Hi, when you said "Realize that you are not the ego and you will be in the void" how do I realize that I am not the ego?
Non Dualism : no glue no borax, the ultimate guide (no clickbait!)
Dear Dreamer, I wanted to give you a thought out answer, thus it took so long.
A small thought experiment:
When you look at a flower and take away all it's traits, properties, (colour, texture, shape, scent, biological categorisation) what remains? Is it still a flower when you take away all these things? What is it beyond that?
Now that you have done this little experiment, you know that there is something beyond sense perception, also called as consciousness or awareness.
Non-dualism or Advaita Vedanta claims that there is only awareness and everything else a projection of that awareness. Everything already is present and there is nothing to do because because it is only a matter of shifting awareness. There is nothing but being and oneness because awareness is all there is. A limitless being
Firstly, when we say there are two different things, we are creating a distinction that is not based on fundamental principles of reality. It is arbitrary. A stone vs. A human being, both are conceptualisations, projections in consciousness, the human is not more real than the stone; it is just denser, more detailed and tighter as a dream. It seems more alive because it claims to think, feel, act but this aliveness is not a property of the form, it is borrowed from awareness just like the stone. A more scientific example is that of the brain. It is constantly changing, new neurons are created and old neurons die every second, every day and the catch is, this constant change in the brain also shows that it is not you. Just how the waves are named different but they still belong to the ocean.
How is physicality a faulty argument against non-dualism?
Because consciousness is the only constant thing, when you are awake, asleep, dreaming and physicality does not have clear answers to where this comes from which means it is not what the reality is. You are aware of your dreams but as soon as you are not aware of them (waking up) they are gone. It's like an inception, you are dreaming of the "real world" too. If you feel confused, that entanglement is just conditioning.
If we apply the same thought experiment to self, it becomes a stripping down of identity, or ego.
Ego is nothing but what you believe yourself to be. Your body, mind, thoughts, emotions, fears, desires, wants, needs, your past, your relationships, your sense of time, your memories, your experiences. It is a story that you identify with but it is not you.
"But how do I realise, I'm not the ego?"
Through negation of everything that you believe yourself to be. Your ego does exist but it is not you, it is a mechanical script running under the illusion of ownership. The answer is always there in plain sight beneath the question itself, you are making an assumption that there is you who could be the ego but it is not a thing you are, it is a temporary set of beliefs you have claimed. You just have to stop believing the ego is you, don't identify with it because you were never it to begin with.
“Your ideas about yourself change from day to day and from moment to moment. Your self image is the most changeful thing you have. It is utterly vulnerable, at the mercy of a passerby. A bereavement, the loss of a job, an insult, and your image of yourself, which you call your person, changes deeply. To know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you are not. And to know what you are not, you must watch yourself carefully, rejecting all that does not necessarily go with the basic fact: “I am.” Our usual attitude is of “I am this.” Consistently and perseveringly separate the “I am” from “this” or “that” and try to feel what it means to be, without being “this” or “that.” All our habits go against it and the task of fighting them is long and hard sometimes, but clear understanding helps significantly. The more clearly you understand that on the level of the mind you can be described in negative terms only, the more quickly you will come to the end of your search and realize your limitless being.”
― Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Then how to do I get into the void state?
The "void state" is not a special state you enter, it is what remains when egoic activity is absent. It is not trance, not a blackout, not numbness, it is how the mind interprets the not doing and not being someone, it tries to interpret the absence of itself as a "state" or "a thing happening. It is still considered a state to achieve or to go into which means...it is still within a dream and the void is not the self because the self is not an experience. It is simply recognising the spaciousness between the ego and the self, a detachment from the ego.
Freedom is realising that no state defines you.
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