Oneness

@Leo Gura Seems like a lot on my plate now. Daily conenctration practice, meditation, contemplation/self inquiry and yoga? do you do still do them all?

Regarding Leo's most recent video. Leo's stressing the point of building your infastructure for your top values and life purpose. But what if you don't know your top values and life purpose quite yet? Im only 21 and I have done the life purpose course but I still need to do more soul searching and experimenting regarding my life purpose and values. so my question is: How do I applied what's being said in the video if I am not sure about my life purpose yet?

Unfortunately this is most likely his last apprentice program, unless there is a big interest in another one. He's still going to do workshops for some years more I think. But yeah I had to work my ass off at shit jobs to afford it, it was a big pain in the ass.

That special note is probably just for formal reasons. In case someone would get injured from some weird situation and choose to sue them, it's not a big deal. "There will be strenuous physical activity, as well as strenuous mental and emotional engagement" Thats probably regarding his martial workshops where sports injury can happen from training. "The ranch also holds various dangers, such as barbed wire, wildlife, rugged terrain, etc" Did not see any wires and the terrain is just normal nature terrain. The wildlife thing is probably regarding some insects in Texas that can be poisonous, but I didn't see any of them while I was there. Anyway.. you are probably safer there than at home, it's in the middle of nowhere. I wouldn't worry about it.

@Life Coach I lol'ed

I think it kinda depends on the way you listen to the music. I myself blast metal music alot, and it usually makes me happy and I mostly listen to while I am in a good energetic mood. Eventough the lyrics is pretty fucked up I don't relate to the lyrics at all, I often find the lyrics funny because its so ridicolous. As long as your not some emo kid crying while listening to metal, In my opinion I don't see any problem with it.

Nervous as fuck, lol.

The diagram is from Leo's Insight blog. So as far as I know, this balance thing is about immersing yourself in whatever area of your life that you want to work on right now, because immersion gives the best results. Compared to working on every area of your life all at once. So once you feel you have accomplished what you wanted, you move on to the next area and put most of your energy and focus into that. Is this what the dynamic balance thing is all about?

Yeah sure. But pursuing them all at the same time is what I am asking about. There are only so many hours in a day and so focusing on all those things at once at the same time is in my opinion not ideal. which is why I am asking if Leo is talking about immersing yourself in one area at the time,

Yeah I definetely enjoyed it. I learned alot about the contemplative endavour and alot about how my mind works, I also became conscious of some stuff about myself I wasn't conscious of before. Really liked the contemplation intensive, eventough I didn't get a breaktrough during the intensive I still cleared aloooot of crap out of my contemplation.

hehe perhaps I will Regardarding how it differs from others. Depends on which of Peter's workshops you are attending. In some workshops there are more talks and dialogs given by Peter. In these workshops there are more different exercises and they are usually a bit broader about life.´ Other workshops have more time devoted to pure contemplation, primarily in the form of Contemplation and Communication Exrercises. These workshops are more like other normal "Enligthenment Intensive", where its pretty much only about having an enlightenment. The second consiousness week of this spring is more along those lines I believe. I have only done Peter's intensives, I don't really know how they are in the UK, so it's hard for me to compare. I've heard there are some minor differences in the format of the contemplation exrercise. In Peters instensive you also learn about how to actually contemplate, common traps, and if you are stuck in your contemplation you can go talk with him. I don't know if they do this too in UK intensives.

I did the full fall retreat of 2016 and I am attending the Cheng Hsin Apprentice Program 2017 too. The ” contemplation and communication with a partner” is basically you are given a subject of contemplation and you contenplate, what ever comes up for you as a result of the contemplation you communicate to your partner who sits across from you. It feels kinda wierd at first but you actually get used to it very quickly. Regarding the language part.. English isn't my first language either and there were other foregin students there last time whose first language wasn't english either. Wasn't much of an issue. If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

Been thinking about Holosync, is it really effective? My concern is that it makes you dependent on some kind of stimulation which is quite the opposite of meditation. I see it's potential to give myself a nice meditative experience, but does it help you when not using it?

One thing that I don't understand regarding paranomal phenomena is that it kinda assumes there are souls? Isn't a soul basically what we feel as a "self" which is an illusion?

@PsychedelicTraveller Are you enlightened? Well.. test yourself.. try sitting without moving in a crossed leg position (Strong Determination Sitting) for hours, you will see that you are indeed not enlightened.

Thing is.. if you want to be happy and free in life (which motivates every action you take), well then no you don't have more important things to do.

But strong determination sitting is can also be combined with those two techniques right? at the moment I do strong determination sitting combined with mindfulness, applying mindfulness to the physical and emotional pain as it arises.

Sounds dope, ill try it tonight. Which meditation technique did you guys use?

Would it not be wise to pursue enlightenment and self mastery hardcore before pursuing one's life purpose? Actually being very selfish first and only focusing on yourself and then go out and impact the world afterwards. Wouldn't you be WAY more able to have a big impact if you TRULY mastered yourself first? Besides can you even know if your life purpose is 100% authentic before enlightenment? I did the life purpose course, but I have no idea if my impact statement is truly meaningful, or if its being influenced by moralization, beliefs and ego. I'm 20 now I am highly considering spending the next 5-10 years on pure self mastery. I've booked Peter Ralston's 4 week retreat this fall, this is my first step. After that I will consider applying for his apprentice program starting mars 2017 which is 7.5+ month program. Could my first life purpose be to become enlightened? Or is it too selfish to be considered a life purpose, since it does not entail any impact on others yet? highly appreciate any advice!

Yeah, well of course leaving everything I have at home behind is very difficult. Mostly it's social life that will be left behind, but still, it's not like I am abondining my family and friends forever, I will see them again. But really when I think of it, there is not much besides that, that I am leaving behind, which is why I think it's ideal to do it now. Because now I have absolutely nothing to lose, no obligations, no business, no bills, nothing.

yeah.. spiritual journey is probably not a good word, as it is often related to hippie horseshit. Basically by spiritual journey I mean working on increasing consciousness/awareness.

No. I'm not saying I should necessarily wait for total complete enlightenment before choosing a life purpose, but to a big extent get rid of all that shit before pursuing a life purpose. Maybe calling enlightenment my life purpose is not the right label. It is actually a roadblock I am working on on my spiritual journey at the moment, the problem that "I" want to become enlightened so that "I" can enjoy life more.

haha kinda yeah, but where I am from we have way more cushy comfortable conditions, but it still sucks..

haha, cool you headin there too?

@Huz88 I saved up alot of money from being a fisherman for a year. It was a living hell, but made ridiculous money out of it.