Shadowraix

There was a great post by Smika I reference back to. Maybe it'll give you an insight:

Dopamine is a powerful thing isn't it?

In a way yeah. We all have access to the infinite intelligence. We are using it every day. But you must connect and find yourself (God) before you establish a strong connection to it. Your will is a sliver of God's will. Many Christians notices God's work but their conceptual understanding of it can be far off. But perhaps their connection is much stronger than their understanding. This kind of stuff comes before all the bs of the mind.

@Inliytened1 Yes. My original post was just trying to highlight the paradox.

Illusion is real. Free will is no free will. And vice versa Collapse the dualities and you see its the same thing being viewed through a different lens.

Yes it may be subtle but remember that smaller things are just playing a part of a much bigger role. It's impact could change the course of another effect and so on growing exponentially.

Everything is connected and so if the planets and stars ended up differently, we probably would not be the same. Assuming the big bang as the start, everything from then to now is one hugely long chain reaction. If it was changed somewhere, everything after it would be different. Our personality depends on the state of everything to be exactly as it is. But the study of astrology is largely on recognizing patterns But do remember what is said is just a model. Reality does not abide by it per se.

You are basically saying people need to clear up ignorance. But ignorance wouldn't be ignorance if they were aware of it. The purification of ignorance is a life long process.

Yeah. It's easy to see it in others but hard to see it in yourself. I'm sure I do it way more than I catch myself. Awareness will carry you if you let it.

How was your childhood. Is there anything during then that you think could be tied to how you feel now? Maybe not relating to women specifically but perhaps to attention or being wanted in general? A lot of our behaviors stem from our environment growing up.

@SQAAD When those occurrences happen, how does it make you feel? Other than anger. You know your feelings best. But you gotta observe and be aware to figure it out.

Watching Leo that frequently seems more like mental masturbation. Thinking you are learning and changing your life then never applying it or never really taking it in. When you watch his video, do you actually contemplate what he said to really dig deep to see if it is true and understand the depth of the topic? Or do you just want to take on what he says as dogma? Once a week and spending that entire week inquiring and practicing sounds a lot better. Some of his more advanced videos need more time though I think. Don't be so impatient. Build a deep understanding. Deep learning instead of shallow learning.

Why one or the other? You are correct, but I find something satisfying about being able to bring Skyrim whereever I go. Gameplay on Switch is solid for a vanilla experience. I'd like to see Fallout 4 on the Switch too. I still have Skyrim on PC modded with like 270 mods though. I'll play that when I want something a bit more than vanilla Skyrim.

@Shin Same lol When it comes to Leo's teachings you have to be careful to not be caught up in little picture thinking and focus on big picture thinking. If Leo talks about something 'bad' about the ego it is not that he is claiming it is factually bad but trying to showcase underlying mechanisms to be aware of that you can change.

Perhaps it is damage to your self-esteem? It feels good to be looked at and wanted. Makes you feel important and desireable. We have a lot of biology in us that makes us want to be desired and well received in society. It increases our chances of about everything. Sex, care, socializing etc. This can be especially problematic in men because we tend to have a more dominance complex thanks to more masculinity. Getting girls to look at you that you want is seen as a win and shows dominance that you got her despite everybody else. The first step is always awareness when the anger arises. Take a deep breathe and remember you don't need to be on top of the chain or dominant and it is ok if a girl does not want you. It doesn't devalue you. The only thing that is causing you anger is your own thoughts about it. Essentially reaffirming acceptance for what is.

@kieranperez Be sure to be aware of your own projections and to not use the projection retort as a defense mechanism.

Don't mean to derail too much but if you play ESO on NA you should totally PM me

But yet there is. Where is the difference?

The relativity comes to how much it can open someone up to different modes of thinking. Last I saw it was only considered unhealthy in frequent long term use. Otherwise there is no noticeable negative side effects. Psychedelics can induce psychosis as well. Might as well call everything harmful with how you are portraying it and by then harmful has little meaning. On the note of psychosis I remember a post here of a guy getting it from going on a vipassana retreat. Psychosis goes deeper than just substance use I think. Natural vs unnatural is so misleading as everything is natural its all made by nature. We are nature. Its really human vs everything disguised else and doesn't say much to the discussion of safety. Nobody is saying drugs are risk free. None of them are. But giving people only one side of the picture is misleading as well. I'm not pro or anti weed. Ive seen weed hurt people left and right, but I have also seen it help people. So the grey area comes to its a gamble in how the substance will interact with you and whether you get a positive or negative outcome. This applies to ALL drugs. Meditation is safer but unless you understand why to do meditation you likely won't do it. This was the case for me until I had a very insightful experience induced by a substance. If it wasn't for my substance use i'd probably still be a hardcore atheist rationalist.

I am curious why you throw in the word 'unnatural' as it harbors no use to the discussion. Who said you'd get a brain tumor? Everything has side effects to the mind even your own actions. Smoking weed doesn't guarantee you'll end up an impaired person. Not everybody blazes it 24/7 you know. The main harmful side effects come from frequent long term use. The power of the breath largely depends on your existing state. Get your average joe to do it and it won't mean much. You don't get to where say Leo is at where just staring at your hand is like tripping from nowhere. That takes a lot of time. And some methods just work better for some than others. Drugs provide major breakthroughs that are there to *supplement* your usual practices. I'm just saying the answer isn't as cut and dry as you make it out to be. Highly relative to the individual. I think so. I have mostly used weed as an amplification tool but occasionally smoking it and reflecting back on insights and what not I have gotten a few occasional 'ah-ha!' moments. Where it just feels like the fog of the insight has more subsided and I 'get it' better. I've watched some TV shows on weed and I noticed in general it encourages more out of the box thinking. Its almost like I can see an entire plot line and how it led up to the events like a single string of yarn clearly and ive been able to predict future events and plot twists with it. Its really mind fucky.

Saying something CAN raise consciousness doesn't mean it WILL. It sounds like you've got an axe to grind against weed and so your perspective is too focused on how it can hurt especially when addicted. For the people you mentioned, weed is just a symptom of a bigger problem within them.

Weed by itself in high amounts has made me more in the present moment. Some of the body sensations become very alive and it gets trippy when you have no tolerance and do some dabs. Otherwise it serves as a nice sleep aid. Or when I am drunk. In terms of spirituality I think its value comes when mixing it. I smoked some weed the day after doing DXM and some was still in my system. I was getting heavy visuals and its an experience where I experienced nothingness to a degree and so "I" and "nothing" merged. LSD + MDMA + Weed also has given me great insights. I think weed is more complicated than 'it kills your life energy its bad never do it' It largely depends on you and how you use it. There is no clear guide on this because of how variable people can be in development.

@Zizzero How is it going Cadwell?

This is true but you can find your group of people even in small towns. I found mine in a town of <10k people and our "city" is 60k. Can hold deep conversations and I even have a friend or two to talk about spirituality with. There's a lot of gossip but when you find a strong group of friends people will love hard. I still have friends from back when I was 5. I actually left this town and realized how much I had taken nature, the mountains, and the just overall calming and tight community of the area for granted. Leaving was what actually made me love the place to death. Now I love it here. Just my experience. Your mileage may vary.

I do ? And this is a cool post to see. I've read up on the lore and thought the see thing when I heard about chim. Avatar The Last Airbender is a good show that delves into a lot of Hindu perspectives.