kieranperez

So obviously spiral dynamics isn’t a map that truly deals with nonduality or enlightenment. I think it’s clear that there’s correlation but going back hundreds of years ago, it’s pretty safe to say Stage Orange didn’t even exist but there were still spiritual masters that may have been mostly blue or purple or even red (depending on the person, their shadow, era in history, and culture, and I’m sure many other factors). I’m curious though on possible examples of enlightened people at Stage Yellow. I have a hard time wrapping my head around this considering a. I’ve yet to have a real awakening experience, and b. It seems like too much conceptualism for an enlightened person to spend much time in... I say that lightly though. Given that there seems to be degrees on the nondual path I don’t want to make such bold claims like that. So I take that with a grain of salt. Thoughts on this? Possible examples?

Make this as detailed or conscise as you want. I find this actually really fascinating. I love knowing and understanding why people start endeavors in the beginning. I feel like for a lot of us, especially in the west, we don’t grow up learning things like meditation. For a lot of us, myself included, we get into meditation as a result of suffering in our lives and then we discover this infinite gold mine. So I would just like to know why you started. Not really so much “the how” (how you found it), although feel free to include that I’m curious on what your first initial motive was. Was it just suffering? Did you already know about it and wanted to give it a shot? My why: I got into meditation because I was suffering so much from being suicidal. I remember one day in my junior or senior year in high school I had a school psychologist who was from vietnam and practiced Buddhism there and then in China. I remember I was seeing him for the first time one day during school hours and I was just so angry and depressed and he guided me through such a basic body scan and mindfulness meditation of being aware. I laugh a little about it now because I remember him describing mindfulness with noting and labeling on the fan that was in the room and hearing for what it was and not having a clue of what he meant. By the end of each sit corn 5 minutes I couldn’t believe the calm I felt. I had NEVER felt that in my life. Time went on though and quickly forgot about it. Later on, I was in a hospitalization program at UCSF for DBT (dialectal behavioral therapy) immerision. We started at 8am sharp and we did a mindfulness meditation for the first 15 minutes everyday. I was so depressed and lost in my mind and so angry I didn’t know what to do. I was on 6 medications p/day and nothing was working. I knew though, that I looked forward to those first 15 minutes everyday. I got more interested after this program. The effects of meditation hadn’t been adding up and spilling into most of my day. I was still just so fucking upset and angry all the time and dealing with a toxic and dysfunctional family that was falling apart. I would wake up to screaming in the house, my mom with disassociative identity disorder had been tearing our family apart and my dad not handling things well at all alongside my own neuroses had motivated me to try and escape. Then, the day I became directly aware of the power this thing called meditation really is came... I was sitting on my bed listening to a 26 minute guided meditation lead by San Harris. This was a REALLY long time for me. The meditation became deeper as I followed along. Then, near the end, he gave the instructions of finding the thing that I call “I”. I remember not being able to grab hold of anything. I then realized how arbitrary this all is. I realized just how much I don’t know. I realized, I don’t have a fucking clue about who I am. My mind was fucked... and I loved it.

I had my first astral projection the other week and it was by total accident when I was going to bed. Had no idea what it was until I looked it up and talked to @Sahil Pandit.

Give me one episode where Leo goes around claiming he’s enlightened... and as far as threatening business - do you realize he released a life purpose that is all about finding ones calling in the context of career and business? Lololol

Read Byron Katie's book, "Loving What Is" and Brad Blanton's "Radical Honesty". Also, check Leo's 2-part video series on Moralizing.

@cirkussmile that is still just a claim. I'm glad you were able to find peace and happiness by learning meditation and sticking to it. However, that isn't a brute fact. Nobody goes into meditation or any new endeavor TRULY knowing what they're in for. Glad you got results though.

Key Question: If you went back to your "prior self" (I say that only for illustrative purposes. Not making metaphysical claims or assumptions) to the time when you first sat down to meditate and you visualized yourself being back in that time at that moment, what exactly were you looking for? You were motivated by something because you wouldn't be sitting there if you weren't motivated to move towards or away from something. Did somebody tell you something about meditation that sounded like it would be worth doing? What was that?

This isn't about asserting opinions on psychedelics and your opinions on how to find peace and happiness. The topic is on why you started meditating.

Derive truth for yourself. An answer you read on here means nothing. example: there is no self im guessing you didn’t become a Buddha from reading that.

He just came out with his book “Opportunity” which is gold. Take “Marketing Step-by-Step”. It’s $1000 for the course and well worth it. I had a $1000 in my savings that I took out for that course and it was well worth it if you work the course. Don’t get lost in theory though. You can have an MBA and suck in business. Watch Leo’s video on the pitfalls and traps when starting a business.

Learn marketing.

Why did you pursue spirituality in the beginning? What were you motivated by? We’re not really born and end up motivated by some higher sense drive to pursue truth if only it worked that way. What did that mean for you at the time? No one really starts after all understanding what an ego REALLY is outside of the conceptual idea we have. What did you think pursuing meditation in the beginning would get you? What were you feeling that wasn’t happiness? Anger? Deep depression? Anxiety? Panic attacks? Hollowness from excess materialism? Why did you want to pursue self-improvement? What were motivated to “become” (I’m talking about back then, not now)? Was something going on or just something that wasn’t coming together in life that made you want to pursue meditation and self improvement?

If you had to take yourself back to when you first got started, what were you looking for? A way to find peace in all the nonsense that’s brought into a dysfunctional household (I can relate to that) and to alleviate a lot of the suffering that toxicity can bring? Hope your practice has been coming together!

Why? Not objecting at all. I’m curious about why you wanted that. What did you think that would get you? What did you want from being more present?

When you see and get off the wheel of samsara and nirvana as one thing.

So right now I’m learning marketing through Eben Pagan’s online course “Marketing Step by Step”. For starters, it’s actually a great course. It’s very disillusioning on what marketing is but Eben Pagan seems to put a lot of honest effort of saying basically ‘hey, this is a powerful tool/skill you have at your disposal. Use this responsibly.’ So just wanted to give him a good plug on a good course. As I’m going through this course though and also as someone whose new to actually learning what marketing is, and especially when I learn about what effective and successful marketing is and how it works, I’m honestly just astonished at @Leo Gura has been able to do with all this here. Not even in the sense of not abusing this very acquirable skill that we call marketing, but the fact that this guy has been able to create a following of on YouTube alone 3/4 of a million subs talking honestly about topics such as enlightenment and all this sort of stuff that threatens one’s sense of self and beliefs and still market that effectively is really impressive but also inspiring. Not inspiring in some glorifying moral sense but inspiring because it shows me that I don’t need to sell out if I actually learn what real marketing is and that I can still be successful and do honest yet effective marketing.

@MsNobody yes. I lived in Lucas Valley for 11 years and I’m back in SF now unfortunately. I lived 2 miles down the road from lead singer of Metallica and 3 miles down the road from Skywalker ranch in Lucas Valley where Joseph Campbell often stayed. Also, Jack Kornfield is in West Marin at Spirit Rock. Vedanta Society is in Olema in Point Reyes. SF Zen Center has a Center in Muir Beach. 420 also started at San Rafael high school and Robin Williams went to Redwood High School. Theres a lot in Marin that people wouldn’t think of. Problem with Marin as with all of the Bay Area is just how hard it is to even find a place to live. The other is being able to afford to live here. Especially Marin.

Will do eventually. Trying not to get too caught up in theory at this point as I need to create results. Also on a super tight budget and need to find away to escape living at home and find a way to live on my own, pay my bills, and expand from there. Plus I’m living in the heart of San Francisco so finding a place is a place here is about as hard as getting enlightened to Buddha level in one shot lol.

Marketing is 20% of the actions in your business that will generate 80% of your success in business. That DOESN’T mean that you’re necessarily good at what you do, a master at your craft, etc. You can be very successful and actually not be a master at whatever it is you’re doing. Which is why I have a lot of inner conflicts because I tend to not want to talk, teach, and sell people things that I haven’t embodied and mastered in my life. That’s a tangent though... Back to you - I hear EXACTLY what you’re saying because you’re basically describing my mindset that I need to work on changing. What’s important about marketing is: 1. You can’t succeed in business without it. I don’t care who you are and how good you are, if you can’t market yourself, you’re going to fail. 2. Its disillusioning because it strips you away of your fantasies, dogma, and idealism. The marketplace doesn’t give a shit about you, me, or anything like that. You need to be strategic enough AND conscious enough (and balance both of those so you don’t shoot yourself and the people you sell to in the foot) of that reality and have the craftiness to create your vision but also be flexibile in your approach and toss all the means to the ultimate end. Also, get this idea of “fun” out of your head. Yes, you will reap rewards later on. However, starting a business, as I’m learning now, is not fun. It robs of your fantasies. You have to work on figuring what your prospective customer actually needs, wants, and their triggers. Like @Equanimitize said above, marketing done right is a superpower. You can use it to manipulate people and also elevate people. However, don’t fall into the trap of either being so idealistic and pretend to be a saint where you’re not pragmatic but also don’t fall into the trap of fucking other people over. Marketing really is a science. Now that I’m learning what real marketing is, I can see a lot in the videos alone on actualized.org where Leo is doing very effective marketing and I never even knew. But hey, look at what he created. Lastly, and I already alluded to this, you can be REALLY masterful at something, but that doesn’t mean people know you, you’re making the impact you want to have (assuming you do), etc. For instance, how many people known of Peter Ralston? That man mastered every martial art out there is DEEPLY enlightened and has a mastery of consciousness work. People don’t know him. Even plenty of spiritual teachers don’t know him. I live here in San Francisco 2 blocks of from the famous San Francisco Zen Center and no one knows who he is. I’m also a competitive runner and know many world class coaches who’ve coached Olympic medalists and they’re not successful in business. I hope this helps

Doesn’t Spira dynamics make the claim that people don’t move down the spiral? Not confusing map for the territory as there are always exceptions with maps and models. Just asking

Translation: Move to Marin County on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge in the SF Bay Area

Steve Jobs didn’t immediately understand this in the beginning. You can build a great product but if you don’t know how to market it, well... have fun. I would disagree on “everybody should have a life purpose.” Not everybody is equally ambitious and needs or wants the career of their dreams and that’s fine because for one, it’s already the case. I think what a lot of people on here fail to understand is that what you’re deeply passionate about can and most likely will change. For me, I took the life purpose course and it was REALLY hard because I wasn’t aware that the thing I thought I’ve been passionate about for the last 10 years was something that was starting to die away. Most masters tend to stumble into the thing that they eventually grow to love and we often overlook that. Sometimes that advice on having a “grand vision” isn’t really the best advice because if you look at what actually happens with people that achieve genuine mastery, they don’t have anything like that. The Buddha never had a vision of becoming as enlightened as he became and have the impact he had. Michael Jordan never set out in basketball with mastering basketball in the beginning, the man loved baseball more when he started (I’ve met him multiple times and got to shoot around with him at his camp a few years back). I think the life purpose course is helpful and it was so very much for me. However, the notion that everybody should have a life purpose is unrealistic and also just not true.

Right now my life really isn’t going anywhere. I’m 23 years old now, didn’t finish even my first semester in college, am working part time at REI which I absolutely resent, parents just got divorced and am living at home with my dad, and the thing I thought was my passion and my life’s purpose feels like it’s fading. At same point everyday I just break down because this isn’t what I thought where I’d be at 23. I don’t even want to talk to girls and date because I’m ashamed when I’m asked a question like ‘so where do you live?’ Or ‘do you live on your own? Or ‘what do you do for work?’ I’m tired of lying about my life but also the truth hurts of course. I live with someone who guilt trips me about how I should be disgusted with my incompetence to be like everybody else as well as for all the self help books I have. I have no support system and pretty much no friends I really hang out with and get virtually no hours at my already low paying job. When my mind calms I’m just left wondering who and what I am and I feel like I can’t move forward until I get this answered. My main passion (running) that brought me all these connections (becoming friends with Olympic medalists, too world class coaches, etc.) is starting to fade and though I get some pleasure from it, it no longer consumes my main fascination or interest. When I go for walks rather than runs in solitude on the trails here in the San Francisco Bay Area, at some point or another I sit down and just do self inquiry and as I imagine a lot of us on here may relate to, I’m left with more questions than answers. I don’t know how or why but I just feel like this is something I need to know at this point and I can’t really go on not knowing. I’m tired of the falsehoods and stories about who I am. I can’t see myself committing myself to anything until I know this for sure. I spent 10+ years involved in something that I thought was “the thing” and now I can tell that ship is sailing and I need to let it go. I just want to know who I am but at the same time, I don’t know where to go from here given my life circumstances. Thoughts on this?

To be cheap with investing in yourself. Also, he just came out with a new book called “Consciousness Dialogues”

Disclaimer: I have no issues with my health. I’ve run 4:13 in the mile and 31 for 10k so I don’t imagine myself having problems with health in terms of my lung capacity or any of that lol. That’s not to say I can’t learn how to breathe better or that I have perfect health but I think you get the idea haha So I’m REALLY struggling with my practice for the last year or so and I can’t for the life of me figure out what the solution is. The dilemma is pretty much 3-fold: Ankle pressure/pain - when I sit on the cushion, no matter what way sit (Burmese or half lotus, or any cross legged position in general after those 2 fail), I feel so much pressure on my ankles because it feels like I’m putting all my body pressure on top of my ankles. I position my feet such that my closes foot is touching my perineum. Hip (flexors) on fire - so as a competitive runner, one of my biggest weaknesses for me personally has always been in my hips. I bring up the runner part because with the amount that I run (50-85 miles per week... depends on where I’m at in my training block), if I’m not doing a lot of flexibility/mobility work on my hips, they eventually get so knotted up that I can’t run because they lock up. My lack of decent hip strength/mobility makes meditating really hard because I’ll be 5 minutes into a sit and my hips are on fire and I can’t even breathe deep and relaxed. Can’t breath deep and relaxed - So I don’t find, after experimenting and paying attention to what’s working and not working, that my issue here is a matter of either being frantic in my mind or sitting up too straight. I find that even if I’m not meditating, holding any sort of relaxed yet aligned posture fucks with my ability to breathe deep and relaxed. It’s easier (yet can still not be enough) when I sit in a chair. But me being a sub elite athlete that’s never really had injuries or true health problems physically other than being tight in a good amount of areas, I don’t want to restrict myself to a chair because I don’t get why I can’t figure this out and have to restrict myself. I also notice that even if I sit on the floor sitting up straight with both legs together straight out, I can’t breathe deep. My breath is shaky and shallow. I’m not even anxious or perturbed so I know it’s not a matter of racing thoughts causing that. Has as anyone here struggled with any of the following issues and overcome them when it comes to posture? Thanks!