BlueOak

Pro vs Against. For vs Anti. Them vs Us. They are all parts of yourself. We can divide forever to understand ourselves but here is demonstrating the opposite.

Whenever you define what you are you imagine a separation that doesn't exist. @Nivsch

There was no inevitability of a war between NATO and Russia. This was a fear of a possible outcome. There has been no war between Russia and the west directly but there have forever been proxy wars or wars by association. Its not saying fear is unjustified to admit there is fear either. His fear is driving his actions here. Shown sometimes in his displays of anger at the inevitable result of what he is doing. A long and protracted bloody war or occupation even if it were surrendered tomorrow. He understands by acting against Ukraine NATO would reply too. He doesn't want to call armies shooting at armies a war, I understand that. Because it would mean admitting to himself he is going down the path to the conflict he feared. Sure he hasn't yet caused the world war WE ALL FEAR, which is why we need to make pains to tone down that fear, but at the same time he is on the path to causing what he fears. Again fear is not wrong, bad or something to avoid. Its just what's fueling most of the actions, by everyone here, not just Russia, but Ukraine, Eastern Europe, NATO and even India has some too in how it see's itself caught in the middle for example.

Russia scares Eastern Europe, so they join NATO for safety. By pulling back diplomatically they caused what they don't want. By becoming an autocrat the democracies fear you, there is a history there. Like most people, countries or societies cause what they don't want. Its not exclusive to Russia or Putin. They see something like an unwinnable war so they go and make sure it happens for example. NATO doesn't want China and Russia to ally so they do the things that make it happen. Europe wants to stop India becoming more easternized so their actions cause it, fear. Fear often causes what you don't want to happen, to manifest.

Russian's playing the victim here over and over. Scaring Eastern European into joining NATO while pulling back from the west at every turn. These things go both ways, its a two way dynamic. It always has been a push and pull since the cold war and long before that. These smaller countries don't exist in a vacuum. Then we turn on the TV and see why that fear is justified. The dynamic reached Ukraine, it should have joined NATO immediately but they hesitated trying to find a balancing act and in this case its costing them their lives.

Dream is the reality and is god. So there is not the separation you imagine. You still have a duality, the biggest one left.

Russia has been doing what NATO has done for centuries. Who do you think most modern wars was really against? Russian influence, Russian arms, and Russian backed countries. Russia has toppled governments, armed dictators, meddled in politics, sent mercenaries and invaded others in just the same way. Sure sometimes everyone turns on a particular country or movement. Its more usually superpower vs superpower. *Or a border dispute between neighboring countries. You can take all that and apply it to NATO. Minus dictatorships and autocrats as a preference, and the wish to completely level populations if necessary. Not much difference but it is there.

I usually see the opposite. Funny how we see what stands out to us the most. Thankfully I see a lot of Russian opinions because I begin to understand that part of myself and begin to see it in me too.

@Husseinisdoingfine Its obvious he's got the hate inside himself that he doesn't want the other to have. Life works in the opposite way. What you have you will find. I will expand more. Russia will not hit all of the weapons, that is obvious because those weapons are already in there all around the country, and continue to be delivered from many sources. There were not 10's of thousands of Anti Tank, several thousand Anti Air, Millions of clips of Ammunition and guns in one building. There were not 30-40 thousand foreign fighters, which is an estimate of the Ukrainian and Georgian Legions strength combined in that one area. This is something Putin can't accept when he asks the country to disarm, its simply practically not possible to do so. The way this strike was likely done with such accuracy is with a spotter on the ground. Sure its a message, but this is the ongoing strategy and a course that was chosen from all nations that were in opposition to the war. Reversing that now is impossible. Much like Russia can't afford to lose, NATO can't afford to lose and Ukraine definitely can't afford to lose. That's the combined problem all of them face and leads into his next point. His take on failure and leadership was excellent. People still value image over substance. His take on the air superiority yes that's partially true in the US, its more that they usually train with combined arms but not exclusively. The same is applied to Russia and not knowing how to fight without a proxy infantry to support, because they always have done. Again not exclusively but its a factor. Their own infantry are conscripts and often have bad equipment like light soft top vehicles that are not doing very well. Their logistics outside of rail are appalling, everyone has their failures. They instead prefer to fight supporting someone else's infantry in an easily supplied area. Many people have to look at their opponent as animals or insane, its the only way they can pull the trigger. What usually happens is as they go up the ranks, the ones that do, can at least see them as rational and begin to counter what they would rationally do. He's not fully in reality here because both sides have more rational generals and commanders in positions of power who have failed plenty to learn and get where they are. Politicians and News Anchors, sure those people are like paper to blow around in the wind these days. Sadly Putin surrounded himself with Yes Men, which he has since fired several of, many Autocrats that fall into one voice rather than many opinions attract yes men. A failure of leadership. Then I paused at 23 minutes where he went from condemning people for hating a country, to calling American's pigs. Its obvious he's got the hate inside himself that he doesn't want 'others' to have. Don't get angry with me while I call you a pig. What a stupid thing to say or expect from reality. As for propaganda that's necessary in war that is why all sides do it. Russia has not surrounded or cut off Ukrainian troops barely at all. Otherwise they would be out of supply. As for his take on surrender, well the problem is people will die and suffer for a hundred years if they do. Disappearing, suppressed, shot, killed, etc. In conclusion his perspective is heavily Russian biased and heavily hating on America. Which is okay, but I take it with perspective in mind.

Part of life is its want to break down and splinter. For things to be another way than what they are or change. I agree impersonation or mimicry to live out our own version of reality is a root cause of suffering. The original thing being copied is not often replaced, because what would be the point.

Its because they are not mercenaries they are volunteers, so they don't get to come and go as they please. They are not conscripts either because they chose to go there. Russian propaganda is to label them as mercenaries which is inaccurate. I imagine there will be many horrific stories that come out of this war from all sides. If you take one story and say that applies to everything its not a good indicator of reality. Much like one news station isn't a good indicator of reality. Try to get a spread. I could show videos of people saying how the volunteers are doing so well, that they are making a difference, but you can find those on different news networks. The truth is war is chaos, its all over the place, this one is brutal and if you go you have to expect that brutality, not whatever is in your head that you want it to be. Any side idealising this is as always in for a shock. Also this war is different in that your country is not backing you, its not sending you in with the best equipment, its helping sure but its not got your back. That is a sad reality of it. I'd say that applies to Russia too, that's why their morale is in the toilet.

Propaganda is one or a small spectrum of perspectives echoed across a large platform. Its not insidious on its own. Its only an issue when it is all that is displayed. Recently it was told to me Russian people prefer having a small spectrum of opinions displayed. While its obvious the west as a collective prefers a wider variety being displayed but still having it limited. Every government limits what others can see and what is suppressed but there is more allowed in democratic countries. Which is what makes them democratic, as opposed to having one perspective which makes autocratic countries. There is not a huge difference here, but there is a difference and that has to be acknowledged to be the case.

Many topics are covered if anything in too much detail for me a layman but I found it beneficial. People who are considering going further than personal understanding into professional work may find this extremely useful beyond that. I have noticed people could benefit understanding Trauma in relation to proximity, similarity, familiarity, the cumulative effect, diet, illness, mood, lethargy, sex drive, edgy behavior, inflammation, allergic reactions etc. How the body shuts down so the stress levels reduce for example, being experienced as fatigue. As an example, in an extended exposure to stress, it talks of the encoding of fear memories and triggers into the body, whereas in the initial moment this is blocked by the physical response.

A spiritual reason if you go in this direction is you ingest the animals suffering. You take that into you. On all levels from the meat to the soul. So if an animal has been kept in a cage all its life in squalid conditions that is becoming part of you. An animal in the wild, has lived a long life free of imprisonment, its the moment of death mostly that is its suffering, the rest of life is not based on disfigurement of body/spirit that often accompany animals living in a cage. And of course you are the animal, so treat it as you would want to be treated. That tends to be what happens with people, how they interpret the world is how they react to their interpretations, and so what they experience or create in their life. *Expanding this meaning: Part of you. Being party of society, part of life, how you react to the world, relate to it, what we create etc.

When will the time be more right? Russia is bogged down, and being brought to peace by almost all of the democratic world. Almost all of the Ukrainian population is against the invasion. They are well armed and supplied in all but the south east where some are cut off. The population is armed and mobilized. The refugee crisis and pictures of suffering are causing more pressure against Russia. Russia has lost momentum and its lost a lot of men and machines. The snow is melting and making the terrain worse. Its supply lines are more vulnerable than ever and it doesn't have enough trucks to supply its forces. Its lost many generals and many commanding officers, its faced defections and low morale. Russia has little legitimacy for the war except NATO is bad, and Russia don't like what happened in the east, which Russia itself created in fighting there and arming/building a separatist movement. Russia is not even calling it a war, so how does it intend to fight a long one? Its largely trying to invent legitimacy after the fact with mythical bio labs, and nuclear threats. Which never works, it takes years of conditioning to Democratic countries to believe state party lines. There is no more right time, than right now. By the way the Russian approach to propaganda is one more way to show how it doesn't understand the west. They might be able to convince their own populations of something because they have been fostering NATO hate based on its expansion for decades, but it takes a year or more of state messaging on democratic or even just neutral third party media to justify invading another country.

@hello1234 Like you. I want to know where the voices are that are telling Russia or China how to adapt or change. The lessons they have to learn, how they can encourage peace rather than war. Why its all one sided. The feedback is so obvious and so bias across the internet experts that I can't take most of it seriously. The fact Russia has managed to invade another country (again) and have everyone talking about how NATO is bad while doing so is incredible. I mean well done to their media and propaganda teams. They've managed to even convince half the world they are not even in a war. Its brilliant if it wasn't so horrific. It does however set the stage for other countries to do the same. That needs to be clear. Other countries can now blame Russia, NATO, China, Iran etc for their own invasions more easily. I realise these are continuations of what other countries have been attempting to achieve, and now Russia has perfected it others can copy the same.

Celtic is closest, because I enjoy that culture the most. I never had a strong identity of country. My racial identity is almost non existent. I have a lesser European identity based on proximity, common values, and safety, which was slow to come about. My father is Scottish, Mother English and we have Italian blood apparently in the family, a refugee from war. Something you said once, might make this useful to look at, especially given this war is fueled by nationalist sentiment. On race or bloodlines, at one point I did inner or spiritual work wanting to work with my ancestors. Which is a huge resource if you ever head in that direction, lot of strength in your DNA, your heritage, your bloodline and race. The land around you is some of the most rich connection to life and you there is. Lot of certainty there when you begin to remove identity completely from yourself. Easily dismissed these days in the 'temporary' world of passing technology and individualist logic, which closes people off to how interconnected they are within their society, family, their land and the DNA in their body. If you are happy or at least content with who you are, and what you focus on, then family lines explored spiritually are beautiful. If not, then wait to do that, as it can lead to some pain. It did for me in a direct spiritual way. It can certainly lead to identities that exploit others for harmful gain, as everyone has seen, so these topics take a lot of care, as there are many terrible things clouding it like a shadow. (This war for example). Like most inner or spiritual work based on reality it turns everything up to 10 and if I had to put another stage to Leo's spiral dynamics it'd be total integration of the body/mind and everything we are, which ultimately at its most beautiful is love. A lot of spiritual work lacks roots in the real world because its all based on concepts that don't exist, or we are trying to perceive something we can never see, but family lines, DNA, what made you who you are, that's very potent and where the magic happens. *I mention all this because people's lack of connection to the land, their history, race, culture etc, is what nationalist sentiment based on a constructed identity replaces to fill that void. Which leads to war over constructed identities that don't even exist.

Individualists do work together, but they don't rely on each other as a rule. They don't interconnect in the same way as a collectivist would.

Russia thinks its fighting a wider war, because their country is individualist, they look at the world as individual countries standing strong alone. Their population is collectivist however. NATO thinks its helping another country but not in a war, because their countries are collectivist, dependent on each other with intricate alliances and treaties. Their population is individualist however. For example, Russians prefer state TV to give them a message because their populations are collectivist as a society. NATO prefers many channels of information as their populations are individualist as a society. This is where the misunderstanding comes from. NATO believes that further cooperation and treaties with everyone is beneficial. Russia believes it should stand alone apart from this cooperative influence. Both approaches to life causes distrust in each other throughout their societies. The only way(s) to solve this puzzle is to look again at what Ukraine wants and needs. Alternatively a way to encourage peace, is to condense what I just said into a message that we can give to others in the form of a solution. Please yellow thinkers have a shot, give me a message I can drop in the right places that is easily understood or do so yourself when it comes to you. Thanks @Leo Gura Tagging you for a big brain answer.

Underneath everything you are already awake. You can play infinite games with consciousness or mask it repeatedly even intending to stay less consciousness, just by random chance events its going to happen slowly. Stress is a great way to be less conscious, being relaxed will give you the opposite. I will say as a master escapist its perfectly possible to ignore reality, to put yourself in well developed fantasy, but its also miserable. Those immersed in reality have a much harder time ignoring source, god, themselves, and not growing more conscious through experience. Lies eventually are usually realised inside ourselves. You also get much more headaches and ill feelings when you know something and you go and do something else anyway. Like me indulging in arguing with myself about current events, I get a headache, because I know I am not allowing acceptance, or love to be there. I am taking sides, even when I try not to, sometimes I manage to get insight which is welcome but its not without pain. I know all is love, everything experienced is from me, and then second you know that, I mean experience being it completely for even a second. Well like anything else its difficult to ignore. You begin to manifest elements of uncertainty within your own body/mind or life when going against it. Which is visible in people right now. Its a difficult balance living this life, being universal, expressing love or at least joy/gratitude and approaching reality where it is. Its much easier to sit in a room away from it all and pretend it doesn't exist, but it does, its going on right now. Its why all previous spiritual masters used to sit in caves away from everyone else, that's easy mode

Its just fine. Been doing it for more than 10 years and I am more healthy than I ever was on meat. *I will say you do need to eat well, as in get plenty of variety which some people don't have time for, or they eat fast vegan food and expect it to be healthy, it isn't. Nuts for example are an important addition.

What you don't understand taking the Russian perspective is. People and the state are separate in democracies. There is no way to do what you say without the popular will to do it. On the extreme, suppression of protest, and the government shooting protestors works the opposite in western countries than it does in the east. It causes instability not stability. When the government started doing that in Ukraine they already lost. In this war they've already lost because they are doing the same thing. Only if the entire liberal and Ukrainian nationalist will is crushed or removed will there be any hope of Russia controlling that country long term. Which they are attempting but it won't be done quickly, war breeds nationalism. As for them joining NATO not being a realistic goal, it almost happened. Chest beating no, western ignorance. NATO doesn't and didn't understand Russia and its obvious from reading Russian posts they don't understand NATO either.

Its even more farcical than that. Russia has a significantly worse far right problem. Maybe they will be invading themselves next. This entire war is fueled by far right nationalism. Its going to recreate what they say they are against further in the countries surrounding Russia as a move to protect their identity and themselves. If we are playing the labelling game: Chechen General Magomed Tushayev who was recently killed was famous for his purges of people based on sexuality, or Vladimir Zhoga the Russian backed commander in the DPR was a torturer with links to Neo Nazi groups. They recently gave him state funeral I believe and heralded him a hero. But there is no need for this as you say because the whole premise is a lie to try and support an invasion. There is no country without a far right, especially those in a war. What the poster is giving you though is an insight into the propoganda machine in Russia and has been recently been pointed out to me, people in Russia and collectivist societies on some level prefer to be told what the truth is. So I have come to accept that due to this collectivist mindset its not just Putin that is at war with Ukraine, its Russia as a whole. In the west we separate out people from politicians, individual from state, in Russia they don't. So appealing to the population like we are doing is a western way of looking at society, not an eastern one.

@Radu97 Depressions a b*tch my friend. Been through long periods of it. You are not alone. Sounds like you need a change and it really sounds like you need to stop beating yourself up about it all. Plenty of people that will do that for you. Anger is a way out of depression, its like a bridge to something better. Everyone goes through these snapping periods where they can't take something anymore and have to make a change. Its not losing its life. It sucks sometimes. Somethings we are powerless to change and somethings we can, especially what we do ourselves. Make a change and try for better. Make a plan, make another plan, make another plan and try all three. Fail until you win. Sorry its hurting right now, just know it happens to everyone that they end up on their backside at times. The only way out is doing something else, making that move somewhere else, or talking to your boss. You'll probably have a lot of career changes in your life. Just something that happens to us all. Maybe build on some of the things you learned here or use it show you how you never want your life to be again. Get some long periods of sleep, life will seem a bit better if you can have some time off to rest and relax. Sounds like you are long overdue a holiday. All the best.