electroBeam

@Salvijus where do you find gurus? That's an even harder question. What city has the most high quality gurus?

I have a situation which would be nice to get input on: my career: I work a lot, because I'm doing something which has a real good chance of giving me financial freedom in 5 to 10 years time, and a job that I do love now, and will continue to love for the rest of my life. If I work less than I am, its very risky and could potentially knock me off this course. Its a startup. my wife: I have a wife who is very emotionally mature, funny and fits my personality. But she is needy and requires a lot of attention and time. This is really the only challenge to dating her. my situation: I just dropped out of university (2nd year in) to work for a startup. Consequently I'm still living with my parents(but have enough money to move out, if I'm willing to take a risk). Because I live with my parents, my wife does not have much personal time with me. This affects her emotionally. She 'wants to live a life with me, not my parents'. Also my workload is affecting her. Because I work on the weekends usually (and try to fit in dates as much as I can, but its not much) + I live with my parents (lack of privacy) + because my wife is emotionally needy, its hard to manage the entire situation. She has in the past cried over my lack of time spending with her. I have spoken to my startup founder about it, but he is of Asian descent, and asians have a very different concept to love than westerners, so there's a lack of wiggle movement there. How do you emotionally support your wife in this case? I have failed a few times, she is not happy with the amount of emotional support given right now.

Thanks for your input. I could look into the first one. hahahahaha. Ooooo this is very hard for some Asian people. My cofounder is very understanding, but this is very sensitive cultural difference that's hard to manage. His wife doesn't live with him and hasn't for 3 years. In the Chinese culture they value hardship. Chinese people are very rational and don't understand emotion. He is about 10 years older than me and so I look up to him like a father(not intimately, maybe as a role model). Its hard to tell him I need to spend time with my wife without it seeming like I'm not ready to take the startup seriously or take responsibilities seriously. Because if I was Chinese that would 100% be the case. And it seems unfair that I'm allowed to spend time with my wife but he isn't (his wife isn't living with him because its necessary to keep the company alive at this point of time). Tricky.

5. Cosmos metaphysics invented by Pythagoras. 6. Not sure what category it belongs to, but the hermetic tradition doesn't fall into the above and it is a form of metaphysics. 7. Phenomenology metaphysics

Are you saying masters are not important? Masters are important in almost any other field for developing mastery: want to be the best musician, study with a master. Want to be a mathematician? Study with a master, want to be the world's best soccer player? Get coached by a master, want to be the world's most advanced yogi? Don't look for a master and learn it yourself in the woods for a month...

yeah don't take AI too seriously. The idea that AI is smart is an illusion. AI is simply a magic trick. it's statistical methods developed by smart men in the past, but these methods are like any other mathematical algorithm. They are simply a process and nothing more.

Here are a list of political questions that are needed addressing: In big organizations, a lot of (probably orange stage) people feel like a small cog in a big machine. Is it possible to work with people in a large organization and not feel like this? Is it possible for everyone to take on a role where they don't feel like this? What political structures (in business) facilitate such a state in their employees? These days in science, there is a trend in regards to reputation from success. In the past a single person would win a nobel prize(like Einstein) and get the credit for it. Nowadays the world is way too complex that a single person cannot solve the universe, but rather groups of people (companies, research organizations, etc) need to work together to solve problems. Nowadays the ones that get the credit are teams of researchers rather than a single researcher. What are the best ways to develop such organizations? Specifically organizations that are less money focused and get more titillation from curiosity? What is the best way to learn how to do this? Find a mentor and do practical excersises with him or build a company with his strict supervision, read books? What's the way to get good at this? Someone who thrives on changing the world and achievement, how does this person mould himself/herself towards company or organization centric, rather than individual centric? Maybe see the beauty and excellence in other people and try to support their excellence? How does someone who is individual centric get over the fear of trust with other people? Fear that a person or group will not fulfill their promise? Fear that they will backstab you? Fear that they will take away something important of yours for personal or group gain? A lot of these issues do actually happen in real life and are not irrational fears, how do you get good at avoiding these problems when developing a political/business structure that involves a lot of people, partnerships and deals? Society is very toxic. How do you not get entangled in the toxicity of society, while connecting to it, responding to it and being a full participating society of it? How do you work together with a university to solve the world's greatest mysteries, while not getting entangled in the political games such as status seeking, sucking the assess of dysfunctional professors who 'don't like you'? How do you successfully change the status quo? How do you motivate people to take action with you when the stakes aren't that high?(who really cares about solving the world's mysteries these days? No like REAL mysteries? Like examining the beautiful intracies of the experiences people have with the 3rd eye and the hallucinations that come with it?, Imaging how cool it would be to work at a research organization at a top university, mathematically measuring the emotional and spiritual effects people have of temples, and integrating it with the ratios pythagoras found for musical harmonics? Finding a relationship between musical harmonics and the geometrical formation of temples?).

Nice! Make God great again! legalize weed, legalize LSD magic mushrooms 5 meo dmt. I'm not a fan of the other drugs, but to be fair we must legalize those too. People will naturally gravitate towards the better ones because it makes them more happy. Subsidise meditation and yoga centres. Secular ones not religious ones. Give people incentives for meditating(sort of like what they did in Singapore for unis, but for meditation instead). Don't make uni free. Uni can be learnt with online courses. Make apprentiships free. Uni is a waste of time. decriminalize all drug use. Get rid of 'victimless crimes' if there's no victim then it's not a crime. Any opposing opinion is karmic and dogmatic. Actually think about climate change and environmental impact. Australia - put more incentives in AI and technology. stop encouraging people to be lazy, also get rid of all those good for nothing conservatives. Also give more support to startups, they are the lifeblood to your country - not your farmers, they are old school. America - stop worrying about the military, put more money into science. Canada - keep going you're doing great! Along with Amsterdam. Infact Canada is the only country really acing it in the West.

@Leo Gura I have a grandfather who acts like he knows the world very well. He tells me all about politics and what religion is right, what political ideologies are wrong, and he sounds very smart. He reads lots of books and does a lot of critical thinking. The problem is, he has never left his home country. I fear you're following the same trap. Have you ever lived in a country, apart from the United States, for more that a year? Heck have you even done it for more than a month? If all you're doing is watching videos and reading books, you're falling into the same trap as my grandfather. It might be wise for you to put more effort into your profession and actually live in a place other than the united states. And its not an excuse to say 'I'm God so I have all the answers, no matter where I am". This is not a critique on your views about libertarianism, its a critique on every view you have.

Yep and this approach your taking enables the public to not get sucked into dogma. It's the best system out there for teaching spirituality. I've lived in an ashram for a while, what youre talking about is stage blue tactics, not some higher principle law. Ashrams are largely conservative and blue in their rules. This does not make them better than libertarian though. I think you haven't studied libertarianism. The dirty work the police do can still be done in a libertarian society. America is probably the most libertarian society out there, there is still a strong police force controlling the streets. Libertarianism isn't about letting devils do whatever the fuck they want, it's about giving each ego a space to make their own decisions, and not follow others. If an ego encroaches on another's space, they are classified as devils and the police can be called. Libertarianism is about making contracts and agreements with people and then following through with mutual consent agreements. If you don't the police have the right to punish you. If America was truly libertarian, you would be free to take 5 meo dmt legally. You could never do that at an ashram, you would need to abide by the dogmas of the temple. Furthermore your freedom to make this channel and say what you do came from years of high conscious liberals in the past pushing their agendas. Without libertarianism you would have been called a socialist and been put in jail long ago. Freedom as an ego Leo has given you so much rights to do the stiff you do. Go to China and try to do the stuff you're doing(another country I've lived in for a while). You would have been put in jail ages ago: 1) for breaking the firewall and 2) for criticising your government.

Yes and it's impossible to communicate to someone without projecting. You must make statements and claims, even about observations(a number of times I've seen the word observation used on this forum incorrectly - they should say inference or better yet hypothesis) and when you make those claims, you inherently project. Furthermore the others will read your post in a different light to you which is their own projection. I've come to the conclusion that the following games are pointless and should just be ignored: - telling people you 'didn't say something' such as a word or belief, regardless of whether you did or didn't - telling people you don't believe in something - telling people to stop projecting beliefs onto you(they must, that's the only way they can communicate to you). - Telling people they didn't understand what you said or wrote(they pretty much don't every time, even when you articulated your point very well).

You solve that by doing what I wrote to you in the first post: not believing society is real. No other way will get you there. I've noticed you have never suggested a political ideology which is better than libertarianism, and you have denied that the problem is solved by dropping ideology all together. Sounds like you would rather just complain about the system instead of solving it.

yes, but society is not useful. Enlightenment is not a survival strategy, but it's a reduce suffering strategy - that's what we need.

I'm aware that freedom is a social construct that hinges on waves of support from governments. What I'm saying is this way of doing things is good. it's a good way to do things which reduces suffering, compared to other systems. Also unlike you I don't hold anything against survival and selfishness. Selfishness is a natural part of this world, it's how things must be. Cooperation is done on mutual agreements in libertarianism. it's one of the most passive ways to collaborate. Whether that's done in practice, and whether I do it personally is irrelevant. We are talking about libertarianism not me. There is a difference between libertarianism and me.

@Leo Gura most of these sane people don't take that approach. Sadhguru tries to convince you, but doesn't force you to take on his ideology. He respects you as a human and stops encroaching on you at a certain point. One of the teachers in your kriya booklist said you would be a fountain of truth, for others to drink out of.(notice not a warlord of truth) This is the approach of most spiritual teachers, getting together and limiting your right to be a devil is usually a tactic stage blue tries out. These are quite similar actions a libertarian would take. While spiritual teachers are not libertarians, they do follow libertarian ideals, suggesting they see value in it. Also that's a very simplistic view of libertarianism. It's more than just a hopeless naive ideology trick for covering up your selfishness. Yes it selfish(in Leo's philosophy of life) but it is a sustainable selfishness which reduces suffering. Never has there been a time in history where people haven't been frequently enslaved. This is because only recently have governments taken on a more libertarian approach. libertarian is basically "you mind your own business and I'll mind mine. If it's your life I wont touch it, but if it's my life you don't touch it". This is very sustainable, not only that but it allows a country to be truly secular and tolerate multiple religions under a single country. Because governments mind their own business, they are not expansive orientated, which means they lack the desire to spread to different countries. This keeps a lot of peace in the world. What you're suggesting is totally unattainable for most people right now, you need to be enlightened and have no ego to live by those standards, so the best thing for an ego is sharing selfish activities equally(i.e. libertarianism).

well that's one perspective of libertarianism(and yeah its definitely true, in a way that's exactly right) but the other perspective is, people who don't believe in libertarianism are people who try to take away the freedom you have because they think they are entitled to your freedom. If you are someone who believes in libertarianism, this is extremely threatening. You're taking away a precious right, and really who are you to take that right away? You're infringing on territory that's not yours? As with your first point, calm down that anger. I'm not trying to tell you your problems are less real than they are. I understand you are suffering a lot from society, and just telling you its an illusion doesn't help, it just dismisses your problem and makes you feel bad about it because I'm not acknowledging suffering that is clearly there. BUT, if what I say is true, what ramifications does this have on your life? What if you really did realise it was an illusion(instead of just believing it)? What if instead of getting angry at the comment, you explored what society was existentially? Could you still have all of your petty problems then? Would you really take those problems seriously? Would you be in a better position to change the world if you're ego was not entangled in it? Realizing this has very practical results for your wellbeing and ability to change the world. And if you do observe society for what it is, you will overcome the problems that caused you to get angry at the comment in the first place. This is a cure not a dismissal.

No actually there is a bit of truth to what he is saying. There is no denying that you can't see society right? Can you see society with your eyes? Is it a tangible thing that you can see? Surely you agree you can't. Society is a social construct. Its a construct of the mind. This is important to understand. if everybody understood this, society would not be dysfunctional, because there would be no society. Society only exists(no I'm not confused, I know this contradicts the above sentence, but bear with me) because people like you (well everyone almost) thinks it does. If you don't believe me, why does the ego exist? Because you think it does. All illusions are like parasites(no bad judgments or connotations intended, I don't have any feelings for parasites, they are simply phenomena in the universe, that's it). that feed off a host(consciousness) believing in something(believing is the food). If you stop believing in the illusion, you cut off its supply of food to exist. So cut off the supply of the illusion of the society. Then it goes away, because its an illusion. Then there is no need to wear the best ear rings(if you are a girl) because there is no society rules telling you to do so (because the illusion is gone), there is no need to drive like a maniac because there are no society rules telling you to do that to get chicks or whatever. Literally every dysfunction would be cut off by the root. And paradoxically you would be free to cheat on your girlfriend, because there would be no society rule telling you its wrong, therefore its not a dysfunction(unless its causing suffering, which is not a society thing but a separation of Love (with a capital L) whereby the problem is about being disconnected by god, nothing to do with not following society rules). Then, the challenge is not to understand politics, or make it better, but to increase perceptivity of the human being. This is the root of libertarianism.

found an interesting answer to a software question https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/7217/frankly-do-you-prefer-cowboy-coding Can you see the parallels between spiral dynamics and this post? How interesting? There are many, but my favourite are these: - the quasi engineers are dogmatic about their coding paradigms, just like stage blue. It manifested due to seeing the limits of the previous stages (just like spiral dynamics) - the last stage (duct tape programmers) look just like the cowboy programmers. Yet they are completely different. Just like how yogis look exactly like religious fundamentalist nutcases. And the reasons why this is so are the same! And the cowboy programmers are completely ignorant of this. Interesting how spiral dynamics incorporates mini spirals within specific domains of expertise (such as programming!)

I've had procrastination problems all my life, basically compulsiveness. I've tried many personal development books. I've even tried ADHD clinical books and applied it to myself. Unfortunately these methods don't work because they are just too superficial. The problem I have is too deep for these books to handle. I had an insight recently that the reason why these compulsions are occuring (personally, its not expected that most people have this problem, my body is the only thing that probably has this specific issue) that the reason why this compulsion problem occurs is because of a viscous cycle. Every thought you have is prana/energy. And when a thought occurs you are using up prana. If the thought is very intense, you use up more prana. In most people's minds this prana is chaotic, there is no focus or direction, the prana is just going everywhere. So the common way to solve this (in PD circles) is you use visualization techniques, affirmations or the like to motivate yourself to stop procrastinating and therefore stop your prana from going a certain direction. But the problem is this uses up prana too!!! So you're trying to fight the chaos of prana using prana. How stupid. The more prana you use up, the less prana you have to try and control the pranic forces in such a way that it becomes stable. So the problem here is, how do you control the prana without using prana? How do you conservatively control your usage of prana, and only apply the prana when needed? If this is possible, this is how procrastination is resolved (for me anyway, not sure about others). Has anyone got any books on managing and controlling prana? Very in depth mechanics, methods and practices on mastering the flow of prana? Golden flower meditation comes to mind. I'm not looking for PD books. PD is too superficial for my personal problem. Its at best a band aid solution that flops off after a few days.

So in this forum (and not just this forum, but the majority of new age circles) there is a lot of discussion about spiritual states when they have them. Some people even go as far as to call them spiritual insights. The people who discuss them, are usually super excited, because the state has moved them emotionally in some way, and the people who listen to the states, are also super excited, because what is being said sounds super interesting. Some listeners (and speakers) may even feel that they are now somehow elevated above humanity just that little bit more. A spiritual ego (subconsciously of course, but if you listen to your mind close enough, you can feel it developing) may also start to be created. I don't know why I'm compelled to write this post, but for whatever reason I am and will to keep the peace with my emotions. Spiritual experiences, in my experience, are largely traps. They are not to be taken seriously, emphasised or to be appraised by the listeners. This is because, no matter how amazing this spiritual state may feel to you, it isn't what it seems. Just like thoughts and delusion. I am not saying that there is no reality to them (usually there is) and I am not saying that it wont radically change your life for the better (it usually will) but if you think, remember or interpret your spiritual state in any way, you will fall into a trap and get deluded. This has been said a million times, but what is in front of you right now, is the only thing that is real. When you have a spiritual experience, like time stops or doesn't exist, or you can feel a 'really real' energy in one of your chakras, or you feel an emptiness in your 3rd eye, or your head starts to feel like an empty shell when the ego disappears, or your mouth and body starts moving without anyone in the drivers seat or whatever else you experience, these experiences are not what they seem. You do not understand them and never will. And these are not states or spiritual experiences actually. These aren't states at all. These are not 'what you have always been' either. What is it? Its your mind interpreting stuff that's it. It is a very well trotten path to take these experiences seriously, and then to try and 'obtain' it again. To try and chase it. You cannot chase it because these spiritual experiences are not real (yes, they are not real, they are in your imagination). The point of meditation is to see what is in front of you right now and that's it. You are not there to get a spiritual experience. You are there to rest in what's already there. I need to remember this personally, as its a trap I always fall into. But its important for everyone here to follow this advice as well. Leo is an amazing teacher, but the biggest problems with his highly conceptual teachings is its very easy to fall into the above trap if you're not careful. Keep meditating and always remember this.

yes Leo, but I think its time to acknowledge that the people on your forum are no longer in 'low egoic states'. These people are having really profound experiences, and when they get to this stage, they need to let their experiences go. When you first began actualized.org, the userbase were orange stage personal dev junkies. Those times have changed.

Nope. I love functional programming. But there are many programmers out there who use it not because they see value in it but because it is cool and different. FP is misused and that was the comment I was making. One of the greatest things about functional programming over imperative is its 'if it compiles, it works' element. Also the fact that it can be mathematically reasoned and analysed. Generative and proof based testing is becoming more and more essential as the world heads to more and more complex software projects. As software evolves, more and more software becomes abstracted. This leads to higher and higher programming languages (away from the metal). But if programs are getting more and more complex, does that mean it takes more work to write it? My argument is no it doesn't. This is because the compiler is doing more and more work to resolve the complexities of the abstractions. BUT!!! And here is the problem: The compiler is capable of sorting out compile time errors, but not runtime errors. So while the complexity of compile time errors (and therefore workload) is being mitigated, the complexity of runtime errors are not! The solution? Functional Programming! Because functional programs can have their runtime errors fully resolved by resolving their compile time errors. How amazing! You can really feel this problem in the imperative scene. I've seen some companies use over 1000 test cases for 1 project (albeit it was a big project). Whereas on the other hand, having 1000 test cases for a functional programming project is just silly, especially with quick check. Because of FPs mathematical properties, you can automate the runtime errors as much as you can the compile time errors. In fact, for any project I do, even imperative ones, I always try to automate test cases. Automating tests cases in an OOP setting is one of the hardest and most challenging things there is you could do, but its necessary to produce code that really does work.

So let's just say you see a bunch of microbes under the microscope, and a microbe suddenly gets infected by a virus and is struggling to survive. Now you feel bad for this microbe and 'mourn' for this microbe and have a desire to heal it and make it feel better, is this Egoic? What about the desire a doctor has to heal others who are sick and about to die? Is this Egoic? What about a shaman's desire to heal someone of suffering? To help them survive from a disease? Like if surviving death is just the act of surviving realizing your true nature, why then are we so geared towards relieving sickness, helping others survive when they are about to die? Further, does God not care about war if war is simply reality changing from 1 form to another? Like a person changing from a living being to a dead being on the ground from a gun shot?

subjective as in delusion? The experience arises, not sure where it's from. Higher virtues of man is where God starts. The stuff you want to do that inspires you.

@ajasatya Seeing someone suffering is a real phenomena within reality/God. The desire to help this person survive(regardless of its relation to me the ego) is also a real phenomena. I am trying to figure out if this is an Egoic response or an existential one. Where is God? in every atom of that war. And God manifests suffering, fear and sadness during that outbreak. Does God, the thing in every atom, not desire to change that? Or is that the ego?