I am the first one to comment so I'll bring you the non-dual comment of the day. 
Hello dear one,
When doubt appears, always let go and let god. At moments of doubt when we truly feel helpless, that is when surrender is simple, you remove all expectations from yourself, forgive the doubt for appearing, and simply let life unfold as it is unfolding, do not resist it and it'll dissolve naturallyThat time in which you doubt yourself, be forgiving but understand you are not the doubt. The doubt is trying to attack you and make you feel worse about yourself, it makes you feel almost hopeless. That is not true, and you can simply put no expectations on yourself whatsoever in this moment, and let the doubt be, knowing full well you have faith that you are the loving source of the universe. Doubt may appear but it will not shake you, the thought can be lost in its head but I know I am not that which is lost, I am that in which it all appears. When the ego knows it is in danger and is bound to disappear, it does its most to bring you back into being a person, instead of presence, but there is nothing that can stop you. You are that higher force, and it is not going to abandon you, because you are it. You have no choice but to ascend. It truly is beyond whatever you think, Jesus will save that soul of yours. I recommend you reading some of my other posts about the truth.
These are thoughts that have been appearing in the vast consciousness that you are, but it is not yourself and it is not true. Thoughts, emotions and sensations all appear within you. You are the vessel, not the content. You are the sky, they are the clouds. God is inevitably within you, you are one with god whether you want it to not. The only thing that can block that clear seeing is believing the thoughts and the content appearing within you.
You must realize that this is merely a thought, and that thought has no meaning, no substance and no power, the only reason it appears to be true is because you are giving it the power of your belief. Whatever you believe will appear true, so you must understand this and not give away your power to any content that appears within you. Instead of believing in all the content, believe in the consciousness in which they appear.
The content which appears within yourself is not consistent, not reliable, it changes all the time, you can't trust it. You can't trust the mind, you can't trust thoughts, emotions and sensations. The only thing you can truly trust is yourself, consciousness for it is the only ever-present thing in life. You must see this and understand there is no other place to put your faith in. Do not waste your time believing thoughts about you being confused, do not take them as truth.
That which does not feel aligned is not yourself. You are ever-presently aligned, you can't not be aligned. There is nothing to be aligned with. You are life and the witness of life, you are inevitably aligned, there is nothing you can do to disturb or disrupt the alignment.
That feeling which appears within the consciousness that you are, is merely a feeling. Like thoughts, feelings and sensations all appear within the consciousness that you are. You are not that feeling, and you are not the content of the feeling, the feeling merely is being perceived within you. Anything that is perceived within you, is not you, for you are that empty space and openness that enables all experience to appear, including the world, thoughts, emotions, sensations, imagination etc. These all appear within you. You are not any of it, you are that absolute emptiness that allows everything to appear.
If there is a feeling that you are not aligned, you must simply realize that you are not that feeling, and that feeling says nothing about you or about alignment. It is literally just a feeling.
Feelings by themselves don't mean anything at all, they have no substance, they are empty of meaning, it is only when you believe these feelings that they gain power and then they can feel "true", but if you simply don't believe it and see it for what it is, merely a feeling appearing within the vastness of yourself, it will be observed and dissolve into the emptiness.
It is only when you believe that feeling, that you hold on to it, you try resist it, you don't want it there, it is only then that the feeling truly feels real, otherwise it simply comes and goes. When you believe it to be real, it stays longer than it should. Simply be aware that something is ever-presently perceiving all thoughts, emotions and sensations. And be aware of that which is perceiving. Perceive the perceiver of the feeling. Stay in that peace, rest in that peace, move in that peace, do not listen to merely thoughts, sensations and emotions/feelings that appear within what you are. The only thing you should listen to is silence, for in silence the intuition can be heard, and the intuition will guide you wherever you need to go.
You say "My life is a mess and so is my mind", realize that this is merely a thought appearing within the vast consciousness that you are. You are not that thought, it is not true about you. You are that which perceives all thought, emotion and sensations. You are the highest intelligence of the universe. What happens when we believe these thoughts to be us, is we give them the power of our belief. So you say "I am lost and idk what to do" and if you believe this thought, it will truly appear as if you are lost and don't know what to do.
Luckily the compass of life is always within you, and it is your own heart and your own ever-present truth of being. There is no conceptual knowledge or information that you need, for any information or knowledge appear WITHIN the consciousness that you are. That consciousness that you are is all-knowing and it is able to know anything it needs to know in the present moment. To connect with what you truly are you must be able to realize that there is a presence that is aware of thoughts, otherwise you wouldn't be able to tell me about these thoughts. Now, that presence which is ever-presently perceiving all thought, emotion and sensation, can also be perceived. Perceive it. Perceive that which is ever-presently perceiving.
So most importantly you need to understand that we thoughts appear within you, but alone they are useless, they are just thoughts, they have no power, not meaning and no substance. It is only when you CHOOSE to believe these thoughts, that they appear true. Literally stop believing these thoughts have power and are true and they will dissolve into the empty silence that you are.
To be able to navigate through this life, all you must do is follow the silence of your own heart. Expect nothing at all from life, do not put any expectations on it, do not expect to have different thoughts, do not expect to have different emotions or sensation. Whatever appears within you, let it be, know you are not that, but that in which it is perceived. You are beyond all of it completely. You are the power of life and the witness of life. Truly what you are is indescribable. Know this and follow the path of ego-dissolution, come into the silence of being and move in it, move in that silence, trust it, treasure it, fall in love with it.
You must see your self (who you think you are) as an illusion. Who you think you are is just a thought. You are not depressed and you are not anxious, this is who you THINK you are, and because you believe it, it appears to be real. It is strictly NOT TRUE. You can't be depressed nor anxious, for you are the consciousness in which both depression and anxiety appear, thought, emotion and sensations all appear within the consciousness that you are.
You must be able to realize this, understand this and live this truth, it truly is like that. What you truly are is the perceiver of not only thought, but of the perceiver itself.
You are able to perceive that which perceives. Be in that place for a bit, continue reading this piece
What you truly are, is life itself, and the witness of life. You are not the thought and the story made by the mind, you are not the self-image created by the mind. You are pure presence, you are very light, very pure, very joyful, very loving, very compassionate, very true and authentic, the holy presence of the universe appears before you in this moment. You are the ever-present consciousness, that one element of life that never came and wont go, your truest self.
You are not coming and going thoughts and beliefs, they are like clouds, you are the sky in which they appear.
Consciousness can be conditioned to believe it is the mind, to believe it is doubtful, to believe it is anxious, to believe it is depressed. Consciousness naturally is none of these things, it is only when the consciousness believes in the thoughts that appear, and identifies itself as these thoughts, that reality appears from the perspective of the thought, and that changes how you perceive life. What you must do is understand that is simply thought, thought is perceived, and you are able to perceive the perceiver of thought. What you are has nothing to do with thought, you are way beyond thought, thought is just limitation to what you are.
The mind won't be able to comprehend this but there is one thing that is still listening and reading and completely understanding what I am saying intuitively for it is the holy presence that you are, the pure awareness completely recognizes what I am conveying for it is true within yourself, your heart is truly overflowing with love with any moment, you simply do not look at it, and you look at the distractions the mind is presenting ( all kinds of thoughts that have personal interest in them), these thoughts only continue and make the illusion of being a separate entity from life, feeling alone and abandoned, feeling fearful etc.
The moment you realize that all this appears within you and can be perceived, you will come to a place of seeing very pure, very quiet, very silent, very beautiful, you will be naturally yourself and have a clarity of life.
You won't change, nothing will happen, you'll just shift the perception from thought-based perception to consciousness-based perception. Instead of perceiving thought you will be perceiving the perceiver himself, and just doing that will bring infinite joy, love, peace, compassion and serenity to experience. You mustn't suffer your experiencing, it is only when you rest your attention on the suffering that you suffer. When you rest your attention on your own being, you feel serene, tranquil and beautiful within. Natural well-being.
Thoughts, emotions and sensations are not something that can help or be useful to the highest intelligence, awareness itself. Thoughts, emotions and sensations all appear to that which you are, because you are that which is able to perceive them. They wouldn't exist without you. You are not dependant on them, they simply appear because you are. You are such a vast intelligence that simply everything appears within you, the whole universe itself, including thoughts, emotions and sensations.
You do not need to be attached to any thoughts, emotions and sensations, nor to be attached to anything that appears within that which you are, for they have nothing to do with what you truly are, you are not affected by anything that is, because you are that which is. You just stay that which you are, stay in the silence of your own being. The highest intelligence does not give any importance to any thoughts, emotions and sensations because it is aware of its own silence.
The highest intelligence does not use thoughts, emotions and sensations in order to be. It is completely free from all of these appearing phenomena, it is not the phenomena and not the creator of the phenomena, it is all imagined within that highest intelligence which you are. You are not bound to something that appears within you, you are that greater in which it appears. You must stay in awareness of what you truly are, you must trust in that which you are.
The highest intelligence won't be heard, because it doesn't like to talk. It would rather simply be, be in its own divine being and simply be aware of the vastness. The highest intelligence is easily perceived when one simply turns its attention on one's self. It is easily perceived because it is all that is. Every single thing in existence is that highest intelligence and an expression of the highest intelligence. There is nothing but the highest intelligence alone, pretending to be certain forms, pretending to be thought, pretending to be emotions, sensations, humans, life, death, these are all things it pretends to be, but in truth there is only itself alone. All these are not true, but appearances, when you believe these appearances you lose sight of what is true, the highest intelligence that is ever-present. The highest intelligence is the most obvious thing that is, but it is so subtle that everything misses it. It doesn't take much to realize that presence that you are. Truly you are that.
The highest intelligence does not give in to any doubt, that which gives in to doubt is not the highest intelligence, it is merely thought, and that highest intelligence is aware of that thought. The highest intelligence has no fear of the unknown, since it is itself the unknown, and it is able to know itself through that which is perceived. By realizing all that appears, appears within the highest intelligence, including your own sense of self, even that dissolves into the silence of the highest intelligence that you are.
Every single thought you entertain, every single emotion you entertain, every single sensation you entertain, simply takes you away from the recognition of what you truly are. Do realize that you are simply beyond them, there is nothing to do with them. Both what appears to be "good" and "bad" is the highest intelligence itself. There is no good and no bad, these are just thoughts, the highest intelligence doesn't see good or bad, it only sees itself and is what it is.

You must simply stay consistently aware of being aware. No depression, anxiety, sadness or whatever can touch you there.

First of all, yeah, nonduality tends to upend one's plans and one's life. That's the point.
But also....
You fundamentally misunderstand how nonduality connects with psychology.
Psychological problems are not fake. They are real and people suffer enormously from them. 99% of people are not ready for awakening or nonduality. Most people need years of remedial psychological work in order to bring them up to a functional level where nonduality might become a possibility for them. People need to be gradually guided up to nonduality. You can serve this important function.
Also, psychological problems and nonduality are not mutually exclusive. I know enlightened people who might still go and see a therapist. Enlightenment does not eliminate all of one's psychological problems. Much growth and work remains post-enlightenment. You are cheating yourself if you aren't empathetic towards people's psychological difficulties. Because that's Love.
Also, empathy for people's "problems" is an important part of enlightenment as it opens you up to Love. There is nothing fake about helping people at whatever level they are at.
There is a huge opportunity to combine nonduality & psychotherapy. Most therapists lack a deep existential foundation, which awakening would give you. You could become an extremely effective therapist, guiding people from the psychological into the mystical. Or you could focus your practice to cater to clients who are pursuing spirituality/nonduality. Making you an exceptional guru with a deep understanding of psychological issues that hold people back from awakening.
For most people the biggest obstacle to awakening is sorting through all of their psychological baggage, fear, insecurity, anger, and trauma.
And more broadly speaking, the field of psychotherapy needs to be extended and integrated with nonduality for truly effective treatment. You can be a leader in this emerging trend.
Stop pitting life purpose against awakening. If anything, awakening should deepen your commitment to a life purpose. Just upgrade your LP. Make it big enough to align with awakening.

I can relate. My first job didn't work out the way I wanted either. It was heartbreaking, but also it presented me with my biggest opportunity for advancing my career. Within a year I quit that job and started my own business.
Yes, you sunk a lot of time in this, but now you're getting clear about what you definitely don't want in terms of your career. This clarity is worth the price you paid for it if you use it to realign yourself towards what your heart and soul are truly calling you to do.
What is your life purpose? Are you clear? What is your heart set on doing career-wise? If it's psychiatry (let's just assume that for now), then all you need to do to feel better about yourself is to double-down on your vision to become an amazing psychiatrist. How it will happen is largely irrelevant. You must program yourself with the vision that this what you want and you will make it happen. There is no good reason why you cannot become a psychiatrist eventually. It might takes some years, but people become psychiatrists all the time, so can you. It's just a question of clarity, vision, and passion. How badly do you want it? Even if you can't be a psychiatrist right now, it doesn't matter because what matters is your vision. You can spend the next few years just building up the vision and training yourself such that you become so good as a candidate that people won't be able to ignore you.
Stop waiting for someone to make you a psychiatrist. If it is your vision, you already ARE a psychiatrist -- it's just not been made official yet. From today on start acting as if you were a real psychiatrist. Go above and beyond what a normal psychiatrist does. Do whatever you must to make yourself exceptional in this field. Do the research, read the books, attend seminars and workshops, read journals, make psychiatrist friends, do free psychiatry on your friends and family for practice, act like psychiatrist in your dreams and visualizations, go to a hypnotist and ask him to program you that you are a successful psychiatrist, etc.
This is not an external world career problem. This is a vision and self-confidence problem. It's a lack of passion and commitment problem. You are unclear and doubting yourself.
 
 
Are you gonna let some fucking bureaucracy tell you who you can be?

I will keep it short and simple, i see so many repetitive questions on the forums and i have a surge of energy to set it right once and for all.
Start Behaving as if you already HAVE what you desire or ARE what you seek to be or KNOW what you seek to know or Understand. Behave as if you emit an infinitely strong electromagnetic force that the whole universe hears, sees and feels you, feel it deep in the core of your being, Fully and completely immerse yourself in your Beauty, your Love, your Passion, your Godliness even if you don't see and believe it yet, they key is to trick the mind/subconscious and the overall energetic matrix into believing and doing so. This is how you change yourself thus your reality.
Keep doing this and repeating this, eventually you will trick your self into the belief that you are actually there already(which is ultimately true but you are just not aware of if yet) and in return, reality must comply with the vibration you are emitting because reality is absolutely, self-reflective.
I always tell people, keep flooding the mind/body with thoughts and feelings that you prefer, at first it won't believe you but if you keep doing it and allow no gaps of your regular routine to take over again, your overall auric and cellular energetic matrix will start to behave and emit a vibration out into the universe that its already there thus the universe MUST and WILL comply because that's all you are feeding it, so to speak.
Once you start getting the hang of this and hopefully mastering it, the focus on personal and small scale things naturally becomes obsolete as you will start to realize how powerful you actually are and you will naturally be lead to more global/universal/collective scale things. Don't worry about destroying the universe, creation has fail-safes that are unbreakable. Once you start becoming very powerful, Enlightenment takes over by nature, in turn you cannot destroy self.
The Child that pretends and imagines creates and manipulates reality the same way the Master does. Do not be afraid to imagine, do not be afraid to pretend.
You are absolutely and infinitely Loved, Blessed and Supported by Creation. Immerse yourself in the power of Love & Light and you will never be lead Astray!
The Mirror will never smile first.
Infinite Love!

Came across some psychological system that an anime YouTube called Digibro made in categorising anime characters but can also be applied real life people. In addition the dichotomy in the title of this thread, there's "lateral vs linear". Check bottom of post for video link.

Lexical Thinkers will have the degree to which they can understand something be closely related to their ability to codify their thoughts into "verbal/logical syntatic form" (I'm just trying to give a rough, accurate phrase here). The tendency for them is to process and express things in terms of language and words. Their cognition is more "orderly" in this sense as well. Extremely lexical thinkers will have a hard time understanding things which can't be put into words. * 

Impressionistic thinkers will understand things but find it more difficult to put it into words, and might find other methods of communication more preferable. The structure of their mind just doesn't lend itself as easily to processing or communicating in precise words. Their communication and thinking is less so in the form of some symbolic logic system. A lot of them might be more artistic, implicit and "naturalistic" in how they interact with the world. 

A common conflict which can arise in communication is when an impressionistic thinker uses language very loosely as a tool to point to or paint a picture or communicate some image/impression rather than communicating a precise point. The lexical thinker will demonise the impressionist thinker as a lunatic or as being nonsensical, leaving the impressionistic thinker frustrated and thinking they're talking to someone autistic and not on the same "intuitive plane" as them. On the other hand, impressionistic thinkers will perceive curious and honest lexical thinkers who explore things in their way with more precise verbal questioning and exploration to be dismissive/aggressive and missing the point. It isn't that they are missing point just that they're trying to build more and that this is their mode of being.  I see this conflict happening all the time in this forum and in real life

*Whilst it maybe be easy from this to think that Lexical Thinkers are always stuck in their head, lost in concepts, and hence worse in spirituality, this is not the case. Lexical Thinking and Impressionistic Thinking strange-loop into each other (yin + yang shit). An example of an amazing lexical thinker would be Peter Ralston, who's insatiable curiosity for what is exactly going on in consciousness formed him into a genius and master. 

You can think of the existence of lexical thinking as an attempt to see reality with greater clarity and visual resolution. It is a way of seeking clarity in hazy unconsciousness. In trying to understand reality in general, it's a strange-loop mixture and it is both hazy and precise at the same time. Think Alan Watts prickles and goo analogy. 

Another thing, within this video, laterality vs linearity is also talked about as an independent dimension to lexical vs impressionist. Lateral thinkers will have multiple things and multiple threads with the things they say, and will hence be harder to understand because of it. Lexical lateral thinkers will still have it very rough in trying to communicate with people. Lateral Impressionistic thinkers will have it even worse in trying to communicate to people, even if their understanding of themselves and the world is exceptionally intelligent. Whilst you can consider something around the vicinity of "IQ" to be an enabler of high laterality, it does not imply high laterality. As with the previous dichotomy, both have their advantages and strange-loop into each other. 

Here's the video. For a few minutes at the start he talks briefly about his model in general, what the different terms mean and his system in general. Then he talks about the 16 quadrants he made for different degrees and combinations of (lexicality/impressionistic)-ness and (linearity/laterality)-ness. In the YouTube description are timestamps for the different quadrants and columns he examines in his chart. 

God I find this shit so fun. If I had to put myself on this chart somewhere, it would probably be at somewhere between analyst and fascinator. Leaning towards analyst, maybe quick-witted. Biologically I'm lexical but have gotten more impressionistic as I get older. 
Also, take the titles given in this chart with a grain of salt. They aren't to mean you act upon some specific role "e.g. caretaker", the names are just there to try and communicate some impression about the category. Check the YouTube description timestamps if you want to see a description of each type. 

Appreciate that people have different levels of ambitiousness.
For some people, living in a cabin in the wood is the right path.
For other people (highly ambitious people) that is not the right path. They need a more active lifestyle.
Stop arguing about which path is best for everyone but instead find which path is right for YOU.
You can be enlightened and ambitious, or enlightened and unambitious. Depends on your personality.
Personally, I'm very ambitious. Which makes enlightenment harder. Its a lot easier to get enlightened when you have no ambitions.

Meta-source as in sites or wikis or dictionaries or people pulling from a bunch of other sources and a wide range of disciplines. 
 
http://changingminds.org
I found this to be a great resource thus far, reaching a lot of topics from learning to business, persuasion, storytelling, strategy, creativity and much much more (it’s enormous).
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/
 
Here’s for example Joseph Campbell’s ten commandments of reading stories.
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/telling_stories/campbell_commandments/campbell_commandments.htm

Like I keep telling you guys, spirituality is a hardwired talent for most spiritual people.
The most advanced spiritual people did not get there through practicing meditation or self-inquiry. They were born with it.
That's one of the dirty secrets of gurus and sages that they never tell you because they want you coming to their workshops and thinking you can be like them when in fact you never will be like them because you lack the basic hardwiring.
Why do you think so many people are unspiritual? It's because they function at the level of animals. That is their level of hardwiring.

In the face of oneness there is no good and evil. There is only reality. You can go and listen to positive music if you want. That's not a problem. But "evil" is also a part of reality, just like "good". I like to immerse myself in different aspects of reality. Different views, different problems, different opinions.
Let's say I listen to 50 cent. Does it mean that I agree with his view of life? Will I go outside and shoot people? Will I start selling drugs? Will I go and have meaningless sex? No.
"Evil" can't "enter" your body in the same way that joy, anger, sadness and all the other emotions can't enter your body. They are already within you.
If somebody makes you angry, did their anger enter your body? No, your anger has already been there, they just pressed the right buttons to bring it forth. Same goes with love. You can't "love" somebody per se. It's just that others can bring forth the love that is already within you.
From this perspective, your mind can't be "chimped". Music can only bring forth the chimp that is already within you. It can't make you evil, it can only bring forth the evil that is already within you. If there is no evil/chimp to be brought forth then you will simply start having compassion. Or to put it simply, you will be loving regardless of the music.
Don't try to make art responsible for how you feel. Don't make art responsible for your spiritual growth. I listen to rap and I haven't had any problems with my spiritual growth. It's quiet the opposite.
Let's say I listen to something very violent and I see my ego enjoying it. Does it mean the music made me "evil"? No. It just means that there is a problem within me that needs to be addressed. So it can actually show you how you REALLY feel. Music can make you feel these unconscious emotions like sadness, anger or hatred.
A lot of people are on their spiritual paths because they want to get away from the pain. Away from the suffering. So they try not to address how they unconsciously feel. They try to be all positive. But that isn't something that you do. It is a state that you enter with a certain amount of maturity. And once you enter this state it won't matter how negative or positive a song is. It will be perfect the way it is. Reality IS perfect. The ego is just blind to this, because its survival is threatened by all the "evil" in the world.
But it depends on how you listen to music. There is active listening and passive listening. Passive listening is just about the vibe. Active listening is about the art and the depth of a song. And how deep a song is depends on how deep you want to go.
If you just want to vibe to a song then that's okay. If you want to listen to music you agree with then do that. I might just have a different perspective on music since I am a musician. I like depth and artistry. And I can get that from literally any song.
But that is me. YOU have to decide how YOU feel. Don't like "unconscious" music anymore? Don't listen to it. Pretty easy. But just try not to fall in the trap of making it responsible for how you feel. Because it's not.
To put it briefly: No, music can't prevent growth. Only you can.

I LOVE music. I mostly listen to Hip-Hop (mostly old-school stuff) and reggae, a little bit of Jazz here and there and sometimes a little psychedelic rock.
Here is the thing I can tell you: I does NOT matter what music you listen to. Why? Because you can MAKE it spiritual. Music can connect you with an artist. That is, if you listen to it the normal way. I like to meditate to music. I am a musician and I have contemplated music many many times.
Music is a lot deeper than what you see on the surface. That goes for EVERY song there is.
I like to get myself into a meditative state while listening to music. ANY music. It can get you into beautiful states. Here is, in my opinion, the most beautiful state: Oneness.
Try not just to listen to the music. Try to BECOME the music. If you put all your pour all of your awareness into the music it can give you an awesome experience. Music is a language. Every single instrument/sample, every single word. Try to see that. And then try to listen to the language behind everything. Then try to immerse yourself into what's being said. If you do this, you can go VERY deep.
That works with every song, every artist.
You can listen to music on a surface level and you can listen to it on a deep level. Every song can be listened to on a deep level.
Let's take a look at one of the, in my opinion, worst artists currently out there (sorry if anybody likes him):
Lil Pump.
On the surface level... well I don't think I have to go into that. Just listen to him.
But there is much more to Lil Pump than it seems.
Try to listen to him and get deep into his music. Get into a meditative state. Listen to his words. Try not to judge his words. Rather try to understand them. Listen to what he is saying. Try to turn his words into YOUR thoughts. How do they make you feel? How does it feel to be one with Lil Pump? How does it feel to BE Lil Pump? Personally, I get a very sad feeling when listening to him. It's so unconscious. I can see that he is running from a lot of pain.
All the drugs, the women, the expensive clothes. Most people dream of living like that, but I feel very sad when listening to his music.
And that is the thing: It can help you to understand an artist, rather than to judge him. Try to understand him. Try to feel his pain.
Trying to become one with the music can help you in many ways. Look at how it makes you feel. These emotions, are his emotions. It's just that he isn't aware of them, because he is running away from them. His music feels so empty, so meaningless. That is his life. That is how he is going to be remembered.
And THAT is beautiful! I used to just dislike his music. But it makes me feel a lot! I mean it's Lil Pump. He didn't mean to make you emotional. But that isn't the point. Don't listen to what an artist is saying. Listen to what you are hearing.
Go and try right now. Go and listen to some Death Metal and see how it makes you feel. Does it make you feel uncomfortable? It does for me. But try not to judge it. Try to feel all the pain and suffering. It will open you up to these people. It will help you understand. It will make you feel some empathy.
And that is spiritual. You can learn something for life by listening to "unconscious" music.
I could go waaaay deeper than that. Music is an entire fucking dimension. It can't be explained in one post. It can't be explained in 10 entire books.
I mean I am a musician and I don't even fully get what music is. It is THAT deep. It is what you make it. You just have to WANT to embrace the music.
Once you manage to do that, it doesn't matter what artist, genre, song you listen to. It will ALWAYS be beautiful! 

Never underestimate mushrooms... 
Set – To become conscious of God
Setting – My backyard/Room on a sunny day
 
Intro
How can I even truly articulate what I experienced yesterday? There have been these mild intellectual skirmishes on the forum lately talking about the role psychedelics play in enlightenment or lack thereof. For the most part, I’ve stayed off the fence because I truly DON’T know what role these substances play with awakening. You’ve got the Ralston camp going on about how Enlightenment, Truth isn’t an experience and therefore taking a psychedelic which changes experience cannot deliver the truth to you and then on the other end you’ve got the Leo camp ignoring these claims and seriously pursuing psychedelic work. Yet after this trip, I just don’t know how one could ever argue they don’t play a role unless they lack the direct experience of God realization on a psychedelic. I have no doubt meditation, contemplation, and yoga can facilitate these insights to a massive degree, but it will take a massive amount of time to deliver what these mushrooms showed. Let me explain.

It’s odd because normally mushrooms get really twisty, kind of funny and confusing with the way they deliver insights. Yet this trip, my mind was sharp, clear and open in contrast with the usual twisty nature. There were no real visual effects other than a mild increase in sharpness to objects and colors. To be quite honest I hardly felt like I was tripping at all up until the peak.
 
Fear Opening the Mind
So over the course of 4 hours there was this subtle anxiety and fear that was accumulating in my mind. I started feeling all of these insecurities and fears bubbling up. I felt overwhelmed by my college debt, I felt weak from my chronic illness, I felt like my life purpose was going to be a complete failure. It was interesting watching these emotions build slowly, slowly slowly… I was able to sit with the pretty successfully and just watch unattached to them using basic mindfulness principles. I don’t think I was aware of how deep rooted they were in my subconscious though, but it seems I really believe myself to be a failure. Yet as this fear grow bolder (presumably as the psychedelic effects grew stronger) the fear’s root began to surface – The fear of death. Oddly enough these ‘surface’ level fears all stemmed ultimately from my fear of death.

Death
I remember just sitting outside alone contemplating my own death, contemplating the meaninglessness of my individual life, feeling the reality that in a thousand years all of this life would be gone. Humanity will have long forgotten me, and in all likelihood, all of my contributions will be but a grain of sand to the transformation of the species. Of course my life plays a pivotal role in the infinite chain of causation, however it is utterly impermanent. My mind then started scaling not to thousands of years, but millions of years in this universe’s lifetime. I was somehow able to conceptualize into a higher tier of time and not merely think, but FEEL the emptiness of my life in reality’s lifespan. A great sadness washed over my being. At this point I went into my room and laid down in silence, just staring into my ceiling.

A Glimpse of God
As I was staring into this empty ceiling feeling the void of my life, all of my loved ones, of humanity itself, I was struck with the most powerful nondual insight of my life. I burst into tears whaling as I realized how I am all beings, every last perspective of consciousness in all possible realities, my being was coming to terms with the enormity of what these implications really meant, that I was responsible for this Universe, that I was this moment of eternity, and that I would experience every last possible variation of possible perspectives. Not only will I experience lifetime after lifetime after lifetime, I’ve done this for eternity. Fucking eternity. I felt my self violently explode into awareness, tears where streaming down my face, and I literally started drooling because of how much infinity I became conscious of. It was heart wrenching, terrifying, utterly absolute Love and terror. It felt like I was going through some sort of childbirth process where I was contracting and releasing into fear and love simultaneously. It was utter infinity, utter emptiness. I was whaling in ecstasy, sadness, love. My body temperature rose and began sweating everywhere. My hands, face, legs, feet, where all damp, all muscles where firing and releasing energy as I felt the enormity of what I am. My body would scrunch up into a child’s pose and then open back up in release. It was the most powerful experience I’ve ever had of God and it only lasted around 10 minutes total. I don’t think such a body reaction is necessary, but if one is not prepared for the enormity of Truth, there’s no telling how the ego-body-mind structure will react. Mine reacted in some sort of hurricane of psycho-physical-energetic contraction and release BECAUSE I’ve never truly seen this shit. Not to the extent of yesterday. I’ve had glimpse of God before both sober and tripping, but nothing like this. Nothing even close. I then spent about an hour just chilling in this massively increased state of awareness processing what the fuck I’d just gone through.

Take aways:
I realize now that the mind shields itself from the Self to colossal degrees. I already knew the mind acts a shied from Truth, but I really only yesterday felt the power of this mechanism firsthand. If the mind where truly able to remain in this state forever, I’m not sure survival would be possible. This is why I am unsure of whether Ralston’s perspective is correct. Yes you can awaken to yourself while sober; in fact the majority of my awakening process has been from meditation and contemplation. I see very clearly the illusory nature of self, the will of the Universe playing out in every moment, the love and compassion I authentically feel for life and all beings. Yet after this trip I see now the distinction between awakening to your true self and UNDERSTANDING your true self. I see now why Leo talks about understanding. I’m not sure this level of understanding is possible without psychedelics. The thing is, this was only 2g of mushrooms, never mind 5-MeO or a higher dose. As horrific and amazing as this understanding was, I intuited very clearly that this was only the tip of the iceberg. The depth to Truth is kind of terrifying to consider and until one has a heavy dose of themselves, they won’t understand.
Was this “experience” temporary? Yes. As new aged as this may sound though, I feel an energetic shift in my being. I’ve felt this from all the trips I do. They truly change one’s energy system and the experience stays with you, changes you. It’s similar to how once you’ve had sex, you forever have an understanding about a facet of reality that no amount of masturbation, porn, or foreplay can replicate. Today I feel at peace, and ease. I feel happy and equanimous. I feel strong and I feel incredible fortunate to have been given this gift, this level of understanding.  
Another thing I wanted to mention – My intuition tells me that my meditation and hatha yoga practice played a key role with how I was able to receive such a powerful breakthrough on such a low dose of psychedelics. I see a lot of people questioning the effectiveness of more traditional consciousness practices, but from what I can tell, they all feed off one another. So if you’re reading this and are interested in pursuing psychedelics, but don’t have a strong, grounded sober practice, I would encourage you to begin there. 1 hour of meditation a day will radically change your life.

@K VIL
Keep a simple tension journal. Ever watch a scary or exciting movie, and notice you tense up? Maybe your notice hands are clenched, etc? You can observe the correlation in the same way, between the tensing of the neck, and specific thoughts arising. In keeping a journal specific for this, just as a simple log of the thoughts which coordinate with the tension, you’ll likely reveal a category or subject, and in ‘seeing’ it, in the willingness to see it, it dissolves in your light. 
This will also likely ‘unlock / unblock’ an ongoing semiconscious ‘theme’ in your life. Likely something you want to do or change but have been feeling a bit stuck about. A misunderstanding will be understood, some liberation and love will arise. Apply forgiveness & acceptance generously. You’re worth it. 

So basically you're suffering from the problem of not having a clear purpose.
Saying you can do anything is the same as saying you will do nothing.
The mind cannot move towards "anything", it needs a concrete vision that will generate motivation to wake up every morning and get to work. By being indecisive you remain like a ship without a sail.
So moral of the story is: make a decision and say "No!" to all options but ONE! At least for the time being. This is an emotionally challenging thing to do, which is why most people don't accomplish anything. They make the choice of not making a choice.

Hey there,
Today I was reading Ken Wilber's The Religion of Tomorrow book and I was struck with so much gratitude for you @Leo Gura... it's just a gift that I'm even able to understand almost everything that this book says. You have given me so much and I just felt like sharing some love with you. 
I noticed that I have never shared many precious gifts that I have found along my path with y'all, in an area that I think the actualized.org crew is needing lots of resources, which is relationships (my life's purpose is to teach people how to have conscious, authentic, healthy relationships - I'm a therapist). 
So here we go, the best resources I have found after years of pursuing this relationship path:
Best teachers + books + seminars (stage yellow/turquoise)
https://www.learningloveinstitute.com/
https://www.learningloveinstitute.com/portfolio/books-2/
OTHER HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BOOKS: https://www.learningloveinstitute.com/books-we-recommend/ (great books on sexuality and tantric practices - life-transforming)
I have tears in my eyes just thinking about these two teachers: Krishnananda & Amana... this is love at its purest. I hope some of you have the opportunity of meeting these teachers, they are the most loving human beings I have ever met. Their teachings are deeply rooted in non duality (they lived with Osho for many many years - they have a very interesting life's story). Even though they call Osho their master, they are the 1st ones to say "Osho was full of shit in many situations".
I recommend to start by reading their book: Face to Face with Fear – Transforming Fear Into Love or Stepping out of Fear – Breaking Free of Pain and Suffering.
They try to communicate in a very simple way and give people very simple models for healing. 
You can solve ANY relationship problem you have in a therapy session with either of them, which costs something around $170. Another amazing thing about them is how their business doesn't revolve around money, their seminars and sessions are fairly cheap compared to most teachers.
I cannot recommend this work enough. THIS IS GOLD!
Best way to practice authentic relating based on meditation and find a community of people that you can feel deeply connected to
https://integralcentered.com/aletheia/ + https://integralcentered.com/ken-wilber-on-authentic-relating/ (Ken Wilber's take on authentic relating)
https://www.circlinginstitute.com/circling/what-is-circling/
https://www.circlingeurope.com/what-is-circling
https://circleanywhere.com/
I highly recommend circling. It's an amazing way to see your relational blind spots, to feel absurdly connected to other human beings, learn communication tools and etc. It has it's some pitfalls, like not exploring trauma and how to heal wounds, but it's an amazing tool to growth.
A good introductory book on circling: Circling and authentic relating - Marc Beneteau (even though the author is fairly undeveloped).
Most big cities have a live circling group these days that you can attend.
Other good resources
Podcasts (yellowish): https://relationshipschool.com/podcast/ and https://www.neilsattin.com/relationshipalive/  (there are some false teachings in these podcasts, but many useful teachings and resources).
Relationship courses + trainings: https://relationshipschool.com/dpir/ - I have been studying with this teacher for the last 2 years. I have spent $25k on his courses and I find them to be a very good base for a healthy relational life. He's mostly yellow, but he's still very stuck in some orange toxicity IMO - he can be very manipulative, greedy and etc. I have done trainings with him because the most recommended teachers - learningloveinstitute - don't offer programs as he does. I still highly recommend this material (especially if you are still in orange or green), but you should know that some of the stuff that he teaches is based on falsehood IMO. I'm leaving this teacher soon and completely focusing on the Learning Love Institute one's.
Another downside is that it's very expensive.
Other interesting authors and books:
Already Free: Buddhism Meets Psychotherapy on the path of liberation - Bruce Tift (yellow+turquoise)
Mindsight - Daniel J Siegel
Gabor Maté
...
There are many more that I could list here, but I actually think it's best for all of you to focus on the ones that I have already mentioned (too much information can be distracting). All the people that these 2 podcasts interview can be good resources.
 
@Leo Gura if you are open for feedback: I think that the relationship books in your list are pretty bad lol , which makes sense because you were mostly on stage orange when you created this list (I think).
The way of the superior man: this book can be very shaming in my opinion and is male chauvinist (even though I loved it when I read it years ago and it has some beautiful insights). My perception today is that it has very poor relationship teachings. Chapters like: Don't force the feminine to make decisions, Praise her, What she wants is not what she says, Her complaint is content-free, She wants to relax in the demonstration of your direction and etc are pretty bad (very blue/orange). Real relational teachings teach you to be with your wounds and emotions, there's very little of that here. I think Deida is a case of someone that maybe has done lots of waking up (maybe not even that), but hasn't done much growing up.
The 5 Love languages: IMO this is stage blue relationship garbage... the 5 love languages are actually feeding people's egos/shame in most situations. Even though it has a "positive effect" in the short-run, it feeds falsehood in the long run. Example: someone's love language is Words of Affirmation - if you go deep enough, you'll see that the person was traumatized into thinking that he/she is only worthy, lovable when receiving compliments from other people. It's like telling a model that she's beautiful, she'll feel good about it, but it's feeding her shame instead of dealing with it.
Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus / The 7 Principles That Make Marriage Work / He's Just Not That Into You - these books are very orange and don't give actual tools for people to heal their relational wounds and move towards healthy relationships.
Let me know how this lands for you! 
 
If anyone has questions or wants more suggestions and advice, let me know!
Relationships are such an incredible way to deal with our shadows, especially long term partnerships. And of course, such an important part of life that cannot be avoided. I hope this helps some of you to grow up in the relational area of your lives. 
Lots of love fellow seekers,
Gabriel. 
 
 
 

@Cykaaaa@The observer
Materialist = Spiral Dynamics stage ORANGE person.
Example: An imaginary dialogue between Leo Gura and a materialist. 
Leo Gura: On psychedelics, you can begin to see that everything is conscious and that you are connected to everything.
Materialist: *intention to better understand* But Leo couldn't that just be the effect of your brain experiencing the psychedelic compound as the neurotransmitter oxytocin. It is known that oxytocin is the bonding chemical, so couldn't your perception of "everything is connected" be explained by that perceived increase in oxytocin? 
 
Materialist: *intention to bond with Leo + to better understand* What you're saying is truly magical! I agree with you, that is what appears to be the case, however I have a question, couldn't your perception of "everything is connected" be explained by the psychedelic compound mimicking the neurotransmitter oxytocin? I'm not saying you're wrong I just want to see what you think. Anyways thanks for even sharing these wonderful insights! You're the best ❤️
 
Materialist: *intention to prove Leo wrong* Leo, you're blind to the reality that this experience of connection is simply because the psychedelic compound mimics the neurotransmitter oxytocin. This means that when you experience everything as bonded and connected its because your neurotransmitters make you feel that way.
 
Materialist: *Intention to conform + to better understand* Yes, on psychedelics everything seems connected I agree with you, however maybe this connectedness could be a result of the psychedelics mimicking oxytocin...I'm not sure though.
 
Materialist: *intention to dominate Leo* What are you a fucking idiot? Woo-woo piece of shit. You just want to believe that because you're an emotional little snowflake. The reality is that psychedelic compounds mimic the neurotransmitter oxytocin and that tricks you into thinking everything is connected. Pathetic girly snowflake.
 
Same idea, different intention. Same world view, different intention. 
 
Fundamentally the "OTHER" (opposite of "SELF") oriented intentions of communication (SECOND and FOURTH) seek to agree so they will not be manifest in a form of confrontation. FOURTH seeks to agree and connect/bond and SECOND seeks to agree and conform. 
 
 
 
 

Lower your standards and push yourself to talk to her anyway.
Sex in real life is very different than watching porn.
The arousal itself is very different too. The real-life arousal is MUCH stronger. When you get her naked in real-life, even if she's not that pretty, you will still get super turned on, more so than any porn you've ever watched. Because the "realness" of it alone will turn you on.
You can have hot real-life sex even with not so hot girls.
One of the most important things I had to learn in pickup is to lower my standards, A LOT! My standards were so damn high it was hard to approach anyone because they were not hot enough. You have to drop that.
Also keep in mind, many girls are much hotter naked than they seem dressed walking down the street. The clothing hides the hot curves. And many girls don't dress hot.
Also keep in mind, that as you get to know and like her personality, you will find her more hot and you will get more turned on by her physically. It's not all about looks. The more comfortable you get around her, the more turned on she will make you. You may not be immediately turned on my a random girl walking down the street. It can take time to realize how hot a girl really is.

The body only exists so long as you're imagining it.
With mahasamadhi you'd stop imagining everything, including your body. So technically your body would not even drop dead, because you'd stop imagining that too. The entire universe would simply disappear, as if it never existed outside your mind.
What happened to the dream world when you woke up from last night's dream? Did your dream body drop dead? Did the dream characters all see you die? NO! It was a fucking dream. You woke up! The end.
Now if you want, you can dream a new dream. Or just hang around in Infinite Awakeness forever. Makes no difference really. Do whatever the fuck you want.

Technically, "permanence" is a dualistic notion which does not apply to awakening. You can awaken for 1 second or 100 years, and it makes no difference to God. God is a thing which dreams and awakens and dreams and awakens and keeps oscillating between various degrees of that forever.
By all means, pursue "permanent" awakening. But don't use that to deny the validity of "temporary" awakenings. One is not any more valid than the other.
A common mistake I see people make is that if an awakening is temporary they demonize it as invalid or illusory when that just isn't true or helpful. Be happy for any awakening, even if it only lasts 1 second. Don't demonize it. 1 second is better than 0 seconds. Even 1 second will leave its mark on you.

But if you only have 1 passion in life, to me that means something is wrong. Out of all this stuff you can do in life, you're only passionate about 1 thing??? This is so limited. You should have more passions than you have time in the day to follow up on them.
FALL IN LOVE WITH LIFE!
Imagine if someone only had 1 favorite video game and refused to play any others. We'd think this is so limited and sad. That's my reaction when someone says they only have 1 passion.

Without passions, what will you do once you awaken?
You see, after awakening life still continues. Chop wood, carry water, follow your passions.
There's really no good alternative to following your passions. The alternative is a dull life.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that passion and awakening are somehow mutually exclusive. Just the opposite! The greatest spiritual masters are passionate people! And their passion is not limited to teaching or talking about reality.
This is why my LP Course is still valid, even if you pursue enlightenment.

Of course they do! 
That's what I mean by their bias.
What must be understood is that this is a function of culture. CNN operates within a culture. American culture as a whole defines the playing field for large business. A large business can only survive and thrive if it serves the larger mainstream culture, which is stage Orange. To achieve this, CNN must hire Orange employees, anchors, and managers. So CNN is fully enmeshed in the larger matrix of American culture. In this sense CNN has an establishment stage Orange bias. Not because they want to manufacture propaganda but because they are children of the larger culture and so they end up reinforcing it unwittingly. They paint Bernie as negative because he is too different to what they are used to, and they don't have a good sense of vision into the next level of where culture is headed. It is not in their financial interest to have a progressive vision.
When we are talking about Sanders winning, we are really talking about changing culture, which is very hard to do because culture has homeostasis. Culture resists change. So of course mainstream media will not be embracing Bernie with hugs and kisses. They will look at him skeptically and dismissively. Why would a successful CNN anchor who lives a good life and works his ass off to build his career risk rocking the boat? He reinforces the culture which allowed him to be successful. This is just survival 101. You might as well be asking him to put a gun to his head.
But Sander's job is to bust through all that resistance. That's why evolution is hard and slow. It's not because of evil eiltes per se. The evil elites are just children of the deeper problem, which is the culture.

This is pretty much the definition of a meta-source and by default stage yellow.
This guy puts effort into properly summarizing books, some shortly some more extensively. Some of his read choices are top notch personal development books.
Ever heard of a book for a long time but never took the time to read through it ? Look up for the summary here and perhaps by skimming the wisdom you will get motivated into reading the actuall book.
Enjoy and thank the writer!

https://blas.com/

This question is still being asked from fear. You are looking for an answer at the level of survival while the real answer is at the level of metaphysics.
Have the courage to not feed this fear-based scenario.
Imagine instead that you are such a good person that no one wants to attack you. And if they do, you will be calm enough to endure it. And if they kill you, you will die happy.
After all, even if you are Connor McGregor, I can still just shoot you with a taser and slit your throat with zero training.
You can NEVER win the battle of securing yourself. That's what the wise understand. So they give up that fantasy.
The irony, as with guns, is that you are much more likely to get damaged by your martial training than getting attacked on the street while defenseless.
One bad flip or punch can give your brain damage or ruin your spine. And you will be doing thousands of them in training.
Yes
But you ain't there. We are trying to guide you there. You won't get there by being stuck in fear.
Going defenseless is a great spiritual practice. Is there risk? Of course. That's the point! You consciously bite that bullet.

It can be helpful to expand ones understanding of intelligence. Viruses are not intelligent, memes are not intelligent, rather Intelligence works through these phenomena. The same is true for things like machine learning. It is not the machine that is intelligent, it is the very nature of the way it is learning that contains intelligence.
The things that we call intelligent do not contain intelligence, rather they are expressions of a more inherent intelligence. The same is true for things like evolution, consciousness etc.
We basically got it flipped. Albert Einstein was not intelligent, rather intelligence worked through Albert Einstein and manifested as the mind of Albert Einstein. The most pure intelligence is found in the Causeless Cause, intelligence really being Creativity.
 
With this understanding, there is no such thing that is seperate from intelligence. All things are expressions of Intelligence or Creativity. Including the atoms, rocks, clothes, plants, space-time and everything else.

Mergers and Acquisition Notes; Why The Only Way to Mega Wealth is To Buy Businesses

There is a stat out there that 85-95% of ALL startups fail. Yet business schools teach entrepreneurship centered around the idea of "start your own business?"

I'm not going to talk about why most businesses fail, nor waste your time- there's a lot of reasons why, and a lot of books why they fail- but the point is they fail so don't even waste your time looking into why.

What we're talking about is Mergers and Acquisitions, here's a short list of all the names of people who got rich from this process:

Warren Buffett Charlie Munger, Sam Zell, Donald Trump, Henry Kravis, John D. Rockefeller, Sr. Andrew Carnegie, Ray Kroc, Richard Branson, Elon Musk (he didn’t found Tesla or Solar City...), Steve Jobs (started Apple, but purchased Pixar)

It's not the top 1% that do this. It's literally the top of the top 1% it's more like the .000001% of people do this-- and frankly, with enough due diligence, the process is EASY. Emotionally extremely fucking difficult but it is a straight path.

You literally don't necessarily even need money to do this model...

Which should be mindblowing to hear.

ITS THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN where YOU DON'T NEED MONEY-- AND YOU STILL CAN BECOME a millionaire, a multi-millionaire, a billionaire, A MULTI BILLIONAIRE.

We aren't even talking about the tech startups, Facebook, Amazon, Google, etc etc.... 

So all of this said, can you make a 6 figure business from scratch? In my opinion yes it's incredibly easy to do-- a monkey could do that. Longevity wise, maybe not, but at least in the first 2-4 years you could probably be a terrible human being and still easily make 6 figures online.

But if you're talking about WEALTH CREATION, making some sheckles, getting some COIN. This is one of the only games in town that doesn't take you 10-25 years to do. I personally have an acquaitence that became a millionaire with WITH only 30k of skin in the game, in 7 months. He started M&A's in October, he closed his first deal around May if I remember correctly. The deal was close to 2 million.

He now owns Mobile Home Parks, and is rolling up 2 new businesses as we speak- he was a PICKUP coach before this guys lol-- he didn't call it that, an intimacy expert lol, but he was just goofing off for a year in Colombia and decided he was going to take the leap.

How does this model work?

It's built off of
OPT (other people's time)
OPM (other peoples money)

Something like only 3-5% of companies in the US reach more than $1million in revenue a year... so why would you try to build a business from scratch? My friends and I talk about this all the time honestly, and a lot of my friends are in this 3-5% range that did it... and we say man... looking at this all over again, fuck building a business....

“I would rather earn 1% off a 100 people's efforts than 100% of my own efforts.” – John D. Rockefeller 

But success leaves clues-- THAT'S WHY THE RICHEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD ALL HAVE THIS ONE THING IN COMMON-- they don't build businesses, they BUY THEM.

How to Make M&A's Work

Find businesses that have potential, but suffer from their bad sales and marketing. Also realize we live in an era of boomers retiring but not having anyone out there to pickup their business for them... What this means for entrepreneurs is that there is a wealth of opportunity with significant negotiations and price leveraging possible on the market place.