Bodhitree

Well, this is partially true in my experience. You can get pictures presented to your mind’s eye, and sometimes snippets of vision. But more often your immediate local perception is based on feeling, yes.

The only way forward is through, I believe. I’ve had a brush with this, and it has resolved itself with some years of Buddhist study.

A bit of analysis of the fount of wisdom that is Hollywood shows that evil is generally characterised with big and sharp teeth and an appetite for human flesh. As if we were still hunter gatherers living on the African plains having to outrun lions. Which is not far from the truth if you look at how the amygdala works.

It might be worthwhile to spend some time writing down all the ways in which you don’t know shit. I wouldn’t use it as a mantra though, I would advise something more conducive to the path.

Is a thing forbidden when it is against your deeper nature? If love is what you are, is it still ok to be a soldier? To eat meat? To pay to have a wasp's nest exterminated? Where do you draw the line? Or do you think there is a price to be paid for doing these things. That all actions of that sort will move us further away from self-realisation.

Be prepared to let go of absolutely anything you think you have or are.

Being attached to comfort, hmm. Hard work can be pleasant if your body is used to it. The real problems with being an enlightened leader is avoiding attachment to power, status and money. It tends to corrupt. There are a few examples of how it can be done right, but not many. The Dalai Lama and Ghandi come to mind.

There is no such thing as forever torment. There will always be change, leela, play.

That being said, it is much easier to be an enlightened tomato farmer than an enlightened global leader. Have you seen the documentary I am Greta? About Greta Thunberg's life. It makes it really obvious how two-faced most politicians are, looking for selfies with her while in fact doing exactly nothing for the environment.

Hmm. Have you heard of Koko the Gorilla?

I think you are missing one... beyond monk, once you have reached enlightenment, there is living in tune with the universe.

@snowyowl Indeed. I think we will be seeing a massive spike in inflation as all the retailers raise prices to try and recoup their losses over the covid period.

Not a fan of the Quran. It’s best avoided in favor of more enlightened teachings.

Sure... it’s a reference to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which holds that we go through a series of encounters after death which can lead to enlightenment. The core of it is to realise the nature of mind, that the various things that you encounter are just parts of your mind. If you fail in this, then you are reborn according to your karma. But the Tibetan Book of the Dead is not consistent with what happens in Near-Death Experiences, which are pretty much the only real knowledge we have about what might happen in the first few moments after death. Ultimately we have no in depth knowledge of what happens after death.

Well, first you become a corpse. Then you go on and enter the bardo, the intermediary state.

Beware that going to a psychiatrist will likely cause them to label you as someone who has experienced drug-induced psychosis, and they will prescribe antipsychotics, which you can refuse. Most psychiatrists are just pill-pushers. That said, if symptoms persist then six months of peace and quiet on antipsychotics may be a better option than wrestling your way through. Just beware that coming off antipsychotics is not always easy either.

I always thought the Second Coming of Christ was to do with the day of judgment, which is stuff from Revelations, and not really about the words and deeds of Christ as described in the Gospels. It seems to me that this kind of apocalyptic thinking is what a lot of Christian cults are based around, and so I am very wary of it. When I engage in this kind of discussion I generally try to steer the conversation towards talk about the bible’s historical accuracy, which is a field I have done some research on. Christianity VS serious science is a discussion that christianity usually loses, especially when young people get taught science in schools.

Interesting discussion. I recall reading both Osho and Papaji saying that psychedelics were a temporary aid, and couldn’t cause a permanent enlightenment. But then you have people like Terence McKenna and Ram Dass, and they seem to have done well by it.

It seems to me that if you’re trying to understand god-realisation with your mind, you’re basically not ready.

Good advice from Kalki Avatar. My thinking has led me to suspect that absorption will only be a success as a path after a lot of purification, letting go of unnecessary ideas, and slow reform of the inner dimensions. If you want to do some light Buddhist reading, you could look up dhyana and how it relates to the Eightfold Path. But I believe that ultimately we walk our own path, you can listen to others but their pointers may not help you because your internal makeup may be different. The most important thing you can do is develop a sense for what is wholesome and beneficial for you in particular at a given moment. Kind of an inner compass if you will.

He seems interesting, definitely worth a closer look.

Well, I don’t have any experience with psychedelics — that’s kind of why I am here — but the way I think it works is that the trips temporarily give you the opportunity to experience a new set of beliefs, and so to see things from an entirely different perspective. It then takes time to come down and integrate the experience. There is a question about the level at which you understand things. There is a certain maturity that helps you to give context and meaning to what you experience. In meditation these things come forward as well sometimes.

Its an interesting topic, going beyond survival. I don’t know how Leo sees it, but I can think of examples of how these things were done in the past. Monks and nuns for instance, have all need to think of survival eliminated, they are cared for by the monastic order that they belong to. This allows them to focus exclusively on their spiritual path. Rich people also have this opportunity, although they tend to be trapped by materialism and the concerns of managing money. At the other end of the spectrum, in India there is a tradition of wandering ascetic beggars, who have chosen to focus on spiritual development instead of earning a living. The Buddha was an early example. So why are money worries so disturbing for a spiritual path? Generally they cause a lot of turmoil in the mind, and they tend to drag you away from a pure dedication towards a mind where you have to think about minimising losses and maximising gains. My experience is that that kind of thinking does not mix well with the kind of peace and relaxation that are part of making progress.

Yes I know, but Maslow’s hierarchy of needs indicates we need to look after such things before doing the big stuff.