Tim R

@Eren Eeager You have to invent a ground.

@Inliytened1 Same. Only back in the days I didn't realize that the movie was even better than I thought

Holy shit this has to be the best scene Disney ever produced... wow. There's so much symbolism, mythology and wisdom in there, incredible.. Can't believe how grotesque the new Lion King is compared to this

In that case, you wouldn't have asked.

Persistent bliss, yes? Wow, sounds lovely Sounds also like clinging. There's a saying in Zen, "he who has attained Satori will move to hell as fast as an arrow." You can't have bliss forever, or it wouldn't be bliss.

@Preety_India Totally agree with you, this weird form of "spiritualism" where people simply project their ideas on already existing ones and recontextualize them into this narrative consisting of ideas from spirituality. Spot on. The philosopher/spiritual seeker should be thankful for lessons from Jung, Adler and Freud, and in order to establish a relationship that can thrive of reciprocity, the psychologist should become more aware of lessons learned from philosophy and spirituality.

If you're interested in Zen*, this is a must read. But don't expect to understand much of what Dōgen (the author of it) wrote. it would be too much of me to say that you need to have a basic understanding of Zen in order to at least partially get what he writes. But if you do, you know what I mean by saying that. You know, this whole "Zen game" they play The entire Shōbōgenzō is a lot to read, so if you're interested in it at all, I suggest you start with a collection of selected writings. Edit: the Shōbōgenzō is not only for understanding ("understanding") Zen, but for spirituality in general. There are some real nuggets in it which aren't limited to Zen (as a cultural thing).

There is no mind... Neither are there any thoughts... What the hell...? Damn, Leo wasn't kidding when he said that we're completely oblivious to our self-deceptions. Wow. What a trickster, what a non-illusion. No-mind was "hiding" behind itself... Can't wait to explore this a little more. Though there's really nothing to explore, but let's play pretend?

Nice

@Nahm It is @Eternal Unity Haha hello there can't get lost in a jungle where there's no path to deviate from

And even to say that "there are appearances" is already saying too much. Haha although, actually, no. It's not saying anything at all? What a "mindfuck" lol

This is a small but important exercise I came up with as the result of something that I experienced today. Today when I was going for a run in the forest, I hugged a tree. And I noticed a curious thing: I felt reserved. I felt resistance within me to hug the tree. Before I hugged it, I looked left and right to make sure that nobody was around to see me being such a hippie don't get me wrong, I love doing this kinda hippie stuff (especially when on mushrooms) And when I hugged it, I felt love. For the tree and from the tree. On the one hand there was my love-deprived sorry ass who just wanted a hug (turns out: trees can't run away from you so you can really let yourself out on them) and on the other hand there was the tree who just "returned" the affection without resistance, judgement, fear, rejection, etc. Here's the important part of this story: we resist love. For various reasons, in this case it was fear of judgement. The exercise consists in noticing when you resist love. Have you ever hugged a tree? No? Then go do it. And do it where there's a slight chance that somebody might see you dong it and notice how you feel about it Notice it in other situations; Showing or receiving love/affection to/by someone when other people are around? Afraid? Tense? What about singing (if you love singing) when other people can hear you? Do you feel reserved? And what about showing love to yourself? Do you resist showing love to yourself because you feel guilty or unworthy or something else for doing so and therefore don't? Notice it. Feel it. And then, what are you going to choose? Love or resistance to Love? PS: it's all Love anyway

@machiavelli No, I mean there literally is no such thing as "mind" or "thoughts", because both are also just "mind" and "thoughts".

@Adamq8 There's nothing wrong with the materialist paradigm per se, it's great for creating technology and a comfortable and prosperous life, it just doesn't hold up for explaining reality? "Everything is consciousness" can't build a quantum computer or develop effective medicine. Everything has its merit, if properly used.

We need more people who serve as a bridge between the current paradigm and the new paradigm. People will listen to scientists because in this day and age: science = authority So a new branch of science will emerge. There will be pioneers and further down the road and unknown to mainstream culture, there will fringe explorers who are still much too radical to permeate popular epistemology. Leo is one of them, the only problem is that he doesn't wear a lab coat and so people don't consider him an authority And although this work has only one authority, people will have to create authority outside themselves. But those who have one foot in science and the other foot in mysticism will lead this paradigm shift. My prediction is that within the next few decades, new hybrid disciplines will emerge in science and even the non-scientific departments of universities, like "Theoneurology" or "Biochemistry of Consciousness" or "Neo-Epistemology" or something like that. The dualism between matter and spirit will collapse. I could also imagine that more and more stage Green/Yellow institutes like Esalen will emerge, which can offer intellectual harborage for the undisturbed and somewhat less restricted development of the ideas concerned.

@math159w Do you have any experience with spirituality/deconstructing the mind? Or are you completely new to the type of content presented by Leo? In advance: don't worry, you're not going insane, you're just experiencing a huge mind fuck. And proper mindfucks tend to make you feel like your going bananas but that's alright, because it will subside over time. What you're so afraid of right now is in philosophy called "Solipsism" and it's a meaningless idea. There is no problem, I promise I've been there, many of us have. It's the idea that you're the only person/mind in the whole universe. But it's not true (I won't explain it in this thread because we've had too many Solipsism thread in the last few months). Feel free to pm me if you wanna talk about it a bit more.

What is "good looking" anyway? Is life harder? no Is life harder in certain aspects? probably, yes Nuance!!

Familiar?

Guess we all have to find out for ourselves

I don't understand... how can there be something "boring" or "meaningless" or "not fun"? Since these are egoic projections?

Money is a promise. A convention. An agreement.

This is incredible. There's so much to recognize in this documentary. human psychology society survival corruption collective ego stages of development All in there and probably more. Just wow. Authoritarianism is awful.

This happened like half an hour ago to me and I learned a lesson from it, because it was a bit shocking tbh. I was riding my bike through town on my way home, when I saw a person laying on the sidewalk. Just smack in the middle of the way and he was rolling from one side to another. I looked at him and saw the other people who also just looked at him and then simply kept walking. I thought "what the hell why is no one helping" so I turned around and got to him. Turns out he was pretty drunk and fell, he was repeating himself so I assumed he might've hit his head, he was also and that he was in pain and that he had psychological problems. So I called an ambulance. As we were waiting for the ambulance to arrive, people kept passing us, looking at the person with an aversive expression of disgust and pity. Of the dozens of people who passed us, two asked whether I've called someone. Two. Let that sink in. The ambulance arrived, they helped him, I went home, where Just a few minutes ago, I was taking about what happened to a couple of people on a relatively unknown social media platform. And even there, they said "I would've also walked away" or "why did you help him, maybe he was dangerous" and "I would've only helped him if he looked relatively normal", etc. So I was confronted with two lessons: people don't give a shit about you, even if you are obviously in a painful situation right in front of them. and second: they always have some bullshit rationalization for why they shouldn't help. Not only for why they shouldn't help but why they shouldn't even stop by and ask "excuse me, are you alright?" Not even that. So I thought: what if this happens to me? Or some of my friends? Or a family member? There's no reliance on people. This is stage Orange at it's most toxic form. Dog eat dog. And you're being judged for not playing along. So if you see someone like that, imagine that this person was you. Totally fucked up and in pain, rolling around on the street with 95% of society looking at you as though you were a piece of dog sh*t.

Where you at, mods?

@James123 but not everybody sees that that is so.