Consilience

To be honest sometimes it feels like by not talking about it Im not being fully honest with others. It sorta feels like Im in on a secret that everyone else in the room is unaware of ?

Sunflower

Why are you drawing a distinction between that which is witnessed and the real self? Also this was a wonderful video! Thank you for sharing

So it’s the planning ahead aspect... Contemplate what planning actually is then. It’s not necessarily living as though there is a future. It could also be processing a possibility, one possibility out of infinity. Afterall, life/form is impermanent. Thinking about the future is really just the conceptualization of form that hasn’t actually manifested outside of the mind. “Planning” is like witnessing just another form of reality within the domain of mind and need not have anything to do with seperating from now. In fact, the concept of future is literally only available right now. The future does not exist because all is happening now but form is impermanent and may take an infinite number of forms. “Planning” too is one such form reality can take but it happens now. So basically, I disagree that planning necessarily means you are living in the illusion of a future. You have to first understand the existential nature of “planning” and then the illusion will begin to crack. Planning is witnessing potential form manifest inside of the mind RIGHT NOW. It is egoic, but all acts of survival and really any action at all is egoic. But watching the ego unfold and survive does not necessarily mean one is caught in the illusion of a seperate self just as planning does not necessarily mean one is caught in the illusion of time. This magy be difficult to understand but maybe try. Life purpose and enlightenment dont contradict anymore than actively surviving as a body/not committing suicide and enlightenment. Nor does planning. Enligtenment is understanding the absolute nature of what a “plan” is or what the “future” is or what “survival” is. Just because these concepts play out, it does not mean one is caught in their illusory nature. Not really how else to describe it. Just watch the act of planning, the act of life purpose, the act of survival from a metta perspective. Any form could potentiate into direct experience and none of it need to seperate one from the truth.

Alright. Imagine that voice/force directing someone towards a life purpose and enlightenment both. It's not an egoic thing, it's an effortlessly flowing through life without resistance thing, just as it takes zero effort to not commit suicide.

@How to be wise a pretty direct question here, but oh well - what’s stopping you from committing suicide? I hope this isn’t taken to be offensive or anything; it’s a very genuine question.

That’s an assumption though. How could you know what non-dual consciousness is like unless you’ve had the direct experience? Maybe love is just the best word to describe the state itself, rather than being a literal definition. Idk.

@Mikael89 how would you even know this? Have you reached the deepest states of non-dual consciousness? Genuinely curious

This 100%

As someone with an autoimmune disease that’s destroyed part of my body, it’s frustrating reading how my disease occured because of my mind or “resistance” to harmony. No one chooses their genetic makeup or the environment they grow up in, which may well be the triggers for illnesses. Don’t sit and cast blame on someone for a disease or illness which is out of their conscious control, when in actuality, it was never in their control to begin with. This is the case from both the relative and absolute perspective. Even if raising consciousness could spontaneously cure people’s illnesses, 99.9% of people aren’t in a position to actualize that outcome. And in my case, I would die within a year if it weren’t for modern medicine. Dont let your spiritual ego cloud your judgement on the actuality of how biological life operates.

Ask yourself this: is it possible both determinism and free will both do not exist?

If you think this proves materialism you need to contemplate epistemology and metaphysics more

Hello actualized.org folks, I was hoping to get some 2nd opinions of my current predicament. So right now I work as a personal trainer for a pretty standard corporate gym, and at the moment I am most certainly at a "slave wage" type of salary. Not only is my current position not long term financially viable, it also is not fully aligned with my life purpose. So here's the thing... Recently one of the trainers and I realized we have a lot of potential together to start our own training business. She has various strengths and so do I; each of us compliments the other's weaknesses quite well. I'm actually fully confident that if we both worked hard enough and for long enough, we would be successful. Unfortunately though... This too is not my life purpose. The advantage is that if I went off to start this 1st personal training business, in a matter of years my financial situation could drastically improve, my network within the community would grow, my experience level and skill sets would increase, BUT I would be essentially working towards a path which is not my ultimate goal/life purpose. Now this 1st business certainly has the potential to teach me various skills needed for my ultimate life purpose, but again, it's not my life purpose. So on one hand, it seems like a strategic move to start this one business, as it will give me the time, experience, money, and essentially life infrastructure to really bootstrap myself into my ultimate goal long term. On the other hand, part of me feels like I should just start working towards my life purpose right now, forgo the initial PT business and just do my own thing. The problem is it would be very difficult financially to pull it off. Without going into too much details on my health, I can't risk finical failure, as I am dependent on medications every month to live. SOOOO yeah I can't fuck up with money, which makes the 1st business plan a lot more appealing. I see pros and cons to each path... But I also know life purpose work needs to be strategized for the long term, and right now I kind of need money so the idea of starting a joint training business seems very promising for the short term. However, I could also see it becoming difficult to start my own Life Purpose path down the road if I get too entangled in this 1st business. In terms of what is the best strategy for life purpose... I don't know what I should do. Any insights or opinions would be extremely welcomed.

What I've been doing is actively trying to figure out how each book I read will change my behavior. The "Learning = Behavior Change" model from Leo's YouTube has been a really effective way for me to learn. Of course sometimes remembering details is important, in which case take notes and memorize information, but ultimately unless what you're learning is making tangible change in your life, how much did you truly learn? Changes might be in the way you think, the way you interact with others, the way you interact with the world at large, and even what direction your life takes. Either way, behavior change. So getting the most out of books... Understanding how they'll change my behavior is very helpful.

Pursuing life purpose is one solution too.

This 100% Freedom, the ability for life to flow in any direction, may only occur if there is a path for that flow. I imagine discpline as the detachment from psychological impulse, and therefore a “freedom” from the impusles of desires, aversions to pain, and attachment to suffering, etc. It’s difficult to fully articulate but ultimate freedom IS ultimate discpline. This is somewhat paradoxical relative to the absolute truth of no self, and yet nonetheless when the self structure is operating and pulling “you” with its never ending streams of impulse, authentic being cannot take place. So tapping into this beingness, this freedom, requires a “discipline” to remain detached from impulse. But discpline itself is simply the being with impulse rather than acting upon impulse, and therefore you could conceptualize it as a freedom from psychological impulse all together. This is my perspective. So to reiterate: freedom = discipline

I'm not sure if this is simply a concept or idea I've been latching onto, but for awhile now I've been having this subtle... intuition about my direct experience. By direct experience, I mean literal existence, the "actuality" (go watch Leo's video) in which direct experience manifests. Interestingly... This shit is morphing left and right, 24/7. I mean seriously, our phenomenal field is in CONSTANT flux, in all 6 senses. And somehow the fact of this slippery field makes it feel really really empty. Not in a nihilistic way, just in a like... I can't describe it. And this feeling has really been snowballing over the past month or so without much warning. I hadn't necessarily been thinking about it until recently. If we reflect for a second on direct experience though, NOTHING about it remains consistent and yet each form it takes is perfectly distinct from every other form, giving rise to an infinite number of possibilities. So form is constantly manifesting in various ways at an infinite rate (literally infinite). Then you have to think, what is the 1 substance that reality would have to be made of in order to manifest in an infinite number of ways at an infinite rate? NOTHING! And in fact, taking this idea even further, nothingness itself is the only substance which could be infinite, at least with the ways I'm currently conceptualizing infinity. So nothing = infinity My biggest potential bias is that I'm somehow intellectualizing everything I've learned about non-duality, as multiple sources I've researched discuss this idea of "nothingness." On the other hand, something about this direct experience truly feels very "nothing" like or empty. The best way to describe it is that this "direct experience" of phenomena feels quite indirect and I'm missing something. I wish I could more effectively describe what I'm talking about. These last few meditation sessions have me really not understanding what I'm directly experiencing though. Just leaving me with a sense of... literally nothing. If anyone has insights or thoughts, I would be very interested to hear them.

@Enizeo Should be yes. The channel I posted is my personal favorite. Results may vary though, as Lofi Hip Hop is a very broad and open-ended genre. It kind of plays on nostalgia and chill beats... And for whatever reason it tends to really put me into a spiritual place. Almost like I'm revisiting childhood in a re-contextualized view which spills over into how I'm observing the rest of the world. Anyways there's definitely similar music out there to what I posted.

@Enizeo really like this one

Im not sure why but lo-fi hip hop has been integral to my spiritual developement so it gets my vote!

Thank you everyone <3

I mean honestly who knows what will happen when general AI forms. It could be the end for humanity or a new beginning. Wont really matter to god.

What do you mean by recharge?

@aurum Technically Im still working through the details, Im also finishing Leo’s course. But as it stands, my ultimate vision is to have a stage yellow personal training/life coaching business. Right now the industry is pretty much locked in at stage orange, but the potential to use training, nutrition, and personal developement as a vehicle for understanding the self is there. It’s how I began my actualization journey and eventually stumbled upon spirituality. I have a pretty damn extensive knowledge of how to achieve fitness results, but see, that’s really only the beginning and the type of lessons one learns from fitness are immense IF you have the framework and perspective to learn. Id also make YouTube videos with a focus on training, nutrition and self with a yellow focus, and ideally work within my community locally, but as well as through the larger, global platform the internet provides, which is why YouTube would be advantageous. It also allows me a medium to express my ideas through speaking, which Ive found I really enjoy doing at the gym. Rattling off to clients about various facets of fitness gives me a lot of joy and tends to help others master their bodies. The joint PT business would most certainly be more geared at a stage orange level and while it still would impact and contribute towards people’s lives, I know I could provide a different type of value with what I just described above.

Why? Because it increases your overall awareness, which is distinct from your concentration abilities. Both are intertwined and the exact nature kf their interaction is still unknown to me, but nonetheless both can be “trained,” so to speak. If increasing your awareness of both yourself and the world, plus lower stress levels and higher and more frequent states of fullfilment are something you’re interested in, meditate. You convince the subconscious to meditate by meditating. You see results by 1) sticking to a consistent meditation schedule all while being patient for results and 2) doing 60mins per day gives pretty robust and innediate results so id recommend thta volume. More if you have time but consistency is key here.