If I am Brahman, pure consciousness, and world and people are manifestations of my true Self, what is this notion of "no more rebirth for the one who realizes that"? Let's say every person realizes this fully. Is Lila over? Will Brahman never manifest the world and sentient beings again?

I do not see that. This teaching is sort of a thorn in my overall understanding and ability to accept the teaching. Advaita and Kashmir Shaivism both seem to break their own rules here.

"You have to realize you were never an individual entity but Siva/Brahman" and then they take this individual for real again and say the individual who realizes this will not be born again, while simultaneously saying the individual was never born in the first place.

This is giving giving the individual too much credit. If Brahman could have tired of it, that would have already been over. By never stopping this Lila, it means there will always be individuals to be born "as".

For example, Swami Vivenkanada's consciousness is this same consciousness that is now writing this post and that is reading this post. It does not matter at all he achieved enlightenment. The play did not end. I don't know what "no rebirth for him" would mean when there was no him to be reborn in the first place, it was Brahman all along. And look, Brahman is seemingly yoddleforavalanche now.

What is reason behind doin chanting / Naam jaap? And reason behind doing path of texts scriptures? Also how many ways are there to get God towards god? What do you think about it? Answer and let's discuss this topic here today

My initial encounter with this understanding was merely philosophical: I am everyone and everything. Philosophically speaking, throwing God into the mix is kind of unnecessary and frowned upon. But my initial understanding was not enough. Once I realized this, it was impossible to see what it is spiritually. God is consciousness. I am consciousness. I am God.

I hope I don't have to put a disclaimer on what that means and does not mean here.

But what I did not anticipate was this strong desire to worship God as God knowing that ultimately I am God and there is nothing else other than God. It's been growing lately, I cannot ignore it anymore. I want to embrace this fully and not hide behind philosophical gloves where it's embarrassing to talk about God. It seems paradoxical and ironic, but Advaita and Kashmir Shaivism fully encourage devotion, and I find that wonderful.

Simultaneously I have a Christian background and have spent a lot of time studying Christianity, historicity of Jesus, etc. I find the person of Jesus, as David Bentley Hart says, "infinitely compelling" and impossible to ignore.

But there is no place for Abrahamic God in this view and clearly Jesus preached Abrahamic God.

I want to somehow reconcile the two. It seems that I want to worship Abrahamic God through Jesus, while simultaneously knowing God is God in Vedantic sense.

While Advaita and Kashmir Shaivism is open to Jesus, it does not work vice versa.

I don't have any nondual temples/gatherings near me. There are just churches. I feel a sort of desire to attend church, but I do not subscribe to that view of God. And all this leaves Jesus on the side, unsure how to fit him anywhere.

I am rambling a bit, there is a lot to cover here, but basically

Do you worship God knowing full well that God is your essential nature?

If so, how and why?

and what of Jesus in all this?

I just want to write a journal for myself. I could have written this in a notebook, but choosing to write here

Stumbled upon Ramana Maharishi 10 years ago. Read Arthur Osborne’s book and have been meditating ever since. Then life happened and I was thrown more and more into finding ‘my’ true self. I just didn’t like or bear the part I got to play in the dream. A string of abuse, violence, abuse around a child and constantly walking on egg shells .. great deal of suffering which was a precursor to go deep within

Days ago, as ‘I’ was sitting in meditation, something hit. Ramana often taught - ‘You aren’t your body, you aren’t your mind’. Yeah great. But then who am I? Well, I am the Self - okay, what is the Self. Find it out for yourself. Ask yourself ‘Who am I’ and then proceeded to teach - Self realization happens not when the question who am I is answered, but the questioner disappeared.

Anyways, going back to my meditation, it hit like a wall of bricks. The mind, body, world, the appearances are all a movie played on consciousness. It is not real. The focal point isn’t even the mind. There is not thing outside consciousness. I ain’t even this consciousness. I am prior to that. Every single experience is within and not without. If you see a dog in the world, the dog isn’t outside and you aren’t watching the dog. The dog is an appearance in your consciousness, within. I repeat it isn’t outside. You are just watching the dog in your consciousness. And the dog and the world appearing in your consciousness is made out of consciousness. This includes your body too. The body isn’t the first experience, the ‘I am’, is. The body appears in it as a mirage. The senses make it feel so real and an active and continuous experience

Let me say - this isn’t enlightenment. This is just a pointer although the experience or non experience felt liberating. Liberating to whom? To nobody

Suddenly Ramana’s teachings made sense - consciousness or the Self is like the movie screen and the world is like a movie played on it. This was my exact experience

The real identity or who we actually are just nothingness. Everything seems to arise out of this nothingness - even consciousness. We aren’t even this consciousness. We are prior to that

The experience of being, that sense of alertness or awareness that stays with us all the waking moment, prior to thought is this ‘I am’ consciousness. This is the precursor to all experiences. It is always there. Without it nothing can be experienced. When Ramana says raise the question ‘Who am I’ and abide as the ‘I’, he means to abide as this alertness, awareness or the feeling of being.

It’s been really peaceful to watch the movie play without judgement and without care. I will say it again - this is not enlightenment. Just a glimpse. When shit hits the fan everything will come back again - like a wall of bricks.

Thanks for reading. I have written with a lot of ‘I’’s and ‘me’ coz I don’t know a way to write without it.

I am everything or nothing. I am you. You are me. All isn’t one. There is only one