hundreth

He does. Maps of Meaning was all about connecting and integrating myths from around the world to find common themes and narratives. He's not saying Christian based solutions are the only ones that work. He's not even a traditionalist Christian, he doesn't go to church. He just resonates most deeply with the story of Christ. Sounds like a personal preference more than anything else. https://archive.org/details/youtube-7XtEZvLo-Sc Yeah I'm not arguing his approach is the ideal one, it just seems like you haven't really looked deeply into him and are basing your opinions on him via soundbites from popular interviews. He considers himself a leftist, but "radical" is always going to be relative and a moving target. What were fringe leftist ideals 20 years ago are mainstream today. He believes we've gone too far in that direction. I'm personally not a Christian. I grew up in a traditional Jewish household but resonate most with spiritual teachings from the East. That said, I think JP is a bridge for the West. We've gone deep into the atheist / materialist paradigm and he's bringing a different view into the mainstream via psychology, mythology and debate. Is this how an Eastern mystic would go about it? No. Does that make it worthless? No. Is JP a traditional Christian who ignores all other paths? No. Personally I'm with you, I would hope he can go back to speaking about philosophy, mythology, and spirituality as opposed to politics.

One thing to keep in mind is that JP *IS* a relativist. He actually acknowledges post modernism and that ultimately it's all relative. Where his ideas differ is that he believes there are infinite interpretations, but there's only a small finite set of interpretations that lead to a positive and meaningful life. Every spiritual system is based on rules or guidelines. While the truth is always non dual, there are guidelines on how one should conduct themselves. The Vedic traditions have guidelines, Buddhism has guidelines, Kabbalah has guidelines, etc. These guidelines tend to be conservative because that's simply all it takes to be on a straight and narrow path towards truth. They generally work. The key is, are your guidelines there to orient oneself spiritually or are they there to control societies and suppress expression like many organized religions tend to do. I don't think JP cares to control and suppress. He understands the individual process, the value of order and chaos, the necessity of different perspectives and types of people, freedom of speech, etc. Where I agree with you and @Leo Gura is that he has a tendency to demonize and become angry when speaking about the radical left. This is unhealthy moralizing. Definitely part of his shadow. Does that mean you throw the baby out with the bath water? I wouldn't. I think he's refreshing voice for the West.

It helps to see yourself in others.

On one hand being against porn could be considered Blue, on the other hand it could be considered a Turquoise value. The Buddha and the Bhagavad Gita speak extensively about avoiding lust on the path to truth. Then again it's not being "against" porn as much as suggesting you should avoid it if you can. Blue seeks to censor and ban porn. The higher spiral dynamics levels tend to avoid it on a personal level. Also, JP has been heavily misquoted with that "enforced monogamy" bit. He doesn't want to enforce anything, he wants freedom. On the other hand, he has personal values he feels will help society. Sadhguru is also a proponent of monogamy. Does this make him stage Blue?

If you fall in love and then hate them, check yourself. You might have some attachment issues from childhood. A narcissist confuses love with infatuation. When they realize the person they idealized isn't perfect or the imaginary person they built them up to be, they begin to devalue them, eventually discarding them.

You can meet one of these demons in our physical reality. They are called "BPD" women. Be careful what you wish for.

It's a conceptual distinction. I should have been clearer. That rocks don't posses the quality of consciousness. More that consciousness takes on the form of rock. Sounds like we're on the same page though.

It's a little bit more like "Conscious are rocks."

Having tried both Ayahuasca and LSD, this seems way overly simplified. LSD isn't Aya minus the puking. There's a lot to be said about the Ayahuasca experience. When you're in the depths of the shadow parts of your mind facing your biggest fears, where you can conquer them and physically purge them, you're very thankful for the "sickening" effect.

Don't try to control the mushrooms, they have a mind of their own. The more you surrender, the more you will get out of it. Unless controlling is your thing, and it will teach you a lesson either way.

This is so true. Life will test how conscious you really are by pissing in your soup over and over. That is if you allow it to. Have to accept those calls to adventure where you're forced to put everything into practice.

"He needs love" - notice the hubris there. I'm responding to this position. It's ego to believe you can help someone who doesn't want your help. I'm speaking from first hand experience. On the other hand, if you simply love without the "he needs love" part - it's all good and I'm with you 100% on what you said.

Lucky guy has never dated a narcissist before. You can't love them out of their delusion. Has to come from within.

Hey man, sorry to hear you're going through this. It definitely is psychological. The best thing you can do for yourself is to drop the label of "I have pelvic floor kalamazoo whatever." That's going to keep you stuck indefinitely. Your body is way more complex than these labels, and can change. The main cause for this type of issue is depression and anxiety. Not to give you more labels, but work on stress reduction and not thinking about this issue. You will naturally relax, don't give yourself performance anxiety. It's important to remember that just as quick as you got into this state, you can get out. Work on meditation. Definitely do yoga as this addresses both stress and tension in the body. Take Maca root extract as this helps with both libido and general health. Stop trying to directly solve the pelvic whatever, it's just a label. You already know the root issue, anxiety. Listen to this guided meditation every night while falling asleep: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tF14GnCJqk&t=0s&list=WL&index=19 Best of luck.

Just curious. Don't non duality / non materialist world views run into the same question?

Instead of looking to alleviate and avoid pain, try to observe pain without judgment. Breathe into the pain and watch it. I'm practicing this in my own life, moreso for emotional pain. Unprocessed emotional pain becomes physical pain anyways...

Hey, I'm not too sure I'm following, but the idea of consciousness living in the body IS materialism. So you can go back to my original post. Other than that, I think you may have hit on something which is that consciousness creates the "material" realm to express itself. Duality seems to be necessary for expression.

There's a huge practical difference. In the materialist paradigm, you're a collection of atoms, molecules, etc. randomly put together by statistical chance. When your body dies, you die. What ever happens in this paradigm is just a matter of circumstance, yet you shoulder all of the responsibility to somehow manipulate it. On the other hand, all of this lives inside consciousness. That means there is an inherent intelligence to it, it means YOU chose your existence and life. It means you can surrender.

We're all on this journey to awaken, to become more conscious and live more fulfilled and meaningful lives. We meditate and learn about non duality, idealism, quantum mechanics, spiral dynamics, etc. We have this idea that if we meditate and learn enough about spirituality that we'll reach some state of consciousness which liberates us. Maybe we want to escape, maybe we want to help others, maybe we're just curious. We practice and practice and practice, and then suddenly whenever it feels like it, life strikes and you are completely, utterly, powerless. All of your understanding, moments of transcendence, and meditation couldn't prepare you for what life itself wants you to experience and grow from. Pain is coming your way. All the dis-identification in the world won't save you. You chose to be here in your meat suit. Why would you spend all your days trying to transcend it? I am currently going through a personal crisis, and I'm more aware than ever I'm supposed to be going through this. I've had so much practice and study, I've had moments where I've felt liberated, and yet life has humbled me once again. This is a plea to come back to your life, not to transcend it. I urge us to focus on making amends with our egos, and not to disrespect your personal experience by simply calling it an illusion. We need to be more practical, more loving, more accepting, and surrender. Metaphysics isn't enough.

I read your post and it brought me to tears because I resonate at this time of my life. I know everything will be ok eventually, and I'm grateful. I just feel so angry with myself for choosing this sometimes. Much love.

What are your goals?

I know this is a pretty common topic, but I'm putting it here because of the depth of it. This feels more like a spiritual inquiry than a standard personal development one. Here goes. A few years ago I moved to Israel from the states for some change and met a girl there. We had an intense up and download relationship for over a year. There were such intense highs and intense lows. In the end, I stopped the relationship since it did not seem healthy any longer. I moved back to the states to recover. Since then, I've been focusing on myself, practicing meditation, learning tons about spirituality and trying to work on everything which went wrong for me the year before. A few months ago I did Ayahuasca and this was an amazing experience which showed me I was still hurting over this relationship and still had feelings for this girl. I was talking to her from afar for awhile, we seemed to connect once again, and it felt like we were both working on ourselves. I booked a flight a few months out back to Israel to see her, have a vacation, and visit my family again. Of course in between that time she started dating someone else, and I thought alright, if I get there and she's still dating this guy, no big deal. I'll just focus on myself and have fun there. She ends up having a tough break up with him a week before I arrive. I get there, and while I know the situation isn't perfect, I don't allow it to change how I behave. Instead of being guarded and careful as I used to be when we dated, I wore my heart on my sleeve and loved her. The first couple of nights were great, and it felt like we were connecting again, even though I knew part of it was her getting over her "new" ex. But then things began to tumble. She was constantly bringing up her ex, and comparing us. She was flirting with other guys, dating other guys while I was there. It only took her a few nights to discard me. Even while she's going through a break up, I wasn't enough to keep her interested. This was the most intense rejection I've ever felt. It's like complete rejection, to the core. Here is someone I was intimate with for over a year, talking almost daily, that I flew half way across the world to see, and I'm not good enough to fill her emptiness for more than a few days. I also had the chance to hear the cold and brutal truth that she dated taller men than me afterwards and that I don't compare favorably. Now I'm back in the states, and I feel devastated. I've been rejected before, but never this complete. I didn't retaliate against her or play dirty ego games, but I let her know I was hurting, and that I needed to move on from her. So now we're no contact. I'm trying to learn from this experience and turn it into something positive. Any encouraging words?

Yeah, conceptually I know this. I thought I was embodying this, but damn does that twin flame show you how far you are from really embodying non duality. That's really the testing ground for enlightenment or spirituality, relationships. If you can survive some dysfunctional relationship dynamics, you're progressing.

Thank you so much. I know at the end of the day it's on me to work through this, but I can't tell you how helpful it is to have a reassuring voice to bridge the gap. It means a lot to me. I just had a breakthrough meditation and think I understand what happened. We're all essentially the same, her, her ex, and myself. We all have no idea how to love ourselves or accept love. She says she always finds fault in whoever she's with, no matter what, and her relationships are always filled with drama. When I thought about her, I could see she wanted Jesus and the devil in the same man. She doesn't know what she really wants. Each of us doesn't know what love is, and so we associate pain and mistreatment with love. Before I got there, she was in an abusive relationship, and my loving presence brought her some solace. But quickly this became unfamiliar and boring to her. And so she did what she always did back when we were together, try to push my buttons and bring that fire out of me so I could mistreat her the way she thinks she wants to be. Our relationship was always up and down because that's the only way for it to be stable. Love to take away the pain from the mistreatment, then the love becomes boring, create drama for pain and attraction. Make up sex. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam. Now she tried the same thing, and I didn't react the same way. I simply got hurt from what she was doing and did not retaliate. Spark over, back to thinking about the ex who will give her the dose of pain she needs. And I'm the same way really, why else would I be so attracted to someone who mistreats me? It's just a cycle. Each of us needs to learn to love ourselves and accept love. Searching for pain as love will never be a stable foundation for a relationship.

LSD is awesome. Treat this substance with great respect. Surrender, accept what comes, and always remember it will pass.