Nos7algiK

Well said! ?

Pierre Huyhges’s Exomind statue at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, California. Source

Realization that life/death are just imaginary concepts within you. They are not True for the very nature of the self is immortality. This realization comes from unrealizing our self-limiting beliefs. To believe we are human, a soul, some type of light being, a resurrection of some deity, or any other form is limiting compared to our infinite nature. But, just believing you are immortal without trying understanding it from a holistic perspective would be delusion. "I have heard that the one who knows how to live can wander through the land without encountering the rhinoceros or the tiger. He passes the battlefield without being struck by weapons. In him, the rhinoceros finds no opening for its horn. The tiger finds no opening for its claws. The soldiers find no opening for their blades. Why is that so? Death has no place in him." [Tao Te Ching chapter 50] "'Never was there a time when you did not exist. Never will there come a time when you cease to be." ~Juliet Carter - The Worldbringer

Leo created a new channel for clips cutting down his longer videos into short digestible points not too long ago: Actualized Clips

When it comes to comedy, express yourself in a way that you personally find funny without much thought on how whoever may witness it could react. Outside of being overtly offensive I suppose. The more you allow yourself this expression, the more your skill in comedy will be honed. Find comfort in yourself. Generally speaking we are not as awkward as we perceive ourselves to be when we are in our head. We usually become awkward when we focus too much on how to be or what to say. When it comes to being exciting again this should be a natural expression. It's very easily to fall into the trap of excitability which can lead to mania which is generally off-putting to many people. Being yourself is important, but being comfortable with yourself is even more.

If everyone did this work then you would lack the mirrors of what you wish not to be in order go help guide you closer to your own self. "I'm not this, I'm not that." How many times have you bettered yourself using another as an example of what not to do?

“Undisturbed calmness of mind is attained by cultivating friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and indifference toward the wicked.” ― Patanjali, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Allowing yourself to be loved by others will raise your capacity to love yourself with awareness of this. Increasing your capacity to love yourself will allow you to love others more purely. Loving others more purely will raise the capacity of love others give to you. Thus the cycle continues on itself.

I wouldn't cling to Leo's words on relationships too much. There is some wisdom to be had in them, but at the same time he was very big into pick-up which I believe creates a biased in his advice. If you are happy now, then there is really no reason to intentionally destroy what you have just because you have a fear of the unknown. Rather, missing out on something that you haven't experienced yet. There is a good chance you would highly regret doing anything to harm your relationship just because you want to try other girls out for lack of a better term. Even if it did give you temporary pleasure eventually down the road you would most likely find any lack of meaning in what you did. Anther thing is, you really need to stop thinking about it. Even the thoughts alone could potentially harm your relationship due to how it will warp your own view on what you have. You may look for reasons to see flaws where there is none to justify your desire to try others out. You are still young and you have someone that loves you sincerely. Cherish both of those and allow your relationship to naturally continue to blossom or it could even end one day. Either way just allow whatever happens to happen. Don't think too much about those thoughts and it's not unnatural to have them, specially considering the situation of her being your only partner so far. But, our thoughts do not define us.

All of that is very lovely, thank you for sharing.

It's unwise to assume what you believe other people perceive. Not only unwise, but also condescending. You talked about the mods getting involved on such a topic. But, none of us here could truly analyze what is going on in OPs reality. It's not for us to make grand statements or assumptions about what could be, unless OP was directly asking for help. We need to give what they say the benefit of the doubt. You talk about giving non-dual statements as advice and how it should be thought about more critically before stating this to someone who may have an more serious problem. But, if this is your stance you are one the wrong forum. 90% of what people say is literally "how non-dual can I make my comment" and then in turn becomes a passive aggressive contest of who can say the most non-dual comment. I do believe having any type of hallucination can be something more concerning, but stating that could become a double-edge blade to whom you are trying to inform. What once someone thought was mysterious or somewhat interesting about their life. Now, someone stated it could be concern for a mental health issue. The person latches on to this concept and now creates their own delusions forcing a problem out of something that there was no issue, back to my statement on how we perceive these phenomena is the key in most cases. The issue, in this case, isn't your concern itself. But, rather your wording towards it. Though, I can't tell you how to talk to others. You imply in your first comment the mods are feeding into OPs delusions. Which in the grade scheme of things, we are all doing that consistently as we interact with each other. But, on the other hand personal relativity that differs from my own doesn't mean they are deluded in comparison to my own sanity. There are others on this forum that are directly stating some serious shit that most defiantly could cause future harm to them, because that is what they told us. Over someone who's visual perception of reality has been slightly altered that doesn't seemed to stressed about it. But, I will agree with you I have no idea why the mods feed into those delusions though I do not have the solution for such a thing nor is it for me to tell the mods or Leo what to do with people such as that. I wish the best for anyone who has cause for concern and hopefully they have a real support system that can help them.

But, it's not for you to conflate that down to mental illness or anything concerning. There are a few people in my personal life that have sensory hallucinations that only grew in effect as they aged. But, they nor I would ever call them mentally ill for it. Now if OP was asking for help or seemed panicked due to the nature of the visuals. Then it would be a different story. But, from everything I have seen they are doing nothing more than asking questions about them or stating their own experiences. But, I will agree with you there are some things said that do seem cause for concern by some members. Specially when it seems like every other post by them revolves around grand delusions or existential dread, wanting to escape physical reality. The forum can most defiantly be an echo chamber for one's own validation and in turn also dismiss any idea that may free them from their own warped paradigm.

Seems a bit judgmental to dismiss other's visual/auditory phenomena as just mental illness. I wouldn't say much of it is cause for concern unless someone is hearing voice, or more so hearing voicing and making decisions based on these perceived voices. Taking psychedelics or even getting into meditative states shows there are many layers to our relative perception of reality that we can become aware of. Though, regardless of what someone is or can perceive. Our beliefs on said perceptions our what determines if it's a healthy or toxic relationship with the phenomena. A very common one is tinnitus, as others have mentioned in this thread. People are not mentally ill for having, or being aware of these sounds. ( I do feel like everyone has this to some degree it's just a matter of being aware of it or not). But, some people aren't bothered by tinnitus and some people suffer from crippling anxiety/depression because they can't unhear it.

"Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations" ~Tao Te Ching Ching Chapter: 1

This is still one of the greatest mysteries to me. I would label it as "consciousness" but I could label anything with that. I personally became aware of this after I started to trip, but now I can always see it. It seems alive and intelligent. It seems to exist between the spaces of physical reality. It seems completely aware of me and yet seems somewhat attached to me. Though, I do understand it has to be me since there is no separation between myself and it. My original theory on it was it's literally what the backdrop of reality is perceived on, like a screen that's producing the illusion. But, after further investigation I try not to hold too many beliefs like that. Though, I would like to hear other's experiences, ideas, or possibly explanations given just to have food for thought. It's shape is much like octopus tentacles that have no beginning or ending, fractals.

What type of "nice guys" are we talking about here? People who are genuinely nice, but lack the confidence or social skills to get a girlfriend? Nice guys that are just being fake nice to manipulate women then turn into an ass after they get rejected? Nice guys who are pretty much borderline incels?

I would say outside of daily heaving drinking or having some type of dependency on the substance, the worse effect it can have on you is the guilt you may feel after for drinking it. Guilt itself can be a very low consciousness emotion and can/will lead to further suffering or more low conscious actions. So if you wish to drink with moderation or in a social setting, go for it. Just try not to feel bad about it after and things will return back to normal fairly quickly. If you want to never drink again go for it. But, to stop something yet always have the thought of wanting to do it can be counter-intuitive and cause other issues to rise to the surface. If you can not drink and also not really give drinking much thought then this is a much more healthy way of going about it.

That's pretty much the Wu Wei you mentioned earlier. Even though it may seem a bit shocking or dare I say damning to your ego. Eventually, you will integrate this insight enough to sit pleasantly with it. Then the damnation turns into liberation. "Destruction breeds creation." Even if both of those concepts are overall illusionary and one in the same.

Bet it's riddled with microtransactions.

That is really awesome, good work. I really enjoy looking at artwork such as this while tripping.

As quoted by Alan Watts: "Before I had studied Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains, and waters as waters. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and waters are not waters. But now that I have got its very substance I am at rest. For it's just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and waters once again as waters." ~Alan Watts (The Way of Zen)

If you wish to play games, play games. I wouldn't do it under the guise of being relatable, but rather those being personally enjoyable. Too many people in the spiritual community set these guidelines or restrictions of who we are to be. This is, in my view, very counter-productive and can only get you so far. It's good for establishing a base, but once one realizes the nature of reality is much like a dream. What is better/worse for us on an overall spiritual level fades away. I'd personally say the issue isn't doing these things, but rather believing you need to do anything. To believe you need to meditate to chase awakening will then put your "now", which is everlasting, in the idea of forever chasing instead of just being. To be what you seek is to release the idea you need to be anything at all to find it. You are already there and always have been and over the years you have been doing nothing more than removing the perceived barriers of being "it" rather than fulling yourself with "it" from the outside. So if you wish to play games and watch anime, go for it. It's not a trap or should I say it's only a trap if you see it as a trap. But, it's mentally unhealthy to demonize aspects of reality. I understand seeing reality different once we awaken where what we once enjoyed can be offputting. But, once you get over the hill completely things generally go back to normal. Not because we go back in progress, but because reality is much more simple than the mind wishes to make it out to be. At least from the ego/human perspective. Here is a quote by Alan Watts: "Before I had studied Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains, and waters as waters. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and waters are not waters. But now that I have got its very substance I am at rest. For it's just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and waters once again as waters." ~Alan Watts (The Way of Zen)