The observer

Exactly! When I first started discovering my body, I used to jerk off once a week max. But at that time, I was religious and I used to blame and shame myself all the time. I hated myself. Now, after ridding myself of those dogmas, I can jerk off multiple times a day (rarely though) without feeling bad about it. In fact, I rather feel recharged. The difference is that I started listening to my body instead of my ideas. And that was when the shift occurred. The same thing with porn. I could very well jerk off with or without it. It's a technology, and everything has its pros and cons. Everything has its limitations and advancements. It's ridiculous to demonise anything, including demonisation hahaha. The only difference is that demonisation gives rise to more ego whereas acceptance kills it.

You're imagining an end goal called "self-realisation". That's the work of the devil, and that mental image alone is enough for it to come into existence as a real possibility. Because of the infinite potential, everything is possible. Yet, without distinctions, you could stumble upon awakening and not realise it. Notice that without knowledge of the end goal, you were fine and comfortable living in ignorance. Once you realise that there's more, what used to be satisfying once, becomes limiting now. Another way to phrase it; We need to kill the devil in order to realise God. But for us to kill the devil, it has to exist first. So ultimately, we need the devil. It's a requirement for God-realisation.

You don't need science to realise duality. You already know that appearances are different. All the theories and mathematical equations are irrelevant to you realising that a human being is not an apple. You just know it without a shadow of a doubt and they're just unnecessary stories for that specific realisation. The point of making the theories and equations is to be able to view things differently so that a new set of values can emerge. Imagine if our brains worked via those specific theories and equations only. We would be like computers without intelligence. We would only have one way for understanding reality and there won't be any technology or evolution anymore. Just dumb robots. No matter how sophisticated our theories and equations were. You can think of that factor of intelligence as the source of creation. It is what makes all kinds of theories and equations possible. It comes prior to science and logic. That's God. That creative essence doesn't have to be limited by what it creates, because it can create an infinite amount of things. It's in fact the other way around. It takes what it's created so far, and it makes something completely new out of it. Like for example, the shift in understanding between the neotonian newtonian physics and relativity. Both are true on different dimensions. Who knows what kinds of new dimensions of understanding we might discover in the future? It would be ridiculous to assume that we've reached the end with physics because we've got to relativity. New theories are always emerging after realising the limitations of the ones before. That's how science evolves. If you want to become an Einstein, find that creative source, and stay with it. Interesting things may show up.

When you love something or someone, you will only perceive the beauty in them. When something or someone is beautiful, you will most likely love them. Of course, this right here is a relative, limited form of love. And it isn't exclusively related to looks. Beauty is an appreciation of otherness/duality. A dismissal of the self, and a seeking to merge into The Self. A new expression and a fine tuning of a of what once was 'good'. A correlation between good history, safe present, and promising future. An opening to love. Beauty is the dance between Love and Goodness. Absolute.

@wordsforliving I'm sorry. I'm not going to click on the links until at least you provide a brief of what they say. Nothing you said intrigued me into looking any further. It just sounds like hogwash for people who originally bought into anti-porn narratives. And my experience of over 5 years of moderate consumption has been satisfying. I don't know what the big deal is.

@Consept Exactly! Loved how you conveyed it all.

I've posted the pic below on my Facebook wall almost exactly two years ago. I left it there with the caption (?) Here's a screenshot:

You have to take into account the entire population of your country and of the globe. Currently, there are only over 4 million people confirmed with covid-19. 4 million out of 7 billion = 0.05% That's in average, but it varies depending on your country. Let's take the USA,which has the highest number of cases: 1.37 million out of 328 million = 0.42% So, statistically speaking; if you live in America, your chances of hearing of a confirmed case are quite low. You'd need a web of acquaintances of over 250 people be able to hear of one case. How many people do you contact regularly and how many people do they contact regularly? This can massively affect the outcomes. I've personally heard of two cases so far, and that was at the beginning of the lock-down. I've limited my contact so much during the lock-down, even online so I can't tell anymore.

No.

@Someone here But science says everything is strings. So, scientifically and logically speaking; this?‍♂️ is this ?. At the most fundamental level, there's no difference between a toilet and a cake and a human. Yet, it appears that things are different and it appears that there are "things". That's the whole problem in a nutshell. There's duality (appearance vs. actuality) inside non-duality. ☯️ It's strange, illogical, unexplainable, beautiful, wonderful, awesome. Yet, it is what it is. And how do I know? I observe.

I wish I could experience a similar transpersonal curiosity kind of thing. I think it can lead to all sorts of things, one set would be the whole emotional spectrum. My mind does not often produce genuine innate curiosity. Nowadays, it's so peaceful, I can't even experience worry. Even when I have unpleasant thoughts, I accept them immediately, and they pass away. It seems like my 'acceptance muscle' got stronger over the last few years. Although, I do experience backlashes every now and then. But mainly it's the attachment to thought on the expense of perception is what causes that the most. Sorry for journaling on your journal. I hope you consider your journal a transpersonal one ?

Hello folks ?? I have recently been talking to a friend of mine on Whatsapp by exchanging voice recordings. Somehow, I noticed how she's way better than me in articulating her thoughts, and we talked about it. We concluded that I need more practice. I find it kind of related to this thread ?? However, that discussion led me to another realisation about myself; My mind seems to be working in a passive manner, like it doesn't produce thoughts actively all the time. I don't experience monkey-minds often. The majority of my thoughts get created in response to external stimuli, events, environment, etc... It's like my mind is often in reaction-mode. I kind of more interested right now in shifting towards active thinking. So, my question is has anyone else experienced this? How to become more active? I don't wanna call it a problem because honestly it doesn't seem to be a negative thing. It just seems like I don't have a desire to manipulate the world around me like others. It kinda makes me feel left out. This has been a theme for more than two years now. Note #1: I don't have problems with creativity. My mind is quite creative, but mostly only in response to questions and conversations. Note #2: I don't usually initiate conversations or go out with my friends. I'm comfortable living in solitude and I meditate, like a lot.

Leo gives advice and specific consultations here all the time for everyone for free.

I wouldn't need advocates. I would only need understanding and reassurances by someone close. But even that would be a real drag, both for me and the other person. Eventually, one must face God alone.

In this specific case, if the guy couldn't take it and then committed suicide, it wouldn't hurt others. It'd only hurt people with spiritual concerns because then Ayahuasca would be demonised even more. People who stumble upon awakening are rarely understood by their communities. And speaking of rare; One friend of mine experienced a natural (without drugs) crisis several years ago, but then he received a lot of support from his social circle. Right now, he's stuck at stage Blue and the materialistic paradigm because of that. That support held him back in terms of growth. He still mainly acts from fear instead of love. And he has lots of neuroses as far as I can tell. I don't want to make generalisations and I don't know what would happen to him if I introduced him to actualized.org or spirituality. My intuition tells me it's not a good idea. But anyway, the point is, I guess, with more suffering comes more growth. Suffering gives rise to more purification.

Satisfying. But that's the thing. Because of that, I don't feel the need to seek more satisfaction, well, I guess until now.

I don't mean to be heartless, but I mean lots of people suffer everyday. And lots of people die everyday. And lots of them die in unjust situations. No one seems to care about them. We take all that for granted. But suddenly, the survival and welfare of this one human who's having a paradigm crisis is more important? Why? I guess that's the effect of the media. If something is not advertised, we don't know about it and we don't even care. What about the people who are in such poverty where they can't even use YouTube to tell us what they're going through? What if this guy took his crisis alone and did not share it? Nobody would know or give a damn, like in my case. The baby ape with the louder voice gets the most milk.

Do you mean the means to get there? I don't know. I guess I would have to just wait and stop interacting with information of such. Or do you mean after that? I probably would have a strong sense of purpose. Right now I can't because I find everything pointless. Not in a negative nihilistic way, but more in a dismantling way so I only do the bare minimum. Most of my time is spent on doing nothing unless I have to do something.

I would forget all the things I've learned, especially about enlightenment. But first, I would forget the distinction between free and non-free will. Perhaps I would also not be so present in the now. If I could.

It's not me who wants to change it but rather the other way around. It's my environment that caused me to desire so. I don't know if it makes sense. But let's just say that I desire control for no reason, the same way the body desires food or water. I don't think problem is the proper word. Maybe need, or just desire. I mean wouldn't it be cool to have control over things? And I don't mean that in an evil manipulative way. Just in a way that makes everything feel more in place.

I see. But that's somehow become a moot point to me, the imaginary me. I kinda miss experiencing the illusion of control. It would be nice to know that it's possible to play on both sides.

Not even that, at least for me. My taste changes all the time, mostly in an irregular cyclical pattern. Somedays, I find myself craving a blonde. Some other days, I would worship a brunette. Sometimes, I would want to eat out a chubby. Sometimes black, sometimes white, sometimes tan. Sometimes 30s, sometimes 20s, sometimes moms. Sometimes a combo. It usually occurs for a couple of days, and then it changes. I don't think there is a static taste. Just like with food, if you have a lot of strawberry ice-cream, you will want some chocolate ice-cream.

A video game engine so infinite and powerful would be capable of doing that without breaking a sweat. It's all rendered for you, because God loves you. That's something I feel very grateful for. Everything is being taken care of for you.

@Someone here When we say appearance is reality and there's nothing behind the scenes, we are pointing to Oneness, which is the present moment. It's very simple, really. Is there anything that isn't the present moment? Even the past was the present moment and the future will be. The past and future are merely appearances happening in the present moment. Sure, there is a practical value in imagining them. However, the mind tends to confuse them for the present reality. In your present experience, there are layers of imagination that include the present moment, the past, and the future, and on different spans. I think the past and future imaginations are obvious so I'll discuss the present moment imagination. About imagination of the present moment; are there pixels that constitute the screen you're using to read this right now? Of course there are, if you put the screen under a microscope in proper settings, you will see the pixels, but you won't see the screen anymore unless you stop seeing the pixels. Notice the sleight of hand. Right now, what are you perceiving exactly? You are perceiving an appearance of a white background with black formal organised graffiti on it. The rest (mental sounds ascribed to each individual black graffiti, multiple meanings ascribed to each unit of graffiti and to each cluster of graffitis and to the whole graffiti, judgements of true or false ascribed to every single meaning which is pretty much biased by survival but that's for you to discover, light pixels, hardware, software, electricity, battery, a worker on the other side of the world, the amount of things we can mention here is infinite so I'll just type: etc... Everything is working together to produce your present experience. How beautiful is this?!) is in your imagination and all of it is done unconsciously. There's nothing wrong with imagination. Yet notice how much information goes unquestioned, unfiltered, and unnoticed, even more tricky, the majority of the information gets summoned for no good reason. Spirituality is about revealing these underlying issues and bringing them to awareness. Why? The preoccupation of the mind with all kinds of thoughts makes it really difficult be present in your direct experience. This makes you a prey for all sorts of delusions. One of the main delusions is to forget what's right between your hands, right here, right now, and to live in stories and imagination. Again, you can do that if you want to, there's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing wrong in life at all. But when you're not present here, you're missing out on a lot of things. You can't see a beautiful sunset. You can't really see beauty at all. Imagine the depth of the most beautiful experience you've ever had, now multiply it by a thousand. It's like the difference between having sex and masturbating to porn. Hope that clarifies something.

It's funny, because from God's perspective, his will is free and the human will is not. While from the human perspective, the human will is free but God's is not. The notion of freedom is problematic in and of itself, because to say that something is free equals to saying that something else which contrasts the former, is not. So, as long as we think that there is a God and that there is a human, we'll always have a partial freedom, because whether we identify as God or as humans, we'll have limitations from a certain perspective compared to the other. The ultimate freedom is the Oneness. The ultimate freedom is no-freedom, and that's exactly what this is. You are free as a human being, but you believe otherwise. And you are limited to Love as God, but you believe otherwise. The ultimate freedom is not found in thought. Also, another problem with the notion of freedom, is that it already assumes captivity. Such as, there's life in captivity, that's not free. And there's life outside of captivity, that's free. So, you must experience or at least see limitations in order for you to see or experience freedom. You can already see that this is a never ending game. YIN-YANG.