ItsNick

Awakening and development are the high hanging fruits. You can choose that you value these things enough to suffer for them, or you don't. It's just the hero's journey. They teach you stuff this in children's movies if you paid attention. This is from a lesser known spiritually-themed children's movie: (got reminded of this song because a friend recently mentioned this was his favorite childhood movie)

On Actualized Quotes #132, The very first time I did a full trip on a psychedelic (MDMA) and reached the peak of the trip my entire state of consciousness became "Everything is perfect." It was not just about me feeling good, I was actually struggling with long-term physical illness at the time. I went into the trip hoping to heal the trauma and emotional struggle that came with being sick. But in this state the "present moment" was realized to be Absolute; or rather, there was just a sense of this is it. As if waking up to existence and consciousness. But it was more like a remembrance. Consciousness is absolute and it is perfection itself. In the end that trip did not do much to heal me physically or even the emotional struggle that came with it. But I am still deeply grateful for that first trip and what I became conscious of.

Another one I love:

Seems to be happening almost everywhere, not just the US, this visible corruption. But basically this: Devils destroy themselves, eventually. Sadly this goes with a lot of suffering and most people will not mature or learn a thing but thank God there are people willing to do the non-flashy, often ungrateful and unseen work to keep building towards a better future for everyone. And I think for most of us here it's important to remember that even though there is now chaos and hell to come in the outside world, we keep doing the work of creating peace and beauty in ourselves, our hearts and our own lives.

I personally listen to the mixes of Blume a lot. I often enjoy it when doing work or when being creative.

@Greatnestwithin I just saw one of the timeline stamps, titled: "Trump is highly conscientious and compassionate."

I started this topic because I wanted to share some book recommendations relating to systems thinking and complex systems science. Share your own books or resources if you want. 1. RESILIENCE thinking by Brian Walker and David Salt (https://www.amazon.nl/-/en/Brian-Walker/dp/1597260932) I highly recommend this book to learn about resilience thinking. You can read this page on the seven principles of resilience thinking: https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2015-02-19-applying-resilience-thinking.html 2. Complexity: A Guided Tour by Melanie Mitchell (https://www.amazon.com/Complexity-Guided-Tour-Melanie-Mitchell/dp/0199798109) This is a nice and broad introductory book on the science of complex systems.

I stole the title of this topic from this video: I think it should be obvious why (online) gambling is a problem but I have recently learned more about how big this problem is in our society (worldwide). One of the big problems today is influencers on streaming platforms profiting off the losses of their audience who sign up through them. This goes together with a lack of regulation and increased normalization and gamification of gambling. If you're interested in some statistics showing how much money goes around in this industry you can take a look here: https://www.statista.com/outlook/amo/online-gambling/worldwide and find that "Revenue in the Online Gambling market is projected to reach US$97.15bn in 2024." and that the industry is projected to keep growing. And then I haven't even talked about the massive amount of money laundering taking place in this industry, especially in these crypto casino's. From a personal development point of view I see (online) gambling as the ultimate get rich quick trap. Most alluring to those who feel powerless in relation to money.

I was watching a video about how Google is training its AI on YouTube videos: And then I got curious about what YouTube channels they have been training on. And well, to be exact, Google's AI used 5 of Leo's videos to train itself. For now. Source: https://www.proofnews.org/youtube-ai-search/

@NoSelfSelf I am decent. Best advise is to find a part-time job as a bartender or volunteer as one. Helps if you have a friend who is a bartender to help you.

Plenty. One useful piece of advise if you intellectualize about personal development too much: Thinking is no substitute for experience. 2 years of going out to bars every week and bartending myself has helped me develop socially and sexually more than any book ever could help me with.

Geert Wilder's his far-right party PVV has won the Dutch national elections by far: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/nov/22/netherlands-dutch-general-election-vote-result-exit-poll-prime-minister-government-live-latest-result I had not expected this to happen here. In my entire life living in the Netherlands far-right has never won this big.

Long-term decisions like that are made in the long-term. Not in any one state...

Is even awakening an illusion then? Is it not just a different state or dream of consciousness? Albeit one where there is greater understanding and awareness.

AI-Generated

Try other psychedelics. I know someone who had similar experiences to you and tripped balls on just a little bit of weed.

I recently learned that Adyshanti is retiring. I also learned that apparently he has been struggling with chronic pain and PTSD. I think it's very humbling to admit that, as long as you are human, you are not immune to the suffering of the human realm. Here's a quote from the letter in which is talks about his retirement and his suffering: Here's the entire letter: https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Retirement-Announcement.html?soid=1126600191855&aid=2-xCMqh-t-s

He doesn't really want to go into detail about it. He talks about suffering from "nerve pain" for 18 years and after resolving it facing a "tsunami of trauma" because of how horrible the pain had been on his body-mind. He is also admits taking medication to help with his anxiety but doesn't specify what he uses. There's an hour-long talk where he talks more about it all here: https://adyashanti.opengatesangha.org/store/downloads-file?dky=Cd5ost38&admv=1

I remember the first chapter of the power of now was something like that lol. Of course I exaggerated a bit, but it was basically that. I think this idea of awakening or enlightenment is held by many people, partly because this is how it's sold. I'd imagine if you made the external conditions bad enough for these so-called enlightened beings, or their internal conditions by changing their brain chemistry with drugs, you could make them suffer a lot and increase their fear of death. Is it possible to transcend the fear of death? Maybe, but I don't think you can be human and do that.

What @Leo Gura said... But if you have sleeping problems then maybe modafinil isn't the best idea for now. I can't say it's safe for you but they indeed have opposite effects on the CNS; I imagine they could cancel eachother out somewhat. I also recommend you come up with a plan to slowly reduce the dosage of the benzodiazepines (preferably with your doctor). Then you won't have this problem anymore. If you have sleeping problems I suggest you could also look into Yoga Nidra (here's an interesting book: https://www.amazon.com/Nidra-Re-print-Swami-Satyananda-Saraswati/dp/8185787123/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=yoga+nidra&qid=1691847894&sr=8-2

It would be interestingly to meet other species of human like neanderthals, heidelbergensis, homo erectus.

Cyrus the Great (Persian/Achaemenid Empire). We know a lot about the Greeks in part because they wrote more but also because victors write the history books. Not many people know about the Persian empire. Here's an interesting documentary I found:

I liked his perspective on the public discourse on climate change. Less fear and guilt as a motivator. Emphasizing his love for the planet. And I'm quite tired of all the doomerism myself. If it's really 5 past 12 we might as well all go outside and drink ourselves to death. Currently a lot of media (at least here in the Netherlands) takes every heavy rainfall or heatwave and shows statistics of old people dying as a consequence, and then pointing to the horrors of climate change. I don't have the feeling this is a great motivator for people to start caring about the environment (like my boomer father). Instead he does love the idea of generating his own clean energy using solar panels, which should also be an economically beneficial choice. But some of his conspiratorial positions are troubling. Either way he will have to work together and find majorities, so I don't think he would be able to do too much damage. And he's a damn better candidate than Trump, who should legally be in prison now lol