Hey all, I wanted to prose a line of questioning because it's something my mind has been grappling with a bit lately. How exactly does one get something completely independent of, or, "outside" of one's mind? I'm starting to have a sense that it can be done. As in, I'm noticing the amalgam of conceptual framework in my day to day life and how I am constantly creating my reality, and it opens up my mind to see what is actually past, or actually prior to, these creations. I dusted up on an ability to really contemplate from this notion, and wonder the "answer" to real experiential questions, to try to get a look PAST or before these concepts, like what is really true of who or what I am, instead of "do a thing and hope something happens" which, in a weird way, was a lot of what I was trying to do when I would try to contemplate. As for the "how" to grasp past these mental projections, (I know we're not supposed to create a method, but bear wit me,) my idea is, firstly, to stay in task, and also, I'd like to go deeper into not knowing because that feels hugely pertinent to this. One, emphasizing the "not" part of "not knowing," like not being attached to any idea, fantasy, obviously belief, or even what I want to turn out for myself. These are all just more concepts it seems, and not "what I'm trying to find." It gives me the unbiasedness to actually LOOK. Then the other "part" is wonder. Grasping that these concepts are not what I'm trying to find, try to "look" or "find," creating more openness to what is true now and really take a look and try "to find" out what is true in the matter. Regardless of creation. These are the things my mind has to grasp onto at the moment, since it feels very zen in a sense to try to get something "outside of yourself" or conceptual stuff. Figured I would put this on the new help and questions category. I know it can be weird to ask questions about something that apparently has no method, but I figured I'd take a shot in the dark

“There doesn’t need to exist a territory for there to be a map, even though a map may arise from a territory.” Having a thought or concept about an apple does not necessarily guarantee its existence, even though an existence of an apple allows for a concept or representation of it. Just something I thought Id share something that occurred to me recently. Thank you.

I was looking at what true listening entails. It seems to me that the more I pay attention, the more evident it becomes that I'm not particularly good at it - not so much in the conventional sense, but in a deeper way. Imagine someone is communicating a profound insight to you - whether it relates to consciousness work, transformation, or something else entirely. What do you do with it? Do you immediately accept it, reject it, believe it, disbelieve it? Do you hear the words, filter them through your mind, recall past references to what's being said, and then conclude that the communication is now understood? Perhaps the first sign of poor listening is this very impulse or predisposition to claim that you've already understood the communication. This seems to be common. We don't realize that we may have failed to listen, that we haven't experienced the insight being shared (or at least not as profoundly as we could have). So how can we better "listen," especially in this context? What even is that about?

Hello, new to the community here and looking forward to getting started! Which book would you recommend reading first? Thanks!