Forestluv

@F A B I would say yoga, swimming and cross-country skiing. They are low impact, involved the whole body and are somewhat balanced between strength, flexibility and cardio. Other forms of exercise can highlight certain aspects of fitness. For example, nothing beats running for cardio. A moderate amount of impact is considered healthy for joints, yet too much impact and poor body mechanics can cause excessive body stress. As well, running is a tightening activity and is best combined with at least a little bit of stretching or yoga. Personally, I think cross training in moderation is the healthiest overall. Two or three activities that the mind-body enjoys doing. Rotate it through the week. It’s good balance and the variety helps prevent burnout. Personally, exercise that “I have to do” to stay fit doesn’t work for me long-term. I think it’s better to create a healthy lifestyle of exercise the mind-body is into doing.

I’ve done several floats in different tanks. They don’t completely eliminate all sensations, just greatly reduce the sight, hearing, temperature and touch. Yet there may still be body sensations such as a cramp in the neck or a tight sensation in the foot. Ime, the sensory reduction is enough to dissolve the normal identification to the body and induce an “out of body” experience.

@Big Guru Balls Faffing is distinct from fapping . Yet I imagine many would say fapping is a form of faffing. ?

Imo, the there is an over-emphasis on the cognitive line of development and an under-emphasis on creative, empathic, emotional and intuitive lines of development. To me, most of the angst here is at a tier 1 personal level. At green, there is an emphasis on non-cognitive lines of development, which don’t appear to have been embodied. And the transition to tier2 is an enormous jump in consciousness in which attachment/identification to personalities is greatly reduced.

@Angelo John Gage Gotcha. It seems you are probing to see wether same makes a distinction between senses and “you”. Would you say senses and “you” are essentially the same, inter-related or distinct?

Be aware of intention, impact and context.

@Shadowraix Do you find weed to be useful for integration? For me, sometimes weed can kinda “bridge the gap”. Yet I’ve found it also has downsides.

It’s fine to disagree and debate, yet name calling is against forum guidelines.

@Angelo John Gage To me Sam seems primarily grounded in the intellectual, yet is open to intellectualizing the non-intellectual. . . I think it’s a good question. Personally, I would consider being more specific with defining the terms senses and “you” - especially the term “you” as it is written in quotes. Unless of course, the intention is to leave it open and abstract and allow Sam to meander where he may with it.

@SageModeAustin Do you want an open or monogamous relationship? A FWB can be open or monogamous. They are inter-related, yet also have some distinctions. An can FWB carries issues to work through as dies an open relationship. I wouldn’t assume they are the same thing. If you want an open relationship, I would look into how open you want it and communicate that. See if she is on the page. There are many different forms of open relationships. To me, it sounds like the issues are more about degrees of monogamy / polyamory. There are various degrees. For example, do the two of you just want to flirt with the opposite sex? Perhaps sexting? Fooling around? Having multiple sex partners? . . . Ime, it’s best to be truthful and not hide stuff. To just communicate what you want. Personally, poor communication and uncertainty drives me crazy. It inhibits the development of trust and connection - and is a source of jealousy and stress.

That can be a difficult question to answer. I’ve also had a pattern of ADD symptoms and know how disruptive it can be in life. Substances can help, yet as you mention can carry side effects. Personally, I would try a variety of different things and in different combinations. For example, caffeine / sugar intake, stress, triggers for distraction, meditation, practices to relax the mind-body, sources of neurosis, blocks, sleep quality, exercise etc. I’m not opposed to substances and I’ve used them beneficially - yet there is more going on than an one substance can fix and I think it’s helpful to look at the big picture of my lifestyle and how that is contributing to the symptoms. For example, after spending a couple weeks in a remote village in Belize, I reached very relaxed states of mind-body. Stress and worry dissolved and I became highly in tune with the environment and felt connected to the people in the village. ADD symptoms were greatly reduced - perhaps by 70%, without any substances. Upon returning home to “real life” and work, the symptoms started intensifying again. This indicated that its not simply “just how my brain is wired”. Something else is also going on.

@Dodo I’m contemplating how I can effortlessly I understand English. No translation or effort is needed. I don’t even think about it. I don’t have to *try* to understand English. There is no *doer* in my brain. I just automatically know. However, my second language of Spanish involves effort. I often need to translate and think about meaning. There is the sense of a doer trying to understand and speak Spanish. . . When I lived in S. America, I admired how natural it was for locals to speak Spanish. It flowed beautifully without any effort. When I commented on this, they would laugh and say it’s just second nature. At times, I had questions about how they automatically knew meaning - for example there are words and sentence fragments that can have multiple meaning. I would point this out to my teachers and ask “how do you automatically know which it is?” At times, they would look confused and say “That’s a good question. I never looked at it like that before. Huh, I don’t know how I know, I just know. I’ve never thought about it before”. . . It is effortless to them. It’s so effortless that the “issue” requiring effort doesn’t even exist. Just as English is effortless to me. Sometimes I skype with people learning English. The other day a guy asked me “How do you know when to use the word ‘job’ and when to use the word ‘work’. It’s so hard to know the difference!”. I paused. I had never thought about that before. Yet, I can see how that would require effort for someone learning English. Yet for me, it’s so effortless that that “issue” never existed for me. What you wrote about the effortlessness of pure being reminded me of the effortlessness of understanding one’s native language. There is a natural flow that is not disturbed by a doer trying to do something. There isn’t even the “issue” of a “doer”. It just happens. ?

?? It can feel strange too. Especially initial experiences. This is a great exercise. I came across this while learning my first foreign language, Spanish. For two years I tried to create new symbolic meaning to symbols that had no meaning. I initially gave Spanish words English meanings by translating in my head. After a while, the Spanish words simply had meaning with no translation into English words. Then. . . I realized I was doing a subtle form of subconscious “translation”. When I see (or hear) English words, the stimuli is automatically “translated” into meaning without any effort. This is the goal in becoming fluent. The ability to subconsciously and effortlessly give meaning has immense practical value, yet it is also a filter and alters/limits the essential nature of ISness. Words and thoughts seem to be the main machine in assigning meaning. Without words and thoughts assigning meaning, the direct experience is very different. Yet it’s a deeply conditioned system. As you mentioned, try to look at an English word as a bunch of squiggles and lines. It’s very difficult. Yet if I look at Chinese characters, it is effortless. In this context, we are “unlearning” meaning. It’s not to say that assigning meaning is “bad”, it’s that assumptions and attachments to meanings can cause distress in a mind-body. As well, there is so much more to experience / beingness than meaning. Sometimes I walk in nature and try not to give labels and meaning to everything I am sensing/perceiving. Similar to your word exercise, it’s really hard. Sometimes I get frustrated, yet I try to relax, get curious and fun - more like it’s a game. Then it’s easier to relax into a state of beingness in which meaning is absent, it just doesn’t appear. That pure beingness is ISness. My mind wants to give it meaning by calling it beautiful or love. Yet in the absence of assigning that meaning, it just IS. Similar to absence of meaning when looking at a word. It just IS. I’m also realizing that it goes deeper than words / thoughts. Underlying feelings also assign meaning. In my mind, thoughts seem to take center stage. When words / thoughts slow down, it becomes apparent that feelings also assign meaning. Yet this is a different “language”. A language without words. Thanks for this prompt, it got me contemplating. I’m curious if you have more contemplations/thoughts that may arise in this area ?

A short video on the grass roots Denver movement.

I like that the one initiative in Oregon legalizes psychedelic therapy and is being run by health care providers. The MDMA trials just started stage 3 trials and is many years away from reaching regular clinics. I hadn’t thought of this route before. It seems like it could be much faster. If this passes in Oregon we could see professional psychedelic therapy by 2021. With positive results, word is gonna get out and social support will skyrocket - just like it did for stem cell therapy I can’t find an organized website for California. It looks like an initiate failed last year due to an overreach. They tried to legalize its sale, rather than simply decriminalizing or legalizing psilocybin therapy.

I just donated to the Oregon campaign. There are two campaigns. This one is for legalizing psilocybin therapy and is being run by therapists. https://psi-2020.org/ I read these shroom campaigns are being run on tiny budgets, so small donations can have an impact.

Interesting that the chief petitioners for the Oregon initiative are therapists. Unfortunately it looks like their are two competing groups to legalize shrooms there and it’s gotten nasty. They gotta get on the same page. I hope if the decriminalizing dominoes continue to fall, it will loosen restrictions on researching psychedelics in laboratories. The restrictions are brutal right now.

Yep. It looks like a crazy 4th quarter comeback. A three point buzzer-beater. A razor thin win that still needs certification

What a crazy day! The bill was down big last night and all media outlets called it’s defeat. What an amazing turnaround. This is a huge step in awareness. I hope it goes well. A lot of people will be watching Denver as an example. . . Oregon up for a vote next in 2020 And kudos to the workers on on decriminalize campaign. I read they put an enormous amount of time in outreach - including a lot of old school door-to-door outreach

I get a lot out of weed. It is one component of my “spiritual” program. In particular weed and yin yoga synergize beautifully. It’s taken me to some amazing spaces.

I listened to the lottery draw discussion part about halfway through. The religious man gives a common ideology to argue the existence of an intelligent creator - it’s a variation of the “fine tuning argument”. That is, imagine a lottery draw of 1 million numbers. To get a particular combination is so infinitesimal that it’s virtually impossible. Yet that is from the perspective before the lottery has taken place. After the numbers are drawn, there is a 100% chance those numbers were drawn. There is a 100% chance that what is IS. I’m not arguing that some form of “supernatural” intelligence doesn’t exist. It’s just that this particular argument for an anthropomorphic god is nonsense to me. I appreciate how respectful they were to each other.

Ime, weed can be a great tool, yet psychedelics have powers that weed does not.

It’s much easier to speculate about SD stages beyond Turquoise than actually embodying stages up to Turquoise.

That is the Perfect perception for your mind to be having right now. How could it be ant other way? Just be mindful of a mind’s tendency to hyper personalizing things and drifting into name calling.

@Leo Gura Nonduality can be hard to communicate without a self entering and becoming attached/identified. It can be very subtle and sneaky. I notice that dynamic appear in my mind from time to time.