Sincerity

This week I came back to this great video about al-Hallaj. I liked it so much and had so many insights that I watched it twice. 10:55 - I resonate with that wish to have people kill me. I experienced it once on a "spiritual high" for a few days. 22:08 - I also resonate with that desire for spiritual annihilation. Beautiful: 23:40 - I am the Truth/Real! So simple, elegant and direct. 👌 This is what it's all about. Also this: 32:12 - I don't know about the two spirits. I'd omit the second sentence and then it resonates: 34:59 - Al-Hallaj was also awake to Love, seeing it as the core of reality. Very inspiring. I'm not awake to that yet. 37:40 - And lastly, I find al-Hallaj's interpretation of satan very interesting, seeing him as the "ultimate monotheist". I interpret this as embracing "this life" vs rejecting it in favour of God. I enjoy to choose the former (embracing high energetic choices as much as possible), and to me that's the greatest spirituality. The latter doesn't make much sense if given more thought, although I do understand it. I can't help but recall when Leo said that he stopped brushing his teeth because only truth mattered to him anymore. 😆 Perhaps there's some truth in both. I'm considering that someday, embracing energetic choices fully could lead me to full asceticism, rejection of the worldly and total devotion to God. But that'd still be the embrace of this life. So yeah, rejection isn't the way for me. Also, I wonder if al-Hallaj saw himself in that devil, at least to an extent. Overall, very inspiring figure. I want to learn about him more.

I'd like to create a thread with the best representations of (facets of) God. It's obvious that there can be no single comprehensive representation, since the Nature of God is multi-faceted, paradoxical and mysterious. This is why I'd like to submit a few different "portrayals", which are all meant to represent different aspects of God. It's best to think of them as all being the case at once, instead of singling out any particular one. This list is not exhaustive, and will never be. Obviously all of these are subject to interpretation - however, let's hope that we'll achieve a connection in seeing what is being pointed to. With that said, here we go. 1) I like this one for the fact that everything is unfolding out of nothingness. There's not really a center here. It's nothing. 2) I like this one for being an endless flow of reality. Never-ending dream. No motifs of center or multiplicity here - just an infinite dream always "moving". If the content was changing here infinitely in different ways, that'd be ideal. Perhaps this one might be even better since there's no implied "movement", as if through a tunnel. No illusion of space. Just the infinite morphing of reality. I also like this one. In addition to the flow of reality, it gives me a sense of craziness and incomprehensibility of God. 3) This one often comes to mind for me when I think of consciousness. Imagine this but transparent/nothing-like, and being able to morph into anything it wants, becoming that experience. This one's unique with the representation being an "object" - even though God of course isn't that. But again, think of it as this being the nothing that is everything. Any object "in" consciousness, IS consciousness. It also has that dream-like blue/yellow/pink/white sheen to it. 4) I wanted to include an "simple" impossible object here. Meant to isolate the aspect of paradox and strange-loopiness of God. So here it is: 5) This one has an entity connotation. To me, it implies the aliveness AND the infinite intelligence of God. Absolute incomprehensibility. 6) This one conveys the "statehood" of consciousness, the advancedness of state, and gives a "personal" connotation. It's all personal in the most profound way. It's You. 7) I like this one for it's "double-centeredness" (as opposition to single-centeredness - strange!), and yet at the same time conveying the boundlessness of consciousness. 8) Infinity of Gods. 9) Another one "organized" structure, yet infinite and mysterious. I don't know about you, but I can hear its calmness and perfectness when looking at it. 10) And lastly this one. I like how the eye arises from nothing and "dies" into nothing at the end - while being of it all along. God looking at Itself. Definitely post more cool representations if you have any. Cheers!

Thank you!! And thanks for posting the artist! My favourite piece is on the second screenshot, second from the bottom on the left/middle (woman holding up her hand). Very cool. The title says best portrayals of God. Yours is advanced level - only the pros can see God in that. Jokes aside: yeah, I get it. Nice. I can relate. I recorded a bunch of videos of myself "back in the day". In fact I posted one on the forum 3 years ago: Don't comment on my haircut. 🤣 I was a baby. Thankssss

Good one 😆 Yeah, true open-mindedness includes embracing genuine long-term urges. And sticking to them if enjoyable.

I am God, experiencing Itself.

Niceee, thanks for posting these. I like the first one most. I agree there is "a truth" to the Toroidal Field. And I always forget what it's called. 🤣 Once I saw my entire "visual field" as a Toroidal Field. I didn't know what that thing/shape was back then, and I was surprised to hear it be quite popular. When you say it expresses creation best, what do you mean? Genuinely curious. It does resonate with me a fair bit, but I hesitated to include it in my post, even though I thought about it.

@Frenk Love that one. I should have included a white light, indeed. Nice.

Cool things I saw recently:

Hooooly shit. This is amazing: Math porn.

Time-lapse videos are soooo cool. Love 'em. I wish I could see a time-lapse of a human growing from embryo to old age. That'd be amazing. In general I'd love to see stuff in accelerated time, from "camera perspective". And going back and forth in time. Some God-mode shit.

A journal for sharing things I'm passionate about. Stuff I like and dislike. These are shorter, playful, more unfiltered thoughts.

Best channel on nutrition advice: Clear, professional and unbiased. I appreciate this guy a lot.

I've read some great essays by Derek Sivers today: I'm a Very Slow Thinker I really liked this article. I think I am kind of a slow thinker, albeit not a very slow one. Lately I've been thinking about telling people more: "I'll get back to you with that; I'll think it over", instead of answering some questions instantly. This applies both to work and to personal life. I realized that if I have more time to think something over, the answer will usually be more resonant with me. A LOT of my thinking is done during walks and my 8 PM meditation/listening to myself sessions. Parenting: Who Is It Really for? Wow. All of his activities with the kid really amazed me. Inspiring stuff. I doubt I'd have the willingness to be a father like that. I should probably not have kids. 🤷‍♂️ Maybe it'll change for me in the future. I guess I'll see. You Don't Have to Be Local This really resonated as well. I'm more of a global type too. And also this: I absolutely love short videos or pictures that very clearly show the essence of some dynamics and ideas, through real life examples.

Funny and insightful: The "importance of the first follower" point was especially interesting to me. I never thought about it, but it made me really appreciate the first guy that joined the dancing. It's courage and non-conformity to be the first one to follow indeed.

Maybe you could rent a room. If I were you, I'd do anything to move out. Yes, you'd have to hustle and sacrifice some comfort, but what option do you have? You live at your father's place. You're not equals with him right now, you're dependent on him. The way to overcome your situation is to become more self-sufficient. Put your anger into action and work towards becoming independent. That is a good use of your anger. In my opinion, it's not about emotional intelligence and forgiveness for you right now - it's about getting off your ass and solving your problem. You can forgive him for who he is and what he did to you later, when you're not dependent on him. That'll be the next move in your relationship with him. But first, gain autonomy. Everything changes when you stop being reliant on your parents.

Are you talking about something like platonic forms? And that these are absolute, in your view?

How old are you? Do you have a job? If not, have you ever had one? Are you studying? Why are you "not allowed"? If you want any sensible advice from anyone, you should elaborate on this. It's crucial.

Paul Graham's essays - p.3 Writing, Briefly I want to write clearer and better. I've been writing some essays/posts in the last days, just for myself. I noticed this week that the idea of being a great writer attracts me.

Here's an interesting essay I read from Paul Graham. https://paulgraham.com/writes.html The argument is that writing is thinking. And since writing is quickly being outsourced to AI, we will soon have a world of writes and write-nots, and little in between. To me, the conclusion is a bit too extreme, but there is definitely some truth to it. The ability to articulate thoughts is very important, and it could indeed be the case that a lot more people lose this muscle compared to today. Some might argue that eg. "The core ideas are mine, so I am still thinking. I just want the AI to put the idea into words for me." I think there's some truth to that as well. But also: this muscle to put thoughts into words is very important, perhaps even crucial to building a solid foundation of understanding. Inputting a core idea as a prompt and then AGREEING with the AI's elaboration of it =/= Actually fleshing out the idea yourself. The first one isn't thinking - it's moreso passivity and consumption of what you resonate with and reposting it. The second one is creating order in the mind; adding bricks to the wall of understanding. I think AI can be used intelligently, in a way that ENHANCES thinking. But most people just want to get things done with as little time and effort as possible, eg. have their idea beautifully developed or just consume something that resonates with them already, but said by "someone else". I guess a distinction could be made here between survival (productivity, getting things done) and pursuit of virtue & actual growth (exerting effort to develop oneself). To be clear: I think it's totally fine to pass on things that don't really grow you to an AI or a person. It's not that we have to do everything ourselves just because it's some kind of growth. Delegation is not inherently bad. But isn't organization of thought one of the things that deeply enrich the mind? And isn't having an enriched mind desirable? Articulation is hard, but it matters. At least to me. So let's not forgo it.

My forum signatures ✍️ If I remember correctly, I've only used 2 signatures on the forum for a considerable amount of time. I can't remember where I got this one from, but I love it. So powerful. This one I came up with myself. I think it's very direct. I appreciate its simplicity. I like both of these quotes so much.

Paul Graham's essays - p.2 How to Do Great Work cont. This last one hit me hard. I always excelled at school/college because I understood what to do, how to "game" the system. At least that's how I see it. Maybe I'm just intelligent. This whole essay is so good I'll literally go to a print shop to have a paper copy of it. Again, absolute goldmine. What You'll Wish You'd Known Having Kids The Top Idea in Your Mind

That's cool! Looking forward to reading it.

Hooooly shit, the channel posting Bashar videos that I've been watching was terminated. 😂 Well, it was fun while it lasted!

I've read some great short articles from Andrew Bosworth. I like his simplicity in writing. Honesty is the Best Policy Two Things Can Be True The Gift of Naïveté

Amazing essay by Paul Graham: How to Do Great Work. An absolute goldmine - if you had insights from this essay integrated, you'd be a genuine PROFESSIONAL in life. There's an AI text-to-speech for the lazy ones: