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You know, for a long time being raised Christian I struggled with the grace of God and how it worked with the idea of "being a good person" (otherwise known as good works). For a long time after I started to see that good works would get me very little with god in reality, i kind of gave up on moral living altogether and just lived like that. This was unintentional, but I sort of just let it continue and never really returned to why selflessness is better than selfish living... Why be good? Why be positive? Why live in a selfless fashion...? I was watching Leo's "Zen devil part 1" video and a big insight hit me and I realized that I need to contemplate it more, so here's my insight from about a decade of study from the Christian perspective and from the new-age nondual perspective...I feel like my fervent history in both practices gives me a unique vantage point on the matter...let me know your thoughts if you wish... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ultimately, you'll discover that enlightenment isint realistically attainable by simply moralizing or being a moral individual...and that moralizing can actually become very religiously dogmatic and a distraction to true self enquiry and realization. Subsequently the question arises..."Why be good at all?" The answer is: you don't have to be...but true transformational enlightenment will fill you with love for everyone and everything and (importantly) the way in which you can differentiate between ("do it because i know i should") [what could be called] "shallow selflessness" and "true selflessness"...is the source from which it flows, and that true selflessness flows automatically. Imagine an outdoor, brick wall that was built without cement, and was instead supported with wooden stands and support beams...because of the lack of cement available, the wall would easily fall over without the manual wooden supports, but after a while the wall will have been there for so long that the algae, ivy, rainfall and natural elements of the environment will have pressed down on, and grown around the bricks so much that the wall fuses together to the point where it can stand on its own and support itself automatically, and where the manual wooden stands are no longer required and can be removed without fear of the walls collapse. In this metaphorical picture... The walls stability, is Selflessness, The lack of cement, is Natural Immaturity, The wooden support beams, are the Manually Cultivated Habits/Outlets for Selflessness, …and the natural elements are Gods nature (which is also our true nature). It would be a major mistake to fail to recognize that, while true stable selflessness flows automatically from deep a transformation (being exposed to God), the *process* of transformation itself is most definitely not as automatic and often requires manual effort and strong support initially. Therefore it is not a bad thing to seek outlets for selflessness and to manually guide yourself to engage in those selfless habits [knowing the benefits that come with selflessness] because, before long, these habits, outlets and principals will begin to sustain and support themselves simply because it will literally start to feel amazing in contrast to the selfish alternative. Boiled right down, the insight is this: False Selflessness = Forcing yourself *into* selfless shapes. True Selflessness = Relaxing into alignment with, and flowing with the natural shape of your selfless nature that exists authentically and effortlessly within. The key supplementary insight here is recognizing that the thing that governs whether your selflessness is true or false, is the source from which it flows and rather than doing it because someone told you to...relaxing, flowing with and submitting to the selfless nature that *already* exists within...and seeing that some [or even a lot of] manual support and rearrangement of your values, actions and core principals and submitting to your selfless inner nature is different than forcing yourself into repetitive "good works"...that some manual guidance into selfless actions is healthy because it will eventually stimulate and cultivate a bliss and peace that will sustain the selfless way of life and eventually become more and more effortless. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Very insightful interview. Adya at his best: "We're not doing a good job of an inner journey, if we're excluding exterior life. What it means to exist in the world today is an important part of the inner journey. It's where the rubber hits the road. It's the world that keeps holding up a mirror in front of us, saying: 'How are you interacting with this?'" "Even if we haven't come upon the unified vision, there are lower and higher aspects of our egoic nature. Our egos have the capacity for compassion, empathy, openness, and understanding. Life is always calling us to act from the best within us." "Transformation is a bloody, messy process. When you're living out spiritual transformation, it doesn't look spiritual at times." "Change is chaotic. It's chaotic until we reach a certain level of consciousness, and then it no longer has to be chaotic anymore, because we're willing to see truths." "Part of the process is seeing things that we don't want to see. There's a love affair with whatever consciousness reveals to us." "Spirituality is about accelerating a process that's natural, but the spiritually inclined person is doing things to accelerate a process dramatically. When we accelerate a developmental process dramatically, the road is bumpy." "We abdicate our lives, when we abdicate our true higher nature. We get lost in trivial things. Or we abdicate it by hiding in spiritual viewpoints." "Autonomy, on any level, is hard-won. It requires a lot of standing up in your own two shoes and taking responsibility for whatever your vision is. Go out there and engage it, whatever that happens to be." "What do you know that you really don't want to know? That's what you're being asked to pay attention to now. That's what you're being asked to respond to. That's what you're being asked to come out of hiding behind." "The models don't hold the answers. It's the people, it's the quality of interaction, how we're being with ourselves, how we're being with each other. That's something that each of us brings to the table." "What are you going to do when you go to the grocery store, and there are no short lines? When you find out what your authentic response on that level is, then you let that level mirror back to you what's really going on inside. The big stuff has a way of solving itself. The clarity on the big stuff comes." "Everyone and everything around you are experiencing your state of consciousness, where you're coming from, what you feel, what you think. It's being registered. You're a radio broadcaster for who you are." "After a transforming insight, ego comes back, and people experience the equal and opposite. As open and expanded you become, you become equally contracted and dark for a while. We have our own unique conditioning that arises in the wake of that." "It's not about heaven. It's not about hell. It's about what's true. Don't grasp at the light. Don't push away the dark. There is something that's neither of those; includes them both but is not identifiable as either one of them." "What we do to ourselves, we tend to do to others. If we're stuck in a place where we're always judging and condemning ourselves, if that's the state of mind we're always in about ourselves, we're putting that energy out to the people around us, too." "You see God in everything, from the best to the worst. At a little deeper level, it's not just seeing the divine in everything, it's seeing the divine as everything, as everything, and everything includes everything. When it becomes really deep in you, nothing can occur that changes that knowing, that view. You can experience something that's really difficult, it's still not going to alter that view." "The emotional byproducts have nothing to do with the truth that's seen. The emotions will fade as the truth becomes normalized." "Women will often see the divinity of existence, whereas men will see the non-existence of existence. Women will often see that God is immanent, whereas men will see that God is transcended. As our vision fills out, it fills out beyond our genders. We see the other side, and it becomes a whole view."

Well I've usually taken a top-down approach to psychedelics, where by becoming conscious, feeling, and experiencing overwhelming amounts of infinite love I blasted away through any possible traumas, insecurities, fears, and so on. I didn't really even try to work on them during trips, they spontaneously disappeared over time with the help of trips like these, which had cascading effects on everything about me. One example is that I used to have social anxiety and it got completely removed with this approach. So I basically used love to heal from everything as a whole instead of trying to work on any individual aspects that I didn't like. I don't know if it's the best approach, but it worked completely for me. It was like a complete transformation encompassing everything about me, powered by love. But whenever I feel emotions, especially during trips, I let myself feel those emotions completely without judging them.

I have had the realization that the Earth is alive. 1. What kind of transformation was covid supposed to bring to Earth? 2. If Earth is awake, does it see its humans as beneficial or detrimental to itself? 3. General question... if you become too conscious and want to go back to sleep, what is the method?

Watched Groundhog Day a few days ago - it has spiritual undertones. I laughed when he said - I am God. It's a fun one. Just keep in mind that true transformation is not in behavior, but in mind.

On the imbalance: I 'transformed' in their presence. It was almost like and due to a recontextualization and realization. They were my children. I was 'mother' and 'wife'. Some kind of hidden 'knowledge' was revealed by circumstances. Circumstances were dire seemingly, I could feel something wasn't right but nothing had come to pass. Premonitions. So I started saying stuff to ease the energy. The imbalance caused me to see things that weren't there because I was dealing with energies that were so 'real'. My mind filled in the blanks. It's hard for me to discern what the hidden knowledge was. Something about leaning back, leaning forward, and Spirit. I was in a world of my own, so I wasn't exactly grounded. I have entities/archetypal figures of my psychology helping me to lean back. In reality, people are starved of this quality and it impacts everything. Spirit/embodiment/love is like Leaning forward with a capital L. It overrides all other forms of leaning forward. It is superior to all other forms. If you have spirit then you can manifest entities/archetypes within your psychology to help you profoundly lean back. I remember knowing that. Recontextualization plus leaning back = transformation. Leaning back is the key to attraction and health. All good things flow to you. Again, people are starved of this quality. It requires a pure/childlike heart to enter into the cave of wonders. The Genie (entity/archetypes of your psychology) will give you all that your heart desires. Of course, you can only get to that place during an imbalance usually. So you'll be coming from a place of service, selflessness, and spreading love usually. It is a natural reward, healing. If you can survive The Descent. I was able to heal myself through the breath of life. Spirit breathes life. 'Life' (Health and goodness) is then the result of that. Breathing life - ultimate leaning forward.

There is no shtick. In psychedelic awakening you are forced to awaken because the substance hinders the mind or opens the senses in a way that disrupts the mind. Because of the psychedelic ability to affect the mind profoundly and rapidly, the awakening is usually deep and intense, usually accompanied by crazy emotional/energetic release. The problem with psychedelic awakenings is many fold. One, it is only temporary, due to the effect of the substance on the mind. When mind goes back online, consciousness tends to fall back into identification with it. This way, even though it was clear in the trip that no solid or real identity exist anywhere in consciousness, the dream of being a separate self in a world with other objects continues. Second, if the conditions of the trip weren't adequate to fit the tripper (set, settings, dose), the psychedelic induced awakening can be too much for the mind or the body. The tripper might find himself confused, in horror, or just unable to grasp what has happened to him. The trip might even damage the "process" of awakening or transformation. Three, there might be an attachment to psychedelic awakenings, which may cause the practitioner to seek more psychedelic awakenings rather than the recognition of the identity mechanisms that causes seeking and repeated behavior. Psychedelic awakenings should be regarded and considered as serious science of the mind, for all that it implies. This is not to say that psychedelic awakenings are not conducive to enlightenment or transformation. They are probably the best way to divert the regular seeking mind from seeking material objectives to a spiritual "journey", and show us that things are not as solid or identity based as we think. They can also be very useful under the proper conditions to elicit insights on the mind, emotion, body, flow, connection with others, and much more. And they are freaking amazingly powerful just to explore Consciousness. But when it comes to a fixed realization, shattering the illusion of identities or separation, a fixed shift in what consciousness take itself to be, they fall short. This is where spiritual practice comes in, a thorn to take out another thorn. Of course, the same egoic identity traps that hide in seeking psychedelic states/awakenings also lies in spiritual practice, if the identification process latches also to it. So all and all, psychedelics are amazing, and in fact I see them as very direct and intense gurus for initiating the "path". But going back again and again to visit them is no different than going back to an ashram to visit the guru. It is ok if you just want to have fun with your guru, enjoy his company and sit with him. But if you are going back and back again expecting him to wake you up, it is just feeding the seeking mind. People can attend satsang or even meditate for years and not wake up, because they are just satisfying the mind. So it is important to see if this comes from a psychological fixation on some activity or just innocence, honest, play, curiosity, love. It is a matter of clearly seeing what is the motive for what we are doing.

I think this is very interesting. I have experienced how on multiple occasions in my own life my own development was accelerated shortly after experiencing an intense event such as having a conflict with my parents and crying, or during some death anxiety that surfaced during my recent problems with chest pain. Thinking back on traumatic events years later can be insightful but the fresher the experience is, the easier it seems to be to access insight that translates into life transformation, wether that is by making progress in the material realm or by changing the outlook on life itself, or both.

Thank you! As I mentioned to someone else, it really doesn't take that long if you can sort of go in full steam ahead and target each of them one at a time. (I was still trying to do all 3 here and there, which helped a bit from time to time, but I do feel that concentrating on one would be much less stressful I feel.) Also, my links have been posted above, I documented my body transformation but ALSO my pursuit of Pick Up & Game and I also explained the understanding of Money & Value and how one needs to be pursuing money if they do. Hopefully all that helps, and if you wish to connect with me you can do so directly on my IG! Best wishes and best of luck to you in all your endeavours!

Thank you, I'll be honest, ALL of those can be accomplished way sooner than most think. It literally only took me 3 years to go through all of those. I had started lifting 15+ years ago, but that insane body transformation of fat loss for the competition was just less than 8 months! I help people (my target audience is younger men 15-30) accomplish the same in their own lives in the simplest, fastest, easiest manner possible. I linked a bunch of my links above, feel free to peruse them and connect with me directly if you need any help!

Analysis: My shadow is DENSE. For some reason. Although highly fluid and open and communicative. Receptive. I would guess that my shadow is dense because of trauma. There are sides of reality I have a great deal of difficulty coming to terms with. I don't entirely understand why it is so violent and angry and sinister. Because it is fluid and open I would guess I must have done something right. Revealing sides of its true nature; the Daimon or higher self. A guide, helpful and receptive. The angelic part of my psyche is trying to assist me to free myself of my shadow. To help me to awaken to reality. Seems to reference Pandora's box. He had a sword of truth during my visions (thank you for being a sword of truth in the darkness). Telling me not to look may be a reference to how I would incessantly feed the shadow during The Descent. I kept feeding it and feeding it with more and more trauma, as it broke me down. I wouldn't stop. The damage I have is pretty bad at this point and the reason for much of the dense shadow. I willingly Descended. Analysis: Shadow is fluid and receptive. Like I said above. Easily shifts. Full transformation. The throne symbolizes integration. Helpful, guiding, awakening. The angelic part of my psyche yet again holds his sword of truth. His eyes are the doors to transmission. Seems to trust that I won't willingly descend now. That I may have learned my lesson. His sword of truth reveals my True Self.

I appreciate your kind words. I prefer the words "letting go of the old", "transformation", "alchemy" in the process of growth and evolution. And also, "uncovering true self" instead of "de-identification". Before: I don't know who I am and I don't know the Truth. I am Vladimir. After: I know who I am and I know the Truth. I am Vladimir and I am Universe.

The monkey mind does not need to be fought. It needs to be tenderly embraced, like a child. The monkey mind is your ego throwing a tantrum because you are ignoring it. It is a kid that is grabbing onto their parent and refusing to let go until it has been cared for. Don't punish it for wanting attention. Don't judge it, or become frustrated. The only way to handle it is with Love. Whisper to it that everything will be okay. Guide it through breathing exercises until it calms down. If it still lets out a cry, just let it. Between time and your soothing, it will be quiet. At the end of the day, it's all you. Treat it how you would like to be treated. Treat it as you would treat others, as that is often more kind than you treat yourself. There's no need to create a battlefield in your mind, you're only fighting yourself. Struggling is useless, stop struggling. "Sorrow, fear, and depression are all a kind of garbage...You can practice in order to turn these bits of garbage into flowers.... you should not throw anything out. All you have to do is learn how to transform your garbage into flowers. " - from "You are Here" by Thich Nhat Hanh Remember that transformation is always possible. You are not your emotions, but your emotions are you. They belong to you. They are a small part of you, by no means something you should identify yourself as being. It's like looking at a single drop of water and saying it is the ocean, simply inaccurate. You have to look within. No amount of external approval or affection could ever substitute self-love. There isn't a single being apart from you that can deeply understand you. No one is capable of loving you the way you can love yourself. No one knows each of your flaws the way you do. Any external love is superficial. They can only claim to love what it is they think they know. It is not their fault communication is limited. They aren't capable of knowing everything about you, so they aren't capable of loving everything about you. But you can. Some people try to love you as best they can. Their love is genuine. But it is limited. The love you get from them is only a fraction of what you are capable of feeling. Deep down, you know this. You know there isn't a being separate from you that can love you the way that you desire. You have this longing for great love, a deep connection, mutual understanding, and compassion. These can only come from you. Your ego, the voice in your head. It has to be loving. Of you, of everyone, of everything. Be non-judgmental. Judgment arises from biases, it leads to division. You must seek unity. Not just within yourself, but unity between you and the universe. Once you find true Love inside, you can project it outwards. Through confidence and kindness, you can guide others to find this true love within themselves. Be patient. Don't be discouraged by a lack of what you would consider results. That can lead to frustration and anger, or even sadness and despair. These emotions will just be a hurdle. They aren't bad, they can be transformed into flowers. Nothing is bad, that label arises from bias. Explaining the unexplainable won't be easy. It is like trying to teach someone a new language, things will get lost in translation. It is not your fault, you did what you could with the tools you were given. It is up to the other person to find the meaning that was lost, to read between the lines of what language can't communicate. Just believe that time and dedication will lead to some change. Let go. Of standards, expectations, beliefs, concepts, theories, ideas, thoughts, and emotions. Just be. Be Love.

@Bufo Alvarius I've read this response from Ralston before. I'm still adamant on my perspective that unless you've done incrementally higher doses of synthetic 5-MeO you don't know what you're talking about with psychedelics. I don't even consider LSD or mushrooms or ayahuasca worth doing anymore. And, except for very rare cases, they will never create deep awakenings (unless you've had a true breakthrough and energy-body transformation with 5-MeO before). Ralston also makes the point about drugs not being direct and not being YOU. Here's the mind-bending paradox: Ralston is right. Psychedelics cannot 'induce' Enlightenment. Yet, I came to this realisation whilst having a 5-MeO induced Enlightenment and being directly conscious of myself as Eternal Infinity. Enlightenment cannot be created by a psychedelic because how could it be?! Enlightenment is pure Infinity, it cannot be created or caused by anything else. It is completely and totally causeless. Yet a psychedelic can, at the same, cause or create this realisation. And it is direct, there is no doubt. A true psychedelic Enlightenment is direct. There is no 'indirect Infinity' hahaha. There is no indirect ego dissolution?! Ridiculous. Ralston also is ignorant of the deep permanent changes to one's consciousness + the healing qualities of 5-MeO when used correctly. 5-MeO creates lasting permanent changes, unlike any other psychedelic.

@UpperMaster I know this is going to fall on deaf ears but I'm going to say it anyway. This is what you need to do: a lot of meditation! Perhaps you are not ready for it. Perhaps you need a lot more suffering to understand it. But just remember it. That is what you need. I recommend RSD transformation if you need more details. It is a good course of trauma release and raising consciousness. All those make-shift surface level solutions like porn filters and shit won't work. You are not a kid. Don't treat yourself as a kid. Have respect and love for yourself. Don't run away from the suffering but face it as a man. And how do you deal with those sexual urges? Get into sexual transmutation. Busting your nut is not the only way to get rid of your libido.

If you had read past that first little sentence, you would know that I'm really only talking about a traditional type of spirituality that is generally associated with the world religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, etc.). What I'm not talking about is for example a belief in supernatural phenomena (ghosts, crystals, auras, etc.), or being interested in personal development, or shamanism, or psychedelics. I'm talking about the place that all these non-dual teachers I've mentioned in some way draw their inspiration from or resonate with. The crucial characteristics of that place, along with "the search for the sacred", is a deeply embedded notion of progress/growth/transformation. I happened to go for a stroll on Wikipedia, and they put it like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirituality Notice how strongly it alludes to the concept of transformation. This is also tied to the historical origin of the "mythological worldview", which in a very fundamental way created the distinction between "who you are now" and "who you could be", and which arose in tandem with the world religions. John Vervaeke explains this very well here: 10:35 Leo hasn't managed to change his default experience into abiding non-dual awareness, and he has said he is more interested in experiencing deeper and deeper psychedelic states. This specific choice, is what I'm saying falls outside this traditional conception of spirituality.

Firstly I understand that this post might seem a bit egotistical or even full of myself or braggartly. It’s not meant to be. In fact, I am feeling totally lost in life right now, where I am actually feeling what is the purpose of my existence and what is my reason to wake up. What I am looking for is some guidance and advice for my “existential crisis”. I have also tried to format and give all required info in the best possible way to give you the most clarity to see the whole picture. Who am I? I’m now 32 yo, South Asian Male, which means OF COURSE I finished Comp Sci engineering, then I fell in love with Bodybuilding & Aesthetics at the age of 18. I was always a skinny shy ecto nerd (who also had venustraphobia for the longest amount of time in life) so the idea of muscle and a good physique at the age of 18 sounded amazing, which is where my journey into self development began. Great physique, amazing looks, envy and respect from men, and also attracted to women? (The last one doesn’t work btw, you have to work on your social skills for your looks to matter, but more on that later in this post). Mental Health Background Issues I have self diagnosed : Low Self Esteem/Self Worth Lack of Sense of my own Value Do not understand how to love myself/Suffer from Lack of Self Love I didn’t even know about Mental Health until the age of 28-29 or so. I didn’t even know I had Low Self Esteem and Low Self worth issues my entire life. The Low SE came from the way my mother raised me, my first girlfriend (narcisstic, abusive) and my culture and society in general. I also have a lack of sense of Internal Value. I don’t understand it when people say “everyone has value”. I have been raised in a culture where you are more worthy and have more value than others if you have a better job, more marks, better car/wealth, better body, more girls etc etc. The value thing has made me, AFAIK, always WORK towards feeling valuable in life. Like if I didn’t get any more marks than others, or if I got the same I was/am equally not valuable or definitely not any more valuable than others. This puts me in a perpetual state of unhappiness, and an infinite chase for it. Which leads to TREMENDOUS success, as I will elaborate below, but also a deep dark void of unhappiness since clearly my happiness is being pursued and does not ensue. Enter Mushrooms. I lived the unhappiest of lives until 28-29. After which I got into studying about Psychedlics and how they help with healing, trauma and the like. My first powerful mushroom trip in 2019 or so was the one where I realized that I don’t actually love myself. It broke me. But it also made me vow to myself to love myself more than anyone else ever had, since most all love I have received in my life has been conditional, even from my mother (or at least the child in me perceived it that way). I love my parents and they love me, but it is what it is and this piece imho is very important to realize about my background and mental health and its consequential suffering. For 8-12 months or so after my mushroom trip I did EVERYTHING in life that I needed to be doing to feel like I love myself. Meaning even if I had to leave at the end of a 16 hour shift on less sleep to go to the grocery store to get a salad to fuel myself healthily, I did it. And this was repeated a multitude of times endlessly. I feel like somewhere along the line since then, this has stopped. I don’t really know why or how. And I am trying to re understand it and pursue it again right now. Accomplishing EVERYTHING in 3 years, with picture proof. 1. I went in full steam ahead into my bodybuilding pursuit and made a body transformation that most IFBB pros would be envious of. Dream body, done. https://imgur.com/a/Hc9OomI 2. I then pursued Pick Up & Game to get over my lifelong crippling fear of beautiful women. Multiple coaches, bootcamps, and over a 1000+ girls approached, and feeling like I have accomplished everything I needed to, to be happy with my life in and around women. Women, done. https://imgur.com/a/xD7RvMR 3. I then pursued the game of money, which I kind of hoped would have kept me interested in it forever, but as soon as I crushed a couple of 10k months (which is nothing compared to my business mastermind peers, but MIND BOGGLING compared to my starting salary of $1500 per month for 180 hour work weeks.). I proved to myself I can make money and I also have NO expensive tastes whatsoever. I made 70k ish in the last 1.5 years and I have spent like 60k on it on myself and reinvestments, coaches, masterminds etc. I have spent less than 10k on myself and splurges (got a 3090TI and a PS5 and they both just collect dust lol. I am at least happy the 18yo within me is happy just looking at them on my desk.) I know there is a lot more to the world then muscle, women and money but these are the BASIC 3 needs for every young man right now, and I have gone beyond what 99% of people in the world can or would ever require to accomplish. There is no point in getting even more. I mean to what end, and why? (Btw for the nature of this discussion let’s just assume I have won the lottery and I will never need to worry about money again, even for a rainy day fund, let’s keep it out of “work more for more money for what if’s”, since that’s not a DRIVING reason to wake up in the morning and get out of bed) https://imgur.com/a/BgVEZeC This image here is also something I have found interesting. Which of these is the point of life? And why? https://imgur.com/a/6FepT2o 1. Self Interest and Pursuit of Pleasure/Hedonism But how many burgers on yachts with multiple girls blowing you can you possibly have? This will obviously never end, and it feels good in the moment, but empty immediately afterwards. No sense of peace and contentment. 2. Selflessness So this is ACTUALLY something I enjoy. I have been documenting my entire life transformation and journey on my Youtube channel ( https://youtube.com/c/IntellectualMuscle ) I basically made my Youtube channel what 18yo me would have wanted. “A big brother with tough love you didn’t even know you needed.” I help young (& old actually) men that feel lost in life and want to get to these accomplishments and states in life, in the EASIEST fastest safest possible manner. It took me FOREVER and multiple 10,000s of $ to get there. I make it ridiculously simple and easy for my boys to get there. The question with selflessness. Is how selfless? And why? Like I spend so much time and so much of my earnings on my Youtube and IG (~1500 USD per month) and I barely get any traction from it, like 200-300 views tops. So do people even care to learn? Also. What if I just stopped what I do? Or hypothetically I had never even born or die off? Sure some people would be sad that they thought my content and help was amazing. But in 3 months I will be forgotten, and someone else would and is already making the same kind of content to help other guys in need. ALSO at our base and core we are SELFISH beings as humans. So it just doesn’t permanently sit with me to be completely selfless and live for others. Like why? Most of my life most people have just taken from me and never given me anything in return. So why would I wish to be selfless to the world that has taken so much from me and never cared for me? So this isn’t like a clear driving mission or purpose for me to wake up and do it either. I mean I do like it, but not to the extent like this is the sole life purpose. I feel like I have sacrificed myself more than enough for the sake of others and don’t feel like I am receiving ROI on it in equal measures. 3. Self Actualization I understand that this is being the best version of myself. And I have done that already in many different fields as shown above. ALL the ones that mattered to me. Muscle, Women, Money. Now can I get MORE. Of course. But also again. Why? I already have more than what is required to live quite the comfortable life. So WHY be the MOST muscular, or have ALL the skills to get all the girls, or have all the skills to get ALL the money in the world?? Where I feel others don’t suffer the same Existentialism Quite simple I feel, because they CREATE their own reason for existence Viz. Children. Most people have kids and no matter what you feel like or not, you WILL do everything in life even if you don’t want to do it for your kids. This includes making money, being healthy, more toys etc. OR most people do not get out of the chase of the rat race and grind trying to make ends meet, so there is always their reason “to make rent for next month.” MY Ideas on Future Goals for Myself Please read this part AFTER you have written or decided on what you think might be some food for thought for me, since I don’t want to taint your ideas and opinions with my own future ones. My understanding atm is I now want and NEED to pursue some form of Spirituality and Inner Peace and Calm. I am ALWAYS chasing happiness and a reason to love myself, via external validation and accomplishments (since that’s how I have been raised), I need to figure out where and how to generate/find this in and within myself now to begin with. I don’t know which mediation teacher or method to pursue. I have LOVED Alan Watts’ stuff and I will find it once again and hopefully get some guidance there. I have LOVED HealthygamerGG’s stuff and hopefully will get some more clarity via listening to his work. I am currently re-reading for the 3rd time Vikto Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning and also Learn to Love yourself by Kamal Ravikant. Any other books/podcasts/reading or any suggestions with how to decide what to pursue in life would be very appreciated, thank you! Thanks again for reading all the way till here if you did, I appreciate your time and if you have any words of wisdom, those as well!

I'm seeing way too much unnecessary confusion about many things, particularly words like awakening or enlightenment, and how it relates to things like spirituality or psychedelics. I would like to maybe present some clarity of language. One of the biggest virtues of teaching is clarity of communication, and while spirituality is in some sense doomed to fail from the start in that aspect, the way this problem is being exacerbated by conflating what I think should be treated as two separate categories is certainly not helping. What are these two categories? One I will call "spirituality", which is familiar to most people, and the second I will call "psychonautics", which I believe is Leo's "main shtick". I say "main shtick" because it's of course not a full representation of his work, but it's certainly his main area of focus and that which he thinks makes him original. I'm also not going to criticize or devalue any of these aforementioned things. I only wish to shine light on the problem of language that is occurring between how Leo chooses to talk about his main shtick and a more collectively established area of inquiry which I call spirituality. Spirituality – "growth > states" In a nutshell: purifying and deepening your default state of consciousness. Examples: Sadhguru Osho Rupert Spira Adyashanti Eckhart Tolle Ramana Maharshi A very general definition of spirituality, which I'll borrow from Kenneth Pargament, is "a search for the sacred". How this is usually expressed within various spiritual traditions (from the world religions to the New-Age) is that you seek to align your life with the sacred and integrate it into yourself as a person. More importantly, when it comes to the mystical traditions and their emphasis on the direct experience of the sacred, their concern is not as much with the experiences themselves, as the potential growth one can gather from these experiences, as well as an eventual goal of merging with the sacred. In other words, the concept of a final destination (often called "Enlightenment") is generally preferred over a temporary glimpse (often called "Awakening"), and it's tied to a gradual process of refining yourself as a person, of self-transformation and self-transcendence. Psychonautics – "states > growth" In a nutshell: experiencing the highest states possible. Examples: Leo Gura Terrence McKenna Martin Ball Psyched Substance Psychonautics, on the other hand, refers both to a methodology for describing and explaining the subjective effects of altered states of consciousness, including those induced by meditation or mind-altering substances, and to a research cabal in which the researcher voluntarily immerses themselves into an altered mental state in order to explore the accompanying experiences. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychonautics The reason I'm characterizing Leo's main shtick as "psychonautics" rather than "spirituality" is because of the emphasis on "having the experiences" vs. "integrating them"; states vs. growth. The reason I think psychonautics is largely distinct from spirituality, is that if a state is not properly integrated into yourself and made into a platform for organic growth, then it's either forgotten or outsourced to the intellect. When given the option between intellect or integration, the former is the less spiritual option. So what is going on when Leo says "none of your gurus are awake", or "this is not God-realization", or "I have awoken to God many times"? Well, he is talking about a "temporary experiential state", with a definite start and an end, and it's induced by psychedelics. It's not the same thing as refining your "organic state" (your baseline, your default state) through other means like meditation. Therefore, for any of these two parties (spirituality or psychonautics) to dismiss either one as "not awake", is a category error. Again, I'm not here to pick favorites, and I'm not going to deny the possibility of refining or deepening one's psychedelic trips over time, or of the general impact they can have on one's psyche, or the potential benefits for spiritual growth. I'm simply spelling out how I think these two things should be treated as distinct categories. If I were Leo, I would try to make my language much more accommodating to the dominant paradigm (which I've called spirituality, and which most of his viewers have a connection to). Language does not exist in a vacuum, and language that confuses or misleads is bad use of language.

I've made some major developments with my professional help and trauma healing. Changing my level of consciousness was key in this transformation. Making changes on the level of being, not doing or having was key for me. Changing yourself on the level of being is ineffable and hard to explain; you either get it or you don't; and if you do you don't need an explanation and if you don't you need an explanation and the only way you will get is when you are there. It can only be explained in metaphors, which I will try below. Eventually you want to get from low level of consciousness (LOC) to high level of consciousness. Summary of the two states: High LOC versus low LOC Positive attitude < negative attitude Love < fear Proactive < reactive Giving to others < taking from others Upward spiral < downward spiral Winner effect < loser effect Being a full person < being a broken person Selfless < selfishness Thriving < coping If you are a high LOC person people will perceive you as the sun. You don't have to do anything (like being a nice or interesting person), or have anything (like fancy clothes, better looks, whatever), just your being (LOC) will effect reality. I was really starstruck by this last week; my being (LOC) was changed thanks to something and my reality changed with me. It was really a mysterious moment. People started reacting very different to me, people stopping me on the street to talk to me, people just telling me they like me while I did nothing, I was like "wtf" is happening; I'm not doing anything different. That is what the sun is; it is just being the sun. If you are a low LOC person, you will not feel like a sun to others and yourself but you will feel like a black hole. People want to get away from you and from the pull of the black hole, and you will never be happy because of the phenomenon of hedonistic adaption. A black hole is also being but it is a negative being (low LOC) sucking all life force and material, while high LOC (the sun) is giving; giving life to everything in its orbit. I explained it with these two metaphors because LOC is really difficult to explain in plain text.

Cartoons are at the end of the day all caricatures and cartoonish representations of real human beings, their psychology and life in general, no matter how much a kernel of truth each of them might hold and want to point to and show towards, they are fundamentally limited in some aspects in depicting it accurately. At the end the video, it advocates a stage Orange prescriptor and materialist solution to their perceived low quality conformist life and lifestyle of some individuals in Russia, which sounds much more simpler in theory than it is in practice of how such a fundamental wealth, prosperity and abundance transformation might occur for not just in a part, but of and for the whole of Russia. And of course it is biased in showing all or most Ukranians as implicitly more prosperous and developed on the average than most Russians, playing in into nationalist self-adulating, self-gratifying and self-ascribed overall superiority on the average and collective and collective identity homogenization false and flawed common traps, tropes and pitfalls of us vs them faulty, incomprehensive and unholistic selective narratives, that play into war as means of final, easy and quick solutions and gains of something for those same manipulative governments and organizations, while Ukraine had one of the worst GDPs and relative yearly GDP growths in Europe relative to total population size in one significant and large period relative to the 2014 crisis and until the onset of this war of all the former Soviet Socialist Republics, because of a plethora of problems, some externally caused by Russia of course but a lot of them internal, not one of which was very severee acute corruption among a plethora of different and rotating government officials, not just pro-Russian ones. However I will admit the resemblences between this stereotypized Russian young guy transformative and influential childhood and young adult growing up period before being drafted as a soldier and a typical Serb nationalist sports thug and/or football fan in some of their caricaturized stereotypical habits, ways of behaving and some similarities in some historical or world outlooks and attitudes is very stark in representation in this video (even though there are plenty of sports fans stereotypized in Ukraine like this as well) ? Was this video and cartoon made soon afterward during the mobilization announcement, or is it from before just after Bucha, since I noticed the patterns of subtly suggesting plundering, robbery, massacres and rape, as a sort of fear and panic creation and sowing propaganda campaign of threat of revenge and reprisals against more Russian soldiers who are maybe thinking in volunteering or getting involved, not fully on board or voluntary, through this latest mobilzation call and draft in some parts of the Ukraine war in the frontline contested or currently occupying areas? And, yes in reference to your claim on LOC environments determining you future, yes that is surely apart but there is also a wider cultural doctrination and programming at play in it as well, shaped by the espoused official ideology of historical revisionism and interpretation of the civilization and culture and aspects of which you choose more or less to identify with and claim and feel belonging to, nationalism by your state and who it predominantly excludes, blames, demonizes and targets as a scape goat or trumped up alarmist outer threat by your official government policy and stance ? Nobody can escape this sometimes if the state has enough power, control and coercion over your wider civil society and no matter on which class level you are situated onto in the wider nation's society as a whole, generally located in, in terms overall more likely geographic location or area abundance and dispersion in your state, or feel belonging to. It is the young, poor and those on the lower socio-economic class levels in society that are killed most in wars, and on the flipside are often the ones who are most likely the one's to resort to kill and to benefit from wars due to relatively more mobile, quicker and easier social ladder advancements and gains, in terms of some other more difficult, long-term trying and demanding proffesions. And yes young poor and unqualified in other professions, contract soldier, volunteered and drafted Ukrainian soldiers are also benefiting and have an implicit incentive and deeply baked in driven personal and social career advancement interest and profit motive as well in their state apart from the collective solidarity, care and values patriotic one for eliminating, killing, maiming and disabling as much as possible and as many as possible younger or older Russian soldiers and their equipment drafted into Ukraine and constructed and invested in military infrastructure and getting rid of their possible supporters in the civilian populations in some areas in this war as well if they win in terms of the benefits they might receive later and military professional advancement opportunities in their new state order, if you want to look at it on that flipside from that part as well ?.

When you become a stream enterer, along with self-perceptıon, these 2 will be fully eliminated. Doubt in the path:The experience of stream entry is such that afterwards, it's pretty clear that there is a path to some kind of freedom, and that the path works. You start to see clear patterns in dharma teachings, and see what the patterns point to. It can be more or less vivid depending on the person experiencing it, but the idea that might is all just be a waste of time and that nobody can get results is lost. Magical Luck based Thinking: You stop believing that you can get results without establishing the causes, and that you can avoid results for which you have created the causes. This is often explained as the loss of the belief in rites and rituals; the point there is not that you no longer believe that any rite or ritual could produce a result, but you no longer think that the result is magic: there is a reason why it works, and as a practitioner you are responsible for doing the work to bring about the result. --- I understand the challenge and convincing aspect of your current life. But permanent AND deep transformation is possible Much love

Nope. Meditation is extremely effective at accessing and ACTUALLY reprogramming the subconscious mind, unlike psychedelics which offer temporary shifts. The examples you’re describing are not indicative of meditation, but the individuals. If the individuals really wanted to go in and face their fears, reprogram their minds, deconstruct their world views and seek truth, meditation is an indispensable tool. Meditation doesn’t necessarily or automatically create transformation, it demands the practitioner do more than just the practice - contemplation, right action, speech, thought, studying, and working with a real teacher.

Painting the Roses Red An obsession with fantasy and delusion guide much of human action, we seek to change the fruit or flower itself while avoiding the connected processes, the soil and root are too dirty and beneath us, we waste time and complain because we want to be inefficient, it is a dedicated lifestyle choice which alleviates perceived responsibility or blame, it is a short term strategy which allows failure to grow into a monster which you or another must one day face; debt is the lifestyle of a coward, the easy path to hell. You will realize that it is not individual occurrence but entire patterns of being which require total transformation, death and rebirth, in order to achieve the desired goal. You are not willing to die to yourself to achieve your goals, you will cheat, you will wimp out, you will choose the path to hell because you refuse to be good, and even your goals in themself will be revealed as wicked coping mechanisms. It was a conscious choice you chose and keep choosing, which sprawled into a pattern, one lie, one refusal of duty or using sickness to escape class. Your choices become you, life is fair. Your way will likely never work but you lack humility, it is you which must adapt to new ways. Take no joy in feeling good enough, be thankful you never can be. Never stop improving. Pride and self sufficience is delusion meant to sway the scales of right and wrong to not be judged by a standard “before God”, to make believe a grading system that always lands me as winner. It is your refusal to do what is best that prevents what is best from appearing, I believe bad luck to work in this unconscious way, it is moral virtue and courage which shines light on the unconscious. People would benefit from giving up their freedom for a time to a superior, follow orders from another who has good intention, as you yourself often don’t have good intentions, your thoughts often lie. After all, they’re yours. It is your pride that makes you slave to self as tyrant. You fail because there is more of you which wants to fail than is of you which wants success, no one wants to be told their illness or abuse is their creation, that the crumbling of their life is by their hand, but often it is just such the case; when I say often or generalize, it is in high likelihood I speak directly to you. It is your choice to be a victim. It is a state of being, not something experienced. You have white roses and you work for a tyrant, did she ask for red or white? She wants red now, and what she said before has long been forgotten by her, a spoiled predator of convenience. You work for a demon and are unfit to complain about potential beheading. Become someone noble, who works for the greater good, be honest and good, and don’t support those who are corrupt, especially if it’s part of you. Every choice you make matters. Do not value the favor of a corrupt kingdom, be rid of those connections entirely. The colorless and quick to kneel will keep on painting roses, your head isn’t worth so much. Smile at the guillotine and know that you are good “I didn’t choose for this to happen!” Sayeth the fool who knoweth not even WHOMST thou art! Toodles.

And most philosophers did not understand the importance of state of being. I mean, they did not understand that thought is reflective of the state of being, and thought, in that sense, is the appearance of state of being. I mean, some philosophers, as I understand, understood this situation, at least to an extent, like Hegel, Plotinus, Plato, and Spinoza, and the Stoics, that they understood the importance of being in the state of peace, love and tranquility. They seem to, sorta kinda, understand that, but I don't see that any of them worked on that extensively. They become so involved in the process of thinking, and model building, that they were not aware of the background of the state of being that they did experience. That was like a given for them, that they became that mode of being in their own modality, but what was the ground on which they became them? Now, I know, I might, in a sense, be overgeneralizing, but what is it in them that made them "them" that they were? I'm seeing that Heidegger was pretty aware of the importance of understanding being for the sake of being, but what is it that is being that is the experience of being? What is the ground of being if being is being in its own very beingness that made him possible for him? And, at that point, you may say "but then that is 'overmystifying' being", and that what I said about them modelling experience, and being another part of that modelling of the experience, can also be applied to what I'm saying here, and that can be, in a sense, an inevitable loop of "being", when it is the experience of consciousness. But isn't philosophy, then, the experience of reaching towards yourself to discover and build yourself with the "tools" that you have, that are concepts, and concepts of concepts, "possibly" ad infinitum, that makes you you, that makes you the experience of transformation that, then, explains itself? That's one of my questions about being, or of being, the process of "gathering information". What even is information if being is being, and if being is, also, the mode of being that it is? What makes a thing a thing, or a mode of being a thing, if it also is the mode of being itself?

@Haloman We WILL BE able to surpass human biology with spirituality and Truth, however it will take a long time. Please read Sri Aurobindo's books. He described what is possible regarding human biology and psyche and their radical transformation.