tatsumaru

I used to think this way too, but then this would imply that wisdom is a luxury that only a few lucky individuals who possess whatever is necessary to endure the pain of thinking can ever experience which is quite a bleak proposition.

Paulo Coelho once said "And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." Then I found out that Abraham Maslow who was about to uncover possibly the most important piece of wisdom in psychology with his last theory of transcendence and deliver incredible value to the understanding of purpose, potential, ego and humankind actually died at 62 before he was able to finish his most important work. In fact he was somewhat troubled because he realized he was at the verge of a breakthrough and at the same time he knew that his health wouldn't allow him to finish his most important project. Meanwhile Mao Zedong, a monster, who was of service to no one, lived to be 82 years. The universe doesn't care and won't protect you.

What an egocentric point of view. The world doesn't revolve around one person and therefore one person doesn't have the responsibility to take care of the whole world especially of things that are beyond his scope of awareness. We are all here to do what we are all here to do. This is not about judging some hypothetical mental fantasies in the abstract, it's about how to deal with direct experience. I am not interested in answering questions such as "how would you stop the rape if you weren't born yet" or whatever because I am born and I am aware of rape and I am aware of the experiential quality of suffering and I am aware of the fact that suffering is an indicator of ignorance. The higher the level of suffering in a system the higher the level of ignorance. We have minds which are capable and are in fact compelled to bring more light into this dimension by dissolving ignorance and uplifting humankind as a result. To abdicate your ability to resonate, evaluate, be inspired and bring more light is a type of pseudospirituality and a conspiracy for mediocrity that is no different than watching TV all day and calling yourself spiritual. Yes, it's true that I want the universe to be more than some meaningless quantum soup that gives masochistic nihilists a hard-on and that makes me biased. But it's not just about what I want at all. It's about how people with different world views act and what are the results of those actions. I see how atheistic and nihilistic communities are the most boring and uninspired ones who can't help but to look to others for revelation since their world view doesn't accept a higher power. I see how the highest beauty, innovation and excitement flows from the minds of people who look for inspiration beyond their materialistic beliefs and fears. I see how nihilism results in stagnation, mediocrity and stupidity and disconnectedness with feelings. And that's why I am resonating with that story because it's about more than nihilism, it's about love, passion, inspiration, beauty and fulfilling one's purpose. While the details are fictional, the core of it I feel to be authentic. I resonate deeply with it and then when I don't see that same level of beauty in my own direct experience or understanding of the universe I experience cognitive dissonance because then why else am I resonating with it if it's not authentic. I don't know. A life without inspiration is not worth living regardless of what truths there are to be discovered. Inspiration is the highest value.

When did spirituality become a synonym for laziness and ignorance... If you want to abdicate your humanness and agency and pretend that ignorance (literally to ignore) is a virtue then be my guest, but don't mistake that for some valuable piece of wisdom. To be alive is to be responsible (able to respond). If you are unable to respond you are deluded and you are of service to no one. Whatever rocks your boat buddy. You need a better understanding of how systems work. Whether death is good or bad is irrelevant. There's momentum and there's disintegration of momentum. It's clear that the oscillation between life and death doesn't take place instantly and this results in a certain sort of temporary structure that makes potential possible. You can't build a building out of liquid water, but you can a build an igloo out of ice. Life is like an igloo, it's temporary but that doesn't make it insignificant, because the life of the individual also forms a larger system of humankind that evolves based on the contribution of each participant. If you die before you share your contribution with humankind there's tremendous loss.

Depends what you mean. If you are implying some sort of "the secret" effect here then that's obviously bogus for if negative thoughts were powerful in that way no airplane would ever reach its destination. On the other hand thoughts definitely have some power as they define our behaviour and in the long term our future. Well maybe I didn't word this artfully enough. When Paulo Coehlo speaks of the universe in that quote he certainly doesn't mean that other people conspire to help you. If you read the alchemist you will see that there's this implication that there's this higher power that's being referred to as "the universe" which coordinates human destinies on top of our own minds. In other words while we are part of all this and we certainly are able to care, the implication is that there's more to life than our own minds. You can certainly judge. Yasuhiko Genku Kimura in his "The Twilight Manifesto" wrote "No human being is infallible. All of us from time to time err in our judgement. However, that should not be the reason for for forfeiting our responsibility, as conscious beings, to think and know or to judge and evaluate. By the very fact of being conscious, not only are we qualified to but also we are required to judge and evaluate the characters of other people and their actions as well as, more importantly, the characters of ourselves and our actions. Therefore, the precept of non-judgement is fundamentally against human nature, and wherefore unethical." He also wrote: "The question is not "to judge or not to judge?" which is not even a valid question, but "on what is our judgement based?"". In other words - to say that one shouldn't judge because one's judgement isn't perfect is like saying that one shouldn't think or evaluate because one's thoughts and evaluations aren't perfect. People who cling too much for validation to their rationality become ignorant of the data their feelings and experiences provide and start living in parallel worlds of concepts which essentially don't contain any truth unto themselves and can't satisfy and logical condition fully. The compassionate and ethical thing is for the world to acknowledge Mao's insanity but also understand that we are all on our journey to wisdom and depending on how far we are, we are more or less insane and could express that insanity if given enough power. I understand your confusion. You are still in the hyperrational stage of your evolution which brought some of the ancient philosophers as well as many of the modern ones to nothing but nihilism. Questions such as "how do you know that you know" or statements like "nothing can be known, not even this" are popular among this sad group. In fact a few years ago I was stuck with this problem and wrote a thread here which got some really good replies. Check it out: The last video is quite insightful.

Hey, I know that Maslow's Hierarchy and the Spiral Dynamics models aren't identical but from what I've seen there can be some pretty strong parallels. Hence I would like to know which SD stage corresponds to being self-actualized, to having found authentic inspiration and purpose in life? Thanks.

I feel like one can be a systems thinker without having realized one's own purpose though. Maybe one is at least aware of the importance of uncovering one's own inspiration though.

I've dedicated the last couple years of my life to try and understand who I really am. I have come to understand that "know thyself" is the foundation of a life well spent. That in order to be of value to humankind an authentic essence needs to be uncovered and expressed. It goes without saying that during that journey I've read many books and considered many contradicting perspectives and for the most part after excruciating contemplation and mindfulness I've been able to separate the weed from the chaff. However there are two particular puzzles that I've been unable to solve as of yet and I am hoping to get some enlightened insights from the more experienced folks here. Here are the two puzzles (P.S. They are closely related, one might even say they are different sides of the same coin). 1. Overcoming resistance vs. Following the path of least resistance a) Overcoming resistance is just part of life There seem to be two major views on dealing with resistance in regards to doing important work in life. The first one states that we have evolved to resist hard and meaningful work because it's not important for survival and therefore as far as the reptilian mind is concerned it's a waste of energy. Authors like Steven Pressfield in their works like "The War of Art" and "Do the Work" argue that every time we attempt to do something grand and important there will be resistance and that in fact the more important the work the bigger the resistance. They argue that resistance is something to be accepted as inevitable and fought with all our energy. They argue it's like trying to achieve escape velocity with a rocket - in the beginning it's extremely hard, there's all this gravity and friction that will not let us transcend our current situation but if we only muscle through it we will reach space and we will get things rolling from which point on it gets easier. The analogy with physics here is Escape Velocity and Gathering Momentum From 0. b) Resistance is an indicator of wrongness The second view states the exact opposite - this is the wu wei point of view which basically states that if something requires too much effort it's probably not our authentic path. It goes as far as to suggest that resistance is actually a sort of protection that we have against doing the wrong things in life. It reminds us how playing a video game and doing accounting work both require our energy but we don't resist the former only the latter (I understand that some people might actually enjoy accounting and there's nothing wrong with that, I just gave this example because I don't particularly enjoy accounting). Books on this topic will often talk about topics such as "the path of least resistance" and give water as an example of how it always picks the path of least resistance and the we should be like water. They say it doesn't matter if the work is hard because when you are doing what you love you don't notice how hard it is, you simply fall in love with the work and get lost in it. Certainly we know of all those geniuses like Leonardo da Vinci, Einstein, Isaac Newton who didn't need motivational videos to do what they did. In fact for them it was a greater pain not to do the work they were in love with. Elon Musk once said - "You MUST feel compelled to do it. If you need inspiring words, then don't do it". The analogy with physics here is the way that water takes the path of least resistance and also the fact that conductors with higher resistance are less efficient and lost the majority of energy in the ways of heat. I am personally more partial to the second view, because I have experienced periods in my life where I forget about my worries, about risk management, about reward and just get lost in something silly like doing work on my bike or just playing with Legos or whatever. That being said Elon Musk also said "I wish life wasn't this hard." When I took Leo's Life Purpose course I noticed that he recommended both "The War of Art" and "The Path of Least Resistance" books which are to a large degree incompatible. It is possible that Leo just wanted to expose course takers to different perspectives in order to broaden our horizons but for me personally the puzzle remains unsolved. And now for the second part of the puzzle... 2. No-self (you can be whatever you want to be) vs Authentic self (we are all here to do what we are all here to do) a) There's no self and you can be whatever you want There's a book by Maxwell Maltz called Psycho-Cybernetics in which he basically claims that our behaviors are chiefly guided by our self-image and that self-image is nothing but fiction that we create and that we can modify in whatever ways we desire. He claims that if we are not good at math it's simply because we believe we are not good at math and since we believe that, we are not practicing math and it turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy. There are many authors who share similar views with books like "Mastery" or "Talent is overrated" the idea is that talent is either fiction or of very little consequence and we can become masters at anything as long as we put our 10,000 hours in. Bashar said "Surrender is the letting go of the concept of who you think you’re supposed to be and actually being who you are because who you are is unlimited possibilities. When you allow yourself to surrender all ideas, all hopes, then the physical reality which is only a mirror can then reflect those unlimited possibilities back to you". Bruce Lee said "Be formless, shapeless... like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle. You put it into a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend." b) There's an authentic self and your only choice is whether to express it or to be a fake The opposing view holds that we should focus on developing our talents instead of pursuing skills that we don't resonate with. They cite studies of how when non-mathematically inclined children pursue mathematics they become mediocre at best. This view tells us that we are all unique and we all have our roles to play for the benefit of humankind. As the Oracle told Neo "We are all here to do what we are all here to do". This is the view of destiny and purpose. While it allows some degree of free will essentially it states our only choice is whether to accept or resist our calling and that resisting only leads to suffering and mediocrity while surrendering to the authentic self leads to genius and inspiration. In fact it is my understanding that the whole idea of self-actualization points towards this notion that we are all unique and that self-actualization is actually the process of uncovering our uniqueness. If we were all the same then there would be no need for self-actualization since we would all have the same roles to play. Books like Do You! by Russell Simmons and The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo suggest that there's destiny and there's a meaningful journey of self-discovery. Personally I am more partial to the second view because I don't resonate with the Tabula Rasa point of view. Basically this is an assumption that we have no inherent code whatsoever and its all random for how else would we be able to be partial to anything if there was nothing inherent to resonate with anything external? We also have the myers-briggs personality types debates here where some people believe that you can change you personality type because there's no inherent self, while others (like me) believe that you don't really change your personality type but rather you transition from a worse to a better understanding of your personality type which might result in your letters changing. Furthermore at the end of his life the Buddha actually threw the whole "no-self" concept in the trash by saying "Those who hold the theory of non-self are injurers of the Buddhist doctrines, they are given up to the dualistic views of being and non-being; they are to be ejected by the convocation of the Bhikshus and are never to be spoken to” - Lankavatara Sutra 765. Essentially he explained that the whole no-self thing was an exercise to help noobs let go of their fake egotistical self identities so that they can develop more mature appetites and become ready for embracing the true self: Buddha said that “Buddha Nature [the Tathāgata] is the True Self and like a diamond, for example, it cannot be destroyed” Dharmaksema. Those are the two puzzles I am dealing with. Looking forward to some new insights.

@Leo Gura Why is Renaissance Orange?

Being on the path, being aware of one's own ignorance and uncertainties can one still have a sense of self-worth and self-esteem? I mean how can one value their current situation and seek improvement at the same time? I often feel like I can't give myself permission to accept myself unless I know all the answers first or in other words I can't accept myself as being worthy unless I am enlightened. This often makes me feel quite sad, timid and insecure but at the same time if I were to simply be confident without really knowing what I am and why I am here I would feel like a fraud or an impostor. Any advice?

The paradigm of survival is not only selfish but in my opinion incorrect fundamentally. First of all you can't survive. You will die. Therefore this idea that life is about survival is in my opinion materialistic bullshit. That being said life is not without value. As the Oracle told Neo - We are all here to do what we are all here to do. Therefore if you are dead you can't do what you are here to do, so not dying until you've given your gift to humanity is beneficial. Taking care of one's own health is harmonious. Taking care of one's own mind is harmonious. Living in an environment that's conducive to your growth is harmonious. However the ego thinks of survival in terms of hoarding, investing in weapons, bunkers, vicious dog breeds and what not and that's not harmonious. That perpetuates the illusion of separation and is not expansive.

I recently heard about something called akashic records which apparently is some sort of soul record that holds information about your life's journey and purpose. It's one of those new agey things which I am not sure about in terms of whether it has any value or is just another marketing ploy to sell you the latest meditation and retreat. Since I am particularly passionate about topics such as purpose, hero's journey, destiny etc I am curious about this one but also wondering if there's any truth to it at all. Anyone knows something? Please don't tell me it's true just because you believe in it. I am only interested in people who have experienced this to be a fact. Thanks.

I removed most of the distractions in my life. For example I no longer have a smartphone and I don't use social media and barely check email. And here's the weirdest thing. Even when I don't have anything to distract myself with I still distract myself with daydreaming. Instead of doing the work I should be doing on my business I fantasize about a new renaissance or talking to some imaginary geniuses and transforming the world or I just contemplate deep questions and at the end of the day I realize I haven't done any work. I would like to do more work and less daydreaming. Any advice?

I can relate to this. Have you tried something more monotonous like this: I think it helps me focus.

+5 Eur.

Ego vs Self-Image. What's the difference. Is there any or are they the same?

Is qigong scam/placebo? I know it's a huge part of traditional Chinese culture which I highly respect, but the qigong space seems to be full of charlatans. Has anyone here gave qigong some serious time? What method did you use? What were the results? Isn't it just another form of meditation? Cheers.

Are you certain that those aren't simply a result of you spending time relaxing in nature? How was it powerful for you? I've read some Qigong books and I am familiar with the claims. Enlightenment, eternal youth, healing, sexual prowess and all kinds of special powers. Where are these so called immortal magicians though? From where I stand all I see is new age gurus who are enlightened because they claim so and no one is allowed to challenge that and a lot of teacher training programs that seem to be generating lots of $$$ for the owners. Nothing wrong with money in my opinion, but I am not seeing the results. If this was as powerful as it claimed why isn't the whole world talking about it? It's essentially better than medicine if it works. P.S. I am not being an ass, I am just trying to find out what the truth is. I would love for this to be real.

Here's a clue. Generally speaking God = Oneness (One) = Brahman However One is still part of duality because there can't be One without a many. Saraha said, “He who thinks of mind in terms of one or many casts away the light and enters delusion.” As Lao Tzu said, “The Tao gives birth to One. One gives birth to yin and yang. Yin and yang give birth to all things.” There is a Tao without One or Yin/Yang, but no One without a Yin/Yang, nor a Yin/Yang without a One, just as there is no Brahman without the illusion or magic show of maya. Oneness is Aristotelian nonsense; a prison of sorts, so distractional in its delusion, that bodhicitta is near totally obscured, and not even considered. To better understand the difference between the Alaya Consciousness of Buddhism (which is actually beyond consciousness) and the Brahman Consciousness of Advaita (which implies “not two”), the following humorous story was said to be told in the Kevatta (Kevaddha) Sutta, as translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. “Where do the four elements cease without remainder?” Through meditation the monk reached the Heaven of the Four Great Kings, who did not know the answer. Next he went to the thirty three gods in a higher Desire Realm heaven, but none of these rulers knew either. He then asked King Sakka (Indra), the king of these gods, but Sakka did not know the answer. Up and up he went asking all sorts of gods at each and every higher level. Finally he came to Great Brahma, the Creator, Uncreated, Knower of All. When the monk finally achieved an audience with Great Brahma, Brahma appeared in all his majesty and glory announcing, “I am Great Brahma, the Conqueror, the Unconquered, the All-Seeing, All-Powerful, the Lord, the Maker and Creator, the Ruler, Appointer and Orderer, Father of All That Have Been and Shall Be.” The monk then humbly and respectfully asked his question, but all Great Brahma did was repeat, “I am Great Brahma, the Conqueror, the Unconquered, the All-Seeing, All-Powerful, the Lord, the Maker and Creator, the Ruler, Appointer and Orderer, Father of All That Have Been and Shall Be.” The monk eventually got frustrated and said, “I know you are “Great Brahma, the Conqueror, the Unconquered, the All-Seeing, All-Powerful, the Lord, the Maker and Creator, the Ruler, Appointer and Orderer, Father of All That Have Been and Shall Be,” but I asked you a question about where the four elements cease without remainder. The Great Brahma replied, “Listen little monk, don’t embarrass me. All these other gods are listening and think I know everything. If you want to know the answer to a question like that, don’t ask me. I don’t know the answer. For a question like that, you have to go ask the Buddha. Our monk gets up from his meditation and finds the Buddha nearby, asking him where the four elements cease without remainder. The Buddha tells him that he’s thinking of the question incorrectly, and should ask where do the four elements have no foothold…” In other words a better question is - Is there something which is God? Something real that is.

Hello, I've been stuck in a thought loop and I can't let it go. Whether I try to stop it or to let it go or not to resist it or to focus on something else it's always there. It pops up from the unconscious and ruins everything I am trying to do. Here's what it is. I watched a documentary on the lives of Mongols a few years ago. And in one of the scenes they showed how they castrate goats and eat their testicles since testicles are considered a delicacy there. However the way they did it wasn't particularly efficient - it almost looked they used a dull knife and most of it was just ripping their testicles out which the goat clearly didn't like. I remember that this sight was pretty disturbing to me, however for a long time I had forgotten it. Recently (3-4 months ago) however, for whatever reason I have started having this vision that this same testicle removing hook is being jabbed in my own testicles trying to rip them off. Sometimes I will have this thought many times per minute (for example when I am reading books) and that thought would destroy my focus totally it's like a mind parasite. Other times I will not have it for hours. Whenever I visualize this event I could almost feel the pain. I am not sure what's causing it but I desperately need to let it go and dissolve this whole mind infrastructure that has formed around it because it's affecting my life terribly. Could this be some curse or is it simply my subconscious trying to tell me something? Any ideas? Thanks.

I read it, thanks. I do journal often, I work on things I like etc which tends to get my mind off of these neurotic thoughts. Positivity and better sleep certainly improve my mood and keep neuroses at bay. I don't feel good about this idea of a so called random meaningless impossible to understand suffering that can spawn out of the nothingness for no reason at anytime and that is without solution other than to bear it on the promise that it will be gone. I understand that bearing it gracefully is preferable to descending into madness, but still I am left wishing that there is a better possibility still. One may not have control over the outer reality but at least the body and the mind should be in peace and ready to work optimally. If I recall correctly these types of thoughts started a few years ago after a traumatic event in my life. Back then they were different types of thoughts and not so pervasive. For some reason my brain just started showing me what it considered the absolute worst case scenario it could imagine for any given situation. I might be making the next stuff up because it was a long time ago but I think in my neurosis I might have made a wish at that time to the universe to know what the worse is so that I can find peace in that it can't get any worse than that. So that I be prepared for the worst. And so soon after that I started having these thoughts where I would see the worst possible thing happening to me or to the people around me. For example I would talk to a friend and an image would pop in my mind about this friend getting hit by a car on the way home or I would see a random person walking on the street and I would get a thought how they step in a pot hole and break their leg. Just so we are clear these weren't wishes i had, just random visions. And so I became quite frustrated with them but usually I found ways to distract myself from them through work and tv shows etc. Now for whatever reason this particular thought of that kind seems to have stuck with me. It does go away when I work and focus on something else, but the moment I notice it's gone I immediately bring it back up. From a spiritual point of view I do feel like I might have made a pact with my subconscious to always show me visions of the worst so that I may be prepared. Like I installed some sort of program in there. However I don't need this anymore and I would like to uninstall it and let it dissolve. Believe it or not - if we set this particular neurosis aside - my current mental health is the best it's been since over 15 years ago. I am way more connected with my feelings, generally at peace and have a positive outlook at life. Self-hate is at an all time low. I am starting to love myself and to understand life more. Even my mom said I've changed a lot and that I used to be unbearable before but now I am great to be around. And the most important part I just feel better, genuinely. It's just this one thing that's bothering me and I do get a bit scared sometimes that it could get out of control as it does seem to gain momentum when I focus on it. It could be OCD yes. I might check with an OCD specialist on this.

Isn't 'holon' just another word for system? I struggle to see the difference between holistic thinking, systems thinking and cybernetics. What do you think?

You probably felt how your argument was debunked by your own self.

@Nahm It's still returning every day, multiple times per day. I tried to shine awareness on it, to analyze it, to let it go, to dive in it, to accept it. Nothing helps. It comes back and back. And every time I imagine it, it's so visceral that I almost feel the pain from it which perpetuates it and hence it becomes a thought loop.

If it's thinking then it relies on concepts therefore a model will be involved. Thinking can't access the unconditional. Which holons don't interact at all? There's a quote I like that helped me recognize how abstractions are not what they are pointing to. "Geometry is not true, it is advantageous." - Henri Poincare I am not sure that there's no ground for if nothing else there's at least potential which isn't the same as nothing. Sorry, I have no clue what you are saying.