Carl-Richard

Tier 1 is when you believe that English is the only language that exists, and you keep trying to speak English to non-english speaking people, and you think the reason they don't understand you is because they just can't speak English. The reason you don't know that they're even speaking a different language is because you're not actually listening to what they're saying in the first place. You also believe that English isn't merely useful for communication, but you also believe it's "the truth". Tier 2 is when you realize that English is just one of many languages, and you start to learn to communicate with people in their language. You learn to listen instead of talking all the time. You also stop hating people for being less familiar with a certain language. You recognize that different languages belong to different parts of the world and that they're only useful tools for managing different situations (they're not "absolute truths"). In short, you basically turn into a high school foreign language teacher

I've heard about sungazing being an ancient spiritual practice. Buddha also starved himself to death. I just think some things are not worth the risk. You're literally playing with fire. Your retina doesn't have pain receptors. Be careful.

My dad has bipolar type 1 and has been hospitalized a couple of times. I did LSD 3 times at 18 years old, and I didn't have a psychotic break (atleast officially haha). I would say my frequent cannabis smoking brought me closer to that territory than LSD ever did. Still, be careful.

Aren't we talking about a developmental model here? Suffering drives evolution. That is obviously the case. How can your level of consciousness be too high for your surroundings?

It stops existing. Time is based on distinctions. When distinctions fall away, time falls away.

Interesting. So essentially, the evolution from lower stages to higher stages is driven by the dissatisfaction that the outdated survival strategies bring to yourself, and aligning yourself with this ever-increasing need for expansion will eventually lead you towards a perfect frictionless state where your capabilities completely lock on to your circumstances (nirvana, Infinite Love etc.). One's own spiral development is essentially a building project: suffering is the currency for buying the raw materials, and the next SD stage is the building plan. The perfect building is built when it's totally transparent and identical to its surroundings; a strange loop. Seems like your concept of suffering and Buddha's concept of suffering are both compatible with the mechanics of SD development

HAHAHA that's hilarious

Define "suffering" and "mind" please

The only thing I knew about enlightenment back then was that it was a thing. Literally nothing else. I had spent a week doing active mindfulness exercises, and then I decided to meditate for real. On the 3rd meditation, I reached a state where my mind became totally silent and it started to feel like my body was turning hollow and that I was going to disappear forever and never come back. Very blissful, but terrifying, so I stopped it out of fear. I then started googling what was going on, and I didn't think that it had anything to do with enlightenment, but I was wrong. I didn't turn into a saint or anything, but it changed me forever. Weed stopped being fun, I had less cravings for stimulation, less boredom, less fear, social anxiety almost disappeared. What really happened after that is that I became acutely aware of what I later learned is called "dukkha" in Buddhism: the fact that every moment is filled with an innate sense of dissatisfaction, and you're always trying to alleviate the subsequent pain by seeking new objects and events. It intuitively showed me the path out of that endless cycle, and it gave my life a new sense of purpose and meaning. It was only later when I discovered people like Sadhguru, Alan Watts and Rupert Spira that I started to conceptualize the experiences I was having. I entered the experience of nonduality essentially ignorant, only having watched like three of Leo's videos and listening to Sam Harris talk about meditation.

Flirting with yellow != being fully established in yellow . I was having some deep insights into relativity, but they were infrequent and didn't stick. Notice I'm trying to be careful with the words I'm using: "flirting with", "introduced" etc..

@Artsu The key features of green is a deep resentment towards orange and lower stages. Try to really look for that resentment. Tier 1 loves hating on other stages. I'll give you my story, maybe that will help : I remember when I was smoking weed between 17-20 years old, I really started my green journey (pun intended). I was in one way much more openminded than I used to be, but there was also a deep resentment against society, which stemmed from a lack of perspective and selfishness. I started to resent meritocracy, successful people, certain cultural norms and laws, institutions etc.. I would look at my physics teacher in high school who had a PhD, and I would think "pfft who does he think he is by having a PhD? He doesn't know what I know about spirituality". During that time, I was also lashing back at the blue values instilled in me by my mother who was more strict than most parents: I tended to lean towards having an avoidant personality, especially when facing rejection, and I remember asking my mom for buying a subscription to my favorite online game at 11 years old which my closest friend also had, but I wasn't allowed because it was for ages 12 and above. I was never allowed my own candy, not even during the weekends, only during the holidays. I was essentially forced to play soccer until I quit at 14 years old. I essentially turned into a hyper-hedonistic anarchist stoner; entering stage green with a big red shadow. My main focus back then was "feel-good spirituality" and lots of philosophizing about far-out ideas. I got extremely interested in philosophy, neuroscience, pharmacology, and later "real" spirituality. After trying LSD 3 times at 18 years old, I must have started flirting with yellow while philosophizing. The unhinged hedonism and immature spirituality became stale pretty fast, and I quickly got introduced to turquoise when I first meditated and had a non-dual glimpse at 19 years old. That is when I lost a lot of that resentment towards other perspectives. I was never a particularly angry person, but after that point, I had established a deep connection to a sense of peace.

That is obvious, and that is not the point. I gave you an analogy, not an equivalence. My point is if you can be a victim of your own OCD, you can also be a victim of your own pedophilia. You keep dragging in other victims into the analysis which I specifically asked you not to do, because it skews the picture and devolves into moralizing If somebody is a "virtuous pedophile", that still makes them a victim of their own "virtuous pedophilia". If somebody is an "unvirtuous pedophile", then they're a victim of "unvirtuous pedophilia". This isn't to deny the severity of their crimes. It's simply to reveal a bigger picture.

Infinite imagination must include temporary limits within itself, or else it couldn't be infinite. That's why you have to measure your doses, that's why you have to take psychedelics, that's why you're not enlightened. You're currently experiencing some of those temporary limits. However, that doesn't mean that the totality of the universe isn't infinite imagination. That would be arrogant to assume

One way to get a better picture of how an abuser can also be the victim, try to remove the victim of the abuser from the analysis. We have to drop all types comparisons to other people who may have it worse. It creates an unnecessary constrast and directs the focus away from what we're trying to investigate. Let's also make the example as non-extreme as possible to really pinpoint the issue: Let's say a person grows up as a totally average person: no childhood abuse, no economic struggles, decent upbringing and social life. This person is by all means a well-functioning member of society, but one day, he realizes he has an unsatiable urge that he cannot control. He tries all he can to fight it, but he ends up acting on it. This eventually ends up having a very negative impact for the person. Is this man a victim? What if I told you he is not a pedophile but instead a person suffering from severe OCD and cannot stop himself from performing actions that eventually have a very negative impact on his life? On what basis can you honestly distinguish between these two cases, OCD and pedophilia, in terms of victimhood of the "perpetrator"?

"Love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power without love is abusive and corrosive".

Phillip Agnew brilliantly puts the distinction between true stage green and stage orange merely adopting green values to further its own agenda (the "what" and the "why"):

It's in many ways a stage yellow project. I'm not familiar with the history of wikipedia, but it's a fascinating thing

Differentiating between stages, states and lines is useful in this case. You won't suddenly know about democracy and civil rights if you're born in say Sudan no matter how spiritually gifted you are. You may be more inclined to accepting those ideas once you're exposed to them, but you're still stuck with the survival tools of your immediate society.

This is a fault of stage blue thinking: dividing people into offenders and victims and focusing on the offenders. The law is supposed to protect the people, not punish them.

Whatever you do, never ever stare directly into the sun, no matter how many spiritual youtubers tell you otherwise. Some of these people get permanent black spots in their visual field and interpret it as a sign of spiritual progression... Yes - really.

"I'm the chosen one!" OMG that made me laugh so hard

I see.

Essentially Christians making a deal with the devil, albeit unknowingly