Leo Gura

@BeginnerActualizer I don't engage in video games almost at all any more. For me video games were my art, like painting. It was about creating beautiful things and being creative. I might even make some video games at some point. But they wouldn't be mainstream commercial products. More artsy. Nothing is inherently evil. Entertainment does have value when not overused. And all artistic pursuits are valid so long as you feel that it's art that you're doing and you're passionate about it. One of the reasons I got out of video games is because I felt most games were too shallow and commercial, and it's not easy making artsy games and surviving in that industry. The work practices of the industry are also extremely unhealthy and consciousness-destroying. If I ever return to making video games, it would be 100% on my terms. The reason I started my first business was because I was so disgusted by not having 100% creative autonomy over my work. When I comes to my work, I'm a total control freak.

@Extreme Z7 Indeed, my bad

4g dried is a pretty strong dose. Although it's possible to go much higher. 4g can easily kick your ass.

Everyone's prime directive is to be raising the quality of their consciousness. That's what human life is about. The life purpose, as talked about in the course, is about how do you want to contribute to humanity? What do you want your life's work to be? Personal development is something you'll be doing anyway. The question you should be asking yourself is what kind of career will be aligned with your deepest values? Otherwise you'll be stuck working at Starbucks your whole life. If you love personal development or consciousness work, then that probably means your career should be somehow related to that. But now you gotta think through the details. Plan it out. What value can you offer the world?

@Arielle Enlightenment puts you MORE in touch with the human condition, not less. You cannot even fathom or appreciate the human condition until you've awoken from it at least once. If anything can super-charge your creativity, it's enlightenment. Every artist should become enlightened, if only to improve their art. The biggest thing that gets in the way of great art is ego. It's interesting that artistic-types are the ones you tend to love psychedelics. Psychedelics are like raw divine inspiration.

Were they dried 12g?

Video games don't really make you violent (same as violent movies don't make you violent), but they DO lower your consciousness, same as TV. I don't think video games make people violent because they aren't murder simulators, they are GAMES. When you kill an elf in World of Warcraft, you don't do it with violent intent, you do it for fun as a role play. If you actually used games with the intent to hone your cruelty and anger, then they probably would help you become violent. But 99% of people don't play games that way. Most people play games just for fun, to escape reality. Video games are also different than visualization because in visualization you're actually flexing the mind, whereas in a video game you're just seeing violent images, which isn't the same as consciously generating them. But the bigger question is: Are video games harming your consciousness? And the answer is definitely YES! Not because of the violence factor, but because you're using it as an escape from reality. Video games are basically anti-mindfulness training. You're getting lost deeper in Maya as you play. And notice that every video game -- no matter how great -- ends with a sense of hollowness and lack of fulfillment. Which is what drives people to seek out the next great game, and the next great game, and the next, creating a cycle of addiction but never fulfillment.

The dream analogy is very good. That's basically how best to hold reality, as a dream. And you can wake from it, just like a dream.

Actualized.org has been upgraded to a new server. This server should be more reliable and 5 to 10 times faster. If you notice any bugs or errors, let me know. Otherwise, enjoy

Yeah, I love the barber shop one.

Yeah, it should be. We got 10x bandwidth increase and solid state hard drive.

@John Flores Correct. Except in a nonphysical reality, the body isn't as necessary as we assume.

Reminds me of this cool technology I found called Holophonic sound: http://www.acousticintegrity.com/acousticintegrity/Holophonics.html But you need to wear headphones for it to work. It's quite freaky!

There's a very deep structural problem here: Absolute Infinity = no limits You = a limit Now, what would happen to a limit if it become unlimited? Why might a limit not want to become unlimited?

That's a tricky assumption, stemming from the paradigm that self and other are real solid entities. Consider this: if everything in one (as nonduality suggests), there is no separation between you and other beings. In which case, it would be possible to have a direct consciousness of what another being is. Turns out it is possible to have direct consciousness of another. Because another is you. And you're both nothing. To accomplish this feat, you'd have to have an enlightenment experience on the question of: What is another? Enlightenment has many interesting facets. More than people first suspect.

@Key Elements Fair enough, just felt I needed to emphasize the potential trap some readers might fall into.

No, I said the brain does NOT render reality. The brain is part of the stuff rendered, obviously. I said nothing renders reality. << that's facing the mysticism head-on. Imagine a game like World of Warcraft running on a server, but the server isn't silicon-based, it's literally nothing. That's sorta like actual reality. If you object, "But how could that be?", notice: how could anything be? Notice that no way is any less mystical than another. And notice that reality doesn't need to obey the limits of your rational mind or human intuition, because reality is unlimited. It has infinite capability, and is therefore literally indistinguishable from magic.

@Key Elements That description of an enlightened person is a gross idealization. You will be sorely disappointed if that's what you expect. That is more like a description of Jesus than your typical enlightened guy. And even Jesus had his prickish moments. So be careful about filling your head with such ideals. Yes, enlightenment generally orients people towards happiness and humility and love and all that, but it's not guaranteed by any means, and it will takes decades of additional work to actualize that potential. It's very useful to make a sharp distinction between enlightenment and one's behavior, emotions, and level of development. You can treat these things almost like independent variables. In the same way that just because one knows calculus, doesn't make one nice or loving or humble or charming.

This question reminds me of a critic who was so outraged by George Berkeley's philosophical position that the external world does not exist -- the world being nothing more than an idea inside the mind of God -- that the guy kicked a rock at Berkeley, causing him to bleed, and said something along the lines of: "There! Proof of an external world!" The general problem with people who are stuck in a naive realist paradigm is that they are trying to judge other paradigms without first stepping outside their own. You cannot make a paradigm shift without leaving your old paradigm behind. You are correct in this way: using ordinary human consciousness, we cannot know for sure if there is or is not an external world. But when you experience Absolute consciousness, you'll realize that reality is not physical, because it is Absolute Infinity. And if you start to develop paranormal abilities like OBEs, and other sorts of spiritual powers, you'll see that reality is non-physical. Or just take a large dose of psychedelics. This stuff isn't theory. You can empirically verify what is being claimed for yourself. If you really care, verifying it is not that difficult.

"Do not blame God for having created the tiger, but thank him for not having given it wings." -- Hindu Proverb

@Emerald Wilkins Doesn't change the fact that "hungry child", in this case, is a concept. Which is not to say you'll never run into hungry children, as if they are a myth. They are real -- when you meet one. If this causes you to be cruel to hungry children -- by say, stopping your donations -- then that's for you to reconcile. As in West World, just because you realize you're in a game, doesn't mean you have to be an asshole. The game reveals your true colors.

Of course there can be multiple causes/factors. Humans are complex critters. But it shouldn't be hard to tell what your obstacles are. Just sit down and honestly ask yourself: "What are my biggest obstacles?" Your intuition knows. Things like bad habits are obvious. Things like negative motivation is obvious. Just ask, "Why am I doing X?" and see what the reason is. Is it to avoid fear, or pain? Etc.

@jse That empathy is also a sensation to become mindful of. Don't cling to your humanity so much that it keeps you from discovering your divinity

This is not helpful to someone who is stuck in a rut or is a chronic underachiever. There are times in life when you need to surrender to just being. But NOT when you're stuck in a lazy rut. When you're stuck in a rut, when you've been a victim for YEARS, when you haven't done any serious work on yourself or your career, getting mobilized is very important. Doing is very important. Action is very important. The practical reality is that most people have enormous potential which goes 99% untapped. Telling such people to "just be", "just relax", "you are already perfect", "success is fool's gold" -- that is only going to confuse them, because that's advice you give to someone who's a neurotic overachiever, not a neurotic underachiever. The life purpose course is not designed to enlighten people. It's designed to get them moving towards tapping into their enormous potential on this mortal plane and handle their career. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is important to keep in mind. People find it really hard to follow advanced spiritual advice when they can't even achieve the basics of successful living. It goes over their head and they use the advice to justify further inaction. One needs to find a balance between doing and being. And even at the most advanced spiritual levels, being is never done at the expense of necessary doing.

That's exactly what it is, FOR YOU! The greater tragedy is not being mindful of what is concept and what is experience.