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This looked like a great share opportunity ❤ "I’ve found it interesting to notice and get curious about the undercurrent of restlessness or dissatisfaction that shows up sometimes in my experience and I suspect in that of most other human beings as well. We may find that this is sometimes quite strong and overt, and at other times, it is a very subtle, barely detectible undercurrent—a slight tension in the bodymind that is perhaps almost always there to some subtle degree, even in moments of pleasure. It often manifests as the attempt to manipulate, control, change or understand experience. It might show up for some as an effort to identify as awareness and not as a bodymind, or as an effort to be mindful (to “be here now”) all the time. It might be the sense that something needs to happen, shift, clarify, drop away or be found. It might be a feeling that we can’t stand being here in this mind or this body or this situation. It emerges from a sense of separation—a sense of fundamental lack, of not being okay, of something missing or something frightening or threatening. Nisargadatta described consciousness as an itching rash that comes upon us. Consciousness seemingly divides up the indivisible wholeness and freezes formlessness into apparently separate forms, giving rise to the sense of being an encapsulated separate self and the inevitable feelings of dissatisfaction, lack and endless seeking that follow from that. Buddha called it suffering, the delusion of being a persisting, separate somebody, driven by fear and desire. Adi Da, a controversial America guru (about whom I have very mixed feelings), often posed the question, “What are you always doing?” He was pointing to what he called the self-contraction. And he said, "Your suffering is your own activity. It is something that you are doing moment to moment....You will continue to pursue every kind of means until you realize that all you are doing is pinching yourself. When you realize that, you just take your hand away. There is nothing complicated about it. But previous to that, it is an immensely complicated problem.” He also said, “The self is just like this clenched fist. Relax the fist and there is nothing inside... We are never at any moment in the dilemma we fear ourselves to be." We often think so-called spiritual awakening is about getting something or finding the Truth. But it’s more about seeing the false as false, seeing through unnecessary mental activities, noticing and relaxing that metaphorical clenched fist in the bodymind. And we can’t actually “do” relaxing—that would be a contradiction in terms. In the seeing (i.e., awaring) of the tension, there is a natural relaxing that happens by itself—the storylines begin to lose their believability and their grip loosens. The clenched fist opens. It isn’t a willful efforting—it’s a relaxing, a letting go, an opening, a surrendering. It happens spontaneously. And it rarely, if ever, happens once and for all. It’s always about right now. And sometimes, relaxing doesn’t happen. And then, it may be possible to notice that even the contraction or the tension is never really a problem—it is simply an impersonal energetic movement of this aliveness, a momentary dance that presence is doing. Taking it personally, giving it meaning, viewing it as “The Obstruction Standing Between Me and My Awakening” and then trying really hard to get rid of it, is all only a new meta form of the very problem it is trying to cure—a problem about the problem. This efforting to get rid of effort, or trying to stop trying, is a common unintended side effect of otherwise potentially helpful pointers and practices such as recognizing ourselves as boundless awareness or impersonal presence, or “being here now,” or even attending talks by someone like Tony Parsons in which we are told that there is nothing to do and no one to do it. All of these things, when slightly misunderstood, can inadvertently feed into the very problem they are designed to expose or undermine. The medicine that we need to cure a physical illness often has unintended but unavoidable side effects. For example, radiation treatments successfully and blessedly dissolved a cancerous tumor in this body that would have killed me, but it also caused some secondary collateral damage that continues to unfold (as they knew it would, and as I was told about in advance, and which was a price I was willing to pay). In a similar way, spiritual practices and pointers can also have unintended collateral side effects or potential pitfalls. They can inadvertently reinforce the sense that “this isn’t it,” that “something needs to happen,” that there is someone here who needs to do something to finally be okay or complete or happy or enlightened. They can reinforce a dualistic sense of success and failure, okay and not-okay, a striving for future results, an endless evaluating of how we are doing, comparing ourselves to others, and believing that the speaker at the front of the room or the author of the book has something the rest of us don’t. As with the radiation that cured my cancer, this doesn’t mean these pointers and practices are terrible and should not be used. It seems to be part of the journey from Here to Here that we inevitably stumble into various misunderstandings and their associated pitfalls (or unintended side effects), and then eventually (with luck), we wake up from them—or we don’t, and that, too, is simply how this dance is dancing. Often different teachings serve as antidotes to the unintended pitfalls of other teachings. Thus, in my own journey, Toni Packer helped to dissolve some of the pitfalls inadvertently induced by Zen; radical nonduality helped to dissolve some of the pitfalls inadvertently induced by Toni’s approach; various Buddhist teachers and more encounters with Toni helped to dissolve some of the pitfalls induced by radical nonduality; and so on and on. In one moment we need mindfulness meditation, in another moment we need Rupert Spira or Gangaji or Adyashanti, in another moment we need Karl Renz or Jim Newman or Peter Brown, and in another moment we need Robert Saltzman or Shiv Sengupta. It’s not about one being right and the other being wrong. It’s about pulling the most recent rug we’re standing on out from under us again and again and waking us up to THIS, right here, right now. The mind is infinitely skilled at turning rug-pulling and rug-less-ness into an imaginary new apparently solid rug upon which we can stand. Thus, waking up is not once-and-for-all, but always NOW. So, you may find it interesting to give open nonjudgmental attention to the persistent sense of restlessness or dissatisfaction—feeling it in the body, that subtle or not so subtle tension, agitation or unease, and also seeing the thoughts and storylines that generate and sustain this unease. Not trying to fix or undo it or get rid of it, because that’s just more of the same efforting, but simply being aware of the whole thing—not thinking of it as a problem, but SEEING it as the neutral and only-possible expression of reality at this moment. This can be an interesting exploration, and if it invites you, I suggest approaching it lightly, with curiosity and interest, not in a goal or result oriented way. Allow it to do you, rather than you trying to do it—which is actually always how it is. And remember, we are never really in the dilemma we imagine ourselves being in. The whole story of being lost, bound, incomplete, etc. is all imagination. There is no separate, independent, persisting person to be any particular way for more than a nanosecond. There is ONLY flow and nothing IN the flow. And paradoxically, the ever-changing flow never departs from the immovable instantaneous timeless immediacy of HERE-NOW." - Joan Tollifson

If you are already creating a self-image for your self, what guarantee do you have that the new self-image will serve your needs as a human? A new self-image may or may not alter your experience of life, but it will not end the dynamics of being a specific self. When you are invested in creating a conceptual persona, you doom your self to a game of hiding and seeking. So, you can either change what you identify with, or become conscious that you are no one at all and completely drop the activity of having self image. Consider that self-image is totally conceptual, limiting, and not real. Without self-image, no manipulation or other activity is required to maintain or promote the adopted image. The tension that is created in the body due to self-contraction (which is necessary to maintain a self-image) will be eased. The expression of the body-mind will gradually become more and more honest. The experience of life will become more spontaneous, even effortless. Also, without self-image, self-doubt will also fall apart because there will be no self-view regarding your capabilities. Usually, the less dense the self-image is, the less self-agenda there is. The less self-agenda, the less pushing and pulling on experience will take place. Experience will be accepted for what it is, and there will be less and less seeking and chasing for better experience.

Concluding on a rational basis that others do not exist is just about imposing more concept on reality as assuming that there are others. Even though the first will probably provide different mind and emotion disposition towards others, it won't be "the real deal". When it comes to Consciousness, you can bargain for an alternative model of mind. Forget knowledge and rational, and you'll "see" that everything is just YOU, including the body-mind that is usually referred to as "I" and the body-minds of "others". Keep in mind, there is nothing to seek because you are already that. It is more about relieving the self-contraction that binds Consciousness to a conceptual identity. The self-contraction is a bit like a gravitational field. If YOU aren't seeing that the body-mind is only an appearance, it will pull you back to the illusion reality of mind. When it is seen deeply and inquired through and through the YOU aren't the appearance of the body-mind, nor any other appearance, stability in Consciousness is realized. Remember: mind will never stabilize in Consciousness. Mind is an expression or function of Consciousness, so no concept or model of reality held in the mind could represent it's nature. The mind can "grasp" or hold the idea that it will never realize it's own nature, which may help in reducing the apatite for more knowledge consuming. Nevertheless, it has to be seen deeply that mind is just an appearance.

I did some of the courses that are offered by Ken Wilber and Integral Life as well as some of the stuff in other places and there are practical ways to get a taste of each stage and it's karma I did the full course on full spectrum mindfulness and some of the stuff is not talked about here. @Husseinisdoingfine You can basically get a taste and burn through it at home yet, also notice how active the stage and how much you can exhaust the karma or jsut having the awarness of it is very good. My example is applied to your post as you asked about green. I exhausted green a lot and had more stage orange drives to deal with. I find orange also more interesting from the way the course split up the basic drives of stage orange. Hope this is helpful I don't have all the time to format this. For example in the course they recommend to meditate with integral mindfulness which is not very different from any kind of mindfulness out there to feel to imagine how the stage feels like he gives you sort of a guided meditation and explains the overall framework These are my notes out of the course: Came with a emergence with a fourth person perspective meaning they could criticize science. Or what is objectively seen. Relativistic - Caused the movement of deconstruction. Criticized previous levels and deconstructing them especially universal claims. Especially their fragmented viewpoints. Says there are no universal truths. No truth to anybody. Ones own believe aggresive critiiques of big pictures. Marxism, Fundamentalism, Sexism, Patrichalism, Spechism, Scientism - all this was critizied because of it's wholeness. A fair amount of truth is there from the level of criticism. The previous levels tended to be less inclusive and less universal. But they went to far. All knowledge is context far and boundless and depend endlessly on interpretation. All knowledge is culturally constructed. They give a universal picture that there is a big picture, so there is no superior view. No-gos are at this stage green value level. Emposing and promulgating that a green structure stage is now being used in a country which has a lower level of development, will only cause the next dictator or a similar old structure to rise to power. Because you can't skip stages you have to give them the appropriate space to grow. What Wilber shows is that this map is universal true. So Green would deny it. Culture wars shows this stages. There will never be harmony in a culture as long as there is no higher stage offering higher wholeness instead of this coercing madness towards the enforcing structure stage. There is nothing superior on this planet. You have your truth and I have my subjective truth All ranking all hierachies are strictily taboo. Partnership society are needed excellence and achievement is looked at critically and this is nothing but oppression. Everyone is encouraged to share there feelings. Comes straight from the heart thinking is out feeling comes in. Most be emodied must be anchored in feeling not in thinking. Quantum Physicts is eco-centric instead of ego-centric. Is feminist, gaia focused and earth centered. Perfomative contradiction = you are actually doing in your own behaviour what can not be done at all or what you deem as evil or bad and should not be done. You are judging them for judging. You are ranking them for ranking. You have the truth. You like to impose your view on their view that imposes them on others. Green says it treats all people fairly and loathes all orange values and recognition of exellence. Loathes all integral and amber values. Exercise from the course: Notice how you judge. Pick a negative example and hold that situation. What is it like to judge somebody negatively for being a racist. Feel that judging activity as deeply as you can. Bring pure witnessing to that feeling of negative judgement. Universally valid judgement that racism is bad. But if you allow that universally you are not contradicting yourself. Universal judgements. We want to be aware of judgements in any case. Integral mindfulness on that area. Making judgements starting with negative judgments, intolerant, sexist etc. What is this charateristic that is behind it. Where is it located, what color has it, how does it smell like. At the sametime you are not a pluralist either that denies all universal judgements. Attempst infinte acceptance attempts infinite love acceptance, still bound to the self-contraction. Look at the things you do judge and see if it is a good things or if it is on good reson. This is important coming from this stage. It sees non-ranking higher and better then ranking it is still ranking. What are good guidelines in ranking then ? Postmodern pluralistic level 6. When is ranking okay but recommended according to this levels own values. This level values equality over almost everything else. Not all levels share this view. None of them in reality does. Predeator and prey at red for e.g 0 equality here. Amber the saved and the dammend saints and sinners. It will accept only those who are dammend saints. Orange will put them into winners and looser none of these equality stuff. Only green values equality and sees them as essentially equaly or egaliterian. A developmental level it is just that. Vertical development is much better then not having it. Ranked and judged accordingly then this stage level 6. Treats all people fairly and morally. How tolerant are they or not. Green pluralism wether they treat others. Not treating all people fairly is bad. Each higher level is more adqueate and better. Increasingly more inclusive more embracing more moral and more loveing. Eros showing ist true colors. Men = Hierachy and autonomey -> Men and patriachy (In a different voice Carol Gillgian) all patriachy are bad. Women = Relationship and belonging Both men and women develop throught the 4 basic hierachial development. Stage 2 or care. Only her self to care. Stage 3 all humans regadrless of race, color, sex and greed. Women tend to think hierachiecly themselves. More feminine values. Each higher level is more moral more caring. Dominator Hierchay: Cast System, Mafia the higher the level you are the more people you can opress, authorterian state, president trump and decress. Growth Hierachy: Most of them in nature are them: Atoms - > Organism. Transcends and includes. Higher levels don't oppress higher levels they include them they embrace them. Perfomative contradiction = it puts hierachy on it's lowest level of hierachy. Bright light of mindulness video tape it from all possible angles. Transcend and include all judgements we want to let go of judgement all together. This is better then this ?`What color is it what shape is it what does it look like what does it feel like. Get this attitude firmly into awarness. Fully firmly. Alternate this focus on finite judgement making with limitless unbounded awarness. With pure everpresent awareness. World centric judgements are better then ethnocentric judgements -> That is not what wisdom traditions mean. Ultimate truths are ultimately non-dual etc. Beyond pleasure and pain etc. Radical love or beauty of consciouness. No inside vs. Outside. No good v.s bad. Just pure isness pure suchness no up no down. Creator of all concepts (cloud of unkowing) zen calls it don't know mind. Ultimate unqualifyable Inclusiveness = Positive sense civil rights movements, enviromental movement, feminism, closer and closer to ultimate truth as we have seen with relativity. Focus on your own sense of indentity a strong deep sense of being identified with someone or something. How your own ultimate awarness becomes identified with I am this or I am that. Imagine it expanding to include your family, circle of friends, college and business associate. In your state or your nation entire global village expand and expand and expand. Represents the ongoing movement of the universe itself. Constant eros = transcend and include. Larger and larger and larger -> Remember is occuring along with exercises in growing up Personal Example for the session I don't know maybe my ego wants harmony with others not being hurt stopping this endless cycle of pain and hurt and agony over survival, culture wars and endless manipulation and hierachy games. I could avoid it by first accepting that his happens and then working towards creating harmony in my own live with my own level of idealism that can for sure work or releasing it throught spiritual practice and finding a way to deal with fear through meditation or working with my emotions more directly. A hidden superiority for me is by knowing wilbers work and spiral dynamics and seeing myself as higher placed than others I judge lower ranking systems if I do not like them. I see myself as superior morally and try to not convey it but I convey it nonetheless so I accept that I convey it and judge them and see that I am higher placed then them. Yet, that does not give me the right to negate their viewpoint or condem their moral system as being bad or useless. It has less wholness and intuitivness as well as less competence. Consider the pockets of pain and struggle in the world: from refugees to war to climate change. Can you relax your mind and heart while opening to stillness and compassion? I would feel sad thinking about them yet also offering them kindness and support would yes open my heart and allow myself to feel balanced and relaxed in my own view of helping them, yet I would also feel a tremendous amount of sadness for their circumstance and try my best to help them if given the chance or seen from afar offer my support in stillnes and in a sense of prayer help them or thank them for being so strong and enduring What inside of you is desperate for more harmony in the world, and how can you avoid becoming caught in a cycle of fear? In what ways are your perspectives and behavior have a hidden moral superiority to those around you–for example, do you judge others for being judgmental? Think about the most important or pressing situation in your life right now. How can you show up with more unconditional love right now?

Judgements aren’t bad. Bad judgments are bad. “Bad” in the sense of “unskillful judgments”. Trust your capacity to make skillful judgments grounded in good sense-making and honesty. Oprah does in fact greedily sell bullshit spirituality to people, despite the fact that she’s also conquered a rather harrowing upbringing. There is some basic intelligence in the self contraction when faced with bullshit. But yeah, sounds like some basic therapy would help when it comes to your mom and uncovering the complex underbelly of inner conflicts when it comes to the relationship with your mom that you’re not aware of.

Well, some people don't want to question their assumptions regarding the human experience, or feel that they are limited in doing so or that science will provide all the answer. So they have the experience and usually go on with their life, even if they experienced Oness or Ego Dissolution. Most of them will probably dismiss it as hallucination because that is the prevailing stigma in human culture. But yes, I totally agree that the more a person is in self-contraction, or self-deluded, or is clinging to lots of beliefs (which are activities of mind), than his "baseline" Consciousness is lower and he is less open for new Consciousness, definitely.

Look, there a varieties of 'methods' or 'teachings' or 'practices' that suppose to help you penetrating mind and having direct consciousness. You should do research about them, experiment, and see what brings you insight and consciousness the most - which one do you most resonate with. Personally, I find psychedelics and contemplation as the most powerful tools for breaking Consciousness outside the prison of the self-mind. Don't get me wrong, I like meditation and 'slow walks' in the streets of my mind, and I can't eliminate the possibility that it can lead to profound Enlightenments. I just find psychedelics as more accessible for deep mind exploration and metaphysical inquiries because it enables you to reconfigure the mind very fast and very efficiently, and to degrees where Consciousness can have some vacation (so to speak) from being entrapped by self-contraction, programming, trauma, and what have you. Regarding Contemplation: it is simply much more direct than meditation, at least for me. I use meditation to perform 'small' operations on the mind and for assimilating Consciousness in the everyday self. And I would mention another very practical, empowering and mind blowing practice: Honesty. It is just like stabbing a knife right at the heart of the separation illusion when being honest is antithetical to survival or self-agenda.

I don’t dispute there are degrees to which we can say the mind surrenders and the self contraction that applies to the individual body mind. My hard line is not to confuse that with enlightenment itself. There’s degrees to which ones conditioning can fall away, powers of transmission and so forth can really come alive, and so forth. I have never denied that. What rejected is the claim that that in and itself is enlightenment. That is all relative and has its place on the path which may or may not by products that are all functions of mind. Ralston has never denied that nor have I. Also, what you quoted was actually something I was saying Ralston actually said about him as Ralston actually sat with him.

Most forums will have a guide in the comment box so the guide is seen every time someone comments. Its a basic and very effective user experience hack. Here is the full guide line for the integral life forum. Condense this to a few words of wisdom and place it in the comment box. It would also be good training. Was thinking of making a chrome extension that adds words of commenting wisdom to every comment box on all sites. Would be nice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Community Road Rules Integral Life strives to provide a community space that is integral—comprehensive, open, inclusive, and transparent. The quality of this integral space depends on the quality of your participation. Therefore, like all communities we have guidelines, and ours are integral. The following guidelines are designed to help make everyone’s experience in this “we-space” a fulfilling one: Let your very next communication in this space come from your Highest Self. If you understand what “integral” means, then let the next words out of your mouth be from your own integral mind or integral awareness. If you don’t know exactly what integral means, then use “Highest or Higher Self,” “True Self that is no-self,” “Spirit Mind,” “Big Mind,” or whatever you are comfortable with that evokes the highest or deepest or brightest You. Feel the thinker. Feel your self, feel your ego, feel the self-contraction. That which feels the thinker is beyond the thinker, that which feels the self is beyond the self, that which feels the ego is beyond the ego, that which feels the self-contraction is free of the self-contraction. When you feel the thinker (or ego, etc.), you engage your Higher Self. You take the stance of the Witness, the I that is aware of I, the I-I in you that is beyond you. And the Witness, although itself empty, takes on and speaks integral at any level. Therefore, feel your ego, or feel your self-contraction, and then speak and act from the awareness that’s doing the feeling; that sees the ego as an object like any other; that impartial Mirror Mind reflecting and embracing the universe in its brightness and luminous equanimity, the higher perspective that is no special perspective but open to all. Make the subject object whenever you can, and this will help you come from your Highest Self. But don’t make a big deal out of this. Simply try to feel the thinker or feel the self-contraction every now and then, and sooner or later it will make sense and feel natural to act from a higher level that is not the ego but is aware of the ego. (Those rules help with your Higher Self, however you understand and intuit it. And now, a few rules to help with your lower self (aka, your unconscious, your shadow, the disowned self, or the self that will sabotage your every move, given a chance). Discern your “emotional buttons,” or the things to which you overreact. In many cases, whether or not your judgment is true, a hyper-emotional recoil often means that shadow elements have been triggered, or as everyday parlance has it, somebody “pushed your buttons.” Simply notice this happening; try to make the subject an object (which, as we know, is the fundamental rule of development). In other words, try to make the reactive self (the lower self) an object of awareness. Just see and feel your emotional reaction; you don’t have to do anything else. It’s that simple. Don’t worry whether something spectacular happens or not; that very act has already caused a small transformation and disidentification, and repetitions of that simple act will have a profoundly cumulative effect. Of course, you can do more work on it if you choose, but most essentially, they are ways to just further that process. You can investigate this more if you want. 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Add a conscientious message inside or around the comment box with words of commenting wisdom to help guide great conversations. This will encourage higher quality commenting and self reflection. It could calm someone down and guide them away from reactionary behavior or promote compassionate or creative responses. It needs to be right here next to the comment box always visible to be effective. Example: Let your very next communication in this space come from your Highest Self. Before you offer your wisdom to or about others, remember that your perspective is yours, and just one of many. Is this message off topic? If so consider moving to a new thread. Discern your “emotional buttons,” or the things to which you overreact. Feel your self, feel your ego, feel the self-contraction. Is this constructive and positive? Does this attack the person? If so please consider addressing the ideas or the message itself. Keep in mind that people can be at very different places in life, so your advice may not work for them, try to show compassion and understanding. Is this really the most insightful response? consider taking a step back, relax, let the idea settle and explore possibilities. I know i could of benefited from this reminder...

The nature of logic is that it will always end in paradox and self-contraction due to the problem of self-reference which I explained in my video: Reality Is A Strange Loop The Metaphysical Implications Of Godel's Incompleteness Theorem - Part 1 Any complete logical framework MUST be self-contradictory. Any non-contradictory logical framework MUST be incomplete. This is what Godel proved. And it is true.

The ego is an idea. It is a self-generating, self-reflexive idea. It exists only to itself. The same thing holds true for Spirit. It is self-generating and creates its own essence in its own becoming. Spirit is a contraction of the self. Spirit perceives the idea of the ego just as much as the ego perceives something in its environment. The self of the ego is the reflection of the self-contraction of spirit. The process of Spirit perceiving the ego is the contraction process in effect. Spirit is perceiving ITSELF AS the ego. That's why when you are dying, your world is literally dying and crumbling. You ARE your own world, EVERYTHING. The second part about Spirit is a philosophical and occult truth, which is simply why I mention it. The first part is why so many people are stuck. It's like a hamster wheel. You just keep running on it until you get tired and you get off. That's what Enlightenment is. I know there's something I need to get back to, but I'll get back to it and fill in the gap.