Reddit reviews Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi (Compass)

The Psychedelic Experience by Timothy Leary and Ram Dass

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Timothy-Leary-The-Psychedelic-Experience-The-Tibetan-Book-Of-The-Dead.pdf

About Consciousness:

I AM THAT by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

https://www.amazon.com/I-Am-That-Nisargadatta-Maharaj/dp/0893860468

Be as You Are By Ramana Maharshi

https://www.amazon.com/Be-As-You-Are-Teachings/dp/0140190627/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526748482&sr=1-1&keywords=be+as+you+are

The Way of The Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Peaceful-Warrior-Changes-Lives/dp/1932073205/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526748504&sr=1-4&keywords=the+way+of+the+peaceful+warrior

If you take Buddhism or Hinduism and strip away the religion and philosophy, this is what you are left with. A lot of people call it Nonduality (not two). These practices (Self Inquiry) are what lead to the mystical experience of oneness.

I stumbled onto it by accident and it has changed my life.

I would recommend reading the works of Ramana Maharishi.

Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi (Compass) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140190627/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_vW5bAbACHAJ81

Just so you know, the nondual experience is not magical or supernatural and doesn’t make you special... (I say this because a lot of people get carried away with the whole enlightenment thing and become insufferable assholes who believe they are the new messiah who will save the world.)

What happens is the sense of a separate individual self that sticks out from everything else fades away and disappears. You know how it feels like there is a bubble and in that bubble is “me” and outside that bubble is “everything else”? That bubble of “me” fades away and disappears.

What’s left could be described as the universe is experiencing itself, and the universe absolutely loves itself. There is no longer an “I” present to feel special or insignificant. There is just stillness and simple being. Happiness is natural and inherent... and then you get up in the morning, brush your teeth and go to work and pay your bills... life just goes on in stillness.

Hi there,

> I'm going to take your advice and get off the weed over the course of the next few weeks.

Great!

> It's good timing too, since my smoking buddy is quitting for upcoming drug tests and I'll have to quit halfway through April for the same reasons if I want to get a summer job (college student)

This is one of those synchronicities that you learn to pay attention to (heed the whispers). You're getting the hint from several sides that it's the right time to back away, in gratitude (gratitude makes the transition easier). Glad you're listening to the whispers. :)

> I'll just try to enjoy my last few sessions and do something other than stare at the ceiling while listening to trippy music. Maybe go for a walk or something, since the weather is getting nice. :D

Physical activity is good regardless, and certainly good if you're heading out of a Tamasic situation. Enjoy being outside. :) And when you eventually come back inside, if you end up doing something non-physical, you can still do an activity that engages the heart more than the head. Or in a pinch, if you just gotta stare at something, watch a movie that's emotionally inspiring, e.g. Dead Poet's Society. Carpe Diem! :D

With regards to the rest of your post: I have read it all, a couple times actually, just to make sure I was clear. And the crux of it to me is in these next few quotes:

> But if we are to suppose that the Gnostic perspective is valid and that transcendence (or gnosis) lies in the direction of the mind, might the only direction to go be deeper? It's scary as hell, but part of me feels like there must be a light at the end of the tunnel.

Yes there is light, but not that way. That's your head talking, and it will take you down into that blackness further and further until you see the world as nothing but cold and dead. The light isn't at the end of the tunnel; the tunnel is one-way, and the light is back at the beginning.

You are looking for Gnosis, for transcendence. If that's your goal, then turn around and head back to the root, down the path of subjectivity, until you understand.

Here's why: you are looking to know but you don't yet understand the nature of the knower. You can only transcend if you intuitively understand who you actually are in relation to the universe you're trying to know. Going deeper into Tamas will never get you there, as its principles are darkness and ignorance. You are right that there is a light that shines in Tamas, yes... but it's the light that helps you turn around and get out of it! :D

If it's knowledge you're concerned about, understand that knowledge is temporal but wisdom is not, and wisdom will spawn knowledge as necessary for each situation as it happens. And so if it's wisdom you're actually looking for, that's exactly what you get as you work your way down the tree: every branch you take downward and every bit of transient attachment and identity that you surrender, is matched by a flood of wisdom to take its place. Guaranteed! Then by the time you reach the root, you'll have the awareness you were looking for all along.

> I've spent my entire life in my head. It's come to define who I am, and I admit, I am scared to step out of it.

This "it's come to define who I am" is what I mean by surrendering identity.

I know it's hard, believe me. Before going down this road my Meyer's-Briggs type was strong INTJ, and I still work as an engineer even now. So I can relate to being a rational, logical, objective thinker. This is not an easy transition to make... but it's the right one.

Now that said, once you've committed to heading back to the root of the tree (aka Union, which is the real meaning of the word Yoga), you have a number of intertwining techniques to get you there. Given your focus on the knowledge/wisdom angle of things, you may be interested in Jnana Yoga as a place to start. This is using your head still, but focusing it the right way, back towards the subjective root and the truth of your own Self. Or to quote Ramana Maharishi:

"The experience of the Self is sometimes called jnana or knowledge. This term should not be taken to mean that there is a person who has knowledge of the Self, because in the state of Self-awareness there is no localized knower and there is nothing that is separate from the Self that can be known. True knowledge, or jnana, is not an object of experience, nor is it an understanding of a state which is different and apart from the subjective knower; it is a direct and knowing awareness of the one reality in which subjects and objects have ceased to exist. One who is established in this state is known as a jnani."

From my reading of what you've said so far, that quote might resonate with you. If so, you may wish to check out Be as You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharishi. It's one of the best intros to Jnana Yoga that I've ever encountered, and it might be right up your alley.

> AND as a side thought totally separate from the Hindu and Gnostic perspectives on this, could "being in my head" so much be part of the reason why the fact that I exist in a physical way seems to disconcerting to me?

Yes! Absolutely! This is part of self-acceptance, and is something that will make more sense as you work your way back to the root. Because believe it not, you chose this form for yourself. Not only that, you chose why the physical world works the way that it does. You chose why the force of gravity behaves this way. You chose why light and heat and vibration and quantum mechanics work the way they do. You chose all of this, deliberately. But in order to understand all that and understand Why you did all of this, you have to engage in the path of subjectivity so you can learn more about... You! Not the 'universe', not the 'other'... you! You did this! And you get to learn why you did this. Isn't that awesome?

You just gotta have the willingness to come down the tree again, and trust that it'll be okay. The rest will take care of itself.

Check out that Ramana Maharishi book! I believe it'll be right up your alley. :D Namaste.

The "who am I?" exercise is not meant to be done as asking yourself the question, it is meant to be done as a meditative internal inquiry requiring no mental thought. Specifically, feeling your way to your source. For more on that read "Be as you are"
http://www.amazon.com/Be-You-Are-Teachings-Maharshi/dp/0140190627

This is awesome. What group am I in as I tout anarchy, deep in the woods, as I grow cannabis, rejecting all politics, from all angles? Hmmm?
Is it the old ''they don't swallow the zombie trance pablum I do, so they must be for Trump!''
Hilarious.
You: ''we can go years carrying the weight of the world on our backs''
Me: Your whole philosophy is based around personal ownership, and linguistics seriously designed for you to constantly self doubt.
''Weight of the world''?
''I exaggerate about my burden, in MY world, which is MY life, and MY back carries the planet.''
Jeez dude. You are doing some hard line spiritual materialist self bamboozling. This is helpful advice:
2 books.
https://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Spiritual-Materialism-Shambhala-Classics/dp/1570629579
And
https://www.amazon.com/Be-You-Are-Teachings-Maharshi/dp/0140190627/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1494341846&sr=1-1&keywords=teaching+sri+ramana
You will hopefully throw off the ''ownership paradigm'' that has infected you from the NEW Age cult.
This is the largest cult around, over a hundred years old, and very very affiliated with the UN:
https://www.lucistrust.org/world_goodwill/key_concepts/education_in_the_new_age1
GO to a Lucis trust library and look around.
Attend a meeting. https://www.google.com/search?q=arcane+school+conference
Examine cults and ''ownership based'' pseudo spiritual teachings.
Avoid them. Maybe the ''weight of the world on your back'' will show itself to be an illusion of your own making,as you stop greedily trying to create things for your personal ownership. Problems are also something you can decide you own as a possession. New Age cults feed on that.
Other ''ownership'' cults are the Course in Miracles, Eckencar, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Tibetan Buddhism.https://www.google.com/search?q=arcane+school+conference Examine closely for when cults trick you into thinking you own something.
Just be. Chill out and stop trying to have things.
Be and do. Pretty simple.

''Don't get caught up'', ''Dont get carried away'',
If the Buddha meets you on the road..................
EDIT: Please let me know what group you thought I was in? I am fascinated.
Anyone can read my 8 years of comments to actually see that I am a lone anarchist,
who prefers spiritual teaching over cultish New Age programming.
I shit on scripture.