Natasha Tori Maru

@Xonas Pitfall exactly. Great words.

I find a discernment is an observation free of judging the experience as good/bad. There is a difference, probably why there are different words so we have clear distinction. I spent a bit of time on contemplating discernment / judgement. @Razard86 is very good with this part of our experience. And yep I agree regarding survival - it is why survival and spirituality run into incompatibility. Perhaps as we work on our conditioning more, judgement isn't as needed, because wisdom takes over. We can discern, but we do not need to ascribe good/bad as a judgement because wisdom will take over to guide survival (while remaining more spiritually aligned) after we learn the lessons in life. IE fire is danger, instead of 'I hate fire or heat'. I suppose then responsive wisdom will guide survival, rather than reactive judgement. I think this dovetails with dissolving conditioning - leading to wisdom guiding us. This is all not to say we do not have preferences to experience. Just not a good/bad or moral judgement. More 'this is not for me' over 'i hate this'

Yeah I do not think they cause each other - for me it is the external reality (co-arising subject/object experience) that triggers a different sort of state (so to speak). For me it does. As an example, when I simply observe something in my experience - like a small piece of skin on my cuticle loose - it causes a sensation. A mild niggling / tingling feeling. But when I start to view it as an irritation or I actively start pulling at the loose cuticle I begin to judge the experience as something I dislike. I want it to go away. This can sort of give it more volume in my mind. I think discernment leads to 'there is pain, sensation' whereas judgement leads to 'I do not want this, it is annoying, negative, I dislike it' etc. Overall the difference between judgement / discernment is subtle - but one really prolongs the negative state. I just experience judgement in this way as a bad feeling state. Discernment doesn't have that negativity associated. Might not be like this for you, just some subtleties in my experience and observation when body/sensation scanning, and tracing back to thoughts.

This - it engages you more yeah? Same for me. I also like hilly, punchy mountain bike rides of about 40k. They engage you in a similar way to smaller sprint / interval runs. @Judy2 Long distance running for me has always been easier because I can focus in a single minded manner easily. I suppose this is a 'zen' thing? But I do find the mind has less inherent external force contributing to the focusing when distance running. It is a discipline thing. It has a high barrier to entry - the 'mind' training part. Usually a lot of will and force is involved prior to it becoming a reflexive habit to engage in focus. My biggest, most profound and best insights happen when distance running. When sprinting or punchy-hill mountain biking, insights and clarity happen AFTER the exercise.

Do you think this could be a movement between active dissolution of conditionings, which, in my experience, can be very uncomfortable (and easily judged as being 'negative' or disconnected) and small breakthroughs following the conditioning being worked through? What follows after the removal or 'working on' of life's accumulated conditionings, feels like a peace. Mindfulness. Oneness. Unity. I soon swing back to being triggered by an event, experience, that reveals some other conditioning. This has been my path of 'integration' for a long while. The moments of peace, being and love are deeper and more extended with each oscillation. Not sure if that speaks to your experience. Lots of cleaning up.

Hell yeah!

infinite flowers within a flower @Ramasta9

@AION What do you consider to be 'feminine'? What that IS for you, not what it ISN'T?

Do we need to chase mystical experiences to develop spiritually? There is more truth to a petal on a flower, than a mystical experience. To me, anyway I suppose we can perform certain actions to make us more 'accident prone'. And maybe genetics mean we might 'trip' more easily into an 'accident'. Psychedelics can certainly rip the ground from under us into 'accident' territory! Could be just me that dislikes chasing 'mystical' elevated spiritual experience. At the end of the day, I find it to be just an experience. Divorced from what is.

@BlessedLion Obviously, there will need to be a flow to the structure of your conversation - so naturally not all questions will be attended to. Organically it might not even cover all questions and could reveal something totally different. What a great opportunity !

@LoneWonderer Cheers I appreciate that! Not everyone sees it like you do. Something something 'don't shoot the messenger' Kudos to yourself for speaking out also - I admire a steel pair Social approval is a big deal for survival.

@LoneWonderer Lots of verbal hazing goes on - and TONS of 'I had it hard, so now you get your trial by fire also' without circumstances being the arbiter - the site crew being the ones to put a newbie through the trial by fire. Totally wrong. Lots of repeated harassment / humiliation attempts that aren't simply pranks; shit like sending apprentices off to find 'left handed hammers', 'sky hooks' or asking them to request non-existent tools from other site crews / trades. Really playing on new guys ignorance and making them look stupid. Some of these guys really aren't the sharpest tools in the shed themselves. So to be cruelly hazed when they aren't confident is evil. Giving newbies pointless grinds with excessive harder jobs when there are easier ways. I saw one guy make an apprentice re-dig a trench that was fine and within spec for no reason. In the heat of summer. The poor guy had to go home feeling unwell, and being so new he had no idea his work was fine. The most insidious part about this is that it makes the hazee feel like this is all part of it. That it is acceptable to do this to the next lot of new crew. So the behaviour perpetuates as a form of hierarchy. Many of these guys do not know how to assert boundaries or stand up for themselves. I think this breeds a lot of that 'cup of cement' ' harden the fuck up' culture on construction sites that leads to really caustic and abrasive conduct. Moralizing toughness - but it is a destabilizing pressure. Not pressure that sharpens someone. I do not work as OH&S but I engage in in-depth social dynamics (I am logistics and coordination primarily) so I work to dissolve a lot of this stuff without having to call in force. Sometimes it is a simple matter of gently, but repeatedly and incessantly, calling out these tactics. Essentially, I nag these guys into submission. But this only works in my case because I pay their bills directly, so there is the potential for force to be used if they do not comply. I am comfortable calling people out without asserting my own power over them. I give them honest and candid feedback. I never explain myself. And I always focus on behavioural feedback and never character feedback. Emotionless delivery.

@Basman Yes hazing is really terrible. Nurses do it to each other - and it is RIFE on construction sites.

🦘🤍

Yeah I think low T could be an issue. I think there are a lot of new studies coming out about this being caused by microplastics in male gonads (if I am not mistaken). Really scary stuff. Apparently it effects men more than women. Man we are fucked as a race lol

Men have always been hardcore rejected by women. I do not think this is new. I do think many men these days are more hopeless and less 'what is the point'. Women too. Social media, nihilism, black pill. I don't think we can cleanly blame either sex for the issue. It is societal. People are the issue and not sex 🤣 Theres a privileged sort of expectation present formed though comparison, social media & lack of understanding of true intimacy. It might be important to realise many users are applying their own language and meaning to others here. More open enquiry is needed to understand all of our perspectives, instead of a cheap, easy label.

Disappointment is on the same axis as expectation. It is a projection and fantasy of a future outcome - which isn't inherently bad. We need to expect so we can plan. For survival. To learn and avoid danger. The sting is probably coming from some form of entitlement to the future projection. This might come down to conditioning. What are we consuming to form the future expectations?

This is a good question !

Many of my male friends/colleagues report novelty is what is not satisfied in LTR. Just an observation, but it appears sexual novelty is a larger component of the male sex drive. This is just from my experience in the social domain (family, friends, colleagues). When I reflect on it, this need for novelty would be an essential ingredient to perpetuate the species. Without men's drive for sex, I suspect we would not have proliferated the planet so extensively I think there is also a huge variance in sexual appetite for qty amongst the population - as @mmKay raised. Some men may have a very high ceiling there. One if my mates is completely asexual.

@Breakingthewall No, thank you. This is a thread for questions directed to Ralston for his answer. Not presumptions about me.

Appreciated

@AtmanIsBrahman no one said there ain't truth in it. One can twist anything to sound more profound than it really is.

Good catch. This can lead to emotional suppression, bypassing and all sorts of bad juju.

Exactly. You just get over the time and money investment in appearance. Obviously we still do care and attend to appearance. But the vapid and hollow nature of it all becomes so apparent when real meaning takes over in life. And that is at the crux of it - we create meaning in our lives. When you are young and dumb you invest in that shit because you haven't formed fully as a person. Or are still discovering who we are. Real meaning comes later. In my experience. No judgement on the youth of today either - I was once in the same boat. I find it amusing my half brothers generation really think they have touched on something completely 'new'. Billy even said to me 'every generation was lied to, they lied to us that looks don't matter'. My eyes seriously - popped out of my head. NO idea. All generations have known looks matter. It is just with the proliferation of social media the younger ones place more emphasis on it. I do not think all youth think this way - but many are getting tied up in this shit.

Accurate