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This was written by Ram Dass and speaks for itself. Enlightenment is a looong way away for this one. It never occurred to me before actualized.org that there are somethings special for me to open things up here and now. I still need to clarify Awakened vs. Enlightened. I still need to study and prepare for using psychedelics to move toward Enlightenment. I want more clarity as to why I would be seeking Enlightenment. Basically I have been living this life with a, "The buck stops here" attitude. The issues have been so painful, I just don't wish the hard feelings on anybody and I know that somebody that I won't recognize as myself is going to have to suffer the consequences of my avoiding whatever I choose not to recognize as myself now. So here's an article that came across my wall earlier. How do we get trapped within psychedelic experiences? Posted February 18, 2019 “Paradise is the prison of the sage as the world is the prisoner of the believer.” – Yahja b. Mu’adh al-Razi "For many of us who have come into meditation through psychedelics, the model we had for changing consciousness has been of “getting high”. We pushed away our normal waking state in order to embrace a state of euphoria, harmony, bliss, peace, or ecstasy. Many of us spent long periods of time getting high and coming down. My guru, in speaking about psychedelics, said: “These medicines will allow you to come and visit Christ, but you can only stay two hours. Then you have to leave again. This is not the true samadhi. It’s better to become Christ than to visit him – but even the visit of a saint for a moment is useful.” Then he added, “But love is the most powerful medicine.” For love slowly transforms you into what the psychedelics only let you glimpse. In view of his words, when I reflected on my trips with LSD and other psychedelics, I saw that after a glimpse of the possibility of transcendence, I continued tripping only to reassure myself that the possibility was still there. Seeing the possibility is indeed different from being the possibility. Sooner or later you must purify and alter your mind, heart, and body so that the things which bring you down from your experiences lose their power over you. Psychedelics could chemically override the thought patterns in your brain so that you are open to the moment, but once the chemical loses its power the old habit patterns take over again. With them comes a subtle despair that without chemicals you are a prisoner of your thoughts. The trap of high experiences, however they occur, is that you become attached to their memory and so you try to recreate them. These memories compel you to try to reproduce the high. Ultimately they trap you, because they interfere with your experience of the present moment. In meditation you must be in the moment, letting go of comparisons and memories. If the high was too powerful in comparison to the rest of your life, it overrides the present and keeps you focused on the past. The paradox, of course, is that were you to let go of the past, you would find in the present moment the same quality that you once had. But because you’re trying to repeat the past, you lose the moment. How many times have you felt a moment of perfection – only to have it torn away the next moment by the awareness that it will pass? How many times will you try to get high hoping that this time you won’t come down – until you already know as you start to go up that you will come down? The down is part of the high. When in meditation you are tempted by another taste of honey, your memory of the finiteness of those moments tempers your desire. More bliss, more rapture, more ecstasy – just part of the passing show. The moment in its fullness includes both high and low and yet it is beyond both." – Ram Dass

A thread about being overly serious and worrying caught my attention. . . I was raised in a very serious environment. Everything was so heavy and serious. If I got a "C" in a class very serious. Hours of lecture and a meeting with my teacher. . . If I left a light on in the house - very serious. A lecture about how hard my parents are working to put a roof over my head and food on the table - and I'm throwing money out the window (about 4 cents worth of electricity). Even family vacations were serious. Chronic seriousness has many unhealthy aspects. It's hard on the body. A chronic state of seriousness increases tension and levels of stress hormones such as cortisol. As well, it is a state of distress to the mind. Yet the mind and body love to find an equilibrium. Chronic seriousness may become "normal". Occasionally, a chronically serious person may catch glimpses and see it as a problem. Perhaps their bf/gf brings it to their attention. Perhaps the are at a party with people that are being silly and laughing - a serious may notice they can't let go and want to experience being playful and laughter. . . Yet often, a chronically serious person will avoid playful environments because it feels uncomfortable - they feel like they don't fit in. On the flip side, being playful, silly and laughing a lot is healing. It is a release to laugh and be playful - especially when we laugh at ourselves. It is enjoyable and increases our quality of life. It allows rebalancing and recovery from stressful serious times. A couple questions people asked me while I was immersed in serious zones: "What do you do for fun in your life?". If I can't answer this, its a good sign I'm too far serious. I may say "I go running". Yet is running "fun" for me? Or I may say, "I hike. I meditate. I contemplate". Yet is this "fun"? Am I spending any time in actual "fun zones". For example, going to a concert and dancing. Playing a coop board game with a friend and being playful. Playing frisbee golf with a friend (and not being overly competitive and serious). Getting excited when we hit a good shot, high fives, smiles and laughter. Actually playing,. Another question I ask is "How often do I laugh and smile? When was the last time I laughed so hard I couldn't stop?". I've noticed that many people crave to be playful, joyful, silly. They want humor and laughter. I've spent a lot of time with online dating and one of the most common desirable traits women say they want is a good sense of humor and laughter. People don't want to be in overly-serious relationships with chronic worry, issues and drama. As well, people want to be seen as an "easy going guy". So many online profiles have comments like "I like to have fun", "I'm an easy going", "I like to laugh a lot". Yet then when we go out on a date, they are sooo serious. . . @fridjonk Thank you for your comments. I'm not very familiar with Marcus Aurelius. A blue-level person that was also awakened and one with nature would be an interesting case.

just wanna say about the part where he mentions that an awakened person cannot be angry... very good point! many people are indeed confused about it... as if being angry meant that one does not love can we all think of infinite love at play where anger is what's happening? yup: a parent being angry with their child. the anger is out of love... to teach... to discipline if anything, being enlightened may make you more prone to anger love you Leo! keep doing you thing champ

I'd like to add Marcus Aurelius as an perfect example of how one can be truly awakened and one with nature, yet view the world from a blue perspective. He was big on dedicating oneself to service of others and for society; he had lots of the "good" traits of blue.

@Serotoninluv Well put Luv. That's so true. I find this is where integral theory comes perfectly in handy instead of the more simplistic spiral dynamics approach. I find it goes way more into detail. As you say, a minds interpretation of a state or a mystical experience depends solely on which view point their spiritual knowledge is at; or as Ken Wilber calls "growing up". So a stage green or a stage yellow person can have woken up, but their developmental "growing up" has yet to continue to evolve; and will eventually. I see a lot of people here who think they've "made it" when they become liberated or awakened, but they still don't realize that their view point of their awakening is relative to their structure and stage. That's my two cents on that matter

You always love to intellectualize everything, and go very deep into abstract concepts. At times it ends up working very much against you - you end up over complicating simple things, and end up confusing yourself. Try reading again what I said and seeing it for what it is. The key is this: When you make enlightenment/liberation into a future goal - you will never get there. It is precisely what Leo has done, which is very evident by the content that he released plus his forum posts. I don't have any issues nor I am against of doing the "work". It's the place of where it is coming from. If you are doing the "work" to achieve an imaginary goal that doesn't exist in the future - then you will be trapped and end up suffering. Since you love to go deep, take a look and maybe you can see why calling it "work" in the first place is very misleading. Work usually implies a chore or an action - which is usually being done for achieving a future goal. Since Leo has always seen enlightenment/liberation as something to be attained in the future, he came up with the term "consciousness work". If you go further, you will be able to connect the dots and see some of the things that I and other people are pointing out. The problem is that Leo took on a self-development approach to spirituality/liberation, which in here it doesn't work. If you want to improve in business, and achieve great results, you can do so by doing more work. If you want to be better at a specific skill or any area - it can be improved. But this approach doesn't apply to liberation/enlightenment - you will continue to chase your own tail, thinking that you are getting somewhere. This is the reason why there are so many spiritual seekers who have been seeking for 10s of years without finding the gold that they are looking for. Some have even search their whole lives. The recent "live awakening" videos is a great example of this - just watch it very consciously and you will be able to see the ego overtaking the trip - thinking it has awakened, a sense of superiority, etc. The issue here is with the approach, and not with the practices. It's a structure issue - and those that oppose his structure are a big threat to him. This is the reason why he banned people that promoted a different approach.

@exhale What I mean is the present moment is the only thing that exists. So whatever is RIGHT NOW is all that is true. So "The journey" is just a bunch of memories that you constructed and labeled it a spiritual journey. IM NOT saying that there is no work to do or don't do practices and you're already awakened there's nothing to do. All I am saying is everyone is trying to get to the same destination. Here and now. it really does not matter how or what method. Like if you want to get to Texas from Arizona, you can either drive or fly. It makes no difference because we are all going to end up in Texas, and when you get there you won't really think about how you go there as much as the fact that you made it safely to your destination.@PenguinPablo

"I'm not doing the 'work' because decades ago I have awakened to the realization there is nothing to do, no work, no accomplishment to achieve and no truth to attain." Dude this topic is so old already. One has to die before they as God realize that which died was an idea in the Mind of God. But telling a newbie they are an idea and that they are God without them dying first isn't helping anyone. This is like beating a dead horse with you guys proclaiming there is nothing to die. There is nothing to die after it dies. Reality is a strange loop and a paradox as it must be because it is One. So there is an idea that has to die. You said it yourself in another thread. The ego exists but it exists as imagination. Spontaneous awakenings or deaths dont just happen unless one is crazy gifted and even then they probably endured a lot of suffering and selfishness and were on the brink of death anyway before it happened. Others did contemplation or meditation. Don't tell me you just realized it and that was that. If you are awake that means your avatar has died and you are directly conscious that you are God. That's fine. But don't tell me it just happened out of nowhere one day. Contemplation is considered practice. I meditated for about a week before it happened on no pyschedelics but I'm a freak apparently. And i have OCD and suffered greatly thru my own selfishness.

I think self development is a permanent on going process, whether you awakened or not.

Lots of red flags around Athene. As soon as you spot a manipulator, that's the biggest tell-tale sign of devilry. Truly selfless and awakened people have no desire to control or manipulate others, not even for their own good or awakening. Not even to save the world. Manipulation itself is ignorance, greed, and fear made manifest. God has no desire to manipulate people. Only a dispassionate hope that they wise up and awaken.

I'm not doing the 'work' because decades ago I have awakened to the realization there is nothing to do, no work, no accomplishment to achieve and no truth to attain. Working to have no ego is like trying to ban your own self from the forum of your own being which attempting to do often is just fodder for more self suffering. Liberation is presence of being in the moment free of self suffering....everything else is story telling so just tell a joyful story if one must tell one.

So even years of meditation will not bring this bliss, peace, feeling valuable? I know people who are not enlightened, awakened, but don't feel incomplete and easily accept whatever life throws at them.

The protective fatherhood in a man needs to be awakened. I have observed a phenomenon globally,I don't see men acting manly anymore. Most are looking up to toxic definitions of manhood and becoming more like boys. Toxic masculinity is on the rise. They don't have a good role model to follow.

What do you believe in, and why do you?I My goal moving forward is to embody feeling I experienced on LSD. This god feeling is the key to much progress moving forward so I want to learn to summon it at will. This state is inside me. It is felt in the moment. But there is thinking patterns that are believed and aren't true, that are blocking this feeling. Feelings are a guide to orienting thinking. So the path forward is to inspect thoughts aren't true, and to empty my mind. Belief: I need the god tier state to achieve mastery of league of legends and fulfill my life purpose. I need the god tier state because I am not in the zone when I play league. I have played over the past few days and I just don't feel good when I play. My mind is all over the place, there is over-thinking, worry, fear. There is no bliss, love, joy etc. I felt the highest i've ever felt on LSD. I felt like god. I felt limitless. I felt energized. I felt myself at my highest potential. But it's been a few days since the trip now and I don't feel it anymore, i've basically returned to my base line level of consciousness. I have tried to get that feeling while playing, but I don't think it works like that. Feelings are feelings, and we create our own feelings. Thinking creates feeling. I feel disconnected from this higher state. I feel connected to the sensation in the head. The brain feels like it's cracking/thawing. And when the feeling in the head was fully broken apart, I felt the awakened state of higher consciousness. I want to feel good. I want to feel high tier emotions. The high tier emotions exist in the present moment, because this is where feeling is. And the higher tier emotions are felt. But I am confused as how to move from the present emotional state of boredom/contentment to the higher tier. I want to unlock my potential as a human being. But right now i am not my best. I know i'm not at my best because I don't feel at my best. Feelings are a guide. Feelings are all relative to the god tier feeling I had. I know that what I feel now isn't good, because it's relative to the god tier feeling which is by definition good because it felt good. I am connected to feelings. Or I guess, there are feelings. The thinking mind tries to create separation by claiming it is connected to feelings. But when you wake up you realize, there just is the present moment where feeling is. Dam this inspection work is hard. I realized that the place to be is the present, because that's where the feelings are, and what I want is to feel good(feel god). So this is progress. But I have much more work to do here. Now that i'm in the present, the question is how to cultivate the positive emotions with thinking. And how to maintain that state while playing and writing and living.

I got this from reading Neville Goddard's book "Awakened Imagination". For more information, read that book, it's worth your time. This is inspiring, wonderful technique which I want to share with you. It has potential to change your life for better. Here is this simple technique: At the end of each day, REVISE your day. Revise means: Visualise, everything going as you wanted to go. Easy example, which will help you understand this: You fought with your significant other, middle of the day. At the end of that day, REVISE that day by visualising yourself, having good, loving, warm conversation with your significant other. Visualise everything going well, and most important FEEL everything going perfect. (Feeling is the key because you become conscious of everything going well by feeling it. Consciousness is the substance of all reality. Consciousness is only reality. And "external world" is just reflection of your own state of consciousness) This is very counter-intuitive. Instead of what 99.9% of people do: Dwelling on things going wrong. You can revise your day, and visualise everything going well... This is called art of forgiveness in Bible. Neville Goddard explains this, very well with great example! I hope this helps! Amazing technique. Very valuable. Counter-intuitive. It works!

@The Awakened Viking good point about the being paradigm. Perhaps I was not very clear. LSD is not my first time. My previous dose was about 120 ug. I’m still processing that along with my other backlog (mushrooms and just meditation/contemplation logs). I feel like doing LSD again because it gave me a breakthrough in emotional maturity. You can read my LSD trip log about it on this forum. I’m no way doing LSD again before processing my own backlog. I also don’t care about bragging. Little silly to brag about 250 ug of LSD. I’m somebody who is uptight with emotions and no passion for anything. LSD released some emotion in me that I used to motivate me to meditate/contemplate and so on.

If I answer “yes” it’s a lie. If I answer “no” it’s a lie. And of corse both answers are also true and partially true. Such is the case with dualistic constructs. Consider the infinite relativity in this question. What is meant by “awakened”. What is meant by “absolutely”. What is meant by “you”. Any definition would also be relative, with another underlying relativity.

This is is a trap dynamic that can arise with psychedelics, yet I wouldn’t call it an “awakening trap”. I think calling it a mystical experience trap would be more accurate. When I first used psychedelics, it was like being rocketed to a higher conscious state. Some states were pleasurable, some were not - yet they were all mystical experiences that revealed insights and new abilities. It was like having the greatest enlightened teacher or being able to travel to different realms. There was an energetic shift from figuring things out and reading literature and spiritual teachers - to the actual direct experience - and they only way to get there was through psychedelics, which created a cycle of expansion and contraction. The more blissful the experience, the higher likelihood of experience chasing. Ram Dass explains this cycle well in the below article. . . For me, some of my trips were very unpleasant. I entered anxiety and insanity zones that would take me days or weeks to recover from. This reduced the blissful experience chasing. For me, there was attraction, yet also trepidation with trips. Part of me didn’t want to revisit those uncomfortable places and there was some resistance/trepidation when approaching a new trip. At a personal level, one thing with psychedelics is that one’s baseline conscious level increases. When I was a newbie before my first Ayahuasca ceremony, I was asking the guy next to me a bunch of questions. I saw reality as if there is my normal sober state and a higher psychedelic state. One thing he told me was “those two worlds gradually come together”. In a way this was intriguing. In another way, this was scary. I couldn’t imagine it at the time, yet I now know what he meant. I’ve been through cycles of psychedelic states - not so much to escape a sober reality - more so to gain new access to high states. For a while it was like psychedelics gave me a magic wand. I got new super powers of hyper empathy, omniscience and extremely high level imagination and integration. And there came a time, I wanted to be able to do it without psyches. I would go hiking in the woods and everything felt bland - I couldn’t communicate with trees, wind and birds. I couldn’t become the creator of the forest. It was like I didn’t have my magic cape. A couple things I would keep in mind. The way you talk about psychedelics and how amazing they are does not sound like an awakening dynamic. It sounds like a mindstate/experience dynamic to me. There is an attachment/identification that psychedelic states are “amazing” relative to sober states. And there is a seeking to leave sober states and enter psychedelic states. The larger the bad to good distance in the cycle, the stronger the seeking. As the two world grow closer together, the intensity of this seeking declines. For example, I started experiencing amazing psychedelic-like states while sober and experienced crappy sober-like states tripping. As I would go into the woods, it didn’t really matter if I took a psychedelic or not. I felt like I was already half-tripping and I thought “I kinda like the present moment as it is. Why try to change it?”. There would then be months that went by without tripping. I was neither grasping or pushing it away. The present moment is the present moment, whether it is sober or a psychedelic. It’s both ISness. Psychedelic and sober mindstaes - both ISness. And what is psychedelic or sober starts to break down. Experiential states can be very insightful, yet it is not awakening. An awakened state vs an unawakened state is a duality. Absolute Awake is unconditional. It is not dependent on any mind state. It is eternally present Here and Now. In the essay below, Ram Dass talks about the cycle of chasing blissful psychedelic states and associating “there” with a psychedelic state. Ime, this is certainly a dynamic with psychedelics and I think he explains it well. Yet I would say he over-generalizes that this is the only relationship with psychedelics. What he describes is just one dynamic, there are many others with psychedelics and I’m a bit surprised Ram Dass never experienced outside this dynamic. He did a lot of psychedelics, yet stayed within this dynamic. Each of us has our own resonance and relationship with psyches, yet it’s still perplexing. It is like someone living in Australia for years and only talking about the dangers of the Australian outback. While that is certainly true, there is much more - The Sydney Opera House, kangaroos, koala bears, the coral reef etc. And for someone to travel around Australia for years and never see this other stuff is a real head-scratcher for me. At any rate, he does describe the cycle of bliss chasing well, imo. https://www.ramdass.org/the-trap-of-psychedelic-experiences/

@Marek never said it can’t help with your practices and journey, of course it can. all I’m saying is it’s very clear you don’t HAVE to eat a certain way to awaken, I’m I’m not saying certain lifestyles wont effect us in different ways. awakened or not, eat a load of junk and drink soda all day and you’ll probably get fat and of course that won’t feel great in your body. does it mean you can’t be overweight and awakened? Of course not, there’s plenty of overweight enlightened beings. not every fruitarian is fully awakened, and not every self realised being is fruitarian. can it help some people? Of course it can. If you add any form of “rules” to awakening, you still have a long way to go. don’t get me wrong, I want as many people to go vegan as possible to see an end to factory farming and animal abuse but I’m also realistic and this won’t happen for hundreds of years if ever I doubt, and then meat will just be sold on the black market. Also, if you add in Raw, that’ll put many people off- can’t go out to eat hardly, even more awkward to cook for etc, as Leo said you have to think about more than just pure health sometimes. I’m glad that Raw is working for you and on your awakening journey

I think a few days ago I just awakened. I faced most of my fears I now I can see how stupid all of them are. I also realized that enlighment is not some heaven like place or deep meditation state. Enlighmemt is awarness of the present moment. It's literally omnipresense. Life is for me so smooth and effortless. I've realized how stupid and unnecessary problems of most people are. All the party small talk All the loneliness Depression Caring for others, social games and obligations( brothet, husband, fad etc) I could never in my wildest dreams imagined enlighment to be that way It's so smooth but and the same it's extremely scary I don't even know for sure if I exist or not I feel like I'm floating above the notions of life and death, existence and non existence I dont know how far I can go on this path and where it will end I dont know if I should go further in that road its scary as fuck

I honestly agree to some extent. He's gotta watch himself integrating this powerful new awakening while handling a spiritual community. It's not easy. The dude might be self-biasing himself into believing that since he's now fully awakened that he is now flawless and whatever he feels right to say is the absolute. He's gotta be extra careful and watch himself like a hawk As for the amazon thing it doesn't really matter. Who the hell cares? Just focus on you. It's easy to point out all the criticisms in others. Not so easy seeing the hundreds in yourself...

A couple of people have already asked me about semen retention and I thought I would post the very simple technique by which it can be achieved, here: There really isn't that much to it, it's a fairly simple technique that requires some practice. I did do a bit of Yoga beforehand, so I was more aware of my individual muscles and how to clench and release them than most people, I suppose. The muscle you need to strengthen is the one responsible for holding urine back. You need to locate this and clench and hold it for as long as you can, then release it, repeatedly. You should do this several times a day until it gets strong enough to hold not only urine, but ejaculate back. At this point, when you get to the point of no return, in the few seconds before ejaculation, you need to clench this muscle as intensely as you can manage and hold it until the ejaculatory contractions end. Then, when you release it at first there might still be some semen seeping through, but with practice, you can have a completely dry orgasm. Usually, you will stay hard and can continue with intercourse, but second time round, you will last much longer and it will actually be quite hard for you to come, plus the erection seems to last a lot longer too. This also has the added benefit of providing all the energetic benefits of nofap, but you can still have sex as much as you want and experience dry orgasms, which is similar to the kind of non-ejaculatory orgasm women experience. I still recommend letting yourself ejaculate about once a week, it will provide most of the benefits, without any health concerns. Just as a note, this technique is effective in combatting erectile disfunction, premature ejaculation and a low sex drive. Plus, the ladies really appreciate it, as you can imagine. The last time I practiced it, my gf at the time was able to orgasm several times, whilst I just kept going. Also, maybe it was my imagination and my girlfriend remarked on it too, but my manhood seemed larger and harder than usual, which was again much appreciated. I don't practice semen retention any more as I have been completely celibate for years now and this is a low-level tantric practice for beginners, but it can have pretty positive side-effects quite apart from the spiritual benefits. My current practice is urdhvareta, a much more advanced tantric technique, whereby all sexual energies and seminal fluids are subsumed and transformed at the base of the spine and stream upwards into the spinal column and into the brain, on a continuous basis. For this to occur, a fully awakened Kundalini is a prerequisite.

Raw vegan diet or fruitarianism has totally changed my life since I've started experimenting with it probably 8 years ago. For example, Dr. Robert Morse has become awakened in his twenties, when he lived 6 months exclusively on oranges . This is must read for everybody who is interested in the Truth about human diet. The Great Lymphatic System.pdf

Full acceptance and self love is the practices I would suggest, but it isn't always easy especially when there's a lot of self hatred and repression in the shadow. Also, it sounds like you may be in the stage of spirituality where you don't know yourself. This is surprisingly often a really good sign, as you're questioning who you are, it's not easy though, and the answer will only ever be found in the silence, here and now. Keep going until there is no doubt, and the absolute peace and happiness shine through your being. However, always remember, no matter how awakened you become you're still always the absolute having a human experience, with a human personality and human desires. Therefore, your sexuality is something you certainly need to fully accept and embrace, we are all The Self, yet on a human level there is nobody who will ever be exactly like us. The great paradox of awakening I'd recommend watching the show Sex Education on Netflix, there's a character Eric, who is gay but his family know but don't want to admit it in season 1 if you get me? He's also black, so I feel his dad thinks it will make it even harder for him if he is gay. It's a really moving story of struggling (his family is Christian) to accept himself for who he is, so actually going through a deep stage of repression, before fully expressing himself at the end of S1. It's also a great show in general covering lots of issues, Panseuxlaity is also covered in S2. I'm paraphrasing but Eric says something along the lines of 'It took me a long time to love myself, and I can't risk losing that again and being with someone who clearly doesn't accept or love themself, I'm sorry.' Like I said, great show and you might be able to relate to many of the issues presented

@Tanuj wow, I always heard that many people got their kundalini awakened with a little psychedelic help. Can you link us the guided kundalini awakening meditation?