Breathe

@The Crocodile That doesn't work. The cartels just take over the legal businesses.

The media appeals to your fears and hopes. That's how they make their money

Greg Goode is another good one. I think he taught Philosophy. He wrote a small book titled Standing as Awareness. He wrote another one, but I think SaW was a better book.

The videos on this channel are phenomenal. The music sucks, IMO, but the visuals are top notch. Well done.

I loved that one. Probably not for everyone new to this stuff unless they're wired a certain way. Adya and Tolle would prob be a little more palatable to a noob with certain curiosities or inclinations.

While I do think that women are better feelers than men, I'm not sure that feeling is necessarily a "female" trait. Men in today's societies are taught not to feel. They are too "manly" to feel. You FEEL your way on the spiritual path, be self-aware. In that regard, women have an advantage. A self-aware male can in time learn this skill of feeling.

No, confusion shows that the mind has no idea what's going on. Confusion shows you not to trust or entertain thought anymore. You cannot figure this shit out.

It'll pass. Try not to isolate. Be responsible. Take care of your health. Don't trash your life. Spiritual bypassing can really fuck your shit up.

I was really into Jed's books for a while. They did some good in the sense that it made me realize how little I actually know. However, I see a lot of people become inthralled by Jed's confidence and his feelings of superiority because they want that for themself. He grew a cult-like following of really unhealthy seekers. What I've learned over the years is to trust teachers who are kind, direct, humble, competent, trustworthy. Ultimately, choose a teacher who you admire, and not just for egoic reasons. I don't know you, but many fall into the trap of following a teacher simply based on charisma. You see this in politics too, it's a common dynamic. Why trust a teacher who isolates and doesn't give a fuck about anyone?

Depends on what you mean by liberal policies. I think it's going to be at least 8 years before dems win office again and that's being generous. Conservatives are going to pump disinformation and propaganda into the public on levels we've never seen before. People don't know their ass from the sky right now and this is only going to get worse. The rich will get even richer and the poor will get poorer but the conservative lower/middle class be too focused on religion and 2nd amendment rights. "Gimme guns, gimme Jesus" because that's what matters more than real issues. Other tactics will include blame on the Biden's administration for economic issues which will buy conservatives more time in the Whitehouse. Elon publicly said that economically things are going to be rough for a while. I would not be surprised if the conservative base is told to "hang in there and be patriots" or some shit until things get better. Of course, this will not likely happen. I'm concerned about the media. Who knows what kind of censorship we are going to see. We may seem changes to the constitution. If not, the supreme court will interpret it in ways that only benefit the Republican Party. New voter suppression tactics will guarantee republican wins for some time. I suspect at some point the economy will be so disastrous that it can no longer be ignored. Dems are going to have to go back to the drawing board, drop everything, and focus solely on the economy to get votes. Anything even remotely perceived as "radical" or "far left" will prevent dems from taking office again. And, when dems do finally take office, it's going to be an absolute nightmare to undo the shitstorm of a mess that the repblican party made. Brace for impact. Anyways, that's my prediction.

I'd combine what @Leo Gura and @Joshe said. Read decent journalism for current events. As you read you will come across terms you do not understand. Use that as leverage to take a deeper dive into those concepts. At first you won't understand much of what you read. But over time the gaps will fill in and shit will start to click. Initially, you will have to push through the challenge of learning something new. But over time you start to enjoy it and become more curious. As time progresses you will have deeper insight into the human psyche and societies at large. This is when the learning becomes very rewarding. There is no end to the depth of knowledge.

Some have said that the war was about protecting democracy, and some say that it was about sending a message to the Putin and others that we aren't going to let them bully Europe. None of this is adding up.

This is a newer video, but Graham has been a proponent of backing Ukraine because of their minerals for a while. I heard this a while back so I always suspected this was the case. What I don't understand is, if we knew about the minerals, who the fuck is backing Ukraine explicitly for their minerals? Republicans? Democrats? What is Trump's stance? Republicans have been very outspoken about ending aide for Ukraine, and Trump is stuck on fondling Putin's nuts, so I just don't understand WTF is going on here.

Take each case as it comes. Some people you can talk to about politics, some you can't. I have very delusional family members who I refuse to discuss politics with. Politics can tear down relationships so you have to decide which is more important to you. Being right, or the relationship. Some people are open to hearing and considering facts. For others, facts don't matter at all. I personally no longer feel like I have to convince anyone of anything now that I understand that peoples' minds don't change easily. I show this video to a lot of people to back up what I am currently saying in this thread. It is literally called "Facts don't win fights." What I find is that the facts in this video fall on deaf ears and people will deny these facts despite the research that has been done on the subject. Enjoy

I'm familiar with Barry. What did he have to say about Zen not being healthy? The quote you posted seems more like an existential koan that alludes to the fact that we have no control. Thy will, not my will be done.