Consilience

?? Self deception is a powerful force...

@LfcCharlie4 your point was illustrated ❤️

I wonder if he’s genuinely happy with life.

Fair point haha

See, I'm not sure it's really appropriate to call the journey as a human an illusion; I'm not sure if that's even what you're saying though. The illusion is the separation. The illusion is thinking "I am this particular one and other's are not me" when in actuality, it's all one happening, all one. But the oneness itself is being expressed as a singular, infinitely unique, finite form and that's the mindfuck. This finitude is not illusory, it is how experience is unfolding, it is actuality. But within this finitude contains an unseparated field of infinity and wholeness. So strange.

You are everything, including humanness and non-humanness

Thread reminds me of this beautiful video:

@LfcCharlie4 In my experience, this has been the case. Eventually you just feel compassion for beings for no other reason than that they are alive; there's no energy for violence or aggressive behavior... I mean... If it came down to it, I could probably tap into survival drives and fight someone, but the desire for power and control over other's is not there. At this point I'd say I do genuinely care for pretty anyone and everything I meet. It's odd to think of the contrast of my younger self to now. Exploring the texts helps give perspective though and I personally find it fun

Yes typo Thank you for the resources

What constitutes a virtual way of living though?

So much wisdom

@Nak Khid Radical transformation = gradual transformation change over the long run.

Again, dogma, clearing speaking from an absolutist's paradigm. When I say dogma, I am taking aim at your absolutistic attitude about meditation. This is further ironic given that you keep citing spiral dynamics and suggesting that meditation is a tier 1 activity. Yet if you've ever deeply studied SD, you'd recognize absolutism (dogma) is a tier 1 activity lol. So again, so many chuckles. Speaking in my experience, meditation has radically transformed my experience. Stable attention, unification of mind, heightened sensitivity to body, and metacognitive awareness of thought (and more not worth listing) have all played into what I'm calling "radical transformation." Hahaha thank you friend. You've made no enemies here. Only helped me see first hand self-deception and made me look more closely into my own. Which is part of why I qualify most of my meditation comments; qualify that I acknowledge meditation isn't for everyone. If you are too dogmatic to see the utility meditation has for Self-Actualization and Self-Transcendence, I can't help you. Refer to my above comments regarding SD. I invite you to transcend into tier 2 relativism, and acknowledge that maybe, just maybe meditation has utility for certain individual's based on relative mind structures, histories, environments, culture, perhaps even past lives, etc. Or don't. Making absolutist claims that meditation has no utility for Self-Actualization or Self-Transcendence is dogma my friend. No way around that one. If you read, I actually addressed this point about meditation. I agree with you. Meditation is not inherently about uncovering truth. It is about the rewiring of one's mind, and emotions which facilitate the integration and processing of insights. Dry insight alone is rather weak if one's attention span can't stay still, if one is constantly being dragged around by the mind. Believe it or not, you can have deep insights into the existential nature of reality but have these insights poorly integrated into lived baseline experience if attention is weak. So again, I invite you to consider the possibility that your perspective is partial and does not contain within it the full truth. I further invite you to take a leap into tier 2 thinking and try to see the partial truth in the words I write rather than clinging to your absolutist's attitude with meditation, if only to help make you a better teacher for those who do not understand Self-Actualization or Transcendence.

@V-8 So much dogma.. cant help but internally chuckle. Ill say this again, insight isn’t the primary utility with meditation. Radical transformation of mind and emotions are. If being happy while doing nothing isn’t something you’re interested in, no meditation needed. But all I can say is meditation has been one of the most rewarding decisions of my life But Im also not dogmatic enough to think it’s for everyone.

@Dovahkiin Definitely agree with everything you wrote... It really resonates. And yes, happiness isn't insight, however happiness IS an insight haha. I use the techniques outlined in The Mind Illuminated, which is a book heavily focused around Samatha, but it's more accurately a samatha-vipassina hybrid as it combines elements of both in an integrated way. Feels like a SD stage yellow meditation book, with streaks of turquoise. Highly recommend it if you feel more pull towards traditional meditation vs. kriya. I've done some kriya yoga, but it feels a bit too active for me. There's something about the stillness and potential boredom that arises with meditation that attracts me. I think eventually I'll give Kriya another shot once I've developed the skills with meditation I want. My strategy with consciousness work is using meditation to transform my mind and use contemplation/psychedelics for insights. I don't really regard meditation as an insight generator (though I have had many insights while meditating), but rather a tool that works directly on reprogramming my mind and emotions, as well as a tool for integrating the insights I've gotten from both dry contemplation and contemplation under the influence of psychedelics. Edit: To give credit where credit is due, @ardacigin is the one who initially brought The Mind Illuminated on my radar. He has a lot of really great posts talking about facets of meditation and its utility.

Good point. Perhaps trying a more concentration oriented practice like kriya yoga or samatha meditation would create noticeable differences? I used to have very similar viewpoints on meditation vs. psychedelics until I started actually training to have a stable attention span. After around 5 months of this work, I've gotten much more noticeable results from meditation, less craving, less suffering, more equanimity, more happiness during meditation... And perhaps most importantly, I've had much better integration from psychedelic trips. Ive noticed all deep psychedelic trips have a stability of attention, a honing in on 'now' that I don't normally have with my baseline state of consciousness. It seems as I've developed a more stable attention, the line between psychedelic states and baseline consciousness dissolves. There seems to be something extremely crucial about concentration, at least this was the case for me. Either way, you gotta find your own path. A 3 month vipassana retreat is fucking epic man... Insane but really impressive.

How stable is your attention? From what I've observed, the mind doesn't start to seriously reprogram itself until attention can be stablized.

Poorly done meditation doesn’t give much. Effective meditation has been absolutely game changing for me. Equanimity is an underrated tool in spirituality; the type of equanimity needed to literally sit doing nothing while feeling joyful and happy.

Tbh I see more Leo backlash than Leo idolizing on the forum. People here seem pretty independent and willing to share novel advice to help others, rather than always citing Leo. Moreover, I actually see a lot of frustration and criticism of Leo, which I think is a good thing. The most idolizing I see is actually just people appreciating him, which I can dig because I appreciate him too. Interesting how one’s interpretation sets their reality.

Maybe if you think the whole “you’re already enlightened.” “There’s no need to meditate” advice is solid, we simply disagree Not everyone is at the same level or even on the same path. Giving advice like what the quotes pointed towards are realistically unhelpful for someone who could really benefit from meditation. If Id have listened to those quotes while beginning my journey, that would have set me way back. You gotta be more nuanced. I understand what you’re cute little winky face is pointing towards and I still think it’s bad advice.

He covers other stuff too. He describes how mindfulness can heal us, what the foundations are for any meditation practice, various meditation techniques, how to enter into jhana states and why these states could be useful, how talks about the nature of mind and consciousness, and creates new distinctions in experience I personally never heard of until reading the book such as the difference between extrospective vs. introspective awareness, attention vs. awareness, mind wandering vs. subtle distractions vs. gross distractions, the nature of joy and happiness. It's a rather technical book but I've learned a lot from it. Ultimately the aim is the achieve samatha though so that's the overall context.

Pretty radical stuff huh? I say be openminded to what Rupert is saying here, try to see if you can verify it or not. For me, I definitely resonate with what he's talking about here. He's also not even the first teacher to expose me to the idea of such radical happiness. It was actually Peter Ralston. Edit: You also seem to be judging Rupert's happiness based on his external state. Surely you can see how fallacious this is? Why does happiness have to look a certain way? All in all, judge the teaching not the teacher. If what he says doesn't resonate with you, cool, but don't project judgements like "oh happiness has to look a certain way."

Such a great talk. Thank you for sharing.

This +1 I feel like a broken record because I always talk about it now on the forum, (It’s helped me so much so I try to spread the word lol) but the book The Mind Illuminated by John Yates. A samtha state of consciousness is extremely tranquil, equanimous, and joyful which Id consider to be a very emotionally grounded state. In the book, this dude outlines a meditation practiced designed around achieving samatha. Maybe it wouldnt be up your alley but ime it’s been the most effective way Ive ever meditated. Ive gotten more results with transforming my baseline state of consciousness following that book’s meditation style than any other spiritual practice. Only other technique that rivals it would be psychedelics but since emotional groundedness is what you’re after, not really sure psychedelics would be a good idea.

I think the small goal is a great idea. Sometimes cold turkey isn’t what’s best when it comes to addiction or habits. The mind transforms and reprograms itself slowly overtime. Sure cold turkey or dramatic changes can work... but these also can create strong ego backlashes that end up being worse than the original problem. When/if you’re ready to stop, you’ll stop. For now progress is progress, so great job, seriously Personally, Ive gone through extremely long periods of heavy weed use, which I classify as addict status. But over time Im cutting back. Ive known quitting cold turkey isn’t what I wanted because there’s value I get out of the substance. But with cutting back, Ive been able to slowly transform my relationship with the substance. Instead of smoking everyday, I eventually want to smoke once per week possibly even once a month. Similar to your goals here, my strategy has been baby steps and gradual change. So far it’s worked! Anyways, looking forward to reading more of your journal! +1 to goal number 2 being some kind of meditation or maybe yoga practice ??