Leo Gura

@kieranperez There can be a difference, but they usually come together. A person with low self-esteem will likely let life and other people walk all over them. And a person who is stuck in life, especially in relationships, usually is stuck because of low self-esteem.

That's YOUR job to discover. That's why you're alive! There is no static balance here, it's a dynamic balance, and it will all depend on your particular situation. See video: The Role Of Balance In Personal Development It's like you're asking: "Tell me how to balance on a unicycle. Should I lean left or right?"

That would a cool discovery for me. Just another mindfuck in a sea of mindfucks. I like getting my reality overturned.

@Dan94 Just keep in mind, Peter Ralston's life purpose was to become a world-class martial artist. And he did that! One of the best in the world. Trained for many years. Alongside enlightenment. I once asked Ralston how he managed to navigate this conflict. He looked at me funny and said, "What conflict???" So both can be done, and the conflict is really just in your mind. Notice that many enlightened people are also masterful at many other things in life, and have thriving careers. The motivation, commitment, discipline, flexibility, passion, long-term planning, and striving towards excellence which is required to reach the deepest levels of enlightenment are exactly the same qualities required for mastery of any other field of life.

@Elephant I don't recommend getting your stuff on the streets.

@Imnotsure I wasn't saying I have the absolute answer. I was saying just the opposite.

@Elephant Only get it from a quality source that has plenty of good reviews Then test it with Erlich Then consume a small test-dose (like 1/4th of a tab) Then trip for real

Excellent! Every trip builds on the previous. You have to stop expecting each trip which each substance and dose to be the same. It's not about that. It's about how conscious you are, how open you are, how deep your understanding and questioning is, what your intentions are. If you give a fool a handful of mushrooms, he will still walk away a fool. There is still deeper to go.

10,000+ hours of hardcore practice.

@Lauritz I have been to such a community. They do exist, and are quite amazing. You're not going to be able to create such a community without extensive self-actualization, enlightenments, consciousness work, and education.

Good work. Only the beginning.

Nice work!

@Ariel See video: https://www.actualized.org/articles/the-role-of-balance-in-personal-development No one is suggesting you become a self-help mental-masturbator. That might be a phase you go through as you find your balance. And that's normal and okay. As you self-actualize more, this kind of stuff will tend to auto-correct as you will see yourself becoming overly neurotic about self-actualization. So you just loosen your grip a bit. But you don't quit, as that would be the biggest trap.

Except you are not at peace, otherwise you wouldn't be here. I aim my advice at people who are climbing the mountain. If you're already sitting on top of it, well, enjoy. That means you've already done what I am trying to guide you towards. That is the paradox of life. Nothing matters, yet everything matters. Of course the mind will use precisely those things as addictions and distractions which you need most in your life. It would be way too easy to overcome an addiction or distraction if you could avoid it entirely, like cigarettes. It's much harder with things like success, sex, relationships, or food because you practically can't avoid them. Even a Zen monk needs to successfully earn his food and watch out for his nutrition. This is a long growth process. You will outgrow many old goals and motivations over the years, depending on where you start. Most people are not anywhere close to consciousness work. They need to plug the gaping holes in their Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs first. As you engage in business, career, relationships, food, etc, you will start to learn why they are not ultimately satisfying. Those are important lessons upon which a deeply spiritual life can then be built. And you will not leave those things entirely, you will transcend and INCLUDE them.

Self-actualization isn't about "fixing" yourself. It's about the joy the building a great life. If you notice, I don't really talk about abnormal psychology. I'm not really interested in fixing neurosis. I'm passionate about growth and reaching the highest levels of human potential. "Fixing myself" doesn't inspire me at all. Eventually you learn to enjoy the growth process. It's only a burden when you're first starting off because society has conditioned and addicted you so much.

See, already you don't even know if you can rely on skepticism. So where does that leave you?

@Wormon Blatburm Do whatever you want. Just don't be surprised when you come crying.

A human being has certain biological and psychological needs. Life as a human being means you gotta do certain things. Well, you don't HAVE TO, but you would probably feel best if you did. Of course you don't have to follow anything I say. I am just pointing out the obvious building blocks of a good life. Relative physical reality as humans experience it is consantly evolving. You can disidentify with Maya, but Maya is still happening and you are still gonna have to deal with it.

Doesn't necessarily mean anything. Some days meditation is much easier than others. See how often you can replicate that, that's the tricky part.

How is anything possible at all? That is the question.

In practice what will happen is you will stop doing personal dev and you will start to stagnate. Doesn't matter how enlightened you get, there is always more work to do on yourself and your life. It never ends. That's life in a nutshell: evolution. The key here is to just make growth and learning an everyday part of your life. Besides enlightenment you should be working of your career, your infrastructure, your education, your health, your nutrition, your relationships, your moral inadequecies, your skills, etc, etc.

@xist Which is why I rarely talk purely about enlightenment. Most of my talks are about more minor things. There is really nothing to say about enlightenment. You just do your self-inquiry (or whatever method) and you either experience it or not. Talking about it is pointless and counter-productive in most cases.

@ajasatya That IS a kind of understanding. I've already had an understanding of the ultimate WHY of reality. So it is possible. I just want to take it deeper and broader.

@PretentiousHuman So if they are beyond your control, your options are: A) accept them, B) resist them. If you choose B, you will suffer extra but still accomplish nothing. So what is the point of resisting? Actually think through what you are doing. Because it's like you're shooting yourself in the foot without realizing it.

Nothing and infinity are identical. It's a bit tricky to quantify it. The more work I do, the more I am able to recognize that I am inside infinity. Full nondual awareness I haven't experienced for longer than 60 mins. But my overall understanding of how consciousness works and why it works the way it works has increased significantly in the last year from all my trips. I am still going with that approach, although I'm in no rush. There are many other psychedelics I want to explore. I'm not committed to only taking 5-MeO, and I've gotten very important work accomplished with AL-LAD and 2C-B. And I got more to explore. My job as I see it is to find tools for people and find new things. If you wanted to just use 5-MeO, you certainly could. It would grow you faster than you could handle, most likely.