preventingdiabetes

Yes. It’s stopping me from taking enough action. It is perfectionism. I think I am not in touch with my feelings. I can’t really “feel”. If I went down the wrong path I’d feel suffering and regret. So what? I’d be in a position in life I don’t want to be in. So what? I will feel as if I’d wasted potential and energy. So what? I would have learned something either way with the newfound experience I’ve gained. Ah I see! The more experience I gain in life, the more I figure out what I want and don’t want. So if I were to become a monk right now and realise that I don’t enjoy the process of being a monk, then I’d know that I’m not ready for it yet. Thank you @Matt23

@martins name How does Leo fetishise suffering? I never see him recommending transcending and repressing, or doing it himself. What do you mean? Thanks for this. I want to look into more of this. How do I meditate on each and all the chakras? For someone who has depression and anxiety, what chakra meditation should they do or start with? How is this deluded? How else will we strive for enlightenment without inherently thinking of it as a concept initially?

@martins name From a practical perspective, does meeting physical needs still distract from doing that? To even be able to sit on the cushion, focus, have lots of time to meditate, buy books, invest in yourself, requires you to meet your physical needs. In this way, and in this day and age, isn’t meeting your physical needs intertwined with enlightenment work?

@martins name could this also be the same for enlightenment? If you don’t have your financial freedom and you use Enlightenment and meditation as a crutch to distract yourself from meeting your financial needs, would that take you any closer to Enlightenment? could this be because option 1 develops you up in the spiral? Whereas Buddhists usually stay in Stage Blue? Really? I always see Leo teaching option one. He often says to exhaust our desires and meet our needs before we focus on Enlightenment?

@Zigzag Idiot I don’t get it. Can you please give a summary or elaborate? @Matt23 I fear going down the wrong path in life and regretting it later on. I want to be sure that I’m doing what’s best for me.

@martins name I like the way you put it. would this be the same for financial needs? E.g: If someone isn’t financially independent, financial advice and working on their financial independence will get them closer to Enlightenment, instead of just trying to “transcend survival” and only study Enlightenment teachings while neglecting survival?

@gggkkk How did you get over it? What are signs that it’s an escapist mentality? How can I tell that it is? What benefits would being financially free get me? That being a monk in an ashram can’t? It’s hard to just stop it. The pull of the thought is very strong. It’s like I fear that something will go wrong if I don’t follow through on that thought. I think I’m running from getting into a trap. So I try to be perfectionistic with everything I am doing. But what if my time would be better spent only doing consciousness work?

@RendHeavenWhy don't we all just join a monastery? We can just meditate all day right?

Are there any questions that I could journal on when it comes to this? Meditating doesn't fix it.

@Ry4n Can you elaborate? What was the insight you had?

What's the point of pursuing our Life Purpose if we don't need it to be enlightened (which is said to be what truly makes us fulfilled)? I am currently working on making my Life Purpose my full-time career, but I am questioning whether it's worth continuing. Wouldn't self-transcendence contradict every need below it on Maslow's Hierarchy of needs? Is it better to have my life-purpose in place before pursuing enlightenment? (If I plan on becoming awakened in the future that is)

Doing this makes me feel uneasy. Any tips? @Vittorio Wow! This looks very helpful! I am going to be contemplating this tonight. @mandyjw I feel like a lot of my goals are distractions and that I should work on getting awakened. @Intraplanetary But it's so hard. I never feel full. Thank you @Gen Sue Rodriguez

I've been dealing with some stressful shit and now I use food to cope. It's like the only thing that gives me pleasure. How do I stop?

Is it okay to feast on cake, pizza, chocolate and the likes, during a celebration? I have one coming up in a couple of days. Or is eating foods like this basically equivalent to injecting poison in yourself? I read somewhere that "Sugar is not a treat, it is poison". It's been around half a year since the last time I had the above, however my overall diet is pretty boring (it's worth it though). I also don't have any cravings for the foods mentioned, would eating them once make me crave them later on?

Is raising our consciousness basically the process of shedding our ego? So when we are developing ourselves up the Spiral Dynamics stages for example, we are basically shedding our ego. Because the higher the spiral stage, the less ego there is, making it easier to awaken?

This is more of a theoretical question but is it possible to go through the stages by secluding yourself and meditating all day?

Does he give action steps for growing up through the stages?

Are there any monasteries that allow psychedelics? Are psychedelics expensive?

What about cognitively? If a Stage Orange person were to seclude himself and meditate all day his entire life like a monk, could he still develop himself up to Turquoise or even higher? Could he even exhaust his desires that way? I wonder what @Leo Gura has to say about this. If being a monk could not only develop your waking up process but also your growing up process, the most ideal way to live is to be a monk - though that's very hardcore.

Leo said that Enlightenment is what fully raises your capacity to love, but even awakened people can have limited and crude forms of love if they're at a low stage of development, no? Therefore an awakened person can improve their life by developing their relative selves which raises their capacity to love? And for people who aren't awakened, raising their capacity to love by developing their ego would bring them closer to awakening?

If you are Enlightened (Waking Up), would developing your relative self through Integral Theory, Spiral Dynamics, Ego Development, (Growing Up) make you happier? Leo says to develop ourselves in both avenues, Waking Up and Growing Up. But if true happiness is found through Waking Up, what would happen if I put all my attention and energy into Waking Up and didn't put as much time into Growing Up? Let's say there are two people at the exact same level in terms of Waking Up, but their level in Growing Up is different. Would a Stage Turquoise person be happier than a Stage Blue person despite both of them being Enlightened?

@JosephKnecht Does Waking Up get easier the more you Grow Up? In other words, do your chances of Self-Realization/Enlightenment increase as you Grow Up? @allislove So if I wanted the most fulfilment and happiness possible, Waking Up in addition to Growing Up is more beneficial than solely Waking Up? Making the movie the best it could be?

@VeganAwake What if you look at it from a relative perspective?

@Leo Gura Then what would give a Stage Blue Enlightened person motive to move up the stages/develop their consciousness?

How much time do you guys dedicate to theory a day? And at what time of the day? Do you approach theory with a certain mindset or way of thinking?