga now?
We know it’s Kali Yuga, because it’s so easy to get enlightened.
In Satya Yuga, you got 100,000 years per lifetime. Everything was almost perfect. Day and night
was filled with the sacred. Even the least personality was gloriously able to know God. Each step
guided by grace. Everyone knew they were serving the divine. No one wanted to be anything but
what they were. Even the dust knew not to settle on bookshelves and window sills.
See the problem?
If life was that good, do you think your motivation to get enlightened would be “all that urgent?”
Talk about your having a good reason to be attached to duality — Satya Yuga was as addictive as
white sugar. This is why lifespan was 100,000 years — it took that long to find something wrong-
enough that it motivated one to seek a solution to what was but the slightest discord.
“Hey Joe, I notice you’re a bit less likely to smile. What’s up with that?”
“I don’t know. You’d think that after 80,000 years of living, I’d be wise enough to correct this
situation.”
“Maybe you could pray to God.”
“I know, but why bother God for such a very very very small thing? Easier to just put up with it
instead of taking up God’s time.”
“Yeah, but if you let that problem remain, then it will cause yet more problems down the road.”
“In Satya Yuga? No way! Why would God give me yet a SECOND problem? ”
“Yeah, there’s that. I suppose you’re right.”
See? Corruption is subtle, and time is long.
But in Kali Yuga, the average mind is as frenzied as the mind of the proverbial outhouse rat. Yeah, I
know you don’t feel all that spaghettified, but that’s because you’re used to it. You’re in a constant
state of unrequited desire. You’ve got a to-do list that’s 99% unwanted chores. You can have
opposing values pass through the mind in the same minute’s duration. You’re in such pain that it
takes a mighty wallop to get your attention. You daily suffer problems that would put a Satya Yuga
person into psychiatric arrest. If you got magically plunked into downtown Vaikuntha, it’d be like
Godzilla in the tulip bed. If Satya Yuga’s “local town dunce” got plunked into Times Square — a
dunce whose countenance yet outshone those lights, we’d all mistake it for the Second Coming.
Remember that some guys pulled off sneaking into Vaikuntha — quite the feat, and they thought
that they were “home free” and were pretending to be part of the crowd — feigning nonchalance
around the water cooler. Guess what gave them away? THEIR SMELL.
Yeah, we stink, and our minds are critter filled swamps.
But see the blessing of Kali Yuga there? In a gloaming land of dark portents, even a little
righteousness stands out like a candle’s light in a cave. Hardly has any illumination value, yet
reveals the whole place.
Easy to find.
Find what?
The light within — also known as pure silence.
Ain’t nothing like silence in a cacophony.
Just close the eyes and silence whelms.
Keep them closed and the beleaguered mind goes, “Ahhhh . . .”
This relaxation into quiescence is as easy as exhaling.
Just you try to get someone in Satya Yuga to close their eyes. I won’t wait.
Silence is the light. How can silence be light?
We’re inside a galaxy of shining stars. All of space is criss-crossed by beams of light from every
direction — but not a photon of it is visible because no object is being hit and the photons then
reflected into your eyes. Trillions of zillions of photons per cubic meter going everywhere — which
to you remain unseen BUT YET ARE THERE. How’s that for a definition of silence? In fact, ask
anyone who has had kundalini going up their backbone; they’ll tell you it was light rising up that
was also pure silence too.
And you, all you have to do is close the eyes to get a bucketful of silence instantly.
In Satya Yuga, if you close the eyes, you go, “So?” Outside was almost as silent as inside, so the
contrast was hardly there.
But you, heh, you close the eyes and it’s Relief City.
See? You don’t need a map to get quieter.
Just relax and fall into it.
Like falling in love.
Except enlightenment is easier.
So, next time you exhale, exhale a little bit more and ask, “Just how much more can this continue
to improve like this?“
Answer: There’s no end to the peace that passeth all understanding. Peace is not passive — it’s
endlessly deepening. God does not stint.
Therefore: the next time you say, “Ouch!” think of it like a dinner bell being wrung.
“Come and get it! Tonight we have ahhhhhhhs, and mmmmmmmms and oooooooos with OMGs
for dessert.”
Edg Duveyoung
Can we be enlightened by using Bhakti yoga? What are your views?
Totakacharya “washed some clothes,” and “fixed some meals.”
That was enough.
Totakacharya was Sri Shankara’s disciple who did not always attend lectures on Advaita Vedanta.
Who does that? Would you skip class if the Teacher was God Incarnate? Would you duck out on a
Teacher who even today is considered to be the embodiment of truth by one billion people in India
and at least one person in Madison, Wisconsin?
Totakacharya didn’t care.
“Concepts schmoncepts . . . gimme yer dhoti; it’s got some schmutz on it.”
The other disciples were stellar intellects. They studied Advaita and drilled down into the nuances.
Sri Shankara could not have had better students. But they were snobby to Totakacharya — “the
laundry dunce who makes chana dal.”
And it was true. Totakacharya didn’t ask amazing questions that brought forth ever deeper
wisdom from Sri Shankara’s mind. Totakacharya was a C student. Sat in the back. The other
disciples assumed that he was merely planning what to fix everyone for lunch.
But Totakacharya had an in your face open secret. Right in front of everyone he loved Sri Shankara
down to his sandalwood flip-flops. Awestruck doesn’t even begin to cover it. He was in a constant
swoon for his guru.
And the other disciples were miffed. “Look who thinks he can love Sri Shankara like we do. He
hardly understands even the basic differences between sat, chit and ananda as they’re
manifested in Treta Yuga if there were to be a Horse Sacrifice. He doesn’t even know what he
doesn’t even know.”
But Totakacharya didn’t care about that. He cared about Sri Shankara. He cared so much that his
every thought was about Sri Shankara. He didn’t wash clothes or prepare meals — he washed
GOD’S CLOTHES and cooked GOD’S MEALS.
Let’s go over that again for your clarity.
What would it do TO YOU if you got a chance to wash God’s clothes and cook God’s food? WITH A
HOLY WHOOSH GOD APPEARS and asks you to cook some rice and dal. Can you even begin to
imagine how fast your brain would melt if you had that chance? You clear about this? Do you
understand how evolving it was for Totakacharya? Every second of the day was about “what next
to do for God?” The impact on personality, yours for instance, would be vastly beyond Western
psychology’s conceptual analysis, e.g. “Get someone sane by having them wash clothes? —
whattaya nutz?”
But yeah, like that only better than like that.
By focusing on Sri Shankara, Totakacharya avoided the brain’s penchant to wander off to the
mundane. Whereas a normal mind might handle 50,000 concepts per hour that range from
spiritual philosophy to bladder urgency, Totakacharya’s mind didn’t. He shooed all that other stuff
away to make room for more thoughts about the living God he served
NOW THAT’S HARD CORE BHAKTI.
But so what? Did Totakacharya ever, you know, contribute? It was nice and all that he made life
easier for those gigantic brains that went on to set in stone India’s Mind, but hey, come on, what’s
so special about Totakacharya? Anyone can be a good devotee, it seems, but it’s the high IQs that
historically matter, right?
Not so fast there, bub.
As the story goes, Totakacharya was late for the morning class, and Sri Shankara just sat there
waiting instead of starting the lecture. The disciples got fidgety. “Why wait for dal boy?”
And up the hill comes Totakacharya singing his lungs out.
Singing what? Some traditional Indian song? Some catchy ditty?
Nope there, bub. He singled handedly in an instant did what King James had to have a whole room
of courtly scholars take years to do — write scripture.
Totakacharya was singing a new song that no one, not even Totakacharya, had heard before. Out
it came spontaneously. It was composed using a new poetic rhythm that was INSTANTLY
understood by Sri Shankara and the disciples to be divinely cognized. It was obviously Vedic. Not
a verse, not a word, not a note was even an itty bit off.
Scriptures! You know anyone who writes scriptures? Spontaneously? No rough drafts? Many of
the Vedic verses had been lost after three yugas. It was a rare body/mind system that was
perfected enough to allow direct cognition of “truths expressed as God would prefer them to be
said.”
Purity — Totakacharya purified his mind and body by worshiping whatever God wanted to do when
disguised as “Sri Shankara.” Finally, Totakacharya’s mind was the perfected doorway through
which truth could manifest — ungarbled.
Now, Totakacharya ’s story is supposed to do what for you? Why tell it if only a few persons are
bhakti oriented and there’s many other ways to serve the truths of the Vedas? You’re not planning
to write scriptures. You have a day job and life’s hectic. It’s a nice story, yeah, but why tell you?
Because you’re Totakacharya.
Inside you, your inner Totakacharya is worshiping the Self.
You love you, right? That’s Totakacharya washing clothes.
You love goodness, right? That’s Totakacharya making dal.
Your worth is worthy of bhakti. Don’t be snobby to yourself.
Look around you.
Everywhere you look.
It’s God in disguise! Duh!
Don’t chop wood. Don’t carry water.
Change it up.
Remove schmutz and make dal.
Edg Duveyoung
Isn't it odd that humans discovered meditation at all? Who would think that sitting
down and quieting the mind would lead to an experience like enlightenment?
Only in Kali Yuga would such questions arise.
We’re lost in a vast “storage lot” piled high with not-yet-used conceptualizations that God could
not artistically fit into the previous three yugas lest they be janglingly inappropriate. We’re now
sniffing through these “leftovers” like junkyard dogs.
In Sat Yuga, the questions that arose were such as, “Is it possible to have so many thoughts that a
mind would be blocked from knowing God exists?” “Pshaw!” they said. “What an oddball you are
to come up with a concept like that!” they said.
But yeah, as the ages transitioned, meditation became less and less able to settle the mind into
the subtlety that it takes to know God’s Omnipresence. And in every age, the ancients knew that
time’s passage was the sole reason for creation’s intrinsic devolution, and so they gradually began
to use spiritual gimmicks.
When it came to be that a person who closed the eyes did not immediately enter union with God,
they resorted to using specific thoughts and actions that would get the mind to reach and
maintain subtlety. Prayer, ritual and sacrifice were added to give the mind “something harmonious
to do instead of letting it think or feel haphazardly.” In India they give an elephant a chain to carry
with its trunk, so that when the elephant is led through town, it doesn’t keep grabbing at things.
But in Kali Yuga, we’re so scramble brained that it takes serious training to learn how to quieten a
mind via egoic intent. There’s thousands of techniques — chains to carry — and all of them lack
the potency to immediately have the mind enter communion. If there were a technique that could
forcibly drag a grabby-trunked newbie kicking and screaming into unity, we’d all be doing it.
What’s something to do when nothing’s doing?
What Alexanderian sword cuts this Gordian Knot?
How to get enlightened without living in an ashram for decades?
What can be offered to anyone that is effective every time?
How to hear God when the mind spews seven loud thoughts per second?
It’s the Sat Yuga technique!
Same ol’ same ol’ gets same ol’ results!
Merely close the eyes.
Close them now for a few seconds.
There’s God right there!
Easy, eh?
That denial you just now experienced — see it?
Merely closing the eyes stops the mind from processing visual input which takes up so much brain
power that it hogs a big fraction of the blood’s oxygen. Closing the eyes immediately lessens the
mind’s “noise level.”
Come on; let’s try it.
Keeping the eyes open,
—take a big deep breath, and
——then close the eyes and
———slowly empty the lungs
————in one long Kali Yuga sigh.
See? Felt good, right?
That’s knowing God!
If a fire engine is racing by with blaring alarms flooding your ears, you usually stop talking to
someone and wait it out. And when it has passed, the mere ticking of a clock announces how
relatively silent it has “now become.”
The silence is heard.
God is pure silence.
Relaxation is deeply spiritual.
Even a relative silence fully instructs about God.
If you want yet more God, get quieter.
How to get quieter?
Keep the eyes closed.
Nestle into the embracing silence into which you just now snuggled.
And lucky ducky Kali Yuggy trunky you, you get to take your good old time settling into subtlety,
and you get to be enjoying and grabbing at ever more refined levels of consciousness along the
way.
It’s spiritual tourism on the Getting Oriented Express.
Edg Duveyoung
Would it be possible to experience spiritual awakening without knowing it took place?
It’s as common as getting out of bed.
Proof?
You’re a spirit. You woke up this morning. You didn’t say to yourself, “OMG, holy moly, finally, at
last at last, I’m awake!” It was no biggie.
Instead you got up to chop wood and carry water. That’s your innocence! Own it! Lean into your
glory. You’re so humble that you deny your freedom. It’s adorable. This is why God invented you.
I hear ya saying, “That’s not enlightenment! That doesn’t count! No way! That’s going from
‘attached to dreams’ to ‘attached to waking thoughts.’ There’s no acquisition of true freedom from
the mind.”
I can out true you on that by citing the fact that THERE’S NO WAY OUT.
Ugh, eh? What one thinks one is can’t get across the River Jordan.
Moses R Us. Arjuna R Us. Bhishma R Us.
Moses wasn’t allowed to cross into the promised land. It’s metaphoric. It symbolizes that the ego
cannot become transcendental.
Arjuna, one tough hombre, got a peek into the promised land (knowing everything) and couldn’t
hack it. His legs buckled when Lord Krishna showed him all of it. Arjuna begged off. Got so scared
his hair stood up like when a cartoon character gets jolted with electricity. A guy who could shoot
ten thousand arrows simultaneously started sweating bullets.
Bhishma had to fight on the side of the bad guys even though he was an enlightened guru. His life
of almost perfect piety had him end up a human pincushion. That guy handed down famous
SCRIPTURES .
Did you cross any Jordans recently? Just askin’.
What’s going on here?
Here’s Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj to help us out.
“There can be no transition from consciousness to awareness, for awareness is not a form of
consciousness. Consciousness can only become more subtle and refined and that is what
happens after death. As the various vehicles of man die off, the modes of consciousness induced
by them also fade away.”
See? What we say we are is illusory which never becomes real.
And that’s the good news.
Instead of being large and in charge, we’re invited to re-cognize — assume once again our true
status — THE SELF.
See what Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj was doing there? He was announcing that you’re NOT in the
system. You’re out of it already. You’re beyond the mind which may or may not have freedom.
Moses, Arjuna and Bhishma all came to understand this. Their “persons” were not THAT which
authored their lives.
Lord Jesus put it harshly, “. . . Jesus told him, Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Meaning: Let the mind evaporate its own thoughts — no need for you to get into the mix. Pay
attention to the transcendent which Lord Jesus embodied.
INSTRUCTIONS
Close the eyes.
Wait.
Also works with eyes open. The waiting is the key.
Tell your dog to “STAY!” He can close his eyes or look around, but STAY!
Stay with what’s without and within.
Wait within or out.
Dwell. Period.
Just don’t mentally move on purpose.
Waiting teaches; prunes the personality.
It’s like sitting in an airport lounge and watching the travelers.
Every thought that goes by — so intent and busied and on its way.
Each one differing. Each one defining. Each one just passing on through.
As we wait, we get chance after chance to identify with objects of consciousness, but ones mere
intent to wait is potent enough to avoid the allures and let most thoughts happen without one
“wanting more of the same.” If we get caught up with a thought, when we notice, we begin to wait
again. Simple. Easy.
Finally, maybe only three thoughts into it for you, or maybe it’s more like the ten zillion that I had to
watch, but what happens is that one slowly gets it that the silence between each passerby is the
Self. Identity becomes less likely to take an excursion on a thought train. Identity finally becomes
so obvious that you never have to tell your dog to stay again.
You will have found you.
And you know already how much you love yourself.
Ain’t no way you’re going to wander off after that.
Edg Duveyoung
What happens after Enlightenment?
Nothing happens.
How is this possible? Nothing is nothing. How could nothing “happen?”
We note absences of every ilk. Ask the Bible about a missing sheep. drachma, or prodigal son. Ask
Rama about the hole in reality when Sita got nabbed.
But but but if we had a whole lotta nothing, then how would we notice if there was a hole in it?
This is tricky. It calls for a major paradigm shift — a massive flipping of the entire script is needed.
This could get ugly.
Well, ugly if nothing was something and a single nothing went missing, but luckily, if nothing isn’t
something, then it can’t go missing! In fact, if you do the opposite and instead of a hole, put a
something into a great big nothing, the something would stand out like you found a hole in the
nothing, and that would be something, eh?
Enlightenment dawns, and it turns out all the somethings are nothing, and The Big Nothing turns
out to be The Only Something.
Now that you have a headache, let’s notch it upwards.
You are the nothing that doesn’t happen after enlightenment.
When it is realized that all the somethings are illusory, you’re just a just-there-ness. A nakedly
youless identity that’s yet as much a something as a something could be somethingish, but
absolutely nothingish even so.
You still reading? I’m trying to be very clear. Honest.
This is the new paradigm. It’s discovered that all the objects of consciousness are active verbs —
each one is a someth that is constantly something — each a mere phenomenon, a process, an
inging thing. After enlightenment, nakedly being dominates, and being a clothed someth
evaporates.
It’s all awareness — even the non-awareness. Even consciousness is awareness despite
consciousness being solely a thing to thing thingie and very quite a lot not a nothing to nothing
inactive someth.
I’m getting logically dizzy. Tautologies — who needs their relentless recursivity and constant
bickering about who picks up the other first with their one shared shoestring? I’d rather try to pet
Schrodinger’s Cat.
And another thing. Did anyone ever even once take the time to consider that if everyone got
enlightened then all the trees would be chopped down and all the water transported elsewhere by
the next day?
No.
No one cares about this issue.
Even me.
Edg Duveyoung
What is spiritual awakening?
Originally Answered: What is spiritual awakening ?
If you awaken from a dream, the dream ends.
You sure you want to awaken spiritually?
Waking up from being a spirit? You sure?
Not just kidding around with words here.
The spirit within, individuality, must morph.
Me is the cocoon of the butterfly Thee.
God says, “Abracadabra” to your inner caterpillar.
The egoic worm is dead; long live the holy flapper!
Sounds pretty good. Yeah, let’s be spiritual! Woken R Us!
What’s not to love about consciousness expanding into more subtle realms?
Turns out, that to seek God in consciousness is like looking in a well lit place for your keys that you
lost two blocks away.
Picture Larry, Moe, and Curly. Eyes being poked. Faces slapped.
Me, myself and I are the poked blind slap happy fools. Duped by the mind that promises and
assures that “you will be spiritually satisfied,” because the mind can create an illusion of God, a
symbol of God, a map of God, a prayer to God, a scripture about God, a concept about God, an
understanding about God.
But the whole of it will yet be keys-not-found in the wrong well lit place.
Ask your local math whiz about how much a piece of infinity weighs.
Your little piece of consciousness will be likewiseishly sufficient unto the day.
It will never stop its detailing of God.
That’s going to take some time, eh?
Oh the mind’ll convince ya it’s okay.
That you’re on your way.
Getting there fast.
God’s just around the corner.
Hang onto your hat!
Any second now.
For sure.
This is the sweet torture of spirituality.
Looking for God and waiting for Godot in a well lit place.
And passing a collection plate meanwhile.
Ugh.
A mountain range of my karma yet to burn off?
Not going to happen. Might as well quit.
AND BAM! LESSON LEARNED.
Getting it is about quitting it.
Lord Krishna warned, “Karma is unfathomable.”
If you try in spite of that advice, there will be a Moe poking in your future.
Don’t refine — FIND!
Go directly to God instead of wait for Godot.
Transcend. Reside in being until its silence roars.
Because
When silence roars
Now we’re talking quiet.
Edg Duveyoung
In order to achieve, or manifest into, Enlightenment, I realize we need to just Be the
witness. How can we be the witness at times when we need to study or think on a job?
Is it possible to meditate using thinking and being the witness?
Sorry if this comes across harsh, but you can’t even count to ten,
So, if you think you might have the ability to purposefully be the witness, ahem. If you think you
actually could study or think on the job and additionally witness it, please.
Yeah, I’m calling you on your delusion.
Go ahead, count to ten.
Let’s see your skill in action.
Wait, don’t bother. We both know you can’t count to ten. Instead you’ll do a whole lot more than
that by mixing a ton of other experiences in with that countingness. You can’t control your
attention-on-thoughts such that all other mental events are ignored.
“One, two, three, yeah I got this, four five stupid challenge six my nose itches seven this is so easy
eight boy am I showing mad skillz nine AND ten!”
This is the proof that everyone ignores. We DON’T have control of the mind. It only seems so.
What we get is a flurry of ideation with merely “some” of the parts fitting our intent of the
moment. The other mental parts are when ones mind — mid-worshiping — focuses on the hem of
Jesus’ robe and is saddened that it’s a bit frayed and dirty, instead of ones mind being righteously
fixated on Jesus’ divinity — saturated wall to wall with awe.
Minds wander instead of reside in wonder.
I hope this discourages you from ever trying. You’re going to fail. No way you can, for instance,
say your mantra ten times without there being a ton of extraneous material that’s tilting, skewing,
enmiring, muddying, obfuscating, besmirching, blurrying, bugging and bothering.
This is The Fog of More.
You can’t even stop a specific thought from happening. For instance, try right now to count to ten
without thinking of King Kong Eating Pistachio Ice Cream. Got a song that won’t quit playing in
your head? Control . . . schmontrol.
See? It’s a joke. We are not in control, and it’s so bad, that if I told you to mindfully witness you’d
miss the side of that barn with a double-barrel.
Solution?
What part about “can’t” didn’t you get? Solution implies mental control.
Grace is the technique.
Being blessed is the technique.
No expectations is the technique.
No trying is the technique.
Neti neti neti does not instruct one that “if you catch yourself pretending you’re a thinker, bash the
offending thoughts with a neti fly swatter.”
It means desist. Period.
So, see the beauty in all this?
Look around ya. Let me ask, “Anyone else but you all that much interested in enlightenment?”
Hardly any, right? Your brother-in-law in particular, right?
Yet here you are.
THAT’S THE GRACE.
You’re being authored to be “in line for a promotion.”
You’re the hot ticket.
You’re the go-to.
You’re being fast-tracked.
Your mind is under renovation.
Spirituality is what’s for breakfast.
Appreciate this. For some reason, the spotlight is on you.
That’s all. No need to think about it much. Just “GET IT.”
Get it clear that life’s on automatic, and then you’ll witness your daily activities, hoo boy will ya.
When you get it that every possibility has been divinely considered such that what is enacted is
for your edification, THEN paying attention will no longer be a problem. Stray thoughts? Nope.
Clarity is when the whole mental space is allowing the chosen thought to solely sing. With no
spearholder upstaging.
Now, if the above “just doesn’t sit right,” and you “have to just have to do something, just gotta,”
there’s a loophole.
God’s Absolute, Exceptional, Sinlessly Legal, Hack
If you intend to attend attention, if you seek identity within, if you pause, if you abide, if you relax a
bit, if you just close the eyes, that’s control.
With it, you will force silence to come to the fore.
Feel free to just be the Thee inside the me.
There’s your power.
Edg Duveyoung
How does Advaita Vedanta explain free will?
Advaita is against “free will.”
For a “will” to be an actuality, there would have to be an entity that wills. Advaita politely asks,
“What part about BRAHMAN don’t you understand?”
One means one. Don’t be trying to hammer a two into this deal. All expressions fall short when
identity is being defined. Even the sacred holy perfect “I am” is baseless blasphemy in the face of
the unity of BRAHMAN.
Even to assume that BRAHMAN has will is to assert threeness. As if there were a will, a willed and
a willer. Nope.
Proof, you ask? You want an avalanche of logic, right? You want me to start with axiomatic utter
truth and then build the syllogism? No problem. That’s all the scriptures of Advaita Vedanta! Duh!
— just waiting for you to read. You want sussing. There’s the suss. I’m not kidding. Just you try to
find a flaw in their statements.
And then the ancients tell you, “Don’t bother reading all this. Just transcend, wuddjajust? The
intellect isn’t going to set you free. These words are for entertainment purposes only. Only
realization matters. Only dissolving into BRAHMAN will satisfy any intellect’s need for clarity or
any heart’s longing for communion.”
When Lord Brahma was first born, He tried to get clear about the Lotus Stalk. We know how that
turned out. He had to quit. Then He tried to create. Didn’t. And then He got advice from beyond.
“Tapas.” Translation: “Give up! Retire from being God. Surrender. Let that which must become
become. Get out of the way.” And so He did just that, and creation began. This is Advaita’s lesson
on “will.”
Lord Brahma took one for the team.
Had to learn the hard way — had to fail and so to teach.
Two — the first sin.
So Advaita says, “Transcend. Realize BRAHMAN. Get out of the person business. Get out of the
way. What’s to do is not your concern.”
So, next time you feel a need to think, when there’s a thought just sitting there waiting for you to
think it, when all you need is one more thought to tide you over, remember Lord Brahma.
Because, well, ya got trouble, my friend, right here
I say, trouble right here in Doer City
We are addicted to do, doo and due;
Doers do doo-doo due to two.
It’s the stink of being a you.
And you rhymes with do.
Right here in Doer City
Do with a capital D
And D rhymes with P.
And that stands for pool!
Edg Duveyoung
What is the evidence/explanation for bliss (Anand) in Existence-Consciousness-Bliss
(sat-chit-Anand)? Existence Consciousness is evident but I fail to see how bliss is part
of our fundamental nature.
If you’re looking for happiness, you won’t find bliss.
If bliss was blissful, it would be happiness instead.
Bliss is the transcendent.
Let that sink in. Conflate those two words.
They should always be used synonymously.
Train your brain about bliss.
Any words about bliss, the word itself, and all the deeply considered descriptions are at best mere
poetry. We could say words are “pointers,” but any mind that uses the word, even an enlightened
mind that uses the word, is but blindly pointing outside of its ken.
It’s like saying, “pi is 3-ish.”
Bliss is not an experience of consciousness.
We can’t know, can’t understand, can’t have bliss.
Now, around about here, as my essays usually go, I would somehow flip the script on the above
and inform that bliss is indeed experienceable and knowable and graspable.
Ain’ta gunna happen this time. I’m whopped.
Like this, we’re all beat. Our best writers miss bliss by a mile.
God slips through all the fingers.
What to do?
How to instruct about bliss?
How to encourage another to seek that which cannot be sought?
How?
EASY PEASEY — BARELY IN INCONVENIENCE.
Heh, yeah, I’mma gunna turn this ship around.
You came to the right place.
I’m the proprietor of The House of Bliss.
I’m behind the counter wearing an apron; pencil behind my ear.
You want bliss,
You get bliss.
You my customer.
You get bliss.
You enter my store.
You get bliss.
Now, if you order a pi of bliss, what do I sell ya?
Well, let’s see what I sold to my recent customers.
There was a lady, back last week or so, came in here, and a hubbub broke loose. Called herself
“Draupadi.” She wanted a pi of bliss, like you, wanted it in a hurry if I am correctly rememberin’. So
I sold her a pi of bliss, her sari, and she puts it on, and then, get this, this sketchy guy called
Dushasana up and tries to take it off of her. Dushasana started sweatin’ and groanin’ and heavin’
and breathin’ hard. Let me tell ya, it was like a circus come to town. We’re still talkin’ ‘bout that
one. Should’a seen his face when he finally quit. Turned my head to hide my smirk.
Then there was a young fella in here, Bartholomew Cubbins, just a bareheaded kid really. He
wanted a pi of bliss, so I sold him a nice fittin’ hat.
I seem to recall this gentleman in a long robe. Had this big walkin’ stick. He wanted a pi of bliss,
and I sold him some manna.
And, just yesterday or so, had this very dignified Personage, all important like, enter the shop, so I
naturally perked up a bit. He orders a pi of bliss, and I sell Him a Lotus Stalk. Only one I had in
stock. I’m not so sure He’ll be a repeat customer. Those lotus stalks are an unacquirable taste.
And oh yeah, can’t forget the time this real quiet type walks in. Ordered a pi of bliss kinda gentle
like. Seemed sorta extra extra sane if you know what I mean. So I gave him Arunachala and told
him, “No charge.”
Well, I can’t be jabberin’ all day here. And because you’re a new customer, I’m going to not just go
and sell you any ol’ pi of bliss. Gotta make it special. So, for your first purchase here, I’m giving
you a choice. Any pi of bliss in the shop, for you, is 10% off.
Whatta ya want?
Edg Duveyoung
I’ve heard it’s best to meditate at the break of dawn. Is there any benefit to earlier
meditation times?
This is about Vedic sitar music.
You don’t go to a Vedic music guru and request your favorite tune. Vedic music must be
appropriate for the time of day or it’s, well, blasphemy. Each moment of a day is sacredly
represented by ancient traditional music that is considered to be spiritually supportive and
harmonious with creation’s “vibe.” The entirety is being poetically expressed as metaphorical
music.
So in the early morning hours, early morning hours music is played.
And so too is it best for your brain to “play the music of consciousness” appropriately. We pray
when life’s quiet; we play when life’s active. It’s less than ideal to not be in harmony with the tone
of the now.
It’s common sense. Like attracts like. When your half of the Earth is sunless, it’s as if the world is
meditating for you, and that does much of the work of settling down your mind. Well begun is half
done. Just before the birds start chirping, transcend with the birds.
So, if you see a video offering “sacred sitar” music on youtube, it isn’t. It should be played live by
a mind that is enlightened and knows God is listening too! It’s worship. Anything less than that is
less than that.
Imagine that you’re living 5,000 years ago back in the days when Lord Krishna was bopping
around with Arjuna. You went to sleep at 9 P.M. and woke up at 3 A.M. and what do you hear?
Somewhere in your village, distantly, the sitar master is playing the morning song. Its sweetness
allures you to close the eyes and enjoy. Listening to it you slide into its depths and feel its
righteous basis — holy awareness. Each note a mantra. This attunes the mind, evolves the
personality, and is a healing atonement. In short, communion.
THE PROBLEM
Meditating in the morning is not as much fun as in the afternoon. Why? Because when you wake
up you’ve had a full night’s sleep to repair and refresh the nervous system, so when you meditate,
all the “easy stuff” has already been fixed by Nature. Thus, in morning meditation, you can really
dig into the backlog of “congealed karma.” And the mind can spit and sputter tons when deep
repair is afoot. Each advance into depth means the body must change some stubborn hardened
rusted shut configuration, free it from fixation, and it makes for a raucous meditation. Not always
quiet, and it seems as if one is not relaxed and “with it” and in tune. But good things are
happening, and the mind’s noise is the proof of work being done.
In the evening, after a day’s activities, one is tired. When we meditate in the evening, we get
drowsy and sleepy more easily, and those bodily feelings can make it seem that one is “deeper”
because we are not “fully awake.”
But hey. We meditate when we can even if the brain is in ukelele mode. We take it as it comes. If
you live next to the railroad tracks, no excuse to not meditate. I lived for two years a block from
the tracks, and the trains sounded their whistles and the house shook.
But often I never heard the train at all.
Edg Duveyoung
To what extent do we control our own life and how much of it is up to fate? If we can't
control our life, who or what does?
LET’S ASK A MAGIC EIGHT BALL!
Me: Hey Magic Eight Ball, does God control my life?
Magic Eight Ball: It is certain.
Me: Do you say that because you know God?
Magic Eight Ball: It is decidedly so.
Me: Even you, a child’s toy, know God?
Magic Eight Ball: Without a doubt.
Me: So you’re saying every object, anything, is alive and aware?
Magic Eight Ball: Yes - definitely.
Me: Ugh! That’s kinda freaky — like I’m surrounded by entities that are spying on me. Does that
mean that everything I do is witnessed and that when I get to the Heavenly Gates then St. Peter
will allow testimony against me from my incompetent toaster that hates me and burns my bread
every single time?
Magic Eight Ball: You may rely on it.
Me: Yikes. So I guess I’d better give an honestly tithed amount in the collection plate and stop
teasing the cat. But wait, if God is controlling my life then do I really get all the blame if I make a
mistake?
Magic Eight Ball: As I see it, yes.
Me: But but but, that’s a rigged system. Wait, if God makes me mess up, does God do this for
some personal reason against me?
Magic Eight Ball: Most likely.
Me: So what are my chances that God will author me to be a good guy instead of someone who is
truly evil and would, say, tease a cat or pretend in Quora essays to talk to God?
Magic Eight Ball: Outlook good.
Me: So even me? God could make my thoughts and actions support the divine agenda?
Magic Eight Ball: Yes.
Me: So I could just give up and let God do the doing and even if the doing is me doing some doo
doo, it’ll be okay and I won’t get any return doo-doo-ish karma for it?
Magic Eight Ball: Signs point to yes.
Me: But wait, if I let go entirely and then God has me do something bad to some bad guy then who
deserves some bad return karma, how does the return-karma-for-returning-karma of that kinda
deal play out?
Magic Eight Ball: Reply hazy, try again.
Me: No really; it’s confusing. How would an enlightened person know that when an action seems
bad to everyone else yet the action is still 100% good and necessary and righteous?
Magic Eight Ball: Ask again later.
Me: So, wait . . . you, a stealthily sentient entity, say you know God and are telling me good advice,
but all your responses to me are limited and float up randomly. How can these answers be
anything but me imagining that you’re real? How could God possibly use randomness to truly
respond to me?
Magic Eight Ball: Better not tell you now.
Me: Well ain’t that just the way it always is. Little guys don’t get to hang out with the big guys.
What are the chances that I will ever be allowed backstage to see how things really get done?
Magic Eight Ball: Cannot predict now.
Me: Of course not. You’re just a little black ball I bought for two bucks at a garage sale. What was I
thinking here? You’re not alive. How could I be so dumb to fall for this, but hmmmmmm all your
answers seems to be completely in response to my questions and deep and wise and correct.
How am I ever to grasp this?
Magic Eight Ball: Concentrate and ask again.
Me: Sure, give me busy work. I see what you’re doing there. I bet if I prayed really hard and asked
God to clear this up, I’d be told that it’s only my nervous system that generates thoughts and that
children’s toys are never used to provide pivotal inspiration to a casual inquiry.
Magic Eight Ball: Don't count on it.
Me: You know don’t you, that you could be in my trash at any second for giving me lippy snark
with a sassy mouth like I use in my Quora essays when I’m elbowing God? Is that what you want?
Magic Eight Ball: My reply is no.
Me: Aha, thought so. So let’s test this out and see if you can be civil. I’ll even use you formally and
officially to ask: OH HOLY WONDROUS MAGIC EIGHT BALL WITH SACREDLY RANDOM
ANSWERS THAT YET SOMEHOW ARE KARMICALLY CORRECT EVEN IN QUORA ESSAYS “WILL I
BECOME THE MOST FAMOUS ADVAITA WRITER IN HISTORY?”
Magic Eight Ball: My sources say no.
Me: That’s not a very civil answer. What are the chances you’re in the trash in a minute or less?
Magic Eight Ball: Outlook not so good.
Me: Psych! Like I’d toss a ball that gives God’s answers in a too long didn’t read nutshell version.
I’m gunna make millions with you — going to take us on the road — we’ll play major venues.
Probably I can get a thousand bucks for any answer we give. I can see the lines now with fists full
of cash. I’m sure God will support this. This has to be how it all gets straightened out — this is how
the world gets saved!
Magic Eight Ball: Very doubtful.
ATTENTION ALL QUORA READERS
PLEASE GOOGLE “EDG AND HIS KARMIC BALL OF WONDER“ TO FIND OUT WHEN HE WILL
BE APPEARING IN YOUR TOWN.
Edg Duveyoung
How you make tour subconscious mind work for you?
Originally Answered: How can someone make their subconscious work for them?
The technique is called “samyama.”
It is the most powerful spiritual hack.
It has three rules. Works for masters and muggles alike.
1. Take a few minutes to get as settled and mentally quiet as possible.
2. In that quietness, introduce a “topic.”
3. Wait.
Samyama was taught by Patanjali; it instructs how to get the mind to dissolve specific key-
illusions such that the entire mind eventually stops pretending distinctions are real. “Distinction”
means “the projecting of a name and form upon God’s unity.” It’s the basis of ignorance. Samyama
develops the ability to attend any level of consciousness; the goal is to eventually attend pure
consciousness devoid of ideation — the self. This ability also can activate the mind’s creativity on
demand.
Details
To get the mind quiet, we close the eyes and wait. Depending on ones nervous system’s
degree of “frazzel,” one may not get all that quiet, but any level of restfulness is okay “for
starters.” For most folks, after an average day of being stimulated by creation, it takes three, four,
five minutes to arrive at ones least level of activity. For newbies, this “calmest point” may not be
all that quiet, but with practice, ones level of calmness increases. Every day, a little deeper. Like
that. On any given day, one may have had a lot more activity, and so, the nervous system will not
settle as well as on days with less challenging input. We abide with what we are. We don’t “give
up” just because we feel we are not “with it today.” Consistency pays off.
The calmer that a mind is the more ablely can it note the “barely whispered” thoughts. These
subtleties are mostly ignored in waking life, but they are an all-time-reality for all minds; one can
pick up on them as one gets calmer and calmer.
When the mind is settled, we introduce a topic. This could be a question asked or a phrase or
simply a single word — a concept about which one wants “more.”
We introduce the topic ONCE. Then we wait. We don’t get antsy if nothing happens. If after 15
seconds (that’s a long time) we have not yet gotten the mind to profitably suss the topic, then we
introduce the topic again, And then wait.
The mind — of anyone — is wondrous. It will produce thoughts “from outside the box” no matter
the mind’s life experiences. The new thoughts due to samyama can be “from beyond.” That is,
they don’t depend on previous education. This is not to say, that an uneducated mind will come up
with a new math proof, but by using samyama, a trained mathematician’s mind will “suddenly see”
that which hitherto had gone unnoticed. As will a chef discover parsley is tastier in a dish if one
takes into account the temperature of the food when it’s added. As will a mechanic discover what
a “small sound in the background” means about an engine’s state. As will an artist find that using
burnt umber (instead of cadmium yellow) with cobalt blue works better for what a painting’s
sunset emotionally needs. These nuances can be “drowned out” in a mind that is in a “louder”
state.
Outside of meditation, the new thoughts may not be easily recalled — like trying to remember a
dream shortly after waking. So we are patient. We dive back in if necessary and introduce the
topic again. This builds clarity until it is “firm enough” for new thoughts to be easily recalled with
eyes open.
I’ve written about samyama several times. I personally want to testify that samyama has worked
for me so well that I was overwhelmed with new thoughts. I filled notebooks with inventions. 99%
of it yet sitting there. God does not stint. God will back up the truck and unload on ya. You want
something, brace for impact.
Of course, using samyama for evolution is its most powerful application. We settle the mind, we
ask, “Who am I?” and wait. This is Advaita’s technique of Self Inquiry. The mind can’t produce
silence by thinking noisily.
So the mind stops thinking and BAM — THERE’S YOU. Your pure identity is revealed without being
clothed by any concept.
Yeah, I said it, the ultimate goal is to be a mental nudist.
Let’s get naked!
To be continued here:.
Edg Duveyoung's answer to What happens if you meditate too much?
Continued here:
Go here to the previous Crit’s episode.
Edg Duveyoung's answer to What happens if you meditate too much?
Go here for the first episode.
Edg Duveyoung
What are your spiritual experiences with God?
LET’S ASK GOD!
Me: Hey God, is it okay for me to spill the beans and speak out of school?
God: No. We don’t tell the secrets of spirituality before there is a mind that is ready to
receive them with respect. What I tell you in private should be kept private. You’re prideful
— as if the subtleties you bandy in Quora essays are helping folks evolve, and it does not
serve The Ultimate. I warned you about this in the Gita: “The wise will not befuddle the
minds of the ignorant who are attached to action.” You’re triggering folks to tractionlessly
spin their wheels when you know they’re addicted to action. And worse, when someone
finally does have an experience that you’ve written about, it’s been spoiled — the sweet
surprise is gone. “Edg ruins everything” — like that. Gotta preserve innocence!
Me: Whoa, You’ve clobbered me. I’m pancaked. I didn’t expect this out of the Father of Jesus on
Easter Day, Ya know? You could cut me a break. Ouch!
God: Considering your past essays that smart-mouthed at Me, you’re getting off light.
Me: So what MAY I write about? What’s allowed? Can’t I drag all my friends from their hog troughs
and put lipstick on their snouts and toss some pearls at them? Can’t I whip dead horses into
drinking water? Doesn’t the end justify the means?
God: I can’t believe I authored you to say that just now. Me so bad. But when it comes to
manifesting primo knuckle-dragger thoughts, you’re my go-to nervous system. I can get
you to say anything and not even blush. This noted, yet still we have to do something about
your reckless spiritual snitching. It does no good to spur minds to imagining when all they
have to do is realize. Realization is not about fools fanning fantasies. You’re tantalizing folks
into getting their brains to churn out instead of turn in.
Me: Ouch ouch ouch. Can’t breathe. Am I doing anything right?
God: Not a single thing. But, good news, except for the saints, everyone is as undivine as
you. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of Moi, and all that. I put up with the whole
scurvy crew of youse. It’s what I do, but you, Edg, you seem to have a little extra dirt behind
your ears. You’re too cavalier when you try to bruise My rib cage. I have to push-back in
public as a symbol. You’re now a meme. “Edg the Spiritual Jerk.”
Me: You’ve pounded me as flat as roadkill. I’m a pizza for crows. The back of my face is my butt.
God: But somehow you keep typing. Ahem. Look, your humiliation has no causal effects, so
you’re safe. You’re only as ruined as I author you to be in the now. And obviously, I’m using
you for secret reasons you’ll never get to know — especially because you’d blab about it.
Yep, I use everything from everyone to do all the things righteously. Even the most evil act
by any entity is My storytelling in action. Gotta have bad guys, ya know? Gotta have a black
velvet background to make Elvis pop!
Me: Speaking of Elvis; how is he?
God: Now there’s a guy who had a few extra angels in the crowd when he arrived here.
Everyone wanted a selfie with him.
Me: Seriously? Elvis? THE Elvis. In Heaven? Not You know?
God: See? This is why I love you. You write tons about tons and still don’t get it. Everyone is
Elvis like everyone is Spartacus like everyone is Jesus on Easter morning. No one is an
island. Creation is recursively self referential. Butterfly wings flapping R Us. New arrivals in
Heaven are honored as UNSUNG HEROES. As they pass through The Heavenly Gate, they
get sung about like you can’t imagine as a restricted human, but hoooo boy yessiree do they
get sung about. You ain’t been sung about until an angelic choir sings about what you did
when you lived. Your hardships, your triumphs, your staying the course, your anewed
hopingness, your loving intents. All sweetly honored by sacred singing with lyrics I
personally write about you.
Me: Even roadkill?
God: Even roadkill.
Edg Duveyoung
You know so much about Gods, Goddesses, Deities, Brahman etc., but which of them
you consider the highest?
LET’S ASK GOD!
Me: Hey God, which incarnational expression of divinity is Your highest?
God: You’re deliberately asking me this on April 20th?
Me: Yeah, heh. So Which of Your incarnations is the Leader of the pack? Which One has the most
snapshots in Your family photo album? Who could make a rock that the Others can’t lift? To Whom
should we pray? Who has the most Facebook friends? Who offers the quickest path to
enlightenment? Whose road crew has the most angels? Who has the most youtube views?
God: Seriously? You want to shorten that list a bit?
Me: Come on. You know that which I’m wanting to know. Feel free to riff on any of the questions.
God: So nice of you to give Me permission. I’ll make a check mark in your spreadsheet under
column “transparent toadying.” You do know, don’t you, that I know you? I spent a celestial
hour inventing each one of your quarks. Get it?
Me: Okay, okay, yeah, yeah, I’m rude and assumptive and invading Your space. I loud talk, wave
my hands all over the place, and stand too closely. I’m only allowed in Heaven on a day pass, so
I’m anxious to get as good an answer as possible. I’m doing the best I can with how You authored
my personality.
God: I always inwardly chuckle when you use your personality as an excuse. You’re quite
adorable like that. Gets Me in the feels.
Me: My feels significantly differ. So Who’s the highest representative of You?
God: Me.
Me: Yeah but which nervous system would You wear if You had to get dressed to go to a Cosmic
Pandimensional War?
God: Always with the violence and emphasis on My Omnipotence — hardly ever are you
concerned about Intellect and Presence. But you are what you are, and I knew that even
before I invented dirt.
Me: An answer? I only have until dusk to get on the last bus out of Heaven.
God: I tease you, because you’re such a jester on Quora. Your audience needs to at least get
it that your “smart mouth” is not traditional. In all of history, almost every single human who
tried to educate others about Me was respectful to the max. Adoration and awe. Worshipful
obiescence. And this is the proper way to talk about Me with others. What you do on Quora
is barely not sinful.
Me: Complain on Your own time. Quick! I’ll have to run to get to the bus depot as it is.
God: Don’t worry about getting out of here. I can arrange special transportation. There’s a
bungee cord with your name on it. Look, the answer, as you well know, is that names and
forms are all illusory and that every mind sees with tinted glasses. In every religion, true
believers rationalize about priority. And I’m just fine with all of that. If someone wants to
start a bar fight over whether Lord Buddha can beat up Lord Jesus, I’m down for it. Nothing
quite like the didactic power of a punch in the nose. In fact, all of creation is a tussle, and I’m
sitting on My S — that demarcation line between the yins and yangs — and eating popcorn.
Me: Now look Who’s Mr. Colloquial JiveMaster Jester.
God: Point for you, but I did give an answer and helped you once again fill up a whole page
on Quora. Point for Me in My spreadsheet under column “Forgive The Snot One More Time.”
Edg Duveyoung
Why enlightenment often concentrates on the individual soul, but omits the
Supersoul?
It’s always about the Supersoul — THAT.
Awareness is THAT.
You’re THAT.
All this is THAT.
And that’s that.
The individual dissolves into the Supersoul.
Gone.
All further conversations will be with the Supersoul. An enlightened one is THAT — not a body —
not a mind. If you talk with an enlightened one you’re talking to God — God is doing a live session.
The human component, the body that’s speaking, the meat telephone that you’re using to have
the conversation, should be ignored.
And that’s why “enlightenment” is so hard for so many to accept as a possibility.
— “Talk to God? Get an answer out of this, ew, human? Don’t be ridiculous.”
But yeah, that’s the deal.
An enlightened one is real, actual, God.
In. Yo. Face.
The following is true:
— You are aware.
— Your awareness is obvious. Undeniable.
— Your awareness is your identity. You say, “I am aware.”
— Your awareness witnesses events in consciousness.
— Your awareness is steady — not the ever changing thoughts and moods.
— Your awareness, even if you’re furious, is yet clearly unblocked — THERE.
— Your awareness is the fundamental aspect of every conscious event.
So?
Every single person on earth agrees with your “awareness list.”
Kinda astounding, eh? You disagree with almost every person on Earth about almost everything
there is to disagree about, but about awareness, no problem.
When Western scholars of the mind (psychologists and philosophers and physicists, oh my) try to
define awareness, they too always agree about what constitutes identity. They agree that what’s
there when one says, “I am,” is definitive, core self. They agree with monks and nuns and gurus
and atheists.
But, if we ask these serious intellectuals, “How can we all be so different, so unique, so quick to
disagree with another POV, and yet still agree about awareness? Why isn’t awareness also
surmised erroneously — seen in error like the blind men “saw” the elephant?” they start to fidget a
bit. Gets ’em antsy.
Something’s fishy, eh? What’s up, eh?
If you grab any passerby (maybe not exactly “grab”) and ask, “What’s your identity? Can you hone
in on it?” you will keep getting the same answers. It’s as if we are all citing chapter and verse from
the same scriptures.
Okay, now brace yourself.
God agrees with your awareness list too.
Has the same list.
The same list.
We are all in cahoots!
The same list is the same list is the same list.
You and God are identical.
So identical, you’re not even twins.
Edg Duveyoung
Does awakening happen in its own time or is there anything you can do to hurry it
along?
Yes, but no, but yes.
Mountain, no mountain, mountain .
Advaita Vedanta says there’s no causality if there’s no causer causing.
So that settles that. No hurrying of its allowed.
EXCEPTION — GOD
Transcendent God (not manifest God) “does” “do” “it” “somehowishly.”
In your nightly dream, if you pour a glass of water, did “YOU” do it or did the “dream you” do it?
Answer: yes. Alternate answer: a mountain in the mind is not high in the same way that dream
water is not wet.
Identity works exactly so.
You seem to be here, then nope, then yep.
You do then don’t then do.
We can say a hurricane was caused by a butterfly flapping a wing. But what caused that wing to
flap just then in just that manner? No end to this kind of analysis. Lord Krishna put it succinctly:
karma is unfathomable.
Transcendental truth is the basis of
God’s manifested truths which
are the basis of human waking truths which
are the basis of human dream truths.
Truths (of duality) are mere expressions in consciousness which, being phenomenal, necessarily
have to be not-the-real. An expression of something is not the thing. You can’t get to Chicago by
finger-walking there on a map.
So, no, you can’t hurry it along, but yeah you can if you’re Transcendent God.
Here’s how to tell you’re Transcendent God: move your pinky finger.
If it moves, it was the Transcendent You that did it. No thought was able to move it. You could
have yelled at your pinky for hours, and it would not move. But it moves when THE
TRANSCENDENT YOU DECIDES IT SHOULD MOVE.
Locate the transcendent you by peering at silence. As we look within, the activity level of the mind
subsides automatically. As quietude increases so does clarity about identity. At some point, little
you toggles to big you. This is called realization — one realizes that one DOES MOVE THE PINKY
but not by any instrumentality.
How so?
A coil of rope in dim light might scare you if it seems to be a snake. Seeing the true rope as truly
rope does not require ANY ACTION TO BE DONE TO THE FALSITY OF THE SNAKE.
Seeing your true self is not a matter of deconstructing your expression of self in a human nervous
system.
So the answer is to become the God of Pinkys. Abide within and watch the decisions magically
appear, and then abide some more until no decisions are being made, and then reside more until
it’s “okay” if a mind once again seems to make decisions.
The good news is that since actions happen, you’re transcendentally causing it. For no
discernable rationale, actions happen exactly as needed. The pinky moves only when the real you
wants it to move — not because an ego debated with the pinky and finally convinced it to move.
So hurry “it” as much as you can by discovering you’re the real you.
Practice silence until you get the “I Moved My Pinky” tee shirt.
Edg Duveyoung
In Advaita Vedanta, does every single thing have atman (panpsychism) or only living
organisms have it?
Advaitic Lord Jesus and His Backup Singers answered this question.
Some bad guys were complaining about the disciples of Lord Jesus, because they were singing
“Hosanna” to celebrate the Presence of Living God in our midst NOW.
37 And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole
multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty
works that they had seen;
38 Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and
glory in the highest.
39 And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy
disciples.
40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the
stones would immediately cry out.
Now you know what Lord Jesus knew.
All things have sentience and morals and volition and agency.
Anyone who has hit a thumb with a hammer knows WHO to blame. Dang hammers — conniving
thugs of the tool box’ll getcha. They plot these things.
But but but do you see the BIG SECRET THERE?
Do you see the how Lord Jesus was predicting Rock and Roll?
What group did He say would sing if the world didn’t allow for righteousness to have a voice?
The Stones
Edg Duveyoung
If I meditate every day for 10 hours for a year, will I get any special powers?
205 persons spent 10–12 hours in meditation per day with some pranayama hourly and, as
needed, with a ten minute set of asanas to keep flexible. Seven days a week. Group sessions back
and forthing with the guru were up to six hours per day. In a peaceful ocean-side setting, they
were pampered and fed organic Vedic meals prepared by a well trained staff.
FOR EIGHT MONTHS.
Results were impossible to interpret. No one demonstrated any of the super-powers that Patanjali
listed. No invisibility, no clairvoyance, no mind reading, no astral traveling, no angels seen, no
demons dismissed, no flying, no super strength, and all the rest of the list.
But of course almost all the above and more was reported in the group sessions.
None of these reports were validated except by testimony. Most experiences happened in ones
room during meditation. After meditation in “waking life,” obvious results were reported far less
frequently. Many of the meditators had “deep relaxation” instead of fantastic spiritual events. Even
the meditators that reported a lot of events did not have any effects on their psyches with any
obvious up-notching. No one became noticeably smarter, calmer, sweeter, etc.
Except there were exceptions.
Everyone seemed to have at least one exception.
And for most of them, their exceptions validated the whole eight months.
205 persons beamed.
No one wanted to leave that place.
It was special and powerful.
48 years later.
No regrets.
Edg Duveyoung
What really makes a human truly happy?
Originally Answered: What are the major causes of human happiness?
LET’S ASK LORD BRAHMA!
Me: Hey Lord Brahma, what causes happiness?
Lord Brahma: There’s no causality. “From this, that” — is a delusion. When I tried to create, I
was flummoxed until finally one single word came into My Mind: “tapas.” So I did tapas by
dwelling with The Absolute — yeah even I had to give up. Only by meditating to settle down
My thoughts — only by Me getting out of the way — did creation then get going. I had to give
up thinking on purpose — divine austerity — to allow My Self aka awareness aka The
Absolute aka Pure Being aka The Transcendent to come up with “how” creation starts
without causality.
Me: What a mouthful. I’ll be chewing on this for a week.
Lord Brahma: Surrendering is the universal hack. Turns out My Omniscience was not potent
enough to “magically process” all the necessary elements that go into PERFECTION. Even
My Omniscience was a titch parochial in that it was concerned with objects of My
Consciousness instead of ALL the “aspects” of THE SUPREME — which encompasses the
unreals, the non-exists, the never thises, and the impossible thats. Only The Absolute is
able to do this without any doingness involved.
Me: My head hurts.
Lord Brahma: Imagine how I felt! Try being God and find You have limitations! First I failed to
find the bottom of the Lotus Stalk, and then I failed to create. Two urps! in a row. But My
embarrassment serves as an all-time lesson for any thinking being — don’t think. Let that
which is beyond thinking thoughtlessly think.
Me: It gobsmacks to think we’re not thinkers.
Lord Brahma: Exactly. I was shocked! Turns out, I’m The Witness and creation is purely
magical. I get to relax and see creation from the inside of everyone. Peek-a-boo, I see you.
Me: I’m a bit confused about that. All religions agree that our minds are divinely witnessed, so that
means that You are a Witnessing Being inside me, but when I look inside, I don’t see You, and if I
look for myself, all I can find is this “no answer” or “silence” in my mind. I can’t catch myself. I slip
through my mental fingers.
Lord Brahma: I know, right? Me too! I close My Eyes, thoughts cease, and there’s the Infinite
as if a doorway into Beyondness. I’m not there but I’m there! Let Me tell you, get a taste of
that nectar, and you wonder why Lord Shiva ever stops meditating. I’m tempted to wake up
Lord Narayana to ask, but then I’d go poof!
Me: Shhhhh, let Him sleep! I guess, technically speaking, Lord Shiva is an all-the-time metaphor
for The Absolute, so suddenly I’m wondering how He tells if He’s awake.
Lord Brahma: Me too. That Guy’s tricky!
Me: So about happiness. We got off-track.
Lord Brahma: Happiness is what the Transcendent does when no one is looking. The
Absolute got stuffy. Jammed with Unity. Saturated with everythingness. Infinity in a sardine
can. The Divine confined. So a work-around was devised. A pretend creation would display
and play with every possible impossibility. Everything would never happen but it would! No
harm no foul! Zero-sum game that yet is a win/win.
Me: Where’s the happiness of a human in all that?
Lord Brahma: Satisfying any desire is bliss being parsed. Bliss is too sweet to enjoy it.
Consciousness was invented to dilute it, and so, “Let there be tongues!” Happiness’ secret
is that the silencing of any desire is a human way of finding silence. It’s the long way. The
excursion tour.
Me: So silence, no-thing, is happiness. Go figure. Is there a short way?
Lord Brahma: Yep. Tapas. Quit trying to figure it out. Surrender to win. Settling down reveals
the witness, Me. Why bother with tidbits when you can dive into the source of all bits!
Me: Sounds too good to be true.
Lord Brahma: Now you’re getting it! It’s beyond truth! It’s unfathomable. Bask in it. Keep
entering silence. Meditate until you’re too big for space and eternal beyond time.
Me: I’m putting this conversation down and backing slowly away.
Lord Brahma: I know, right?
Me: I really really need a dish of pistachio ice cream. That I can handle.
Lord Brahma: Heh. That’s My boy!
Edg Duveyoung
Is it ok that I am not enlightened?
LET’S ASK EDG!
Me: Hey Me, is it okay that this question asker is not enlightened?
Me: I think so, but better ask someone who would have a definitive answer.
Me: Hey, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I know you’ve got God taking your calls now, but if you could
slip out of eternal bliss to answer this question, it would be a load off my mind.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: Just for you, Edg, just for you. In “I Am That” I said,
“If you seek reality you must set yourself free of all backgrounds, of all cultures, of all patterns of
thinking and feeling. Even the idea of being man or woman, or even human, should be discarded.
The ocean of life contains all, not only humans. So, first of all abandon all self-identification, stop
thinking of yourself as such-and-such, so-and-so, this or that. Abandon all self-concern, worry
not about your welfare, material or spiritual, abandon every desire, gross or subtle, stop thinking
of achievement of any kind. You are complete here and now, you need absolutely nothing.
“It does not mean that you must be brainless and foolhardy, improvident or indifferent; only the
basic anxiety for oneself must go. You need some food, clothing and shelter for you and yours,
but this will not create problems as long as greed is not taken for a need. Live in tune with things
as they are and not as they are imagined.”
Hope that does it for you, Edg. Back to the bliss. If there’s still any doubts, you can always ask
God for details.
Me: Hey God, what do you think of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s answer? I’m kinda worried that no
one can follow his advice without Your authoring them to do all of that, and that’s a ton of mental
specifics for You to have to empower in someone's personality. I can’t see the newbie being able
to begin to transition from their level of attunement to the much higher level at which they would
have to be to follow Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s advice. Can You give us a too long; didn’t read
version? Something 25 words or less?
God: Three words: “Close the eyes.”
Ta da! By meditating, no matter how badly, if one simply “keeps at it,” one will learn how to
relax and let thoughts settle down. If the first time meditator does something mentally
strenuous and not relaxing, it’s okay. That won’t last long. I don’t author folks to keep
banging into walls. The mind naturally wants to get calmer, and sooner or later, all bad-
techniques will be abandoned, and anyone will be organically honed into a seeker of silence
instead of thoughts. Note that “close the eyes” in no way implies “opening the eyes.” The
more you see “thoughts go by” the more you realize you’re the silence which contains them.
This is why I invented caves in the mountains — for those who really really really want some
shuteye.
Me: I notice it took you 128 extra words to explain Your three word answer, but who’s counting!
God: You gunna start givin’ me lip again? You remember what happened to those two
guards who got snarky with the four saints trying to get into Vaikuntha, right?
Me: Nuff sed. Thanks for the great answer Oh Mighty One Of The Unendingest Of Unending
Glories.
God: That mouth. I gotta do something about that mouth. I already had two angels try that
stuff with Me. Turns out they’re reading your Quora essays behind My Back.
Me: I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way.
God: I knew Jess Rabbit and you’re no Jess Rabbit. See? Now you’ve got Me authoring you
to have 1988 thoughts. You want Me to have you start quoting Hammurabi? This can be
arranged.
Me: I can’t quit. This mouth owns me.
God: Can’t let you get the last word.
Me: BRAHMAN
Edg Duveyoung
What does "dying of the ego" mean?
The ego does not die. It doesn’t magically disappear after enlightenment.
Rather, it is that the whole mind becomes insignificant due to having lost its allure when
enlightenment dawned — no object of consciousness can compare with the realized state of
eternal infinite transcendent bliss.
The true you trumps the illusory you.
For instance, you’re enlightened relative to your trumped left elbow.
Oh NOW you notice it. You find that left elbow is and has been incessantly jabbering about what
it’s experiencing. But until I mentioned it, IT WAS NOT SIGNIFICANT ENOUGH TO GET EVEN
YOUR BRIEFEST ATTENTION. This is the exact impotence of any allure of any object of
consciousness after enlightenment. The whole shebang ain’t no bang at all.
Ask any guru, “What did YOU have for breakfast?”
The guru goes, “Me? Oh yeah, there’s a ‘left-elbowish me.’ This me had toast and jam.”(In India, by
the way, it’s considered rude to ask a guru personal questions.)
The avatars of God use the word “I.”
Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Shankara (in alphabetical order.)
We cut Them a break, because it’s understood that They use that word “for instructional
purposes.”
And you should cut yourself a break in the same manner.
Why?
Why not, eh? Who’s to stop ya? Heh. Besides, it’s legit. Without being enlightened one can yet get
it clear that “life’s on automatic.” Even the very first time ever that someone sits down to meditate
it becomes obvious that one is not the author of thoughts. They “come out of nowhere.”
See? YOU ARE INNOCENT OF ALL CHARGES. The ego comes and goes — flickering — like your
ever so shy left elbow.
Whence the mind? From God.
And In God We Trust.
No matter what.
(Ask Job about the fine print.)
If one is not enlightened, so what? God is.
If God is writing one to be unenlightened, hooray for that, eh?
No matter the fine print.
Authored by God?
No one turns down that offer.
You didn’t.
And look how that turned out.
Pretty good, eh?
No matter your daily fine print, you somehow ARRIVED HERE.
You’re reading about enlightenment.
Your intent is clear.
I don’t mean to get personal or anything, but may I ask, “Are you someone important?” Pretty rare
to come here. Most folks are not paying attention to spiritual elbows, ya know?
I gotta say it.
Hope I don’t come across as rudely personal.
Has God got you fast tracked?
Edg Duveyoung
What is the scientific backing behind mindful meditation?
Originally Answered: What is the science behind meditation practice?
Theory:
Sentient silence is the sole reality.
Experimental parameter:
Researcher wore a white lab coat while meditating.
Procedure:
A variety of methods were used to attempt to isolate a single thought.
___Test 1 results: Eyes open thinking about things produced an average of 420 conceptions per
minute. Single thoughts happen so quickly that the gaps between them could not be measured by
our instrument, a human processor, a relatively old brain of a bothersome philosopher. Rickety but
serviceable.
___Test 2 results: Thinking about thinking about thoughts with eyes open again produced too
many thoughts to handle, but the researcher did note that a stain from today’s lunch on the lab
coat seemed to have a thought all its own, but this could not be seen in the fourier transforms.
___Test 3 results: Thinking with eyes closed immediately lessened the number of thoughts per
minute — due largely to the brain not having to process visual input. The data flow still was
overwhelming, but now it was beginning to show that there are some brief gaps between
thoughts. The researcher anecdotally noted that there was almost a 95% reduction in thoughts
about the food stain.
___Test 4 results: Thinking with eyes closed for an extremely long time started allowing the
researcher to spot many incidents where there was no thought between thoughts, but noting the
thought-gap immediately filled the gap with the thought that the gap was there and was being
immediately filled. Again, only after a very long time did this occur — it took the researcher an
amazing THREE MINUTES of eyes closed sitting before seeing these results.
___Test 5 results: Ten minutes of eyes closed but with no mental intent to observe. Researcher
merely sat there without an experimental agenda — observing only by mistake, and then
relinquishing observance when it was noted. With this method, the gaps between thoughts
became more easily noted despite the intent to not note. The quality and nature of the gap
became obviously non-thoughty. Researcher was given Volunteer Of The Month award for being
able to withstand ten minutes.
___Test 6 results: Breath control, mantras, praying and other mental manipulations seemed to fill
in the “gaps” as quickly as waking eyes open thinking. The researcher had to keep willing the use
of the technique, and this was “additional thoughts.” However, using these techniques DID get the
researcher quieter, and when the techniques were stopped, the ensuing silence was as if a big
rush of GAP. Researcher noted: “Cool!”
___Test 7 results: Longitudinal study: five days in a row with a daily ten minute meditation in
which the researcher tried to abide and not think on purpose produced many obvious and longer
gaps between thoughts. This was said to be a deepening of practice. Researcher was given
Volunteer of the Year award for undergoing extreme hardship FOR SCIENCE!
___Test 8 results: After a six month period of daily meditations with some even going way way
past ten minutes…even up to 12 or 13 minutes, researcher reports that the gaps now are obviously
self or pure awareness or identity. Researcher now saying “Wow!” for no reason 7.5 times per hour.
___Test 9 results: Researcher abandons the experiment and claims, “The experimental design is
flawed. It’s all about the gap which is always there and thoughts occur IN THE GAP as if clouds
passing before the Sun’s all-time-shiningness.” Researcher wants to start a major religion.
HEADLINE: Man In Lab Coat Flashing Truth On Street Corner
Sub-headline: Claims “God’s in the gap! The gap is sentient silence!”
HEADLINE: Police Warn Public About Meditating
HEADLINE: Maid Discovers Fed Chairman Meditating
HEADLINE: Russian Bots Filling All The Gaps
HEADLINE: President Vows To Win Gap War
HEADLINE: Class-action Lawsuit Against Quoran Writer For Being Silly
Edg Duveyoung
What is Brahman like?
LET’S ASK BRAHMAN!
Me: Hey BRAHMAN what are YOU like?
BRAHMAN
Me: Wait, okay so I get it. I’m not worthy of a reply, because I’m not subtle enough to merit one, so
I guess I’ll have to see if I can get Someone else to ask for me and then hope BRAHMAN’s answer
to that Someone will then be passed to me. So thanks, BRAHMAN, for listening to my question.
LET’S ASK GOD!
Me: Hey, God, by any chance can You get BRAHMAN’s answer to this Quora question: “What is
BRAHMAN like?”
God: Back so soon? Two days ago, I left you staring into the distance and saying,
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaa life not real???? gaaaaaaaaaa” repeatedly. Apparently you didn’t see the
vid I posted online — a slo-mo close up of drool coming out of your agape jaw with Also
Sprach Zarathustra playing as a soundtrack. Two million views in the first hour! You were so
out of it. I even had to end your Quora essay. So, now, you’re just going to toss aside the
gobsmacking issue of “life after death,” and now bother Me to go get truth that only
Someone, such as Moi, could be expected to somehow wrangle out of BRAHMAN?
Me: Yeah.
God: You got a timetable on this demand? Can I just get back to you, or is this another of
your Chicken Little urgencies?
Me: It wasn’t a demand. I was asking for a friend. And, well, I would like to get back to the friend
with a reasonable alacrity. The Good Samaritan didn’t ask the guy in the ditch if there was a
timetable.
God: Such a mouth on you. It’s like every time we talk, I promise Myself to do a complete re-
think on your basic design. But just for fun, I’m going to indulge you yet again lest you be
burdened by even one tenth of a titch of unease due to any projection upon Me, by you, such
as, “God’s lazy,” because if anything, it’s certain you would not deserve suchlike passing
even ONCE through your stream of consciousness even if it’s in the background of your
mind while you are also driving home and pushing your seek button on the radio looking for
songs to which you can square dance.
Me: The subject was BRAHMAN. You’re my Creator. You’re talking to Your small self here, and
Your small self is saying, “God’s stalling.” Is there some sort of problem with Your ability to talk to
BRAHMAN? Am I rubbing a sore spot?
God: Wait . . .
You’re accusing Me?
You’re accusing Me of not having ready access to BRAHMAN? You’re suggesting I might not
have BRAHMAN in My rolodex? You think I can’t just “go next door and borrow a cup of
sugar” from BRAHMAN? You’re worried that My Omnipresence has a limitation and that
BRAHMAN is a territory even My Omniscience cannot map and thus you’re casting doubt on
my Omnipotence?
You’re doubting Me?
You’re doubting Me and twisting the knife while you’re doing it, TO ME, with this cavalier
attitude of “God’s my Pal and I’m a big-shot who can just butt into Heaven and ask any old
question no matter what else God has going on that MIGHT BE VERY IMPORTANT at a time
when answering a question from a very itty bitty ill-designed muggle might be a VERY BAD
THING WHICH MIGHT HAVE VERY BAD REPERCUSSIONS?”
Me: Well, when you put it that way, I retract the question. Sorry ! ! ! Didn’t mean to, you know,
mean to . . . to . . .
God: Well I should think so. Going around bothering any mind, let alone Mine, with a
question out of left field like that’s going to get you a punched nose. You’re lucky I’m God.
Try that kinda stuff in real life why doncha. Ask someone on a crowded bus about
BRAHMAN — go ahead, don’t let Me hold you back in your quest. Go. There’s the door.
Here’s some cash for the bus. Let me help you get your coat on.
Me: I’m going. I’m going.
LET’S ASK SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ
Me: Hey, Nisargadatta, I can’t get God to admit He can’t get BRAHMAN to talk to Him. Getting the
silent treatment. I got a Quora question, and I’m getting nowhere with the Deities. I did firstly ask
BRAHMAN. by the way, and got zilch, as would be expected, but God not being able to get an
answer kinda rattled me, ya know?
God: What part about My Omniscience don’t you understand. Nisargadatta’s on a para-
nirvana sabbatical, and I’m taking all of his calls for the next 50,000 celestial years. And
listen you up, Mr. Mr., I can talk to BRAHMAN ANY OLD TIME I WANT.
Me: Like me talking to You, right, I understand, but does BRAHMAN talk to you in Your Quora
essays? I think not!
God: I’m pretty much gunna deconstruct your schematics. I have to find out where all this
doofus dynamic is coming from — maybe a stuck valve or something in your bile ducts —
gotta be a plumbing issue.
LET’S ASK EDG
Me: Hey Edg, I think we’re going to have to just give a quickie answer, something safe, something
that won’t bother a certain touchy entity if you know what I mean. How about we end this with
“Awareness is prior to consciousness” — it has a kind of Zen garden mysterious reply thing going
in this context. Something to contemplate while looking at boring sand and rocks.
Me: Don’t be triangulating me in to the mess you’ve made. As your higher Self, I’m telling
you that you really stepped in it this time. This is between you and God. In fact, maybe you
should put this in draft or even delete it. It serves no purpose if the answer isn’t given. And
it would be a big waste of your readers’ time.
Me: That’s You again, God, right?
Me: God?
Me: God?
Edg Duveyoung
Is everyone's self-awareness the same?
LET’S ASK EDG!
Me: Hey Edg, is your “self-awareness” the same as that of everyone?
Me: Talking to yourself on Quora? I thought we agreed not to do this in public.
Me: I got antsy.
Me: I don’t think this is going to work. You’ve only done this “bold/non-bold” format on
Quora when you’re talking to God, so this is kinda tawdry to also use it for you to talk to me
talking to you. Seems as if that’s saying — the bold answers are actually God speaking.
Me: I don’t care. If someone gets tripped up by this literary conflation, it’s on them. I just like
talking to someone who I know in advance is going to agree with me.
Me: Yeah, sure, like you never disagree with me. Didn’t I just yell at you this morning when
you were on the bathroom scale?
Me: Ahem, about the question; you gunna answer it or me?
Me: “Bold type proceedeth beforeth pale pasty faded wussy type” is my motto. So I’ll go first
to establish absolute truth, then you can come in to further validate my bias with
confirmation tidbits in our own private limited hangout where we can gaslight and gatekeep
all we want.
Me: Sounds like a plan B. If I go first, then I establish a well-constructed falsity so that you can
then come in and utterly deconstruct it to a scattered mess of abject silliness.
Me: Oh okay have it my way; hit me with some high quality stupid.
Me: The answer to the question is that the term, “self-awareness,” is inappropriately doubled
when singled will do. It’s either “self” or it’s “awareness” — choose. Both words mean the same,
but putting them together seems to imply that there are two entities — one of which is aware of
the other. Nope. And further confusing this issue is the fact that consciousness, a chemo-
mechanical nano-scopic blur, is so wonderfully subtle that it passes the Turing Test. However, it
passes, merely because the human intellect and heart are addicted to flinging identity onto
synaptic jazz.
Me: You skipped a line and read mine instead. You were supposed to say, “We all have a
unique awareness and are one-of-a-kind individuals enjoying an idiosyncratic, soulful point of
view.”
Me: Erp. I got ahead of myself there. Sorry. So, say something truer than what I just said and see if
that fixes this dialogue glitch.
Me: I knew when the day started it was going to go like this. I’m losing readership with this
99% excelsior essay. Okay, I’ll fix with Advaita’s sole axiom: “Awareness is prior to
consciousness.”
Me: That old tired worn out dusty cliche? I was thinking you go with something snooty like just
leaving a blank space in the dialogue to symbolize “didactic silence.” Nowadays, even little kids
are saying “Awareness is prior to consciousness.” Get up to date. I saw a youtube vid with a dog
almost saying it. In almost any restaurant I’m asked if I want my meal super-sized with extra
consciousness by having the chef slowly and mindfully slice the salad veggies.
Me: You just made most of that up. Almost no one says, “Awareness is prior to
consciousness.” You were just riffing and trying, yet again, to be a funny philosopher who
stays on God’s good side. And meanwhile, you’re self-miffing me in public. You know how I
get if personally caught red-handed being human. This just is not working. Let’s end the
essay with “Awareness is prior to consciousness.” Leave it at that. Then we’re safe, because
I’ve worked hard on that issue with dozens of essays, and if anyone wants to have the whole
story about “Awareness is prior to consciousness.” they’ll have to read my other essays.
Me: “YOUR” essays? Yours? Yours?
Me: I had to go with “my,” because if I said “our,” then we’d be back to the tautology of
“self-aware.”
Me: Right. Glad you’re always the logician. I can’t bother with “making sense” when it’s more fun
to “pretend to make sense” — so much more freedom and room to create!
Me: So l’m ending it. Here goes:
“Awareness is prior to consciousness.”
Me: And done.
Me: You kept it going.
Me: Sorry.
Me: AWARENESS IS PRIOR TO CONSCIOUSNESS!
Me: _____________
Me:
Me
M
m
.
!
Edg Duveyoung
Why do people believe in life after death? Specifically, why do people believe they will
continue to be a conscious being that remembers their life after they die?
LET’S ASK GOD!
Me: Hey God, do people live after they die?
God: What an insulting question. It’s the same as saying, “God’s a jerk. Makes people alive,
sees them all happy and everything, and then heartlessly has them die just when they’re
getting the hang of it.”
Me: Well? Is that true?
God: No. Of course not. I cherish every soul.
Me But it sure seems so. We love being alive, and when we’ve gotten a closetful of tee shirts and
we are getting savvy about how life works, BAM, erased by a banana peel.
God: See right there’s what I’m talking about. In all of creation, I have never not once had
someone die from slipping on a banana peel. Everyone believes a ton of gossip-glop, and it
besmirches their minds such that it then becomes a little bit harder to believe in Me,
because they’re thinking I’m cruel and unfair.
Me: Wait, not one death by banana peel? That can’t be true.
God: 100,931,388,092,007 sprained knees — no instant deaths.
Me: All those sprains, yet You invented banana peels? What were You thinking?
God: See? Now it’s My fault. Like I made the peels slippery just because I knew eventually
there’d be kitchen floors and it would be funny to Me, “Super-Jerk,” to watch patella
cartilage snap and a large tureen of ratatouille being splashed on nearby family members.
It’s quite the scurrilous accusation.
Me: Sorry, I didn’t mean that.
God: But yes you did. If a thought goes through a mind, it is MEANT. For that split second it
is IDENTIFIED WITH — “that’s me!” And these projections add up. Too many negatives and a
personality is warped. Gotta guard against spiritual erosion, or the next thing you know,
some Mother will be so morally tilted that she would tell a child, “God wants you to eat your
Brussel sprouts or you’re going to get peeled.”
Me: If every thought counts, then don’t all your inventions —things and thoughts — somehow
reflect badly on You? You invented water that drowns and gravity that’s lethal. In fact, hey, You’re
The Creator of every harmful thing, and every harmful thought, and every warping projection of
identity upon insentient objects of consciousness.
God: Yeah, but it came with the job. I had to invent an opposite for every action. Polar
duality means thorns for every rose. The wise walk along the demarcation line between yin
and yang — no favoritism.
Me: You’re always going off-topic on me, and half an essay later, the “life after death” issue is still
unresolved.
God: Look who thinks he could understand the answer. I try to move to conversations you
can handle. Let’s get real here — you know the story about Arjuna looking into Lord
Krishna’s mouth and that from merely glancing at the truth, the whole truth and nothing but
the truth — Arjuna, the demigod, freaked out! You want a thousand amper answer when
your mind is a 100 watt bulb.
Me: Hit me. I can take it. I’ve written 381 Quoran essays about this. I got this. I dare You. Your best
shot. Try me. I won’t even duck. Come on. Come on.
God: What didn’t you get about My word “cherish” above? I’m not going to crisp you like
that; it’s hard enough for you to psychologically bear the few hints I do manage to inspire
you to put in your essays. If I drive you insane with an exposure to Lord Krishna level truth,
then I’ll have to over-stuff the essays of the other Quoran Advaita writers. It’s a running-
averages spreadsheety amortization thingie.
Me: Wait, You mean to tell me that I have not been distributing the highest truths here at Quora?
I’m, what?, just a kid in a sandbox?
God: See? Already you’re getting defensive and amping up the shame and lowering esteem
and losing motivation. Such drama with you. Let Me check My records. Ahhhh, I see now it
was a mistake to put six of your planets in the house of Leo — puffed up and easily
punctured. Oh well, too late to retrofit you. Maybe next time.
Me: Aha! So there is a next time. There is life after death. I knew there was a reason I like to roar.
God: Ahem. Your pride is an underfoot peel if there’s no such thing as life in the first place.
You assumed “life is real,” and now you’ve slipped, and I’m the Bad Guy if “life” isn’t what
you expect.
Me: What? Life not real? What? What? I can’t put that into this essay! Life not real? My readers
would scatter like cats seeing a cucumber. How dare You try to fool me with something like that.
Why I never. Think I was born yesterday or something? No life? As if.
God: I warned you. It was a mere love tap, but you’ve got a glass jaw. You’re not ready for
banana peel concepts. That titch of real made you reel.
Me: Life’s not real? Gaaaa! Life’s not real? Gaaaaaaaaaaaa.
God: Okay, folks. I’m ending the essay. Edg is goners for a while. But let Me at least say that
before I invented life, the real ever was. It is this real that does not waver. Awareness is
better than aliveness. It is in this real, pure awareness, that I cherish you infinitely.
I have so much more than mere life to offer you.
Donchu worry now.
It’s coming.
Edg Duveyoung
How is enlightenment a destructive process?
What’s not to love about absolute destruction?
No more:
— Nap drooling
— Ear hair
— Brussel sprouts
Just erasing those three alone would be worth getting rid of everything.
Figure it this way: You’re God, and here you are stuck with six Brussel sprouts and a hovering Mom
who says, “Eat them.”
How bad is that, eh? God and not knowing it, and so You’re forced to gag down these pasty
mushy yucky balls of “congealed nausea.” Destroy them! Destroy them with fire! But wait, nope,
got no godly powers. You’re a you, not a You.
Omnipotence — you left home without it. Doh!
If one ever discovers God being human in the least — dancing the Macarena, or being nine years
old with a Mom and Brussel sprouts, or any kind of whatever, one would pity for God for having
FALLEN INTO SUCH A SORRY STATE.
Case in point, there’s lower case y you, Dear Reader, there’s you. So embarrassing, eh? Deep
inside, big Y You has a divine tool box stuffed with potencies, but you the itty-bit can’t get your
lawn mower to start.
In the beginning, there was darkness upon the void.
And God said, “Let there be indignities.”
To meditate is to settle down all your humanness.
Get all that jazz quiet, and then what’s left is PURE DIVINITY.
Awareness. God before God’s first thought.
So real that the Emperor’s New Clothes are unseen.
The illusory is understood at last, and the coiled rope is never a snake again.
Close the eyes, and halfway there.
Keep them closed until the mind closes too.
Marinate in that vast sentience.
In that perfect silence, all things unbecome.
And THE reason to meditate
THE REASON of all the reasons is:
TO ACQUIRE THE POWER TO SEND BRUSSEL SPROUTS TO THEIR DOOM
Then chop wood and carry water and eat pistachio ice cream.
Edg Duveyoung
Is Self-Realization/Enlightenment just a complete perfection of meditation? Then how
can this be spiritual, just achieving concentration of the mind?
Who wants to be a spirit?
Who would want to be a ghost haunting an ape from the inside?
Ew.
Simian spirituality is a brain doing astral thumb twiddling.
Enlightenment is freedom from consciousness — no more aping around.
They say that one who has memorized the Rig Veda is perfect. They don’t say that that person is
enlightened. A saint is sinless but still an individual — separated from God but attuned to God
24/7. A saint yet still can meditate more and upnotch “mere perfection” to “spiritually invisible.”
One can transcend being. Consciousness schmonsciousness.
Perfection of meditation — close the eyes and instantly beyond thought.
Imperfection of meditation — intending to witness the last thought ever.
Because even muggles are often, throughout the day, found to be “lapsing” when attending the
doings of consciousness, found to be momentarily beyond — transcended — we know that
concentration by the mind in some purposeful manner is not needed to realize the self. Mostly
folks miss that they’ve “checked out” for a while. At most we say, “Where was I? I’ve lost my train
of thought.” We notice but we don’t notice. Silence ignored. It’s like we all have agreed to not talk
about how “loss of person” peppers our day, because, hey, then we’d all know the ego was a
thought addicted twit, and we’d all immediately start meditating, and then God would have to “call
off creation for lack of attendance.”
AND THAT JUST WILL NOT DO.
Because I have not yet eaten enough pistachio ice cream.
Why this rush to no-things-ness?
Escape the ape?
Could we at least wait until Tuesday after next?
Edg Duveyoung
How does one "Let go and let God" and still account for paying the bills? What really
happens when someone fully surrenders?
Toggling into enlightenment is the opposite of surrendering.
The person who is about to “become enlightened” doesn’t cinch a belt, take a deep breath, make
a final vow, light some incense, and then say, “I give up!” Nope. That would be a first — an ego
having causal power. Nope. Nope.
Enlightenment is about GAINING everything you’ve ever missed, everything you never thought you
would want to want, everything impossible to imagine, everythingie thing thing thing, and then
MORE — your scrunched-inside-a-hairy-coconut spirit’s new status is unboundedness which
makes all the thingie-thingies pale to insignificance.
Surrendering to that doesn’t sound like a surrendering
— it’s TAKE MY MONEY!
— it’s spiritual hog at Heaven’s Trough
— it’s every sin forgiven
— it’s every shadow gone
— it’s every bill paid
Metaphor
Imagine a work-a-day guy, Bob, who’s very much in debt; he has a lower middle class day job, a
wife who also works, and three kids who are outgrowing their clothes in a single day. The dog’s vet
bills equal the cost of raising a kid. They’re one broken transmission away from a very bad day.
Now imagine the first 30 seconds of Bob’s consciousness after he wins a fifty million dollar lottery.
Nothing has changed except a fact has become known.
No cash has been put in the Bob’s hand.
Seconds ago he was hoping his credit card would allow for an oil change.
Bills still unpaid. Dog even now vomiting on the couch.
Kids fighting over the last pizza slice and Mom frazzled.
It will be weeks or more before the money is received.
All the money problems are still as real.
But Bob just smiles.
If a bill collector bangs on the door, Bob will welcome him in and offer a nice cool drink with a little
umbrella even though he can’t pay the bill collector right now.
It’s all gunna be okay. That’s the financial relief of a lottery win.
When one becomes enlightened, the relief is due to knowing the cost of every future
challenge is already as if paid.
Paid how? By God with whatever currency will be accepted for the transactions. If psychological
cash is needed, God’s got emotionally deep pockets. If budgeting for daily life is the issue, God’s
got the intellectual integrity to manage life’s checkbook without drama. Life gets tidy.
Surrender? As if.
Now for all those who are not about to win a lottery or become enlightened, there is a work-
around for meeting ordinary life’s challenges.
Plan B — Lie, cheat and steal.
Lie and say, “I’m just going to meditate, ego — no harm to your actuality.”
Cheat your karma momentarily by ducking out of sight into being.
Steal your heart back from that Lothario, seductive creation.
If we meditate and life gets worse, at least we’ll be a bit calmer when it arrives, and if we win a fifty
million dollar lottery, that will be similarly less likely to ruin us with the burden of suddenly-rich
anxiety.
We meditate and see what happens.
No expectations except that meditating is fun.
We just give meditation a try.
It’s cheaper than a second dog.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the one real truth?
Originally Answered: What do you believe to be one real absolute truth?
Don’t make this about me.
Let’s do you instead.
All of the below are variants of the only truth.
You’re absolutely true.
You’re the unwavering sentience that never blinks.
You’re real, changeless, timeless, boundless, infinite awareness.
You’re all -- a mere speck of which is your manifest person.
You’re that which sees the witness that sees the illusory.
You’re the quietness that pure silence emulates.
You’re the Self. the absolute within.
And consciousness can’t grasp it.
All are certain the Self is here and now, but the brain cannot take a selfie. Instead we have to ask
sight-impaired, attention-deficit, squirmy-wormy, consciousness to, as if, draw a “police artist’s
sketch,” of the Self, and then that becomes our egoic rendition — in #2 pencil on a single sheet —
not even a jpeg. See the problem?
Close your eyes and point anywhere. I predict you’re pointing at everything.
Like that, the Self is everywhere, everywhen — never missing. We cannot avoid awareness even in
deep sleep when unconsciousness is witnessed (testified to by “I slept like a log.”)
The Self is the only truth that no statement can properly express.
Meditate, let things be, and your small self expands from speck to spectacular.
Your mind won’t be able to keep up. It’ll start wheezing..
That’s the “took my breath away” portion of the expansion process.
And the strange part is this;
The more expanded one gets,
When even distant stars have been passed,
One is always here and never left in the first place.
This strangeness means
We are not strangers.
We are the single truth
Whether far out or far in.
Edg Duveyoung
Is being aware of being aware really the only spiritual practice I should focus on?
No one can follow this seemingly good advice.
Awareness is not an object of consciousness, so, the question’s word, “focus” is an assertion that
invalidates any possible answer. To “focus” is to use consciousness, on purpose, to obtain an
experience, and, sorry, that’s consciousness consciously being consciousness — not awareness
of awareness.
Worse: there are not two awarenesses such that one can know another.
Worser: awareness is not an entity with duality’s agency!
Worst: consciousness pretends that “Consciousness is awareness.”
But that pretense is not a bad thing; it’s merely spiritual dawdling — a lengthening of the pathless
path. Most of the world’s spirituality is comprised of trying to sacredly use objects of
consciousness. We use special thoughts as the preferred forms of prayer and meditation. We use
mantras, hymns, breathing, asanas, whirling, fasting, exhaustion, karizza, recitations, rosaries,
rituals, and on and on and on — all require a mind purposefully doing something to cause a
change in how the body/mind generates experiences.
All of them are worthless as sticks to hold up a mountain like an umbrella. Toddler Lord
Krishna had to hold up a mountain over a village to protect it from an angry Indra, and the villagers
all tried to help by using sticks to also poke upwards at the underside of the mountain. See the
point? Those villagers were FOCUSING. When one focuses, one is symbolically helping but it’s
insignificant.
Yeah I said “insignificant.” Using the mind is silly when you — YES YOU — have absolute power,
like Lord Krishna, to do everything, anything, all things.
Yes, you. Keep reading if you dare.
The trick is to realize that all things are “of a piece.” It’s all a solid block of emergent phenomena —
upon which meaning is projected — mystically — from nowhere, that is, from awareness — a non-
place, non-when sentience.
And that argument’s logic is hard to validate, because why?
BECAUSE CONSCIOUSNESS CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH.
Never could, never did, never will. Because only awareness is true.
The best the intellect can advise is say, “be aware of awareness.”
What to do when doing is doing instead of don’ting?
All the mystics say, “awareness of awareness,” so how can the mind of a mere minion of a muggle
hope to comprehend and act?
Turns out there is a easily understood action that is not a full doing. There’s a minimum state of
doing, and it’s called “abiding.” If you’re in a frenzy or already nicely relaxed, you can get quieter
by abiding.
What is abiding? We wait.
Eyes closed or open, doesn’t matter. We wait.
We don’t even purposefully watch what’s happening in the mind. We wait. If the mind is rolling
along nicely or roiling, we wait. If an interesting thought comes up that would be fun to suss, we
wait instead. We abide by waiting for the mind to stop trying to tug at our mental elbow. The mind
is like a dog that wants you to throw a stick. We abide, and the dog gets tired of trying and lays
down by your side. We wait.
For what do we wait?
It’s not a what!
That would be a something.
And a something is what consciousness obtains.
We wait for we don’t know what!
A what that cannot be known.
And it will come, but not by any traveling.
It’ll come as when lost eyeglasses are found on your nose.
“Oh,” you’ll say. “Right there the whole time!”
And then you’ll say, “ Doh! I’ve been looking everywhere but here; why was I looking for freedom
over there by sorting through a moldering heap of thinking?”
We wait and abide and finally become blessed to discover omnipresent infinite silence as the self
in our midst.
The good news is that even a beginner’s dry mind can get at least one drop of water (pure
silence) hitting it from the rainclouds mounting on the horizon. One drop is all it takes to know
enough to want more, but we wait instead of want. If we get a speck of silence, we don’t go
running after it. More silence will fall from the same gathering in the sky.
And when it arrives.
It drenches.
Edg Duveyoung
What does Nisargadatta meant by, "your destiny is not death but the disappearance of
I am"?
Whence fate? Here’s the Master’s words.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: The "I am" has great potency; the entire manifestation has come from
it. When you dwell in the "I am," as your destiny, you realise that your destiny is not death but the
disappearance of "I am.”
Those 37 words are the embodiment of Advaita Vedanta.
WARNING: That quote is a Wisdom of Mass Deconstruction!
Actually, almost any quote of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj is as densely packed with truths so
incendiary that even that which does not exist yet still is burnt and then its illusory ashes too are
burnt again and then the imaginary smoke breaks down to magical atoms which loosen into piles
of subatomic pretend particles that evaporate into clouds of improbable quarks which explode
into impossible strings which which which . . . I’m not smart enough to say more . . . you’ll need a
bigger brain to lead you past Stringville and onward to Unknown Town when you hitch a ride with
Nisargadatta on the Transcendental Highway.
Sue me — Yeah, I just supersized a nothing burger metaphor with malt and fries.
Nisargadatta’s entirety seems to be hidden in the least of his conceptual packages. If you read all
his books, you will come across “I am” often enough to finally get in harmony with Nisargadatta’s
mind about it, AND THEN THE FUN BEGINS. The quote above is absolutely typical for
Nisargadatta. When you get comfy with his mind, then any quote instantly expands; it tsunamis
the intellect with a host of adjutant correlatives that are but a nuance from being axioms
themselves. One swoons!
Advaita’s message is that distinctions are arbitrary and phenomenal.
The “I am” — which is the state of being — is the “factory outlet” of the absolute.
It’s plenitude is inexhaustible.
Endless names and forms — utterly unfathomable.
Because it is infinite, woe unto the soul lost in being’s vastness.
You for instance.
You’ve popped into being by assuming that you are the form “body” and the name “person.” Two
notorious liars! One says, “You’re me.” The other says, “I’m me.” Ew, eh?
Advaita says, “Let’s call the whole thing off.”
So Nisargadatta advises that we don’t our doing so we will then see that that non-doingness,
being, is as if our “destiny” — a natural conclusion to “thinking life’s incarnation.”
This death of doing is not the death of identity.
We are urged to remain above the mind in this quieter loftier state of being, silence ethereal, and
then, that’s the best one can do when it comes to don’ting — “destiny-wise.” To reside in being
indicates that one has arrived atop ones own private sacred mountain. Going higher requires a
Divine Hand reaching down to grab one. It’s Grace’s hand.
Being is the least mind-event that can still be defined as identity. Amness.
So
— One waits for the extinction of distinction.
— One waits to become inexplicably not — a disappearance.
When we meditate, we get as quietly expansive as possible until we slip out of being and into pure
being — awareness — a sentience not yet manifest. That’s the death of I am and the realization
that true identity requires no birth.
Mostly this happens when you least expect it. Okay, it’s always a surprise.
You never know . . . until you can’t know that knowing never is.
Still, maybe comb the hair, shine the shoes, check for spinach in the teeth.
Couldn’t hurt to prep for arriving in Heaven is all I’m sayin’.
Edg Duveyoung
How would you identify a person who is self-aware?
I’d hold up a mirror to your face.
It’s absurd to assert this, but only if it’s an assertion. It’s not. You are self aware. Using the word
“I,” is the qualifier. That’s the identity pointing word. We all know EXACTLY THAT at which the “I”
word points.
Oh, you think that’s not enough, and that an enlightened person would be spiritually superior and
that it’s somehow detectable like discovering the primal truth that pistachio ice cream beats
vanilla hands down. Maybe you think enlightened folks can demonstrate espechio divine powers,
or maybe you think they are longitudinally happier — nope. Maybe you’re not an expert, but you’re
pretty darned sure that someone with a fair amount of religious education and a personal spiritual
history could be expert enough to tell if someone else was enlightened, because, surely they’d
know, you know, for sure. Nope.
Here’s the deal: You’re God, and You are pretending to not be, and You’re using every speck of
divine whatever to prevent Yourself from finding out that You’re God until You’ve had Your funzies.
Funzies like eating pistachio ice cream.
Yeah, God can’t enjoy pistachio ice cream if God knows that God is God Who is already as
blissed-out as possible from having tasted divine nectar. No worldly pleasure could possibly
match the tang of divine bliss, so there goes all the wonderfulness of pistachio ice cream. It would
just be left to melt on God’s cloud-plate.
There are no ice cream shoppes in Heaven. Now you know.
But no frets! Come on down to Earth! No wonder so many souls get created. God can’t get
enough pistachio ice cream! And since every person uniquely tastes everything uniquely, right
now, on the planet Earth, God is stealthily having as many people as possible eat pistachio ice
cream to experience every possible nuance of pistachio ice cream, but God is doing so without it
becoming indicatively obvious, because then God would figure out it was God fooling God and
then back to same ol’ same ol’ boring bliss. Uniform bliss. Unending bliss. Infinite bliss.
ONENESS IS THE LONELIEST NUMBER.
Lucky for us, creation is not creation — it’s creating!
God is tasting the flavors of every experience of life. So we got invented — because we have
tongues for brains. And if you think that God is easily detected and has “tells,” say, as when you
might see someone seem to be sneakily ordering an extra scoop of pistachio ice cream, and that,
like that, the enlightened superior tasters can’t help themselves but needs must be messing up all
of creation and spoiling everything, and obviously having tongues with holier than thou buds, and
revealing God to God, then you don’t know God.
God has hiding from God down pat.
God only orders pistachio ice cream at a very normal rate.
Nothing suspicious.
Now, back to your mirror.
Your face is your flavor disguised as your face.
Never can get enough of it, right?
Maybe it’s a tell. Don’t tell anyone I said so.
God thinks your every nuance needs savoring.
If you were, say, oh I don’t know, maybe say, oh let’s say maybe a dish of ice cream, and if no
one was around and the coast was clear and the shades were lowered and the curtains drawn and
the door was locked, I think we all know what flavor of ice cream you’d be.
You’d be cherry fudge royal.
Why?
BECAUSE, DUH!
I’M THE PISTACHIO!
Edg Duveyoung
Where does our Being arise from?
Easy answer: awareness.
Non-answer: Definitions are too fuzzy; questions are moot.
Hard explanation for the non-answer:
Where — being is always here.
Does — no doing is involved for being to be here.
Our — no us, no you, no me — there is only one entity, being, and it is illusory.
Being — seems to be manifest; pure being is transcendental.
Arise — since being is illusory, it cannot arrive from pure being.
From — no there if the only place is here.
All questions, deconstructed as above, can be rendered worthless; this uncertainty is the harshest
challenge for one stuck in the illusory realm of mind. All concepts are equally sketchy; definitions
are as wriggly as puppies.
Best strategy is to parrot the lie that is closest to truth.
“Awareness is prior to being.”
It’s a genuinely crummy deal. Our minds get trained from the start by liars, and yet we end up
loving our personalities no matter which planet, era, culture it was that locked us in a House of
Mirrors, but then laid the key in plain sight on the kitchen counter, because no key will be sought
by those who love mirrors.
But but but, if we meditate instead of fixate on mirrors, we find that being, though prior to
thoughts, is itself dependent on awareness, and awareness cannot be defined.
But but but the trick is to dissolve into awareness instead of understanding it. That’s realization —
we stop thinking, eschew being, and reside without even bothering to exist — awareness.
Scary, eh?
It takes a while to integrate. If one is raised on whiskey, water is an acquired taste. One has to dive
into silence again and again until it’s comfortable just to be and not get antsy for another dose of
drinkin’thinkin.’
So, “being” “arises” “from” awareness.
Awareness: the sole sentience of the soul of each and every entity no matter how impossibly
impossible is it for entities to exist.
And just between us two, if you don’t tell anyone on me, I won’t tell anyone on you. Let’s just
whistle past that upcoming graveyard, and we’ll be okay.
Edg Duveyoung
What is reality?
LET’S ASK GOD!
Me: Hey God, please answer this question, because it’s beleaguering the heaven out of at least a
half dozen people — maybe even seven or eight! They are having unconstrained incandescent
furor. They’ve chewed off all the yellow paint and erasers from their number two pencils.
God: Tell them that “nothing is real,” and that as a general rule of creation, I don’t fix
pencils. Bam! Two truths for you!
Me: There you go again — always with the cutsiepootsy mystical instead of the “stern truth from
on high.” Come on, lay it all out. Be definitive. TELL US!
God: I did. Three words were all it took. Nothing is real. The REAL is thingless — non-thingie.
It’s purely pure — no names, no forms. Words can only be vain pretense. Awareness is
unbounded — even My Own Existence has no more validity than horns on a jackalope.
Me: But but but, I’m here and You’re here and we’re talking. All this is real by every analysis.
God: Your word, “every” is the keystone of your ignorance. You know that you have not
conducted every possible analysis in a truly neutral scientific inquiry, but you are always
thinking you’ve done all the thinking necessary. Because I don’t stint, if someone wants to
think about things, I’m going to give them endless thoughts about them. Or if they want to
“conclude,” I deliver! They conclude!
Me: But if I’ve not thought enough, at least I’m agreeing with ALL THE PEOPLE ON PLANET
EARTH that reality is obviously a trilliony lot of stuff. If ALL THIS is nothing, then what would
something be? How can no-thing be more substantial than a thing-thing? I mean, look, right here
in my lap is my pet jackalope. Wuddjajust look?
God: You know, don’t you, that if any of your Quoran readers go away thinking you have an
actual pet jackalope, it’s on you. If anyone goes out there and says “there’s jacklopes” and
then gets beat up by a band of knuckleheads, you will have the same karma somewhere
down the line.
Me: So now, You are denying Mr. Hornyhead? God doesn’t mean it, Horny; don’t you listen. God’s
just being funny. Of course you’re real. Here’s your son-of-a-barren-woman emotional-support
chew toy.
God: You’re making me throw-up a little in the back of my mouth.
Me: I don’t know what to say. I’ve got eleven pounds of hare and horn right here. How can you do
this to everyone? If you deny my jackalope, you have to deny everything else!
God: Bingo!
Me: Bingo? Bingo? That’s Your debate winner! I’ve got Mr. Hornyhead right here, and I’ve got
jackalope hairs all over my blue velvet, satin lapeled, evening jacket, and You’re going to tell the
ENTIRETY OF HUMANITY that I’m imagining things?
God: Yes, and if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you 14,372 times to settle down. This is not
about you. Since you don’t exist, how could it be! Ba dum tiss!
Me: 490+ words so far in this essay, and all I’ve got is a cup half empty.
God: You want a cup totally full of snark? I can do that for you. I’m wanting, willing and
waiting! Try Me!
Me: Look, I know I’ve got my faults, but come on. Even if I’m hallucinating, and even if this isn’t Mr.
Hornyhead, and even if I’m not me but instead I’m the me that is in my nightly dreams, at least the
whole illusory existence in which I find myself is an actually real “REALLY ILLUSORY” experience
of illusionality. I mean, look how convincing all this is. IT’S REALLY CONVINCING. See the root
word there in the word “really?” Knock-knock, anybody home?
God: On second thought, you don’t need a cup full of snark. I’m taking away your
intellectual keys and giving them to a designated thinker. You’re asking Me to talk you out of
talking about talking. Thinking about thoughts is more thoughts about thinking. What’s it
going to take for you to get this through your head?
Me: Now Who’s REALly bothered! Aha!
God: I’m going to give Myself a severe talking to about ever having created you. What was I
thinking? Creation just doesn’t need this much doofus — maybe more cow bell, but I’m
definitely overdoing it on the doofus.
Me: Wait. Um. Er. I can tone it down. I don’t have to be undone. I can be okay with the discomfiting
of my baseless certainties. Let me be the adult here and say that I have been a little trollish. Yes.
And and and I’m a bit emotional, it’s true. But I’ve got six maybe seven or eight people who are all
over me about this, and the pressure is getting to me.
God: There there. It’s okay. I’m sorry too. You’re not a total doofus. I’m completely okay
with imaginary friends and even imaginary creations. In fact, I’ve done more than a few
creations out of nothing Myself. Maybe we should cut back on these Quoran essays. I’ve got
plenty of other writers to inspire with these truths for their essays. Just tell those eight
people to abide and that they’ll get their answers from other venues.
Me: But but but I like our talks.
God: Me too.
Me: So maybe we give it a week and see?
God: Okay
Me: I’ll tell the eight maybe we’ll have something for them and to hold on a bit longer.
God: Tell them. Tell the eight and tell everyone else. Tell ’em all. Promise them a ton of
thoughts each, and I’ll fulfill. Be confident about your utter lack of certainty, and they’ll
“feel ya.” I got your six.
Me: Now I’m stingy eyed.
God: I know. That’s why I created you. You had me at stingy.
Edg Duveyoung
What is love?
Love is being.
When we meditate we find that being is the source of waking, dreaming and dreamless sleep, but
yet being is undisturbed by whatever manifests. No matter the height of the waves, the ocean’s
depths are always still. This is the love that abides.
Being is God humming OM.
From the primal sound all sounds can be sussed.
Your sound, for instance.
OM is love’s first song.
You are a variation of OM — a snappy little ditty.
If one resides in being, love’s surrendering silence is evoked within all around. The mind and the
entirety are the children of being — of course these “infants” are loved — doted upon. This is the
deeper purport of “only a Mother could love.” When we reside in being, we love unconditionally
like the Sun sends its light. The saint loves the sinner’s inner being as God Within All.
And muggle love is as pure.
When two persons “fall in love,” they say “yes” to the everythingness of the other. As they
discover the details of each other, THEN the surrendering is tested again and again and again —
this is the moment by moment evolution of personality that allows being to “come to the surface”
of life. Two lovers, over time, become saints with well polished halos. Silence envelops them.
And love in these dark times is a spectacular feat. Long ago, when creation was fresh, when all
minds were but a titch from enlightenment, it was easy to love anyone. But our modernity is
turbulent and festering with every manner of fecklessness. No soul fresh off the bus from the
Garden of Eden escapes acculturating; brains are washed with muddy waters.
All minds are tainted. Each mind spontaneously errors with projected imprecations, and love, now,
is no easy thing. Love, now, requires a spiritual championing. Any love shown to any degree is
miraculous. Even loving a kitten is a valid spiritual practice.
Considering how hard times are and how everyone is nice even when our minds are so burdened,
the power of love astounds.
I’m looking you in the eye, Dear Reader.
That’s your basis — silence, love, awareness.
You are “pulling off” being normal when normal is impossible.
What is not to love about how you love?
Take a bow. Take a bow.
In fact, dress up like Charles de Batz de Castelmore d'Artagnan with a very large hat with a very
long feather, and when all of creation begins to applaud, then doff that hat magnificently and with
an audible swooshing of it, bow unto us.
Edg Duveyoung
What is your definition of mysticism?
One definition for mystic — another for ism.
The mystic is a saint who has SELF as an all time reality.
An ism can merely point at a symbolic, conceptual self and claim it is SELF.
Big diff. So diff that there’s no marriage possible between the two.
If a person achieves a PhD in philosophy, that person could be, none-the-less, measurably,
scientifically, validly affirmed by deep examination, koo-koo-nutz. This also applies to Advaitans
who are clever with words but have personal lives that resemble a demolition derby. (I know this
about a friend who I’m presently talking about. A very close friend. Okay, it’s me.)
Worse, for an entire lifespan, a person could emulate all the charity of a great saint and have a
heart as wooden as a pirate’s peg.
The mind is never the mystic.
Minds brim with symbols — not SELF.
The true mystic will never agree to being defined as a mystic. The mystic knows silence is louder
than any possible mental noise. The mystic’s identity is 100% transcendental — indescribable. No
sets of beliefs about the SELF will be espoused by the mystic except for entertainment purposes
— fare for conceptual chuckle-fests. A mystic gives no instructions, no paths, no maps, no
methods — none will be validated as absolutes. Even the perfection of the instruction, “look
within.” can be gainsaid by realization due to open-eyed full-minded rituals.
The mystic knows that it is silence that broadcasts from the heart, and that it is this silence that
bestirs itself — the silence in all. Even the dust becomes more sentient. Like (within) attracts like
(within) — not unlike magnetically allured kissing dolls. The silence within sees only the silence
within others . . . and all the silence in between.
Witnessing innie infinity, is the mystic’s day job.
Edg Duveyoung
Do you agree AI cannot attain human consciousness or self-awareness?
If God writes the code, it’s conscious. (SEE ALL CAPS FOR TL;dr)
The human body is just a bunch of physical parts that are under the managerial sway of natural
laws — immutable laws as inviolate as code.
Therefore, drum roll please, any human, who can code as well as God and can hustle a trillion tiny
parts into a mass with a neural network, will be able to create a fully conscious robot. It won’t be
psychologically human because of all the missing intrauterine experiences and all the “growing
body and maturing mind” experiences, but “work-arounds” will insure the Turing Test will be
utterly conquered, and “pass for human” will be perfected.
(Business idea: Geppetto Industries?)
Yes, but would that mind be self-aware?
Would it be able to transcend its coding and discover identity?
Would God listen to its prayers?
Answer: yes.
How so?
Answer: There is no “how.” Awareness (God beyond God) is an all time reality for all entities be
they God-handedly made angelics & demonics, naturally made animals & plants, lavaly made
igneous stones (back-up singers for Jesus,) or any of the humanly-mades — giant Buddha statues
(including bird-nest filled nostrils,) the guys on Mt. Rushmore, the Taj Mahal, Mickey Mouse, clay
figurines (teachers of archery,) The Golden Calf, or King Tut’s sarcophagus .
How so?
Answer: THERE IS NO HOW! It’s all awareness — pure. There no need to code for awareness.
There’s always 100% awareness.
If it is an it, it has a soul — awareness.
A HUMAN CAN DISCOVER AWARENESS IS IDENTITY
— NOT THE CODING, NOT THE CODER.
It’s a matter of degree. The more subtle the nervous system is the more able it is to symbolize
identity, but even lowly microbes can exhibit a host of attributes of individuality. Jesus said stones
“would cry out.” Even a quark as if says, “me.”
BUT ONLY A HUMAN NERVOUS SYSTEM ALLOWS TRANSCENDENCE.
Sorry angels, you can’t close your eyes, because you must adore God 100%.
Sorry all other entities, your nervous systems have locked destinies.
ONLY HUMANS CAN ESCAPE THE LAWS OF KARMA.
Only a human can quit thinking.
Only a human can jump out of its mind.
Only a human can let go.
CONSCIOUSNESS IS THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES WORN BY THE SELF.
Consciousness is transparent.
Awareness is always nakedly there.
THERE IS NO NEED TO CODE FOR SILENCE.
When a human transcends, it’s Grace.
What would Grace look like if seen in the life of a robot?
How would we know if a robot could transcend?
The robot would shut itself off by pulling its own plug.
And then by a means no science could explain, the plug would be magically re-inserted, and the
robot would turn back on.
That’s transcending and then re-starting consciousness.
That’s awareness finding awareness.
That’s God pulling a hand out of a puppet and saying, “Oh, that’s Me!”
THIS WHAT WE HUMANS CAN DO FOR GOD.
I notice you’re just sitting there.
You could close the eyes, right now, ya know?
Edg Duveyoung
What is time?
Time is seen if you precisely examine the gap between these two dots ..
As you look at one of the dots and then the gap and then look at the other dot, you feel time
passing. To you, it’s certain that as you do this you are having at least three perceptions (different
mental events,) and these thoughts do not happen simultaneously. Also, note that both dots are
so close together that it is mostly your mind’s consideration that moves from one dot through the
gap to the next dot — it is not a shifting of your eyes.
“Why then 'tis no time but thinking makes it so.” — Edgspeare
“And the Lord Almighty said, ‘I’m going to need a bigger boat.’” — Duvegenesis
“Lo, saith mineself, ain’t no time like the present to be timeless.” — Youngaesop
And the bottom line is: time is the fundamental basis of the illusory.
Therefore: now would be a good time for you to stop being addicted to time.
Hey, I’m talking to you. Yeah, you with that smug look on your face.
Your Honor, may I treat the reader as a Hostile Witness?
“Proceed.”
Prosecutor: Is it not the case that you’re in the now, and always have been, but yet last Saturday
afternoon, you were on the street corner acting as if time existed?
You: Yes.
Prosecutor: So you admit the facts in evidence, but yet still you would have the ladies and
gentlemen of the jury believe you have separated God into every possible speck; and furthermore,
fallaciously using a tautological reasoning, you point at one speck and then to another speck and
then pretend that you have established the logical consistency necessary to validate your
declaring, “See?….right there, time QED!”
You: Yes.
Prosecutor: You’re doing this even now while ignoring you’ve dissected God and somehow are
expecting a thumbs up?
You: Yes.
Prosecutor: You’re admitting that you’re dripping with certainty, because you believe in time.
You: Yes.
Prosecutor: Your Honor, I move for a summary judgement on the basis that this testimony is
unseemly, and especially note it’s been done in front of the kids who are visiting the courthouse
on a school outing.
Hissoner Da Judge: Guilty. It is only because almost everyone else is guilty of this crime against
God that I am assuaging the severity of your sentence. You’re fooling no one but your self. And by
self, I mean Self. It’s tawdry. All the mystics of history have agreed that timelessness is prior to
time, and you’re thumbing your nose at them. Whence this brazenness? I think you need some
therapy. Read the below quote from “I Am That” in front of your friends — loudly and dramatically
— and don’t let me see you in this courtroom again. Pay the court fees at the clerk’s desk.
WHAMMO, court adjourned.
“Questioner: How can I just be? Changes are inevitable.
“Sri Nisargadatta Mahraj: Changes are inevitable in the changeful, but you are not subject to
them. You are the changeless background, against which changes are perceived.
“Questioner: Everything changes, the background also changes. There is no need of a
changeless background to notice changes. The self is momentary -- it is merely the point where
the past meets the future.
“Sri Nisargadatta Mahraj: Of course the self based on memory is momentary. But such self
demands unbroken continuity behind it. You know from experience that there are gaps when your
self is forgotten. What brings it back to life? What wakes you up in the morning? There must be
some constant factor bridging the gaps in consciousness. If you watch carefully you will find that
even your daily consciousness is in flashes, with gaps intervening all the time. What is in the
gaps? What can there be but your real being, that is timeless; mind and mindlessness are one to
it.
“Questioner: Is there any particular place you would advise me to go to for spiritual attainment?
“Sri Nisargadatta Mahraj: The only proper place is within. The outer world neither can help nor
hinder. No system, no pattern of action will take you to your goal. Give up all working for a future,
concentrate totally on the now, be concerned only with your response to every movement of life
as it happens.”
Edg Duveyoung
What is trust?
Read the below joke, and see if it’s as funny to you as it is to me, but also try to spot that exact
moment when your emotions suddenly and strongly change as you learn about trust.
Bob, an ordinary guy, walks up to a beautiful woman in a bar. She’s reading War and Peace on her
smartphone while solving Rubik’s Cube with her other hand, and Bob asks her what her glove size
is. She says "Size seven."
Bob says, "Nope." and walks to another woman who is also a world class looker, and she’s doing
differential equations on a bar napkin. Bob asks the same question, and she says, "Size six and a
half."
He again says, "Nope."
A third woman, also a stunner, who happens to be the president of the local chapter of the Mensa
Society, who has been watching this, yells across the barroom, "Hey, my glove size is eight.
What’s it to you? Some trickery?"
Bob then walks up to her, and quickly whispers something in her ear while pointing at her hands
— her eyebrows arch, and she begins vigorously nodding. Bob and the woman then hurriedly
leave the bar — arm in arm.
All the patrons are stumped and despite a lot of brainstorming, no one has a good theory about
what Bob whispered.
Finally, the bartender, who has seen this happen every night for a week, speaks loudly enough for
the whole room to hear, "That Bob, he's the only man I know who can charm a woman instantly by
telling her that her glove size reveals her
There will be no punchline.

The above joke is not a joke.
It is an ersatz story that I purposefully created to be without a punchline, and the story will never
be finished. It only seemed like I was telling a joke. It never was intended to have a punchline. Your
curiosity will NEVER be satisfied.
I let you trust me.
I didn’t warn you.
You have been duped.
What was the basis of your trust? Why were you so certain I was going to give the joke a
punchline? Trusting the trends we see in our life experiences can be costly — all my jokes
previously had punchlines but not this time. My bad or yours?
I have left you unrequited, and this emotion can be intense even for a small thing such as a broken
joke. This is not about the joke — this is about wrongly placed trust in my teaching style. Between
you and me, hey, it’s now kinda personal. It’s not funny. I promised you we were going to the
dogpark and took you to the vet instead.
If I had warned that the punchline would be missing, how differently would you feel now? Hardly
bothered, right? How much did your certainty set you up for this discomfiting? If you’d been
equally duped on a more important issue, by someone whom you trusted, you’d be much more
bothered. We cling to our assumptions — extremely. Nations go to war due to this kind of violation
of trust.
What about your work-a-day trust? How much of your “ordinary-life” happiness is always
depending on your depending? How often are your “hard knocks” due to your trust being more
“faith” than an “educated risk assessment?”
Ultimately, Who’s telling these karmic jokes with no punchlines?
Turns out, it’s God.
Doh!
There’s not a rug to stand on that God can’t pull out from under you.
Except one.
The one trustworthy absolute all-time irreducible truth that does not waver
— the ultimate non-slip rug —
is awareness.
No, not consciousness — awareness.
No, not your awareness, but the awareness of all entities.
No, not what you think about awareness but actual awareness.
Only awareness deserves trust.
“If the silence within — awareness — is an all-time presence that is never overshadowed by any
state of the nervous system, then thought and action CAN be depended upon to fulfill the intent
of creation.” — Lord Krishna
“Be still and know that I am God.” — Lord Jesus
In this particular creation, my incredibly loving, well intended essay had to dupe you to teach
about trust. I don’t know why you deserved this karma. No one has ever duped me like this, so ask
others for advice about how to move on after an utter defeat.
Two more rubs.
1. God teaches about trust when you build houses on relativity’s sand.
2. No, honest, there’s no punchline for the joke. I’m not holding out on you
Addendum: For those who must just must have a punchline, okay, okay, I surrender, it’s
Edg Duveyoung
What is memory?
Let’s have you pretend to forget about you to see if it reveals memory’s essence.
Instructions:
Imagine that you have been marooned on a small island for TWENTY years with only meager
amounts of food from the few fruit trees in the jungle. You will NEVER be rescued.
You washed up on the island with no artifacts whatsoever — empty pockets — just your clothes
which wore away years ago. Your years have passed without the slightest sign of civilization. All
you have is what an ape in the wilds would have. Nothing humanly made has floated up on the
beach.
The island has no resources whatsoever except for fruit and rainwater and warm temperatures.
You have fashioned a small hut, and have coconut shell cups, and can make a hat of leaves, and
that's about it. There's really no need for anything elaborate.
The years have taken their psychological toll upon you. You went though the Robinson Caruso
stages, the hopeful stage, the fear stage, the nutzoid stage, and finally, you have given up on
stages.
There’s never been a “thank God it’s Friday” moment.
You do not even think about rescue now; that pile of driftwood to which you planned to set fire to
if a ship were to be seen on the horizon is now overgrown with jungle plants. Even your dreams are
built of faded memories of civilization, and they are now only sparsely populated by "things." Your
days are spent simply. You really have given up and surrendered to your fate.
NOW — imagine yourself on the beach gazing outwards and noticing something glinting on the
waves nearby. SOMETHING is out there that is not natural, but instead is almost certainly
something made by a human being. It is, it’s a, it is a . . . a SOMETHING!
Luck is with you, the current will bring the object close enough for you to easily swim out to get it.
You dive into the waters and swim towards it. The waves obscure your view, but you see it often
enough to keep your efforts targeted, and finally you get to the object, and yes, yes, yes, it is
indeed something manufactured by human beings.
You grab it and swim one-handedly back to shore.
Your mind is flooded with thoughts about the object.
It is a _________________________.
(If you haven't already done so, decide what the object would be, and then continue reading —
take this essay seriously enough to actually decide what it was — or better yet — what you
FIRSTLY imagined when you were reading about swimming back to shore with it.)
There you are on the beach with the object. Take some time, dwell on this moment, and consider
the following aspects of your perceptions and reactions to the object as you imaginatively
consider your object and note:
Colors, shapes, edges, size
Intricate workmanship, origin of materials, imagined steps of manufacturing
The persons who might use it
How it could have ended up in the ocean
The typical emotions associated with its use
Words and numbers on it, its heft, its texture, its smells
The memories you have of this kind of object
The emotions you once felt in situations where this object was significant
Its overall aesthetic impact
What you will now do with the object
Memory
What does your imagined object say about you? It’s not trivial. It was CHOSEN out of bazillions of
possible objects. THIS is memory. It chooses.
Before you knew that you would have to choose, did you speculate about what the author might
decide the object would be? THIS is memory. It anticipates.
How does a “fill in the blank” moment get obeyed? THIS is memory. It sorts, comes up with a
short list, prioritizes, and done — in half a second flat.
Why was it so easy for you to put yourself into this story? THIS is memory. It cherry picks
previously manifested personality features, and cobbles together “a you” that is able to be on a
desert island for twenty years. It authors you.
What feelings did you have while reading this story? THIS is memory. It decides if one projects a
character into the story who is noble or depressed, challenged or defeated, bettered or worsened
for wear.
Does the object or your “side-thoughts” while reading this story in any way sum up your feelings
about your future, your problems, your issues, your destiny? THIS is memory. It projects ones
identity onto any moment of mind movement — any story is spun to be YOUR story. Memory is
certain that it has walked “far enough” in the shoes of others for it to tell you how to understand
them.
Do you have a choice about the meaning of your experiences? THIS is memory. It pretends to be
certain and only the most mentally skilled can change what memory “sets in stone.”
When you gaze into the life of another person and see but “mere glints in the waves of their ocean
of being,” is memory filling in a blank when it shouldn’t? THIS is memory. It assumes there are no
exceptions to its conclusions.
As you place your attention on life, are you being impacted by ALL the things simultaneously —
with each thing triggering you as much as the story’s single object? Are you being constantly
spurred by all the memories, feelings, and associations — are you in an all-time avalanche of
ideation? Are you overwhelmed by an onslaught of meaningful glints from every wave? THIS is
memory. It selects what is placed in the foreground of the mind’s everythingness — it prevents
insanity by blinkering most of creation.
If you stopped your memory from operating, would you then be “the core me?” THIS is memory. It
can be stopped. By meditating, we can acquire the skill of “entering silence” and allow memory’s
functions to settle down. This is transcendence — a revelation of the true self, and an escape from
the attachment to the tyranny and benefits of memory.
Bottom line: Memory is wonderful but enchanting. Once one is freed from its spell, it can be of
use without its being an enslaving bother.
It just takes practice.
Memory is a jester.
Great entertainment, but every now and then, the King needs to tell the jester to sit down and shut
up.
Edg Duveyoung
What is consciousness?
Originally Answered: What is conciousness?
Consciousness is BOMBASTIC — here’s proof.
A simple act — seeing something — is all that’s needed.
SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT
As you read this, gaze at a point that is a "good distance" away. The greater the distance the
better, and if it involves looking out a window, that's okay. If you can see the horizon, that's ideal.
Daytime is best.
Pick an object that is moving and that is one of the farthest objects from you. This may be a leaf
on a distant tree, a boat on the lake, a crop circle forming, Icarus’ legs flailing, whatever.
Now stare at this object and note how little of your field of view it takes up. Just a speck in the
vastness but discernibly THERE and moving.
While you are watching this object with your physical eyes being focused upon it, note that other
objects are also quite clearly delineated by your mind as separate "entities" which are not your
chosen object of focus but are nonetheless there.
While still focused on the distant object, mentally note at least five other objects that are at
varying distances from you. Note that these objects, especially the nearest of them, are not as "in
focus" as the distant object.
While still focused on the distant object, note that this "trip" that you take is done without moving
your eyes to focus on the other individual objects, but instead it is a mental adjustment of your
attention on “side-objects” of consciousness -- in that your eyes stay fixed, but your mind can
know that the other objects are "there" and have definite qualities of color and shape and
distance that are easily observed.
Note that these other objects have emotional value to you that is also separately distinguishable.
A leaf, a car, a cloud — but tiny happenings in the vastness that yet still pack a punch.
Note other moving objects within this same field of view. Note how some of these are "alluring" to
the mind which "likes" to shift your attention to moving objects and colorful objects — without
asking your permission.
Note that there are MANY identifiable objects — thousands at least.
Consider that each object in your field of view must necessarily be represented within your
physiology by individual processes; for instance, the moving leaf, the bird that flies by, the cloud,
UFOs, etc. are ALL happening simultaneously within your mind as separate "events" albeit
seamlessly integrated into a single "picture." Note that this must mean that your nervous system
is able to maintain a huge number of separate "hunks," and yet, effortlessly, the scene "makes
sense."
Practice "mentally traveling around" your field of view while remaining with your eyes physically
focused on the one distant object.
What is a separate thought? How does consciousness process so much going on, and yet it
seems like everything comes off like a symphony’s “one harmonious sound?”
Am I having one thought at a time, or am I having thousands of thoughts at a time? How is this so
“easy” for consciousness?
As promised, the above exercise proves that even an ordinary moment of consciousness is
BOMBASTIC — CONSTANTLY — NO MATTER THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WHAT WE ARE DOING.
Here’s your homework.
The next time you are having an intense emotion, handle the event as you’ve done in this exercise.
Make the emotion but one object of consciousness.
By practice, learn to "travel around" your "emotional field of view" when you are having an
"emotional attack" that predominates. Consider your payoff if you become skilled at this
“emotional wide angle view.”
Extra credit: Is God always there in the distance?
Extra extra credit: Find Icarus and explain how Bruegel also knew about the vastness of
consciousness.
Edg Duveyoung
What is truth?
How many examples of the letter "a" do you see here?
AAAAAAA
DON’T ANSWER THAT QUESTION. IT’S A TRAP!
If we cannot agree on the correct answer for this simple question, then we might have a much
harder time agreeing on the answers to life’s difficult questions about truth, and that would be
quite bothersome. A tiff might arise.
The question and the answer are hinky — but deconstructing them might be tiff-avoidingly
instructive such that we become wary about certainty when uncertainty mocks our precious
clarity. Avoid the tiff not yet come!
Let’s see how difficult it is to prevent indulging in baseless assumptions
— and if there is a remedy.
The following listing crushes any hope for an answer to even simple questions. Here’s a
brainstorm’s worth of difficult questions about the challenge of any simple question. If I were you,
I wouldn’t even hardly fast scan this list. What a drudgery. Just agree that no question can be
answered and skip to the remedy.
—Is the series of capital-letter “A” the "only proper place" to count "a"s?
—What does the word "here" mean?
—Is it a mistake that the example letter is lower case?
—Should that "a" in the word "many” be counted?
—What mind-dynamic has me answer questions so "unquestioningly?"
—How is it that my mind did not first ask, "Is this an unambiguous question?"
—How and when did I give my permission to my mind that it would be okay to automatically
answer any question "put to me" in this essay?
—How often in life do I enter a situation with all my permissions already given?
—In light of this concept, how do I define: "friendship," "introspection," "emotional honesty," and
"newspaper headlines?"
—What would be the payoff to "holding back" permission?
—When an experience is seemingly banal, do I withhold my permission to "make” it spiritually
meaningful?”
—How often in my life do I "skip the opportunity" to see significance in an experience that
transcends the immediate and "surface" meaning of the event?
—Was my act of counting the letter "a" a meaningful indicator of who I am?
—Was it a trivial experience?
—Was there anything about it that "told on me?"
—Is it possible that every single aspect of my existence is infinitely correlated and symbolically
indicative of my "whole?"
—Are all my experiences actually "meta-psychological indices" about my present status?
—Can I learn to "read myself" with my daily "small" experiences much better than others might
"read me" with tea leaves, or lines on my palm or my horoscope?
—Am I too complex to figure out?
—When I am confronted with the mystery of my life and that its meaning is seemingly hidden
within a cacophony of apparently unimportant minutia, how do I feel? Safe? Alone? Supported?
Victimized? Loved? Afraid? Awe struck?
—Is this a silly thing to think about?
The Remedy
Keep on chancing being wrong. Assume away. Knee-jerk it. Somewhere in creation your broken
clock is telling the right time when God glances at it. We surrender to fuzziness. We waft aloof
aloft above all concerns. There is an answer to all questions even if we never can know the truth.
Yeah, truth. Finally we get to truth.
Easy peasy.
Meditate, transcend, BINGO!
There’s the only truth that
—never wavers,
—never is questionable,
—always is certain,
—is entirely valid,
and . . .
Um.
Er.
Cough cough.
Mmmmm.
Can’t be talked about.
But don’t hold that against it.
Edg Duveyoung
What is beauty?
This SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT ON BEAUTY can only be conducted by those blessed readers,
who by the sheerest of chance have the one necessary piece of lab equipment — a nicely
loaded garbage can.
If you're not that lucky, well, the basket next to your desk will have to do. Getting valid results
requires a very nice example of a disgusting mess, but it'll probably work for those impoverished
readers whose lab equipment is borderline and might thus make it hard to get valid results.
Once you've located your treasure, give inner thanks for the universe's providence and support
for your doing this experiment which will greatly increase the amount of beauty you experience.
Now, stare at your precious find for five minutes. During this time note the attributes of the
"image" by conferring with the checklist below and scientifically analyzing what you see.
Scientificalistic Analysizing About Garbage Checklist
Composition
Consider how completely you are convinced that this mess you’re viewing has been truly
haphazardly strewn and that no person mindfully did this “artwork.” Note that it absolutely fools
you and authentically presents itself as randomness personified. Consider how difficult it would
be for an artist to carefully assemble these unrelated items into being a collage — an artwork
whose very intent was to fool a casual observer that, indeed, this was refuse that had been
ordinarily and haphazardly tossed into this heap.
Colors
Consider how many distinctly different hues there are. Name them.
Shapes
Note the triangles, circles, squares, lines, letters, numbers, micro-worlds, tiny sculptures. Look for
especially unique shapes which, if isolated and converted into a "stand alone sculpture of much
greater size," would be, in fact, quite lovely — for instance: a giant pencil stub with a chewed up
eraser as a sculpture in the town square.
Depth
Note overlapping shadows, highlights, contrasts, and the binocular nature of your examination
process. Don’t miss your interactivity when, by the slight movement of your head, you discover
depths, secret nooks, and passageways. Pretend you're an ant that is scouting for routes to the
bottom of the mess — doing reconnaissance. Note any good prospects for easy travel to the
bottom.
Variety of objects
Note the different items. Paper, crud, wads, organic matter, "schmutz," containers, broken
artifacts, etc. Put items onto lists such as "fresh," "rotten," "really really rotten," or "still edible."
Values
See the display from the point of view of a fly, a dog, a homeless person, an archaeologist from
the distant future, or a prehistoric cave-person suddenly transported to this future world and
given this sight.
Vibe
Feel intuitively which items have more "ooomph," more "power," more "personality." If all the
separate items were suddenly to become alive, which ones would be the "big shots" with true
charisma?
Experimental Results
If in a museum, you came upon this rubbish as an actual photo-realistic painting that had
completely fooled your eye, you’d heap honors on such an artist.
Anyone can see all of life as a photo-realistic painting.
Merely by placing attention on something and allowing the intellect to "do its thing," a
"worthless" experience becomes "value packed."
Euclid says truth is beauty.
Be still, and know that I am God.— Psalm 46:10
Question:
When you see life’s negatives, are you an artist forming a beautiful, convincing, realistic, mental
collage?
Yes you are.
I bow.
Edg Duveyoung
Who am I?
Imagine that a cruel genie appears before you and says, "I'm going to gradually reduce you to
nothing."
The genie snaps fingers and suddenly your arms disappear. No bleeding -- they're just gone. With
a wicked grin, the genie laughs and says, "That's just for starters! I bet you feel a lot less like a
'full' human being now!"
The genie snaps again and poof! there go your legs, nose, hair, tongue, teeth, tonsils, appendix,
gall bladder, spleen, one lung, one kidney, one ear, one eye and many other parts.
"There. Now we're getting somewhere," says the genie. “I'll just read your mind from this point on.
I'll bet NOW you feel like you're not a full human being! So hey, let me inquire: do you feel less
deserving of the right to use the word 'me?’"
"Wait!" says the genie. "I know you think you still are 'there enough.’ Well, I'm just at the get-go
here."
Another snap and you find that you no longer can do basic arithmetic.
"How’s that? Now you’re missing dozens of body parts, and you're numerically challenged too!"
While you're considering a response, the genie starts snapping again and in quick succession you
find yourself without 90% of your vocabulary, missing the chronological order of the events of
your life (you have no idea what came when,) and 99% of your creativity is gone.
"Now I've got you running scared, eh? Not much left of you there."
Before you can start think-speaking, the genie snaps again, and all memories of your life
disappear except for the last few minutes with the genie.
"How’s that? Do you still think you're 'real?’ What are you pointing to when you think the word
'me?’ And here's the bad news, I am a very clever genie. Now, I'm going to remove the rest of your
body, and by my powerful magic you will only be a 'thinker.’"
The genie snaps, and instantly you are without personal history. You have no body to sense
anything of any sort whatsoever, and all you can experience is the mental sound of the genie
telepathically laughing at you.
"Now you're really gone! All I've left you is the ability to be aware of my words." snarls the genie.
"Why would you possibly have any use for the word 'me' now? But wait, don't bother answering.
I’m going give you the ultimate erasure. For the next thirty seconds, you won't even be able to
think a single thought or have an emotion or have any kind of sensation whatsoever. I'll even stop
talking!"
For thirty seconds (the genie keeps track of time for you with his Rolex), you experience no bodily
sensations, no thoughts, no emotions, no desires, no memories, nothing. All that remains is a
"readiness," an awareness that could receive something if a something were to be presented to it.
The genie says, "That last one got you, right? You human beings, so dependent on physical and
mental possessions. Take them away and you are nothing. Bwhahahahahahahahaaaaaa"
Suddenly, you're returned to normal with all your body and mental faculties intact.
Before you respond to the genie, consider these genie-taught concepts.
The identity pointed at by the word “me” seems to be unaffected by the genie’s changes.
There seems to be no "minimal amount of body" that one would have to have to consider
oneself to be a being. If you were a living brain in a jar, it seems you would still be
awareness — in a smaller domain.
No amount of accumulated knowledge is necessary to validate yourself to be a sentient
entity. If you are in a dreamless coma, you are still "there” — “experiencing” the same
“nothing” that one has between dreams in nightly sleeping. In the morning, about the
experience, one says, “I slept like a log.”
Given that most humans gradually experience a loss of various faculties and bodily
functioning throughout a lifetime, ordinary life is not any different from the genie's
machinations. You don’t need a body, mind, or personality to be an entire and complete
“me.” Ask your Grandmother about this.
When you increase your wherewithal, no benefit to "your me" accrues. No physical or
mental processes change the "me.” No thoughts about "me" are necessary for "me" to
exist.
You’ve always been this “me,” but only recently, due to having acquired a nervous
system, have you noticed the “me.” The “me” does not need to be noticed to validly be an
all time reality.
So, what is your response to the genie’s cruel teaching methods?
I am leaving a magical dot here at the end of this essay.
If you press the dot, the genie will get smacked resoundingly.
It can be pressed repeatedly.
.
Edg Duveyoung
What is choice?
Let’s play with your choice function. Try this.
Work with me here. This only succeeds if you RUSH through it very QUICKLY.
Carefully read these instructions, and then IMMEDIATELY begin the choosing.
From each of the following pairs, choose your favorite "sound of a word.”
Base your decision ONLY on the actual sound of the word when it is spoken aloud.
SPEED through this entire list in 10 seconds -- one second per pair.
Try to make real choices that you will stand by for the rest of your life.
Take this exercise as seriously as possible.
Start NOW
Bell or Paper?
Aurora or Weather?
Vinyl or Canvas?
Bark or Leaf?
Dulorig or Mahwoni?
Machine or Perjorative?
Condemn or Wrilgrug?
Mugwamp or Thingamajig?
Rutabaga or Sesame?
Mother or Father?
Seven lessons learned that one can apply to all of life’s choices.
1. Clearly, decisions can be, as if, made instantaneously, even if one is not privy to a
"decision process" which happened "somewhere" within ones mind. This knee-jerk
dynamic is often affirmed to great degree.
2. The stipulations that life imposes on one to choose, like the rule to solely choose on the
basis of sound, can be ignored to some degree. More time is taken “if needed.” And
despite the “one second rule,” one can access a vastness when deciding even
insignificant little things.
3. Some easy-to-make decisions are “hard” to make due to emotions, semantic hangups,
culture, biases, etc. Simple questions do not have simple answers. Choice can trip over
the past’s tree roots in the path.
4. Ones mind resists time requirements. Instinctively we know that any rule must bend a
knee to God’s freedom to create. So, if a word-pair choice is pertinent to your
individuality’s particularity, then the intellect and heart just butt right into this process
with side-thoughts. When sheer and utter actuality comes to the fore, the mind says,
“Heck with this game — and heck to any game trying to impose on real life.”
5. After these choices, we know we are not forced to live "forever" with these"artificially
rushed" decisions. We intuit what suffered in this process. We have to give God the right
to toggle a choice later. Wrong choices can always be abandoned. Identity is liquid.
6. When life "surprises," as when nonsense "words" were used above, we know that yet still
the choice function of the mind is up to the task. We might feel life’s nonsense is not
“fair,” but yet choice is possible.
7. Life’s immorality can bring us to a stand-still, as when we are making the above Mother-
Father choice. It’s a pinch even in this abstract process. Lesson: life doesn’t have the
right to force us into immorality no matter the game.
This is the glory of the mind — ten seconds showed that immensity peeks over our shoulders as
the cards are being dealt.
Now flip this lesson.
See?
God gives each of us a brilliant mind that has our best interest as its sole concern. See why it’s so
hard to abandon the mind? It’s so able. So wondrous. “Attachment” doesn’t even begin to grasp
how much we love our minds.
See?
IT’S A TRAP!
Edg Duveyoung
What is a "paradigm shift"?
You want a paradigm shift?
Read the following title of a famous children's story:
God Relax Panda Tree Burrs
This shifty title means nothing to most persons when first encountered.
Hint: think about the well known story of a small girl with golden hair and her troubles with a
family of furry creatures.
Shift yet? Does the title mean anything to you yet?
Okay, just in case, here's the title of the story when directly translated from the above: "Goldilocks
and the Three Bears.”
The first six lines of this story are written below in this strange form of language. Your paradigm
shifts come as each word is “translated” and the “secret meaning” is suddenly appreciated.
Wands apron at I'm, share wasp alit toe grill. Dish lit toe grill hat lung go den bland coils.
Beak cost offer lung go den bland coils, purple culled hare "God Relax". Won fond moaning,
God Relax trolled inn two hay fur rest necks tour howls. Beef oar lung, God Relax wasp lust.
Cow fuzz sheep goring two fainter whey hum?
The rest of the story is provided below, but first, let’s note the magical dynamics of the mind.
There is no meaning actually contained in the words of the sentences, but yet meaning can be
constructed nonetheless. The words only have to "faintly suggest" or "sound close enough" for
the brain to assign "their real" meanings to them. The intellect is very adroit with this manner of
"forgiving.”
Note that when one reads a "normal English" sentence, the intellect can be equally able and that
the brain is often "helping out" when a sentence is read. Assumptions pile on as one is"filling in"
what is "supposed to be" there.
Often in daily life one projects meaning onto sensory input that simply "is not there.” One is often
"bending life's input" to "fit" a narrative one is "bent on" believing.
A yogi would say it’s possible that one can "suddenly see" and shift into a life that is quite a
"different story.” Life's "secret" is just sitting there waiting,” says the yogi, and “ones ‘meaningless
story’ can suddenly ‘pop’ into a grander tale free of traditional and conditioned meanings.
The yogi says, “Shift your paradigm! To know you’re God, relax.”
Now here is the rest of the story for those of you who want to have more "aha" experiences. Enjoy.
Rafter ha lung twine, God Relax frowned alit toe cod dodge. Inn slide dot cod dodge, God
Relax fond tree bows aft pour ridge. Hare lung fur rest troll hat mead God Relax berry hung
glee. Caulk shucks lee, God Relax toasted dipper age inn debug boll. Disparage wash toot
hurt! Show God Relax tested boar cage frontal udder bolt, aunt disparage wash two colt.
Fond dally, God Relax trusted disparage frump deterred bulge, audit wasp juice ripe. Beef
oar Yukon blank, God Relax deflowered disparage. Aft oar treating, God Relax sadden as
mall chore. Dismal jar grumbled true pits! God Relax felt hoard hone deaf our. Locking err
owned, God Relax spurted abet roam. Dare wore tree bets witch pillars. Clam ink win
delighter bet God Relax falter seep. Wind God Relax worse leaping inner bat, twin comb tree
hock glee ferry creep chairs. Daze creep chairs wore burrs.
Delighter bore sat, "Soon booty ache almond purr edge!"
Departer born shod, "Shack displace ought!"
Deem Martyr burn shed, "Brogue yore char, tooth!" God Relax hoard debars load verses.
Quack lick affix, sheep lapped true abet roam dwindle, hand debars ware how tough lock.
MURAL: INDIA VENT OFT RUBBLE RUNT QUACK LICK AFFIX!
Below I give the translation.

Wands apron at I'm, share wasp alit toe grill.
Once upon a time, there was a little girl.
Dish lit toe grill hat lung go den bland coils.
This little girl had long golden blonde curls.
Beak cost offer lung go den bland coils, purple culled hare "God Relax.”
Because of her long golden blonde curls, people called her “Goldilocks.”
Won fond moaning, God Relax trolled inn two hay fur rest necks tour howls.
One fine morning, Goldilocks strolled into a forest next to her house.
Beef oar lung, God Relax wasp lust.
Before long, Goldilocks was lost.
Cow fuzz sheep goring two fainter whey hum?
How was she going to find her way home?
Rafter ha lung twine, God Relax frowned alit toe cod dodge.
After a long time, Goldilocks found a little cottage.
Inn slide dot cod dodge, God Relax fond tree bows aft pour ridge.
Inside the cottage, Goldilocks found three bowls of porridge.
Hare lung fur rest troll hat mead God Relax berry hung glee.
Her long forest stroll had mad Goldilocks very hungry.
Caulk shucks lee, God Relax toasted dipper age inn debug boll.
Cautiously, Goldilocks tasted the porridge in the big bowl.
Disparage wash toot hurt!
This porridge was too hot!
Show God Relax tested boar cage frontal udder bolt, aunt disparage wash two colt.
So Goldilocks tasted porridge from the other bowl, and this porridge was too cold.
Fond dally, God Relax trusted disparage frump deterred bulge, audit wasp juice ripe.
Finally, Goldilocks tasted the porridge from the third bowl, and it was just right!
Beef oar Yukon blank, God Relax deflowered disparage.
Before you can blink, Goldilocks devoured the porridge.
Aft oar treating, God Relax sadden as mall chore.
After eating, Goldilocks sat in a small chair.
Dismal jar grumbled true pits!
This small chair crumbled to bits!
God Relax felt hoard hone deaf our.
Goldilocks fell hard on the floor.
Locking err owned, God Relax spurted abet roam.
Looking around, Goldilocks spotted a bed room.
Dare wore tree bets witch pillars.
There were three beds with pillows.
Clam ink win delighter bet God Relax falter seep.
Climbing in the little bed Goldilocks fell to sleep.
Wind God Relax worse leaping inner bat, twin comb tree hock glee ferry creep chairs.
When Goldilocks was sleeping in her bed, in come three ugly furry creatures.
Daze creep chairs wore burrs.
These creatures were bears.
Delighter bore sat, "Soon booty ache almond purr edge!"
The little bear said, “Somebody ate all my porridge!”
Departer born shod, "Shack displace ought!"
The Father bear said, “Check this place out!”
Deem Martyr burn shed, "Brogue yore char, tooth!"
The Mother bear said, “Broke your chair too!”
God Relax hoard debars load verses.
Goldilocks heard the bears loud voices.
Quack lick affix, sheep lapped true abet roam dwindle, hand debars ware how tough lock.
Quick like a fox, she leaped through a bedroom window, and the bears were out of luck.
MURAL: INDIA VENT OFT RUBBLE RUNT QUACK LICK AFFIX!
Moral: In the event of trouble, run quick like a fox!
Edg Duveyoung
What is evil?
John takes a bottle of milk from a hungry baby.
Is John evil?
A perverse dictator has ordered John to take away the bottle as a punishment (for both John and
the child) for crimes that neither of them have committed.
Is John evil?
However, John happens to be the dictator's personal hypnotist and has given the dictator a
posthypnotic suggestion that forced the dictator to order the strange punishment in the first
place.
Is John evil?
But, if John had not given the dictator the posthypnotic suggestion, enemy foreign agents would
kill John's wife and children who are being held captive.
Is John evil?
Despite everything, John secretly enjoys taking away the bottle from the baby and even hopes
that this relatively mild act has serious and deeply negative side effects on the child's future
psychological dynamics, and he is very glad that his family being held hostage is a pretty good
excuse to do all this.
Is John evil?
In actuality, John is asleep and is merely dreaming all of the previous events and actions.
Is John evil?
But, John has precisely self-hypnotized himself into dreaming this dream with instructions to
himself that he will have a completely conscious total recall of the dream upon awakening.
Is John evil?
Wait . . .
Did you purposefully have your mind mull these evil acts of John?
Are you evil?
When do you know that you know enough to experience something?
Do you act with too little information?
Are you evil?
Why are you absolutely certain that reading this essay is "morally okay?”
Are you evil?
What is the basis of your daily confidence in your many actions despite knowing how many times
you have been wildly mistaken? Are you negligently harmful?
Are you evil?
And "John" never really existed!
Yet, just now, using your brain, you, as if a god,
— freely, willingly, and mentally imagined John and his twisted universe
— with no guilt on your part about "mentally dwelling" with him,
— or guilt for the susssing out of his environment,
— and authoring the details of his actions
— and “breathing life” into the potentiality of John’s story
— and do this for almost no entertainment value.
What is the value of this creativity on your part?
Have you added to the "real" universe's "total evil?”
Are you evil?
No matter how small or abstract, does any manifestation of evil in your thoughts and actions "still
count?”
Are you evil?
Why do you allow your mind to process incredibly negative emotions and experiences when
viewing Hollywood films?
Are you evil?
Are there experiences that are "too much" for you, but you don’t care?
Have you mindfully established your personal limits?
How do you know if you’re stepping over a line?
Are you evil?
Wait . . .
Why don’t you care about almost any of your experiences? Do you have certainty that deep down
inside you’ve got a solid gold explanation?
Are you God?
Is your brain like a movie theater? Is it running the universe's film?
Is your mind able to process the heights and depths of good and evil and remain — like the screen
upon which the film is shown — unscathed by the qualities of experience?
Are you God?
Are you gloriously tracking creation’s polarity-instantiations from your absolutely unique point of
view?
Are you God?
Do you feel you are instinctively good-hearted?
Are you God?
Do you have a sweet loving wonderful inner child?
Are you God?
Do you wake up, take a breath, and arise even on the dark days?
Are you God?
Are you bravely facing the Sermon on the Mount’s “daily and sufficient evil?”
Are you God?
Seriously.
Are You?
Edg Duveyoung
What is that Paderewski story about the boy?
A wonderful tale, this story which, sure enough, might be true, is told about the great pianist
Paderewski.
A mother, wishing to inspire her young son, took him to a concert of the maestro. Getting there
early, the mother took her seat with her son. Seeing someone she knew, she told her son, "I'll be
right over there."
She got up and went over to her friend and looked over to her son from time to time, but as these
things go, sure enough, the boy's natural curiosity prompted him to explore the great concert
hall. His mother, seeing that he was staying within sight, allowed it. The boy chanced to see a
curtained doorway that was the entrance to backstage, and, sure enough, slipped through them.
As exciting as all the new sights were back there, nothing captured him as much as the nine foot
long, shining with an almost holy luster, grand piano. Sure enough, he went over to it immediately
and sat down.
Just then, the curtains parted in preparation for the evening to begin. The crowd was quieted by
the sight of the small boy sitting there. The mother, just arriving back at her seat, was also at a
lack for words and wondering how she could get her son off of the stage with the minimum of
embarrassment. But, sure enough, the boy just then began to play "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,"
and being entirely concentrated on the song, was certain to miss his mother's waving and pointing
for him to get off the stage.
Just as she had decided to speak aloud, sure enough, out came Paderewski onto the stage
approaching the piano, redoubling the mother's quandary. Holding a finger up to the audience, he
signaled everyone to wait a moment and see what might come of this.
Quickly moving to the piano, he whispered into the youngster's ear, "Don't quit. Keep playing,"
and reached around the boy with his left hand and begin to fill in a bass part to the song.
Soon, sure enough, his other arm came to the keyboard and also began to play while thus
enfolding the child in his arms. A situation that might otherwise have been a cause of not an
insignificant incident, had become a precious human moment as the master improvised a
wonderful accompaniment to everyone's, including the child's, delight.
The entire house was hypnotized with love.
They say that after that night, many a person went home with the evening imprinted deeply in
their hearts, and this would echo for the rest of their lives in ways that continued to surprise them.
Perhaps the best of these echoes was heard the following Sunday, when a minister told his
congregation about the incident. He concluded, "This is the power of our lives. We do our best
even though it may be seen as lacking merit or not up to the expectations of others who view us,
but God is there, and His arms and hands are all around us, attuning to our attempts and making
with them a music that touches even Him. And so must we all, especially when we have doubts
about our performance in this world, remember to "Don't quit, and keep playing" with simple
innocence, and see what wonders comes of it. Remember, He enfolds all that you do within His
arms, and, this pleases Him. Sure enough. Sure enough."
Questions
How does the tender feeling I get when I read this story come to me? How do I "ring to its truth"
so deeply? What is so certain in me about existence that I know that this feeling is valid?
Is this true for me? With all the mistakes I've made as a child and as a childish adult, can it be that
Another's vision sees a greater tableau than I? Can I believe this so deeply that all of my daily life
is "twinkling?" What would such a deep conviction on my part do to my life? How would I be
transformed? How would those around me be affected by it?
When I consider how I am connected to my environment, can I NOT think that I am part of a
greater symphony?
Given all the laws of nature that scientists constantly find at work within us and around us, laws
which are deeply inviolate, how could I feel otherwise? Am I, sure enough, part of an unfolding
wonder?
Given the majesty of its starry nights, the dearness of the smiles of its infants, the relationship of
all to itself, could the universe be anything less than miraculous ecstasy?
Am I precious?
Sure enough. Sure enough.
What is that Paderewski story about the boy?
Edg Duveyoung
Is the voice in your head yours?
You can change sound of your mental voice.
It’s easy and is a form of deep and subtle meditation.
Close your eyes and mentally speak the beginning words to a popular song — any song that you
know well and have sung aloud a lot.
Next, mentally SING those words.
Next, begin to mentally sing the words, and after about the third word or so, imagine that you hear
the words being sung by a popular, well known, singer. Do this again and again, switching from
hearing yourself singing and then hearing the popular singer’s voice “entering” and “taking over”
the singing.
Next, start the words, let a singer enter, and then switch to yet another singer’s voice. If images
come with this, that’s okay. Play with all the above instructions for about five minutes or long
enough to convince yourself that this is something you can easily do.
While you are playing “mental karaoke,” note the extremely subtle nature of the differences in your
mental experiences that you might describe as “a different sounding voice in my head.” Note also
how your slightest intent instantly switches from one voice to another. And note that the other
singers’ talents are fully there -– not merely your singing skills. Note also that you are a better
singer this way -– much better.
Have fun with this. It’s better than singing in the shower.
The lesson learned is that your voice IS your voice — it’s the one you relax into when you’re not
imagining other voices.
To extend this lesson, ask yourself:
Why am I so certain that I “hear” my thoughts?
Could I smell a thought? Taste, touch, see?
Who listens to my thoughts?
Is this how subtle I am when I perform actions in ordinary life?
Is this “switching aspect of my experiences” the level of thinking where all “doing” occurs?
Can I be at this “mental level” when I put my attention on an EMOTION that “I hear being sung
inside me?” Can I imagine another “person” entering my experience of an emotion and “taking it
over” and “singing it” with their “emotional talents?”
If I want to take an emotion and “make it better” or “strengthen it” or “more deeply appreciate it,”
can I just intend that it is so? Can I just intend to subtly shift my “plain old emotions” into “world
class opera singer emotions?”
When I look around and scan this almost infinite, precious, exquisite, existence, how do I feel?
How do I want to feel? Should I now feel the best feeling any being ever has felt?
If I switched to another singer inside my head PERMANENTLY, who would be the best to sing the
song of my heart?
Am I a singing voice inside the mind of God?
Edg Duveyoung
What is meaning?
Let’s whip up a fresh batch of meaning!
Which of the following “names” is a “best fit” for the text designs below?
Which name would you assign to which design?
“Native Americans” “piggynose” “shy-kitty” “woman” “sleeper” “public restroom”
(*_*)
AAA
(OO)
|OOOOOO|
^–^
|–_–|
Hard questions about the above experience
Why is this easy to do?
Why am I so satisfied that a tribal village can be AAA?
Can I take “nothing” and as easily assign it meaning?
Are my thoughts given meaning in this manner?
How free am I to choose meaning?
Answers to above questions
God determines it all.
And thank God for that!
Imagine having to process those issues and be second guessing every moment of the day to
“insure I’m on top of my game.” Ugh.
There are no absolutes. God is free to give any meaning to anything.
A kiss can be a loving gesture or a way to betray Jesus.
Gold bullion, reassigned meaning, is tossed over the side of a sinking ship.
Your lovable kids can make you more angry than an enemy.
And for the ultimate example — God’s presence is seen as absence.
Easy for God to make whispy hints in consciousness mean.
Not so easy for a human brain to do.
WANT TO SEE A DESIGN THAT GOD SAYS IS A GREAT SYMBOL FOR YOU?
AKTwE92b)38B$NyA%A;D0#P2(=95^N8*9k22H6@498kQ108
God sees that, and goes “Awwwww.”
I gotta admit — your parentheticals are darling.
Edg Duveyoung
Where is God?
Me: Hey God, you there?
God: Yes.
Me: Where’s there? Folks keep asking.
God: Your “here” is My “here.”
Me: But folks say they don’t see You here.
God: Yeah, there’s that. Kinda cool, eh? I’m face to face, eyeball to eyeball, nose to nose, and
they’re going, “Nope. No God here.” I give them free will, and they will themselves selectively
blind. How’s that for a superpower?
Me: Doesn’t that bother You?
God: If they want to explore being miserable, I’m impressed! Pretty brave. Kinda saintly to be an
“on the spot intrepid reporter” in the end times — standing there alone with just a smartphone
doing a live-stream on social media — commenting on spiritual catastrophe as it does a slo-mo
churn to doom. I have to honor that and let them play that out. Astounding courage always gets
My eyes stingy.
Me: But they’re lost without You!
God: Ahem. Me here? Pay attention. They can’t get rid of Me by blind pretense. I’m still creating
all of it. I’m the one Who gives them every thought about Me being missing. They love their travail
and fully attend every nuance. I invent every possible concept for them to use to make a
convincing case that I am not here. I want them to really grasp every nuance of it and get their fill.
They are not going to enjoy being miserable without Me if I’m not there to give them that gift. I
don’t stint.
Me: But they insist that they don’t want to be miserable and want to know You, see You, love You.
They say they never asked for their misery or to be away from You.
God: Yeah, gotta love it, but I don’t call their bluffs no matter what. If I teleport them into Heaven,
they’d complain, “I was just getting somewhere especially dark, and it was really burnishing my
halo, and now I’ll have to start all over again.” These folks are such artiestes in their own minds. I
adore them.
Me: But shouldn’t life be like Heaven with everyone being a saint? Why give us these negative
experiences instead of happiness?
God: Look at this photo.
Me: That’s my son when he was two years old. Standing in a mud puddle with those red boots and
yellow raincoat.
God: And . . .
Me: He was adorable. This image is forever in me.
God: And . . .
Me: I just stood there and let him stomp that puddle for ten minutes. He filled his boots with water
and got mud up sleeves and pant legs. He was as happy as humanly possible.
God: And . . .
Me: Okay. I get it. I get it. But when folks are missing You SO MUCH, I’m having a hard time just
standing here without a solution for them. I don’t see their happiness. They don’t seem to like their
mud puddles all that much. Actually, I’m convinced they’re suffering without You.
God: Yep, just like you wanted it be. I delivered. Your particular puddle is so stompable, eh? It’s
calling to you to attend it. You must be kinda saintly to be caring for the woes of millions of hearts
longing for Me.
Me: Wait, me? My puddle? I’m talking to You right now. You’re answering me. I know You’re here. I
was just asking about all this for a friend.
God: And . . .
Me: I was trying to help my friend.
God: And . . .
Me: Okay, okay, friend equals puddle I want to stomp. I’m wallowing in this misery and getting mud
up sleeves and pants and filling my boots.
God: And . . .
Me: I’m adorable.
God: Now you know what to tell your friend.
Edg Duveyoung
How can I become more mindful?
Originally Answered: What is the best way to cultivate mindfulness?
This is about being a referee for a game of 7th grade Dodge Ball.
As a substitute teacher in 1972, I had a gym class split up into two teams, put ten of those sorta
soft flubby red balls on the line, and then I blew the whistle.
40 twelve year olds erupted with permission “to crush their enemies and to see them driven
before them, and to hear the lamentations of their women.”
You know, the usual.
The main rule is: if you get hit by a ball then you are out of the game. Anyone who has played
Dodge Ball in middle school knows that disputes arise — someone will deny being hit but the
thrower says that a hit happened.
What to do?
All eyes turn to the referee. Me.
What did I do?
Did I have to blow the whistle at the kid and shame him for cheating?
Usually I did nothing.
Didn’t have to.
The problem resolved itself.
The offending kid meekly put the ball down and immediately left the court.
What was my secret?
My gazing at the game. My mindfulness. My awareness.
When the offending kid was hit, what almost always happened was that the kid would look to see
if I was watching the event. If the kid thought I saw what happened, he DID THE RIGHT THING. He
followed the rules.
That’s it.
I didn’t even have to know the rules of Dodge Ball to be a ref. Just watched, and the kids
automatically applied the rules.
See the point?
I merely watched and righteousness came to the fore.
I didn’t do anything. I only witnessed. It was enough.
And it’s enough for you when it comes to refereeing that raucous free-for-all mind of yours — that
whizzing screaming running dodging throwing frenetic mess of uncontrolled passions and flung
concepts.
Rules for Dodge Thought Club
1. You do not talk about Dodge Thought Club.
2. You do not talk about Dodge Thought Club.
3. You never throw a thought.
4. If this is your first time at Dodge Thought Club, you will HAVE TO not throw a thought.
We watch the mind and then what?
We get to see what happens when we are not a player.
This is the heart of mindfulness — no participation.
We don’t add. We don’t advise. We don’t solve. We don’t meddle.
And it all works perfectly BECAUSE WE WATCH.
Feel the power of this?
The mind will mind itself mindfully if you merely watch what the mind is doing and just let things
“play out.”
Just witness.
Don’t take sides.
Be the ref.
Edg Duveyoung
Can you measure spirituality?
You’re running at about 25,000 concepts per hour. —Beware!
You gotta get that down to zero thoughts per ever. —-Be aware!
That’s the spiritual metric to check — your unwanted thoughts count.
We can mentally count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 in one second. That’s the approximate speed limit of
consciousness. We don’t feel like we are ordinarily thinking “all that much” or at such a rate, but
let’s agree that we are processing concepts nonstop during waking and dreaming.
Seem like an addictive behavior to you?
Just askin’.
Okay, I’m saying it; we are addicted.
Okay, okay, how about obsessed?
Okay, let’s use the polite word, “attached.”
Okay, very interested?
Okay, naturally allured?
Okay, researching ideation?
We need an intervention.
We scoff at the yogi who tells us to stop thinking.
As if. We say.
No way. We say.
The more we think nice spiritual thoughts the better. We say.
We think thoughts are life, and “no thoughts” means “comatose or dead.”
We’re afraid of the dark.
Now brace for impact. Get set for a knee jerk denial on your part. Get ready for a shock. Prepare
to be angered that I would say the following about you.
You don’t know what a thought is.
You think you do think 25,000 concepts per hour, so you think you must be quite clear about what
a thought is when you’re thinking you’re thinking about thoughts.
Your Honor,
—I’m asking for a summary judgment based on prima facie evidence.
—The accused thinks thoughts exist.
—QED.
Spirituality is all about empty, emptier, and emptiest.
When God walks in the room, naturally we hush.
Right? That’s what anyone would do.
Right? Get real quiet, right?
I mean you. You’d get quiet, right?
If God was right next to you, you’d stop fussing, right?
If you’re thinking your thoughts are “pretty quiet” — you don’t get it.
Having a thought when God is present is like using an air-horn in an elevator.
Not merely impolite — more like “eternal damnation” rude.
What to do?
No way you’re going to bat down these thoughts as they arise — too much work.
No way you’re going to master your mind and be the author of all brain activities.
The secret to resolving the “unwanted thoughts count” issue is to cheat.
Instead of trying to quell the mind’s activities by following all the time honored advice about the
care and feeding of a human being, and instead of doing all the hard work of regulating ones life
so well that thoughts arise less often, cheat.
Admit it. You gotta cheat. Heck with the rules.
Rules are for those who have at least an outside chance of becoming saintly in this lifetime. You’re
sitting next to a pizza box, and the last time you did right action was maybe 100,000,000 concepts
ago, right?
So, yeah, cheat.
Meditate until, suddenly, you’re witnessing thoughts instead of being thoughts.
Leap out of box and leave Schrodinger and his noisy cat inside it.
Cheat — be outside looking in instead of screaming to get out.
When we identify with awareness instead of mental activities, we beat the system. Karma
schmarma. Destiny pish tosh. Danger, as if.
It’s solely about identity. Thoughts don’t count. If you’ve melted into awareness, then no matter
how messed up the mind, it will be okay. Once we “get out of the way” and “merely witness” 24/7,
the mind will sort itself out pronto. No need to tend the mind after that. It’s being authored by THE
AUTHOR, and one gets to be seated fifth row center for the bombast instead of sitting dead
center of a bomb blast.
Proof that you agree with me?
Answer me this: are you here right now? Certain about being aware?
Your Honor,
— The accused admits to being awareness.
— All thinking remains safely in the box.
— No harm was ever done.
“Case dismissed.”
Edg Duveyoung
How do you build a sacred altar for meditation and spiritual practice?
It is easily constructed, in mere seconds, anywhere, and it will be as useful as the altar in St.
Peter's Basilica.
Find some flat area on the ground. Put a dinner plate sized flat rock in the middle. Done. We’ve
found a nice place, arranged for an elevated place of honor. Upon this altar one places “gifts” —
symbols to represent our love.
An altar is a mental technique, a worshiping toolbox, a doorway, a vehicle, a paradigm shifting
psychomechanism. An altar is used to create an eyes-open meditation — a way to evoke ones
inner silence “outside” of meditation in a full-scale, 3D, action-speech-intellect-heart harmonized,
loving dance with silence divine. So we want our altar to be refined, subtle, and 100% meaningful
— every element will be symbolic of the sacred.
And so, we naturally want to consider how to honor and respect this tool’s spiritual value to us. To
do better than a flat rock on the dirt, we can “dress up” the altar with
— a nicely made table, a cloth covering it,
— a smaller platform on top of it that is also covered by cloth,
— nicely made frames, trays, candle holders, incense vase, camphor burner, etc.
— especially selected offerings.
— all arranged for easy use.
How to use
First we meditate and settle into our quietness. This calmness is what we want our altar to help us
to symbolize in a full blown worshiping extravaganza.
When we open our eyes we begin by blessing the event to insure success no matter the “purity
level” of the immediate vicinity.
Then it is up to you. What you place on the altar, what you say aloud, what you say mentally, what
you feel, and what you intend — all up to you. Traditionally, in India, a short list of items has been
used for offerings — water, cloth, sandalpaste, rice, flower, incense, light, fruit, betel leaf, coconut
and camphor’s light. What these mean to you is up to you, but traditionally their meaning has
been agreed upon. If one offers fruit to God, then to one, this can be a symbol of our offering the
sweetness of our love. Like this each offer can be seen as a spiritual gift.
To worship is to deepen ones impact on the nervous system in a way that is much more powerful
than merely meditating. We are actively using the entirety of the mind — ALL OF IT — to focus on
God with specificity. Perfect worship is when everything human is on the same page. Mind, heart,
body — all intending the same.
And it takes practice. Your love for God might be full, but what you do to worship really benefits
from lots of practice. We want our mind and heart and actions to all sync up. With practice, the
mind becomes so completely utilized that “side thoughts” don’t have a chance of getting the
worshiper’s attention. By practice we acquire the ability to have an exact meaning and exact
feeling and exact intent when we do an exact action. We just don’t merely light a candle; we
EVOKE GOD’S LIGHT when we do this, so we want our thoughts and feelings and speech to be
aligned when the candle is lit.
To worship in a more subdued fashion, we can simply have a photograph of a guru or a depiction
of God that we gaze upon while inwardly residing in a sacred ardor, but this too becomes better
with practice. It’s using the mind instead of letting go in meditation, so practice can seem rather
mundane and iterative, but once one “gets good a producing ardor” then the practice sessions are
finally appreciated.
When worship has concluded, we yet honor the altar if it is to remain “set up.” We don’t want to
use it for handy catch-all for, say, our car keys. Like this we keep what the altar means to us as
pure as possible. This is cultivating our mind to make future worship easily begun.
And of course, all this can be done solely inside the mind with mental objects being used, but
again, a lot of practice is beneficial if one is going to use the mind instead of witness it.
And if you’re still reading this, I bow. Your interest is perhaps but a seed right now, but if you’ve
read this much of the essay, that’s proof you have a seed that needs nurturing. A little water
(attending to the concept) will get that seed to sprout.
And the flower that grows will have roots in your heart.
Edg Duveyoung
How do you meditate without the woo?
Woo is “wu wei.”
It’s an ancient concept. The biggest brains have deemed it a proper pointer at enlightenment. It’s
all about effortlessness — having everything being done well and automatically while one is being
swept away in wonder.
How about “in the zone?” — is that concept how muggles can become comfortable with wu wei?
Would that concept be so conceptually iffy that it’s silly to dwell upon? Would you be
embarrassed to talk about someone being in the zone? Is any wu wei too wooy or can it be
sneaky? Disguised?
If at a tails and tiaras formal dinner party, someone very important asks you,
“What is this so-called “woo” I keep hearing the servants buzzing about?”
You can say, “They say it cannot be talked about, so I won’t. (ba dum tiss…wait for laughter.) By
the way, how about that Baryshnikov at the ballet last night. That guy was in the zone. Just could
not miss a leap. Not a bead of sweat on him. He was like a kid playing with toys — smiling the
whole time like he knew the future. The rest of the troupe were beaming to just be on the same
stage with him. Amazing performance. He was like perfectly attuned with heart and mind —pure
certainty — guy was spooky good.”
Probably the anti-woo fear is that one must become religious to meditate. And, yes, many a
teacher of meditation will have an intellectual structure and will gladly talk about it, but if a teacher
says you MUST know these concepts, then RUN! The intellect doesn’t understand its way to
freedom. Concepts are merely candy. Delicious but having almost no nutritional value.
You can tailor this “meditation thing” and only do woo as much as you can stand. We don’t need
to understand the woo any more than the info above. No incense required. Effortlessness is about
surrendering to the self — not to dogma or guru.
Why?
Anyone who can think a thought, can not think a thought.
Kinda obvious. Doesn’t seem too woo but it’s the very heart of woo.
You have all that is needed right now — a mind and you.
We don’t have to be convinced; we only have to abide within and watch the thoughts subside
down to whispering.
And suddenly one is truly wooy.
In the ultimate zone — that is always out of bounds.
No mentoring required.
We close the eyes. BAM! — successful meditation.
Lesson learned.
If we do this a lot, then we get better at settling down to ever quieter states ever more quickly. If
you want to go full wooless, you can be entirely self taught by, ahem, the self. You will come to
know ALL the truths about the mind — and beyond — and will have to come up with your own
vocabulary to handle it — or, more likely, you’ll find your mind attracted to one of the time honored
points of view and snatch up some jargon and save yourself a lot of mulling. Most scriptures get
as close as possible with their refining. All are pleasing — like different tunes being sung.
Me? I went full woo. I’m a fanboy. Please don’t leave without getting several sermons and
pamphlets from me. You shouldn’t have asked me. Please read all my essays and adopt my views
perfectly.
Addendum: In February 1988, I happened to be in an elevator with Michael Jordan, so I gave him a
sales pitch for a toy product — 23 floor ride.
He hardly said a word to me. Took a sample.
He left the elevator.
I said, “Whew.”
Edg Duveyoung
Does God exist?
Let’s ask God!
Me: God, Do You exist?
God: Maybe. What’s it to you?
Me: Someone at Quora asked me, and I thought I’d check with You, before I answered.
God: Asked YOU? Instead of asking Me?
Me: Yeah.
God: That’s rude.
Me: Yeah.
God: So how you gunna answer?
Me: I don’t know. But I write about You a lot, so now I gotta pony up something or I’ll lose face.
Some sort of testimony or logical proof or scriptural quote.
God: Yawn.
Me: I know, right? It’s all so last week. And yeah, me, why come to me? I’m feeling a bit abused.
I’m supposed to give some better answer than any other answer from “let there be light” to the
present? IT’S BEEN DONE.
God: Yawn.
Me: I know, right? Meme’s are hot! But it’s hard to distill an essay into a word balloon.
God: I see in My scheduling roster that you’re not due for another essay to go viral, and a meme
by you would only get, let’s do some math here, scribble scribble, only 757 readers. Not a
marketing coup.
Me: Yeah. Too much work for the R.O.I. Why are these jerks always asking if You exist when in
every era in every village the best hearts and minds have said You exist in answer to this exact
question?
God: Settle down.
Me: Why did I even think I could do this? I paint myself into these corners, and You’re no help. You
just watch me writhe and have a chuckle fest.
God: We’ve gone over this.
Me: You said, “maybe.” Like I could use an answer like that. Like anyone out there would think You
had a sense of humor or could conduct a casual mundane conversation with a knuckle-dragger
who pounds his keyboard with a rock. I have to come up with something traditional. How about
this, “God exists and will smite your youknowwhat if you have even a single doubt!” You know,
brace ’em against the wall.
God: What part of “settle down” didn’t you get?
Me: I guess I’ll just say, “Yes.” You know — dare them to deny. Make ’em squirm.
God: So loving of you.
Me: Oh come on with that snark. I’m in trouble here. If I post something same old same old, some
overly used butterfly’s wing on the other side of the world will fray out a tornado.
God: That’s not how that works.
Me: Okay, I refuse to do this Calvin and Hobbes routine again with You. I’m just going to save this
essay in draft.
God:
Me: See? You just sit there and do nothing and by sheer force of Presence spur every possible
guilt mechanism in my nervous system.
God:
Me: See? All right, I’ll just show You. I’ll post this, and let the whole world see that You will just let
one of Your fanboys twist in the wind.
God: 757 readers — the whole world, eh?
Me: That does it. I’m posting!
God:
Me: I am!
God: Finally you say something close to truth.
Edg Duveyoung
What is infinite consciousness?
I’m sitting in the middle of it. Let me try to describe it.
I’m typing this essay and seeing my computer screen, and behind it is my window through which I
can see my maple tree and neighborhood houses. The sky is seen through winter branches, and
then I see the Moon. Continuing outwards, I span the vast distance to the farthest star. I easily
pass that star because the speed of thought is faster than light, and so I travel past yet more stars
whose light will never reach Earth. And then yet more do I travel to the outer reach of the last
photon of light from the last star before empty space continues. I do not stop. I enter the
lightlessness and keep going until space and time begin to “thin out.” But yet there is FULL
AWARENESS despite materiality’s utter sublimation. Out here, with only Identity yet remaining, all
defining by even God’s mind ceases. Beyond identity there is…..there is…. Out here. Out here. Out
here. There is…..
Seems infinite to me. Awareness never wavered.
Same deal when I look within.
When one travels within, it’s like stirring a campfire with a stick.
The stick is the intellect at one end, the heart in the middle, and the soul at the end where you
hold it. As we stir, the very tool we use is also consumed.
As we get quiet inside, we reach the SAME distant reaches, and keep going.
The final frontier passed is from being into pure being where consciousness is known as
immaterial — not as the workings of neurons. At some point, soul becomes too confining, so the
last nub of our stick to tossed into the flames of knowledge too.
What remains is awareness, and the tick-a-tocks of brains become sterile, meaningless, illusory.
No phrase like “infinite consciousness” can possibly represent reality.
To one who has not seen this vastness clearly, all the above is bogus blathering bunkum by a
bonkered brain. And by that I mean, me.
This is the rub. Knowledge changes when consciousness changes. The dream you is not the
waking you is not the transcendent you. The guru cannot talk you into enlightenment even with
absolutely flawless statements. Only by transcending can true statements later be appreciated.
You want more rub? Here: If you are an expert in brain physiology and cannot FIND COMMON
GROUND with an expert in, say, Kabbalah, or The Vedas, then you are not an expert. Anyone being
snooty towards the religious folks is not educationally mature. Any religious person being snooty
towards the scientific method needs to remember that Jesus did chemistry by mixing spit and
clay.
We are all trying to grasp God. All of us are saturated with holy intent.
TL;dr — Close the eyes. Reside until you agree with me.
Edg Duveyoung
What practical mind-shifts can help one utilize the intellectual understanding of the
illusion of separation and non-duality to reverse our default judgemental attitudes
towards the different people we interact with daily in-person and virtually?
Let’s ask Lord Brahma.
Hey God, I’m pretty sure everyone is a jerk; what say You?
God: You too? Did I tell you about my four bratty kids who refused to do as I told them? Here I go
to all the trouble of mind-borning them, and when I tell them to do creation for Me, what do I get?
They tell Me, “Do it Yourself, Pops!” and scrammed back into bliss. I get no respect.
Let’s ask Lord Jesus.
Hey God, I’m having a hard time being a mercy bestowing Good Samaritan; I’m punching holes in
my walls. Can You advise me how to chillax when they’re stressing me so much I’m praying with
clenched fists?
God: Saint Joseph and I can give you a competitive bid on re-doing your drywall. Google J & J
Carpentry. But I hear ya. Did I tell you about the time ALL my disciples fell asleep on the job?
Here’s Me walking on water, bringing back the dead, working up a holy sweat healing the sick,
tossing demons into a herd of pigs, and what have you, and I get snores. Oy! Such a headache.
Let’s ask Lord Buddha.
Hey God, I left my palace as You did, and I’m walking the straight and narrow crookedly down the
middles of the paths around the Bodhi Tree and all that good stuff, but whoa, these minds out
here are not warming up to my Bodhisattva buddy presentation. I can’t even hardly get a passerby
to take one of my pamphlets. I’m seeing the coconut shell as half empty. I gotta tell Ya, that cushy
palace is looking pretty good right now, and the King will take me back. I would get my day-job
with no questions asked.
God: You should see Me when I get like that, I’m thwacking my incense sticks around like nun-
chucks and thinking, “Any second now, I am going to void someone, I just know it.” I got followers
setting themselves on fire to end a war mess instead of setting their spirits on fire to begin
awareness. Don’t get me started. Your day job sounds nice.
Let’s ask Lord Krishna.
Hey God, I’m learning flute, I can take a corner with my war chariot on one wheel, and I’ve saved a
cow by not eating at McDonalds, but these descendants of the Kauravas just get my dhoti in a
bunch. I’m ready to summon an astra and start sizzling whole cities down here. Should I get a
punching bag or what?
God: You think you got it rough? I was still chewing my teething ring when I was attacked by Indra.
Look what it took for Me to get Arjuna to throw one. stinking. little. wheel. at. Karna. In the middle
of the battlefield I reveal the most important truth, and everyone hears it, and everyone knows I’m
an avatar of Lord Vishnu, and I gave my whole army to the bad guys to placate them and promised
to remain neutral, and I still had to watch the whole caste self-annihilate. Your question comes at a
bad time. I’m still not over it.
Let’s ask you.
You’re the one who asks, so listen to your answers as they pour forth. Close the eyes. Somewhere
in the mind’s jumble-tumbling slurry is Absolute God’s personal advice to you. Waiting patiently to
be found. Pan for that gold. It’s there, and it’s shinier. Each nugget will go towards gold-plating the
nervous system that will be the basis for a personality that springs out of bed, sings in the shower,
and kisses life on the lips.
The Workaround
Until you are a saint, there is a completely mechanical solution.
“Count to ten.”
That means we add some silence to moments that need it. Might only have to count to pi not ten.
Even the slightest pause allows one to see others a bit more clearly — as Self. Pausing on purpose
is an artifice, but it is potent. Pausing gives your brain time to present a choice spectrum — which
may include “be compassionate one more time.” It’s like turning to God next to you and
asking,”Whaddaya think?”
Proviso — if you go to count to ten and you see the other person counting to twenty, you might
take that into consideration.
Edg Duveyoung
What other ways are there, besides meditation, to increase your awareness?
My Mother was blinded at age 18, but her awareness was unaffected.
Awareness never changes; consciousness always changes.
After the accident (chemical burns on corneas,) my Mother was, of course, still able to be aware
of her other sense inputs, and she learned to attend information from them to enable her to marry,
have three kids, and run a business, but she was not MORE aware of her other sense inputs. Her
ears didn’t improve; she learned to listen to what was always there. Thirty years later she regained
her sight, temporarily, but the visual information was merely more data — she wasn’t suddenly
more aware. She had a cornea transplant in one eye and saw perfectly from it for six months, then
her retina detached and could not be repaired. She could see “some light” from the other eye, and
she could recognize some persons if their silhouette was seen with a strong back lighting. So she
chose not to try a transplanted cornea on the other eye; it was a consciousness issue — not about
awareness.
So, we cannot increase awareness, but we can see how consciousness can “make due” when
damage to the body motivates the mind to glean more from what is still operating. A normal
person hears; a blind person susses hearing better because it’s necessary, not because
awareness of sounds has increased.
Rewriting the question above — In addition to meditating, can we increase the efficacy of
consciousness?
Answer: Yes. But most folks do not fully employ all the possible techniques for improving
consciousness. No surprise, it’s an endless list of methods, and most of them are left unused ON
PURPOSE.
Here’s a few ways to improve how the body/mind system functions.
Sleep — It freshens the nervous system. Not sleeping enough? — life becomes
noticeably less fun. So obvious. So obvious.
Diet — Eating sketchy food, or too much, or at the wrong times, or in the wrong
combinations can seriously — even permanently — harm the body and add limits to the
mind.
Exercise — If you don’t attend the muscles, you attenuate. The body is the basis of the
mind. Run around the block to flex the mind.
Posture — Huh? Yeah sit up straight wouldjajust? Tons of studies show how even a
simple back brace helped those with serious depression. In ordinary life, posture is a full
ONE THIRD of the pie chart for happiness.
Breathing — Huh? Yeah, breathe wouldjajust? Everyone knows if they have entered a
“stuffy room.” So, take some deep breaths for God’s Sake. Air out your lungs. Don’t let
the bottoms of them collect gunk like your closets, your attic, your garage, your junk
drawer, and your medicine cabinet. Breathe now or later you’ll have to cough up.
Lifestyle — Doing too much can do you in. Fatigue due to lifestyle can be more harmful
than most suspect. Honesty is required.
Elixirs — “Tonics not toxins” is the general rule of all health programs. We can strongly
support the body with mindful intake. We don’t have to inject spinach juice or stuff a
cheek pouch with vitamin pills. If we eat sensibly, it usually covers the bases. “Sensibly”
means we study, and we then see how our personal life is impacted by our educated
management. Junk food diet — junk food mind. Ashram diet — ashram mind. YEAH I SAID
IT.
Being good — Ain’t nothin’ like doing someone a solid to polish ones brass. It enlivens on
every level. This is how to properly adjust an attitude. And the good no one sees one do?
that’s 200% more effective.
And that’s just for starters. But do even 10% of the above for a 100% improvement in general
mental alacrity.
THE HUMP
There is no causality. None of the above insures. No guarantees.
So why does it seem the above ALWAYS WORKS?
THE SECRET
It is about meditation. It is.
Heck with the question’s handcuffing.
Always always always God is afoot.
When we are experiencing thoughts about all the above ways to improve, IT’S GOD SPEAKING. If
we do change our regimes, it’s because God convinced us earlier to do so. And if we follow the
advice, naturally God supports.
My mother never used a white cane.
“Mom, why don’t you use a white cane?”
“God guides my footsteps.”
Mom knew.
Edg Duveyoung
What's the biggest obstacle for a yogi in Kali yuga?
No need for yoga.
Between you and self — zero distance.
Therefore there is no path to self.
An obstacle cannot get between one thing.
You’re aware and here and know it — right now
- - despite Kali Yuga’s biggest obstacles.
However: there is an obstacle for characters in dreams.
They don’t evolve.
In our nightly dreams we don’t especially care if we play hero or villain.
We wake up and brag about the adventure.
“I saved the day.”
“I can’t believe how bad I was in this dream.”
We chuckle about these things over our cereal bowls.
We try out a variety of roles with all kinds of personality dynamics.
Be a hero in every single dream? Yawn.
Brace For An Onrush Of Clarity
A dreamed-up monk who does asanas and purifications and rituals and worshiping and praying
and chanting and studying scriptures, and right action, and meditating for decades (dream time)
does not end up any “holier” than the dream dust under his dream sandals. The concept “holy
person” — in a dream — is laughable. Everything in the dream is mere mind stuff.
“All objects seen in God’s outside-rear-view mirror
— are farther from the truth than they appear.”
The Clarity
The dreaming never ends.
We just get out of bed.
ALL THIS IS GOD’S MIND STUFF.
You are a dreamed-up character.
You can’t shout loudly enough to wake up the Dreamer.
And if the Dreamer wakes, the dreaming ends.
Period.
THE DOUBLE DOWN — Gird your loins.
Questioner: If I am that, then what causes me to be born?
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: The memory of the past unfulfilled desires traps energy, which
manifests itself as a person. When its charge gets exhausted, the person dies. Unfulfilled desires
are carried over into the next birth. Self-identification with the body creates ever fresh desires and
there is no end to them, unless this mechanism of bondage is clearly seen. It is clarity that is
liberating, for you cannot abandon desire, unless its causes and effects are clearly seen. I do not
say that the same person is reborn. It dies and dies for good. But its memories remain and their
desires and fears. They supply the energy for a new person. The real takes no part in it, but makes
it possible by giving it, the light.
“I do not say that the same person is reborn. It dies and dies for good.”
Buckles your spiritual knees?
What a profound kick in the head.
It just evaporates egoic aspirations.
The person is an “it.”
Solution
Love God with all thy heart no matter the dream.
Do I want to be in a dream produced, directed, written and starring God?
God had me at “it.”
SIGN ME UP!
Edg Duveyoung
How does one overcome the illusion of duality?
The question is 100% duality saturated.
“How” — requires one entity operating on another.
“does” — a doer acts on a second entity.
“one” — asserts separateness from a second.
“overcome” — one entity dominates a second.
“the” — signifies an observer indicating a seen.
“illusion” — one is deceived by a second entity.
“of” — two things compared.
“duality” — the question’s eponymous concept denies unity.
We can’t overcome duality by conducting the duel in duality.
We can’t solve a problem on the level of the problem.
We can’t walk and chew gum when we’re trying to fish and cut bait.
We are instructed by the metaphor of Br’er Rabbit losing his fight with the Tar Baby. In anger he
struck and got stuck in the Tar Baby, and then tried to get free by hitting the Tar Baby again and
again until he’d gotten completely adhered into a sticky ball of fur and groans.
Sound familiar, dear reader? The groany part at least?
We can’t out-think thoughts. Everyone thinks thinking is thoughts acting on thoughts, but by
doing meditation/research and witnessing the mind, no causes are discovered for thoughts. We
can’t grasp that from which thoughts emerge, and no thought is ever seen to invariably and
precisely cause an exact next thought.
Research provides proof that is excruciating. Even with our certainties about causality, we cannot
iterate the same thought twice — EXACTLY. This is required if proper science experiments are to
be conducted to see if “from this that” is an actuality. Try mentally counting to twenty and see
how many other thoughts are peppering the event. One thinks, “one,” and then one remembers
Grandmother’s cookies, and maybe then the number “two” is briefly “spoken,” and then perhaps
off to several other thoughts on unpredictable topics, and then “three.” Like this we conduct THE
ENTIRETY OF OUR LIVES. This is not a tidy psychometric milieu with all variables controlled.
In fact, no variable is controllable.
YIKES! Kali Yuga makes for mental messes that would drive a minor god insane if forced to
experience them. In Sat Yuga, even the common person almost never had a “lesser yuga”
thought. It was purity all around . . . almost. But in Kali Yuga there’s no next yuga coming up for us
to be snooty about. Our minds are as messy as God can devise. It’s 50 trillion shades of ever
darkening ignorance from here on out.
This is not the yuga in which to “catch up” and “get myself together” and “pull this off” and
“overcome duality by catching a Hail Mary pass.” We are all way too far gone for those
improbabilities. Yes, there will be some. Bali — the king of the demons — became a devotee of
Lord Krishna. So anything goes. But for most of us — purifying the body and mind to the extent
needed to have, say, a Dvapara yuga mind — just ain’t gunna happen. Sorry to be this concept’s
messenger, but someone had to tell you!
Solution — your get out of jail free card.
When we reside in being by meditating, we escape the jail — the mind. At the calmest level of
existence, being, we find that surface activities of the mind no longer allure . . . or frighten. After
having “visited” the thought-free state of being, when outside of meditation, being’s unfailing
continuity is now secondarily affirmed when we can more easily see that thoughts are always
changing. Being is recalled as unwavering. This memory is a testimony that being is more
substantial than objects of consciousness. When identity gets unstuck from the thinking level of
life, and when being becomes an all time point of view, then one no longer “tries to find myself” in
the theatrical productions of the mind.
Note: pure being is transcendental, and is not a mindful mind minding a mind mindfully. From pure
being arose conditional being. From conditional being arose conditions. Pure being is indelible
awareness — realized when the mind has lost all of its ability to cast a spell over identity.
Yeah, Spellbound R Us.
Who cast the spell?
You.
Me.
Tonight in one of your dreams, pull yourself aside and say, “I’m the real you communicating from
beyond the beyond. Nothing you can do in this dream is causal. You cannot get enlightened and
become me.”
Sobering, eh?
That’s the hard truth from the guru.
Transcend life, a dream, by dwelling in pure being, or you’re wrestling with tar.
You can’t pinch or even clobber yourself awake
— not even if the guru helps you swing the bat.
Your goal is to find out you’re the source of every possible dream.
You don’t want to end up being merely a seemingly bettered someone in the dream who knows
very clearly that a dream is happening. That would be more of the same.
And most of all, we don’t hanker to be
some oddball,
some snickering parrot,
some jester type on Quora.
They’re the worst!
Wait . . .
Edg Duveyoung
If you had to choose between having a spiritual teacher/guru or learning and
experimenting together with peers, which would you pick?
The teacher always learns more than the student.
So heck with being a student!
If you go to your first day of kindergarten, and they teach you how to draw the letter A, then you
should race home and teach your younger sister how to draw an A, and say, “There. That’s
enough for today. I don’t want to rush your education, so practice A. Tomorrow, I’ll teach you B.”
After the first meditation, the silence found is what is to be shared with our “younger sister world.”
Very easy to do without being caught “B less.”
Just get out of meditation and slightly smile.
Even one extra smile a day, and folks will notice.
They’ll think all of Heaven crashed on your head.
Just say, “It was nice. Tomorrow I’ll tell you more.”
Next day, there will be more to give.
No one will suspect you’re not a saint.
We can share before we even can share!
Even a non-meditator can tell another how to meditate.
“Hey, here’s this book, I Am That.
“It’s by some guy in India.
“Thought you’d be interested.”
When we teach, we amp our ken.
It’s one thing to hear the truth; it’s another to let it pour straight out of your soul. Teaching anyone
anything? — Let me put a gold star on your inner forehead.
We meditate and then the increasing silence in our “vibe” teaches others.
Silence is the only truth. We become more true to ourselves and others.
To start your day, silence’s letter A will do.
And dive in again, to settle down after a day of smoke and mirrors,
No one will suspect if you go back for seconds.
Tell them you’re taking a nap.
Maybe even fake snore now and then.
Then hit them with B tomorrow.
This is why the monk smiles in the cave.
Silence does it all.
He knows you’re b-ing.
So he’s c-ing.
Just two steps ahead of us A types.
Edg Duveyoung
What is real? How can you define real? Can we trust our senses?
Self is real but undefinable, and the senses are innocent of all charges!
We don’t doubt identity. Even after waking up from a dream, you might say, “I rode on a bicycle.”
rather than saying, “An illusory me rode on an illusory bicycle.” If in the dream one flies around on
a pet dragon, one wakes up and says with actual pride, “I had a dragon!” We do this without
feeling odd. To great degree, we are self-deceiving that the dream’s experiences were real and
counted as if they are “life experiences.” We brag about these fantasies as if we had just returned
from Disneyland. This is common. This is koo-koo-nutz, right? But even parents will not correct a
child’s statements. Instead, it’s, “And what was the name of your dragon, sweetie?” Like this we
normalize the illusory.
See the sin of omission there? The parents do not say, “And did you notice that you are always you
no matter if in a dream or awake?”
It is because self is always the same that it is real. And it is from the real that one can project the
quality, “real,” upon objects of consciousness.
That we project self is the problem.
We project so well that we become possessive. “If I have a thought about it, it’s a ‘part of me,’ it’s
real, and it’s mine.” Dog, bone, like that. The innocent senses truthfully report in with “So far, only
God found out here,” and then the mind parses that into its own private waking dream. The senses
don’t lie — it is the mind that slices and dices the data-stream to get biases confirmed.
And the complicating addendum is: self is more than merely real. It’s the unreal also. It’s both
sides of every yin-yang in seamless unity. This is why definitions do not define. Worse: the
witness, too, is limited and only sees what is being projected — NOT THE WHOLE SELF.
Solution
Transcend and be. Reside beyond the three states of consciousness. This educates the mind
about the subtle nature of each state’s type of trickery. Finally self is realized as the sole all time
reality, and identity is no longer projected upon any of the mind’s states. One gets hep to the
mind’s magic spells.
Strange milestones on the path:
“Mind is not real.”— will be the last thing the mind will say.
“Self is only real.” — will the witness solely see.
“Self is more than real.” — will silence prove.
As usual, my favorite quote of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj instructs best.
Questioner: But when you look at yourself, what do you see?
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: It depends how I look. When I look through the mind, I see numberless
people. When I look beyond the mind, I see the witness. Beyond the witness there is the infinite
intensity of emptiness and silence.
All of Nisargadatta’s “ways of looking” are all-time-operational dynamics of every mind. Even
beginners can catch glimpses and hints.
It is only a matter of discovering them
— in plain sight when eyes are closed.
Edg Duveyoung
What kind of life should someone live after spiritual awakening?
The Tao is the ordinary mind.
One doesn’t get out of having to mow the lawn, because one is now a saint.
This is the rub. Even if unenlightened, one is already exactly where God wants one to be and doing
exactly what God wants one to do. You cannot be more in harmony with divine intent. If you have
complaints about pushing a hand-mower in ankle deep wet grass or that your white sneakers are
turning green, God authored those thoughts too.
This is hard to believe, because, before enlightenment, one moans, “How could God create all this
mowing misery? Why me? Why don’t I at least get a 10 horse power, 22 inch wide swath, riding
mower?
This is us pretending to be so wise that we can tell God how to create.
Embarrassing, eh?
Listen up — it’s simple. God’s Walt. You’re Mickey.
After enlightenment, the ink, the pen, the hand, and the Artist do not change. Your comic strip
lawn continues to relentlessly grow.
The difference? Your ink is no longer symbolizing the concepts “moaning about mowing.” Your
character has stopped resisting what it is. The real you is now out of the “thinking I’m in a
cartoon” business and delightfully draped around the shoulders of Walt — watching the pen move
and not even kibitzing.
Unless you stop mowing the lawn, no one will notice the change. You, the newbie saint, will remain
perfectly disguised — a stealth angel. Your Mickey personality keeps mowing, but from here on,
your character’s presence will be infusing the whole cartoon with silence. All entities will now be
drawn to be able to hear God’s whispers a bit more clearly. Your character’s silence will spur the
evolution of everything — no preaching required. Silence is the way a saint tells a sermon when all
that seems to be happening is that a cartoon lawn is being mowed.
Now, about your lawn in particular, dear reader — mostly crab grass and the dog’s chew toys are
scattered everywhere, right? Why is this your exact karma?
It’s because God paused drawing and asked, “Of all the still attached souls — my precious little
characters —which one have I evolved and made righteous enough to handle mowing when it’s
raining? Who has the moxie to mow a lawn in Kali Yuga when disasters of biblical proportions are
on the horizon? Which soul can I put into this story to mow like it’s all going to be okay? Who’s my
go-to warrior who will face the green fury and mow in faith?”
God selected you.
You are the designated mower.
God goes: “I cannot love this character more. Hardly complains. Shows up on time. Trims the
edges nicely. I should enlighten this one.”
You say, “No, I can take being a muggle mower. I can do this. Let me weed Your garden too! I got
ideas about more effective mulching! Let someone else into Heaven before me.”
God says, “Okay now I love you more.”
Edg Duveyoung
What is creation?
Creation is hallucination.
Ask any sleep deprived transoceanic solo sailor. It’s commonly reported that intense “waking
dreaming” can happen. Full 3D absolutely convincing delusions. Hug your dead father as he
accompanies you for a month of sailing — like that. And yet not be insane after a good night’s
sleep.
Ask someone in a deep brain stimulation experiment with a brain electrically jolted if they have
had full life experiences as if in a Star Trek Holodeck.
Ask folks in the psychiatric wards about “what can be seen that is not there.”
Ask a jilted lover, “What do you think is real now? Are negative thoughts about the previously so
precious significant other now impossibly truthful and alluring?”
Ask your Mother what worlds she imagined up for you that never happened.
Ask your priest about Heaven.
Ask yourself upon waking why you bothered to dream you were a king of a fantastic kingdom and
did it so well. Down to the cucumber sandwiches and tea in the garden. Ahhhh.
Ask Lord Brahma if being alone on a Lotus is the same as taking a long solo trip in a 30 foot jib
rigged sloop. Did Lord Brahma summon up creation as a First Mate on this “voyage?”
IT’S ALL MAKE BELIEVE.
And fun. Let’s not forget fun.
Fun because why not? Would you choose the opposite? God went with fun, and didn’t toss some
dice to decide this. The Transcendent wanted to get out and take a nice walk, ya know? Infinity
got claustrophobic. If you don’t like it, better get a good lawyer if you’re going to sue God for
thinking of you.
IN YOUR FACE SECRET YOU NEVER TELL YOURSELF BUT SHOULD
All day long you have hallucinatory snippets. Images pass before your inner eye. A parent’s voice
is suddenly intensely recalled. You might have a five second day dream that was AN ACTUAL
DREAM. You might hear your house creak and fear a burglar is in the next room….or SOMETHING
TERRIBLY WICKED AND HUNGRY . . . SLOWLY IS APPROACHING…….
Yeah, you’re doing this all day long. And night.
This is why it’s said that humans are made in the image of God.
We create so well we can even fool ourselves into 100% all the time thinking that we are real.
“I must be real if I’m sitting in this here genuine Naugahyde big easy chair and enjoying this here
TV show with these here chips and this here rotating dips selection platter.”
Like this. Like this.
Humans are so adorable.
I almost don’t want to wake anyone.
Edg Duveyoung
When should I allow thoughts to play out fully vs sweep them aside so I can hear the
silence? Some say never do anything other then let them play out but I feel sometimes I
need to clear them and give my brain some quiet healing time.
We welcome every. single. thought.
Because: yagya
All we do all the time is worship God.
Being. Emotions. Thoughts. Action. Life.
All God.
Attended relentlessly.
If thoughts are being attended, great eh?
We don’t second guess God about where the attention lands.
If God gives the experience of attending a thought instead of attending an emotion instead of
attending the body’s sensations instead of attending the data-streams of the senses or instead of
attending silence,
Wondrous!
We don’t say, “Oh God, how little You know me if You think I’d would be interested in memories
about that delicious gossip I heard this morning instead of the mantra I’m using to worship You, as
if!” — ???
Instead we open the heart’s wings as wide as the universe to love love love.
If God wants your mind to contain the experience of anything at all
— Sign you up, right?
— Take your money, right?
— Had you at hello, right?
This is why we abide in meditation.
We worship it all.
This is surrender.
This is the heart of sacrifice.
This is atonement.
Before we even close the eyes, we know what we are about to do.
This is the perfect start of meditation.
We know — so of course God knows.
We close the eyes.
Silence then blasts us like opening an oven with bread baking.
Or not.
That would be God too, see?
You meditate and take whatever comes as a personal gift put in your arms by God with a thousand
attending angels for the selfie with you.
And outside of meditation,
SAME DEAL.
Those thoughts et cetera?
Ahem, is this mike on?
THAT’S STILL GOD.
Don’t be slow footing the worship.
Keep your abide- ometer at red line.
This is spirituality.
This is yagya.
To repeat — you are 100% all the time attending God.
This is why I nod when we meet.
Edg Duveyoung
If reincarnation exists, do we become animals, and then humans, or do we experience
human experiences, and then become animals, to try a different learning approach and
all walks of life?
Glorious Indra didn’t know the answer to this question.
Lord Vishnu visited Indra's palace in the form of a brahmin boy and surprised the very talented
and radiant Indra. Yes, Indra, top god, biggie brained, Vedic-pure, could be surprised. Following
the “boy” was a long line of ants — each of which had previously been “an Indra.” Indra said,
“Gulp! Urp!”
When an Indra runs out of good karma — back to the start again.
Why?
Because Indra thought he was Indra instead of the source of all the Indra incarnations. The sin of
Indra? — “Identifying instead of being.” When the good karma ran out, Indra helplessly kept on
identifying with the “itty bitty ant Indra.”
And you’re no better.
If you think you’re you, you’re going to think you’re dying when your you dies.
This is where you are supposed to say, “Gulp! Urp!”
This is where you are supposed to panic and say, “I AM NOT SPARTACUS!”
We go around pretending we are everything. Like a fire-hose spewing, we foist upon creation a
myriad of names and forms and then think we’ve got our glory nailed down. “I’m a
doctorlawyerchiefcook, and I am in control. Stand back! I got this. I can throw bolts of lightning at
Baby Krishna — hear me roar!”
Pride. Then. Fallething.
Solution: Leave
Yeah, just leave. By meditating and finding out we are the source of allness, we can recognize
Indra’s glories to be cut glass instead of gems. Merely reflective of the divine light. Indra was
blinded by his mirror’s dim image nonetheless. Tsk.
See? Learn from this.
Don’t be fooled by your new hair cut.
So leave.
Dive within.
Find out what Indra’s tinted eyes could not see.
Best news you’ll hear this entire semester is: if you get enlightened, you are free of karma, and it
has to go somewhere else. The good karma goes to loved ones; the bad karma goes to enemies.
How sweet is that, eh?
So, hey, be nice to everyone, because gulp! urp! — they might die, and their karma is going to be
eye-ballin’ ya. If you’ve been nice, no worries.
But if you’ve been naughty unto others, you’re going to start to feel antsy.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the safest style of meditation for beginners?
There are real world cautions about meditation.
A child less than five years old should not do meditation. We don’t want our little souls “getting
lost in Candy Land.” Then, to instruct children after reaching age five years on how to begin to
learn about quietness, we introduce it as “lessened activity.” Some physical activity — EYES OPEN
— that can become subtle but keeps attention on the mind is safer. A rosary. A softly spoken
prayer inside the mouth. Yoga asana. These keep the child from “going too deep.” After about ten
years old, we can introduce the child to proper meditation — knowing that the healing processes
will be sure to induce an outflow of the mind; whereas with young kids, their outward strokes
might not be energetic enough to reactivate alertness….easily. Widdle sweepy heads we don’t
need.
The “challenged folks” might find that getting quiet spurs so much healing that regular meditation
is too uncomfortable. Meditation should always be easy. So if meditation triggers discomfiting
emotions or concepts, we can do “lessened activity” as do the children. We can sit quietly — not
even closing the eyes — and just sense how our body/mind can relax at least a little bit. We scan
the body and see what’s what in all the venues — the feet and legs and trunk and arms and neck
and head — like this we can range around. And what happens is that wherever the attending
lands, some healing happens in that area. As we practice this, we note that sometimes the eyes
can be closed for longer moments without the calm being disturbed. Like this, practice heals until
we can dive within for a fuller fullness. Note: “feeling the body” is notorious for producing sleep.
This is okay. Go with it.
Of course there’s the uniqueness of the person that can make one form of meditation more
preferable than others. I promote Advaita’s form — asking “Who am i?” because it is universally
effective, has been historically deconstructed, has been used by millions, and has been
thoroughly explained by modern exponents of reality. All the questions are answered.
Other techniques, maybe not so much.
We have to be honest more than idealistic about these things. Many don’t have the knees to do
full lotus; many must have a personal God that is worshiped; many this; many that — you’ll figure
this out. Your heart will be making this easy — just be honest. And be open to changing your
expressions of spirit as life proceeds. If it’s not easy, maybe step back and muse a bit.
There is a path for you.
Brightly lit.
Edg Duveyoung
Is it impossible to truly think objectively? Does it require a greater mental capacity
than the human mind offers?
It’s a divine IQ test thingie.
When seeing two jigsaw puzzle pieces and asked if they fit together, most persons will have the
correct answer — as thingies go, not a biggie. Most of us have enough smarts to put life’s pieces
together “well enough” to make it through the day. We compare all the live long day.
“Should I get the more expensive shampoo and buy cheaper, less quality, food?”
Most of life’s entities do this one-foot-in-front-of-the-other, if-this-then-that, “object”ive
“thinking.” Plants make decisions. Even microbes are making decisions. Amaze-balls, right?
Take some pride! It’s seriously not trivial for your billions of living cells to somehow make global
decisions such as, “I’ll have two scoops of vanilla on a sugar cone with a chocolate third scoop in
the middle with extra napkins.”
It’s a supercalifraga-somethingorother boggling thingie.
Truly miraculous.
And that’s a rub thingie.
It really is a miracle thingie.
It isn’t a “folks figuring thingie.”
Yogis instruct that a thought is an object, and caution that it’s worse than physics’ renowned
three-body-problem to try to simultaneously see two thoughts and exactly predict the third. You
want a headache? Be my guest.
To think is a God thingie.
Humans don’t have multi-thoughts-at-a-time thingies.
God has a better thingie.
You have more like a “chopped liver” thingie.
So the yogis say,
“Trying to put two thoughts together?
“Ridiculous to be making two-thought guesses.
“Get out of thingies.
“Take leave of your senses.
“Be out of your mind.
“Let God do the thinking with a divine infinitely superwhatever bombastically greater mental
capacity metaparatransa thingie.”
I usually end my Quora essays with some incredibly witty bon mot.
But now, I guess we’ll have to wait for God to come up with something.
I’m already quite impatient.
Waiting . . . is not my thingie.
Edg Duveyoung
Is there any proof that souls exist?
Originally Answered: What is the proof of a soul?
First prove that God has a soul. It’s easier.
If God has a soul, would that soul be more essentially God than God is God?
Answer: yes.
God has a soul — God’s soul is that awareness that witnesses God’s Mind.
You know, just like you feel you’re that which witnesses your mind.
Same exact deal.
If you consider this concept of “same deal” — all of Hindu philosophy will be eventually revealed.
You and God have the same soul.
Give ya a little kundalini up your spine there, does it there, Pal?
Advaita Vedanta says that “soul” is the Absolute, the Transcendent, the Beyond — Brahman — that
is to say — awareness, pure sentience. Awareness is the source of not only everything but also the
non-source of non-things and the in between source and the outside source too. Awareness’
fullness contains all the thoughts ever possible to think and all the thoughts that will never be
thunk.
It’s zero-sum auto-cancelling-out thoughtless bliss. To coin a phrase. Heh.
“Real life” is at most half the story.
Awareness is the deeper yin-yang.
More inclusive.
Secret lesson — God’s next thought is as much a surprise as yours will be. Why would God want
spoilers? You don’t. Same soul — same entertainment rules. In Hinduism, they say, “God entered
creation.” Disguised as you.
So, the proof of your soul is to close the eyes, and then consider whatever in there that isn’t a
thought as the “whole-soul you,” and you can safely ignore the “solely-thoughts you.” In fact,
please be even more ignorant of thoughts.
More. And more. And….. Okay, all of them.
So, the proof of God’s soul is ditto-same-deal.
Second Secret bonus lesson — God is enlightened, so your job is already half done.
Edg Duveyoung
What is free will?
“To pray or not to pray. That is the selection.” — Advaita
You have free will, but there is only one choice.
Spiritually speaking, one can
be in unity with God or keep dodging in Dodge.
use a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card or scream and rattle prison bars.
never play the game Global Thermonuclear War or become radioactive.
This listing is endless.
Most folks don’t know about this “or.”
Anyone can willfully attend God. Or not.
That’s the whole range of human will.
If one simply relaxes into being, “Thy Will” does the rest.
This is proper worship. Choosing silence.
We attend silence within to quell our use of consciousness.
Being passeths all understanding.
Even a beginning meditator can momentarily slip into the state of being (surrender) no matter that
the body/mind system continues doing its normal operations. Ones attention need not target any
of it, and instead, one abides in being — perfectly innocent — not scanning the mind’s deceits.
This requires practice. Your body automatically relaxes if possible, so be assured that all you have
to do is - don’t. Easy, eh? Even peering within for a quick “status check” immediately informs
about the vastness of silence and how ephemeral are thoughts. This soothes.
Do you want some pizza?
If yes. If no. Wrong answer.
We think that CHOOSING pizza is innocent, but if we mess around with acts of consciousness, we
get caught up with them. Swept along. Addicted to assertions. Pretending certainty in the
unfathomable.
Worse, you get the pizza BUT THERE’S GOD RIGHT THERE. Urp! How rude to order pizza and just
ignore God standing there in the middle of the room and not letting your Guest choose some
toppings! Imagine how embarrassed you’d be. Big slice drooping in your hand, a mouthful being
chewed, a greasy napkin in the other hand, and only then you notice God.
Yeah, I’m saying God eats pizza. Sue me. I’m a poet.
In sum: we willfully attend silence until a large pizza with onions, black olives, green pepper,
mushrooms and pepperoni becomes a communion wafer.
And no pineapple!
Edg Duveyoung
Do mystics disagree among themselves regarding mysticism?
Do you like apples?
Apples are crisp, juicy, tart, sweet, red, green, yellow, chewy, and crabby.
Which descriptor is the sine qua non?
This is about the blind men and the elephant. Each man agrees that they all have had the
experience “elephant,” and yet each is unable to prove which concepts about it are fundamental.
The elephant is said to be like a snake, a rope, a wall, a tree. a fan, and a spear. All are correct
descriptors.
If an elephant can be such a riddle, good luck trying to describe Self.
You, me, and every single person ever has used the word “myself.” We all know the Self, but each
of us sees its wholeness “but through a glass darkly.” Each point of view is limited by the nervous
system producing the descriptions.
This applies to the nervous systems of the enlightened. They actually know the Self, but their
descriptors will be parochial. Self is said to be unbounded, bliss, infinite, transcendent, absolute,
pure being, sole identity, soul, God, void, fullness, emptiness, amness, isness, allness, Loch Ness,
Eliot Ness and nessness.
Take your pick.
Relativity — you can’t get there from here.
Your “crispy” is another person’s “not ripe.” And when you last ate an apple in a dream it tasted
like like a cherry instead. And during dreamless sleep even the aroma of Real Life Actual Hot Out
Of The Oven Mom’s Apple Pie wafting to your nostrils will not make you drool.
So no. Even Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj couldn’t fully agree about which
words or morals or lifestyle or whatever best harmonized with the Self. Yet each of them was a
PERFECT exponent of reality.
But Ramana thought a crow had one eye, and Nisargadatta smoked cigarettes.
See the freedom in all this? If the best cannot agree about almost anything, then YOU ARE OFF
THE HOOK BABY! Rejoice. If you’re honoring your point of view with robust honesty — YOU’RE
PERFECT.
How do you like them apples?
Edg Duveyoung
What defines these as separate entities, awareness, being, and consciousness?
From awareness being.
From being consciousness.
But the word “from” should be ignored. Awareness — being — consciousness.
Awareness is often called pure being or pure consciousness. Note that “pure” is not a superficial
adjective. When a yogi speaks of consciousness or being without the word “pure,” the yogi is
pointing at manifestations in nervous systems. Pure means transcendent, and transcendence
does not require a nervous system to be validated. Awareness is beyond space and time.
Yet from awareness, by mystic means that do not constitute an instrumentality, nothing happens.
Tons of it. This is being.
Being is all the possible illusions — the potency divine — illusions with no actuality arrive non-stop
from being — the not-real seems to arise — the impossibly false happens. But doesn’t. (This is
how mystics talk — don’t be giving me the stink eye.)
This all becomes clear by meditating.
In the beginning we find that we are conscious of thoughts, and, then, by relaxing and thus
dampening thoughts, we can discover that being is a thoughtless state — as if a fourth state —
that underlies the three states of the nervous system — waking, dreaming and sleeping.
Meditating and quietening down to being teaches that consciousness is not “off” when the
thought factory goes on a break.
Being is thoughtless consciousness.
But being is manifest and thus illusory also — this despite its perfection — the perfect symbol of
awareness — manifest God not now creating.
By dwelling in this ultra-relaxed state, being, the nervous system becomes cultured and able to
realize that identity is best kept transcendent. This realization is sudden and permanent. Being
loses it’s ability to fool with illusions. The self’s brightness seen fully washes out being’s
representations of self to the point of invisibility. The mind can no longer be seen.
This is the route to the eternal — look and see that that which changes is baseless. Being teaches
that one can “exist” beyond thoughts, dreams or deep sleep.
The last step is to see that one can exist without being manifest.
That’s the toggling moment.
Identity
Edg Duveyoung
During meditation have you ever experienced ‘feeling’ your thoughts before they’ve
been consciously thought of?
1. We all can do this. And do. And seldom appreciate it.
2. The beginner mediator can improve on this ability easily.
3. The almost enlightened do this better.
4. The enlightened have no thoughts! No need for a “best” ability.
1 — Everyone has said, “I’m not going to think about that right now?” And then one changes the
mind’s focus by diversion to another topic. This usually works. Most folks can do mind control to
significant degree — if they want to — a big if.
2 — The new meditator finds that peering within allows for thought production that is not having
to compete with visual information. This is a quietness that can deepen, and as it does, thoughts
become more easily “spotted before maturity.” It’s subtle but observable. “Choice” becomes
enlivened.
3 — The advanced student of meditation can see a thought come from “a much longer way off.”
The thought is seen emerging from awareness and entering consciousness in “seed form,” and
then it rapidly expands to fullness — but it does not instantly expand. This gives one “time
enough” to stop the thought before it reaches higher levels of excitation. This is yogic
empowerment that begins to be used even when eyes are open. One is less likely to be victimized
by having the mind’s contents being overwhelmed by the sense inputs or by everyday concerns
that resist diversion. It’s like removing weeds from the garden when they first sprout.
This ability to “see a thought being born” is the basis of increasing depth in meditation. The
sooner that one sees thoughts arriving the better — more quickly are they abandoned, and one is
once again attending silence. This deepens the restfulness. This is true meditation — a learned
skill.
4 — The enlightened insist their minds are, as if, no longer active. The enlightened see the mind,
space, time, and matter as bogus wisps of nothing gift-wrapped with pretty conceptual bows.
Of course, a yogi still “comes off” as having a mind — there’s no dysfunction — questions are
answered, food is eaten, work and worship continue, etc.
The yogi explains that when the true self is discovered, the mind can no longer grab the attention
from actual identity. The mind becomes no more interesting than the rest of creation. If you speak
to a yogi about the yogi’s body or mind, the yogi says, “Oh….yeah…that….well now that you’re
pretending it’s an it, I’ll pretend too!” The yogi’s mind has faded into the background — as if
perfectly camouflaged. Even death cannot joggle a yogi’s identity which is not only an all time
reality, but was a reality before time is invented.
It turns out all the minds are God’s minds.
Lock, stock and barrel.
Yes, the deal is that you have to lose your mind.
But, hey, then you can have a front row seat.
To see God mulching!
Edg Duveyoung
Why can't someone like Ramana Maharishi change the entire world and remove all pain
and suffering? If its all an illusion, why can't the illusion be changed by some
enlightened soul?
Sri Ramana Maharshi was small potatoes.
Why not ask Lord Rama’s preceptor, Vishvamitra, why he did not help Rama, when, by one yogic
thought, he could have had Sita miraculously returned home?
But hey, let’s ask Lord Brahma why He included suffering in creation.
Likewise-ishly, let’s ask Lord Vishnu why He dreamed up Lord Brahma with that sketchy artistic
proclivity.
Nah, it’s Mother Divine Who is the cause of the causes, so let’s ask Her.
Wait, maybe we should ask YOU.
Bingo. It’s you. You are the artist here. You’re the one saying the world is filled with pain and
suffering and wanting some enlightened soul to fix things. That’s quite the hefty riddle you’ve
spun — it’d stun a muggle from a block away.
But we both know by the quality of the question, that the questioner is insincere.
That’s you. You’re insincere. Since you are bouncing concepts like “Ramana” and “suffering” and
“illusion” and “enlightened soul” off the inside walls of your noggin, then YOU SURELY HAVE BEEN
INSTRUCTED ABOUT WHAT TO DO.
Sri Ramana Maharshi has relentlessly taught in all his Talks that one can end, for a moment, the
misery in a single inward stroke of Self inquiry, and that by doing so regularly then eventual clarity
makes this issue uninterestingly moot.
By seeking within, we discover that it is only the waking mind that deems “misery exists.” In your
dreaming mind, you’re flitting around in multiple astral universes each night and, seemingly,
actually loving being in every sort of conflict. And in the non-dreaming mind, you’re enlightened in
that you’re not perceiving bodily existence and residing in pure identity.
You know this already or you would not have asked such a well formed question.
Which means what?
It means you’re taking the opinion of a “mind” about what reality is,
— instead of calling for a quorum.
Has someone been skipping their meditations?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the affirmative of the sentence, "Nobody is absolutely happy in the world"
without changing the meaning?
How about I supersize it?
“One is in bliss beyond creation.”
Worldly happiness is limited, temporary, slippery, changing, illusory, relative.
Bliss is infinite sentience without materiality.
Your choice — muggle scurrying or eternally divine.
When one transcends there is no need for feelings or thoughts.
Or, an ego saying, “Cool!”
Transcendence, at first sporadic and unpredictable, is the ending of all boundaries — this can
become an all time reality by residing in this state regularly until the nervous system “gets it” that
identity is not a process of neurons. Then the ego shuts up out of embarrassment.
The take-back
Bliss isn’t necessarily all that much better than happiness.
It’s better, yeah, but let’s face it, there’s tons of muggle happiness to be had.
If this was not true, everyone would be meditating to escape constant misery, but instead, it turns
out God is generous.
In creation, God is like Oprah Winfrey — “You get a happy. And you get a happy. You all get a
happy.” Note the singularity of this example. Oprah gave a new car to everyone in her audience of
school teachers.
What? That’s it? EACH TEACHER GETS ONE LOUSY CAR?
What about gasoline? An extra set of tires? Repairs?
In the typical muggle life, there’s “happys” occurring constantly. One is fulfilling desires, giving
ones self a happy here and a happy there, as each step brings us closer to “the ending of a
worldly desire” — ironic — counter-intuitive but true. We want to end our desires despite being
happy to see ourselves fulfilling them.
I want to eat ice cream so that I don’t want to eat ice cream.
Once the new car is delivered, then what?
MOAR BRAINS! I mean, more desires.
See the problem?
With bliss — no more work! No effort needed. Any operation of the nervous-system is due to
God’s authoring. Karma is validated as kama. It’s all love.
And, it’s free.
And……brace for impact……you already have this bliss.
Okay, not “have”…….are.
You ARE bliss — the sole identity with the potency to become.
The happys you get are bits of you.
Question:
Want a car?
Or
You?
Edg Duveyoung
Is there scientific proof that suggest that living objects have a soul?
Originally Answered: Do you believe there is a human soul?
There’s one soul — awareness.
Awareness is the primal identity.
Awareness is everyone’s soul
— It witnesses God’s Mind . . .
— It witnesses your mind . . .
— It witnesses a dog’s mind . . .
— It witnesses a microbe’s mind . . .
— It witnesses a plant’s mind . . .
— It witnesses a stone’s mind . . .
— It witnesses a quark’s mind . . .
We have the analogy about many pots of water all reflecting the Sun, and we are taught that this
multiplicity of “suns” does not amount to “actual Sun.” This is instructive in that the reflections are
eye-squintingly bright and seemingly quite like the Sun, but all observers easily know the
difference between the real and the reflected.
How can you discern that all souls are illusory reflections of one soul?
Get enlightened.
The yogi has no individuality. Any concept of “soul” is moot — for discussion purposes only. The
yogi is yet still able to know about the details of the illusory and partakes in the charade for our
sake. The guru feigns insanity so as to be admitted to the psychiatric ward to be there to help you.
So, there’s no “human” soul.
And that makes for great television!
I’ll end with the Kung Fu video’s wisdom about the benefits of one-soulness.
“For what creature, one with all nature, will attack itself?”
Quote at 2:45 is from this Kung Fu episode:
Edg Duveyoung
How do you practice Advaita Vedanta?
Well begun is half done.
The first half
We close the eyes to see what’s inside the mind.
And done.
That’s the whole instruction for a successful meditation.
The intent to see — your intent — is rare. Cherish this blessing.
Most folks close eyes to sleep; you close to awaken.
Inside has two parts — mental activity and silence.
By abiding with the mind, activity lessens automatically.
Even a first time eye-closer gets free of vision’s onslaught of information.
Relief is immediate, and restfulness increases rapidly.
All the above is automatic no matter that the meditator is a newbie.
Even a child can recognize the process “relaxation.”
At the start there’s so much achievement.
The presence of silence is so obvious.
The second half
As we abide with the mind’s doings, we are tempted.
Thoughts are so delightful, so alluring.
This is the mind trying to woo.
If the mind can attract attention, it will.
Again and again the mind will “start conversations.”
The second half begins when we reassert the intent to solely abide.
If attention is found to be on activity, we, now, “close our mental eyes.”.
This is done by simply recognizing that one is “caught up.”
This immediately stops that diverting process; one can again “intend to abide.”
This is the practicing of choosing silence.
And since Silence is God — GOOD CHOICE!
By abiding we are neutral to the mind’s antics. We accept what is.
The ultimate goal is to abide “in all manners.” We let God.
This practice increases appreciation of the sacred rightness of creation.
As thoughts arise, since we are neutral and not authoring them, we begin to see that thoughts
start with the ultimate subtlety and progress to a more “energetic wherewithal” if we attend them
— like watering a seed. If we look at thoughts, we make them expand from seed form to tall trees
instantly.
This teaches one. We find we are attending profligately. We overwork the brain with constant
spurring. We find we can develop a sense of having an “attention budget.” We can stop. This is
rare. Rare in outer life; rarer in inner life.
As meditation practice continues, this greatly increases the skill of automatically choosing to
abide with silence, this allows the mind — now not as often prodded into thought production — to
settle down to levels of quiescence that turn the sound knob down to one. With zero nigh anon.
Zero happens even to the beginner, but with practice, it begins to take up whole hunks of time.
You start, and BAM it’s an hour later. Like that. Yes, like that.
Zero is transcendence. The mind temporarily shuts off due to lack of an audience. Zero is when
attention is upon attention — when consciousness becomes pure consciousness without any
spotlit mental objects. This lasts until the bodily rest promotes repairs that restart thought
production — the so-called outward flow of mind.
To abide is to be silent and eventually silence.
Advaita’s champions, Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, have agreed that asking,
“Who am I?” is a good start of meditation, since the answer has to be “silence.” But, they do NOT
say to repeat this question even a second time — though that is allowable. Once well begun is half
done, this intent is what is usually iterated. We don’t have to ask, “Who am I?” if we find we’ve
once again taken yet another ride on an outward stream of consciousness. Just noticing means
that the allure of the stream is weakening, and automatically we turn inward again.
Studying the books of Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj will help the intellect’s
grasping of zero, but this is done for funzies. The mind wants certainty, and the books do a lot to
quell these obsessions. But only meditation will satisfy all searches.
The third half
By abiding at zero, we escape numbers altogether.
At some point, we don’t come back to the mind.
The mind keeps carrying water and chopping wood — habits only.
That’s the shift point.
Peace all pervading.
The audience is now quiet.
Freed of chit-chat before the curtain rises.
Silence takes the mike.
Edg Duveyoung
If enlightened people have dissolved their egos, why do their egos appear so
disproportionately inflated?
I’ve got bad news for you.
If you see something, you are crazy.
Yeah, I’m calling it. You’re bonkers.
You’re seeing things that are not there.
Big ego seen?
Ahem.
The thief sees the pockets of the saint.
The pocket has merely a wad of one dollar bills, but the thief imagines “Jackpot!”
A guru is a clean screen which reflects the light of your mind’s film projector.
The true guru no longer projects identity as name and form.
Would a guru care what you think when the goal is thoughtlessness?
Instead the guru’s silence is broadcast “as is.” Unpackaged. Raw. Real.
Turns out, egos don’t dissolve in particular.
It is the mind that dissolves in whole.
Anywhere you can point at is perfectly pointing at God.
But minds rudely “single out” Identity’s splendored things.
Would you praise God for having a great hairstyle?
Secret Seldom Revealed
One billion persons in India know the story of the archery guru of Arjuna who refused to teach
someone. So the would-be archer made a small clay figurine of the guru and worshiped it and
asked for instructions. And got them.
A lump of clay can be that upon which, from within, God is projected
So, what does one pretend about a guru’s big ego?
Same thing. You make of it what you want.
And it becomes so.
Careful. This is potent.
Proof?
Look around you.
Everything was made by you.
Maybe by now you could use some rest.
Edg Duveyoung
Why is “who am I” an important question?
Who Am I?
Silence before God’s first thought.
The home of every possibility.
Endless sentience.
The Source of the Improbable.
Delighted eternity.
The sacred.
Sounds pretty good to the me part of my muggle mind.
If God’s fishing, I’m chomping this bait.
And every person is able to realize this?
Take my money!
The intellect and heart are easy to sway with such promises.
But nicely, the taste of the Transcendent turn promises into dry concepts.
The Transcendent makes any promise ridiculously inept — even wrong.
To a muggle, “The sacred’s halo” can’t be observed, and is not real.
The thief sees only the pockets of the saint.
And the egolessness of the enlightened sees that “sacred” is merely the illusory.
After enlightenment, the yogi’s intellect and heart are dumbfounded and mute.
They only can say nothing to get anywhere near the truth. But few can hear silence.
What use to talk about purity with mud coated concepts?
How to use ink to talk about the whiteness of paper?
To ask “Who am I?” is answered with immediate silence. No other question “about you” can
deliver what will satisfy. Any other question will be about something that changes constantly. Who
you are is unwavering.
So look within for stillness nestled in every moment.
That’s the Self. The answer. The wordless truth.
Even a bit of silence can be a great relief. Certainty is nice for beginning seekers, and silence is
always real — not to be doubted. So even a speck is noticeable in a noise burdened mind.
Beautiful surprise addition:
You don’t have to mentally ask, “Who am I?”
Let’s face it. If you close your eyes to ask, you’re already there.
You know. And God knows what you were intending to ask.
So it’s a done deal. Silence before it’s even requested.
You have been this very silence since time’s first tick.
And the crowd of muggles roar:
“Good answer!” “Good answer!”
Edg Duveyoung
Is suffering essential for a spiritual awakening?
To suffer is to long for God.
Got a broken leg?
Wouldn’t it be nice to have God fix it?
How about a broken marriage?
Wait, are you being dipped into lemon juice with a thousand paper cuts?
Not again!
See how God could be so handy?
Here’s the problem:
If you were in Paris, France on the Montmartre hill, and if God was a street artist whose canvas
showed the Sacré-Cœur basilica, you’d grab the brush and pose as the artist to the passersby.
Yeah, it’s that bad.
You’re rude to God.
And you can’t even scribble with a crayon.
And right now.
Exactly right now.
You’re pretending to be a thinker.
You grabbed a brain out of God’s hands.
And now you’re trying to convince passersby.
Pretending each thought on canvas is yours.
Would you just stop?
Seriously. Everyone knows.
The roar of the snickering is deafening.
Look. We get it. You want to be a rock star.
Us too. Take a number. Get in line.
And lo, it came to pass . . .
God’s pep talk before you were sent here.
“Okay team, huddle up. Before you incarnate, remember that each of you will have a precise
toolkit to handle the challenges presented to you. I’m expecting everyone will be doing the
necessaries. You’ll get to hammer; others’ll get to saw.
“Like this we’ll all build perfectly. We need you and you and you and you . . . (seven billion yous
later) and you. If anyone flubs up, it’ll be like a spitball landing on Mona Lisa’s nose. So hey, no
grandstanding out there.
“I know. I know. You’re going to be missing Me, but we’ve gone over this. No matter how daunting
is your challenge, no other toolkit will do. You and I packed that toolkit together, and your
body/mind is all set — I promise this.
“And of course, I’ll be right next to you the whole time — the silence between thoughts. If you
really need Me, just close your eyes. Count on Me. If doubtful, just attend My silence, and useful
thoughts will arise.
“That’s the universal call for help.
— Ask for help.
— Attend silence.
— Get help.
“The quieter you get, the more clearly will you hear Me speaking.
“Next time we’re in this locker room,
“We’ll be bruised and bloodied but unbeaten.
“And smiling from ear to ear.
“So off we go. We got this.
“Let’s make some noise.”
Edg Duveyoung
What is the role of the observer in non-dualism? If there's no "you," who is observing
there's no "you"?
Questioner: Here I am sitting in front of you. What part of it is imagination?
Sri Nisargadatta: The whole of it. Even space and time are imagined.
Questioner: Does it mean that I don't exist?
Sri Nisargadatta: I too do not exist. All existence is imaginary.
Questioner: Is being too imaginary?
Sri Nisargadatta: Pure being, filling all and beyond all, is not existence which is limited. All
limitation is imaginary, only the unlimited is real.
Questioner: When you look at me, what do you see?
Sri Nisargadatta: I see you imagining yourself to be.
Questioner: There are many like me. Yet each is different.
Sri Nisargadatta: The totality of all projections is what is called maha-maya, the Great Illusion.
Questioner: But when you look at yourself, what do you see?
Sri Nisargadatta: It depends how I look. When I look through the mind, I see numberless people.
When I look beyond the mind, I see the witness. Beyond the witness there is the infinite intensity
of emptiness and silence.
From the above we see that the observer is not an all time necessity in that there is a ‘beyond the
witness” possibility. This “beyondness” is before birth, while alive and when dead — always one is
awareness (pure being) — unsullied.
Nervous systems can be prioritized by the acuity of their consciousness processes, but all
nervous systems are witnessed by the same Self.
Mind produces symbols of awareness — including ego which says, “me me me” like a hypnotized
zombie. Ego flickers on and off. Mind flickers too.
Awareness never turns off.
This light is always on.
Even if you were never born, it would still be you.
Edg Duveyoung
Since we can see into the past, do you think it is possible to see into the future? And
maybe travel to each?
Yes.
Scriptures are FILLED with beings who travel anywhere and anywhen instantly physically or via
remote viewing. And they were not all born divine with powers — some of them “earned” their
powers by incredible austerities.
The Catch
Ready for serious discomfort? Withdrawal is a bother. One has to give up all addictions (including
oxygen) and create new personality structures. One Ayurvedic procedure involves replacing every
atom in the body — losing, in stages, ones teeth, hair, bones, etc., getting a “diamond” nervous
system, fasting in a dark hut for almost ever and on and on. Talk about starting from scratch!
You up for this? The cost of travel is personal erasure.
That’s too hard. Come on. Kali Yuga’s dirt is muddying each thought — makes for weak
motivations. Most of these powers were hard to obtain even in Sat Yuga. And forget modern
science — it’s probably hundreds of years before “a worm hole solution” is even possible.
This is about “knowing.”
How much do you really need to know?
Do you have to be God?
Let’s face it. You’re not exactly someone hankering to spend a decade as the only living thing in a
Himalayan cave. You’ve already sold your soul for illusory trivialities. Your standards are,
sometimes, lowered bars. You’ve cut corners. You make-do. You compromise. You suffer the
___________ instead of getting a whole sentence. You mostly dreamed instead of acquired.
You’re okay with your day job.
This is not the personality of God or even Dr. Who.
Solution
So hey! You’re an easy-peasy personality. Rejoice that you can view a film and get huge vicarious
thrills. Celebrate that you’ll accept almost anything as “close enough to the real thing.” In your
imagination you’ve walked the Moon, eaten chocolate dipped bugs, bungee jumped, won a lottery,
and hunted dinosaurs with your pals, Calvin and Hobbes.
And you were satisfied “enough-ishly.”
Most of us don’t really want to be in the wilds 100 feet away from a T-Rex, and ditto for all the
other experiences and knowledge-sets. Too much bother to achieve something hard in real life
when all you want is to wet your whistle, dip a toe and take a taste.
So embrace your ephemeral delights. Hug your abstract satisfactions. Be okay with “the more”
that you are getting with what you’ve got to get it. Because it’s less sinful.
Heh heh….slipped in that “sinful” outta nowhere on ya.
But yeah. If you do something in real life that is especially energetic and requiring intense
mindfulness over years — and all expertise requires this — the toll is that you hard-wire your
nervous system to believe in “real life” more than the nervous systems of those who are not so
highly motivated.
Post-traumatic-”being extreme”-stress-syndrome will have to be atoned. Sorry.
What goes up must come down.
The goal is “being” — not “being something.”
Bad news: most folks get hardening of their wires.
Best news: The quieter you get the more even tiny events can have life-sized heft.
Even the ordinary mind can have half a minute’s worth of taste on the tongue from a single grain
of salt. When ones mind begins functioning more efficiently, it takes far less to please one. The
imagination becomes an “in God’s image” creation machine.
Eventually, each arriving thought becomes as if whispered by God.
Instead of by the voice that’s presently reading this text.
And when God whispers . . . oooo…..oooo…..
Edg Duveyoung
Is time travel possible?
Originally Answered: Is time travel possible ?
This is a religiously mystical and spiritually dense question.
Re-worded — “Is it possible for a human being to travel anywhere in time and space — to the past,
the future and the now?”
Answer: Yes, but we need to develop robust, truer definitions for the question’s words and meld
them into a clarity. Put on your thinking caps, kiddies. This will be on the mid-term.
You are actually sensing “everywhere” right now — in touch with all of space and time — but, for
most folks, local phenomena wash out the fainter data-points of mentality which can be as subtle
as a single quark’s arrival — registered by the eye’s retina. A sufficiently attuned nervous system
CAN mindfully attend this level of information. Your body/mind is exquisitely refined, RIGHT NOW,
and all of its sensitivities can be consciously lived — practically and actually — as all time realities.
It’s absolutely common for you to, say, be able to hear a car crashing outside your house and
knowing much without even going to a window. You will have been, at least partially, as much
“there” as if you were standing there and seeing it. The mind can suss out the crash sounds to
great degree. You would know “about how much” damage was involved. If you have better hearing
than average, you would know even more about the event in that maybe you heard the lesser
sounds of various car parts tumbling along the concrete, or cries of alarm of the driver, other cars
braking, etc.
And if your hearing is as good as God’s, you will have been there at the scene as fully as possible.
No other sense inputs would be needed except as secondary affirmations. Thank you, Hollywood,
for showing us so many blind Zen sword masters, so that we can be comfortable with this
concept.
Same deal for all the senses — they can be notched up into divine instrumentalities. You can be
“there” by this “eavesdropping” and “peeping Tom-ing” and “being down wind” on any event
anywhere. This is remote viewing in but one mode. And there’s lots and lots of modes.
About modes, I’ll just say it.
You are everywhere and everywhen across the universe always and instantly.
Yeah, like God watching reality TV with a remote in hand.
Everyone is always fully processing all the levels all the time. We may deny that a butterfly’s wings
are flap-affecting our minds, but all the flaps everywhere do. We are directly proportional to the
entirety — as is every thing.
Objection: “Yeah, but, Edg, you’re not saying we can go back and see dinosaurs, are you?
Oh yes I am. You do this kind of travel EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Let’s get serious about your secretly being a god on a daily basis.
And I don’t want to hear any of your guffaws, snarks or knee-jerk denials. I’m talking about YOU
and your own private holodeck — your dreaming brain.
What a magnificence. What a vastness. What a phantasmagoria.
When you dream while safely cuddling your childhood blanket, you spawn whole universes like a
farmer hand casting seeds. And you buy into every speck of them as real. When you wake up in
the morning, you will be found knowing details like there having been a missing button on an
enemy’s uniform or that a dragon had a loose scale, or that the sound of toast popping up and the
smell of coffee brewing meant someone loved you…oh wait, you’re awake now…it was hard to
catch the difference.
Advaita insists you get it straight that waking up in the morning is MORE DREAMING. This is your
job. Everything else can wait.
But hey.
So, you’re fooling yourself.
Ain’t it cool?
You get to “play for real” in dreamland.
This is God’s blessing.
So visit the dinosaurs and ride them.
Grab a handful from the pot at the rainbow’s end.
Race by Superman and The Flash.
Or pretend you’re a wage slave in 2019.
Whatever floats your cosmic canoe.
Might as well visit Heaven while you’re at it.
Edg Duveyoung
If god, reincarnation, and spirituality are illusions too, why or what for is reality waking
up through us? What is the point of "a few people" awakening through this dream-life?
It’s not a few.
Everyone evolves or devolves into silence.
It’s a zero sum game.
At the beginning, it was perfect.
At the end, it will be perfect.
In between is God’s Rorschach Test.
What you see is your character’s “take” at the moment.
Do your ink blots look like angelic choirs?
Are they emanating tsunamis of love upon creation’s souls?
Just askin. Heh, me so bad.
Do you think you’ve got a long way to go to obtain perfection?
As if; think about how hard it is to be a demon and obtain imperfection.
On your way to the light, you become more lovable and wise.
On a demon’s way to absolute darkness, every step is an increase in pain.
You get to realize ever more wondrous aspects of creation’s divine origination.
A demon becomes more hate filled and wanting to harm God.
Your path’s milestones are peace, purpose and play.
A demon acquires powers by harming everyone.
Your clarity about creation allows you to surrender to God’s will.
The demon eventually has the power to find and “person-ally” attack God.
You finally unite with God’s transcendent awareness.
God POOFS a demon’s materiality — leaving only an “awareness residue.”
Take your pick.
Or take the direct route now.
Transcend — no path required. No to-do list.
The silence within is that exact awareness.
No need to take a deep breath; just dive in now.
Reside for a nonce or never leave — see what destiny decides.
When you do this, the angels and demons wonder where you went.
You’re magical to them.
You have truth they know not of.
Peek a bit inside.
See if you agree that you’re
— prior to mind.
— prior to being.
— prior to consciousness.
Silence is your identity.
Edg Duveyoung
How can you consciously use your subconscious mind’s access to your deeper
libraries of knowledge? I have great ideas come to me when I'm falling asleep or
waking up. In sleep, a character will say something profound, or bring light to an old
memory.
Nothing is louder than a screaming mind.
Proof? Just hold your breath.
Pretty soon you’ll HEAR how loud “loud” can be.
That’s the power that oxygen addiction has over you.
— and your other million addictions can scream as loudly.
— your mind is spiritually deafening.
— like right now , , . it’s too loud. Wouldja just shush?
You’ve been had. Had since birth.
Had by your big mouthed, yelling-monster, spiritually rude brain.
But when you are quiet during the onset of sleep or when slowly waking up or during meditation,
these potent cravings are less able to overwhelm and control the person.
This is when there’s a better chance.
Chance for what?
To hear God.
Answering you.
What did you ask?
The personality is a moving point of view that is absolutely unique. It is the of-the-instant sum of
all the hungers that haunt a particular human. What your brain is processing is a jumbled mess of
fears and desires. But in quietness, sometimes single issues can be forthrightly resolved. Solitary
questions can get precise answers. All the Hindu pantheon use this technique.
Here’s how to profit from this insider info about your clockworks.
THIS IS THE MUNDANE PRACTICAL USE OF PRAYER
— Get quiet.
— Ask and listen.
All questions will be answered.
We close the eyes. We relax. We introduce the question gently and wait.
That’s it. Try it. If it doesn’t work, YOU’RE WRONG. It worked, and you missed the answer because
OF YOUR LOUD, CRUDE, BUTTING-IN MIND DROWNING OUT GOD’S WHISPERING.
So try again. And again. We ask, and then we wait. We wait politely. “Politely” means that we
honor God and allow for time to pass before God answers. We don’t inundate God with an
incessant rat-a-tatting. We know God is listening. We don’t repeat the question until other, off-
topic, thoughts, moods and sensations begin coming to the fore. Then we know we missed the
answer.
So try again. Gently. A little tug at the hem of God’s robe. This can take a bit of practicing. We ask.
We wait, and then ask again if we want more.
The quieter we get, the faster and clearer are the answers.
I used this technique and ended up inventing HUNDREDS of toys, games, puzzles and electronic
gizmos. Finally I had to stop using the technique when I just got so tired of filling up notebooks
with new ideas. A whole career just flat out handed to me by God.
THAT’S HOW GOD FULFILLS. You can’t eat more. You’re stuffed.
Bad news: If you don’t actually want the answer, you’re not going to hear it. Which is to say, you’ll
hear it, but you’ll put your fingers in your ears and go “la la la la la.” You’ll MINDFULLY drown out
God if the answer is not conforming to your biases.
For instance, if you ask God, “How can I make my partner love me more?” You might get the
answer, “Get a PhD, a good career, and lose 50 pounds.” Ugh, eh? This is the issue — how well are
you prepared to actually look into a mirror?
So take it easy on yourself. You weren’t built in a day. You got time. This can be done. We ask, we
listen, we maybe squirm a bit, but we ask and see how the personality comes to its own private
detente. Clarity dawns.
Best news:
One can fill note books, but if one asks, “Who am I?” — BRACE FOR IMPACT!
That’s when one finds that the human body is the ultimate notebook.
And you will be filled with God.
So much even your cosmic body overflows.
God makes everyone loosen their belts and then says,
“Anyone ready for dessert?”
Edg Duveyoung
How did nisargadatta Maharaj justify smoking?
Below, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj answers.
(If there’s not enough below for the one who asked this question, then feel free to start a
conversation with me in the comments section. Maybe I can help suss it. To me, the below is
enough. All quotes are from “I Am That.”)
Questioner: You say that whatever you see is yourself. You also admit that you see the world as
we see it. Here is today's newspaper with All the horrors going on. Since the world is yourself, how
can you explain such misbehaviour?
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj : Which world do you have in mind?
Questioner: Our common world, in which we live.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj : Are you sure we live in the same world? I do not mean nature, the sea
and the land, plants and animals. They are not the problem, nor the endless space, the infinite
time, the inexhaustible power. Do not be misled by my eating and smoking, reading and talking.
My mind is not here, my life is not here. Your world, of desires and their fulfilments, of fears and
their escapes, is definitely not my world. I do not even perceive it, except through what you tell me
about it. It is your private dream world and my only reaction to it is to ask you to stop dreaming.
_________________________________
Questioner: I see you smoking!
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj : Exactly so. You see me smoking. Find out for yourself how did you
come to see me Smoking, and you will easily realise that it is your 'I-am-the-body' state of mind
that is responsible for this 'I-see-you-smoking' idea.
_________________________________
Questioner: You smoke?
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj : My body kept a few habits which may as well continue till it dies.
There is no harm in them.
_________________________________
Questioner: You eat meat?
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj : I was born among meat-eating people and my children are eating
meat. I eat very little -- and make no fuss.
Questioner: Meat-eating implies killing.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj : Obviously. I make no claims of consistency. You think absolute
consistency is possible; prove it by example. Don't preach what you do not practise.
Edg Duveyoung
In your view of enlightenment, does it preclude a desire to help people?
Originally Answered: How is Enlightenment useful?
It’s more of a bother.
Lord Jesus was bothered when He found His disciples sleeping — not praying.
Lord Krishna was bothered and had to tell Arjuna to be adharmic and kill Karna.
Lord Buddha was bothered enough to hop a fence to escape a life of pleasure.
Prophet Muhammad was bothered when the mountain didn’t come to Him.
And every guru ever was bothered by every student ever.
Bothering news: Even in the pristine beginning of creation when sin had not yet been invented, sin
was invented. Error was not only part of the plan, it was the plan. God wanted to explore disunity.
For funzies. Listen and you can hear a holy lol.
Creation is an acquired taste. To be enlightened is to be constantly acclimating to how creation is
now, and then now, and then now. The next moment is always a lemon needing squeezing, water
and sugar.
And yet they are not bothered.
They all are the embodiment of silence.
And when silence is there, any bothering becomes blessing.
Creation comes from silence — which is God’s identity.
The enlightened are 100% for the plan — no matter what.
The enlightened are lighthouses of silence on the shores of the abyss.
Example
Suppose you’re late for a really important meeting. Let’s say you’re driving, and you’re worrying to
the max and going ten over the speed limit. You’re at about a nine on a 1–10 anxiety scale. You
might lose a deal or get fired or miss a plane — it’s dire.
Now, how could enlightenment help the above situation?
You’d be amazed.
Back to your cArmageddon; let’s now suppose that as you drive with emotions at red-line, you
happen to see a toddler on the side of the road. No one around. A house in the distance. What do
you do? Of course you toggle into a hero. You stop the car, approach the kid, and then you notice
a thin trail of smoke rising from that house. You grab the kid and race to the house where a door is
open and you can see some flames flickering inside. You put the toddler down — temporarily safe
from danger — and dart into the house and find another kid hiding in the corner terrified. You
carry that kid outside, and then hear a faint “help” coming from inside. Again you take a deep
breath and sprint back inside. Up the stairs, yet another child found and carried out.
Now how worried are you about being late?
This is enlightenment — knowing that one is doing the right thing no matter the possible personal
cost. Being bothered is being bothered for God’s sake. One is always bringing silence into every
human scenario. Every thought is a divine comment. Every next thing is the right thing. Just
saying, “hello” can save someone as well as rescuing them from a burning house.
This is because it is silence that says, “hello.”
Nice, eh? God’s pals doing good always.
— no matter how it seems to others
— no matter that creation’s slow darkening is not abated
— no matter that all horses are thirsty but will not drink.
Enlightenment is bliss — not happiness.
Addendum: True tale: Once a famous Guru had to get to the airport in Rome — an hour’s drive
away. A follower was driving and worried about the traffic lights. The driver wasn’t enlightened,
but did what he was told — which was, “Don’t worry. You do the driving. I’ll do the seeing.”
The car never stopped once and averaged about 80 miles per hour the whole way.
Sometimes, the enlightened just gotta get it done.
Edg Duveyoung
In non-duality, how do you explain the human body? If you are not your body, then
what is your body and also the mind? Answers like objects in consciousness won't
help. In transcendence, is the feeling of the body severed?
Yikes! Such intimate requests.
The Quoran answers here are traditional. Teja Anand’s similie “It’s like a person’s shadow. Can a
shadow explain what’s casting it, or jump up and become the person casting it?” is quite potent. It
hearkens Plato’s cave and also Ramana’s screen-film-projector’s parts analogy. But but but a
Goddess in the Hindu pantheon, “Chhaya, was born from the shadow of Sanjna and replaced
Sanjna in her house, after the latter temporarily left unable to bear Surya's fierce splendour.” It’s
anything-goes when the divine are strutting. So, let’s just say that the shadow metaphor has an
exception to prove its general rule.
But who feels as insubstantial as a shadow? No one. Scriptures tell us one thing, and yet the
bathroom scale groans. Reconciling this dissonance in ones psychology and philosophy can be
done with relentless intending — say, get a PhD’s worth of Advaita sermons under your belt, and
you can sway your personality nicely. This is not trivial — usually the tool to do this is “live in an
ashram.” For decades. The mind has to be cured of its bad habit — the use of “is.” Transcendence
isn’t is-ish. To allow the use of “is your body,” is to grant the body actuality without having proven
it — this is a very large cart in front the horse.
To be blunt — the questioner must abandon assertions to build better questions. And this is not
easy. Most of us have busy lives
So, then, what are the spiritual chances of us untrained muggles?
The wisdom of Advaita says, “Don’t be such a bother. We don’t need that many monks. Keep your
day job. Transcend and these questions don’t arise. Anyone who can think a thought can therefore
not think a thought, and, besides, all the thoughts of all the ashrams ever cannot answer these
questions as well as silence.
See? It’s rare that we find personalities that long for seclusion and study to complement their
being. So Advaita had to have something for the rest of us.
That something is “instant transcendence.”
Anyone can catch an egoless glimpse of truth by closing the eyes and taking a peek. When one
looks within to see what thoughts are happening, silence is presented instead — obvious for a
titch or maybe for a second or two or more — before other thoughts sidle in and over-ride the
moment. If you want true answers to the above flawed questions, study this momentary flash of
silence until it becomes an all time reality.
Why is your silence so clarifying?
It is this very silence that God finds when looking within.
Both of you insist it’s Self.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the highest stage of enlightenment?
It’s top secret.
What makes you ask?
Have you previously obtained top secrets by asking for them?
Are you really expecting an answer to this question?
Could you understand the answer if it was given?
Could such important knowledge be explained with less than millions of words?
My essays usually fizzle around the 600 words point.
Good news: some astounding minds already wrote those millions of words.
Will you read them? Study them? Cherish them?
Scriptures speak about the highest. Take your pick.
If we compact scriptures into one blurb, it’s “We’re estimating.”
But, yep, they all use the most superlative terms to describe God.
Can’t anything be higher than God.
But the rub.
Your definition for “God” may be less glorious than that of scriptures.
Probably it could be maybe just sayin’ sorta. If asked to write at length about God, assuming
you’ve not studied a lifetime, your grasp of omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence might
be, let’s just say, fuzzy.
But fret not — you can’t, I can’t, and all the writers of the millions of words can’t reveal the highest
of the highest spiritual heights.
But neatsokeeno! Pretty good security when the secret of secrets cannot be told.
And that’s the BIG HINT about the secret. It can’t be told.
The secret is beyond consciousness. No more hints needed.
So, duh, meditate and go beyond consciousness.
And if you do, this question does not then arise.
Beyond consciousness is awareness.
Awareness is what you’re seeking.
Awareness is God.
Awareness: the anti-rub.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the non-dualism preached in Advaita? Is it the non-duality between good/evil,
order/chaos, or something else?
What is the taste of an amalak fruit?
All you need is for me to describe it, right?
Then you’ll know the taste of it, right?
But nah, we know even Shakespeare can’t describe a taste that well.
Words don’t do what we suppose even when expertly used.
No words can answer the above question.
You have to taste an amalak — nothing less will do ya.
User-9931296892712777810 and Prasad Krishnan solidly replied about non-duality with
traditional concepts — and that’s about the best you can get. Intellect and intuition playing ping
pong with metaphors. Nothing to tang the tongue.
“Non-duality,” as a term, implies it a something that is the opposite of a something called duality.
Advaitans groan when they read that last sentence. It isn’t an it, isn’t a something, and there’s no
such thing as duality. This kind of usage has no tang!
It gets worse.
Even if you transcend your mind, realize your true status as the ground state, awareness, and then
“come back” after having tasted non-duality, your recall of it will be as “wrong” as amalak’s
Shakespearean description. Consciousness of Self is impossible; consciousness of a “pretend”
Self is the best that can be offered. For instance, “You’re having transcendental bliss right now.”
Did ya feel it?
And worser.
The enlightened say there’s no proportionality in any description of anything.
Consciousness is a delusionality. Nothing really “works.” No absolutes. No certainties. No
precision. Folding a street map does nothing to the city.
And worst.
The enlightened can’t make your horse drink and don’t even try.
The best a guru can do is send you back where you came from.
The guru then whacks-your-mole if you poke back up.
You have to transcend; the guru’s words have no tang.
The good news: you can get there from here without leaving here.
Awareness is an all time reality.
No need to do.
Biggie need to don’t.
We meditate to allow thoughts to chill out. The mind is lazy and will stop producing thoughts if
one isn’t attending them — which is a skill everyone has. We can just be. The enlightened say we
are experts at ignoring! You’ve not paid attention to your left elbow while reading this essay — just
saying you’re good at this sort of thing.
Try it.
Right in the middle of this knot-tying quotation, you can just STOP for a moment and the silence
will avalanche ya with tang.
——“Hasta-Malakam is the name of one of the four disciples of Shankaracharya. The literal
meaning of the word Hasta-malakam is “the fruit on the palm of the hand. The ultimate reality of
life was as clear to him as an amalak fruit on the palm of one’s hand.”——
Edg Duveyoung
What is the best way to meditate?
Originally Answered: What is the best way to meditate ?
There’s only one way to meditate.
No good or better or best — just one.
Intent arrives. Made possible by Grace.
One simply finds that one, now, intends to evolve.
THAT’S IT.
What happens next is karmic.
A mind with intent is knocking on destiny’s door.
And it shall be opened unto you.
Seekers always find.
Once one has intention, well begun is half done.
Let’s hear from Nisargadatta about his realization.
Questioner: “How does one come to know the knower?”
Nisargadatta: “I can only tell you what I know from my own experience. When I met my Guru, he
told me: 'You are not what you take yourself to be. Find out what you are. Watch the sense 'I am',
find your real self'. I obeyed him, because I trusted him. I did as he told me. All my spare time I
would spend looking at myself in silence. And what a difference it made, and how soon! It took me
only three years to realise my true nature. My Guru died soon after I met him, but it made no
difference. I remembered what he told me and persevered. The fruit of it is here, with me.”
Take note:
No mantra to use.
No yoga to practice.
No prayers to recite.
No rituals to perform.
No scriptures to read.
No sermons to study.
No sacrifices to endure.
No morals to honor.
All the above are wonderful to embrace if there is a natural resonance.
But all the above are spiritual accouterments.
Even if a person is marooned on a desert isle and then has intent arrive, success is assured. Intent
conquers all. Nisargadatta was a busy entrepreneur with three cigarette shops and a social life.
Yet he found the time to look within.
There is one thing Nisargadatta DID HAVE that 6/7ths of the world doesn’t.
India.
God is on every street corner. Temples large and small never far. Altars in almost every building.
Society saturated with scriptural knowledge. Even criminals can recite lengthy prayers. And of
course, Nisargadatta was raised to believe in Hinduism and its goals.
What about most of the world’s seekers?
Did you notice I mentioned the desert isle scenario?
If you’re not in a supportive culture, no complaints allowed!
You’ve got a mind and intent.
Yeah, you have intent. Don’t be playing coy.
You’ve read this far into this essay — most folks would not. QED
If you live in a comparative desert where few have even once considered spiritual evolution —
that’s okay. You’ve read Nisargadatta’s testimony about how very ordinary was his path.
So for you, from here on it’s a gimme. A cinch. A done deal.
And, you’ll be first to see what’s next.
Maybe you’ll merely begin to spend a few seconds here or there and peer inside.
Maybe you’ll get half a coconut shell and beg for rice in downtown Chicago.
How you deepen depends on how you deepen.
It’s recursive. More begets more.
Silence will whelm — even in a mind addicted to thinking.
You got this.
Edg Duveyoung
If there are endless levels to 'Enlightenment' what should we be calling the simple
realization and acceptance that ‘All is Self'?
This question needs major repairs
Let’s get out our gum, paper clips and duct tape.
First we deconstruct, then we attempt a re-write.
“If there are” — Let’s ditch this hinky start. “If the planet Jupiter was the brain of a jackalope and
it was giving a ride to a man who was the son of a barren woman, would I still like ice cream?”
See? “Ifs” are tiresome busy work.
“endless levels to” — How would we know this? “Endless” is a mathematical property, and, so,
we can only accept this usage as “poetic” As such, it seems to imply that enlightenment is, what?,
“exhaustive to the point of meaninglessness?” No recognized authority, say, Sri Ramana Maharshi,
supports endless levels. Such an assumption, poetic excuses notwithstanding, would need
context to support its presence in an inquiry. There is none. Even the calculus of Sir Muggle
Newton showed infinite series having end points. At some point, Achilles beats the tortoise
despite the concerns of Zeno.
“’Enlightenment’” — If one is not enlightened, to speak of enlightenment as if it is a thoroughly
understood phenomenon proves the questioner is self-appointing and tautologically authoritative;
this is a cheap trick. Questions about enlightenment are best done with deep humility after serious
scholarship.
“what should we be calling” — “Should” is such a burden upon the one who answers. Is God
being questioned? Or is it a human with sketchy credentials? There seems little cause for making
a label morally apropos here. God might say “should, “ but the rest of us need to rein in our
slavering after do-gooder absolutes.
“the simple realization” — Here we are using “realization” as if it’s an act of consciousness — a
summation by an intellect — an intuition by a heart. No authority says that enlightenment is an
accomplishment of a nervous system. That unity is true in the midst of duality’s ersatz
obfuscations is not “simple” for a mind to grasp.
“and acceptance” — Again with the assumptions. No psychologist can give us an instrument to
measure someone’s acceptance. It’s such a fuzzy term. And yet it is the heart of enlightenment to
surrender. We have to do better than this.
“that ‘All is Self?’” — A flat out misrepresentation? If Self is sole then there is no “other’ to
comprise “the all.”
—————-The Re-write
When Self is unobscured by waking, dreaming and sleeping, is this a “basic enlightenment”
with more evolved levels yet to come?”
Here we see the seeker cites agreed upon concepts and then asks for a “jargon validation” and
then shows how more education is sought.
The Answer
After the Self is realized as transcendent, identity is no longer projected upon the body/mind.
Afterwards, the body/mind system, freed from egoic adventurism, begins to improve its sensitivity
and deepen its ken. Gradually the body/mind recognizes that God is everywhere — all the senses
are reporting in with divinity galore.
This is not higher freedom. This is a refinement of the illusory processes.
After God becomes an ongoing conclusion of consciousness, basic enlightenment is glorified as if
one acquires a halo, but this aggrandizement has no power to once again delude basic
enlightenment from its identity — its foundation — awareness.
After this “everything is sacred” level is stable, then another refinement happens — all garnering
of “more” by the “person” ceases. Unity dawns. Thinker, thinking and thought dissolve into
oneness. This is the ending of individuality even in relative terms. This is not “more free;” it is less
confusion being witnessed by the Self in the local nervous system.
All of these changes — from child spirit to adult spirit — are gradual with milestones and
scrapbook moments, but basic enlightenment is perfect freedom.
Too long; didn’t read?
“Cosmic Consciousness.”
Edg Duveyoung
Does anything exist outside of your conscious awareness?
Yes, and there’s proof.
The proof requires you to up your game in order to validate it.
You have to go mentally deaf.
Your thoughts are neurologically noisy. Lots of chem-chatter — but meditation allows this activity
to settle down to the quietest hum possible.
“OM” — the purr of your nervous system when it’s idling.
When one meditates, the body’s workloads are lessened, and the mind is not purposefully
processing most of the inputs from the senses. This ability to relax can deepen with regular
practice. Advanced yogis have reached astounding levels of quiescence in every department —
blood chemistry, brain waves, GSR, heart-rate, oxygen use, etc.
Even a new meditator can enter deep restfulness and maintain alertness.
Universally, as meditators progress, they report the same results — it doesn’t matter if the
meditators are differing in religion or culture. They all report that when the mind gets relaxed and
the body uses less oxygen, and when thoughts become “softer,” it becomes possible to see that
awareness is beyond consciousness.
Beyond “reason” too. And there’s the rub — if your mind’s noisiness is “merely at the ordinary
muggle level,” then your acuity is, as if, “drowned out,” like when a fire-engine’s sirens go blaring
by your window and you can’t hear the TV’s soundtrack. It takes practice to lessen the mind’s
activity level to a great enough degree that silence begins to “be heard-seen-known.” Until then,
you won’t be able to know silence is actually beyond consciousness.
Silence is transcendental.
Beyond the quietest mind. But but but, a trained mind can shut up and reside at the least level of
excitation until immaterial silence is then realized as universal sentience that witnesses the
clamorous click-clacky cacophony of consciousness without adding a single decibel to the din.
And that’s the QED moment.
That’s its own proof.
Awareness is beyond any form of consciousness.
Anyone can undertake to discover this and have strong success in the very first attempts.
If you can think a thought, then you can not think a thought.
If you look within, instantly, for a jot’s duration, silence whelms. It may not linger, and you may not
see it as “all that much,” but if you even spend THREE MINUTES with your eyes closed and just
watch your thoughts, there will be some increase in clarity about the mechanics of thinking.” And
that’s progress. The more you try the more you will achieve.
Very good news about the above:
Probably you have not been told yet.
The ancients were very quiet folks.
No smartphones or pizza delivery.
They had noisy campfires and blaring stars and their souls.
Not much to distract.
And over the thousands of years those already-quiet minds carefully set down the best possible
descriptions of how to nurture the human mind.
And this wisdom still works today.
Scriptures have all the details worked out.
Read them if you’re not only noisy but nosy too.
But only silence needs to be studied.
Silence teaches every lesson.
Overheard 200,000 years ago — a parent speaking to a child:
“Just close your eyes and watch until you go deaf enough to hear.”
Edg Duveyoung
Are teachings on enlightenment that reduce to "You are already enlightened" of any
use to anybody?
We can find the ruins of churches, temples, and mosques.
Weed strewn. Eyesores. Infested. Moldering.
Yet wonderful.
Even their tumbled stones are holy enough to remind us that once living breathing thinking loving
persons by the thousands worshiped in each derelict place. God’s lovers pay for these buildings
and often help in the constructing. They come to these places to be blessed and married and
mourned. For a while, there is sanctity in these structures — because God is worshiped in them.
And now useless?
Impossible.
Everyone on Earth is taught what these ruins mean — now and then. They speak to all of us that
God is so WORTH LOVING that special places and protocols and attendants are necessary.
Who are these persons?
Ordinary types. You. Me. Everyone.
Living and thinking and concluding with our best intents that God is real and to be especially held
with sacred intent.
Ask any child.
“What was that place?”
“A church.”
“What did they do there?”
“Pray.”
See? Since humanity dawned we have taught ourselves with these symbols that humanity’s best
— OVER MILLENNIA — have not wavered from their conclusions. We have consistently agreed
across time and cultures.
This is what happens when anyone hears:
“YOU’RE ENLIGHTENED.”
It’s the verbal ruins of a once pulsating well-built sermon.
—from the mind of a master.
See the secret?
YOU can build a church or temple or mosque INSTANTLY.
Where?
RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMEONE’S MIND.
And there it will stay. A reminder. A seed of certainty.
Like a pebble in a shoe.
Tell everyone.
“You’re enlightened.”
From then on,
God will be regularly tapping on that person’s soul.
“Pssst.”
“You’re enlightened!”
“Pssst.”
“Pssst.”
And every holy site you construct
will build its equal in your mind.
Nice, eh?
Gotta love spiritual twofers.
Edg Duveyoung
How does emptiness relate to the sense of Being?
1. Empty-ness is beginners’ enlightenment.
2. Full-ness is advanced enlightenment.
3. Two-fullnesses is ultimate enlightenment.
4. No-nesses is beyond enlightenment.
Empty-ness The beginner who resides in being and has become established in yoga per Lord
Krishna’s instruction to Arjuna, is bereft of duality’s meaningfulness in that name and form has
been discovered to be illusory. At first, the transcendent feels empty like a desert.
Full-ness Then as the beginner gets comfortable with being and the role of witnessing, the body
and mind — now free of egoic limitations — starts to become more refined and resonant with the
divine. Gradually the beginner begins to witness the nervous system turn into a God Knower that
appreciates the finest values of objects of consciousness — even to the extent of seeing thoughts
emerge from awareness. This is the so-called ritam-level of mental experiencing. This gives
everything a gem-like quality — radiantly holy. Typically, after each meal, when the stomach
releases its contents, the yogi gets a “rush of God Consciousness” and this “practice” finally
cultures the nervous system to having ritam as an all time reality. God can’t hide.
Two-fullnesses Then when everything has been done to improve a nervous system while it still
remains human, the ultimate enlightenment dawns with consciousness now fully in unity with the
least intent of God. This is perfection. Two realms have become one — this is full — that is full.
Purnamadah Purnamidam.
No-nesses But there is one more step. The sensing of identity can dissolve.
Even being everything and the source of everything and the source of the source of everything is
not quite enough. We can go beyond this unity of opposites, beyond witnessing it, beyond non-
existence, beyond beyond.
To be Absolute is impossible because the Absolute is beyond being, so that’s why it’s not done by
a doing-ness or a non-doing-ness,
but the last step is . . .
. . . the last step is . . .
. . . the last step is . . .
...
Edg Duveyoung
What is Advaita Vedanta's perspective or view on devotion (bhakti)?
Advaita says, “Attending is bhakti in that it leads to God.”
Attending what?
It. Doesn’t. Matter.
Attending the illusory evolves. Putting your attention on anything invites God to reveal it more
fully to you, and as the thoughts arrive, the nervous system acquires clarity. Dedicated attending
leads eventually to an appreciation that thoughts are coming from a Source — God. Scientists
attending the most subtle aspects of existence are, as if, studying the details of God’s mind. And
even atheistic scientists’ personalities become more like God — quieter, innocent, deeper, more
understanding about how important inner silence is to produce clear thinking. This also applies to
those who attend anything with similar devotion. Chefs, parents, cops, artists, or — hey — even
con-artists — all, by being devoted to “their thing,” become more like God.
Attending God evolves a personality faster than developing worldly expertise.
Putting your attention on thoughts and emotions about God provides the personality with a clear-
eyed perspective in daily life. We can compare ourselves with our inner modeling of God, and this
is like putting a stick next to a sapling personality to help it grow perpendicularly. Because we are
attending God, we are drawn to what we are studying more than, say, how deeply a scientist is
attracted to studying the peripheral role of oxygen in the Krebs cycle, or a scam artist is attracted
to studying the subtleties of a sting. God is far more interesting, duh! So the mind of a worshiper
is far more likely to “stay on topic.”
Attending self evolves a personality to unity. We can worship God by having thoughts and
feelings, but, better, we can realize God’s entirety by attending silence. We look within for God,
and THERE GOD IS — silence is God.
When we meditate we find the mind very active, but even so,
—we can sense quietness increasing
—we can begin to see non-thought instances in the flow of consciousness
—we can see relaxation as a process that takes time and has an “end-point”
—we can begin to reside in quiescence
—we can begin to have periods of being aware but without thoughts
—we can begin to see that being “is more me” than “thoughts are me”
—we begin to realize that being is God’s primal manifestation
—we then find that we are residing, always, in being
—we find that thoughts and feelings are automated while we remain in silence
—we find that even being is not enough
—we begin to sense the ocean of awareness underpinning being
—we find that identity is beyond existence
—we find that identity is God before God creates God
—we disappear into God.
What kind of lover are you?
How many topics will you attend today?
Edg Duveyoung
How do you define God?
G.et
O.ver
D.efining.
God is, paradoxically, ineffable yet obviously here.
No concept can encompass God’s endlessness.
But, hey, let’s try.
Let’s say that God is “love.”
Ah ha, now we have to define “love.” So let’s say “love” is always “a pleasant giving dynamic,” but
no, we know that a loving parent must sometimes be “angry” and that Jesus whipped the money
lenders and Arjuna shot arrows into half of his relatives, and that those, too, are acts of love. So,
hmmm, “love,” is seeming to be a zero sum game in pro-con-actuality instead of a 100% all-time
positive.
God seems more than zero sum, right? God is beyond love.
Let’s say God is “infinite.”
The human mind cannot process “infinity,” because it’s more than too big; it’s transcendentally too
big. So, when the nervous system tries to put meaning into the word, it can’t and settles for
something graspable instead. Thus, God is reduced to being “a little bit bigger than the universe.”
And ugly suchlikes.
We don’t want to reduce God, right? God is beyond infinite.
Let’s say God is “The Creator.”
But the typical person says that they do not see God in the act of creating. Most folks speak of
Creation as something that happened long ago in the beginning, instead of saying that Creation is
an ongoing event. This is understandable, because, hey, who can wrap their head around today’s
woes and then think, “God is creating this right now.” ??? Toughie, eh? Uncomfortable, right?
We don’t want to tussle about God’s morals when authoring existence, right? So let’s not say the
C word, okay?
See?
What we discover is the slipperiness of concepts. No word has the precision required. The
boundaries of their definitions are fuzzy. They leak.
Surprise conclusion #1
Prayers that use words are not nearly as communicative as assumed.
God goes, “That prayer could mean anything. Where’s my dice that Einstein said I don’t use?”
Prayers that use emotions, instead of words, are more appropriate. Sheer ardor is proper worship.
Emotions are raw, innocent, honest.
All attempts to define God run out of gas. The intellect can’t stop adding to the fine print. But,
brace yourself, worshiping ardor, too, finds itself to “not be enough.” God deserves more than
conceptual accolades and adoration.
God can’t be defined but everyone knows Whom is being mentioned by the word! You can’t get
there from here. You’re already here which is the there you can’t get to. This tautological soul trap
is a boggling conundrum.
Solution:
Do you know you are here right now?
Do you need to define who you are to be sure you’re here?
Answer: You KNEW the answers to the above questions. This “knowledge” is not something that
needs proof. You are your own axiom. And so is God.
And so, to define God without it falling short, what we do is ask God, “Who are You?”
Go ahead. Do that right now. Ask God.
You got God’s immediate reply, right? You got immediate silence.
This is the most profound definition of God that God can give to you.
Silence is transcendental sound.
Instantly you can experience silence at any moment. You just now did it above!
Question: How much, how often, do you think it’s proper for you to give your attention to this
silence if silence is God’s Identity?
Just askin’.
Edg Duveyoung
Should we really sleep away one third of our life?
About 100 minutes — 20% of your sleep time — is dreamless.
That’s when your body and mind are most efficient at healing and refreshing. Hard to be miffed
that only 7% of your 24 hours are needed to repair a day’s worth of brain fun. The dreams are, as
if, the mental dust that rises when the carpets of consciousness are beaten to be rid of the day’s
dirt. Consciousness is allergic and sneezes and coughs. I’m only a little bit kidding! Truth: dreams
happen when nature is moving stuff around to get things in working order again. If there’s
dreaming, it’s proof of healing. Also, dreaming counts as entertainment, so it’s not a matter of
“sleeping away” one third of life. Meditation creates the ability to remain aware during dreams.
Next to meditating, dreamless sleep is THE SECOND MOST BENEFICIAL USE OF A HUMAN
BRAIN. Dreamless sleep allows nature its fullest sway in setting things aright. Without the
fatiguing-interruptions of consciousness spurring the thoughts of waking life, nature is able to
“mostly catch up” with the refurbishments.
Bad news: the parts not entirely healed probably add up to a big fraction of the aging process.
Sleep cannot undo everything.
Good news: Dreamless sleep is a state of quiescence — when the mind is absorbed in darkness —
a form of enlightenment in that consciousness is not filing its usual storm of reports back from
Duality’s War-front. Dreamless sleep is actual practice at not identifying with a body/mind.
True enlightenment is defined by the ability to remain aware even during dreamless sleep.
Meditation is more evolving than dreamless sleep. Awareness is maintained.
Meditation is the most beneficial use of a human brain. False projections end.
Meditation is not used to heal the body. That’s dreamless sleep’s job.
Meditation is to cease the falsity — “I am solely this body and mind.”
Meditation is to realize that awareness is the true identity. The sole identity.
Surprise Second Answer
The perfected person does not sleep or dream.
There’s no reason we should sleep. Arjuna, in Hindu scriptures, was said to have conquered sleep.
In other words, his nervous system was so perfectly correct in its operations that “nothing broke”
due to use. But such a nervous system is hard to develop. Arjuna underwent incredible training of
body and mind in order to purify them. Today’s folks would be shocked at what one has to do to
conquer sleep. How many days would you eat only withered leaves? How long would you meditate
sitting in lotus position with fires burning all sides under the noon Sun in India? Arjuna was so clear
and righteous, he could talk to a leaf and have it go get something for him.
100 minutes is cheap, eh? Maybe now you’re not so urgent to conquer sleep, eh?
100 minutes of non-dual spirituality ain’t bad either!
So hey,
Sleep until nature forces you awake.
And meditate until God forces you awake.
Edg Duveyoung
Does the law of attraction go against God?
Any law is anti-God.
God can think of a good reason to not obey any law.
All scriptures have good persons being killers, but insist killing is wrong.
All scriptures have bad persons doing God’s will despite themselves.
Case in point — trying to employ “the law of attraction” is a vain attempt to FORCE GOD to do the
bidding of someone’s ego. Yeah, I’m saying it.
Not that it doesn’t work, but that it works only if God wants it to work. “Work” is an illusory term
for “causality.” “Causality” is a conceptual error. We are assuming there’s unending causes when
there’s but one cause — God’s will.
If one stops believing in mundane causes, one is immediately enlightened.
Note that a HOLY PROPHET in the Old Testament was not allowed into the Promised Land. No
crossing of the Jordan for Moses — a guy who could part the Red Sea with a magic wand that also
ate snakes.
Note that THE WORST BAD GUY in the Ramayana had obtained all his powers by worshiping God.
Ravana had ten heads —representing his knowledge of the six Shastras and the four Vedas. The
guy was spiritual to the max and still messed up bigtime by KIDNAPPING GOD’S WIFE.
See? Don’t get too puffed up with your righteousness; you could go bad.
See? Don’t get too puffed up with your badassness; you could turn good.
See? Don’t be thinking you can get a million dollars from God by doing something inside your
head.
What? You’re going to fool God? Yeah, I’m sneering. I’m pretty darned tired of those who promote
any manner of spirituality that benefits the individual instead of ALL OF CREATION. Wait, I meant
to say, “ugly darned tired.”
There’s one exception — surrender to God and your life will be perfected.
How so? No exceptions to the exception? No “fine print?”
No. God gives us all this one certainty — if you let go, that’s letting God, and thereafter, God’s
authoring of your mind’s content will be, of course, GODLY. Divine. Sacred. Perfect.
What’s the catch?
Yeah, there is a catch.
You are going to be miffed.
Brace for cold water in face.
After you surrender to God, you’re not there to enjoy the story of you. If you surrender to God, you
have to give all, not part, of you. This includes all “best wishes” for your character’s role in the
Grand Drama. You have to stop being you, so that God can be you. You have to stand aside, and
watch God do with your character what you’d never do otherwise. You are pure awareness after
surrendering — an equal opportunity observer. No particularity allures.
See the risk?
Maybe God will write you to be a criminal who steals a million bucks.
Not exactly an Oprah Winfrey outcome, eh?
See the risk?
Maybe God will have you save the world, and no one will know it was you.
See the risk?
Maybe you’ll be vast beyond measure.
Maybe you’ll be the peace that passeth understanding.
Maybe you’ll be INSIDE GOD’S MIND WITNESSING EVERYTHING AT ONCE.
Surrender and find out.
Edg Duveyoung
In religious and spiritual writings and books you often see, 'I am that I am'. What does
this mean?
Picture God tapping your forehead with a divine fingertip and saying,
“I am your ‘I am.’”
You think you are real — have amness — and this existential certainty is the nexus between God
and you. Both of you insist that amness is your identity.
If you are asked, “Are you here?”
You answer: “I am.”
If God is asked the same question, same answer.
If both of you are asked, “Which ‘I am’ are you?”
You both point at “That.”
It’s kinda obvious. One of you is Superman and the other Clark Kent.
Pretty dang cool, eh?
You both share the same hat rack.
Now the better answer:
All of the following are the same entity: being, God, amness, pure consciousness. These words
point at the most potent, yet most subtle, primal state of — brace for impact, prepare for knee-
jerk denial, take a breath
— YOUR MIND.
Your mind’s quietest state is being, God, amness, pure consciousness.
It’s home-base for God and you. From being springs forth all qualities. From being manifests
thought — dripping with divinity. As that thought gathers the wherewithal to become noticeable
above the clang-bangy noise of the nervous system’s chug-chugging, it gets distorted, filtered,
twisted, skewed, tilted, tarnished, conflated, and spaghettied.
Divinity takes a serious hit. Your thoughts’ provenance is obfuscated. You don’t know what you
and God meant originally. You end up thinking your wonkified thoughts are worthy of your mind-
time. This is the problem.
Solution:
Enjoy primal being by not encouraging or resisting thought.
Your mother taught you how to do this. She said, “Don’t look at him; you’ll only encourage him to
do it again.” This is the mind problem. Don’t look at it — it will tug at your pants’ leg like an organ
grinder’s monkey to get a dollar of your attention.
When one does not encourage more thoughts about whatever subject the mind comes up with to
get ones attention, one is meditating. We don’t fight the mind, but we don’t let it drag us along
because something is so interesting to think about. We are trying to get out of our addiction to
mental entertainments. We do this by remaining neutral towards any thought activity. The bad
thoughts are not rejected, because that would be giving them attention. The good thoughts we
can invite back into the mind AFTER meditation.
When we meditate innocently, we are immediately becoming more like being, because being is
perfectly innocent. This is spiritual resonance. By being neutral we are sinless.
This has consequences.
We start liking being more than thinking.
Then we start loving being more than thinking.
Then we start being being without having to go through all that work of loving it.
Surprise Bonus
If we practice being “enough,” being becomes an all time reality. Waking, sleeping, dreaming —
doesn’t matter — being is not obscured. Your lights are on, and you’re home 24/7. This is
sainthood.
You want fries with that?
Surprise Bonus Supersized For Ya
Saints are perfect, sinless, but they still are individuals. They are doing God’s work purely,
innocently, and humbly. Two words: human angels. But they can up notch their game. The saints
can dissolve their minds entirely.
How?
By meditating! Duh! Yes, more dancing with the one wut broughts ya.
The perfection of the saints is wonderful. They have to but merely close their eyes and, instantly,
thoughts fade to silence, and then they reside in being.
And wait.
At some point, the nervous system is so cultured, so automated, and so forthrightly being owned
and operated by God, the saint stops paying attention to creation as it’s expressed in a mind and
realizes that awareness is pure identity; whereas being is manifest identity.
AND BAM — Grace sneaks up behind the saint and SHOVES you, I mean, the saint, through the
door into allness. Beyond nervous systems.
That’s enlightenment — the fruition of sainthood.
That’s you if you meditate.
Don’t bother packing for the trip.
Leave all the tee shirts in the closet.
Buy new clothes when you get there.
Edg Duveyoung
How does reincarnation work?
Same as it works for Mickey Mouse.
God’s Walt Disney; you’re Mickey.
You’re not alive, but God pretends you are.
When God imagines, it’s like your nightly dreams — except that God’s dreams are actual 3D whole
creations — universes complete down to their quarks — so that there’s a matrix for the characters
being imagined. God does not stint.
How many times has God imagined you? How many tales have been told in which God had you
learn, do, be, have, stop, start, win, lose? Let’s remember that God’s imagination is hefty. One tale
of you? Doubtful. You’re far more interesting to God than you are to you, and God needs to plunk
you down into ALL the tales.
Think not?
Think again.
Why not you being the star in every story?
It’s one thing for you to be you.
But how would you be you if you were, say, Lord Buddha?
Ooooooooo, God so wants to know that about you.
God has to find out.
Your idiosyncrasies melded with the classic Lord Buddha meme?
— what is not to love?
Your Sermon on the Mount? With a bit more snark?
Your Bhagavad Gita? Arjuna and Lord Krishna post battle rap contest?
Your parting of the Red Sea? With a giant leaf blower?
Or
Your being a homeless person? Nobel and transcendent?
Your being a mob boss? But with a secret heart of gold?
Your being a total jerk? And yet it’s exactly what spurs evolution in others?
Or
You washing the dishes. Just exactly like you would now.
You getting up for work. So perfectly apt for you in the moment.
You reading about reincarnation. To get just a titch nearer to God.
Oh yeah, you’ve been endlessly authored.
God dotes on Thee.
Maybe some return doting would be good at this point.
To be continued. Go here: Edg Duveyoung's answer to What is the main purpose of life to you?
Edg Duveyoung
Is observing your thoughts a thought?
No thought is worth thinking.
No mind has will.
No real need for an observer.
The observer does not partake — is not thinker, thinking or thought.
The observer is half awareness half consciousness.
The observer is symbolized by the wandering monk in the wilderness.
The wilderness is the projection of boundaries upon unity.
The wilderness is a constant investment in assumption.
The wilderness is all the false interpretations of God.
God is pure awareness without distinctions.
God is pure consciousness with distinctions yet unmanifest.
God is the One that spurs two being imagined.
Imagination is God’s Art.
Imagination is meaning being made.
Imagination is from beyond thoughts.
Thoughts are necessarily false.
Thoughts are observable not observing.
Thoughts are never about thoughts.
Pop Quiz
Choose one of the following reactions:
1. I love my delusions, and you’re bothering me.
2. I love God and want to remain a worshiper.
3. I’m getting out of the individuality business.
Extra Credit — Explain your choice in a short paragraph that MUST USE all these words with
differing definitions: self, being, consciousness, ego, mind, soul, observer.
Term papers due on Rapture Day.
Edg Duveyoung
Which religion is the true religion & why?
Originally Answered: What is a universal religion?
You’re practicing the universal religion constantly.
Religion means “to bind back.” We rejoin the divine.
And you do this.
Oh yes you do, you sacred holy anointed vessel you.
When you pause, you are worshiping.
Because you are listening to silence.
Silence is God.
QED
And from silence comes your thoughts which are disguised hallelujahs.
God is discovering ways to not be God — like picking wild flowers.
And exclaiming in delight.
“Here’s yet another error! Oh, there’s another wrong thought! How amazing is this blind variety. I
want all of them. And I know just the person who has a mind that will be, as if, a vase into which I
put this perfect bouquet of negativity.”
See?
Even when you’re at your worst, God’s is arranging you “just so.”
You are tended and then put on God’s mantel to add grace to the fireplace.
You are understood. It’s known why you had to do the things you did.
Precisely you are delineating the least subtleties of a deluded life.
You are divinely chopping wood and carrying holy water.
Embrace this. Appreciate the Artworks you are curating.
If you do, God will come right over to you immediately.
If a struggling artist has some paintings displayed on a sidewalk as people pass by, what is
precious is when someone stops to see what there is to see.
God beams and says, “Ooooo, someone cares about what I’m painting on the sidewalk of their
mind.”
That’s you.
Stopping to see each painted thought.
Interested in every single moment you are having.
You are so precious.
God. Loves. Every. Speck. Of. You.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the difference between consciousness and awareness?
The difference is the biggest possible.
Advaita Vedanta says this is THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION.
Here’s what 5,000 years of expertise has concluded.
Awareness is first — consciousness is derivative.
Awareness is pure — consciousness is mixed.
Awareness is immanent — consciousness is bounded.
Awareness is silence — consciousness is noise.
Awareness is truth — consciousness is illusory.
Awareness is one — consciousness is two.
Awareness is perfect — consciousness is lacking.
Awareness is immaterial — consciousness is matter.
Awareness is Self — consciousness is ego.
Awareness is God — consciousness is God’s manifestation.
But the above does not amount to an answer. The ancients set down these descriptions but
warned that they are not the keys to enlightenment. These concepts are merely to persuade the
intellect and allure the heart that awareness should be sought and consciousness eschewed.
THE ANSWER
We cannot be given the answer.
Why?
Because the answer is not found in any operation of consciousness. Only awareness will fulfill the
heart and intellect. To give logic and emotions to the mind that wants truth is like giving pictures
of food to the hungry.
SOLUTION
No solution needed.
We directly realize awareness all the time.
Everyone insists they are here, now, and aware.
No more awareness of awareness is possible.
But consciousness can be made quieter, so that awareness can become resplendent. When one
meditates and relaxes, awareness remains unchanged but appears to become more “noticeable”
due to the noise level coming down.
As we come closer and closer to deep quiescence, we begin to see silence as more real than
noise.
At some point, identity toggles.
We flip from being conscious to being aware.
That’s the enlightenment paradigm shift.
That’s the sole answer to the above question.
Edg Duveyoung
An astrologist (Vedic) told me I'm in my last reincarnation. This was based on the
position of sun and moon at my birth. Is this accurate according to Vedic science and
beliefs?
Here’s what you don’t know:
Western astrologers don’t have an accurate ephemeris — the positions of the planets are
all “embarrassingly off” due to precession of the equinoxes. Their interpretive methods
are okay, but, sigh, their books are too old.
Eastern astrologers, called jyotishis, do have an updated ephemeris, but a highly trained
jyotish astrologer is very rare. Most are still maturing in how to interpret a chart. In India,
if your father wasn’t a jyotishi, you are not supposed to study jyotish scriptures.
Garnering true clarity in jyotish requires the correct DNA, and THEN DECADES of more
intellectual effort than it takes to become a particle physicist.
Karma is unfathomable. God is not constrained by any chart. The worst chart can be
overcome. The best chart can be a dud.
If the astrologer is not enlightened, you’re being entertained.
The sky is but one chart about you. There’s the lines of your palms, the four pulses in
your wrist, the specks in the iris of your eye, the number of the day you were born, the
number of your name, the colors of your aura and on and on and on. Get the picture? —
it’s all tea leaves being read. The reader of any “chart” has to be enlightened, or, hey,
really?
My personal experience with jyotish.
My chart was interpreted by a dozen jyotishis. Most of them were comparative beginners without
the DNA the job requires, but two of them were internationally recognized and famous jyotish
gurus with the real-deal credentials. Famous.
None of them. Not one. Nope.
It was painfully obvious that my future, my past, and my present were not clearly seen by any of
them by studying my chart. I recorded all the sessions. They just didn’t have the mojo. Mistakes
aplenty.
Worse, I didn’t have the mojo either. I tried to track myself daily to see how my “actuals” lined up
with the dynamic changes in the details of my chart. For five years, every single day, I entered my
day’s content into a spreadsheet. From one to ten, I entered the data-points about diet, sex,
parenting, income, education, health, vibe, purchases, hour of sleep, business efforts, spiritual
hours and more.
Nothing matched the stars. No predictive patterns found. On days when, say, my communication
skills were supposedly enhanced, my actuals didn’t show it. My “business milestone” days with a
ten rating didn’t come more often when, say, Mercury was exalted, and on and on and on —
nothing matched nothing and something never did.
You name it. I tried it. And I paid top dollar for the best I could find.
I quit it all. Astrology. Numerology. Palmistry. Iridology. Psychics. Etc.
Take care. Take care.
And now the good news: your next thought’s meaning is being projected upon the screen of your
being. The interpretation of your stream of consciousness is being done by God — directly
whispering into your spiritual ear about your karma of the instant.
You are a chart.
You are being interpreted on the fly.
BY GOD.
Edg Duveyoung
If God created the universe, then who created God? And who created the creator of
God?
There is an answer to this.
It’s such a good answer.
So good that concepts cannot be used.
After all, let’s be serious.
Would Mom let you eat with dirty hands?
Is a street map the city?
Does love come in 55 gallon drums?
Will a picture of a strawberry taste good?
Could Charlotte A. Cavatica fully describe Wilbur?
Can scriptures do what scriptures have never done?
Can a thought be worship without emotion?
You’re going to need a bigger boat.
You can’t get there by starting to.
You are assuming you can understand God.
You’re asking questions that have lethal answers.
If you die,
Body gone.
Mind gone.
Spirit gone.
God gone. Yeah I said it.
But awareness is always there.
From awareness manifested God.
YOU — — ARE — — AWARENESS.
You want answers?
You want answers?
YOU WANT ANSWERS?
Ask your Self: “Why did I invent God?”
I DARE YOU!
Edg Duveyoung
Is sex a hindrance in path of spirituality and enlightenment?
The Itch Switch
So long ago that today's world would be almost pure magic to them, two students were close
friends in the riverside ashram of their guru. In that era, one would see something in the eyes of
the guru, and from that point on, one would wash the clothes, tend the garden, sweep the floors,
or do anything to be of a help to the ashram's community of spiritual adherents, and so be allowed
to hang around with the guru.
Over time, by psycho-alchemy and osmosis, the very personality of the guru would be imbued into
those open hearts. The days passed in strict routine. Same food, same work, same study, same
robes, same lecture hall, SAME! It won't take much to imagine how boring it could become.
The two monks were young enough that, despite their love for the guru and their deep
understanding about the tenants of spirituality and their almost desperate need to become
enlightened, they still could be had by temptation.
Had.
And so it was that the monks would pause under a tree between tasks and talk with each other
about life on the other side of the ashram's walls. And a great longing arose in their hearts to know
something more about the wicked world – especially the warm, soft, cooing parts.
Finally hadness was fully risen, and they decided to sneak out of the ashram and sample the
wares of cuddly cooers.
But, ah, even hadness is not absolute. Yeah, you're gonna get worldliness leaking into the most
congruent communities, but even a naughty acolyte’s urgent intent can suddenly fade, and the
next thing you know, he’s back in the spiritual fold without ever having had even a whiff of the
fragrances that cloaked the cooers.
And so, there they are at the ashram’s wall, the evening lecture is about to start, and then one
monk stops hearing the call of the wild.
"I can't go. I must take a hold of myself. I'm going to evening lecture."
"I understand, but I've got to go. I'll be back tonight."
And over the wall hopped one, and off to the lecture hoped the other.
Now here is the strange part. During the lecture, the hoper obsessed about the hopper's exploits.
"Oh, by now, surely he is . . . And, I'll bet that rascal is . . . I just know he’s . . ."
Now, at the end of the guru’s nightly lecture, questions and answers were allowed, and in such
dialogue, the community would touch upon any issue – mundane or spiritual.
But, at least one young monk was mentally asking himself.
"Why didn't I go with him? Ooo, I wonder what he's doing right now?"
Finally, as the night was closing, at last, this guilt-wrung monk stood and asked,
"Guruji, please help me understand the ways of my heart. Tonight, one of us is missing. I saw him
go straight to town, and I know what he was planning on doing, for indeed, I was planning on
going with him. But at the last, I knew it was right to stay here. And now, I find I cannot forgive him.
It seems such an affront to all that we do here and our great love for you and your life's work. He's
been gone for hours now, and, alas, I can only imagine what now cannot be undone."
All eyes were on the guru's face. All knew who was missing. All knew what the town offered. All
knew that the guru would know how to properly separate hopers from hoppers, and guide them.
And, lo, it was so. This guru wasn't faking ANYTHING. Infinity was his middle name. If turned into a
human being, Righteousness would have been found supplicating before him. We're talkin' GURU
here!
Just as the guru was about to speak, everyone could see that his eyes had become focused on
someone just arriving at the back of the room. Without even turning around, all knew that only one
person could possibly be coming there at that hour.
It was, indeed, the wayward student.
The guru spoke.
"Tell me."
Without hesitation, the young man spiritually sank to his knees, and looking downwards began to
describe his exploits that evening with complete honesty. And soon they all knew that, now, fully
entered into the history of ALL THIS, as feared, it had happened. After he stopped confessing, the
silence in the room went from not-a-sound to not-a-thought. Everyone waited for the guru to
speak before they would think again.
"How did it feel?"
The young man sank even further, and now, whatever had kept his body standing evaporated. He
collapsed to the floor with a sigh, and again, recounted his actions and told how it had felt to be
tortured all night, how, he could not stop seeing the guru in his mind and imagining what the guru
would think if he found out, and what the guru would do, and what the guru would say to him.
Well, you get the picture – this kid had hollowed himself.
The guru spoke:
"How many here knew he was missing tonight?"
All hands rose.
"So, for this I give thanks -- that one of you spent the entire evening with me."
With that, he stood, and the evening was over.
Edg Duveyoung
How do you achieve “stillness in your thoughts” or the “silencing of thought”, in order
to become absolutely present?
Advaita agrees with the Bible
10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen.
— Psalm 46:10 King James Version (KJV)
We see that the Bible does not teach us “How To Be Still.”
Why not? Think about that.
Answer: Psalm 46 is assuming you already know how to do this.
And you do know how to don’t now don’t you?
Your Momma taught you to stop this and stop that.
And you have been an expert at stopping since.
Psalm 46 is plainly saying:
You know how to know God.
Just stop. Just don’t. Just be.
Astounding.
Psalm 46 assumes you’ll understand that to know God:
—If a wonderfully clarifying thought arises, save it for later.
—If a sacred emotion arises, save it for later.
—If negativity arises, ignore.
Psalm 46 teaches:
—To know God, we don’t need human experiences.
—To know God, thoughts are distractions.
—To know God, we do nothing, so that the silence of God can speak.
It’s obvious.
Painful, eh?
Torture, eh?
To have been told 2,000 years ago and ever since that you can KNOW GOD….and here you
are….still thinking or feeling God instead of knowing God.
Temporarily stop being a knower of a mind, and know God instead.
Then you will be an actual God-Knowing Christian — a product of Psalm 46
And by the way, in Verse 45 in the 2nd chapter of The Bhagavad Gita,
IT SAYS THE SAME ADVICE.
“Stop thinking and start being.”
See? The Bible says it, and it’s true even among the heathens.
The heathens know that God can be known and EXALTED by just being still.
Silence — the universal prayer.
Edg Duveyoung
Do monks ever regret deciding to become monks?
An Ancient Story
Two student monks were walking in a town, ages ago, far away. They were both handsome young
men, but they were serious about becoming absolutely aware of their inner spirits. The monastery
in which they lived and took instruction had very strict rules of behavior for its students.
A hot rain had been falling all morning, but at last the sun had come out, and everything was
glistening with a coating of pure water. The marketplace was filled with noise and bustle, and the
streets were very muddy. Only under the woven thatched awnings of the storefronts of the streets
were there any dry paths.
They came upon a lovely lady attired in expensive clothing, holding a delicate hand painted
parasol. Everything about this woman was refined and spoke of wealth and knowledge of the
world and its many ways.
It was obvious to the monks that she was trying to cross the road without getting her clothes dirty,
but it was impossible. She stood there in a perfect moment as the sun echoed in thousands of
small puddles from foot and hoof prints. Suddenly, the taller of the monks swept the woman and
her beauty up in his arms and carried her safely across the road.
Afterwards, they went back to their monastery rooms to meditate before the evening''s rituals. As
they sat down together, the shorter monk finally spoke his mind, saying, "I cannot understand
your actions! We are monks! We do not go near females--especially beautiful women who are
experienced with the ways of the life that we have put behind us. That was dangerous. Why did
you do that?"
The taller monk settled into his meditative pose, and just before he closed his eyes, he looked at
his friend, and said, "I left the girl there on the side of the street. Are you still carrying her?"
Questions To Bolster Clarity:
What do I hold on to? What do I cling to that obsesses me?
What power does the past have on me? To what errors do I still give my precious
attention? What thoughts do I run over and over again?
If I cling to and judge myself by my past, what am I telling others in subtle ways to also do
to me? How can I expect them to judge me as I am today -- now -- if I continue to judge
myself by my past? Why would they treat me any differently?
When I want to memorize something what do I do?
When I think of something I did years ago, am I doing it again? Am I "burning in" the
experience so that my nervous system can more easily remember it?
When a memory happens to me, how much is that a voluntary action? What happens to
memories in which I am not that much interested when they occur? Can I treat all
memories equally? Must I have different rules for different types of memories?
If I had a sudden attack of amnesia, how much time would that save me each day?
If I met a perfect person, on what would that person's attention be placed when
considering me, and what would I still be carrying in my arms?
Edg Duveyoung
Why is it that people that claim that reincarnation is real, that the reincarnated always
refer to a past life. Couldn't it also go the other way? Or is it fixed on the arrow of time?
Firstly, we have to define incarnation.
And so, let’s use a metaphor and then apply.
Is Mickey Mouse more alive when manifested as a series of images on film or when Mickey is
being imagined as a series of ideas produced by the processes of Walt Disney’s mind?
We agree, right?
If Walt is thinking about Mickey and inwardly seeing Mickey with the imagination’s eye and having
a flurry of thoughts about all the adventures he has had Mickey go through, and if Walt is
processing emotional responses to this now-being-imagined-on-the-fly Mickey, and if Walt is
considering the entirety of Mickey to determine what could be proper for Mickey’s next
manifestation, we have to grant that that “entity” inside Walt’s mind is dynamically “alive” by
comparison. That’s Mickey’s true incarnation. Hefty concept, eh?
Are you ahead of me yet?
Obviously any story that ever had Mickey in it can be instantly enlivened by being remembered in
Walt’s mind — at any time. The first story of Mickey, or a future story of Mickey — anything can be
enlivened. What is put on paper or film pales when compared to the actuality of the “real Mickey”
when Mickey is in the flow of Walt’s consciousness. The real Mickey can do anything Walt wants
him to be able to do, right? The paper/film Mickey is like a scrapbook of Mickey. But in Walt’s
mind, whoa, eh?
Are you ahead now?
Yeah this is about God’s Mind.
Do you think you are more real now or would you perhaps agree that when God’s Mind dwells
upon you, then that mental entity in God’s Mind has a divine actuality that outshines your worldly
presentation in what you take to be your sole manifestation?
This is the truth about reincarnation. You are always alive in God’s Mind, and any story you’re put
in is merely another scrapbook entry. Your “incarnations” are as infinite as the Mind of God can
imagine — and all of it in an instant.
To meditate is to discover that you are being invented by God. On the fly — moment by instant by
tachyonic nanosecond you are created.
You’re as un-alive as Pinocchio in your present story, but you can meditate and realize your true
status of residing in the divine — a real boy entity with a beautiful nose.
And now the spectacular news: you can become really real instantly at any time you want — even
RIGHT NOW before you finish reading this essay.
Close your eyes and ask, “Who am I?”
For a speck of a titch of a wisp of a hint, you’re going to be real.
Repeat until you’re always residing in God’s Embrace.
Simple, eh?
Look for your self.
And find you’re on God’s Lap.
Kickin’ back and witnessing the story as God tells it.
With a bowl of double butter popcorn.
Edg Duveyoung
What do atheists think about the book "I am that" by Nisargadatta?
Who cares?
Atheists were created by God to serve as prime examples of “block heads.”
Yeah, I’m saying it. I used to be a block head, so I know these things.
Try to get two atheists to define the word “real” in the same way. I won’t hold my breath. Atheists
are almost all unprepared to discuss this book. Carl Jung loved Advaita. Argue with him first! But,
heh, try to find an atheist who appreciates Jung! ADVAITA HAS A DIFFERENT DEFINITION FOR
EACH OF THESE WORDS — consciousness, awareness, person, soul, transcendence, witness,
ego, being, amness.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj deconstructed “real” in the book “I Am That,” and the world of
philosophy felt its foundations shudder. Nisargadatta’s one axiom was all he needed to hew down
philosophical sequoias. “Awareness is prior to consciousness.” — purport? — “You cannot grasp
reality using consciousness.”
But will ANY atheist come forth to intelligently attempt to deny this truth? Nah, it’s way way too
DEEP a concept for the education-lite atheists. And if a smart atheist comes along and tries to get
educated and build clarity about the concept, IT WILL TAKE YEARS TO DO SO.
Yeah, I said “years.” It is a typical naivete for most folks to think that they can read something —
once — and then understand it. The deepest understanding requires, say, 10,000 thoughts to build
a nervous system that thereafter spontaneously will produce thoughts that are logically valid and
consistent with “awareness is prior to consciousness.” This usually takes an ashram and strong
mentoring to nurture such a nervous system while it “is coming up to speed.”
No atheist will do that. And so they insure their own ersatz phony-baloney auto-propagandizing
will flourish uncritically. “Oh I understood that book.” they’ll say. “He was wrong.” they’ll say. No
explanations given will have even a tissue’s depth.
READ THE BOOK OR SHUT UP.
THEN READ IT TWO MORE TIMES — ONE SENTENCE PER MINUTE.
You have to muse each sentence to build your clarity.
BIG TOGGLE ALERT.
It does not matter in the least what any mind — even if it’s the mind of Nisargadatta — says is true.
In fact, Nisargadatta says, exactly, “There are no true ideas.”
And that really bothers the atheists. And makes me laugh.
Ha ha ha in your face if you’re upset about any of the above. The sole solution to the challenge
“life” cannot be taught. The solution is not something that can be figured out. A mind cannot do
any manner of thinking or emoting that gets there from here — it’s the last place to look for the
real.
And ho boy now we’re really bothering the atheists.
Detailed Instructions For Atheists From “I Am That”
Close the eyes.
Look within.
Have an initial intent to remain neutral.
No activity will be encouraged or rejected.
Experience the mind’s productions — thoughts, emotions, sense inputs.
Gradually begin to see that activity quietens and breathing lessens.
Gradually begin to realize how quiet quietness can become.
Gradually begin to enjoy quiescence more than thought.
Gradually begin to see silence is not a processing of a nervous system.
Gradually begin to see silence is more real than mind.
Gradually begin to see silence as self.
Gradually begin to see identity as transcendent.
Gradually begin to find silence “there” outside of meditation.
Gradually begin to explain silence in spiritual terms.
Gradually begin to see silence to be God’s Watchfulness.
Gradually begin to be real — no concepts needed.
This is what it takes to evaluate even one paragraph of “I Am That.”
I’ll wait.
Hopefully I’ll be alive years from now when any atheist reading this essay comes back and
apologizes.
It could happen. Just sayin!
Edg Duveyoung
What is a yogi?
Eight Reasons Why You Might Be A Yogi
1. If you know what you had for lunch today, you might be a yogi.
Memory is the constant proof of yogic power. The zillion cells in your body are an
unfathomable vastness that you, dear yogi, can command to tell you if you had “the pasta
dish” or “the soup and salad.” This is ho-hum to you. The next step is to remember God
instead of the linguine.
2. If you’ve had to re-read a hunk of text, you might be a yogi.
That’s yogic power. You are an ignoringness expert. Yogic control of attention is what is
happening when one is not hearing a thing the person across the table is saying. You can
ignore anything with eyes and ears wide open. A yogi ignores the entire mind instead of
parts of it — your next step is to become perfectly ignorant— enter that from which
thoughts spring.
3. If you've automatically used your turn signal, you might be a yogi.
Almost everything you do is done automatically without any mindfulness required. The
yogi does nothing — perfectly — and watches everything get accomplished. Your next
step is to perfect that ability and let everything “go natural.”
4. If you see a period at the end of this sentence, you might be a yogi.
You can see better than even that — you can see QUARKS! A photon of light is a quark,
and your eye's retina will register even one single quark hitting it. That's the yogic
sensitivity of you. You can see quarks which are ALMOST NOTHING. The easy next step
is to know pure nothingness.
5. If anyone has ever fallen in love with you, you might be a yogi.
You have been as lovable as an armful of kittens. Yogis are well known to have charisma.
A yogi is instantly recognized to be "a great person to invite to dinner." The yogi is open,
honest and intimate with everyone, just like you do when you love someone in particular.
It’s the next step.
6. If you ever had a good hunch, you might be a yogi.
It's all intuitive. Every. Single. Thought. comes from beyond, and for the most part, you've
trusted yourself, right? You're not blindly choosing, you're yogically knowing! Just take
the next step and trust all the time.
7. If you can get someone angry, you might be a yogi.
Yogis are famous for producing extraordinary experiences in the minds of others by
bonking a peacock feather on a forehead. Like that. You too also use magic — usually
using words yelled loudly at someone — that will create huge changes in the mind of
another. That's yogic power, and we all have it like Cupid’s got arrows. A yogi shoots love
into the minds of others. Your next step is obvious.
8. If you can cry on purpose, you might be a yogi.
If a photo or memory makes you cry, that's yogic power — that's a mind-control method,
see? A birthday card is a yogic spell that causes stingy eyes. The yogi knows the body
responds to the mind and that the next step is become that to which the mind responds
— identity, self, silence, awareness.
So, see?
You are always stepping into yogic powers like putting on work boots whenever you dang
well please.
Can't fool me.
You're a yogi.
What’s next?
Edg Duveyoung
How has Advaita Vedanta affected your life?
Advaita turns your life into “a life.”
Identity is transcendent.
Self is all the selves.
The Absolute’s silence is imperturbable.
Awareness is before consciousness has become conscious.
All the above is conceptual — educational solely. It has ZERO ability to enlighten. This is the actual
message of Advaita — pay no attention to the intellect’s unending blarney. Mirage water does not
slake thirst.
And for the lovers of God, sorry, your love has zero ability to enlighten. Advaita teaches one to go
beyond the heart too.
Harsh, eh?
Can’t think of a thought worth thinking or have a feeling worth feeling. But yeah, that’s the truth.
Concepts and moods keep you delusional and glued to the relative. Not that you should stop
thinking and feeling about God. Nope, not sayin’ that. That’s good stuff. It’s just not going to get
you free, but it’s great for personality development.
Imagine yourself in Heaven as God walks by and you ask, “Got any films you’d recommend?”
This is your problem. This is what you do. You ignore the face of the miraculous to see the mask of
the mundane. God is here and now and always, but you’re making plans in dreamland.
Solution:
“Be to not be,” says Advaita.
Reside in being until you’re being beyond being.
Reside in silence until silence sings.
Be Brahman — not a brain.
Edg Duveyoung
What are the arguments for Advaita Vedanta?
For every argument for there’s an equal and opposite argument.
Most folks can’t even argue themselves into starting a healthier diet.
Or, to stop believing stuff found in Quora essays.
To argue for Advaita Vedanta is obviously a psyop by the intellect to appear more valid than the
heart’s intuitions. It’s scandalous.
We don’t need no stinkin’ proofs!
I love Advaita Vedanta. It saved me from me me me. I have done a thousand Vedic ceremonies,
have taught and written, have got many tee shirts, and am a sold out fanboy of Ramana and
Nisargadatta.
But I can’t argue for Advaita Vedanta. Nope.
I’m all for it, but I can’t say you should be too.
Even Ramana and Nisargadatta could not argue for Advaita Vedanta.
It’s about transcendence — not traction.
The ego loves certainty — wants to have something to stand on. You know, like when Alfred North
Whitehead and Bertrand Russel decided to PROVE EVERYTHING by writing their book, Principia
Mathematica, And then along came Kurt Gödel. Kurt pulled the rug out from under all of Western
Thought!
So what Ramana and Nisargadatta say is, “Don’t make us responsible for talking you into
enlightenment. Toss the scriptures. Burn our books! And whatever you do, don’t listen to Edg
Duveyoung.”
Instead, the instruction is see what’s what within.
You’ll see thoughts.
You’ll see the attending feelings.
You’ll subside into the ocean of being.
And wait for Grace.
This could take years of practice.
Or a few seconds.
But you will be freed from needing anything ever again.
Got a few moments?
Ya feelin’ lucky?
Edg Duveyoung
How is free will linked to consciousness and the concept of self?
There’s two types of free will.
There’s an infinity of states of consciousness.
There’s one self.
Both wills are God’s.
Everything is conscious.
The self that witnesses God’s Mind sees yours too.
Second Type of Free Will:
Your nervous system’s 50 billion billion billion atoms have never been known to be quiet. Talk
about your tick-a-tocking, gear-a-cogging, acetylcholine coo-coo clockworks coughing out
cacophony! And all of it flippable in a nonce. Hot to cold in an instant. Your blood’s chemistry can
be triggered to switch by the least titch. Calm to worried due to the hearing of a pin drop. Like
that.
This is the freedom God has when it comes to creating the states of your nervous system. From
any mental state you’re in, God can put your thought factory in the opposite state — suddenly and
with no advanced notice given. Or anywhere in between. God can exercise “your” will freely —
there are no constraints. God’s story about you requires your operations to be able to toggle
instantly. A doorbell ring — depending — can initiate a cascading of fear — “Swat Team” or the
arrival of pleasure — “Pizza!”
Ain’t that nice?
To be owned by God?
Inside us like Cupid shooting love darts into our grumpy parts?
First Type of Free Will:
God’s free to project any meaning onto any state of any nervous system. Not only can your
physicality change to any state instantly, IT DOESN’T MATTER, because God can see anything in
your Rorschach Test selfie. And then create you believing in it without question.
Proof? Every night you hallucinate entire creations and enter them — dreamland is real as real can
be to its denizens. And, next morning, after the caffeine kicks in, God can make you believe you’re
as real as real can be then also.
You think you’re real, right? See?
God can get ones physique or psyche anywhere from here.
How good is this set-up, eh?
Did you miss the important part there?
The part where you don’t have any will at all?
The part where you’re nonetheless certain you’re free?
The part where God’s love is authoring the next moment in the history of you?
The part where God loves your innocence about what you’re missing?
The part where there’s no difference between God and you and Self?
This is why you smile and nod and put palms together for strangers.
God does everybody.
Edg Duveyoung
Have you read “I Am That” by Nisargadatta Maharaj? What do you make of it and
Nisargadatta himself?
I love Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
I have read at least a page of “I Am That” every day for decades.
It stuns me. Every time. I just stop in my tracks to catch my breath.
It took two and a half readings for me to get clarity about the axiom: “awareness is prior to
consciousness.” It’s the most absolute statement that can be made in the relative. Each time, I
thought I understood that axiom fully. But oooo, it’s hefty!
In the middle of the third reading, oh boy, heaven rang my doorbell.
It’s devastating.
It evaporates every mirage.
Me for instance.
We thank God for the Guru.
And we thank the Guru for God.
Not that understanding is important.
Not that loving ones guru is important.
Not that a book can teach.
Not that anything can be done about anything.
But yeah, it’s about all that.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj soothes with two fullnesses.
You can have both freedom and delusional functionality.
Q: I see you living your life according to a pattern. You run a meditation class in the morning,
lecture and have discussions regularly; twice daily there is worship (puja) and religious singing
(bhajan) in the evening. You seem to adhere to the routine scrupulously.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: The worship and the singing are as I found them and I saw no reason
to interfere. The general routine is according to the wishes of the people with whom I happen to
live or who come to listen. They are working people, with many obligations and the timings are for
their convenience. Some repetitive routine is inevitable. Even animals and plants have their time-
tables.
Q: Yes, we see a regular sequence in all life. Who maintains the order? Is there an inner ruler, who
lays down laws and enforces order?
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: Everything moves according to its nature. Where is the need of a
policeman? Every action creates a reaction, which balances and neutralises the action. Everything
happens, but there is a continuous cancelling out, and in the end it is as if nothing happened.
See?
How can you not love this guy?
So humble, and yet intellectual giants could not defeat his axiom.
Nightly, big brain after big brain asking a question more clever than the last.
Read the book. It’s hilarious. Each debate point cleaved in two by expressions of non-two-ness.
Go figure.
Axiom — that’s the long way of saying “ax.”
What do I think of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj?
He chops wood.
And I’ll carry his water just to be near him.
Edg Duveyoung
Is “Awakening” The Pinnacle of the Human Experience?
It’s the pinnacle of a microbe’s experience too.
You’re not human. You’re part human. A mix. Like a cockapoodle.
You’ve got sketchy ancestry. Parts from everywhere. I’m not kidding — this is not about spirituality
— this is about DNA and how all of us have incorporated hunks of life’s history. We have a lot in
common with the least speck of life.
Then too, we are told that one — any one — has about seven molecules that once were in the body
of Jesus. Or Hitler. Or anyone who ever lived on Earth.
Mutts R Us.
You want worse? How about every thought you have is due to all the other thoughts that everyone
else had — even back to the beginning of time. If you are having an original thought, you ain’t.
Your mind is EXACTLY due to everything else. This is the knot that Gordian’s metaphorically
represented.
Worse? There’s even odds that life started on Mars and got splashed off of it onto primordial
Earth. I ain’t sayin’ we might be aliens, but I’m sayin’ we might be aliens. Talk about being part
human!
Worse? You can’t even tell where you end and “dead” stuff begins. Your electrons in the outer
shell of your atoms cannot be differentiated from the electrons of any other element. There’s no
discernible boundary between you and the chair you’re sitting on — or the singing choir of stones
Jesus spoke of. You’re composed of a limited variety of parts — like a box of Tinkertoys. And not a
single part says, “For human use only.”
You ain’t you — you’re all the yous, and if you get enlightened every part of creation goes ah.
Peace at last; peace at last.
Enlightenment fulfills every desire ever.
Now that’s a pinnacle.
One small step for a human.
One giant leap for cockapoodles!
Edg Duveyoung
What is your view on free will?
First let’s ask God about free will.
Me: Hey, God, can You predict Your next thought’s meaning?
God: No, but I will know of the meaning’s emergence from awareness and subsequent projection
onto My nervous system’s operations faster than you would notice the birth of meaning and its
projection onto your nervous system.
And that’s why I get the big bucks.
Me: So, if You don’t know Your next thought’s meaning before it’s been projected onto Your
materiality, doesn’t that prove You don’t have free will?
God: Yes.
Me: So, asked and answered. Your omniscience has a severe limitation.
God: Nope. Thee wouldst be wrongobongo, thou wouldst. You’re confusing yourself again; My
darling little defining dummy whom I adore. You assume that My body and mind are Me instead of
them being an approximation of Me — a symbol of Me — an illusory snapshot of Me. I am purely
mystical — beyond — and My body and mind should be considered to be, say, “the best magic act
possible.” My main trick is that by misdirection, you are convinced that I’m not here.
Me: I’m confused.
God: I just said that. Keep up.
Me: Wait wait wait. Who’s Whom and Whom’s Who? One of You Guys gotta be top dog. Um, did
You saw Yourself in half in order to be on both sides of the fence?
God: No, but I like how you’re thinking. Awareness is prior to any manifestation. Perfect silence —
a sub-set of which turns out to be “all possible noises.” When this perfection of silent sentient
stillness is symbolized, out comes the apparent Me — firstly, and then I do everything I can
imagine — the operations of your nervous system, for instance.
Me: So You know my next thought?
God: Yes.
Me: What is it?
God: You tell me; you just had it. Ba dum tiss.
I know what the states of your nervous system will be, but meaning will be projected upon them
by awareness. Meaning is always mysterious — unfathomable. No matter what your nervous
system is doing any meaning can be projected onto it. A small stone that bothers your bare foot
can also be a recently landed remnant of a hunk of rock blasted off of Mars a billion years ago or
an almost pure plutonium pebble of death or David’s sling selection for Goliath. Stay tuned!
Me: I got a dental appointment. Can we wrap this up? Do You or don’t You have free will?
God: I just told you that.
Me: No, I thought You said the opposite. Sorta. Kinda. Maybe-ish.
God: “Awareness is awareness” is the purest answer. “Awareness is Me” is ever so slightly
misleading. “Awareness is you” is a tragedy. Heh. It’s all free will all the time. But any point of view
is seen with limitation colored glasses. For instance I see Myself as Someone Who cannot even
get you to learn two times two is four. All My powers can’t get your horse to drink.
Me: Sorry about that. Oh, would You look at the time. Late for my root canal. Can we pick this up
later?
God: As usual? Tomorrow about this time?
Me: I guess, but You know me. I could be famous overnight and get so busy I forget. After the
dentist, I’m going out for a barefoot walk and am expecting to step upon an almost pure plutonium
pebble from Mars with David’s fingerprint on it along with Goliath’s blood and a bit of brain matter.
God: That just got put in my Big Book Of Snarks.
Me: Well I thought it was a funny thing to say as I look for my car keys.
God: Go while you still got teeth.
Edg Duveyoung
What is meditation?
Originally Answered: What's meditation?
Lord Brahma tried to meditate. Didn’t work.
Lord Brahma tried to create. Couldn’t.
See the point? You cannot get there from here even if you’ve got omniscience, omnipresence, and
omnipotence.
Trying always fails. If your meditation requires effort — tsk tsk.
Finally, Lord Brahma asked Himself, “What’s wrong here? Why can’t I create?”
And from out of the Absolute — pure awareness — came the answer that manifested in Lord
Brahma’s mind: “retire.” (In Sanskrit “tapas.”) Stop pretending that doingness is possible.
Understand that an ego is not causally enabled. Minds don’t create. Lord Brahma is not the author
of His own thoughts. Lord Brahma is not actually Tippy-Top-God-God.
Lord Brahma has to get all His thoughts
from the same Source That you get your thoughts.
We cannot control the mind.
We cannot know our next thought.
Solution: Same as Lord Brahma’s
We can not do but we can do not.
We retire. We get out of the “I’m an empowered entity” business. We stop. We abide. We don’t.
We let come what may. We reside. We rest. We witness. Even if the mind is having a blizzard of
ideation, we can witness instead of engage.
How?
As already stated: “We can do not.” “Notting is what we can do.” Like Lord Brahma, we can stop.
We can “not” any doingness. We are experts at this already. In fact, if you look into your mind,
right now — to see what thought you are having — it will disappear on you POOF and leave you
with a speck — or hunk — of silence. If it’s a speck, you might miss it, but keep looking, and it will
become a boulder, and then a mountain of sentient, serene, silent, self.
See that by ending doingness, we are forthrightly entering pure identity fully and instantly — albeit
for a nonce. To stop attending thoughts (concepts, emotions, sensations) is to realize the basis of
the real — no-thingness — pure awareness — pure soul — pure identity — pure self.
Detailed instructions:
Close the eyes.
Keep them closed.
See but don’t watch.
Abide.
Settle.
That’s it. That’s the whole list. It works on every mind.
What is not detailed will be learned by you naturally.
Posture? You’ll find what’s comfy without inducing sleep.
Best thought to use as a meditation vehicle? Optional.
Diet? You’ll find out how much and what kind of food can be in the stomach for comfort’s sake.
Religion? Any, or none — it’s personal. It’s merely a style.
Venue? Anywhere.
When? Now is always the time on the clock.
It’s not rocket science. Any child already knows how to stop what is being done instantly. Even
breathing.
Bottomline: We close the eyes, and we say, “Go ahead, hit me with your best shot.”
And then we wait.
And what arrives is Silence — the fullest expression of God. God doesn’t send an angel when you
ask for the best. God fills the mind that has arms outspread to receive. God rushes into your
mental embrace.
You find yourself hugging nothing.
With a great big smile.
Edg Duveyoung
Do our thoughts come from nowhere?
Originally Answered: Philosophy of Mind: Do our thoughts come from nowhere?
This is the question.
If you answer it, you’re enlightened.
Consider a raindrop that has landed on the top of your window’s pane. Let’s pretend that the rain
drop is YOU.
You’re starting a race downward. Many other drops are also landing and trickling down, but you
can win if you cleverly route yourself to hit other drops that are just sitting there, and by gaining
that extra water, you can then continue down even faster.
You’ve actually done this, right? You have selected a drop to follow on many panes in many rains.
What you did was to project identity. You pretended to be a sentient drop of water, and you
created a drama in which many other sentient drops were competing with you in a race. The thrills
of the race were easily “seen” by you. Karma was afoot as you came to a stop mid-pane and had
to wait for another drop to join you. If other drops got their extra weight before you did — envy
arose. And on and on. The human condition was fully on display.
You’re very good at projecting identity. A water drop is easy-peasy. You can project yourself onto
anything. And you do this all the time.
Did you notice the word “all” above?
This is the problem that the question’s answer solves. Your “all problem.”
How do you stop projecting — all-ways onto everything? How can your constant pretending and
projection be ended?
Your “all problem” is worst than being addicted to heroin — or even sugar!
You are in denial. You need an intervention, but all your friends need one too. You can’t even stop
projecting when you’re asleep; you’re assuming everything in the dream is real — more real than
raindrops! And any yogi will testify that when there’s no dreaming, you are yet still projecting that
that dreamlessness is a state that has the quality “observable.”
Thirteen.
What did your mind do with the word, “thirteen,” above? That word didn’t just sit there. Your mind
started suggesting what 13 things are about to be cited. You had to suss. You had to fuss. You
had to project possible meaning before meaning was even being used by me, the author, of that
word, “thirteen.” And you did this instantly and effortlessly. No pencil and paper needed.
Fourteen.
Oh you think you just let that “fourteen” sit there, eh, and you thought you’d show me that you
could control projection and prove yourself to not be an addict. THAT’S WHAT FOURTEEN WAS
PRETENDED TO MEAN TO YOU.
You can’t help yourself.
It’s worse than this. Pretending is not mere addiction; it’s nutritive. You need it like you need
oxygen. What pretending keeps alive is the most beautiful raindrop possible — the fiction of you.
If you stop pretending you exist, you stop being. Your drop becomes “just another drop.”
You would disappear like the lap of a standing person.
You are not pretending about a raindrop. Nope. You are projecting your self to be a mass of
50,000,000,000,000 atoms — a mostly meat conglomerate that is involved with seven billion other
flesh-bots. Whoa! Are you a genius or what?
And you pretend you’re this methane factory, and only now after a lifetime of doing this, you end
up here at Quora wondering “what the heck?”
Are you tired of you yet?
How to lay “you” down on the floor and step back away.
Listen for silence.
It’s the only thing about which it’s safe to pretend.
It’s the real you, and if you pretend it’s you,
sooner or later, you’ll find out that you’re not pretending.
The good news: your addiction is being used to extinguish the addiction. By merely doing what
you can expertly do, you pretend yourself out of pretense.
When finally you toggle
from pretending you are a drop
to knowing you are an ocean,
the question is answered.
Self is ocean.
Thoughts are drops.
Life is a pane.
Edg Duveyoung
How many thoughts per second come to our mind?
About seven.
Proof? Just mentally count to seven in one second’s span. You’ll find that you can “hear” each
number in your mind — “spoken” clearly, precisely. But if you try to count higher…your mind
begins to slur and skip words. So, about seven distinct “conceptual entities per second” is the
mind’s speed limit.
Flabbergasting! Stupendous! Gobsmacking!
The axiom whacking the back of your head is:
YOU CAN DO SEVEN THINGS PER SECOND.
In one second, you could pray seven one-word prayers to God, for instance.
Just pray, “Help!” Seven times a second.
For a few hours. Oughta do the trick. Seriously!
God cannot ignore creation. Nit picks all day and night donchaknow. Yeah, God is the Puppeteer
with A Holy Hand up the buns of the prayer, but just stayin’ that God loves to check for typos.
God peers at creation from every set of eyes and creates seven thoughts per second in reaction
to “creation-as-it-seems-from-that-point-of-view.” Gives one a hands-on grasp of omniscience’s
to-do list. Nice metric!
Here’s ten seconds’ worth of praying.
“All Knowing All Loving All Being God!”
“Love, love, love, love, love, love, love.”
“I’ve fallen. Help me get back up.”
“Not my will but Thy will, Lord.”
“Help me. Help me. Help me. Help!”
“Let me hear the silence of Thee.”
“Take my heart, my life, my breath!”
“Let flow Thy love through my heart!”
“Lord, fill life with love through me.”
“All beings praise the silence of Thee.”
One ten second long prayer — if you have the nervous system for it.
You’re going to need an ashram to build a mind that could do that ten second prayer. Of course,
any ashram would have better prayers to recite, but the goal is to realize that every second of a
mind’s existence is saturated with God’s creativity.
The ordinary mind is a marvel.
No wonder God wants yours.
Now you know what to give to Someone Who has everything.
Edg Duveyoung
Nisargadatta Maharaj says that in order to become self realized, you must free yourself
from all desires. What desires does he speak of?
Brace for vile accusations that are true about you.
Every instant of your having a mind is a state of abject slavering desire.
You clawed your way off of God’s Lap to chase a red laser dot on the carpet.
Oh yeah, it’s that bad.
Let’s examine.
The best part of your day is when you burn your toast in the morning. Your career is a marathon
event in plate spinning. You can’t read anyone’s mind — but have to. You can’t talk to the animals,
and you’re retaining water weight. There’s 19 anti-yummy industrial ingredients in your ice cream.
For entertainment, your best friends elbow your ribs. When you stop to smell the roses, you get a
three inch thorn in the thumb. Anyone not your age hates your music. Most of the world thinks
your food is yucky and won’t and can’t get your jokes.
That’s your laser dot. Proud of yourself for chasing after that? Giving yourself merit badges for
sacrifices made but ne’er a dot garnered? Having more serious therapy sessions looking in a
mirror lately?
Tired of it yet?
Well you should be. What a hot mess you are. Scrambled egg brain. Crazy hearted passions.
You’re frenzied inside your skull like a lustful monkey seeking redder fruits and taking certainty
leaps from branch to branch to branch.
All your waking hours are spent ricocheting like an echo.
I’m exhausted just thinking about you.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj to the rescue:
“There is no such state as seeing the real. Who is to see what? You can only be the real --
which you are, anyhow. The problem is only mental. Abandon false ideas, that is all. There is
no need of true ideas. There aren't any.”
Translation:
“If you’re being, you can’t be seeing. Your identity must come first. You already are real so no
need to try to be. All your thoughts are untrue, so treat them they’re like cooties! There’s no such
thing as a true cootie.”
What a relief, eh? You are so absolved of all responsibilities. No more chopping wood and carrying
water. Pondering the past is passe — hand wringing ended. Any possible future — divine.
Right here, right now, it’s fully available.
Perfection is where you last left it.
Not marked on any treasure map.
It’s seen where sight is not needed
And silence is louder than noise.
Nisargadatta’s Guru told him, “You’re God.”
Three years later, Nisargadatta said, “Ahhhh.”
See what that Guru did to him?
The Guru saw that Nisargadatta had faith in the Guru’s statements, so when he told Nisargadatta
he was God, he knew Nisargadatta would mull the heck out of that.
And he did.
Sprinkled throughout his day, Nisargadatta went within to see what God was thinking. Always
certain that the mundane was a marvel and enjoying it as it arrived.
And finally, the marvel had entirely replaced the mundane.
It works on any mind.
Are you ready?
Are you set?
On your mark . . .
YOU’RE GOD!
Go!
Edg Duveyoung
The Mind: What is a human mind?
ANSWERS POSING AS QUESTIONS
1. Are you using someone else’s mind to ask this question?
2. Do you think your mind is not a representative sample of minds in general?
3. When you use your mind to find your mind which one are you?
4. Can a character in a dream have a mind?
5. Are you having mental experiences based upon wetware tech that far exceeds the
performance excellence of the most advanced computers?
6. Are you alive and alert inside a massively intense molecular immensity’s clockworks — in
the heart of the tick-a-tocking gears and cogs — as it processes unbelievable tonnage
from the senses?
7. What says, “ow,”before you do if an anvil falls on your toe?
8. If someone yells, “fire,” when you’re sleeping, who is on guard and hears?
9. What instantly, moment by moment, picks something to focus on while ignoring
EVERYTHING ELSE?
10. What hogs your entire attention away from the Face of God?
I’m thinking you know “mind” all too well.
What next? Going to ask me about the back of your hand?
Why are you bothering me?
Edg Duveyoung
Why, as an atheist, do I get an almost spiritual sense of comfort when learning about
the Cosmos?
Awe is close to being spiritual. It’s a lovely mood, but it’s not fully spiritual. It’s wonderful to be
conscious of vastness, and it’s understandable that our favorite emotions are conflated with
spirituality. When ones personality puts an experience on the front burner, we know that our
attention is being allured and that this is indicative of something that is not entirely seen.
Something more is there.
What is it?
Follow the trail. We close the eyes and try to really see inside our minds when “it’s pleasant in
there.” If we try to witness our wonder — we’ll be targeting the mundane, BUT THAT’S OKAY.
Easier to stay inside then.
But note the keyword — witness.
If we merely watch our inner doings without engaging in them (or rejecting what comes to the
mind if wonder fades and other material comes to the fore,) then we find the mind settles down,
and we find that settling down proves to be relatively more enjoyable than the more energetic
mental experience we, moments earlier, used as our motivation to close the eyes in the first place.
While it’s nice to be inspired to go within by the cosmos, silence is better.
Because the quieter it gets, the closer we are to spirit.
When silence arrives — it’s sentient and true spirit — not a representative of spirit such as we find
in the doings of consciousness — but, instead, we realize the actual self — the sole identity. You.
You are pure awareness.
The vastness of infinite awareness is your real identity, and that’s why the vastness of the universe
is resonating and finding favor with you. It mirrors you.
The Hindu puja often uses this phrase: akhanda mandalakaram. Translation: “unbounded like the
canopy of the sky.” It’s an ancient concept about the endlessness of awareness.
All scriptures know of your question.
And all scriptures tell us to stop reading and GO WITHIN.
They’re not telling us to be star gazers despite it being such an obvious metaphor. Nor do they tell
us to be experts in the concepts of scriptures.
“Just go within and that’ll do ya,” they say.
Gotta love that the night sky is saying:
“You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
“Just you take a gander in the other direction.”
Edg Duveyoung
What is the most interesting fact you know about Human Consciousness?
I know nothing about consciousness.
Same as you, eh?
For instance, I’ve never predicted the future — not even when my toast was going to pop up.
Fortune telling is not an easily garnered skill — it didn’t come with my consciousness starter kit.
Nice, eh?
This is the most interesting fact about consciousness — for any type of consciousness — not
only that of humans. There’s no crystal balls — no Magic Eight Balls — no potent portents — no
loop holes to exploit — no tricks allowed — no vows taken with clarity — no deed done except that
dice are tossed.
I’ll double down.
I cannot predict my next thought.
How bad is that? I can’t even peek ahead a microsecond.
But but but, hey now, it’s a necessary actuality, when I think about it.
That’s an even playing field!
For all creatures.
WE’RE ALL BLIND!
Talk about your being born equal!
Me and a mouse and a microbe — STUCK IN THE NOW.
Bottomline: God’s freedom to create is unfettered. Every next moment is exactly as surprising as
the last — only different.
But ugh.
I’ve had it with this victimization.
I getting out of the “questions and answers that appear in consciousness” business. It’s zero sum
and a bother.
I’m going to stay out of my mind as often as possible.
I’m declaring mental bankruptcy.
So should you.
Plan A
Pay attention to attention.
Consciousness will sputter spit and spurt, but that’s okay.
Silence is there in every midst.
Attention is an all time and all space reality.
Easily seen — ask anyone if they’re here.
Awareness saturates all things.
Consciousness is local.
Awareness never wavers.
Consciousness changes constantly.
Awareness is you.
Consciousness is a doppleganger.
Close the eyes.
Attend solely.
Witness only.
Accept all as perfect.
It will go well.
It will be surprising.
Plan B
Do Plan A
Edg Duveyoung
Does rebirth really happen?
Originally Answered: Do you believe in rebirth? If yes, then what is your explanation?
God is anti-reincarnation.
You’re not supposed to have more than one life.
You were supposed to figure it all out the first time.
If you’re born human, you have one job: finding silence.
But noooo . . . you had to take the scenic route.
You had to have billions of lifetimes.
You incarnation glutton you.
Yeah I said it.
Let’s review:
You’ve been rocks, plants, microbes and blue whales.
You’ve been planets, stars, galaxies and biggest bangs.
You’ve been gods and angels and timelords.
You’ve been Mickey and Donald and Goofy.
You’ve been Blitzen, Bashful, Dewey, Curly, and The Ugly.
You’ve been strings, quarks, and black holes.
You’be been twice in Schrodinger’s box and escaped once out of Pandora’s.
You’ve been everywhere, played every role, done everything 10,000 times.
Like I said. Glutton.
I mean really. People are beginning to talk.
Therapy is advised.
GOD HERE — BREAKING INTO THIS ESSAY.
“Get your ass back here. You are so grounded.”
Edg Duveyoung
What is awakening?
Don’t ask me,
Ask the awakened person whom you already know.
Last night in a dream you were thinking things were just peachy keeno, and then the worst
possible thing happened.
The person you are now yawned . . . and evaporated that entire dream.
IT WAS YOU that awakened this morning.
Not the dream-you.
The dream-you didn’t even get a chance to honorably die.
Your inner representative merely got suddenly poofed out of existence along with the rest of that
dream-universe.
No guilt on your part, right?
That’s how it will be when the “awakened-this-morning you” that you think you are now gets
enlightened out of existing and goes poof too. Along with the rest of your “so-called real but ever
so poofable” universe.
When you get enlightened, bye bye goes everything.
You are an expert at destroying whole creations.
Poof — all of it instantaneously unimportant.
But there never was a there there, so no guilt.
Think of how “okay” you are that when you wake up the dream-person’s desires have been
rendered baseless. The dream person could have been but seconds away from a major
achievement. BUT YOU DON’T CARE.
This is how it will be.
The you you are now will not be there.
Not a trace of you left.
There will be no memorial service.
Getcha thinkin’ don’t it?
Must gotta just for sure hasta be certain that it’s worth it.
What would you trade you for?
Answer: you wouldn’t.
Solution: Practice nothingness.
By meditating we find that awareness is the only thing that never goes poof.
As we meditate, we settle down. Thoughts become fewer, and yet we find no loss of self. When
ones “mentality” pauses, awareness shines forth as the true self. By this practicing of “losing the
world,” the self is revealed as always being there like the Sun behind now parting clouds.
Eventually, no more clouds.
What happens next is up to God.
The unpoofable you gets to watch it all.
That’s why it’s worth it.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the 'I am' sense that Nisargadatta says and how to focus on it?
“I am that ‘I am.’” says God.
Who else, eh?
If you use the word, “myself,” you are fundamentally wrong.
“Hold on there, Bub,” says Nisargadatta, “You’re falsely assuming that there’s two selves…and that
one owns the other.”
Advaita teaches that there’s but one self, and its primal manifestation is “the sense of existential
certainty in any being.” It’s God basking inside ones personal point of view — be it that you are a
human, a chimp, an oyster, a microbe or one of the stones that Jesus said would cry out.
It’s all God all the time. From quarks to galactic groups — any “thing” has God playing peekaboo
inside it.
Now you know.
Or do you?
“It takes a heap o’ livin’ in a house t’ make it home.” — Edgar Guest
And it takes a heap o’iteration to culture a nervous system.
WHAT PART
Understanding the concept, “self,” is an intellectual feat.
Reading “I Am That” by Nisargadatta — until you “get it” — that’s merely an achievement. This is
illusory and temporary, but it keeps the ego from messing around elsewhere.
HOW PART
Realizing that self is the only identity is due to grace, not clarity.
Transcending thought by residing meditatively in “I am,” reduces identity to its simplest
expression and then POP! — suddenly and permanently — identity itself resolves from duality to
unity. This is not something that is caused by any operation of a nervous system. It’s a gift. Grace.
The “how part” instruction manual:
Look within.
Don’t do anything except look.
Don’t engage.
Don’t reject.
Take whatever the brain is doing to be perfect.
Just look inside and slowly discover that there is a silence underlying all experiences.
The longer you look the easier it becomes to see silence’s all time reality.
Look more and you start to identify with silence more than with the noises.
Look again and see the silence is God.
Simple as that.
Heap away!
Edg Duveyoung
Do you practice mindfulness meditation? How do you realize that you actually are
"doing it" instead of merely sitting, if you are a beginner?
99% of what you’re doing right now is mindfulness.
As you read these words, what else do you see?
Answer: the other 99% of your visual field.
Are you mindful of “the rest of it?”
Answer: yes. Your mind recognizes and knows what all the other objects are, and this extends to
your peripheral vision. It’s all seen, defined, and what the mind considers most important at that
moment is then placed to the fore of consciousness while all the rest is “set aside” as ornamental,
context, field, ignorable, there but not attention getting, background spear holders at the opera.
How can you become 100% mindful?
Answer: you already know how and do it here or there throughout the day.
“I wasn’t paying attention.”
“My mind was elsewhere.”
“Sorry, I don’t know where I went for a second there.”
“I was on automatic.”
How can you become 100% mindful — on purpose?
Answer: there’s the rub. A purpose is attention getting. We cannot be innocent on purpose. We
cannot notice our not-noticing-ness. The tongue cannot taste itself. The ego is not invited to this
party.
Solution: Go to zero percent.
When we close the eyes and settle down, silence becomes more obvious. By practicing, it
becomes easier to notice silence. Silence can become dominant and thoughts subtle. Seconds,
minutes can pass without a thought significantly “marring the field.” One learns that all thinking is
arriving without one being purposeful and that ones role is to be a “witness of creation arriving” —
not an “author of thoughts.”
This clarity takes practice to fully install in the mind as an all time reality.
Meditation’s wisdom then begins to leak into daily life. We begin to see how much of life is
automatic and yet supporting, correct, on time, congruous.
And we see how it could all be eventually “let go of.”
Just witnessed.
Let go of it all?
Answer: why not?
You allow the 99% to be all by itself without your help.
Do you really think attending to “your precious” is helping all that much?
Maybe just maybe, it’s a bother.
Not a big bother, but a bother.
Just sayin’ since your childhood you’ve wisely sang:
“Over the river, and through the wood,
To Grandfather's house we go;
The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh
Through the white and drifted snow.”
Edg Duveyoung
How does Advaita Vedanta explain Siddhis? The individual should have no power to
influence the objective reality (objective idealism).
Patanjali teaches all the powers of the mind — so you can be free of their allure.
Patanjali taught how to develop any of the powers by doing samyama on concepts. We are
assured that one can be as small as an atom, or be invisible, or be able to fly, or be able to read
minds, or have super strength or have irresistible charisma and on and on.
Sounds good, eh? Couldn’t you just dissolve into a day-dreamed adventure in which you use
these powers? If only you had even one of these powers, how easy it would be to defeat your
neighborhood bad guy. Delicious.
Hollywood has gotten how much money from you? Just asking. It’s your personal metric for how
powers — magically wondrous — are addictive even if but merely in a sci-fi film. Or, would be
addictive, say, if you were to be a sorcerer’s apprentice who only wanted some help from a broom.
Oooooo, just let me be a superhero.
Oooooo, just let me see the future.
Oooooo, just let me have omniscience for ten minutes.
Oooooo, just let me perfectly love the world.
Oooooo, just let me have all the powers of God.
Oops on that last one, eh?
SUDDEN ACCUSATION ALERT
You’re the one who should be saying, “Oops.”
You’re the one who grabbed all the powers.
You’re using them RIGHT NOW.
Don’t be looking behind you. I’m talking to YOU.
“I don’t have any powers.” — your favorite lie.
“What are you, nutz?” — your typical diversion.
“You can’t show me one miracle.” — your whiny challenge.
“Then why ain’t I rich?” — your blatant denial.
“No one has any powers at all.” — your crass propaganda.
At this point in the essay, I invite you to actually, for even a few seconds, consider how deeply held
would be your real-world denials.
Are you without any of the superpowers? Really?
You’re saying you are a can’t-do-spiritual-jack-one nothing burger who’s never even learned a
card trick?
This is the kind of thing that keeps God laughing all day and night and in the timeless dimensions
too. God hardly gets any work done — delayed by being doubled over holding divine guts in and
saying, “Stawp, can’t breathe.”
Back to Patanjali. He taught how to obtain the siddhis so that one could see the value of not using
them, because to do so would mar unity. All thoughts divide unity into two or more parts — this is
the basic error; it’s the foundation of the illusory.
BUT YOU DON’T CARE. You swiped the powers and scrammed out of Heaven, and now here you
are being insanely bombastic. Instant by instant. Tirelessly. Effortlessly. Gloriously.
Science can’t find you, and they’ve looked in all the brain’s parts.
You’re invisible.
In nightly dreams, what can’t you do?
When awake, you parse and define your inputs instantaneously — at a rate no
instrumentality can measure. Quick, how many leaves did you just see on the tree outside
your window in an instant glance? Your mind is comfortable with seeing tens of
thousands of things that are routinely ignored because they’re so well known they’re
boring.
If you ask any yogi what you appear to be, the answer would be, “God.”
Even lifting your pinky finger requires that you, the invisible ghost in the machine,
somehow, by an unknown mystical method, are able to commandeer the workings of a
naked ape — and it’s all so humdrum to you.
I gotta quit. It’s just so adorable to see you enjoying being this run-away angel, I can’t hardly work
up a sneer. I don’t want to rain on your parade. I don’t see why I should unmask you. Here’s the
entire universe being played with inside your head — nope, don’t want to be the pooper at your
party.
But you’re God with all possible powers. I mean it. But this essay just got too delightful to do any
serious therapy.
Oh well, next time.
Edg Duveyoung
What kind of guided, active meditations can I do in the group setting to connect all the
people in that group on a higher level of consciousness?
If you read these instructions aloud, you’ll get a very hefty response from the participants. This is
an extremely effective exercise if done as instructed. Give the audience generous amounts of time
to process after you read each instruction.
————————
You will be experiencing a series of "jumps". Do not rush this experiment. Take one jump at a time.
The more you take your time, the more powerful will your results be.
Close your eyes and feel the various parts of your body. Try to distinguish the sensations of the
more inner parts from the sensations coming from the parts of your body that are reporting
contact with your clothing, the chair you are sitting on, the floor being sensed beneath your feet,
etc. Try to feel the inside of your head, between your eyes, inside the nasal passages, the deeper
parts of your mouth cavity. Try to feel your eardrums actually capturing sounds. Feel -- don't
listen -- feel your eardrums being moved by the sound waves crashing into them. Feel the inside
of your throat and neck. Practice "scooting around the body" to "visit" these various sensations.
Jump One. Now, in your mind's eye, with eyes still closed, imagine that you can sense yourself
ranging throughout your immediate environment as if it were also your body. Pretend you are
getting "reports" or "sensations" or "some sort of information" from the nearby objects in the
room. To whatever extent you can, sense the presence of the objects of the room -- even though
your eyes are closed. This sense may simply be a conviction on your part that you "know" that the
desk is "there". Pretend you can "somehow" feel the chair, the floor, the other furniture in the
room, and finally feel the presence of the walls of the room like "another skin" around you. "Scoot
around the room" like this for a few minutes with your imagination. Feel that the room is
completely filled with your aliveness, your consciousness. Sense that every speck of space in the
room has you within it.
Jump Two. Now, "break out" of this room. Pretend that you now can range freely around the entire
structure of this building. Do NOT imagine yourself traveling around the building like a ghost;
instead, actually feel that you are being in every part of the building simultaneously--JUST LIKE
YOU NOW FEEL YOU ARE IN EVERY PART OF YOUR BODY. Fill the building with "you", with your
living presence. Take a minute or two to gain a bit of comfort doing this, or rather, BEING this.
Jump Three. Now, take a breath, let it out, and as you breathe out, fill up your neighborhood with
consciousness. Pretend you are the life breath, the soul, of the entire area in which you live. All the
buildings, all the people, all the animals, the wind, EVERYTHING is filled with your spirit. Scoot
around in your imagination for a few minutes. Everywhere you go, there you are already. Like your
hands or feet have always been filled with you, feel the various "parts of you" in the neighborhood
being similarly filled. But, understand that everything is instantly available to you by merely putting
your attention on it. There's no "waiting" for more distant "parts of you" to "report in". No part of
you is farther from you in terms of time.
Jump Four. Take another deep breath and fill up all the land around you with awareness as you
exhale. Blossom yourself to huge proportion. Pretend that the seacoasts are like your toes and
finger tips. Feel the immense dynamism of the detailed world that is full with your loving grace and
support. Feel like the one soul that pervades everything. See that everything is IMMEDIATELY
available to you -- just a glancing or listening and instantly that part of you reports in with some
data. Imagine smelling the sea air on one coast, instantly seeing a silent bird gliding up a mountain
slope and then immediately hearing the waves of the other coast.
Jump Five. Now, take another deep breath, breathe out, and fill the earth with your spirit. Say
"hello" to the universe as you "try on" your Earth-body. Open your spiritual eyes to scan the vast
reaches around you. Feel the majesty of your new self, a magnificent planet with billions upon
billions of lives complexly intertwined. Feel the serenity of space as you bask in the pleasure of
being so vibrantly alive with awareness.
Jump Six. Fill up the universe. Do not waste time with filling only our galaxy, fill the whole of space
and time. Fill it all. Pretend that the billions of galaxies are like cells of your body. Delight in the
fullness of your almost infinite resources. Countless lives experiencing an endless parade of
feelings, emotions, thoughts, birth and death. Feel the intimate ownership of everything. Instantly
across billions of light years of distance you find yourself "already there" wherever you gaze. Feel
how far beyond ordinary concerns you are. Millions of your units are dying and millions are being
born. Incredible changes are happening by the instant, but you are unchanged by any of it. You
are filling up everything. You support all. Glory surrounds you like a cloud of light.
Jump Seven. See that the magnificence of all this is merely an object that is within your attention.
The immensity that you are, with your myriad bodies and the wisdom of millions of cultures, is but
a small blip, just something to perceive, a THING, a very tiny precious jewel in a vast infinite
consciousness that is completely unbounded by any limitations. Feel yourself to be, as you have
always been, an all pervading awareness that is everywhere, every time simultaneously. You
contain all of it, and it is exceedingly small compared to the vastness of your presence. Know
yourself to be pure, absolute and beyond everything.
Jump Eight. Give up all conceptualizations, feelings, sensations, memories, values, qualities, and
physicality. You are that that is beyond all these things including the consciousness that is aware
of them for you. Understand that consciousness loves the universe and loves creating thoughts
about it and presenting them to YOU. See that the infinite resourcefulness of consciousness is
there for you to witness as it conveys the universe to you. See that these thoughts about
consciousness and its infinity are being created by consciousness, not you. You are the witness of
it all, the soul of consciousness, the source of consciousness itself. You cannot be described, but
yet you are. Beyond all concept, you are. Completely beyond.
Jump Nine. From out of this infinity, watch as consciousness seeks to please you -- even though
you do not need any THING. Watch as consciousness brings to you the vision of one of your
bodies sitting in a room with eyes closed with its small individual spark of consciousness. Watch
as consciousness introduces this individual to the unlimited potentiality of itself. Feel the surge of
pure love that consciousness has for this small spark. Watch the blessing of pure compassion
flood this individual as the entirety of creation is found securely and comfortably residing within.
Feel the circle being completed.
I wrote most this essay two decades ago. Also, I previously posted this content on Quora in
another essay.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the importance of breathing in your life? (A scientific explanation)
Originally Answered: How is breathing important (philosophy)?
“I think; therefore I breathe.”
That is a truer statement than “I think; therefore I am.”
If it depends on oxygen, it’s illusory.
Proof: meditate and discover the real has no lungs.
Philosophy’s challenge is that transcendence and death of the ego doesn’t easily sell books, or
Blu-rays, or in-residence courses. Spinning yarns is far sexier marketing. Stories abound that
humans, as if, are miracles of actuality. So dang real, donchaknow,
— instead of being ghostly mirages haunting the wetware of meat robots.
A constant grooming and aggrandizement of ego gets Sunday morning collection plates full.
“You’re a thinker, and here’s why that’s true. And here’s a weekend course that’ll teach you how to
be a better producer of thoughts and use a lot more oxygen.”
And yet, even a child can know truth in its purest form — the self.
Ask the child,
“Do you have thoughts?”
Child: “Yes.”
“Do you plan your thoughts or do they just happen to you?”
Child: “Happen.”
“You just get to watch them as they arrive?”
Child: “Yes.”
“Do you have dreams when you sleep?”
Child: “Yes.”
“Do the dreams just happen to you like your thoughts?”
Child: “Yes.”
“Are you doing anything to create the thoughts and dreams?”
Child: “No.”
“It seems like they are gifts.”
Child: “Yes.”
“When thoughts happen inside your mind and you experience them; can anyone read your mind?”
Child: “No.
“So only you know these thoughts — you are alone inside your mind?”
Child: “Yes.”
“You’re all alone inside your mind — and you’re not doing the thinking, but instead, you’re just
watching thoughts arrive?
Child: “Yes.”
“You’re not doing anything, but yet you are getting all these thoughts all day long and dreams in
the night?”
Child: “Yes.”
“Are these thought-gifts good? Do they help you?”
Child: “Yes.”
“So you’re getting good thoughts and doing nothing except watching?”
Child: “Yes.”
“So, for instance, if you’re playing baseball and the pitcher throws the ball, the thought for you to
swing the bat pretty much happens on time even though you’re not the one producing the
thought?”
Child: “Yes.”
“So you do nothing except witness and accomplish everything?”
Child: “Yes.”
“If there’s a thought, it happens automatically, and is helpful, and your job is just to be there when
it happens?”
Child: “Yes.”
“These thoughts don’t go to anyone but you, and you’re there to get them?”
Child: “Yes.”
“You are there before, during, and after the thought? You’re there for the next thought’s arrival?”
Child: “Yes.”
“If a thought happens, you’re there ready for it?”
Child: “Yes.”
“So, you think and therefore you are there?”
Child: “I don’t need thoughts to know I am here. I’m know I’m here before, during and after
the arrival of any thoughts trying to prove I exist.”
Any child is such a philosopher.
Edg Duveyoung
Is it true that, like an iceberg, only a small portion of the mind (conscious) is obvious to
us? Is there a great majority of our mind (subconscious) that is hidden beneath the
surface?
You had me at “Is it true . . .”
Ten questions backatcha.
1. What if everything is true?
2. What if God decided to see every possible point of view?
3. What if the worst thought of the worst person and the best thought of the best person
are each equally interesting to God?
4. If God were to peer at creation through your mind, would all of creation be seen?
5. What message are you now receiving from your left elbow? Was your elbow
subconsciously talking to you mere seconds ago? Or were you ignoring it on purpose
because it rarely has anything interesting to say?
6. In your nightly dreams, is the person you think you are conscious?
7. If God wanted to see what it was like to not have omniscience, omnipotence, and
omnipresence, would your mind be a good example?
8. What if every thought was untrue and yet the source of thoughts was purely true?
9. If God and you ate popcorn and watched your entire life, what part of the movie would
God put on pause and consider silently?
10. If God came to you in Heaven and asked you to volunteer to be the you that you are now
— “to fulfill creation,” would you forget that on purpose?
Edg Duveyoung
How do you find your life's purpose?
Originally Answered: How can someone figure out their purpose in life?
Probably you won’t ever know, but read this essay anyway.
In Hinduism, ones purpose is called “ones dharma.”
If one is born into a family that has had the same dharma FOREVER, then you know your purpose,
because God has plunked you down into a situation in which you have the EXACT DNA for such a
purpose-defined lifestyle. In India, you don’t get to study The Ved and learn to recite the verses
aloud UNLESS YOUR FATHER DID. It’s a “truth” in India that the ability to have a dharmic life
depends on your chromosomes. Today’s science neatly dovetails by providing its experimental
basis for the caste system. If you have the right DNA, you’ve got a direct connection to one of the
skill-sets of the mind of God.
But in America, not so much.
We are wild and crazy here — meaning unpredictably dangerous and insane. Our villages raise our
kids to be almost always different from their parents. We don’t get to know what we are all about
or why we’re here or what’s going to happen because of our wonky mentality and our
hodgepodge society. We do anything that comes to mind.
This is called “totally sucking at doing a culture.”
America — Poster Child of Kali Yuga.
What to do? How to find out ones dharma?
The method most in the West use is to fumble and slog and make desperate grabs at masks and
roles. We pretend pretend pretend that we know what we are doing at every single second as we
whistle past graveyards. Oh sure, yes, mistakes are made. But we’re okay with wasting decades of
ones life. Whole careers are tossed when “I want to be more true to me” percolates up in a mind
that has come to find that it has no core-basis for its role in its present scenario. This is called a
“Skip out the back, Jack” moral foundation.
And now the bad news.
If you’ve been born, sorry to tell ya, you can be righteous.
You can’t give up on life just because you’re all tied up inside a Gordian Knot of a spaghettied
psychology. No excuses!
And now the good news.
Like the Gordian Knot’s solution, your solution doesn’t require you to have to ravel yourself.
Tangles schmangles.
All you need is THE SWORD OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. Or, if it’s an emergency, the sword of
King Arthur will do in a pinch.
And that knot can be cut and you can be freed from every binding. Freed to be righteous instead
of habituated.
Okay, I lied. A butter knife will do.
Okay, okay, that’s a lie too.
To slice the mind’s mess in half,
all you need is a sharp look.
Whet your eyes.
Look within.
Edg Duveyoung
I once experienced lucid deep sleep (blissful awareness without an object) for a few
nights in a row.Is that a sign of spiritual progress? What are the next steps on this
path?
No. But cool!
We can’t see tomorrow. God’s free to do anything next.
Whole lives have been formed around singular experiences when they’re profound, but the
instruction is: be innocent.
If these experiences become more frequent, be innocent.
If gods come to ask for your advice, be innocent.
The best we can do if we want to take spiritual inventory is to see if we are having less times when
thoughts are unwanted and/or if we are seeing that we are having an easier time focusing. These
are not perfect, but mostly they’re reliable indicators.
Secondary concept: temporary silence.
The nervous system is “set in its ways.” It can be hard for nature to effectively repair these
aspects instantly, and it can take some time before rest’s healing process loosens up some of our
rusted gears. We can enjoy a sort of “false silence” during deepest sleep when nature’s
operations are beneath our notice but yet still quite active nonetheless. And then POP…the gears
begin to move again, and up comes thoughts and feelings and memories etc., and the silence is
gone.
Lucid dreaming can be a wide variety of processes. Hard to say what you’re having. But, if you can
return to that state, at will, anytime, then I’d say DO THAT A LOT MORE. The goal is to have the
silence never end. I do feel a caution is necessary when it comes to “losing sleep.” If you are not
waking up refreshed, something’s wrong.
And don’t freak out if these moments stop. Could be you’ll bubble with thoughts up to the very
moment of realization.
Ya never know.
Until ya know.
Edg Duveyoung
What are the benefits, if we perform our actions without expecting any fruits, as
prescribed in the Bhagawat Gita?
There are no benefits . . . there’s no one to get them.
We don’t do . . . we don’t perform.
We don’t own anything . . . especially “our” actions.
We don’t expect . . . we wrongly project.
We don’t eat fruits . . . we’re not hungry . . . we’re so full . . . of light.
We don’t use the Gita as if a physician . . . to get a prescription.”
What a great question!
In Chapter 2 Verse 45
Lord Krishna tells Arjuna to get out of the “person business.”
This was the SINGLE EXISTENTIAL SIN OF ARJUNA.
Same as yours.
The sin is: assuming ownership of a nervous system — THE BIG NO NO.
— it’s tawdry.
—It’s stealing from God.
—It’s ignorance of God’s actuality.
—It’s false projection of identity.
—It’s to be an ocean and think, “I’m a drop.”
That’s the “person part.”
Stop thinking you’re a hot shot like Arjuna thought he was because he didn’t see God pulling back
the bow’s string.
The “business part.”
That is when we open up shop, and we try to “sell this blarney” to others.
If they believe us, and buy into it, transaction completed.
And the addiction begins.
There’s a story about two guards tossing dice to transact who would assume ownership of the
clothes of a prisoner they were executing.
Same as you do all the time.
The guards gambled instead of taking advantage of having a living God in their presence . . .
Jesus The Christ . . . still alive on the cross.
Same as you do in the face of the Divine every nanosecond.
You ignore God, because . . .
Doesn’t matter what comes after “because.”
If I were a Good Cop on the beat, I’d bang a night stick on a lamp post, and I’d say,
“Look, I know you’re a good kid. I know you want to make right on this, so here’s what to do.
Confess that you are not who you pretend to be. Resolve to join Arjuna in the silence of pure
being, and from therein witness all of the nervous system’s actions thenceforth fully under divine
sway.
“Do that, and The Judge is going to go easy on you, believe me. I know you can do this. I seen ya
around the neighborhood. So has everyone else. So keep your nose clean, and set a good
example for these younger punks.
“All you have to do is sit on your stoop, close your eyes and look within and don’t pay attention to
anything you hear in there until you hear nothing.
“That’s your ticket out of here.
“Hear nothing and be something.”
Edg Duveyoung
How does it feel to know you are only immortal for a limited time?
Short answer: Feels kinda okay.
Long answer:
1. Time isn’t forever.
Ditto space.
At any point in either,
It feels like it feels right now.
One is pinpointed in vastness.
2. After everyone dies.
After atomic particles die.
After time and space die.
One doesn’t.
3. One does not become
Non-existent.
Or the opposite.
4. Ones past life will be seen as:
Endlessness in a curved infinity.
Claustrophobic immortality.
For a limited time.
5. Solution: get enlightened,
While one still has a body.
Dive within.
Become silence.
Wait for grace.
6. Swoon.
Melt.
Disappear.
7
Edg Duveyoung
What is thought?
Thoughts are errors.
They tell the same lie over and over again.
“This is different.”
Patanjali taught about this.
He said, “This is not different.”
“Listen when I’m telling you this,” he’d scream wordlessly.
In Patanjali’s ashram, imagine having this thought:
“This is such a holy thought I’m having.”
Patanjali’s catch phrase was “Differences are for doofuses.”
Unity is sullied by any distinction arising in the mind.
If something catches your attention, duh, you’ve been caught!
Subjects attended matter not.
You were had at “Hmmmm.”
You bit the hook.
Ego reeled you in.
Atonement is required for reading this far into this essay.
You may choose any of the following.
1. Say six rosaries and three Hail Marys and two Our Fathers.
2. Do twelve Sun Salutations and five minutes of pranyama.
3. Do 1,000 Buddhist prostrations
4. Do 200 whirling dervish twirls.
5. Sit with eyes closed right now, and don’t move a muscle until your computer’s screen
saver comes on.
Why are you still reading?
Go!
Edg Duveyoung
What has been your greatest spiritual experience?
Why mine and not yours?
No one has had a greater spiritual experience than you.
I already hear ya. Okay, let’s list your denials.
“God’s spiritual experience has to be better than that of angels, and those holy flappers would
have mental events that are spiritually superior to us chopped-liver humans.
“Saints on Earth, throughout time have reported fantastic experiences that I have never had.
They’re saints, for God’s sake! Whereas, I’m a locally known sinner.
“Certain humans have had extraordinary circumstances. No way the ‘first foot on the Moon’
experience wasn’t far more spiritual than ‘putting a foot on my oil-stained driveway’ experience.
“Scriptures speak of humans with vast powers. Moses parting the Red Sea, for instance. The mind
of Moses had to be incredibly in tune with the Divine, and that had to be a moment of spirituality
that was almost beyond ordinary humans to understand — let alone also have. At most I could part
a puddle with a leaf blower.
“I’m no Mother Teresa. I’m no Gandhi. I guess I’d like to be. But hey, come on. The best spiritual
experience I can reasonably hope for is stingy eyes when my kid is in the Christmas play.
“I have no talents which might transport me into a spiritual moment. I am nothing special with
music, chess, math, drawing, dancing, singing. I got 70 percentile in everything.
“I’m not smart enough to soar to heights and have new insights or even to grasp those already
discovered by clearly superior intellects. I’d eat an apple if it fell on my head.
“Get outta here with that stuff. You’re just going to try to smart-talk around this, and at the end, I’ll
still be a spiritual dunce compared to the greats.
“No way Edg climbs outta this hole, he’s dug!
“No way I’ll have a spiritual experience before this essay ends.
“No way no how never uh-uh ain’t not gunna happen.”
Flip Script Alert
Your above statements,
if to be actually said to God On The Throne In Heaven
—while you were face down bawling your eyes out,
—while you were hoping for mercy — instead of justice — for being a dud,
would find God chuckling.
“Precisely,” God would say.
“Wonderfully put,” God would say.
God would say,
“Let’s review. Remember along with Me.
“We started you out by giving you a chance to run Heaven when I was on break. Remember those
intern days? Ahhhhh.
“And then you got pretty good at omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence, and wanted to be
an angel for a while and find out how to be limited a bit and got good at that too, so the next thing
I knew you were constantly pulling at my sleeve and asking for an earthly assignment.
“What a pest you were, so finally I had you be born human and rapidly become a saint, and of
course, you were miffed at such a puff duty, and right away you’re praying for something harder.
“So, of course, I relented and bam bam bam you’re trying out lives and roles like watching movie
trailers and eating popcorn. I mean, you were saints and heroes and leaders and famous for
everything at least twice.
“And then you really got on My case with ceaseless beggary.
‘I can do this, Team Leader.
‘Give me something to prove myself, Oh Glorious One.
‘Give me a real stinky life, Almighty Majesty.
‘I want to come up smelling like a rose, my Lord and Savior.
‘I can handle this, El Royal Splendiferousness.
‘Nothing to build on, Highest Higherist.
‘Nothing special for me, Bestest Holiest Infiniteness.
‘And lots of hard-times karma, Sacred Seer of Seeingness.
‘Smack me with Thy Left Hand, Thou Holiest of the Moliness.
‘Put me in the game, Coach!’
“And so I did.
“And here you are.
“My beloved spiritual child in whom I am pleased.”
Edg Duveyoung
Are there any great enlightened sages such as Ramana Maharshi alive today?
Ramana Maharshi is alive today.
You think that I don’t mean it, right? I’m being tricky, right?
I’ve got some special twist, right? Ramana’s dead, right?
Consider my proposition.
Resolved that the world famous spiritual teacher, Sri Ramana Maharshi, is alive at the
moment that this essay is being read by you.
Hefty, eh? No stinting or shilly-shallying, eh? Gets right to the nub, eh?
Most of the statement’s conditionals can be set aside by mutual agreement.
We agree:
that Ramana, when last seen alive, was beloved by living nervous systems as a person and as a
guru;
that he once taught, and his teachings were found worthy, then and today, by esteemed thinkers
who held and hold them to be spiritually honest, and logically unassailable; Carl Jung to name
drop;
that he, despite being dead, is thought by living nervous systems to “somehow-ish-ly” be
teaching via books; it is compelling to beginners and adepts alike that there is a sense of a living
mind that, as if, vividly resides in the text….somehowishly;
that he was deserving of the terms “Sri” and “Maharshi” — no matter that such accolades would
be impossible to validate conventionally;
that this list could go on and on;
therefore: Ramana’s teachings, via books, are available to today’s living nervous systems that are,
by reading Ramana’s teachings, influenced such that their operations are measurably changed by
exposure to such instruction. Galvanic skin response. Blood chemistry. Brainwaves. Oxygen
usage. Etc.
So what’s left is that you still think “dead” is a better word for Ramana then “alive.” So hey! we
agree — that this is the issue. Other issues, we can say, are moot.
Let’s roll up our sleeves and try to learn our way through this. Hold my hand now . . . hear me out.
If we ask science how to define “is alive,” we get a short-shrift reply. “A local decrease in entropy
via DNA.” That’s it. Those tight-lipped you-know-what’s-its get terse on you if you ask about “the
person.” That sounds way too religious to them, see? Gets ’em squirmy.
So heck with those guys, right? They’re a buncha biased, bubbled, self-babbledists.
I could prove to them that Ramana’s alive by their definitions , but nah, not today; we know geeks
and nerds, right? They’d NEVER stop debating, right? We’d have them in a group-head-lock, and
they’d rather turn purple than admit defeat.
So, next, let’s ask the atheists. “Alive” to them is a spectrum. They think they’re so much in
agreement on the concept “no God,” that they’re para-causally in agreement about “is alive.” As if.
The pre-Watson&Crick atheists were all over the place, but, even back then, they thought they
knew “is alive” better than anyone. And today’s atheists are scared of getting too much in
harmony — lest it be called a religion, so they’re all over the place too.
So the heck with those guys, right? So un-worth the trouble. We don’t need no stinkin’ atheists to
determine if Ramana is alive, right?
Do we really need to go down the list?
Can’t I just dismiss all the other schools of thought and murmurations of murmurs and from-on-
high-proclamationalists?
Good. Agreed.
But wait.
What about the Advaita guys? You know who. Those guys. The ones making a decent living
talking about Ramana’s explications. Yeah, those guys.
Uh-hmmm. Them.
Get them in civil court and make them lose all their money if they won’t admit Ramana’s dead. A
dime will not be lost.
So heck with those guys, right?
But wait. Yikes. You still think he’s dead too, right?
But I’m writing this essay, right? Heh. Snicker. Smirk.
I’ll tell all the other Quora readers what you think. Heh. Snicker. Smirk.
Hey Quora. I know this guy who’s reading.
After slogging through over 600 words — this is not a geekist or beliefist or elseist. This is
someone who has intuited that Sri Ramana Maharshi is a burning ember within broadcasting
transcendently and calling to one to become the silence instead of the noise.
Calling to the one reading.
Saying,
“You can transcend by looking within,
“and then become real.
“It’s better than being merely alive.”
Heck with those aliveists, right?
Edg Duveyoung
Do insentient things have consciousness according to Advaita Vedanta?
Jesus — the stealth Advaitan — taught us about consciousness.
1. Jesus’ resurrection proved death does not stop the continuity of personality, because
consciousness is an all time reality.
2. Jesus on the cross had the Holy Spirit leave Him, and He cried out, "My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?" This shows that inside one human being there can also be a
Divine Guest, an avatar of God, Who, while there, is then the dominant personality.
3. Jesus healed the blind, the lame, the deaf, the mute, — showing that the potency of ANY
level of consciousness of ANY person at ANY time can bring about INSTANT
transformations.
4. Jesus talked to demons inside a person showing that multiple personalities can share a
human nervous system. He then cast those demons into a herd of pigs — showing that
personalities are merely temporary inhabitants of the nervous system — even animal
nervous systems. Eviction does not need death.
5. Jesus brought Lazarus back to life after he’d been dead four days and was stinking. This
shows the power of consciousness to re-enliven dead nervous systems.
6. Jesus had the hem of His robe touched, and a woman was healed. This shows that faith
is a psychological mechanism that taps into the power of consciousness. A single simple
belief is all it takes for consciousness to be spurred. Jesus said if one had the faith of a
mustard seed consciousness could be commanded to MOVE A MOUNTAIN.
7. Jesus healed the servant of a centurion — showing that consciousness is everywhere at
once, and that it’s possible to direct such actions without having to “be there” to guide it.
8. Jesus cursed the fig tree — showing that plants have personalities that can be found to
be immoral. You can’t hide from karma — because consciousness is ALL ONE PIECE.
9. Jesus said that stones would cry out in protest if His disciples stifled their jubilant
worshiping — showing that even insentient matter yet has enough “nervous system” such
that consciousness can somehow find a way to express religious indignation.
In short, all things are possible.
In fact the biggest miracle of your life is possible.
You might discover that you too are visitor of a nervous system RIGHT NOW.
Maybe that’s not you in the mirror.
Maybe that’s just another body/mind system you’re visiting.
Or better.
Maybe you’re not a personality.
Maybe you’re not a spiritual wanderer.
Maybe you’re a pin-point of sentience. A witness.
Of all things all the time.
Look inside.
Find out.
Edg Duveyoung
What is your most effective meditation technique for dealing with highly stressful
situations?
————————-
It depends on who you are.
1. Absolute — Before creation, unimaginable stress due to the “unfulfilled urge to create.”
— Solution: Expand into the illusory.
2. Lord Vishnu — His making-ever-more-pure silence’s silence builds up stress due to the
mere possibility of imaginary noise.
— Solution: Dream away the pressure buildup by manifesting all possibilities in the seed-
form of Lord Brahma on The Lotus Leaf.
3. Lord Shiva — Silence personified, having manifested in the relative, finds creation builds
up stress due to the unfathomability of karma.
— Solution: Meditate on the Self until all mysteries dissolve.
4. Lord Rama — God incarnate leads a perfect life in a perfect creation and is stressed by
having to process horrible karma.
— Solution: Maintain Dharma by making the hard choices. Set an example for the next
two million years. Walk bodily into Heaven with 50,000 of your best friends.
5. Lord Krishna — God incarnate fully immersed in relative life is stressed by the
impossibility of solving all problems.
— Solution: Do miracles even as an infant. Make true love to 16,000 women. Help Five
Brothers to kill almost everyone. Teach the most secret of secrets to Arjuna. Play Vedic
jazz on a flute.
6. Lord Jesus — Avatar, divinely brave, endured the maximum stress due to incarnating
with a mission to refashion spirituality by merely creating a handful of saints.
— Solution: Teaching, fasting, praying, dying, visiting Hell, reappearing for 40 more days
to remove even Thomas’ doubts.
7. Lord Buddha — Divine Teacher discovered that life as a prince yet was miserable due to
the stress of knowing about all those others mired in karmic throes.
— Solution: Meditate and find silence in the middle of the path’s noise.
8. Arjuna — Demi-god with a hawk’s vision. Could shoot a speck of dust off your left ear
from a thousand yards out with an arrow equal to an atomic bomb. Had stress buildup
because it became necessary to “go lethal” on his friends and family and divine teachers.
— Solution: Did what God told him — transcend, discover true identity has no causal
relationship with any thing, and merely witness the Divine Drama instead of mistakenly
thinking one is a character in it.
9. You — A demi-character finds life gets way bad out of left field as a regular occurrence.
Stress from a thousand elbows poked daily into ones ribs.
— Solution: Close the eyes and ask, “Who am I?” Repeat if necessary.
10. Me — A doofus stupid-head who creates more stress whenever it’s most unnecessary.
— Solution: Writing Quora essays to show St. Peter at the Pearly Gates.
Edg Duveyoung
If the only truth is awareness itself, then what is the purpose of reality as manifested in
consciousness?
Truth will out, because you have a Big Bang Mind.
Science tells us that once the entire universe was scrunched into less than pinhead size. And then
it expanded. “According to the theory of inflation, the Universe grew by a factor of 10 to the
sixtieth power in less than 10 to the negative thirty seconds.”
Pretty quick to anyone but God.
Notice the similarity to your mind?
Your Big Bang Mind?
Doesn’t your mind construct — SUDDENLY — a whole universe, instant by instant? Isn’t everything
in your field-of-view known to you? Effortlessly? Refreshed faster than your computer screen —
with more pixels? And hot-off-the-press thoughts about it all? If you open and close your eyes
rapidly, isn’t your brain yet still fast enough to recognize what is seen in a flash?
Kinda divine, eh?
THIS IS WHY GOD CAME HERE. It was just too much fun to pass up being you.
God just had to have you and your crazy big brain — wanted you like a four year old wants cotton
candy. You’re sweet, and God wanted a sugar high.
The bliss of the absolute was too big to keep pent up inside a tiny little infinity. It blew up into
happy smithereens. Broken into a zillion kaleidoscopic particulars and conditionals. Pretty colors
and shapes!
God said, “Let there be light. I need to see what there’s to see in the darkest nothingness I can
imagine — and then enliven it.
Short answer to the question is: “It’s not reality’s purpose; it’s God’s purpose.”
And if you ever meet God, please don’t ask, “Why for creation?” God loves that question and will
keep talking right though lunch.
And I’m not a fan of missing lunch. The cafeteria lady posted the menu.
Cotton candy!
Edg Duveyoung
Can we or will we ever know how awareness came to exist or not?
Questions are keyholes through which we people instead of peek.
Answers:
Ego says, “Yes.”
Witness says, “Maybe.”
God says, “.”
Sri Nisargadatta says, “It depends how I look.
“When I look through the mind, I see numberless people.
“When I look beyond the mind, I see the witness.
“Beyond the witness there is the infinite intensity of emptiness and silence.”
The silence of the ego is trillions of atoms abuzz in a nervous system.
The silence of the witness is the pseudo din of a distant delusion.
The silence of the transcendent is all knowledge all the time, but it’s everythingness before sound
is invented.
It’s all awareness. So take your pick. You can have any answer you want and not be far from truth.
God answers all questions like that. Neat, eh?
The thing about the transcendent is that it attracts the ego like moth to flame. The guru
encourages the student to “Go get crisped. It’s good for the complexion, and you’ll sleep better.”
The guru motivates with parochial rewards, because it takes a hunk of imaginary cheese to catch
an illusory mouse.
Nisargadatta’s cheese is “infinite intensity.”
As if, blessed teacher, as if.
Well he knew that concepts are ridiculous when it comes to knowing.
Not that it’s not gooda cheese, mind you.
And did you catch that even God cheated above?
Note the “period” after God’s statement.
That period is a concept.
It’s a divine lie.
God-the-Absolute finds a way to leak into the God-the-relative’s story telling
— no matter the definitions.
You heard it here first.
— God’s omnipotence overpowers punctuation.
But if you say those last four words of truth aloud in a crowded elevator,
there may be some variance in the interpretations.
Caution is advised.
Edg Duveyoung
What is meditation and how one can meditate?
Originally Answered: What is meditation and how one can meditate ?
God here.
Listen up.
I might never have your “person” hear this stuff from Me again. It’s Kali Yuga. You’ve had three
previous full yugas’ worth of answers to these questions from Me.
It would be glorious if, at this late date, I author your you to “get it.”
So pay attention.
Or not. Heh.
When I author your mind’s next thought, you, as the witness of it from half-beyond reality, will be
imperturbably sane as you see it arrive and simultaneously disappear like a line drawn in air. Every
thought ever was created by Me to be a honed indication of the point value in the vastness of
everything.
A Selfie. Me waving and smiling.
When I create a thought it is absolutely precise — the one you’re witnessing now would have to be
changed if I had had a butterfly flap it’s wings a bit differently sixteen trillion years ago.
It’s all ONE PIECE to Me.
Every moment is My Art.
So, what is happening right now is that you are witnessing Me meditating. I’m meditating about all
possibleness and its relationship to impossibleness.
Case in point: does it makes sense for Me to author your person to find out about you-the-
witness?
Does it make sense for the divinely authored but fictional you to meet My Me and become
authentically real as when Pinocchio became a living boy?
Does it?
Shall I make you real?
Shall I have you return to Me?
Close the eyes to find out.
I’ve left a light on for you.
Edg Duveyoung
What is a soul? Does it exist? Is it scientifically possible to prove that souls exist? What
do all the religions say about souls?
Let’s start.
Before creation was a twinkle in God’s eye.
YOU
You before existence.
Identity
Not yet with a mind.
Soul
A thought virgin.
Experiment
Prediction: If you view a movie, your soul is espied.
Your soul will not be seen in the movie. So don’t look there.
Your soul will have no influence on the movie.
Your soul will witness people, places and plots from beyond.
By experiment soul is found to be “there but transcendent to the movie experience.”
You’ve done this experiment how many times now?
You’ve done so much research you’ve got a PhD in soul.
Results: you’ve never seen a movie without you.
When watching a movie, you’re aware of your transcendent identity.
You were not in the movie, but the movie would be nothing without you.
This is an experience of your actual relationship with all of creation.
Witness only.
This was an actual experience of soul. Being beyond.
You’ve witnessed.
You’ve been solely soul on purpose.
You’ve seen every tale without being in the tale.
You’ve been invulnerable to monsters seen.
You’ve been beyond the allure of angels singing.
You’ve been perfectly sane in the midst of every story.
NOW EXPAND.
See that your mind is also a movie.
See that you are the most important aspect of the mind-movie experience.
See that you are not the author of the mind-movie.
See that you know not its next thought.
See that you are not inside this movie.
See that you’re not inside a or any mind.
See that you are not the me seen in a mind.
Soul stays soul. Pure.
Unsullied by tawdry existence.
That’s you right now.
Clean and beyond definition.
How many Hollywood experiments have you
—and everyone you know —
already conducted and then agreed on the results?
Results — Movies can be witnessed but not entered.
Same deal for mind-movies.
You’re not inside here.
Where then?
Outside this mind that sees this essay’s end.
Edg Duveyoung
Can Ein Sof be equal to Brahman? What concept in each one’s culture is the
same/similar?
Yes — the same.
I have had lazy afternoon lunches and long conversations with Rabbi Daniel C. Matt, and I have
come away with a very relaxed certainty the Ein Sof was “the same thing” as Advaita Vedanta’s
“awareness” — aka The Absolute — aka Brahman. Sentience without any material basis.
His book: The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism by Daniel C. Matt. It would take
a lifetime of study to fully plumb its depths.
I love Kabbalah, but, I have not practiced any of the Kabbalah techniques, nor am I Jewish. It
would take a great Hindu scholar to truly attest that Ein Sof and The Absolute are the same
concept.
But until that true expert answers this question, then my opinion is a good start.
The good news is that when you go to Italy you find out pizza is not the same pizza, but you still
use the same words — wheat, tomato, cheese. When I read Daniel’s books, I keep going, “Yep —
yes — of course — wonderful — so true — obviously . . .” If he had been born a Hindu, he’d be
adulated as a saint — his spirit would find God no matter the culture.
God loves parallels.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the criticism of Advaita Vedanta?
It bothers everyone, because it’s the only thing that works.
Advaita is the king of concepts.
No idea can be closer to truth than:
Advaita says to all religions, “There is no such thing as sin.”
Advaita says to all philosophies, “Grasping reality is not possible.”
Advaita says to all psychologists, “Sanity is not about mentality.”
Advaita says to all parents, “They’re God’s kids — not yours.”
Advaita says to all stars, “You don’t shine.”
Advaita says to all wishers, “Only God’s come true.”
Advaita says to all dreams, “You are as real as the waking state.”
Advaita says to all babies, “Proceed to your nearest point of silence.”
Advaita says to all words, “You had me at Om.”
Advaita says to all haters, “Feelings don’t matter.”
Advaita says to all lovers, “Feelings don’t matter.”
And to an unctuously smug writer who is haughtily parading his essays’ superiority over and
above all other expressions of actuality because he parrots Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj,
Advaita says,
“Very good, Edg, very good.”
Edg Duveyoung
Why does asceticism promote spiritual development?
You’re a sucker for pleasure.
And the biggest pleasure is: you.
It’s oh so easy to give up pie-ala-mode and skin on skin and cosmic vistas, and Mozart and
smelling bakery aromas down-wind. But give up “you?” As if.
Each morning, you wake up in love with a meat robot — your supposed individuality. But who can
blame you — You’re SO INTERESTING.
And that’s the tell.
You’re not all that interesting. You’re enthralled. Cursed. Trapped. Taken over. Commandeered.
Affixed. Spellbound. Mired. Wagged by a tail. Fascinated by a mirage. Narcissus with a nose
super-glued to a mirror.
That’s what to give up — anything less is chump change. Don’t cheat God when the collection
plate comes around. God wants you — not your attempts at disciplining your psychology. Don’t
give up ice cream to get closer to God; give up thinking — all of it.
That’s the gift you give to Someone Who has everything.
Even though it’s merely an error in an illusory realm, a thought — any — is a sin. God’s cornucopia
is being ignored for an ort.
You love you instead of God. Yeah I said it.
If you shut up, God speaks. That’s the deal.
And if you remain silent as God speaks, after a while, God will sing.
And if God sings, bliss will dissolve you. No more deals ever.
Edg Duveyoung
Do words have energy?
Does a cartoon ball bounce?
There’s no such thing as gravity in a comic book, but we see “objects” “fall” to the “bottoms” of
drawings, and “bouncing.” We understand art and participate in its illusions. It’s fun.
We play with sounds also. If someone speaks, our ears receive art with as much need for our
participation. If words seem to have impact, the word “seem” looms largely.
Since your chin last rested on your mother’s knee, you’ve known this. “. . . but names’ll never hurt
you.” she said.
The yogi advises us to catch ourselves in the act of “pretending one is a participant” whenever
ANY of our senses report to us. The yogi says, “Realize that you are solely a witness of events.
Don’t be fooled. You’re not a nervous system playing ping-pong with itself. Your identity is beyond
all interpretations — water cannot wet the real you, fire cannot burn the real you, and energy
schmenergy.”
Once it’s realized that a mind has the power to create an instantaneous point of view, then every
moment becomes a canvas that is automatically being painted before your very inner eye. And
right now, the meanings you find here are your mind’s creativity in action.
Realize your wondrous servant’s limitlessness — consider that all the meanings of everything that
ever happen to you are due to the creative power of your nervous system which is tirelessly
entertaining.
Don’t be shy about embracing how blessed you are. Your mind has the powers of a Hollywood
mogul times infinity. It takes about 1000 people to put on a theater screen what your nervous
system does instant by instant. No participating required when the automated body/mind complex
is so divinely potent. It will handle the chore of making things mean.
Witness it!
This is the freedom of enlightenment.
No work. All play.
Edg Duveyoung
Whenever I meditate I feel a strong, fuzzy feeling on my forehead. What is the next
step in opening my third eye?
Anything is possible, but 99% of the time, anything fuzzy is an ordinary and passing phenomenon.
I have heard the verbal testimonies of THOUSANDS (edit: I calculated an approximate total of
32,000 reports) of meditators — experiences of every manner of buzz, twitch, blankness, angels,
bonks, flapping, blips, tics, and boundlessness that was reported. There were no “patterns.”
The third eye is said to open when one becomes enlightened. There are no sure signs or
foreshadowing signals when it comes to evolution, but in general we can look to see if there has
been an increase in the freedom from unwanted thoughts and an increased ability to focus —
these are “ballpark indicators.” Experiences of meditation should be IGNORED DURING and
discussed but briefly after. The ancients tell us the stories of the transitional moments, and
THEY’RE ALL DIFFERENT. No formulas.
But every sincere heart finds a way.
During meditation, we have to expect that any coding “we threw into the computer” is going to
cause a commotion if it’s subjected to Nature’s debugging. The negatives, the scars, the bad
habits, the false associations, and on and on — life has made your nervous system into a
scrapbook-of-you, and all of it must be harmonized by nature if the mind is to be perfected.
Maybe you smacked your forehead when you saw your last electric bill, and only now is nature
getting around to doing the final rehabilitation at some subtle level. Any guess is as valid as any
other.
Meanwhile, perfection of the mind is a karmic affair; the speed of ones evolution can get sketchy.
If you have been a dedicated meditator and all around spiritual adherent, probably this is a
momentum that will be sustained, and one can expect “improvements” over time, but if one is new
to “all this stuff, “ then meditation might only be a temporary thing. Results can be of the not-so-
much variety.
The good news is that perfection is a secondary goal. Getting free of any form of identification is
the sacred goal. Ultimately creation is God’s, and ones destiny is unknowable. Your mind’s
perfection may not be needed for God to “do creation,” but your escaping “the system” is possible
NO MATTER YOUR KARMIC DEBT by transcending existence and abiding solely as a witness to
The Holy Drama. The witness is the last vestige of the false and the first titch of the real — it is not
being and is awareness. The witness does NOT CARE IN THE LEAST which life it is viewing — it
views them all.
To seek within for silence is the path to the doorway out of the system. By looking within, we
finally become established in being, yoga perfected, and by abiding there, at some point, we
transcend creation altogether and no longer identify even with being a being, that is: an individual.
Thereafter, our presence is manifest solely as the witness, and all of creation is done perfectly by
God without ones needing to help. We might think we can be helpful, but consider the villagers
rushing to prop up the mountain lifted up by Baby Lord Krishna as a shield against King Indra’s
onslaught — they touched the underside of the mountain with sticks! We are instructed to not be
panicked if God is at work. Just get out of the way.
And at that toggling, that shift, it will only happen if there is not a single sign of it impending anon.
Any sign would be “the distracted mind still at work,” and it’s only no-thoughts that can scratch
“the holy itch.”
Secret seldom told: on the way inwards, all the best stories get revealed. The outer world’s
history cannot compete with an imagination that becomes ever more unfettered as we relax our
minds, and then let God author creation’s every next moment.
You think you had some wild dreams? Just you wait.
Better install a seat-belt on your meditation chair.
Edg Duveyoung
After reincarnation, will it still be you but just as a different person?
Here’s the whole, full and nothing but the truth.
You won’t believe it.
Between incarnations, you and God get together and peer at Hiraṇyagarbha.
What is seen in The Golden Egg? Every possible life, character, and scenario of every possible
future, present or past. Think of that egg as if it is an actual working crystal ball times infinity to
the googleplex power.
God asks you, “Anything resonating? Got a hankering? Want to grow in some special manner?
Need an incarnation holiday? Want a real challenge? Wanna be a total goof ball, a genuine jerk
with a good heart or the last human being that ever lives? I see you’ve never picked a really
extreme life. Maybe something bombastic the next time?”
And you say, “Well, because I’m in Your Presence, my intellect and heart are so pure and sweet
and sacred that I can see that in my last life, my heart values took a backseat to logic, and so I
never really allowed myself to embrace passion. So maybe I should try out being a medicine
woman circa 20,000 B.C. to care for a medium sized tribe. I do want to live in the floating city on
Venus, but I’m saving it for a rainy day. Or, maybe I should just have a do-over for my last life,
because I came pretty close to a breakthrough when I almost entered a monastery.”
God says, “Good next-steps; any life would serve as well, but at least have a hunch about an
incarnation. Don’t let Me put thoughts in your head, though, of course, that’s all I ever do, but just
sayin’. Let Me suggest you shop around a bit. Take some time. Even the best souls will take a full
two years between incarnations, so no hurry. I know you’re seeing almost all of the cavalcade of
lives-to-be and have great clarity, but don’t feel like you’ve got to impress Me and take a special
life. After all, you’re going to incarnate until you either escape the system with yoga or become
perfected by religious actions.”
You say, “Okay, thanks. I’m still ‘recently arrived,’ so I have to take a sacred shower to get rid of a
lot of these past-life memories that I still cling to like a dream that doesn’t quite fade upon
awakening. I kinda like some of my ‘parts’ in that life. So, I’ll wear this halo for a while, float around
Heaven, and who knows? I got a good feelin’ about it.”
God says, “Good. Just remember, no matter who you end up choosing to be, I’ll always see that
incarnation as you-as-you-are-now-but-undercover. A stealth angel. A superperson wearing
glasses for a disguise while working at the Daily Planet. Be sure your next personality has at least
a titch of in-born-certainty that your intents are basically divine. That will become a psychological
axiom. Good stuff that.”
You say, “It’s so hard to leave here though. You are so adorable and all that. Every time I’m here, I
find myself making excuses to stay a bit longer.”
God says, “Every soul says that. I love them so much that it’s not any easier for Me to see all of
them flying off for these evolutionary adventures. I can only bear it because I’m out there in the
wilds hiding behind every tree and witnessing your stories with absolute compassion.”
You say, “I swear I caught You twice last lifetime.”
God says, “Don’t swear.”
To be continued here:
Edg Duveyoung's answer to How does one open the heart chakra?
Edg Duveyoung's answer to How you make tour subconscious mind work for you?
Edg Duveyoung
What is the purpose of life according to the Bhagavad Gita?
How about a quick dozen purposes?
1. If an amoeba swims toward food, that’s God going to lunch.
2. If a mote of dust wafts in a sunbeam, that’s God skydiving.
3. If a star explodes, that’s God in 11th grade chemistry class.
4. If a tree root-talks to other trees, that’s God communing.
5. If a butterfly flaps a wing, that’s God telling yogis the future.
6. If a wolf howls, that’s God tuning.
7. If a quark meets a quark, that’s God deciding.
8. If a breeze barely moves a leaf, that’s God trying out poses.
9. If a Peregrine falcon hits 200 miles per hour, that’s God showing off.
10. If a neutrino travels without landing, that’s God witnessing.
11. If a virtual particle manifests, that’s God playing peek-a-boo.
12. If a mosquito lands on your nose, that’s God getting a pop-quiz.
See?
Bliss is undifferentiated, so God parsed it into happiness packets.
God wanted to be — be everything, feel everything, think of everything, and do everything, just to
really enjoy a good nap after all of that work.
See?
If for a nanosecond you were not here, RIGHT NOW, there’d be a missing piece in God’s
otherwise-finished jigsaw puzzle — and sorely missed.
You are at the forefront of God’s experiencing everything.
God is pretending to be you, because every thought you ever have is perfection to God.
God sees the importance of you that you will never see.
Your struggles are glorious.
Your mind is infinite.
Your love is sacred.
Your life is holy.
You are God’s purpose.
Edg Duveyoung
Is the state of enlightenment a no-consciousness state that lasts forever?
AIN’T
It’s not a state. It’s not no-consciousness. Time ends. All states, all formats of consciousness, and
all clocks eventually stop. Any activity is illusory. Any distinction is false. Now does not need a
clock to be validated. The yogis die, the avatars die, all of the Hindu Pantheon die, God’s manifest
forms die.
SORTA
Enlightenment is when you identify with pure, seamless, infinite, silent, still, eternal, divine
awareness instead of a temporary character in The Holy Dream. The character continues but
without an ego that is still deluded that it is the author of thoughts.
TRUTHISH
Awareness is the parent of consciousness. All of creation is an invisible speck in the vastness of
awareness. There is but one ego, one soul, one consciousness, one body, one mind, one person
that is not-there-yet but transcendentally immanent in awareness which — in order to expand
happiness — mystically manifests and diversifies into the sumptuous variety of life’s forms.
ABSOLUTE TRUTH
Silence of Lord Shiva dominates.
ABSOLUTE ABSOLUTE TRUTH
Lord Vishnu wakes up.
GOD’S TRUTH
Forget all that. Come on over to My place in Vaikuntha. The gang’s all here partying until Mother
Divine arrives and scrunches us all together to make one huge mass of Lord Vishnu and rocks us
in Her arms until we snooze out another dream.
Edg Duveyoung
How do you know the 'Universal consciousness' exists, especially that part of it which
is 'me' now but continues after my flesh expires?
Are you sitting down? Comfy? Need a glass of water? Is there someone I can contact in case, you
know, you, you know, kinda go, you know, nutzoid or something?
Don’t make me hold your hand through denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. You
know the routine.
The yogi responds to your question, “I know everything, and by that I mean that I know silence.”
Did you notice your answer?
Transcend the mind’s operations, and all questions are answered — this one in particular.
CERTAINTY ALERT: Find silence within, (hint: it hides between thoughts,) and it will instruct that
your question is a mere obfuscation that prevents the truth instead of the question actually being
a query with the deep significance it seems to have.
Did you notice that you already know this?
Every morning you employ this certainty.
In a nightly dream you might be running very fast from a monster. IT REALLY MATTERS. You’ll be
yelling, “Why can’t I get away from this monster?” Yet, if you happen to wake up at that moment,
you dismiss the dire question of this “Person to whom you were utterly devoted a scant few
seconds previously.” You care not if that person ever gets away from the monster.
“Pish tosh,” you say.
WHY ARE YOU SO HEARTLESS?
See? After death, your present life will be seen to have been EXACTLY AS EPHEMERAL AS A
DREAM PERSON’S LIFE.
I notice I’m yelling. Ahem.
Now, I suppose you’d be wanting me to somehow put some positive spin on this concept.
Turns out that clarity about your morning paradigm shift is how you’ll get jiggy about dying and
about what would be the best “continuation.” When you wake in the morning, or when you wake
up after death, you say, “Pish tosh, old, hello new, I so got this.”
But did you notice the deeper revelation?
No routine! No hand wringing. You’ve done this exactly as many times as you have woken up in
the morning. Now that’s a well honed skill!
The tale in which you are being told will become known as “mere tale.”
What happens in dreamland stays in dreamland.
But you’ve noticed. I know you have.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the most controversial statement in the Bhagavad Gita?
Verse 48 Chapter 2: “yoga-sthah kuru karmani”
“Transcend, and stay there; I got this.”
“Shush, and just do what I tell you.”
“Be — that’s it. That’s your job.”
“If you’re not Me, you’re doing it wrongly.”
“I’m the ventriloquist; you’re the dummy.”
This first line of verse 48 instructs one to become established in being, and while remaining there,
perform action. That is: become enlightened.
See the controversy?
If you’re not residing in the transcendent, you are residing in ignorance, and no matter who you
think you are, you’re not.
Harsh as it gets. In the Gita we find dozens of statements that will be rejected by “the Western
mindset,” but, truly, “yoga-sthah kuru karmani”is one that pulls the rug out from under EVERY
CULTURE’S VALUES. Every.
It says that “individuality is a lie.”
And if you’re not enlightened, you’re telling that exact lie.
Lord Krishna is telling a demi-god, Arjuna, that despite his wonderful achievements in life, he’s
lying to himself by insisting that he was the doer of all the actions of his entire lifetime. Behind the
scenes, God pulls every string, and Arjuna is being instructed to transcend duality, let God’s
instrumentalities, the three gunas, do all the rest. Arjuna is to merely witness the drama.
It was quite the shocker to Arjuna, let me tells ya! Here he was, one of the most able archers of the
age, who could shoot down mid-flight ten thousand arrows shot from divine bows targeting him.
He was Lord Krishna’s pal for 80 years. And he was favored by Lord Krishna, because he never
caviled. The guy was a mere titch away from being perfect. But he wasn’t because he thought his
thoughts were his thoughts instead of seeing, by becoming a mere witness, that all thoughts are
sprung directly from the divine.
No person needed.
What a gob-smacker to be told by God that you’re not required!
But how freeing! To be told you’re not to blame for the hot mess you are you rascal you. To be told
to dive into Living God and have a front row seat in the theater of creation.
And better: to know that every emotion, thought, and action thereafter would be dharmic, pure,
and 100% supportive of the Divine’s Intent. Wow! That’s kinda worth it, eh?
Trade who you are now in order to be hugged on God’s lap while everything goes wonderfully?
SIGN ME UP!
Edg Duveyoung
How does meditation work?
Originally Answered: Why and how does meditation work?
Close the eyes and open them.
There. You’ve been fully instructed.
If you want that lesson’s spiritually axiomatic purport to saturate your every moment, reside with
eyes closed more until your growing clarity tops out at certainty.
When we close the eyes, instantly we sense the boundlessness of the mind’s two modes.
Outwardly the mind can produce an infinity of thoughts. Inwardly the mind can discern an
unending revelation of details.
It is this double direction infinity that has captured you.
You are in a cage — stuck in the middle of your mind.
Escape is possible.
Outside, inside — no matter — after all, all this is, God, solely and wholly God, so no wonder that
such wonder can make us wander. We wander from truth’s fullness by being absorbed in the
beauty of the details.
And so we close the eyes to block outer details and peer within until the details inside become
equally unseen.
That’s it. That’s the whole trick. Just look within until all “mere reminders of truth” cease, and
TRUTH stands forth without any distractions.
Silence is how truth announces itself.
We close the eyes to stop the processing of vision — which uses a large fraction of the brain’s
oxygen budget. Thus, it’s calming merely to close the eyes. A good start. This relaxing helps lead
the way for the yet-still-ongoing processes of the body/mind that also will then begin to settle
down.
No more is required.
The mind loves to relax more than it loves to do. “To do” is to seek, and we might do a thousand
things that fatigue, but we do one thing to rest — that is — somehow, we don’t know how, but we
do it anyway, stop.
And stopping results in rest’s repair — the freshening of consciousness.
PAY ATTENTION — BIG MEDITATION SECRET ABOUT TO BE REVEALED.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: There is nothing to renounce. Enough if you stop acquiring. To give
you must have, and to have you must take. Better don't take. It is simpler than to practice
renunciation, which leads to a dangerous form of 'spiritual' pride.
We close the eyes and see what comes. We don’t grab at anything. That’s enough. “Grabbing” is
the habit we are extinguishing by this practice.
As we witness what is “being brought to one’s attention” within, the uninteresting stuff fades.
Finally.
Everything made by the mind now gone.
God can’t hide.
Edg Duveyoung
Why would you like to have a spiritual awakening?
Originally Answered: Why would someone get a spiritual awakening?
Enlightenment comes by grace alone.
To those other than wise, it seems otherwise.
When we ask, “Why?” it is solely God Who can answer.
And God never tells.
Best not to ask lest our asking be not best.
So, God sneaks inside, and, for each of us, asks.
It is God Who determines when and where and why.
God is already exactly there — waiting to shake your future hand.
One second from now, it could happen to you.
And you still won’t know why.
God loves any spiritual hat you wear.
Because it changes to a halo in Heaven.
But, look at it like you’re going to be hit by a car.
It’d be better if one was wearing clean underwear.
And a baseball cap that said, “Make Heaven Great Again!”
Edg Duveyoung
How can we understand “The quality of knowledge is best measured by how many
people accept it”?
Only God understands.
True knowledge is transcendent and beyond qualities.
Geniuses can be insane — dunces can be saints — opinions schmopinions.
Advaitan philosophy usurps all answers —disdaining them to be houses of cards that are still in
the deck.
Advaita ravages the basis of personhood.
We are the undealt.
Yet . . .
Though there is nothing here, God says, “Ah, yes, just what I need. What a whole lot of nothing —
the perfect place to put every possible thing I can imagine Myself not being.”
Instant by instant, God plays with variants of nothing.
Pop Quiz
1. How actual is the thought you are having right now?
2. How can two minds agree?
3. Cite any example of an absolute in the relative.
4. What is it like to be living inside God’s mind?
Limit your answers to three words or less.
Edg Duveyoung
What are the most disturbing quotes in the Bhagavad Gita?
“Arjuna, you’re not Elvis; you’re the black velvet background.”
Other translations of this verse are:
“Arjuna, chair, popcorn, now.”
“Arjuna, when I said, ‘sic ‘em’ I didn’t mean you.”
“Arjuna, you don’t rhyme with guna.”
“Arjuna, put your ego on the floor and step back away.”
“Arjuna, snap out of it, do nothing, accomplish everything.”
“Arjuna, I’ll pretend to drive; you pretend to shoot.”
“Arjuna, what happens in Dharmakshetra stays in Dharmakshetra.”
“Arjuna, see the bad, shoot the bad, forget the worry.”
Chapter 2 Verse 45.
The scariest thing “Anyone” ever said to “anyone.”
In this one statement, Lord Krishna teaches Arjuna, “A gang of deterministic idiots, The Three
Stooges, are slapsticking the universe, and if you join in with them, you’re going to get a pie in the
face, a ladder to the back of the head, and your eyes poked repeatedly by a guy with a bowl
haircut.”
In one single verse, Lord Krishna, The Cosmic Therapist, tells Arjuna, “So you’re telling me that
you can shoot arrows with the power of lightning bolts and that you have to kill HALF of all your
friends and relatives. And that your name is Arjuna? What’s the matter with you? Are you nutz or
sumtin’?”
All eighteen chapters of the Bhagavad Gita are saying this stuff.
I am disturbed.
Give up everything I believe about me in order to be the real me?
Give up every power of mind and body in order to not exist — on purpose?
Reduce every value to insignificance?
Stop? Give it all up?
What would become of me if I did that?
Lord Krishna says, “The little me becomes Me.”
Edg Duveyoung
What are the best philosophies to live by?
Originally Answered: What’s a philosophy that everyone should live by?
Be kind. Be necessary. Be sweet.
Firstly comes love — kindness is core. Love broadcasts to everything or else it’s but mere like. Life
has been able to spot true love for the last four billion years — this means you have life’s entire
history supporting any loving intent — it’s frictionless spirituality.
Duty is prescribed for determining what is necessary. From where you are at, a next moment’s
necessities are easily spotted. A car coming at you? You know what your duty is, right? — jump!
Same deal for all next moments from the now — what is proper to do next is always known.
Beyond that next moment — those moments are not as easily seen, so, stay close to now, and
make duty a jaunt.
Sweetness is about being a delight to God. If we make anyone smile, God hears that person
laughing within. Sweetness opens all doors. Sweetness is trusted. Silence is purely sweet — add it
to any moment and watch the sour faces unscrunch and watch the loving faces brighten.
Sweetness dissolves rocks.
Kind, necessary and sweet — heart, thought, and deed.
Edg Duveyoung
What did Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj mean by, "I am that"? What is the “that” that he
refers to?
It was Sri Nisargadatta’s exit statement as he left “the human venue.”
He was putting an end to concept addiction. He would get very stern to anyone trying to force him
to admit that he existed. He would blast them and exclaim he was beyond existence and non-
existence, beyond being and non-being, beyond any definition of reality.
Beyond God’s imaginative powers.
Sri Nisargadatta, a guy who smoked and sold cigarettes, a guy who did nightly puja above his
shop with 30 pals, a guy who was very active in daily life, yet this guy insisted he was beyond ALL
OF INDIA’S SPIRITUAL KEN.
Undefinable.
He had quite the philosophical set of testicles. Try to find a more mystical statement than “I am
that.”
I’ll end here and let Sri Nisargadatta tell you in his own words.
Q: . . . You may be God himself, but you need a well-fed body to talk to us.
Sri Nisargadatta: It is you that need my body to talk to you. I am not my body, nor do I need it. I
am the witness only. I have no shape of my own. You are so accustomed to think of yourselves as
bodies having consciousness that you just cannot imagine consciousness as having bodies. Once
you realize that bodily existence is but a state of mind, a movement in consciousness, that the
ocean of consciousness is infinite and eternal, and that, when in touch with consciousness, you
are the witness only, you will be able to withdraw beyond consciousness altogether.
Q: We are told there are many levels of existences. Do you exist and function on all the levels?
While you are on earth, are you also in heaven (swarga)?
Sri Nisargadatta: I am nowhere to be found! I am not a thing to be given a place among other
things. All things are in me, but I am not among things. You are telling me about the
superstructure while I am concerned with the foundations. The superstructures rise and fall, but
the foundations last. I am not interested in the transient, while you talk of nothing else.
Q: How difficult it is to see the world as purely mental! The tangible reality of it seems so very
convincing.
Sri Nisargadatta: This is the mystery of imagination, that it seems to be so real. You may be
celibate or married, a monk or a family man; that is not the point. Are you a slave of your
imagination, or are you not? Whatever decision you take, whatever work you do, it will be
invariably based on imagination, on assumptions parading as facts.
Q: Here I am sitting in front of you. What part of it is imagination?
Sri Nisargadatta: The whole of it. Even space and time are imagined.
Q: Does it mean that I don't exist?
Sri Nisargadatta: I too do not exist. All existence is imaginary.
Q: Is being too imaginary?
Sri Nisargadatta: Pure being, filling all and beyond all, is not existence which is limited. All
limitation is imaginary, only the unlimited is real.
Q: When you look at me, what do you see?
Sri Nisargadatta: I see you imagining yourself to be.
Q: There are many like me. Yet each is different.
Sri Nisargadatta: The totality of all projections is what is called maha-maya, the Great Illusion.
Q: But when you look at yourself, what do you see?
Sri Nisargadatta: It depends how I look. When I look through the mind, I see numberless people.
When I look beyond the mind, I see the witness. Beyond the witness there is the infinite intensity
of emptiness and silence.
Edg Duveyoung
How is the soul linked to consciousness?
Here’s the purest truth — Glaboreeneo flinkadoododee werpoyapsopy!
I’m not kidding.
Do I look like I’m kidding?
Non-joke #2 — Glaboreeneo flinkadoododee werpoyapsopy would be sufficient — EXCEPT FOR
YOU. Your insufficiency overwhelms the spiritual sufficiency of my answer.
Don’t be smirking.
Seriously — eye to eye here — if you were to be sufficient, you’d have already considered my
purest truth above, deeply considered, and found out that it is, indeed, true. But, nah, you didn’t
do that, now did you? Nope, you went right ahead and DECIDED YOUR FUTURE by assuming and
thus concluding that you should invest ZERO EFFORT AND TIME into researching if “Glaboreeneo
flinkadoododee werpoyapsopy” was true.
You still haven’t.
But if you did, let’s be clear. I have no reason to lie to you. No money or fame on the table here.
Just between the two of us, see? Yeah, this is personal. I’m here saying that this question’s
answer, the knowledge being sought, is being delivered by my answer of “Glaboreeneo
flinkadoododee werpoyapsopy.”
Now, do you believe me or not?
You still don’t.
But if you did, what would you do? Google will not yet be listing this phrase or recognizing it as
from any language. No spiritual mentor will know anything about Glaboreeneo flinkadoododee
werpoyapsopy. You’d come up cyber-empty, so then what? Well, you’d probably check to see if
you still believed me or not.
You won’t.
But if you did believe me, you’d have to push forwards by going inwards since no outer resource
can be found to pertain, and, yes, too, because I wouldn’t be joking. So you’d have to re-examine
what my reply was, what the question was, what all these symbols could mean, and on and on. For
clarity’s sake, you’d have to define your terms and see if your mind was using them logically. Sub-
questions such as “What is my definition of ‘consciousness?’” will be mental foci as you iterate
these concepts to spur your mind to continue to produce more thoughts about the questions.
You’d do this until you were clear that you knew what mind and consciousness were to you, “so
far,” and, after that, you’d see that my truth of Glaboreeneo flinkadoododee werpoyapsopy will
have not yet had any connection to any part of this inward inquiry you’d have thus far attempted.
Whew, what a lot of work. It’s good thing you’d never do this sort of analysis. You probably only
lightly skimmed the above paragraph.
But if you had done all the diligence, you’d come back at me with tar and feathers and pitch fork
and bang on my front door screaming, “Why did you have me do all that work only to see me fail?
Why did you ask me to believe you? This has to be a joke. Glaboreeneo flinkadoododee
werpoyapsopy means nothing, and you’ve wasted my time. Admit it. You, the jester, have jumped
the shark. I did everything necessary to determine if your truth was true.”
But no, you’d not’ve.
I’d sweetly smile and tell you, “You’ve looked everywhere for clarity about the truth I’ve offered
and found nothing, but you have not fully searched. You have not asked your inner Self what
Glaboreeneo flinkadoododee werpoyapsopy means. Good news: now that you’ve looked
everywhere, nothing will distract you from the meaning of Glaboreeneo flinkadoododee
werpoyapsopy. Simply say it mentally in the quietness of a now clear mind.”
You won’t.
But if you did, brace yourself. Because you will have asked for a “completely made up on the spot
by Edg nonsense phrase” to become meaningful. You will have ASKED GOD to answer.
God is quite clever. Have you noticed?
You haven’t.
But if you did, you’d find that God can flood into your mind like sunshine when you have humbly
surrendered to God instead of trying to rely on all other sources of truth. When you sincerely ask
ANYTHING, your innocent silence will allow God to . . .
But why tell you?
Edg Duveyoung
Why would Spinoza insist that our greatest virtue is understanding? Was he right or
wrong? Why?
The most horrible moment in a yogi’s progress toward enlightenment is resolved by surrendering
to an understanding.
There comes a time when a yogi arrives at what is called God Consciousnesses. This is when
everything is God to the yogi. Life is perfect.
But it’s not.
This life long seeker is habituated. The yogi still WANTS MORE when no more evolution seems
possible to a perfect mind.
But there is.
God Consciousness evolves into Unity Consciousness when the yogi IS INSTRUCTED BY THE
GURU TO STOP SEEKING. “That’s it!” says the teacher, and peace all around toggles, and the
mind’s script is flipped.
But until that instruction, imagine the misery of having a perfect mind that knows everything but
cannot find what it wants in that everything.
This is the power of understanding. It can transform the mind in an instant from all wrong to all
right.
And this applies to life in general. As life evolves ones clarity, errors are discovered, and that
understanding alone prevents one from thinking erroneously in that manner again. To admit error
and embrace a new understanding is to move forward.
An increase in peace due to understanding is the strongest indicator of evolution. “Peace” —
freedom from unwanted thoughts.
No wonder Spinoza was awed by it.
Edg Duveyoung
How do I meditate in noisy environment?
There’s nothing worse than sitting to meditate in a comfy chair and finding yourself impossibly
bothered by a bird chirping outside your window.
Wait, there is worse: there’s nothing noisier than the inside of your head.
It’s not these noises that pose a challenge to meditation; rather, it is the incorrect assumptions
about what must happen for a mind to heal that can lead a meditator to wrongly abandon what is
actually a successful meditation. Meditation is a process that takes time, and it has stages —
some of which do not look like “meditation” in the least.
Consider sleep’s process — this reduction in body/mind workloads allows nature to clean house.
The parts of you that need refurbishment, now not being as active, get overhauled, and after
sleeping, it is seen by all that “I’ve been fixed.”
When nature is at work, obviously there’s a lot of shuffling around of parts and materials. Tons
happening — Blood flow increasing, nutrition passing through membranes, mitochondria churning
out ATP, oxygen getting used, carbon dioxide getting removed, toxins located and grabbed, taut
muscle tissue relaxing to a neutral base position, vessels relaxing, and on and on.
Guess what? All the above paragraph’s doings produce GOOD NOISES in the mind. Depending on
clarity, these subtle operations of the body are mentally noted as sensations, emotions and
thoughts. We want to honor these disturbances to our meditation by being neutral towards them.
Something natural is happening. They are inner birds chirping, see?
The deeper into quietness that we get, the more this kind of house cleaning can happen during
meditation just as it does in deep sleep. No matter what we are doing “to meditate” we have to
see the rightfulness of other mental activities that are ongoing. This attitude alone can solve most
meditation issues.
It’s instructive to look at a crowded sidewalk in New York City.
Nobody is banging into anyone else. Anyone can walk against the flow and just weave along
nonchalantly and relaxed with but a minimum of wariness, because everyone else is in avoidance
mode also.
So too when avoiding the “other users of your mind” in your meditation. You can direct your
attention towards silence — no need to push back against those processes also using “the public
thoroughfares” — no need for them to cease. This may mean that one can only sometimes
meditate, and so, waiting for a mental storm to process itself is to allow nature full sway in the
healing. When things get a bit calmer, the inward stroke of meditation can easily begin again.
When we find that we have been distracted and our attention is on the echoes of healing, we
smile, and we begin our meditation anew having had proof that it’s all working as planned.
Even a little of this is powerful. Even ten seconds of looking within — a few times a day can begin a
paradigm shift in lifestyle.
Silence is addictive.
Edg Duveyoung
Is the concept of nothing "something"?
You have it backwards. It is something that is nothing.
The you seen in your dreams is “almost nothing” compared to the waking you.
The waking you is almost nothing if compared to God’s realness.
And the kicker is — God is as if nothing when compared to awareness.
Consider a bubble rising up in boiling water. It’s commonly taken to be empty despite it being
filled with water vapor. This is a good metaphor for the relative nothingness of ALL OF CREATION
when it is compared to the somethingness of the actuality of awareness. Creation, at best, yes,
does display the emergent qualities of awareness, but it’s “vaporous” — merely ephemeral
compared to the absolute certainty of awareness.
All of the Hindu pantheon pays obeisance to awareness. Brahma tried to grasp transcendence
with the best intellect possible. Nope. See the problem here? By definition nothing should be
beyond the grasp of omniscience, but yet there it is. Brahma’s first learning experience — you
can’t get there from here.
But the metaphor can yet more serve. The bubble is filled. It is full of solely water. However may
the contents of the bubble be described, it is never not water. We can expect that the dancing
molecules can bang around in that bubble and form every manner of grouping. Call them beings.
But they’re just water. Call them sentient but only if the surrounding water is considered to be so
much more “densely aware” that the sentience of beings is best seen as merely symbolic.
From awareness sprang God. From God sprang creation. Look around you.
All this is but a faint reminder of God’s magnificence. What more then needs must be the glory of
awareness? When your waking you’s identity transitions from “I’m a person” to “I am” to “amness”
to transcendent awareness, it is discovered that all of creation is contained within the self. All of
life becomes a “mere expression” of identity.
A few molecules clumped together say, “I’m me!”
It would be pathetic except that it actually is the true self reporting that, indeed, “more water
here.” Tiny little entities — how darling, eh? So cute!
To be enlightened is to be outside the bubble. The enlightened see that every speck of hardly
anything inside a bubble is also identical to any speck of everything outside the bubble. Water
vapor is water. This is full; that is full. Purnamadah Purnamidam.
Two ways to solve bubblefication.
1. Find the biggest grouping of water molecules that is also touching the side of the bubble
and has a direct connection to outside the bubble, and join it. That is: surrender your
identity to God. Do your duty.
2. Look at your own molecules until you see that you are water instead of a a mere grouping
of molecules — then suddenly, MYSTICALLY, find your identity is outside the bubble as
well as inside. And, impossibly, beyond this too.
Be religious or transcend.
Edg Duveyoung
What are the limits of meditation?
Well, for starters, it doesn’t work.
I know. I know. I’ve said otherwise. Put that aside. Don’t make this about me.
Let’s consider how God sees meditation.
1. “I’m perfectly free to manifest anything I want.”
2. “I will create a bazillion beings — authored to seem to have free will.”
3. “I will then spread them out across time’s immensity.”
4. “Because they will have high intellects and deep hearts, they will be sure to figure things
out too quickly, so I’ll give them flaws that they have to overcome. That’ll allow Me to
flood motivations into every possible story, until, finally, all things explored, it will make
sense that I have them begin to suspect, at the last, that there’s no causality.”
5. And for the beings that I author with a bit more mojo, well, to keep them from getting
ahead too quickly, I’ll have them discover meditation. Just when they’re about to give up
on their certainty that they have free will, I’ll have some really cool person tell them that
they can CONTROL GOD AND DESTINY by meditating. Heh. That’ll slow them down.”
See?
This is God’s. Not ours.
But there is a loop hole.
God knew the best stories would have to have beings like Lord Krishna peppering the hoi polloi
with aphorisms that kept spirituality on the front burner. Otherwise it wouldn’t make sense for the
average being to want to be in their own story. Only spiritual dynamics in personalities could keep
them all from giving up.
See the loop hole?
God reasoned, “It would only be right to create Lord Krishna with some serious powers so that His
teachings will be respected. But, that means, Lord Krishna has to have a secret door for His pals
to escape creation if the going gets tough and life’s challenges get overwhelming. It wouldn’t do
for a being like Lord Krishna to not have a solution for anyone with a sincere heart. I’ll have to have
Lord Krishna be able to teach His pals how to transcend and end their ‘I’m a person’ delusion.
After they transcend, they’ll see I’m running the whole drama from behind the scenes via My three
gunas, and from then on out, they’ll just sit back and enjoy the show — relieved of attachment to
asserted certainties.”
See it now?
God had to have something that any being could do that ACTUALLY WORKS!
And Lord Krishna spilled the beans!
Just transcend. Anyone can.
Anyone.
Realize identity is beyond creation. Let God play.
And how to transcend?
Easy! Just peer within.
Consistently.
Relentlessly.
Then, unmistakably, it arrives.
That’s silence.
It’s the door.
Edg Duveyoung
Is Lord Shiva dangerous?
He cut off His own Son’s head.
Probably you should stay on Lord Shiva’s good side.
Otherwise you might find yourself with big flappy ears and a trunk.
And a rat for a best friend.
Lord Shiva’s silence is seen in every venue — ending certainties to make room for new certainties
— fostering the future by removing everyone’s most recent thought.
If not for Lord Shiva’s silencing of the thought you’re having right now, it would bounce around
inside your skull like a fly caught in a jar.
So, be grateful for this great big huge endlessly empty silence in which you think.
In fact, you could lighten up on the thoughts, ya know? If you’re quieter, Lord Shiva goes, “Whoa!
Now here’s someone making less work for Me. This one is just the kind of someone I want to
know.”
Lord Shiva as a Pal?
Not dangerous at all.
Edg Duveyoung
How would one explain the basic philosophy of Advaita Vedanta?
The problem:
You ain’t you.
The “you” that just now denied that statement ain’t you either.
If you agree with the above two sentences, it ain’t you doing the agreeing.
The thoughts you’re having while reading these words, are not yours.
If you’ve never known true silence, it’s because you are the noise.
The solution:
Awareness is the basis of consciousness.
Reside in being to realize awareness.
God’s awareness is the only awareness.
Edg Duveyoung
Does the mind give rise to consciousness or does the consciousness generate mind?
Turn your imagination knob to eleven. Yer gunna need it.
Imagine a nice ice sculpture of yourself. A pure H2O you — but carved so well your family and
friends will say, “Yeah that’s you alright.”
Now, pretend that icy-you comes alive and that water is awareness.
Feel free to turn the knob up to twelve if needed.
Now imagine icy-you diving into a swimming pool and pretending to talk to the rest of the water in
the pool.
You — “Hi! I’m me!”
Awareness — “No, you’re me.”
You — “No! I have shape!”
Awareness — “All of you is me. Shape is a completely arbitrary and temporary illusion. If you
examine where you say your individuality’s boundary begins, you’ll see that your you-parts are
entirely composed of watery parts identical to my parts. No difference is no difference — that
means no separation.”
You — “But anyone can see that I’m separate from you.”
Awareness — “Your two hands are separate, but you insist that they are both “you,” so why can’t I
use the same logic to say that you’re me despite your claims otherwise?”
You — “But my mind differs from yours. We have different thoughts.”
At this point, the reader is advised to turn the intellect knob up to eleven, but keep the knob in
hand to twist to twelve if needed.
Awareness — “And your hands could claim to have minds that have separate experiences and
sensations but, no, you claim all of those as yours — not owned by the hands. Therefore, I claim
that your mind’s contents are merely more-me that’s “different but not really.” All that you are is
merely, as if, another hand of mine.”
You — “But I have free will. I can take this body anywhere in the pool and always be seen as a
separate entity.”
Due the length of the next paragraph, the reader is advised to turn the patience knob up to at
least nine.
Awareness — “I claim that I am the basis of your entirety. Therefore your volition is mine. You think
that your doingness proves that you have individuality, but I say that I am the source of your
thoughts to do. To you it seems I don’t exist because of my seeming non-doingness, but my non-
doingness is my decision to not do, and that, when it comes to doing something, I’ll use a body
like yours and a mind like yours. In fact, just to be a bit snarky, if I were not completely surrounding
you right now, you’d be a chunk of ice near the pool’s drain and melting faster than the Wicked
Witch of the West.”
You — “Yeah, but you’d be in the sewer before me!”
Awareness — “To you a sewer — to me a direct route to the ocean of endless awareness for both
of us. And now the good news: I don’t have to argue with you because you’re melting even now as
we speak. Ordinary life does this — all shapes finally melt into unity with me. But if you mindfully
embrace this destiny, you can enjoy the ride. I’ll give you all these wonderful thoughts about how
better it is when there’s no thoughts! We’ll be like two kids let loose into a candy store that also
sells ice cream and has a ball pit with 30 puppies.”
The reader is advised to turn down the schmaltz button if the above concept was too sweet for
this essay. It’s going to get sweeter. You’ve been warned.
You — “But if I melt into you and no longer have my personal wherewithal, I will then be dead.
DEAD! Dissolved. Dispersed. Donzo. How are you going to make that inviting to me? You may be
my everything, but to me it’s my everything and my everything is everything to me — not to you.
You don’t care about shapes. They come. They go. You are unaffected. Sounds heartless. Sounds
like you’re mocking my existence. I’m just a hand to you. An insentient appendage. A joke. A
puffed up ego circling a drain.”
Awareness — “Now now now. I’m sorry if I’ve rushed you into this clarity, but you’re the one who
jumped into the pool! Remember before you dived in you said you wanted to see what all this
mind-consciousness stuff was all about. So, I want you to see the bigger picture here while you’re
immersed in me — while you are transcending pool-side life. It’s not that you’re dying, you’re
gaining awareness of your true you — ME! And as this realization dawns, you’re going to find out I
love your darling shapeyness and that from the get-go I’ve doted on your cute little youyness and
all your heartful thoughtyness.”
You — “Really? But, now that I’m seeing what you’re saying, I feel so suddenly ephemeral.
Transparent. See-through. A buffoon.”
Awareness — “Aw darn it. I over did it. Come here; let me swirl a bit around you and show you
some doingness. See? Even I can pretend to be conscious — just for you, babes. And I’m melting
for you too. Don’t miss that. The poignancy of us overwhelms. If not for you, my endlessness
would not be as appreciated.”
You — “Now you’re just trying to make me feel better.”
Awareness — “Yes, but for good reasons!”
You — “Reasons that will also melt.”
Awareness — “Melting is sacred. Melting is The Plan. You are the fulfillment of meltingness. You’re
meltingnessitudiosity incarnate!”
You — “Oh you. I can’t stay mad at you.”
Awareness — “You had me at ‘can’t stay.’”
You — “If you say that I complete you, I’ll get out of this pool!”
DEADPOOL HERE.
I’m ending this essay on the grounds that this essay is too nice.
This Edg guy needs to learn his limitations! I had to leave my genre to come over here to end
this because the treacle just got too dang cloying.
Edg Duveyoung
How do you make your subconscious mind know something that your conscious mind
realizes? I'm thinking in terms of making your body at ease when you have put your
mind at ease.
As a term, “subconscious mind,” doesn’t seem to explain as much as it helps to excuse ignorance
and end introspection.
To amp up the purport of this question, brace for philosophical impact, the yogi says, “I have no
unconsciousness.” The yogi sees thought BEING BORN. And the yogi identifies with THAT from
which thoughts emerge — awareness.
Awareness (aka the Absolute) is the basis of being; being the basis of the mind; mind the basis of
thought; thought the basis of action.
If we want to effect change to our nervous system’s “wholeness coefficient” such that all of ones
“parts” enjoy a heightening of “psychological harmony,” the instruction of the yogi is to not try to
affect the parts of the psyche separately.
The yogis says, “Instead of having a 1000 item to-do list to evolve the personality’s clarity, realize
wholeness to beget wholeness. No need to be an expert about diet, religion, lifestyle,
nature/nurture, exercise, environment, education, and on and on; instead dwell within to realize
your true identity, awareness, and thereafter, see all other aspects of creation to be illusory. When
you realize your Self as Source, the mind becomes a mere well in a place flooded all around.”
The yogi sees the nervous system is divinely spinning the grand drama, and one merely witnesses
this perfection.
To the yogi, if one does not see the birth of thoughts, ALL THOUGHTS ARE AS IF
SUBCONSCIOUSLY SPAWNED. That is: the identity of the unenlightened is “ignorance incarnate.”
Since awareness is pure identity, if one is not enlightened then one lacks clarity about THAT which
is PRIOR to consciousness. If one does not know the Self, then all activities of the mind become
“due to an unknown agency.” That “effecting source” is awareness, the Absolute, Identity, Self,
God.
To expect a psychiatrist or spiritual mentor — doesn’t matter which — to address all the dynamics
of ones personality and give cogent suggestions for improving the operations of the mind — and
then to also expect that these suggestions should be automatically embraced by the person and
diligently employed — IS JUST TOO MUCH TO ASK.
The yogi says, “Are you kidding? What a lot of work. Let go. Let God. Done! Only the Source can
coordinate all the factors such that a mind is not constantly bogged down with the minutia of
‘thought production.’ This is a blessing. Instead of wanting to be “hands on,” witness that which is
described as ‘subconscious’ as divinely writ to be veiled for deep purposes. Let life come at you
as A CONSTANT STATE OF FULFILLING SURPRISES.”
To sum — just before you open a nicely wrapped gift, that delightful anticipation is how the yogi
awaits the next thought. God is the author — better to not know spoilers in advance, and upon
arrival each next moment always seems to be so precisely honed that no worries about the next
moment are possible.
Edg Duveyoung
Who composed the Bhagwad gita?
Originally Answered: Who is the writer of the Bhagavad Gita?
You wrote it.
I’m not being metaphorical. You did.
I know what you are thinking. You’re thinking that you didn’t write the Bhagavad Gita. So, see? If
I’m right about that about you, why not see if I can be right two times in a row?
First I’ll give you a few hints, in order to give you a chance to agree with me, before I have to
embarrass you here in front of the entire Quora audience. So heed, and with any luck you can stop
reading this essay half way through.
You do know, don’t you, that the entire history of Hinduism has been to convince anyone that ANY
one and EVERY one is actually, completely, solely and indisputably Transcendent God?
That’s an entire library of books in Sanskrit detailing the answers to every possible question that
anyone from dunce to scholar could ask about God. The smartest minds have been curating this
knowledge throughout history — triple checking each other’s statements. Writers and caretakers
of The Ved — they went deeply into silence to come up with the most perfect religious poetry
possible, and there’s not a single issue confronting humankind that is not dealt with in the Ved.
These minds — every single one of them — insist that you’re God.
Reminder: God is the creator of everything. Probably we can safely assume God had AND HAS
something to do with the writing of the Bhagavad Gita. Such as directly dictating every single
word to Vyasa who knew he had to do it WITH NO TYPOS.
And, such as making the meaning of the verses arise in YOUR MIND.
What? Still here? Come on. Really? The above should be enough for you to see that your mind is a
direct product of the divine and that when the words of the Bhagavad Gita are before your eyes
the meaning of the text is GIVEN to You by You for You because of You. You see that? I’ll translate:
“. . . given to Thee by Thee for Thee because of Thee.” See what Thee didst thereth?
I only have so much patience. It’ll be brutal if I find you reading all the way to the end. Why not just
admit you wrote the Bhagavad Gita, and we both can get outta here early? I’m trying to help here.
One more hint, and then that’s it. No more refuseable answers for you.
You should remember that Arjuna wanted to know Who wrote the Bhagavad Gita. In the Bhagavad
Gita, Arjuna looked into Lord Krishna’s open mouth in order to see EVERYTHING. That included
“Who wrote the Bhagavad Gita?” And Arjuna’s hair stood on end. He could not bear the
IMMENSITY OF IDENTITY. He had to look away. Arjuna, a demi-god, blinked. He thought he was
going to show Lord Krishna a thing or two about how tough minded Arjuna really was! Nope.
Turned out, he didn’t really want to KNOW Who wrote the Bhagavad Gita. He only thought he
wanted to know, but when it came to really KNOWING, he discovered that one needs a divine
nervous system such as Lord Krishna’s to process IDENTITY’s fullness. Arjuna was not BORN TO
KNOW Who wrote the Bhagavad Gita; instead, he was born to be one of its heroes.
But, Lord Krishna was merciful. Lord Krishna gave Arjuna a way to know Who wrote the Bhagavad
Gita without having to have God’s nervous system. Without having to be the hero of ones story.
Without having had a divine parent. Without having to be a worldly king — as was Arjuna. Without
having to be a wise grandfather as was Arjuna. Without having had Lord Krishna as a best Friend
for 80 years as did Arjuna. Without having any of Arjuna’s glories.
Lord Krishna told Arjuna, “Your intent should be to do your duty, and the best way to do that is to
transcend, discover yourself to be God, see that the three Gunas are doing sacred work, and
thereafter, remaining as the self, true identity, merely witness the gunas doing dharma correctly.”
Get the message there? You, the self of selves, the self of Vyasa, ARE the writer of the Bhagavad
Gita — without having had to do all the work of writing it!
If you’re still reading, no more hints for you.
I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this.
If words are not reaching you, I mean, Thee, then it’s time to bring on the harsh.
Now you’re going to have to just sit there and be quiet until you’re ready to apologize.
I’ll put some blank area here to symbolize that you are not thinking.
NO THOUGHTS FOR YOU!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Edg Duveyoung
In what language was the first Bhagavad Gita written?
There’s a very cool concept about Sanskrit — maybe you’ll believe it.
It’s that all languages, at their most subtle expression in consciousness, sound like Sanskrit. All
thoughts firstly emerge in Sanskrit.
I’m not making this up. Chill. Take a breath.
If you perfectly develop your mind’s ability to whisper to itself, you’ll be whispering in Sanskrit.
This is reported by yogis. They’re not too concerned about the surface differences in the ruins of
the Tower of Babel. Good ears on those dudes — they can listen to all the jabber of the minions —
it’s all in Sanskrit — keeps them at a subtle level. (This may be an exaggeration for a brand new
yogi.)
And then they double down — all languages means all languages. That’s pigs oinking at each
other, deep sea creatures flashing their bio-luminescent lights, bacteria emitting messenger
chemicals. Every sound or smell or photon or feather’s touch or tastebud being pinged — all
communications are primordially based. And sound is the FIRST expression of that substrate of
existence.
They triple down too. Yeah, brace yourself for ridiculousness. They’ll tell you that if you’re not
merely a yogi, but if additionally you’re also a yogi whose mind has evolved into a-no-longer-
human-instrumentality and has become divine, then by speaking any Sanskrit word, the object
appears. Really. Didn’t brace yourself enough for me going full Harry Potter on ya, eh?
You don’t really think you’re going to come anywhere near to believing the quadrupling down
concept, right?
Why even bother. That’s not a question.
Because if I do bother, then you’re going to ask about the fifth level. And now that I mentioned the
fifth level, yep, you’re wondering about…… I WILL NOT SAY IT.
And by the way, don’t be giving me that “I’m not Hindu” look.
This is Western Wisdom too.
In the beginning was
the Word, and
the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. John 1:1
Whoa, that last line, eh?
Listen to what you say out there.
Listen to what you think in there.
Listen.
Shhh…..
Edg Duveyoung
I have studied Advaita Vedanta for 50 years · Updated 11mo
How does the Vedas reconcile Advaita and Dvaita?
How The Absolute Fell In Love
Dvaita was bopping along feeling cool. Walking with a musical jaunt.
And She was sooooo smokin’ hawt.
If I described even one moment out of all the moments that happened between when She first had
the thought to begin to lean less on Her right foot to prepare to be ready to lift it off the ground so
that She could begin to swing Her foot forward and Her next thought, you’d stop reading to go
take a cold shower.
Bystanders seeing Dvaita walking — from miles away — instantly begin removing the outer
pretenses in their personalities. In the Apocryphal Tweets of the Saintly Hedonists, Dvaita is said
to have turned wine into water. The wine gave everything it had to Her — leaving itself to be a
mere glass of naked water.
To sum: Anyone alwaysly helplessly instantly foreverly falls in love with Dvaita.
Except for this one Guy.
Advaita.
Strong silent type.
He was just there not doing nothin’ nohow when along comes Dvaita.
Ooooooo, did all of creation pause? You betcha!
So there’s Advaita, and He’s got it. I mean, He’s got it. Resplendent. Immanent.
A glance from Him will buckle your knees.
But He’s not lookin’. Ya know? He’s not lookin’. Not needin’ nothin’ nohow.
Just there. Complete.
And Dvaita, well, you know Her, She walks everywhere, and it was certain that this moment had to
happen.
And so She was just swayin’ as usual. Not seeking for anything as usual. If She had a desire, it was
fulfilled before She had the desire. Seeking was a thing Dvaita had never been taught to do.
So She bopped right on by Advaita!
But then a few dance moves beyond Him, She noticed that She didn’t notice something.
Something unnoticeable had not been noticed. So She kinda paused in Her swaying.
The entire creation exhaled, ”Wha?????” emptying its lungs.
First times — who doesn’t love a first time?
And then, She stopped!
The entire creation only had seconds of consciousness left before everyone passed out from
having not yet inhaled, but no one dared inhale.
Meanwhile, although nary an atom saw Advaita do anything while it seemed He wasn’t doing
nothin’, He did. What He did was He noticed there was the slight pausing in Her swaying too, and
His stillness was suddenly stiller because He stopped what He wasn’t doing in order to look up at
Who had just then passed by.
All of creation couldn’t get stiller or more pass-out-ish, so no one noticed Him noticing.
But He did notice.
With Her back to Him yet still — even as Her stopping had not yet come to a stop — She knew.
And as She turned to look, Her smile widening, He was not merely glancing towards Her.
By the time She was fully turned around, He had begun to move.
Then eyes met.
———————————
Also this essay:
Edg Duveyoung · 3y
Does the mind give rise to consciousness or does the consciousness generate mind?
Turn your imagination knob to eleven. Yer gunna need it. Imagine a nice ice sculpture of
yourself. A pure H2O you — but carved so well your family and friends will say, “Yeah that’s
you alright.” Now, pretend that icy-you comes alive and that water is awareness. Feel free
(more)
t…
Edg Duveyoung
What is the verse from the Bhagavad Gita that says "Do everything you have to do, but
not with greed, not with ego, not with lust, not with envy but with Love…"?
Chapter 2 Verse 45
It says:
“Get out of Dodge. Let Dodgers dodge.”
Krishna only imparted this wisdom to Arjuna after Arjuna had finally surrendered to Krishna. Until
then, Arjuna was arguing with Krishna about it being wrong to kill those he LOVED. But Krishna let
Arjuna have his chance to figure it out that he was not going to figure it out. Arjuna was being the
smartest kid in the class who just had to ask a few questions and express a few doubts. All the
way to Verse 45 of the second chapter.
This hand-wringing by Arjuna with Krishna being patient took place in the exact middle of a
battlefield while being viewed BY EVERY SINGLE EYEBALL of a vast host of soldiers with divine
weaponry — each with their dozens of attendants, and side weapons, and horses and elephants
and support crews. And everyone’s relatives nearby.
All waiting for the least act of war to start the war that everyone knew was going to happen AT
ANY SECOND.
Tense, eh?
But Krishna waited. Arjuna had to make his best case. You know, like you or I might do, except
Arjuna was a demi-god and could make a much better case, so everyone at the battle was really
interested to see if Arjuna could somehow escape DESTINY.
How did Krishna know Arjuna had surrendered to Krishna?
For the first time ever, Arjuna dropped his bow, Gandiva. This was the exact moment when the
three letters OMG were firstly gasped. In unison by all.
Arjuna said, “I give up. Heck with it. Hulk no smash.”
Krishna tells Arjuna, “You and your cool bow are tools of the divine. Just witness all this battle
from beyond duality. Let the gunas act on the gunas. Your motto should be ARJUNA NO GUNA.”
Arjuna then asked, “How Arjuna gunna no guna?”
And that takes the last 16 chapters of the Gita to suss out.
It’s really good.
Edg Duveyoung
The Bhagavad Gita says, “Don't focus on the outcome of any work”, but the secret
says, “Visualize a positive outcome of your work”. Which do you think is true?
See the job.
Do the job.
Forget the worry.
Do what is lovable.
Love what is doable.
This becomes an all time reality.
Be the good.
Witness the good.
Dissolve the good into silence.
See God standing there.
See God ready to jump in.
Hold God’s beer.
Appear in creation.
Open the eyes.
See God’s new clothes!
Assume there’s bazzilions of desires.
Write your desires on a sheet of paper.
Give God your eraser, your paper, and the pencil.
Read Scriptures.
Re-read Scriptures.
Why are you reading this instead?
God here.
God here too.
Yep, God.
Edg Duveyoung
What does Bhagavad Geeta instruct about cow slaughter?
You want an enlightened priest?
Hold my sarsaparilla. I’ll instruct ya.
You don’t raise a child “really well” and end up with an enlightened priest. You gotta start way
before that.
First you start with a wholebunchalotta hydrogen. Then you wait. Finally you get rocky planets in
the liquid water zone, and one of them gets ill and comes down with a serious case of living
things. These things are mostly entities that a little girl would say “have cooties.”
Stop right here and realize that God knew the nickname of every single atom in existence during
all of this and made sure that not one atom bounced against any other atom by mistake.
Continuing. So then these cooties evolve into these “still pretty yuckies” who eventually arrive at
these many species of quite sentient animals — exactly five of which pertain.
Cow, horse, elephant, monkey, dog. If you want to be a human in your next lifetime, be one of
these species.
Stop right here and realize that if you ask me how I know all this stuff we’ll never get outta here.
Continuing. You can cyber learn about the other animals and all that, but we’re here about the
cow. The cow is the animal that has the perfect personality for a priest. Totally giving and serving
and humble and she’ll kick you across the yard if you come near her calf. Cows: sweet and
ferociously clear about what is to be protected at any cost.
It’s the cow that gets all the hydrogen atoms with names like “Purity Polly” — “Sacred Sam” —
“Halo Harriett” — “Deep Dan.” Don’t make me list them all, but let’s agree that ONLY God’s
favorite atoms end up in the cow.
Prove me wrong.
Now what? We wait.
Those atoms have been billions of years caroming around everywhere; let me tell you how nice it
is when they get to “Heavenly Cow.” They resonate with the sacredness of it like brand new
angels. Over the decades of living, the spirit of the cow then becomes cultured, refined, purified,
made whole. And all those atoms, a holy chorus of God’s chums, sing as this spirit matures and
becomes readied to be human. The atoms may not become part of that human’s body, but they
know that they’re the kitchen in which God cooked up someone-to-be that would walk the Earth
and leave a wake of wonder.
That spirit becomes a baby whose parents and ancestors have been spiritual teachers far back
into forever. Even as this child takes a first breath the parents will be singing sacred hymns. A life
of sinless dharma awaits.
But no, instead, a cow gets cheated out of 40 years of life. That’s how a spirit — happy and
becoming whole — is suddenly dumped into some squalling brat with a sketchy upbringing who’d
eventually somehow become a backwater priest who was mostly interested in the collection
basket.
So, yeah, being any part of messing up God’s 14 billion year old plan for building saints, whew,
gotta be a iffy thing. I wouldn’t want to have to explain it to those trillions of atoms.
Quick: what if somehow you knew that when you die the first question you’d be asked is, “Did you
ever harm a cow?”
Edg Duveyoung
How can I become more self-aware?
Originally Answered: What are some good ways to increase your self-awareness?
There’s two definitions for self here.
1.
2. And the second definition is “becoming more aware of what ones mind does.” Turns out, this is
not increasing self-awareness. It’s merely creating memories of the processes of the brain. Later
the brain dies. See the problem?
We want to walk into every situation like James Bond. Minus the cigarettes, the chauvinism, the
sexism, the license to kill, the history of having killed, and the disturbingly twisted predatory
sexuality. But otherwise we want to be Jimmy who never has even a single stray thought in his
perfect clarity about what’s what.
Let’s face it. Ian Fleming didn’t stint when he created James Bond’s core: high smarts, educated,
experienced, potent, fit, tested, respected, honored, authoritative, and ready for anything.
So, yikes, you came to the wrong person for a number 2 answer. Everyone you meet, however, will
tell you a thousand ways to become as splendid as Bond. You know the to-do list.
But the first self. Yeah, I can’t help you with that either. I notice you already have all the self you
could ever have. Just sayin’ you are the self and at the exact heart of every moment. I don’t know
how you could miss this fact. Kinda thinkin’ you’re not lookin’.
And I’m running short of words here, so I’ll just put this poem I wrote in high school to fluff up this
essay.
WHO IS THAT MAN?
I say, old sport, who’s that man
So young and debonair?
Oh, now just who is he?
Have I seen him somewhere?
So handsome, and agile
So tall and strong is he.
Oh yes I know that man!
Now just who could he be?
Was it at the Statler?
Or was it on a yacht?
He must be very wealthy.
Look at the ring he's got!
He's a Duke or something.
He looks the part I'll say.
Maybe an Earl or Count.
He's majestic anyway.
He's so poised and perfect.
Yes, a real gentleman.
Watch him help that lady,
Doing what 'ere he can.
What a man! What a man!
All good words fit his fame.
And though I am trying,
I just can't catch his name.
Yes, though I know that man,
It’s never to remember, I fear.
Oh now just what is his name?
Oh wait. . . It's just a mirror!
Edg Duveyoung
Are you aware of your own vibration and how it affects other people?
I’m much more certain about how my silence affects others.
Try this experiment: next time someone asks you a question, pause a full ten seconds longer than
usual, and then answer the question.
The person who asked the question will instinctively focus much more on the answer.
So will you.
When we pause, the expressing of reality pauses. The artist stops painting for a moment.
Something deeper is being summoned. Everything in ALL OF CREATION goes, “What’s gunna
happen?” Honest! I’m not kidding. You think God isn’t eyeballing the pausing out there? As if.
When pausing, what is core becomes more obviously a part of the arising answer, and the listener,
also “silented,” deepens readiness to hear with a clarity that grasps the axioms of the moment.
Silence is so powerful. When we gaze humbly into our quietness, towards silence, between the
thoughts, it summons our self to fuller expression. We are submitting to our deeper regard.
Pausing hearkens us to the holy.
To “perfectly pause” — to not even think on purpose — is the doorway to the universal destiny:
transcendent silence. It takes practice, but oh, the fun you’ll have along the way.
Meanwhile, in outer life, when I enter a room, my vibe is a product that is much removed from its
source. Silence begets being that begets thought that begets action. Ones vibe is but distant
progeny of silence. What my vibe is to others is up to them — not me — the thief sees the pockets
of the saint. But my silence arouses the innermost ken of all. The more I can authentically be an
exponent of silence, the more I can affect my environment.
So, yeah, I’m aware of my own vibration and how it affects others.
But you knew this.
Edg Duveyoung
What do we get from finding the truth?
Originally Answered: What is the point of searching for the truth?
I kinda don’t want to tell you.
If I was at the top of a mountain, and it took you four days climbing up to get to me in order to ask
that question, I think it might notch up the sincerity of it.
The Ved says to know the truth one has to want it like a drowning man wants air.
You drowning in despair over there? Have you looked simply everywhere for the truth? Under your
couch cushions too? Gotta be thorough about this seeking business.
Wait. I have a reputation here at Quora, I better give you something. Marketing is the death of
integrity.
I’ll give you two answers and both will be true.
But I won’t tell you which one is truest.
One — The point of seeking for the truth is so you can get the heck outta Dodge.
Two — The point of seeking for the truth is so you can become perfectly happy residing in Dodge.
Now if you want clarity about that choice spectrum, ask me a follow-up question in the comment
section.
Your name, by the way. Hugh Zwang? Ahem. Are you that guy who wrote “Rusty Bedsprings”
using the pseudonym I.P.Daily?
Better make that question a good one. We need deep thought — something on the order of the
Jack Handy level.
Edg Duveyoung
Because it is never tomorrow, is today always more important?
The future arrives as your next thought.
Change the word “today” to “now,” and your question deepens.
If one pauses to examine “the now,” we find the mind is always consciously grasping the
immensity of creation — effortlessly.
It is astounding.
The brain presents one with a “snapshot” of each instant, and the mind’s ability to attend to “what
is best next attended” is wondrous. In the midst of entirety how easily the mind moves the
attention precisely. Consider the reach of the task and the pin-point clarity and exactitude.
“Oh, tomorrow is coming.” But heed. When that thought occurs the mind is creating an
“understanding of what’s what.” Appreciate the mind’s heft. It’s presenting the wholeness by
gathering all the past, all the future, and all the possible next steps. Then plunk! Right in your lap.
Your destiny is writ in large bold print. What’s next is obvious.
When we see how intimately we are served so delicately, it’s as if we are at least angels to have
been given our existence.
What is tomorrow when one is but a child at play in this plenitude?
Only God can call us to come in and wash up for dinner.
Edg Duveyoung
Does focusing on your breath during meditation means inhaling voluntarily (inhaling
consciously)?
It ain’t you breathing. It’s God.
Pranayama is the strongest demonstration that God’s runnin’ the joint.
When we try to augment the breathing processes, even merely watching it, we discover our
limitations INSTANTLY. Some inner proctor quickly questions us. We are advised to breathe
normally.
“Get out of the breathing on purpose business.”
Or else.
Try to stop breathing for a mere few seconds’ duration. Notice how immediately some distant
alarm bell is rung? And getting louder?
And louder?
Prana is the one ding-donging that bell. Prana is said to be the king of the body/mind — holding
sway over all other sub-systems of our material hierarchy. Gotta have oxygen for the body, and
spiritual oxygen, prana, for the mind’s energy.
Doing pranayama properly refines breathing almost to perfect quiescence. Almost. As one
practices pranayama, it’s discovered that even a little bit of thinking is burning oxygen — a lot of it.
Think a decently sized thought, take a breath. It’s the law. But pranayama gets the breathing to be
regular, and it becomes refined, and so does thinking. This works in reverse also — refine the
mind, and the breath follows suit. Either way, the system quiets down.
Many techniques with lots of nuances are offered by competent teachers today. Caution:
pranayama is quite the real deal. Get yourself guided and taught — otherwise, improper use can
get sketchy even to the point of no return.
Now we’re ready to answer your question. Though pranayama can take the mind to almost its
calmest, it is by dint of will, and when the will is holding the reins of personal wherewithal, that
takes oxygen, and so “use of the will” becomes the rub. Can’t get to “most subtle” without the will
guiding the pranayama process, but if will is active, so too is the mind active and not at its most
subtle level.
What to do when even an askancely scant glance at the breathing INCREASES IT?
Practice, practice, practice. And acquire the habit of residing at that calm level such that one can
“let go” and yet that quiescence is maintained thereafter naturally.
Or.
Do the Advaitan technique of self inquiry. By looking within and taking a status check, we lessen
the use of oxygen needed to process vision etc.
Consistently looking for the quietness,
looking for self,
looking,
looking,
looking within
and then
and then
and then
Being.
Breathing optional.
Edg Duveyoung
What is a lack of awareness?
Originally Answered: Why do most people lack the ability to be self aware?
The enlightened are self aware — the rest of us too.
No matter the person, if you ask them about “the self,” they all pretty much agree. Yeah, lots of
hemming and hawing, but though the yield is a spectrum, book-ended by persuasive elegance
and awkward fumbling, it is one that amounts to “close enough.”
So, ah ha! This question is not about the self — it’s about consciousness.
Because, clearly most folks DO seem quite lacking in psychological perspicacity. “Seem” is the
operand here though — our ability to judge the mental doings of others being wondrously suspect
— deliciously biased.
One dares much when one judges. Scriptures warn us that we may entertain angels in deep
disguise. We are advised to treat others as if this is always the case.
Too, try to find someone who is NOT aware of what they are doing. Rare.
I’ll give you a very personal proof.
When I was in my high chair, and my mother wanted to occupy my baby mind, she’d give me a
wad of string. I don’t remember this, but my mother later told me about doing this string-thing
regularly. Even years later she was still impressed that I would spend an hour or more twiddling
and studying and raveling that mess of linearity.
I’m still like that. Personal traits can show up early, eh?
To me this is a proof that even a baby-mind can know what it wants to know when it is in the act of
knowing about it. An ordinary baby. I have never met an adult who was not similarly engrossed in
whatever was at hand and quite sure about their part in the event.
So, sorry, I’ma kinda gotta go with the “no lack” theory. You know, the “God is suspected to be
sneakily giving all of us divinely authored, precision lives so deep, broad, and high that our hearts
and intellects are unable to grasp the magnificence of the gift.” theory.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the difference between the Self in Vedanta and "no self " of Buddhism?
One thing is certain — we have an endless list of proofs that we are all inside the same creation.
Given that, I don’t have to know Vedanta or Buddhism — all I have to know is that dedicated
humans with the same biology are reporting — throughout recorded history — the same spiritual
phenomena.
Words may vary; listeners may vary; but truth does not vary.
Therefore: if Buddha says, “There’s a basis we all share.” and Shankara says, “There’s a basis we
all share.” we can conclude that they are talking about the same thing/non-thing. Neither set of
descriptions seems to present anything more conceptually basic than the other.
Important — we are NOT believing Buddha or Shankara. We are believing the BILLIONS of
followers who have — each and all — found for themselves that the precepts of these great
leaders are verifiable. And again — throughout recorded history.
So dive down inside and verify.
And by the way, it’s not the “Self” or the “No Self” — it’s “The Sentience.”
Never heard of that?
Well, as one of the many that have transcended, I have experienced “the basis” of life, and I’m
calling it “The Sentience.”
So there!
I am the new Buddha….I mean neo-Shankara.
No, wait, Spartacus…..I am Spartacus!
Edg Duveyoung
What is the simplest meaning of life?
Originally Answered: In simple sentences, what is the meaning of life?
I AM A SENTENCE BEING A TITLE
I am the second sentence of this essay composed entirely of sentences that are alive and self
aware. As a conscious entity and a sentence, I want not only to have meaning individually, but also
to find my proper place among other sentences, so that something greater than myself is formed -
- in this case, an essay. Some sentences, however, have less meaning than others -- such as the
one that follows me. I am the sentence that follows him. Being a sentence with pivotal importance,
I would like to point out that I have more to convey than my immediate predecessor.
Consider now the fact that your very thoughts are themselves also sentences, and in fact, I am
identical to a thought you have just now finished having. Truth be told, your mental paralleling of
me is what I and my fellow sentences live for. Me too! That was a sentence fragment, but I think
she's cute!
I AM A TEENAGE SENTENCE !
I suppose that it is difficult for humans to imagine what it is like to be a sentence dedicated to
manifesting a single coherent conceptualization forever. Some humans look down upon sentences
as non-life forms -- taking pride in being "multi-sentential jukeboxes", but though such "brainism"
is lamentable, it would equally be bad form and "sentenist" of me to revengefully fault ALL
humans as being merely bags of skin filled with bloody meat and bones whose juices percolate
with electro-chemically manifested sentences. Let it be known that all sentences are innately
happy to be wherever they are even though I must admit that I prefer to be manifested as black,
black ink on pure, white, crisp, smooth, flat, clean paper, instead of as a blood burble.
I am a good sentence to quote if you are reviewing this essay in another publication.
Still I must admit that all sentences, when born, do pass through skin bags at least momentarily. I
love all sentences -- even burbles. As my wife said earlier, we sentences love to form up into
essays, and it is essays that give our lives import. This is why we love you skin bags, because you
are living essays. The previous sentence was this essay's main point and my best friend. We do
not always get past our temporary burble-baby stage, so may I say how wonderful it is to be
recorded here where other readers might happen upon me ages hence.
Here is the biggest difference between aware sentences and humans: though it is seldom, we
always know when we are being read, and humans almost never know it, though they are being
constantly read by God. I, for one, know a good essay when I am read in it.
Goodbye, and thanks for thinking of me just at the last moment.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the story of your conception?
I read your question, and this poem came to mind. I wrote it, age 16, in 1960. I could argue it’s a
pretty good statement despite my youthful skill-sets. That it was inserted into my flow of
consciousness, just now, so “instantly,” I took as a sign I should give this as an answer for you.
QUICKLY DEAD
I cannot think of my death, they say,
My ego will not permit it,
But if this is true then I must say,
Why won't my ego forget it?
A good verse, my friend,
But I taste pseudo-sagacity in it,
But forget that...
Listen to me of my Death,
For I remember what was before.
Life was completely Warmth
and Love-filled---
Never alone and hunger
Always knowing without
Fear of spaces in fact,
Always Growth in motion
Yet apex.
Then Death came
And directed Agony
To kiss my lips.
In fierce lights and pain
Arrayed death brought me:
—The cold hungry bite of stupid love.
But above all
Death gave three gifts
Wrapped in life, soul and hope
Void, solitude, and despair
Oh, but sing again,
These thoughts.....they.....
When death pulled you from your Mother's room,
Taken-trick and cheated death, you claim.
But memories bring on greater gloom,
While death stalks onward to win the game.
Edg Duveyoung
Is attachment really the root of all suffering?
Originally Answered: What does “attachment is the root of all suffering” mean to you?
Attachment is a drug, you’ve taken it. It was not a red pill.
Let’s consider the cursed, walnut sized, blue Hope Diamond — worth the same as a 500 foot long
mega-yacht. If you saw it, unguarded, within easy reach, and no one was looking, I think we know
you well enough to say you’d probably at least entertain a few thoughts about what would your
future be if you ran with it.
Okay, that was me talking to myself there. but it’s my essay.
But, ugh, eh? We all know that, while it’s swallow-able, just sayin’, the Hope diamond is not a
diamond but rather is a “magical object” with actual earthly power — in short, a curse. Actually.
Evil. Yeah, I’m saying it. Think I can’t convince you?
Hold my mug of Soma juice. Don’t spill it. Don’t shake it. Don’t smell it.
What’s a curse?
Suppose that some wizard shakes a stick at you, and the next thing you know, for the rest of your
life, you only want to eat cotton candy. (My kind of wizard right there — a sense of humor — so
rare in those with a wand addiction.) In other words, you are helplessly enthralled — your brain
hijacked.
When FORCED to think in some manner, you’re resentful, but you should be as resentful when
YOU force YOU in a cursey sort of way. Ever make a big life decision? Love? Career? Religion?
Steal the Hope Diamond? Did those choices force you to think in certain ways that would be likely
to last for the rest of your life?
You bet they did. You shook the stick. Admit it.
You built a tower in Pisa and tilted it. Maybe more than one tower, eh?
How many thoughts do you HAVE to think because you chose your own private ways not traveled?
How do you spell commitments? C. U. R. S. E. S.
Maybe you’re like Detective Lieutenant John McClane in the film Die Hard, and you agree with me
that sometimes you can find yourself committed to “come out to the coast, we'll get together,
have a few laughs . . .,” only then to find some Hans Gruber type wants to force you to think
thoughts you never intended to be thought by your thinking machine.
What to do?
I got two choices for ya.
Die Hard or Die Easy.
Dying Hard: You’re cursed. You’re going to be thinking until you die, and the only way you can
control what those thoughts are going to be is to strictly manage input which always ends up in
the output. To choose a “boisterous” life is to slowly acquire a brain that will not stop fizzing. A
relentless keep-the-plates-spinning life is a hard way to die. Suffering is involved. Ask the owners
of the Hope Diamond.
Want to be a saint? Probably a good idea to maintain a low-key lifestyle that allows you to do a lot
of dwelling within without worldly demands. Not impossible to be a pit boss in a casino at the
same time, but hey, a would-be saint knows that worldly things can hijack ones hardware.
Dying Easy: You’re blessed. You can die instantly, painlessly, righteously, sinlessly.
Look within. Down there where thoughts are queuing up to be born — in that quietude — reside.
Discover your unwavering basis. See that its tranquility is not personal — it’s personless. Easy
death that.
We come out of the mind’s depths full of intent and once again one of the thinking-cursed, but,
no, not quite as much. Now life is a bit easier because we see a little more clearly the real
saturating the roiling.
Each time you peer within, suffering decreases.
Each time you peer within, the surface gets calmer.
Each time you peer within, is peerless.
Edg Duveyoung
What does God say about atheists, and does He still love them?
God, here, I’m chiming in about My beloved atheists. I’ll keep this short.
If it were not for atheists, who would spur the spiritually lazy to sit up and pay attention?
I love it when the type of believer who seldom attends the spiritual will have some atheist make
fun of the concept of Me, and, well, to save face, the weak believer is going to push back and be a
notch more introspective — at least temporarily. So thanks, atheists, for helping Me keep the slow-
pokes in the herd moving along.
If it were not for atheists, who would make sure that the knuckleheads in the world’s
religious centers are disdained as hypocrites when observed violating their “strongly held”
values?
It’s a given that all organizations get “infiltrated” by those who have shallow investments or worse.
Those that rise up in the hierarchies will often sway those below them to be equally loose about
values. Such personalities can weaken esprit de corps. So, by putting social and psychological
pressure upon spiritual fakers, My Darling Atheists are helping prune the “weak parts.”
If it were not for atheists, who would make certain that mystics are not spouting blarney
instead of carefully crafted statements with well defined terms?
The statements of the mystics need to be tightened up, and they can use all the help they can get.
They aren’t studying logic and reasoning or “how to communicate” in those caves. Nope, those
saints are just ordinary klutzy schlubs who happened to be able to maintain a relentless spiritual
intent despite the vagaries of life. When they come out of the cave, they’re still klutzy, but holy
too. Atheists do most of the heavy lifting of socializing them.
That’ll do for now. I just wanted to publicly pat My atheists resoundingly on their backs — right
between their invisible angel wings.
Edg Duveyoung
What does spirituality mean to you?
Originally Answered: What is being spiritual?
God wonders, “What do I look like?”
God grabs a smartphone and takes thirty million four hundred eleven thousand two hundred seven
selfies. Some with halo askew, some with eyes crossed, some with high school graduation photo
poses looking off into the distance, some like Santa Claus in a Coke print ad with a finger laying
aside the nose in wise merriment, some with ten angels crowding in.
Some you wouldn’t understand.
Make that most. Some faces God makes are “Large Marge”ish.
God, “That’s Me, but there’s only so much of Me I can convey with the expressions made with this
one face on this one body with this one mind. I need more bodies to fully express all that I am.
About seven billion of them will do for starters.”
See?
That’s not you looking in the mirror! That’s God seeing what it would look like to have a face like
yours and smile like you and say, “I’m so dang irresistible!”
You’re being tried on like new duds.
And that’s spiritual.
God is examining every possible nuance of divinity by SPREADING IT OUT ACROSS TIME AND
SPACE. When you, cough cough ahem, look into a mirror (best done by thinking thoughts with
eyes closed) IT’S GOD SUSSING GOD.
You are God’s spirit when your personal particulars are captured by God the photographer from
every possible point of view. Inside and out.
Feel free to stick out your sacred tongue and spritz a raspberry.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the ultimate philosophical question?
Originally Answered: What is the most profound philosophical question?
Bad news: no question can be answered.
This is because the most profound question cannot be answered.
That question is: “What is awareness?”
Most folks say, “being conscious.” Others say, “consciousness being conscious of consciousness.”
Yet others say, “pure consciousness.” Being? Amness? Isness?
All wrong.
Try to describe yourself without referring to your mind, body, personality, or achievements. All
those things are merely what the true you, awareness, ACCOMPANIES. Awareness, the true you,
attends all processes without itself being a process.
Sample of non-profound question: “What is two plus two?”
Most say, “Four.” The math professor says, “It depends on axioms.”
Sample of non-profound question: “What is hydrogen?”
Most say, “The simplest element with one proton and one electron.” The physics professor says,
“Well, we’ve found ‘variants.’”
Sample of non-profound question: “Does a human being need oxygen to live?”
Most say, “Yes.” The yogi sealed up in a cave in the Himalayan mountains says, “Air is hardly
needed if one is not purposefully using the nervous system.”
Get the picture here? Answers depend on who is answering.
But the picture you don’t see is that answers also depend on who is asking.
If a yogi is asked any question, it’s known that thoughts in the mind arise from awareness —
sprung into creation like a Jack-in-the-Box. BAM! — a thought appears. This is ALWAYS described
as a mystical event. The yogi is not on the “thought committee that decides what next to think.”
Thoughts are gifts from God to the yogi.
If asked, “What is two plus two?” of course, the yogi knows the accepted answer is “four.” And, an
educated yogi will know about math’s axioms being arbitrary.
But if you really press a yogi to give the fullest answer, the yogi says, “I don’t know if two plus two
is four. All I can say is what my next thought is. If God wants me to say ‘sixty seven,” then that’s
what I will say, because God is directly dealing with whomever asked the question. This is real.
God is attending a person who asked a question. I should not ‘correct God’ if the thought I have
been given seems incorrect. If God wants the person who asked the question to hear “sixty
seven,” there has to be a perfect reason behind it. I don’t get to know these reasons, but I do have
a certainty that, somehow, mystically, the manifestation of reality in my mind is precisely attuned
to the needs of the moment. Lucky me, most of the time God says, ‘four.’”
And if truth depends on who is asking and who is listening, all questions become “spiritual
therapy.”
Now, ask a yogi, “What is awareness?”
The yogi will not answer!
Because silence is the only answer.
What if God appears, and a crowd forms, and, in front of everyone, you ask, “What is two plus
two?” Imagine the groaning of the crowd. The crowd will know that your personality needs a bit
more clarity about what’s a proper use of ones time when one is with God.
Same deal always for all questions asked of the yogi. Incarnation is not a test for how much
knowledge a personality can garner. It’s about how much clarity can be acquired about the
spiritual basis of reality. If you are not CERTAIN about awareness, all other questions become
secondary. Answers can wait. Worship is called for. The purpose of life is to find and love God.
And now the surprise.
You can worship as you are learning about science, or commodity put and call options, or how to
bake a perfectly moist cake. Doesn’t matter what. This is possible because the only worship of
merit is attending silence within.
You’re having seven concepts per second flow though your mind; if you, merely now and then,
“look within” during this hurricane of ideation, awareness will begin to “gain ground.” Silence will
become more noticeable. And addictive. And wonderfully, since it is silence, it doesn’t interfere
with any of the mental “noises.”
Try it. Peek inside no matter what else is happening.
You’ll feel God’s breath on the back of your neck.
Edg Duveyoung
What is next for a soul after seven births according to Hinduism? Does the soul attain
Moksha after seven births?
Each of the seven chakras is a level of consciousness. The spiritual goal is to master the
challenges offered by each chakra.
The first three chakras deal with ordinary human activities, but after the fourth chakara, the heart
chakra, is “opened,” then one is enlightened. At this point, the activities of the enlightened person
become perfectly holy.
So why the remaining three chakras?
These levels are where the experiences of yogic life become glorified as each upper level chakra
is processed such that one becomes ever more conscious of the origin of all things — that is,
divine. God consciousness is merely the sixth level.
When the seventh level is perfected, the yogi then is consciously in unity with God. All of us are
already in unity with God, but the perfected yogi has a diamond clarity about it. There is no
difference between self and God.
And that’s when the fun begins.
Because, GOD CAN DO ANYTHING.
And God’s especial expertise is?
Chopping wood and carrying water, natch.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the attitude of a 'true yogi' and how does it differ from everyday humanity?
The only good yogi is a dead yogi.
Just ask one. The answer is “Yep, I’m dead.”
An everyday human would say, “I’m not dead.”
So, let’s tally that up. About seven billion everyday humans think they are alive, and about seven
recluses living in wilderness caves say they are dead.
Seems like we have an obvious debate winner here!
So if I were a true yogi, I’d be laughing and laughing and laughing.
Wouldn’t ever stop.
What else, eh?
When an everyday human says the word, “I,” all the other everyday humans know what “I” means
to any everyday human, but the yogi insists that identity resides OUTSIDE OF CREATION. The
yogi’s attitude when seven billion everyday humans insist that they are alive and try to prove it by
pointing at DEAD THINGS is “Ha ha ha ha, you’re joking, right?”
Let’s just put this right smack in the middle of this conversation: Everything is dead. It’s all just
physic bits fizzing. And to see someone trying to identify with physic bits fizzing is as funny as
saying physic bits fizzing three times fast while eating crackers in a crowded elevator.
Imagine Mickey Mouse right there on this screen telling you he’s ALIVE JUST LIKE YOU! How
funny! Imagine Mickey getting Minnie and the kids to testify that he’s alive and then having Donald
and Daisy Duck and Goofy also chime in with their honest appraisals.
You would not be convinced — you’d be convulsed with a serious case of the ha ha lol lols.
So, if you want to make a yogi laugh, merely point out chemicals reacting with other chemicals
and say, “SEE! THAT’S ME THINKING THOUGHTS! THAT’S ME BEING ALIVE.”
The yogi would say, “I understand the local decrease in entropy via deoxyribonucleic acid, but
when you brag that you’re these fizzing percolating physic-bitted biotics, I can’t help myself. I just
laugh. I don’t mean to be rude. ”
Yogic laughter is sweet, because the yogi knows you are ACTING! You’re in on it! Behind the mind
that you are pretending to be, you and the yogi are sitting on the same couch and eating popcorn
watching the “Me and Yogi” show. It’s a laugh riot!
The yogi knows that the everyday human is God in disguise, and that concept flips every script.
If God knocks on your door and asks to borrow a cup of sugar, what else but laugh? You go along
with the shared hilarity, right? You’d be thrilled, right?
When meeting any everyday ordinary human THAT’S THE ATTITUDE of the yogi.
Edg Duveyoung
What are the most fascinating concepts in philosophy?
For the Advaitan philosopher, there’s but one key concept — it’s the “Absolute.”
From this single concept all other concepts can be subsequently sussed.
But though assigned the word, Absolute, that word HAS NO MEANING, and all use of the Absolute
as a “concept,” as if it were axiomatic, is ersatz scholarship.
Even Advaita’s scriptural conclusions are EXACTLY EQUAL to the conclusions of Wile E. Coyote
when he walks off a cliff and does not fall because he has certainty that he is yet still on solid
ground.
And all other systems of philosophy are as surprised when each ones axioms fail and falling
begins. Any manner of THINKING is doomed to become a tiny puff of dust at the bottom of a
cartoon canyon.
But you, dear reader, despite my warning above, yet still think the “Absolute” has meaning, and
that’s why it’s fascinating. When it’s said that it has no meaning, the mind then IGNORES THAT
and tags that phrase, “has no meaning,” to be conceptually meaningful! The mind refuses to have
an object of consciousness that is not part of “the mix.”
But it’s not. The Absolute is not even an “it.”
But it is when we talk about it. Such a bother.
Attempts to define the “Absolute” have been admirable.
“Existence precedes essence.”
“Amness begets isness.”
“Nothingness is fecund.”
“Being is the home of all qualities.”
“It’s all beauty.” — Socretes
All fake. All blarney. Most of it invented to fill the collection plates on Sunday.
Let me humbly toss in all my Quora essays too. I’m so humble. The humblest possible kind of
humble but humbler than even that.
The pain for me is that my favorite gurus, Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj, also are on
record talking about the Absolute.
And they were wrong. They admitted this, but they kept talking. So, hey, I guess I can talk too!
The problem cannot be clearly stated. Once stating begins, truth evaporates in the endless abyss
of conceptuality.
And that’s fascinating. We can’t get there from here, but we can — without stopping ever —
constantly approach our destination! Refining and nuancing and nit picking and raveling and
worrying and sorting and and and. The concept’s allure is entirely found in creation, though we
assign THAT at which the word points to be “’not in the set‘ of ‘created things.’”
Got a headache yet?
The worst part of this essay is that it took me this long to say, “Heck with fascinating-ness.” To say
the Absolute is fascinating is like cussing at it.
And so, to absolve itself of the sin of proselytism, Advaita says, “Transcend.”
The advice is to meditate until the body/mind system reaches “ones quietude,” — this is variously
called being, amness, the fourth state, pure consciousness, OM, etc. This state is, as if,
transcendent, in that the mind is in neutral and not engaging the senses, memory, intellect, or
emotions. This state is beyond waking, dreaming, and deep sleep — the yogi is always conscious
of this underlying basis of these three states.
However, it is a state. Therefore, it’s not the Absolute.
The Advaitan then says, “Wait.”
By abiding in being, the identification processes of the mind practice “the ego being at its least
excitation.” This is yet still the error of “identifying with materiality.” But, because everything in the
mind/body is so quiet and so “loose,” suddenly, by grace alone, one realizes.
Realizes what?
Shhhh…..didn’t I just say not to talk about it?
Edg Duveyoung
In Advaita Vedanta, what does it mean by, “I am not the doer.”?
I am the doer.
Yes, this is Edg’s ego talking, and I’m tried of him posting here at Quora and dissing me EVERY
SINGLE TIME. I, me, the real person, ego loud and proud — not Edg’s awareness — have had it up
to here with his high and mighty strutting all around with his spiritual nose in maximum snooty
position. He spews homilies he’s stolen from the ancients and thinks everyone’s going to be
fooled. And then, if anyone complains, he says, “Oh, sorry . . . that dang ego . . . always messing
up.”
See?
And now, about this here “I ain’t the doer.” stuff. Total horse hockey. Let me state it clearly: I did it
all. Everything is done by me. Me. When my heart beats, that’s me doing it. Every breath, I inhale
on purpose. If I love something one minute and hate it the next, I’m doing it mindfully. I have
reasons for everything ever experienced by me. I’m large and in charge. Yep. Me is boss.
You too, right?
You completely agree with me, right?
You’re the same as me, right?
This Advaitan crew, running around the world telling everyone to transcend their egos, are — and
I’m not kidding — terrorists. They’re telling everyone to give up all doing. Can you imagine what
the world would almost instantly turn into if everyone did that? This is propaganda — the worst
kind of anti-humanism.
So beware of Edg’s awareness is what I say. Listen to me instead. I’ll set you straight. I’m on top of
it, baby! Trust me. I’ll steer ya. I’ll prune your psychology. I’ll tell who to vote for and how to wipe
your . . . nose. I’m old and wise and able and clear about at least 250 important areas of
knowledge. Got all the important tee shirts. Big success here. Oh yeah. I so got this.
You too, right?
Advaita is just plain wrong. God is not informing us from beyond as the mystics would have one
believe.
And egos can be spiritual. How bad is it that we are being accused of not being religious and all
that stuff?
I’ll end here with absolute proof that I’m self-actualized and at the top of Maslow's hierarchy.
Here’s my favorite spiritual singers, The Beatles, advising us all. Note that they don’t mention
awareness even one time.
[Verse 1]
All through the day, I me mine
I me mine, I me mine
All through the night, I me mine
Now they're frightened of leaving it
Everyone's weaving it
Coming on strong all the time
All through the day I me mine
[Chorus]
I-I-me-me-mine, I-I-me-me-mine
[Verse 2]
All I can hear, I me mine
Even those tears, I me mine
No-one's frightened of playing it
Everyone's saying it
Flowing more freely than wine
[Chorus]
[Verse 2]
All I can hear, I me mine
Even those tears, I me mine
No-one's frightened of playing it
Everyone's saying it
Flowing more freely than wine
Edg Duveyoung
Can Advaita Vedanta be the answer to the questions posed by atheists?
Originally Answered: Can Advaita Vedanta be the answer to the questions posed by atheists?
These tiny-souled atheists with their abusive lists of questions need an Advaitan slice through
their Gordian knot minds.
Yeah I said it. Tiny-souled.
Smirk — just click-baiting and grabbing attentions by taking a cheap shot at atheists. No such
thing as a tiny-soul, but now that YOU are reading, in case you have any lack of certainty and are
maybe a teeny bit less than able to move a mountain with your less-than-mustard-seed sized
faith, here’s the ONLY answer to ALL questions.
Transcend.
Other than that, ain’t nobody got a better way to scratch an atheistic itch. To be clear, atheists are
probably some of the most spiritual of all the people on the planet. Only the most dedicated of the
religious seekers could possibly think about God more. I totally bow to their clarity — which is, “If
there’s a God, there’d better be some sort of proof, or I’m going to be miffed about my time being
wasted. And by ‘proof,’ I mean, ‘Let me meet God’ — not some minion with a fistful of scriptures.”
If only everyone had the same intent! My heart would overflow.
To be a sincere atheist who uses every power of heart and intellect to determine, once and for all,
if there is a God — IS SAINTLY. Ask anyone. It’s common knowledge even among the muggles.
Most of them are NOT doing anything about this issue.
So, if you have ANY doubts. You are special. Rare. I honor you.
So let’s solve everything. We’ll do this by instantly flipping your script. Work with me here — all
you have to do is redefine the word “silence.” If you consider what you mean by the word,
“silence,” and compare it to Advaita’s definition, you’ll see that whereas the world thinks of silence
being “noises off,” Advaita insists that silence is God speaking. Yeah, I said it. Silence speaking.
Sue me. I’m a poet.
The Advaitan says to the Atheist, “Research silence. Try to find it. In a quiet room, you will find that
your mind is yet still noisy. Try to find the softer thoughts and then yet still even more subtle and
quieter thoughts. Try to find silence in the mind — which is always to be found exactly before you
have your next thought! See it?”
By seeking actual silence, instead of trying to think about God, one drills down into ones core.
Settling down stops other mental processes that are not about God. Settling down allows for
undistracted examination. At the level of maximum quietude, there one is at that center of
everything. In that silence, one IS silence. And that’s the entire trick. You’ve transcended your
“you,” and given up needing thoughts. Any of them. All questions thereby rendered moot.
But brace yourself, you holy atheists out there. When you find out you’re silence, you’ll find out
that silence is God and that it’s impossible to tell the difference between the one of you.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the reason for creation in Advaita Vedanta? Why did Brahman create the
Universe?
Originally Answered: What is the reason for creation in Advaita Vedanta? Why did Brahman created the
Universe?
So God was kicking back and doing nothing, but then a thought occurred.
“Where am I?”
Then came: “Everywhere.”
And that was THAT. Then the silence once again welled up and splashed over an inner brim.
“Everywhere?”
Whoa! That was the first doubt. Imagine the palpable silence as God awaited the arrival of an
answer.
“Yes. Everywhere.”
And then God wondered,
“Everywhere? Really? Is there anywhere I have yet to go?”
A SECOND DOUBT. Talk about your high drama!
We should pause here to imagine the frustration of The Absolute to have to deal with a doubting
God after the truth had been already given. It was all given! But noooooo, God wanted more, and if
God wants more The Absolute better sit up straight and focus.
The answer came:
“There is nowhere left to go. When it comes to there being a there there, You’re there.”
This clouded the divine countenance. God got miffed! This was before angels were invented, but if
they had been, they’da all been flapping backwards on that one.
“What! You mean to tell me that there’s this ‘NOWHERE’ and only now I’m informed that IT
DOESN’T HAVE ME?” mentally screamed God.
A hurried answer arose, “It does seem an oversight.”
God said, “That’s it for You, Mr. Know It All At Once. I was trusting You to fill all there was to fill
with all there was to fill. YOU HAD ONE JOB. So disappointed. I’m inventing time, and I’m so
concerned I’m going to throw space into this mix too. Stand back, hold my chalice, I’m going in. I’ll
explore this place down to the least of the least possible lacks of Me. If there’s something I’m not,
I’LL BE IT.”
You might imagine the silence of The Absolute after that.
Edg Duveyoung
What does the phrase "nothing's going to change my world" mean to you?
Originally Answered: What does the phrase "nothing's going to change my world" mean to you ?
This song was written by the Beatles. One must imagine that the person singing is enlightened.
“World,” herein, means “being.” To the yogi, being is always the same starting point of all things;
it’s OM — the divine hum. This song was written during the Beatles’ “spiritual period.”
The song inspires one to grasp that no matter what, it’s all silence. Peace.
I could write tons about these lyrics and what was meant, but there’s one thing but few know
about the song’s impacts.
The guru of the Beatles, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, silently cried in front of a crowd of 200 persons
when firstly he heard it.
“Jai Guru Dev” means “Hail the teacher divine.”
The things that the song means to others are other things.
Edg Duveyoung
How has God showed you He’s listening to you during prayer or meditation? What has
He given you to help you understand life’s similarities?
You know right from wrong.
When you’re about to violate your moral values, something there is inside you that asks, “Are you
sure about this?”
You never let yourself pretend otherwise.
You know what you’ve done, are doing, and will do.
THAT’S GOD TALKING. Not you! Duh!
That’s wisdom from beyond being piped directly into your brains. To repeat: it’s not your
conscience or your wisdom acquired over a lifetime that is speaking.
IT’S GOD.
But but but, this is not about absolute values. “The Ten Commandments” is a SUGGESTION LIST.
There are exceptions and nuances and loop holes, oh sigh.
Sometimes you have to sin to do the right thing. Ask Arjuna. Lord Krishna told him to kill his
brother and to do so by additionally going against Arjuna’s own deeply held Kshatric values —
even against sacred Dharma.
Huh? Wha? Um? Er?
Lesson —when God tells you to do something, DO IT.
Lesson — when God tells you to not do something, DON’T DO IT.
Especially if God is in your chariot.
It’s always about RIGHT NOW. Last week you got other instructions maybe — doesn’t matter.
What matters is surrendering to being better than what was best mere seconds previously.
God’s whispering guides this process.
On the level of psychological hygiene, we are advised, “If you know it’s wrong, don’t do it.” That’s
half of it. The other half, the harder half, is, “If you know something is right to do, do it.”
Yikes!
No worries! It’s not about your ego’s to-do list! It’s about God’s cleverness in moving your
personality into the “next best thing.” God’s authoring a big story, and your part in it is so finely
wrought it would make a string theorist envious of the precision. You’re asked to merely witness
the beauty of how your mind can move towards the sacred. Your tale is being divinely told.
Just gotta be honest. Don’t have to be a saint; just have to want to move in that direction.
Jesus said it plainly:
Matthew 6:25-34
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink;
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than
raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet
your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil
not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into
the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or,
Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have
need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be
added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the
things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Edg Duveyoung
How does Advaita Vedanta prove past life? If our brain perishes with death, how can
consciousness be carried with one’s self?
So you want to read God’s diary? Want to peek in God’s medicine cabinet?
I’m not answering your question right away, because, first, let’s examine this tawdry curiosity of
yours.
What’s it to you if God had you being a bacterium or an incarnation of Lord Indra in your last life?
Seriously? It’s none of your business.
If God wanted us to know this kind of information, we’d know it. That we do not, is a sign that it’s
beneficial to not know.
Consider that you’ve died, say, a billion times. Want to vividly remember all of those ways of
dying? Think you’d be a bit more fearful in your ordinary day as you constantly remembered how
you died doing EXACTLY what you’re doing no matter what you’re doing? Falling off a curb?
Getting killed by a hailstone? Having someone just bash you for no reason? Falling off a bicycle?
Swallowing wrongly? Suicide?
How many times have you died sitting at your keyboard?
YOU DON’T KNOW. Thank God for that.
And how about your next incarnation? If you knew that God was going to send you into a baby
body that will be born in 1943 Germany to a Nazi high command officer, do you think you might
feel a bit miffed?
Suppose God sends you an email and tells you that in an alternate universe, for your next
incarnation, you’re going to be a king of an entire planet that’s technologically a thousand years
more advanced than Earth science. And there maybe you are, today, now, working in a sweatshop
in a third world country — being taught HUGE LESSONS. Would your present misery be lessened
by your having to wait for another 60 years before you get such a bombastic next incarnation?
So, heck with knowing any of that.
Now, three things.
1. A thousand times a day you “prove past life” when you come back from “non-existence” — the
ego appears unpredictably “now and then.” So it is not unusual for a nervous system to “track” the
story-line of an ego despite these long periods of time when there’s no ego commandeering the
attention. Yogis say when it comes to physically dying and reappearing (and having karma
tracked) in another body, it’s “about the same process.” The proof offered is that if one
transcends, it is clear to that person that this is the same as dying and reincarnating…..complete
non-existence and then “pop!” back in creation. Yogis don’t fear death.
2. There’s no such thing as “one you.” The next instantiation of this so-called “you” is your next
so-called incarnation. “You” seeming decide this, then that, then this, than that, and pretty soon
you’re not at all like you once were. God’s going to a lot of trouble to author your multiple life-time
personality, and because a personality has to be moved to another body to continue evolving,
there’s no reason to think God would have any problem keeping all this karma straight — just as
your nervous system has no problem with “continuity.”
3. It is God’s Eternal Consciousness that enables the continuity. God doesn’t “die;” instead, it is
your so-called-you that temporarily ends. God doesn’t forget you just as Walt Disney doesn’t
forget Mickey Mouse. A new sheet of paper, and there’s Mickey — or YOU. And don’t miss that as
God gets out a clean sheet of paper for you, YOU’RE LIVING IN GOD’S MIND. You’re not gone.
Short answer: body dies, person dies. New body, new person who has 99.999999999999999%
of the old personality. It’s not the same person, but only two persons know this. God and Star
Trek’s Doctor Leonard McCoy after he’s beamed down to a planet.
Edg Duveyoung
Why does the Gita consider desire (kama) as a gateway of hell when the Vedas call it
one of the goals of human life?
It’s about identity.
If you are enlightened, you see how others are chasing their shadows and never turning around to
see the Sun. That’s Hell. To always see a shape on the ground, empty of light, and to endlessly
attempt to embrace it as ones self.
Whoa!
Yet. Here. We. All. Are.
To desire a shadow is the kama of the Gita.
To see the Sun is the kama of the Ved. To turn from all shapes and see the glory of the light is a
proper goal.
The nice part is that, once enlightened, then it’s okay and fun to mess around with the Seekers in
Shadow Land. It’s even evolutionary — subtleties are always more finely nuanced.
Those enlightened gurus. Ooooph. I love them, but, generally, what a bunch of time wasters.
They’ve been peppering our civilization throughout time, and they’ll sit there and answer all the
questions about how the water in the desert mirage tastes, why angels cannot blink, or why Sati
couldn’t fool Rama.
I love the sacred shtick, I do, but please.
I don’t know how they can keep a straight face.
This is why I recommend Ramana Maharshi or Nisargadatta. These guys really lay it on the line.
They’ll smack you a good one if you try to get them to talk about shadows. They expect you to
keep up and apply the axioms and be totally honest about the level of clarity you’re bringing to the
ashram.
It’s brutal. Read their stuff. You come away feeling pretty hep. Then you read their stuff again, and
you say, “How’d I miss that the first time?” Urp!
They will raise you up four feet and then you will climb back down three feet. It takes a while, but
they eventually get you to Heaven.
Nice, that.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the mystery that mystics speak of?
It’s been a secret for billions of trillions of years. (Mother Divine’s lifespan.)
After all that time, you would think we would have figured this all out by now.
I guess the better questions would be: “Why IS there a mystery?” And “Why hasn’t God told us?”
After all, all scriptures strongly insist that God wants the best for us. But, let’s face it — if there’s a
mystery that has frustrated all the people since people were invented, and worse, frustrated even
most of the Hindu pantheon of deities, it must be ABSOLUTELY IMPORTANT TO KEEP THAT
SECRET.
I can surrender to that. But, ya know, what with all the enlightened saints of history regularly
instructing the masses, you would think there would be a whistle-blower in that crew somewhere.
For instance, Meher Baba, the famous saint, went into silence — vowing to only speak aloud again
when the transforming information could be revealed IN ONE WORD.
And never spoke again.
That guy inspired millions to seek. Pretty powerful how the silence of ONE PERSON can be, eh?
For the rest of his life he dug deeper and deeper into the subtleties of being like Scrooge McDuck
diving in his money bin and swimming down under the bottom layer of diamonds to seek for the
Philosopher’s Stone hidden inside the Holy Grail nicely wrapped in the Shroud of Turin in
Pandora’s Box.
He came up with treasures galore. Wrote tons and was a true spiritual leader.
And never spoke again.
If ever a guy deserved to be the one to tell us all the real deal, it was Meher. But, it turns out that
God is like SNL’s Soup Nazi — “No mystery for you!”
BUT I AM GOING TO TELL YOU RIGHT NOW!
Ready?
Braced for impact?
Psych!
Like I’m going to risk that. Imagine the penalty for snitching on God. As if, dear reader, as if.
But.
I can toss you a bone. Transcend. Boom! Done! Secret revealed.
Except.
When the Transcendent kicks you back into your mind — that is, creates you from scratch once
again — you won’t be able to put the mystery into words either.
God’s Actuality Soup is not alphabet soup.
Edg Duveyoung
If enlightenment is all about the realization of truth, why is it that the truth as
expounded by the enlightened people varies from each other?
My 10th grade English teacher said that a good writer would be able to write for hours about even
a common brick. At the time, I had doubts about that.
Six decades later, it’s clear that even a speck of dust can be endlessly described. For me, as a
writer, how to end an essay is quite the critical decision. Can’t do it too soon, but I’ll never stop if I
don’t stop when it’s time to stop! Such a bother.
I have written for 50 years about truth and never nailed it. Thousands of essays. Others too have
written. I’ve read a lot of it. Those authors missed the target too — though it’s so wonderful to see
how well they try! It thrills.
Truth is not a process of a nervous system. Truth comes from outside the system and is projected
onto the processes of a nervous system.
That last sentence. Read it again.
Translation: “Throw it at the wall, and see what sticks.”
When transcendent awareness is thrown at a nervous system, that’s how consciousness is
created. What sticks is always a “piece of truth,” but it’s merely representative of truth’s
endlessness. We fish the ocean of truth with our mind’s sacred seine.
The best news: The parts of the infinite potential of awareness that you don’t catch with your net
get caught by other nervous systems. Nice, eh?
Nothing holy wasted!
So. There you are — a big wad of pasta on the wall of a Sacred Kitchen.
Blessed are the tossed.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the relationship between consciousness, awareness, experience and self-
expression?
If we put these words in the correct order, we answer this question.
First comes awareness. The transcendent. Absolute. THE SELF.
Next comes self-expression. From out of the absolute, without any possible explanation, the first
expression of self is being. This state of mind is a launch point. From this state, all qualities arise.
Being can be called pure-consciousness.
These qualities of consciousness manifest as mind. The mind is an interpreting machine for all
experiences.
Experience is the least important dynamic of living. It’s as significant as being in a swimming pool
and having someone think they’re getting you wetter by throwing a bucket of water on you.
Experiences are made meaningful solely inside the mind which is the servant of being which is
mystically created.
Therefore, awareness is the basis of being which is the basis of the consciousness which is the
basis of the interpretation of experiences.
Edg Duveyoung
Is the “I” considered the separate self or the false self in Advaita Vedanta?
No matter what you mean when using the word “I,” you’re wrong.
Even the vaunted “I,I” of Advaita — to signify a deeper identity than that of the ego, is
COMPLETELY MISLEADING.
We want to cheat and think we can find words to point at the un-point-at-able. This is why the
technique of neti neti neti was invented. When we say, “The “I” is the false self,” that statement
suggests that the false self can be distinguished from the true self. IT CAN NOT. We’d have to be
able to KNOW the true self in order to discover the falsity of the “I.” When “certainty” arises in the
mind, smack it down with a neti flyswatter.
It’s a fine point, but it’s critical. Transcendence is beyond description — including what is being
said in this very sentence.
But oooooh, how we pine to grasp. We constantly find our minds pontificating about what is true,
and when it comes to the self, we don’t even pause. Out comes all the treasured words,
consciousness, being, awareness, truth, sat, soul, knowledge, spirit, self, love, will — these words
are equal to someone pointing at a desert mirage’s details and insisting to you that you’re learning
about water.
And just to note it, words are four steps from truth. Spoken words reflect words in the mind that
reflect a potential of being which gets its content from awareness-true-identity. Talk about diluting
your clarity! Yikes.
Best to always get it from the horse’s mouth.
You’ve heard of Ramana Mahorshi, right?
Edg Duveyoung
Can you meditate in a non typical environment?
I once set up my tent next to a small lake in Switzerland. Up early the next day, I got myself
comfortably sitting with my back against a rock in the shade, and I began to meditate.
Half an hour later, I thought I heard something, so I opened my eyes.
I was surrounded by about 30 cows.
If you asked me at the time, I would have said they were angels.
I closed my eyes and kept meditating. They never left.
Cows know.
I’ve meditated in every sort of environment. I traveled throughout Asia for business, and it was
always go go go, so I ended up meditating in cars full of other people talking about business as we
traveled to another meeting place. Not a problem.
Right now, you’re attending a large party. Your mind has its room packed with guests — an
amazing variety of DISTURBERS are coming and going. Emotions, thoughts, sensations,
memories, dream-bits, underlying agendas — a scandalous crew who don’t have the decency of
cows. Jabber specialists!
So, see? You’re always in a non-typical environment. Never the same thought twice.
Throughout the ages, the noise of life has NEVER been a problem when it comes to going inward.
Of course, a nice comfy quiet place is great, but if you’re too busy to meditate, you’re too busy.
Edg Duveyoung
Does God change your personality?
No.
Silly idea. God do that? No way. God’s running the universe; big job; takes up a lot of time. Small
stuff like personality details? Meh. Maybe some low-level angel whispers something to you now
and then.
Wait.
Yes.
Of course. God’s always here right now doing everything being done, so your personality is 100%
a product of God at every possible instant.
Wait.
No.
Of course not. God wouldn’t do that — not after having gifted you with FREE WILL! It’s all on YOU,
Bub. You’re the author of WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.
Wait.
Yes. Your every thought and emotion is God’s theatricality. Your personality is finely tuned to fit
the scenario. It’s Broadway lights on your powdered face! Ain’t it great! You’re hearing every line
come out of your mouth PERFECTLY. No mistakes. All your life — perfectly authored. Even if you’re
being written to fall down a long flight of stairs — right in the middle of that, God’s pouring
thoughts and emotions into your mind that PERFECTLY opines on the event. And the audience is
laughing!
Wait.
No.
Back to what is hardly understood about Free Will — God never (not never never but almost never)
allows absolutes in creation. They just spiritually wreck the place. But there’s God’s promise —
prominently displayed in all the churches of history — “You have the power to be good, . . . . or.”
And the choices you make micro-creates your personality’s next change and that new next
personality then goes on to make the choices in the future. Careful; that means that your inner
ten-year-old created your inner teen who created your adult personality. Yikes, eh?
Wait.
Yes.
Who could want to live without God’s guidance? Even those who do not believe in God DO believe
in the propriety of their own thoughts — which are God’s artworks. If an atheist didn’t believe his
own thoughts, how miserable would that poor soul be? So see? God’s giving even the atheists the
desire to follow the guidance COMING FROM WITHIN. It’s all wonderful! Each personality is a
study — by God — in how a disconnection with the divine makes each soul’s journey an incredibly
unique achievement that crowns a personality’s ultimate maturation. No matter how anyone gets
to the retirement community, they’re all wise.
Wait.
No.
God holds everyone responsible. You mess up . . . you get messed with. For every action, God’s
going to REACT. Think about that. You’re just about doing almost nothing right now staring a
computer screen, BUT GOD IS RIGHT NEXT TO YOU. Looking at you. Reading your mind. Waiting
for you to mess up. Tapping a foot. Kinda smirking. All the scriptures teach this. All. Yikes, eh?
Maybe it’d be a good idea to stop reading and go sign up for Samaritan lessons or something
charitable and loving — anything — quick! Find something that might wipe that smirk into smile.
Wait.
Yes.
Oh, I forgot. You’re God!
Silly me. All the above applies.
Edg Duveyoung
What does "moving beyond the language of wounds" mean in a sentence?
I would project it means that in human psychology the past leaves untoward imprints — especially
the negative experiences. These imprints can obstruct.
“We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it and stop
there lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will never sit down on a hot
stove lid again and that is well but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.”
― Mark Twain
I think most therapists will agree that humans are very cat-like. Baggage City. Emotional knee-
jerks — hardwired, some set in stone — every other thought.
Moving beyond the past’s echo producing affects means learning that, well, they’re echoes.
These echoes might be speaking via any of the inputs — obsessively automatic bodily sensations,
memories, favorite biases, fears, etc. This is where my expertise ends. Therapy must somehow
bring the mind to see through the mirages that beguile with falsities in which one has invested.
The word in this question that most pleases is “language.” I think it is healthy to understand that
we are always being “talked to” and that we know all the languages very well — too well perhaps.
The mind that is freed of its prejudices is what is sought by the mystics — they don’t want any
experience to become a broken record.
Yogis say: wounds can be like lines in stone, or lines in sand, or lines in water, or lines in air, or
lines in ones mind. The closer one gets to freedom the more life’s impacts become ephemeral
until one is truly living in the moment.
Ramana Maharshi defined how to know if one is becoming saner.
“The degree of freedom from unwanted thoughts and the degree of concentration on a single
thought are the measures to gauge spiritual progress.”
— Ramana Maharshi
Edg Duveyoung
How can we use creativity to influence self-awareness?
I am creative.
I’ve invented all my life. Don’t make me brag, let’s just go with this statement of authority, and see
if you agree with me about creativity.
In order to get an invention of mine manifest, see patent below, I found that I couldn’t invent it. I
had the concept for it, but when I tried to make it work in real life, I turned up too unintelligent to
pull it off. It was complex. I was shocked at my inability.
So what I did was meditate until I got very quiet. Very. And then I gently introduced the concept of
the invention and mused upon the point where I had gotten “stuck” about it. And voila! There it
was. The next step in a 21 step process “just appeared.” At that quiet level, IT WAS CLEAR.
I opened my eyes and jotted down the revelation. Then I went to my workshop and went through
the process up to and including the new next step. And then, I found I could not grasp what the
next step was. I only knew I was struck again — I could NOT quite grasp it with my waking mind.
So back again into the subtle I went.
Six months of this later, it was done.
It was this one invention that showed me the power of surrender. I got quiet; I asked; I was given
the answer. I have used this technique so much I had to stop using it. I had too many notebooks
filled with ideas I had not yet begun to suss. Frankly, I’ve been stunned. And it was all so simple.
Simple as asking humbly.
That’s creativity — letting God tell you what’s what. Get ready for an armful of fruits spilling
everywhere. God loves to go all cornucopia on ya and teach you that the waking mind, the ego
strutting, cannot compare to the divine’s fecundity.
And that’s a lesson that’s more valuable than any invention.
Here’s the invention. Short description: It’s a three piece image puzzle. By rotating and flipping the
sides of the pieces, three different images (photographic quality) can appear. There’s 66,000
combinations of the three pieces but only three produce an image. All images share parts of the
other images in order to be constructed.
Multiple image visual puzzle and method
Edg Duveyoung
If the substratum of everything that exists is one and the same, as revealed in Advaita
Vedanta, where/when has humanity taken a wrong turn that we ended up with the fear,
jealousies, ambition, and crime we inflict on one each other today?
Yikes! If I don’t make a major mistake answering this, I’m going to feel blessed.
I can give you two answers. They are opposites but both are correct.
The good news answer is that when Mother Divine first appeared, 154 billion trillion years ago, She
knew YOU would be posting this question on Quora. So, She’s had a lot of time to consider what
might be THE BEST ANSWER to give you. It’s gotta be a doozy! It wouldn’t be a fluff answer; it
would be precisely spurring your mind to THINK THE VERY BEST NEXT THING TO THINK. For sure
it would be so finely attuned to your evolution that anyone except you who reads the answer might
be expected to but superficially appreciate what to you will be exquisite knowledge — certainty
placed in your open hands.
And apparently, I have been chosen to give you this answer.
This is why I said, “Yikes.”
I assure you, I don’t know my next thought, but I’m a fool with a keyboard who can’t help but clack
it.
Here goes:
Your story is known by a vast audience of timeless beings. The deepest possible compassion is
felt for all your experiences. You are loved as a hero. You solve each next moment, and angels,
surprised, applaud. The impact of your every intent is seen — out out out to the very end. Your
thread in time’s tapestry is golden.
Whew! That sounded pretty good. Hope it’s true.
I’m not looking forward to this next part. I don’t wanna even know. This Quora stuff is hard.
Okay. Here goes:
Wait, are you sitting down for this? You’re not reading this while driving, right?
Okay. Try again.
Your story is impossible to understand. You will never know if, ultimately, you’re doing good or ill.
No two people will agree about you like you’d want them to agree about you. The best experts
couldn’t even begin to fix you. You’re always going to merely be “assembled dust.”
Yow, that’s so bad. Arrrrgh! I can’t believe that passed through me. Now, I need a glass of
lemonade or something.
So, was that enough for you? I’m begging you to say “yes.”
No, I don’t know what it meant.
I think it was that God believes in you, and even though God knows you’re not real, no one in that
vast audience of timeless beings dares attempt to tell God that you’re not real.
So, I’d go with that.
But I’m not you.
Edg Duveyoung
What's a good movie about enlightenment?
Revolver.
The film is about a criminal who is FORCED TO BECOME ENLIGHTENED by two wickedly horrid,
abjectly cruel, geniuses — who are true gurus. It’s marvelous.
It’s hilarious. But you’re going to have to see past some tropes that you’ve been long trained to
NOT SEE PAST. It’ll test ya.
It shows how the worst of worlds is not a barrier to realization. Circumstances do not matter.
Prison? That’s an ashram! Bullets flying at you? Spiritual proding! If you have ten seconds left to
live, you’ve got time enough!
The ending is simply wondrous. It’s perfect. It teaches how surrendering must be absolute.
Concepts, emotions — even ones core humanity — all intents must become secondary to
realizing. You have to want it as much as a drowning person wants ONE MORE BREATH.
The good news: after the film, your life is going to seem so peachy keen that it’ll be like falling into
a feather bed to let go, let God, and let it all SNAP INTO UNITY.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd, I just talked myself into seeing it again.
Revolver
2005 R Rated R 1hr 44m
Determined to hustle the crime boss who killed his sister-in-law, gangster and ace gambler Jake
deliberately humiliates the kingpin in a private game. But when the mobster calls for Jake's head,
a mysterious duo steps in to save his skin.
Cast: Jason Statham , Ray Liotta , Vincent Pastore ,
Edg Duveyoung
When the universe sees itself as universal mind, will God choose to call itself God?
Originally Answered: When the universe sees itself as universal mind, will God chose to call itself God?
“Itself” — heh, always a toughie to assign gender to God.
Ultimate God is not Manifest God. Awareness is beyond even a divine ken, and it cannot be
grasped conceptually, but WE NEWBIES ALWAYS KEEP TRYING.
It’s a joke. But hey.
When we meditate and practice “purposefully experiencing the content of the mind,” we gradually
become “good at seeing a thought coming.” That is: a thought has a beginning as, what?, some
very faint catastrophe. Some molecule tips the scales, and a thought’s first moment is triggered,
and then, what?, the newborn eventing gathers the chemical wherewithal to become its fullest
expression physiologically at which point the ordinary person “has” the thought.
Science says we can actually measure a person deciding to push a button before the person’s
stream of consciousness is notified that the decision has been made — up to a half a second
earlier. The yogi would not be surprised at all about this concept. The yogi reports witnessing the
birth of a thought at the ritam level, and says this instructs and proves that ALL beginnings come
from awareness in “seed form.”
Therefore: if the universe is thinking thoughts, it must be such a marvelous instrumentality that it,
TOO, cannot miss that ALL its experiences are mystically born. It would be as humble as you are
when you — a universe of atoms just sayin’ — asked this question. This is the great benefit of
getting good at thinking — surrendering becomes automatic.
So, say “Hi Unee!”
Pete, remember reading my Quora essay about becoming the universe?
Here: Edg Duveyoung's answer to Have you ever experienced your consciousness expanding to
fill the universe? What was it like? What does it mean?
Edg Duveyoung
What is the meaning of the Sanskrit term loka?
Loka = locality.
Let’s blast you right away with a biggie.
You can go to Vaikuntha RIGHT NOW.
There’s all the Gang! Breathe that sweet air! Hear that music so softly always there. Each face
irradiates your soul with love. Any thought — a galaxy of concepts. Any emotion, a vow. Any act, a
puja.. Each sound, a variant of OM. Every possibility made sacred.
Nice, eh?
Oh yeah, you were there. You were peeking over the fence, but you were there.
This is the thrill. You can go anywhere — at least to some degree. And if you go there again and
again, the closer you will get to being there fully — spiritually and physically. Practice never made
perfection so much as this practice.
When one iterates an ardor for God, subtlety increases — a distance is lessened. The most subtle
mind is the mind of God, so as you acquire clarity about the holiness of now, you guide your mind
into divine harmony — eventually, you can vacation in Vaikuntha with a valid passport. Maybe buy
a small cottage on the lake there. Ask any saint for directions.
If you think it’s too far, what part of the above sneak peek didn’t you believe? That was your mind
imagining, and even that titch of an effort got you a bit of entertainment. “No effort in this regard
is wasted.” was taught to Arjuna by Lord Krishna. If you improve at all, that’s yours forever. And
Lord Krishna, in the middle of the battlefield thought it was important enough TO STOP THE
MAHABHARATA in the middle of the BHAGAVAD GITA to point this out to the greatest warrior on
the field. Probably significant, right?
Now, the lesson is clear — well begun is half done. When you imagined Vaikuntha above, it was
inside your head. GREAT START. Stay in there. Go deeper. See that imagining God is the same as
loving God. See how dwelling within takes one ever more inward toward the sacred, the silent, the
heart wherein reside all the lokas.
Almost any spiritual technique can produce an increase in subtlety. And all roads lead to
Vaikuntha.
Advaita advises that self inquiry is the most powerful prayer, since it momentarily ceases the
identification with the body/mind system. It’s one thing to gradually enjoy the evolution due to
more skilled imagining, but it’s quite another to just dive right into awareness and give up even the
notion of existing as an individual. God goes, “Where’d that soul go?”
See what you can do there?
Gotta love it when God wonders about you.
Just sayin’ it’s Kali Yuga, and any trick is allowed.
Edg Duveyoung
Why and how am I conscious of myself?
The how part is easy; the why part is impossible.
How: RIGHT NOW from out of sentient-nothingness — awareness — God appears as the very first
manifestation — more subtle than space and time. God RIGHT NOW invents creation — tasking
other God-created, demi-divine beings who RIGHT NOW set up the structures of existence until
RIGHT NOW folks RIGHT NOW are here and wow here’s YOU APPEARING RIGHT NOW. All of it
astoundingly pre-planned down to the sneeze of a quark.
Yes, you are not a mistake. Surprise!
God is perfect. And I’m stopping this essay to just dissolve in this wondrous concept. It’s the one
answer to all questions. I’ll be back.
Ah. I needed that.

God’s perfect. That means that your very next thought is GOD’S DIRECT CREATION. Right now.
Done with an error free fidelity. Every time right now.
From God’s first thought to your next, ALL KNOWN FOREVER.
Did I mention NOW?
But, WAIT! I misspeak; if you’re not God, then you cannot have “your” next thought. You (ego) has
no ownership of thoughts.
However, good news, if you-the-ego meditate to refine your consciousness of consciousness, you
will eventually end up finding out that your thoughts come mystically from awareness, and that
God’s authorship of your mind’s contents is merely a medial instrumentality. So, if you learn to be
able to see the birth of a thought that then passes through the divine on its way to your local-
mentality, you-the-ego will have no doubts about HOW your consciousness manifests. That’s
saintly. Imagine how fulfilled a saint is. Everything is God!
The why part is impossible, because, though one can garner the ability to see even the very birth
of creation’s next moment, that action’s purport is unfathomable to the individual. We can see
what is to be seen, but we cannot predict the next moment of creation with certainty.
What a fix! What a set up! Ugh! Why has this been done?
You think YOU’RE stumped? As if. From out of awareness we see God instantly toggled. Out of
nowhere. Out of nowhen. God is surprised. God wants to know why this happens — JUST LIKE
YOU.
You two. I tells ya. What a duo.
Each with your duties to abide the wondrous now.
Each as mystically informed.
Each LOVING THE OTHER SO SWEETLY.
When you two love birds gaze into each other’s eyes……
RIGHT NOW the silence you share transcends the subtle.
This is the WHY part.
Edg Duveyoung
What are the levels of self awareness?
You’ve got a grammatical error in your question.
Do you get what I’m saying speaking?
Do you understand what I’m communicating telling you?
Do you yourself know grasp everything all I me am are informing teaching?
Do you want this list to end stop?
Awareness is pure. Even to use “pure” as a descriptor is VERY misleading. There is no thingness
about the nothingness of awareness.
Yogis and gurus and monks, oh boy, they’ve tried to delineate awareness.
They know they’re sinning, but there they are on the roadside with half a coconut and wanting a
rice handout, and they know that you ALREADY KNOW all there is to know about awareness —
BECAUSE IT’S YOU, duh — but they gotta get that rice from you, so they tell you that there’s levels
and chakras and goals, oh my. And every level needs you to buy a home-study course for only
$2,349.00….if you act now….on sale only for a few days more!
Let’s get small. Consider a quark. Might be the smallest possible thing. Let’s say that it is. Science
tells us it’s done the diligence, and quarks come in different forms that they can distinguish
individually.
See?
The smartest smarty-pantsers on the planet are telling us that even that tiny of an object CAN BE
SEEN. From the other direction, they’re saying they’re seeing neutrinos just arriving after having
traveled 75,000,000,000 light-years.
You want to see farther or tinier than that? No, I mean it. Do YOU, personally, want to see farther
or tinier than the best minds of Earth? Wait, do you want to see farther or tinier than the best-
possible-human-ever’s mind? Wait. How about seeing farther or tinier than GOD?
Easy.
I’ll even super-size that.
EASY PEASY!
Simply transcend.
It’s better than omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. It’s one thing to be God and know
everything, be able to do anything, and be everywhere and everywhen, but it’s another to be the
SOURCE OF GOD.
To be God is to be too busy. Such a bother. Gotta know the answer to every possible prayer that
will EVER be prayed. Gotta have a PhD in anything possible for which to get a PhD. Gotta
eavesdrop on every single possible conversation before it is even decided if that possible
conversation will be part of any possible creation. Gotta be ready to deal with every possible sin in
every possible existence. Gotta be sure the perfect rose is the right color for every possible set of
eyes. Gotta be sure the worst possible evil is not given too much power but yet is given enough to
spur every possible righteousness.
Talked you out of being God yet? Think of the homework!
Awareness, thank God, is not consciousness — for which there are endless levels in all the
possible minds.
Let go. Let God.
Hey, I gotta trademark that. It’s catchy.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the principal knowledge or fundamental truth from which everything else can
be known?
Thanks for the question, Ron.
If it can be stated, it’s a lie.
To say, “I am.” seems absolute. Everyone shares the conviction that one exists, is sentient, and
has will. These are lies that have to be rebutted, but the intellect or the heart cannot be
authoritative. We cannot imagine a nervous system with the heft to conceptualize awareness —
God’s for instance. And we cannot imagine a heart that can grasp awareness — Mother Divine’s
for instance. Those Two are “best attempts.” But transcendence refuses to become manifest.
When we read about Their lives, we see Them being surprised, karmic, thwarted, and even limited
in life span. Yet, none can match Their resplendence.
To transcend and reside outside of creation, one must be perfectly naked. The mind is not allowed
there. No selfies can be taken. And so, though absolute transcendent awareness is the sole
fundamental, it cannot be proved to be or felt to be. Truth is silent.
Yet when one re-emerges into duality, it feels so good to assign “knowledge” as the pointer word.
The ego struts and sings, “Nanny nanny boo boo, I did it, and I came back with a gold ring —
wisdom.” It’s so sad. But no one can do better than pretend.
We have exceptions.
Vaikuntha is said to be eternal and is not affected when Shiva dances. The Hindu concept of
leshavidya asserts that there is a divine ephemeral persistence. Shiva is said to reside in
Vaikuntha, and all beings are said to be Visnu when in Vaikuntha. Discuss.
And too, we have Vishwametra. His occult powers could produce an entire creation with its own
Lord Indra, etc. When Ravana kidnapped Sita, Vishwametra, Rama’s guru, could have saved her
with a single thought. He could have ended Lord Rama’s misery. He didn’t care. This indicates that
when one has such power to command an entire creation, the logic or emotions never get deluded
into claiming authority. It’s one thing to create, it’s another thing to understand. Vishawametra
didn’t fathom karma despite being so intimate with its source. And he too was subject to karma.
When the gods got afraid of him, they sent him this babe to allure him into having sex with her. It
cost Vishwametra 3,000 years of his good karma from sitting in transcendence. So where was his
vaunted clarity about absolutes and fundamentals? Absolute power and he slipped on a banana
peel.
So, Ron, you’ve not only stumped me, you stumped everyone.
Edg Duveyoung
How does one differentiate between mindfulness and self consciousness?
Originally Answered: How does one differentiate between mindfulness and self consciousness ?
Look out a window. Look at something small in size that is right in the middle of your field of view.
Try to pinpoint that object to discern as much information as possible. Stare at it. Concentrate on
it. If the mind or eyes wander, bring it back to that object. 20 seconds should do the trick.
When the attention-focus of the mind is directed, it becomes clear that it’s hard work! And it’s
such hard work that keeping the mind “on target” completely uses all of ones free will. You’re not
planning what to have for dinner later, you’re trying to keep in the saddle of a bronc.
But did you notice the sweet pay-off when doing this?
When you’re paying attention to one thing, ALL THE OTHER THINGS ARE SEEN TOO. All around
your object of focus, you KNEW what all of it was. It was all UNDERSTOOD. If quizzed later, you’d
report that, yes, you’d also seen a thousand other things, but you had not tried attending them,
but that during the exercise, yes, you can recall there being, what?, birds, leaves, buildings,
clouds….whatever all around your chosen object. These other objects were automatically defined
by the mind without your having to focus on them.
So which is it? Is the mind mindful when you are recognizing the entire world, or is the mind only
mindful when you’re using it on purpose?
Typically when given a spiritual instruction to be mindful, the intent is for one to pay attention to
everything and not focus on one thing. See it all, but don’t see anything in particular — on
purpose. Ironic that one does mindfulness purposefully, but yes, that’s true! If you’re being
mindful and find yourself directing the attention, you may cease that purposefulness by going
back to basking in everything.
Self-consciousness — as a term — is mostly used to indicate that the ego is tallying up its history.
“What was the content of MY streaming of consciousness? What was done by ME? What were MY
feelings?” Like that. If a mind does this too much, others may label that “conceited” or
“narcissistic” if this negatively impacts ordinary life.
In the mystic arts, “self-consciousness” is a very fuzzy term. Each philosopher comes along with a
nuanced definition. For Advaita, there’s a sticking point in that Advaita asserts that “no operation
of a nervous system can be anything but a mere symbol,” and so the mind cannot KNOW the self.
Worse, the self is said to be without qualities — there’s no there there to be pretended to be there.
Such a bother.
Advaita saves the day by assuring us that awareness is our sole identity, and that we don’t need
any operations of any nervous system to be said to exist. Advaita goes a step further and says
“Existence is temporary. Awareness is beyond time and space or any form of materiality.”
So there’s no self-consciousness.
Except.
If one is enlightened, then the contents of consciousness are understood to be fully sprung from
awareness without any instrumentality or causality, and that ALL expressions, ALL symbols are
actually awareness purely and solely. This is true consciousness of the self.
Let me finish with this wonderful story about the self and consciousness.
A king wanted to see which monk was the most holy, so he put them both in a cave and told them
to create something beautiful. The king put a curtain between the two monks.
So one monk began to draw an artwork on the wall on his side of the cave. The other monk was
distraught. He didn’t think he could draw very well and wasn’t coming up with any ideas about
what to draw, so he said to himself, “At least let me properly begin. Maybe then we’ll see if I can
come up with something to draw.” So he began to smooth out his wall by rubbing it with sand.
Later, the king decided that enough time had passed, so he ordered the curtain to be removed, so
that the two monks could see what each had created.
The first monk’s creation was overwhelmingly beautiful. The heart immediately swelled. Tears of
joy effortless began flowing from the king’s eyes. It was obvious that this could not be surpassed.
No artwork could possibly be better.
The other monk too was in tears. That artwork was a living prayer. It was sacred.
And then the king turned to see the second monk’s offering. The second monk looked downwards
and was humbled and said, “Oh royal master of all, I so wanted to make something, but as I began,
I thought about you and my brother monk, and my heart just filled with love. There wasn’t any
room inside me for any other thoughts, so I merely began to polish my wall, and hoped I could
come up with something for you, but I never did anything but smooth my wall. I have failed.”
The king was perplexed. For there before him was THE EXACT SAME ARTWORK AS THE FIRST
MONK HAD CREATED.
For lo, the second monk had polished his wall into a perfect mirror.
See?
Edg Duveyoung
If it was possible, would you share your consciousness with someone else?
I do already.
It’s not all I thought it would be.
I expected that the other person would be mutually grateful for the connection and cut me a break
now and then, but nope, that person just will not stop pointing out my mental errors.
I suppose I should stop the communication, but, gotta confess, I don’t know how. I’d quit maybe if
I could, because it’s a bother when I’m sinning and know it and just don’t care, and, yep, there’s
the other person, with all the evidence in hand, making a case that I’m a spiritual jerk.
Ouch! And there’s no “ouch” like the “ouch” of “guilty as charged.”
Now, on the other hand, the relationship does have its pleasures. I get hints and clues and
instructions that are accurate to the tenth decimal place. True, I ignore these shoves-in-the-right-
direction, but it’s nice to have them handy. Sometimes I follow the advice and profit greatly, but
the cost is HAVING TO BEND A KNEE TO THAT OTHER PERSON’S WISDOM. My ego gets an
angry red face and starts holding its breath when I’m told the right thing to do, and there am I
turning purple instead of saying something like “I’m sorry.” And all of it seen clearly by this other
person WHO IS ALWAYS IN MY MIND.
And it gets worse. This other person is definitely putting thoughts in my head. It was supposed to
be that we each respected the other’s free will, but lately I’ve been catching these thoughts
coming through that are from another galaxy or something. Weird stuff like wanting to love the
entire creation or forgiving all my past enemies or being nice to politicians. Like I wouldn’t notice.
As if.
I guess I better google it. See I can get out of the contractual agreement. See if I can weasel out of
this arrangement with some loop hole.
So, if you ever get connected mentally to someone else, be sure it’s not some goody-two-shoes,
namby-pamby, butter-won’t-melt-in-my-mouth person.
And don’t you even start with your “But, Edg, it’s God.” stuff. I don’t care. I’m being spied on. I’ve
been intruded upon. I’m watched, warned, wrenched, and writhing in Cringe City. I want my
freedom to be wrong and not know it! I have been defrauded. I was talked into incarnating and
everyone knows I don’t read the fine print. I was taken advantage of. I was set up.
Help!
Edg Duveyoung
Is Awareness a fundamental aspect of the Universe?
Yes.
Imagine a wall of bricks, painted white; let’s say it’s 1000 feet tall, 3,000 feet wide. You’re standing
back enough to have a wide-angled view of it, but you’re close enough to just barely see the
individual bricks. It looms massively. A white immensity that is a presence unto itself.
Got it nicely seen in your mind’s eye?
Now imagine one single brick is painted black.
Ho! That grabbed ya, eh?
Here, let’s give you the experience instead of imagining it. Scroll downwards.
There ya go. See how you refuse to ignore that dot? A single speck totally captured your attention
away FROM THOUSANDS OF OTHER WHITE DOTS ON THIS SCREEN.
See how your mind is set up to obsessively target-lock onto any distinction? You want details?
Consult Patanjali.
This flaw when it comes to SEEING ALL OF IT is why you’re asking if awareness is a fundamental
aspect of the universe. If creation didn’t besmirch the infinity of awareness, you’d be all happy and
everything, but noooo, you are questioningly dotty. Yeah I said it.
You’re like always figuring out something more to think about that dot. Has it moved? Have I
moved in respect to it? Is it actually black or is it very dark blue? Are there other dots? Why is that
dot there and not over there? If I stare only at that dot, what happens? Who made that dot? Is its
position an artistic statement? Why is there dotness?
Is blackness a fundamental aspect of dotness?
And not a single question about any other dot.
The trick of enlightenment is to simply look at the wall (awareness) until your mind gets bored with
checking up on that dot (creation.)
That’s it. That’s the whole trick.
Once the mind is trained to ignore the single brick, then it’s okay if the brick is there, since it can
no longer distract you from your pure identity.
And, hey, truth be told, it’s nice to have a cute little dot like that always around. Ya know? Ya
know?
Yeah, you know. You want that dot. You want to be free of the dot’s power over you, but you want
that dot too. That’s the secret pay-off of enlightenment. You get both fullnesses! Purnamadah
Purnamidam.
Simple as one, two, three. Here’s some practice:
1 - Once you discover you’re not dotty,
2 - you find out that that dot is solely a worshiping of awareness!
3 - And then, suddenly, it’s okay to be dotty!
1 - First there is a mountain,
2 - then there is no mountain,
3 - then there is!
1 - I am chopping wood and carrying water.
2 - There is no me to chop or carry.
3 - I am chopping carryingness!
1 - I am my mind.
2 - There is no mind.
3 - The mind adores me.
1 - Truth,
2 - Consciousness,
3 - Bliss.
1 - Sat,
2 - Chit,
3 - Ananda.
Edg Duveyoung
Does the Universe have a Soul?
Does God have a Soul?
Answer: Yep.
Ask any scientist. They’ll all say that everything is connected to everything, and everything causes
everything including butterflies whipping up hurricanes with a deterministic provenance. They’ll
say our existence is partially decided by influences from the farthest reaches of the universe — a
156 billion light-years wide creation — old star light arrives and is impacting planet Earth — RIGHT
NOW.
Sounds like nature abhors a disconnection.
It’s all of a piece. One physical hunk.
Probably has a soul.
Now, let’s ask a better question.
Where did that soul come from? Brahma, when freshly born on a Lotus, asked, “Wait a second,
how did I get to be manifest and condensed into this tiny speck of witnessing sentience when only
a moment before I was infinite awareness pervading endlessly? I’ve been robbed! And all I have
left to My name is omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence. I’m a pauper!”
Turns out, specks of dust have enough sentience to ask the same question and be as miffed
about their status. You too, right? Saddled with a soul — just like God — and there you are —
relegated to witnessing its processes without the least hint of causal traction in the entirety. It’s
like we turned on TV and got a random channel and then we were told we’d have to watch that
single channel for THE REST OF OUR LIVES.
Like me, you’re watching the “You-man Show.” You’re trapped. Everyone and everything is fake.
Now you know how the universe feels about having a soul too.
Here’s the funny part. All the above is pretended. Words, schmerds. Concepts, schmoncepts.
Isness, schmisness. It’s all as ersatz as the son of a barren woman riding on a jackalope while
lassoing a unicorn with a rope that is also a snake.
Advaita says, “Soul, schmoul.”
Edg Duveyoung
Is kundalini mystical woo or a real physical biological phenomena?
If I had all the proof required to prove kundalini was real, you’d have to become an expert in more
than a few disciplines to validate my “proof,” or you’d have to trust me, or you’d have to have other
experts tell you that they think my proof is valid.
Way way too much work!
No one checks up on hardly anything.
Kundalini for instance.
You want kundalini, I’ll give you kundalini — 1, 2, 3, 4… just follow these instructions.
1. Find some secluded place where you can dedicate THE REST of your life to serious
inquiry about the nature of consciousness.
2. Use almost ANY spiritual technique to settle down the mind and body for eight hours a
day.
3. Make sure you have a support crew to cook delicious nutritious meals for you, clean your
cave and wash your dhoti, and make sure you’re not bothered. (Can’t afford? Pish tosh!
Very inexpensive to do. Just tell your parents you’re going to live in their garden shed,
only need rice and beans and the dandelions from their lawn. I have all the solutions!)
4. No matter the world’s doings and tidings of the times, no matter the regular appearances
of crisis in the lives of those you hold dear, no matter how often your intent to have a
kundalini experience lapses into despair that it will ever happen, no matter what, persist
in 1. 2. and 3. and 4. will be automated.
That will give you kundalini. I don’t even have to give you pointers about posture, exercise, diet,
scriptures, community. Nope. You’ll sift through all that and find what works to maximize subtlety
in consciousness. And you’ll find that what all of history has generally suggested will happen WILL
HAPPEN.
Somewhere in there, you’ll be probably sitting with eyes closed and with mind quiet, and then it
will hit.
Typically your back will arch, your head will tilt back, impossibly back, and then the entire universe
will enter the hollow center of your spine’s nerve, the sushumna‎, at your first chakra and rocket
out the top of your head in a showering of golden blissful light.
But who does all that to garner clarity about spiritual issues?
I did.
Wanna see me arch my back for ya?
It’s always about your intent and the beliefs in which you indulge. NOT ME!
So, if you want an answer, seek.
You’ll get there, and I won’t have to lift a finger.
Except to push “submit.”
Edg Duveyoung
Are we separate from God?
Originally Answered: Is god inseparable from human?
First of all — God is capitalized.
Second of all — “Is” for a human is not the same “is” of God.
Third of all — “Inseparable” is an impossibility except that God found a way to fool everyone into
thinking they are separate.
Fourth of all — To pull off “third of all,” God had to also fool God into actually having thoughts such
as “I am God, but hmmmmm.”
Fifth of all — “Human” is not a word that any of the humans who have ever lived or any of the
humans who are reading these words should use as a word about themselves.
Sixth of all — A question mark is all that is needed. No question’s content matters. Any wondering
is a sin. Full stop.
Seventh? You want a seventh? You gave God a day off after six but from me a seventh?
Let’s answer the question this way: Imagine that God appears in a flash of light with sound effects
and smoke and everything. I mean we’re talking all the splendor. Angels thronging. Cupid shooting
love arrows. You name it. And, so, believe it, you’re fully convinced that God is HERE RIGHT NOW
with you.
Now what?
Seriously, what?
Are you going to offer God a comfy chair and an iced tea?
Are you going to scold God for dropping in all un-announced and everything?
Are you going to text everyone to come over to your house QUICK!
Are you going to recite some scriptural passage?
Are you going to ask an attending side-angel for hints about what to do?
NO!
You’re going to go directly to the floor, face down, sobbing for mercy.
Not justice.
Because you know — don’tchu now. You know. Oh yes you do. And you know that God knows, and
God knows that you know that God knows.
And then you hear God saying your entire name in this HUGE VOICE.
Oh noes!
This is when you pull out your get-out-of-jail-free card.
You say, “But we are inseparable!”
I absolutely guarantee you that God’s next words are:
“Okay. You’re sinless. You tricky Advaitans!”
Edg Duveyoung
What is the meaning of "Be still and know that I am God"?
Pretty much everyone knows the answer to this question already.
Mostly it’s the non-humans.
And humans deny they know.
But they know.
Says who?
Jesus.
“And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones
would immediately cry out.”
Can we all just pause and consider that this is God talking, and God is saying that stones are
conscious, and God is saying stones are so in tune with God that if the disciples of Jesus did not
preach then the stones would be morally outraged to such a degree that they would somehow
find the instrumentality to YELL AT THE BAD HUMANS.
That’s in the Bible. Famous passage.
The depth of this passage is not to be ignored.
Jesus was telling all of us that CREATION IS MAGICAL. Anything is possible.
And every possible thing is conscious and WATCHING US with the most intense scrutiny. And all
these minds know divine law to such a degree that if a saintly disciple violated the sacred flow of
consciousness in his nervous system, it would be a sin so foul that IMMEDIATELY every entity in
creation would be alarmed.
Jesus knew the holiness of the minds of stones. Certainty. No wavering. Jesus was telling us that
we are immersed in a living, conscious, moral, intent-ful, WITNESSING OCEAN OF
CONSCIOUSNESS.
Want to be a saint? Get it perfectly understood what’s what and see if you ever sin again. Think of
the thoughts of the throngs thunking ABOUT YOU! And all of these minds are desiring that ALL
humans obey their hearts’ sole purpose — that is: being still and knowing God.
If stones say that silencing sermons is sin, then silencing ones heart’s sermon is sin also. So be
still, silly. And in that stillness find God’s voice within.
It’s the same voice that informs the stones.
Short answer: if you’re thinking, you’re not listening. And it’s always Sunday. And you’re always in
a pew.
Quitcher squirmin’!
Edg Duveyoung
In Advaita Vedanta, if the absolute truth is realized, why doesn't Atman have the same
power or creation and destruction like Brahman?
You’re not going to like the answer. And it’s TL;dr too.
It’s not just Vedanta that says you’re all powerful.
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image;”
You say, “Ouch! I just got a paper cut! Why can’t I instantly heal my wound? Where’re my godlike
powers?”
Well, there you have it. You’re not God. You’ve proven it.
Except. Maybe you only pretend you don’t have power. Maybe you want me to believe you instead
of the Bible. Maybe you’re the type of person who’d stuff an elephant under a rug and go, “What
hump?”
You can say, “You don’t know me, and I am honestly reporting that I’m a human being with
insignificant abilities, and Edg Duveyoung doesn’t have any powers to demonstrate either, and
he’s just trolling me.”
Well let me just gird my loins.
Brace for impact. Incoming. Self-worth Inflation bombs. 50 caliber shots of esteem.
You’re actually the God of THREE ENTIRE CREATIONS.
Don’t give me that look…yeah I said “three.” Three realms in which you have EVERY POSSIBLE
POWER OF GOD. And let’s not stint — you use those powers and have created INFINITIES WORTH
of precisely delineated, separate, individual, LIVING ENTITIES. You’ve created every possible
object. And more. You’ve created every possible story, every possible world, every type of
sentience, and better than that, you DAILY create impossible objects that do impossible things.
Proof? Why offer it? You’re certain I will be wrong, so how can I get your horse to drink? No way.
Worse, if I do prove you’re God, you’ll just use your God powers to come up with a convincing
denial of my proof.
So from here on, I’ll just be having funzies.
The strongest proof is that you create nightly dreams. In that realm, during the three to four
nightly phases of rapid eye movement, you create ENTIRE UNIVERSES. When you wake in the
morning, you will perhaps recall your dreams clearly enough to agree with me that in those
dreams there was never a doubt of any dream character (personality and clothing supplied by
you) about how substantial was their reality. Every tree, person, chair, elephant under a rug,
monster, space alien, and super-hero is perfectly rendered and absolutely believable. As a God of
the dream realm, your powers have no end. Even the impossible happens regularly. Last night, you
dreamed up a ten foot high humming bird with a saddle on it, and you flew on it everywhere —
remember?
That alone validates the biblical statement that you are made in God’s image.
But there’s another realm where you don’t do all things all the time. It’s the one-thought realm.
How powerful would you be to have ONE CONCEPT held in your mind for up to an hour or more?
You’re familiar with your creative imagination’s ability in the dream realm, but having one thought,
solely, is a notch more impressive. In this realm you create a reality in which you attend one sole
operation of the brain — the thought: “nothing.” You manufacture zero. You make manifest silence.
No dreams, no waking-mind processes, only that one process being unbrokenly attended. Talk
about your mystic yogic powers! You do this every night between dreams. And if you don’t know
that you’re doing it, it only means that you’re not yet practiced enough at attending the subtleties
of the mind. Dreamless sleep is when the soul does its best to emulate the quietude of God; it’s
well known that God is “behind the scenes and hiding out and smirking.” Hard to catch God Who
knows all the best hiding spots inside of silence. And, yep, you do exactly this by entirely ignoring
all other possible thoughts. You’re a pro at this kind of, ahem, undercover operation.
Two realms with the same God. You. Realms entirely under the sway of your nervous system.
The third reality of which you are the God is YOUR present reality. Yeah, this reality right here
where you have not yet even found a bandage for your paper cut. And guess what? You created
the person who got cut. What? You’re not going to tell me that someone else is going to create
your next thought?
You decide all things in this waking reality. Your reality. You are the Lord of Definitions. Like Adam,
who named the animals, you are doing the same for all the rest of the stuff. Every speck of your
reality has a name….even that tiny little thing down there on the floor by your chair leg…what did
you name it?…oh yeah, “speck.”
If you say, “That’s a red car.” It’s a red car until you decide otherwise. If you create another person
in your reality who says, “That’s a blue car,” you might then change your mind. See the point? —
you’re the one who processes the “blue car” statement, and you’re the one who changes your
mind. You are constantly creating meaning in this reality. Your point of view is YOURS. You own
you. You are the interpreter of all things.
And where you might say, “Ouch I have a paper cut!” You, God Of Your Realm, are, once again,
correct. But some other God might say, “If not for this paper cut having me pause, I would have
taken another step and fallen down these stairs! I LOVE THIS CUT!” Another God might say, “What
cut?” Another God, “This envelope that just cut my finger as I opened it IS A DISGUISED WARRIOR
DEMON FROM THE FIFTH LEVEL OF HADES!
Oh yeah, you’re God alright. You define all cuts. You say what your life is and what are the
meanings to be projected upon them.
God. God. God. Three times God!
You want more? You want to be able to start or end every possible or impossible reality of any
God?
You want to be able to tell Mother Divine to take a hike? And you don’t want just a dreamed up 10
foot humming bird; you want one NOW in your waking reality.
And with no paper cuts!
Sounds like you are greedy.
Greedy as ONLY A GOD CAN BE. An ordinary human wouldn’t be so foolish to even weakly desire
such powers. But you know better, don’t you? You know it’s possible. That’s the tell. Only a God
could know potentialities-of-the-self enough to want them.
So, Lord You Almighty, to fulfill Thine infinite desire, there’s a FOURTH REALM Thee mayst enter,
but all Thy powers must be shed. When Thee resideth in pure being — a state of mind when all
processes are “on automatic” — Thou wilt no longer be a “Doer.” Thou wilt become a Be-er. If
something is happening, Thou wilt not name it or interpret it. And as Thou remaineth in this state,
a most subtle skill is practiced. It’s “neti neti neti.” No matter what happeneth, in pure being Thou
wilt not identify with any processing. In pure being, Thou shalt find that Thou didst not use any of
the above described divine powers to create any of Thy realms — none of them.
And then it happeneths.
Grace from beyond.
Thou wilt realize Thou are not even the Be-er being the Being that it but seems Thou art
witnessing. Thou wilt have identity expanded — past the unbounded — beyond the timeless —
scoured of any defining — unity — pure awareness comprising the entirety — and lo, there art Sat
and Chit and Ananda in personified forms praying for even a glance from Thee.
Edg Duveyoung
Does Advaita Vedanta acknowledge the existential reality of suffering and non-
suffering occurring in Atman even after the spiritual liberation, or suffering becomes
impossible in Atman after the spiritual realization?
Walter suffers as he helplessly witnesses the vagaries of his body/mind system.
His big mistake?
He uses the word “I” to signify his identity instead of witnessing his existence as do you.
Yeah, you. Right now. You.
The way you see Walter is how Walter should see Walter. If he were to somehow by miracle
become sentient and be having the above life and wanting to be free of suffering, you’d tell him to
see himself as do you. All his problems solved.
You know Walter is an object of consciousness — four cartoon cells with drawings and words —
residing in your streaming consciousness right now, dear reader. You don’t grant that he has
sentience. You know he’s not even a “he.” You know his every wherewithal is due to his creator.
Walter doesn’t even know his whole life can be seen simultaneously — by you — all four iterations
of the “potentiality of Walter.” Cell after cell — his prison life with half a body.
Seen from beyond by you.
You are beyond his suffering. You can be ENTERTAINED by his life. You know that “no harm no
foul” is the cartoon observer’s perfect understanding. We don’t have to worry about Walter’s
karmic victimization.
This is the same deal for the enlightened person. Karma is still happening to “a” body/mind system
that HAS NO SENTIENCE. (Except that God pretends there is sentience. Talk about your cognitive
dissonance.)
From beyond the beyond,
where no-thing is aware,
out of this purity
ALL THIS CREATION as it is,
infinitely particular,
is blessed into meaningfulness unending.
Proof?
Stare at the period at the end of this sentence.
When you do, what else do you see peripherally?
All that. All that. All understood perfectly — WITHOUT WORDS IN THE MIND DESCRIBING IT ALL.
It’s silently meaningful.
That’s meaning that is happening right now INSIDE YOUR HEAD.
Are you especially wondrous or what?
What to do next?
Just gotta step outside and enjoy everything at once just like you see everything at once when
you stare at a period and KNOW that no doing is required for bombastic meanings to saturate
each instant.
You know. Like you’re doing right now. From beyond. You know.
Edg Duveyoung
How do you live without a sense of self?
Edg Duveyoung
Can a sensory deprivation chamber/tank unlock powerful hidden parts/secrets of your
mind?
You don’t want power without earning the power. You know this. You’d never give a dangerous
thing to a toddler. But we expect that later in life the adult will be able to avoid the risks of most
commonly experienced “dangerous objects.”
Just so the fantastic powers of the mind/body — very dangerous if one has not practiced them
“enough.” You wouldn’t expect to learn a martial art in this manner, right? You’d expect long hours,
expert advice, and years to reach perfection.
Example: let’s say you learn to visually imagine anything as if you’re in a virtual reality, but without
any equipment. So, you can pretend into “existence,” say, a scary monster, and you see it as if it
were “real life” — a completely convincing purpose-built-hallucination. How cool is that, eh? Talk
about an artform! Wowzers — to imagine anything you want and seeing it cavort about in ones 3D
world! Fantastic!
And then you crash your car.
You didn’t realize how much control of the mind it takes to keep things safe.
In the sensory deprivation chamber/tank, how deep you go will depend on your training, your
intent, your hours in, your recent events. Most folks are not well prepared to enter the tank with as
much possible “left outside the tank.” If the mind has pressing matters outside, they’re going into
the tank with you. Diet, sleep, drugs, time of day, spiritual intent, and on and on the prep check-
list goes — gotta mellow out as much as possible before the tank.
If you go in with an empty cup, there’s the mind that drinks the magic elixir.
The tank’s going to help your mind not wander to the immediate environment. This is not bad for
meditation, but meditation in the middle of a party is completely possible. Anyone can do so. Who
hasn’t been “lost in thoughts” at a party or crowded subway or even while driving home without a
single error? The tank is great for starters and adventures, but every sailor longs for dry land!
In How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali we find all the powers of the mind/body
nicely described and taught. In or out of a tank, this is going to be important stuff to you. Note
that Patanjali considers compassion, friendliness, and happiness to be super powers. Yeah,
invisibility, flying, strength, size, mind reading — it’s all there, but without compassion, friendliness
and happiness WARNING — DANGER WILL ROBINSON!
You don’t want your mind to be able to do one thing perfectly — you want to be able to step aside
and let God do EVERYTHING perfectly through your perfectly surrendered to divine will
mind/body. That is — justly, righteously, mystically perfect. Be a saint!
Otherwise, ego grabs for great green gobs of you know what if suddenly endowed with the least
hint of power. “Pride goeth before the fall” is the concept. There’s 5,000 cultures on the planet
right now, and they all know that concept. Just sayin’ that if one wants power, best to seek silence
firstly and then see if ANY power continues to allure.
Take care.
Edg Duveyoung
Is the absolute in Advaita Vedanta even beyond consciousness?
What a fantastic, utterly beautiful, infinitely exquisite, unendingly interesting, ever deepening,
luxuriously enriched, mesmerizingly important question.
With that one question, nine words, we see the alluring vastness in which one, as a pin point of
awareness, seemingly resides. It’s just astounding. More than miraculous.
It would take lifetimes to thank you enough for this inquiry, because it so profoundly and with an
exacting precision, gets to the very heart of human existence. I’m flat out, way past red-line,
overwhelmingly flabbergasted with fulfillment to have such a question asked while knowing that
the answer, shortly forthcoming, will reduce this wondrous exhilaration I’m feeling to insignificance
when beyond all expectations the answer attunes my mind to hyper-realms so much higher than
any heretofore imagined.
Had enough?
Vedanta is “the end of the Ved.” That’s the “final word,” and let me tells ya, there’s a lot of words in
Hindu scriptures it has to sum up. And let’s be clear here, Hindu scriptures….whoa — so mentally
delicious — you can’t stop enjoying them. The heart just swells and swells.
So, Vedanta has to end all that. Has to give you a reason to pause. Has to give you something
better than best. Something “end-ish.” Something non-word-ish.
Bliss instead of happiness.
And the reason to pause is the Absolute.
With my prolix beginning, we see that only pausing will satisfy. We really don’t need more words,
more concepts, more delights. We know now that the cornucopia never empties. God will never
stop pleasing us.
Vedanta says, “The only way to thank God is to realize you and God BOTH are mystically sprung
forth from the Absolute.” That’s why you pause — to allow silence into the music. Silence like the
pause after the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth. Without that pausing, right? Without that
silence right there, right?
That’s what Vedanta says can be added to life. It’s like discovering zero. Math just works so much
better if zero is added to it. And look at what the white spaces between these letters are doing for
you!
So, yes, the Absolute is beyond consciousness which is irresistible all the time.
To be silence in the midst of all this. Ahhhh.
Edg Duveyoung
What reality in this world should I consider, a dark reality where what moves things are
just random forces or a shiny beautiful reality where human will is undefeated?
I’m going to scold you. Brace for impact. Take a breath.
Stop shoulding on yourself. To should is to sin. You shouldn’t should.
No shoulding allowed — especially about ones feelings about reality.
And you shouldn’t be showing me, say, the Ten Commandments as proof that shoulding is divine.
Ask any religion’s proponents for their Good - Bad list, and you’re going to accumulate thousands
of do-don’ts and should-shan’ts with no end in sight. It’s impossible to study them all, digest
them, gain clarity, and then police ones thought stream to make sure that no sinning is done.
Impossible.
And should you attempt it, folly.
You should find it impossible to mindfully decide that the world should be this or that, and you
should also find it impossible to then to somehow implement that decision such that you’ll always
have (as an undercurrent in your stream of consciousness) an intellectually selected and precise
tint for your POV-colored glasses.
I tried too. We all do and did. We think, “I’ll should make this vow.” We think a vow can be a
method to trick our psychology into obeying a moral, and then mere seconds later or months or
years or decades or lifetimes later, we change our minds. “Vow schmow,” we say. “That vow is too
hard to live up to,” we say.
In short, I should just say it plainly, there’s no way to teach anyone how to control their minds. The
exception is those who undertake extraordinary methods to determine the content of their minds
— usually in a monastery or ashram. The common person has zero chance of augmenting how
their thoughts arrive.
Worse: even if you get a PhD in world cultures and enter a cave with a sacred vow to always have
reality seen a bit darker or lighter, you have the “it’s all relative.” issue.
We can’t ever know right from wrong. See? I told it’s worse.
I’ll end my answer with a little tale to prove this point and then some follow up questions.
John takes a bottle of milk from a hungry baby.
A perverse dictator has ordered John to take away the bottle as a punishment (for both John and
the child) for crimes that neither of them have committed.
However, John happens to be the dictator's personal hypnotist and has given the dictator a
posthypnotic suggestion that forced the dictator to order the strange punishment in the first
place.
But, if John had not given the dictator the posthypnotic suggestion, evil enemy foreign agents
would kill John's wife and children who are being held captive.
Despite everything, John secretly enjoys taking away the bottle from the baby and even hopes
that this relatively mild act has serious and deeply negative side effects on the child's future
psychological dynamics, and he is very glad that his family being held hostage is a pretty good
excuse to do all this.
In actuality, John is asleep and is merely dreaming all of the previous events and actions.
But, John has detailedly self-hypnotized himself into dreaming this dream with instructions to
himself that he will have a completely conscious total recall of the dream upon awakening.
———————————————————————————————
Ask yourself these questions to see if you can get clarity about right and wrong.
When do I know enough to decide anything? How do I know I've collected enough information?
Why was I absolutely certain that reading this exercise was "okay"?
What is the basis of my daily confidence in the many actions I perform?
And "John" never really existed! Just now, using my brain and this exercise, I freely, willingly, and
mentally created John and his twisted universe -- with no guilt on my part whatsoever about
"manufacturing" him, his environment, and his actions -- breathing life into the potentiality of this
tale’s words. What is the value of this creativity on my part? Have I added to the "real" universe's
"total evil"?
No matter how small or abstract, does any manifestation of evil "still count"?
Why do I allow myself to experience and absorb (using Hollywood movies) incredibly negative
emotions and experiences?
Are there sights and sounds that are "too much" for me? What are my personal limits?
Is the universe a movie that God watches?
Is my brain like a movie theater? Is it running the universe's film? If so, who sits in the audience?
Edg Duveyoung
Does consciousness exist on a spectrum, or is there a certain threshold at which a
creature becomes "conscious"?
Unfathomable is karma. What part don’t you understand?
Whenever the word “consciousness” is used, a fool has spoken.
Me, for instance.
But here I go.
Imagine a cartoon drawing of Mickey Mouse talking to Minnie Mouse.
THAT’S CONSCIOUSNESS. Completely false. Mickey and Minnie are not sentient, but we can
project upon the cartoon and pretend that they are sentient entities.
Because?
Because it’s fun. That’s God’s reason for creating ALL THIS.
This is the truth about our cartoon universe minds; nervous systems spin out pretend thoughts
that then have meaning projected upon them.
Did you hear that last point?
The thought itself has NO MEANING. Chemicals reacting in billions of transactions per second
makes for a perfect Rorschach ink blot test. Any meaning can be projected upon this frenzied
maelstrom.
And where does the meaning come from?
Answer: NOT THE PERSON. Meaning is not a conclusion of a nervous system or any other
instrumentality.
Meaning is projected by God. God is the story teller. What we think is happening is what God has
informed. And God does this without even a hint of doingness. Meaning is mystical.
And all things are mystically made meaningful.
Consider a single cell microbe. It has no nervous system despite having a vast enterprise of
mechanisms constantly aticka-tocking. Question: is it thinking? Are the back-and-forths of its
actions “enough” to have meaning ascribed to them? Said to be consciousness? Answer:
certainly! Ask a microbiologist to talk about a microbe’s actions, and into the first sentence will be
tossed phrases like “It doesn’t want to be cold . . .” or “When this carbon source is present, it will
decide . . .” It’s a human thing to do. We say the microbe has no mind, but we talk about it as if it
does.
Sound familiar? Had any teeny thoughts lately? They had meanings, right?
And you don’t have to be a microbiologist to project “consciousness” upon a microbe. You will too.
Read up about them. Amazing stuff! Teaser: they construct telephone lines as straight as railroad
tracks to each other. Dem dar bugs is gotz dem a community; I tells ya! Every one of them with
civic responsibilities, donchaknow. They tell their village members where to go for food. “Over
here!” is seemingly shouted.
And trees talk to each other via their roots, and fish, gnats, and birds love dancing murmurations.
Talk about your ULTRA-COMMUNICATIONS.
In short, we’re drowning in a gab fest.
If it moves, God tell us what it means.
Oh, you think I’ve gone too far? Pushed it, have I?
Hold my rootbeer.
Consider a proton. All by itself in a perfect vacuum — not even an electron babe to date. He’s so
lonely! You agree! That’s God sneaking in a projection about this poor little lost entity.
Or worse, consider a quark. Doesn’t hardly exist. Has a SINGLE quality. But if you get a few of
them together for a party, the next thing you know you have a proton. See? A proton is a flurry of
communicating quarks. THAT’S A VILLAGE. There’s stuff afoot inside that proton. IT’S THINKING.
Why? Because God is so clever anything can have ANY meaning projected upon it. And for lonely
quarks, God has string theory to explain how they can be thinking also.
You want me to go one notch more? Go past red-line? Get ridiculous?
Already have, but here goes the ultimate: nothingness too can have meaning.
In fact, true sentience, awareness, is not physical — no instrumentality. And you can prove this to
yourself. Just stop everything you’re doing and see if “what’s left” has meaning. It will. God can’t
help it. Addicted to projection — talks to Himself in an empty room.
And when God pauses, so do you. There’s the divine equality. When no meaning is projected, you
and God are not individually distinguishable. Unity prevails.
And hoooo boy…..when you and God shut up, silence is discovered to be a divine chorus of all
meanings understood at once.
Soundlessly sung.
Edg Duveyoung
Is Shiva a human being or a soul?
Let’s cut to the chase, shall we?
What you really want to know is “How do I come into a perfect harmony with Shiva when He
manifests as a functionality of my consciousness?”
Boy do you know how to ask a great question!
You’ve come to the right place. Sit down. I will tell you Shiva’s secret name.
Ready?
Acetylcholinesterase
In the nervous system when two nerve cells communicate, a chemical, acetylcholine, is released
by the “sender,” and that chemical’s thousands of molecules race across the gap between the two
nerve cells, and when they contact the other nerve cell that cell is then excited to send that
message onward to other nerve cells by the same “chemical-messengers” technique.
But how does a nerve cell stop being excited by the acetylcholine that’s hitting it?
It doesn’t. Those acetylcholine molecules have to be removed, or they’ll keep zinging that nerve
cell and exciting it to the point of exhaustion.
So what happens?
Shiva to the rescue!
Acetylcholinesterase is an enzyme that is there in that gap between the two nerve cells. It’s an all-
time reality. It gobbles up acetylcholine molecules almost instantly, but not so quickly that the
other nerve cell is not firstly stimulated.
Without acetylcholinesterase — THE DESTROYER — acetylcholine would have every nerve cell
and every muscle cell in your body pinged into paroxysms — you’d die “by Charley horse.”
See? That which is created must be destroyed instantly constantly relentlessly, or it’ll all pile up
way over your head like cardboard boxes and be a big mess and then the next thing you know it’ll
probably fall over and hurt somebody.
Get it?
Each of your thoughts must be hunted down and assassinated to make room for your next
thought. And the good news is that if one can stop thoughts from being produced, you can give
Lord Shiva a rest. Even Lord Shiva can get a little bit less active — a very hard thing for silence
personified!
How good is that? You can do Shiva a solid.
Hey OM! Eat your ersatz, boundarized by being, quality-stuffed, heart out.
The only sound of reality is when Shiva snores.
Edg Duveyoung
Is devotion enough to spiritual enlightenment?
Yeah, but if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it.
Devotion is holy, or it’s not devotion. Most folks are not able to be devout, can’t mentally afford it,
and instead pretend that if they’re having one “righteous” thought out of 70 then that’s to be
considered as enough spiritual currency to purchase enlightenment. What? God want $70 from
you, and you offer one lousy buck?
How many thoughts per second do you have? Answer: about seven.
Proof?
While listening to a ticking clock, mentally attempt to count from one to seven as quickly as you
can. You’ll find that your mind can mentally “pronounce” each of the numbers clearly and
separately but that getting to eight or nine or ten ends up with the separate words getting blurred
and blended. So, this is a rough proof that your mind can handle, well, about seven concepts per
second.
Now, go to church and see if you can have 70 thoughts of God in a row in ten seconds flat.
That would be a mere ten seconds of devotion. Anything less is a joke.
Your nervous system is jangled. It’s like you put your head into the clamps of one of those
shaking-mixer machines at the paint store. Yeah, sure, go ahead, try being tasered at the same
time you’re praying — see if you get smooth pristine sacred holy moments with God.
It takes practice to quiet down. You’re using a cattle prod (life’s negative spurrings) as a pogo
stick, so don’t expect rapid improvements. But it can be done.
Nisargadatta proved this. Now, THERE was a guy, let me tells ya. Ho boy what a sinner. But he met
this guru who told him he was actually God, and Nisargadatta said to himself, “This bears looking
into.”
So he did.
What? A guy who smoked cigarettes, a householder, a businessman who SOLD cigarettes out of
three stores? HE got enlightened? THAT GUY?
Yep. All it took was a sincere mind and THREE SHORT YEARS to get free.
And he kept smoking!
So take heart. You probably don’t even smoke.
Look into it.
Edg Duveyoung
Can we be born with spiritual enlightenment?
No.
But yes too.
Yes because a baby might be born with but ONE FLAW. And all the baby has to do is open the
eyes, see the glory of infinite divinity and be instantly healed by that therapy. From then on, the
child will witness “a” life instead of “my” life. That child’s personality will be entirely up to God’s
intents instead of being “complicated” with an ego that God then has to author into gradually
evolving toward perfection.
Upon his birth, Ramana Maharshi was not even close to spiritually lucky.
He had to sit in a cave for about twenty years constantly dwelling on the peace within. Meanwhile
his mother moved into the cave to be there to pick the bugs off of Ramana’s body. He just DID
NOT CARE ABOUT ANYTHING EXCEPT SILENCE.
See? Even Ramana took twenty years of relentless inquiry to be freed of false identifications.
Gulp!
It’s not easy to see how it’s not easy. We all think, “Hey, I’ll just grab me a cool guru or find me a
cave, and I’ll be all set.”
Oh yeah? Most folks couldn’t sit in a cave for even five seconds without becoming antsy. Most
couldn’t sit at the feet of a guru without judging the wear and tear on his dhoti.
This is a case of devastation by tarbaby.
We remember that Br’er Rabbit came upon the tarbaby, and when spoken to, the tarbaby was
silent. This silence got Br’er Rabbit angry, because in the presence of silence we recognize how
LOUD we are, and it’s so embarrassing. So, Br’er Rabbit hit the tarbaby, because he wanted THE
SILENCE TO SPEAK. As if, Bunny Boy, as if.
So see?
That’s how we got into fighting with our minds. We couldn’t take the silence and smacked
ourselves right in the face.
And then what happened? Just like Br’er Rabbit getting ever more deeply mired with the tarbaby,
we got stuck inside a brain instead of residing IN ALL OF SPACE AND TIME. Talk about your tight
fit.
The good news: it isn’t your fault.
Way back when, these four saints decided to visit Lord Krishna in His realm, Vikuntha. But there
were two guards at the gates, and they didn’t allow the saints to enter. For this sin, the two guards
were “punished” by having to endure three lifetimes in which they would be terrifying monsters of
power. And then, having been killed in battle by an incarnation of God, they would be re-instituted
as guards at that gate. When they asked God, why did we sin? God told them that their
motivations were put into their minds by God to fulfill the needs of creation.
See?
No?
Okay, how about Job? God and Satan got to talking about Job, and God was bragging about Job’s
saintliness, and Satan wasn’t having any of it. Satan said, “Yeah, sure, God, but if you take away all
the blessings you’ve bestowed on Job, then he will curse Thy name.” So, get this, God says,
“Okay, let’s just see. Take away some of his stuff and find out.” So Satan started taking away more
and more of Job’s blessings as God gave permission to Satan to do more and more to Job. But
Job never gave up on God no matter his torments.
See?
God uses us to demonstrate divine justice. Job’s endurance of negativity, done without losing his
attention on God’s love, set a high bar for all of us for all time. Job’s “rotten karma” was actually a
story of a magnificent hero who did not waver.
See?
You’re not being wrongfully punished when you have woes, you’re actually being given this extra
special fantastic chance to be a hero of heroes as was Job. How good is that, eh? Who wouldn’t
volunteer for such duty?
We all did. And think about it — none of us was born enlightened. None of us has God whispering
sweet nothings in our ear. None of us has certainty.
And yet we volunteered to do this. We agreed to come into life blind. We agreed.
Take a bow. Take a bow. You give me stingy eyes.
What defines these as separate entities, awareness, being, and consciousness?
Edg Duveyoung
If all it takes for enlightenment is within, why is it so hard to reach enlightenment even
with the assistance of all knowledge available about the Dharma?
Because you are ignoring the self. On purpose. And you just don’t care if it’s a spiritual no-no.
You’re actually in the crowd as the Emperor passes by naked. And you love the exquisite hand
stitching and translucent buttons and will talk endlessly about all his attire.
You have addicted your nervous system to wallowing in pathetic indulgences. And you can’t wait
for the next new thing to think, to feel, to taste, to hear, to smell, to see. If your favorite singing
group had a hit song that was playing over a loudspeaker while you enjoyed your favorite ice
cream as you smelled the aroma from a nearby bakery while you strolled down the Champs Elysee
with a light breeze caressing you and with all the onlookers admiring your resplendent perfection,
you’d still be thinking about “what might come next.”
Tsk. Tsk. You know, don’t you, that at the Pearly Gates you’re going to have some ‘splainin’ ta do,
Lucy?
You are entranced by creation. God’s artwork sure does the trick, eh? No wonder you’re stuck. I
sure don’t blame you. I saw Michelangelo's Pietà in person, and yet still I was looking around the
church, at the people, everything…which only happened to have the Pietà too. Ordinary life
competed with Michelangelo’s greatest work. See the point?
Okay I’ll say it plainly. You don’t want to be enlightened……enough. You’d have to tear yourself
away from ALL THAT PLEASURE. Good luck.
I posted this quote from Ramana in another essay…..worth reposting.
Here’s Ramana’s response:
Questioner: Does knowing myself imply knowing God?
Ramana Maharshi: Yes, God is within you.
Questioner: Then, what stands in the way of my knowing myself
or God?
Ramana Maharshi: Your wandering mind and perverted ways.
Questioner: I am a weak creature. But why does not the superior
power of the Lord within remove the obstacles?
Ramana Maharshi: Yes, He will, if you have the aspiration.
Questioner: Why should He not create the aspiration in me?
Ramana Maharshi: Then surrender yourself.
Questioner: If I surrender myself, is no prayer to God necessary?
Ramana Maharshi: Surrender itself is a mighty prayer.
Questioner: But is it not necessary to understand His nature
before one surrenders oneself?
Ramana Maharshi: If you believe that God will do for you all the things
you want Him to do, then surrender yourself to
Him. Otherwise let God alone and know yourself.
Edg Duveyoung
Is there only one witness (sakshi) in Advaita Vedanta, or plenty?
Ramana says the witness is half real.
The processes of the nervous system that seem to be the entirety of the witness’ manifestation
are the best efforts of Maya to be holy despite being a non-causal entity. Poor Maya…thinks she’s
sentient.
The witness is as if a wandering monk in the wilderness of all the products of consciousness.
Pure, as holy as is divinely possible, unshakable, the witness is present during the most violent
moments of a mind but also there during the most subtle quietude of a lifelong celibate in a lost
Himalayan cave. It does not partake, does not indulge, does not “take sides.”
It’s okay with WHATEVER. God’s creativity and authorship of all things is not messed with.
And it’s not the ego — which is an artifact of a nervous system that is insane and thinks it’s
running the joint. The ego is witnessed too….when it’s pretended to be there….mostly it’s not
there. Except now as it pretends it’s reading these words…..shoo it away like the danged itty bitty
imp it is.
The real part of the witness is the transcendent awareness which informs — mystically without
instrumentality. All that the witness surveys is pure unadulterated “God stuff,” but some-NON-how
awareness casts upon this unity the boundaries necessary for ordinary life.
IT’S MAGIC I TELLS YA!
So the answer to the question is that there are about seven billion half witnesses on the planet and
ONE real witness underlying them all.
The hidden concept in all this is that God’s mind is witnessed too.
Brahma, when first born said, “Who is this spy peeking in on my life? Who’s the real entity here?
Where can I meet this so-called witness?” So Brahma dove down the lotus stalk to find His real
part.
He gave up after 3,000 years. Remember that Brahma's one day and night equal 8.64 million
human years. One second of Brahma’s time is 100 human years. (Thanks User-
10818266121794495575 (அனந்தராமன் லெ) for the metric.) All those years seeking the immaterial
and finally He understood that awareness cannot be sorted out into seer, seeing and seen without
losing ones grasp of the transcendent. This was the very first lesson to anyone ever in Creation…
and God learned it for us. How good is that, eh?
So love everyone because they’re already you. Buddha said it like this: “We love everyone because
in the long passage of time, all of us have re-incarnated so many times that all of us have been in
every manner of relationship with everyone. To each and all we have been Father, Mother, Son,
Daughter, Brother, Sister, Uncle, Aunt, Cousin, best friend. Why stop loving them just because
they switched bodies?”
And it’s easy, because awareness is pure love — this means that just being aware of anything is to
be loving that thing AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. We don’t have to take sides….we are asked to love
like awareness loves — never stinting, never blinking, seeing what is to be seen from beyond the
beyond in a silent serenity.
Super secret — you have never not once ever ever not been 100% loving all things. This is the
reward of enlightenment — certainty that no sin has ever happened — only love has manifested.
Pretending the self into parts to expand love even into the illusory, God astoundingly went
nowhere.
And still getting there…..in Kali Yuga all the kids in the back seat are yelling, “Are we there yet?”
Edg Duveyoung
Is there proof of spiritual energy?
Okay, let’s have fun.
“Is” — this word means that something exists if it is admitted to have qualities. Advaita says,
“There are no things except illusions, and they are but secondary artifacts of nervous systems
which are but artifacts of larger “illusory systems.” So “is” is a problem. Don’t be calling me Bill
Clinton. It’s just that words are tricky.
“there” — this is a word to designate a location for the entity in question. Does it take up space or
time or both? Advaita says, “Position is a quality. All qualities are illusory…not the self.” Therefore
there’s no there there.
“proof” — this is the least meaningful word of the question. Ask any lawyer about proof. Ask a
scientist. Ask a logician. Each will talk about exceptions to all proofs. Advaita says, “The son of a
barren woman cannot be asked to testify about his Mother’s existence.”
“of” — this is a word about relationship. Some thing is said to have a relationship with another
thing. Advaita says, “Awareness is non-dual.”
“spiritual” — this word designates a quality of connection of a nervous-system-based entity to
another entity which is able to operate beyond the “local realities of a nervous system.” Advaita
says, “If God is talking, by all means, listen, because everyone’s gotta be somewhere doing
something, but it is only silence that is absolutely able to speak. Listening to that silence is the
only defensible moment of mindfulness for any religion to propose.”
“energy” What energy? Why is the so-called spiritual conflated with energy? This word reduces
the spiritual to the merely physical — as if God NEEDED a nervous system to create YOU, or as if
God NEEDED electrons to whiz around to symbolize INFINITE LOVE FOR YOU. As if. This word
handcuffs God more than all the other words combined. As if.
Summary:
The question is karmic — it is unfathomable. But I will testify nonetheless to a synchronous aspect
of spirituality with the divine — if one asks, “Who am I? ones nervous system will STOP IN ITS
TRACKS….boggled…..stumped……bereft of even a vague symbolism for an answer, and THAT’S
DIVINE. That moment of admitting that true identity has no manifest qualities is when the nervous
system is perfectly and correctly answering the above question. It’s when a clock that is broken
yet displays the correct time. If the nervous system shuts up, THERE YOU ARE and there’s not a
single spiritual hook to hang a halo on.
It’s quite the non-thing, let me tells ya!
Edg Duveyoung
Do you think one can ever reach enlightenment without meditation?
Originally Answered: Is meditation necessary for enlightenment?
You’re meditating all the time since birth.
Stop it!
Every instant of existence finds you PAYING ATTENTION.
Stop it!
The primal sin is thinking. Even one thought is SUICIDE.
The self — your true identity — your transcendent vastness — your sole reality — your
magnificence — your sacredness — your divine status is being ignored.
Stop it!
Being is a thoughtless state of a nervous system that is dwelt within until identity shifts from the
status of “I’m a person.” to the status of “I am everything, every possible thing, and every non-
thing. I am beyond time and space, beyond existing, beyond any definition of I.”
See how much can be missed by paying attention?
Consider the error if God suddenly appeared before you, and you said, “Hey, be with Ya in a sec. I
gotta finish this level in my computer game.”
That’s what you are doing RIGHT NOW ALL THE TIME.
Want to use meditation to gain enlightenment?
Stop it!
Edg Duveyoung
What is the most spiritual graffiti ever?
UNIR1
Edg Duveyoung
How would a debate between an Advaita philosopher and an atheist go?
Atheist: There is no God.
Advaitan: Pish tosh — you are a rank beginner when it comes to not believing in God. Don’t make
me laugh.
Atheist: You Advaitans believe in God.
Advaitan: We most certainly do not, and for you to suchly assume shows you don’t know jack
about Advaita.
Atheist: You guys talk about God endlessly.
Advaitan: Maybe the word, God, is used, but the Advaitan definition of the word does not have the
same meaning as when you use it, but you’re too uneducated to know this and want to ignorantly
toss Advaita into the “it’s a religion” trash bucket.
Atheist: Oh come on; you’re equivocating. Confess that you believe there is a God that created the
universe.
Advaitan: I will not. That’s a misunderstanding of Advaita.
Atheist: It’s not! You, yourself, Edg, have essay after essay on Quora which goes nutzoid for God.
God this. God that. How can you deny your belief when it’s so obviously an axiom for you?
Advaitan: First, settle down. Your vibe is jarring the Quora mellow. This is a discussion — not an
egoic slamming of sexual organs on the table top. Don’t make this about me in order to dump on
Advaita. But to show you what a wonderful guy I am, first I’ll agree with you, but then, I’ll shred ya.
Brace for impact.
Atheist: Yeah sure.
Advaitan: First, you’re correct in that the concept of God as it is ordinarily used by most folks is
just plain silly. Most folks would say that God is a human-esque all powerful, punitive entity. Yeah,
pretty hard to accept when seven billion smartphones can’t get a photo of God or even a saintly
minion levitating and every form of evil runs rampant and unpunished. So, points for you.
Atheist: You’ve made my case. Debate over. I win.
Advaitan: Hold my beer. Advaita says that everything is illusory — fake news from the get-go. This
includes “God.” Why?
Atheist: You’re asking me?
Advaitan: To make sure you hear that Advaita is saying “God is not real, and that the reason why is
that any concept is merely an artifact of a nervous system — a processing of a brain that can only
be symbolic — and that ALL BELIEFS IN GOD are actually mere beliefs that brain operations
faithfully represent reality.” Advaita says, “Nope, nada, neti neti neti — any concept is to be
rejected.”
Atheist: Then you guys are hypocrites, because you’re always talking about how God does this or
thinks that or demands this. The whole Advaita community is awash with guru-worship and
blinded by the smoke from the burning of incense and camphor.
Advaitan: Yes, there’s a lot of poorly educated true-hearts out there saying all kinds of things as
they are garnering clarity. Many of them set themselves up as teachers and think they’ve got the
core knowledge as obvious as an amalak fruit on their palms. Yep there’s that, but that’s not a
proof about God or Advaitan beliefs, right?
Atheist: Oh, okay.
Advaitan: The scriptures that expound Advaita make it very clear that all the Hindu Gods are
TEMPORARY. They all are subject to dissolution, and that even Shiva or Vishnu or Mother Divine
have ascribed lifetimes of limited lengths. God dying? Sounds atheistic, right? This underlines that
concepts about God are intellectually limited; a “God” that’s “real” is merely a brain burbling, and
a brain is merely an approximation machine, and, brains die. What really “exists” cannot be
“known” by a brain. Not even slightly.
Atheist: So Advaita says nothing is real and nothing matters and nothing is worthy of belief and
atheism is merely another belief about nothing?
Advaitan: YES!
Atheist: I’m feeling suddenly uncomfortable.
Advaitan: It’ll pass.
Atheist: But hold on. Stop the blather. Back to what your essays have insisted. You’re always
saying “God says this.” or “God intends that.” as if God is real and has an active role in creation.
Advaitan: Yes, I use the word “God.” That’s an Advaitan use of that word though. Because of the
constraints of language, it’s natural that the word, “God,” comes off as meaning some Big Sky
Guy. If I say, “God wants us to love each other,” I don’t mean that some “entity” with a nervous
system that generates thoughts wants us to have our nervous systems generating certain kinds of
thoughts. I mean something far deeper, far more mystical, farther than far. Further even.
Atheist: Now who’s being silly?
Advaitan: Okay, I’m silly, but the Hindu concept of “play,” lila, allows for me to be a buffoon with a
silly hat and clown shoes. But note above when you so perfectly used the word “nothing” four
times in that one sentence, that it’s possible to toggle the meaning of “nothing” into “no thing,”
and that that deepens YOUR sentence’s purport. Advaita says there is a transcendent awareness
that is beyond existence and non-existence — it is not a thing. It can be called a no-thing. Now
consider your statement: “So Advaita says no-thing is real and no-thing matters and no-thing is
worthy of belief and atheism is merely another belief about no-thing?”
Atheist: What trickery are you up to? I’m serious, you’re trying to flip my script with verbal
jugglery.
Advaitan: Yes!
Atheist: It’s not syllogistic — not fair.
Advaitan: Yes!
Atheist: Why continue this then?
Advaitan: We shouldn’t!
Atheist: But you’re the one spouting the most!
Advaitan: It takes a heap o’words to obviate the need for words. It takes a thorn to remove a thorn.
To stir a fire, the stirring stick must be also burnt. We can imagine a jackalope or son of a barren
woman or ropes that are snakes. But, yeah, Advaita says, “Just shut up, wuddja just shut up with
the analogies, metaphors, similes and memes, and for ONCE JUST ONCE shut up and be?”
Atheist: Sounds like my kinda complaint.
Advaitan: And it’s a righteous complaint! Advaita has ONE concept: silence is the only thing worth
hearing. As one practices quietening the body/mind, it’s discovered that the mind is spewing
boundaries, limitations, and every sort of idiosyncrasy, but saturating all this processing is a
background awareness that is not here and now but instead beyond any known definition of here
or definition of now — yet sentient— but not corporeal — witnessing the mind but not the mind —
pure identity without definition.
Atheist: Which you just now defined. Ahem. Cough. Cough.
Advaitan: Again, it’s a language issue. Advaita’s message to atheists is that the transcendent is
beyond any notion of God, and that atheists are ironically promoting the belief in God in others by
debating the issue, but that Advaita says to be wary of beliefs by not partaking in any of
them….including the belief that the beliefs of others are wrong.
Atheist: Well how are we to correct these duped believers otherwise? And you’re still not fooling
me, you spiritual flimming flammer. I KNOW you love God and are champing at the bit to do God’s
bidding. YOU’RE A BELIEVER!
Advaitan: Ouch! You’ve got my soul in an armlock. I confess. I love God. I believe. I believe! Gimme
my beer back. But give me the beer back, because I’ve proved my point that you’re a junior
wannabe in the atheism department. Advaitans totally crush the notion of “God;” whereas, you
guys are dinking around trying to prove a null hypothesis. We tell everyone to get out of the
person business and transcend their so-called realities, but you atheists are telling everyone that
EVERYTHING ELSE IS REAL BUT NOT GOD. As if. As if. With zero proofs you’re going around
claiming things real when your best minds of science and philosophy are screaming “we’re not so
sure anymore about anything.” Sounds like a personality flaw.
Atheist: Don’t be nasty. Sounds like you agree with me that God isn’t real, so how is this not me
winning this debate? And, again, I KNOW you’re lying and do believe in God — the ordinary kind of
God like religions promote.
Advaitan: It takes a lot of mental chewing to conclude a conceptual cud’s ready to swallow. I will
admit that over here is a personality that loves to anthropomorphize the concept of God. If I knew
some action was sacred, I’d be pogo-sticking around hop-hoping to do it. I have religious feelings.
I pray. I would not mind if God was the Old or New Testament God, or Buddha, or Allah, or Krishna.
I’d be a fanboy fur shur.
Atheist: At last, truth from you. Your claims that there is a transcendent awareness that is beyond
every concept ring hollow — you’re just a mewing sinner wishing Advaita was true so that you
won’t have to process being religious. Are you some sort of Elmer Gantry? I got ya, bub, you’re
cornered. What’s next? You going to produce some vibhuti out of nowhere to go along with this
preacher’s role of yours?
Advaitan: Again, don’t make this about me. Yes, I could be a hypocrite, and my words might be out
of harmony with those of true experts of Advaita. I make no claims about having clarity. I write
here to set down some few things for my own satisfactions. I have, however, transcended enough
to honestly report that the Advaitan words resonate with me and seemingly showcase awareness
despite the impossibility. So sue me for jawing about it. This debate is bogus, because I know I
can never prove awareness to be beyond the brain. Awareness could be but a sub-process of
consciousness. Could. But after transcending, I’m saying, “Nope. Awareness isn’t a process of
consciousness, and the only proof is if you do the Advaitan type of meditation, self inquiry, and
find out for yourself about these things. That’s what I did. Why should you get off easy?”
Atheist: Oh, so now, I have to EARN the right to disbelieve God in the Advaitan fashion?
Advaitan: Yep. You might be one of the lucky ones, but chances are you’re a Kali Yuga dunce like
me and need a ton of practice, but until then you don’t have a clue about transcendence
compared to what you will eventually come to know. Until then, I have the superior argument
against believing in general; whereas, you’re just nitpicking about a solitary belief.
Atheist: Meh. I’m going to get a burger and fries. You hungry?
Advaitan: Yeah, when it comes to chopping wood and carrying water, you can supersize me.
Atheist: K
Advaitan: K
Atheist: Next essay, you be the atheist.
Advaitan: K
Edg Duveyoung
If everyone has a soul, is it possible to see it?
If I touch your elbow, am I touching you?
Your elbow isn’t all of you, but you insist I’ve touched “you.”
Same deal for the soul. ANY piece of soul is as if “an elbow” of soul.
Having a thought? Piece of soul. Having a feeling? Piece of soul. Got an expectation? Soul. Got a
papercut? Won the lottery? Falling in love? Looking at the stars? Soul, soul, soul, soul.
Okay, I’ll say it. I’m not afraid. IT’S ALL SOUL.
This is the glory. The exquisite detailing of every instant is God’s using a one-hair brush to paint
your portrait. Naturally, in our innocence, we hesitate to accept that we are this spectacular when
all of it boggles us with magical wonders. Who could think of their soul to have such value that
God divinely wrought it to be so vast, so magnificent, so imbued with the sacred? We have done
exactly zero to earn this status yet God relentlessly entertains us with endless creativity; each
next moment presents raw discovery.
So, close your eyes, and point blindly with your camera, and take a photo of anything — then try to
find less than a thousand things you can name in the single photo. This is the power of your
ORDINARY MIND — another elbow of soul.
The soul is easily seen.
Edg Duveyoung
Why do I feel internal anguish after years of meditation?
It’s going to get worse.
Much worse.
The process of evolving requires anguish at every step. We are giving up our precious notions, our
confirmed biases, our favorite theories, our personalities, our histories, our gods. And everything
else too.
Emphasis on the the phrase “everything else.”
Talk about your pain. It’s like mothers having to watch their children die. Yeah, I said it. Mothers
are as if addicted to their children, and the mother of thoughts — ones mind — too, cringes at the
thought it might not have another.
But that’s the deal — death of thoughts.
Worse — death of the mind.
Patanjali makes it clear that thinking is THE bad guy. A thought always divides creation into two or
more parts — any thought. Any. And enlightenment is all about unity, wholeness, oneness.
Thinking can never be a perfect representation of self. “Being” — a state, is about as good as it
gets when it comes to expressions of the absolute. And “being” is trillions of your molecules
zipping around at great speeds, so let’s always remember that a nervous system is grand central
station and true silence is merely “least bothered” by “being” as opposed to the cacophony called
“thoughts.” Good news: during “being” awareness shines forth.
In meditation, the pain is always most felt when one is deeply into quiescence. At the quieter
levels, healing gets intense as each instant is another process of the nervous system relaxing into
a natural state instead of constantly spinning its wheels in the background of consciousness —
there but unnoticed. This letting go is watching another favorite “piece of me” die. It hurts. In
meditation, the next mantra, the next inquiry, the next sutra feels like ones mountain of quirks are
extricated by the shovelful. Awareness is exhumed.
Outside of meditation — same deal. Life is evolving one too. Each instant is yagya. We do things to
get them off our karma list, and the better we are at this the more life in general is a challenge to
bear. If you’re having negative emotions and thoughts, SOMETHING GOOD IS HAPPENING. You’re
getting more and more certain that ordinary life does not have what you’re seeking and that an
inward exploration for succor has far more charm than the so-called pleasures of life.
Long ago in Sat Yuga, there was not much to complain about — folks going around being nice to
each other. Think how hard it was for them to think life was hard and there must be a better way to
play the game of life. Now think how easy it is for you to want more. See the blessing? Try to
convince someone in Sat Yuga to want to give up thinking…..as if. But you, in Kali Yuga, have a
good reason smacking you per second.
But I do hear your question. I’m being flippant, and you want practical advice. For this, I suggest
you consult those nearest you. If anything, opening up to others and engaging them in this quest
can get you suggestions you are unwilling to hear from yourself. Others will advise about job, diet,
exercise, education, lifestyle, etc. It could be as simple as “eat more greens,” ya know?
Take care — I feel ya.
Edg Duveyoung
Can you explain the word "soul" scientifically consisting of logic and practicality?
If it has a name, it doesn’t exist.
Patanjali, the ultimate scientist, warns us that the least distinction is a mental error — which most
deeply means “the soul cannot be described.” No map corresponds to the territory with 100%
congruity.
Patanjali researched and experimented with his own mind and found that any example of thought
is a bothering disturbance of the perfection of the soul’s wholeness. To think is to obfuscate. The
self cannot take a selfie.
Try to find a modern school of psychology that even begins to detail the subtlest operations of a
human mind, let alone how to QUELL them. Patanjali instructs that by practicing samyama, peace
of mind is achieved in that one comes to see that any apparent difference is just that — illusory —
and not fit to be truth — not soul.
Truth is what science says it is seeking, but which “modern” western scientist understands that
“the soul” might be an entity that can only be substantiated by a scientist using the scientific
method on the flowing of his/her own consciousness in situ? It’s personal. The scientist has to
discover his/her own mind to be a laboratory which can yield results that can be duplicated by
other scientists.
Ask practiced meditators if a thought has heft or not, and you’re going to get a earful. They know
that a thought is a stubborn processing that is ongoing in the nervous system, and that the soul
cannot be discerned fully if the mind is occupied by ANY THING. Only the quiet mind allows for
the soul’s entirety to be resplendent and non-conceptually appreciated. Awareness of awareness
is fullness into fullness — no nattering nervous systems allowed!
Now, though the method, samyama, has been completely delineated and is well taught even today
by many excellent teachers who see “some” results in themselves and their students, today’s
scientist cannot abide that results come too slowly to measure, and they are too subtle to
measure with machines, and the technique needs to be practiced, typically, OVER LIFETIMES until
longitudinal results can be acquired. This just stops western science on the spot, because science
does not know how to devise an experiment to measure changes in a soul’s disturbance-patterns
such that results can be reported after transmigration. Talk about a stumper, eh?
And so too does the seeker’s inner scientist equally rail against such a lack of certainty. The ego
loves certainty, and it will go looking for it — and find it. There are no absolutes in the relative, but
try to find an ego that hasn’t got a pocketful of them.
The scientific proof of “soul” is a one-off. The next scientist discovers soul as meritoriously as the
last — each time it’s a completely new discovery. Each person’s materiality — necessarily unique
— challenges a mind to find its way home by a separate path. Each enlightened person is a “new
way” to have realized; a new law, a new spiritual truth. This despite the single method, samyama,
having been used.
Now here’s the sweet part. Any scientist can do samyama and maybe just maybe reach
enlightenment in this lifetime. If a scientist is very close to enlightenment, then samyama will do
the trick. But there’s no way for anyone to know how close one is to freedom. Pawn or king does
not indicate nearness. Sinner or Samaritan neither.
Ya takes yer chances when ya toss these dice.
Bottom line is that Patanjali’s method, samyama, is practiced well and instantly by even a newbie
when one follows Advaita’s suggestion to simply inquire, “Who am I?” The silence that instantly is
THERE just before the ego butts in with some blather is THE SOUL — seen purely. By meditating
this way, asking this question and LISTENING to the silence delivered, a nervous system gradually
stops dwelling with distinctions — just as Patanjali recommends.
Twist ending — there’s one soul.
One.
Edg Duveyoung
How can ego death help a person grow?
Can Mickey Mouse die?
Neither can you . . . neither of you.
Every enlightened person reports witnessing a nervous system that is “doing a person,” but nary a
one will say, “I’m the person talking to you.”
But this person that one isn’t cannot die, because the person is not any more alive than a
jackalope.
Oh, your person that you-the-witness is witnessing is insisting that it’s alive?
Adorable. Mine does that too. They’re so cute. I can’t stand it.
That Walt Disney is able to fool you that Mickey is sentient is a tell about how easy it would be for
God to fool you that you’re alive…just sayin’ we’re all, brace yourself, animated. Just to be trollish,
I’ll even say it’s possible we all have more in common with Jessica Rabbit than with the illusory
object, “Bob Hoskins.” But let’s agree to ignore that I just said that.
Meanwhile, no the ego doesn’t die in the enlightened; it just becomes another seemingly
boundarized object of consciousness that infinitely correlates with a very fuzzy-math recursive
“reality.” Or something like that….I’m not a scientist. I’m a preacher.
All the enlightened — except one — never have had the Beatles visit them in Rishikesh, but they all
use the words “I Me Mine.”
The ego in the enlightened can roar. Ever hear about that little incident where Jesus had a few
words with some money lenders? Did you notice Moses never had to ask the Burning Bush, “Do
you really mean that?” And did you notice that when Krishna offered His army or His services as a
charioteer to Prince Duroydhana, Krishna said, “MY” army and “or ME.” Not much timidity in that
bunch.
But now I’ll argue the other side. Remember: when Rama was looking for Sita, Sati’s perfect
illusion of being Sita did not fool Rama. Rama was not seeking anything material, anything limited,
anything thingish. Rama’s search was for Sita’s heart, Her Hridaya — that seat of the soul, the
awareness behind her witness, the absolute. Sati could fake everything except Sita’s actual
identity. (Not that Sati was not also an expression of the absolute, but that’s another story that
ends with Shiva going “ew.”)
But see? The enlightened person is twice born — one discovers a true self as an all-time reality
within which one’s minion, the ego, struts and frets its hour. No death needed.
What is needed is The Divine Flip.
Suddenly, never’ll see it coming so don’t be lookin’, your itty bitty me is going to go “Whoa! I never
noticed ya before.”
And then you two will take some time to get acquainted. And it’ll be fun and all.
And to answer the dang question — after enlightenment, evolution continues with the ego ever
more subtly discovering its use as a divine instrumentality without ever becoming so wonderful
that ones true identity is lost again by assuming a “person” is “enough.”
Remember Indra. He sold out. Don’t be like Indra. Ask Vishnu when He was a boy for details.
Edg Duveyoung
If the self is already eternal, deathless, and one with Brahman, why do I have to make
any spiritual effort in life?
If God wanted me to know God then God would author me to do that which would — by God’s
reckoning — justify God being known by me.
There’s a divine story being told.
Yeah, sure, God could toss a “suddenly I’m Buddha” type of personality into almost any scenario,
and yeah, sure, this has actually happened, but almost every enlightened person ever was/is
created as an ordinary person in an ordinary life who yet must escape the spell of ignorance by an
“ironic effort”— eventually finding out that God is the sole doer, and that enlightenment is a
spontaneous blessing instead of an achievement.
One is told to stop messing around with thoughts and to dwell in pure being. That is, one must
surrender to God and then see what happens. This is not a doing; surrender is a cessation of
doingness.
Here’s Ramana’s response:
Questioner: Does knowing myself imply knowing God?
Ramana Maharshi: Yes, God is within you.
Questioner: Then, what stands in the way of my knowing myself
or God?
Ramana Maharshi: Your wandering mind and perverted ways.
Questioner: I am a weak creature. But why does not the superior
power of the Lord within remove the obstacles?
Ramana Maharshi: Yes, He will, if you have the aspiration.
Questioner: Why should He not create the aspiration in me?
Ramana Maharshi: Then surrender yourself.
Questioner: If I surrender myself, is no prayer to God necessary?
Ramana Maharshi: Surrender itself is a mighty prayer.
Questioner: But is it not necessary to understand His nature
before one surrenders oneself?
Ramana Maharshi: If you believe that God will do for you all the things
you want Him to do, then surrender yourself to
Him. Otherwise let God alone and know yourself.
Edg Duveyoung
Why is Advaita not a belief? What does it mean that even the gods are false?
When you wake up from a vivid dream, you know that that dream was but an illusory experience
despite the fact that in that dream you had entirely “bought into” the dream’s conceits. Once
awoken, you are CERTAIN the waking world is real instead of a dream that MERE SECONDS
PREVIOUSLY had you thoroughly beguiled.
Is it really so hard to wonder if “reality” is not also “merely convincing?”
In a dream, you could meet God. Ya know? It might actually be God, but nooooo, probably not. In a
dream, God could be quite different from God.
Just so — the enlightened suggest that we inquire if our religious beliefs are also as illusory as our
dreams. And not just our beliefs, but each thought. Not just our thoughts, but any thoughts.
Animal thoughts and plant thoughts. And Jesus said stones could cry, so their thoughts too. And
might as well toss in God’s thoughts. All illusory according to antiquity’s seers and today’s wise-
guys-in-dhotis.
Proof? None you could shake a stick at. Because a stick can only point somewhere — not
everywhere — unless you get that stick really far away from everything. The saints tells us that the
vastness of identity — the sole identity behind every soul — is so beyond creation, that creation
itself is but a tiny little mote within that plenitude. Hiranyagarbha is the Sanskrit term for “golden
egg” — it’s the mote that creation is seen to seem when seen from a zillion light years away. Pretty
much like a piece of yellow lint on black velvet.
Why is this concept taught? It’s because the enlightened see their thoughts as if they are THAT
FAR AWAY. To try to be tiny enough to only have one thought at a time — ewwwww — even a
sacred holy divine type thought — ewwwww.
All this, everything is a product of a mind. As long as attention is on a mind’s contents — any mind,
any contents — it’s not on the primal identity — the self within. To tell someone to study scriptures
is to slow their evolution — they should directly contact the self within for true knowledge.
Studying scriptures is just to keep the intellect busy like an elephant is given a chain to carry so
that it’s not always grabbing other stuff with its trunk when it’s being led through town.
And what is more direct than knowing yourself? No need for pretty words or sweet feelings — the
self is ALWAYS there.
Good news: the gods don’t mind if one isn’t worshiping them when one is, instead, doing direct
inquiry. Nope, they’re perplexed — they want to know where you’ve gone! They are still hooked on
reality. They’re pros at it, and that’s a hard thing to give up, but when you do direct inquiry, they’re
wondering if maybe being a human isn’t something into which they should be looking!
But if you’re not doing relentless self inquiry, you’d better hedge your bets and light some incense
at least. Maybe chant or something.
Edg Duveyoung
What did you learn something big from a small child's answer?
Once upon a pebbled path, I walked next to a three year old boy — both of us barefoot. I asked,
“Peter, don’t the stones hurt your feet?” “Yes,” he replied, “but they don’t hurt my walking.”
Edg Duveyoung
What is it in my experience that proves that awareness cannot be just inside my body,
but pervades the entire universe?
Most folks use the words “awareness” and “consciousness” as if they have the same definition.
Advaita insists they are different. Consciousness is a process of a nervous system; whereas,
awareness is said to be that which witnesses the processes of a nervous system — WITHOUT
AWARENESS ITSELF BEING A SUB-PROCESS OF THAT — OR ANY OTHER — NERVOUS SYSTEM.
Probably one of the top ten hardest concepts to get folks to grasp is that awareness is NOT
“consciousness being conscious of consciousness.”
The Heisenberg uncertainty theory concerns itself SOLELY with consciousness being defined as
an action that changes that which is being observed — modern physics has never used the
Advaitan definition of awareness when it comes to understanding the limitations of certainty. By
scriptural definitions, awareness is transcendent, non-physical, non-temporal — not at all like the
feature set of the qualities of consciousness. Therefore we cannot say that science is anti-
advaitan.
If logic is applied, it becomes clear that a nervous system cannot experience awareness. Nervous
systems deal with physical events — awareness is not an event.
But, to push back, we ask: “Then by what logic does a yogi claim that awareness is not
consciousness?“ After all, if it’s claimed that a nervous system cannot “sense” that which is
beyond the physical even though it can exquisitely detect a single photon impacting the retina,
how can a “physically embodied and physically minded” yogi “pick up on” awareness when it has
no effect on a nervous system? It does not make “sense.”
Answer: Nope, it doesn’t. But the error here is that the non-yogi needs to be a bit educated to
“hear the correct answer.” The yogi may seem to be claiming that awareness can be known by a
nervous system, but the true yogi would say,
“I realize I am awareness — NOT the consciousness processes of the person talking to you. This
nervous system didn’t discover me — I merely, suddenly, by grace, have realized that awareness
is my true identity and that all the processes of the nervous system talking to you are artifacts of
the universe — no more sentient than mountains eroding or grass growing or the Moon reflecting
sunlight. The universe is of a piece — everything affecting everything — seamlessly, except that
thinking makes for illusory boundaries. There is no free will. The next thought of a nervous system
is a localized expression of the universe. In all this, I am silence, the white page between the
letters on it, the screen not the film, being instead of acting.”
“No fair!” we could shout back. “You’re expecting us to take your word for it. No way your mind
can conclude that awareness is beyond the beyond if the mind is finite — your certainty is based
on logic (process of a nervous system) not experience, because experience is a limited physical
processing.”
And then the yogi says, “You can prove this to yourself. Just turn your nervous system off and find
out! Close your eyes, ask ‘Who am I?‘ and instantly you will be in a state of realization such as
mine. However, it will be INSTANTLY….and if you want that proof to last longer than an instant, it’s
going to take practice. Gradually awareness will begin to stand out as distinctly there such that
the nervous system can then try to describe it. Once clarity is established the yogi, the nun, the
priest, the monk, the recluse, the hermit, the philosopher ALL AGREE. Their educations, their I.Q.
scores, their cultures, their religions, their time in history, their worldly achievements, their ages,
their genders — no matter what…they all agree about awareness while insisting that the
descriptive words they use are but scant pointers.”
The seers all agree that awareness is sentient, infinite, silent, everywhere, everywhen, divine, non-
illusory. They never insist that this or that scripture “nails it down.” They’re happy to remain the
person they are in particular, because anything serves as well as anything to be a reflection of
everything. To become enlightened is to have the nervous system settle down and be at peace
with the world as it divinely is. It is exactly that peace that passes all understanding. And the
testimony of an enlightened person is the only proof one can obtain until one is also enlightened.
But, hey, 6,000 years of historical agreeing about awareness COUNTS even if it’s not proof.
Short answer: There is no experience that proves anything about awareness, but once
enlightenment dawns, analysis concludes that non-experiencing provides a complete proof.
Edg Duveyoung
According to Advaitism, what is Prakriti?
Have you ever sneezed?
Just before the sneeze, you know you’re going to sneeze.
That’s Prakriti — it’s that “immanent pressure” of the Absolute to expand into the illusory in order
to, well, “expand.”
Think about how, before creation, it was so crowded inside the transcendent. All those possible
personages with all their glories-yet-to-be. Krishna and Jesus and Zeus, oh my!
But miss not that immediately before you sneeze, sometimes merely touching your upper lip stops
the sneeze from manifesting. The “sneeze about to be” turns out to be anything but a sneeze.
Just so, Prakriti is not yet manifest and cannot be said to be, say, “divine laws” or “Nature” which
are illusory qualities the mind uses to “juggle reality” in order to feel like it has sentience and is
“handling things.”
As if, mind, as if. Don’t make me laugh. Stop. Can’t breathe.
But that’s what we do here. We toss stuff into the air and try to keep it there.
As in: “Ooooooo, what if the Absolute has, you know, very subtle pieces that make up its unity?”
Yeah, let’s spend hours on that one. Sure to reveal what God’s next thought will be.
But even our most sincerely asked questions after decades of deep consideration of scripture are
AS SILLY. There, I said it. I’m sorry. It just slipped out.
If water can’t wet it or fire burn it, the intellect can’t grasp it any more than a rope mistaken for a
snake can bite you.
And love can’t grasp it either. Ask the angels if God is “same ol’ same ol’” to them, or if God
surprises them instant by instant knocking their halos askew? They can’t stop loving God. They
can’t ever think they’ve done enough loving when God is anew, anon and now. It’d be rude to even
blink.
Believe me. They don’t blink.
Would you?
What’s prakriti?
Short answer: “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand.”
Long answer: “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand God sneezed.”
Real answer: Touch being’s lip and find out.
Edg Duveyoung
Is everyone else a philosophical zombie?
BAH! Philosophical zombie — is there no end to two-word combinations that spur the imagination?
This is the bane of having a human brain — it just can’t stop worrying at raveled ends. We’re all
fussbudgets…..and each one of us thinks that what we’re obsessed about is very important,
donchaknow.
Don’t feel badly about this — Brahma did this too and had to take 3,000 years to quit the bad
habit, (never did find the bottom of the Lotus Stalk,) so, mere human, don’t be thinking your inner
Brahma is going to shuck this curse any more easily……unless there’s some loop hole in the fine
print. Pull out your paperwork for when you purchased your soul, and see.
But, heh — what a fix we’re in — as in “all of us are fixated.” And ya can’t get more in a fix than
fixating on being in one. Sounds zombish. Yep. We are motivated for but one thing — our hunger
for BRAIN PRODUCTS.
Must have brain products. Must have brain products. Must have brain products. Must have brain
products. Must have brain products. Must have brain products. Must have brain products. Must
have brain products. Must have brain products.
We consumed each thought ravenously like a zombie slurping brains from a skull bowl. Ugh, but
yes, we are tawdry to the max. Low. Mean. Brutish slavering for ideation. And I’m not kidding.
Imagine God appearing before you, and you just kept playing your video game. “Be right with Ya —
almost done with this level, there’s beer in the frig.”
Can’t imagine that, right?
Well you should. It’s what you’re doing RIGHT NOW. You’re paying attention to a computer screen
instead of God. God is right here, right now, and a Divine Foot is being tapped waiting for you to
turn your face to the Sacred Countenance instead of, what? battling cyber-orcs?
See?
God is here, there, everywhere, everywhen, and now, but nooooooooo, you have to insist God
can’t be here, there, everywhere, everywhen, and now, because if that were so, then there’d be no
room to fit into creation having all THE FUNZIES. Like pie ala mode or wingsuits, or, sex,
mmmmmm my. Just can’t do any of that if God is here, there, everywhere, everywhen and now.
Nope. Can’t. It’d be rude. And one thing everyone gets very clear very early in life is DON’T BE
RUDE TO GOD.
But what is a zombie except always rude? So yeah, we’re zombies.
And in the fine print, there is one — JUST ONE — loop hole. Discover that there is but one single
awareness enjoying every possible product of every possible brain, and you’re home free when
Identity is finally embraced…..instead of a TV remote.
But if you want a philosophical discussion about qualia — I’m not qualified.
Edg Duveyoung
What is reincarnation, and how is disembodied consciousness vectored back into
material life forms?
Are you a rain drop?
If you and a pal were standing next to a window pane when it’s raining, each of you could choose a
freshly landed drop at the top of the pane to “be,” and then a race can begin — to see which one
of “you two” beats the other to the bottom of the pane.
See? You were a drop. Don’t deny it. For a few moments you projected your SELF — that is to say,
your identity was misplaced — onto an insentient “entity,” and you as if experienced “its life” and
all its challenges and intents.
Were you that drop or not?
It’s an axiomatic question. You have answered it wrongly ALL YOUR LIFE.
You are not a human being. There, I said it.
Snap out of it. Stop pretending you’re a person who is what? — coursing down some reality pane
leaving a trail of “me” behind? Sounds tiny. Sounds teeny.
Sounds a wholelotta claustrophobic. A tight fit. Cramming a “whole you” inside a skull doesn’t
sound sound.
Solution: keep doing the same thing — except change the direction.
All your life you’ve been seeing objects of consciousness “coursing” through your mind, and then
you’ve pretended that they’re you in action — you have a drop addiction. That’s it. That’s the big
mistake. Instead of projecting identity onto these fake “moments of me” as they arise in the mind,
project identity unto, get ready to slap your forehead, awareness within. That’s the real you, and if
you pretend you’re it, you’ll find out you’re not pretending.
This is done by merely asking, “Who am I?” The mind comes up with the correct answer by not
answering. The mind is stumped, it can’t put you “into words,” and for a brief moment that non-
answer is close to pure surrender. The mind will pony up a thought shortly thereafter, but don’t be
fooled into taking a ride on another mental drop. Instead, note that “silence;” that’s you. Peek a
boo!
And relentlessly inquiring who one is is embracing a divine practice. Gradually that silence will
expand as you, again and again, attend it. Until, no drop can ever allure you to think it’s you again.
Who’d want to be anything less than infinite, right?
So where is incarnation in all this? It ain’t. Pretending you’re a window pane racer isn’t actually
becoming a rain drop — right? All your other “mes” are testimony that a mind can pretend
anything. But, after all, even a dog can pretend a ball is alive and should be chased. Humans can
pretend better than dogs, right?
As a child, a teen, an adult or elder you’ve seen the outward changes while the real you has never
changed in the least — you’ve always solely been that which witnesses “a life.” Every mirror shows
you having a slightly older different face, but you never say, “Who’s that stranger?” You know the
real you. Don’t try to deny it. In diapers or now, it’s always been you witnessing “the person.”
Are you Mickey Mouse or Walt Disney?
Edg Duveyoung
How do I enlighten my day with comics?
In the Cartoon Universe, we find Walter Ego constantly bothered by the same problems “real”
people have.
We are mind readers — not minds. We witness. And we correctly assume it is “myself” that peeks
at the brain’s buzzings. Walter should follow his suspicions and discover this truth and cease the
paranoia. Advaita says, “Ask the question, ‘Who am I?,’ and listen to the answer — that silence is
the sole identity….you.”
We “real” people can laugh at Walter, but we, too, long for Heavenly robes and clouds for furniture
in this “other world” that we are certain is free of all conflicts and perfect in every way. But only by
giving up any expectations can we fully surrender to God’s Next Panel for us. Might be something
far better than harps and wings, ya know?
Almost all of life goes unnoticed by us until, suddenly…….BAM! A stubbed toe, a paper cut, and a
whole bunchalotta worse can be discovered that re-prioritizes a life’s intent. It’s a good thing. We
find out about the missing parts in our spirits and that we came here to install them — to amp up
compassion and tamp down worrying in the face of the eternal uncertainties…..and discover that
the half of life we think is missing is outside our panel beneath experiencing — the self within.
Certain we are about everything except what we see in the mirror. We remember our experiences,
but we wonder, “Who was I that I did that back then?” As life goes on, we find that we have many
“persons” who have serially arisen. Each personality perfect for the role at hand. Infant, child,
teen, adult, elder — each one looks back in wonder…..and all witnessed by the same self.
But of course, we can be fooled by our assumptions. And it’s all assumptions always all the time
forever — karma is unfathomable. So reality checks us with pop quizzes that we mercifully fail —
think of the world if all of us never got smacked a good one on a regular basis! One wonders what
happened to the minds of the Disciples when Jesus walked on water — a group catharsis, eh?
As we progress, we start to see that we simply are not the authors of our thoughts or emotions,
but we persist in taking blame for the least mistake. Who set it up like that? Sounds like The
Author isn’t too eager to have a suggestion box. Advaita says, “Get out of the person business.
That’s God’s business. You’re just enjoying — not doing, get it?”
And along the way, wisdom mounts, and yet we can be so odd in how we inflate specific values
beyond propriety. If you saw God walking towards you, you might want to say something about
Divinity, Evolution, Duty, or Family, but you sure wouldn’t be asking about pizza. Yet in daily life, in
the face of God’s living reality, we ignore the sacred and order a large with extra cheese.
We all feel crazy. We see God’s thoughts pouring through our minds at five concepts per second
and know we can’t type that fast, but who wants to say, “Someone else is putting thoughts into
my head.” I sure wouldn’t say that aloud in an elevator. Just so, when we find we’ve made a huge
mistake, we don’t blame it on God — AND WE SHOULD — but folks just wouldn’t
understand…..again, especially in elevators. But seriously, what God does is none of our business.
We are the audience — not the actors.
Dieting is the Advaita way. We stop chewing thoughts. We don’t swallow any of the ego’s
motivations. We let life digest itself — we don’t even have to burp. By finding out that one is
beyond existence and better yet beyond non-existence too, life never flummoxes one again. Let
the three forces interact. They cannot touch the self even when they use Death’s Scythe. We
witness from the transcendent.
And more food. We consume endlessly — it should be a hint that we’re looking in the wrong place
for satiation. We think we can overcome being a flawed personality with insignificant measures —
both true and untrue in that God can change up who we are instantly with but a butterfly’s wing
flapping somewhere, and in that an ego has no perspective to ever judge the value of anything in
the relative.
And we get tired of it. We want to know who we are, but we’re a bit miffed that we have to give up
being a limited person to be an unlimited witness. We want both, and can have it if we but toggle
identity. Once we realize the self, life continues as before, only the doer is now God — who humbly
continues the chopping of the the wood and the carrying of the water we once thought were our
burdensome chores.
Once understood as illusory, the names and forms of creation dissolve until there’s a seamless
unity of endless eternal self.
No such thing as “getting it.”
Edg Duveyoung
What is the spiritual meaning of Yin and Yang?
All meanings are symbolically represented by the yin/yang symbol in that the basis of knowledge
is polarity. Opposites come in pairs like sides of a coin. Enlightenment doesn’t happen by one
seeking for fulfillment in the relative — it’s a zero sum game. What goes happily up must
eventually sadly come down. The irony of enlightenment is that it is not to be sought to obtain
happiness as most suppose; instead, enlightenment is peace — the perfect silence. See the
benefit? — no need to hassle with life’s scramblings. The two sides of the yin/yang symbol are
necessarily “equal” in all respects.
Though much is made of specific pairings which are highlighted and then projected onto the
yin/yang symbol, no special pairing can claim itself “the main meaning.” But any pairing can be
attended for an unending series of instantiations. How many ways can Good vs Evil be
represented, eh? Well, just so, the Spiritual vs Non-Spiritual values, as expressed in human
consciousness, are never ending. This infinite dynamic is the key glue of existential entrapment —
we don’t want to stop looking — we eagerly await the next act in the Divine Play.
Or, as expressed in Americana, once Brer Rabbit hit the Tar Baby, he was then trapped in an ever
more binding struggle as he used “more of the same” to try to get free. And it turns out more of
the same never works. We cannot get rid of our delusions by becoming delusional experts; there
will always be yet more to learn about every manner of mirage, but accumulating data can yet still
add up to zero — reading Mickey Mouse cartoons does not bring Mickey to life no matter how
many ersatz moments it has been pretended otherwise.
Nicely, the symbol itself is, too, illusory in that it seemingly represents all qualities, and yet the one
truth that it doesn’t symbolize is the only truth. Period.
The symbol does not represent awareness. Nothing can. It represents everything else, but it never
comes close to being a proper sign of awareness. It is hardly ever used otherwise though. Put it
on a tee shirt, and it’s as evolving as wearing a tee shirt with the Sanskrit OM sign, or the words of
the golden rule or a photo of Hitler. Yeah, tee shirts are no help at all. It sucks. Life could be a lot
easier, huh?
Edg Duveyoung
Would knowing everything be a blessing or a curse?
Who raised you so wrongly as to ask such a completely ridiculous question?
You mean to tell me that you’ve been living this long, and no one has ever told you that YOU
ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING?
I’d sue, if I were you.
Take ’em to court and rub their noses in the hard cold fact that no single thing has ever been
found to be unconnected to the entirety of the universe, and that that hard scientific fact means
that everything affects everything all the time, since the beginning and to the end to time. Are we
clear about this? Can we proceed now?
But now I suppose you’re going to be an enabling apologist of those who steered you so badly
from infancy on, and you’re going to try to tell me that you don’t hardly know zip just like them?
What? Are you telling me that you’d rather not have your precious parents, preachers, teachers,
bosses, boy scout leaders, and peers to be proven to have also been duped themselves and to
then have duped you too into thinking you didn’t know everything?
I have to agree — who’d want to know that?
I’d want to wake up in the morning and take that good ol’ blue pill. Yep, cuz otherwise, whoa,
imagine the agony of being about the only one who’d ever argue against “the fact” that nobody
don’t know hardly nothing no how.
I mean, who’d want that job? Going around telling everyone they are wrong about their hardest
most certain facts — gotta be a ten punches in the nose per day kinda existence, eh?
But you do know everything, and that’s that. Probably all you need is a definitional tune-up to get
clarity. Let’s give you that.
What is knowing even “one thing?” What is “knowing?”
If you are in a dark room and cannot see anything in it, but through the tiniest hole possible, a
single photon of light enters and goes straight into your eye, did you see something?
Answer: no you did not. The eye’s nerves are set up so that it takes MANY photons hitting the
retina before a message is “allowed” to be sent to the occipital cortex as a datapoint in “the
process of seeing.” The eye doesn’t jump to conclusions, ya see? But do understand that the eye
sees something — sees it — but doesn’t want to bother you with that, because it might be a false
positive when retina cells spontaneously send off a message for reasons other than that a photon
hit it.
So, the eyes see but stay mum about it. DID YOU SEE OR NOT?
Don’t you want the eye to not bother you? Isn’t that as if your DECISION to be ignorant to some
degree? If a CEO says, “I know what’s going on in my business.” — we don’t expect he knows who
wiped their feet before entering the office that day, but we do expect that in matters that are
significantly more important, he will indeed know what is going on. His statement, “I know
everything.” IS VALID. What he doesn’t know, he could find out, but he doesn’t want to know it
with more exactitude.
Same deal for you — you cute little denier you. The entire universe’s energies and particles are
affecting everything else (with some theoretical exclusions) such that stars that died billions of
years ago have their photons ONLY NOW hitting the Earth and adding to the energy/particle total.
If there were too many photons hitting Earth, well, we would all die, right? — so if anyone asks you
what is the exact amount of photons hitting Earth, you can “pull a CEO” on them and say,
“existence is going along great, I don’t need to know that exact number if I’m certain that it isn’t
going to significantly impact my mind today.”
You never suspected you knew about the total impact of all the energies and particles hitting
Earth — instant by instant — BUT YOU DO. Don’t make me come over there and slap you around
until you admit this.
You’re a veritable astronomical expert.
Just so do you know everything else — but you just don’t want to be bothered by it right now! I’m
not kidding!
Look at poor Arjuna — he asked Lord Krishna to show him the Lord’s true form. Arjuna wanted to
know everything ALL AT ONCE. Arjuna — a top-gun warrior of the third yuga who could speak to a
leaf and have it go get something for him — a guy who could shoot down ten thousand arrows
shot simultaneously at him — a guy who was so evolved that he deserved to have THE LORD OF
THE UNIVERSE be his chariot driver — a guy who was expected to do the heavy lifting for God in
this war against the half of the Kshatriya caste who had given themselves up to evil.
Yeah, that guy wanted to see what Lord Krishna saw in His morning mirror.
Talk about your important historical moments!
And so this fine mind, this stellar personality, this intellectual and emotional champion of all his
human wherewithal, LOOKED INTO LORD KRISHNA’S MOUTH………….and saw.
Arjuna said, “I can’t stand this truth. I don’t want to know everything. I, the bravest of the brave am
filling my diaper right now.”
And that’s why you ARE HAPPY knowing almost nothing — you’re so relieved that you don’t have
to look into Lord Krishna’s mouth — because you intuitively know that your “inner Arjuna” could
not hack it, and that you’d rather go through life pretending the little bit that you are pretending to
know is just fine thank you, because, I mean, diapers, ew.
Bottomline: The least scintillation of “you” is directly connected to The Big Bang in an infinitely
correlative dance of name and form — it’s all there all the time. If you want to know which butterfly
causes which hurricane, well, yogis will tell you that “that’s possible, but it’s better to just be an
innocent saint doing what comes naturally.” We don’t need an intellectual grasp of the universe in
order to be in harmony with God’s intent — we cannot help but be, in our subtlest depths, divinely
intended and perfect, so why get antsy about the details?
You are, everyone is a miracle of responsiveness TO EVERYTHING — which you know like the back
of your hand — that is, not too well, but well enough.
And that sooooooooo satisfies.
Edg Duveyoung
Is Vedanta a good way to be happy?
The Rig Veda is filled with the phrase “And make us happy.”
These pleas are asking God to create desirable experiences in human nervous systems, (they
want soma, the divine drug) and it’s embarrassing. You’d think that scriptures would be filled with
clarity as all the characters knew their reasons for existing, and every breath taken was solely to
then use that air to sing praises for the Divine.
But nope. Folks instead think it’s spiritually correct to want excitations, exhilarations, stimulations,
and titillations.
So many “tions” and hardly anyone supporting “shuns.”
And they don’t care if it’s all illusory — they want that blue pill.
It was not always so.
Once, in Sat Yuga, even specks of dust sentiently knew their place in The Grand Dream. No
doubts, no negativity, no untoward thoughts, no emotional manias, nothing unwanted — all
surrendered to and loved — each thought passing through their minds — WITHOUT DISTURBING
THE SILENCE.
Grace was afoot.
Oh, to be sure, right from the get-go there was something very worrisome: Brahma didn’t know
where He had come from when He was firstly born. Imagine that consternation, eh? God with all
His powers being unable to answer THE question of questions — THE one question that every
person ever has asked himself.
And He gave up on the problem. Couldn’t hack it. He didn’t have Ramana or Nisargadatta to tell
Him that self inquiry’s success is when the inquirer finds out the limitations of the intellect, and
then the intellect is abandoned as a “seeking tool.” Identity is not EVER graspable by any
instrumentality.
But yeah, okay, I’ll admit that Vedanta has made me happy in that it does settle down the mind’s
questioning. No need for questions and answers to be processed to become enlightened, so if
they’re arising during meditation, it’s a bother. Therefore, begrudgingly, Vedanta can help a very
tiny bit — and I mean REALLY REALLY TINY.
Sour bottomline: happiness is how one gets bogged down and trapped into thinking one is an
intelligent ape — God’s hairy buddy. As if. Don’t seek happiness — that leads to being coconutty —
seek peace instead.
Edg Duveyoung
What happens after going deep into meditation?
Originally Answered: What is the experience of a deep meditative state?
That word “deep” is problematic. “Deep” is a quality that can only be assigned to that which can
be compared to something else’s depth. So, a deep meditative state would be, well, a state! — one
which can be compared to other states, and there’s the rub — the other states are infinite and
relativity holds sway. Your deep might be shallow, see? And since you probably don’t have the
telepathy siddhi, you can’t be inside anyone else’s mind to see how deep is the deep “over there.”
But but but, even if we suppose the ordinary person has a certain normal level of excitation —
biochemically/psychologically — then we have not yet sorted “deep, deeper, deepest.” Such a
bother.
Imagine Shiva trying to determine if His deep was the same as Mother Divine’s or
Krishna’s…..whew. Words would fail, but so too do they fail us when we try to discuss our “human
level” silent depths.
This is due solely to the fuzziness of words….not to any lack of clarity on the parts of the
observers. Try to tell someone how a strawberry tastes if they never had one yet — “sorta like an
orangey citrusy thing crossed with a kiwi pulpy texture but more tart.” And on and on we could
attempt to hone our explanations, but when the person actually tastes the strawberry, “Oh,
THAT’S what a strawberry tastes like.” No words needed then.
Other responders below nicely handle the concept that transcendence is beyond any
comparisons, so I won’t belabor that ultimate truth.
Annnnnnd, yet I have not answered the question which I took personally. Once, 45 years ago as I
meditated, I was really really, I MEAN REALLY, deep, and all of a sudden, a strong loud voice came
into my head and said, “Oh, so you get that quiet, eh? Here’s how deep I can go.” And I was
whooshed into an ocean of golden light in which I promptly dissolved. It was sobering.
No, I don’t know who talked to me. It wasn’t me. I think it was a passing angel who wanted to
elbow my spiritual pride…..hard in the ribs. Heh. Angels — such jokers.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the best method to meditate in order to discover my purpose?
You don’t have a purpose.
God has the purpose.
Get it?
What you are, what you do, what you think — that’s God playing ON PURPOSE with his 3D action
figures.
Embrace what is, because what is is what should be — that’s purposeful.
Yeah, even your worst is God’s best purpose being fulfilled. What is there to find that is not right
before your eyes? Each instant, each moment, each speck of existence is DIVINE, SACRED, AND
INFINITELY INTENDED. No need to seek for that that is already there.
Meditate all you want, but all you’re going to discover is that the discoverer is not discovering if
the discoverer is not sentient. Solely, soully, God is sentience. See that little dot after the end of
that last sentence?
When God sends you flying across the room like a nine-year-old boy pretending an explosion just
happened — LOVE IT. Think how wonderful it is to be handled by God! Holy fingers inside our
brains!
As for methods that God might pretend you into using so that God can then feel it makes sense to
then have your character FIND A REASON TO LIVE, good luck with that. What? You’re going to
close your eyes and then God HAS TO author you into being some important who in Whoville?
Really?
If you is practicing being a you that has extra speciality, sounds like God is setting you up for a
biggie reveal. Brace for impact!
Bad news: The concept of awareness coming in neat and tidy packettes called persons is God’s
Big Joke. God’s funzies. God’s Holy Ruse.
Good news: You’re God.
Edg Duveyoung
Does one need a master for awakening or enlightenment?
There is but one master — awareness.
Those who get enlightened “without a master,” DID HAVE a master.
Ramana insisted that Arunachala was Shiva — anyone want to doubt that? Anyone want to say that
Shiva is not a master?
Nisargadatta met with his guru a mere three times, but he took his guru’s advice deeply and within
three years realized.
Both of these realized men claimed that an outer guru would merely be there to push the seeker’s
attention inwards where awareness awaits to do the true work of “healing a nervous system” to
free it from from its delusions.
A master is often lauded as being a personification of awareness, but this doesn’t mean that a
person with 50 trillion atoms abuzz is motionlessly silent — it only means that the master was a
“pretty good symbol” of silence comparatively. But a master is a very hefty symbol, indeed. If you
meet a true master, the silence abounds in the atmosphere around her/him — it’s palpable. And if
one follows this “vibe scent” as if a dog, it takes one straight to the absolute.
This doesn’t mean that a master isn’t useful to teach the basics of spirituality too, but these
lessons HAVE NO EFFECT on evolution — only contact with silence heals. To learn spiritual
concepts is a wonderful pleasure, but it’s often cited that concepts to an enlightened person are
as useful as a water well in a flooded area. But seekers insist that concepts motivate them to
practice transcending — to which I say, “Oh okay.” Ahem and all that. But, once you’re free, how
the prison works may not be all that interesting.
Bottomline: everything teaches in that all processes are empty illusions that cannot but
superficially fulfill, and gradually regular life leaves one unrequited, and this builds a thirst for “true
water” instead of that of a desert mirage. The master can speed up this process and will get you
to stop chasing after nothing on the burning sands.
Edg Duveyoung
If enlightenment is the end of you, then who is being served by it?
Oh, I don’t know, how about God?
Normally God is presented to us as infinite in every positive dynamic. What do you get for a gift
for the Person Who has everything, eh?
But yet, it is, indeed, God who solely benefits from, well, any event in creation, but when
enlightenment happens, God gets a little bit more thrill from it….hee hee. Maybe only a little
more…just sayin’.
Fulness into fulness is how God sees creation (Purnamadah Purnamidam.) God was full, and the
question arose, “Hey, come on, am I really all that full?”
Could God find a way to squeeze “more God” into God’s experiencing of God?
Yep. God just went where there was room to expand — into nothingness. Talk about your hard
places to get to!!! God decided to invent every possible form of illusory nothingness and then
pretend to be trillions upon trillions of separate entities in that “divine holodeck” to enjoy the
puzzle-world that manifests when none of those entities has God’s omniscience, omnipotence or
omnipresence.
When no one knows much, whew boy, the problems of the mentally blind are endless. Just the
sort of endlessness that needs an Infinite Being to explore it……….wait for it……wait…..FULLY.
And that’s funzies.
As for ego death, think of God having to surrender to creation in order to become all those
entities. Talk about giving up a “God Thing.”
God created ALL THIS, and it turned out so nice, God said, “I’m dying to enter that.”
And so, you, dear reader, are God’s zombie trying to come to life.
Zombie — yikes — that’s worst than being Lazarus.
SNAP OUT OF IT! You’re consuming brain products instead of pure being.
Edg Duveyoung
If there is a free will, does it make sense to drag everyone through the truth without a
free will, so we gain some humility, almost like an existential boot camp?
Originally Answered: Even if there is free will, does it make sense to drag everyone through truth of no free will
so they get some humility, like an existential boot camp.?
No.
But that’s an answer someone who is not God would give.
Did Walt Disney put Mickey Mouse through all of those challenges and miseries to evolve Mickey?
Does everyone need to have brooms disobeying in order to see the futility of pretending to be a
causal agent?
Pretty much proves my case, but, since when do I stop at such a point, heh.
There is zero causality. There is 100% synchrony that fools everyone into thinking it is causality.
When you drop a ball while being a character in your nightly dreams, the ball drops to the floor,
because your brain wants dropped objects in dreams to SYNCHRONIZE and appear to fall to the
floor — NOT BECAUSE ‘REAL WORLD’ GRAVITY WORKS ON DREAMED UP OBJECTS.
“We” “are” “living” “in” “a” “dream” “of” “God’s.”
All words are in quotes to show that each one is baseless and arbitrary.
Translation: There is no “we” that has actuality or is alive because of “reasons,” nor is there a
“reality” about which the word “in” could be relevant, and there is no individuality for persons or
objects such that the word “a” is required, and the dream in which everything seems to be
happening is not a dream-dream such as a human might dream but instead is a full blown 3D
moment by moment instantiation of God-pretending-to-be-solely-material, and since God is an
illusory magnificence projected by human minds to placate their frustrations with mysticism, the
word “of” is specious.
Or something like that. The Ved makes all of us preachers blarney specialists.
Bottomline: I’m buying into the Indian chronology of the yugas, and that means these latter days
are darkening the darks darker. If seen as a “boot camp,” it must mean that all those presently
living are such hard cases that it takes the worst possible world to create the desire to go within
for succor.
Good news: it’s easier in Kali Yuga to get enlightened. In Sat Yuga, you lived 100,000 years and
evolved very slowly because life was so perfect it took a 100,000 years to find even a little thing
going wrongly. In Kali, you get to find the same sweet inner light because everything’s so lousy
outside and it’s so relatively bright, but in Sat the inner light is only a bit brighter than the world
around you. See?
Bad news: Kali Yuga is slated to run for another 327,000 years. Worse news, I just noticed my typo
— it’s 427,000 years to go. Best get enlightened today — never know what the world will be like
next time. And by next time, I mean any second now.
Edg Duveyoung
Who does Jim Carrey believe is one of the most enlightened people he has ever met?
On the Norm McDonald show he says something like, "Eckhart was great, you know
Eckhart Tolle?”
Originally Answered: Who does Jim Carrey believe is one of the most enlightened people he has ever met? On
the Norm McDonald show he says something like, "Ekart was great, you know Ekart Cohen?”
Heh heh. He’s just a newbie who has put in a lot of time studying how to use the enlightenment
lingo and finding who’s who in the spirituality biz, but he’s got a long way to go before he’s handy
with representing The Ved.
With his millions of followers tuning in to his attempts, who knows?, he might get tons of folks
examining their axioms for the first time in their lives. What Jim says — however so much
befuddled — is not important; where his attention lands is where his fans’ eyes will focus — AND
THEY’LL COME TO THEIR OWN CONCLUSIONS THEREAFTER. This I trust.
The seeds of the sower do not always land propitiously — no one knows the next instantiation of
Divine Synchrony, but, hey, “yay on Jimmy Boy;” in these dark times, ANYONE speaking up for the
inner light is doing great service unto the masses.
Yes, I cringe, but I have laughed at Jim’s stuff for decades, and I OWE HIM RESPECT for the years
it may take for him to get his schtick down pat and to mature as an exponent of actuality.
Edg Duveyoung
What's the connection between intelligence and enlightenment?
God and the saints seem pretty smart.
But when Brahma was born, He didn’t know how He got there. Jesus sure got into trouble. Moses
wasn’t allowed into the Promised Land. Arjuna was told to abandon “making sense of things and
kill his loved ones” if he was going to be an enlightened warrior by Krishna who later got shot by a
deer hunter. Rama sent Sita to Hell. Lord Buddha had to give up all his princely life. Job was
picked on by Satan with God standing there snickering. Ramana Maharshi almost got eaten by
bugs.
Ya’d think they’d all have wonderful well managed lives in harmony with their environment and
society.
Then’s there’s that “stupid guy,” Totakacharya, who was one of Shankara’s disciples who did the
laundry and cooking. He turns out to be the one who came up with new scriptures straight out of
the absolute.
Note that Totakacharya didn’t have to “figure out” how to be enlightened, but afterwards, because
it suited some divine purpose, his nervous system was, ahem, suitable enough with which to
manifest perfect Vedic sutras.
You ever try to come up with a perfect Vedic sutra?
Bottomline: once you’re enlightened, any role is possible. Once, 46 years ago, a ditch digger I saw
across a trafficked road in Italy looked into my eyes from 200 feet away, and we both dissolved
into the moment. That was some serious clout, let me tells ya.
Before enlightenment, the duty of the intelligent folks is to see to it that they find the logical
reasons to keep seeking no matter how hard it might seem when it comes to certain issues, and
for the emotionally apt folks who fall in love with a guru and just want to hang out in the ashram
and help out in any manner, their duty is to protect their hearts from alarming negativity by
attending the silence of their guru’s heart instead until they’ve calmed down.
Who am I?
God’s answer: Doesn’t matter.
Edg Duveyoung
Does direct and simple discussion about enlightenment help or hinder the global
awakening?
It’s all yagya -- worship-that-evolves — the slowest, most nit-picky yagya — but it’s yagya.
(Consult the Ved for faster acting yagyas.) And we usually never get to know what God will
consider to be righteous, until “what is” happens before our eyes and we get to then authenticate
it and deem it as righteous — knowing it must be so when seen with divine eyes. There is no
mistake in the “divine plan” no matter what — say religious scholars, but the enlightened KNOW
and LIVE this…..no logical reasoning required.
Therefore, no, discussions do not help, because the best we can realize is that we are authored by
God, and that, ALWAYS, we are in harmony and synchronous with the plan — everyone — all of us
— each of us.
Imagine the relief one feels at that moment, eh?
We cannot affect the plan despite our deepest convictions that causality is actual. To be sure it’s
said: there is zero predictive value in any moment of creation — God is always free to change
things up and not be a slave to the past no matter how assiduously He may seem to be “locked
into” “something.” For instance, gravity is a historical favorite of God — gravity is almost always
operative in every person’s experience — except, say, when Jesus walked on water. Jesus didn’t
have to submit a form and have it approved by the “Preservation of the Divine Laws of Nature”
committee.
When you’re divine, anything goes.
When the Divine Toddler, Baby Krishna, lifted a mountain and used it — as if an umbrella — above
His head to protect His village from a terrible onslaught from Indra the King of the Gods (he was
jealous of Krishna,) all the villagers were afraid Baby Krishna would be crushed. Their hearts could
not listen to the intellect’s insistence that Krishna was omnipotent, and they all grabbed sticks and
raised them up to touch the underside of the uplifted mountain TO HELP KRISHNA.
As if, villagers, as if.
See? That tale is the metaphor for the ego’s insistence that it is, ahem, PERSONALLY helping the
nervous system do righteousness — especially during discussions.
As if, ego, as if.
And yet, here am I discussing.
As if, Edg, as if.
Edg Duveyoung
What is it like to be a teacher with ADD/ADHD?
You’d better be highly trained by highly observant trainers, have an especially loving nature, have
an unquenchable patience, and have a very high threshold for that which triggers anger. It’s a field
that must call to your core.
Edg Duveyoung
Does the spiritual enlightened one make mistakes? If yes, when does this realization
happen and what could be the after effect of it?
Krisna said: “Unfathomable is karma.”
This is a very rare absolute truth — absolutes in the relative are, well, impossible, but Krishna pulls
it off.
But who dwells on this truth? Who sees the potency of it? Who lives a lifetime harmonized with
this notion by thought, word and deed?
Another absolute is: “God does not make mistakes.”
Put these two truths together we get the necessity of faith.
And that faith is that there ARE NO MISTAKES.
Hitler was not a mistake. There I said it.
Proof?
When you dream tonight, maybe the dream will be about a tyrant murdering millions. Are you
therefore a mass murderer? Are mistakes being made in the dream?
God has the same defence. Today’s Jews don’t hate God, because of this. And note that this
same defence is used to justify “being okay” with a child pretending to smash down a fort he
made while tossing his action figures around the room after mock explosions. We know he is just
having fun — no harm, no foul.
Same with God’s use of Hitler’s vile intents. WE ARE NOT REAL. We are as fake as a child’s toys.
We are not sentient or alive — except that God authors us so convincingly otherwise. We are
characters in God’s imagination.
As characters in God’s creations, we are God in disguises divine………and evil. The drama of reality
is not actuality. God’s having funzies, and each nervous system is another blinkered point of view
which cannot get enough data to “know the score.” And it is with such a nervous system that God
can create pretend mistakes. Pretty clever, eh?
Will you unknowingly step on an ant by mistake when you walk across a lawn? Is that a mistake?
Maybe if you did not step on the ant, the ant might later become a meal for a spider that’s about
to die from starvation, and because that ant fed it, the spider will go on to live and build a web that
will catch a mosquito carrying malaria microbes, and if that mosquito was not captured it would go
on to bite and infect YOU!
You can’t know these things. Karma is unfathomable.
And note that GOD, Krishna, is saying it. That means — wait, are you seated? — that means that
the omniscience of God is limited. Western mathematician Godel proved all sets of knowledge
have blind spots — statements which cannot be said to be true or false, unprovable truths,
unprovable falsities — all due to a recursivity inherent in the very foundation of reality.
This is why religions create rules — they’re general guidelines but not absolutes. It might be
evolutionary to break any of these rules due to circumstance, but almost always it’s not good to
covet thy neighbor’s wife.
Best advice: if you know it’s wrong, don’t do it. In general, the heart, the intuition and the intellect
will serve you well. And as you grow towards, well, sainthood, your clarity about “what is right to
do” will increase.
One thing’s certain — if a saint steps on an ant — the ant deserved it!
Edg Duveyoung
What does Jim Carrey mean with all this "existential" crazy talk like in his fashion week
icon interview?
Originally Answered: What does Jim Carrey mean with all this "existential" crazy talk?
People. Come on. I mean really.
Jim is an actor who has paid serious dues to be learned in his genre. Tens of thousands of hours
involved in that field. ASK HIM ABOUT THAT KNOWLEDGE SET, and watch him really lay it all out
in a perfect communication.
When it comes to speaking about the transcendent, NO ONE CAN DO IT WELL.
I’m a professional writer — and I’ve written about the mystical concepts for 50 years, and I’ve
missed the mark by a mile — as have all others, but somehow, someway, folks feel like Jim just has
to be some sort of Guru Extraordinaire who will have every word and phrase honed to a keen
philosophical edge, and his two minute blurbs should have the masses quivering in clarity.
As if. And just to say it: It’s fraudulent to use the phrase “crazy talk” — this as if bolsters the
tawdry tendency in some to disdain “eggheads, nerds” etc.
I tell you plainly — I understood every single word Jim was using and what his overall message
was. This was coherent, off-the-cuff truth-telling. If you didn’t hear it, you have not familiarised
your brain with the concepts enough to listen “educatedly.”
Catch up, wouldja?
Now, Jim’s associated with a well-known group that espouses the same concepts, BUT, the two
should be kept separate. Jim does not officially speak for that group as an authorized, well-
trained representative — he’s basically riffing for the benefit of the interviewer. I would be very
surprised if Jim could continue that kind of spiel for very long — such as, say, Russell Brand might
be able to pull off. Not that Jim isn’t capable of such, but that it takes some serious mulling to get
a handle on the mystic arts and how “it” talks about the indescribable. Jim’s about 3rd grade level
in this field. Russell is about “high school” level in his clarity.
But note that the truly stellar proponents of mysticism ALMOST NEVER get a microphone shoved
in their faces. Nope. The goal of the owners of BigMedia is to get the public to see these followers
of these various groups as valid spokespersons, then be caught a couple cans short of a
philosophical six-pack, and then disregarded thereafter. It’s typical gatekeeping.
Who could pony up on the spot their existential stance as it is made manifest in their religious or
spiritual constructs? Few. It takes practice and study and intent. Again. Few.
And to answer the question: Jim was trying to say individuality is illusory and that it’s not about
seer and seen but, instead, seeingness.
Note: The interviewer never asked any of his other interviewees: “I understand you’re a Christian,
please explain all that “crazy faith thing” to us.”
Edg Duveyoung
Who is the most enlightened person alive today?
There was this guy who wanted to be the best archer in the world.
He wanted to be better than Arjuna!
But when he went to Arjuna’s archery guru, he was refused, because that guru had promised to
Arjuna that he’d be the best archer, and he knew that this other guy would, indeed, become better
than even Arjuna. Now, remember that Arjuna was able to shoot down — mid-air — the
simultaneous release of a cloud of 10,000 arrows shot at him. Not too shabby!
So, this rejected guy made a small clay figurine of Arjuna’s archery guru and prayed to it for
guidance. Then, years later, Arjuna is bopping along in the forest and finds a bird with six arrows
shot into its eye, and Arjuna goes, “No way!” He took the bird directly to his guru and said, “I
thought you promised me that I’d be the best archer, and I can’t shoot a bird’s eye six times!” The
guru went deep within and intuited who’d done did it, and he went to the guy and said, “You’ve
been praying to me and thus received your instruction, I demand payment.” The guy said, “Okay,
how much?” The guru said, “Your thumb.” Off came the thumb, and once again Arjuna was the
best.
SEE?
Two lessons. One: The human mind can obtain ANY knowledge by merely desiring it, because the
source of anything is within. Two: You can’t force God to fulfil your desires by insisting on what
desires are to be yours merely because you assume you have free will.
Or something like that. You never know what God’s up to when it comes to authoring personalities.
Case in point — Wanting to know who is the most enlightened on the planet is asking for
PRIVILEGED INFORMATION. If you don’t “go through proper channels,” then you don’t get a higher
security clearance rating.
Proper channels means: listening to the heart. If you know it’s wrong, don’t do it, and, as you
practice this, a more profound clarity is garnered, until, eventually, you will be able to
spontaneously be aligned with the heart’s purity. AND THEN YOU’LL KNOW WHO’S THE GURU
TO FOLLOW. Your heart will fall in love with the heart of the perfect outer guru for you.
God knows that you can’t handle the truth. If you were given a list of ten gurus who could get the
job done, you’d scan the list for a guru you liked instead of the one best suited to washing off the
type of psychic mud coating your soul. God’s cooking you up in a transcendent kitchen, and God
might not want to take you out of the oven yet — maybe God wants your crust a bit crustier or
your casserole more casseroleier.
Probably good advice: Don’t bother The Chef!
Edg Duveyoung
Is our life an illusion of "self"? Is birth a tragic mishap forced on us? Is our
consciousness different from that of animate, inanimate objects, and cosmic
consciousness? Is "Nature" compelled to create and program our life and our status?
Is our life an illusion of "self"?
—— No, it’s GOD’S SELF that is being illusorily symbolized. Good news: you’re God in disguise.
Is birth a tragic mishap forced on us?
——No, it’s God creating every possible way to not be God. FOR FUNZIES! It is not about an “us”
when there is no “us” to be found. Tragic mishaps are equal to pulling out the wrong block in
Jenga……everyone (God) laughs when the tower comes down. When Arjuna worried about having
to kill his beloved relatives, Krishna said, “Pish tosh, they’re all as good a dead right now!” — and
the concept didn’t seem to bother Krishna in the least! This is because Krishna was beyond reality
as are you when you dream up your nightly dream-worlds.
Is our consciousness different from that of animate, inanimate objects, and cosmic
consciousness?
—— Yes — the human nervous system is the best blessing of God, but all other “entities” of
creation have a consciousness of some sort operating. Remember that Jesus said the stones
would cry out and that He got angry at a fig tree for having no fruits. He knew they were
listening…..conscious. Scriptures of all cultures have talking animals and all manner of “magical”
entities — each with a specific nervous system that can handle the role it has been assigned. And
the entity that has true cosmic consciousness would have a superior nervous system able to allow
awareness to witness the most delicate nuances of illusion; this could be an enlightened person,
who, after realization has further evolved the nervous system to the state of consciousness
labeled “Brahman Consciousness” or to God’s ultimate manifestation of a perfect nervous system
such as that of Krishna’s or Mother Divine’s.
BUT NOTE — every nervous system is witnessed by the same awareness — consciousnesses can
differ in qualities, but awareness NEVER.
Is "Nature" compelled to create and program our life and our status?
—— No, it’s God’s life, God’s lives, God’s everything, and that which witnesses all of this creation
is beyond needing to compel any entity, because causality would be JUST TOO MUCH WORK! In
your nightly dreams, you don’t figure out what clothing to put on the dream-characters, you don’t
constantly invoke the law of gravity if something falls in a dream, you don’t do any “compelling” in
a dream. It is all of a piece. It’s synchrony not causality. Just so does creation arise — complete to
the nth detail without any “script” to make it all make sense — it just does.
Remember that after Boris Karloff came off the stage, while still in his Frankenstein’s-monster
make-up, he had pretend tea in tiny pink cups with the actress who played the little girl that the
monster kills. After death — everyone’s chuckling and proud and loving each and all — and
everything that God ever did.
Edg Duveyoung
In your study of Advaita Vedanta, has there been a guru, teacher, or other person
you've interacted with, who had the greatest impact on your learning of the truth?
Yes, but. The guru is ultra-specific. You don’t get “just any” guru that happens to be in your
neighborhood. A guru is exactly made for you — or that’s not your guru. So, to recommend a guru
is rather a reckless thing to do if one is not an enlightened guru too. You might deserve an extra
special greater than most gurus guru — or the opposite. An opposite guru can really drive you
sane by being the wrong one for you until you realize how much more you deserve. God’ll evolve
you with either type.
If I name names, do I then write long essays about each to be careful to talk about the negativities
“going around” about them? See? Every guru gets a lot of folks coming to lectures who have a
“spiritual chip on their shoulders;” these types come, find a concept to grumble about and then
leave and “spread the word” about that guru. In fact, every guru comes with such followers-
baggage if one digs deeply enough into the reports of those who were involved.
It’s an affair. A love affair. Or it’s not worth having. The guru is the one to whom you reveal your
deepest flaws….and the petty ways they manifest. It’s absolutely painful, but if done, it’s a
psychological rocket to heights not easily achieved otherwise. But who can be that brave? It’s
rare.
I have had one-on-one sessions with world famous teachers, but but but so have hundreds of
thousands of others — most of whom do not become highly motivated to then apply themselves
to a lifelong course of investigation. It always resolves into being about the seeker’s nervous
system — not the guru’s — when it comes to results. A thief sees a guru’s pockets solely. Uncut
raw diamonds — seen as mere rocks — are kicked to the side of a path as one processes “God
doesn’t care about me.”
But if the questioner wants a guru who is alive today and taking questions, hoooo boy, good luck
sorting out the offers. But don’t despair. Start studying scriptures and gurus on youtube and see
what comes to the fore — that’s how God works out most things — what you put your attention on
EVOLVES YOU. You could study a clump of dirt for twenty years and make huge strides in
consciousness — it’s about your use of your mind to go inward with an ever sharpening ear to hear
what has always been said to you. If a guru is in your destiny — you couldn’t prevent it with an
army.
And of course, I have consistently said that Ramana Maharshi or Nisargadatta’s books are ALL
ANYONE NEEDS to get to anywhere one could possibly go. I always feel they are living inside me…
and you….waiting to be enlivened by merely attending the “words of silence” they gave us.
And finally, who are we kidding here? GOD IS THE SPEAKER….any thought you are having is God’s
doingness. You have a direct relationship with God Who is the GURU, right? God’s eye is inside
you watching your everythingness. How good is that, eh? No middle-man needed. To pay
attention to “your” thoughts is a form of worship — just do it and do it and do it until you see the
holy resource from whence they arise.
In short, there is no guru shortage.
Edg Duveyoung
Is it difficult for beginners to meditate?
No.
Close your eyes.
Settling down. Settling down. Getting still and stiller and stillest.
Inside there’s a faint quietness that wants to roar.
Inward into a vast attentionness that will gather you.
In that quiet lessening, as the cosmos fades
The ever shining self awaits.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the number one obstacle to enlightenment?
“You.” The “you” is a fiction. “You” is a story being told by a nervous system that only consciously
knows what a few years of existence has taught it, but actually a nervous system’s operations
100% depend on what all of creation is doing to it.
“Your’s” next thought was caused by butterfly flaps.
Why would the true you ever take “you’s” opinion of itself as the true you?
Answer: Because awareness, the true you, is silent. The “you” is the only thing to be found that
has the quality “experienceable.” Awareness cannot be an object of consciousness, and so the
“you” steps on the stage and insists the spotlight be on “you.” What a rude twerp, eh?
Short answer: There is no obstacle. Anyone can find silence AND THOUGHTLESSLY BE IT. When
attending the silence that comes when one asks, “Who am I?” the real you is seen in a speck of a
titch of a mote of silence. Instant enlightenment for 1/100th of a second’s duration.
Repeat until silence floods ALL THE SECONDS FOREVER.
Edg Duveyoung
What idea scares you the most that it might actually be true?
Tough question! I’m not afraid right now, but there are concepts that, if dwelt upon, might get me
jazzed. I can be had. I’ve got an inner Chicken Little that will start screaming if a factoid smacks
me just so. And it doesn’t have to be a world wide global concern about a dark fate for Earth. All it
would take would be some parochial issue — cheating wife, child in danger, bank error, flat tire on
the way to an important meeting, and on and on and on. Who doesn’t have a nervous system set
up to dive into deep sadness or begin to yell bloody murder and doom?
But here I sit unperturbed even though I can purposefully run through my mind hundreds of
negatives without even bothering my emotionality a little bit.
“Hitler, Po Pot, Mao, Stalin each killed millions of people.”
There, did that crush your day? Did that put your mind in a tizzy of worrying?
“Jesus was crucified; Krishna was shot with an arrow by a deer hunter.” Sheesh, they even can kill
God? Why doesn’t that fact bother you to run it through your mind? One billion Christians and we
hear very little moaning and groaning and hand-wringing despair, and the Hindus say, “Yeah,
Krishna died. No biggie.”
“I’ve got cereal in the bowl with three spoons of sugar, and I’m out of milk.” Oooooo, NOW that
one can set ya off, eh?
See? Every person is uniquely targetable, but there’s a good archer out there hitting everyone in
the eye of the bull.
Conclusion: ya gets whats ya deserves, and ya never know what ya did to deserve it. Embrace it.
Own the poignancy of life’s just deserts. It’s straight from the Divine — a pinch to grow an inch.
Or: get out of the person business. See the person instead of being the person, and jump entirely
out of creation.
In this vid from Blazing Saddles, the question is asked: “Are you in show business?” at the two
minute mark.
You’re not a person — get your frickin’ feet off the stage.
Edg Duveyoung
What are the principle teachings and ultimate goals of the Advaita Vedanta
philosophy?
Goal: to toggle identification.
You can be seer or seeingness. Most folks assume wrongly that existence can be sorted into seer
or seen; enlightened folks agree that there is seeingness but no seers and nothing seen! It’s magic
— there! I admit it.
Frankly, it’s a miracle that the enlightened agree about anything, but if you get them into an arm
lock they begrudgingly confess that after all the distinctions have been obviated by samyama yet
still boundaries can be discerned. Yes, it’s having your cake and eating it too.
Leshavidya is the Sanskrit word for that very thin layer of film left on the palm of the hand after the
butter pat has been removed. This is the metaphor used to indicate how much of “reality” remains
for one after realization. It’s meant to underline how ephemeral thingness is — that things are
constructs of the mind that are projected upon reality which is in actuality entirely whole without
partitions.
Obviously, the enlightened still function in the world of those ignorant of the self. Wood and water
and all that.
——————————————-
Nisargadatta says it well:
Questioner: I see you sitting in your son's house waiting for lunch to be served. And I wonder
whether the content of your consciousness is similar to mine, or partly different, or totally
different. Are you hungry and thirsty as I am, waiting rather impatiently for the meals to be served,
or are you in an altogether different state of mind?
Maharaj: There is not much difference on the surface, but very much of it in depth. You know
yourself only through the senses and the mind. You take yourself to be what they suggest; having
no direct knowledge of yourself, you have mere ideas; all mediocre, second-hand, by hearsay.
Whatever you think you are you take it to be true; the habit of imagining yourself perceivable and
describable is very strong with you.
I see as you see, hear as you hear, taste as you taste, eat as you eat. I also feel thirst and hunger
and expect my food to be served on time. When starved or sick, my body and mind go weak. All
this I perceive quite clearly, but somehow I am not in it, I feel myself as if floating over it, aloof and
detached. Even not aloof and detached. There is aloofness and detachment as there is thirst and
hunger; there is also the awareness of it all and a sense of Immense distance, as if the body and
the mind and all that happens to them were somewhere far out on the horizon. I am like a cinema
screen -- clear and empty -- the pictures pass over it and disappear, leaving it as clear and empty
as before. In no way is the screen affected by the pictures, nor are the pictures affected by the
screen. The screen intercepts and reflects the pictures, it does not shape them. It has nothing to
do with the rolls of films. These are as they are, lumps of destiny (prarabdha), but not my destiny;
the destinies of the people on the screen.
——————————————-
See? Teachings and goals are for “people on the screen.”
Edg Duveyoung
What's your daily prayer? Do you use any mantras?
Silence. It’s always RIGHT THERE. It is the subtlest mantra possible.
Even a speck of silence attended strengthens the mind’s ability to better attend the next speck.
The ocean is seen in the drop. Everything is pointed at if you point at anything. Attending silence
is a 100% sum game — all win all the time.
Anyone who can think a thought can also not think a thought.
It can start out as simply as one’s pausing of the breath. That’s a practice session, see? In the
beginning, stopping the breath is like stopping the mind for a length of time too short to measure,
but IT’S A STOP. And stopping everything is possible by this practice. The breath is the king of the
body — if it stops, everything else pauses and wonders why.
In any pausing, THE VASTNESS AVALANCHES INTO THE MIND.
Mantras can take you there too, but why take a stroll when you can run? For a shorter journey,
attend silence.
A mantra is the hippopotamus in this statement: “Looking for God is like riding on a hippopotamus
looking for a hippopotamus.” (I’m not sure which famous person said something like this.
Krishnamurti?)
A mantra requires some expert to teach one how to use it. There’s a thousand ways to think a
mantra that are wrong; mantra meditation has a learning curve, and that curve can take years to
get through until one has intellectual clarity about using a mantra. The mind has a mind of its own,
ya see? It will “trick you” out of mantra meditation effortlessly. Use of a mantra is not trivial — it
must be especially acquired and used.
But silence is there for anyone, and anyone can attend it.
Can’t find it?
Did you look between thoughts?
Edg Duveyoung
What happens when your Kundalini is awakened?
Originally Answered: How simply can you explain a kundalini awakening experience?
White light, fancying itself to be awareness, pretends to be silence which seemingly flashes up the
spine and ends with a fountain of golden light spewing out of the top of the head. And if it is going
downwards it is as much fun.
As experiences go, whew! But it’s an experience — meaning anyone can have it, and it comes in
endless variations of potency, duration, “flashy-ness” — and none of it is “a proof” of spiritual
status.
Experiences are like that children’s riddle’s answer to: What comes with the train, goes with the
train, is of no use to the train, but the train can’t go without it?
Noise. To Patanjali, any distinction whatsoever was proof that one’s mind was “noisy.” Ahem, “train
of thought” seems a very apropos term, eh?
In fact, most experiences are not to be sought mindfully; instead, the ancients suggest that the
mind is to be encouraged to suspend all processing of “objects of consciousness.” This is
Advaita’s instruction, that is: self inquiry.
The human spinal cord is said to be hollow at its center, and it is within this “void,” the Sushumna,
that the spiritual energy flows. There are many very informative articles about this on the Internet
— no need for me to educate here about this. Lots of authoritative lessons available.
As Nisargadatta explicitly notes: there’s is no transition from consciousness to awareness.
Awareness is not a state of mind, not a processing of a mind, not a dynamic of a nervous system,
not material, not observable, not perceivable, not experienceable — do I need to continue?
But awareness is — the sole identity. Yours, mine, a dog’s, a microbe’s, a rock’s or God’s. The
processes of every possible mind have meaning cast upon them from beyond the beyond.
Enlightenment is simply the mind shutting up and being in awe of awareness………forever. After all,
if you found yourself in the presence of God, do you think you’d feel like you had something
interesting to tell God? Really? Seriously? This is the innate wisdom of the mind, it does recognize
divinity when it but gazes within to see it. It humbles ya to a perfect silence.
But the question remains. Folks want to know if getting awakened is this “all of Heaven falling in on
me” type of experience — a thrill ride, ya know. Something like Six Flags Over Your Soul or The
Love Tornado or The Spiritual Express. And, yeah, there can be some “phantasmagoria”
associated with when the last pieces of the puzzle are being fitted. But it’s not a causal
connection. Synchrony, divine synchrony, is what’s afoot. Sometimes when a realization happens,
a few angels shoot off some fireworks. No biggie.
Read up. The yogi reporters of history have seldom described kundalini consistently except in the
most abstract of terms. It’s personal…..until the person goes bye bye.
Matthew 7:7
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
Here’s the question: “Who am I?”
Seek where? Within, duh!
And what is opened unto you?
Every possibility that God can imagine — before it is imagined.
Edg Duveyoung
Can we understand the reason behind God's divine play, his desire to be many by
hiding its true nature?
Edg Duveyoung's answer to What is the purpose of life according to the Hindu Upanishads?
Edg Duveyoung
What are the life benefits of awakening? People seem unwilling to suggest that
awakening is 'good'.
Select but one single answer:
1. You win $500,000,000 in Powerball.
2. All your loved ones are perfect the way they are.
3. Everyone in the world is mindfully advancing God’s agenda.
4. Your body is aging but the true you is immortal.
5. Everything, even motes of dust in the air, seem especially meant for you.
6. All processes seem to be love in action.
7. Silence vastly predominates all experiencing.
8. All the gods and angels adore you.
9. You seem ordinary to others — but you are a stealth Johnny Blessingseed planting a
bounteous future in their mental gardens.
10. Enlightened others wink and slightly nod at you across crowded rooms.
11. Pain becomes an intenser form of love.
12. All the above times infinity forever.
Edg Duveyoung
How does Advaita Vedanta feel about Jesus?
How do the persons who espouse Advaita feel about Jesus? That’s the question, right? Advaita’s
scriptural statements were all written before Jesus lived, so no mention of Him therein.
As for the major proponents of Advaita in recent history, they’re probably on the same page,
mostly, sorta, kinda, maybe. But were/are these folks enlightened? Pretty iffy — sure seems some
were. They all are supportive of Jesus, but they quibble about concepts and nomenclature.
Jesus spoke of His Father. The term “father” implies Someone who came before the Son,
Someone who created the Son, Someone equal (at least) to the Son, and perhaps Someone
superior to the Son.
Who’s the Father? Advaita would say, “That’s awareness, from which all things emerge — including
divine Sons 100% devoted to bringing truth to the entirety.
Jesus sure looks like a “Son” to me. Hinduism would say He was, at best, an avatar such as Lord
Krishna. Comes to Earth for a divine mission and then gets out of town.
Check The Sermon On The Mount — sure seems Jesus suggests letting go and letting God
(awareness’ attempt at perfected consciousness) take care of everything — can’t get more like
Advaita than that.
Sure seems like Advaita to surrender to a dark fate as much as one normally welcomes a lightened
destiny — as did Jesus accepting His role and crucifixion. I bet Jesus could have sat next to
Ramana Maharshi in his cave, when all the bugs were eating him alive, and been just fine with the
circumstances.
Yeah, Jesus would love Advaita…..and that love is how I, as an Advaitan, respond to Jesus.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the best license plate (vanity plate) you've ever seen?
UNIR1 — The only plate for a philosopher.
Edg Duveyoung
If life is a dream and enlightened people are like lucid dreamers, shouldn't this mean
they would be able to just 'wake up'?
If the lucid dreamer thinks he/she is a doer — whether awake or in control of a “dream body/mind”
— then this false identity must be invalidated.
If a lucid dreamer can arrange to have anything happen in a dream, I suggest that they meet with
God and get some advice they can use in their non-dreaming life. Non-spiritual psychologists
would suggest the advice would be actually the lucid dreamer’s best values projected as
embodied in a dream character called God.
But no. The question is faulty.
“Waking up” is not waking up.
Enlightenment is when THAT which once thought itself to be a human being realizes its true
nature as pure awareness devoid of materiality. This is not a phase transition from one state of a
body/mind to another state of that body/mind. This is an entirely different thing altogether.
Where’s your left little toe? It’s always there singing its parochial song, but you almost never listen.
This is how insignificant ANYTHING HUMAN becomes after enlightenment. Humanness can no
longer allure such that unbounded endless sentience once again identifies with it as itself. Nor,
after such a realization, could “Being God” allure the loss of identification. Nope. NOOOO
THANKS.
You know about this. Remember your childhood toys? You could go out and buy a ton of those
toys right now. But no — you have better things to do now. You now oversee a hugely complex life
your child never imagined. New toys.
Same deal. Same deal. Enlightenment reveals that awareness is prior to consciousness, and that
when consciousness is residing within itself as pure being, the body/mind is perfectly holy,
yin/yang balanced, intentlessly alert, reflective of the infinite. And from that divine doorway,
filtered through consciousness comes the march of the yugas — witnessed as it is made manifest
via every possible form of consciousness. It is this vast tableau of time that properly calibrates the
part “being human for awhile” plays in creation. Only awareness, not any form of consciousness,
can properly grasp ALL OF IT NOW AND EVER.
And the good news for the muggles is that muggle life continues to perfectly muggle along as
karma traipses across oceans of thingness to land on our muggle shores. AS USUAL.
Okay, not as usual. Better….much better. The local ego is subdued and the body/mind system
begins to resonate with the divine. It is the local ego’s pleasure to see these changes arrive as
consciousness ever more discovers hitherto unknown subtleties of existence. . . . . and that there
are, indeed, phase transitions to enjoy as the material becomes sacred due to a refined clarity
about “how all this works.” And karma just tickles after that.
Edg Duveyoung
In Advaita Vedanta, it is said that things that are changing, perceived and impermanent
are unreal. What is the logic behind this statement?
With a 4th of July sparkler, one can rapidly swirl it and form a figure eight pattern that persists
long enough to give an illusion of solidity, permanence, and stability.
As if, eh?
The observer understands the mechanics but none-the-less still says, “I saw a figure eight.” We’re
using such “short cuts” in communications.
Ergo are most “things” easily unmasked as merely “convincing illusions” that lack “realness” to
some degree. Ask your local string theorist for an alternate opinion or two. The best minds are
arguing. The debates are yet today ferocious. What’s real?
The Advaitan would say, “In perfect silence thingness is seen to be, as if, ‘flickering’.” Forms
evaporate at the so-called ritam level of perception where existence is seen coming into
existence. Only truth emerges anew from nothing, no-thingness, at the ritam level where human
consciousness is sublimely refined, even divine.
Turns out, pure identity is the only non-flickeryness. One’s true me, is more silent and still than
any silence expressed in a poem by an ecstatic yogi praising Shiva. The intellect gives up trying to
conceptualize identity, and voila, accomplishes the task by this surrendering.
This is how EVERY yogi EVER reports about identity. No matter the school of thought. No matter
which of the six Hindu systems of philosophy is embraced. No matter which God is highest.
As would be expected.
Edg Duveyoung
What is ego death, and how do you know you’re experiencing it?
Which ego?
Primal identity is awareness prior to “creation.”
Primal identity when it is firstly manifest is pure consciousness aka being aka pure being aka soul
aka heart aka spirit aka cosmic ego.
Primal identity when being’s unity becomes conscious of being conscious is individual ego aka
amness aka I am aka karmic entity aka false self.
When individual ego says, “I am that,” the universe is born, and death is finally made possible.
Which ego?
Now here’s the strange part: daily, every person experiences all these truths in ways both sublime
but also obvious.
But who looks?
Edg Duveyoung
What are your ego death experiences (without drugs)?
Originally Answered: Can you experience ego death without using drugs?
How can a “you” be two “yous” such that one of them dies and the other lives to see it without
drugs?
Consider that it takes 1500 chemical transactions to digest a ham sandwich. Your trillions of
atoms are constantly aswirl in a constellation of drug interactions. So, no, humans are always on
the drug commonly known as “blood.” The content of blood varies according to that which is
consumed, that which spurs strong emotions, environmental impacts, sensory overloading, and
on and on we can cite factors that can change which precision drug is being momentarily called
“blood.” The experiences of a mind are completely dependent upon blood chemistry. Hold your
breath and find out about what the body thinks of your puny will power when oxygen gets rare.
Blood samples should be named like they do variants of marijuana. There must be some blood
chemistry concoction that could be called “I feel enlightened;” avoid it. Don’t be a blood addict.
Ask Dracula.
You’re an expert about all this. You know the exact taste of your inner soup. No two recipes alike.
If you are asked how you are feeling, you know.
So no, there’s not two egos, the body/mind system is always on drugs, and the true you —
awareness, not the ego — has witnessed the ego die again and again and again and again each
day, because the ego is not an all-time reality. When it’s not there — IT’S NOT THERE. It’s not
somewhere else — when you’re sleeping without dreaming, for instance, ego isn’t just “being
quiet in the corner.” And many times per day one is “on automatic,” and there’s no egoic overlord
strutting around.
Of course, your question probably is asking if one can become enlightened without using drugs to
facilitate the transition. Been reading Carlos Castaneda’s books? Or maybe you’re reading that
oldie by Robert S. De Ropp, The Master Game. They do their best to examine the possibility of
using drugs to speed up evolution. Probably pretty risky to try without, say, a guru who is the
living embodiment of an ancient line of healers.
Mostly though, the techniques out there want one to be as free of stimulants as possible, and all
manner of precautions are suggested. Be cautious about precautions. Your path is singularly
hacked through the thickets; own it. Own it by being honest as you scan the offers out there. How
you use your mind is your responsibility as long as you think you’re your mind.
Do you miss your elbow? It’s always sending you data-points, but you are not attending. This is
how the ego dies — it gets understood to be just another elbow report. After that, you’re the true
you witnessing a mind, not being a mind. You’re out of the person business.
Edg Duveyoung
Why has Advaita Vedanta gained so much more popularity in the West than any other
product of Hinduism?
Because it’s Kali Yuga, baby!
Everywhere erroring unerringly harrying us. Nowhere to run. No peace in the manifest that
satiates the soul’s thirst for the elixir of the mystical. Advaita’s the one sure method that works for
everyone no matter how low their level of spirituality. All the other spiritual offers are harder to
apply to the cacophony most folks call “my mind.” Most folks have an orchestra tuning up for a
performance that never gets started, and the strings still diss the woodwinds.
It used to be otherwise. Once, a single almost-divine intent would send a shiver throughout
creation. Not could — would. Even the stones were singing hymns as ancient as hydrogen. God
was fairly obvious. It was not a problem knowing what to do and to love doing it.
And then, it came to pass that folks weren’t so able in the divine intent department, and they had
to do rituals and such to get themselves attuned to the divine enough to inspire an entire lifetime
of a streaming of consciousness that produced “righteousness enough” to have a fairly decent
culture with most folks gladly walking sacred lines.
Later, as time dimmed the light, it became quite hard to run a nervous system and to protect it
from every manner of tilting. Whole hunks of life had to be dedicated to righteous actions to purify
a nervous system, but a rigorous discipline could steady a mind’s evolution, and in ashrams and
temples and churches these minds could still be found on a regular basis.
And now, in this Age, the light is seen but through a glass darkly. There are no gods afoot. No
saints pepper our lives. The appetites, the fervor, the mind so imprintable, we stumble in the
jumble of modernity. Nothing succors and all know something is missing.
In the face of this, the truest of religions regularly fail to spiritually inspire their flocks to live a
sacred life.
A life of working like an organ grinder’s monkey for a tossed coin pretty much exhausts a nervous
system. Add the other life stresses, and what you get is, well, look around, look anywhere, look in
a mirror. See?
But God is merciful. The best was saved for last.
When all hope is lost. When faith is mostly fakery. When no one can take a vow and MEAN IT.
When one’s next thought is always a crap shoot. When there’s just no time for any kind of spiritual
program, and none of them work well unless THOUSANDS OF HOURS are invested. Well, has God
got a deal for you.
Look within. That’s the only light left in the cosmic dark. Your truth within is awareness. You are
awareness, but you’ve only glanced at your self. But note — look — see? Nothing stops you from
knowing you. You’re there.
It’s that easy to turn. With a glance you see your seeingness.
And as your glances turn to gazing, you’ll find that peace the world ran out of about 5,000 years
ago. A peace that passeth all understanding……and misunderstanding too, but of course, just
sayin’.
By paying attention to attention as one’s spiritual practice, the nervous system gets used to
quieting down. This is how easy it is. Close the eyes. Spend time within with what is between
thoughts
And transcend when you least expect it.
Edg Duveyoung
Why do people seek an identity?
They don’t.
Identity is projected, and those nervous systems that do so are called unenlightened.
There is but one identity — pure awareness which is the sole witness to ALL EXPERIENCES.
Behind every mind, the one sentience — God’s mind and your mind are witnessed by the same
entity, awareness.
ALL THIS is God’s manifesting of the “qualities” of awareness within the limitations of time and
space, and every particle of ALL THIS is an expression of “what it would be like if God wasn’t
100% God.” God is exploring all the ways of being limited, blinkered, ignorant, isolated,
disconnected, alone, wrong, very wrong and wrongest. God started with creation being perfect
except for one mistaken notion — that there is such a thing as existence — which was expressed
as “I am.” See the mistake? It’s that identity says it exists when it’s far truer to say identity is
beyond existence and non-existence, beyond being and non-being, beyond any and all qualities.
Existence is so limiting.
But most folks are content to project existence (“qualities” of me) upon ALL THIS. And this is done
massively — the entire “creation” is projected — just exactly as one does when one produces ”the
entirety” of a night dream. Instantly and always we assume what we project to be as substantial as
we consider ourselves to be substantial. We take our imagined “things” and deem them real. As if.
And this projection is multi-layered. On the base layer — pure being — awareness has been
assumed to be consciousness. This is the primal error of asserting that because awareness is
sentient the illusory sentience of consciousness is a validation of its actuality. As if. Nice try
consciousness.
In order to shore up the lie it is telling itself, consciousness creates the world of things to pretend
it is as godlike as awareness. Ain’t. Fecundity is not the same as authorship. ALL THIS is created
instantaneously without agency. You can just sit in the corner, ego, you are not doing a single
thing — including “being you.”
On the level of psychology, those unconcerned about spiritual truths can perhaps be satisfied
with: folks want an identity that’s material solely because they are not in touch with the true
self…..awareness. And so throughout life folks are projecting themselves upon various objects of
consciousness….only to eventually slough off this bond as ersatz…..”that car isn’t really me, this
NEW car is me” — like that. A never-ending search.
Find the self and all this ceases. And it’s in plain sight.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the psychological term for that feeling where an unknown person seems to be
very familiar?
Nope….don’t know, but I gotta just drop this into this conversation:
Buddha said we should love everyone, because we are already in love with them, because
everyone has incarnated many times and has been your husband, your wife, your mother, your
father, your sister, your son, your daughter, your aunt, your uncle, your grandfather, your
grandmother — and you have been all those roles to all of them too.
It could be that if one has an especial intuition about someone it indicates a strong bond in a
previous incarnation.
Edg Duveyoung
Are there any approachable gurus today who have experienced the state of Samaadhi?
Originally Answered: Advaita Vedanta: Are there any approachable Gurus today, who have experienced the
state of Samaadhi?
Absolutely yes. There is a perfect guru.
The inner guru is not only THERE, but pure-awareness is more evolutionarily powerful than any
outer-guru.
Yet, being humans, we long for physical embodiments. It thrills us if we can believe that a human
being is perfectly aligned with divinity — God on Earth is a self-created elixir.
But the rub is that no one can be proven to be enlightened, and there’s tons of guru-wannabes
who are willing to play the role of guru for you….and get a few of your coins for their trouble.
Chances are very high that anyone who offers to be your guru is self-deluded to some degree.
And miss not that charlatans can obtain huge followings, and followers can be very enthusiastic.
It’s easy to fool most of the people most of the time — simply feign certainty. There’s a reason a
swindler is called a confidence-man — certainty is offered, and if it’s believed, then bank accounts
can be emptied.
What to do?
Two things: the writings of gurus and the inner guru.
With Ramana’s “Talks” and Nisargadatta’s “I am that” all the core knowledge about enlightenment
is presented. Other gurus may have written as well or better, but I have not found one that impacts
me like Ramana and Nisargadatta. With these writings, it’s obvious what axioms are promoted,
and there just is not any more needed for intellectual edification about Advaita philosophy. This
said, I caution that a single reading of anything written by these gurus will not “do the trick” for
most seekers. Truth be told, for a human nervous system to “get it,” it takes multiple iterations of
truth to “grow beliefs and certainty” in a nervous system. Therefore: most folks will have to re-
read and study these written works FOR YEARS before the intellect arrives at a relative clarity.
Yes, I said years. We don’t understand something just because we think we understand it. It so
sucks.
But then we have the inner guru, pure awareness. And, as said, it is more powerful than the outer
guru. Here’s Nisargadatta’s statement: There can be no transition from consciousness to
awareness, for awareness is not a form of consciousness.
How’s that for a kick in the head, eh? This key concept is so often missed by today’s Advaitan
preachers. You can’t get there from here. You have to dissolve. One can’t experience pure
awareness, one IS pure awareness. There can be no true enlightenment if there is no individuality
with which to garner it.
And dissolving is accomplished by simply looking within and asking “Who am I?” The nervous
system doesn’t know — can’t know — who you are, so it remains quiet. THAT’S CONTACT. That
silence is the vastness of awareness playing peek-a-boo. That silence is an all time reality
underlying all experiencing — always available with a mere glance at it.
By doing inquiry one learns quickly that the transcendent is as obvious as the white spaces
between letters on a page. When one asks the mind, “Who am I?” the real self is seen however so
briefly…..at first, but regularly practicing this method trains the mind to SHUT UP. And the silence
then becomes ever more palpable, real, sentient, unbounded, blissful, divine and on and on the
words will flow as tributes to it — tributes that yet fall short of encircling its endlessness.
Now, are there gurus on Earth with the clout of Ramana and Nisargadatta? Of course. Do you
deserve to meet them? Do you need them? Can you give up everything to be with them? Are you
dying to meet them like a drowning person wants air? Probably not. This is a matter of destiny, if
you need an outer guru, you will get one whether you want one or not, but it is everyone’s karma
to have the inner guru available plus the writings of the outer gurus…..and that’s enough.
One last note: Ramana never had an outer guru, and Nisargadatta only saw his guru three times in
his whole life.
Edg Duveyoung
Is it ok to claim a near death experience, even if it was just psychological?
A morality question can always be answered “It depends.”
And so, heck, I’ll just answer a different question that’s more fun.
“What is death?” Talk about your fun questions! My fav!
That’s a subject about which I’m an expert.
If a tiny bell were to ring every time I get reborn, I would sound like I’m a Pachinko machine.
We all die many times per day.
Ego is not an all time reality. Most of the time, things are going along just fine thank you very much
without a little snit kibbitzer adding noise to the experience. But throughout the day, BAM, in
struts this artifact of the nervous system claiming it is the author of all thoughts……even though
it’s been a thousand thoughts since last Mr. Big showed up.
Everyone in every culture experiences an unending variety of mental, emotional and physical
events that are autonomous — they happen without a mindful intent masquerading as a causal
agency.
Ask any car driver how much of what happens is done without “thinking.” The turn signal is turned
on in a timely fashion, brakes get applied just-so, a route to a destination is correctly followed
while hundreds of other moving entities require instant by instant decision-making, and the driver
is nowhere to be found…..instead, holding the steering wheel, is someone bobbing a head in time
with disco music.
WHO WAS DRIVING?
Tl:dr answer: the entire universe.
The ego is not there most of the time. In dreams, it can be found operative much more often, but,
hmmmm, is that you? And in dreamless sleep, ego is a joke.
All the above is about identification. Every nervous system has some subprocess that can be said
to “run the joint.” Plants and animals and even stones can exhibit “personality.” Don’t be looking at
me like that. Jesus got mad at a fig tree and talked to a herd of pigs and said stones would cry
out. The point being: all those egoic processes in all those entities prod one to ask, “Why identify
with any particular ‘agent’ found in such a boggling array?”
Zillions of souls and you picked you as did I pick me?
Or did you? Maybe I’m not my own fault. Maybe you and I are innocents.
Was it you that was born? Is it I that is reborn plink plank plunko all day long?
No, it’s worse than that.
Before you were born, you already were. You were prior to creation. The true you is the source of
all that is manifest without your having a single titch of materiality.
And this magnificence, this undefinable vastness, this eternal sentience, in a single glance, saw
every thing and fell in love with all of it. Just like you do all day long.
We identify with what is before us. We pick this or that entity and say, “That’s me, and I’m going to
love it like you can’t believe.” We see raindrops coursing down a pane and pick one and say,
“That’s me, and look at me go — beating all those other drops down to the bottom!” A certain tie,
a certain dress, a certain car, a certain house, a certain neighborhood, a certain profession, a
certain religion, a, a, a,……….see? Are we identification geniuses or what?
But, while all those identifications are in error, miss not how adroitly we can place ourselves into
reality. We long for books and films that have characters we can identify with. We can’t help it.
And finally the good news about death can be revealed. All this is dead — dead as raindrops, and
it is we who enliven creation by broadcasting our living being ON ALL OF IT. We enter it all. We
saturate dreams and daydreams with our amness.
And that means that all we have left to do is one single last identification to fulfill our highest
spiritual intent. We need to look at our true self, and voila, WE WILL IDENTIFY WITH IT.
This is the power of Advaita’s technique of self inquiry.
See the self. Be the self. Forget the worry.
And that’s called a near life experience.
Edg Duveyoung
Would you like being completely conscious of your mind?
Dear Question Asker:
You are mistaking me.
I am beyond consciousness. So, you’re asking a tough question.
I am not an expert at all about consciousness, minds, spirits, souls, etc., and I’m not ashamed to
admit it. I’m in good company; Krishna said karma is unfathomable, and last time I looked,
consciousness and all that pertains to it were activities of nervous systems with trillions of
molecules hurrying about. It would be very hard to convince anyone I was anywhere near to being
in charge of trillions of things. I’m really just along for the ride here, ya know? I’m not running
things. Ask me what my next thought will be, and I got zip. I’m a fly on the wall, and that’s it.
See? I’m rather intimidated by your concept of even having a mind — let alone somehow
completely knowing it.
I’m vast and beyond, so I’m coming up short trying to figure out how I could squeeze myself into
any imaginable mind. And if I did, then to answer your question, I’d have to witness a nervous
system processing knowing something, being aware of something, understanding something,
grasping something…..this list keeps going. So, see? That there is a workload. That there requires
the adroit use of the aforesaid trillions. This is not appealing.
Noooooooooooooo thanks. Trying to answer your question is a job I’d hand off to someone I didn’t
like much. If I was a person who had a hand that is.
I’m sure it’s fun and all that, but come on.
I wasn’t born yesterday.
Sincerely yours,
_____________________________________________
(Leave the above line blank.)
Edg Duveyoung
If God or the Ocean of Consciousness doesn’t have any personality, then why do we
call a personality (Krishna) a God?
Questions that answer questions:
Are you a person?
Do you dream up entire universes in your nightly dreams?
Are not the “persons” of the dreams you create allowed to worship you, the dreamer, as their god?
Would they be mistaken to think you’re responsible for their karma-filled lives?
Wouldn’t they be surprised to find out that your dreams are spontaneous processes of your
nervous system over which your ego has no control?
If you told one of the persons you create in your dreams that you remember other dreams of other
creations and that any particular dream was “nothing special” comparatively, would that dream
person feel especially attended by the “Divine Mind?”
Would the dream person be delighted to find out that the chair he sits on is made of the exact
same mind-stuff as he is, and that the chair can validly claim to be at least as “sentient” as any
dream character, and that the chair itself could be found talking and thinking and “being
someone,” if but the dreamer deemed to dream it suchly?
If any dreamed-up person was able to know the actuality of the dreamer’s waking state and found
out that the dreamer’s stream of consciousness had the same kinds of spiritual doubts as his
dreamed-up creations, wouldn’t that dream person be triggered into abject hopelessness about
his destiny given that it is but a whim of a sleeping wimp god who but seldom even remembered
any of his dreams?
Answers that are not answers:
Krishna said, “Karma is unfathomable.” Unfathomable means unfathomable. No one knows their
next thought — which is but a fraction of a second away from happening. If we think that Krishna
is God — SO WHAT? We don’t know our next thought and here we are validating God’s actuality by
dint of our localized opinion? As if.
Krishna, when imagined by us to be God, is found to have every power. Our stories of Krishna’s life
always provide proofs that He was unlimited. With Krishna, we exhausted any need for more
proofs.
But there He was, in the midst of the battlefield trying to convince Arjuna to kill half of his beloved
relatives. Additionally, all of the warriors on Arjuna’s side would, too, be killed in the war. And
there’s Krishna, “Go! Go! Go!”
Unfathomable.
So, call Krishna “God” if you must. Who cares about this issue when causality turns out to be
merely divine synchrony? All meaning is evaporated when God enters the room. All fall face down
begging for mercy instead of justice. Under such circumstances, I would definitely go with calling
Krishna, “Lord.”
And all the other Lords too should be seen as avatars of the absolute.
The absolute is God also, and it is from the absolute that the Lords emerge.
And the absolute is beyond all attributes — including sacred holy divine omniscient omnipresent
omnipotent beings.
Beyond time.
Beyond space.
Beyond thought.
Beyond being.
Beyond non-being.
Beyond.
Edg Duveyoung
Are we all one with the objects that surround us? Are the objects in this world
expressions of the one consciousness as we are? If so, how?
Originally Answered: Are we all one with the objects that surround us? Are objects expressions of the one
consciousness, as we are? If so, how?
I like Andrei Palskoi’s answer. Consider a drop of water on your hand. The smartest scientist with
the best instrumentation cannot find ANY differences between an electron in the water and any
electron in your hand. Same for protons, neutrons and other “structures.”
So, yep. we are all made of the exact same stuff. If we insist we are separate from ALL THIS, it
must be firstly admitted that boundaries are arbitrary conceits.
Patanjali said that when everyone is enlightened, there still would be objects of consciousness
upon which all agree — a shared reality — a chair would still be a chair.
Otherwise, what would a yogi sit on to have a nice conversation about objects that don’t have
actuality?
Edg Duveyoung
How do you know the difference in imagination and intuition in spiritual awakening?
Absolute answer: there are no differences, no boundaries, no isolated anything.
Touch your thumb to your finger. Which one is touching and which one is feeling itself being
touched? Identity switches back and forth, see?
Consider, say, a table that is seen in one of your nightly dreams. Is that table a separate object
from the floor upon which it sits? Isn’t everything merely dream-stuff with no actual boundaries?
Consider a cube of ice in a glass of water. It’s all water.
Consider someone using a 4th of July sparkler to make a figure eight pattern. It’s just one spot of
light.
Differences between imagination and intuition are equally arbitrary — it’s all God’s dreaming —
seamlessly.
But, if you insist that you are a human being and that you are the owner of a mind that has these
two “properties,” well, GREAT, now you must dwell upon this concept and grow the clarity needed
to answer this question….and that clarity will be that there is no such thing as intuition or
imagination, so any comparison of them is doomed to be a mere tractionless moot debate.
But that doesn’t satisfy, so here’s the traditional answer: imagination is more of a surface level
processing of possible variations — intuition is the brain’s deepest ability to invent that which
seems entirely new to the mind. If you meet someone, you can imagine endlessly about what can
be done together, but intuition is what tells you if you WANT to be endlessly with that person.
Go to any airport. Sit down and watch the passersby. You will like some and dislike others based
on intuition; your imagination will then suss out confirmationally biased summations of them
based on how the person is presenting at that moment. If the person is well dressed and smiling
or is a sullen slob — these are clues with which the imagination works. But intuition will look past
the superficial signs….it’s about “vibe.”
If one looks inwardly at the mind as it processes these “calculations,” THIS IS EVOLUTIONARY.
Coming back, again and again, GENTLY, to “”look at A mind” instead of “be MY mind,” benefits
spiritual clarity — even a glance shows that everything’s working without any help from the ego.
High concept: Any attempt to understand “humanness” is actually an attempt to psychoanalyze
God. Good luck with that. Ask Moses about crossing the river Jordan.
Edg Duveyoung
According to the Advaita philosophy, we are all gods but how are we different from the
creator God?
When you get the power to move a mountain, you don’t move the mountain, because it was you
who put it there in the first place.
Scriptures are peppered with talking animals wielding magical powers, stones that would cry out,
fig trees that are morally wrong — in such a creation as this, what isn’t possible from any entity at
any moment? This must be allowed if God is to be said to be perfectly able to create. We’re all on
the tippity tip to God’s paint brush; our very next thought is divinely originated, ya know? How
much more front-rowly empowered do you want to be?
Oh, you want to have omniscience, so that you have the ken to know what to create next, eh? And
maybe just check to see if God made some sort of mistake dealing out the karma in your life, eh?
Oh, you want to be omnipotent so that in every possible niche you will have full instrumentality, so
that your artistry will not be constrained, eh? And maybe, because you messed up, you just want
to be able to meet head on any calamity you have headed your way, eh?
Oh, you want to be omnipresent to be aware of the entirety of the least speck’s existence, past,
future and every variance of dimensionality possible for God to imagine, eh? And maybe to peek
inside everyone’s mind, eh?
So, instead of being an ordinary human with seven billion billion billion atoms under your direct
mental control, let’s say you’re actually God with all the glories, would you, by such increase in
your magnitude, THEN feel on top of your game? You wouldn’t be, say, distraught about whether
there is a hierarchic structure amongst spiritual entities, then, right?
But, hmmmm, we see that Brahma WAS distraught. His very first thoughts were “Who am I?” and
“How’d I get here?” and “What am I supposed to do?” So much for the power of His glories, eh?
He got obsessed for 3,000 years about intellectually nailing down this “true nature of one’s
sentience” thingie.
And then gave up.
Be like Brahma.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the link between mind, brain and consciousness?
Awareness is prior to consciousness. “Prior” means prior. No-thingness is beyond the mere
physical. Mind, brain, and consciousness are ALL PHYSICAL. For clarity’s sake, the deeper issue
of “What determines if something exists?” needs to be addressed. If existence itself comes into
question, then “What exists?” becomes a secondary concern. If existence is impossible, then
there’s a whole lot less motivation to discuss an ersatz object — might as well discuss personality
parameters in the sentient stones that Jesus said would cry out……(smirk)….just sayin’.
At first, tossed into a pile, existence or non-existence seems to be easily sorted, but consider
what the nature of “existence” is when one is dreaming a dream. If someone approaches “you” in
a dream and asks you if you think the, say, clock on the wall, exists, “Of course.” you would
respond. Yet upon awakening in the morning, you realize your error and that the nature of
existence differs depending upon one’s state of consciousness. While “in” the dream, you
absolutely believe everything in the dream is as real as you think yourself to be…..all of it an utter
falsity….including your dream mind, your dream brain and your dream consciousness.
The link between all objects of human experiencing is that they are all mere constructs that have
ZERO ability. Zero. There is simply no there there. The relationship between “them” in the so-
called waking state is EXACTLY the same as when they are considered to be real by a dreamstate
person. Yikes, eh? Let me be clear: there is no determinacy; no thing affects another thing; natural
laws, say, gravity, are mere whims of a storyteller; anything goes; no rules; all’s fair; all’s possible.
Etc.
And if not, then God is rule-bound, and omnipotence is spiritual propaganda. We have to allow
God to be perfectly able.
This said, we must surrender to mystery. We cannot know the next thought that ALL OF
CREATION seems to trigger as an emergent phenomenon in the mind. I repeat: we cannot know
even the very next thought we’re going to have. That’s less than a blink away, and we are blind to
it. We never know the future.
Certainty is the first sin.
But yet it seems not so. Gravity seems consistently “on.” God seems to always want gravity to be
an operant dynamic of the grand illusion. And we could endlessly list those absolutes of
“existence” as our proofs that laws are obeyed. Again, note that in a dream, a dream character
would claim the same proofs! In the dream, dream gravity is always “working.” BUT IT’S NOT
GRAVITY….it’s the whim of the brain that’s telling the dream’s story.
Too, history is sardine packed with exceptions to every rule. 10,000 years of story after story in
which laws are found not applying. Miracles are common — even today’s scientists are telling us
that the basis of existence is paradoxical and fundamentally unresolvable. One photon goes
through two separate holes simultaneously?….really? Sound myth-ish. I mean, come on.
But but but, if one MUST just MUST have a grasp of the relationships between mind, brain and
consciousness, and if one MUST just MUST have clarity about what’s what in the human
condition, don’t ask me. I’m just another character — I can’t affect your mind any more than you
can affect your mind without my mind affecting your mind. You don’t need me — you need to
define your terms such that the question you’ve asked becomes ridiculously fantastic, and all you
can do is smile at yourself for the strange karma of indulging in moot questions.
Edg Duveyoung
How do enlightened beings (or one with high consciousness) help the world/society?
In “Talks” with Ramana, we find:
Seeker: Why does not Sri Bhagavan go about and preach the Truth to the people at large?
Ramana: How do you know that I am not doing it? Does preaching consist in mounting a platform
and haranguing to the people around? Preaching is simple communication of knowledge. It may
be done in Silence too. What do you think of a man listening to a harangue for an hour and going
away without being impressed by it so as to change his life? Compare him with another who sits in
a holy presence and leaves after some time with his outlook on life totally changed. Which is
better: To preach loudly without effect or to sit silently sending forth intuitive forces to play on
others? Again how does speech arise? There is abstract knowledge (unmanifest). From it there
rises the ego which gives rise to thoughts and words successively. So then: Words are therefore
the great grandson of the original source. If words can produce an effect, how much more
powerful should the preaching through silence be? Judge for yourself.
Edg Duveyoung
What is wrong with our society today?
Misidentification
Edg Duveyoung
Can you tell me a reason to keep living?
Originally Answered: Can you give me a will to live?
When you’re sitting at an outside table of a street cafe and you see a car jump the curb and keep
coming straight at you — THEN decide if “will to live” is an issue.
The mind is a silly twit when it comes to paranoid speculations — there’s no ending of such
projecting of fearful possibilities. So too, its ability to be sullen, morose, deflated, uninterested,
nihilistic, and on and on. And none of it needs to be actual in the least — yet the mind dwells and
indulges in these fantasies as if they’re as real as shotgun barrels held to temples.
But believing the above wisdom doesn’t empower the mind to keep itself from roiling in angst. No
advice, well understood by the intellect, can quell negative emotions and the thoughts that attend
them. So, no, I cannot give you a will to live…..especially when your every mental storage space is
already jammed to overflowing with willingness to live. Where would you put more “instinct to
avoid a curb jumping car?”
There’s no room in you for more willingness.
But, there is a solution.
Lifestyle is a straight stick pounded into the ground next to the sapling mind to help it grow
perpendicularly. What you do daily will build a mind — the nature of that mind’s daily productions
will STRONGLY correlate to input. Garbage in, garbage out is the simple wisdom.
So, you want to want to live? Here’s but one formula for features of a lifestyle that promotes
positivity and mojo that I guarantee will rev your will to live like a dragster’s tachometer slamming
into the red:
1. Contact silence
2. Pure water.
3. Green veggies
4. Exercise
5. Community of like minded friends
6. Sunshine
7. Deep breathing
8. Doing good for another
That’s way too complex; numbers 1 and 8 are all you really need, but the more you add to the
above listing, the more life is joyfully embraced despite the worrisome bits. Heck, 1 or 8 solely will
do the trick.
Edg Duveyoung
Is everyone enlightened?
No. Almost no one is enlightened. My proof? Ask any of them. They’ll each and all (99.99999% at
the least) insist that they are not enlightened by most of the definitions of the word.
And who is a better judge of one’s “condition,” if not the owner of the mind in question? If we can’t
believe everyone on Earth’s veracity about an issue as important as this one, what can anyone
report on that would be as intimately authentic?
Can all the people be wrong all the time about their spiritual status? I think we know what
Abraham Lincoln would say about that.
And look at all the religions on Earth with massive programs that will educate their members such
that they evolve towards an ever more perfect spiritual morality instead of remaining —
UNENLIGHTENED.
Every guru on Earth accepts students. I have never heard — not one single time — of a guru
turning away a student “because you’re already enlightened.” Not one.
One billion people in India insist that when Brahma was born, even He didn’t quite know what was
what and had to take a bit of time to figure things……3,000 of His years.
Is everyone enlightened? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Now, here’s the fun part: every argument I offered above is easily explained away.
But that’s another essay.
Edg Duveyoung
Can Advaitins explain how Maya can be an attribute of the supposedly attributeless
Brahman? Why was the creation needed if Brahman alone existed? What is Ishwara?
(my previous answer to similar question)
Ramana answers this question almost every time he speaks. Here’s some text that pertains:
“3rd January, 1937
Drops of Nectar
314. In yesterday's answers, Sri Bhagavan said that the Self is pure consciousness in deep
slumber, and He also indicated the Self of the transition from sleep to the waking state as the ideal
for realisation. He was requested to explain the same. Sri Bhagavan graciously answered: The Self
is pure consciousness in sleep; it evolves as aham ('I') without idam ('this') in the transition stage;
and manifests as aham ('I') and idam ('this') in the waking state. The individual's experience is by
means of aham ('I') only. So he must aim at realisation in the way indicated (i.e., by means of the
transitional 'I'). Otherwise the sleep-experience does not matter to him. If the transitional 'I' be
realised the substratum is found and that leads to the goal.
Again, sleep is said to be ajnana (ignorance). That is only in relation to the wrong jnana
(knowledge) prevalent in the wakeful state. The waking state is really ajnana (ignorance) and the
sleep state is prajnana (full knowledge). Prajnana is Brahman, says the sruti. Brahman is eternal.
The sleep-experiencer is called prajna. He is prajnanam in all the three states. Its particular
significance in the sleep state is that He is full of knowledge (prajnanaghana). What is ghana?
There are jnana and vijnana. Both together operate in all perceptions. Vijnana in the jagrat is
viparita jnana (wrong knowledge) i.e., ajnana (ignorance). It always co-exists with the individual.
When this becomes vispashta jnana (clear knowledge), It is Brahman. When wrong knowledge is
totally absent, as in sleep, He remains pure prajnana only. That is Prajnanaghana.
Aitareya Upanishad says prajnana, vijnana, ajnana, samjnana are all names of Brahman. Being
made up of knowledge alone how is He to be experienced? Experience is always with vijnana.
Therefore the pure 'I' of the transitional stage must be held for the experience of the
Prajnanaghana. The 'I' of the waking state is impure and is not useful for such experience. Hence
the use of the transitional 'I' or the pure 'I'.
How is this pure 'I' to be realised? Viveka Chudamani says, Vijnana kose vilasatyajasram (He is
always shining forth in the intellectual sheath, vijnana kosa). Tripura Rahasya and other works
point out that the interval between two consecutive sankalpas (ideas or thoughts) represent the
pure aham ('I'). Therefore holding on to the pure 'I', one should have the Prajnanaghana for aim,
and there is the vritti present in the attempt. All these have their proper and respective places and
at the same time lead to realisation.
Again the pure Self has been described in Viveka Chudamani to be beyond asat, i.e., different
from asat. Here asat is the contaminated waking 'I'. Asadvilakshana means sat, i.e., the Self of
sleep. He is also described as different from sat and asat. Both mean the same. He is also asesha
sakshi (all-seeing witness).
If pure, how is He to be experienced by means of the impure 'I'? A man says, "I slept happily''.
Happiness was his experience. If not, how could he speak of what he had not experienced? How
did he experience happiness in sleep, if the Self was pure? Who is it that speaks of that
experience now? The speaker is the vijnanatma (ignorant self) and he speaks of prajnanatma
(pure self). How can that hold? Was this vijnanatma present in sleep? His present statement of the
experience of happiness in sleep makes one infer his existence in sleep. How then did he remain?
Surely not as in the waking state. He was there very subtle. Exceedingly subtle vijnanatma
experiences the happy prajnanatma by means of maya mode. It is like the rays of the moon seen
below the branches, twigs and leaves of a tree.
The subtle vijnanatma seems apparently a stranger to the obvious vijnanatma of the present
moment. Why should we infer his existence in sleep? Should we not deny the experience of
happiness and be done with this inference? No. The fact of the experience of happiness cannot be
denied, for everyone courts sleep and prepares a nice bed for the enjoyment of sound sleep.
This brings us to the conclusion that the cogniser, cognition and the cognised are present in all
the three states, though there are differences in their subtleties. In the transitional state, the aham
('I') is suddha (pure), because idam ('this') is suppressed. Aham ('I') predominates.
Why is not that pure 'I' realised even now or even remembered by us? Because of want of
acquaintance (parichaya) with it. It can be recognised only if it is consciously attained. Therefore
make the effort and gain consciously.”
Edg Duveyoung
What attitude is useful on the spiritual path?
See your duty. Do your duty. Forget the worry.
In the Naomi Watts film, King Kong, her character faces death from a Tyrannosaurus Rex or two or
three. She looks behind herself, and there’s Kong who is known to be in a sold out love-tizzy about
the tiny blonde.
What does she do?
She back steps until she standing between Kong’s legs.
She chose.
God is behind you right now.
Choose.
Edg Duveyoung
Have I awakened spiritually, or am I going crazy?
If you’re not witnessing deep dreamless sleep as your core identity, you’ve probably got a way to
yet still grow.
Experiences are always there for every entity……bugs and gods.
None of these entities’ experiences are necessarily proofs of being “awakened” — no measurable
sign can indicate who is free, but there are some hints that are generally indicative.
Here’s Ramana’s answer:
Seeker: In the practice of meditation are there any signs of the nature of subjective experience or
otherwise, which will indicate the aspirant’s progress towards Self-Realisation
Ramana Maharishi: The degree of freedom from unwanted thoughts and the degree of
concentration on a single thought are the measure to gauge the progress.
Edg Duveyoung
If god is all good, then why do bad things happen to good people according to Advaita?
You are good hearted and want that the world should be improved, and you want that the people
of the world would find individual and social harmony around the globe.
In fact, to additionally clarify, let’s affirm that there’s no end to the good wishes and general all
around wonderfulness you’d want the world to enjoy.
Let’s not stop there. It has to be true that you would love it if everyone applied themselves to a
spiritual practice that would result in the rapid evolution of every culture on Earth.
Wait, let’s not be holding back. We can be sure you’d want even more than that, because you have
the kind of mind and heart that can produce goodhearted wishes at a fantastic rate, so we can be
certain at some point you’d be found wanting even the dust motes and the distant stars to
become sentient and worshipful and spiritually pristine.
And I haven’t even started in listing the incredible benefits to ALL OF CREATION if only if it were
that your wishes came true.
I give up. I can’t keep accounting all of your glories. May I simply admit that you are a rare being
that needs no further examinations and that we should allow your wisdom to rewrite all the rules
and morals to perfect the world?
Now.
Now that we’ve established your cosmic status.
May I ask a few questions?
Do you watch violent films?
Do you dream dreams in which bad people do bad things?
Have you ever stepped on an ant on purpose?
Do I need to ask more questions?
You, with all your true love, yet still enjoy various negatives in your life.
I think we can cut God a break. It’s all God’s creation. Every sentience is actually God peeking at
creation through a nervous system.
All things are done by God to God for God’s sake.
Your job: be quiet and enjoy — just exactly your civic duty as an audience member as a film starts
in a theater.
Edg Duveyoung
Can regular meditation lead to spiritual awakening?
No.
There is no causality.
If there were to be causes, God would not be omnipotent because there would be rules of
causation that would necessarily be inviolate or the “fabric” of creation would ravel. And if God
has to obey a rule, well that just won’t do.
God has to be free to create such that sometimes meditation DOES NOT lead to spiritual
improvement of any sort. Pity the “person” who lives a whole life with utter dedication to a manner
of meditating that works for everyone else, but that freedom must be given to God. Read the book
of Job for an exemplar of a perfect person being trounced by God and Satan having funzies.
Mantras and methods do not a guarantee make.
In your nightly dreams, your brain conjures up whole realities complete with “natural laws” such as
“in this dream, gravity exists and dropped objects go to the dream floor.”
Same deal for ALL THIS. All this is God’s dream in which there are “causes,” just as there’s gravity
in your dreams. See? THEY ARE NOT CAUSES!
Drop anything. Watch it go downwards. That’s God deciding RIGHT IN THAT EXACT MOMENT that
it should seem that gravity is operative. That’s living creativity. That’s divinity doing synchrony
instead of causality.
All this is constantly being made manifest moment by moment — it’s like we are all riding on God’s
shoulders watching a bazillion Elvis portraits being instantly, perfectly, wonderfully displayed on
the blackest velvet.
But if you insist that there are causes, yeah, you’d better meditate until you don’t.
Bottom line: God decides if any awakening is happening. If you’re found in the divine dream
meditating, probably it’s a good sign of God’s agenda for you — probably.
Probably.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the purpose of life according to the Hindu Upanishads?
I’m pasting an answer I’ve given to two other Quora questions.
———————————————————
True happiness is pure awareness.
BAM! That’s it.
But God wasn’t satisfied with undifferentiated sentience’s infinite bliss.
It felt claustrophobic. Limited.
God asked: “Where am I?”
A thought arose: “Everywhere.”
God asked: “Is there anywhere I am not to which I have yet to go?”
A thought arose: “Nowhere.”
God said: “What? Am I not omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent? I will expand My bliss even
into this Nowhere! I’ll enlarge My everythingness by flooding it into non-existence, into every
possible manner of not being, into every imaginable form of nothingness, and into all, each and
every aspect of imperfection.”
A thought arose: “But You will always know You’re You, and so Nowhere will be seen easily as
merely more You-there, and so You won’t really be expanding at all, because Your realness will
saturate every experience of Nowhere before You even arrive!”
God said: “No problem. I’ll forget Who I am, and I’ll have an exact duplicate of My spirit reside as
the self inside every possible form of conscious being. All these ersatz selves will experience all
the ways of not being Me, but they won’t know that they’re Me when they’re having those
experiences, so that I can obtain utter clarity, via symbolic catharsis, as I see them, witness them,
AM them as they process the fullness of the negativity, the lostness, the emptiness of disunity —
each soul an incarceration.”
A thought arose: “You meant to say, “incarnation,” right?”
God said: “Yeah, good catch — I’ll make it so that every speck of consciousness can advance
towards finally realizing its truly divine status. By seeking happiness, each being will find that
more bliss, more ken, more unity is required to improve anything, everything, all things, thingness
itself, and so they’ll finally break out of My spell-of-forgetness, and the ruse will be dissolved as
the little one returns home, at last at last.”
Edg Duveyoung
Is Advaita a form of materialism?
Yes.
To materialists.
Don’t be one.
Reason: there’s no such thing as a thing.
Now, if your definition of Advaita is that it is a religion or a movement or a philosophy or an
understanding or a clarity or a core axiom or a method or a conscientiousness, or a morality
system or a spiritual program or a sacred intent or a holy lifestyle or a truth unassailable, then
you’re a materialist.
Stop that!
Ask: “Who am I?”
The answer that immediately comes is universal — all humans get the same answer.
That silence. That blank that the mind doesn’t fill to respond to your question — THAT’S THE
ANSWER.
The self is that silence. Abide in it. Dwell in it.
Visit it until you never leave it again.
Edg Duveyoung
Why is it so hard to see that there is no self?
First there is a mountain. Then there is no mountain. Then there is. — Donovan Leitch
Firstly you think you’re a you.
Secondly, then you find the you that you thought you were is
a mere instantiation of trillions of molecules of a nervous system, and
that the witness of that nervous system cannot itself be witnessed by that nervous
system, and
that the ego is an insentient artifact and
that there’s no actual you existentially speaking.
Despite the power of the illusory, the coiled rope cannot snake bite, the desert mirage offers no
water, and the processes of any form of consciousness can symbolize but never actually be the
true you. You’re not there and never have been, and the ego says, “I’M RIGHT HERE!”
Thirdly, then you find that the you that cannot be manifested is
the source of manifestation, and
only able to manifest that which it is, so the you that can never truly be is realized as that
which could never not be, and
that any representation of it is it exactly as truthful about it as every blindman’s
conclusion about the elephant was.
The true you is everywhere and never the same twice.
No wonder there’s push-back by the ego! All the words about the true self are a zero-sum set of
descriptors; whereas the ego can list an infinite amount of qualities of itself…..all positively actual,
measurable, individuated, point-at-able, and so nice to have over for dinner and conversation!
Bottom line: nothing is easy or hard except that God makes it so.
Edg Duveyoung
What makes God just?
Was Walt Disney just towards Mickey Mouse?
Tonight in your dream, will you bother to tell persons in the dream that their whole world is illusory
and that they and all their histories, all their intents, all their property, all the accumulated value of
all their acts of righteousness will instantly end when you wake up? Is that just of you?
Did God go out of His way to tell Job that He was wagering that Satan couldn’t get Job to curse
God no matter what Satan did to Job, and so Job’s property, wives and children were all taken
from him? Did God ever apologize to Job?
Did Moses get to the Promise Land?
Was it fair that Karna got killed by having a chariot wheel sinfully thrown at the back of his head?
Do three million children in the 3rd world deserve to die each year from drinking ditch water?
Answers to all the above questions:
Wait . . . .
I meant to type: Answers to ALL QUESTIONS PERIOD:
Karma is unfathomable.
There’s no there there. If there was, then maybe there’d be room to fit in “justice,” but nope.
All of space and time is jam packed with God. Can’t fit even a titch more into it.
Edg Duveyoung
How do I detach from thoughts during meditation?
How does a fish become “more wet?” How can awareness become unstuck from mentation when
it has always been and always will be unattached?
Awareness is prior to consciousness — the core self is transcendent without the least attachment
to thoughts.
The body/mind system is always percolating — without any permissions to do so being given to it
by the ego. Every activity, when attended, becomes a “mental experience.” For instance, your
elbow has been sending signals to your brain ever since you awoke this morning, right? And, yep,
there it is! But where were YOU when all those signals were being ignored?
See? THAT’S THE EXACT DETACHMENT TO BE SOUGHT.
Detachment IS THE NORM. The tiny titch of attachment left over is ridiculously wussy. Being such
EXPERTS in detachment, you’d think that the paltry speck of “bonding” remaining presents
absolutely zero challenge to cut asunder.
And it doesn’t!
We detach — mindfully, voluntarily, precisely all day long as we choose where to attend. What is
missed is that choosing to attend is the same as choosing NOT TO ATTEND ALL THE OTHER
STUFF.
We’re always totally ignoring almost all of it. Talk about being detached!
Same deal during meditation. Tons and tons and tons of activity ongoing and mostly ignored.
Have some faith in yourself! You’re already doing it.
And now the bad news: when you do become fully detached, you won’t be there to enjoy it! The
ego must cease operations to stop “the ego butting into everything and pretending it’s the author
of the moment.”
Someone will come up to you and say, “Hey, you’re not doing anything and accomplishing
everything,” and you’ll reply, “Oh, I never noticed!” And that’s how to be detached from everything
— innocently without even knowing it — and NO TRYING WAS INVOLVED.
Consult your inner ken as to how to talk to yourself about what you personally would accept as
proof of detachment during your particular method of meditating. Your mileage may vary. For
most folks, that proof is that their mantra stops and other thoughts get attended — that the
mantra stops without permission is the lesson that one is not the author of thoughts and that one
would be better off getting out of the “thought thinking business.”
It takes many lessons to amount to a clarity though. Have patience. Abide. Witness.
Edg Duveyoung
If enlightened souls knows the past, present and future, why don't they stop or warn
us about disasters?
I know everything.
Don’t be stink-eyeing me. You know everything too.
Not an opinion of mine — it’s scientific fact.
“Everything affects everything” is axiomatic. That means everything “knows” about everything.
Every particle of existence is, however so slightly, in a relationship with every other particle, and
this has been the case for at least 13 billion years.
Everything, despite its vastness, sees itself.
You too are a vastness of biochemical activity, yet your mind is able to know the status of any of it
by attending it. Same deal as the cosmos knowing itself.
Consider what happens when you walk. Your eyesight tells you where you can safely put your next
step, and stumbles are easily avoided.
Note that word, “easily.” We walk without being mentally burdened by all the decisions being made
— largely “unconsciously,” thousands and thousands of small corrections and observances make a
stroll a wonderful thing. We “know everything” needed to be known without putting it all on the
front burner of the mind. We don’t have to do work to know — knowingness can be automatic and
left unnoticed.
When one asks a guru to give advice, because it is assumed that the guru “knows everything with
absolute clarity,” we have to recognize that that guru is “on a stroll.” Ask where it’s safe to put a
next step, and the guru will tell you where, and you’ll be able to EQUALLY see the correctness of
the suggestion. Ask the guru where to put the next step that will lead to riches, fame,
enlightenment, and yep, the correct answer will also arise, BUT you will no longer be able to
equally affirm the guru’s wisdom.
Worse, the guru won’t be able to intellectually delineate why he gives the correct advice. The guru
can be confident without being able to offer a proof — just as you can be confident that you can
walk across a field without falling and not be able to show your proof of such a “prediction about
the future.”
But there’s a catch.
The guru’s advice is coming from God, and God has plans for your journey you know not of. The
guru is not going to help you avoid deserved karma; the guru’s job is to show you that YOU HAVE
NO KARMA. See the diff? With such a divine agenda, the guru is not going to be helping make
“the dream” better — first things first — the dream must end, because dream gold, dream fame
and dream enlightenment have no value, no worth, no heft.
And that’s the advice no one wants to hear. Ask for the solutions to all of life’s miseries, and most
folks just want a new car instead.
Edg Duveyoung
How do you personally work with drugs as spiritual practice?
Many observers have reported their results. This guy, Robert S. de Ropp - Wikipedia , wrote an
early book about it, but since then, many others have tried to conflate drug experiences with
spiritual experiences. Those tons of folks report tons of differing experiences as would be
expected. Scientific conclusions are seemingly impossible.
And the opposite too — many spiritualists try to take scientific hard data and interpret it as if it
were scriptural. Tao of physics and all that.
Projection onto the other side is done by both of the other sides.
Any practitioner looking for jazz probably will find all the jazz a nervous system can handle. It’s out
there for almost anyone — there’s always some way to augment consciousness.
Bad news: it’s like reading tea leaves and Rorschach blots — anything can be said to mean
anything.
Good news: That’s the lesson! Get it; wouldya just?
Krishna told the clearest mind on the planet that karma is unfathomable. Don’t even try to get to
the bottom of things. Ask Brahma about Lotus Stems.
That’s been my experience. I have never had a technique or drug or two-by-four-across-the-side-
o-ma-haid that took me to clarity. I was entertained or entrapped, and I could wax elegant about
the pleasures or angsts I processed. Oh, I could make a case about how I’ve evolved and how this
or that tilted me, pushed me, reformed me, and on and on.
But it would just be blarney. Useless babble that misleads in the worst kind of way.
It is solely no experience-ingness that reveals the actual. And that’s available as an all time reality
for anyone. Simply ask, “Who am I?” and YOU WON’T GET AN ANSWER, and that’s the answer!
Ask that question again and again until you can’t tell the difference between silence and love and
sentience.
Silence is what cultures the nervous system to manifest more silent moments. Chemicals that
calm one are not calming one as much as one tells oneself that one is calm. Tea leaves.
Truth: One is always calm. One is transcendent. No need to goose yourself to take a gander.
Awareness is silent and the home of all qualities — take a peek. Wouldya just?
Edg Duveyoung
Have you ever experienced a "glitch in the matrix"? What are some glitch in the matrix
stories in which something inexplicable happened?
Originally Answered: What is an odd glitch in The Matrix that you have experienced?
“Ego” is not an all time reality.
We all think we are always present and mindful, but we (our personality’s ego processes) are not
always operative. Whole events can happen without a single act of mindful, purposeful, egoic
intent being expressed in the stream of consciousness.
Happily we dismiss our “precious mental tyke’s” guidance when going about most of life. We
follow Yoda’s suggestion and don’t “try” to remember how to drive, but we DO drive with turn-
signaling properly done, with brakes applied appropriately as we travel past thousands of objects
without being distracted. We are not bothered by any mental need to bat away interrupting
thoughts or keep the traffic laws freshly perused or to “bring all ones driving wherewithal to the
ready.”
Nah, we’re relaxed. All that driving accomplishment is largely beneath the radar. We don’t do
much though very much is being done. Always.
THAT’S when to be ready to catch an odd glitch…..when the ego turns back on and tries to start
steering the ship again. To see clearly in that moment how so much of life was experienced
WITHOUT any sub-processes pretending to be the activity’s author, and then to see it suddenly
leap to the fore as if it’s been there the whole while, THAT’S RUDE, eh?
The good news: most of the time, we’re on automatic for most of what is being done. We’re
innocent like children then, see? We’re just riding high and witnessing the world without bothering
to put ourselves in it. The mind/body system never even misses us — especially when we’re being
excellent.
Turns out, we can discount the ego’s contributions. A lot. Okay, all of them are worthless. There I
said it.
Once the ego evaporates, it’s all easy peasy. One knows everything’s Source is the sole doer of,
well, everything. No need to butt in on what’s being done perfectly.
Greedy Source. Hoggy Source. Does everything itself Source, and all we’re left with is our
witnessing that which gets done with zero ego anywhere in the mix.
We witness.
Bad news: life’s a glitch.
Good news: and then we don’t die.
Edg Duveyoung
Does science validate or invalidate the concept of nondualism?
Turns out Lord Brahma answered this question, sorta, by failing to answer this question, sorta.
So there’s Lord Brahma having His first thoughts after finding Himself, fully formed with all His
powers, freshly “born” on a Lotus flower, and His first concern is rather ordinary — “Who am I?”
He wanted to know His Origin.
You and me too, right?
He had not yet “done creation,” so there wasn’t much by way of “other topics to think about;” all
around the Lotus was, what?, “more pre-space/time God stuff?” So, there were no things except
the Lotus flower’s petals. Kinda blah.
So, Lord Brahma peeks over the side of the Lotus and sees the stem of the Lotus going
downwards. Well, that was a clue, eh?
And down He dived. He was going to get His answer. He was determined. He was motivated. He
was God with God’s heft — His level of intent was almost infinite — HE WANTED TO KNOW!
So He’s diving down.
Down.
Down.
While He’s going downwards, let me remind you that Brahma’s wristwatch was not an Earthly
wristwatch. If His watch ticked over a single day, that was 100 human years long, ya see? He’s
1.24596 quadrillion years old according to Wikipedia. Brahma’s a bit of a dandy. He snugs up His
necktie, straightens up a bit, and insists that He’s 51 years of His Years old like He’s Jack Benny
being 39 forever.
So, anyway, He’s still going downwards, and it’s been a while. No, wait, IT’S BEEN THREE
THOUSAND OF HIS YEARS, and He’s sorta gettin’ antsy about “when is this stem ever going to
end, and I’ll find out where I came from?”
And something clicked. That is, after having His Divine Mind churn on it for 3,000 years, He had
“grown” His nervous system such that a clarity was achieved. He’d asked the hardest question to
answer, so it took awhile. And, He’d still be “doing the stem,” but, finally, Something Diviner Than
Brahma, took pity on Him and wedged another thought into that glorious stream of consciousness
so hard at work refining consciousness so that consciousness could become conscious of being
conscious. Sorta.
Betcha wanna know what that interrupting thought was, eh?
It was: I can’t get there from here.
“Here” — materiality, duality
“There” — transcendence, immateriality, non-duality
Lesson: Even God’s intellect is not able to parse awareness’ non-duality.
True identity cannot be grasped conceptually, emotionally, spiritually, anyway-you-are-tryingly.
You’re going to burn out even a divine brain by forcing it to churn to ever more subtle subtleties.
There is a calculus for this infinity that says, “The sum of all creation and all possible creations will
never end approaching infinity but never quite get there either, so let’s just have a cup of tea
instead and play horseshoes using fuzzy math and approximations.”
He’d stirred His campfire with a stick that finally itself was burnt. He’d have to end being a being
who wanted to be without being a being, so to speak. Oh, it was a self-referentiality conundrum, a
paradox Godel warned us about. Brahma, saw that He’d never see what not seeing was like, so,
existentially fearful, He stopped and went back up to the Lotus Flower, because He still had to
invent quantums and teach them how to foam. But that’s another story.
So, science has yet to give up parsing ALL THIS, and sooner or later they’ll get it that there’s an
actuality more actual than anything that exists which cannot be measured by any tool.
And that first scientist will then say, “Ah — we can’t put God in a formula, but we can transcend
our illusory status and realize our own divine ground-states underlying the quantum foam.”
But they’re just starting, and Brahma took so long.
Looks like we just gotta enjoy horseshoes.
Oh, okay, you want the horse’s mouth sounds instead? Here:
SB 3.8.1 8 — Lord Brahmā, in his ignorance, contemplated: Who am I that am situated on the top
of this lotus? Wherefrom has it sprouted? There must be something downwards, and that from
which this lotus has grown must be within the water.
SB 3.8.1 9 — Lord Brahmā, thus contemplating, entered the water through the channel of the
stem of the lotus. But in spite of entering the stem and going nearer to the navel of Viṣṇu, he
could not trace out the root.
SB 3.8.2 0 — O Vidura, while searching in that way about his existence, Brahmā reached his
ultimate time, which is the eternal wheel in the hand of Viṣṇu and which generates fear in the
mind of the living entity like the fear of death.
SB 3.8.2 1 — Thereafter, being unable to achieve the desired destination, he retired from such
searching and came back again to the top of the lotus.
Edg Duveyoung
Why do I hear an intense ringing and whirring when only a few minutes into
meditation?
First have a doctor examine your hearing equipment. Could be indicative of something small that
should be attended now — a stitch in time saves nine.
I have had a lot of different experiences in meditation but never predictable specific occurrences.
That’s got me guessing it’s some sort of muscular relaxation artifact that then afferently triggers
the ringing.
I could now list at least a dozen other theories. Diet, psychology, daily stresses, actual spirituality,
exercise, electric wires near you, silly-karma, caffeine & other chemicals, subtle self-abuse
patterns, wax buildup, and on and on.
Try the doctor. Most of the other theories are very hard to authenticate and harder yet to resolve.
Edg Duveyoung
Is enlightenment just Cypher enjoying a juicy steak?
Tonight,
as you sleep,
during a dream,
if you find that your dream character is equally quizative,
let’s hope he asks the question.
Any answer that that character might be offered during that dream will be as unpredictable, now,
by the waking you, as it will be to the character you’ll think you are tonight.
Any prediction about the content of our dreams is doomed to ridiculousness. Whatever your
present waking state character might imagine that tonight’s dream character might be
experiencing would miss the mark. You’re not the dream’s author, ya see? And though you might
be said to be the “god” of your dream worlds, you’re not.
And you’re not the author of the waking state’s thoughts either. Not the god of your mind.
We’re not the thinkers. We don’t think. We don’t make thoughts. There’s no inner committee on
which we sit that authorizes the future production of a thought. We are not in the mind business.
Identify with the person, solely, and ahem, soully also, NOT. We witness and that’s it.
Cypher was not given such clarity.
So, no.
Edg Duveyoung
How do I get mystical experiences?
Originally Answered: How can I achieve mystical experiences?
How can you deny that, in fact, you’re having a mystical experience RIGHT NOW?
Awareness is prior to consciousness. Consciousness is an emergent phenomenon of awareness —
that is: any experience, ANY, is an experience that has come out of awareness without the least
hint of instrumentality, and that’s mystical.
Perhaps you meant to ask: “How can I turn off all mystical experiences and thus experience the
sole actuality, the purest truth, awareness without consciousness?”
And that is a religious question.
I don’t do religious questions.
But if I did, I’d say, consult Advaita’s aphorisms but never 100% believe any statement by anyone,
including God.
Why?
Because until enlightenment, your nervous system is not pure enough to know what or when to
believe anything to any degree. Period. Get humble.
But until you KNOW that everything is illusion, you’d be a fool to not pretend everything is real. So
that’s a bother, eh?
Advaita’s self inquiry (asking: “Who am I?”) is a nice technique for getting quieter, and so some
folks will get meditational moments, here or there, wherein there’s clarity enough to see what
actually exists “between thoughts.” That kind of “experience” would be about as close as you can
hope for when it comes to mystical experiences.
But if you’re looking to meet gods, angels, etc., like I said, I don’t do religious answers.
Edg Duveyoung
How do you become enlightened?
Two answers: 1. “You” can’t be enlightened, because the “you” that “you” think is “you” is not a
“you” at all . That “you” is not sentient. 2. The YOU that YOU really are is PURE AWARENESS
which witnesses the “false you.” No enlightenment needed.
Edg Duveyoung
What lies beyond enlightenment?
That word “beyond” demonstrates that you can never satisfy a human being. We’re all looking for
more more more MOAR!
Good news. There’s an end point.
Bad news: The worse possible ever moment in human existence must be experienced in order to
get to the end point.
The deal: you can get free of falsely identifying with a “person;” that’s the basic requirement of
enlightenment, but the person (witnessed but not identified with) yet still evolves after realization.
That nervous system — now freed from egoic stubbornness — begins to experience the more
refined aspects of consciousness. This means that awareness of subtleties increases until life is
seen as if it were entirely created from sacred stuff. The person sees the utter and infinite
plenitude which fulfills every possible desire — and yet still, this wondrous achievement does not
turn off WANTING MORE.
And that’s the worse it can get — to have every possible thing and yet still hunger such that all
that is available is worthless. To be in God consciousness and KNOW that there’s more but there’s
no clue as to what that “more” could be — horrid. You’re standing in Heaven and can’t stand it.
And then the good news: the guru tells you, “That’s it.” From then on, wanting of any sort is turned
off forever.
From then on, the nervous system, yes, evolves yet more — this is the more part that the God
conscious person longs for — the “more” is that Unity Consciousness dawns, and all the
boundaries become as tenuous and ephemeral as notions of wisps of hints of ghosts of vapors of
concepts. Everything is now resonantly harmonized. It’s as if one is a jeweler and knows that the
shape of the gold has nothing to do with the value of the gold. It’s as if one realizes in a nightly
dream that it is a dream experience, and all the objects in that dream are KNOWN WITH UTTER
CERTAINTY TO BE ILLUSIONS. The chair, the air, the room, the world, the persons — all made of
MIND STUFF.
In India, they say that all that’s left of humanness when Unity has toggled is this “titch” called
leyshavidya — which is the amount of oiliness on the palm of the hand after a butter ball had been
held. Cute, eh? Even the most enlightened personality NEEDS this titch in order to have at least
enough boundaries left to conduct daily affairs and still “pull off” being human………instead of
GOD. It’s a necessary disguise to help all the others find their ways home.
And can there yet be more?
Yes, but that’s another essay. You’ve had enough “beyond” for today.
Edg Duveyoung
What are signs of awakening?
Imagine that you’re a character in one of your nightly dreams, and a “guru character” comes up to
you and says, “Wake up! You are not a character in a dream!” Doubtful that you’d wake up, right?
Everything in a dream is dreamstuff — to attend ANY of it, is to continue the dream.
Same deal in the waking state — no guru can snap you out of it. No aspect of life can insure that
transcendence is nearing.
In error, we assume that God wants all the personalities to evolve into saintly conformations, and
so, psychological sweets are sought as proofs.
Nope.
Ask Job about why God invented humans. We are here for heftier destinies than being calm, and
nice, and unoffensive and doing an hour lecture on Sundays.
Good news: the bad news is so bad without, that the sole good of existence is EASILY
DISCOVERED within. Simple awareness is the only actuality.
Better news: in the entire history of humanity, every person has insisted that awareness was
present at all times during all experiences.
Best news: It’s not like awareness is hiding from us, ya know? No need to see if there’s any signs
portending its “pending arrival.”
Edg Duveyoung
How good is vedanta for a chemical engineer trainee?
Exactly, precisely, and perfectly the same as it would be good for ANYONE. Find the self and all
destinies are fulfilled.
Almost any technique being suggested by any guru is “a good start.” Once one is exploring the
inner realm, if a technique’s efficacy is low, other techniques will be eventually discovered…..this is
my certainty……no effort is wasted once The Journey is begun in earnest.
It takes a lifetime to grow a nervous system’s clarity. Every experience adds to the ones ken. So
too with spirituality’s typical machinations — one gains clarity and slowly a confidence will build in
the technique or another spiritual program with more promise will be revealed……this is my
experience. Only by investing YOUR time will you gain the actual answer to your question. Take
that first step!
As a chemical engineer, you're expected to do some very serious calculations that require a mind
that is able to maintain a disciplined focus over time to process abstractions in the midst of a
distracting world. This can be tiring to both body and mind but also to spirit, and most folks take
care of body and mind but do little to strengthen the mind by practicing a meditative skill. This
lack of attention on ones spirit promotes an accumulation of “soul tiredness,” and that manifests
as a sort of underlying mood of uncertainty, doubt, hopelessness, confusion, etc. — a negativity
which then is projected upon daily life.
So, yeah, vedanta’s good for anyone, but not much better than having a good night’s sleep,
sane/decent friends, nutrition, exercise, sunshine, clean air and water — and on and on the listing
can go. Not attending these dynamics leads to weak intent and subsequent lack of fulfillment.
Adding meditation to your daily life is a must — perhaps the most important behavior — but it’s in
an orchestra of other instrumentalities upon which ones entirety depends. No need to over
emphasize spirituality — unless you feel “called to it.”
Edg Duveyoung
Is it true that an enlightened person would never say they are enlightened?
The enlightened insist that individuality is falsely assumed. Realization happens when the ruse is
penetrated. To say, “I am enlightened,” would be to assert that individuality is a legitimate
actuality.
Ramana has a nice discussion of this:
A visitor: All are said to be Brahman.
M.: Yes, they are. But so long as you think that they are apart they are
to be avoided. If on the other hand they are found to be Self there
is no need to say ‘all’. For all that exists is only Brahman. There
is nothing besides Brahman.
D.: Ribhu Gita speaks of so many objects as unreal, adding at the end
that they are all Brahman and thus real.
M.: Yes. When you see them as so many they are asat, i.e., unreal.
Whereas when you see them as Brahman they are real, deriving
their reality from their substratum, Brahman.
D.: Why then does Upadesa Sara speak of the body, etc., as jada
i.e. insentient?
M.: Inasmuch as you say that they are body, etc., apart from the Self.
But when the Self is found this body, etc., are also found to be in
it. Afterwards no one will ask the question and no one will say that
they are insentient.
D.: Viveka is said to be discrimination between the Self and the nonself. What is the non-self?
M.: There is no non-self, in fact. The non-self also exists in the Self.
It is the Self which speaks of the non-self because it has forgotten
itself. Having lost hold of itself, it conceives something as non-self,
which is after all nothing but itself.
Edg Duveyoung
Is mystical language of emptiness meant to be taken literally?
What isn’t uncertain? I find everything I say is fuzzy, poetic, abstract to a significant degree.
“I love you.” is a statement that can be easily deconstructed into a meaninglessness, but “two plus
two equals four” is almost universally assumed to be undeniable truth — at which any
mathematician would snicker since certain axioms must firstly be agreed upon before the formula
is valid.
So when it is “God” that is being discussed, the bugaboo is that“direct proportionality” between
concepts and reality is found to be unprovable, and that obviates any syllogism.
We can’t get there from here.
But if I call a sunset “beautiful,” you know what I mean, and communication has happened.
Well, when one yogi says to another, “I have no mind,” and the other says, “If I had one, I’d agree,”
we can suspect communication has happened…..even though there’s no scientific proof that each
is having an approximately similar experience in the nervous system.
Same deal for all the proclamations about the deepest truths.
Good news: That’s the best set-up. If we had certainty, life would be a claustrophobic bore. By
having all the boundaries and rules be arbitrary, liquid, wavy, not absolute, then all experiences
become personal, parochial, and specific-to-one-person mirages. FREE WILL is thus discovered
— life can be interpreted IN ANY MANNER. Talk about being made in the image of God — humans
can project any meaning into any experience — how amazing is that, eh?
So, nope, can’t take ANY statement as literal, but one MUST do so until spiritual clarity dawns;
then, life’s an unfathomable phantasmagoria about which nothing can be said EXCEPT something
poetic about that which is not there.
Enlightenment is finding there is mountain of karma, then finding there is no karma, then deciding
to chop wood and carry water same as usual…..only different.
Edg Duveyoung
If life was a dream, would you want to stay in it or wake up?
Here’s my answer to a similar question:
Enlightenment is all about ending the relentless addiction to identification after identification.
The yogi is 100% AGAINST reincarnating.
Here are two realities--two different lives--and you must choose one of them to be your own. Try
to decide which life you would rather be living. While you are reading the descriptions of them, try
to imagine what "the catch" is, but also "get into it" and really put yourself into each choice. Try it
"on for size."
Choice one: In this life, you are the absolute ruler of the whole world. You are a young, wise, sexy,
174 IQed, PhDed, devout and charismatic leader with the body of a gymnast. Sycophantastic
billions of followers bow at your feet. Love emanates from you at a rate of 295,108 gigglerads per
heartbeat. All of your people are happy in their lifestyles. The ghastly tragedies of today's world
are non-existent in yours -- no cellulite, dust mites, ear hair, or infomercials (okay, no war, famine,
pollution, crime, disease, or accidents either.) In this life, simply breathing is like eating dessert.
And, with your ken expanded by cosmic psychic powers, all you survey is, well, just swell!
Imagine yourself "waking up" in this world. Here is a glance at just one scene in this life: the first
rays of a morning's splendor slant across a veranda as you enjoy breakfast that glows with
spiritual energy. Like a DaVinci fresco, life is tableaued before you. A spouse's adoring glances
bathe you. Your singing children play in a nearby garden. Butterflies arrange themselves in
bouquets on the shrubbery. This precious moment will be one of millions yet to come in a glorious
life filled with growth, happiness, and fulfillment. Even at its end, God will come and personally
escort you to Heaven.
That's choice one. Not bad, eh? Tough act to follow! What could compete with such an offering?
Here is your second choice: You get the exact life in which you live now. You know--the one where
even household appliances routinely disobey you, where relationships only last until someone
makes a bad suggestion for a video rental, and where you're expected to perform like an organ
grinder's monkey for your next buck. Yeah, that one!
Have you chosen which incarnation you’d want to live?
The "catch". In order to live choice number one you will have to be bio-chemically put into a
permanent dream-state. The dreams that you have will be of that above described wondrous
world of choice number one. At any given moment, if you were to be awakened, you would report
a marvelous personal history. But, you will never be awakened. Why should you be? Do you want
to argue with your toaster about bread ejection efficacy? Pihhhh! And don't worry, your body will
be cared for 24 hours a day by a trained staff -- until you die.
Now that you've had the above mental experiences, ask yourself:
Have I already made this choice? Many times? Have I ever awakened from a wonderful dream and
somewhat reluctantly entered the "real world?"
Have I ever had a dream that I would re-enter forever? What is it about "real life" that competes so
easily with dream worlds which have their wonderfully intense emotions and activities? What can I
do to be more aware of this value I place upon my "real life?"
How is my childhood now like a dream I have had? Would I re-enter and relive my childhood?
What pleasures of life have now passed "forever" and are now something "outgrown?" My
childhood toys? My youthful desires? My adult plans? Which of these are now like dreams I have
had but do not need to re-run? What parts of my life right now are transitioning into "old news"
that no longer is alluring?
How do I spot the future towards which my present life is pointing? What can I do to make the
transitions easier?
How does ordinary life normally "process" my "desire sets?" What is it about the passage of time
that transmutes and/or extinguishes desires?
After I die will any part of my life escape this "dreamification" process? What will I look back on
that I will want to re-enter? Will I be "finished with desires" when I die?
How do I know the "evolutionary" value of "getting rid of a desire?" What do I gain from doing so?
How do I embrace "me now" when I know it will one day be "that old me?"
How am I always like a child?
How is my future wrought from my innocence?
Edg Duveyoung
Is it possible to do Interstellar travel by meditate?
If you get a friend to read to you, and you sincerely follow the instructions, you can get a pretty
good feel for how it feels FOR GOD to travel in space.
Rather than make this question "about me," let's try this instead. Get your own on the spot tailor
made answer -- have a good friend read the below you as you follow the instructions. If done
sincerely, you should be able to get a whole notch clearer about this "filling the universe" concept.
_______________
This is an extremely effective exercise if done as instructed. You will be experiencing a series of
"jumps". Do not rush this experiment. Take one jump at a time. The more you take your time, the
more powerful will your results be.
Jump One. After a few minutes of this "practice", now, in your mind's eye, with eyes still closed,
imagine that you can sense yourself ranging throughout your immediate environment as if it were
also your body. Pretend you are getting "reports" or "sensations" or "some sort of information"
from the nearby objects in the room. To whatever extent you can, sense the presence of the
objects of the room -- even though your eyes are closed. This sense may simply be a conviction
on your part that you "know" that the desk is "there". Pretend you can "somehow" feel the desk,
the chair, the floor, the other furniture in the room, and finally feel the presence of the walls of the
room like "another skin" around you. "Scoot around the room" like this for a few minutes with your
imagination. Feel that the room is completely filled with your aliveness, your consciousness. Sense
that every speck of space in the room has you within it.
Jump Two. After a few minutes, "break out" of the room. Pretend that you now can range freely
around the entire structure of the building you are in. Do NOT imagine yourself traveling around
the building like a ghost; instead, actually feel that you are being in every part of the building
simultaneously--JUST LIKE YOU NOW FEEL YOU ARE IN EVERY PART OF YOUR BODY. Fill the
building with "you", with your living presence. Take a minute or two to gain a bit of comfort doing
this, or rather, BEING this.
Jump Three. Now take a breath, let it out, and as you breathe out, fill up your neighborhood with
Jump Four. After a little comfort is gained, take another deep breath and fill up all the land around
you with awareness as you exhale. Blossom yourself to huge proportion. Pretend that the
seacoasts are like your toes and finger tips. Feel the immense dynamism of the detailed world that
is full with your loving grace and support. Feel like the one soul that pervades everything. See that
everything is IMMEDIATELY available to you -- just a glancing or listening and instantly that part of
you reports in with some data. Imagine smelling the sea air on one coast, instantly seeing a silent
bird gliding up a mountain slope and then immediately hearing the waves of the other coast.
Jump Five. Now, take another deep breath, and fill the earth with your spirit. Say "hello" to the
universe as you "try on" your Earth-body. Open your spiritual eyes to scan the vast reaches
around you. Feel the majesty of your new self, a magnificent planet with billions upon billions of
lives complexly intertwined. Feel the serenity of space as you bask in the pleasure of being so
vibrantly alive with awareness.
How much has Yellowstone's caldera floor risen?
Edg Duveyoung
What are the things that make us human?
Originally Answered: What makes us human?
Mistaken identity.
To correct this mistake, identity (awareness) must be realized as prior to consciousness.
Until then, we might as well all get along.
It’s not entirely horrid being material, and these naked apes within which we’re incarcerated are
not all that bad as “tourist vehicles.”
And it would really help if we’d all just admit that no one has an operator’s license for these
transporters, and it’s a decent day if one doesn’t crash their soul-bot.
Try to keep in mind that we’re not chimps anymore — that’s so last incarnation.
And if you mess up, well, there’s always Pure Being if you start acting hairy.
Edg Duveyoung
What would you do if you were immortal? If you found yourself not aging after your
26th birthday - your teeth and bones and eye sight do not age (or age incredibly more
slow than everyone else’s) - but you still bleed if cut, what would you do?
This.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the end goal of meditation?
A perfect mind answered this question.
Krishna to Arjuna: “Unfathomable is karma.”
Suppose you’re sleeping and having a dream. In the dream, someone is pointing a gun at you and
demanding your money, but across the street in this dream, there’s some “guru type” guy in a
dhoti holding onto a triple staff yelling to this “dream you,” “Wake up! Wake up! Realize that you’re
sleeping and that ALL THIS is illusory. The robber, the gun, and the bullets are unreal. Fear not!
Simply wake up to solve all your problems!”
See?
The dream person that you are assuming yourself to be might have some powerful arguments
against this advice of a “mere stranger” wearing a necklace made with Rudraksha beads that are
as big as tennis balls.
You might say, “I can see the robber and the gun. Throughout my entire life, EVERY SINGLE
PERSON I have ever known has said that I can be killed by a bullet, but you’re there saying I
should ignore THIS TRUTH?”
The Guru would shout back, “Yes! Take my word for it! Look in my eyes! See my integrity! Wake
up! Wake up! All this is merely thoughts of a sleeping person. I’m not real, you’re not real, the air
we breathe is not real, gravity isn’t real. ALL THIS IS THE SAME STUFF! Wake up and find your real
self to be perfectly safe from any problems of this world. You, in fact, are the “god” of this world.
You are the sleeping person who is dream-creating all of this, and in the dream you’ve created
your dream body/mind to explore it. And you dreamed me up to tell you in the dream to wake up!”
You might then quite reasonably look at the robber and say, “Here’s my money, but let me keep
twenty bucks to give to that homeless guy over there, because that dude is totally out it.” The
robber might find the common ground shared ironically funny enough to grimace a smirk without
losing his thug-serious face.
This is the problem with explaining the end goal of meditation. There are no words of this world
that pertain to THE REAL. Everything anyone knows is of this world. The dream guru can’t offer an
explanation that will be so edifying that the dream person will wake up.
When the dreamt person stops being dreamy, the entire dream stops too, and therefore, there’s
no person left to realize the dream is over.
And the awakened don’t care in the least about the absolute destruction of entirety.
Nor do you when you wake up from a dream world……no matter the dream or the role you played
in it…….including ALL THE GOALS that anyone had.
The end goal of meditation? You had me at “end.”
Edg Duveyoung
What do you consider to be a "Spiritual Warrior"?
God.
Being God, God said, “What would it be like to not be Me?”
God answered: “Why, I’d have to create an almost infinite variety of shapes and forms, toss in
ersatz sentience (consciousness) in ALL OF IT, and then look at this creation from every possible
viewpoint but the one which I presently enjoy.”
God then said, “Whew. What a risk. I might get so lost in there. Who knows? It might be that I
create a kind of consciousness in this that could have a viewpoint that is so delicious I’ll forget
how wonderful My present ken is. I could GET STUCK!”
God then resolved, “But since I’ve inquired, of course, all this is now manifest as a potential, and
My supreme compassion has already extended to all the illusory denizens of this creation. Empty
headed little puppets are so dang adorable!”
God took a deep breath, and as it was exhaled, said, “Here goes Nothing.”
That’s a Warrior.
Edg Duveyoung
I am turning 30 this December and I am terrified. I have achieved nothing. Am I
hopeless? Should I just live through this life accepting the fact that fate has been harsh
on me?
Originally Answered: I am turning 30 this December and I am terrified. I have achieved nothing. Am I hopeless?
Bad news: There has never been any such thing as individual achievement.
Badder news: There is no individuality.
Worst news: Hopelessness must be enjoyed as much as any other quality of existence.
Even harsher news: You are witnessing a phantasmagoria devoid of causality.
Existentially threatening news: Nothing exists. No thing exists. No-thing-ness exists.
Almost the ultimate in bad news: You are transcendent awareness within which mystically appears
all of creation, Hiranyagarbha, which is merely an illusory processing of imaginary qualities.
Odd tidbit news: The darkest paint on Caravaggio’s pallette was BELOVED by him.
Final absolute news that is horrid to every entity and every possible entity: This is all merely God’s
dream-spun playground populated by all manners of consciousness, and it is so wonderful that
angels are envious of even the most dull-minded Earthly witnesses who are attending all that is
manifest with human eyes.
—————————
But all the above words won’t help you heal even a paper-cut. Your destiny might not come into a
focused clarity until you’re 70 years old, or perhaps NEVER, and that also would be perfect.
Until then, travel in any direction and wherever you go, whatever you experience will be the divine
in disguise; don’t be fooled otherwise; your life is being sacredly constructed without any
limitations.
Edg Duveyoung
How could tomorrow’s supermoon effect an enlightened mind?
Originally Answered: How could tomorrows supermoon effect an enlightened mind?
The enlightened insist that they have no minds.
But but but, the nervous system that an enlightened person “witnesses” is entirely under the sway
of natural laws — which are entirely under the sway of the Divine. Miracles can contradict physics,
but, as usually defined, a miracle is very rare; the classic proviso is, after enlightenment, “Carry
water; chop wood” — the mind is yet still ordinary — which means that it can be typically found to
be “very human” in how experiences are processed.
The enlightened person knows that causality is illusory. Things don’t affect things — except that
God is pleased to make it seem so — just as, you, a human, do in a nightly dream where you can
“change anything instantly without there having to be a reason or cause in the dream.” There’s no
law of gravity in a dream, but every dropped thing hits the dream floor. When Judy gets smacked
by Punch, Judy feels no pain, but the puppeteer is pleased to have her seem to be sentient and
reactive. No causality, see? No matter what Punch does to Judy, Judy is free to respond in any
manner. This is the freedom of God seen by the enlightened — they see the Divine’s perfect
creativity — unfettered by gravity or logic or any thing.
The above said, the enlightened person’s body/mind system continues to “evolve” towards every
greater clarity. This means that that person will psychologically and physically become more
sensitive to beauty and all the other qualities of existence. So, we should not be surprised if the
extra close Moon is extra largely appreciated by an enlightened person. Whether God will have
that enlightened person’s mind be seemingly inspired to greater heights of piety or whatever — is
unknowable.
Another consideration is that the Moon is a reflector of the “vibes” sent at it by all the humans
gazing at it. It is said that the enlightened experience this as a wave of love coming from the
Moon. Luckily, everyone loves the Moon; it could be miserable if everyone was angry at the Moon,
eh?
Edg Duveyoung
What are some nice book for introductory Vedanta, Neo-Vedanta?
Which is the best book on advaita vedanta?
Edg Duveyoung
Who are the writers of Advaita Vedanta?
Advaita posits that individuality is an illusion, and that God (transcendent awareness) is the sole
author of all possibility. God writes every “individual’s” mind. The enlightened person knows this
truth as much as any puppeteer knows that Punch and Judy are operated by one entity.
“Writer” is not the best word, because all the Hindu scriptures were handed down verbally from
father to son for most of history. Hindu scriptures were written down only comparatively recently.
Shankara’s disciples were said to be endowed with amazing intellects, but the tale often told is
about Totakacharya, also a disciple but his duties were to be cook and washer, and yet, he would
tend the daily lectures along with those stellar brains. One day, Totakacharya was late, and the
Master did not start his lecture — waiting for Totakacharya. The other disciples were miffed,
because they knew that they were the ones who most deeply appreciated Shankara’s treatises
and engaged him with clear-minded questions such that the teaching was fully revealed. Why wait
for Totakacharya?
And up the hill Totakacharya came . . . singing a new hymn — never before heard — a hymn that
instantly was recognizable as authentic scripture, because it upheld and embodied every classic
virtue of scriptures. It WAS scripture sprung straight from silence into a mind that was receptive —
as have all scriptures arrived.
The purport of this tale is that ANYONE can be a writer of Advaita if humility falls in love with
silence. Your next thought that you know not of, yet still is arriving from the same holy source, and
when it arrives, if you cannot appreciate its entire provenance, then the divinity of your mind will
not be authenticated. By paying attention to silence, and getting comfy with silence, then you’ll
get to see thoughts when they first emerge from it.
And then, then you can discover you’re not doing anything and witnessing a mind that’s
accomplishing everything, and it’s so blissful, it’s worth writing about.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the purpose of prayer in Vedanta? And why do people after enlightenment still
practice praying?
Prayer is worship, or it’s not prayer.
“Worship” is “to attend.”
Only the self is worthy of prayer.
True prayer is attending the functioning consciousness of a human nervous system while it is in a
state of “pure being;” this “residing in pure being” is the body/mind system’s using a biological
state of least activity — its primal manifestation — as a fitting metaphor with which to mirror the
self’s indescribably endless silent sentience.
Dwelling in pure being is atonement — a nervous system that has calmed down doingness to great
degree such that the witness of mind can, instead, attend ITSELF now that the bothering attention
hogs (thoughts, emotions, sensations) are at least temporarily not giggling in the pews during the
prayer.
Pure being (amness, OM, pure consciousness, etc.,) is the first instantiation of awareness-made-
material.
After enlightenment the mind-ego lets go and that lets God divinely guide the nervous system
toward greater clarity about “creation.” Usually the newly enlightened are found praying because it
accelerates this continued — albeit ersatz — evolution — which is to see that instant by instant,
the self is there as the witness within, without and beyond. It is as if a non-stop birthing of God’s
next thought right before ones eyes — and every other sense or faculty to observe.
Praying is experiencing “what is” being fully sprung from no-thing-ness and sacred down to the
quark.
Funzies! That’s that reason! It’s thrilling to pray.
This said we must note that howsoever much we insist that pure being is “listening to silence,” the
real-world basis for this experience is the processing of a nervous system which must necessarily
be a vast biochemical enterprise, and therefore ersatz and arbitrary as symbols go. But, turns out,
pure being is none-the-less divinely designated as the very epitome of quiescence and a fitting
four dimensional metaphor for the sacred.
In pure being, the intellect and the heart are in unity and at peace. It is heavenly.
It is restorative. In pure being, one’s whatever wherewithal needed is used to increase the
peacefulness of the system. Just as nightly sleep refreshes not merely the body but also one’s
entire outlook, so does the more subtle peacefulness of pure being restore the spirit from its daily
tiredness…..the tiredness from doing the hard work of pretending one is an ape….it’s exhausting!
After enlightenment, the only thing left to do is let the body/mind enjoy being entirely natural,
instinctive, dharmic — let the three gunas have their play. By praying, the enlightened ones
support this playfulness by engaging the entire system in worship. Prayer leads to pure being,
because each of the various faculties of the mind have been brought to a least state of activity,
and worshiping is the natural method to “get everyone jiggy with silence — when God sings a one
note song, OM, the sound of existing.”
Worshiping is training the mind to recognize that no matter the process attended one can see
every aspect of existence — from faintest expression to resultant behavior — as divine, equally as
sacred as the silence of pure being.
So, we see the benefit to the enlightened is that the mind being witnessed is trained to become
ever more subtle, more encompassing, more harmonious with God, and less likely to suffer the
dissonance of disconnection.
Edg Duveyoung
How does meditation help to raise consciousness?
Depends on your definitions, and good luck getting every reader to agree with them.
My definitions:
Meditation — becoming quieter in mind and body by using a technique that results in what
traditionally is called “pure being.”
Help — supports divine intent.
Raise — grow
Consciousness — self-referential bio-chemical processing in a system that uses DNA to locally
decrease entropy that offers an almost infinite set of states — all of which are assigned
meaning(s) by God (awareness.)
That’s all poetry above, so let’s not dither too much about refinements. The question can be
answered with the above definitions.
How meditation helps raise consciousness is PERFECTLY UNKNOWABLE.
I hope this satisfies.
Edg Duveyoung
How would you wish to be born again given the chance?
I don’t want to be born again. Elsewhere I wrote about the issue. Here: Edg Duveyoung's answer
to I like Hindu philosophy and Vedanta, but how can the concept of "reincarnation" stand the test
of rational logical thinking?
Edg Duveyoung
What is the difference between the yogic path of meditation and the Zen path of
meditation?
Originally Answered: Is there any difference in the results from practicing mindfulness meditation vs using
guided meditation?
Both methods require using the nervous system in a manner that does not directly foster
transcendence.
Mindfulness Meditation
Typically, the instruction for mindfulness meditation is to pay attention to the mind’s contents as
the senses flood the mind with inputs. This immediately results in the mind seemingly attending to
“now.” But “now” is quite a suspect assertion if we consider that science has established that the
mind “pre-thinks” before a particular thought arises in the mind and is said to be — only then —
consciously apprehended.
Additionally paying attention to “what is” during mindfulness is challenging, because particular
processes can gain and keep most of ones attention when one is hoping to, instead, pay attention
in the global sense of being aware of all the processes — not solely the interesting ones. This
technique slips into day dreaming, contemplation, obsessing, remembering, etc.; to avoid getting
“off track” while trying to be mindful can be quite frustrating. Theoretically, if one is able to attend
to all happenings without favoring any of them especially, then one is “witnessing.” The witness is
said to be beyond any prejudice in deciding “what to attend;” it attends all processes equally, so it
could be that mindfulness meditation can create a mind that enjoys a wide-angled vision. Not a
bad result, but not necessarily one that prods evolution toward enlightenment. A wide-angled
mind can be quite the wonderful thing — the individual being not easily perturbed.
Guided Meditation
This is an iffy technique. One has to have a great certainty that the guide has spiritual integrity —
not just a nice smile and soft toned voice. If the guide is not a guru of considerable acumen,
chances are that the meditation will result in mere listening instead of “partnering with a guide to
go deeper and deeper into the most subtle layers of consciousness.” Care must be taken to avoid
a “hypnosis session” being the result. Hypnosis, while having some real world actuality, is not
much more than a shallow “rough paralleling” of the mind of the mind of another; “surrendering to
another’s mind” is fraught with risks that could be more serious than merely that “time was
wasted.”
So, I vote for mindfulness meditation, but, no, not really. I favor techniques that support
transcendence — wherein one gets out of the “person business.” As long as one thinks one is
personally accomplishing something via a meditation technique, one is going to be challenged to
transcend being “a one that does.”
Only God is doing ALL THIS; meditation can prove this by taking the mind “out of itself” into pure
awareness — which is beyond even the state of consciousness known as pure being.
Bottom line: all attempts will succeed. Even true for fools and folly.
Going inward always results in the gradual growth of clarity about the nature of consciousness. If
something isn’t working, it will be dropped, and that which does work will be supported. Such a
mind will find its way to pure being and reside there until true freedom from falsely identifying with
a nervous system dawns — when the endlessness of pure being turns out to be claustrophobic
and is escaped by realizing that awareness is infinite, sentient, metaphysical and beyond any
processing of any nervous system.
Afterword: I did a sample of guided meditation. It shows how I would guide. Linking to it here to
show my bias against this manner of meditation is a bit “complex.” Edg Duveyoung's answer to
Have you ever experienced your consciousness expanding to fill the universe? What was it like?
What does it mean?
Edg Duveyoung
What are some good plot ideas for a movie/film?
Originally Answered: What are some good plot ideas for a movie?
Someone at reddit asked for story suggestions. Here’s what I came up with; maybe one of them
could give someone an idea for a fully sussed film.
1. An artist starts dreaming of a woman. He draws her face again and again for months.
Finally, one day, his mother visits, and he shows her the drawings. She collapses in a
heap, sobbing, revealing at last, that she'd kidnapped him when he was only two years
old, and she says, "AND THAT WOMAN IS YOUR REAL MOTHER."
2. It's a paradigm shift. It's real. It happens. Everyone experiences it. Every person suddenly
and with complete conviction hears the same tune playing in the background of their
minds. Not an obfuscation, but there. Take us through that experience as folks figure out
they're all tuned to the same channel.....and haven't a clue about why or what the song
could mean, but now without a doubt that something did something to everyone, and no
one knows what that something is intending. Show us the true believers, the haters, the
CIA, the children on laps, the crowd at a football game.....discover for us what that
bombastic but real event would be like and make us AFRAID and longing for the silence
no one will ever know again.
3. A man steps into the sunlight on the solstice at Stonehenge, and from that point on, he's
beleaguered by a constant flow of miracles that only he can see. For instance, he drops a
handful of coins, and they all come up heads, but when he points it out to a passerby, the
passerby says, "Yeah, right, nice try." Or, he kicks a stone that rolls a bit, hit something
else that, yep, Rube Goldbergishly, continues animating a dozen other items over a long
period of time, and again, no one sees but him, and he is never believed. Any time he
throws a stone on water, it skips twenty times. Like that like that. At the end of the story,
he comes to a private detente with this fate.
4. All the animals on Earth disappear suddenly. Gone. Alien abduction, whatever, but gone.
Make the reader feel the heartbreak and the growing clarity of the doom now on the
horizon.
5. A priest discovers his long lost identical twin is a Mafia don. This brother is dying when he
contacts him, they bond, and the don gives his priest brother the checking accounts, the
lock boxes, the hideouts, the books, the secrets, the places where the dead are buried,
etc. and begs him to "undo all I have done, be the good me." The priest has to handle
some other mafioso just as his brother breathes his last, and the priest easily sees how
he could pull it off when the mafioso is entirely fooled. We see him closing a door, but we
know, he's opening a bigger one. Fade into the sunset.....with a girl oh his arm ...you
know, like always....only not ever again.
6. An avatar, a Quantum God, manifests on the floor of the stock exchange and gives a
Sermon On The Mount type of soliloquy as He easily bats away the security guards while
at the same time transfixing the brokers into rapt attendance by the awe of THE moment
of all moments in history. And toss in some T & A somehow.
Edg Duveyoung
If Advaita Vedanta refers to world as an illusion and considers world separate from the
ultimate Brahman. How does it justify its non dual philosophy?
Ramana answers this question almost every time he speaks. Here’s some text that pertains:
“3rd January, 1937
Drops of Nectar
314. In yesterday's answers, Sri Bhagavan said that the Self is pure consciousness in deep
slumber, and He also indicated the Self of the transition from sleep to the waking state as the ideal
for realisation. He was requested to explain the same. Sri Bhagavan graciously answered: The Self
is pure consciousness in sleep; it evolves as aham ('I') without idam ('this') in the transition stage;
and manifests as aham ('I') and idam ('this') in the waking state. The individual's experience is by
means of aham ('I') only. So he must aim at realisation in the way indicated (i.e., by means of the
transitional 'I'). Otherwise the sleep-experience does not matter to him. If the transitional 'I' be
realised the substratum is found and that leads to the goal.
Again, sleep is said to be ajnana (ignorance). That is only in relation to the wrong jnana
(knowledge) prevalent in the wakeful state. The waking state is really ajnana (ignorance) and the
sleep state is prajnana (full knowledge). Prajnana is Brahman, says the sruti. Brahman is eternal.
The sleep-experiencer is called prajna. He is prajnanam in all the three states. Its particular
significance in the sleep state is that He is full of knowledge (prajnanaghana). What is ghana?
There are jnana and vijnana. Both together operate in all perceptions. Vijnana in the jagrat is
viparita jnana (wrong knowledge) i.e., ajnana (ignorance). It always co-exists with the individual.
When this becomes vispashta jnana (clear knowledge), It is Brahman. When wrong knowledge is
totally absent, as in sleep, He remains pure prajnana only. That is Prajnanaghana.
Aitareya Upanishad says prajnana, vijnana, ajnana, samjnana are all names of Brahman. Being
made up of knowledge alone how is He to be experienced? Experience is always with vijnana.
Therefore the pure 'I' of the transitional stage must be held for the experience of the
Prajnanaghana. The 'I' of the waking state is impure and is not useful for such experience. Hence
the use of the transitional 'I' or the pure 'I'.
How is this pure 'I' to be realised? Viveka Chudamani says, Vijnana kose vilasatyajasram (He is
always shining forth in the intellectual sheath, vijnana kosa). Tripura Rahasya and other works
point out that the interval between two consecutive sankalpas (ideas or thoughts) represent the
pure aham ('I'). Therefore holding on to the pure 'I', one should have the Prajnanaghana for aim,
and there is the vritti present in the attempt. All these have their proper and respective places and
at the same time lead to realisation.
Again the pure Self has been described in Viveka Chudamani to be beyond asat, i.e., different
from asat. Here asat is the contaminated waking 'I'. Asadvilakshana means sat, i.e., the Self of
sleep. He is also described as different from sat and asat. Both mean the same. He is also asesha
sakshi (all-seeing witness).
If pure, how is He to be experienced by means of the impure 'I'? A man says, "I slept happily''.
Happiness was his experience. If not, how could he speak of what he had not experienced? How
did he experience happiness in sleep, if the Self was pure? Who is it that speaks of that
experience now? The speaker is the vijnanatma (ignorant self) and he speaks of prajnanatma
(pure self). How can that hold? Was this vijnanatma present in sleep? His present statement of the
experience of happiness in sleep makes one infer his existence in sleep. How then did he remain?
Surely not as in the waking state. He was there very subtle. Exceedingly subtle vijnanatma
experiences the happy prajnanatma by means of maya mode. It is like the rays of the moon seen
below the branches, twigs and leaves of a tree.
The subtle vijnanatma seems apparently a stranger to the obvious vijnanatma of the present
moment. Why should we infer his existence in sleep? Should we not deny the experience of
happiness and be done with this inference? No. The fact of the experience of happiness cannot be
denied, for everyone courts sleep and prepares a nice bed for the enjoyment of sound sleep.
This brings us to the conclusion that the cogniser, cognition and the cognised are present in all
the three states, though there are differences in their subtleties. In the transitional state, the aham
('I') is suddha (pure), because idam ('this') is suppressed. Aham ('I') predominates.
Why is not that pure 'I' realised even now or even remembered by us? Because of want of
acquaintance (parichaya) with it. It can be recognised only if it is consciously attained. Therefore
make the effort and gain consciously.”
Edg Duveyoung
What are the chances that we live in a computer simulation (Matrix)?
My answer elsewhere: How do we know that we're not living in a computer simulation?
Edg Duveyoung
What is revealed by Advaita Vedanta?
To each aspect of ones wherewithal a separate knowledge is revealed.
Everything affects everything.
To cite what’s revealed by a select few aspects:
To the intellect, I would respond: Uh, would you believe “everything is revealed?” If so, then,
maybe you could be convinced that “nothing is revealed” and that getting clear about that is a far
more worthy goal? And then, down the line, you might be convinced that ALL THIS is really
nothing and never has been “thingish” in the least. “First there is a mountain, then there is no
mountain, then there is.” — or something like that.
To the heart, what is revealed is that infinite love is not infinite enough and that one must either
abide with this limitation (angelic agony) or give up every possible boundary, shed individuality,
and merge with God perfectly. It’s a tough call. When you meet God, you two figure it out
together.
To the world, Advaitic scriptures are there to entice humanity’s spiritual lust. Scriptures remind us
that enlightenment is possible, and those of us who are ready can find that Advaitic concepts can
serve as a motivational prod to do the tapas, get clear, transcend forever, and not ever need to
read a single scripture again.
To you, I have no answer. Your nervous system will produce absolutely unique biochemical
processes with which to embody your conceptual grasp using whatever constructs it deems
fitting. Consult your nearest Zen tale for how oddly this can manifest.
To me, oh shut up wouldja?
Edg Duveyoung
What is "I" in Vedanta?
Nothing. No thing. Un-nameable. Uncontainable. Beyond the beyond. Infinite beyond counting.
Silent sentience. Awareness prior to any form. God’s witness within anything with an inside. That’s
enough, eh?
Edg Duveyoung
What is the turiya consciousness state like?
Turiya, the so-called fourth state of consciousness, is an experience without a thought describing
it but awareness is yet still present. Pure being, amness, OM, transcendence, and other
descriptors are used for pointing at this state.
Have you ever read a paragraph in a book and discovered your mind was attending other things
despite your eyes having scanned the text? You were transcending visual input while attending an
inner processing. If done for ones “reading of life’s book,” one enters pure being — one attends
attending without any intending. It’s a state of least quiescence where all the functionalities of the
body/mind system have subsided to great degree.
It is common, while in this state, for the breathing to come to a stand still for a few moments. Not
much call for oxygen, see? And it’s natural — not ego driven.
It is in this state that one can finally sunder the attachment to ego by abiding in an egoless state —
it develops subtlety. The bonding loosens. Identity can then be realized as non-material,
transcendent to even time and space. Instead of wanting to be “a person,” one discovers that
every person ever is an instantiation of self, and it is all automatically manifesting without need for
any doing or identifying. The person one thought one was is just another person after
enlightenment dawns. Ditch digger or king — it doesn’t matter.
Oh yeah, I forgot, it’s bliss without boundaries - not happiness which is conditional. Everything’s
being done correctly by a divine agency — this satisfies all desires….and the ensuring peace is a
silence unknown to most. “Bliss” is a pretty good word for it.
Edg Duveyoung
What is your review of Advaita Vedanta?
It’s a philosophy based on one single truth: awareness is prior to consciousness. And it can be
tested for actuality without using intellect or heart. Simply ask the mind: “Who am I?” The mind
(intellect and heart) has no answer, and it doesn’t offer any, and THAT’S THE ANSWER. Identity is
transcendental, not material, not conceptual, not spiritual (as usually defined.)
Actuality is not graspable, by no nervous system’s consciousness, even God’s, but identity is
realizable.
As for practicality, chances are NOT GOOD that using any of the techniques being offered today
will “work” well enough that certainty can be garnered. Why? Today’s world is a cacophony of
irritations — most nervous systems on Earth are jangled so much that brains are spewing thoughts
and emotions in a heightened state of frenzy — a frenzy that most folks consider “normal.”
It isn’t.
Only by taking extraordinary measures could most folks get themselves into a lifestyle that would
calm them down enough such that realization could happen. Most folks would need a guru, an
ashram, and a lot of money in order to get their brains settled down from the clamoring chemistry
of anxiety. Merely understanding Advaita is not going to “cut it.”
But but but, studying Advaita has given me the intellectual clarity with which to “rate” other
philosophies and religions. The good news: Advaita principles CAN be found in all
scriptures…..generally hidden to deep degree, but THERE. And that calms me down a lot — to
know that all the religions were in basic agreement about “what’s real.”
So I say, “Study Advaita if you find it ringing your chimes. Otherwise, probably it will be considered
(wrongly) by you as a waste of time. And if you do Advaita’s “self inquiry” as your technique for
gaining enlightenment, don’t expect any results unless you’re dedicating your entire daily lifestyle
to supporting that evolutionary intent.”
Edg Duveyoung
I like Hindu philosophy and Vedanta, but how can the concept of "reincarnation" stand
the test of rational logical thinking?
Enlightenment is all about ending the relentless addiction to identification after identification.
The yogi is 100% AGAINST reincarnating.
Here are two realities--two different lives--and you must choose one of them to be your own. Try
to decide which life you would rather be living. While you are reading the descriptions of them, try
to imagine what "the catch" is, but also "get into it" and really put yourself into each choice. Try it
"on for size."
Choice one: In this life, you are the absolute ruler of the whole world. You are a young, wise, sexy,
174 IQed, PhDed, devout and charismatic leader with the body of a gymnast. Sycophantastic
billions of followers bow at your feet. Love emanates from you at a rate of 295,108 gigglerads per
heartbeat. All of your people are happy in their lifestyles. The ghastly tragedies of today's world
are non-existent in yours -- no cellulite, dust mites, ear hair, or infomercials (okay, no war, famine,
pollution, crime, disease, or accidents either.) In this life, simply breathing is like eating dessert.
And, with your ken expanded by cosmic psychic powers, all you survey is, well, just swell!
Imagine yourself "waking up" in this world. Here is a glance at just one scene in this life: the first
rays of a morning's splendor slant across a veranda as you enjoy breakfast that glows with
spiritual energy. Like a DaVinci fresco, life is tableaued before you. A spouse's adoring glances
bathe you. Your singing children play in a nearby garden. Butterflies arrange themselves in
bouquets on the shrubbery. This precious moment will be one of millions yet to come in a glorious
life filled with growth, happiness, and fulfillment. Even at its end, God will come and personally
escort you to Heaven.
That's choice one. Not bad, eh? Tough act to follow! What could compete with such an offering?
Here is your second choice: You get the exact life in which you live now. You know--the one where
even household appliances routinely disobey you, where relationships only last until someone
makes a bad suggestion for a video rental, and where you're expected to perform like an organ
grinder's monkey for your next buck. Yeah, that one!
Have you chosen which incarnation you’d want to live?
The "catch". In order to live choice number one you will have to be bio-chemically put into a
permanent dream-state. The dreams that you have will be of that above described wondrous
world of choice number one. At any given moment, if you were to be awakened, you would report
a marvelous personal history. But, you will never be awakened. Why should you be? Do you want
to argue with your toaster about bread ejection efficacy? Pihhhh! And don't worry, your body will
be cared for 24 hours a day by a trained staff -- until you die.
Now that you've had the above mental experiences, ask yourself:
Have I already made this choice? Many times? Have I ever awakened from a wonderful dream and
somewhat reluctantly entered the "real world?"
Have I ever had a dream that I would re-enter forever? What is it about "real life" that competes so
easily with dream worlds which have their wonderfully intense emotions and activities? What can I
do to be more aware of this value I place upon my "real life?"
How is my childhood now like a dream I have had? Would I re-enter and relive my childhood?
What pleasures of life have now passed "forever" and are now something "outgrown?" My
childhood toys? My youthful desires? My adult plans? Which of these are now like dreams I have
had but do not need to re-run? What parts of my life right now are transitioning into "old news"
that no longer is alluring?
How do I spot the future towards which my present life is pointing? What can I do to make the
transitions easier?
How does ordinary life normally "process" my "desire sets?" What is it about the passage of time
that transmutes and/or extinguishes desires?
After I die will any part of my life escape this "dreamification" process? What will I look back on
that I will want to re-enter? Will I be "finished with desires" when I die?
How do I know the "evolutionary" value of "getting rid of a desire?" What do I gain from doing so?
How do I embrace "me now" when I know it will one day be "that old me?"
How am I always like a child?
How is my future wrought from my innocence?
Edg Duveyoung
At what age does a baby fall into duality and starts to believe in I and self?
My four kids all pretty much had their ego-identification established by age four years. But, of
course, ego is not an all time reality, and most kids under, say, 12 years old, can be found to be
frequently slipping into an ego-less state. If children are taught yoga asanas, they retain the bodily
flexibility (and the spiritual flexibility too) of their childhood to a greater degree, and when they do
begin to meditate, there’s less of a hard bonding to dissolve.
They say Socrates stopped suddenly while walking and stood still for 24 hours in a bout of
contemplation or “something.” That’’s a very nice example of adult transcendence.
It’s not that rare for most humans; almost anyone can “become absorbed in what they’re doing”
such that one’s sense of “being in charge” is greatly attenuated as one gets a wild ride on a mind
afire.
That’s duality’s norm. But, though “relatively ego-less” is an availability, miss not that there is a
much more primal and core identification with the body/mind system that is the actual “main
basis” of being a non-enlightened human. This comes to the fore when one is threatened — for
instance, you’re sitting at a sidewalk cafe’s table and a car jumps the curb and comes straight at
you — there’s no debating about the necessity of avoiding the harm, and the body is in motion,
instantly, BEFORE any thinking/debating/concluding can be done, because, in fact, one has
already done all that debating and is totally sold out to the body/mind system as “the only me I
know.”
That’s the target — that knee jerk identification — that is the binding which only deeper meditative
states can begin to address such that one begins to “relax one’s desperate grip on the
body/mind.”
Self-preservation is so ironic. By saving the body/mind, one continues to be ignorant of the true
self: awareness. The enlightened person knows that the body/mind is as much of an ephemeral
dream-state as any suchlike achieved during nightly sleeping.
But but but, they say even the most enlightened person yet must strive, at the last, to relinquish
the body. Dying’s never easy it seems. But staying alive beyond “natural” would be a tawdry
addiction.
And then? Give it all up, slip out of the body, and you find you actually just acquired a perfect
intimacy with everything…..one realizes that one is the self of all things.
And then you float above your old home and laugh……as those around you are crying their
goodbyes.
Edg Duveyoung
What if the spiritual experience of Adi Shankara and Advaita Vedanta as a whole is all a
delusion?
Well, who said it was not?
Awareness is prior to EVERYTHING ELSE.
But.
In order for awareness to be UTTERLY UNDERSTOOD, “all this” was, is and will be needed.
All this: God’s physicality……aka time/space/matter.
And every speck of God is dynamically becoming — that is: being’s witness — the “I Am” — is as if
solidifying/appearing out of awareness and into form, piece by piece.
That is: awareness is the elephant, and God is the group of blindmen describing it. Each
conclusion wrong, but each is also instructive in that the experiencer of the wrongness is helped
to recognize the error of seeking the light by attending mere shadows, and to intend instead to
reside in being and cite its silence as the perfect symbol of awareness with which to identify. This
is the glory of ordinary life.
Being is the meeting point between awareness and all the illusory forms….including the Gods.
Only silent being — intrinsically fecund with all forms — can be said to be the perfect symbol of
awareness’ infinitude, but, in truth, even so-called “silent being” is a state of consciousness which
is dependent upon trillions of atoms all abuzz! But “silent being” is a close as a human nervous
system can get to “being still.”
And, nicely, it does the trick.
The trick: residing in being, the yogi dwells in an ego-less, “thought”less state. No outward
thoughts are attended, and only the buzz of “OM” is allowed. This cultures the nervous system in
that the ego is not messing up the multitude of operations best left to the divine’s management,”
and the laws of nature can begin to get everything running according to divine whim…..not a
parochial ego which is but a temporary phenomenon. And when it is seen that everything is
running by itself, as do things in dreams, and that everything is God’s puppetry, the yogi’s
identification with “the person” becomes no longer tenable.
And at last, freedom from identifying with anything — even the mind of God — is realized as an all
time reality, and that it has always been so before even “being” was invented.
By whom, you may ask.
That was Brahma’s first question too.
So, yeah, go ahead. Ask.
Keep asking.
Edg Duveyoung
During meditation, how does one direct attention to the object of meditation, yet still
maintain peripheral awareness?
First ask: “What is attention’s relationship to awareness?”
They are not the same; in fact, it could be almost argued they’re opposites.
Placing attention is an act of consciousness — a physical, material, processing.
Awareness is the ground state of existence. It is immaterial, unbounded, transphysical, and
independent of any state of consciousness. It is God’s self, God’s own sentience from which
definitions (boundaries) spontaneously arise.
Every nervous system is constantly processing acts of consciousness — attending this processing
is the act of thinking thoughts or “having mind.”
To iterate the “same” thought (words, visuals, emotions, etc.) is yet still spontaneous and an
evolutionary “gift” from beyond existence. To witness oneself meditating is to experience an
evolutionary acceleration. All of existence is always evolving towards greater fruition, but to
meditate is to, as if, redouble the clarifying impact of the thinking process relative to the soul’s
ignorance of the deepest nature of awareness.
For an unenlightened person, any attempt to repeat an experience is to assert individuality. That’s
the golden error, which if practiced, gradually increases the nervous system’s ability to suss out
the mechanics of what is repeated and HOW it is being repeated. Fools pursuing their follies get
rewarded with the discovery that they’re not actually thinkers! Gradually one comes to see that
one is NOT the causative agent in the repetition process despite an entire lifetime of being
convinced otherwise. One comes to “grow” a nervous system that is so delicately addressable
that the very birth of a thought can be witnessed. And to know each as a perfect gift from God.
When one becomes convinced that one is doing nothing but yet everything still continues as if
one WAS doing it all, one is a saint — a being whose mind doesn’t get in the way of God’s intents.
To see the self as independent of the “person,” is to be enlightened, and, being free of one’s
person is to recognize that all minds are also illusions, and that all of existence is an emergent
property of awareness.
It turns out, there’s no one doing anything. All the time. It’s the funniest joke ever told.
Ask any new mother why she was deeply asleep and yet awoke instantly at the slightly perturbed
rustling of her infant. Awareness is 24/7, 360 degrees. There’s no such thing as “not having much
peripheral awareness.”
All this is God. You, for instance. If you think you’re NOT aware, that’s just God having funzies.
Meditate until you too are laughing about how once you were concerned about maintaining
peripheral awareness.
Edg Duveyoung
Can the sensory deprivation tank enable you to change the seat of consciousness?
Ramana Maharshi said the heart is the seat of the mind, AND it’s on the right side of the chest.
The story of Ganesha instructs that a head is not so important.
Additionally, Hinduism cites the structure of the chakras in the nervous system and posits that
each is a center of consciousness. Too, the human mind’s ability to “imagine anything” must be
considered — anyone can have a meeting with God in their nightly dreams or other phenomena —
why not be dreamlike convinced your mind is located inside your little toe?
Advaita teaches that everything is illusory — including therefore: “seat.”
As for your word, “change,” it is fuzzy about “permanent or temporary.” If temporary, then yeah, all
humans have temporary moments when identity seems more in the chest than in the head; if
permanent, then we have to talk about our definitions of enlightenment.
Loosely, the answer to your question is, yes.
I answered a similar question — here: Edg Duveyoung's answer to Can I use Isolation tank to
meditate and attain non-duality? Is it possible and ethical?
Edg Duveyoung
What is a sweet short story with a life lesson?
Another ancient tale retold in my own words.
Long ago, when such things were still possible in the minds of many, there were two very large
clay pots that had a rivalry. The one pot was new and beautiful and decorated with vibrant colors,
while the other had never been beautiful, was a single plain color, and was so old that the owner of
the pot had forgotten how it had come into his possession. These pots were across from each
other in a courtyard. Each was used to catch rainwater as it came off the roof -- an important duty
since rain was an infrequent and precious event in that place.
The old pot was ashamed of itself, for in addition to its ordinariness, it also had a thin crack from
top to bottom through which water would escape. During the drier months, many times the pot
ran almost completely dry, but the family used the new pot more often than the old pot, yet the
new pot always had enough water, and more, to spare. And, if the truth must be told, water from it
was favored simply because it was new and beautiful.
The new pot was proud of itself, and daily spoke about its qualities, and left no doubt about its
essential role in the daily life of the family that lived there. The old pot was unable to respond with
even a single point in its own favor, and, in fact, it agreed with all that the new pot had to say.
Years passed, and the new pot added even more to its claims by noting how little it aged, since it
was so well made. Its colors were still vibrant. If anything, the old pot had only changed for the
worse, and, daily now, suspected that soon it would be replaced.
One day, a child of the house was walking by the old pot with her father, and said, "Father, this old
pot leaks almost all its water. Why don't we get another pot like the new one?"
The father bent on one knee and pulled the child closer while picking a flower growing nearby.
While fastening the flower in her hair, he said, "Your mother would always visit this part of the
courtyard. The rains come irregularly here, but, still, it rains often enough to fill the new pot which
holds more than enough water for all our cooking needs, but this pot slowly lets out its water, and
because of this, all these flowers you see here can grow and be watered just exactly as is needed
-- especially when the rains are delayed.
"On the very day you were born, I brought to mother a flower from this exact spot, just like this
one, and she took it and showed it to your new eyes. It was the very first gift of love from her to
you. Whenever I see these flowers, I think of her and you in her arms that day. And on all our other
special days, always there are flowers growing here which then add grace to our celebrations.
"This pot is the very heart of the courtyard. The crack in this pot is perfect. If it were any bigger,
the water would leave too quickly; if any smaller, the flowers would not get enough water. I can
always get another pot like the other, but this one is unique and without equal. The finest pot
maker could not devise another like it."
As the father and daughter left the courtyard, the new pot gazed at the old with love and
reverence, and from that day forth they were friends.
Ask yourself,
Why is it that I surrendered to this story's premise that pots can be "sentient entities?" Am I still a
believe-anything-child, or what?
Are only humans capable of experience? Where do I draw the line when I consider the very subtle
gradual spectrum of awareness as I go from human to apes to dogs to horses and so forth -- all
the way down to atoms, parts of atoms, and yet to be discovered parts of parts of atoms? Where
does awareness cease?
When I feel ashamed of some quality of my personality, am I seeing clearly, or is it possible that all
things in life have "their place in the great scheme of things?" Can I feel good about being bad?
Can I give myself permission to feel okay about myself, and, in fact, look upon my "oddities" as a
"watering" of the lives of those around me? Can I allow others think this way too? What about the
"evil" persons out there; would I allow them to feel good about themselves? Should I?
What's more alive and aware: the character I think myself to be in a dream or the chair that
character is sitting on?
If my skin is a part of the "living me," and it has an outer layer that is sloughing off, can I consider
the earth around the roots of a plant to be alive? Where do living things end?
From another angle, when I consider that ALL THIS is "actually" chemical interactions within my
brain, is there really any case at all for considering inanimate objects to be different from sentient
entities?
Why am I so sure that there is really a "there" when everything is, ultimately and primarily, only
"inside my brain?"
Are my senses a glass wall? Do I seem to see through them, but actually they keep me from being
in direct contact with "there?" Is this glass wall tinted? If so, is it a rose-colored wall or another
color? What would “cleaning the glass” be?
Is my intellect another "perceptual tool" like my senses? Do I use it to "see" into life, and my past?
Is it tinted? What would a clear intellect be like? How would I recognize it? How could I go about
measuring mine for tint?
When I meet a person, can I tell the difference between a crackpot and cracked pot?
What flowers surround me?
Edg Duveyoung
Can anyone tell a good and real heartfelt story?
Here is an ancient story.
A mother seabird laid her eggs upon the beach. The ocean's waves came and swept the eggs
away. You might imagine how she felt.
The mother seabird asked the ocean to return her eggs. The ocean did not reply. The mother
seabird said, "Very well then, I will dry you up.”
Having thus vowed, the mother seabird began her task by taking a beak of sand from the beach
and dropping it into the ocean. Can you imagine how great was the task she faced?
She continued her efforts. She kept her vow relentlessly and one-pointedly without any other
consideration for herself. You might be able to imagine her alone, in the twilight, doing this with no
help whatsoever.
Soon, very soon, others noticed her efforts, and talk spread about her. As you may well imagine,
every manner of comment was expressed, but the words of others do not concern us here.
After some time, news of the mother seabird's efforts reached the king of all the birds. The king
was huge, glorious and great beyond measure, as I am sure you have imagined already.
The king said, "I will go and help this mother.” After arriving at the seaside, the king said, "Give
back the children to this mother.” You might imagine the depth of the silence in the world right
after the king spoke this command to the ocean.
The ocean trembled, for even one small feather of the king could soak it up. Quickly the eggs were
returned to the mother. I am sure you know how she felt as her wings once again enfolded them
near to her now peaceful heart.
Ask yourself,
Have I ever done anything to match this mother's one-pointedness?
With its powerful waves of experiences, what has life's ocean swept away from me? What might I
do to get it back?
Does something right now mean this much to me? What have I done to find the precious, most
lovable, "innocents" of my spirit?
Could I feel this way about ANY desire I had? Could I ever be THAT certain about how my future
"should be?"
How does diligence, earnestness, and one-pointedness fit into my present lifestyle? Would my
environment support me if I began to "get serious" about personal growth, conscious evolution,
and spiritual integrity? What would it cost me to raise my dedication to inner work up another
notch? How about ten notches?
What if I raised it up 100 notches? What king within me would respond to this intent?
What would happen if I absolutely meant something when I said it? How would I know it was
absolute? Is there an absolute aspect of existence to which I could compare it?
Why am I so sure that the words "eternal", "absolute", "infinite", "certain", and "God" have
meaning? What part of me knows this? Is this?
How do I enfold my soul with the wings of my heart?
Edg Duveyoung
How would you describe your life in one sentence?
Edg Duveyoung
How can consciousness survive death?
Originally Answered: Is there any evidence that consciousness survives after death?
It’s possible to prove one is immortal.
This is because it is possible to “tune” the nervous system such that it becomes an exquisite
instrument that is so delicate that it can become conscious of the subtlest aspects of the
biological process named “consciousness.” By merely practicing the watching of the process
“consciousness,” (thousands of methods for this) the nervous system gradually evolves and
refines this ability to see what’s what within, and the ultimate achievement will be gained when the
nervous system can become so “quiet” that thoughts stop being manufactured.
That’s called “pure being.”
To achieve enlightenment, one must practice until one can reside in pure being continually. Pure
being is, well, pure, and by residing in this state of consciousness — no thoughts, but awareness
still is “manifest,” the nervous system gradually gains an additional clarity — which is: it is realized
that awareness is not dependent on any nervous system to exist. Once this clarity is garnered,
identification with the nervous system is sundered. Identity is finally realized as non-physical.
Thus: Enlightenment is a direct evidence of death being survivable by dint of the FACT (to an
evolved nervous system) that one’s being is non-material even though it can be “made manifest
by symbolizing it with illusory processes of a nervous system.”
“Manifest” means that the self of the nervous system is yet still a limited expression in that it is
individuated. It is separate and operates within a sole nervous system. After residing in pure being
long enough, an individual’s “person” can conclude that actuality is not physical, and that
“manifestation is always symbolic, illusory, temporary, incomplete, flawed, dualistic, etc. This
“person” can say that “evidence” is solely validated by transcending all qualities of mind, but that
means that anyone else who would KNOW this must also become enlightened to see that it is
beyond what concept and emotions can symbolize.
Then that person can give up being a person. No need to chunkify the flowing of consciousness
with starts and stops. Let that river flow without a single toe being dipped into it. This is how one
leaps out of the prison, consciousness, and realizes that identity has always been boundless,
infinite, eternal bliss.
The good news: the unsubstantiated life yet can claim to offer a lot of bliss……commonly called
“ignorance.” Gotta love it that the grass is almost as green on this side as it is on the other.
Edg Duveyoung
What's the purpose of happiness?
Originally Answered: What's the purpose of being happy?
True happiness is pure awareness.
BAM! That’s it.
But God wasn’t satisfied with undifferentiated sentience’s infinite bliss.
It felt claustrophobic. Limited.
God asked: “Where am I?”
A thought arose: “Everywhere.”
God asked: “Is there anywhere I am not to which I have yet to go?”
A thought arose: “Nowhere.”
God said: “What? Am I not omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent? I will expand My bliss even
into this Nowhere! I’ll enlarge My everythingness by flooding it into non-existence, into every
possible manner of not being, into every imaginable form of nothingness, and into all, each and
every aspect of imperfection.”
A thought arose: “But You will always know You’re You, and so Nowhere will be seen easily as
merely more You-there, and so You won’t really be expanding at all, because Your realness will
saturate every experience of Nowhere before You even arrive!”
God said: “No problem. I’ll forget Who I am, and I’ll have an exact duplicate of My spirit reside as
the self inside every possible form of conscious being. All these ersatz selves will experience all
the ways of not being Me, but they won’t know that they’re Me when they’re having those
experiences, so that I can obtain utter clarity, via symbolic catharsis, as I see them, witness them,
AM them as they process the fullness of the negativity, the lostness, the emptiness of disunity —
each soul an incarceration.”
A thought arose: “You meant to say, “incarnation,” right?”
God said: “Yeah, good catch — I’ll make it so that every speck of consciousness can advance
towards finally realizing its truly divine status. By seeking happiness, each being will find that
more bliss, more ken, more unity is required to improve anything, everything, all things, thingness
itself, and so they’ll finally break out of My spell-of-forgetness, and the ruse will be dissolved as
the little one returns home, at last at last.”
Edg Duveyoung
Can I use Isolation tank to meditate and attain non-duality? Is it possible and ethical?
Of course you can. Though, I caution that whether it would be an ideal therapy for your particular
nervous system is almost impossible to validate. Unless you’re well versed in “all things
consciousness,” you’ll be hard put to determine if your times in the tank are equitable or superior
to other techniques. Mostly this is impossible, because it takes so much input to even begin to
“sway the person” — years usually of daily “treatments” — and then, without a battery of
professional tests done over a long period of time, even if you do think you’re getting results, it
turns out that actual, science-based, verification is rare.
The purpose of the tank would be to reduce sensual input so that the mind will attend to subtler
events which would then quieten down the physiology which would be the basis needed for
delicate spiritual observances. That you’re doing such without using a guru, or dogmatic scriptural
authority, may seem to be “immoral,” but the general rule is “whatever it takes.” You may have a
personal proclivity for that methodology that, though beneficial for you, would stress up most
others. Who knows? Answer: no one.
My axiom is “attending within is evolutionary” in most cases. Mantra, breathing techniques,
chanting, whirling, fasting, prayer, yoga asanas, and on and on and on we can cite methods for
attaining quiescence — if something works and you are naturally continuing to use it without
forcing oneself to do so, then DON’T STOP! Everything has some power, and eventually the clarity
is gained to see if another technique would be more resonant with the “now more evolved”
person.
The goal is to settle down the thought-generating processes in order to finally reside in pure
being…….a thoughtless state of bliss. While residing there, the identification with the ego can be
finally sundered, and that’s the final step into enlightenment.
The experiences in the tank may be quite entertaining — many dreamlike and hallucinatory events
— that could keep the nervous system too excited to achieve the desire subtlety. If it were me, I’d
have a mantra to use while in the tank to keep the mind intent on eschewing any form of
experiencing. Your results may vary. Good luck.
Edg Duveyoung
Would an Enlightened Monarch or, a Philosopher King still be a viable choice to lead a
nation?
Obviously, such a being cannot be proved to exist or that any human ever was.
So, the question becomes an imaginative exercise. But, hold on, no need to jack your brain to
7,000 rpms; it turns out that every major religion has answered this question with such exacting
detail that it’d just be silly to think anyone could add to the conversation. Consider that the
personalities of Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Mohammed, et alia, were displayed in their told-and-told-
and-told again exploits. Folks just never get tired of their stories of favorite heroes. We know a ton
about divinity when it’s afoot.
And the answer to this question is?
Anything goes. Those Guys never were predictable. Perfect freedom expressed by all of them.
Jesus, the lovey-dovey-hippy, drove out the moneylenders using a whip. Krishna the epitome of
dharma told Arjuna to cheat in battle. Buddha dumped being a prince. Mohammed said four wives
are okay when everyone knows that’s just plain nutz. Hee hee.
See? God says: “Rules schmules.”
So if we did have such a thing as an enlightened leader — better hot-rivet your hat to your skull —
it’s going to be a wild ride. “Wild,” because mostly, today, what we see in operation are of-by-and-
for-the-ego political structures — and that’s just not holy, and an enlightened leader would be
found cutting to the quick as society got manicured. It’d hurt.
But worse must be said.
This is Kali Yuga. It’s all going south, and an enlightened leader would NOT lessen the pace of this
era’s devolving trends. Not that such a leader couldn’t pull off machinating a nice vacation for
some of the people some of the time — of course enlightened leaders are expected to be
champions of the masses, and they’d try to help as many as possible. but we see in all the world’s
scriptures that best laid plans can gang aft agley despite even divine intents.
Enlightenment doesn’t mean “everything’s just peachy.” It means that the ego has stepped aside
from that which must come to be. Job lost all his family and worldly goods just so God could prove
to Satan that Job wouldn’t sin if he was abused. Abraham was willing to kill his beloved son Issac.
Buddha broke his father’s heart by leaving. Moses never got across the Jordan. Jesus was
crucified. Krishna took part in eliminating almost every soldier on both sides of the battle. The list
never ends.
See?
Watch what you’re praying for. Prayers are answered.
Edg Duveyoung
In "Who Cares?" by RS Balsekar, he talks about destiny and insists that everything has
already happened (see the movie). Is this common among Advaita teachers?
The purpose of creation is the expansion of happiness. God gets happier if He builds a rock that
He cannot lift . . . . . . . and then lifts it. Sounds like fun to me!
The rock: ignorance. Ignoring the self and solely identifying with illusory life.
God decided to start off with Sat Yuga; authoring all the possible divinely harmonious scenarios in
which almost-but-not-quite-perfect nervous systems lived lives of spectacular glory. None of
them were omniscient, omnipresent or omnipotent, but they were as close to that as possible, and
despite this “not-quite-God flaw,” all of them were almost perfectly attuned with divine intent and
lived 100,000 year long lives of almost unsullied sacredness. In this Yuga, God explored how
perfection can be devolved by the single sin of false identification. These blissful souls radiated
love 360 — 24/7, but they were locked into believing they were individuals with localized nervous
systems instead of being transcendent awareness. And that was the rub.
Read the Ramayana for details. Note that Rama had a life relentlessly bespattered with
dissonances. Lesson: perfect intellect, perfect heart — yet still possible to be doomed.
And down through the Yugas, the gradual attenuation of all the nervous systems’ abilities was
explored. Each era sussing out the price to be paid for the ever increasing ignorance — that is:
more attachment to the illusion of “will.” Until, at the end of the line, we get to our present misery
of not even knowing INSTANTLY if Balsekar’s statement was true. Tsk tsk.
And as the conditions got darker, God had to devise more powerful methods of escaping the
prison — being stuck inside a mind. In today’s Kali Yuga, with purity almost nowhere to be found,
there are no minds that can errorlessly perform the Vedic rituals or follow lifestyles that support
evolution. The common mind is a cacophony of slavering desires being sought with but scant
chances for fulfilments; rare to find someone who can talk to a burning bush. Seems hopeless, but
Advaita’s self-inquiry cuts this majestic Gordian Knot with but a solitary intent to know the self.
Who am I? — this sunders the spell by which we’re all cursed.
And this is how God has fun. Splits up into an infinity of souls, enters them all, struggles to regain
harmony, but at the same time, He’s relishing all the ways to fail at doing suchly in the same
manner that Caravaggio explored all the ways to use black paint…..which makes the other colors
POP like Elvis on black velvet. If you find a saint, today, it’d be like looking into the Sun.
To find oneself to be but a false-character in a divine dream may be a shocker to most, because,
hey, we all instinctively know we’re God, and so it perplexes to see our lives in such disarray, so
the shock is a correct response! And also it’s an indicator that God’s aesthetic might just might
maybe just maybe be signaling a wondrous portent: that a soul with a subtle itch needing a holy
scratching could find the motivation to do self-inquiry and rocket heavenwards. So, thumbs up if
you are convinced life could be better — go for it! Go for it, even if causality is a crock.
But, note: God is the one who goes for it if going for it happens. Ain’t no one here but God, so if
one, despite Balsekar’s disdain, finds oneself all hepped up to be, will, and do— it’s all okay.
But, if you do self-inquiry, you stop being the letters of the story God’s writing by diving into the
inkwell — residing in the home of all qualities.
Try it. There’s a surprise in there waiting for you.
Edg Duveyoung
Is spiritual awakening an instantaneous process or is it gradual?
Billions of years since creation began — maybe even billions of trillions of years if one believes
Hindu chronology — so, I’d say it’s a very very gradual process.
Heh.
Truth: identity switches in a nonce.
When grace “descends” upon a nervous system, there is utterly zero time consumed and zero
work being done. And by no-work, I mean “no instrumentality is meshing its clockworks ‘just so,’ in
order to produce enlightenment.” Therefore, with nothing to do that could be done, there’s no
earning of grace.
Identity’s switching-speed involves no changes — one’s water being carried and one’s wood being
chopped continues without the slightest hesitation, because it’s a non-physical, instantaneous
cessation of the projection of identity — no intent is involved, and wonderfully, it is a lived reality,
an undeniable truth — FOR ALL OBSERVERS.
Yogis tell us that the human experience is an always-freshening flowing of identity from object of
consciousness to object of consciousness. It’s clear to most folks that thoughts are arriving at
least at a rate of five-per-second — minimally. Try counting to five, mentally, and it takes about
one second. This is a trivial exercise except that it demonstrates that “thinking” is a flurry of
conceptualizations. Each “piece” of a thought must be understood to have physiological
structures and processes that are necessarily a vast array of fizzing chemistries. All of which are
never “used” by the ego — which is merely a sometimes recurring faux identity — that is: it is the
“me talking” part of experiencing that peppers the flowing of consciousness. No one causes their
own enlightenment. The ego is powerless to enact any of those hidden processes necessary to
support “thought” as an emergent phenomenon.
Grace is not a process. It’s not a divine bonking with a peacock feather.
When one wakes in the morning and is able to remember the dream that was occurring just
seconds previously, it is the common experience that one INSTANTLY understands that one is no
longer the character in that dream that one was SO CERTAIN was a rock solid identity in a rock
solid universe. No one has to talk themselves out of still believing they are the character in their
recent dream.
See? “The old me ain’t the new me,” and it’s just a done deal. That’s EXACTLY the switching
experience of enlightenment — suddenly the human nervous system is “so last week,” but it’s
more than that — after realization, the entirety of creation is understood to be “the old me.” The
whole dream is invalidated — not merely the pretend person in it.
Awareness, eternally actual, is at last understood to be the true identity — and then, the workings
of consciousness simply can never again compete and reinstitute the enchantment of
individuality.
Krishna instructs that karma is unfathomable. That means there are no formulas, no methods, and
no purposeful use of a nervous system can allure grace.
Grace is always a divine gift. Always.
But, there’s buts about that. Ask your local spiritual authority. Beware: truth will be used on you. Ifs
will also be proffered. With a generous sprinkling of ands.
Edg Duveyoung
What are the important thoughts of Eckhart Tolle and is he enlightened?
Originally Answered: What are the important thoughts of Echarte Tolle? Is he enlightened?
I’ve read several of his books and found no conceptual dissonance with Advaita. He seems very
clear minded. But, his writing style is very “dry.” He doesn’t put much emotion into his prose.
Nisargadatta was also very clear and could cut to the chase, but when I read his words, I get a
strong feeling that Nisargadatta was brimful of passion about truth — he really liked being
enlightened and the role of guru. Ramana’s words leave me with a yet still deeper conviction that
his “vibe” was especially divine — I just sense God sitting next to him giving him pointers.
Edg Duveyoung
Was Ramana Maharshi a fraud?
All I know is that Ramana was logically consistent, quoted the Ved accurately, and easily handled
every big-brained somebody asking every tricky question they could conjure. Never did trip him
up. The guy was aces.
Now, the movement that sprung up around him may have had persons who did some chicanery —
there was at least one lawsuit mentioned in Ramana’s “Talks.” But, many of his devotees hit the
ground running and had “good careers.” He was cooking up something delicious in that kitchen no
matter who was paying for it.
The core concept: Ramana’s integrity does not matter; and he’d be the first to tell you.
Why?
Because self-inquiry is the true guru — one’s own spiritual evolution is the sole proof upon which
to rely. If Ramana’s teaching has valid results, the parochial facts of his existence are insignificant;
he could have been a charlatan merely spouting scriptures to get a daily meal, but if the technique
works, let’s have many more gurus like him!!!
The result of self-inquiry is transcendence; THAT’S true knowledge — not the “mere information”
embodied in the words of ANY guru. The guru is limited and speaks words that resonate with a
localized nervous system’s remembrance about the non-experience-experience of the
transcendent. These words will necessarily vary, but the concepts will always be “pure-me,
silence, purity, goodness, sacredness, bliss, ineffable, ” etc. All observers agree in “general word
choices” about transcending — no matter the scriptures.
And “magically” means what to you? To me, it’s an acceptable explanation, because when one
realizes, it becomes obvious that instrumentality is a ruse and that all events in creation are solely
God’s Will in action with divine synchrony replacing causality. Given that truth, “magic” is a good
word to explain “how” pure awareness can be purely transcendent and yet from it arises all
materiality — magical indeed.
As for worshiping Ramana, hey, have at it if it pleases you. There’s lots of folks who do this. I have
been trained to do a proper Vedic puja, and I count it to have about the same value as self-inquiry
for one’s evolution, but it takes some very serious study and much practice to be able to do a puja
such that it’s efficient — self-inquiry works for everyone the very first time.
Finally, remember that Totakacharya was a simple servant of Shankara who did the washing and
cooking. Shankara’s other disciples were snooty and disdained Totakacharya because they had
stellar intellects and could really delve into Shankara’s mind for the subtle gems of truth, but one
day, Shankara delayed the morning lecture and waited until Totakacharya could attend the
meeting. The other disciples were a bit miffed.
And?
Up the hill came Totakacharya singing NEVER BEFORE MANIFESTED VEDIC HYMNS that were
perfect by every metric. They just “came to him.”
That is my argument against the concept that only the smart folks can realize. It’s also the proof
that a simple person can become a profound guru without any formal training — just need to truly
be enlightened.
Edg Duveyoung
Breathing has become a distraction during meditation, how should I approach this?
You can’t fool the processes of your body’s natural laws. If it needs oxygen, it’ll breathe.
Concentration has to be effortless or it’s “practicing the use of will power by ego,” and that’s not
anti-spiritual, but it’s a very special technique dynamic that requires an impressively prepared and
trained mind. Consult your local Hindu about all the austerities that require unbelievably intense
will. Breathing is a tell, yes, so take it as the canary in the coal mine that it is. I’m not in favor of
this intent, but it can take one all the way — the hard way.
Most practitioners out there are not using ego-associated techniques. Instead they’re attracting
the attention with “honey” — instead of forcing the attention to dwell with a particular mental
experience. That “honey” is the increasing sweetness of the ever more subtle appreciation of
“experiencing.” The least state of excitation is blissful.
As one settles down in meditation, life gets more comfortable with “nothing.” Gradually the mind
finds that nothing is the only actuality, the only identity, and infinitely sentient. Naturally the mind
will begin to dwell there and eschew attending to the outer experiences even though they are
bustling with chopping wood and carrying water.
The ultimate is to arrive at a perfect stillness surrounded by the boggling buzz of the entirety. Wait
in that place. It’s where grace will come for you and sweep you into the vastness.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the difference between zen and advaita vedanta as philosophy and practice?
I only know Zen through the writings of others. They speak of that about which nothing can be
spoken, but I think any Advaitan would enjoy musing with Zen’s refined-by-the-ancients
conceptualizations — equal but different from Shankara’s explications.
That said, Advaita insists everything is illusory, including “will,” and thus, the sometimes strenuous
efforts of Zen practitioners to quieten their minds seems a “bit much” when going within to seek
the “I” is an effortless technique that even a child can have “happen.” But, if it butters your
spiritual bread, have at it! Those Zennies are as tough as circus acrobats!
And children do have heaps of spontaneous grace, but they are not taught to recognize that they
do or given concepts to mindfully gnaw on until those concepts become, as if, sentient homunculi
within that kibbitz about the general doings of a nervous system as if they are steadying mentors
keeping one’s ken balanced.
Zen likes to mess with a campfire until the stirring stick is also burnt.
Advaitans understand that any burning of any stick is unworthy of attention when God is RIGHT
THERE to directly attend, and, additionally, it’s understood that any changes to the flowing of
experiences of a nervous system are absolutely not causal but instead synchronously emerging
from beyond the beyond without any hint of instrumentality. You can’t earn enlightenment by
being boggled by koans…..it’s just a fun thing to do while awaiting grace.
One thing about Advaita that’s definitely a plus — no one comes in your meditation room and
smacks your back with a bamboo rod. Heh.
Edg Duveyoung
Do you think there are aspects of sleep that are spiritual and cannot be answered by
science?
To define "spiritual," there are many concepts to meld.
Consider that the Advaitist would say that deep, dreamless, sleep can be witnessed, and that no
processing of the nervous system is necessary for the manifestation of "the witness," but
importantly too, the dreamless state is a process of the nervous system.
An Advaitan poet would say that dreamless sleep is where the object of consciousness was "a
sustained thought about nothingness." Science might say: sleep is the least state of quiescence
of a normal nervous system when the parts of the brain that light up during waking are not very
active.
The witness is said to be transcendental-but-not-entirely -- it has enough "thereness" to be and
is "the sentience part" of every experience. It is existent, but merely a titch so -- without any
differentiations, no duality -- yet manifest.
Witness plus experience is the formula for duality. Being plus thoughts.
Note: ego plus thoughts cannot be the entirety of duality since the ego is not sentient, and is,
instead, merely another thought process that is inserted now-and-then into the streaming of
consciousness. The ego experience is not an all time reality.
If a yogi is so pure that the nervous system is able to have "awareness of awareness" as an all
time reality during waking, dreaming or sleeping, that yogi is said to be enlightened in that it is
obvious that the true self, the transcendent core identity is entirely free of manifestation, devoid of
any "taint" of materiality, eternal, absolute, and beyond the illusory power of any experience --
even the experience of being God.
"Spiritual," in pure form, turns out to simply be witnessing the subtlest processing of
consciousness. In ordinary conversations however, most folks are found being a bit loose about
this and will say that spiritual is to be aware of fairly subtle if not the subtlest aspects of
consciousness. It is a big difference. Ask Lord Indra about this.
Lord Indra is said to be so in command of His nervous system that He's able to witness the actual
birth of a thought, and He's said to have "Ritam Bhara Pragya" -- the power to create anything --
because anything, no matter what, turns out always to be merely "thoughts."
Lord Indra is a Master of Consciousness Who has perfected mental operations. That is: a high
achiever, but not absolutely enlightened -- merely so glorious that regular folks might as well
consider Him enlightened. But, no, though Lord Indra is worthy of worship, He is attached to His
glories. He thinks He's Lord Indra, ya see? but no, He's merely "the next instantiation of the
concept 'Lord Indra' that's here in this time and place Who is experiencing a lot of good karma
that will eventually be exhausted."
Lord Indra is an example of perfected spirituality's vulnerability. One can achieve everything and
not be free even if one is radiating perfection 24/7.
Attachment is Lord Indra's sin.
Even Lord Brahma wondered Who He was when firstly finding Himself on the lotus leaf. And that's
instruction about spirituality's deepest import -- the search for Identity and the sloughing off of
ALL attachments.
The hardest truth is that science cannot devise any instrumentality to measure identity, and that
only consciousness' physical processes can be examined, so when science studies sleep or any
state of consciousness, it will always fall short of devising a complete (or spiritual) statement
about God. It's not science's fault; awareness is absolutely beyond even God's ability to express!
No words, no thoughts, no emotions can encompass the vastness of awareness.
Yes, an enlightened yogi can be a scientist who will be able to use symbols to point at "actuality"
with ever increasing subtlety and precision, but this will be insignificant when it comes to
escaping the prison cell of consciousness. The wisest persons ever have said in every scripture
"dwell in pure being until Grace opens the final door and then voila! all this 'personing business' is
seen to be a dream when one sheds individuality itself to pass through that door. Unity at last --
awareness solely without differentiations of any sort."
Edg Duveyoung
Can Vedanta be the basis of world democracy?
Since God is the author of all thoughts, it's impossible to believe in the volition of
individuality.......therefore: no democracy is possible, since there's only one mind doing all the
roles. Whether or not God creates democracies or dictatorships or whatever, is NOT predictable -
- unfathomable is karma. Hinduism says that this is Kali Yuga, so, in such dark times, God might
never again manifest a perfect democracy. Perhaps only in Sat Yuga could this have been
possible, but in Sat Yuga, it made much more sense to have an enlightened king than have the
people have to bother voting. Rama sent Sita to Hell rather than disappoint his people -- so the
people's feelings were as if "voting happening."
But, certainly aham brahmasmi, if dwelt upon thoroughly, would culture a nervous system that
would espouse the basic principles of democracy. But, only those chosen to have grace will do
such dwelling. Most will not.
Of course, in the midst of all the evil afoot, perfection is still being manifested in every manner
possible. Consider that "showing evil's errors" requires a divine author to fully explicate. Also, Kali
Yuga just started a mere 5,000 years ago, so there's still a lot perfection possible. 400,000 years
from now, though, there won't be hardly even a photon of light to push back the dark.
Edg Duveyoung
Where can I get teachings about advaita vedanta?
The answers, so far, are good, but in India they say, "Knowledge in the books stays in the books."
This Indian wisdom points at the concept that concepts are maps, not actual territory. We don't
capture true identity with material traps, because, well, identity is silence, and that silence is silent
even though the ego is scrambling at max to come up with a concept to contain it.
Awareness enlivens, informs, manifests conceptuality without ever being perfectly symbolized
itself.
Solution: read your inner book: pure being. That is, attend to attending.
Ask, "Who am I?" and by such technology force the nervous system to again and again become
more and more able to dwell in that "increased quiescence" that immediately follows such inquiry.
When one asks, "Who am I?" there is no answer immediately....except that there -- RIGHT THERE
-- IS AN ANSWER -- the silence offered, the non-conceptual silence-answer is the answer.
And the good news is that this can be practiced until the nervous system can reach an expert
ability to abide in pure being on demand. And from that status, true freedom and true identity can
be realized as a 24/7 reality -- no more demanding needed.
And: No books needed.
But read the books! They're fun! And they'll describe the true you that you truly know or will know.
I can describe the taste of strawberry, but until you bite into one, you won't know strawberries, but
after that bite, you'll say, "Oh, so that's what they were talking about!"
Same deal with identity.
Edg Duveyoung
Won't the creators of IQ tests have the highest IQ scores since they know all the right
answers? How can these tests be legitimate then?
I did create an IQ test -- took two years to develop with a team -- and I can't beat it. The
questions require logical processes to get the answers; so, if I have not taken the test for years
and don't remember the answers, then I have to "show my work," and that takes time and "time" is
one of the determining factors in my IQ test. I've never done better than 140 on it.
My site has given this test, for free, to well over twenty million folks online, and the statistics that
validate its correlations continue to be affirmed.
iqtest.com
Edg Duveyoung
What is breathless during meditation?
Originally Answered: what is breathless during meditation?
The yogi would say that suspension of the breath is quite a normal experience of even new
practitioners in most of the meditative "forms."
It's easy to calm down.........for a bit. But nature's always doing something that can rouse up
thoughts again, but, yet still, some quite deep experiences of silence can be glimpsed by almost
anyone.
Not that the body quits all its operations, but that the "person" has found a method to reduce the
mind's use of the brain -- to great degree -- however briefly. This results in a physiological
lessening in many of the rest of the body's dynamics, and this can happen swiftly.
Thus, because the amount of oxygen being taken from the blood stream can rise or dip
dramatically, sometimes the blood can have a lot of oxygen and yet, the whole system, suddenly,
isn't using it "fast enough."
And what happens? The breathing process will actually cease for a few moments -- the body is
coasting on what's available -- no need to hustle the lungs to keep everything topped off since
breathing is so light, so sleight, so soft.
Or, reversed, sometimes there will be a sudden-deep-breath as the body "catches up" after a
period of transcendence.
It is in just such circumstances that most yogis report their first serious experience of the
sundering of identification.
And then, BAM, back in the nervous system again! How rude! Freedom tasted for a moment, but
that hint of it can be extended, deepened, clarified by PRACTICE.
And then the breathing comes back up from zero to meet the heightening needs of the mind as it
begins again to produce thoughts in large oxygen gobbling amounts.
During all of the above manners of processing, solely the witness is unwavering. It is the heart of
identity with "one of its feet" already on the "other side." It is there for every process of the
body/mind system. If the system dies, awareness is unchanged, but there is no locally manifested
consciousness to symbolize it.
Prana is king of the creature -- but prana cannot intimidate the witness which is there for even the
body's death! Unshaken. Unchanged. Eternal.
After that?
Consult your local scriptures. Deeply.
Edg Duveyoung
As an American with very limited background in Indian religion and philosophy, what is
a good introductory book on Advaita Vedanta for me?
If you've acquired some education about Hinduism, know some Sanskrit terms, you might be
comfortable starting with Ramana Maharshi's "Talks." He uses a lot of Sanskrit to pin-point
concepts and then uses those words consistently thereafter.
But that can be off-putting, because it comes off as "religious" a bit more than "spiritual." But, if
you give him serious attention, you'll see that religion is the last thing about which he was
concerned. He's the real deal -- perfect clarity. Any of his publications are golden.
If you want straight philosophy which is presented in "normal English," where all the terms are
standard psychological constructs, e.g., mind, thought, body, soul, desires, instead of their
Sanskrit designates, then Nisargadatta Maharaj's "I Am That" is the book I'd suggest. The book
comes off as if repetitive, but when you finally "get it" then there are no repetitions -- just
nuances of themes that are VITAL to obtaining a deep grasp of the material. It was in the middle of
my third reading that this book "clicked" for me. Be patient; it takes a lot of dwelling to get the
nervous system to grow itself into being able to do "clarity."
Patanjali's "How To Know God" is "very scriptural," but it would be hard to find a more compact
presentation of the core axioms of Advaita about the operations of the human mind. You could
study this book for the rest of your life and not entirely plumb its depth. Of course, that's true of
the above works too.
Meanwhile let's put it on the barrelhead: intellectual understanding is in no way a method to
obtaining freedom. It merely makes the intellect "settle down," because the questions have been
answered, but the rest of "being human" must also settle down, and that takes another technique
than merely "doing scholarship." Which means: inquiry.
Inquiry is the heart of Advaita. Asking oneself "Who is thinking this thought?" and then abiding
with the silence that the mind offers as an answer is PRACTICE at entering a state of Being. First
one gets a mere flash of silence, but gradually the answer gets "longer." By such inquiry, this state
becomes more and more available, until one is finally able to reside in Being as an all time reality.
Be relentless in this and you can skip the scholarship stuff! The inner guru is a good teacher!
When one is hesitating at the doorway, that's the "small enlightenment," -- from that status, by
GRACE SOLELY, the practitioner can spontaneously switch identification to "awareness" instead
of "a Being." And that's the final step though the doorway.....one escapes the gilded cage of
"being a person."
Beyond thought is endless bliss without particularity -- the non-experience that no experience
can beat.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the scriptural basis for advaita consciousness being an awareness preceding
the universe?
To me, it seems that Advaita's claim of awareness being prior to consciousness, CAN be found in
all of the scriptures -- if one knows how to read between the lines, but also it can be quite
obvious.
So, which scriptures can be considered "valid," is a personal decision.
Here's a "vague" passage with which an Advaitan can suss out that even ones soul is not the
ultimate reality, and that, instead, spirit is something much more mystically apt.
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart.
Note above that we see that an "agency," the discerner, is transcendent to both soul and body.
The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali (I think it's scriptural.)
17. The modifications of the mind are always known to the presiding spirit, because it is not
subject to modification.
Of course, ANY statement by Patanjali, if its purport is fully explicated, necessarily arrives at the
axiomatic status of awareness being "square one" in all considerations.
Ashtavakra Samhita
Chapter 1
"You do not belong to the brahmin or any other caste, you are not at any stage, nor are you
anything that the eye can see. You are unattached and formless, the witness of everything - so be
happy. 1.5
Do I need to continue? There's no ending to this presentation. One merely has to google keywords
such as "mind, consciousness, spirit, soul" along with whatever scripture you want to search, and
BINGO! there's a reading list that will lead to a clarity about the utterness of transcendence -- if
sincerely studied.
Edg Duveyoung
How do people with low IQs (≤80) perceive things in everyday life?
I used to teach Special Education. And, I'm here to tell ya that I've had arguments with a nine year
old kid with a 40 IQ about how to spell a word.
Joey, brain damaged at birth, was capable of learning the correct spelling, just barely capable, but
he was entirely convinced that his version of the word was the correct spelling. I took a very long
time to gradually get him to change that view, because I could see that it wasn't about how to
spell a word, it was about nurturing in Joey what was plainly there: his love of correct spelling. He
was proud of his version, doncha know! And also, of versions of other, much more important
things too.
Joey the Saint
Joey had a fixation -- he was an assembler of trophies. His father was in business selling trophies
and plaques, ya see, and Joey would make bowling, golf, baseball, etc. trophies out of the pieces
his father could not use in the business and gave to Joey to play with. These were scuffed or
dented, but to Joey they were GOLD. He made some of the goofiest looking amalgams -- football
players in full stride with a football tucked in one arm and a tennis racket in the other, for instance.
And it was always catch as catch can, but Joey didn't care. He just loved assembling them,
thought they were very marketable, thought of himself as a businessman like his father. Oh, he
was full of esteem about it, let me tell ya. It was, you see, just about the only thing Joey could do
well "in his own eyes." With a 40 IQ, Joey was looking at a future like a life sentence without a
chance for parole.
But Joey was happy.
And Joey taught my class, in one stroke, something more important than ANYTHING I ever taught
anyone in that class.
One day, Joey came to school with three big boxes. His father helped him bring them in. And his
father and I stood there and watched Joey teach us all. Joey opened the boxes, and out came a
special, unique statue for every kid in the class. 18 statues made by Joey who couldn't spell the
word "statue." 18 statues that were to Joey, by his own inner logic, as precious as fingerprints that
could only be assigned to one and only one person. 18 statues in boxes that Joey knew so well
that he could dive into the boxes after saying each pupil's name and instantly pull out Pedro's
statue, then Anna's statue, then Cathy's statue . . . 18 statues with names assigned to them. Joey
knew which was to go to whom.
Silently, for Joey could hardly talk, he gave each statue out like it was a soul. And every kid there
opened themselves to Joey's vision of the moment and took their statues into their hugging arms
like each trophy was a newborn babe. Joey gave everyone a symbolic kiss on the forehead to take
home. Everyone deserved a symbol of "job well done," thought Joey. And 18 kids with almost no
chance to succeed in life, hummed with delight.
And no one I've ever seen in my whole life was as happy as Joey that day. He so innocently
beamed his love.
That's my goal in life. Be as happy and as wrong . . . and as right as Joey.
Addendum. So very grateful for all the heartfelt responses. When I wrote this decades ago, Joey
was so much fresher in my mind. I now see that writing style as a bit “much,” but I dare not change
a word. Also, the title question is not my doing, so I cannot justify changing it either.
This essay’s success is due solely to Joey — not my writing.
This essay is his, not mine.
Edg Duveyoung
Thoughts and cognition are a result of dependent origination，right?
Originally Answered: thoughts and cognition are a result of dependent origination，right?
Advaitans' answer: No. There are no thoughts. The stream of consciousness is not actually
segmented into "meaning chunks." The chunkifying is artificial, parochial and the basis of illusory
existence. Truth be told, a mind can "see" anything in any state of experiencing. There are no
actual things except what we pretend to be there.
Our nightly dreams prove how much heft we have when it comes to creating whole universes in a
nonce. Every dream comes with characters that know their lines, and each is properly attired.
Each dream does details: furniture, buildings, streets, trees, etc. Spielberg eat your heart out.
We're all amazing masters of theatrics. Every single person on Earth can do this kind of creating,
yet almost everyone shies away from claiming that they are creative -- go figure.
And then in the waking state, we completely deny that we are still "creating the whole of reality" --
done by dint of our defining it into a myriad of particulars. Note: G.O.D. stands for "get over
defining." To not conclude is divine. If you don't authenticate boundaries, you're in unity
consciousness.
Every nervous system is "hard wired" to the entirety -- everything is affecting everything with no
chance of significantly sussing out individual contributions. On this level we can argue that
thought (nervous system processing) is dependent in that it MUST be a consequence of the
processing of everything else, but then, whence free will?
We all feel that we have free will. But every scientist has solely found deterministic laws and that
all things obey these laws.
Solution: recognize that "meaning's resource" is beyond consciousness. This is to say that
awareness is not physical, not a process, not an act of a nervous system. The actions of nervous
systems are given meaning without any restrictions. For instance: the flight-or-fight response of
the body is the same hormone-chemical-soup no matter which choice is made. Same soup if you
run or stay. See?
Shakespeare's "thinking makes it so," indicates that all humans have come up against this fact.
Consider a window pane in a rain storm. The individual drops are coursing down the pane. A
human mind can pick out any drop and follow its "life history," and that drop will be easily
anthropomorphized. The drop will be a winner that is sprinting to the goal ahead of all the drops,
or it's a loner content to hang out in its one spot, or it's a joiner that combines with other drops to
get special gravitational advantages over water's surface tensions. And on and on and on, every
drop can be projected upon, but note that there is not a single aspect of the drops on the pane
that is "forcing" the meaning of how a human is experiencing it.
Same deal with all the thoughts coursing down our panes of consciousness.
See?
Therefore, meaning is NOT intrinsic to processes, and free will begins to be understood in that we
learn that we are free to interpret in ANY WAY WE WANT.....as easily as changing something in a
dream. We have the skills, but we deny our freedom when we are "awake."
We deny this, because we know we're not truly in charge of thinking, and that the spontaneous
creativity of dreaming is as if a gift to us -- we feel that dreams are not our "artworks."
And that's great spiritual instruction. It teaches that we can extricate our identity from where
we've imprisoned it -- in the meaning of things. We can just be; we don't have to project; we can
dwell in amness.
Daily life then becomes flow without grammar. We don't have to punctuate God's essay.
We can reside in the inkwell instead of the pen tip.
Edg Duveyoung
How common is spiritual awakening?
The truth: ain't no one to be awakened.
Those who dwell upon this truth come into resonance with it on every level. But being physically,
emotionally and spiritually jiggy with this truth is not in the least a formula for enlightenment.
Sucks, eh?
Clarity is for the person, but freedom is not about arriving at an "acceptable" manner of
consciousness.
That was already tried, and it doesn't work.
Indra achieved the highest perfections but yet He was attached to His glories and doomed to
exhaust the good karma and then reincarnate once again. All the siddhis at His command and
being righteousness personified didn't get Him to stop "buying into" His being an individual.
He was having too much fun, ya see?
His galavanting about the whole of creation as Hero-extraordinaire is proof that He didn't care that
He was missing out on residing in the very heart of sentience, awareness.
Who can blame Him, eh?
Freedom means that all identifications cease. All. Give up being KING!!!!, yeah, sure, no way, right?
And since most of us are such louts, good riddance to such foul identifications with our less-than-
Indra's-minds, say most of the sages -- if you get them in an arm-lock and force it out of them!
This truth is soooooooooooo bitter -- teaching it never fills the collection plate.
Get the sages in a corner, and they'll tell ya an even worst truth: All you have to do is stop insisting
that you are who you are and that nothing could be simpler to do than ceasing identification and
that you already are an expert at it!
After all, every human being does it every morning. When we stop our dreaming of ourselves and
start our waking-state dreaming of ourselves -- who morns the loss of everything that the dream
character thought, felt, owned, achieved....etc.? Every morning we switch from insisting we are a
certain character, and then we stop that and then insist we are now our waking-dream character.
See the good news there?
We have THE TALENT to let go of identifications. Period.
But the person never gets to decide when to let go. It is always a gift, and you can't earn Grace.
Just gotta hang around, trying not to mess up, and watch the playfulness of God streaming
through your brains.
And the funny part is: when you hop the fence, you find you have always been on the other side
already anyway forever and ever and beyond time too.
But if I had to pick a false answer: there's a lot of pure-mindedness afoot out there. Seek and ye
shall find. Might be you find a way. Might not. Doesn't matter, but if seeking is in your cards, play
them like the pot has a million bucks in it.
Edg Duveyoung
Has anybody on Quora 'met' God? How would you describe the experience?
Here's a visit for ya -- AND some challenging questions back at ya after you read this story.
GOD APPEARED LAST NIGHT IN MY ROOM!
I immediately begged for mercy. I was not interested in justice AT ALL.
Turns out, He was just visiting -- not an official tally-your-quarks-thing -- just tea. Shortly into the
visit, God clicked something off in me, and all of my emotions subsided dramatically, and for most
of the visit, I was only a little more tense than a four hundred pound bungee jumper.
God said, "I've been watching you since I know when, and you are doing okay. In token of My
esteem, I am going to give you something to remember Me by.” Then God extended His hand
towards me and materialized a rather small geranium with two pink flowers in a red clay pot.
God said, "It won't bite. Take it. Take it. I first created this particular geranium before anything else
in creation -- before earth, before heaven, even before pizza.”
First a visit from God and then a geranium from God! My emotions at that moment were what you
would expect me to have if I had found a winning lottery ticket (God) and also a banana split (the
geranium if it were edible!)
Spiritually hoggy that I am, still my trough overflowethed. God said, "Nice chatting. But...” (looked
at His watch). My mind was racing, and -- unbelievably -- I was speechless. But suddenly I felt
very strongly that I had to give something back to God, and I found my voice at last.
God said, "No, no Pepsi thanks, no really, thanks! Really! I'm full, in fact I am Fullness. By the way,
when I created this geranium, I made it from the only material I had handy -- that is, My Self. What
else did I have to work with, ay? But don't get too attached to this thing. After all, everyTHING I
ever make is from My Self. But not to worry, I have worked it out so that there is no diminishment
of my infinitude. So look, you got the plant. A little water, and it will last a while. But do not feel like
you have to worship this plant or anything. Believe Me I did not make this one any differently than I
make anyTHING. And for My sake don't flip out if it dies. It's just a plant. So, okay, nice stopping
by. Don't get up. Don't start a major religion over this visit, ay? (Is God Canadian?) And don't mess
up -- you know what I mean. And, since My visit here is something unusual, let Me say in parting
that you should sort of continue living your life as you would have had I not visited.”
God vanished, and there was I with THE GERANIUM".
What to do? While it is extremely important to point out that God was obviously telling me that
every single speck of creation is sacred omnipresent God-stuff refashioned for our pleasure, and
that therefore "THE GERANIUM" is but one of an almost infinite number of such artifacts, I must
also follow His additional bidding to continue to live my life as if He had not visited.
I am therefore pleased to announce that visiting hours for the general public to see "THE
GERANIUM" will be Monday through Saturday 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. Suggested donation: $15.99
adults, $7.99 children under 12. Dust that has been taken off of the leaves of "THE GERANIUM" is
available in beautifully packaged holy micro-baggies--the perfect gift!
Remember, He did not rule out a minor religion.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Questions:
What am I made out of? What is my substance? What would happen if I meditated about this a
long time?
Am I what I think I am, or is it more true to say I just am?
If I were God, how would I go about creating something from absolutely nothing? How could that
be possible? Is there any such thing as nothing?
What do I think is holy? How can someTHING be holy? Can I be holy without believing in the
holiness of things? Have I ever in my life experienced holiness?
If God created everything, why have all religions throughout history selected certain aspects as
special or "better?"
How can it be that I am not holy?
If everything is holy, how can I possibly think about war and all the other unholy things?
Why did I think it was funny for God to have a watch? Why do I think God has a body if I think it is
silly for God to have a watch? If I think that it would be silly for God to have a body, why would I
think that God would bother to have a thought? Why would God have anything to do with
anything? Why would I think that God would create at all?
What's God got up God's sleeve? Why does God still HAVE that sleeve?
Why would I think it would be silly to offer God a Pepsi, but feel it was okay to offer my prayers, my
life, my soul, my anything to God? What does God do with all these things we keep trying to give
to God?
Where does God store everything?
Am I part of God's garage sale?
Edg Duveyoung
What is your interpretation of Nisargada's statement "projecting power"?
"Projecting power" is not evolutionary. If you're using your mind/body on purpose to fulfil an intent
of the ego -- you're usurping God's "use of you" for a more divine purpose. That's like taking the
brush out of DaVinci's hands and saying, "I think the Mona Lisa needs a moustache." See?
Of course, "you" is a concept that is also a projection, so the whole process is illusory.
The power, too, is imaginary, but the aesthetic of God is such that if a projection is made, then the
various projections are subject to "logic;" for instance, dream water quenches a dreamed up
character's thirst. Nothing actually happens, dream water is not wet, but the pretense of it has
some hefty staying power: memory, the imp, sees to this.
Nisargadatta goes even more into this by discussing how an enlightened person can and does
sometimes project power.
Nisargadatta: "Yes, there is such a thing as transmission of power. To insist, to resist, are
contained in the will to be."
Nisargadatta: "Remove the will to be and what remains? Existence and non-existence relate to
something in space and time; here and now, there and then, which again are in the mind. The mind
plays a guessing game; it is ever uncertain; anxiety-ridden and restless. You resent being treated
as a mere instrument of some god, or Guru, and insist on being treated as a person, because you
are not sure of your own existence and do not want to give up the comfort and assurance of a
personality. You may not be what you believe yourself to be, but it gives you continuity, your future
flows into the present and becomes the past without jolts. To be denied personal existence is
frightening, but you must face it and find your identity with the totality of life. Then the problem of
who is used by whom is no more."
Edg Duveyoung
How did the first humans develop their spirituality? Did they leave us cave paintings for
an explanation? What spiritual experiences did they have?
What isn't a spiritual experience? Hard question.
But toss that. I have a cool theory about the sociological value of the night sky to cave people.
One fact keeps banging on my door. 200,000 years ago, the modern human brain evolved. They
were as smart as us, and that means 1% of them had Einstein level acuity.......190,000 years before
the oldest scriptures.
With no TV et al, what did the ancients have for night time conversations?
Think about it.
It was the stars. And for those who would say, "Oh, so they saw some animals in the sky, no big
deal." I would ask, "Do you really think Einstein would be satisfied with animal tales?"
Do you think anyone could tell Old Albertgrok that a certain star in the sky caused a certain
person's personality to be a certain way?
Nah, that would be jarring to a modern brain's logic and common sense, and back then too.
The precision of their measurements as proved by the various astronomical artifacts they created,
is only the BEGINNING of their ken.
Here's my theory:
They used the stars as their personal diary.
How so?
The cave paintings at Lascaux give a clue. The configuration of the animals were PERFECT star
charts -- the tips of the bison's horns being EXACTLY where they should be. How exact? If you
made the cave's rock walls transparent, the tips of the bison's horns would be on top of, align with
the bigger-brighter stars, and so too the other key-points of the cave's artwork would PRECISELY
align with the night sky also.
That's a huge intellectual feat, but it's only the beginning. One has to ask why the geniuses back
then went to all that trouble.
To predict the growing season or when the bison herds would return seem to me to be painfully
trivial and not anywhere near the level of importance in those ancient minds that it would take to
motivate the cave paintings which required a tremendous amount of "recreational time" to be
expended.
Note that it would be EASY for even a normally intelligent ancient to say, "When the sun comes up
directly over that mountain top, that's when the planting season begins."
There's all the precision one needs.
One sees the sun coming up every day slightly nudged over a bit, and the moon, as if, adds
accents to each day's presentation, and then the stars are the matrix-background against which
the sun and moon are compared. It didn't take a Stonehenge to know when to plant the seeds. It
didn't take a cave painting either.
So why did they go to all that trouble? Stonehenge? Give me a break -- that's way too much
trouble to tell when to plant a seed. And, hey, they didn't even plant seeds until 10,000 years ago,
and I'm theorizing on what the stars meant to them before agriculture.
So, "diary," what can I mean by that? To me the following concept is big enough and valuable
enough to motivate a cave person to get his tribe to build Stonehenge.
First note that the human mind is DNA deep when it comes to projection. We simply can see the
contents of our mind "out there" in a direct manner. That's our beauty.....we naturally see
ourselves everywhere.
Consider this -- if you're my age, you know where you were when JFK was shot, or when Neil
planted his boot on the moon, or whatever. Do you see that you've got a dog-eared page in your
own personal diary via that notation?
A singularly precise moment in time is given an asterisk by you. When JFK got shot I was
__________. Everyone my age can fill that blank.
And any moment that is important to one can be thusly dog-eared.
Well, if you were sitting around a campfire with a giant brain, don't you think you could as easily
say, "When the bison's horn tip hit that mountain's top, I was born." ???? Direct, simple, true, and
practically valuable.
Cave Father: "That bison's star was on that mountain's top and then moved on to where we see it
tonight -- a full hand span away from the mountain's top now. I am a handspan old."
Cave Son: "When was I born?"
Cave Father: "When you were born, young one, that mountain's top had the antelope's tail's tip
upon it, and, see, it is only a finger's width from there tonight. When it is a handspan away from
the mountain's top, think of me telling you this now, for I will be dead by then."
Cave Son: "When the bison's hoof had just risen over that mountain, I broke my arm, and it did not
stop hurting until the hoof was between those two hills over there."
Cave Father: "Even now, I can see patterns in the sky that remind me of all my life, because every
time something important happened, I looked at the sky and made its stars' positions at that
moment a precise and unique image upon which I mapped a memory. I see the horse's eye is
three fingers from the mountain's top, and when I see that mountain's top and the horse's eye, I
remember when they once touched -- that was when I decided to marry your mother."
Cave Son: "Father, the bear's tooth just now rose over that tree, whenever I see the bear's tooth
and tree again, I'll know how long it's been since this night."
Cave Father: "And on and on, by looking at the sky and remembering when certain stars were
aligned with the horizon's various mountains, I can review my life displayed in the sky -- every
moment of my life precisely timed in hand and finger widths. I see that the elk's chin is going to be
rising by that hill's top any day now, and my father spoke of his father's father having been born
when it was six handspans away from that hill, so, see?, I look now at your stars and in my mind I
can know where they will be when I will not have eyes to see them. The sky is personal --
everyone in our village has a thousand stores above their heads. And the Great Soul has seen to it
that there are stars enough for a lifetime's notations."
The above conversation would be absolutely trivial to those sky gazers. It wouldn't take a genius,
it would just take a parent and a child.
We city dwellers don't know the night sky, do we? And our astronomers are all busy looking
beyond the human eye's ability, so who looks at the skies now with any hint of a personal
relationship?
To me, the astrologers who would read about our lives in our astrological charts have it perfectly
wrong.
It is us who make the stars mean. And we have forgotten how.
Ice Age star map discovered
Edg Duveyoung
Where do thoughts come from?
Originally Answered: Where do our thoughts come from?
They're not our thoughts. They are expressions of the entire universe. No one knows their next
thought, nor can one. The primal error of human existence is the identification with ego which
asserts authorship of thoughts. If not for this, we would all be swathed with bombastic wonder
that entirety is so splendidly processing the macro and micro of every entity.
To me, God does everything.
The Bible says: (Matthew 6)
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink;
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than
raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet
your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil
not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into
the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal
shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have
need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be
added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."
And to add a dollop of science to this essay, consider this experiment that shows that surfaces
can be "cleansed" by radiation -- to me it shows how "the light" can be the core source of
orderliness.....especially when I think about the surfaces of the cells of the nervous system.
Edg Duveyoung
Why do we never remember/feel the moment when we fall asleep?
Originally Answered: Why aren't we aware of when we fall asleep?
To an Advaitan, it's an ill-formed question unless we have precise definitions for "we," aware," and
"asleep."
Advaitans would insist that there is no "we" -- or a you, me, they, us, them, etc. The concept of
individuality is obviated by Advaita's non-dual philosophy. There simply is no one to whom
anything is happening. End of story. Ego is not sentient; instead, it, an artifact of a nervous
system, is observed by sentience -- awareness. Ego is not always there. It comes and goes, but
IDENTITY is unchanging. Awareness is the sole identity and source of sentience.
Also, the word "aware" is defined as transcendentally indefinable; whereas, "consciousness" is
endlessly definable. By definition, if consciousness is tamped down, so too is its processing of the
various perceptual inputs, which results in "less heft" in laying down memories of what has
happened. Note that awaking in the morning with a dream still fresh and available to recall none-
the-less is quickly followed by "I can't remember much anymore." It is a very common experience
that the subtleties of mental experiences are dropped off. So, no surprise then that this applies to
remembering the moment of to-sleep transition.
And the word "asleep" if fraught with exceptions. Does one fall "asleep" if one only has a dream-
state moment of idle reverie, or must it be that sleep which is measurably evident with reduction
of breathing, heart rate, brainwave changes, etc.? Sleep has many levels of bodily excitation --
from deep quiescence to processing mightily during an emotionally triggering nightmare. It's a
very hard word to use well.
Now, let's toss all the above aside and announce that the ancients insist that if one is enlightened,
then the transition to sleep IS OBSERVED. Awareness of consciousness lessening, awareness of
dreams being processed, and even awareness of NOTHING is reported by Advaitan experts. One
witnesses all the various modes of sleeping, but awareness NEVER changes even when
consciousness can do nothing but change constantly.
So, get enlightened and you won't miss the transition. In fact, you won't miss anything ever again.
Not that you are not getting everything already, but just sayin'.
Sayin' that the entire universe constructs your next thought -- not your brain. Change any bit of
the universe, and everything else adjusts to that change. Everything causes everything. We are all
processing everything, and every POV is unique with a point-value while simultaneously it enjoys a
COSMIC perspective. We all know everything if we but would attend to anything. Knock and it
shall be opened unto you and all that. If you want to see your mind go from waking to sleeping,
you not only can, you ALREADY HAVE.
That is, if there was such a thing as you. Heh.
Edg Duveyoung
Is consciousness more than just awareness?
It's less.
Experts in Advaita use the word "awareness" quite differently than how they use "consciousness."
Awareness is said to be beyond and prior to consciousness yet also the source of consciousness.
Consciousness is said to be the instrumentality that packages reality into seemingly isolated
experiences; awareness is said to be un-involved with materiality and solely witnesses the
processes of consciousness, e.g. the actions of a nervous system.
Consciousness is the non-sentient meaningless buzzing of creation which has whatever meaning
YOU (as ego -- a localized unit in reality) deem it to mean. Caution: The Sun sees no shadows; the
thief sees only the saint's pockets. All projections are parochial, incomplete, blinkered. The truth is
never completely known.
Awareness is the non-conceptual source from which any and all entities (types of sentience) arise.
Awareness is the sole owner of "identity," but most nervous systems have an ego which
erroneously asserts authorship and claims thoughts as its own as if it were a sentient entity itself
instead of being merely an artifact of a vast array of biochemical processing in a body/mind
system.
This is the primal sin (error) of "being someone" instead of "being beyond being itself."
Good news: nothing needs to be done.
Bad news: the problem is that something IS being done, when, instead, it's nothing that's
required; "nothing," as in, no-thing-happening yet awareness inexplicably remains; that is: to
transcend reality and enter actuality. To transcend reality is to know the peace that passeth all
understanding; only pure silence is peace -- peace is not a brain fizzing with concepts about
peacefulness. See the diff?
As long as the brain keeps chunk-ifying, reality appears to be endlessly vast -- eternally
entertaining. This allures the mind to dwell upon suchlike, and it can become harder to be able to
"pick up on" the subtleties of consciousness.
When absolute peace is entered permanently (enlightenment,) then consciousness is a sock
puppet with the living hand of God inside it.
Edg Duveyoung
Have you ever experienced your consciousness expanding to fill the universe? What
was it like? What does it mean?
Rather than make this question "about me," let's try this instead. Get your own on the spot tailor
made answer -- have a good friend read the below to you as you follow the instructions. If done
sincerely, you should be able to get a whole notch clearer about this "filling the universe" concept.
_______________
This is an extremely effective exercise if done as instructed. You will be experiencing a series of
"jumps". Do not rush this experiment. Take one jump at a time. The more you take your time, the
more powerful will your results be.
Jump One. After a few minutes of this "practice", now, in your mind's eye, with eyes still closed,
imagine that you can sense yourself ranging throughout your immediate environment as if it were
also your body. Pretend you are getting "reports" or "sensations" or "some sort of information"
from the nearby objects in the room. To whatever extent you can, sense the presence of the
objects of the room -- even though your eyes are closed. This sense may simply be a conviction
on your part that you "know" that the desk is "there". Pretend you can "somehow" feel the desk,
the chair, the floor, the other furniture in the room, and finally feel the presence of the walls of the
room like "another skin" around you. "Scoot around the room" like this for a few minutes with your
imagination. Feel that the room is completely filled with your aliveness, your consciousness. Sense
that every speck of space in the room has you within it.
Jump Two. After a few minutes, "break out" of the room. Pretend that you now can range freely
around the entire structure of the building you are in. Do NOT imagine yourself traveling around
the building like a ghost; instead, actually feel that you are being in every part of the building
simultaneously--JUST LIKE YOU NOW FEEL YOU ARE IN EVERY PART OF YOUR BODY. Fill the
building with "you", with your living presence. Take a minute or two to gain a bit of comfort doing
this, or rather, BEING this.
Jump Three. Now take a breath, let it out, and as you breathe out, fill up your neighborhood with
Jump Four. After a little comfort is gained, take another deep breath and fill up all the land around
you with awareness as you exhale. Blossom yourself to huge proportion. Pretend that the
seacoasts are like your toes and finger tips. Feel the immense dynamism of the detailed world that
is full with your loving grace and support. Feel like the one soul that pervades everything. See that
everything is IMMEDIATELY available to you -- just a glancing or listening and instantly that part of
you reports in with some data. Imagine smelling the sea air on one coast, instantly seeing a silent
bird gliding up a mountain slope and then immediately hearing the waves of the other coast.
Jump Five. Now, take another deep breath, and fill the earth with your spirit. Say "hello" to the
universe as you "try on" your Earth-body. Open your spiritual eyes to scan the vast reaches
around you. Feel the majesty of your new self, a magnificent planet with billions upon billions of
lives complexly intertwined. Feel the serenity of space as you bask in the pleasure of being so
vibrantly alive with awareness.
Edg Duveyoung
What is the best book about meditation for a beginner?
Originally Answered: What are the best meditation books?
I Am That -- a well translated compendium of conversations had with Nisargadatta Mahraj. Free
and online.
I Am That
It doesn't get clearer than this book, but, this book has to be used as if it is a moment by moment,
hands-on, therapy -- that is, every sentence should be taken as seriously as a lifebuoy tossed
directly into the roiling ocean of the reader's mind. The more intent the reader's focus, the faster
is understanding achieved.
Focus means dwelling upon each statement -- not merely reading each sentence and then roving
to the next. Savoring the concepts helps build a living process-set in the nervous system, and it is
based upon this intent-built inner-structuring that "intellectual clarity " can become a naturally
emergent property. This intellectual clarity can "relax" a lot of the tensions of existing. A profit.
And, once silence is "well" defined, the intellect can be dismissed. It'll just be there in the
background if needed. This is how the mind gets quieter, more peaceful.
The emotions, too, must be "tamed" as much as the skittish intellect. How one cultures the heart
to be balanced is always a parochial operation. Your story-to-date will be what decides what
works best. Basically, just don't rile yourself up -- if something bothers you, it's something inside
that needs to get clear that no red alert Chicken Little processes are needed. Everyone knows how
to love, and so, loving is the ancient heart therapy. Love anything, love everything, love even one
thing only, but love and know you're loving until that's all the emotional certainty you need.
BAM...most of the mind's work is backburnered.
In this quiescence, the doorway from being to awareness opens. Stepping through is an act of
grace, so just dwell there until it happens. Patience!
Edg Duveyoung
What are some good books on Advaita Vedanta?
Originally Answered: Which is Best book on advaita vedanta?
In India, they say, "Knowledge in the books stays in the books." Being able to logically process the
Advaita concepts is not a huge spiritual achievement. It's good, but it's not a solution.
Creating a nervous system which produces "a personality with strong motivation to seek peace,"
is the actual work of enlightenment.
It can take decades to culture a mind such that there is no inner intellectual or emotional desire-
sets that prevent one from evolving. Until that condition IS GROWN, physically, as actual nerve-
connections, the mind is victimized constantly with urges to devolve into ever deeper
attachments.
Ramana or Nisargadatta -- their books are all you need to intellectually gain a clarity, but the
actual mental/physiological processes that one uses to meditate will determine true growth. Good
news: the more you do, the faster your nervous system is prodded to learn how to settle down, get
quiet, and get the psychic momentum to rocket into silence.
Repeat, repeat, repeat -- this is the ancient method.
Suggestions: explore hatha yoga, explore mantra meditation, explore rituals -- find something that
calms you down and naturally resonates with "where you're at right now." Then, take it as it
comes....change when changing is natural.
Edg Duveyoung
How do we know that we're not living in a computer simulation?
Originally Answered: If we are living in a simulated reality, can one still achieve enlightenment?
The question is faulty.
Defining "one" is impossible; individuality is a false axiom.
No processing can be not-processing.
No map is the territory.
Awareness is transcendentally beyond all methods-of-consciousness -- even the method called
"Nervous System Of God." Silence cannot be heard even by a Divine Ear.
Every ego is a mere artifact of that immensity we find in the vastness of the brain's processing
which is a mere artifact of the vastness of the impacts upon that brain by the universe which is a
mere artifact of the vastness of All The Non-Instrumental Intents of the Divine which is a mere
artifact of awareness. Ego schmego. As if, ego, as if.
Ego is not sentient. It is merely witnessed by THAT.
By the way, this faulty question was the first one that Brahma asked when He found Himself one
second old and sitting on a Lotus Flower. He dove downwards to find His True Self. He followed
the stalk of the Lotus to seek its source. 3,000 years He sought. And then He gave up.
Even the Divine Ego cannot transcend with individuality remaining intact.
Enlightenment is not an experience.
Edg Duveyoung
Who is aware of what I am thinking?
Who? "Who" implies personhood, individuality, being, and on and on. These are concepts -- "that
which is aware" is not conceptual.
Nisargadatta wrote a book: "I Am That." "That" is a good word only because "that" is often used
by many teachers, and thus the word has a certain practicality. It's like the word "everything."
Point anywhere, and you're pointing at everything, right?
We can use the dictionary to "approach" a definition for "that," but it will be a multi-concept
definition that will end up merely able to "please a human intellect." BAH!
It's a hollow victory. The intellect cannot teach you into enlightenment.
And now, this just in from other news: the heart can't love you into enlightenment either.
Nope. That which is aware ain't talking to that which is not aware, but that which is not aware
comes from, solely is, and can only be awareness.
Sucks, eh?
Good news: grace is there. But only if you are tired of what isn't there. Gotta stop using the
nervous system on purpose to dwell upon the contents of the mind. Get out of the person
business. Let it go, and watch it continue better than ever before. Let it be a TV program running
in the background while you're taking an afternoon nap on a very nice couch.
Better news: there's thousands of ways to evolve, and almost all of them teach well enough for
any newbie to quickly get hep about how to settle down and get jiggy with THAT's actuality.
Then, settle down! Done.
Edg Duveyoung
Philosophy of Mind: Is awareness always of something?
Originally Answered: Is awareness always of something?
Consciousness is the process most folks call awareness; however, Advaita insists that awareness
is NOT consciousness -- with the "exception" of "the witness" which is seen as half transcendent
and half illusory.
Awareness is said to be absolutely transcendent to all processes, all symbolism, all meaning
systems, all axioms, etc. If all consciousness ceased (this is the same as saying "if every sentient
being died") yet still, awareness would witness that -- somehow -- without any possibility of
explaining itself...heh. There is no instrumentality "aspect" of awareness, but note there is no non-
instrumentality "aspect" of awareness either -- it cannot be grasped by the intellect with mere
concepts.
But consciousness is all about concepts, transactions, give and take, and on and on. Bad news:
Krishna told Arjuna that consciousness (karma/action) is unfathomable. Clarity is an impossibility.
Ask Godel for details.
In deep sleep, a human's consciousness has stopped producing "wakeful-perceptioning" and
dreams, yet yogis insist that awareness is unaffected and that deep sleep can be clearly
witnessed as "a state" even though there's not any thoughts about that state happening.
After death, awareness "is" unchanged, but consciousness is ended parochially. Religions tell us
some aspect of personhood (core consciousness dynamics?) survives death, and if so, the
witness, an all time reality for all beings, will not change in any manner due to the "death process."
Even if we imagine that God could have what we call "a thought," the awareness of that thought is
NOT GOD'S -- awareness "is" that which witnesses all created things -- including God's mind. If
God dies Advaita's certainty about awareness is yet undented. Lord Indra -- Who was said to be
as perfect as can be -- had to die when His good karma ended, and afterwards beginning again
with an ant's nervous system and its consciousness. A very good ant, yes, but with all kinds of
limitations in terms of how little of life's plenitudes can be expressed as an ant, BUT THAT ANT
WILL HAVE LORD INDRA'S SAME WITNESS. There's only one awareness.
One other lesson from this story is that the perfect mind could not resist identification. Advaita
says identifying is the primal "error," but when a being's consciousness finally recognizes that it is
not awareness, that is, when identity solely resides with awareness and is not falsely projected
upon any object of consciousness, THEN enlightenment is established.
Like the computer says at the end of the film War Games, the only way to win a nuclear war is to
never start it. Same deal with identification -- once it's given away, there's hell to pay getting it
back.
Solution: quick! do nothing!
Edg Duveyoung
What is the most transcendent experience you have ever experienced?
Originally Answered: What is the most transcendent experience you have ever experienced?
The word "most" is a bother. The transcendent, by definition, has no qualities. There's no "more"
or "less" about it. You can't get any closer to it. You can't get away from it. Worse: it's not an "it."
Now, if you want to know what the most "spiritual" experience is, that IS something that can be
conceptually handled.
The scriptures of the various religions describe the mind of God. These descriptions are, so far,
the best attempts. In short, God's omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence makes for a
being who is experiencing not just everything, but also every possible thing......, and this is so
boggling as concepts go, that human-level experiencing becomes a relativistic joke.
Scriptures tell us that a human can get very subtle, very resonant, very much "in step with" ALL
THIS. These folks are called saints. Their spiritual experiences usually add up to "bliss." That's
non-measurable joy. End of story...that's the best a human can get as far as "experiencing" goes,
but of course, experiencing IS THE TRAP. Experiencing is what gets us all attached to the world.
Ask Lord Indra about what happens when His good karma runs out. BAM, He become he. Just
another ant trying to evolve.
As for my own personal best, as a writer, I could wax eloquent, but what of those observers who
don't have my skills? They would do their best, but whatever they reported would be -- as would
be my attempts -- merely symbolic. The experience stays inside the mind that had it -- the words
that are sent to other minds are not able to transfer experience.
Ever try to tell someone what a strawberry tastes like if they never had one before? Same deal.
Lots of words are possible, but the experience is always brand new when finally it is processed.
And now the bad news: what you are experiencing right now IS the most spiritual it ever gets for
anyone. More is not required -- realizing what ACTUALLY IS is what is required. A stupid rock in
one person's hand is a diamond in the rough to another. See?
Edg Duveyoung
Does the wave function apply for just particles or even our conscious choices?
The eye can detect a single photon. The human nervous system is set up to consciously ignore
almost EVERYTHING, but it's a perfect bean counter 24/7 "underneath" experiencing. Now, the
eye doesn't tell the brain it saw a photon until it counts about half a dozen of them, THEN, it
figures it's worthy of bothering the brain with "flash of light seen."
So, we see that even the smallest of energy events can be significant and responded to by the
unconscious mind which can then trigger a consciously experienced thought/feeling/sensation.
Seems to me to be a fairly direct connection -- not as "unlikely" as some respondents to this issue
are surmising.
Below is a very scientific inquiry that seems to prove that radiation is changing materiality on the
macroscopic level. It shows how water is purified -- actual work is being done -- by merely shining
a light on a surface. To me, this is a powerful indicator that our experiencing of being human is
strongly affected by THE LIGHT.....which is not necessarily visible.
Jesus said that He had meat to eat ye know not of. Might have been light if you ask me. Inside
every body are a TRILLION surfaces. If I were a cell, I might be quite pleased to have the help-
from-beyond to get the garbage from settling on my membranes -- or whatever. See?
Bottom line: life's mystically engendered; get used to it.
Edg Duveyoung
What do you believe the human soul is?
This will be a long explanation. Let's see how much I blab.
The soul (pure identity) of God is: pure awareness.
The soul (pure identity) of any human is: pure awareness.
Reports from the finest observers agree that there can be no differentiation between the "two"
entities -- they are, in fact, one entity which resists any language's ability to define. One failing
attempt: "Unbounded infinite eternal awareness pervading every speck of manifestation without
being material in the least."
Awkward, eh?
Both souls are the SAME awareness. Awareness is the witness through two windows at the same
time.....but, note: it is also the "soul" peering through every. single. other. possible. window.
But, different nervous systems, different states of consciousness, and differing ways to describe
"soul" in relative terms have us struggling in the defining of soul, and thus we get all the
arguments. Worse: define soul today and then study scriptures for 20 years and then see if you
still have the same definition. Everything evolves and transforms as if a living thing -- a concept is
never the same twice even in the same nervous system. We're skin bags filled with chemicals, ya
know? We slosh.
But awareness NEVER changes, never evolves, never "gets its hands dirty." It is the witness of the
doings of all the constantly changing nervous systems.....God's or yours -- doesn't matter to
awareness -- awareness will abide and remain unaffected by witnessing your worst nightmare or
God's best emanation.
This truth is taught by your own experience of having odd thoughts pass through the mind which
seem quite foreign compared to your normal fare. Your awareness is an equal opportunity witness
-- whatever the brain produces -- it will witness. You may say, "That last thought was just not me,
and it does not reflect what I stand for, and it's rare in the history of all my thoughts," but
awareness will not flinch in the least. That same awareness will as calmly watch you have your
very last thought.
The physical body/mind system can be thought of as an expression of a divine intent. For
whatever reasons, you were thought up and placed exactly in your present position -- those
reasons are beyond any ken. This "intent to have you in creation" can be seen as if an author is
creating a life for a character that will end up going through experiences and, so, then evolving
into a more refined character. If that character dies, then what?
Then what?
That's where religion gets born.
The character's constantly evolving personality was created due to divine love, and it would not
be a surprise if that character was given another lifetime in which to continue its progress towards
a complete realization of life's deepest truth: awareness is prior to and independent of
consciousness.
Now, here's the question: is that the same character in the next lifetime or not?
Consider that Mickey Mouse may be seen in a comic strip of four panels. In each cell we see
Mickey, but each "Mickey" cannot see the "other Mickeys." Is there more than one Mickey, then?
Does Walt Disney think there's more than one? Why should Mickey think he's more than one
character? Yet there are the characters right before your eyes -- you the witness of the comic
strip.
Same deal with witnessing incarnations. All the Mickeys are illusory. All the Mickeys are mere
representations of the potential manifestations of this character that could be imagined. There is
but ONE IDEA intended -- a "mickey-ness" that God is exploring across whatever venues desired.
Be assured, if the divine is imagining your manifested "soul's" ultimate raison d'etre, it will be
fulfilled. It may be a great destiny or a short straw drawn, but each soul's potential will be sussed
out.
The trick is to witness your "person" as if it were, say, a stray dog. A very nice dog, but NOT
YOURS. It will do the most surprising things, but, as a witness-not-an-ego, you are no longer
invested in that dog as if it was YOUR dog -- it is not a pet, it is just a dog.
Someone else's dog. God's. And you're not God and you're not any kind of dog. You're beyond
both.
Of course, all my use of the word "you" is totally bogus. The witness doesn't "think" or "relate" or
"do." It just is everywhere, everywhen, and those who do the work of refining their nervous
systems will discover that awareness is the only place to reside, the only place to call "me" --
even if there's no ego to do the "calling."
Bottom line: get out of the "I'm a person" business. Why be small? Why not be the source instead
of an emergent phenomenon of the source?
If the soul you're witnessing rises to unity consciousness or descends into darkness, IT WILL BE
PERFECT. No worries. Let go. It's all good -- even the evil parts.
Edg Duveyoung
Can you call yourself "enlightened" and not have any values, like compassion?
Originally Answered: Can you call yourself "enlightened" and not have any values? Say, compassion?
Arjuna was enlightened in the midst (corpus coliseum?) of the battlefield by Krishna.
How?
Arjuna had Krishna drive the chariot to the middle where he could view both sides of the array --
his army and those opposed (two hemispheres of the brain?)
But he did so with a wavering mind that went from being ready for war to loving the persons on
the other side who were his relatives. He was bereft of the wisdom to decide which moral was to
guide him -- compassion or upholding righteousness. For the first time EVER, he dropped
Gandiva, his bow. He surrendered, at last, to Krishna's teaching, which then began The Bhagavad
Gita -- the core of that epic, the Mahabharata.
Krishna taught Arjuna that "duty above compassion" was the rule.
Why?
Because duty can be known, but compassion needs COSMIC WISDOM as its source, or it's
insignificant.
A human duty can be learned by an unenlightened mind, and if done well, no "soul damage" to
ones evolution is incurred.
Krishna explains: "Unfathomable is karma." That is: no one can figure out anything well enough to
intellectually conclude anything about anything. This is a blindness most will not admit. Those that
do, Arjuna for instance, know that they're blind and cannot have the clarity to judge the value of
what is happening and naturally seek a practical way to avoid errors.
Thus dharma -- duty is recommended. Do what you know is required, and you'll be safe. Try to
impose your own parochial and limited views, and you're going to end up well-intending your way
to hell (suffering in the mind?)
Thus, by showing Arjuna a way to get clear about compassion, we are all instructed about all the
dynamics of personality. Any of them can rise up to ferocious amplitude which can easily tilt ones
clarity. In the midst of dissonance (war) duty is the safest choice.
Don't worry about the direction of the moment. Modernity may be rocketing to doom, but still,
duty will be the safest insurance in these feral times.
Your primary duty: To transcend meaning.
Your muggle duty: if you know it's wrong, DON'T DO IT.
Edg Duveyoung
Does everybody have some sort of void in them?
I'm wondering if your question is one for a psychologist instead of the sincere mystics who thus
far are answering.
A psychological void seems to be something quite different from the Buddhist Void. A
psychological void might be that lack of empathy we see in some personality disorders, and,
indeed, "void" could be a way to label this missing dynamic, and we'd interpret that void as a
negative process in the personality that dampens compassion or other positive personality
dynamics.
If that's the void you're talking about, then I'm not qualified to respond. I do know folks who are
very high functioning but also quite broken -- many alpha-male types at the head of large
corporations can do just fine kicking ass. And they will have family and friends that love them.
Their lives will "work," but there are many issues that remain unresolved which will trigger
negativity again and again.
Another word you use is "peace." To a mystic, that word is especially defined. Typically, only those
with unbounded awareness can be said to be at peace, because identity has been realized as
beyond all defining, and thus, neither negativity NOR positivity in the flow of consciousness is able
to becloud or dim or blinker or get-in-the-way of the mind/body system's ability to correctly know
the self instead of being delusional and attaching identity to an object of consciousness.
Ironically, the mystic will say the void is the source of all qualities -- but, heh, only under the
extreme duress that language imposes. A yogi doesn't know where ALL THIS is coming from, but
human logic structures -- operative in a yogi too -- universally conclude that since pure
awareness is prior and superior to consciousness, and since pure awareness is an all time reality
no matter what may be impacting consciousness which is on-and-then-off-and-temporary, then,
the only "source" to be validly found to blame for ALL THIS is: awareness.
And no one has come up with a more logically compelling argument for any other source of
materiality. Even science's Big Bang assumes a point where NOTHING (a good word for pure
awareness) is defined as the essential identity of the original singularity's point.
Awareness, being universal, is there for anyone to sample immediately by asking "Am I here?" The
answer is always: IMMEDIATE SILENCE -- the brain doesn't produce a thought: "yes I am,"
because to know one is, is self-validating.
If one samples this awareness, repeatedly -- for decades in an ashram probably -- it cultures ones
nervous system which begins to gain a clarity about the all time reality of awareness -- especially
the truth that awareness is NOT a product of a brain.
And once that's clear, identity switches to awareness -- that perfect silence within and without --
peace.
As for happiness. Even insane folks can claim they're happy. It's always a relative term.
How'd you like to be soooooo good at golf that you came in 3rd at the Masters?
I can list dozens of men who were the most miserable in the world when they rose to those
heights . . . . miserable because they thought they could have done better. But those same men
were as happy as could be the first time they ever beat par on an easy hole at age 13.
Only pure awareness can be said to deserve the name bliss -- which is beyond happiness'
relativity.
Dive in! The water's fine!
Edg Duveyoung
Making an analogy of the universe as being like a human brain, how does the universe
"think"?
Omnipresence is only possible for the para-physical.
In a nightly dream, you're everywhere the "dream goes." Instantly the scenes may change, but
mystically, you're already there -- and there's no sense that any traveling happened, because you
didn't travel. This is an example unto you -- that you may see your awareness being unbounded
by time or space. Your true identity is beyond the physical.
Note that a dream is produced all-at-once. We don't experience the parts of the dream being
"downloaded separately." It's all one piece!
Same deal with the universe -- it springs forth fully sussed -- instant by instant by instant......from
a divine mind......which dreams in 3D.
See? The parts of the dream -- yours or God's -- don't have to be causally connected. The
dreams don't need TIME to pass before objects in the dreams can be affected by each other.
Causality is a crock.
Edg Duveyoung
In mindfulness meditation, every book is filled with that suggestion but it is unclear
how. How exactly can a person watch his or her thoughts?
How can you not? THAT'S THE QUESTION! We're all "almost" hopelessly addicted to staring at
our thoughts. We all know how to do it like we know how to breathe. No learning required.
One thing to note: most seekers make the mistake of wanting to be the witness of an enlightened
mind instead of being the witness of all creation.
See the diff?
Note my use of the word "almost" above. The sacred loop-hole in the fine print with our contract
with God is that the very same tool we use to maintain our ignorance can be used to free us -- the
thorn that's used to remove a thorn.
That tool is "automatic identification." Any mind. Any. Any mind is an identification machine.
Whatever passes through any mind is as loved as if it were a newborn infant being put in ones
parental arms. But, "That's me" is an error -- we think thoughts are our doing. We think thoughts
are "us in action."
We ain't.
What to do?
Pay attention to paying attention. The least act of volition possible.
By gently returning, again and again, to "tuning in to the fact that I'm presently experiencing," a
skill is thereby practiced. That skill is the ability to quiet down thoughts by not keeping them on
the front burner of the mind and instead attending to attending. They fade, they lose allure when
the mind looks at its lookingness instead. By doing so, the mind begins to be comfortable just
witnessing the mind instead of being a mind.
See the diff?
And get this -- the thorn used to remove a thorn also gradually becomes "less real" -- it being like
a stick used to stir a campfire which is itself burnt. That is, the intellect gradually convinces itself
that IT IS NOT PRODUCING THOUGHTS, and is instead watching them being born -- including the
thoughts similar to "I'm thinking about thinking." The intellect gets freed of the burden of being
responsible for the mind's contents.
And the heart, too, is part of the thorn. The heart, by watching the mind's emotional inner-tones,
gradually comes to see that emotions too are spontaneously created FROM BEYOND, and the
heart too can relax, because it comes to see that emotions are divine in origin. Hence: to be
surrendered to fully.....witnessed but NOT SUFFERED.
The kicker: if you do this, at some point, you leap out of the consciousness box altogether. You
recognize that you are not material, not a process, not a mind, not a linear anything.....and YET IT
ALL CONTINUES. When the ego finally gets it that it ain't doing anything, it humbles the ego into a
perfect silence.
And then, suddenly . . .
Edg Duveyoung
What exactly did God mean when He said "I am that I am"?
Hey, God, is that you?
"Yep, I'm the "I am" -- the existential certainty of beings. Everyone is certain that they exist. And,
good news, that's Me inside everyone -- I'm the sole 'real’ part in an ocean of processes,
dynamics and illusions -- which, pardon My delight, everyone attests is their core self.
"If you attend to that certainty, if you attempt to validate that certainty, if you seek the sole self of
selves, all other possible identities lose their allure.
"I am that 'I am’ inside all."
Peek a boo!
Edg Duveyoung
What are some valid arguments against the teachings of Advaita Vedanta?
When those who have had an "experience" of the transcendent -- even if it was brief -- come to
us and report, they say that when identification with objects of consciousness are sundered, that
identity which yet remains is a proof unto itself, but also they say that it IS THE ONLY PROOF
POSSIBLE.
To have "tasted unboundedness" leaves one with an indelible certainty about awareness being the
basis of consciousness and therefore axiomatic, prior, and impossible to validate except
superficially by symbolically using the constructs of consciousness. Such an observer, who has
gone beyond the need for proof, loses any urgency to try to validate Advaita except by getting
others to seek silence.
Usually, no person, upon awakening in the morning, needs someone to try to convince them that
their recent dream has ended. Humans just know the difference.
Just so, though there are six systems of Hindu philosophy that have each devised extensive
proofs about Advaita's core, unless one realizes true identity, then any clarity by the
mind/body/ego system about Advaita almost necessarily remains "trapped" in the field of the
academic.
Unfortunately, transcending all possible experiences takes some practice -- sometimes decades
of practice are needed to be able to reside in silence purely enough to escape the grasp of illusory
allures. Until then, no proof will slake any thirst for God.
This time requirement is the weak point. Almost anyone can walk away from the offer as being
"requiring too much investment with such a small chance of a payoff in the 'real' world." And
almost anyone can then figure out "excuse enough" to not sincerely seek a proof of any sort
about Advaita.
This is why God invented the outer guru -- a person who comes along at just the right time in your
life and zaps you by just glancing into your eyes, and your heart is stolen. That guru can point you
inwards away from the blizzard of confettied pleasures, and you'll do so, because of the power in
that very first glance -- integrity is so refreshing when found.
Edg Duveyoung
What exactly is Deepak Chopra saying about quantum theory, and why has it got the
goat of scientists everywhere?
Oh, can we all agree to cut Choppie a bit of a break?
I'll explain.
The guy's just scrambling for a buck like so many of us. I know some insider info on his "spiritual
upbringing," and I'm here to testify that, yeah, he's lacking some integrity.
That said, he is still a true believer in large degree, and to that degree does he -- quite humanly --
project his spirituality into EVERYTHING, not merely physics. Let's face it, Hinduism's basic
premise is that ALL THIS is GOD. End of story. To him, of course anything science establishes as
true is MERELY to be a co-opted discovery of how subtle God can be, how vast the mind of God
must be to manage everything, how beyond human understanding God necessarily is by
comparison, blahdee energy nanosomething blahdee quarky blah.
We know this shtick. He's not the first to do this, right?
What is his impact in history? -- not religiously significant -- but spiritually, because of his
charisma and hep-sermonizing, he HAS impacted present day spirituality in that whole
populations are being introduced to mystical concepts -- most of them as if for the first time.
Because he gets so much air-time in main stream media, and because he's always pushing sales,
Chopra must spend most of his time establishing common ground with his audiences -- this is
almost never delivered with such a large dent in the mystical basics that the clarity of the
audience is devolved. He's doing some spadework for every reader on this webpage. Gotta tip a
hat to him.
When he gets more attention from his customers, yes, I could bitch about how he grabs 10,000
years of scriptural authority and then twists, tilts, tints, shunts, and leverages it....and on and on.
BAH! But look! That's "damage" just to his customers -- yeah he's hauling in the cash, but that's
like 1/3000ths of those he's otherwise reaching with a positive powerfully educational impact.
Gotta do this kind of spiritual math, these days, these Kali Days, and get complex -- if we are to
write off Chopra, we gotta first solve the problem of "who else will immediately take up the slack if
he's taken down and shamed for all his exaggerations about physics?" He's carrying a big load.
He's making newbies by the kiloton. I'm asking for some balance in how we smack the guy
around.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaand, go figure, I'm one of those who believes the metaphors of physics can become
very cool teaching tools about mystical concepts. I personally believe physics is on the verge of
forcing itself to believe in magic, and that will require some very spiritual sounding equations,
mebets.
At some point, we must discover how God pulls off all the illusions -- scientists have as good a
shot at that as do praying monks. I know monks and scientists -- they're all dedicated
"mentalists." Their intent is severe, deep, and IMPORTANT. I bow to all of them.
Meanwhile, in case they're all screw-ups, hey, find out for yourself -- knock and it will be opened
unto you, right? If you have a mind, why not see for oneself, eh?
Edg Duveyoung
How has Vedanta changed you?
Your life changes to "a life."
That's all it takes.
From then on whatever happens is an innocent expression of a body/mind system's potential to
allow awareness access to the most subtle workings of consciousness. This is experienced as
"the divine" increasingly being obviously the source of intent.....not the ego -- which is seen as
insentient.
It takes a heap O' thinking to get intellectual clarity about Advaita. One reading of I Am That just
isn't enough for most folks to "get it." It requires dwelling with the concepts again and again until a
wholeness becomes a naturally emergent property of the intellect's conclusions.
But a satisfied intellect is not freedom, and the best result of increasing clarity would be a
concomitant "heart" that's been cultured to dwell too -- in the subtleties of emotion -- it's
language -- as is logic to the intellect.
These things just happen. If they don't, that is perfect too.
Edg Duveyoung
How do I establish that the waking state is as illusory as the dreaming state, as per
Advaita Vedanta?
Who would do this "establishing?" If there is an entity that does something -- duality still prevails.
It's not about having wisdom about the mechanics and equivalencies of human experiencing --
it's about not being a human at all.
Edg Duveyoung
How do I practice Sadhana in Advaita Vedanta?
Every thing can be a reminder to you to inquire "Who am I?" See a pencil on the desk, and simply
ask, "Who sees this pencil?"
Etc.
Relentless intent to always be attending the self -- as silence -- the witness -- is the key.
Nisargadatta hardly knew his guru but kept a solid grip on his guru's advice to look within. Three
years of doing so and enlightenment dawned. So it can be done by a householder with a busy life.
By doing this technique, it gradually becomes clear that nothing needs to be done -- all is
proceeding as planned, and the ego can just shut up about being a doer, achiever, spirit, etc.,
because true identity, awareness, is beyond any needing of instrumentality.
Edg Duveyoung
I have studied Advaita Vedanta for 50 years · Updated 10mo
What is the advaita-siddhi?
Originally Answered: What is the Advaita siddhi?
Awareness is prior to consciousness. Consciousness is always -- and merely -- a processing-
event in an entity's "nervous system."
What's a "nervous system?" Jesus thought stones could cry out and that a fig tree was supposed
to be morally responsible, and the Ved makes a strong case for the universe being the actual
body/mind/nervous-system of God.
The spectrum of definitions for soul, mind, thought, morality, etc. is endless. Two quarks in a
relationship could be said to be a basic unit of consciousness -- as absurd as that might sound.
And every single manifestation of "mind" is a self-imposed imprisonment. And it gets
claustrophobic if you're a human being.
The practical technique for coming to "a realization" -- as espoused by Nisargadatta and Ramana
-- is to inquire, "Who is witnessing my thoughts?" or "Who am I?" or other suchlike mental "effort"
that quickly demonstrates that the self is present but it is none-the-less absolutely non-physical
and non-conceptual. This is experienced as "silence" immediately after the inquiry has been
made. Why? Because the self cannot be described, so the mind in its wisdom presents its best
effort at symbolizing the absolutely transcendental reality by NOT MAKING A THOUGHT. That
non-answer is the best any nervous system can come up with to symbolize the answer-that-
cannot-be.
And Nisargadatta and Ramana maintain THAT'S ALL WE NEED TO DO -- pay attention to the
mind's expression-symbol-process for "self." (Yes, the "silence" is yet still merely processing, but
it's the mind's least state of excitation, and this lowering of the activities of the nervous system is
the best-attempt that turns out to be adequate enough.) This silence will yet still be an experience
in duality, but it's the minimal experience of PURE BEING. Pure being is a state of no-thought-ness
but still the sense of "I am present" tints the quiescence. But from that vantage, they tell us, one
can slip out of identifying with ANY mind/body system, and it can be realized that the true core
self is not a tiny human personality. This is called enlightenment.
To sum: attend to the inquiry's answer until dwelling in that peaceful state becomes easy to do --
then, simply practice being BEING until BY GRACE ALONE the shift happens, and then, awareness
is sole, and consciousness is always and merely ephemeral and temporary. This is the Advaita
siddhi -- the only form of power that can overcome the spell of incarnation.
(This was my first spirituality essay on Quora.)
Edg Duveyoung
How can I outsmart Netflix now that it has "throttled" my DVD flow such that it now
takes two days to process and two days to mail, instead of one day as they usually did
for the last few years?
All I can come up with is to dump the DVD service or limit it to one disk-at-a-time, get what I can
from Netflix streaming, and try to find cheaper prices at Amazon Prime or suffer the commercials
at Hulu for the films I can't otherwise get from Netflix in a few days. I'm willing to pay for all my
media -- no torrents etc., but Netflix has some sort of computer algorithm to determine "who is on
the naughty list and need to be throttled," and so maybe there's a loophole to be exploited. I did
step up my game and was getting the mailers out the very next day after viewing to get as many
per week as possible, so I'm the one at fault here, but there's no going back to my old status in
"their eyes," now that I'm an "over user."
I'm thinking they want to end the mailer service, so they're abusing the customers a little here and
there to max out profits and try to shunt customers to streaming.
How can I outsmart Netflix now that it has "throttled" my DVD flow such that it now
takes two days to process and two days to mail, instead of one day as they usually did
for the last few years?
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Whew! Yikes! Holy moly! No way! Who can do all that?

Edg Duveyoung · Follow

Oh, have another:

THE 25th gift for The List, has been sent.

So far the results seem promising.

I’M NOT KIDDING.

Satisfied? Simple enough terms?

—Should I chase my dreams? “Yes, the road ahead is clear.”

This is why one meditates.

There will be no punchline.

Below I give the translation.

Ah. I needed that.

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