SOUL

@Emerald I'm not going to go back and look but I think the person said the video was about childhood abuse or trauma. That is a particularly sensitive subject and I could see that topic could disturb someone. I'm not going to watch it all but the first couple of minutes leads me to think that may not be the one he was speaking about.

Hmmm.... projecting on to absolute infinity a temporary circumstance. I choose not to do such things and wouldn't recommend it to anybody.

Trillions of words are spoken if not more on the subject of spirituality and not one of them is useful in being. The words can be of use in explaining how to get the mind out of the way of being but they just as easily wind up placing more mind in the way of being.

@zazed Just being aware of being aware may be a very simple paradigm to be in the mind but that is still a type of orientation of consciousness, a paradigm. It could be said that it is exercising the least amount of mind meddling in the process of just being by avoiding the typical trappings associated with the mind. Some may call it the most natural way to orient our consciousness, some may say it's the "true" way or it's "real" but all of those is just adding mind meddling. If we are just being, it doesn't need an opinion of it how it relates to other ways for us to just be it.

Every person in every situation is a unique instance of it's own and examining the nature of the circumstances will help reveal the answer to that question.

The ego constructs a paradigm in the mind from ideas and concepts that appeals to it in which those ideals it values most it believes in although this issue can arise when it assumes it's valuable to everyone. Even the ideal I have about just being aware of being aware in the moment appeals and brings contentment to me, it's my mind's paradigm. With every spiritual speaker from Tolle to Hedderman to the Buddha, all of them has a paradigm of the mind they believe in. It can be robust and complicate or effortless and simple, it's not good or bad by nature, it's just the way the mind works. In spirituality "true" and "truth" aren't the same thing as it is in logic or science, this is where the confusion comes in. Spiritually "true" isn't factually accurate or logically reasonable, it's being loyal or adhering to a standard, so it's being true to our spiritual ideals. Truth is proven by us staying true to our spiritual ideals, if we say they are one thing but do another, it's isn't a spiritual truth, it's just an idea we don't do even if we try to call it our truth. Since spirituality and the ideals derived from it are subjective, what accounts for spiritual truth is different for every single one of us. There is no universal spiritual truth, big T little t, that's just rhetoric, spiritual truth is as individual as each one of us in our experience. When we act in accordance with our spiritual ideals we are being spiritually true and living our spiritual truth.

@Dodoster You can't describe the void no matter how many words you try to use and emptiness is just another concept in your mind. The void, I heard it's the spot to be but nobody and nothing has ever been there. bah

That isn't a question. Just be..... since we cannot be anything other than being. So the fulfillment of our potential as aware beings is being aware of being aware. The simple life.

@hinawashi We only fight wars we create so I made peace with it and don't make an enemy out of myself. Now there's no conflict.

Yes, being is a temporary effect only present in the now. Heh

@hinawashi ....are you at peace with this state of being?

The void can't be the 0th dimension....it's the void, it isn't anything, not absolute truth, not a dimension, not even consciousness. The void in it's actual nature is the absence of anything, there isn't anything we can say to describe it, the word void is still too much for it. Zero(0) isn't the void either, zero is a value through it's absence of value, it's what we imagine the void to be.

@rakuul I wonder what happened to the guy who was living and learning from that loving, compassionate and benevolent core to become the guy who exerts effort by insulting someone else who is doing the same thing in living and learning from their own core just because they don't share the same exact ideas in doing so. That would be an interesting self talk conversation I'd love to be a fly on a turd blossom nearby to hear it.

I haven't watched very many of Leo's videos, just a handful of them on certain big picture topics to get an grasp of his approach and I can agree with this in ways. Let me first say that nearly everyone on youtube speaks from their own certainty in their opinions, I don't know that someone would take the time to create a channel, shoot videos, edit and post them to be unsure of what they are saying. Which Steven also does himself, he's certain in his authority of being "right" with his opinion about Leo as well as his own professed positions he's expressed in the rest of his videos so the criticism can appear hypocritical. If someone is saying things we are open to or already agree with people tend to overlook the tone of the speaker to instead focus on the message but if it's something we don't agree with a are closed off to tone gets amplified so is another reasons to reject it.

I looked for that childhood video to see it and I cannot find it, was it taken down? If not can you post a link to it?

With natural spirituality yes it is but with what many people say spirituality is it's paradoxical at best and contradictory at worst.

The guru would ask.... Who is the one that is triggered?

This is about personal evolution of the individual, not a grand scale humanity evolution. No crisis isn't required for evolution even though yes a crisis can provide an environment that only certain traits will survive and flourish in it but that isn't the only conditions that adaptation happens. Change is constant, you can't help but change so either you become an influence that contributes to the transformation or you become the one who has to deal with the random results of it. It's your choice but either way, we are changing.

@eskwire Oh, don't bother watching it, he doesn't actually rebut anything, he just insults without any real discussion about it. I kept waiting for a reasoned reply to points he disputed and it never came. It's a problem with hyper rationalism in assuming by those that employ it that their opinion is the "right" one. Couple that with a morality mindset that their opinion is also what's "good" and anything that is different is "evil" so this is what results. With no filtering of the ego justification it just runs rampant and they cannot find any peace in life at all.. It takes someone who may have some ideas worthy of consideration and can turn them into an extremist bigot. It's not worth spending that much time on, he doesn't add anything of value to contemplate.

I didn't want to make a snap judgement so I went and looked at some previous videos going years back to get an idea of their evolution as a person. It seems like he got swept up in the animosity and angst of the past year that is so prevalent in society as well as him taking on a Molyneux styled world view. His rational reductionist position coupled with the intolerance of views that don't reflect his own appears to have bred a certain amount of emotional and intellectual hatred. His issues with the philosophical and spiritual differences between his ideas and Leo's are ones not uncommonly expressed by the scientific minded towards them. I also don't agree with some of Leo's ideas and even share some of the same concerns about the assertions of "truth" about some but I recognize that with regard to consciousness there is so much subjective understanding we get from our experience there isn't a reason for me to let it bother me. What's interesting about looking at that guy.....who I suspect is the one who started this thread, is that he had some really interesting videos and looked liked he was working towards well being but at some point it completely changed. He got caught up in Molyneux's self righteous crusade mentality, adopted all that rhetoric and any of the healthy progress he had made up to that point was wiped away by it. One of his videos called "who deserves compassion?" kind of signaled his growing intolerance for anyone who isn't on board with his ideology or what he thinks people should be doing. In that video he may have accurately assessed that not allowing others to be abusive towards us is a healthy way to be though he also asserted that those people don't deserve our compassion which mirrors the us vs them war that is taking place in society. We can actually not allow others to be abusive towards us while we still maintain a compassionate disposition towards them, these aren't mutually exclusive. By harboring that animosity towards the ideologically different you can see how it's manifested in a malevolent attitude towards someone who has nothing more than a differing opinion. Being so consumed with his opinions and them being "right" that it's not just an attack on his identity, he unconsciously sees it as an attack on his very being so hence the lashing out. I actually have compassion for the guy, his earlier videos have some great ideas and undoubtedly provided some value for the few who viewed them but he took a turn about a year or so ago. @rakuul , I have shared some of my thoughts, if you would like to discuss it we can do it here or in private messages.

Expectations lead to disappointment. It may be that it became a bit too complicated and that was a distraction so simplify it again. Even if you want to try a different focus or method of it still stay simple with it. Although, expectations often are a stumbling block in our progress. Approach mindfulness in neutral, open or "empty" disposition. Another way to describe it would be an undetermined mindset. Let the experience be what it will be.

I know it may be easier to say than to do but don't beat yourself up over it. It was just a moment in passing and now that moment has passed so just let it stay passed, focus instead on the present moment.. It doesn't help in creating more suffering for something that happened in the past whether the event is 3 days past or 3 years or 3 decades. We all do things that we may not intend to do but it happens anyway. Forgive yourself, clear it from your mind and move on.

So my scale is lying to me! Gah!

@Shin If the popular theory right now says "all ideas, concepts and beliefs are mind construct so are an illusion" then everything humans have ever said about it are an illusion. No matter how perfectly it may seem to explain.......it. is. all. just. bull.. . . .... . .... .. ... .... .... . . ... .. . . .. . . If you believe that theory this would be the actuality of it, not just in theory.. We cannot even be able to form ideas that reflect the infinite let alone describe it in language for someone else we would hope could understand. So all of this discussion about the stuff we think we can "know" is just from our mind even if we tell ourselves that isn't what we are looking for or offering. Maybe you just made the ultimate detachment to mind, the "it all" one.

Oh, it is just bullshit. Although, bullshit enriches the soil and makes it more fertile for growth. Heh