okulele

@kieranperez Cool. Thanks for sharing

Appropriate reactions to life OK I don't know Thank you

The area in between your anus and your genitals, your perineum, is a part of your body that breaths when healthy. It moves up and down allowing you to feel energetic, strong and free. Actually, the whole area down there moves, but I find the perineum is the main place. Why am I writing this? To let you know. Nobody really told me before I found out, so I had no idea that this is the way it could be. I had no idea the breath could be this deep, free and natural. If you never experience your breath down there, most probably that area is stale and blocked for you. There is a lot of vitality, sexuality and grounding waiting there for you. Sooo, just letting you know

Accessing compassion The question 'How does he/she feel?" is one of the access keys to compassion. The question is not asked to get an objective answer, it is asked to be opened up to the consciousness of compassion. There may be ideas, thoughts, feelings coming up as the answer to the question, and they might even be true in a sense, but the opening of the heart that comes simultaneously with the question springing in the mind is what we are after. How does he/she feel? What is it like for him/her? What is it like to be it (animal)? What is it like for this family? What is it like for this group? What is it like for humanity?

4 top values that I realized (in order more or less) Understanding (Truth, insight, consciousness) Compassion Creativity Vitality (chi) I hope to find some time to contemplate them deeper and write my thoughts about them.

@Rilles nope ,no source, the body. Although I do remember Eliott Hulse saying "breath into your balls!". I guess that is what he meant, but I didn't understand before. He has some cool stretches on youtube that are supposed to help you with that, but I didn't use them. If you are a meditator, you can release it with your mind.

It would be hard for me now, as I work manually and perform quite hard physical labor. I tried it in the past though, and I think in a retreat setting it would make sense. The thing is that the hut I'll be living in has no fridge no electricity in fact. I'll be cooking mostly from dry stuff like oats and porridge + will be getting the fruit and veggies from a small restaurant nearby. Yes, I agree. I'd love healthy and fresh stuff to back me up.

August is my solo retreat month! Finally! There is still a bit to think about in terms of organization. One thing that bugs me is feeding myself. The organized retreats that I attended offered breakfast, lunch and no dinner really. Do you think that's a good set up? I thought about just having some roasted grain drink in the evening, but I am not sure how well I'll be doing for a month will so little food. Any ideas? About the techniques, I presume it's good to set up a precise schedule kind of like Vipassana retreats offer. Any ideas here? So the question is, how do you recommend to deal with food and schedule on this kind of retreat? General advice is welcome too.

P.D. Ouspensky - Psychology Of Man's Possible Evolution ?

...some more of NN-DMT report... In my experience, smoking it is really fast and it's hard to get much from the actual experience. I usually get glimpses of reality as we know it being a joke, I meet enlightened masters who are revealed to have lured me into the truth etc. However, these are usually glimpses for a second or so and there is not much opportunity for me to get it deeper and keep it, let's say. Although the peak experience itself is so fast and confusing, there are 2 big benefits I find from smoking NN-DMT. As I "come back", I see how reality is being formed, how my body and mind are created. This is mind blowing and enlightening. For about 30 to 45 minutes after "coming back", my consciousness is so elevated that it is possible to have non-dual glimpses and mostly there is room for a lot of releasing and healing. So yeah, even the smoking-that-hits-you-like-a-train has some amazing benefits.

@winterknight Can you recognize another enlightened person when you see one? If so, how?

Leo's video on: Questioning Contemplation Contemplation with a journal

Great! Children's minds are still really open and it's easy for them to manifest psychic skills. They don't know it shouldn't be possible

qigong, taichi, reiki. Maybe even Wim Hoff?

@Zeke If you neglect your diet, it will very soon show up in your health. This in turn will prevent you from doing consciousness work as fully as you would like. poor diet ---> poor health ---> poor concentration / no space for inquiry as you feel like shit

@Natasha Gives it all away too easily

We had this little joke/riddle as children. It would go like this in English: "I am I, you are you. Who is stupid, I or you?" It puts you in a funny situation, because you want to insult the other, but whatever you insult both of you. Of course, after all, we are one.

This is a great video describing the realms of the chakras. Great as a guided mediation also.

Microcosmic orbit and energy work I read about the microcosmic orbit a long time ago. Years ago. It held strong appeal to me and I wanted to master it. After some struggle I managed to feel energy in the navel center (hara), which is the base of the practice. Soon I forgot about the method and dropped the practice. I came back and started practicing! What brought me back? Desperation mostly. Health struggles, and the promise of a vibrant body full of energy. So I read about these centers in the body. Front and back. The Taoist masters say that if you gather your attention in the navel center and start moving it through these 'chakras', you will eventually break open the microcosmic orbit, meaning, you will connect the front and back channels. This will result in good health, as the main blockages of the body will be released and the energy free to circulate, as well as with further possibilities of working with the energy body (like transmuting the sexual energy). Sounds very tempting, doesn't it? Believe it or not, as I drive my attention from one of the described spots to the other, I really do find the mentioned centers. I find, that most of my low centers feel painful, blocked, stagnant and I stay with them for longer with the intention of release. I do the first round very slowly and stay with each center for a couple of minutes (I guess). Strangely, this is really difficult and the mind is noisy. When I do further rounds quickly, with a breath at each center, it is much smoother and more quiet. As I finish the circulation and gather the chi back at the navel, I open the eyes... what a sight! Everything is glowing, beautiful, silent and very much here. I take the chance to contemplate awareness or my own elusive nature. I feel really good after this practice. I was asking myself, why am I doing this? Is this really about health? I guess there is some other motivation having to do with the pleasure of energy and the wonders of the body. I have an intuition (or is it all the stories I have heard?) that the human body has a lot of potential! It doesn't need to be a burden or just a meh... I think there are secrets to reveal. I can be fooling myself, maybe there is nothing, but I really, really want to see and that is enough for me to sit each day and do the thing. Besides, after a few years of carefully observing reality, I get the sense that anything I suspect to be possible (like some secrets of the body), turn out to exist if I look long enough. Besides, over three years ago I had an insight - 'I don't know if I am perceiving the world or creating it.' This stuck with me somewhere deep down there and I suspect that I have a hand in deciding what is real and what is not.

This is some of the best Neti Neti guidance I came across. Stephen Wolinsky is a student of Advaita Vedanta and especially Nisargadata Maharaj. He presents 'a map', which is aiming to help you get out of your rut into the Absolute. Watch this, pay attention, allow this to hit you hard!

My mind is blown! Great stuff, thank you.

What time frame do you mean? Is 2,3,4 hours before plugging ok? Must be 1 hour?

The love/hate for Actualized.org and Leo Gura I really like the channel, the philosophy, the forum, the way of life... the whole thing. On the other hand, I despise it, ridicule it, criticize it, judge it. Why am I so torn about the whole thing? It seems like I accepted it too fully. I accepted without questioning, I built a personality around it. When I judge and despise, I really judge and despise my attachment to it. Nothing more. It's a tricky thing. How do I follow these teachings without getting attached? By having other sources. By reminding myself that all of this is of course relative. By seeing that this is part of the game, the dream. By seeing clearly that this way of life is by no means better or more advanced than the way 'regular' people live. In my mind, I see other 'regular' people live a life of mindless work and bar cycle. Sex and entertainment cycle. Completely unconscious. This sort of thinking makes me feel better about myself and my 'in-group' (basically Actualized.org). I go to the forum and to the videos to take a hit of this philosophy again and entrench myself deeper in the delusion that I am better than them, that my life is worth while. This is the insecure part of me using Actualized.org as it's illusory ground. By seeing this, I think I can weaken and eventually break the attachment. This is my mind. This is how it works. Again, nothing wrong about it, that's what it is. I would like to be conscious of my philosophies and my feelings of superiority. Am I superior to anyone else? What would that even mean? Well, I can be in my mind, my imagination. Right here, in reality, there is no distinctions like this. Actually, in reality, there seems to be no distinctions. So... Am I superior to anyone else? Again, only in my mind. Otherwise, there is no superior. It doesn't mean anything. What is this pride (it makes me feel)? I hate that feeling... yet it is a part of me. I hate it, again, because secretly I love it. Right? Can I find the way I secretly enjoy pride? Yes. Of course. There is a satisfaction. A very much 'underneath' hehe of pride That is what I feel when I read some of the posts on the forum and think how deluded the people are. At the same moment, I think myself undeluded and I feel the 'underneath' hehe of pride. What a subtle game! Sooo, on the one had I have an entire ego wrapped up around Actualized.org and I could go on and on thinking and unraveling it. On the other hand, in reality, I can't see no ego. And that feels just fine.