WonderSeeker

Lol, yes general Mao. South Korea is way too image-focused, conformist, and frankly just lost in capitalism and materialism. If capitalism had a Mariana's trench, you'd probably find Korea down there. China pays well for the work I do and is objectively trending up relative to the USA in terms of everything. Plus China has fucking Tibet and Inner Mongolia (places I've been salivating at the thought of visiting for some time now). Hangzhou, Xiamen, and Kunming are my top cities right now.

I agree with @Joshe False desire is chasing the wrong carrot on a stick, while being blind to the fact you already have the carrot in your hand. You don't need to be a spiritual coach — just be a spiritual example. Maybe if you are a paramedic long enough you can step into some kind of a chief role. I don't know how those units are structured, but something you could work on is leadership and behind the scenes simply become more conscious in the Peter Ralston of Buddhist enlightenment sense (which will have a massive, direct, positive impact on your work). I'm not super developed yet, but that's what I'm doing with my career as a teacher/scholar. It's a beatiful thing.

Yes, Youtube is blocked. But the Chinese government goes after VPNs that help people access YT and other sites, not everyday citizens. Also the Chinese government themselves operate their own Youtube channels (for example, CCCTV). Also if the NYT and CNBC articles are true, which I'm sure they are, it doesn't prove Jiang is one of those propagandists. That's just guilt by association, and right now there isn't any evidence to support that.

Actually yeah, those are good specific examples where I was like "Huh? Does he really think that?" Democrats do not support the war because the polling is like 3-10% support in the populous and a similar ratio in Congress. But he assumed they are only thinking about this like it's a chess game. I'd take what Leo said into account. Your opinion comes off a bit one sided (negative) and I'm curious why. You can choose to take some of the positive wisdom/insights Jiang offers and there would be no harm done. I'm moving to China in September. YouTube is not banned there — all you gotta do is get past the firewall (which is super easy and the government 100% allows it, as weird as that sounds). Also Jiang is a high school teacher that records his lectures and posts them on YouTube. That was the original intention until he got bigger. Start at timestamp 1:30.

Everything? I agree he emphasizes secret societies, but he also brings up eschatology (good for explaining conflicts in the blue/red middle east over the last 70 years). Also the stages of empire model (200 year cycle). Among other things. Can you show examples of people misusing with his ideas? I haven't seen any yet. Not trying to justify his actions, but I think he oversimplifies his stuff because he's teaching to high schoolers. ----- @Cred, a lot of what you wrote is pure speculation. These people said this. Those people said that. Phases like "I've even heard," "could," "might," "this does not seem" make it sound like you're loosely stitching stuff together. By the way Jiang is ethnically Chinese, but Canadian by nationality. He is very open about his upbringing in his Geo Update #8 video. I re-read this a few times and couldn't find a reason for what you were arguing for. Your claim was because secret societies are liberal, that is why they are destroying the west. Ok, interesting. But all you said was you went to some Freemasons meeting and they turned out to be white liberals with spiritual depth. But what about this actually supports your claim? Not trying to be combative, just curious what point you're trying to be make. ----- To be clear to all that read this, I’ve been binge-watching Jiang's material for the past 3 weeks. I did the same with Leo's material between 2020-2021. At first with Leo's stuff, I was not only taking action on what he was teaching me, but I was also enamored by Leo and a really big fan of the Actialized personality. With time I distanced myself from the content and this forum to focus on my life. In recent months I've crawled back in and am happy to see it's stood the test of time in my worldview (even as I've changed). I already see myself going through the early stages of this with Jiang's work. I am being careful not to swoon over his intellectual of charismatic personality, but to really take the info in responsibly and see how it all pans out. And if I become aware of red flags or you guys suggest some good ones, I'll take them into consideration. I feel skeptical naturally, yet I still haven't seen any visible major problems yet.

@Sincerity Possibly crack-potty. I don’t know how to check everything he says. Leo's work is very much "verify via direct experience," whereas Jiang's is highly intellectual, abstract, and based on other scholars/texts. Maybe others can offer their perspectives on this~

Professor Jiang created a video on the social matrix!! His opening line: "Our world is a hallucination, a collective fantasy." I watched this and the following videos in series to make sense of the evolving situation in Iran (which has been gripping my awareness and informing my financial/lifestyle actions lately): - Eschatological Convergence - Law of Asymmetry - Escalation Ladder - US-Iran War His new video ties in well with Leo's OG Social Matrix video as a foundation. Never ever have we had access to this many high quality teachings for free. Blessed to be alive today

Just preference. But also... Go to timestamp 1:37. Not saying it explains your situation, but it explains a big-picture trend happening in societies in the west and the far east.

This is beautiful. The way they auto-correct their movements... insane. If you have good mindfulness skills, catching every little movement will fill you with a sense of awe. My mouth hung open for the whole thing. ----- This begs the question... Will robots really take over the world?

I'm genuinely curious if you made this comment becasue you actually believe that, or just for attention. Seems absurd. Because yeah, imagine living in a place where half of society is straving (which means you are too), you don't have a right nor the means to use the internet (in DPRK everyone but the ruling class uses a nationalized intranet), and you're forced to download and repeat their propagnda or they kill you. As if they'd even let you in. ----- Even though I'm critical of South Korea and painfully aware of their problems, there's a ton of upsides here too. But you wouldn't know that becasue you haven't been here before. Travel. Explore. Experience.

Integral theory. Of course it depends on the person. Once again I'm not saying everyone needs to pump one out. But to think it cannot help one develop both on the ground and in the clouds, directly and indirectly, is wrong I think. And I already talked about the practical stuff that needs to be done so no need to reiterate that. If you're struggling to progress with spiritual stuff, then you're forcing it at the wrong time. One massive key I've discovered in personal development is sticking your finger in the wind and knowing which season you're in (relationships, spirituality, health, career shift, money, etc). 5 years ago I made insane progress spiritually (in theory, practice, AND results). It was amazing. But today you can't force me to meditate. I do it here and there, sometimes by accident without trying. Other things matter to me right now and require more focused attention. The season to go hard at meditation, contemplation, and psychedelics will come back again, only 10x stronger. (It's a blessing not putting unhealthy pressure on yourself to become fully realized ASAP. Rome wasn't built in a day. I'm seeking a more holistic awakening as an actualized being (which is both an objective and subjective thing), not as a poor person living in mommy's basement, working at McDonalds).

There aren't many good examples of parenting and people's financial lives are piss poor (I'm currently fixing mine). The main keys are fixing your money situation, finding the right mate, and then getting excited about giving your own the kind of upbringing you wish you got. If I actually follow though with this, I will provide for my kid(s), give them tons of freedom, encourage (but never force) reading tons of books, learning from different perspectives, and doing brave things (travelling, starting a business, dating girls/guys, etc). I think having a kid and finding a way to keep a solid career and spiritual life, while being his/her biggest role model is everything. Of course, all of that is the ideal. If you raise your kids in mainstream society, other kids' beliefs, processed foods from school, TV/YT shows, advertising, and all sorts of other potentially toxic parts of society can pull them in the wrong directions. Of course, the point isn't to fight this, but to let them stumble through some of it. I'm lucky my parents were not authoritarian (for the most part). I used the freedom they gave me to explore the internet, travel to different parts of the region I was from for sports, have different friends, and read different kinds of books. The only place where they fucked up is their hands off mentality sometimes turned into avoidence, and there were a shit load of things they didn't teach or show me which made me feel unprepared when I moved out for the first time at 18. But that's just how it was being in a working class household with burnt-out parents. Good point. I think as long as you don't have a schizoid psychology, for most people witnessing birth/death slows time down and bonds people together. When our pet rabbit died a few years back, me my bothers, and my parents all gathered around him in a circle where he passed just moments before. We just sat there, present, petting his fur, crying quietly. No words, but we all felt hyper-connected. Completely unorchestrated. Haven't experienced the birth side yet, but I can only imagine it's something similar. Yeah. It's like people think all spiritual work is, is living in a log cabin by yourself, meditating or taking psychedelics, and that's it. You can't get rid of your whole life and claim that's the most spiritual way to be. Sure, some like Om Swami did it for a little while, but he's not most people. Why not fill your life up with what gives you meaning? Then make all of that into a spiritual expression. Ken Wilber: transcend and include. This forum: transcend-only, because we don't wanna be responsible for survival.

After teaching in a Korean hagwon for 5 months I can confirm what you said as accurate. I came to the factory farm conclusion from direct experience about a week ago. These poor kids are getting skewered by the system. It's pretty harsh. The Korean co-teachers at my school give these puny 6-year olds earfuls when they are too slow or make too many errors. It's a bit aggressive. A Korean guy I befriended at a coffee shop today said the parents do this to their kids to try to move up the social ladder. I actually teach in one of the most academically rigorous parts of the whole country which consistently scores high. The kids are insanely competitive with each other and it gets reinforced daily with the class dojo we use (which is against my philosophy, but what can you do). I favor the Finnish style of education where they lay off competition based academics/athletics until you get into your teens. What Korea used to pull off an economic miracle decades ago is being put into overdrive to barbecue its young people. Not good. I'm moving to a different country to teach after this year.

Damn, I didn't expect this thread to gain so much traction. Of all the comments so far I agree with Davino's the most. Coming into this forum in the early days, I felt like I knew nothing and I saw others speaking highly all over the place. Now I think they're just attempting to parrot the tone of people on here that actually know stuff rather than disappear from the forum for a few months to actually study or become conscious of shit. Good point.

My answer: I get the sense that most people on this forum are disinterested in having children (if not, completely against it). Personally, I want to have kids at some point, and consider it a deeply important part of personal development. It can help you integrate so many character traits and relative truths that you're hard-pressed to find otherwise. For example, by having kids you will learn how to caretake a vulnerable, complicated, unique being who you have a deep, direct, blood connection to. To do so, you have to become pain-stakingly clear on your values. It forces you to mature and develop high degrees of empathy and integrity. It gets you to take possibly the highest degree of personal responsibility you can as a human. It also forces you to be really pragmatic financially and materially (a good way to smooth you out if you're an idealist like me). All of this, of course assuming you want to raise a rockstar kid who becomes purposeful and interested in consciousness. (Now that's a project)! Part of the reason I posted this is in response to people who reference the below video. Thumbnail: Should you have kids? What if I told you that it doesn't matter because reproduction is a fictional narrative you invented as part of your robotic drive for survival? Not that I don't grok the metaphysical points made in the video, but I get the sense it argues in favor of not having kids without considering the upsides. This is a massive lifestyle decision that varies person to person, so I'm not trying to come off as a creepy, finger-wagging, white Christian Karen who says "you gotta pump as many as you can cuz the birthrates are going down," but moreso sharing a personal preference that's important to me. I may not even necessarily have kids in the end, but in principle I think it can be an extraordinarily good thing for people who want to integrate all kinds of different skills and experiences in this life. I think doing this Actualized work and then becoming a parent would be an interesting way to go about life. Parenting and finding creative ways to continue the work while you are raising new life. What I find so interesting about it is how do you balancing the two halves. Cheers.