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@username And how to I work towards being able to handle consciousness work? Yes, the thoughts feel like reality when they happen. Is meditation the ONLY way to overcome it? I meditated today for a first time after a long layoff and it felt great. Also, worthy of mentioning is that I'm not pursuing enlightenment right now. All the questions I'm asking and researching are just for schoolwork for my degree. And for me it's much easier to include nonduality in the schoolwork because none of my peers do that and I can get high grades easily with it. Though -> it leads to unconscious self inquiry and emotional labour. So what is actually happening is that I do advanced level stuff for school, stuff that I don't think I'm ready to integrate in my life yet at this level. I don't let myself go at my own pace. I remember Sadhguru saying the following as a metaphor for enlightenment: ”When you are not physically fit, climbing a mountain is extremely hard, but when you ARE physically fit, it's a pleasure to climb it.” Maybe I just haven't done enough meditation to be able to relate to my thoughts from a 3rd point of view, thus creating unnecessary suffering for myself, cutting myself with my own mind.

less than 1 year. in the beginning i would practice mindfulness intentionally 24/7. it required a lot of effort to stay present. but after a few months, the practice started to live in me and i wasn't doing it anymore. it was doing me. and it became completely effortless until this very moment. be careful not to fool yourself for an enlightened one works happily for his own living. i am a mathematician and i could be anything else. chop wood, carry water. be more sincere towards what you want. and by being sincere i mean go for it. if you want to live like a monk then do it. if you want to program then do it. as long as you don't practice any kind of violence, mastering nonduality has nothing to do with the role you play. it's exactly the opposite: knowing that you're not the role you play. when a man embodies truth, the result is the practice of all virtues. ask yourself if you're not letting yourself be filled with laziness.

One does not need a theoretical background at all. When I woke up, it was unlike anything I had ever read or studied before. (I had never read or studied about awakening/enlightenment or nonduality prior to waking up and realizing nonduality directly). So there was no theoretical background for me and yet it happened. I do not blog to provide a theoretical background. I just like talking about the subject. And there happens to be many who like reading about the subject. There are many questions and I answer them so I can talk about it. Also, there are misunderstandings and ongoing myths that I like pointing out. I know that for every question answered multiple more questions will arise...and I know that the thinking mind (of the questioner) will never get it. Enlightenment can not be figured out. Enlightenment does not come from acquiring the right knowledge. In fact, the accumulated knowledge may become an obstacle to enlightenment...because if that knowledge is wrong or misunderstood, you could wake up and then deny it because it does not conform the the prior knowledge you gained. And so this allows the ego to stay in power (this isn't it...so I need to do more)...instead of simply seeing through the ego and recognizing it for the mirage it is. The concepts won't liberate...they are just more chains. So when I am asked, how to wake up...I recommend to just be still, be quiet, be present...cease thinking and be 100% devoted to the experience of the moment. Then perhaps ask yourself but once, "who am I?" Then don't make any efforts to answer it, don't think, don't refer to past or future. Just be still, be silent, be present. Or variations...like what I posted to Afonso.

@ajasatya How long did it take for you to master nonduality? At what point did you feel like you've mastered nonduality? Has mastering nonduality negatively affected your relationship to mathematics in any way? As one masters nonduality, I would assume that one would become averse to mathematics because mathematics is "just" comprised of arbitrary concepts (incredibly useful concepts, though). I sometimes have a hard time engaging in learning programming because I know that everything I'm learning has no significance outside of programming. To me, it's again just layers of arbitrary concepts. After discovering the idea of enlightenment, the whole field of knowledge, to me, appears tainted with an aura of fakeness and illusion. @spinc A domain of mastery is what you're choosing to spend 10,000 hours on. You can master anything given enough time, regardless of how comfortable you feel with the domain right now. I don't run my own business (yet), but I'm involved in a startup. I will go to university to study mathematics and computer science, but will also be quick to drop out if I can't align the course with my goals. Being an autodidact, learning from books, mentors and doing seems a lot faster. But no university makes 60k/yr per student telling them to learn on their own, so of course most people don't go the autodidact route straight out of high school. @Leo Gura The work that he and you are doing is incredible no doubt. Many people would be enlightened if they were open minded enough and applied the advice you both teach. But most people hardly let themselves hear the advice, let alone start meditating for 10,000 hours. As @spinc worded it well, I'm asking if there's anything you've learned that would make the idea of facilitating the access to spirituality via biotechnology impossible. From what I understand, 5-MeO-DMT forces the ego to shut down. That leads me to believe that there are other biological "tricks" that could be developed.

mastering nonduality leaded me to true peace of mind. everything i do in my life comes from that state. every thought, word and action. every decision, including not to think. my mind is steady and everything in my life have flourished. i'm WAY more tender. all my relationships have improved. my sexual life has tremendous quality and i'm being able to heal my parents (slowly). i can focus on my professional tasks (mathematics) and inspiration comes naturally and with ease. nobody can be led to enlightenment. one has to follow his very own intuition by using his suffering as his fuel. there's no other way.

Leo, your life purpose course is excellent! A couple months after implementing your advice I'm already making more money doing what I enjoy (programming) than I'd have ever expected. 100% worth it. I have some questions though: Can nonduality be a domain of mastery? If so, what kind of life purpose can mastery over nonduality lead to (meditation teacher, for example)? What fields can one create big breakthroughs and innovate by mastering nonduality? When you interviewed Peter Ralston, he mentioned that more people would be enlightened if they were more open minded and contemplated. Is there any fundamental reason why one couldn't create a technology that would modify humans to have more of those qualities (through gene editing for example) so that we could get almost everyone enlightened? If there are ways, what fields would be best to investigate to create these technologies? The quickedt catalyst for this path seems to be psychedelics, and very few do them let alone for spirituality. @Leo Gura

@Leo Gura Morality is not relative. How can morality be relative when it is based in empathy. This is where the the golden rule comes from. Basically instead of changing our actions to line up with our morals, we change our perspective to nonduality so we can justify them. Seems too self-centered and egotistical. Also i didnt see Jesus kill and then justify his actions with this nihilistic view. If something goes against self agenda it is the mere idea of action. What is more threatening to the individual, to bone up and line up his actions to his values and morals or to adopt a nihilistic paradigm that allows him to do whatever he wants? If non duality is so perfect, the enlightened ones wouldn't mind if someone tried to kill them. At the end of the day it would save some children from unessecary rape

@Pierre No. That cannot help at all. Value doesn't exist. Neither does hierarchy. Nonduality means: No values No heirarchies No parts No meanings No good/evil No stories No levels of importance No immorality It's utterly groundless. To infinity.

@Alii How many times do we have to say that you can be an enlightened rapist? Enlightenment changes nothing. You can think of it this way: everyone is already enlightened, including Hitler. EVERYTHING is GOOD. There are no restrictions upon reality. It can do whatever the hell it wants. To be at peace with that, is to be enlightened. To not be at peace with that, is also to be enlightened. If you imagine yourself becoming the most morally perfect human being of all time, more moral than Jesus, you will be not one ounce better than Hitler. That is nonduality. So all your ideas about how enlightened people "ought" to be behave are just that -- your ideas, not the Truth. People are free to behave in all the ways the human body/mind is able to behave. How do you know it's Good? Because it's happening. Don't be questioning God's creation with that little mind of yours You will always be wrong. Which of course, is just how it's supposed to be. Not only did he eat a cheeseburger, we went to the best strip club in town and I bought him a lap dance so this stripper with perfect, melon-sized boobs smeared him across his face. And he enjoyed it. Fun was had by all. That's life. So throw all your moralizing in the trash. It has nothing to do with enlightenment. If you're thinking enlightenment will make you a good person, think again. If you were an asshole before enlightenment, you'll likely be an asshole long after enlightenment. God creates assholes, after all. Assholes are an integral part of creation. Just look at Trump

@alyra In relation to words, yes, there is not nonduality without duality but in reality wholeness exists without duality existing. Even if we would divide the wholeness in half to create a perceived duality it still isn't really a duality because it consists of three parts, the two contrasting parts and the whole. So our mind will fixate on the perceived two contrasting halves it thinks it sees in duality while not realizing the whole, which is something that either of the two halves are not and cannot be in of themselves.

I don't even really like to use the term nonduality because it implies that duality exists as some basis to contrast which forms another duality in mistaken perception through the premise.

what duality duality is nonduality. this is the meaning of nonduality. yes, transcend the belief. but, before enlightenment... chop wood carry water.. after enlightenment.. chop wood, carry water. edit: you see the yin and the yang. they are a duality. but the yin and yang represents nonduality.. do you see? you cannot have nonduality without duality. you cannot have transcension without beliefs. transcending beliefs is not removing beliefs - just as removing the yang from yin-yang will leave yang behind in its place.

@Martin123 Ooooh thank god. I just get really tired. I see a trend where everybody that starts getting into no-self, spirituality and nonduality suddenly start twisting all common language around and just see ”ego here”, ”ego there” like a sniper when you're just trying to use common goddamn language. Like, to some people, I just tell them that ”I ate a chocolate” and they just start blabbering : ”There's no you to eat a chocolate. It's an illusion” and stuff like that. It gets really obnoxious. You might have experienced it, haha.

The realization of nonduality comes after the fact of experiencing duality. You cannot experience non-duality (to 'experience' is dualistic), you can only know of it, so the only way to experience the truth is through realization. Breaking the belief, as with other beliefs, is a matter of habit. Find ways to remind yourself of the truth regularly, via meditation, reading insightful spiritual works, etc.

so consciousness work and nondual spirituality/philosophy and self actualization... they ultimately lead to this declaration that - there is no self, physical existence is illusory, all that is real is awareness and that is a tricky devil. nonduality, idk how to capture it well in words but basically the idea that the best life is the monk's life working full time to reach the highest stages of consciousness possible. But I say, that in and of itself is identity, duality, moralization of right and wrong, and inherently that decision (like any decision) is dogmatic. Yes, so is what I am saying here, also dogmatic. but the argument then is to say that sure of course consciousness work sounds like dogma because you can only discuss it in words, and that is where the dogma lies. but I counter with the point that even awareness itself is illusory, is no different from sensation or thought, and as thought is a tricky thing which pretends to not be thought! Leo and some others have hinted at how there is real direct experience from consciousness work that is definitely not thought and is definitely infinite and nothingness and god and enlightenment. and IDK I feel as if I have had tastes of this what they speak of so I'm not saying this from ignorance please but - inherently experience itself is illusory. In fact I say, as long as we are conscious at all, we prove that we are not nondual. well, yes nonduality is the true existence - but we as a "local experience" of existence are inherently dual, only dual, and cannot Truly be nondual in our consciousness. Naturally - the monk dedicating their life to experience as close to nondual infinity, to god as they can possibly get - that is valid and honorable and kudos to any who dedicate their life to it. But There is no such thing as inauthenticity, as low consciousness, or anything similar. If this local experience I call me acts in a "low consciousness" way, that IS authentic. And mindfulness work is only at its basic form - focusing on increasing our internal experience to be more present, and on transcending illusions. Farming the field before, farming the field after. If I understand the goals of nonduality, consiousness, and ETC and work to encorporate the teachings as they apply to my local illusory life, Then I am self-actualizing just as much as the sage in the monastery. If I go it my path, I inherently am doing it authentically. to be "more authentic" is an illusion itself. Is there any counter argument to this?

@electroBeam, motivation and drive are something the ego wants. That is what is needed for work - things you don't want to do. Ask a child "what is your motivation or drive to play?"...and you will have a very confused child. Or you might get the reply...because it is fun. But what is play...but fun. So it is having fun for the sake of having fun. This is play...no motivation needed. Life can be like this too. You can do it just for the fun of it. You might think it would be fun to be a doctor (children play doctor and you can play doctor for real). But to play doctor in a hospital, you have to go to school...you have to get good grades...and so there is the pre-qualifying game of school that must be passed in order to play doctor in a hospital. And so you have fun in school, doing the "school work", because that is part of the game. This would be playing at becoming a doctor...as a pre-qualifier to playing a doctor in a hospital. Like all games...you sometimes lose. And so, while playing to becoming a doctor...you may run out of money and not be able to finish school..and thus not be able to play at being a doctor. That is OK...now play the game of finding financing for school or you could find an entirely new game to play. You can do whatever you want in this life. But do not put conditions on your happiness or enjoyment on only winning. The game - win or lose - is just for fun. It is not about future seeking...but present seeking. As for me, I am playing a mid-aged man who plays at being the husband to a wife and plays at being a father to a daughter. I play the game of corporate recruiting (playing as a recruiter) during the day...which funds (not unlike playing monopoly, life, cash flow, etc.) my house, cars, vacations, etc. I play at playing the drums at kirtans or drum jams whenever I see them available. I play poker in the bar league most Thursdays. I play at being a blog writer about nonduality and awakening. And more. I am having a blast and am enjoying myself immensely. Why do I do it? Because it's fun.

sorry to post here again but in reflection of the question as well as what I said I've recalled two more things that are frequently on my mind but in not knowing how to handle them as well as in the lack of direct issue in them, I put off tackling them. one is regarding meditation. often people speak of the importance of it because there's something to find, revelation to have, enlightenment. but since I've first been made aware of this journey, I've certainly grown in regards to the self, awareness, consciousness, and nonduality. but not once did I find some exciting, necessary, euphoric sense of sudden knowing, not do I see any reason to expect this - perhaps because I'm more predisposed for these discoveries than most, idk. but I just don't find any reason to prioritize self-inquiry not to look for or expect or even describe the journey as enlightenment. I don't see merit in focusing on nonduality or dismantling the illusion of reality much more than I already have - not because I'm fooled into thinking I've already got these all, no, lol. I can see many ways in which I certainly don't got 'em. but my growth in these engravers advance slightly as my mindfulness work often involves my mind wandering in their direction; I grow naturally in their regard and am more driven to focus on more pragmatic assets to the shortness of my human life such as strategy and focus and motivation, or social skills of various kinds, or etc. I do recognize how the nondual/"enlightenment" stuff applies to all of those endeavours as well, and as I've mentioned I do advanced them as they come to mind in my mindfulness work, but I've no interest in sedimentary meditation and am not sure if that is a problem or if it is a fair call to make. naturally this is hard to wrap my head around it because of the inherent moralization of a decision. but that could just be a silly comment over broadening the term moralization to the point where the way illusion itself manifests is moralization the second thing I'm reminded of is general. it comes up in all endeavours. not knowing how to act because of the discussion regarding moralization, self, nonduality, and moreover the social implications of emotional awareness, skepticism, illusion, and overall holding lines of thought to decide action in the moments and shirt run, but letting go of it outside of application of action. and I'm not sure if these are problems per se as much as a lack of decision-making and focus. and I don't know how I could contemplate the concerns to resolve them, nor if that extent really is necessary. (oh and physical and dietary health) I am sure you'd tell me to just start a meditation practice but that is part of the issue - if I'd meditate it'd be contemplation over strategy, focus and life purpose, not over these, and I honestly don't feel that's a mistake. I'm not convinced these concerns I've mentioned in this post aren't going to naturally be resolved over time with the methods I'm currently taking. I'm not convinced they're a problem so much as a facet of growth. so the true concern is worrying whether that sense of comfort with the discomfort is a trap or an accurate assessment of patience. (naturally I'm not going to debate any response I receive from these two posts, as simply voicing my concerns is the topic of the thread, not convincing you my practical beliefs are anything more than arbitrary choice. and, the act of typing out my thoughts itself helps me handle approaching them, as my mindfulness practice - tho weak during discourse - is present in discourse)

From point of view of story/ego there is past, now and future From point of view of observing awareness, future is seen as unmanifested pure potential, the past is seen as the manifested storyline/movie/dream. The now is seen as a bunch of sights, thoughts, sensations, feelings, stuffness that is known. Looking at he storyline and the potential are seen as things that create duality, because of the simple truth that there is only now. Why base our sense of self from something we clearly know don't exist? The now moment is like an intersection point and the gate from egoic mind of past future and now to awareness of the content of now and awareness of awareness itself, whichis you, now - things could not be simpler. You can switch between the two even. Ego death is instant when you see you are the awareness. You can identify with what awareness points to and it is not egoic identification, because it is actually truth. It can never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever be taken from you, because whatever is taken from you, you remain. If you identify with awareness, it is the mind, recognising it's own true nature. The mind itself is made of awareness, so it would not be false for any mind to say they are awareness, unless they dont see what the word awareness points to, and it points to you, the you that cannot be outside the now Ever, unless it's dreaming. Let's wake the fuck up, as Mooji says, nonduality teachings are giving us the most important thing as Baby food!!!! This is the easy and most direct path. Dont expect that you need to suffer or experience feelings of dread. Your ego will not die if it is truth, in which case it is not ego at all. Because ego is the illusion. So take your place as awareness now and you will never have to die.

it is hard to figure out what to say. the main things of concern regarding my personal interests are that, well I am recovering from some serious skill and emotional detriments. and it is kind of confusing why it is taking so long to recover, yet I keep discovering new ways to grow myself... these past few months the majority of my effort has been on my physical health, I could not sit or lay down without pain, but now I am healthier again. Unfortunately the habits I was working on backslided. but so far my backsliding when it happens - each time where it falls too is slightly ahead of where last I backslid too. So this is not the main concern - the main concern instead is, on strategic stuff. I watch the strategic video a few times, should watch it again too. But it is not quite targetting what I am worried over - and the pillars are kind of abstract too - idk. the thing that is hard is IDK what exactly to say, that I am trying to work on. There is this thing sometimes discussed in phsychology called executive fuctioning, and that is what I cannot do, but it seems in my observation that the root cause of my struggle with it is unusual compared to teh typical cases discussed. some thing I know I am lacking are, focus and sustained application of tasks. Focus also in the way where I can't sort out my ideas into a straightforward plan. Certainly my physical condition held me back too - could not work very long before being tired - but that is not a concern as it is improving. I mean it is a concern but not one I'm sturggling with, one I'm overcoming. focus is the one key I need to work out. and generally - meditation targets a certain different type of focus if that makes sense? I should really spend time figuring my own method of meditation which better targets this type of focus - meditation targets staying with one thing on mind, and generally I am already working towards that - but the "focus" that I am struggling with is Decision Making. That I get locked in circular thinking trying to make a decision. This is similar in a way, but when I am mindful it is easy to maintain focus tho it occasionally gets disrupted. but when I am deciding, I can't stay focused. everything is important. In a way it will help as I get better at handling the big picture and the small picture and swapping between those, but I feel like there's something about it that I can't put my finger on that isn't working well. The other thing regarding my current struggles that I've identified but unsure how to approach is, self-efficacy, I think the word is. Anticipating accurately what exactly you can do. Generally speaking I trust that in being aware of it over time I will get better at it, but it would be convenient to have some outside inspiration boosting my ideas regarding this - giving me a boost as I try to figure it out. and certainly, not being focused makes my growth in general harder, as I keep switching between goals between weeks. maintaining a stable output despite lower periods of my week is also one thing I am wondering about. I know you mentioned in one video about cycles being natural, tho you were talking about a yearly scale. In terms of big picture right now I'm working on my monthly big picture. but one thing I realize is that even when in a lower cycle, you don't need to just sleep all day and be mopey - there are activities you can do when feeling worn out or extra unmotivated, and so I try to do them. And another thing on my mind, not really a concern but just the last of my major current focuses. is mindful activity, over sedimentary meditation. I would really enjoy a video about that lol - or alternatively, a video about how to discover and develop your own strategies of meditation. later in life I will take on more regular meditation habits, but the life I'm pursuing is one of accepting the dual illusions as important for the locality of our human existence if this makes sense? I am unsure about this as you generally am interest in being monk-like and hugely push pursuit of enlightenment above all else, but I am instead pursuing a mixed approach. I am not sure if this analogy will hold well for you as it has meaning for me, but I've noticed in many things - and this is especially apparent in the simplified "test environment" of games - that often there are strategies in the game to increase your resource increase. um, to invest in investing itself, rather than just putting X cost into growth, you put some of it into having more growth capable. And - in the limited scale of a game - if you put in too much investment into growth, you fall behind anyway because others just produce the whole time. but otherwise, investing in growth is clearly superior. And so in regards to consiousness - my view and maybe you feel this is a poor view idk lol and tbh I won't be swayed by your rebutal regarding this - you've given plenty in your videos already - but the sage's path is investing more into the growth of consiousness than what I feel is healthy for me to do now. Maybe sometime later in life - perhaps soon perhaps never - I will. but right now, I Need to get a stable footing - to get myself self-reliant instead of dependant on the givings of relatives. And this involves a lot of personal growth - so I need to focus on applicative doings much much more than sedimentary thinkings. So the consiousnness work I focus on is in the moment- mindfulness while I am doing an activity of some kind - and only as much focus on that practice as I can afford. oh that reminds me - one thing I wonder about is how you put down multitasking. I think tho that you speak of a specific scale and I do not speak of that scale. but I do know that I do multitask too much - however it is funny because, we cannot live without multitasking. Our heart beats, our lungs breath, our eyes see. this is multitasking. mindfulness is multitasking - increasing it is opening up more "channels" or "levels" of awareness. IDK. I do not wish to speak of this much as my language to describe my thinking is not developed herein - and likewise, my thoughts are still overall abstract and intuitive, without detailed form, so I cannot even hold them still in a way which -- oh, IDK how to say this. So I will say - I wonder about awareness. In my experience awareness IS thought. I do of course understand that5 choosing labels to mean certain things is important for the health of discourse - so clarifying awareness as seperate from thinking is important in transcending the traps of thinking. However all my life - my thoughts were without words - it was about 8 or 9 years ago now, when I started to work to train myself to be able to read and listen more reliably, and to converse and write with better clarity - and that led to me developing my thoughts such that they did include thinking. I do also not even have imagery in my mind when I think - the only visual I get is when my eyes are open and I am watching the events around me. (or, weirdly, when I dream) but instead my thoughts have always been just in the form of abstraction, of concepts, of awareness, tho I am not confident that in that way the awareness I have is the same precise label that you have. I wish I could have an extensive conversation with you or someone who has spent years working on awareness, regarding the difference or potential similarity between thought. But I notice that when I focus on being mindful of things - that the original form of thought I used to only think in becomes more present. tho of course - the original thought in my life, was not entirely the same as awareness - I was unaware too. it is very hard to discuss this. I have tried many times to speak of how I think with others, and always it is challenging to communicate. But I feel pretty confident that there is no real difference between sensation, thought, "sensation thought" being language/pictures/sound in your mind as you think/recal/predict, and awareness. at their root they are all the same thing - tho of course, in their complexity they differ greatly. Another thing on my mind is the imperative of community over individuality. sorry I need to over explain this to get to my point of concern. naturally this is not the marxist movement that - IDK if you follow him at all - Jordan Peterson is worried over - it is not to say that we should sacrifice individuality for the sake of making everyone equal lol no it is not that. It is complex to write out sorry - but it is like, the first idea to hold is the idea that selfishness is the best way to find selflessness - that to focus on your own needs, wants, desires is the best way to make the community strong - by focusing on the self first, you change your self, and this is one step towards changing the world lol. it is have lighthearted but the point is serious - the point being that the community is composed of individuals behaving as individuals, and it is healthiest when that is encouraged. however - it gets harmed if it goes to far - if the individuals treat each other as competition, commodity, or disposable pieces. Because - this is forgetting the very real fact that Other people can help us pursue our goals. And - other people want our goals too. and - the goals of other people coming into fruition help us in all the ways which we sacrifice goals for the sake of our interests - if everyone specializes, we need each other to make up for the skills we neglect. So - to harm or discard or step on others defeats this reality of communal growth. The second idea to hold in this line is - the nonduality/duality discussion - that the language I use to approach conceptualizing what the infinite, nondual, reality is - is localization of measurement. that the quickest way for me right now to begin to see infinity - and it is definitely still I am a novice in really seeing that infinity, but I often feel as if I get glimpses of it - or of nothingness - they are the same - is to think of how if you zoom out enough all the details fade away into a blurr and eventually it is just - uniformity. nothingess. but on the flip side if you zoom in enough - then there is nothing to see, nothingness. and so it is like math, graph, stuff - how everything is made of dimensionless nothingness, and yet with infinite of that you get something. So - we live in a localized world - the measurements we make are important because we are on this localized level of existence. This is where I bring back the community discussion - The self when surpassed you see that the self is whatever you localize your view onto, whatever you choose to measure as the self - that is what the self is. So if you measure your body then it is your body. if you measure your awareness than it is your awareness. If you measure all your posessions and your home and car, than those things are you. Or - if you measure your community, or the global world, or the global ecosystem, or the solar system than that is what self you are. and so to the concern - the concern is that I see many people and IDK if you are one of them or if in the inexperience of your viewers combined with your word choice your insight is not apparant - but valuing community is the self too. Sacrificing community to become a monk is a dangerous trap in this way - The community could work towards enlightenment - and it is a more challenging self actualization, to have a community self actualization. but much like there is an intuition which guides us as we self actualize on the individual measurement- the individual is that intuition which can guide whatever network that individual directly impacts - and the growth of that network's consiousness influences the growth of the community as a whole - and the community's growth influences the whole world. We could self actualize the world. the world is a self! I am sorry if my discussion does not well encapture the idea on my mind in this regard, and really. it is not a concern I can currently work towards, as I need to stabilizing this individual I call "me" . lol. Then the other concern in a similar line is - oh, I covered it already. not very well, but enough. so let me summarize now. there are four main points I concern over. 2 are more impactful for my individual pursuit in the now - and 1 is, in the now, more impactful for you to ponder if you choose to. only a dream for me to ponder. they are : - my ability to be focussed, motivated, and similar. - my application of meditation via active mindfulness over sedimentary contemplation (I do contemplate but 90% of my consiousness work is in active mindfulness) - the concern of any group or community, and especially any leader, of community over introspective work. at the localization the best thing is introspection - but once meeting a certain stage, there is potential to expend the "introspection" to be a collective effort. idk it is not well formed this idea but I feel it is important to realize. the power of a community being greater than that of an individual. it requires of course the realization that in the grand scheme of things we are nothing, but in the measurement of our community, our community is everything. Accepting the illusion as important, because if the universe is to appear one and nondual, then the illusory waves must behave as they naturally wave. I could speak a lot on this lol but I should try to keep it teaser for the sake of communication. And, I do not expect you to be swayed or not swayed it is just - obvious to me in my understanding of it, that good opportunities to spread the idea is one manner of its growth.

"logic is part and parcel to enlightenment" duh, nonduality much? awareness is ego. delusion is truth. this is such a silly debate! (and, well, silly is serious) wait, was anything said with this post?

@Shin first exercise: go onto the street and pick a fight with a random stranger over nonduality.

@Dan Arnautu Why do you need a degree at all? If your LP is music and nonduality, why waste time? Maybe your higher self is telling you all this philosophy business isn't worth your time.

So, I am 2 years in my philosophy major and on some disciplines I am starting to not see the value of studying and writing papers about. I do like to study things like social and political philosophy, which really do bring my perspectives into a new light, but things like modern philosophy starting from Locke and going on to Hume, Kant, Hegel etc. and philosophy of language create knee jerk reactions in me and even though I read them, I feel that they don't bring me any value. They bring me just some nice fantasies of how people thought the world works in the past and I see how most of the problems they raise would be solved with a nondual approach. Their theoretical base seems shaky to me. I do not condemn them for thinking that way. They did the best they could in their time, but it's really hard for me to entertain or make myself read about them. Although, if I would write papers on these by bringing non duality to the table, my teachers would just think I am nuts, except one, who may entertain the idea. Writing papers becomes hard when you know about nonduality. My teachers are so caught in the rationalist trap that they dismiss nonduality entirely and see it as a dogma where some mystics do pseudo-science/pseudo-philosophy and have some funny experiences. Actually, I would dare say that my teachers are just running in circles trying to find truth when it's been there for thousands of years, hidding in the background, tainted by eastern cultural baggage. I would personally just drop the degree altogether but I am already 2 years in and I am doing some things on the side in the city where I'm at for my real career. Although, I have already failed some classes I don't like such as: -Medieval Philosophy -The origins of european philosophy (because of the teachers there) -Modern logic (highly technical, failed only the last exam, which was the hardest) QUESTION: How do I keep doing this soul draining kinda need-to-play-dogmatic paper work till I finish college? Any way I can make it easier on myself? It's just one more year, and I'm gonna specialize in moral philosophy in this third year, after which I'm gonna continue with my music career.

So I thought I would summarize the past week. Finished Think and grow rich today, and feel like it were a lot of usefull information in it regarding everything. Tool notes through the book as usual and it is a lot of practical info and exercises which i did, and i learnt, or became more aware of my biggest weakness, which is willingness to cooperate with others. I think the problem lies deep in my core values with joining a social environment because i resist it at the very core. Why? Since i feel it as givining up my own standards og life and how I ought to live. I never want to comply to something unless i find it the right thing to do, and so I find most social cultures as wrong ethically, or I havent comptehended how it works mentally, so I resist it until I do. But then again I havent really made an effort to understand society in the west, or more accurately Norway. It requires a lot of reading I feel, and I want to prioritize who I am and what I intrinsically like before I start getting engaged politically. Regardless of political ideology I thought of the idea that I resist becoming one with the pack lies in me having a lack of trust in others. Or maybe I just havent found people with the same values as me, so I struggle to connect deeply with others. This is also a problem for me socially and being one with the gang, since I have trouble hanging out one on one with friends. I dont really enjoy it, since after the small talk is over I want to go deeper. I want to see some real emotion and troubles in the other persons life and help them, and have them help me. I want to experience authentic human things, not indulge in social media, electronic music and participate in thos pornographic culture. I thought of getting better at using må voice the other day. I like helping people by showing them how I see a solution to their problem, and help them see the big picture and to be honest with themselves, but I lack the enthusiasm and vocal skills. My voice is a bit monotone and has a aggressive tone to it when Im excited. Kind of like Leo. People find it intimidating I think. I want to be able to talk like Tony Robbins. To have a positive feel to my voice. I think that tone comes from how I feel emotionally on the inside. I saw thos post in this forum the other day about emotional healing and how the illustration spiraled upwards from bad to good emotional disposition. I think that I have to go through some sort of emotional healing regardless to be happy, but it might necessary to be accomplished to a degree before I can really start on my LP(Life purpose). So overall Im quite confused about everything, and I feel ungrounded at the core because of my biased beliefs on reality, that I have chosen to believe in, because it is helpful for the time being, rather than going deep into Pyrrhonism and continuing on to nonduality as I understand thats the path Leo have taken. I have rather chosen to take the path of going for whatever promotes my own happiness, and use the emotions I feel regarding taking sides as energy to fuel me. I need the energy and motivation sine I lack it generally. I think I lack motivation because of my mental state since I am tryin gto heal my dopamine receptors from porn and social media etc, but also from lack of likeminded people. I feel lonely in a lot of peoples company but I have gotten used to it. Sometimes when I am alone and read for a while and study some aspect that seems to hit my inner interests I get in such a gods mood its invredible and I go around trying to hold my grin back, since it would be awkward to look at. Felt this way today when I started looking up meditation/ consciousness groups on meetup.com, and I joined this self-improvement activity in Oslo in a few days. It might be few people showing up, but regardless I got in a really good mood, and I didnt notice until I met others and couldt hide my grin. It was something about finding others with the same values nearby. I felt really good. But it subsided as I was around my roomate in the military, who I find to be lost in complacency with social culture. He is a nice guy and supportive, but I dont get the authentic empiwermwnt form talking to him. Anywas, so I completed the intrinsic motovation video as well and started on failure is good in the LP-course. Regarding the course my family is curious and is criticising a bit when I open a bit up about it, so I keep it mellow to a degree. Having some unsovlved problems with my family that I eill write avout as time goes, but things are getting better and changing. As am I. For the social part I am improving and feeling better. The military is kind of harsh to newcomlings and especially to people with unusual values. Facing challenges as all directions but they arent that hard, and I will keep going as i always do. Will post once a week, since its a nice sunmary for me, and feels good to create and contribute regardless if anyone sees it. Got a feel that I want to be a organizer regarding conscious inquiry or a life coach. Not really sure, but have always wanted to create events where I myself want to participate and include others. Also liked to test my abilities against others, so this might be my medium.

Whenever I interact with others, who are not into nonduality, they keep reinforcing my mind's now seen as false and ignorant beliefs. Im afraid they are reviving my dying ego. Like giving it cpr. I feel especially defensive of NonDual ideas, because I now know them to be true. But ego still happens, it's like the ego is claiming this knowledge, because it is fact. I see such moments as not defending my ego of knowing something, but defending the truth and trying to help someone in ignorance see what I mean. But at the end if the day my actions feel like an egoic striving to know the truth as a person on planet earth. And to feel good about it. Even tho in introspection I see this as just another belief of the mind. People around me are treating me as a human and as an ego, which reinforces my older patterns. Wakes up beasts that I had defeated, but not permanently. Now that I write it out, it actually seems like a good thing lol. But anyway, would it not be better for me to not speak to anyone on the subject? The thing is by keeping quiet I am doing a disservice to them, since they will just go deeper in delusion. Like I am now. Or am I? Who am I.. ? When I know something to be true and someine starts arguing the opposite, should I concede the position of truth so the falsehood wins? Isnt that why we are all living in falsehood on planet earth? I know truth doesn't need defending to be true, but why concede an argument you know you are right in?