Forestluv

You seem to associate a substance-induced state as being desirable and pleasant, while a nonsubstance-induced state is undesirable and unpleasant. Ime, that dynamic can exist, yet existence need not be limited to that dynamic. You seem to define “happy, relaxed and content” as being without any motivation to seek anything because the moment is already full. If we define happiness as the absence of seeking energy and a sense that the moment is full, we contract to a relative domain. It’s a wonderful domain of which many humans fantasize about and seek. I’ve experienced deep sadness in which there was no seeking energy for anything. The moment was full. By your definition, we would categorize this sadness as “happiness”. There have been a few times I’ve tried to express such sadness to another and their reaction is to “help” me to get out of the sadness, back into happiness. They are the ones that are seeking. I try to tell them, I don’t want to alter or escape from what is arising, yet they don’t understand. When an essence enters - freedom is allowing that essence to enter without grasping or pushing away. To sit and have tea with the fear, joy or sadness - and when that essence leaves, to let it go like a free butterfly fluttering away. Seeking the cessation of seeking is itself a form of seeking.

Trans-human states of consciousness are a high access level, ime. And temporary access via psychedelics tends to get contextualized at the human level. This is an area I’ve been working toward and it takes a lot of practice and skill. It’s much easier to enter various human perspectives. I’d say, grounding in trans-personal is much easier than trans-human. Even still, very few humans can get grounded in trans-personal consciousness.

With an open, exploratory mind and experience, the two worlds gradually come closer together. . .

The mind likes to extrapolate it’s own mindset as universal. For example, if a mind values happiness and contentment above all, it will extrapolate that as being universal to all minds. This is a block toward mind expansion. . . Your above statement is not universally true. My mind does not place happiness and contentment above all else. I have voluntarily entered spaces that were terrifying and painful for realization of what is. And then I went back for more. . . At the deeper levels, one doesn’t get to decide what will be revealed on the other side of the door. This is a facet of surrender. I wouldn’t consume a vial of permanent 24/7 happiness and contentment. For me, that would be a contraction and I am much more oriented toward expansion. I want it all, including (be not limited to) happiness and contentment.

To enter deeper/more expansive levels, I would suggest letting go of pre-conceived meanings narratives - they are filters of distortion. For example, let go of your meanings of materialist or non-materialist as well as your desire for “proof”. This is a contracted mindset full of constructs to get grounded.

In addition to the word content, you have very good vocal cadence, use of pauses and facial expressions that help articulate the message. I’m curious how much of that is also practiced in the mind to an imaginary person and how much is spontaneous while you are recording.

I’d like to get some input from those of you that may be interested in a new course I am developing for freshman-level University students. I’ve agreed to teach a “First Year Seminar” next fall to incoming freshman students at a University. This is both a blessing and burden. The blessing is that teachers are given a huge amount of leeway in course content - it can be outside of their academic expertise. So, I can explore, learn and create most anything in my interest. The burden part is that it can be difficult to get 18 year old students to “buy in” and become genuinely interested and engaged in the material. I am using a broad title of “The Structure of Mind” so that I can have LOTS of space this summer to explore and create. I want to have content that is interesting, expands their minds and has practical value in their lives, yet normally isn’t taught in schools. I’d love to hear what you may find interesting. In terms of structure, I would like to integrate a range of areas including: neuroscience, mysticism, existentialism, psychology and cognition development. I’ve previously taught a course on Spiral Dynamics and may use some of that material, so I’m good there. In terms of brainstorming, here are a few rough ideas appearing: — What is imagined and real? We could explore lucid dreaming and how other cultures view the intersection of dreams and reality. As well as the neuroscience. — What is a Collective Group Mind? We could examine things like the Group Mind of indigenous tribes. Also, the Group Mind of animals, such as bee colonies. — Animal Mind vs Human Mind. What are differences between the minds of animals and humans? How has evolution and fitness shaped the minds of different species? — The construction of beliefs and self identity. — The mind of meditation and yoga. — Psychedelics and the Mind. Community psychedelic ceremonies, Ayahuasca, shamans — Various mind states such as Schizophrenia. — Flow states of consciousness — Meta views — What is creativity? Part of my goal is to challenge myself and expand. So, I’d appreciate if you have any examples within the areas above or new areas that might be cool to explore.

I just got curious about a phenomena of “conscious choices” and “subconscious choices”. . . . Of course in one context, there is no “chooser” and there are no “choices”, there are only happenings appearing Now. This is a profound realization, yet I’m observing and constructing here within a different context. . . All of us are aware of ‘conscious choices’ since they are conscious. We may be considering two different meal options for dinner and choose one. For now, I’m more interested in the ‘subconscious choices’. It seems a lot of people are curious about this. . . Why do I behave in ways that doesn’t serve me well? Why do I sabotage my own efforts? How can I become more aware of why I make bad choices, such that I can make better choices in the future? . . . These all have practical value in terms of personal development and well-being. Yet again, it’s not my strongest interest. I’m more interested in observing what contracts the mind and what allows expansion of the mind. Yet this does not have a direct correlation with personal development and well-being. For example, there can be a dynamic in which a mind contraction is beneficial and the personal level and a mind expansion is non-beneficial. There are many more dynamics that favor mind contraction over mind expansion. For most people, mind contraction is stabilizing and secure while mind expansion can be destabalizing and insecure. Most of us have consciously experienced resistance to expansion. It’s that defensiveness that arises to protect a contracted view. And there are all sorts of defenses. Later, we may think “Maybe there was something to that”. And then there is an energetic shift. There is an opening and a curiosity. Yet to explore freely, one needs to put down their bags of burden to allow space. And there are many forms of burdening bags. What about those points in which there is an opportunity, yet we just can’t quite get to the point of curiosity, openness and exploration? How many times has something entered our life that could expand us, yet we didn’t catch it? There is an old saying “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”. This is where “subconscious choice” comes in. I imagine there were hundreds of times, an insight was offered to me, yet I didn’t catch it. For various reasons. For example, suppose someone had an insight about energetic dynamics and my mindset was “I already know this.”. I then went on to correct the person about what energetic dynamics are. This person may say “You are intellectualizing this. It isn’t an intellectual thing”. . . I might then respond that she too is intellectualizing. That she is the one being defensive. . . A couple days later, I may remember the woman and think there was something odd about her - this would open a door up. Perhaps months or years later, I may realize “Omigosh, so that’s what she was talking about!” Yet many times, she is dismissed and I move on, contracted within my paradigm. . . . This doesn’t only occur with other people. Nature often reveals somethings that I don’t catch. As I observe more deeply, I am becoming more aware of lots of nuances - moments when I feel close to it, yet can’t quite get it. I try to stay with it, like trying to stay with Tree Pose in Yoga. . . It’s like almost being able to remember something from the past. Perhaps the name of a town you visited or the name of an old friend. You feel close, yet can’t quite get it. For most people, this is uncomfortable. Being in this state takes certain skills such as curiosity, relaxation, attention and patience. Yet it’s so worth it. One skill I’m working on it to recognize that “it”. It can be super subtle and involve a form of sensing the environment. Being in tune with an “it”. It’s easier when that “it” stimulates intrigue. For example, when I first joined the forum, Leo and I got into a chat about intelligence. I had a background in science and had a good understanding of intelligence. Yet there was some sort of “it” that arose when Leo wrote about intelligence. Curiosity arose. There was lots of resistance, yet curiosity can overcome a lot of resistance. With curiosity arose genuineness, which is a powerful combination. With genuine curiosity, it is much easier to let go of limitations, explore and expand. This allows space and an energetic orientation that attracts insights and being able to “catch” insights that were once out of reach. For example, after that chat with Leo, I was walking through nature asking myself “what the heck is intelligence?”. A looked around me in nature and asked if there were forms of intelligence present. New stuff appeared, yet I couldn’t quite catch all of it. A few days later, someone recommended the book “How to think like Leonardo DaVinci”. This book was filled with various forms of intelligence and my mind kept expanding. The thing is, I encountered these examples of intelligence beyond my paradigm many many times in my life. Hundreds of thousands of times. Yet they never penetrated me, due to subconscious choices to filter it out. One skill I’ve been working on is to become a master observer without limiting filters. Part of this process is introspection of my subconscious filters such that what had been subconscious becomes conscious. This is a form of consciousness expansion. I’ve become aware of many subconscious filters, yet there are deeper ones and I don’t want to stay on the surface, patting myself on the back for the one’s I’ve identified. . . Yet to get to the deeper one’s I must grow. The deeper ones are still subconscious for a reason and my current conscious level and abilities are insufficient to access it. Psychedelics can be powerful, yet they also have drawbacks in where I want to explore. This will take deepening my baseline level of consciousness. One thing that is appearing for me now is developing empty concentration. One thing I’ve noticed is that in this zone, minor distractions are leveraged and become more important to clear. All those thoughts of life that tug me. These pre-occupations are like diving with floaties on the arms. If we only dive a few feet deep, the floaties don’t cause too much upward pull. Yet the deeper we go, the greater the upward pull. . . Fortunately, I have three months to focus on this if I choose (I’m not working for the next three months). As well, I want to continually simplify and empty - rather than creating new distractions of complexities and drama.

“Big One - What is Power?” This can have various contextualizations, some of which would make a grown man blush. . . Could you give a bit more context to help focus and clarify?

@Billy Shears People outgrow friends all the time. For me, the two options of “zero friends” or “useless friends” is appealing. Who wants to make that decision when there are so many other options available. For example, if I lost most of the resonance with an old friend, I might no longer hang out with him, yet stay in occasional contact. As well, I could pursue developing new “higher conscious” friendships. You mentioned that you don’t like surface conversations with a focus on getting drunk or stoned. . . What do you envision in the future? What would you engage in to grow and develop yourself? Examples might be getting into creative writing, the Zen of rock climbing, Yoga, meditation, traveling and living in other cultures etc. If you engaged in such activities, you would likely meet people that are exploring at a deeper level and form new, deeper relationships. . . I would also be mindful of the term “useful friends”. For me, the deepest friendships I form are balanced. We each have something to offer each other and we are useful to each other. Personally. . . In my younger days, I was a partier and outgrew that faster than my peer group. I no longer found it appealing to drink and hang out with drunks. I got into long-distance running and marathon training. I formed lots of new, healthier friendships. We would run for 3 hours and get into deep conversations. . . . The older friendships kinda fizzled away.

Please don’t start duplicate threads in different sub-forums.

@bazera Consider what happens when the health care system is overwhelmed. Imagine every single hospital bed occupied. There is no longer hospital care for new patients. If someone gets in a severe car accident, they are on their own.

1. For those who have come to know that they are God, what did this change for you? Awareness of non-changing. 2. How many times did you have the realization before it stuck with you? Once 3. Did you tell people you know? There is nothing to tell, other than constructs of creation 4. How did your relationships change? See #1 5. What did you do first, as God? Nothing as you and Everything as You. (Again, contemplate what is “you”)

The fellow in the video starts off by saying how he gets everything Leo says about nonduality, Oneness, psychedelics and the universe experiencing itself. He says it’s all stuff he’s heard before. He then goes on to show that he lacks understanding and embodiment. . . At the personal level, his views are very rational and practical. Yet he lacks understanding at a transpersonal level. He will be stuck here because he assumes he has understanding that he lacks. And what he lacks, he perceives as “too far”. Indeed it is “too far” for him. Going “far” requires a high level of curiosity, willingness and surrender. It isn’t for the faint of heart.

@silene Yes! I recently finished Adriene’s most recent 30 day series. She is so good at integration of mind, body, spirit. She connects so many dots in life. For me, doing yoga with her is much more than postures. It is meditation, exploration, growth and being. This week, I started doing the new 30 day series“Yoga with Tim”. Adriene is more about “find what feels good”, Tim is more about proper biomechanics. I did this practice before bed last night. I brought me to such a wonderful space. @Harikrishnan

@Preety_India An innocence that flutters away like a butterfly. ?

No need to have a video of mockery. You can add the second video to the green mega thread for orange interactng with whacky green for a laugh if you like.

@2:37 is spreading more than the coronavirus.

It’s hard to find understand without the direct experience. David understands it. In his own words: “The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire’s flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling ‘Don’t!’ and ‘Hang on!’, can understand the jump. Not really. You’d have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.“ David Foster Wallace

I try to be careful with “experience”. It can be a sneaky place for the mind to create and take ownership. Its fair to say the mind thinks “I” experience experience. Realizing that removes a filter and is a big step in transcendence. Yet there is still a residue called “experience”. Even if there is no experiencer taking ownership of experience, it’s so darn alluring to a self that it can’t resist. It would be like dangling a juicy steak over a hungry dog. In this context, I would use a term like “IS”. It’s harder for the self to sink it’s teeth into that.

Ime, this is a very strong energetic orientation. . . . There is a realization of “a point” that cannot be found in time and space. What is it that always “stays together”? To realize this, one doesn’t need to read books or theorize. One doesn’t need to watch videos or go on a meditation retreat. One doesn’t need to travel to India and join an ashram. . . . One simply needs to be present and observe Here and Now. In doing so, that which always “stays together” will reveal itself. There is One constant. This is returning Home.

Enlightenment is Enlightenment. Notice how the creation of mind constructs works. We start with a term, put in the equivalency factor “IS” and then create something on the other side. Voila, we just created something!! We created reality. The mind does this whenever it uses the term “is”. Depending on context, this mind activity can be of practice use, yet often it’s a distraction from observing and being what lies more fundamental. Yet this fundamental essence is very unpalatable to a thinking mind. It is an acquired taste.

@meow_meow You are exploring some nice questions within “who am I?”. Notice the fluidity of identification to “I”. If I identify as skin, it makes no sense to say “I am sad”. . . . If while walking in nature I identify as the forest, it makes no sense to say “I am sad”. If I identify to a physical body and a story of “me”, it makes complete sense to say “I am sad”. This is clear. Yet if we conflate, things get confusing. For example: If I am the forest and not skin, why am I covered with hair?”. If identifying as skin, this question is quite perplexing. Yet from a view transcendent to skin identification, it’s easy to see how the question is structured and why it is causing confusion. Notice how attached the mind is to identification as a physical body and thought story of “me”. The human mind is strongly conditioned to identify as this personal “me” and desires the survival of this “me”. It’s very difficult to transcend and a major area of consciousness exploration and work.

To play the character, there needs to be various ‘forgettings’. How else could we play the character? Imagine playing a character in a virtual reality game. It doesn’t even need to be a person. Imagine you get assigned some random animal, like a giraffe. At first, it’s obvious you are playing a character of a giraffe. When you walk far enough in the ‘grassland’ you can notice a subtle reset of the scenery and realize “Ahh, I must have walked toward the wall in the virtual reality room”. . . What would happen if you spent a full year playing this giraffe? What if you had a giraffe family and there was no one to tell you that your are not a giraffe? To become the character of a giraffe, you would need to slowly start to forget. Now imagine this process has occurred for many generations over millions of years. You would completely forget that You are playing a giraffe. You would be completely identified as that giraffe within your giraffe story. Then one day, there might be a glimpse of a ‘remembering’. A vague glimpse that you forgot something, yet can’t quite put your finger on it. There is something more going on. It may feel like a glimpse of “my true nature” or a sense of a “past life”. It’s not like a regular giraffe memory. . . Generally, these ‘rememberings’ are subtle. The mind is so immersed and identified into the character of a giraffe from millions of years of programming and a lifetime of conditioning that it is a full-on clear realization of “Omigosh!! I’m actually a human being playing a giraffe in a virtual reality game!!”. It’s generally much more subtle. One full-on realization would likely be too much for a mind and body to handle. in terms of accessing ‘remembers’, I find it helpful to relax the mind and allow space for appearances. Not just mental images. I’ve found the body to be a massive memory sponge - yet these memories aren’t like regular thought/image memories of the mind. They have a different essence to them.

Then the problem is not his - the problem is yours.