Leo Gura

@Joseph Maynor I never said Turquoise doesn't act. At the deepest levels of nonduality all action is pointless. You could just shoot yourself and it would be okay. It's all perfect. Teaching is pointless of course. But in practice you will probably just carry on with life, for shits and giggles, and probably teach. The world cannot be improved in any way at all. It is an Absolute singularity, and everything is already contained within it for eternity. But this is not something that can be explained, and it certainly sits outside of Spiral Dynamics so I don't even talk about it. You will only discover this for yourself, at the very deepest levels of nondual consciousness. At which point, you will no longer need me or anyone else to guide you.

@Recursoinominado That's right. You cannot get to unconditional acceptance through intellectualization or belief. You need to start having some nondual experiences, mystical experiences. Psychedelics or yoga/meditation is the way. But practicing active non-judgment is also very helpful.

Yes, this is actually a big obstacle for men, because most men are so preoccupied with appearing alpha. From all the criticism, judgment, and resistance that I see about Green, it feels like 50% of it is coming from males who have not sufficiently embodied their manhood, so they are insecure, and try to act macho, thereby demonizing Green. Which is why I said about stage Blue: embrace your feminine side. This will also apply to stage Orange males. The power of embracing your feminine side is enormous. To a juvenile man or "bro", Green will feel soft and weak. I once recommended a Matt Kahn video to a PUA coaching client of mine who was stuck in stage Orange. It was a really important video about love. He refused to listen to the advice because Matt Kahn came off as "too soft and feminine". The striving to be alpha and macho is really toxic. I was basically unable to coach him out of his issues because he was so insistent on acting out Orange to the max. He just couldn't fathom the value of Green. And yet, all of the answers to his problems lay in Green and beyond. The problem with Orange is that it's extremely shallow. There is no satisfaction to be found there.

@zikzak I have not mentioned it yet.

@zikzak I wouldn't say it's better per se, it's a bit overpowered.

@Erlend K Just be mindful of applying 21st century ideals to people from 1000 years ago. You probably have no idea what life was like back then.

@How to be wise Well, of course it's been around. The Greeks were famously open to homosexuality and pedophilia. I meant it's a new evolutionary wrinkle in modern culture. The last 50 years have seen a huge change in public perception of homosexuality. A really big shift occurred even just since the 90's. Even many Republicans these days are starting to accept homosexuality, which would have been shocking 50 years ago. Our culture is changing rapidly. Which is why stage Blue feels under attack by progressives like Obama and Hillary.

@Dovahkiin Nah... the ideological battles you see between feminism and the men's right movement is mostly a battle between Green and Orange, not Blue. That's a secular battle. Absolutism doesn't have to be about God and religion, but it usually is. Stubbornness and closedmindedness is not exclusive to Blue. It tends to manifest all along the Spiral in various forms. Green people can be fairly ideological about equality and civil rights issues. For example, Green Peace or PETA. That doesn't make them Blue. They are solid Green. Green, like any stage, can get dysfunctional at its extremes. The key difference between Blue and Green is that Green is against rigid hierarchies and focused on equality, building human bonds, sharing feelings. Blue is focused more on law and order and tradition.

Enough nondual posturing.

@Bobby It's useful to distinguish between enlightenment and one's cultural worldview. You can technically have mystical experiences at stage Blue. But these days, if you're going to become enlightened, you're probably gonna be at stage Turquoise, especially if you follow sources like Actualized.org or other modern nonduality teachers. Because we all teach inclusiveness and holistic thinking in a non-sectarian way. In that past, when people became enlightened they would mostly do it within a single insulated tradition, like Christianity or Hinduism, or Zen. Nowadays you can hardly stay insulated from all the various traditions. Nonduality has become a melting pot. Deep nondual experiences will tend to push your values and worldview towards Turquoise quite naturally.

@lmfao Yeah, it's tough not to judge the lower stages. You really gotta grow into deep Yellow and Turquoise in order to be able to look upon Blue and the other stages without animosity. At Turquoise there is a deep realization that everything within reality is necessary and perfect. When you realize that, you see that every person is precisely where they must be. It makes no sense any longer to blame or criticize people for their ignorance because they know not what they do and they cannot help themselves. The only way to attain peace for yourself is to totally drop all judgment of people and reality. And this can only happen by becoming conscious of the truth of nonduality. You have to realize that self/other are literally identical. If you accomplish that, you will be left with unconditional love for all. You will see the world the way God sees it: perfect as it is. One of the biggest obstacles to enlightenment is giving up all your judgments, demonizations, and criticisms of reality. Imagine being unable to judge anyone or anything ever again. Such a notion scares most people. Unconditional love is very radical. The ego cannot stand it. It's too dangerous from the ego's perspective.

Science, rationalism, pragmatism, materialism, and secularism is the next stage. Of course science has dogmas and group-think in it, but significantly less so than traditional religion. Science does strongly emphasize empirical validation and skepticism. Science is more willing to evolve its web of beliefs. A good scientist is supposed to be openminded and curious and non-ideological in a way that runs counter to strict obedience to scriptures and father figures. Science requires some degree of rebelliousness. Stage Orange is more independent-minded and materialistic. Less concerned with the afterlife. That's science and business.

Just focus your awareness on pure awareness itself. It's that simple. But it requires building up a great concentration ability. One-pointed focus. The mind will struggle because awareness is empty, and the mind cannot latch onto it.

@brugluiz Think of it this way: God is a first-class golfer. He's really good at playing golf, so just to challenge himself sometimes he doesn't tee-off on the fairway, but from inside a sand trap or behind a tree. It keeps the game more interesting. And its also necessary because not every human being can be born to good parents in a good country.

@Greg O You should actually read a biography of Genghis Kahn. The Mongols did not just rape and pillage out of the blue. They gave their enemies many opportunities to surrender and join their empire peacefully. From today's era you can look at Genghis Kahn or Muhammad as a bloodthirsty warlord. But from their own eras, you can look at them as civilizing influences in their regions. As evil as an empire may appear, an empire is more evolved and civilized than a horde of warring tribes (who actually do a lot of random raping and pillaging). What most people fail to appreciate it what it takes to start a civilization. It doesn't happen through rainbows and butterflies. There was no United Nations back then, it had to be built from scratch. People like Saddam Hussein are not comic book villains as they are often portrayed. These leaders are rough and brutal because that is the kind of environment they are faced with. You cannot just bring democracy to people. They have to be evolved enough to handle it. Building a new civilization can be a dirty business. P.S. I have no idea whether the Kahn was actually enlightened. If I had to bet, I would say not.

Lol Study some philosphy of science, son. You speak of things way out of your scope of understanding.

* Zen-stick slap to the head * Mu!

One of the downsides to the love-centered approach to nonduality is that it attracts a lot of love-bunnies, who become very devotional to the point of idol worship. Which then creates a sort of stage Green mob mentality, which mirrors stage Blue dogmatism. I have a friend who joined the Hare Krishnas, and it's this same kind of blind devotion mentality which leads to this kind of spiritual co-dependency. That's the danger of being part of a tight spiritual community. You become dependent on it and you stop thinking for yourself. This can easily lead to abuse and cult-like behavior, even if the guru is a nice person. Precisely what happened with Osho's community. The guru and his followers both become dependent on each other too much. A good guru will not let you worship him, keeping a professional distance from his students. Otherwise it becomes incestuous. I'm guessing Matt Kahn's followers fall into this same kind of trap given his style of teaching. I'm not saying anything negative about these gurus, just pointing out some common traps people fall into.

There's nothing vague about it. Stop mentally masturbating and start doing serious yoga. Yoga is not an exercise of philosophy or scientific modeling.

Numerous studies used to show the Earth was flat. Stop with this silly pop-science. In the hands of a fool, a study can show anything the fool believes.

Awaking up is like upgrading your browser from Safari to Chrome.

Change is harder than most people expect. It's not that it doesn't work. It works too effectively. The problem is, you don't really want to change, and you're not addressing the root of your issues. No one has shown you how to actually APPLY self-help advice. So you're lost in theory and improper application. Victim mentality (which is what your entire post is), can be tricky to overcome. Especially when you are first starting out and you're deep in the hole from a lifetime of dysfunctional living. The good new is: the advice works and the end-results you can get are way beyond your wildest dreams. The bad news is: it will take lots of work to actualize it. Redouble your efforts, have hope, and drop your victim mentality. P.S. Getting pissed is part of the process.

@ppfeiff I never said anything against improving one's lifestyle, diet, etc. Those are actually all a function of how one uses one's mind. Nor did I say that the mind is the only role in healing. I said "most", not all. You're the one making assumptions. The way you speak about the "physical" clearly tells me that you believe in physical reality. Otherwise you wouldn't be saying such things. So your level of consciousness is no secret to me.

@ppfeiff I am saying it's possible to cure even things like cancer using the mind. Not always, but possible. Because your mind controls your immune system. But this is something you're not going to understand at your current level of consciousness. Because you still believe in a physical reality. The healing arts are a deep topic which takes years of study and practice to really fathom. And it takes a very open mind. There is a deep mystical component to healing, above and beyond the psychological and "physical" aspects. Stuff like ADHD is definitely a good candidate for yogic healing. No guarantees, but worth a shot. Obviously the psychological and physical aspects should also be looked after. If you're eating bad food, that could be an important factor. But then again, yoga will purify your mind and chakras so much that you should automatically want to start eating healthier.

@lmfao Research the origins of astrology and read some books about what it really is. As with every spiritual topic, don't assume you know best.