I feel that "the enlightened one" had grown more and more concerned that his disciples had gotten too attached to seeking wisdom from an external source, in the form of the Master, rather than delving deeply within themselves, thereby finding the effulgent gateway to universal consciousness (the third eye, itself a vortexial fulcrum and portal into the crown center, uniting within an undifferentiated field of Divine illumination). How's that for a run-on sentence, eh?

In other words, despite his doctrine that there is no permanent separate self, no individuated soul which lasts forever. No real Atman eternally existent outside of the play of smoke and mirrors before the perception of the isolated self dreaming... for ultimately this human lifetime is an illusion of sorts and is a mirage and so, we are truly Anatman or no-self. This is what truly seats in the formless core of all sentient beings.

That is a wellspring of deep quietude, the roaring silence, one so vast that it is beyond any quantification nor can it be captured by any conceptual ideologies, remains unmoving in sheer formlessness. For who is really witnessing this play if the veil is lifted, the universe awakening to itself observing itself in the mirror of experience? The I am principle seeking its own quintessential source and in effect, dissolves and vanishes in the effort of discovery.

I believe that the term "enlightenment" itself sheds considerable emphasis on the quality of light, both material illumination and metaphysical effulgence. The sudden removal of bondage to delusion, the revelation of awakening from the dream of mortality and the powerful bliss and serenity of direct immersion within the emptiness of self, abiding in complete stillness of mind. It's much like the statement by Yeshua the Christ, "Therefore, if thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light."

Not so much just a show of inner fireworks and lovely fractals pulsing upon the screen of the mind's eye... but a flood of clear light, one which so absorbs and unites the perceiver and the perceived that there is only one phenomenon taking place in the eternal present, this here and now which is both fleeting and constant. Hence the paradox of the mind-shattering epiphany?

When the attention is so affixed, one's separate identity becomes most unreal and all that is perceivable to the witness of this grand play is the subtlest presence within oneself, radiating as oneself, a spark, a reflection, a begging-less and endless echoing of the Unified Field of Being, itself resplendently blooming anew. Ergo, without any limiting boundary to one's soul's parameters, all divisions and degrees of separation from anything else, essentially melt back into the formless Void, the wholly unmanifested frequency of the Godhead in it's most ineffable state. Life hums along. The Tao doing what it does for no reason other than it spontaneously does what it does (or does it really and did it ever?). "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make any sound?"

I honesty believe that such whiteout experiences are bliss beyond measure. Sure, the price paid may be a kind of self-annihilation but it is also liberation from our delusions. This surely is the infinite nature of Nirvana blossoming within the peaceful singularity of the mind's heart? And while this may be an ego-death... it is also a rebirthing and an expansion beyond ego's grasp and finite understanding.

Like Timothy Leary used to cleverly quip, "You have to loose yourself to find yourself."

Just for reference this was a conversation that RisingSpirit and myself started elsewhere and he thought it would be a solid topic for the nexus... So there you have it.

A little more background info: "Be a light unto yourselves" is supposedly one of the last things the Buddha said to his close disciples.

"The One rules all. Nothing has authority over it.
It is the God.
It is Father of everything,
Holy One
The invisible one over everything.
It is uncontaminated
Pure light no eye can bear to look within."


- Secret book of John

I find huuuuugge overlaps between buddhism and gnosticism..in that both were almost like super atheists.


"The One is the Invisible Spirit.
It is not right to think of it as a God or as like God.
It is more than just God."

- Secret book of John

No doubt about that.

The gnostics were all about directly knowing (gnosis), which is part and parcel of Buddhism as well. Heck didn't nen start a thread on gnosticism here at home point? Probably has a lot of good info in it.

I wish more people that believed in God could expand or deepen that view. The gnostics really were on to something I think.

Also a lot of the lost gospels sound quite Buddhist. Including the gospel of Mary and the gospel of Thomas. Kind makes you wonder why these particular gospels were hunted and down and destroyed?

Peace

BTW, this isn't verifiable yet, and I'm not sure when I will get the chance, but i was at a funeral in a Catholic Church recently and saw two stained glass windows that contained what looked like shroom references. Once was a blue shroom and the others were all read with white spots. My wife, stopped me from trying to snap pictures (I was at a funeral). In truth I don't know that they really were shroom references, but I do plan to try and get back in that church and find out.

To be fair, what I saw wasn't anything like this and could have not been mushrooms. I won't really know until I can get back in the church. It's just outside Albany NY if anyone in the vicinity wants to go check it out themselves.

Peace

Even though this is a departure from the original post, I'd like to add these images in further support of psychedelic mushrooms playing an integral part in humankind's religious history, world over.

So I have seen all of these except the Buddhist mushroom Statue!! This is fascinating Rising Spirit.

I'm off to go research this more... But before I go I'll share a really cool painting I purchased at a music festival last summer.

And yet another one that I turned up.

I'm actually pretty shocked because there isn't anything pertaining to this anywhere in any scriptures..

Jamie I may very well stand corrected with regards to a prior conversations we had in the past.


This entire page is worth looking at: http://www.mushroomstone.com/researchpage.htm

To be fair many of these are Jain statues...but Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain all coexisted and I see no reason to assume they weren't all using Soma. Is anyone not convinced Soma was a mushroom after looking at the link of above?

I have had experiences in the light with 5meoDMT recently that are relevant to all of this. I would recommend it to anyone experiencing such existential nostalgia for dissolution into the clear light.

What is the discussion question - whether you are still sane? Definitely not! But a more relevant question is "Who are you?"

There is someone/thing to whom the light appears.

No I think the evidence is clear enough that soma in relation to the blue throated peacock was psilocybin active species of mushrooms, which ties right into the peacock stage of alchemical transformaton where one begins to see colored patterns..this stage marks a major shift in the alchemist as they move into the deeper mysteries. There was likely not only one soma mushroom, but a number of them described as various meats..the meat of the elephant was likely to be psilocybe cubensis..as the meat of the buffalo was likely to have been panaeolus combodginiesis. There is also references to the dung eaters and urin drinkers..the dung obviously being psilocybin species that grow on animal dung, and the urin drinkers referring to the amanita muscaria mushroom..which is also interesting in my limited but recent experience. Mike Crowley has a large body of work on this on his site "secret drugs of buddhism". I paid for a membership to get full access to his research and it was worth every penny.

Durring the rise of buddhism, the fall of the vedic systems and rise of orthodox brahmanism was likely already in place..including the suppression of soma. It makes sense it would be veiled somewhere within buddhist teachings, out of sight for those not initiated...I am no scholar though.

Acacias are reported to be in use in secret buddhist innitiations(nen 2014) by one Lama as a snuff, and in the himalaya region a number of mushrooms are recognized and known as "traveling mushrooms". Psilocybe cubensis is one mushroom, dried and made into a snuff with amanitas and other plant admixtures. The snuff is called "thapana" and stored in reed tubes(Ratsch).

According to Mike Crowley, in Vajrayana buddhism there is still a placebo sacrament used called amrita used heavily in innitations(Crowley).

http://secretdrugs.net/

On a side note..a little bit about the idea of "illusion". I don't like this term, as it if often referenced in western circles, at least in vedic contexts. The teachers of advaita vedanta that I currently vibe with, teach that this is mistranslation. This is the causal reality..the reflectional reality..but not an illusion in the sense that it is not real. It IS real..as is brahman..and the reflectional reality IS brahman..and it is where we live...as do all gurus, sages etc...amd not to be denied..however it is not the truest, or highest realized aspect of brahman, because it is still causal, and brahman is the unchanging stillness of reality. It is permanence. All movement towards that place in the clear light, begins in the causal realm..and flows back down into the causal realm. The vedantist, though the practice of discernment can live free from suffering in the reflectional reality, through non attachment. Non attachment however does not mean non-action(in my opinion). I am so put off by a major chunk of what I hear said about vedanta, buddhism, christianity, Islam and Gnosticism etc in the west and new age circles that I rather tend to just not talk about it with many people, because the don't get it, and resort to popular cliches like "namaste" and "it's all one!" while inserting the latest cultural suppository Jehova is handing out ..please don't burn me yet!

In the clear light of god, there is not even non attachment to attach to..yet here remains still, that existential ache..that nostalgic longing for our true home in the pleroma..and it becomes the great work of our very soul to illuminate that divine spark within, and light up the world...

..and just because you have peered into the depths of that light, as it shines through the caked on dirt of your own humanity, does not mean that the world suddenly lightens up to you...not at all. Internally, it brings peace. The archons of this world are many, and you may well have just set off your light beacon. Ego's don't enjoy being threatened. Buddha and Jesus ain't drivin no lexus any time soon. Ooops.. Sorry, The Secret..but we have had enough of your new age babylon drivel..don't worry though, Im sure your check will come in soon enough, and you can sit with the rest of the washed up gurus alongside depak and tolle on the shelves of your nearest Wal-Mart.

"it's hard to find the moral high ground when we're all standing in the mud."

- Phelan


"don't hate the player, hate the game...because the game hates you"

-Miguel Conner


....annnnddd yeah can't help but post this one so if your still not ready to nail to that cross...

https://www.facebook.com...o.php?v=948642268500556


Oh well, I digress.

Compassion is the only virtuous virtue.

Wow Jamie, great post.


This is largely what I have read as well. What I'm still unsure of is how a single man rises to level of supreme Tathāgata when the secret is a mushroom? Seems there has to be more to it than this. Much more. One theory is that the mushrooms over Buddha are just parasol's... But I don't know that just doesn't all the way jive with me.

Perhaps these early cultures really did take the time to explore in a 'scientific' way the mental realms of psychedelia? I don't know, but I definitely don't think we have the full picture as of yet.


Even if so, is it potent enough to reach hyperspace? I see you had a thread here about it. Have you experimented with this more?


Try not to hold to much disdain. The majority of people (both eastern and western) have never been exposed to the information or states of mind that we have. I agree the secret is fully retarded though... even though in a limited capacity it is based on a truth, but a truth that is so far removed... it's just laughable.

But people saying Namaste and it's all one.. while admittedly most of these people have a shallow view, it's still better than the people that are trying to claw there way to the top of super corporation x as though only their life matters. Remember everyone starts their journey somewhere and we are all at different places.

I remember when I first got exposed to Eastern thought via Paramahansa Yogananda. I don't agree with a lot of what I used to believe, but this is because my own spirituality has matured greatly over the years.. and quite frankly it's partially why I try to remain humble with what I 'know' today because most likely just around the bend is a higher truth

As for this reality being an illusion. I think science has done a fine job of showing that at the most fundamental level it really is an illusion, but to your point for all intents and purposes it's as real as it gets to us...even the so called enlightened once had to finish out life and die...

The real illusion is this incessant clinging to things as self. IMHO.


And this is where the conversation is meaningless and where I part way's with the Neo Advaita, and lots of other new age crowds.. It becomes a spiritual circle jerk were everyone is busy telling everyone else how they haven't realized the highest truth, etc... Each person trying to point out what's just past the others perception.. I joined a few of these boards on facebook over the years.. I would try to have dialog with them, but it was just laughable. I really think the entire Enlightenment NOW crowd needs to take Kilindis's advice and eat the 20grams. I have a feeling their spiritual circle jerking would stop.

I think outside of those practicing a form of psychedelic mysticism these states simply haven't been experienced by very many people. Extreme states of calm certainly arise during deep meditation and I don't deny even grander experiences by those who have logged 10's of thousands of hours, but I doubt it is ever like a break through dose of shrooms. The clear light experienced in this state is simply ecstatic. And BTW I'm not sure how many break through doses a person really needs to have? Ultimately hyperspace isn't any more or any less real than what is percieved with 'sober' mind. It's all mind stuff.


This is very true. Even once enlightened there is still a long causal chain that follows you. BUT with the arising of internal peace the new links in the chain will be towards a more solid foundation. Probably not riches, but likely built from kindness, empathy, and compassion. And people with these qualities tend to have a much easier time in life (though obviously not always). Jesus is a bad example as he had a mission to be hung, Buddha however apparently lived for quite a while and even set up several monasteries during his day. He obviously was still bound to cause and effect, but I don't believe that he suffered like everyone else... though that is just a belief and nothing more.

But look at say the Dalia Lama. He has been through immense suffering and that man is alway's smiling. I have great respect for the inner peace he exudes on the world even if I don't agree with everything he say's. He has obviously achieved a level of inner peace that is enviable.


Just don't hate.


Shared on facebook this morning.


I'd go with Compassion, Empathy, and Kindness. They all seem to build and feed off each other,

Sounds wonderful! While I have zero direct access to this Sacred Medicine, I am eager to one fine day embrace experiences with it. Patience is a virtue? Although, I always end up entering the same state of Savikalpa Samadhi, regardless of the entheogen involved but 5 MeO-DMT sounds like a more immediate pathway. While part of me can't wait to delve into this experience, all things come in their own good time, right? So on a day to day basis, the sadhana flows along. Meditation freely allows for a gradual encounter and this is most surely because where the psychedelic finishes it's magical teaching, the effects of several decades of continued sadhana blooms in crystalline resplendence.


Buddhist, Jain and Taoist teachings do negate a creator god, while adhering to a non-dual theology... but I feel that such conceptual decrees and negation of Divinity are more or less superfluous, especially when seen from the contradictory angle that Buddhists, Jains and Taoists simply substitute "God" for Buddha Nature, Self or The Eternal Tao. Ritualism still presides. Subject and object, seeking and sought, still remain divided in the minds of the majority of it's practitioners. Only when there is no difference at all between this and that, is a true experience of non-dualism spontaneously seen. I believe that the seeker and that being sought dissolve within such absolute quietude. In silent refrain we illuminate the pathway.

There is a huge misnomer that Gnostics were "super atheists". Sure, some were atheists, some theists, some agnostic.... much like our community. But the notion of Gnosis or direct experience, the immediacy of interphase and immersion into the source of a special kind of knowledge and knowing is itself, far beyond the realm of the senses, instinct, logical deduction, blind faith and intuition... is transcendental in nature, yet, accessible through the eclipsing of Isoself and Godself (The Omniself).

I will reiterate the importance of the link that joedirt posted in 2011: http://gnosticteachings..../12-what-is-gnosis.html

This will perhaps clear up some personal biases and misconceptions about Gnosticism being synonymous with atheism or even pantheism. It is to some, it is not to others. When is mind becomes still and all conceptual labeling vanishes along with one's isolated witnessing of one's Gnostic immersion, as it doesn't even matter, only the revelation as direct Gnosis does.


It can justifiably be seen from your vantage point but any verbal translation is simply an effort to put into wording what cannot be spoken of with any modicum of success. But we do contemplate, pass into immersion or direct Gnosis and then return to converse about the immense shift in attention. Life is more than just sky-high trance states and practical immobility... it is direct action and interaction. It's the seamless fusion of the Supreme Godhead and the reflectional reality emanating out if itself, shimmering beatifically right here & now, unfolding within this very living, breathing moment of pure beingness.

Sakyamuni had to rise above Mara's temptations, as each entity must, in their own fashion. Mara is the veil which gravitationally obscures truth of said illusionary imaginings. All is Brahman. Despite the appearance, the absolute resides within the relative, the infinite cloaks itself as the finite and the eternal dances throughout the temporal universe at large. Paradoxically, the Multiversal expression is symbolically, also the Omniversal expression, so appearing to us as the myriad forms perceivable within duality. Hence the term "illusion" is utilized by theists and scientists alike. Now, I might have used the Sanskrit word "Maya"... but it is far less adaptable to our modern vistas, seen by the mainstream of our fellowship, one widened by quantum physics and such recent understanding.Thus, Maya is Atman is Brahman. Self is God and God is the All-in-All (Allah, if you will).

Einstein himself chose to use the word illusion and he was no fool to do so. Maya, mirage, dreamscape or illusion... is simply the nature of subjectively witnessed appearances and seeming divisions betwixt this and that. The true God is Omniscient and there is no other. So, we are essentially saying the same thing with different wording? Coloring the clear light to our own fancy. I see no real difference nor any major, inherent contradictions, just human semantics and the effects of discussing conceptions with one another. You say potatoes, I say potatos... you say, tomatoes, I say tomatos.


Technically, in traditional Vedic thought, this reality we share on earth together is the material plane of consciousness. This is the realm of the finite, perceivable through the physical senses. And yes, it is "reflectional", agreed. Sequentially, it logically follows specific laws of causation and this includes unfolding as creation and weaving the physical manifestation from the ineffable to the quantifiable. The only differences are those of subtlety in their state of seeming dichotomy. I am pleasantly reminded of my favorite quote by Dr. William James, "There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference."

Above/within this frequency of material vibration (the world) exists the ethereal translucency of the astral plane and beyond/withing that realm of astral vibration exists the uber-subtle causal plane. Divine intelligence at play. Beyond and within this is the epicenter, the indivisible nature of consciousness and this is what I believe "God" truly is. The opposite nature of Maya, or illusion to some, presents a division of subject and object. Where there exists no differentiation, is the reality of the Indivisible field of Brahman. This does dramatically change our perception of the dreamlike divisions between the material, astral, causal and wholly non-dual frequencies of perceptual dynamics. Ergo, all is one without a second. Tat Tvam Asi.


Agreed! By direct interphase with the Sacred Web of Being, moving and not moving lose any distinction. Attachment to differentiation, measuring our perception as the certainty of reality is the essence of this mortal paradigm, right?


All is irrefutably one... and this is neither New Age nor Neo-Advaitan belief... it is quintessential reality on it's own terms. Here I feel that we are both speaking the same language. Moreover, It is what it is.



Again, I wholly agree. This is clearly expressed, as I sincerely wrote earlier, herein:

"When the attention is so affixed, one's separate identity becomes most unreal and all that is perceivable to the witness of this grand play is the subtlest presence within oneself, radiating as oneself, a spark, a mirrored reflection, a begging-less and endless echoing of the Unified Field of Being, itself resplendently blooming anew. Ergo, without any limiting boundary to one's soul's parameters, all divisions and degrees of separation from anything else, essentially melt back into the formless Void, the wholly unmanifested frequency of the Godhead in it's most ineffable state. Life hums along. The Tao doing what it does for no reason other than it spontaneously does what it does (or does it really and did it ever?).
"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make any sound?"

I remember once early on the path i heard this phrase and it really struck me so deeply, it was a pivotal moment where i began to take this whole search a lot more seriously.

"jamie wrote:
I am so put off by a major chunk of what I hear said about vedanta, buddhism, christianity, Islam and Gnosticism etc in the west and new age circles that I rather tend to just not talk about it with many people, because the don't get it, and resort to popular cliches like "namaste" and "it's all one!" while inserting the latest cultural suppository Jehova is handing out Razz ..please don't burn me yet!"

All is irrefutably one... and this is neither New Age nor Neo-Advaitan belief... it is quintessential reality on it's own terms. Here I feel that we are both speaking the same language. Moreover, It is what it is."


There is a difference between sincerity, and tacky cliches. I don't know what else to say about that..and sure that upsets people...people can call me a pessimist if it feels right. But honestly, this is just how I feel. I would rather not have people just walk around willy dilly saying these cereal box slogans without a real frame of context for such statements. It comes off as inauthentic. Nen said in an interview, "the next person who says we are all one Im going to punch in the face"..and I guess that sums it up.

This reality is not an illusion. It is real. You are here to testify this. A state of mystical union does not cancel out the relevance of this reality of cause and effect, even if the cause remains present within the effect, and vice versa.

...and so while I agree with you, that is it all one, I think that there is an often ignored other side to that coin...and I believe that much of the dialogue we engage in today on the subject is born, in part out of only partially understood and appropriated eastern ideas.

I have grown very weary of people who just claim it's all one, and use that as a spiritual backbone to lean on.

Authentic to your current understanding (whatever that may be as it evolves) and being willing to express it is something I'm certain many would agree describes you well, jamie. How do you discover and incorporate compassion in the process, for example when faced with perceived lack of authenticity?