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Comment by mistermann | Hacker News Reader

Now that you have been through this once, do you think it's possible that if you went through all of the material you consumed in this period (assume photographic memory), would you be able to prepare a presentation (customized for yourself) with content that would be adequate to accelerate this process (and speculatively, a plausible range of how much) if you were to deliver itself to your past you (say, at the time that you originally started, and maybe also earlier points in time in your life)?

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I do think that would be possible.

Your question seems to be along the lines of "Is it possible to speed up the process of seeing that the separate, egoic self is an illusion?"

I think it is. In fact, Rupert Spira and others talk about "The Direct Path" for doing exactly this.

Why do you ask?

Well, it typically takes...I dunno, 2 to 5 years or so to make some substantial progress (with luck) I'd say, I wonder what could be accomplished in MUCH tighter time frames, even giving up some aspects.

Basically, it's one of those "what is possible?" questions.

One thing I've noticed with various different spiritual teachers is that it seems like a personality type match is highly beneficial - for example, Rupert never did much for me, whereas people like Ram Dass, Alan Watts, Terence McKenna, Jiddu Krishnamurti I can listen to for hours. I wonder if there's something that could be done about this as well.

I share your interest.

To speed up a process, I usually try to identify the rate-limiting step (the constraint.)

I would guess that one of the factors that affects the time required to see through the illusion of a separate, egoic self, is "How badly do you want a much better existence than the one you've been living?"

Invalidating a low-level assumption of the kind we are discussing has to trigger a lot of re-evaluation by a person. In other words, it really turns everything on its head. I think people are often very smart, in a sub-conscious way, and they can see where self-inquiry might lead, and they say to themselves, in essence, "Screw that. Too scary!"

On the other hand, if you're really suffering, you'll probably pay a high price to escape it.

Ya....there does seem to be a number of "Active Defenses" within the mind that can see "upgrades" coming a mile away. It is a very slippery opponent!

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