SOUL

@softlyblossoming Reading through this thread I can't help but see the 'conditional' mind at work setting up hoops to jump through, obstacles to overcome and goals to achieve for something that doesn't require any of them to be..... just being. Even 'seeking' is an inner activity the mind sets up so it preoccupies our awareness to search for something it imagines we don't have. To acquire a state or level instead of simply awakening to the realization we are already complete... in being. All that activity is a distraction from being present, it's motivated from desire because the mind attempts to fill what it perceives as empty. Of course, you will read these words, maybe understand them but likely not enough to satisfy so compelled to do more activity. Leave the activity for the body to do what it needs to survive because as the cliche says, before liberation chop wood, carry water, after liberation chop wood, carry water. Awakening isn't doing anything, it's realization that there's nothing to be done, it is being. Or you can just keep doing stuff you think will make something happen...

I would add that the word enlightenment, the conceptualizing of it, the seeking of it and much of what is taught about it serves as a distraction from and stumbling block to the cessation of self suffering. So purge all thought about enlightenment from the mind.

I haven't watched all of DrK's videos but the only instance I've seen of him mentioning ayurvedic ideas, that dosha stuff, and covid is when he said his colleagues in India were able to predict the COMPLICATIONS associated with covid, not whether someone will get it or not or whether they will die or not. My assumption would be that these colleagues were looking at patients who already had covid, were using the dosha types to make a prediction of what complications the patient would experience and then seeing how accurate those predictions were. Who knows if true but DrK doesn't appear to be making any medical recommendations from it. I'm not advocating for or against it and sure I have no desire to spread pseudo science or misinformation but I also see accusations that don't match up with what I see going on. There are fair criticisms to make but it doesn't help to exaggerate or fabricate just to make them. Not accusing you just pointing out it seems to be happening.

There's quite a bit of legal and regulatory concerns that I know very little about so won't offer a conclusive opinion but to the layman's eyes there definitely can be things that seen happening. The idea and practice of addressing mental health issues over the internet, live, while streaming to an audience that are compensating both participants in the event is quite a new phenomena. Any professional that ventures into this uncharted territory will likely make some mistakes which could effect their practice but it also gives some material for regulators to build a framework of guidelines that protect the patient and allow it to happen in a productive way. The participants who went on with DrK were doing so willingly, there wasn't any coercion but it can be argued were they fully aware of what they were getting into? I don't know. Can there be a set of guidelines created to better protect the patient, the professional and the process? Surely there can. Possibly ensuring that there is no open declarations of the doctor-patient relationship, that it's all taking place under the guise of education and the professional can not diagnose, prescribe or directly discuss any previous or current diagnoses or prescription. I'm not saying anything for sure, it's not up to me to decide these things but I think it's beneficial that people get exposed to what has some of the appearances of therapy, see it's not threatening and can actually be helpful as well as the stigma around having therapy is eroded. I don't know that DrK in this particular circumstances should be legally or professionally held responsible, liable or have his license effected by it, it's not my decision to make. I just hope it doesn't go completely away because people need help and online is a way to get it when it was so difficult to previously. As far as the ayurvedic stuff, there's even been some body typing that has happened in the west like with the 3 'morph' body types developed by Sheldon in the 40s. I don't know how effective that or any of these typing systems are for anything health related and I wouldn't care to guess what help or harm could happen if they are incorporated into mental health therapies. Obviously anyone getting into a convo with DrK should be aware he may talk about this stuff and they should have the choice to veto any inclusion of it if that is their choice. Yet, people are saying he's spreading covid misinfo with it but I only saw one quick mention about predicting complications using that typology, I don't see any medical recommendations or prescriptions based on it. I wasn't aware of him saying don't take precautions or not to get the vaccine or anything like that because of it, just some vague comment that it appears he hopes would add some unspecific credibility to it. Not a good look but not necessarily dangerous unlike the misinfo coming out other places that has caused so much confusion and conflict. This is definitely an interesting situation to watch unfold and it will be even more interesting to see how the profession sets new guidelines to regulate this. Well being is a primary focus of what I prefer to engage with online as well as in real life of course because so many are self suffering. I just don't want this to be another distraction and actually add to the likelihood that self suffering persists or increases.

@aetheroar Your whirling mumbo jumbo is right out of the new age bullshit generator... you fit in here. Just be.

I see the conquering hero has returned to look down their spiritual nose at everyone here to judge them not fit.... at least according your own beliefs. You really said this in the middle of all your naming and conceptualizing? If this is your truth you would live it but since you say one thing and do another there's another word and idea for that. You could have just posted this and left everything else out, someone who has the realization of this wisdom would recognize that yet it's just a word salad without being 'one with knowing'.

Let's be clear here folks.... it's all story. So when someone is selling books, retreats, courses and such they aren't selling anything except a story that distracts from the old story by giving a new story. Leo is just a very gifted story teller... a story of nothing. If you think it's anything more than that you are just telling yourself a story. Transcending our story so just being presence.... now that's quite the story.

It seems the phrase 'abiding in awareness' is an accurate expression of it. Being awareness as well. Any of the insights and wisdom one would perceive in being awareness are just artifacts of the experience and the presence or absence of those doesn't add or detract from 'abiding in awareness'.

Jokes on you.... I was never here because there is no one to be here, no here to be and no you to have been joked.... at least that's how the story goes.

Wait.... aren't we already in a time share? Since we are in a god share which the time share is a subsidiary of it along with consciousness share, space share and experience share. Maybe if I sell all my shares I can afford to retire because I'm so tired of this sheet, so tired I need to be re-tired. Thank you.... I'll be here all week!...maybe.

I am familiar with both of these individuals before this situation developed and have some interesting perspective to share about this. For one thing and the most important in my mind is that the online social media world as well as the gaming world there is a definite need for a path to well being. Millions even tens of millions of people and content creators are spreading misery through a cycle of abuse all over the internet....well, not just the internet. I could expand it to hundreds of millions and yes billions of people empowering the cycle of abuse in real life all over the world. Mental health care in the US is very expensive and has a stigma attached to it, I'm not sure how much different that is in other countries because I don't have personal experience with the health care systems there regarding mental health. Although, I suspect the stigma associated with seeking therapy of any sort isn't limited to North America so people are reluctant to seek it out and this isn't leading to an improvement in people's mental health or well being. I don't want to give too many opinions about the clash of content creators in the circumstance but it doesn't seem like DrK was intentionally malicious towards anyone even if there were some breaches of ethics or conflicts around profit motives, he genuinely wanted to help even if he made mistakes. It's not up to me to decide whether he did something to violate his oath but I don't accept as truth the opinions of others who have nothing to lose either. On the other hand I don't get a similar impression from the other party in this situation. Contrary with them professing a purpose of increasing empathy for others their actions speak to a different source of motivation at least on how it effects those that consume their content. I cannot discern someone's intent I can only witness their behavior and how if influences others but that is what we are left with from their actions, not their intentions. There is also something very saddening about the tragic loss of a content creator. Even though he had a traumatic experience with the mental health profession he still reached out wanting to heal the self suffering he was experiencing but unfortunately it wasn't sufficient enough to ease the pain and save him from himself. I don't think it helps anyone in trying to use him as a weapon or a shield, just let it be. There is also something kind of curious in a statement I saw him make in one video I watched even though I can't remember which one it was and I can't recite it verbatim only give a synapses of his message. Reckful said he felt like there was nothing left to do here, like he was in some video game, that he needed to move on to the next level and the only way to do it might be to die. I absolutely knew exactly where he was since I have been living it for decades. Now don't get the wrong idea, I'm not suicidal at all, in fact it's the complete opposite. When I realized I was 'done' here I was young living life on the edge and didn't expect to survive my 20s, I thought I was in overtime so to speak. I was awakened and transcended identity, so think about how many speak about life here, too. There's a similar theme, no? I think many of us know exactly where he was in consciousness because we have had glimpses of it or are there. He was using psychedelics not just hero dose quests but also in daily microdose scenarios. So he was transcending identity and experiencing no self awareness but wasn't getting the feedback from the people around him to put all the pieces together and have a healthy context for what he was perceiving. He was left to his own monkey mind's machinations and history of self suffering to sort out his path and what happened, did. This doesn't mean the psychobabble people go in circles with on this forum would have been any better but there is wisdom that would have been useful to him. I'm not going to turn this into a criticism of people on this forum or anywhere in the spiritual and mystical community but you people are lost and distracted from the mental navel gazing that goes on with all the complicated conceptualizations that people fixate on. I just wonder what might have been if he got some input from people who have experience in the abstract conscious states and had the well meaning approach to bring about healing and well being. I guess we will never know but this whole drama whoring content farming circus performance just reminds me that this isn't going to get any better any sooner unless there is a dramatic shift in people so they seek well being for themselves.

Administrating and moderating a forum of any kind is a challenge but with this type of forum there's an additional layer of challenge to it. Not only are the admin and mods trying to herd the cats involved with typical internet culture they are doing it on a forum of exploring abstract mysticism while themselves are also pursuing the esoteric insights of abstract mysticism. One of if not the most powerful influence in our lives is direct experience and we trust that our perception of this experience is as we perceive it to be. This is such a strong psychological feature of our mind it is literally what creates the self identity of us. So I exercise patience with others but especially with those who are taking on the task of the cat rodeo even if they don't necessarily return the favor because I understand the nature of what is unfolding with all of this. I hope members and mods ..oh, admin too, not let all the swirling sensations of the imagination get too much for them that they take it out on others, it's a distraction. That being said can someone do something about the BS 3 point warning I got 3 years ago for what was an innocent and innocuous comment... haha.... I couldn't help myself. Peace!

@ivankiss Eventually you may transcend the notion of truth as well, it's just another word that represents a thought in the mind of the relative experience. It doesn't matter if it's capitalized or called 'absolute' these all are just more conceptualizations in the imagination.

To be fair, your avi is jokerfied....hehe

solipsism belief says it's all projection...

So, according to this idea of solipsism people who don't exist are upset that someone who doesn't exist took down something that doesn't exist about something that doesn't exist? Hm It's much simpler to just be....but I guess minds gotta monkey around, though.

Practices are pointers but implied in the pointer is that there is something to be pointing at that's separate. The mind/ego uses them to keep us separate from what already is. It's like all the stories we use to explain, the number of distractions the mind/ego creates is endless. We can keep going round and round about wondering if this or that works or not but that's emblematic of the struggle the mind/ego uses to justify itself. Once you're done struggling you may just 'surrender', just cease efforting to make something that already is, it's the realization of being awareness.

Please don't think I'm being critical or dismissive when I say this but right there in the response is doing practices and seeking states. The mind/ego is very sly in how it uses the appeal of activity and conditions to keep us jumping through hoops and fire walled away from something as an appearance of separation from a goal or something to attain. You have been on this forum a long time with many posts....eventually you will get tired of the game the mind/ego is using to keep the monkey dancing for peanuts and if so you may stop playing along and dancing to appease it. Or you may continue on for even longer trying to find the right mix of activity and conditions to attain an apparent elusive goal that in reality is always present. I'll also say don't be frustrated with yourself and disturbed by not 'getting it', this is another trick of the mind/ego is creating a distraction from being awareness. Just be at peace with things as they are even if the mind/ego is generating all this activity and stimuli in attempt to grab the attention to justify it's identity. Eventually it will become natural to stay present no matter the conditions of the mind or body.

Yea, the mind/ego is always searching for activities to do, conditions to be met, understanding to attain, goals to achieve and on and on as if we don't already have awareness to abide in. Being awareness just is which you have already expressed how you have experience of it but it's only the mind/ego that is distracting you from it and then giving you circumstances to seek to get 'back' to it when in reality it's always present 'now'. I'm not sure what anyone can say that will have you stop searching for what you already have, even the explanations of it may be serving as a distraction.

@Raptorsin7 It's just simply the mind/ego is using the activity of surrender/letting go as an obstacle to being present even to the extent of doing an activity of not doing to distract from being.

Anytime

Somebody has to say it...you're welcome.

Millions of posts and millions of hours spent online collectively telling each other you don't exist is absolute internet spirituality nonsense.

@Raptorsin7 I noticed something in the initial post of the thread then it was revisited in your response to a reply so I would ask you to read the thread again since it's only a few posts deep and tell me if you notice it as well. Did you notice it? The quote you posted wasn't all that explicit about it but it surely revealed the challenging nature of your point of the thread. How difficult it is to not do.....not doing.... anything. We actually screw up not doing anything.... by doing it... and doing... something. The quote mentions spiritual practice with a goal, the doing of something to attain something. That goal? Simplicity of awareness... and the recommended? To surrender...the letting go of the activity of the mind is a credible recommendation that many espouse. Except that the ego will use this as another thing to do to get something. Surrendering, the letting go of the activity is another activity with a goal that is desired because it is an unmet condition for what is being sought. You see how sneaky the mind can be? You even say it yourself in your response to the other reply, "it seems like I can't surrender even though I think I'm doing the same thing as when the surrender comes easy". See? You say 'doing the same thing', an activity to create desired conditions to attain something you perceive you don't have. We don't have to do any activity of 'surrender' to attain awareness because awareness is as you suggest, effortless, it just is. Even if there is activity of the mind that may serve as a distraction from the simplicity of awareness doesn't require us to do an activity of surrender to be present in awareness. We just can BE present in awareness, it's always being presence and there is no activity that allows for it to be there, it always is. So don't let the ego use the activity of surrender to attain some condition that it acts like you don't have to distract from being present in awareness.

The very definition of belief is 'trust that it is true' so whether it's Christianity or any other religious doctrine for someone to believe it is them actually trusting it is the truth. Even the 'truth' on this forum that people believe is them trusting it is true. Their direct experience, their awareness of it, their perception of it, their understanding of it...it's just them trusting it is the 'truth'.