Oeaohoo

What about harmony? I have always had an unhealthy obsession with harmony over everything else, to the detriment of my musical ability.

I agree with this. Most “Awakenings” of this kind are only into different facets of the illusion that we are trying to escape from, if we are genuinely seeking liberation and not escape into an infinite variety of fantasy lands. Then again, I don’t think Leo is claiming to seek liberation… Maybe this is just a semantic dispute arising from borrowing the word “Awakening” from other spiritual traditions where it has a different meaning. It’s also confused by the fact that psychedelics can produce temporary Awakenings of the conventional non-dual variety. Well, he was criticising it from a Perennial Traditionalist view, which is essentially a more sophisticated version of comparative religion, so I didn’t expect anyone here to like it… Exactly. We should be looking for the absolute nothingness which transcends everything!

I would do… Everything!

Fear is the mind-killer… Must be why Trump is such a genius!

My mum used to call me “Demian” as a kid in reference to this film…

A poem for us to meditate upon, an unholy canticle dedicated to the Trumpian anti-spirit:

Plot twist: there aren’t going to be any future generations because we’re all going to die in a nuclear holocaust.

I thought the two interviewers were quite boring. Then again, I generally don’t like podcasts nowadays… Maybe because I’m too much of a Truth Psychopath!

Interesting. I haven’t heard this term before but it strikes me as an accurate description of the Western system. Somebody like Tony Blair comes to mind as the embodiment of this. Isn’t that basically the situation in the West too, though? Call me cynical but I don’t believe that any of our politicians care about what is in the national interest. Anyway, I mustn’t talk about politics. The bottom line is it’s all over and we’re all doomed. Hallelujah!

Average American woman: Average American man:

Democracy… Whatever one thinks of it, I don’t think democracy has much of a future. Regimes with stronger leaders like Russia and China are already taking over the effete and decadent West. The capacity for long-term planning and the absence of the whole circus of distractions created by party politics are two of the most obvious benefits. If the West wants to compete with them, it will have to rise to this challenge. Political systems tend to alternate in cycles, though. New forms of democracy might reemerge in the distant future.

The Power of the Powerless by Václav Havel comes to mind. The film Brazil is also a funny depiction of living in a totalitarian regime.

@Carl-Richard I resonate with what you said in that, when I was younger, my interest in spirituality had a more cynical, Buddhistic and Schopenhauerian flavour: the world is suffering, pain outweighs pleasure, most pleasure is just the release of painful tension, free-will is an illusion, and so on. As I have gotten older it has taken on a more worldly, life-affirming and Nietzschean form. Now I hope I can move into the Hegelian synthesis of these two! It reminds of this part of the essay I mentioned above:

I agree with this up to a point. However, the path to God is fraught with obstacles. A degree of paranoia is necessary to avoid falling into the many traps that the adversary has set for you.

I’ve just started using this as well as this forum strains my eyes!

I thought this part about the UFO phenomenon was very interesting: This reminds me very much of Twin Peaks: The Return, especially the 8th episode about the nuclear explosion, a vivid depiction of how dark forces have taken over the world. I know that Mark Frost was interested in Kenneth Grant so that makes sense… This is the water And this is the well. Drink full and descend. The horse is the white of the eyes and dark within.

But the age of Anti-Christ is necessary so that the false idol of Christ can be negated and Christ’s true nature as absolute nothingness can be realised. In this way, Trump is an unknowing servant of God!

The very end of this essay felt particularly relevant to the mistakes I have made on my own spiritual journey:

Thanks for improving the forum.

I think this dilemma is common nowadays, especially since it isn’t easy to fully commit one’s life to spirituality anymore. Your approach of trying to integrate the two and make one’s career an expression of spiritual practice seems like the best one available. As a fellow musician it’s something I am also still figuring out.

In this way, the satanic rule of Trump is actually the secret hidden path to supreme liberation and enlightenment!

Feminism is just a symptom of living in a collapsing culture. It’s really that simple. It will end when the new dawn rises, when new civilisations arise to take the place of this one.

Roman emperors feel like more relevant examples since they were at least ruling over an empire. Henry VIII’s corruption seems irrelevant in comparison to Trump because his sphere of influence was much smaller. I also think that corruption in post-modernity has taken on a particularly vulgar, juvenile and moronic streak.

You might be right. If you have some good historical examples I’d be interested. I know that, in the ancient world, Sardanapalus was held up as an example of an extremely corrupt and decadent ruler.