Apparition of Jack

Reality IS a paradox

@Bjorgan Why not be your own solid masculine frame? Having external role models is nice but there's no reason you can't manifest yourself to be the sort of presence you see lacking in the world.

@Eren Eeager On the surface libertarianism might seem reasonable. A lot of our hassle in modern life has to do with government red tape, wouldn't getting rid of it make everything better? < That's the logic anyway. What libertarians fail to see is just how necessary red tape and regulations are to creating a safe, well-functioning society. It's not a coincidence that most libertarians tend to be white and male, since these two groups are often the most oblivious to just how necessary government is, since these people are the ones that have it easiest in society when it comes to job opportunities, wealth, education, etc. and don't see just how much they benefit from government.

@Hello from Russia Liberals believe in social freedoms like gay marriage and marijuana use, but will also support a degree of government intervention into the economy such as public housing or minimum wages to prevent it from being too cruel on workers. Libertarians usually also believe in social freedoms (although some can be conservative), but will oppose almost all government interventions into the economy because they believe the free market is the "fairest" method of distributing resources. If it ends up being cruel they don't usually see that as a problem.

I’ve found my intuition often resides in my gut, hence “gut feeling.” Sometimes if I’m unsure of the right course of action instead of focusing on my mind I’ll focus on my gut instead, and I’ll get a clearer picture. Also keep in mind the devil will try to trick you with it’s own fake version of it intuition. Let’s say you’re feeling lonely and your friend invites you to a party, however you’ve been developing yourself so the idea of drinking doesn’t appeal to you that much, and your gut is even saying you won’t enjoy it. However, there might also be another voice saying “Go, you might meet some spiritual people there!” It doesn’t matter that you can feel that no one there will be interested in spirituality, the devil is trying to come up with excuses to get you to go so you don’t have to deal with that loneliness, which might even be beneficial for you to face that night. Whether you’ll listen to the devil or not depends on how conscious you’re prepared to be in any given situation and how much you’ve refused to listen to it before.

@Dazgwny Probably best if you posted this in its own thread

@Husseinisdoingfine Being self-depreciating is a good way to make yourself seem less threatening and less egotistical to other people, and hence more likely to listen to you. Of course sometimes it's good to show a sense of self-confidence too, but it all has to do with context

I wouldn't call Spain or Portugal Green, they might have a couple of Green parties but the average population is closer to Blue/Orange. They're still dealing with the fallout from authoritarianism that only ended ~40 years ago which is relatively recent by Euro standards.

@Robi Steel Way, wayy too much ideology, stage Blue conservatism and 4D chess dude. I know you're young and you're just starting out your political journey, but frankly - and this is going to sound a little mean - but your political analysis is hopeless. I know I'm just a random guy on the internet, but if you want my advice, I'd say one of the biggest things you're lacking at this stage is the ability to listen deeply to other's perspectives and adapt your worldview accordingly. If I were you, I'd focus on doing exercises to increase my ability to be non-judgemental, to see things from other's perspectives, to become aware of my biases, and so on. Honestly, these skills will be crucial if you really want to push your life to the absolute maximum, otherwise you run the risk of living a half-assed life. Up to you.

@Leo Gura Jesus fucking Christ I know I shouldn't be surprised but still...

@Enlightenment Let me ask you a question - why do you think black people commit more crime than white people statistically speaking? Why would you be more likely to commit crime if you were a black man than if you were a white man? What conditions would exist around you that would make that more likely?

@rnd Denial? By loudly proclaiming to do the opposite of what you really do, you can pretend to feel better about the bad stuff that you do. "I'm SUCH a health freak!" is a good way to avoid thinking about the fact that you've just eaten your third chocolate cake this week.

I see social media and the internet at large as kind of like being cars. When cars were first invented, people driving them was a pretty chaotic affair. Things like speed limits, traffic lights, seat belts, etc., as well as just the general attitude of "good behaviour" one has when driving a car, all hadn't been invented, and as a result there was an absurdly high number of crashes and fatalities associated with them. It was only after time, through a process of trial and error, did humanity start to regulate the use of cars (both collectibely and individually) so that they could be both safe and effective. The same thing is happening with the internet. The internet is at most only about 30 years old, and as far as mass adoption of it you're looking at 15 to 20 years maximum. That's still really early days for a technology that has had such a massive impact on our ways of life. Of course mistakes were going to be made. People have gotten addicted to it, used it for all sorts of nefarious purposes, made terrible decisions on it, been taught the wrong things about it, weaponised it, etc. Major companies have even exploited evolutionary psychology to make more profits from it, if that doesn't tell you how immature we've been with it I don't know what does. What I think we're starting to see the beginning of though is a major effort to try and regulate it (both through laws and our own personal behaviour) so that the worst effects of this new access to communication are mitigated. I think the idea the internet being a place where it's acceptable to just be a random online troll is slowly fading away, and people are realising that the internet more or less forms a core part of our social identities now. When I log on to twitter these days what I think I am witnessing is a creeping recognition that what you say has real-world consequences, even if it's online, and that when you have too many people being assholes to each other constantly everyone suffers as a result. Of course, since this is still a new process these efforts are going to be rather crude and blunt at first and it'll come across as needlessly puritanical and hair-triggered, but over time people will just begin to accept that internet interaction has to be polite and respectful as the rule.

Now that would trigger stage Blue

The way I look at socialism vs capitalism is less of a question about economics (otherwise you could call the USSR a capitalist country and the US a socialist one) and more of a question about mindset / cultural attitudes. A self-described socialist, if you sat them down and talked about the need for markets, the efficiency of private innovation, the complexities of running a big business, etc. they'd probably eventually come around and say you have a point. Likewise, if you told a self-described capitalist about the need for collective programs, public housing, strong worker's rights, etc. they'd eventually come around and say you'd have a point too. In terms of pure economics, the two systems are quite malleable. However, that socialist and that capitalist would still feel like they're a socialist or capitalist, but won't be able to explain why. And again I think it's because these things are cultural attitudes, not economic ones. A socialist person will tend to favour co-operation, community efforts, putting their needs aside for the "greater good", ending arbitrary hierarchies, and so on. A capitalist person will tend to favour competition, individual efforts, putting their desires first, maximising their own power, and so on. The thing is really, you can do both of these things no matter what political system you're under. An ambition entrepeneur in a capitalist country will turn into an ambitious party member in a socialist country, and a worker's manager in a socialist country will turn into a worker's activist in capitalist country. So while it's true that economically, all countries have always had a mix of socialism and capitalism, I think there has to be a very real mindset shift from individualist, capitalist-ic mindset to a more communalist, socialist-ic mindset, if we're going solve the problems of racism, climate change, inequality, etc. People will naturally have to be more community and co-operation-oriented rather than individual and competition-oriented, regardless of what name you give the system they're living under. This is of course the shift from Orange to Green, which will require a lot of visionary ideas in terms of politics, economics, art, music, culture, relationships, spirituality, etc. in order to fully manifest. The average human of 100 years from now will be a naturally more co-operative and community-oriented than the average human today. At least, I hope so.

@Nick_98 I don't know about other people, but plants have a very conscious energy to me and being around them always helps me feel centered / awake / calm etc. I'm not sure about plants themselves awakening you, but I would say that being around them might raise your consciousness and make you susceptible to getting deeper insights than you would have if you were just around man-made stuff all the time.

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying throw the baby out with the bathwater. I'm not saying we should get rid of technology, civil rights, material wealth or anything like that. I personally enjoy having access to world-class healthcare and stable judiciary systems for instance, plus I love movies, video games, etc. I just think we could also add a lot to our understanding of reality and society by incorporating the last arts of energy work, esotericism, bhakti, long-form poetry, divination, astrology, dream work, alchemy, etc. You don't even necessarily have to call them that, just so long as these methods are accepted and utilised properly. I've known people who've spent years struggling through counselors, psychiatrists, etc. who's problems could be solved if they instead just did some mushrooms or did a tarot reading to really pin-point the subconscious forces they were fighting against. I myself have been through the pyschiatric system and derived basically nothing useful from it. And it's not just like these are useful for people who are suffering deeply either, I see businessmen, bar tenders, game developers, etc. who are living otherwise "normal" lives but I can just tell they're struggling with inner apathy / anxiety / depression / confusion because they've never been given the tools to investigate their inner world and actually leave a more meaningful life. I barely hang out with people these days because it's just too depressing seeing how much potential is being wasted through a lack of knowledge about the inner world. Even people who are "happy" on the outside seem to just find their happiness through constant hedonism. And my point is that none of this is necessarily a problem in itself, the problem is that there's no social recognition of it, and that any effort to deal with it is seen as a "weird little hobby" at best, or downright confusing and dangerous at worst. If someone in India is struggling with depression or relationship issues or a career they hate or anything else like that, it's socially acceptable to go to your village yogi, and he or she will then analyse the situation, give you some cleansing activity to do, and the issue will be dealt with head-on then-and-there. In the West, however, it seems like your go-to response for any sort of inner turmoil is either scientific counseling, which (to me) is a dull and grey affair, abuse of substances (which is not only socially acceptable but actively encouraged), or you just become a sarcastic nihilist and brute-force your way through life. You can, of course, go to a New Age sharing circle or a desert festival and do mushrooms, and these are genuinely uplifting activities that truly benefit people, but they are still, at most, fringe activities that in many ways are still shunned by society at large. I think Bhikku Bodhi put it best when he said that the West is a materially first-world but a spiritually third-world civilisation. We've made a lot of progress in so many spheres, but a combination of our endless media cycle, alienation from nature, brute materialism as the mainstream metaphysical position and other factors have left our souls atrophied and traumatized. Perhaps I'm projecting a little here, but I truly do think that Westerners are by and large spiritually ignorant and immature. This is not to say that other cultures are somehow these spiritually-pure beings who laugh at us foolish materialists, god only knows how many problems there are in India, Nepal, etc., but I feel like there's a "sphere" of life that's accepted in these countries that isn't really at all in the West (not unless you're using very coded language and marketing it in terms that fits in with our predominantly-materialist paradigm.)

@Kailash Bhattarai Leo has said that he considers both David Pakman and Sam Seder as the most developed of the progressive youtube channels, so there's that

I kind of feel like it's part of my Life Purpose to help "re-spiritualise" the West, since for someone as spiritually sensitive as I am living here has been horrific at times. While I appreciate what Western culture has done in terms of law, technology, human right's etc. I feel like we're still missing out soo much that other cultures just know intuitively because we've just kind of forgotten about it or suppressed it for the last 500 years or so.

Yes, I'd imagine this is the case. Just look at how Hollywood willfully ignored Harvey Weinstein's abuses for several decades until the #MeToo movement eventually created enough moment to finally punish him for it. The entertainment industry has a lot of corruption. Systemic changes need to be made to stop cases like this from occurring.

@AtheisticNonduality The dad was making out with the son, LOL!

@Nak Khid Trumps ego is too dense for this to happen. If he did have a spontaneous awakening the experience would be so awful that he’d probably end up doubling-down on his devilry instead.

@Epikur I feel your problem seems to be that you seem more interested in making the world fit your paradigm than accepting the world for the way it is. Would a stage blue Republican be able to run New York if it was all white? Yes, probably, but the problem is that it isn’t all white, and hasn’t been for centuries. All the black, Chinese, Haitian, Lebanese, Puerto Rican, etc. New Yorkers are simply too embedded into NY society for anything other than multiculturalism to be feasible. And this is a growing reality across the whole world. Cheap travel, population growth, intertwined economies and migration have all made the world far more multi-cultural and multi-racial than its ever been. You can walk down a street in Toronto and pass a Sikh community hall, an anarchist library, a Chinese temple and a Christian church all within a few blocks of each other. The idea of mono-cultural nation-states is a dying idea that has to be abandoned if we’re going to meet our collective needs. And the point is this trend is inevitable. Non-duality makes it so. There’s no going back from this reality, so it’s either we adapt or die.

@Akemrelax The entertainment industry seems to be ripe with this kind of stuff. This particular example is disheartening but honestly not all that surprising, so while I can't speak for others I personally just don't have the energy to get worked up about it. I chalk this sort of behaviour down to an excess of unhealthy Orange attitudes towards sex and fame. There's enough people out there all trying to get shallow gratification based off their fame / status that eventually abuses like these are bound to happen.