Common Misconceptions About Awakening 

I was on a path to awakening for several years and finally had to walk away. It hasn’t been achievable for me (yes I get the irony in that) I don’t know how to get there, no matter what anyone says or advice they give. and it was starting to really mess with my daily life in a way that was miserable. If it’s meant to happen for me in this life it will, if not, I can’t dwell on it anymore. I’m exhausted. I know exactly what people will say about this but oh well. I still enjoy this channel and accept I’m too deeply entrenched in this dense illusion.

The other day, I glimpsed "no self" and I was like "Aw... crap." It was like a "GAME OVER" moment of shock. There was no self here, there were no selves anywhere, and there never had been. Not at any point in time, ever. It was alright for a bit and then I got really sad and lonely and I thought "No, I don't actually want this. I'm not ready for this." And now I am successfully back in the VR world where I feel comfortable living in delusion. LOL. Obviously, I can't fully forget. But I can pretend. 😅 For now...

I mentioned this to a mentor/therapist about finding the root of the issue (related to trauma). He basically said that "how do you know there's a root?". That was helpful. He also mentioned thought is more like a "rhizome" than a root.

Hi Angelo I do find your particular method of teaching very useful. Mostly because of your emphasis on shadow work. I am a fan of Jung, and as you are probably aware, shadow work is a big part of depth psychology. CGJ: A tree can not grow to heaven unless its roots grow to hell. It's not giving near the attention it deserves. Many spiritual teachers don't even acknowledge the importance of this or merely gloss over it. The big problem with the Jungian approach is that it's freaking complicated. I spent 100s of hours studying his stuff. From my personal experience, I find your approach far more efficient. In Jung's method, in order to approach the Self, you must first confront your shadow, among other things (Anima, Animas Persona... ). For people with strong mind/body identities, this can be extremely difficult if not impossible. By approaching the Self first using some form of self inquiry and achieving kensho, you don't have to dig for your shadow. It hunts you down, and you have no choice. In the Jungian method, you do have a choice. If it gets too uncomfortable, you can just quit doing shadow work. You will still have the support of all your selfing mechanisms still in place in order to avoid those difficult emotions to some degree. Don't get me wrong, I still find his methods useful and do use them from time to time to remove those hard to get out stains, but for the most part, I don't think it's all that necessary. This is just an interesting historical side note. When Jung was visiting India, a close friend of his urged him to go see Sri Ramana. Jung declined. In a letter to his friend explaining why he didn't visit Ramana, I found his explanation curiously lame. It was highly unlike him. I researched a lot of his work, and I found him to be a open minded and deliberate man. I have often wondered if he intuited a meeting with Ramana would have challenged his life's work. Anyway, thanks. Rob

The Unfulfilled Self seeking to be Fulfilled. The Moment, Here, is already Perfect. A Seeking Path, doesn’t bring One closer to Here. At the end of seeking, regardless of the months or years, is the returning to this Moment and Here.

This is a slow process for me. I still find times where I feel very mind identified and others that I know peace. It is helpful to hear that this process will have pain and suffering, it is shadow work that seems so daunting to me. I just need to remember that thoughts are not real, they are a reflection of my inner world.

Nisargadatta also died of cancer (of the the throat--he apparently was a life-long smoker, a habit that awakening didn't "cure"). His final talks/dialogues (e.g., in Consciousness and the Absolute) are quite, well, enlightening because he often mentions unbearable pain and weakness (though, he evidently didn't suffer). By all accounts, the awakened life is quite prosaic--which makes it a worthwhile goal all the more.

I like this discussion because there is a supreme simplicity to this. It is a shift out of identity and that is basically all of it. Suffering only becomes more obvious. Knowing this there is a deep peace!

It's so funny that, when I lost my religion at age 14, I sat there waiting to see if I would suddenly turn into a covetous, adulterous, idol-worshipping murderer. Thirty years later, it still hasn't happened. And yet, right now, I'm facing the same fear again. If there is absolutely no morality, if there are absolutely no principles, if absolutely anything goes (if it flows with the universe), how do I know I won't give myself over to the universe only to find out I'm a completely selfish, unrepentent a--hole? Or worse, how do I know I won't fool myself into using any incipient insight I glean as an excuse to be awful? How will I even know? I know. These are just thoughts. Stories. Identity trying to cling to any toe-hold it can. But I felt the bottom starting to fall out the other day, and I just had no idea how far it might go or what might happen. A psychotic break felt like a genuine possibility. The fear is real.

I was promised I get lower gas prices after awakening, is this not true?

Thank you for being so clear. You keep helping me focus on the simplicity.

WOW!!! LOVE THIS!!! THANX SO MUCH! THIS REALLY HIT HOME!!! JUST LOVE EVERYTHING YOU SPOKE ON!!! MUCH LOVE XXXXX

Great reminder, Thank you 💎🙏🏻🌊

I beg to differ-I teleport quite often. 🤣 Seriously, though, these are great points. The first wave of that in-your-face emotion is quite startling after all the bliss. It’s helpful to have others who’ve been through this. Thank you, as always! 😊

I think meditation is helpfull, but especially to be prepared when it happens.

🙏

The part about past lives kinda puzzled me. I mean there's not even a past, so what do you mean by past lives?

When investigating Non-Dual, for instance in the visual field, and there is shift into a state whereby the subject-object construct vanishes ...is this synonymous with 'awakening'?

5:58 where is that ball park

Nisargadatta had cancer too..

Krishnamurti said he's seen Siddhis like levitation, and Eckhart Tolle says he believes that one day humanity may be able to move literal mountains with literally just thoughts. Are they just deluded, do you think? Maybe you should battle them to find out who's right. I'm sure they won't be much of a challenge for you. Especially Krishnamurti, seeing how dead he's been these past few years.

It seems that I’m doing a lot of Shadow work before awakening- at least I do not seem to be aware of an identity shift-don’t know and not sure it really matters if I know or not. If someone does do a lot shadow work before a shift will much, much more still come up after?

I’m kinda scared shitless of all the “past lives/distant consciousness etc” talk, can’t fathom one single way this type of things can be enticing for someone, it’s turning me off from it, maybe due to the fact there were some bizarre things after “initial awakening” for “me”. So it’s kind of inducing these “well that basically means I might go insane in literal medical way” types of doubts and concerns.

❤❤❤

If I do a ton of shadow work before awakening will it make the "dark night of the soul phase" after awakening less dark ? Thx

Hi Angelo. What I'm still confused about is this: On one hand it's said that liberation is the end of suffering, but on the other hand it's also said that the emotional release goes on forever as one encounters different situations in life. So I guess ones capacity to be with those emotions without resistance increases more and more, right? But does also the emotional release slow down or plateau at some point, so that in 99% of situations there's just the peace?

Question, is there any difference between Buddhist awakening and Hindu awakening, if so, what is it?

Is the spontaneous movement in the body during meditation related to TRE that you often mention in your videos. Head.. shoulders… legs… body… no telling what will start shaking and just as quickly stop… not resisting it snd just letting it do it’s stuff… Thank you.

Is it all unicorns and rainbows?

Its like now there's the "anti teacher" crowd and "anti practice" crowd. But, if you really hear what the likes of tony parsons say, they aren't saying don't practice. I actually called Tony one day and said to him, "so, are you saying that spirituality is nonsense" and he nearly bit my head off lol. Also, most, if not all of these advaita speakers, if you read their history, did some sort of practice.