DocHoliday

Mind blown.

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I believe @Leo Gura once already posted a talk from the GDC on his blog, and these two are also talks from just that conference. And in the same type of spirit, these are two phenomenal and very inspiring talks for everybody out there who's also involved in the process of creating something e.g. a retailable product. You don't necessarily need to be a gamer, too, to enjoy this and get some great value out of them. Check 'em out!

Definetely a very interesting video to watch, but this doesn't really have anything to do with enlightenment per se in the sense that she's somehow conscious of her true nature or anything like that. It's just that the way she thinks is kinda different to how most of us would think or "use our mind".

I know that this might be considered as a bit of a "low-quality" not-so-super-serious post, but I thought this was still kinda interesting to share for a couple of reasons, one of them being that I just found it so fascinating seeing her ask herself all those questions and actually thinking about them for a bit, not realizing or knowing that it actually is possible to answer some of them for oneself. Quite amusing in a certain way when one can look at the whole situation from such a different perspective, "from the other side of the fence", so to say. So, if you like yourself some nice non-dual inquiry and you also happen to like ASMR videos, check these out.

For what it's worth, I can relate pretty well to what you're saying here. I'm in a similar spot in my life. Parents want me to pursue either a college degree or some sort of apprenticeship, but to me it's all the same basically because in every way imaginable, it would all be totally wasted time for me, time spent on doing something that I don't want to do, that I see no value or true purpose in. Obviously when I told them that I'd put all that I have into something that I'm actually passionate about and that does have some purpose to it (at least for me) like writing books or making good music, they wouldn't support that because it's not "serious" or "safe" enough. But kinda like you, I would have loved to tell them that I would rather die than doing anything else than writing my first book (which I have now finally accomplished and which (the book) I'm about a month away from publishing) because it really is that important to me - but obv. if I would have told them that, they wouldn't have been able to understand or relate in any way and probably just would have thought that I went completely insane. But whatever.... I guess you just need to find something through which you really want to- and can provide something genuinely meaningful and valuable to the world and then follow through on that 101%.

... when you gradually realize time and time again just how "stupid" and/or unconscious everybody else really is. I know that this topic might not be regarded as a topic of "high quality" from a certain perspective, but I really do think that there's a lot to be learned from perhaps applying this lense to your life from time to time. Obviously, it's not my intention to endorse condescending behaviour of any kind, nor would this apply to a behaviour based on artificial "superiority". What I am trying to point out with all of this, though, is that (also in correlation with Leo's "insight"/decision to take back full authority over himself and his life etc. that he addressed some time ago) "normal" people, meaning all those who have no clue of self-actualization or spirituality/enlightenment etc, just don't see the world through the same eyes or with the same perspective that you see it with. It's just so utterly shocking to see how goddamn clueless everybody else is about the nature of themselves and reality/the universe. Paradigm lock is most definitely also a great problem in the world, but in combination with that, I think most people are also heavily held back by something I would call "perception lock". Because, you see, one of the most fundamental and critical things that no one ever really recognizes is that the way we like to perceive or experience the world is for each and every one of us based on the exact same validity and "trueness" that also everybody else applies to his worldviews and/or perception of it. This is to say that what goes on in my personal experience of the world is just as true (on a relative level of.c.) as what goes on in your experience of it. And, to get to the heart of the matter, I just find it to be so immensely frustrating time and time again that no one ever seems to consider this as a possibility. Everyone just thinks that his or her view of the world is true in an absolute way which, almost needless to say, causes so much more harm and trouble to all of us than necessary. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In this sense, something else that just really bothers me over and over is that it doesn't seem as if too many people would even want to be treated better than they think they could be treated. At least from my experience, every time I interact with strangers or even 99% of people I already know, they almost always tend to behave in a way that quite unmistakeably is supposed to make me understand that I'm behaving strangely towards them, as if I'm the weird one, being the one who has eventually seen past the illusion of all "individual" ego-barriers. Somehow this just goes to show again and again that you're actually getting better results/responses from people when you behave, act, and speak on their own level of consciousness (which, obviously, for them is the LOC that is the most true, right, and/or authentic one) than when you come at them from a higher one. They're just not able to handle it... it's so frustrating/sad. I guess the biggest problem is just that "normal" people think or expect that there's just one plain level of consciousness, or, even more precisely, that such a thing as "Levels" of concsiousness don't even exist and that their own LOC is the only one that is valid or that exists for all people on this planet. God, sometimes being enlightened or just more conscious than most people is just so much more difficult than not being those things.... how twisted.

That's a very strange way of thinking about it. If you want to suffer, shoot yourself in the foot. I guess that'll surely suffice. Otherwise, living life in fear is just unneccessarily limiting and it probably won't help you all that much to realize your true nature.

@mandyjw Hah, yeah, Ralston probably just doesn't give a fuck... As long as he's got all he needs, why should he, right? The people that are serious enough about the whole thing will come to him, but he doesn't come to them.

@How to be wise Well, there you go. You've practically answered your own question. Their egolessness is exactly what makes them so invisible and insignificant to all others who can't recognize the "specialness" of someone like that. It's just not something they really care about.

@Raptorsin7 That's good! That's progress. Happens time and time again.

@Raptorsin7 So, if you would ask me whether or not I have had experiences of non-duality and enlightenment like having eaten scoops of ice cream, then yes, I've had some of those. But, then again, even the "experience" of eating a scoop of ice cream never stops to affect you life, you know? It's not like you eat it, digest it, shit it out, and then you're done. The experience of having eating that scoop if ice cream will still affect you for the rest of your life in some subtle ways. It's kind of the same with "experiences" of enlightenment. You know when back in school you had those "Aaaahh-ha!"-moments when you finally understood a math problem or somthing like that? Enlightenment experiences etc. are basically just like these A-ha moments but on a metaphysical, spiritual, [EDIT] existential level. And just like that math problem, when you didn't work on the further embodiment of your insight, years later you might have already forgotten what you first understood. So, you always have to "work" on it and go deeper. It just becomes your new, natural way of life.

@Raptorsin7 Well, that's an interesting question. I wouldn't say that I had "one" distinct experience of non-duality. Enlightenment and the realization of non-duality is not comparable to the experience of eating an ice cream, let's say. So, it's not like eating that ice cream and then saying "Okay, I ate it, now I'm done, now I never need to eat any ice cream ever again because I had the experience." No, it's not quite like that. There is a moment of realization, of course, but from then on, one either embodies his insight - or not. That's what mmakes it permanent or not. That's (probably) the best way I can put it into words right now.

@Raptorsin7 Hah, I appreciate your honesty and self-reflection. If I understand your question correctly, then yes, people can definitely slip back into perceiving reality from a dual perspective, but it all depends on the depth of the insight I guess. If you get an intense enough Breakthrough, you may permanently keep the non-dual perspective. But even then, as Leo often mentioned, the distinction between non-dual and dual is also just duality, so one can never escape duality forever and ever. One has to come to the point of realizing the Absolute Relativity of it all.

Rather than trying to get from A to B, try to see how there is absolutely no differnce between the two. Even "after" enlightenment, ego still remains. Furthermore, drawing such a heavy line between the "egoic" state and the "enlightened" state is duality. It's Non-Duality you'd want to reach, i.e. realizing that there are no real or true separations between anything. But, well, do whatever feels good for you. If you like so sit for an hour consistently, then do that. Just don't get caught up in all kinds of conceptual stuff, focus on the greater Actuality of it all.