Consilience

I had a dream last night where two giant planetoid objects appeared in the sky, perfectly aligned. Woke up soon after realizing it was just a symbolic representation of Jupiter and Saturn. The energies are powerful today.

Another point is most people in the mainstream don’t meditate at the level where meditation starts to be truly profound. Meditation has to be done quite rigorously to produce mystical experiences. Most people have 0 clue about epistemology though and don’t understand the extent to which their minds manipulate their experience of reality.

For me I've noticed they both deepen, but actually disrupt meditation and mind in the days following a session, possibly weeks. It's something I've only recently noticed because it's at an INCREDIBLY subtle frequency of mind. Only in the past 3 months or so with a pretty big jump in meditation ability have I been able to experience these disruptions of mind. So far it's been nothing crazy. It's basically just a very subtle level of dis-ease, micro-fluctuations of attentional scattering, kind of like the mind becomes subtle less unified and harmonized, more agitated at frequencies typically below the threshold of conscious awareness. Yet on the other hand, psychedelics provide really great direction for where to take practice. So the insights you gain from psychedelics start to take root, grow, and blossom within a mind that meditates rigorously. It's a weird trade off and one I'm still learning about for myself. I've noticed most people on this forum, at least as far as I can tell, don't have a rigorous meditation practice so this topic is hardly discussed at all. Maybe I'm just not finding these threads? Currently I've been meditation 2 hours a day on average (some less, some more) and it was only until I bumped my practice from 1 to 2 hours did I start to have the sensitivity towards mind to see the disruptive effects of psychedelics following a session. Just want to emphasize, these effects are VERY subtle and difficult to discern from the normal fluctuations of mind from daily living and the fluctuations specifically from substances. More easily discernable substance-mind interactions are from substances like alcohol or cannabis. In otherwords, these drugs have a grosser level of dis-ease associated with their use. Yet because psychedelic provide such spiritually significant experiences and just the nature of how they affect the mind in general compared to other drugs, noticing these disruptions takes a very sensitive awareness and attention. Moreover, I would say that for most people psychedelics actually provide more unification and harmonization of the mind than a disruption. My guess is that they create this disruptive effect only for people who have a serious meditation practice. Most people who take psychedelics usually have minds who are bombarded with cultural/societal bullshit without a meditation practice to counter balance, or they don't meditate enough to train this sensitivity to mind. It's a very interesting topic and probably very individual.

F*ck you Edit: I mean.. me

What a shame. I read something much more squirrely and twisted. For the record, these "epistemological" mistakes would not be based in language, they would be based in experiential conceptualization and interpretation of direct experience as one's direct experience. You dig? Epistemology and potential pitfalls definitely extend beyond the linguistic mind.

To interpret (create, construct, fabricate, conceptualize, etc.) what I'm speaking of as "figuring stuff out forever" would be to misunderstand why I'm making such a big deal about this. By all means, resting in this Now is indeed peaceful, but it is impermanent, and it is not Awakening. Indeed Truth = Now, and indeed every mental deception, conceptualization, fabrication you and I are making are Truth, directly, this does not reveal their true nature. I would argue that until you've become conscious of the mechanisms of your mind, you will continue to suffer, continue to deceive yourself and others, and continue to live below your potential as a human in the context of self actualization. Until you've fully seen who and what you are, what you are doing in every moment, in the moment, moment by moment, you will continue to be asleep all while under the guise that you've figured this out, that you've awakened. This as so many Neo Advaitins love to throw around, does not guarantee that you're free. What creates This? What is the nature of This? How does self and This arise? Where does This go in deep sleep, or during a cessation in deep meditation? Why do you continue to behave the way you do when you're awake? Why are you so averse to words such as Love and Divinity? I write all of this not necessarily for OP, but anyone on the forum. However, @Someone here as long as you've found your inner peace and are content with life, I'm happy for you. It's just that I would be SHOCKED if in, let's say, 5 years you look back on this time and say to yourself "yep I was fully awakened, still am" and hadn't cultivated any insights that relieved suffering, or facilitated some deeper level of happiness and understanding into the nature of self and reality.

touché~

Dude... You have a long way to go. Good luck to ya.

Indeed haha. Somehow both are occurring simultaneously. This is Absolute, yet we may increasingly see how much left there was to go... Total mindfuck honestly.

Right this present moment is it. But do you have insight into the depths, degrees, and ways in which you are fabricating, creating, and perceiving this moment? Do you see the extent to which your mind is manipulating, clouding, orienting, constructing, fabricating this present moment? Do you recognize the tremendous depth to your conceptualization of this present moment? Because until you've had direct insight into the fabrication of this present moment, how your ego mind is completely dependent in the co-creation of THIS, I would not consider what you've found is Absolute Truth. If you truly saw into the degree your mind is manipulating your view of THIS, you would understand why the words love, divinity, sacred, etc., get thrown around when talking about Truth.

Im with @Moksha. Reality is sacred, divine, magic. If you *think* these words are not not compatible with direct truth, I would say you’ve mistakenly over-conceptualized. What you write here is a facet though, for sure.

What is the sense of me made out of? Like what specific perceptions take on this sense of self?

Tbh I don’t either ?

100 samadhi snacks and you got yourself a deal.

Despite how civil, articulate, and mature (not to mention sound) Leo’s response was, I bet this dude will make a response video bashing and criticizing Leo’s decision not to engage.

More like Anakin activating his lightsaber at the youngling ? Don’t fall to the darkside Leo ❤️

Yes. Ive manifested very powerful visions Ive had on psychedelics. In fact, I wasn’t even interested in the LoA and manifestation side of spirituality prior to psychedelics. They show the ineffable, undeniable power of the mind though and just how powerful we really are. However what I've found is psychedelics are best for stoking vision, inspiration, motivation, healing, and showing our inner potentiality rather than doing the actual reprogramming and transformation of mind. The reprogramming of the subconscious happens through sober repetition, and for me, meditation (Affirmations have never worked well). Manifestation requires, demands even, discipline and work, the grind of showing up for yourself and your life purpose over and over and over. Yet as you continually express this energy through your behavior, because of the deeply entangled nature of reality, your outer reality starts to reflect your inner reality. This is something psychedelics cannot do, nor would it be appropriate to expect this of them. They’re too short, too intense to create the enduring momentum needed for LoA. Yet they CAN help reorient or reinforce the direction you need to go. And in this way they are very useful for manifestation. Hopefully this all makes sense and is helpful.

No idea what Yang means by soul, but in my experience my “soul” is something that transcends ego, but is still not the absolute. Kind between ego and god.

In my own experience, it was Leo’s no non-sense, mega intellectual and direct style that cracked through my mind. I needed a teacher like that to break through my skepticism, but on an intellectual level most teachers cannot compete with. Now days I consume significantly less of his content. The majority of the work has shifted from theory to practice, yet the first year of finding Leo it was reverse. Much more theory than practice. I think we, as the seeker, have to know when to put down the study and pick up the practice. Like seriously commit to practice. If you truly studied actualized.org teachings you’d eventually recognize the call to commit to this action oriented approach, rather than the intellectual consumption that likely attracted you to a teacher like Leo. It’s easy to criticize Leo’s approach. In a way I agree, there are dangers with how easy it would be to turn all of this into ideology, yet if you honestly commit to the principles Leo’s outlined, you’ll be okay. Again, Leo’s style is exactly what some people need, like myself, to break out of the trappings of their own mind; without actualized.org who the hell knows where Id be. Forever grateful some balled dude on YouTube out Philosophized my rather arrogant younger self.

Here's the thing - your interpretation of this experience and trip is valid. Yeah reality is a pretty vicious, alien, and scary place. Everything you just listed cannot be fought using philosophy because it's completely valid. Yet equally, it's completely empty of meaning. Right now you've bought into the story you're telling yourself about reality. You've bought into and are believing hook line and sinker that reality is this awful scary place and that everything is doom and gloom. Can see how this story is 1) a story and 2) empty of inherent meaning? What if the meaninglessness you feel is just as meaningless? What if you were allowed to see reality as infinitely meaningful, beautiful, cosmic, sacred? Mushrooms can be harsh teachers and I'm sorry to hear you had such a traumatic experience. Yet, you can also use this trip as a way to orient yourself towards nihilism. Until you fully integrate meaninglessness through surrender, acceptance, and love, you will be repressing it. It sounds like the mushrooms brought that fear out of your mind and forced you to acknowledge it. Rather than just slowly forgetting about the trip, or trying to mask its lessons with another trip or more drugs, I'd suggest integrating what you learned. Practical take aways - 1 hour of meditation per day, MINIMUM. If you don't have a serious meditation practice, tripping is pretty useless and won't get you very far. Let the trips provide rocket fuel to your sober practice, and let sober practice provide the grounding, soil, and nutrients for the trip to take hold. Journal about this experience. Start questioning all of your beliefs around the experience. In what ways may you be deceiving yourself? Is it possible the trip magnified your own fears about reality? In what ways is your view of reality limited, partial, and relative? Can you find gratitude and metta for the experience? How has this trip made you wiser? Etc. Yoga / Exercise - spend time reconnecting with your body and emotions through physicality. This will help provide grounding and a sense of security. Spend time in nature - notice how at peace nature is. Notice the intrinsic beauty it gives of, how quiet, still, tranquil, subtle, and lovely it all is. A tree has nothing but metta for you. Sit with one until you feel it, and perhaps start by projecting metta towards it. I've found that there is an energetic re-harmonization of my body/mind/heart spending time in nature which is particularly helpful after really powerful trips. Know that you are stronger because of this experience. It's another stop on your path. Let it be what it was, but let it go.

Wow that’s meta ?

What’s interesting is I accidentally stumbled into the 4th and 5th Jhana on an insight retreat with Shinzen Young using his See Hear Feel technique. Eventually you can start to experience the spaciousness of not only body sensations but sights and sounds. I believe the work I did on that retreat has helped with accessing the 5th using a more concentration focused technique because if Im having trouble feeling infinite space, I can tune into trying to see or hear it. Because of the weird stumbling into of the Jhanas, I actually had trouble accessing 1-3 after discovering such a profound equanimity from insight. There’s also varying depths to the Jhanas which is interesting. Ive experienced a “light” 5th Jhana where I wouldn’t say space felt infinite, but the feeling of my body was dissolving moment by moment like quicksand, and extending out, yet not to the degree of what a fully stabilized 5th jhana is. Yeah the degrees and cocktails of the Jhana states are quite intricate.

The extent to which Trump supporters will go to deny his defeat is astounding.

Such an un-nuanced perspective of psychedelics. Of course this perspective is true, yet to dismiss the utility and freeing power of profound altered states is to throw the baby out with the bath water. Serious psychonauts know how to let go of the experience and state once it’s over. Otherwise, yeah this is a spot on post. If you can’t find freedom and truth in the mundane sober state, you’re screwed and most likely chasing your tail. Yet perhaps there is a wisdom, an understanding and irreplaceable perspective gained from examining reality a myriad of perspectives, both with psychedelics or meditative states like the Jhana’s. Perhaps these perspective shifts not only open us up to freedom, but joy, wonder and the sacred as well.

One thing Ive learned recently from a teacher named Rob Burbea is how even this position of “resting in being” or “simply be” is itself a position of the mind and ego, just as empty/full of value as a position where we are in fact trying to control meditation in a directed way. It’s been pretty significant for my own understanding to see how letting go is itself a form of creation of the mind, just as much as intentionality. Both positions are empty of inherent truth. And to create a hierarchy out of one or the other is to misunderstand the mind.