stevegan928

a good friend of mine just asked me to accompany him on a hike to get more in touch with God. funny enough we'll be hiking in an area where i myself have seen the Colorado River Toad. but no we're not gonna disturb them. i was actually just gonna ask you guys what i should do to help guide him on his journey? he's not super into spirituality although he told me he does pray every night. where could i point him to help him have a powerful experience? keep in mind it should fit within' a vaguely catholic/christian belief structure. or should i just stay quiet and let him find his way on his own? i just think this could end up being very interesting. like what if he had an enlightenment experience? i know it sounds crazy but he doesn't need to deal with any of the inconvenient preconceived notions of enlightenment that we all struggle with. he has no understanding of non-duality thus freeing him of the concepts surrounding it and that could end up turning out very well for him.

i remember in @Leo Gura's most recent vid he said something along the lines of skepticism (whilst being against absolute Truth) is the perfect vehicle to reach the absolute Truth. i have wondered the same about solipsism for a while. is it a good vehicle? i've even tested it a little and it does create a shift in perspective and consciousness.

@Prabhaker he's not much of a reader but i'll suggest them. i was mostly just wondering what maybe i could say to him that could get him to experience something. but thanks for the book recs i'll check those out even if he doesn't.

i met this girl on tinder who at first seemed really into me (not that she isn't now but she was making it blatantly obvious she wants to hook up) which was cool but i didn't react to it to seem cool or something. we're still texting but i'm beginning to feel my neediness creeping up on me. my question is would it be okay for me to not text her for a whole day? think she'd lose interest? if she texts me i'll text back but as of now i'm the one initiating the texting "doing the chasing" if you will. our date is scheduled for Saturday.

so don't message more than 5 to 10 times? i started with her in the beginning of the week, she wanted to hang but wasn't able to for another whole week. so i've been messaging her everyday trying to keep it light and playful. i figured if i don't keep messaging her she'll forget all about me by the end of the week and flake. maybe i should have phrased the question better but i'm asking about how much should i be texting a girl i'm already gonna go on a date with later that week. yeah by the time she was getting really interested the date was already planned. did you read my whole post? i'm not gonna stop with this girl cause the convos still going well, i got her chasing a little today, plus we already got a date planned.

12. beard

this is sort of an embarrassing story to tell but i don't regret it. so one day i became inspired by a song/video. i don't know what this song is about but i got a vibe of "FUCK THE WORLD" like i've never heard before in a song so i was inspired to play their album 'Exmilitary' and go run around insane singing along to the lyrics that i did know in public (at a local park). this felt very freeing, my body language changed and everything. it was during a time period where i was testing out solipsism as a philosophy since it went along with my understanding of non-duality, that was in fact the only way i could build up the courage to do this, i had to view these people that i see in public as not real, as figments of my imagination. i wasn't embarrassed immediately afterwords either because when i'd recall the memory i'd go back to a solipsistic way of thinking in order to deal with it. because honestly from a societal point of view it's the epitome of cringe. but essentially what i was doing was just being completely and utterly free and sort of childlike, like jumping on and over walls and all kinds of stuff. i didn't have as big of a sense of self because i wasn't protecting my "don't embarrass yourself" part of the ego at all. you could still say i was just creating a new "i'm a crazy dude probably on pcp ego" but at least that ego wasn't so complex and restrictive. my question to you fellow actualizers is do you think this could be a means of realizing enlightenment? sort of the ultimate form of "letting go" but not in a new age way but more like letting go on steroids. i remember shinzen young talking about how he once saw a bum on the street (i think in the US) who seemed to have had his ego beaten out of him through a life of neglect and suffering. shinzen said his body language looked like that of an enlightened being. i feel like the main thing getting in the way of my personal enlightenment is that i'm too scared to be completely and utterly myself and i know enlightenment will grant me that. the worst/best thing is if that's the case i'm choosing not to be enlightened in every moment of my life. every time i contract in public especially, i feel like being in public may actually be a huge potential for growth since there's so thinking about what others are thinking about me. because of this my ego goes full force into protection mode, so these are the moments i'm most deeply immersed in illusion.

this is the most interested i've ever been in the journals section of this forum.

that's amazing. but do you think it's possible for someone to become enlightened by consciously going through the back door? going mad with the right intentions.

i have a meditation. how far do your concepts go? what is beyond them? what is beyond your field of awareness? if you're meditating while looking at a wall you might be imagining what's on the other side subconsciously. try to absorb not only into the wall but into what you believe to be beyond it and everything you believe to be beyond your entire field of awareness. you'll notice a lot of thoughts and concepts come up when you do this, the practice is to feel into them and find out where they end. you likely have an entire universe or even multiverse concept in your mind, we all do, you likely believe these multiverses float in emptiness or awareness. if so, how far does your concept of emptiness, awareness, or infinity expand? don't say to infinity because where dealing with concepts here and these are limited. you're trying to get a grasp of your entire concept of reality and see what's just beyond that and you'll likely reach true emptiness, awareness, or infinity. if it's to confusing i understand. it's a meditation i came up with and i don't entirely know how to explain how to do it exactly. i'm sure it exists in other traditions with better ways of explaining it.

i'm gonna be getting a warehouse job soon with lots of hours plus overtime. how would you guys suggest i go about starting down the self help path while working a demanding job? of course i don't plan on working here forever but for now i still wanna be growing. like how much time should i spend reading and how much time should i spend doing other things such as meditation or whatnot? thanks in advance.

such an odd movie. i think i might watch it again.

Leo can vibe with this after 5meo

with persistence positive thinking will seep into your subconscious mind. i don't know how effective "just thinking" is because i mix in meditation and action taking as well. but i have in fact manifested things simply by thinking of them and taking no conscious action towards manifesting them. like @LightParticle said this is magick. it goes far deeper than just repeating a phrase over and over.

i'm not saying i'm not open to these powers being real but it seems like jesus here failed to calm it down. real or not there were parts the seemed real and it looked really cool. it would be cool if someone could do insectokinesis and make a swarm of bees or butterflies fly in a certain way.

i feel for these guys. living in a small town can sometimes got boring as fuck.

a lot of the time when i contemplate i get anxiety (like a slight adrenaline rush) or sometimes i twitch. is this like a reaction of my ego manifesting in the body? i like to think of it as a sign i'm doing better because my ego feels like i'm killing it but maybe my ego is the one patting me on the back? i think part of it is because we often hear we'll never know when we'll realize enlightenment. the deeper i go into contemplation i sometimes feel like i'm right on the edge of realization but then i remember it's suppose to be spontaneous and my consciousness often "drops" again and/or i get anxious. anyone have an idea of whats going on here?

@John Flores i was essentially just trying to eliminate the boarders and labels in my awareness, whilst trying to extend my idea of "self" outwards. this is the technique i use because it causes more of a shift in my awareness than any other technique i've tried thus far. i find myself searching but try to bring myself back to being. sometimes i'll say in my mind "it just is" and try to embody/capture the essence of that notion. i was just telling you this in case you had some other idea of what i meant by "contemplation".

@Prabhaker i wasn't meditating or thinking. contemplating was just the word i chose to use. i was doing some what of a mixture of mindfulness and inquiry.

like how many?

Leo calls these "open mindedness tests" I copied all this from here: http://www.spellsofmagic.com/spells/love_spells/attraction_spells/8025/page.html

kek

@Will Bigger thank you, that was helpful.

@Will Bigger so it may take someone like 15 little experiences whereas another it may take like 2 super deep ones? that makes sense.

I have the book 'Mastery' by George Leonard and also 'The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem' by Nathaniel Branden. Should i read Mastery first before i finish Six Pillars so i can more effectively work on my self-esteem using the mastery process? I'm more excited to start working on my self-esteem but maybe it'd be more effective if i read mastery first.