Non Dual Realization -- Don't Fool Yourself!

[@abigailkirkham9120]

When you hear yourself talking but it's from a distance

[@mariannebancroft3437]

I never thought the door and doorknob in my bedroom could ever be this captivating. ❤

[@nkp1656]

It’s nice to have these videos dropping during the retreat for those of us that are retreating at home 🤣

[@mat.se57]

It’s always retreat. ❤️

[@renko9067]

@@mat.se57That’s the motto of the Italian army.

[@Zorba.]

​@@renko9067😂

[@thisawareness2342]

Very much appreciate your pointings. Lying here simply being with the huge emotional pain of a long life. Feeling it all, not distracting. Been running, suicidal thoughts my whole life. Now Home, here with all that is me. A strange peace... Thank you Angelo for inspiring the courage to face this. 🩵

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

Beautiful , you have infinite capacity for experience

[@paulettechang]

Wow. That Visual of me reaching out into the external world and manipulating it was powerful! A door opened. I will continue this great exercise and keep u posted.

[@injoyinmyself2018]

Great inquiry 🙏 Had to share this Gem from JM: Here's all you need to know to become enlightened: Sit down, shut up, and ask yourself what's true until you know. the technique is called Spiritual Autolysis. Autolysis means self-digestion, and spiritual means...hell, I don't really know. Let's say it means that level of self which encompasses the mental, physical and emotional aspects. Put the two words together and you have a process through which you feed yourself, one piece at a time, into the purifying digestive fires." This isn't about personal awareness or self-exploration. It's not about feelings or insights. It's not about personal or spiritual evolution. This is about what you know for sure, about what you are sure you know is true, about what you are that is true...

[@jonahbranch5625]

"You can't merge with an object" Dammit! 😂

[@ashrafulhaque8759]

This is the best of the best from Angelo. Most practical video I have ever seen. Thanks.

[@tobiasreber611]

It feels even more unusually direct than usual to me as well. Been working with the audio version daily, including when walking outside.

[@sandysangiorgio5274]

“I just want to feel normal again.” Is the thought that won’t stop expressing itself.

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

What is normal? Did you ever actually feel normal or is that a retrospective analysis?

[@gregsotiropoulos7929]

​@@SimplyAlwaysAwake I can totally resonate with wanting to feel normal. For me this means: I want to go back to the illusion (if this is one) of a world out there and, basically, of people being different from me. Instead, for a while now, my experience is that of constant synchronicities of numbers, words, events, images, and of others having similar things happening to them (in the conventional sense -- not the synchronicities). The synchronicities are literally non-stop, even multiple times a minute when there is an opportunity -- and nowadays we're surrounded by words and numbers, so there's almost always an opportunity. And they often act like an electric shock -- for example I'm enjoying an interaction with somebody and all of a sudden they mention casually some number/word that is clearly synchronistic (eg I was thinking about it at the time etc) and that freaks me out because I no longer know who the other person is, whether they're "real" etc. Sometimes it feels like some sort of hellscape where I'm talking to ghosts, and waiting/dreading for the moment one of them will finally tell me "we're not really here, you're all alone". Scary shit, and this fear has made me almost a hermit as I nowadays avoid almost all social interaction. I just can't deal with the constant "hints" dropped by others/the environment when I'm trying to interact with them as a character in a shared story.

[@maxi04]

your mind seems to be making up a lot of irrational stories like talking to ghosts or whatever. you seem to have fallen into the trap of constantly thinking about realization instead of actually experiencing it. you question whether others are real (most likely because of the no-self/oneness nonduality talk that you watched or read) but you don’t question if YOU (your ego/false self) are actually real. that’s what’s scaring you and giving you solipsistic thoughts or whatever. on the relative level, everyone is just as real as you are. ultimately tho, neither them NOR you exist as a separate entity. this has to be be experienced tho, thinking about it will do no good. it can happen that the ego takes up these concepts and thinks that it is alone but the ego can never be alone, it can literally only exist in relation to something else. and when you realize who you truly are, the feeling of loneliness is impossible. it’s WHOLENESS. complete unity. basically the opposite of being alone. the concept of being alone only makes sense for a person that feels separate. so stop thinking about nonduality and start practicing to get rid of your mental chatter. awakening is absolutely blissful but the ego will definitely resist it. ultimately i found tho that you can either just push through and put in the effort now or you will eventually be forced through increased suffering. so best to just be a little uncomfortable now so that god won’t have to traumatize you so that you will finally let go of your addiction to thinking 😆 it’s going to happen sooner or later anyways, don’t make it harder by resisting it. let go, there is nothing to be afraid of. don’t give the numbers and stuff too much meaning btw. surrender and let god take care of everything, you don’t have to try to interpret stuff in order to figure out what to do or whatever :)

[@kebobscat]

thank Angelo💔 the thoughts are vigilant. they come and they come. so be it.

[@watcherofvideoswasteroftim5788]

A few weeks ago I had a memory from when I was watching tv as a kid, usually when I was a bit tired and very absorbed in whatever I was watching I'd notice that the tv, despite being pretty small and far away felt really big and my depth perception seemed to be gone. Of course thought this was because my eyes were turning square from watching too much tv and I'd get a bit scared or ashamed and try to "regain" my depth perception but now i recognize that same feeling as this. And now that I know my eyes won't turn square it's pretty enjoyable! Thanks once again Angelo!

[@Moleshaveeyes]

Moving my head and noticing how the shapes move with it, and that I can’t reach out and touch the wall over there… how can that be actually flat? I’m not asking for an answer just expressing the frustration of trying to see this

[@Truthfull]

After a time, it feel like I’m looking at a screen or tv. No thoughts. Will keep looking, it’s my first time to do this. 🙏🏼

[@nathaniel4969]

There is experience, but no experiencer. There is meditation, but no meditator. This is an experiential realization, and not something that can be grasped only by the intellect. It's something that happens, and something you can't un-see once that chasm has been crossed 🙂

[@DonTrump-sv1si]

So is everything predetermined? Like there is no doer?

[@alfreddifeo9642]

Thanks for taking the time out to share self pointers to Self

[@CasenJames]

Have you seen the Monty Python skit "How not to be seen?" The process of rooting out a sense of self feels kinda like that sometimes. Deep down, we're all just John Cleese. 🙏

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

I’ll check that out

[@mikelisteral7863]

mind creates illusion of separation. direct experience of consciousness as it is here now is non dual only way to reach it is surrender

[@Mary.Jane_625]

Worte,es sind immer die Worte,die erschaffen. Auf ein Etwas degradiert,an Zeit und Raum gefixt,starr und tot. So,wie das Wort Trennung. Oder Non-Dualität. Es erinnert mich an Kirchensprache,die mit nur einem Wort Gott erschuf.

[@maletu]

Been playing with art-making lately: taking up, in retirement, a childhood "passion" and "talent" as a relative-world pastime. But with caution, as I don't have much beyond my own blundering by which to gauge the identity-solidifying vs. the identity-dissolving potential of its various moves (art-making is a group of diverse activities, not one thing). Some of what you say here oddly parallels some of the moves of art-making, so that I suddenly see how those art-making moves can be colonized or co-opted-or maybe always already ARE-a form of non-dual inquiry. To give a simple example: one can be fooled (artistically) by what one "knows" about the object, e.g. its "real" color; but to make a representation that _looks_ "real" one needs to disbelieve that; one needs to notice what is showing up on the retina: the value and color of the shadow, of light reflected from another object, etc. (A similar example could be traced around shapes and their foreshortening.) "Learning to see as an artist" is learning to see in (at least) a less-dual manner: less about seeing what is (supposed to be) enduringly "over there" in an object, and more about seeing what is transiently happening in the eye, in the brain, in the visual field. [from about 5:10] "So we're just taking in the visual ... the visual qualia ... the forms, the shapes, the colors, just what's there, just what's appearing. ... Does that appearance suggest an "over there" in the mere appearance? Does it suggest that distance is a thing? Separation is a thing that exists? Are you getting that from the visual experience itself? If so, what are you specifically referencing? ... Is there something in that experience that says, oh, there's an object over there? Is there something in that visual experience that says, oh, there's a subject here? ... Look closely: right in the visual experience only. ... Keep looking, without thinking, without analyzing. ... And if it does, again, seem as if there is separation, that's fine. Then just ask yourself, Where am I finding that? What am I referencing? And go right back to the visual experience and see, What am I referencing? ... Go back to the visual field, and see what it is about that visual field, in pure experience, that says, There's an 'over there.' There's an object. There's an 'over here,' a subject, a 'me.' Or there's distance, or there's three dimensions here. Keep looking." Making a "believable" "realistic" representation of anything involves going through, something like this checklist of "what are you referencing," and then "recording" one's answers in the lines (values, brush-strokes, etc) of the artwork. I suppose such a practice could be taken up in a way to solidify both sense of self and sense of object, *but what I see more clearly than ever before is that the same artistic practice can be taken up to deconstruct this duality.* Or to explore/hang out in/enjoy its already deconstructedness. (Similarly: abstract art, whether it depicts abstracted objects or is fully non-representational, seeks to be "resonant" or "evocative." Applying the above questions is more slippery, but still relevant...) SO: thank you, Angelo, for the best art lesson I've had in a long time! (Possibly ever?) And thank you for some pointers about how to manage this specific relative-world pastime...

[@ConsciousMoney]

New camera looks great! :)

[@GhettoGandhi-lr1wj]

Been working with the visual field as of late, so this video really comes in handy 🙏

[@Jhawk_2k]

While you were talking about the second approach I did notice a shift in the visual field. Shortly after that I labeled that experience and bounced right back to the mind. It happened a few times in a row. I did at least get to enjoy the visual experience of the origami bonsai tree I made!

[@JohnnyIsDelusional]

Sometimes when I get really relaxed, sight feels omnidirectional. I dont think thats whats being pointed at, but it feels like going from "I'm looking straight ahead" to "the sense of sight is everywhere."

[@tutorial9322]

I’ve had the experience of seeing everything without distance 3 times in my life and I can say that that’s all I could ever want to experience, but each time it only lastet for under even a second I feel. Now trying to understand is the devil trying to trick me again. But the devil is always smarter than my conscious ego, so I am sticking with no thought and feeling, letting be, instead of seeking with thought…

[@Lisa.Martin_AL]

It will overtake you indeed💜💜💕🥰

[@Leahedmonds28]

for me there’s a referencing back to sensations in the body( usually the chest and head) even though when i investigate those there’s no border. Yet simultaneously they feel distant from objects out there. i wonder if there’s a secret thought that’s giving these sensations a feeling of location that isn’t wherever my gaze happens to be pointing.

[@pignut9361]

Questions: You put in the thumbnail “don’t fool yourself”. When one shifts into non-dual awareness, say for example, whilst looking at a coffee cup, how obvious is the shift? I mean, is it something one can overlook, or miss, or is it ‘slap in the face’ obvious - basically is the shift into non-dual instantaneous? Cheers, I’ll work on this.

[@achoyan14]

It’s so hard just to take the first step of “taking in the visual” and “data” automatically my mind feels like it’s doing something. But can’t get rid of it to keep it neutral.

[@macbally2026]

Angelo - thank you for this. Thank Me, I guess :). Something that did arise sometime 'after' this inquiry was a feeling of fear. Not immediately, but after. There was something about the 'implications' of the inquiry that seemed to frighten 'something else.' It wasn't a surface-level fear, but more something / feeling relating to 'stability.' For lack of better terminology, a vacuum of 'meaning' was created (or moreso, uncovered as it was previously covered with untrue meaning), and that stirred something. Something knows that that fear is good, and just the part of the process at that moment. Anyway, just wanted to share.

[@asneela]

Just being with one object is dharana. A stage comes when either of subject or object disappears. Its called dhyana. When both disappear its samadhi. You explained it without using technical terms of yoga. Thnx❤

[@oolala53]

Have you experienced these?

[@geoffreylevens9045]

What seems to happen with me is that as I relax into vision/seeing the appearance of "things" gets funny somehow (not ha-ha but strange funny). To intellectualize, as if my eyes start to do this: "Binocular Vision Dysfunction occurs when the eyes are misaligned causing each eye to send a different image to the brain." And then I reflexively form a self in here to prevent that out of fear. But if I then look for the edge or boundary that defines "me in here" as separate and different from "everything else out there", not always but often the "me" just sort of fades away and there's only the seen which is right here and there and everywhere all at once.

[@breillard]

I’ve had many physical experiences in the past from unwinding and kundalini, but never had my head wanting to explode. Like a cartoon character and also physically. Half way through this my head started having these intense sensations. Thanks for any insights.

[@Duck72432]

I Feel annoyed like doing one of those optical illusions where they ask if you can see the horse moving backwards instead of forwards . Closest I got is realising something like the moment It seems something is “over there” a thought also arises at the same time then I was like what am I experiencing before that thought. Then my head will either shoot backwards or shake is if to say “no” involuntarily like I’m resisting seeing . Then I became more present for a bit a laughed and then I stop giving af anyway . And go watch cat videos . But something will bring me back here at some point . Is what is yall

[@pandabear4923]

thank you so much love you

[@Lisa.Martin_AL]

Brilliant! Where is the evidence? Worked for me and wow 💥💥it was the end of inside and outside!!💥💥

[@skarimi3007]

For me, it's funny that when I'm driving it seems much easier to just being with the flow and not thinking too much about the way I'm driving. Sometimes it's like the car is driving itself in the safest and most efficient way. But in the other situations, especially in social ones, that sort of "auto pilot" system is hardly noticeable and the sense of me as the subject usually overtakes.

[@jonathanwoodvincent]

there seems such resistance to this. There was an immense sense of separateness during my imaginary past, an hypnotic identification with isolation and rejection accompanied by a desire for and avoidance of inclusion and safety and support and a tribe.. Any suggestions regarding wearing contacts or glasses ?

[@mickmaverick33]

So what about if things look like they are simultaneously moving towards you and away but you can't really tell which direction?

[@Szymon176]

Working on it 😊 thank you 😊

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

You got this!

[@dhammaboy1203]

Angelo I have had a couple of experiences on retreat last year where "I" realized - well actually I experienced - that I was exactly the same "stuff" as grass, trees, the floorboards in my house etc. So I'd sit in my meditation hut and I was the trees, and myself and the hut all at one time - I mean I recognized that sameness. I didn't merge and lose the boundary between self and tree. Although my awareness seemed to inhabit a much wider "space" than I normally experience. I felt very wide and open. My guess is that you're not talking about those experiences? I wouldnt describe it as merged exactly - but the realization that everything is the same stuff. That's as far that insight went. To me that was sort of non-dual as everything was one yet I still had the perception of a body and the hut & trees. So I'm guessing your not speaking about those experiences here?

[@sudhamurali3900]

Can u talk about the first pointer again.

[@DamnitJerry11]

I start to get double vision and the object will move around, disappear, reappear. Visual field then appears as a projection and not solid object. I even recorded my face during to make sure I’m not going cross-eyed. I’m not.

[@OohsAndAhsBros]

i tried to figure out if there was a seperation, I couldn't really tell. I can't say whether there is or isn't It's hard to focus kinda because I feel almost a total lack of agency, focus kinda just happens by itself to whatever it wants whenever it wants. Sometimes it's the pain in my neck, sometimes it's getting completely lost in the view of traffic & people walking around. The mind still does what it's always been doing, the "latching" tries to latch constantly almost all the time but gets evaporated the second it comes up.

[@tom_see]

Do you think it's counter-productive to focus on the visual field when you haven't "awakened"? I'm very drawn to visual field so I like focusing on it during my self-inquiry. I also keep having these temporary flashes/experiences where it feels like objects are looking at me. Like it's alive and aware of me. I know I should follow my intuition, but I've heard it can be good to just reduce all sensations (sitting meditation, eyes closed, etc.) when trying to get that initial awakening - maybe I should focus on this instead? Thanks so much, for everything.

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

It’s fine, just don’t overthink it.

[@tom_see]

@@SimplyAlwaysAwake ok thanks

[@adamkorbiak8171]

my eyes autofocus on objects based on distance with zero effort from me. doesn't require thought, its just something I know. Is really obvious when looking past other apparent objects. This seems like evidence to me. Anybody else have this problem?

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

“Doesn’t require thought, just something I know.” You might want to investigate this statement. You seem rather sure if it.

[@Jhawk_2k]

I've noticed this quite a bit with inquiry into the visual field. I was proud of myself when I discovered how to shift the focus on command 😅 Feels like the worst superpower of all time, being able to make the world blurry without moving my eyes

[@bolivarabreu9011]

Thank you

[@nikeshgupta5040]

Angelo, I was trying the first way and looking across the room at the wall. I could see my chest rising and falling in the lower portion of my peripheral vision. I can't see how I could ignore that to get to a non distance view. Am I 'thinking' or inferring that my chest is closer to me than the wall opposite? I'm obviously not getting something!

[@renko9067]

If I may comment: what you perceive as *your* body is just part of the visual field flow mosaic.

[@nikeshgupta5040]

@@renko9067 Thank you. To me that would mean that the whole of 'my 'experience is a show in the field of awareness and that therefore I should not identify my body mind as being me, which I think is what Angelo is pointing to. The only doubt that then remains is what is the point of a being that thinks its something that it is not. Pointless as far as I can see. Which then makes it possible that we are fooling ourselves into believing something to relieve our suffering. So until I experience non-dual awareness I am trapped in this recurring loop, waiting for grace.

[@James-mk8jp]

When the duality of one sense "falls", do the others typically stay in tact, or is it more like a quick domino effect for most?

[@drodsou]

I get the visual experience for a moment of no distance and no subject-object, interesting experience, but... so what? I don't get why this is of any relevance. I guess I'm still missing something else.

[@rmblundell738]

Is this the same experience as Harding's seeing without a head??

[@johnnywlittle]

3:45

[@lynnhunter4493]

🙏🙏🙏

[@Luigilr]

You dont exist HAHA