Forestluv

@beaucoup This reminds me of all the strategies my ego tried to maintain control. “What if such and such happens”? “What if I freak out or do something harmful?”, “How can I make the experience more gentle and spiritual?” What if psychedelics fry my mind? . . . And on and on. . . Psychedelics aren’t for the faint of heart. If you have anxiety start low and increase. The “harm” of psychedelics is stripping away the facade and exposing truth. That you have no free will and your whole self identity is an illusion. Low doses can be fun, fascinating and insightful. High doses are death. As a novice, those experiences were the most terrifying of my life, by far. I was in more danger of killing myself than “energetic damage”. Yet, there is an indescribable liberation on the other side.

@vanish ”In this thread we will be discussing both lifestyles from an objective standpoint without any bias.” How can a perspective be objective and unbiased? You offer one of an infinite number of perspectives. The story you created was influenced by your life history.

Was the insightful thought constantly present in every momement from it’s first appearance? Or does it surface, disappear and resurface? Has the insight conditioned your character like the myriad of other condititioning you have been exposed to? You can incorporate any thought or “insight” into The Story of the character. Part of life is The Story. Yet, that insightful thought has no more relevance than a thought about clipping my fingernails. Both are equally IS.

@electroBeam For me, psychedelics are the only tool that removes The Story. I learned more in a four hour trip than 25 years of meditation. Imagine being a character in your dream. That dream character seeks the meaning of life within the dream for years. Suddenly the dream character wakes up and realizes it was all a dream. Asking how that experience affects the daily life of the dream character is irrelevant. The gig is up. Once you realize the dream, it slowly degrades. There is no turning back. Strong psychedelic trips are potent medicine.

All relative.

For me, associating calm and peace with being “good” is still part of the mind-body dynamic.

“Insights” can be exciting and alluring when they surface. Then they disappear into the trash heap of thoughts.

Really? You observe no other evidence that yesterday happened? I gave an exam to students yesterday. Today there is a stack of ungraded exams on my desk and 20 students that can confirm the story. . .

@hinawashi what does “useful” mean to you? One never finds what they are seeking. It doesn’t exist. I spent 25 yrs on self help/personal development/spirituality. I developed a positive self image and a “successful” life by society’s standards. Then came the painful realization it’s all a Game of a made up character within a Story.

“Should” is an idea of characters within The Game. “I should make more money, I should work out more, I shouldn’t fear death.” It’s the output of all the social conditioning of what is “good” or “bad”. There is the experience of fear in the moment. It appears and then disappears. All the intellectual hand wringing is added on. In the moment, fear of death has no more relevance than fear of spiders or the desire to eat a sandwich.

@Pernani All relative abstract concepts. Their meaning is dependent on the life history and genetics of the speaker. Ten people from different backgrounds will have ten different understandings of “higher intelligence”.

Challengeing beliefs is a start. Then, let go and realize truth is relative.

It’s been a process for me. What started off as glimpses of the “character” slowly evolved into stretches of time. The most obvious differences ime: 1. Easier recognition of The Story and less attachment to it. 2. Less seeking behavior 3. Allowing the character to express itself (joy, love, frustration etc) without the obsession of “what ifs” and “if only”. 4. Recognition that past and future is a construct played out by the character. 5. Realization that no matter how hard I try, I cannot escape the present moment. 6. Less opinions

@MM1988 Who is it that chooses whether or not something is released? Don’t be so hard on yourself. So much suffering is due to the false belief our ego has the power of choice. It’s all just a story we tell ourselves. Observe yoursef replay the story over and over. It is one of an infinite number of stories you could be telling yourself.

I see the same mind dynamic play out in “spirituality” and personal development.

There is nothing holding you in place. There is no “should”. There is no “right”. There simply is what IS. Terrifying and liberating

As do the most profound levels of sadness, empathy and love.

That type of thinking is an intellectual trap for me. Deeply observe youself and the world around you. Observe how your world is constantly changing in this moment. Things continually appear and disappear. Now imagine that you are observing a tiny tiny fraction of totality. Imagine trying to predict exactly what will surface in the next moment for all of totality. The position of every atom, object, sounds in the universe - all the quadrillions and quadrillions of occurrences . And the quadrillions of things and phenomena we have no knowledge of yet. What are the chances one could predict it ALL? . . . Zero.

Another Story. My character continues on. I’m just not asleep within the story like I was.

@Sukhpaal spinning my wheels about being deceived and taken advantage of is perhaps the mist difficult Story to break free of. That and the “I’m not good enough” Story

@Hardkill This is all part of The Game. Spinning your wheels trying to figure it out. How things *should* be. Worrying about making the *right* decision. The desire to acheive “spiritual” places and self actualization is the same mind dynamic as trying to get laid, to get a bigger dick with pump kits, to make a lot of money, to gain power or become famous. And why follow Maslow? He never grasped the key to awakening - that the self has no free will. Maslow believed in The Story we tell about the self. He was limited to the character he played and never awakened to the self illusion. What of the people that awakened through despair, depression, drug addiction, prison? How were Buddha’s familial and platonic relationships? And 99% of the so-called “higher tier” people I’ve met at meditation/personal development retreats/workshops are spinning their wheels trying to figure out ego, self, compassion, freedom, enlightenment. Trying to reach some place that isn’t here and now. The Big Lie is that there is “something out there”. An ill-defined, ambiguos “something”. Maslow’s pyramid describes self actualization as “reaching one’s potential”. It’s a catchy phrase, but wtf does it mean? What is potential? What is success? That crap got programmed into our brains as kids. Images of potential and success got portayed onto us from adults. And we fall for The Story and chase it. We repress the “bad” parts of us and try to present the “good”. Yet we never quite measure up - we’re never quite good enough. As long as we buy into The Story, the seeking and chasing never ends. I spent 28 yrs as an adult seeking. Thounds of hours meditating and listening to talks. Hundreds of books. And one day I took a hefty dose of psilocybin and the whole Story came crashing down. That’s the Big Shift - NOT trying to write a “better” Story. Right now is IT. THIS IS IT. What IS. This IS is no “better” or “worse” than any other IS. It’s all one enormous IS. A guy having sex IS a guy having sex. A duck pooping IS a duck pooping. Someone meditating by a fancy alter IS someone meditating by a fancy alter. A thought about Maslow’s pyramid IS a thought about Maslow’s pyramid. None has more relevance than another. It’s all an intellectual distraction. Rather than chase half-baked intellectual concepts, become a great observer. Get curious. Observe your thoughts, your feelings, the world around you. Challenge your Story. Challenge the beliefs that were programned into you. Observe how your mind-body has been conditioned to respond a certain way to stimuli. Sit still and observe. Let go. Everything is within you.

Cool story bro

I haven’t done MDMA, yet I can’t imagine love any truer than an Ayahuasca ceremony. I wish they would pop up in the U.S. like concerts. The country would be much saner.

@Elliot Be aware and observe. Watch great story tellers - such as Tedtalks, great comedians. Notice their range of voice, their timing, pauses. How well it flows. Watch poor story tellers - why are they confusing and boring? Do they ramble? Mumble? Go off on tangents? How it is choppy. Take notes and mimic the great story tellers. Practice, observe your audience, get feedback. Like becoming a good basketball player.

If I could give my younger self any advice it would be "The truth is relative".