BipolarGrowth

How much have you looked into Buddhism? It’s astounding how much work has been done toward ending suffering in its various traditions. The more I learn and practice, the more I am shocked at how detailed and effective the various Buddhist positions have been. Here you outline one aspect of Buddhist teachings on ending suffering. Anatta or the non-substantiality of self is an important part of the equation. If there is no fixed real you, there is no one to be threatened of course. Anicca or impermanence shows that not only everything changes but also how quickly experience shifts from one plethora of sensations to the next with all being unique and instantaneous. Dukkha or suffering/stress/disatisfaction shows that all of experience contains various degrees of clinging which compound the illusory character’s discontent. Dependent origination shows that nothing has inherent existence. All of reality co-arises with all aspects depending upon other aspects for the show, your experience, to emerge. Form, physical objects, and your body rely upon consciousness to exist. Consciousness relies on your emotions and other feelings to take the shape that it does. Mental formations depend upon perception to take the shape that they do. Mental formations alter consciousness. Consciousness alters the perception of objects. The interactions continue between these five categories with no one existing alone. Seeing that no one thing has a true independent substance, we can see that there is even less of a reason to worry or suffer. The entire show comprised of an individual being in a world of other beings and objects occurring within consciousness is made of nothing of real substance at all. All that remains is the ephemeral, magical dance that is imbued with liberated divinity.

Hah! Of course you wouldn’t believe in spiral dynamics. You’re (insert derogatory color here)! I’m (insert cooler color grading here) 😂

Hi @strika When I first saw this reply, I felt that you were likely under some false impressions. I usually don’t like to start back and forth discussions on here as they often fail to really help anyone or bring people to better understanding. I saw this video today and immediately thought of you and what you said. By your standard that you have set, not even the Buddha meets your expectations. Now, it is possible of course that you’re correct in all of this, but I must say after a decade of going after spiritual development to a pretty hardcore degree, it seems more probable that you are picking up incorrect expectations from people who are either blatantly inflating their own level of realization or are lying to both themselves and any who follow them. I’ve experienced plenty of blissed-out states of consciousness while entirely sober, and it is my opinion that this is not the highest goal for a sincere individual on the spiritual path. The Buddha felt pain and Christ even for a time felt forsaken by God while on the cross. Having these expectations might harm yourself as well. Eventually, it is probable that you yourself will not be in a 24/7 state of immense bliss, and at that time, it might be hard to be compassionate even to yourself at some levels. I wrote this to try to help you. If this was not of benefit to you, please feel no need to reply as I am not interested in unproductive debate. I wish you all the best in your spiritual practice ❤️

With no awareness of chakras, it is difficult to claim that there are chakras. Having gained knowledge of chakras and implemented practices to develop them further, it is difficult to claim that there are no chakras. Anyway, chakras and the maps which spring from them are great tools on a spiritual path.

Consciousness is a duality. Consciousness does not exist without an object. Conscious of ________. Without an object consciousness and all of the ongoing worlds of beings and activities ceases entirely. At least this is what significant portions of eastern spirituality have discovered.

Apologies if I’m obsessing a bit, but aren’t you attempting to change someone’s thoughts with your reply? 🤔

There is no such time as “NOW”. The ending chapters of the book Seeing That Frees by Rob Burbea explain this quite well. If any of what I say resonates or intrigues you, I encourage you to read Rob’s book. He explains things in a way that far outshines my explanation of this. If there is no past leading to the present and the present does not lead into the future, where is there room for the present to exist at all? In the same way you say that those in traffic no longer exist once out of your experience, the present is leaving your experience in an incalculable number of sensations at an incalculable rate of change. There is never even one particle of experience which remains from one “moment” to another. There is no such thing as “moments” because there is not even the smallest component of experience which is stable for the time it takes for a moment to be a real thing. Reality is a mirage consisting of many smaller mirages. No thing you can point to, speak of, think of, or even directly perceive including consciousness, awareness, form, God, time, the present moment, Brahman, Maya, Atman, Nirvana, the Absolute, the Relative, etc. has a truly substantial self nature. This is what I mean by mirage. All apparent phenomena arise together dependent upon illusions. And yet there is still the appearance of something real actually happening in time to a real person. Seeing that reality is truly empty of any substance, you can transcend all bondage. This is Liberation, and even this Liberation is not any more real than the numerous apparent illusions that one can be Liberated from reifying.

This is great practical advice which won’t help at all when someone encounters an awakening of sufficient depth. The last thing on your mind will be what some guy on a forum said about oughts and ought nots. -Someone who ran down the street naked

I’m glad to say I’ve spent quite some time without being on the forum like I used to be. I do miss parts of being more involved here, but I have to say that constantly being on here is likely to do more harm than good eventually. This community and Leo’s teachings are great, however, bias affects us all. It’s difficult to accurately measure the bias of doing this Actualized.org flavored work compared to other areas of life development or other spiritual avenues until you actually step away for an extended period of time to see the ways you change as well as notice what stays consistent. The foundation you can build here is quite unique and potent though.

Plenty of people have experienced similar situations. About 1% of the population is bipolar type 1. People with bipolar are disproportionately interested in spirituality. It’s good to hear you’re doing better now.

I had an urge to share this here. I was inspired in the moment to write this while I listened to the video below. “Seen is the answer to all answers. The never posited question has been satisfied. The alternative to which there is none has been realized fully. The expression which flows goes forth the same. The gain and loss are both utterly fabricated in order to ensnare that which is never captured. Beginning, end, now, and later are all fictions. All conclusions are false but constructed from the very light of truth itself.”

One of the best practical gains I’ve gotten from Actualized.org/Leo is the vocabulary gains. Pablum added to the list ?

I’d suggest trying the Blue Letter Bible app. It’ll give many translations for each verse you look up, and it has built-in links for going back to the original language for many words. It’s the best resource I’ve found if you want to understand the meaning correctly.

@Osaid yep, clarity of perception is as much the goal as freedom from suffering because they are reliant on each other. They’re two sides of the same coin essentially. Wild metaphysical experiences can show clarity of perception eventually by breaking down the solidity of confused and ego-entangled perception. After enough wild states of consciousness, the self illusion is no longer that convincing, but the goal isn’t wild experiences. They are merely a tool for showing the true nature of things by undermining illusion.

I’ve used at least a dozen different spiritual systems quite throughly over the years. All of them have been integral to finding a point of resolving my relationship to suffering to the degree I have. The reason I bring up Buddhism specifically is only because the focus of the whole system is ending suffering. All spiritual development on any legitimate path will end some suffering. It’s the difference between going to a general family doctor to resolve a health issue versus going to a doctor who specializes in treating your specific issue. If your issue is suffering, the specialist I recommend is the Buddhist path. If you want the most transcendent and juicy temporary experiences, following something more akin to Leo’s path and teachings would probably work better. It all depends on the goal. The question of this thread was suffering though ?

I’d like to introduce you to the foundational concept/“doctrine”/dhamma of Buddhism which distinguishes it from essentially all other forms of spirituality. This is the concept of dukkha (suffering, stress, dissatisfaction) and dukkha nirodha (the cessation, or end, of suffering, stress, dissatisfaction). This is by far the primary focus, teaching, and practice of Buddhism. You will find this simplified way of explaining the aim of Buddhism in a bit more complexity when looking at “The Four Noble Truths” which is also seen as a foundational aspect of Buddhism. I will use my own words for simplicity’s sake, but you can research the four noble truths in more depth on your own. 1. There is dukkha in existence/experience/life. 2. There is a cause for dukkha. This cause is a combination of clinging to what we think we truly want which will make us feel better AKA stop feeling dukkha in the moment, being aversive to what we do not want AKA what we believe causes dukkha for us, and the ignorance (avijjā) or lack of wisdom paññā AKA perception of a stable, real “self” which can be threatened or which must find peace for itself, failing to understand the nature of dukkha, and failing to see the transient nature of both pleasure and pain (anicca — impermanence). 3. There is a real and obtainable end to dukkha. There is a real and obtainable end to suffering which at least thousands of human beings have already realized. 4. There is a path to become a human being who has realized the end of suffering in their own life. There is a clear path, method, guide manual, and practice to ending suffering. This can be seen, at least in part, to be The Noble Eightfold Path which are eight steps or necessary requirements which acting in unison lead to the complete end of suffering if they are developed to the necessary degree. Hinduism talks about Liberation, and in many ways Liberation in Hinduism also means an ending of suffering. You can think of Buddhism as a later evolution of Hinduism which focuses primarily on this goal whereas Hinduism has a bit of a different approach and less clear or emphasized end goal when it relates to suffering. The whole idea of what it means to be fully awakened, or an Arahant, in the models of Theravada Buddhism (the original school based directly on the teachings of Guatama Buddha) is that you have freed yourself from the grips of suffering. The first important step is to see that this is an actually obtainable goal for us. You will likely not believe that this is possible whether consciously or in more hidden parts of your psyche until you reach an experience which clearly convinces you of this possibility being a reality for yourself. That moment is adequately called “stream entry” or the moment one has entered the stream which carries one to full awakening in the definition of the Theravada model. This is also the moment it is literally impossible to doubt the efficacy of the Buddha and the teachings he gave on eliminating suffering. Ending suffering is different from ending pain. Ending pain is not the goal of Buddhism. Pain is a reality of embodied life. Suffering is the amplification of pain into a much worse thing to bear. Suffering is mentally-created dissatisfaction and a lack of accepting the experience you are having. This can be eradicated. Freedom from suffering is in part about non-resistance, but true non-resistance has very little to do with allowing rape, allowing injustice, or perpetuating pain through a lack of action. True non-resistance is dissolving the false view of an actual self as an entity and arriving at the point in which you turn from a person who is alive to life itself. The human experience has built in preferences and in turn preferred modes of action. A lot of that is about reducing pain and increasing pleasure. There’s nothing at all wrong with that. The issue comes when you create a false view of an individual who can fight against LIFE IN THIS MOMENT AS IT WISHES TO BE EXPRESSED. Stop fighting, and allow life to live as it lives. There’s a hell of a journey in front of you to get there in a consistently experienced sense, but you will thank yourself immensely once that journey has been completed.

Maybe the loss of unfair survival forces is not such a bad loss compared to the gain which awakening in its deepest forms is capable of giving you. I’ve experienced a whole shit ton of hospitalizations and financial loss due to awakening, and what I’ve gained is in tiers and tiers above anything lost. This is not some sudden philosophy came up spontaneously in a mentally unsound state of consciousness. This is what nearly a decade of absolute dedication to ever deepening awakening has revealed to me. When even psych ward after psych ward becomes blissful and spectacular, there’s not much left which can threaten you. And in truth, nothing can threaten You Material poverty is far more suiting to a spiritual aspirant than focus on material success, but even material wealth can come through awakening. I work tirelessly in the material realm, and it has no threat to me. Countless fruits come on their own accord. Doing one’s highest duty in every moment is a treasure which cannot be surpassed. God (this existence and Ungraspable truth) will take care of his people who are zealous and feverishly dedicated practitioners. This is true Karma Yoga. Progress made in a spiritually-aligned manner will produce more fruits that are everlasting in this eternal state of instant-to-instant blissful death into the perceived world which we are infinitely blessed to experience. All gain is null and void. All loss is null and void. Dance your most spectacular dance through this illusory world my friend. The no longer extant you will thank you and smile for this. Dive into the infinite depths of faith and trust in God, the very fabric of your life in any reality, and you will find no harm.

If Christ wasn’t Awake, maybe there exists something far better than Awake

I’m currently just out of the hospital in which I was being treated for a bipolar 1 manic episode. I’m not some false diagnosis. My being encapsulates the whole meaning of those words by my very nature. I can do nothing but be a manic motherfucker. This is why I come to share what that requires. Currently I’m chilling and getting highly THC to try to have the healthiest week for my mental state as possible. My psyche needs a lot of recuperation from the wild states I was in in my last manic episode. This is wild potentiallly life-threatening stuff. Be very wary if you have this and consider using psychedelics. I WENT SO DAMN HARD *AGAIN* that I worked myself to the point of insanity. It’s a once in a lifetime life I’m living. Truly great what We are. ?❤️? https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=j91RZ01PZwA&feature=share

50% of my life is manic. Goodbye forum for now. I was wrong about the guidelines. I’ll be back to respond upon my serving of my term. I think this is a message that needs to get out to a few truly lost souls. ? Goodbye ❤️

I apologize if I step outside of forum guidelines. I have read them and believe I’m in the clear.

Where art thou gains my friend? Maybe you before lifting weights isn’t badass enough for this forum of absolute champions. Absolute no offense meant (seriously) is all I see in your response is a pussy. Show me that I’m wrong please. Provide some proof on your anonymous internet genius.

This is me slapping my c*ck on the table in front of everyone. Idk if that’s allowed. It’s meant to be positively inspirational that a damn near mental health retard is killing it in life.

Add me on Facebook Leo to know a lot more. Seriously. It’s a wild, wild, wild story you ought to know. My life has turned out one-of-a-kind from Actualized’s influence.