aurum

@tatsumaru The challenge with giving advice about overcoming resistance is that it can look different for different people. If your resistance is to taking action, than maybe something like Steven Pressfield is exactly what you need to hear. But consider that each stage of cognitive development has its own unique resistance. And therefore needs unique advice. Don't try to reconcile all the paradoxes. You're not going to be able to. You're going to have to accept that different advice just works for different people in a different context. Don't try to find the perfect piece of advice, or the perfect model for overcoming resistance. Find the piece of advice or model that helps you overcome resistance. And when it's no longer useful, drop it and pick up the next piece of advice. You can feel in your body what advice rings true for you and what you need to hear. And of course the ultimate test will be whether or not you drop your resistance. If you don't, then obviously that wasn't the right thing you needed to hear. Or you still need more self-reflection and to drop deeper layers of resistance.

@LastThursday Think about emotions, roundness, flow, grace, aesthetics, nurturing and softness. This is just some of what I feel represent the feminine in all of us. Here's a list of more practical activities: Make your life aesthetically pleasing. Think of the cliche of a woman taking a bubble bath. She lights candles, maybe sets up some flowers for herself, maybe some soft music. And then she just enjoys. As a man, we feel this is all totally impractical and a waste of time. That's exactly right, the feminine isn't concerned with being practical. It's about the experience Do a soft form of yoga. Embrace the graceful and round movements that come with it. Be totally conscious while moving your body and slow everything down Make art. Art taps your right brain creativity as apposed to your left brain logic Wear clothing that is colorful. In general embrace colors Spend time just feeling in your body and communicating what you're feeling Hug people Put your hands on your heart and feel it Spend more time in nature Decorate Dance

@sleep It is fine, including achievement . Of course, there is nothing you have to achieve. There is nothing you have to do at all. That's what free will means. But the funny thing about free will is that it's not all it's cracked up to be. You are free to do whatever you want, including nothing. But there will be different outcomes depending on your choices. And some of those outcomes you're going to want more than others.

In a sense, enlightenment is about transcending the dualities of "goodness" and "badness". Essentially, you realize that infinity contains all. But we are biased and make preferences for things as finite beings. When you make that leap, you move to a meta-level sense of peace, joy and happiness. It's not a peace or joy that depends on things being a certain way. That would be biased and conditional. This peace is unconditional. You love everything exactly as it is. Even the things we might consider vile or evil right now. So yes, you could say that an equal amount of bad must exist for all the good. That's duality, that's Yin/Yang. The question is, what's on the other side of that surrender?

@Vision Ironically, our materialist stage Orange society does not actually value material things very much. That is what drives consumer culture and economic growth. You don't value or want what you have. You always want something else, something more. So I'd say moving up the spiral from Orange to Green actually means really appreciating the material possessions we have. Which means you'll probably own "less", although it will feel like more. Also, the desire for something like a car is extremely relative. How do you know buying a car is a good decision? What if you lived in a city with vastly different infrastructure where everything was walkable? Suddenly something that seems essential like a car might not be. People absolutely can buy cars to impress other people. Your material wealth is completely relative to everyone around you. If everyone around you has a car, now you feel like you need one because that's what is "normal". My point is we need to be conscious of why we are buying what we're buy. Freedom is good, but it's not a guarantee we are making conscious choices. Freedom includes the ability to be unconscious.

@random dude Can't speak to Leo's perspective on this, but I'd say revolutionaries can possibly be Red. Keep in mind there is nothing inherently wrong with Red. If we say "that person is Red" or "that country is Red", it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with that country. Red might actually be a big step up from Purple. I don't know the situation in Syria, but it sounds like you're confirming what I'm saying. You're basically saying that a stage Red revolution is necessary because that's the only way to topple an oppressive stage Red regime. Exactly! So Red can be important and necessary. Red's biggest problem is when Red is out of the context and environment where it is successful. You run into hard and fast limits when it comes to Red as the environment moves up the spiral. But that doesn't mean it doesn't have its place in development. It exists for a reason.

This song will mess up your day. IT has evolved beyond red but here he explains some of the Red realities of gangs: Song is called "Dance With the Devil" by Immortal Technique.

Baby face from O Brother Where Art Thou. Classic red:

It really depends. Yes, of course a live event is going to cost the organizer more in expenses. And a live event could theoretically be more immersive. Therefore a higher cost could be justified in some cases. But what are they teaching at this live event? And who is it marketed to and how is it marketed? There's a lot more variables to consider than "I'm investing in myself". At that's part of the problem. The reasoning of "I'm investing in myself" or "this client is investing in themselves" can easily be used for exploitative purposes. It doesn't mean investing in yourself isn't real. But that's how tricky the unconscious mind is. It can use anything to justify its behavior, and of course the best justification may actually have a hint of truth. This is where you gotta have your eyes wide open. You have to be aware of the potential for distortion of any teaching. The worst offender . Whole Foods = Whole Lotta Devilry I agree with this. The vast majority of useful ideas in selfhelp can be found in books or free videos on YT. I feel this is nuanced. I agree that many of these people are desperate and looking for a quick fix. At the same time, there is such a thing as sleazy marketing that preys on that. It seems like most of what Michael promotes now is fairly conscious, but the marketing strategies themselves can be problematic. Can't just blame it on the people buying either. It's both. And on a deeper level, we could even point to poor public policy / systemic problems lead to this situation. So there's just a whole lot going on. Maybe to a degree, although he likely has little control over that. This is why systemic thinking is so necessary. Even if your intent is to "do" the conscious thing, like expose fake self-help gurus, your decisions can be limited by the larger systems you are a part of.

Thanks Please do. As much as I appreciate what self-help has done for me, the devilry is rampant at times.

Depending on the model you want to use, yes. Logic / rationality tends to be more of a masculine energy. It's linear and it's not emotional. Intuition has more of a feminine energy to me. It's primarily based on feeling rather than analysis, although you can analyze your intuition after the fact. It would look like being in touch with your emotions and the signals your body is sending you. Not being so stuck in your head. Of course, you can't actually separate the masculine and the feminine. These are just useful conceptualizations, and so it be a mistake to think you can integrate your feminine without it affecting your masculine. It all relates.

Don't mean to pop your bubble but Game A / Game B has been around forever. My understanding is that it's part of the lingo of the Human Potential Movement. Perhaps it started even before then. The reason it's making rounds on the forum is because Leo has been sharing videos from Daniel Schmachtenberger, who is part of that crowd.

But Leo, why don't women just want a nice guy??? Let's not make an enemy of survival or attraction. Intimacy/connection can have survival value. And no survival means you don't survive long enough to experience Game B dating. The problem to me is not that people meet each other's survival needs, it's that we do so often unconsciously and in a way that ends up hurting the agenda of others and sometimes our own. In other words, moving from Win/Lose to Win/Win. Or ending zero-sum games as Teal Swan calls it. This of course starts with people making a commitment to uncover their biases and their shadow. There's no Game B dating without consciousness, so that should be of highest priority for people interested in this. From there, we see what emerges. Maybe polyamory, maybe monogamy, maybe something casual, who knows. A Game B perspective would allow for relationships to evolve, and not say "this is the one true relationship type". No, there could be many valid structures for different people at different times in their life. All in all, it's a safe bet that Game B dating it will be based on greater unconditional love. But what exactly that looks like is hard to say. I feel The intentional community Tamera has some interesting Green perspectives on dating: They embrace polyamory, which I realize it's not what many people are looking for. But at least they are considering these questions. More Green perspectives:

@Emerald This debate just keeps going in circles. I feel the bottom line is this: Men, if you're looking to just get laid with as many women as possible, even if it's unconscious and not fulfilling, then just become some alpha chad who knows how to play the game of social dynamics. Bonus points if you take a low consciousness job like club promoter. No one is going to deny that will work. But if you're actually looking for something real, something fulfilling, something that requires you to be a conscious adult that can handle a relationship, then you need to integrate your feminine. And integrate it in a way that is authentic to you. Given that this is a non-duality forum, none of this should be surprising. You should have already been working on integrating your feminine, because your feminine is where things like intuition, creativity and compassion come from. This should not be controversial, it is essential to what we are all doing here.

That is literally the opposite of what I said. If anything I would like to see lower tax rates for low / middle income classes and higher tax rates on the upper class.

I feel you are attached to having to solve your attachments . It sounds like you just found in music something you're passionate about. Perhaps I'm not understanding your situation but I don't see the problem.

@Onecirrus Shadow work, shadow work, shadow work. That's what I would do if I was you. And meditate if you don't already. Almost certainly. Nothing to be ashamed of though, we all have programming. Anger is a sign that you have a need that is not being met. Do some introspection. Why do I get angry? What emotional need of mine is not being met? Why do I see someone being more sexually successful than me as a threat?

It's what I said here: But I'll clarify if that didn't make sense. Essentially, my sense is that LOA has gotten wrapped up in stage Orange individualism. People only understand it from that level of the spiral, and that leads to problem. When you do spiritual work, you quickly realize that you are not just an individual. Any demarcation you've made is just a concept with not actuality. Therefore, who is the one "manifesting"? Me as a separate, individual ego? No, that's impossible. There is no way to actually separate yourself from the rest of your experience. I am you, you are me, and everything in between. But what some people do is take the LOA and think they can separate themselves. They think "I don't need to think about politics. I don't need to think about our systems or institutions. I don't need to think about history or corruption. I don't need to think about what anyone else is doing. I can meet all my needs as an individual". Which is pure fantasy. Whatever is happening in Africa or Antarctica might as well be happening in your backyard. It literally makes no difference from a broad enough perspective. So essentially there is a collective reality that humanity is manifesting. But that doesn't sell books or courses nearly as well. That's really complex, nuanced stuff to think about. Much better to sell to people if you can make them believe all their problems are individual problems that they must solve as individuals.

I resonate with Teal's perspective in this video. When I look back on my own experiences where I feel I was embodying containment, it felt really right in my body. Like "yes, this is what it means to be a man". Ironically, it could seem like men are getting a raw deal from this. Like Teal is saying men must do everything, and women basically just get to sit back and reep the rewards. But I don't think that is it at all. First of all, we want to do this. Even if there's all sorts of conditioning and shadows blocking that. Second, the feminine is immensely valuable. But if we try to measure its value through the lens of masculine values, we may not see it. The feminine is the restorative energy. It heals. It nurtures. It's being in the moment. So it's also more intangible, it doesn't provide "stuff" that we can count like the masculine. A man who doesn't have feminine energy in his life is going to have many problems. You'll have burnout, you'll lose your joy, and maybe most importantly, you'll lose your heart. All that warrior energy ends up serving egoic desires rather than the whole. So the feminine is vitally important. It would be great if Teal made a video after this explaining what women bring to men, which I think would clarify some of this confusion. Also, none of this stops a man from perhaps also receiving containment at times. I think of my dad, who was such a great provider for our family, but also never let himself receive. And I think he desperately wanted to. He desperately wanted, maybe just a few times, to not have to go to war and instead be the one being taken care of. But the feminine was repressed and so he struggled. As far as whether this is just regressive gender roles rehashed, I feel the answer is obviously no. Gender roles are only repressive if someone is putting force on you to be a certain way that is not authentic. What is being described here is the opposite, it's the genders discovering what is actually real about the experience of being a man or woman.

@Bailey Lawless He has some good points. My biggest issue with the law of attraction is often the lack of collective / systems thinking that takes place. Government and geopolitical realities don't matter, just manifest ya'll. And the people with all the money, like Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates, they're just more in abundance than you. There's nothing else to consider here. Needless to say, I feel sorry for anyone who swallows the law of attraction without taking a nuanced, critical view. I do think that can be a recipe for disaster. But there are problems with this guy's video as well. He chalks the whole thing up to pseudo-science and "anecdotal evidence", as if anecdotal evidence is inferior. It seems fairly obvious to me that he has not had serious awakening experiences. If he had, he might be singing a different tune. Here are the principles laid out by Phineas Quimby, the father of New Thought that he points out: 1) "God or Infinite Intelligence is "supreme, universal, and everlasting"; 2) "Divinity dwells within each person, that all people are spiritual beings; 3) "The highest spiritual principle [is] loving one another unconditionally... and teaching and healing one another"; 4) "Our mental states are carried forward into manifestation and become our experience in daily living" Not only are these accurate metaphysical statements one can realize through awakening, these are the same principles that are found throughout every major religion. Even before organized religion, these ideas existed in Animism. So ironically, there's nothing "new" about the New Thought movement. Now, have these principles been corrupted over time by devilry? Of course! Just like every religion has been corrupted. The mistake is to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and I feel that is where this video misses the point.

I don't know if it's exactly a Pareto distribution, but certainly the financial rewards of actors follows some sort of power law. I wouldn't say individuals shouldn't be allowed to buy movies either. That doesn't solve the problem of why there's such a power law distribution of wealth in the first place. And that sounds like I'm casting some sort of moral judgment against movie purchasers, when I'm not. What I am saying is that these inequalities are inevitable for a society at a Stage Orange development. They are what push a society towards Green values, which is largely about equality. Green swings the pendulum the other way. So if you've got a massive inequality problem, like presented in these videos, don't go blaming Greenies. Society actually needs far more Green. The problem is that Green people do not exist in a vacuum. Your consciousness and values may be Green, but they still exist within stage Orange systems and culture. Obviously that is changing, but I still feel our center of gravity is Orange. So your ability to help people from a Green perspective are limited. They're limited by our systems and the culture. Which is not to say we should hang it up and not take action. Far from it. But no one is an island separate from the society they exist within. So in reality, if our society was centered at Green, we'd see much different results. Look at Finland. They're much more centered at Green and supposedly they just provided universal housing. We'll see if it holds up, but Green is certainly not inherently bad at solving problem. Green has integrated the problem-solving lessons from Orange, but with more heart, compassion and desire for equality.

When I say "toxic stage Orange capitalism", I am referring to much more than markets. I am talking about a mindset that says "fame is important", and the economics that reward fame. I'm talking about a monetary system that puts people in competition with each other. I'm talking about tax dodging that leads to governments not being able to afford social services without increasing the debt. I'm talking about a culture that prides itself on individualism. This is a multi-faceted, complex issue. Markets are interwoven with all of this. They're just one piece of capitalism, and capitalism is just one piece of stage Orange.

@rnd Not paying your taxes is not a solution to corrupt politicians. If anything, it's the opposite. What's one of the causes of corrupt politicians? Wealth inequality. Wealthy people have so much money they can buy politicians easily. And what's one of the ways you get wealthy inequality? Wealthy people not paying their taxes. The two go hand in hand. Huge amounts of government revenue is lost every year from wealthy people dodging taxes. Which puts the government constantly in a bind. Theoretically, maybe we actually could have lower tax rates. If people didn't dodge taxes in the first place. But they do, and so the government has to raise the rates on taxes that already exist. Your taxes do not go towards lining the pockets of politicians. Perhaps some salary comes from your taxes, but the majority of it goes to the social services everyone relies on. What's lining politicians pockets is private campaign donors, lobbying, etc.

All of that is signs of toxic Orange capitalism. The very fact you have lots of people trying to make it in Hollywood at all is a reflection of an Orange mindset and the systems it produces.

@Lyubov It’s not at all a reflection of the limits of Green. California might be fairly progressive, but it still exists on the whole within toxic stage Orange capitalism thinking. More green is what will solve this, not less.