UnbornTao

Why is 'believe in yourself' a thing in our culture?

The purpose of this journal is to share questions, humor, miscellaneous creative content, and raw reflections on personal empowerment and consciousness. My goals are to deepen my experiential understanding of these topics, improve my communication skills, have fun, and help others see things in a new light.

Why not? And sometimes the emotions show themselves, so to speak.

That is a good question. What is mind?

@Sincerity Go over this thread again:

Godspeed.

What fantasy of yours didn't like being challenged by what I said? Again, if one actually pays close attention, it becomes clear that the game in spirituality is pretension - social or otherwise. But I don't want to keep wasting time, so sure, it's my belief system.

Right. Or pay closer attention.

Ah, got it.

Why do you seek out distraction and entertainment?

This is going to be like reading the Tao Te Ching for people.

Claiming or thinking oneself to be awakened is different from being awakened, or having had awakenings. I suspect lots of people do the former. I'd agree with the assumption that, in this context, virtually no one knows what they're talking about, certainly not at a deep level. It's very easy to conflate some sort of experience with awakening. (Hello).

Stop it with the IQ and race argument.

Your questions were partly answered by my response above. Experience is everything you're aware of. Drugs provide you with an experience, shifting your state of mind. While high, you go through perceptual phenomena, subjective states and such, and you always inevitably come down. What remains is usually a story or memory of what you think happened while on the substance. Having to recall a past experience might already be pointing at the nature of this disparity. I don't know about you but I find that our ability to recollect is nothing short of unreliable and biased. Besides, it's a conceptual activity. If you believe that drugs increase consciousness, you're most likely referring to cognition. Notice how they're taken in the hope of getting enlightened - as a pill that will bring awakening to you - much like drinking coffee in order to experience the effects it has on you. You weren't awakened prior to taking them. This lack of prior contrast as to what is meant by "enlightened" is crucial here. Without it, the stage is set for mischief under those circumstances - which is what I did with my psychedelic experiences, and what many here seem to be up to.

@ExploringReality Kick some ass.

You can start with your name or variations of it and change it down the road whenever you feel a rebrand is fitting. The important thing is starting and setting the pieces in motion. Provide value, let others find your work, have fun and learn. You can also use Claude for brainstorming but no need to get hung up on the name part. This can be done now, with the vision created or refined along the way. Just jot some key points down about what you want to do with the project and what you hope it will help others with, and put it into action.

When someone like Ramana talks about consciousness and such, they're referring to something different from a trip, state, or experience. The likelihood that Leo is labeling an experience or state change as 'consciousness,' 'infinity,' 'awakening,' and similar terms is high. The difference in stance on drugs between him and some of these guys may point to this fundamental misstep - hence the resulting nonsense about absolute mice, aliens, and so on. I remember believing in this and calling my breakthrough trips "Awakening" this and "Awakening" that. But then I got over it - after a few years. They are simply experiences, however novel, powerful, healing, awe-inspiring, loving, "enlightening", or terrifying they may be. I also understand the self-aggrandizement aspect of it. This is why it's said that this path is potentially (or virtually guaranteed to be) deluding. You would be barking up the wrong tree, but unfortunately, dogs get easily distracted by fireworks. Be honest and move on - this is my suggestion.

That's fair. To be clear, it's unnecessary and can serve as a distraction. It's also rather superficial. You can instead examine the truth of things like: What is curiosity? What is stillness?

You don't have the genetics, the epistemic background, or the right attitude required for that Awakening™️. No one here has that Awakening - except Me.

Got it.

It's pushing a narrative that isn't true and is misleading. A loving stick, even when it is disliked.

Oh yeah. Need a hundred-plus rosemary trips to achieve that.

Tiths good

Plastic flowers.

Based