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@Nervtine I never really used the model to consciously try to transcend some colour and reach the next one. I'm far from an expert on the spiral map, so I'm just gonna describe the stages to the best of my understanding. I think I have aspects of orange, green, yellow and turquoise. Orange because there's still some sense of wanting to get more for myself at the expense of other's suffering. Some sense of others' suffering not always registering fully when I'm not seeing it first hand. The green aspect I have is getting emotional about liberal causes. Getting pleasure out of green criticism of blue and orange. For example, I like to watch Sam Seder or Bill Maher or Noam Chomsky criticize conservatives and libertarians. I look down on blue and orange a lot, with significant emotional weight. That said there's also plenty of yellow. The motive for transitioning to yellow is this: everyone is fighting another from their own bubble. Blue and orange attack green. Yet also green attacks them back. And in both cases, a lot of it is very petty. And all the stages have legitimate things they deny and don't include. The narrow-mindedness of sticking to and identifying with one ideology, even liberalism, becomes apparent. The biggest challenge in transcending fully to yellow is all the deep-seated emotional issues. Hatred of injustice. Hatred of dogma. Hatred of greed. Hatred of blind emotion. All the dislikes you have of the stages you're transcending. Because in order to deeply embody yellow, you truly have to get how all the lower stages have legitimate reasons for how they are. To such an extent that you can't get angry at them any more. I actually don't think a true lack of anger and looking down on others is possible before turquoise. So yellow seems more of an intellectual bridge to turquoise than a stage that can be fully embodied. The motive for transcending to turquoise is: intellect cannot truly understand the world. It is very limited. It is impossible to take into consideration everything and make the right call. All this knowledge you have of supposed facts about the world - it's just best guesses and intuition. You can't know what's actually true. However, you can work on throwing away what's clearly wrong. All your judgments. All the ways in which you make things about yourself. All the ways in which you're not truly seeing the world for what it is. So, embodiment of turquoise seems ultimately synonymous with purifying your mind, clearing your karma. With the end goal of having nothing of that left.

@Annoynymous Because expectations open you up to experiencing disappointment. Getting angry at others, even. Bitter at life. Depressed. And so on. Letting go of them is about awareness. You can't just drop them. Be aware of how you place expectations on situations, experiencing, people. And be aware of how it feels when reality doesn't match your expectations. Then, over time, some of the pattern of expectation-disappointment can start to fall away. This pattern goes very deep.

@legendary I used to be a student of Mr. Esmann for a bit in the past. In any case I disagree with him and Campbell. I do think there is a liberation, as karma is not infinite. Vast, yes, not infinite. Eventually, the karma down to the deepest fears, as well as individuation, is purged. And then there's no more craving. According to Theravada Buddhism at least, which I find in my experience to be very legitimate so far.

@CelticQueen17 Times when I've felt similarly, sure. It's one of the worse feelings in my experience. Of course, it comes from our own expectations placed on others. In order to be let down, you have to expect something of a person. Consider what those things are, that you've been let down on. Other people are who they are, as long as we don't think they should do x, y, z, we won't be let down. Life may still be full of loneliness sadness and suffering in other ways, but it's a good step.

@Marshal The need for approval, love and understanding is a very deep-rooted issue people share. It's a futile craving, because it'll never be enough. Even if some like you, or understand you to some extent, it ain't enough. Nobody can ever fully understand you, because they can never try on your consciousness. They just have their own. As you strive to be aware you will see that, and that should gradually wear out this mechanism. Complete eradication of it is a very tall order and takes a deep extent of enlightenment, but hopefully you'll see some improvement quicker than that. It's also good to contemplate why you seek approval in specific situations and become more aware of that. I'm not too knowledgeable on more surface-level personal development techniques to reduce the trouble this issue causes you, but it's a good idea to look into them as well if you wish. Building confidence, self-esteem and such.

@Jed Vassallo Can't really say if there's any credibility to this report. It just bluntly lists some serious allegations. No info as to where those are taken from. Anywho, problematic gurus are not a new thing. The problem with a guru is, they get elevated to a god-like status by their students and followers, which allows them to have vast power over other people. My first idea is I am all about teachers discouraging and trying to avoid the creation of such dynamic, which is vastly unhealthy. I can't say whether they don't do this because it's too much effort, or whether they don't do it because they desire the power of gurudom. I guess it depends on the case. It takes a purified mind to not abuse the power a guru has. Many so-called gurus have lots of issues still to deal with. The ability to control, have sex etc can become very strong temptations. Be the facts as they may, Mooji is nowhere near a living embodiment of full enlightenment, which is apparent in his lack of understanding of pain and human suffering. Many non-dual teachers tend to get stuck in their own bubble that is removed from the real world. Bullshitting yourself and avoiding growth is in a sense easier to do in a non-dual state.

@28 cm unbuffed It is perhaps more readily graspable that a person can rid themselves of a certain egoic pattern that is making them suffer. As an example, people can manage to stop feeling insecure about some stupid thing like their nostril shape. They can drop their fixation on that. Now, it isn't that much of a stretch to say such eradication of fear-based patterns can be achieved on a bigger scale. Enlightenment is simply the most radical possibility in that same domain, the culmination of shedding all your different fears.

^ A high-consciousness end doesn't justify low-consciousness means

@CelticQueen17 I feel it's pointless to give much thought to the "no other people" thing. Yes, being an individual independent of other people is a blockage, a misperception. But it's a very deep one. You can't overcome it by trying to act like there are no other people and it's all you. Because the mind doesn't actually believe it. Believing you're a separate individual goes very deep, way beyond conscious thought, and truly getting past that takes a lot more than having an awakening. For the while other people are a real thing to you, just extend to others the understanding and considerateness you'd give yourself, and extend to yourself the understanding and considerateness you'd give others.

@Peo I don't know what the truth is. Presumably we can find out once there's no more ego to distort anything. The non-dual states people experience on the path are simulations of the truth at best. They aren't untainted by mind.

@Ingit 1. Tell him how his behaviour made you feel, and that it's not okay. 2. If it doesn't stop, don't hang out with that person. It'll be good for you to set boundaries on this, even if it costs you that person's company. Setting boundaries means the willingness to walk away if you aren't given the respect you demand. It's not in any way wrong of you to do so - human decency isn't much to demand really. Good luck.

@Peo@Peo There are different non-dual states and experiences that occur for people. Emptiness or feeling like you're nothing, feeling like everything's nothing, feeling like you're everything, feeling the presence of God, feeling like everything's God etc. Don't take any of them for the truth. They're just stuff that happens on the path.

@Monkey-man Being in a non-dual state doesn't mean much. You can experience or "be conscious of" nothingness, unity, god, whatever. However. Your mind is conditioned. You have plenty of karma. Even people who've had the changes in perception that get called enlightenment can have plenty of psychological issues. You may say everything is one, or see it to some extent, but your behaviour can still be self-serving in many ways. Purification doesn't just happen with an enlightenment experience, or spending time in a non-dual state. It is a long process requiring a certain drive and openness. You can reach a non-dual state and close off, pretend everything is perfect and that you have no flaws, and that there's nothing more to do, remaining stuck like that indefinitely.

Yea, you should take it easy and see how it goes. Self-judgment is a big thing with social anxiety, judgments you make about yourself being projected as if others were (presumably) making them. I wrote a response to someone about self-acceptance on this same sub-forum, maybe you can find it if you look through my post history.

@Buba The reason for being moral on the path is clarity. When you're absorbed in selfishness, acting on selfish impulses, the way you see the world is heavily perverted. That perversion doesn't allow you to see through your ego and start dropping it. Selfishness will either leave you stuck or even take you further away from enlightenment. When you have the intent to act morally, by not making things about yourself, by seeking to see the world from outside your selfish narrative, you start to see through all the distortions your mind creates. As you do that, you slowly drop those distortions, until your ego, your karma runs out.

As long as you have a degree of stability, I don't think it matters so much. I have low self-esteem because it's become deep-rooted through life, but replacing it with a strong sense of self just seems so transparently bs. I gradually do accept myself more and all that, but creating a strong self-esteem seems like a mechanism of compensation at this point, which will just build more blockages and ego that get in the way.

@KyleR I've had social anxiety for as long as I can remember. Definitely had it less as a small kid. Was probably worst around middle school. Since then, it has gradually gotten somewhat better as I recognized on a logical level I don't have to conform to other's needs and built a conscious world on top of that, but that doesn't really overwrite the anxiety as it is very deep-rooted. Despite making progress on my other issues and being in a non-dual state, anxiety is one of those things that are yet to go, because I haven't really faced and uncovered the root causes behind it. If you want to get rid of it for good, you have to become conscious of why it exists. Therapy can help with that I'd imagine, as does meditation and gradually feeling your fears and the ideas behind them. As for things practical things that can lessen it, I've heard an effective strategy is exposing yourself to more social situations in baby-steps. Just take a very small thing that makes you uneasy but that you could pull off. Saying hi to someone, asking how they're doing, asking about some school/university related thing if you're in school or university, etc. Do that in several instances until the anxiety around it calms down to some degree. Then take a next, bigger step. And so on. Gradually exposing yourself to more and more can add up a lot over time. If your anxiety is very debilitating and you find yourself unable to take any sort of action against it, medication could be a good temporary boost. I used to take an SNRI antidepressant with the active ingredient venlafaxinum for depression-related reasons for a bit, and it definitely boosted my confidence. Any antidepressant that affects noradrenaline in addition to serotonin should. Keeping a growth-oriented mindset, you'd want to use the boosted confidence to do some actual work, so you can eventually handle things without the drug. Maybe some of this helps. Gl.

@Elia It hurts because you care. It is a tough thing to deal with and definitely something I've struggled with. In my case, I had trouble accepting the notion that a good person could reject me, or consider me flawed or bad. Because a good person should be understanding of me, etc. I had the desire to thus make them a bad person in my mind, which I couldn't genuinely do. What can help is taking yourself out of the equation. Consider their needs. And that people lack understanding of one another and often aren't compatible. It's not a moral condemnation of you as a person. It's just them attending to their needs, which include not having you in their life. It's hard not to take personally, but work on seeing the big picture. You can definitely imagine people you'd not want around, even though you have nothing personal against them.

@electroBeam Using violence, especially in retribution for a non-violent act is definitely red.

@LoveandPurpose Weed causes anxiety and panic attacks in some people. I don't recommend using it, especially if such is the case. Existential fear is totally normal. Of course I can't know how bad it is in your case. You've got to gauge for yourself how much you can handle and how much could make you trip/lose it. I've experienced a lot of fear and anxiety on the path for months, but there's been enough stability to handle it for the most part. I'd say if something is starting to seriously fuck up your functionality and ability to deal with daily things, you should chill. Generally, the more responsibilities you have, the chiller you should take the path. Going through tough shit can make you grow and mature a lot, but of course don't be stupid and ruin your career etc over it.

@OmniYoga It's a good idea to read everyone, as words are given meaning by the emotions behind them. There are generally differences in the ways men and women tend to express themselves. From the male point of view it could seem to you like women are more dishonest, but that's because you don't see the world from where they're coming from. Humanity at large lacks honesty and self-awareness. The PUA community and the manosphere do not measure high in those attributes either.

@MM1988 No particular recommendation, just check out some feminist youtubers/speakers/authors or sites.

@Viking To put it simply. It is good to have a degree of mental stability for spiritual pursuit, as the path is emotionally difficult. If you have stability issues, I don't recommend you use psychedelics or kriya yoga. They aren't a must anyway. Regular meditation techniques to the extent you can handle them are good. And take it easy on the nofap, as long as you don't waste time fapping several times daily, fapping shouldn't affect your life too much. I'd say we get truly serious about spirituality once we have enough wisdom to see any attempt at finding fulfilment in life is bound to fail. Make your own choices based on that info.

@lmfao Chakras are a real thing. I'm not into kriya yoga so I can't speak about the technicalities of visualizing them and doing chakra exercises etc. All I can say is I've had activity or purging in areas corresponding to chakras for over a year.

Lol ! I love you.