Apparition of Jack

What Trump has done is nothing like claiming tax exemptions for donating to charity. What he has done is defraud the government of millions of dollars of his taxes over the years, which is illegal. There's a good reason why Trump, unlike Bush, Reagan or even Nixon, has refused to release his tax returns.

@The Don Finding loopholes is not the "law of the land." That's why they're called "loopholes." In a high-conscious society, no loopholes would exist.

@The Don It's so legal you'll go to prison for trying it https://taxfoundation.org/must-pay-federal-income-tax/

LOL

@The Don I'd like to hear your thoughts on what stage Green teaches us

Stage Red revenge/willpower reacting against Stage Blue rules and regulations:

So your beef is with relativism then? In that case, what, may I ask, is it about relativism that you disagree with specifically?

I never said that. In fact Green resonates with a lot of people. Look at Bernie Sander's movement. It's the biggest popular political movement in the US for 40 years and it's a solid Green. The issue is to get more people into Green, since it's Green wisdom that can match the complexities of our rapidly evolving world, moreso than Orange or Blue wisdom. Also, I think you're severely underestimating Green, if I may be honest. Green is not a group of cackling SJWs making fun of whoever isn't as "woke" as them on twitter, anymore than Blue is a group of fire-and-brimstone preachers who want to burn gay people at the stake and make everyone wear grey clothing. What you're presenting here is a bad caricature of Green that very rarely lines up with the reality of Green. Green is simply a recognition that cultures can be relative, that society's needs can't be fulfilled through private profit alone, that the environment is crucial to our well-being, and so on. Its the beginning of awareness of the inter-connected nature of our society, which is exactly what is becoming more and more true as globalisation increases. Logic, reasoning, meta-analysis, critical inquiry - these are all tools at Green's disposal. In fact, in the hands of a healthy Green person, they will become more effective than in the hands of a healthy Blue or Orange person. Just because it hasn't made the full jump to Tier 2, doesn't mean that Green isn't incredibly advanced as far as human development goes. There's a reason why it's the final stage in Tier 1, and why it's also the stage that Tier 2 comes out of.

That would be nice, but unfortunately it's just not realistic with the current political climate of the world today. Most people are still at stage Red/Blue/Orange, so the lofty, integral wisdom of Yellow would go completely overlooked. Plus, we're not talking about getting a handful of people into positions of power here, we're talking about changing the fundamental Spiral makeup of society. Leaders can only rise as much as their citizens allow them too, after all. I agree there's no need for unnecessary demonisation and mud-flinging, but you have to understand, Orange and Blue will fight back against Green no matter what. Even if Green came to the table with an open heart, open mind, good intentions, and warm and fuzzy feelings, Blue and Orange would just take advantage of that and go back to denying minorities their rights / dumping CO2 in the atmosphere / etc whilst laughing at those "silly Green hippies." We cannot solve our large-scale problems with nationalistic and profit-driven thinking. Yes, Yellow wisdom will play a part in all this, but they can only help insofar as they help bring up the Orange and Blue culture to a Green level of development so that this new Green culture can then fix our systemic problems. If Yellow simply tried to placate the lower stages through cautious mediations, all of these problems will still come to bite us in the ass.

@Nickyy Why the singling out of Green though? Orange and Blue - the two stages that currently dominate world politics - do everything you accuse Green of doing, and do it worse. Yes, Green has limitations, but it also has serious benefits, as it moves on and transcends the limitations of Orange and Blue that preceded it. And it's those benefits - a strong call to environmentalism, a desire for a more equitable distribution of wealth, a concern for cultures and nationalities outside of its native culture/nationality - are the sorts of ideas the world we need to navigate the turmoils of climate crisis, exuberant inequality, violent nationalism, and so on. This is also not to demonise Orange and Blue. These stages are necessary parts of the Spiral with their own internal wisdom. But as far as meeting the challenges of the 21st century, they are rapidly becoming out of date. If you're serious about Self-Actualisation, pushing into Green at this conjuncture in human history should be one of your top priorities, IMO.

@The Awakened Viking Yes, Green has limitations, but why focus on them now? Orange and Blue have limitations too, and it's those limitations that we're seeing are causing all of the major problems around the world with climate destruction, rising nationalism, etc. At this point in history, it's Green that the world needs. Just because it isn't perfect, that doesn't mean we can't just ignore it or try and skip it ahead because Yellow sounds "nicer" or "more rational." Embracing and embodying Green is a crucial part of the development processes.

He has the same message of compassion and kindness over and over again, but the Dalai Lama has always been one of my personal favourite teachers out there

To me, I think there's a spectrum of whether something is a cult or not, rather than just a cut-and-dry "they are" or "they aren't." To that end, I would say that Hare Krishnas display some cult-like behaviours, and depending on how deep you go with them these behavious can either become stronger or weaker. As with any organisation, it will seek to sustain itself in the face of things thats threaten its identity, which is when the cult-like behaviours can become stronger. I would say that overall they're relatively harmless at this point in history, and compared to some other religious/spiritual groups out there they're a lot more affable to people not wanting to be involved with them. Also, there is obviously inklings of truth to their message, otherwise no one would join them in the first place. But if you're serious about self-inquiry / self-actualisation / enlightenment work, there's probably not a whole lot you could gain from them that you couldn't gain way more succinctly from say, a non-sectarian yoga or vipassana retreat instead (that come without all the human baggage.)

If all you knew about Australia was from its popular media image, it would seem that way, but Australia actually has a lot of Blue that politicians and businesses have weaponised to keep the country from progressing. Overall, I would say Australia is at mostly Orange with a large Blue shadow and some growing hints of Green here and there. I would say compared to America, Australia has a more "flat" level of development than the US. There are Blue places in America which are very BLUE, and such a thing would be a rarity in Australia, but there are also many places in America which are deeply GREEN, which is also pretty rare for Aus. So while the polarities in America are larger, the overall development of the country might be slightly less than Australia as a whole.

I think this is a good case study of a country not being able to progress too much if the social systems of that country are undeveloped. Morales may have tried to be a great reformer, but because Bolivia is simply too stuck in stage Red/Blue, even he couldn't make that many changes and started acting corrupt himself. Spiral Wizardry would help here. Find whichever politician is the most advanced in Bolivia and support them, whatever their shortcomings may be. Otherwise, i predict troubles within the country for a long while to come.

I think we have to distinguish between "debating someone" (i.e. pointing out flaws in someone's reasoning, which even Leo does), and "having a debate" (i.e. setting up an argument between two sets of people with a pre-agreed upon position which needs to be supported/opposed), which is usually nothing more than mental masturbation for people with too much time on their hands. The first one can be a useful tool for awakening (assuming you're doing it with the intention of getting the other person to critically examine their worldview and aren't just trying to puff up your own ego), the other is pretty useless.

Factory farming is horrible. At some point in the future humanity will look back on the way we treated our fellow sentient beings and look back in horror and disgust. The problem is not so much whether factory farming is terrible or not. The problem is - is humanity sufficiently advanced enough to abolish it right now? And to that I would say the answer is no, not yet. This is not to downplay or discredit animal right's activism or vegan movements or anything else - these people playing a crucial role in the development of humanity, even if they are about a century too early. Rather, it would be a call to take a more "holistic" approach to advocating for veganism / more sustainable farming practices / empathy towards animals / etc. Focus on the big picture issues, such as providing nutrition to 7+ billion humans with the technology we've currently set up, raising consciousness so that people start to take an proactive interest in ethical food, or providing alternate sources of income for developing economies that animal husbandry can seem very attractive to. Otherwise, the crusade to end animal cruelty might feel good, but (and I hate to say it) it won't ultimately be very productive.

What are some examples of these conspiracies exaclty?

@Bno I agree with most of these, but Obama didn't start the Wall St bailout, Bush did (Obama did go through with it though.) Also, Obama didn't give us Donald Trump, America's stage blue ethnonationalist backlash did. Obama could've been a lot better and lot more effective but blaming him for Trump is like blaming the water - and not the rock thrown into the water - for the ripples.

@montecristo Everyone operates as a hive mind. This is not an exclusively Chinese phenomenon.

Hi all, as part of my self-actualisation journey I've decided that starting a blog and sharing my insights is something I'd like to do. So I'm wondering if anyone knows of any decent, easily-accessible websites / resources I can use to start a professional-looking blog, possibly with a custom URL (although thats not necessary)? I could potentially pay money to host my site if need be, but I wouldn't be able to afford too much a month. Thanks for any help!

As with most health and wellness related things, I feel like the effects of No Fap vary depending on each individual person's unique makeup. Some people would benefit immensely from cutting out porn and masturbation entirely. Other people can masturbate 10 times a day and have no significant effects on their motivation / energy / relationships etc. It all depends on the person. I personally have cut out 95% of porn (sometimes I'll relapse and watch a video) and have cut down my masturbation amounts significantly, and I have noticed myself gaining more energy and motivation because of it, but I still do ejaculate (mostly using my imagination) and feel OK with that. I don't see occasionally having a release to be a huge problem. Of course, with all this said, I would still say on average it would be better for people - especially young guys - to cut down on porn consumption. I don't think porn is evil or wrong, but for most people, especially undeveloped minds, it can cause a lot of unhealthy habits and cutting down on it will free up a lot of physical and emotional energy. Also let's not forget there's higher-consciousness porn and lower-consciousness porn, as with anything. If you're watching "Big Booty White Girl gets DRILLED" eight times a day, you probably want to reconsider your habits. Just my two cents.

In some sense, civilisation is always reaching a major turning point. 11am today was a major turning point since 10am

@Leo Gura Awesome

https://imgur.com/gallery/pdCsSOQ Here's a good link that explains much of the behaviour of the current Chinese regime. Obviously its a very broad overview so it cant account for everything, but it does highlight a lot of the current trends we're seeing going on in there.