Paradoxed

@What Am I The subtle bodies seems to be left out of these conversations. What he said about transcendence with inclusion seems very important. It's not all about transcending and getting to source, it's about acknowledgement of source, subtle, and material, without overlooking any of them! Ken Wilber is amazing. It's hard to claim who is a master, but he has a very deep understanding. I have "A Brief History of Everything" in the mail and really look forward to reading it. It will be my first book of his after much listening to him on youtube. This conversation is leaving me with much to think about! It seems tricky to acknowledge these intermediary realms. There is a lot of counter intuitiveness in approach. You must overcome the gross material realm and disidentify, while still acknowledging and respecting that stage. And as you climb the ladder of development, you must continue to build. If you ascend without incorporating, you end up with bad results. It's all about balance and finding that middle ground between top and bottom- that's where the joy lies. There is much exploration, and mastery to do on my end.

You need protein my friend. It's pretty important. It just doesn't have to come from meat.

@What Am I I'm 100 percent with you. Thank you for your perspective and the nuance you've brought to this. One thing that's for sure, I appreciate my life much more after 5meo, and can maneuver this realm with much more understanding. It's ironic that I'm speaking to potentially dying from 5meo. I fear death, don't get me wrong, but I fear it much less than I ever have after 5meo, because I understand how my life is illusionary. I am not my little life, I know I am eternal. I am infinite and everything. 5meo has helped me. Still, ego is there. I do not want to die. Do you think people get over their fear of death for good after using 5meo? Therefore, not fearing physical death, or potential long term sides effects of the drug and continuing use?

I dont know if it is described best as a loss of breath, or just needing to "remember to breathe" and control my breath, like if I didnt control it I would stop breathing. This is definitely great advice. I could also be simply convincing myself its having whatever effect because of some level of panic/anxiety. I would have to agree, which is why I was taking low doses and found them very beneficial. That being said you can acheive similar non dual states on many psychedelics with less risks. Its just not a garunteed experience like 5meo. This is really important. Part of this post is just to point out how some of Leos content makes you feel as a listener, as if this drug is the answer, and if you are doing consciousness work you need to try it! That line of reasoning in and of itself can be dangerous or risky Id say. It can hurt as much as it helps you, could kill you and ruin your life. It could also save your life.

Being on a spiritual person doesn't mean not voting. You can be on this path while still having the awareness to vote for a logical candidate that won't destroy America. Your vote might not be your voice, but you have power as an individual. For example, as a consumer your buying power goes a long way. If people said enough is enough about unethical factory farming and stopped purchasing meat, they would lose money, demand would be down for the product, and you could instill real change. Or if everyone agreed to stop working until X problem was solved in society, it would have a higher likelihood to get addressed. Don't act like you don't have power just because things are getting worse. You're part of the reason things are worse, because you think this way. You need to take some sort of level of responsibility for how bad things are if you want to be a good human.

What are the issues that Democrats plan to address? This is a genuine question. Trump just tells his supporters what the issues are that need to be focused on, and they just listen, whether these issues are real or not. Like making things like immigration and abortion out to be bigger issues than they actually are. I think the democratic party needs to behave similarly. They need to use those effective communication skills to really show how "Trump Bad", not just fear-monger Trump, and they need to focus on policy.

Fair. Just listening to him talk on Bill maher felt like a breath of fresh air. Seems like a nuanced guy. He was annoying when he ran against Bernie though. Kamala/Buttigeig feels way better than Biden. Feels young and hopeful. I do think they could lose. Especially if it's just "Trump is Bad" like you said.

What do you find impressive about Mayor Pete?

That was before the masses realized how brain dead he is.

I'm sure you know more than Biden's own advisors.

You are overestimating the incumbency advantage. Biden was not going to beat Trump. Kamala is a better option at this point

Kamala will surely win and save America

Fear is likely to happen whether it makes sense for it to happen or not.

In a sense, the trap was developing a spiritual pursuit in the first place.

I feel this, you aren't alone. I just remind myself I don't know shit. I am not enlightened or awakened. I want to also humble myself if that's okay. I find myself being a Zen devil and it's worrisome. Spiritual understanding can be a massive trap. For example, I would often look externally at the world and judge specific people in my life for their unawareness or "level of consciousness". I would judge them for their unwillingness to entertain/understand spiritual or philosophical topics, or work on themselves in this way. I judged certain behaviors. I judged specific things they'd do which they didn't realize were harmful, towards themselves and others. I judged them for being so judgemental, lol.. So much labeling as "low consciousness behavior" from people that I felt weren't "doing the work" in their lives. Internally I said to myself "I'm doing more work than others to understand the nature of reality" yadadada. Ha. What a bunch of crap. I mean really. What a sick, disgusting, gross narrative I was feeding myself. I felt more disconnected from other people than ever, very isolated. That is my spiritual ego and devilry. I was creating a bunch of divisions and separations of myself and others in my mind- while simultaneously knowing and understanding we are all one, and reality is non-dual through direct experience. But do you really understand this if you can't embody it? If you aren't aware this can be a huge problem. I still fall for this trap but It's most important to turn inward- now when I catch myself judging someone, I notice it, forgive myself for the judgement, then turn that observation inwards, to acknowledge exactly how I am also guilty of behaving in that same way. I tell myself how could I possible judge them for this, when I do that same thing. It does take a level of mindfulness and awareness to catch yourself judging others, then redirect that on yourself. If you're judging others for something you feel you wouldn't do (often the case), you are lacking understanding. Acknowledge the multitude of factors at play in a person decision making without judgement (the level of awareness every individual has, the inherent self bias and survival mechanisms at play, the history and upbringing of this person and how that has affected their sense of self and worldview, etc). All of this has affected the individuals behavior and decision making. Most people have no idea the path they are on, and you aren't perfect either. I still struggle with this. But my life has gotten a lot better with bringing awareness to the nature of these thoughts, catching myself and shifting inward. I just don't have these thoughts as often. Good vs. evil are not real on an existential level. But the purpose of the understanding is to train yourself to not fall for the trap of running around trying to fight evils of the world, thinking you are the good guy. There is a paradoxical trap there. Trying to do good in the world can sometimes contribute to divisions. The lesson is not that going out and doing evil shit is okay, or just over indulgence in whatever habit is okay... it may not be evil in an eternal, existential sense, and it may not matter in an ultimate sense, but it is deeply out of alignment with you and your true nature. The worst part about traps is that sometimes you are aware of them, but still fall for them. It's a pitfall of taking lessons from Leo (or other teachers) without coming to the conclusions naturally on your own. Sometimes you think you fully understand the lesson when you really don't. Laziness is also a factor here. It's up to the listener to be introspective on whatever topic in their own time. Some of these are pretty deep understandings. You may know reality is non-dual. You may know whatever spiritual truth. But if you only know it because someone told it to you, it doesn't matter. No spiritual understanding matters unless you try to embody it every day and know it to your core. And some things might be way more important than understanding the deepest spiritual truths- more basic practices. Just practical, basic self-help stuff is what is often needed most (exercise, eating healthy, dealing with emotions, self-confidence, self-forgiveness, mindfulness practice, developing a healthy yoga and meditation practice, and many many more) The more I meditate, the better I am at being aware and fixing these tendencies, and not falling for traps. But I am often astonished by the nature of ego and its tricks. I wonder if I have some ego problem, or if this is just how most people are. Basic healthy practices, practicing love, and being selfless is going to be more beneficial for me than incredibly deep understandings. This was a big realization for me. Sometimes we forget about the basic stuff as we spend a lot of time trying to put into words, conceptualize, and understand the ineffable. Forgive yourself brother, we know you have good intentions.

I would say stop blaming weed and start blaming yourself for not having the things you want to have. If you think it's clouding your mind that much, you could try slowing down and re prioritizing it or just stopping. You don't know what being sober is like anymore. Sobriety could bring clarity for you (it's not guaranteed). If you are motivated and see a reason in stopping, it will be easier to stop. If you don't know if it's even a problem for you, then it'll be much harder to stop. If you have this deep intuition it is hurting your life somehow then it's probably is. If you think you are not successful by societal standards, you need to ask yourself how important conventional success is, and weigh being conventionally successful vs. having a weed habit and being more creative musically. I believe if you stopped smoking weed and fully quit you'd still be creative. That being said a really motivated individual can smoke weed and still be successful. Why do you label yourself as unsuccessful? Are you not living exactly the way you want to? If there is something you want that you don't have, try to manifest that reality for yourself. Imagine having the wife or the car. Really put yourself there and ask yourself what that would look like. What would you be doing? Are you doing everything you could to create this reality for yourself?

What do you mean by psychological torturer? Sub-0 individual? Are you talking about a human or some entity?

Once you understand what God is and who you are it makes no sense to fear God. It makes no sense to fear anything.

Who do you think the democratic party will get behind Leo? Kamala Harris?

Bernie, Trump, and Biden are all similar in age. It's more Biden's obvious dementia than age I think

That's sorta what happened with Biden in 2020, the democratic candidates all dropped out and coalesced in support of Biden after seeing Bernie had such a good chance... that was too much of a real threat to power. Joe Biden was always just such a terrible option, most people saw this from a mile away. Bernie should come out of his trance and run against Trump last minute . But I bet dumb liberals would still think he's too radical. He's closer to the cult of personality you would need, someone similar to Trump in that way but with a much higher level of awareness. Once I have this degree, I'm going to look into getting a work visa and moving to Canada.

Allowing money to get so deeply entrenched in our political system and healthcare system in the US Creating these systems to enslave ourselves

I was with my girlfriend when I did it. Regular DMT is pretty safe to do alone, but be very careful doing 5meo DMT alone. My girlfriend didn't go too deep. She said she melted into the bed. I'd have to ask her more in depth about any introspective thoughts. She isn't into psychedelics like me so she kept it gentle and was just feeling the strange effects on the body.

They're trying to get young black voters.

The death of my Mom at 19. I feel like I instantly had to develop maturity and it felt like "the good times of my life were over". Waking up to harsh realities of life.