Matt23

In this video, it sounds like he's talking about exactly the issue you raise. If I understand you correctly. His solution at a fundamental layer = self-love rather than self-chastisement. Even if you don't do what you know you should be doing.

Cheers

Wanted to connect with people on their experiences and thoughts about the huge heat wave hitting B.C., Canada. Like, I've never felt heat like this before. This is nuts. What are your experiences? How is your community and surrounding ecosystems being affected?

Don't pay that much for it. https://www.bookdepository.com/search?searchTerm=towards+a+psychology+of+being&search=Find+book https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/search?query=Toward a Psychology of Being (Abraham H. Maslow)&ac=1&acp=towards a psychology &ac.title=Toward a Psychology of Being&ac.author=Abraham H. Maslow&sort=PublicationDateDesc If you search for things like "used books online" or "cheap books online" or "discount books online", there's a variety of companies that sell books online other than amazon.

Maybe try the Brahma Viharas; similar to metta meditation. Basically: Pick one of the 4 brahma viharas to focus on (it's recommended to do them in the order provided). Loving-Friendliness Compassion Joyous appreciation Equanimity Then contemplate the dangers of it's opposite Loving-friendliness = hate Compassion = cruelty Joyous appreciation = jealousy and envy equanimity = grasping, greed, not letting go, and hate Then recite each phrase in order to try to create the related feeling. Start with directing it towards yourself first (except equanimity; start with a close loved one for this one), then once you've mastered yourself, move to a close loved one, then a neutral person, then to an enemy, then to everyone in existence, etc.. Loving-friendliness "May ___ be happy. May ___ be peaceful. May __ be safe. May __ live with ease." Compassion May ___ be free of suffering. May their suffering finally cease Joyous appreciation. "May the happiness and good fortune of ___ always increase. Equanimity "___ is/are the true heirs of their karma. ___'s happiness depends upon their actions and not upon my wishes for them." Once you feel something, stop repeating the phrase and, instead, focus on the feeling and try to cultivate it, enlarge it, and spread it through your body. I got these instructions from Daniel Ingram's free online book here: https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-vi-my-spiritual-quest/68-magick-and-the-brahma-viharas/the-brahma-viharas/. He goes into more depth about them and certain trap as well in relation to them. Maybe also thinking of times when you've felt love and trying to reconnect with that memory and feeling. Then just focusing on that feeling and trying to strengthen or enlarge it.

Maybe dosage, smaller dosages, are more important for beginners rather than specific substances. Here's a great channel on psychedelics. He really breaks things down in a very data-friendly, harm-reduction friendly, and less abstract way. If that floats your boat. I think his perspectives provide a great grounding to explore psychedelics. channel = PsychedSubstance If you can't play the video below, go to YouTube and type "PsychedSubstance beginner". The video name is "Top 5 Starter Psychedelics".

Cheers. @MuadDib Have you looked into syntropic agroforestry at all, or done any of your own experiments with permaculture?

Hey. So, like many, I've been attracted to SHunyamurti's teachings and style for a while now. Something just clicks with me and his style. Though, the question of "is he running a cult?" has cropped up from time to time, but I haven't paid too much attention to it. Recently, I found this forum where they discuss cults, and in it they discussed Shunyamurti's community. A few people even said they stayed at his retreat for a bit and had some pretty unfavorable and cult-like observations to give about him and how he runs his center. I'd probably give him a hard pass at the moment and just take his teachings with a grain of salt. Sure, maybe they're true and I don't doubt he's not super knowledgeable, and I can even go so far as to say he's progressed in spiritual insight. But that still doesn't mean he's not a sort of sociopath/psychopath or has ill-intentions (even if unconscious). So just be mindful of that. Leo says he's stage Turquoise, but I dunno. I'm beginning to doubt Leo's opinions on pegging people (particularly gurus, etc.) and spiral dynamics a bit. I think spiral dynamics is decent, but I dunno if I trust Leo's pegging of people. Suspicious anyways. I'll link the forum here. https://forum.culteducation.com/read.php?12,148939,page=2. The reviews I've seen are on pages 3, 4, 5, 6. There could be more further on. Also, feel free to post your opinions or what/how you've seen/interpreted him. etc. I'd be particularly interested in hearing people's reviews if they've gone to his retreat center or had personal experience with him or people who've gone there. Cheers.

Does anyone know of anyone who does family/relationship coaching? Or any resources you'd recommend (YT channels, books, etc..) I'm having some reoccurring issues with family and want some professional perspectives on it. Cheers.

I have a feeling that there's a technical meaning to the phrase "cycles of birth and death" that the Buddha originally meant compared to perhaps a more religious and culturally created version of what it means. Where the cultural meaning means something like one's full life and subsequent lives after death and being free from being born. Compared to perhaps a technical meaning used originally by the Buddha to describe some sort of development in perception or consciousness that ends perceiving a separate ego, since perhaps we create this ego moment by moment conceptually, thus we are going through "cycles of birth and death" every moment. I've not studied this much at all, so I'm not sure of the technicalities, but my intuition is telling me there's some truth or overarching point that valid here.

I really enjoyed it. From the various books I've read on trauma, I think it was one of the most comprehensive and interesting books. Covers a lot of ground with various techniques and theories compiled into it.

Obviously highly subjective question. But for me, from the little I've read, I'm getting a lot right now from Psycho-Cybernetics. I also really vibed with Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning".

I can agree that being in person would change one's perspective, and without it there wouldn't be a "complete" picture. But also consider that stuff that's on the internet, like news, articles, and forums, can also shed light on things that you wouldn't see, or would be hard to see, if you were there physically. The first thing that comes to mind is the opinions, beliefs, and attitudes of the people. Forums provide increased social safety to express one's views and opinions which, if you were talking to them in person, might otherwise go unsaid. I suppose the physical domain creates a different set of conditions which will effect how people think, feel, express, behave, and interact than conditions online. I can see this making for a different, yet potentially equally valid and truthful, view of the people or community in question. It's almost like using Ken Wilber's AQAL model on a "single" subject. Like put a group of people under the "physical-domain" microscope and then observe those same people/situations under the "online-domain" microscope and you might get quite different pictures. Sort of like the fable of the blind men and the elephant. Each blind man "sees" an incomplete slice of the whole. It seems to me like it would be wise to not jump to the conclusion that one perspective (i.e., physically being somewhere vs. interacting online) is better or more truthful than the other, as you may glean slightly different data points from each one. Of course I'm not saying all the time they are always perfectly valid and truthful; you might come across a forum full of lies, or you might be conducting interviews with prison inmates who lie and only tell the truth via the internet to protect themselves. Taking these different lenses towards determining what the truth of a situation or group is seems, for me anyways, raise the issues of 1) what then is the "actual" thing itself if there is even one? and 2) that which you're looking at (e.g., a community) may be constantly changing depending on which lense you view, so saying it's one thing and not another might be inaccurate and a more accurate way to look at it might be an ever-changing "entity" or thing (including not only the change that could happen when viewing it from one particular lens, but also the change that would occur when viewing it from different lenses. And to make matters even more complex, the change that could occur from cross-referencing and combining the info from the different lenses as they continuously change through time !!!! hahahaha... I guess reality to me just seems like an infinitely complex-ever-changing thing that putting it into a "it's this and not that" context feels not quite the best way to view things... or maybe, i dunno. just seems like not the most accurate way.

"What did you say?" ... "Just kidding!"

Maybe you just need to have more experiences in life. As opposed to trying to think your way there. Not saying not to contemplate and feel it. One thing I've tried is a technique where I'd ask "What is the most meaningful thing to me/or impact I could have?". Then, instead of trying to think my way there, I focused no the feeling of meaningfulness that I felt. Then I'd try to bring that feeling up into my head and from that feeling I'd see images of things that are meaningful to me.

Tea Personal Growth Wisdom Creativity Inspiration Heart-feeling For me, listening to him when in despair and feeling defeated, he's like a warm uplifting blanket.

Ya, well, when the average temperature for this time of year around here is between 19-22, that ain't good. Jesus. I'm up in Campbell River. I think it's like 38 Celsius, but I think the humidity makes it seem way hotter (or colder if it's cold).

Have you tried Internal Family System's therapy? It's worked some wonders for me. Especially in rapidly releasing stuck negative emotions. It's basically communicating with, understanding, and healing subpersonalities within you.

I second this.

Ayahuasca. Iboga. Mushrooms. ... Experiment. See what happens. Try doing some ceremonies. Be safe.

Could this itself, this fear to make sure you choose the right path, be a trap? Can you get in touch with any feelings that are associated with this desire? Feel into them. You can even tell them soothing things like "I'm here for you." And "If there's anything you want from me or to tell me, I'm hear to listen." Etc.. sometimes just understanding them is the cure and initiates releases rather than 'fixing' or solving. What would happen if you did go down the "wrong" path? And if that result happened, so what? You can keep asking questions like "so what?" And "then what would happen?" Until you reach something more fundamental. Also, if you notice that you fear making wrong decisions in daily life, small things objectively speaking, try just doing those and see wgat happens. You might realize that making the "wrong decisions" isn't so bad, that you learn from them, and that you have the ability to bounce back. Perhaps also contemplating your possible worldview that says there is a wrong path. What does the "wrong path" look and feel lime to you? Is it accurate? Is it likely to happen to you? Is it true? Has it ever happened to you? Can you see any previous life situations that may have contributed to fearing a "wrong path"? Etc.. I intuit there's some more baseline belief that's causing fear that then makes you overthink. Investigate. Be curious. Enjoy exploring yourself

Don't go by "normal". Go by what you feel is good, healthy, and desired by you. You may have very different needs and capacities then others, but that doesn't mean you should just do as others do. Do you. Communicate. Work with him to find a healtht balance that works for both of you... if that's what you want.

I usually try to just be as authentic as possible if 'im unsure in social situations. I also try to just let my soeech and body movements totally let go sometimes to see what they do. Often it is seems they do better without me controlling them. Radical empathy perhaps. Like trying to really imagine, feel, and understand their experience and what they are communicating. Like trying to really consciously work your mind to see their perspective. Then asking clarifying questions and reflecting back to them what you think you understand. Listen to your heart and feeling. Sometimes the other person just wants that simple yet profoubd sense of emotional understanding, compassion and connection from you. Which, in my experience, only happens through authenticity and honesty.

Give them all the sex, food, parties, and worldly pleasures they can take until they exhaust themselves and no longer want anything to do with stage orange. Or, if they want meat, make them have to kill the animals themselves. That might engender some shifts in their psyches and value systems. You could also give them a butt-load of psychedelics and make them watch documentaries about climate change, the evils of capitalism, and the sweat shops their Nikes come from

Even though you say you want a spiritual perspective, I'd highly recommend giving more psychological, mental and emotional perspectives a go. I know i suffered immensely over the years, and still do, and during these times i tried doing lots of meditation and spiritual work, believing that doing only these practices would be enough to "escape" my suffering. I think i may have even made things worse by ignoring psychological and therapeutic work. Ever since i started doing IFS therapy, with a therapist at first and then by myself, i notice how much relief i get. More relief than meditation has given me. I also am just starting to work on being authentic with my anger with others, and this practice alone has given me a small experience of feeling like an actual independent and separate self, in a good way. Like psychological strength as a self. And that this has made any benefits from meditation seem really small in terms of the positive feelings ive gotten. I'm not saying this is what you're doing, I'm assuming. But if you are, i suggest not dismissing psychological, interpersonal, and individuation work for spiritual work. Sure, do both. But it sounds like you could probably swing your pendulum a lot from spirituality to psychological healing and growth. Just my opinion. If you want someone who speaks from both a spiritual and therapeutic perspective, Thomas Hubl is someone I like. IFS therapy is good too, like i said. Also Byron Katie's method. Spiritually speaking, practicing the Brahma Viharas might be beneficial for you (instructions here: https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-vi-my-spiritual-quest/68-magick-and-the-brahma-viharas/the-brahma-viharas/ ). Finally, David Treleaven's book called Trauma-sensitive mindfulness might be good to read as well, including Willoughby Britton's work. The more you develop and heal the psychological, you'll then be able to more effectively and enjoyably pursue spirituality. Lastly, I once did a counselling session with Martin Ball (the enlightened dmt guy). His advice for me went something like this: "Emptiness is always gunna be there. Go do you. Find your 'Matt-ness'. 5meo-dmt is good for people who have big egos since it helps demolish them (implying that you gotta have an ego to transcend and let go of before letting go of it)". I'm not saying you can't have spiritual experiences or have it in your life, as i believe spiritual practices can help. I'm saying though that, probably for most people, balancing developing spirituality with other aspects of life is optimal to getting a more fulfilling, whole, positive, and powerful and even just functional life. Don't feel guilt or fear in putting spirituality on hold. Again, it can help, so I'm not saying dont do it. Im just saying if you feel or think that you could really use some extra psychological or other help, to not let guilt or fear stop you from reaching out. Listen inwardly while also seeing objectively.