Oppositionless

@theleelajoker I was just thinking about how actually Daniel Ingram's stages of insight actually makes sense of my current situation better than OCD. Called out. Lol.

The belief that "understanding" ie creating elaborate mental representations of reality is the only right way to value Truth. Failure to recognize the simplicity of Truth. What would happen if you just took a break from philosophy and contemplation for a month?

Non negotiables: 1 blog post a week 1 YouTube video a week reach out to two potential practice clients a week IMO spiral dynamics post yellow breaks down . Yellow is the peak of SD imo . Because what it calls turquoise is simply nonduality / awakening ☯️😊

@JoshB Second this. And Tai chi!! Your meditation might not have changed your state very much. Both of these practices work the subtle energies. Kriya cultivates Yang and Tai chi or qigong cultivate Yin. BTW there's some confusion with this word Kriya. There is Kriya yoga, and Kundalini Kriyas. They're different, but probably both are good, but I've only done Kriya yoga. Kriya yoga is a seated technique, Kundalini kriya is more active!

Some people are genuinely ugly, but most of the people I vibe with are just anxious and a little (or a lot) sad.

@Eskilon That was a really nice video. Title was kinda click baitey lol. For those who didn't watch it, Dakota gave 5 meo to three different Sadhus. Two of them had profound experiences. So the ratio isn't 100% non-response but 33%. The guy who didn't get much from it, you can just look into that guy's eyes and see the realization. And after talking to him Dakota says something really deep: "There's a difference between experiencing something profound and becoming someone profound." When people don't respond to psychedelics, I'm mindful of the genetic component, but looking into that Sadhu's eyes I'm convinced it's more than genetic for him. Dude is simply There. Becoming someone profound isn't flashy, often isn't fun, and isn't easy, but it's the core of spirituality.

Indeed. But it's precipitated by experience. Not an experience but a lifetime of experience. Surrender, courage, discipline, compassion. Any spiritual path or technique is ultimately a footnote to Truth or Life. What are you embodying while undertaking these practices?

I agree but that might give the wrong impression. It's always a free choice, God's will is never forced upon someone. You can cultivate the type of attitude with practice that channeling God's will is a joy. Well I would say the surfer is impressive for his mastery, the climber is impressive for his bravery, especially if he tries again given the fall (assuming the analogy doesn't break down bc he dies). In another thread I said I see meditation as good because it takes discipline, psychecelics are good because they take courage.

@Oeaohoo A .1% increase in baseline consciousness could be the difference between depression on the brink of suicide and genuine peace, a sense of purpose, and a heart full of gratitude. I'm less than 1% higher in my baseline from when I was at my lowest. But I live in a different reality. If you're more interested in the truth angle than the liberation angle, then there's plenty of that too.

Self-Realization happens in an instant, but it usually doesn't stick. In Yoga it's called Nirvikalpa, vs the abiding state of Sahaja. Nirvikalpa is, in the context of serious practice, common. Sahaja is quite rare. And then beyond Sahaja there are levels of baseline consciousness which are indescribable but can be glimpsed through psychedelics- this is sometimes called Turiyatita or the God-state. If I were to give an argument against psychedelics, it would be that they might make people ambivalent about raising their baseline state (although for me it was quite the opposite). Which is a tragedy, raising the baseline is far more important than glimpses.

@Oeaohoo just do the best you can with the tools you have available. If you raise your baseline by 5% over the course of many years everything will fall into place and your life will be beauty incarnate. When I use the word genetic I'm not just referring to physical genetics. I'm essentially referring to Rupert Sheldrake's idea of morphic fields, which encompasses the physical, astral, causal, ancestral, past life etc all rolled into one. The True Self is available to anyone who does the work, you just might not reach uninterrupted ecstasy in this life, and that's okay, part of the spiritual path is letting go of outcomes. Which is hard.

The beauty of nonduality is that it's available to anyone who does the work, whether they raise their consciousness a lot or not. I hate it but most people won't be able to raise their baseline by more than a few percentage points, even if they're highly disciplined with practices. But I still think a few percentage points is amazing and worth pursuing. Psychedelics can give us a glimpse of what genetic lottery winners like Ramana Maharshi are able to experience on a daily basis. Most awakened people are not Ramana's, by the way, not even close. That's why they live relatively normal lives and get involved in scandals. Peter Ralston might be approaching but not at Ramana level, a random blogger I found named Amara* might be too, I can't think of very many others. ****** I haven't gone through any of her training btw, this isn't an ad. Also she seems to have taken down the blogs where she went in depth on her state of consciousness and siddhis. *https://amarastrand.com/about/

Capitalists don't care about the future

I was like 50% green (love and light , meaningless career, hippie bum, passive vibes) and 50% yellow (obsessive map making, deep intellectual understanding of nonduality, colored by existential ocd doing metaphysics all day every day). Both of those led me to... not accomplishing very much. Oh and there was also plenty of shadow orange which made it so I wasn't okay with that, i couldn't fully accept doing nothing with my life, so I was unhappy. Haven't smoked weed in 3 days. Clearly it makes my Green passivity and my Yellow philosophical obsession worse. It's produced some genuine insights but also a lot of crap.

@Ramasta9 yeah I mean really the diagnosis is just about symptoms. I have instrusive thoughts and I have rituals for dealing with said instrusive thoughts. The root cause of that could be, as you suggested, an artistic mind or spiritual sensitivity. We live very unnatural lives, if you're sensitive it'll lead to all sorts of disorders. Meds were helpful when I didn't have the discipline to meditate every day. Now that I have that discipline, meds seem redundant and I'm tapering off of them.