WeCome1

Apparently, I'm late to the Aurora party - but my oh my, what a sweet and precious ray of sunshine she is. Suffocate me So my tears can be rain: I will water the ground where I stand So the flowers can grow back again...

Is it "normal"? Technically, no - most people obviously had this experience; although, as Chives99 correctly pointed out, the Overton window has been shifting lately. However, there are functional and dysfunctional relationships - and the latter, while still being a form of experience and an opportunity for growth, are likely to leave you more traumatized than before, which raises the question if one really has to taste every flavor of shit under the sun in the name of "experience"... Functional relationships are a whole another story. They grow you like crazy and make you the best version of your human self. And I say this as a complete sociopath who never even remotely considered any possibility of letting another human being near myself before the age of 30 and had been perfectly happy and content on my own. I'm grateful for having this experience, although I will not pursue it again if/when it ends. But, in my opinion, one has to be careful to pursue a healthy relationship precisely for the experience of "having a soulmate/best friend of the opposite sex" - and not for the experience of "being a fucken' MAN and having earned the perfect woman as a trophy". Which is the vibe that I'm kind of getting from this quote (apologies, if I misread): So, in conclusion, fuck "what's normal" - pursue it because it's beautiful and brings out the best in you. We hear very few complaints from men who found "the wife material" and love of their lives that this somehow interfered with their Life Purpose or spirituality. But it is ok to not want this - if this not wanting is not of the neurotic nature. Which it kind of usually is...

I know a Black Mirror episode you'll LOVE On a more serious note, there is a useful idea in psychotherapy "to focus on the things you CAN control". Maybe research that?

Ok, I'll bite. Define "worked"? If by "worked" you mean this, then you need to try harder, because becoming a military superpower and having a space program was basically IT in terms of socialists' "great achievements"; and even those two, besides being "grandiose" and "prestigious", did nothing for the quality of life of the remaining 100 million people outside the top 1% of the Party. The greatest evil the Bolsheviks and their descendants committed was neither the Holodomor nor repressions - it was the destruction of the inteligentsiya (интеллигенция, the highly educated middle/upper-middle class) and the transfer of their power to the uneducated working class. This eventually led to half a century of stagnation and the famous "soviet mentality" of apathy, doom, corruption and dog-eat-dog, the consequences of which are very much felt to this day. There is a brilliant Soviet movie "Собачье сердце" / "Heart of a Dog" based on a novel by the great Mikhail Bulgakov which illustrates this catastrophe perfectly; highly recommended. Here is a link to YouTube, it's copyright-free and English subs are available. I'm not sure what exactly is the outsider's impression of what the USSR life and mentality was/is like, but I can assure you that nobody, NOBODY inside EVER believed a single word of the Soviet/Socialist ideology - neither the Party members, nor the general population. But everyone abided by the implicit social contract of having to maintain the appearances. What everyone actually dreamt of was a pair of jeans, a pack of gum, a recording of the Rotten Capitalist rock-music - and, even better, and if at all possible - to get the fuck outta there to the other side of the Curtain. Never mind the fact that ALL socially positive changes (to the extent we can even call them such) began after Khrushchev started to emulate Western "best practices". Anyway, "coulda-woulda-shoulda"; the history is as it is. But calling THAT - "worked"?.. The only reason Mother Russia didn't fall apart socially in the 20th century is because it is huge and resource-rich enough. People honestly have no idea...

Не могу пройти мимо ценителя творчества Лусинэ - не раз ставила мне мозги на место, в своё время. Мы говорим "Привет!" Тем из нас, тем из нас, Кто верил: "смерти нет", Чей огонь не погас! История. Давно ещё, на заре цивилизации, как-то спонтанно принял решение: никогда не терять из виду внутреннее "чувство правды", моральный компас. Вот именно "не терять из виду". То есть, можно поступать "неправильно", можно продать мать, друзей и Родину за фантики, можно скатиться в полную жопу по всем фронтам и сидеть в ней годами - не запрещено. Но НЕЛЬЗЯ терять из виду именно само ЧУВСТВО правды, на сам компас никогда нельзя забивать окончательно, нельзя врать себе. И, как выясняется, само вот это намерение сохранять и не терять "чувство компаса" делает работу - и огого ещё какую работу! - постоянно, даже если "внешне" ничего не происходит. Ты буквально "лежишь в направлении цели". Это как йогой заниматься: ты, вроде, сидишь на месте - а "карма разгребается". Потому что это намерение - это твоя связь с верхними инстанциями. И она, блин, вывозит ВСЁ. Если ты её культивируешь - то тебя, в итоге, становится не согнуть. Вот и культивируй. Благо, это бесплатно. И оно тебя выведет, куда надо - со временем. Стихотворение тебе на дорожку - в духе названия темы:

Yeeeah, about that... Here is an illuminating piece about Dmitry Utkin, whose call sign "Wagner" gave "The Wagner Group" its name (text in Russian, use Google Translate). The guy is as neo-nazi as they come. However, this doesn't mean that this is the prevalent ideology of the group - their only ideology is, of course, making money by doing what they enjoy and are good at - which is violence. And, obviously, such job description attracts certain kinds of stage Red/Blue folks.

Here is a silly little example that gives you the feel of what kind of a change the "enlightened" mind experiences. Imagine that you are not 180 cm tall - but rather a 1000 meters tall; and all your surroundings are also scaled up proportionally; so you are now a "giant" in a "giant world". Try to really feel this for a minute. Do you see the nature of the "change" that took place? "Everything is exactly the same - but feels different"; it has been recontextualized. Well, it is sort of the same principle with the "enlightenment": it is realized that this "world" you see in front of you is not a "world" - but something RADICALLY different, grandiose and magical - it just happens to look like a "world" right now. Exactly THIS same thing - but something else entirely; the false framing of the raw data is dropped; a more appropriate framing is adopted later. "More appropriate" does not mean "true" - all of them are false, but some - less so. So, no - enlightened people don't go around thinking "all those other people don't exist". Rather, they have stopped thinking "all those other people do exist". The whole thing is actually way, WAAAAYYYY beyond anything that could possibly be put into words; it's not that "there are no other people" - its much "worse" than that. For this reason, I'm of the opinion that trying to think about and understand metaphysical claims like "there are no others", "all is one is nothing is god is me" etc is pretty much a waste of time, and you are much better off spending this effort on thinking about how to practice spirituality properly, doing the techniques and learning to think straight. And then, once the WTF-moments start happening - you will have your own experience to ask questions about and to discuss. And then spiritual metaphysical models will come in handy.

@RubenThaller2001 If you are into "self-development", I assume that the fundamental reason why is because you want a FULL life - a life filled to the brim with joy, beauty, meaning, fulfillment and peace. The longer you are on this path, the more you will notice that "worldly" things don't provide profound and lasting fulfillment; yes, they fill you up temporary, but there's always a need for "more" which can never quite be satisfied. Sooner or later there comes a point when you realize that no "finite" external thing will bring you that fundamental satisfaction - only "an infinite thing" with all the positive attributes you could imagine fully maxed out is capable of doing that. That thing is what "spiritual folks" call God . Spirituality is a sustained effort to 1) search for that thing and 2) prepare yourself physically and mentally to process it. Because, believe it or not, once you find it, the problem is not "will it, finally, fulfill me?" - it's "how much of this infinite fulfillment can I take?" You have a very important advantage: because you are young and do not seem to have an immediate pressing need for ANSWERS(TM) (you are not "a seeker") - you are not in a rush. Which means you can pursue spirituality exactly as you (hopefully) do with your Life Purpose and finances - as a very long-term investment. The results of spiritual practice may not look particularly earth-shattering in the beginning, but they certainly tend to compound: over a couple of years of sustained reasonable effort, your baseline fulfillment and the idea of what's possible will be on another quantum level. Do a bit of research, pick one of the major tried and true systems that is "complete" in a sense that it works with your body, nervous system, mental models as well as discipline and expansion of consciousness. Yoga is one example, but certainly not the only one. Don't fill your mind with too many "advanced spirituality" stories - if you "stick to the manual" and just practice for some time, your worldview will change and expand enough to accommodate those realizations - and they will come, because they are sort of always here, just waiting for you. I myself did the exact opposite - had a pressing need for ANSWERS and just brute-forced my way to the Truth (TM) sacrificing pretty much all else in my life. Retrospectively, however, I can confidently say that a gradual path of "lots of harmony and love first - and answers a bit later in due course" is much more preferable, if you have the luxury of a choice. Spirituality IS worth pursuing; it's the single best investment you can make - but not a get-rich-quick scheme. I hope it works out for you.

Fresh. That's equivalent to about 3-4 g dried.

A child dreams to drown in corn syrup because he cannot fathom how it is possible to appreciate fine wine, dark chocolate and other exquisite cuisine. Don't be that child - listen to @Leo Gura: the greater your understanding, the deeper your capacity for appreciation. And, vice versa: your inability to appreciate your current state should only drive you to apply all your resources towards the question: "What DO I NOT understand?" It's either that - or a quick and blissful exit by overdosing on opiates, which is the epitome of your current desires.

"MeTube, YouTube, UsTube, WeTube, We all tube, for YouTube!"

"GAME OVER."

You see how you are wasting both your and my time by not answering the question, right? There are different kinds of retreats, and people do different practices there. So different techniques are required for sitting meditation and for being active. As well as for different levels of your preparation, which you also said nothing about - but a truly enlightened person would just know, I suppose. If you will do a lot of sitting and are not very experienced in yogic techniques, as well as want a simple yet efficient technique that doesn't require much research - your best bet is probably the HRVR breathing (Heart Rate Variability Resonance breathing) technique which Forrest Knutson teaches. If done properly, it very quickly provides sense retraction, introspection and stillness while remaining fully conscious. He has a YouTube channel where he explains all his stuff for free in numerous videos, but if you are in a rush, you are probably better off just buying the first of his 3 courses (Tranquil Breath Training), which is a condensed no-BS version in a 1-hr long video, plus some bonuses not available publicly; no prior knowledge or training required. Certainly one of the best 35 bucks I've ever spent; plus you can build on it later. God forbid! I'm just going around giving unsolicited advice which I know for a fact to be life-changing but which is almost always overlooked due to its simplicity. Good luck with your retreat!

Do you want to be "very present" during your sitting meditation - or during your daily activities? Also, why complicate things? If you exclusively want to be present - practice being present. Make a habit of checking frequently and regularly what your mind is up to, while you're not looking. You don't need a magic pill for that.

tf do bills have to do with anything?..

Not all those who will buy the course are active users of this forum; so Leo wouldn't be able to do much screening even if he tried. My money is on a big, thorough and unskippable disclaimer. After all, "if you take this work seriously, you should assume full responsibility for your sovereignty..." and stuff.

Sri Anandamayi Ma was an example of this going well. Some even claim she was born ego-less and never developed one. An example of this going not so well, probably - little boys recruited for monk training. There is an excellent Nepalese movie "Samsara" that touches on the topic of whether this is a healthy thing to do. My opinion is that we need a stable functioning deeply Yellow society (country even) before we even begin to consider teaching little children spirituality.

Spirituality (consciousness work, mysticism, psychonautics, "this work", whatever you prefer to call it) is a huge long-term investment and, in most cases, a life-long commitment. And, like with other projects of similar proportions, it is always a good idea to have proper, adequate and realistic expectations. If your financial aspirations amount to "GETTING RICH" or "BEING WEALTHY" - it is difficult both for you to know when you have arrived or if you are even moving in the right direction, and for others to help you in any meaningful way, should you ever ask them for help. But it becomes infinitely more manageable once you have at least some rough vision like "I want to have a lifestyle which includes X,Y and Z financed by a career/business in the field of ABC and a portfolio of investments in DEF"; even the vision of only "lifestyle XYZ" by itself is a giant step in the right direction. Obviously, expectations like "being more spiritual", "awaken as deeply as possible" and "explore myself as God/consciousness" present a similar issue. So, I propose a survey: If you consider yourself new to spirituality: What do you hope to get from it? How do you envision your "spiritual lifestyle" endgame? If you already have some significant experience: How did your expectations about spirituality evolve from beginning to where you are today? Were there some expectations that were totally off? How do you envision your "spiritual lifestyle" endgame at this point? Proposed rules/guidelines for this thread: 1) Try being specific and avoid using ambiguous clichés, buzzwords and one-liners like "Truth with the capital T" or "being a Sage" without explaining exactly what they mean to you personally. What problems will be solved? How do you expect to feel? What kinds of questions will be answered? How will all of that affect your lifestyle, behavior? What kind of consciousness work will you continue doing? 2) Let's keep this thread as a collection of data to reflect on, and a "safe space" to express your own vision without being judged. A separate thread can be made for discussion, critique and opinions, if need be. If it is obvious to you that someone "will never awaken this way" - please discuss this elsewhere. But let's allow clarifying questions like "what did you mean by X?" and "can you elaborate on Y?" I've seen a thread like this work miracles on two separate occasions. It can unearth truckloads of inadequate expectations and really save you years. Never mind being a great source material for Leo's future content *wink*. Let's see how it fares here.

That is not what I said. It's "worse than that", in a way: I believe, it is completely unknowable, in the absolute sense, whether things are predetermined, or spontaneous, or neither, or both. The Absolute is a tricky thing, none of our dualistic thinking applies to it. It might sound like I'm trying to play some word games with you to obfuscate my own ignorance or something - but I assure you it's nothing like that, I'm trying to be sincere. BUT. Any particular way you try to describe a thing which is ONE without the opposite - is not it. You try to frame God as having absolute agency a.k.a. "free will" - but what would God possibly DO with it? Would it move somewhere? - there is no somewhere else. Would it change shape? - it has no shape, or has all of them, or both, or neither... Would it produce something out of nothing? - he already includes all of that, while simultaneously being nothing whatsoever... You try the opposite, claiming that God does not have any agency - tough tits: since it's, again, ONE without the other - its state and behavior cannot possibly be determined or pre-determined by something else - there isn't anything else. You could then start grasping at conceptual straws like "God is SPONTANEOUS", or "God is static and eternal", or "God is BOTH free and predetermined", or "NEITHER free nor predetermined" - but it doesn't really help you much, does it?.. Asking if Absolute has agency is similar to asking "can space move?" (I mean the whole infinite 3D space, let's assume for the sake of argument that it exists in the naïve materialistic sense) - where would it move? The concept of "movement" itself is a function that is only possible within space. So your best answer is realizing the whole question about "moving space" was absurd in the first place. As are all other questions aimed at understanding the Absolute or any of its aspects. Your understanding will break down at the singularity. But, luckily, there are other ways of "knowing" IT.

Once again, a thing is only "effective" insofar as it helps you achieve what you want to achieve. So what is it?

Depends on what you mean by "meditation", as well as on what your goal is. For example, if you are talking about the "classic" dhyana meditation common in various yogas, tantras, branches of Buddhism and Zen - then there for sure are much less conceptual and therefore more practical objects of meditation. The complex conceptual nature of a koan will engage your mind instead of the parasympathetic system which is what you want. You are better off with tried and true objects like breath, mantra, ideation or the self. If, on the other hand, by "meditation" you mean contemplation, then "classic" zen koans are too archaic for our modern minds and don't engage us nearly enough, in my opinion. However, look at what the non-duality speakers are doing sometimes. They use communication not to communicate concepts which their audience craves - but rather as a strategic tool that bypasses and undermines audience's conceptual thinking, to the point that their conceptualizing might stop, and a bigger truth is revealed holistically. Which is not unlike what a classic koan is intended to achieve, right? Exhibit A: Notice, how Jim subverts and undermines all attempts at conceptual understanding and pulls the rug from under the interviewer's mind time and time again. He continues the conversation - but refuses to give the interviewer one bit of meaningful information to stand on. It's really excruciating.

https://coub.com/view/2nlzku

Might I suggest... ChatDPT?

"God's will" is an anthropomorphic projection, as are most of the things people claim about God. Listen. Really. Just take a moment and consider carefully the MEANING of the word "Absolute", and its IMPLICATIONS. I have no intention of filling your mind with more concepts, so just think about it yourself a bit. "Absolute" means "nothing above/other than it", "one without the other" (to the point that even one is one too many), "THE thing in itself". So, what "will" can there possibly be within the thing that is one and total? You hear all those stories about "Leo being aware of how exactly he is constructing every pube on his balls in real time through the sheer might of his cosmic godly intellect", or Holykael bitching about his life having been "meticulously handcrafted" by God (as if it was some Apple Watch, as described by Jony Ive)... - but you are getting the wrong impression. The Absolute is so beyond all "wills" and all "constructing" that it isn't even funny. It just IS, as it is, because it couldn't possibly be any other way, because there are no other ways the one and only total thing could be. It's INVARIANT and inevitable. But, relatively speaking, we can of course say all we want and argue either way. Yes, everything does happen in some particular way, so it's "God's will" - I mean, who else's will would it be. But also no, everything happens in the only possible way, so there isn't room for the concept of "God's will". The answer to this dilemma is that you don't really need the answer, it does nothing for you besides falsely satisfying your conceptual curiosity. And this is true for all those questions about "How reality is? and How does it work?.." It works in mysterious ways, and people are really better off just leaving it at that. The only relevant questions are about what and how should one do to prepare one's consciousness to BE (one with?..) this Absolute. This will provide satisfaction.