Before you read any of the below, I suggest you get grounded with a decent introduction to Metta (loving kindness) meditation, thanks to Ajahn Sona.
My friend Oliver followed Ajahn Sona's metta meditation instructions in a cave for 5 weeks, and it has healed his cPTSD better than any other therapy he has ever done. It also cured my chronic depression when nothing else could touch it, over a decade ago, in seconds. Ajahn Brahm also has good videos on loving kindness meditation. I made some good videos on it but YouTube deleted my account for "medical misinformation."
Basically, this meditation was taught by Buddha as a prayer that all beings be at ease, happy and free, including yourself (and especially focusing on your inner child and inner parents). A mantra that resonates will help you to do this meditation almost non-stop all day long. I like this mantra: "Lovey bunnies DON'T know!!!" because everyone is lovable like a bunny rabbit and they are only seen as unlovable due to their ignorance of love and right behavior, the same way that a child is ignorant but still lovable. When you do this mantra in your head (whichever mantra works for you to connect to love and compassion), you will notice that nobody can get you angry, and you automatically behave like a saint. You will automatically emit energy that purifies yourself and others on a continual basis. This is the secret to happiness in this lifetime, right now.
Now, what Buddha did not know, is that in our day, people would actually hate themselves (while in his day, he felt that everyone loved themselves). This means that before you can even do outward loving kindness meditation, you need to send love to your inner child and re-parent yourself on a continuous basis (not just 10 minutes in the mornings). But, catch-22, if you never felt real love from your parents, you probably cannot love your inner child. So, in this case, you may need some help. You can receive love from surrender to a higher power, or you can feel it possibly by getting a cute little pet. Some people begin to feel it when they have their first baby. Some people feel it when they fall deeply in love with a romantic partner (which can also lead to painful heartbreak, but as Rumi said, you must keep breaking your heart until it remains open). Loveyhuasca can also be very helpful for feeling a connection to divine love.
If you do not heal your inner child traumas, any other spiritual transcendence you do will become a form of spiritual bypassing, which will turn you into an egotistical asshole like Sadhguru, Teja Anand, or Artem Boytsov. You can tell when you are listening to fake gurus because their answers to questions are flippantly self-righteous, due to their own avoidance of their feelings. They continually talk from the perspective of some ultimate reality and then denigrate anyone who "doesn't get it." Sadhguru even mentioned in one video that anyone who follows him is an idiot, and his followers lapped that up.
Peter Levine's somatic approach to Healing Trauma is also helpful for some people with deep trauma, and he has a directory of trained and trusted Biodynamic Breathwork and Trauma Release System therapists. You can also find a list of other tips for trauma release on this reddit post. I also recommend you try out the next-generation of EMDR therapy, which you can do right now at home. It's called Brainspotting. You can see a number of alternatives to standard mental health care listed at this excellent site: alternativementalhealth.com
----------
Now that you are fairly healed up and happy from the metta meditation, one might begin to ask some deeper questions. What is the point of life? Do we just live and then die? Are we just here to have a good time and that's it? These questions are absolutely critical to know the answer to.
If we just live and die and that's it (no rebirth) then we can solve all problems with a bullet to the head (or parties?). But, there is a huge mountain of evidence that this is not the case (google: Evidence for Rebirth). Whatever suffering you experience now is only an infinitesimal amount compared to what "you" have experienced before in other lives and what "you" will experience in future lives until "you" realize that you don't exist.
The most common first step on the path is actually a misstep: thinking or feeling that we are all One Universal Mind (God). That's a simple trick the ego plays when you try to dissolve it: grow to the size of the universe so it can't be found easily. I have a blog post mostly about this, and made some vdeos on how to do the meditation very simply, but YT deleted my account... This reddit post has a useful illustration.
Remember: Don't fall down the psychedelic rabbit hole: Addiction to meaning-creation is the essence of psychosis. Again, I had a good video about this but YT deleted my account.
Note: If you are a father/mother/spouse, please take it slow with realizing you don't exist, for the sake of your family. Be here for them.
How does one become enlightened? Following the Noble Eightfold Path will awaken self-assumed "beings" into the empty disjoint perfection of Nibbana (nature as it truly is, not from a perspective), based on the Pali canon suttas. Ironically, most Buddhists end up going to hell, according to Ayasma Aggacitta from Sasanarakha Buddhist Sanctuary, while most Christians go to heaven, according to his study of Near Death Experiences, because Buddha's teaching of no self is too difficult for people to grasp, and so they end up just being fearful of rebirth and sin. So, I try to be a bit careful with explaining Buddha's teaching of conditions only to the people who are ready for that.
-----------------------
Here's an interview with Eshwar (a true Nobody) who used ayahuasca, with proper view, and ended rebirth thru realizing no self & dependent origination. Eshwar is available for sliding-scale donation -based phone consults for anyone who is serious about becoming free from the cycle of rebirth.
Also see this video on how to fix yourself with self-hypnosis and a little helper to kickstart the belief-wheel. Additional instructions for releasing negative shadow thoughts here.
------------------------
Right View is a key pillar of the Eightfold Path. We must continually refine our view based on seeing reality as it is before we superimpose identity onto it. The old habit of identification is a hard one to break completely, but there's no time like the present to start breaking it. The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination are a useful tool to gaining Right View.
Remember, everything happens perfectly automatically (and disjointly!) in this universe; there is nobody here. Whatever happens is simply happening, or not, with nobody that it is happening to. Suffering/stress is inherent in the cycle of birth/death due to identification with the dream of existence. The dream of existence happens due to ignorance of the disjoint reality (see Bahiya sutta), leading to a "binding up" (or contact, phassa) of all sensations into One Awareness, which, unfortunately, most gurus teach to be the ultimate truth. The point is to "hang up the phone" on identity and the experiences identified with, including psychedelic/healing experiences, so that one is not reborn after death, and the illusion of awareness is overcome.
--------
www.liberationunleashed.com is a place where folks will help you to realize the no-self nature of reality. This is the first step (intellectual understanding). These folks also have a facebook group which is not something I recommend due to their confusion after passing thru the first realization. my nibbana e-book is more to the point.
If you are interested in meditation for samadhi purposes, I recommend watching videos by Ajahn Brahm on how to do (hindu) jhana meditation, focusing on the breath, but be warned that those hindu-style jhanic states do not liberate you from samsara. The jhanas that Buddha taught were mostly not about focusing but rather relaxing and letting go of identity illusion.
These books are also excellent guideposts:
What the Buddha Taught, by Walpola Rahula. Free online. Best book I've found so far explaining Buddha's teachings conceptually.
Sam Harris's book, "Waking Up," is perhaps more useful for some beginners, as he comes from a neuroscience perspective, and has Chapter 1 posted free: http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/chapter-one. It's also available as a free audio book if you sign up for the Audible.com free trial.
And you can join my Telegram TherapyCircle group, which is not only a discussion place for all of this, but also a repository of whatever very interesting things I find out about which I don't have time to post on this website.
∞ blessings ∞
nobody
Legal disclaimer: This site is protected by 42 U.S. Code Chapter 21B - RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RESTORATION.
And if you read this far, you deserve to see "real" space photos from NASA (you can go see these yourself by leaving your body as well):
My friend Oliver followed Ajahn Sona's metta meditation instructions in a cave for 5 weeks, and it has healed his cPTSD better than any other therapy he has ever done. It also cured my chronic depression when nothing else could touch it, over a decade ago, in seconds. Ajahn Brahm also has good videos on loving kindness meditation. I made some good videos on it but YouTube deleted my account for "medical misinformation."
Basically, this meditation was taught by Buddha as a prayer that all beings be at ease, happy and free, including yourself (and especially focusing on your inner child and inner parents). A mantra that resonates will help you to do this meditation almost non-stop all day long. I like this mantra: "Lovey bunnies DON'T know!!!" because everyone is lovable like a bunny rabbit and they are only seen as unlovable due to their ignorance of love and right behavior, the same way that a child is ignorant but still lovable. When you do this mantra in your head (whichever mantra works for you to connect to love and compassion), you will notice that nobody can get you angry, and you automatically behave like a saint. You will automatically emit energy that purifies yourself and others on a continual basis. This is the secret to happiness in this lifetime, right now.
Now, what Buddha did not know, is that in our day, people would actually hate themselves (while in his day, he felt that everyone loved themselves). This means that before you can even do outward loving kindness meditation, you need to send love to your inner child and re-parent yourself on a continuous basis (not just 10 minutes in the mornings). But, catch-22, if you never felt real love from your parents, you probably cannot love your inner child. So, in this case, you may need some help. You can receive love from surrender to a higher power, or you can feel it possibly by getting a cute little pet. Some people begin to feel it when they have their first baby. Some people feel it when they fall deeply in love with a romantic partner (which can also lead to painful heartbreak, but as Rumi said, you must keep breaking your heart until it remains open). Loveyhuasca can also be very helpful for feeling a connection to divine love.
If you do not heal your inner child traumas, any other spiritual transcendence you do will become a form of spiritual bypassing, which will turn you into an egotistical asshole like Sadhguru, Teja Anand, or Artem Boytsov. You can tell when you are listening to fake gurus because their answers to questions are flippantly self-righteous, due to their own avoidance of their feelings. They continually talk from the perspective of some ultimate reality and then denigrate anyone who "doesn't get it." Sadhguru even mentioned in one video that anyone who follows him is an idiot, and his followers lapped that up.
Peter Levine's somatic approach to Healing Trauma is also helpful for some people with deep trauma, and he has a directory of trained and trusted Biodynamic Breathwork and Trauma Release System therapists. You can also find a list of other tips for trauma release on this reddit post. I also recommend you try out the next-generation of EMDR therapy, which you can do right now at home. It's called Brainspotting. You can see a number of alternatives to standard mental health care listed at this excellent site: alternativementalhealth.com
----------
Now that you are fairly healed up and happy from the metta meditation, one might begin to ask some deeper questions. What is the point of life? Do we just live and then die? Are we just here to have a good time and that's it? These questions are absolutely critical to know the answer to.
If we just live and die and that's it (no rebirth) then we can solve all problems with a bullet to the head (or parties?). But, there is a huge mountain of evidence that this is not the case (google: Evidence for Rebirth). Whatever suffering you experience now is only an infinitesimal amount compared to what "you" have experienced before in other lives and what "you" will experience in future lives until "you" realize that you don't exist.
The most common first step on the path is actually a misstep: thinking or feeling that we are all One Universal Mind (God). That's a simple trick the ego plays when you try to dissolve it: grow to the size of the universe so it can't be found easily. I have a blog post mostly about this, and made some vdeos on how to do the meditation very simply, but YT deleted my account... This reddit post has a useful illustration.
Remember: Don't fall down the psychedelic rabbit hole: Addiction to meaning-creation is the essence of psychosis. Again, I had a good video about this but YT deleted my account.
Note: If you are a father/mother/spouse, please take it slow with realizing you don't exist, for the sake of your family. Be here for them.
How does one become enlightened? Following the Noble Eightfold Path will awaken self-assumed "beings" into the empty disjoint perfection of Nibbana (nature as it truly is, not from a perspective), based on the Pali canon suttas. Ironically, most Buddhists end up going to hell, according to Ayasma Aggacitta from Sasanarakha Buddhist Sanctuary, while most Christians go to heaven, according to his study of Near Death Experiences, because Buddha's teaching of no self is too difficult for people to grasp, and so they end up just being fearful of rebirth and sin. So, I try to be a bit careful with explaining Buddha's teaching of conditions only to the people who are ready for that.
-----------------------
Here's an interview with Eshwar (a true Nobody) who used ayahuasca, with proper view, and ended rebirth thru realizing no self & dependent origination. Eshwar is available for sliding-scale donation -based phone consults for anyone who is serious about becoming free from the cycle of rebirth.
Also see this video on how to fix yourself with self-hypnosis and a little helper to kickstart the belief-wheel. Additional instructions for releasing negative shadow thoughts here.
------------------------
Right View is a key pillar of the Eightfold Path. We must continually refine our view based on seeing reality as it is before we superimpose identity onto it. The old habit of identification is a hard one to break completely, but there's no time like the present to start breaking it. The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination are a useful tool to gaining Right View.
Remember, everything happens perfectly automatically (and disjointly!) in this universe; there is nobody here. Whatever happens is simply happening, or not, with nobody that it is happening to. Suffering/stress is inherent in the cycle of birth/death due to identification with the dream of existence. The dream of existence happens due to ignorance of the disjoint reality (see Bahiya sutta), leading to a "binding up" (or contact, phassa) of all sensations into One Awareness, which, unfortunately, most gurus teach to be the ultimate truth. The point is to "hang up the phone" on identity and the experiences identified with, including psychedelic/healing experiences, so that one is not reborn after death, and the illusion of awareness is overcome.
--------
www.liberationunleashed.com is a place where folks will help you to realize the no-self nature of reality. This is the first step (intellectual understanding). These folks also have a facebook group which is not something I recommend due to their confusion after passing thru the first realization. my nibbana e-book is more to the point.
If you are interested in meditation for samadhi purposes, I recommend watching videos by Ajahn Brahm on how to do (hindu) jhana meditation, focusing on the breath, but be warned that those hindu-style jhanic states do not liberate you from samsara. The jhanas that Buddha taught were mostly not about focusing but rather relaxing and letting go of identity illusion.
These books are also excellent guideposts:
What the Buddha Taught, by Walpola Rahula. Free online. Best book I've found so far explaining Buddha's teachings conceptually.
Sam Harris's book, "Waking Up," is perhaps more useful for some beginners, as he comes from a neuroscience perspective, and has Chapter 1 posted free: http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/chapter-one. It's also available as a free audio book if you sign up for the Audible.com free trial.
And you can join my Telegram TherapyCircle group, which is not only a discussion place for all of this, but also a repository of whatever very interesting things I find out about which I don't have time to post on this website.
∞ blessings ∞
nobody
Legal disclaimer: This site is protected by 42 U.S. Code Chapter 21B - RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RESTORATION.
And if you read this far, you deserve to see "real" space photos from NASA (you can go see these yourself by leaving your body as well):